Emergency Aesthetics: Documenting the COBRA committee

When the British Government’s emergency response committee COBRA convenes, COBRA RES invites artists, writers and filmmakers to respond. COBRA RES is a five-year project aiming to document, counter-map and actively archive the interplay between aesthetics and emergency politics. Theo Price and Samuel Stevens’ presentation shows a number of artworks and film-based responses to recent emergencies of the last 18 months, from hostages being held in the Tiguentourine gas plant in Algeria, to the murder of Lee Rigby in South London, and the recent flooding affecting parts of the United Kingdom.

Theo Price is an artist, writer, and curator of COBRA RES. His recent books include The Right to be Forgotten (Longhouse 2012), COBRA 1.1 (ed. 2014), and COBRA 1.3 (ed. 2014). He is currently working on a new film and book documenting a series of conversations on aesthetics and emergency politics (funded by A:N). Price is Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Samuel Stevens is an artist and writer based in London. He is Visiting Lecturer and PhD researcher in Media and Fine Art at the University of Westminster. Stevens has exhibited work and screened films internationally; his commissioners include Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network and the AHRC. Stevens was awarded the Jury Prize for Best False Fiction by Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2010.

cobra-res.info  pamphleteerfilms.co.uk

COBRA : A Critical Response | Theo Price and Samuel Stevens | UK 2013-2018 |

COBRA : A Critical Response is a five year project to internationally counter-map and creatively respond to the British Government’s emergency committee COBRA.
Mirroring and reflecting, COBRA : A Critical Response also consists of a changing number of members and advisers depending on the situation and context for the original meeting. COBRA : A Critical Response meet every time COBRA meet. The first response to the Algeria meeting was in the form of an exhibition. The following response may be in the form of a publication, film, event or other.

Set up in January 2013 the project will continue over five years until 2018. In 2015 there will be a interim exhibition and event showing all the responses from the previous two and half years and then a full exhibition of all previous responses over the five years accompanied by publication in 2018.