WHEN:

Monday, 5 June 2017, 19:00 – 22:00

WHERE:

Delfina Foundation, 29-31 Catherine Place, London, SW1E 6DY

Admission:

Free with registration via this link

As part of the public programme for Collecting as Practice, this conversation seeks to explore the public responsibilities of private initiatives in the presence of Sean Lu, founder of Sifang Parkland in Nanjing, China, and Luba Mikhailova, founder IZOLYATSIA, Ukraine – two private initiatives set within very different geo-political contexts but with overlapping aims of establishing invigorating and supporting cultural scenes for local communities. The event seeks to address the ways in which local cultural histories and social needs can be acknowledged alongside national and international artistic communities and ask how artists, curators and private collectors collaborate in bringing trans-national critical thinking, pedagogy and exchange around visual art into the public domain in meaningful ways.

The Izolyatsia Center for Cultural Initiatives was founded in 2010 by businesswoman Lyubov Mikhailova and was housed in (and named after) a Soviet-era insulation plant in Donetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine. In 2014 it was attacked by armed militants of so-called Donstsk People’s Republic (DPR) who were “demanding the appropriation of the site and its buildings for the benefit of the DPR and its activities.” Read more about the attack here.