Interview with Alex Farquharson

Jennie Syson: In reference to Steve Rose’s comment in the Guardian, last November, do you think Nottingham Contemporary will lend the city 'destination status'?

Alex Farquharson: Nottingham Contemporary will make Nottingham a destination in some important new respects. I feel strongly about that. I think we’ll make an important contribution to the life and profile of the city. It’s exciting to be within a city with a dynamic relationship with the outside world, and we will be a part of that.

JS: How do you think Nottingham Contemporary compares to other recent capital projects in the UK, for example, how will it stand up to MIMA? Stephen Bailey said that MIMA allowed Middlesborough to lose its 'crap town' label - do you think this applies to Nottingham Contemporary and it's context within this city? What level of social engagement your projects enter into?

AF: Firstly, I would never call Nottingham a ‘crap town’. It seems to me Nottingham is a mixed bag, as is its reputation – rough and smooth; attractive and not so attractive, fortunate, in many respects, but also facing the challenges that come with de-industrialisation. It has a lot of great things going for it.  It has a thriving cultural environment – and I mean culture in the broadest sense. I think in most people’s minds it is seen as the centre of the region. It is known, but it could be better known still. I do see it as one of Nottingham Contemporary’s roles to point to the future. This is a very historic city, and it’s been fascinating to work with this history. It’s something we examined with great care through our exhibitions and education programme last year. What we also need is investment in its future. As well as understanding where Nottingham is coming from, we need to consider where it is going. The one relates to the other.

Event for Disclosures II -The-Middle-Ages, photo by Julian Hughes

JS: Take us through a day in the life of the building. If someone comes to visit Nottingham Contemporary in a year’s time, will there be things to do in the day and the evening?

AF: We anticipate the building will be open outside usual working hours, and of course at weekends too. People go to galleries in their leisure time – and the bar and café will be open after work hours. Things will often be going on in the evenings, particularly in our auditorium: film screenings, talks, performance, music and social occasions. So it will be a kind of social and creative home.

JS: So a complimentary alternative to what happens at Broadway? Another social, cultural hub in the Lace Market? I notice you have collaborated with Broadway in the past, and was wondering how you saw your relationship developing with other local venues and arts centres.

AF: Last year we had no venue, so everything we did was in collaboration. We are part of all sorts of partnerships, networks and groups. This will continue into the future. I think the relationship with Broadway is absolutely complimentary. I think we both view it that way. People want more than one place to go. Audiences grow when venues share them, particularly across art forms.

JS: What might the passer by expect to see? Tell us about the architecture and facilities on offer.

AF: A passerby will be able to see straight into the building. You can see what’s going on from the outside. Everything’s very visible: the exhibitions, our visitors, the people working there. Two of the four galleries have large windows facing the street, as do the shop, reception, bar, café, offices and study centre. Just by walking around the building people will have a relationship with what is going on inside.

We embrace this ethos of openness. We will be an important part of the social fabric of the city and that’s really evident in the architecture. In terms of the building itself, it’s obviously an innovative and bold structure and an absolutely new addition to the urban setting. It also plays off, without nostalgia or pastiche, the history of the site and the immediate area of the Lace Market. Of course the most evident feature in that respect is the lace moulded into the green concrete panels, which comes from an actual lace sample from the nineteenth century that was found in a time capsule, under what is now Marks and Spencer’s. These were made using a new and demanding moulding technique devised at the university in Derby and fabricated by Trent Concrete From far away it looks softly eroded; close up you notice the cherry blossom pattern repeated, as if the panels are stockings. As any art student will tell you, green is opposite red on the colour spectrum: put the two colours together and you get a very dynamic yet harmonious effect if you tune the colours right. The building doesn’t pander to the environment, it takes certain cues from it and takes these inspirations somewhere else.

The footprint of the building is as large as it can be, which keeps the building low, and produces a very unusual overall shape. The building is half buried in the sandstone cliff that runs the length of the city. From the top end it’s only one storey high and from the bottom end you can see that it’s actually a four-storey building. The complications of the site meant it was not used for something prestigious since the railway line closed until now. It costs quite a lot simply to use a site like that, but it has meant there’s been a rare opportunity to build something extraordinary in the middle of the city.
 
JS: Something that is a little bit sensitive, yet I am sure its something that many people would like to know is why the building is a little bit later than expected?

AF: We’re not the developers, the City Council are, so I can’t really speak for them. I will simply say, though, that it’s a very complex site and an innovative building. There have been delays, and obviously everyone would rather there hadn’t been, but it’s worth remembering that ambitious capital projects everywhere are more often than not subject to delays. It will be worth the wait.

JS: During that time you’ve made yourselves incredibly busy with your preopening programme. I was wondering how that has gone down with the locals, but also national audiences, because it’s been very Nottingham-centric.

AF: It has been very Nottingham-centric, on one level, but the guiding principle has always been to connect the local and the international and the past with the present. In looking at the city and its history we were on the lookout for phenomena that has international resonance to this day. It’s almost like looking at Nottingham as a case study. People that have taken an interest in this programme who don’t live nearby have enjoyed the relationship to the specifics of Nottingham. After all, a lot of the issues we were looking at - slavery, political revolt, digital networks, Romanticism, control and confinement - are otherwise rather large issues to think through.

The Impossible Prison, 2008 (Photo: Andy Keate)

JS: Nottingham is the home of famous rebellion and dissent through the ages, from Robin Hood to Brian Clough. Was it a conscious decision to draw attention to that through the themes of your preopening programme?

AF: Sure. Disobedience, the exhibition part of the Remember Revolution season, is a good example of how the local linked to global perspectives. In 68 there were flash points in Paris and Mexico City, Prague and Washington DC. These types of struggle have been resurfacing over the past ten years. They are certainly resurfacing in the aftermath of the current financial meltdown. It’s important to be able to link that to a city that has been known for centuries for its unrest, for people’s unwillingness to put up with the poverty and injustice handed down to them. These are histories that we should be proud of because it’s through these revolts that hard one political gains were made which today we can take for granted. This is history as it was experienced, not heritage to be consumed. I could draw other parallels between the here and there, the then and now, with reference to our other projects at Wollaton Hall, Newstead Abbey, the village of Laxton and the old police station on High Pavement. It was often deadly serious and a lot of fun at the same time.

JS: Since the British Art Show in 2006, Nottingham studio groups and artist led initiatives in the city have gone from strength to strength - partly because of the sense of unity created by this internationally important event and its homegrown fringe, Sideshow. Nottingham is lucky to be hosting the launch of The British Art Show next year, and I hope, Nottingham Contemporary connects with the international. On the one hand it was the fortieth anniversary of May ‘68, which was will continue to be destination for high calibre international artists a long time after it opens its doors. How do you see your relationship to the local art scene, and how will your programme engage with artists who live and work here?

AF: I think it’s symbiotic, as the example of the last British Art Show demonstrated. It provided the stimulus for artists from Nottingham to organise themselves - and I think it’s great that it’s self-generated. It’s good that they took advantage of the spotlight being on the city. This has left a legacy of a new studio group, with each year that graduates. And I think it’s fantastic that there is also an exhibition and curating arm to what they do: Moot, Annex Cinema, Wasp Room etc.  I would see our role as absolutely complimentary. In this respect I see Nottingham Contemporary as a connector between local creative people and all kinds of artists and ideas from the wider world. It’s important that the emphasis of our exhibitions programme remains largely international. Nottingham hasn’t really had that since the 80s and the Midland Group, so it’s overdue. At the same time we can provide different platforms for artists and all manner of cultural practitioners to get involved in the organisation. Ultimately, artists are one of our core audiences. That was definitely the case with Histories of the Present last year.

I think that Nottingham Contemporary will be a stimulus, in terms of the level of activity and profile of artists here, but at the same time I think it’s absolutely great that artists are doing it independently. They aren’t looking for it to be done by a big organisation to them and I respect that ambition.

JS: You used to teach at the Royal College on the curating course, and you are known as an international freelance curator. The root of the word curator means to care. Do you see your role as inaugural director as that of 'caretaker' for the institution, and does that ever clash with your identity as a curator of contemporary art?

AF: Well, first off, I won’t be mowing lawns! But I think curators should absolutely care about who and what they are working with and who and what they are doing it for. In many ways my role is very different now: it’s all under one roof, and I am the director now rather than doing those other roles you mentioned. However, in the nineties I did work in institutions - not as director but as head of exhibitions of two spaces, one in Exeter, one in Cardiff - before spending the following eight years working independently. What I would say is that I learnt as much through working independently as I learned within those institutions because I was exposed to so many different situations, on differing scales, and in different countries  There are a lot of things that I have learnt since I have been here, for sure, some of which are specific to directing an organisation, and others to the city and region. On the other hand, I would say that the philosophy I had as an independent curator, writer and educator isn’t so different from the philosophy we’ve developed together at Nottingham Contemporary. It all comes down to inspiring others with art and ideas we believe are important. And if you can’t inspire yourself, how do you think you can inspire others? It’s as simple and complicated as that. What Nottingham Contemporary brings is the opportunity to do a whole host of things under one roof in a particular context. I enjoy that commitment to a place and that continuity. 

JS: Can you tell us a little bit about others working within Nottingham Contemporary?

AF: I think it’s really interesting that nearly all of our staff are local, including the senior team. So there is an awful lot of local knowledge, in terms of the city in general and the art that has been made and shown here.  People come from different backgrounds and I’m grateful for the skills that we have here. Lynn Hanna was leading on marketing Greater Nottingham Partnership’s transport work, prior to this, and has been a national journalist; Richard Hamblin, our Finance and Operations Director, was the finance controller of a FTSE 250 company; Kelly Worwood came from the education team at Tate Modern and Jim Waters was a curator at the Castle Museum, Angel Row and at Wollaton for many years. And that’s just the management team.

JS: Is there any chance of a cheeky scoop on your opening show?

AF: I’m afraid not! Well, you can have a mini scoop: one of the two artists we’ll be showing is a household name.

JS: Worth a try… Finally, have you got any top tips for exhibitions worth travelling out of Nottingham to go and see at the moment?

AF: One thing that’s very exciting is the reopening of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. Its expanded, perhaps doubled in size. It’s doing all kinds of different things other than being just a gallery now and it’s opening with an Isa Gensken retrospective, who I think is a fantastic artist - hugely influential of late. While we are in that neck of the woods, around the corner is a beautiful new space called Raven Row, which is a privately funded space run by Alex Sainsbury. They opened a few weeks ago in an amazing building, which is half Georgian, half modern, in Spitalfields. They’ve opened with a Ray Johnson show, who invented mail art and was affiliated with pop art too. It’s a fantastic in-depth retrospective you’d normally expect a museum to do.