Views from Orciny

“Orciny … it’s a sort of folk tale,” I told Thacker. Mahalia’s mother nodded; her father looked away. “It is not so really like the Breach, Mrs. Geary. Breach is real. A power. But Orciny is…” I hesitated.

TMLE are pleased to present Views from Orciny, a performative discussion that takes as its starting point the ideas and concepts held up for debate in China Miéville’s novel The City & the City. We will explore notions of borders, edges, the in-between, envelopes and unseeing, focusing on how contemporary artists, writers and theorists have used similar techniques and modes of working to discuss these issues.

Written in 2009, Miéville’s novel is set in a fictional time and place, yet feels strangely more pertinent than ever before. In our post-truth, fake-news world, it is often difficult to negotiate the world we believe we inhabit and the one we actually live in.

The performative discussion will take place in three parts, with TMLE partners Keh Ng and Matt Stock offering alternative views of the world we inhabit, followed by a discussion with the audience.

This talk formed part of the Sluice Exchange Berlin discussion programme. Exchange Berlin was an international exposition of artist- and curator-led presentations loosely underpinned by ideas around transnational localism.

Exchange Berlin encouraged integrated, collaborative and spontaneous modes of exhibition and critical evaluation. The aim of Sluice projects is to offer an independent alternative to dominant organisational paradigms while demonstrating the importance of international engagement for otherwise local projects.