05/03/2020
Andrea Francke
I'm a Peruvian artist based in London. Some times people misspell my surname as Franke (in-case you want to google me).
This website is by no means an extensive description of my practice. I just gave myself two hours to update it finally, and this is what I came up with.
I do a lot of writing, teaching and social practice stuff. My current projects are all focused on developing infrastructure. I lost faith on ideas of visibility and representation during a quite unpleasant experience of doing a PhD (which I either quit or was quitted from, still debating it in my mind). If you don't think my work is art, don't worry. I don't care.
I am on social media but not very often. If you want to know what I am doing your best bet is to subscribe to the newsletter on the Evaluation project that FOTL tries to publish once a month.
Most of my work is connected to other institutions or curators, and I'm quite comfortable with them producing the public aspect of my work.
If you want to get in touch, email me at andreafrancke (at) me (dot) com. It might take me a while to reply. Precarious artist, aren't we all?
Current or recent projects
FOTL and Evaluation
Ross Jardine and I are massive nerds on administration, policy and lefty politics. We've been meeting to read together most Thursdays for a couple of years and just recently started to make stuff together.
As FOTL, Ross Jardine and I are developing a new Evaluation Framework for Gasworks' Participatory Residency. We send out monthly newsletters on the project.
We wrote a paper on the political potential of administration for PARSE magazine some time ago.
Knowledge is Made Here
Sara Greavu and I have been working together for a long time. We've done quite a few things at the CCA - Derry - Londonderry.
KiMH is about working with young people in Derry to understand together how we make and use theory. We ran some workshops with young people and local activists and talked a lot. We are working on a publication that will come out soon.
My favourite of all the concepts that emerged was the idea that institutions (including art) love to dismantle meaningful collectivities and then replace them with meaningless ones. All the nastiness of social practice distilled in one sentence.
FRAND
Francis Patrick Brady and I are really into play and pedagogy. We design toys and games! FRAND is our toys and games company. DOHL and DOHL care are available via our website. They are worldbuilding games in which you collectively imagine a future accordingly to different job titles.
Some random stuff that I'm quite proud of
Bad Vibes Club Podcast episodes
Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau and I did some podcasts for his Bad Vibes Club on the things we read together. If you are the sort of person who gets excited to talk about maintenance in Chinese sci-fi or never really understood what Reparative Reading means, this is for you. We are always planning to make more, but we are very disorganised.
Old projects:
Invisible Spaces of Parenthood
Collaboration with Kim Dhillon.
At The Showroom.
Invisible Spaces of Parenthood: A collection of pragmatic propositions for a better future (PDF).
The C-Word: Motherhood, Activism, Art, and Childcare: a paper on motherhood and activism in art.
With The Serpentine.
A recent interview on motherhood, activism and art for the CENTRO HACEDOR DE FUTURIDADES MATERNALES.
The Piracy Project
Collaboration with Eva Weinmayr.
The Piracy Project website.
An essay I really like even though it is probably quite dated, The Impermanent Book.