Guest Speaker: Brigitte Jurack

   On Friday January 9th we had a guest artist speaker, Brigitte Jurack, come talk to our class.  This German artist teaches at Manchester University and was explaining her work in the Foreign Investment Group, of which she is a founding member.  This group strives to bring people and communities together to "question the value of things in unexpected ways."  Moonshine Walk (2008) is an example of a community piece that Jurack stated was a successful event but in the long run it did not get a lot of publicity.  This is one of the struggles she along with her group have to face.  I liked how passionate she seemed to be about her work and about her pieces interacting with the public, especially For Elise, which was constructed of two large cone-shaped sculptures placed in the garden of the IMMA grounds.  These "prototypes," as she referred to them, were put there specifically for the purpose of playful interaction with the people in the park.  She told out class a story of how the security told her some kids had snuck into the garden at night to play with the piece and moved it to a different location and she was thrilled.  I also thought she was very animate about the student riots and the shift in educational value currently occurring in London, and I appreciated her strong support for the arts and just the students in general.  Even though I am an American not taking part in the protests I can relate to the fact that rising prices for college tuitions are infuriating and may seem unfair.  It is always refreshing to hear an artist and professor such as Jurack speak so passionately about the students' rights and the educational values in general.