One of openDemocracy's key projects is to strengthen the global public sphere by “bringing people and ideas together". The most vibrant, successful and scaleable of our activities of the past year has been to bring together published web content with live meetings: authors with micro-audiences; groups that meet regularly to discuss material published on openDemocracy. These decentralised initiatives powerfully create a culture of serious deliberation extending into a social sphere what the web has already initiated. Following the success of these “micro-gatherings”, openDemocracy’s cultural publications in cooperation with The Haggerston are launching a new quarterly series of live exhibitions and discussions, Discourses.

Discourses is a quarterly series of exhibitions, each with a corresponding panel discussion on a contemporary social / cultural issue covering a wide array of topics and themes: from the role of theory in art to financial crises; from subaltern art and representation to architecture and war.

These live events will showcase young up-and-coming artists while allowing the general public to interact with both our writers and the artists, fostering a greater understanding of the artists' work as well as the relationship that exists between art and the social,cultural and political theories which often influence and drive it.

All of the events in the Discourses series will all be held at the East London venue The Haggerston (438 Kingsland Road, London E8 4AA).

Our first event, One or Several Wolves: multiplicities and packs in art, will be held on April 1st from 7pm. The event features an exhibition of the photographic work of London-based photographer Tereza Zelenkova, Paintings and illustrations by the New York-based artist Jason Saager and novelist and art critic Travis Jeppesen performing a reading from his upcoming novel, The Suiciders. Following the reading there will be an open discussion with the artists on their work, and what role theory plays in its creation.

The exhibition will continue to run daily from 12-6pm until April 7th

For more information on this event click here

Schedule of events:

April 1, 2010: One or Several Wolves: multiplicities and packs in art

July 2010: Financial Crises and its Representations

October 2010: Subaltern voices

January 2011: The Architecture of War