Times, Lines, 1989s

Times, Lines, 1989s explores how people register themselves in relation to recent history, examining how to build alternative historical narratives collectively. In Chto Delat’s work, these questions and politics are very important – if political and social transformation is to be made possible, we need to consciously understand the forces of transformation and their effects.

Chto Delat is a collective of artists, philosophers and activists involved in the politicisation of knowledge, working with theatre, exhibition-making, publishing, film and performance actions as tools for collective learning. Their work always thinks in relation to local contexts and international solidarities, exploring the ways in which social and political struggles have been repressed by mainstream culture and structures. Chto Delat aim to expand and critique the categorisation of public within spaces of culture, creating new possibilities for the reconstruction of history.

Throughout July and August, CCA and Chto Delat will be working with different individuals and groups to develop disparate and connecting timelines of events and actions, beginning from 1989, that have shaped experiences of the city of Glasgow. The project will collectively create new citations and stories which build a discourse on alternate futures and how to refuse existing narratives. The gallery space will also host many of Chto Delat’s film works, texts, prints and textiles, which connect to activist struggles and places of culture. Their skeleton timeline surrounds these works, charting the multiple and interconnected histories of Glasgow from the last thirty years.

A key part of the space is a History Production Station – an ongoing performative workshop space that provides tools for challenging accepted histories, authority and linear experience. This is one of the mechanisms by which you can contribute to this timeline. Contributions are also sought via our website