Erik Martinson

Erik Martinson (Canada/Latvia) is an independent curator based in London, UK. He worked in Toronto at Vtape, a not-for-profit video art distributor, from 2005-2014 and was a member of the Pleasure Dome curatorial collective from 2006-2014. He has curated screenings/exhibitions for Art Star 3: Video Art Biennale at SAW Gallery (2007); Vtape’s Curatorial Incubator (2009); the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival (2010, 2011); the Images Festival (2012); A Space Gallery (2012); Art Gallery of Mississauga (2013); Institute of Contemporary Arts London (2015); Chalton Gallery (2016); and LUX Artists’ Moving Image (2016). He participated in the Independent Curators International (ICI) Curatorial Intensive on Time-Based Media, New York (2013) and was on the selection jury for Videonale.15 at Kunstmuseum Bonn (2015). Recently he completed an MFA in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London (2016).

During the residency Erik has continued his research toward developing a publication of artists’ writings on contagion, considering ‘language as a virus.’ As carriers of meaning, words and images are vulnerable to intervention/corruption. Disrupting the control of language has been explored through speculative (non)fiction. A screening series of artists’ moving image works were being developed alongside the publication. Additionally, work toward an exhibition based on Stone Tape Theory has continued. This theory provides a way of thinking through the walls around us—and other objects—as recording devices, taking on imprints of actions and essences left behind.