Michael Cousin is an artist working with moving image and a curator at Cardiff’s g39 gallery. In 2006 he began developing a new platform for moving image and Outcasting was born. As season 13 opens Emma Geliot talks to him about its humble beginnings and future direction.
“I’d always liked the idea of video being a very democratic medium.” Michael Cousin is reflecting on how his online project, Outcasting, came into being. It was so nearly consigned to a Cardiff cable channel, but luckily the programmers got cold feet. Then YouTube was considered, but back then the image quality wasn’t good enough and, “I wanted something a bit more focussed – something that people could find, would know about”. And then Cousin landed enough financial support from a local social entrepreneurship organisation to research the project and set up the web site.
At first he struggled to get content for season one – as the site wasn’t up and running artists were wary of what they were signing up to. So he called in favours. The site was as eclectic as Cousin’s interest in moving image work, with the caveat that the work had to suit the platform and vice versa. Away from cinema and television, the presentation of artist-made moving image work can be a bit hit and miss and, for a long time, and certainly in Wales, it was scarcely considered by gallery programmers.
With 12 seasons under his belt and an international reach for audiences and submissions, I ask if Cousin feels he can take a more curatorial approach to the site. “I don’t try and force a theme on the work: if somebody’s got a body of work then I’ll choose what I think are the most interesting three to represent their practice. If they’ve just got one piece, then there may be links between the works, but it’s not necessarily about that. It’s about interesting work that I find engaging, or accessible, or challenging – whatever criteria you can use to judge moving image practice.”
And while he’s interested in all aspects of moving image work, Outcasting is focussed on artists working in the medium. “I think there’s enough quality and interesting work going on within the visual arts fraternity just to stay within that. I think it probably works better and there are other avenues for animators and documentary makers”, he explains. Although there is certainly some cross-over in the current season, as seen in Janis Rafailidou’s three films, set in Athens, which knit together several strands of practice.
For the future, and with new funding from the Arts Council of Wales, Cousin will be developing a commissioning element and looking at collaborations to give a much-needed physical presence to this virtual platform. He’s in discussions with galleries in Wales and Poland and will be collaborating with Domino Gallery in Liverpool, as part of the Independents programme for the Liverpool Biennial. Not that he wants to move Outcasting away from its current form: “I think it’s good to have that physical presence, just because it all directs back to the site. I don’t want to end up just organising screening events in physical spaces. That’s not what it’s about. The prime object of the site is for an international audience to see the work.” He is, however contemplating a ‘Best of Outcasting’ compendium, to either download from the site or to be released as a DVD to tour the festivals’ circuit.
With a more secure future, an audience that’s topped 26,000, 120 artists already featured and collaborators forming an orderly queue, Cousin’s early optimism seems to be paying off.
Outcasting Season 13 Features work by: Anne-Marie LeQuesne, Janis Rafailidou, Jennie Thwing, Marianna & Daniel O’Reilly, Nicolas Ramel, Rina Sherman and Ted Sonnenschein
The Independent strand of the Liverpool Biennial Festival of Contemporary Visual Art runs from 18 September to 28 November 2010.
About the author: Emma Geliot is a writer based in Wales
