Factotum is both an arts organisation and artists' project that was formed in 2001 by Stephen Hackett and Richard West. They publish '' The Vacuum'' newspaper, put on exhibitions, publish books and make films. In the past they have also run a choir, staged contemporary dance events and organised talks. In 2005 Factotum won a Paul Hamlyn Award for the Visual Arts and participated in Northern Ireland's first showing in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 2007 they were selected for the Irish Curated Visual Arts Award by the artist Mike Nelson. Factotum's work often involves collaborating with a wide range of other arts organisations, artists and writers.

Cultural history

Factotum are based in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and their work is often about the city and its history. In 2003 they produced a book and CD called ''Belfast Songs'' in which a number of writers, including

Glenn Patterson Glenn Patterson (born 1961) is a writer from Belfast, best known as a novelist. Biography Patterson was born in Belfast where he attended Methodist College Belfast. He graduated from the University of East Anglia (BA, MA), where he was a produc ...

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon (born 20 June 1951) is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he is currently both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Pr ...

and

Leontia Flynn Leontia Flynn (born December 1974) is a poet and writer from Northern Ireland. She grew up between the towns of Dundrum and Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland. She is the second-youngest of five siblings. She has worked at The Seamus Hean ...

, each wrote about famous songs representing the city. Factotum's work is sometimes documentary or archival in nature, as in their 2005 photographic exhibition 'The English', which was largely made up of previously unseen photographs from the Imperial War Museum's archive of the British army in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s. Their treatment of this historical material can involve an implied cultural criticism in the way it is recontextualised. The Factotum Choir, for example, sang a repertoire made up of songs in praise of Stalin (such as Ewan MacColl's "Ballad of Stalin"), corporate songs ("Fokker on the Wing") and national anthems for countries that no longer exist (such as

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

). Factotum's exhibitions and publications can also be explicit in criticising attempts to rebrand and redevelop Belfast and the role of marketing and Public Relations in general, as in their 2008 show 'A Century of Spin' about PR photography.

Parody and satire

As well as presenting historical material, Factotum's work also frequently involves elements of satire and parody. A special 'Cobbled Quarter' supplement to The Vacuum closely resembled the corporate freesheet 'Laganlines' published by the

Laganside The Laganside Corporation was a non-departmental public body formed by the Laganside Development (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 with the goal of regenerating large sections of land in Belfast, Northern Ireland adjacent to the River Lagan. This d ...

quango to promote their newly branded 'Cathedral Quarter'. It included such events as 'Hermitfest' and the 'Festival of Pathetic Maritime Disasters' much like the facepainting and

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

themed events in the quango's publicity material. Sometimes it is not easy to distinguish between documentary and spoof elements of Factotum projects. In 2006 they put on an exhibition about the Factotum Choir in the

Project Arts Centre Project Arts Centre is a multidisciplinary arts centre based in Temple Bar, Dublin, which hosts visual arts, theatre, dance, music, and performance. History Project Arts Centre was founded by Jim FitzGerald and Colm O'Briain in 1967 after a thr ...

in Dublin (subsequently toured to other venues). This exhibition contained film clips, artefacts (like record covers and a desiccated cat) and an extensive history of the Choir from the 1950s to 2000. Reviewers of the exhibition have been divided as to whether the material in the exhibition is genuine or fabricated. In 2009 Factotum organised an exhibition called 'Northern Ireland Unseen Offscreen' as part of the

Belfast Film Festival The Belfast Film Festival is Northern Ireland's largest film festival, attracting over 25,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1995, the festival has grown to include the Docs Ireland international documentary festival, as well as an Audi ...

. The exhibition was of posters for films made in Northern Ireland that were never completed or have subsequently been forgotten and included such titles as 'Cannibal Begorrah' (a horror film set in Fermanagh), 'An Ulster American Folk Park in London' (An 80s small town/ big city corporate drama), 'Dafty Wains Go Buck Mental' (An Ulster Scots gross-out comedy) and 'King Billy's Pink Adventure' (a 70s art house film). Reviewers of this exhibition have expressed scepticism as to how much, if any, of this material is genuine. The building once used had the "headless dog" image on the brickwork outside. The scions of Hilden Brewery family set up College Green Brewery (though, in fact, a restaurant and not a brewery - ales are supplied by Hilden Brewery) and used the image as the logo for their "Headless Dog" ale.

''Ditching''

In 2009 Factotum released the feature film ''Ditching'', a story about two people going on a journey across Northern Ireland in a desolate post-apocalyptic future.

References

External links

Factotum homepageVacuum homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Factotum (Arts Organisation) British artist groups and collectives Art in Northern Ireland Irish artist groups and collectives Arts organizations established in 2001