Supermarket is an amazing event … what struck me most this year are the opportunities that it offers … perhaps I am particularity alert to this as my sabbatical year fast approaches … as I think about the direction of my own practice. My fourth year as Meetings coordinator and I became very aware of how I am seen as part of the Supermarket team – or perhaps … and also … how I see myself as part of that team. I have been a part of the team since 2012 when I started doing a little proofreading but having an exhibitor facing role is still relatively new … and starting the year that the pandemic struck was a peculiar way to (non)begin. Perhaps this year is … was … the first … most obviously … truly … confidently …post pandemic year. Perhaps people, by which I mean the artists, curators, organisers, are (un)consciously once more confident to engage with each other – literally and metaphorically. The collective individual protectionism(?) … reservation(?) … isolation (?) … confusion and uncertainty of the pandemic years is perhaps subsiding and we are letting ourselves be open and close to others again – close to each other rather than closed to each other – what a difference a ’d’ makes.
Sitting here now I realise that my being able to almost all of the meetings has of course shifted my perception of the programme. It also enabled me to be more focussed on each meeting … to be present … and without wishing to sound too egotistical … I wonder if that had an impact. The meetings are quite intimate – that’s the intention – but perhaps expecting people, both the moderator and the participants, to be so intimate with strangers is asking too much too quickly … perhaps my constant presence … my being a visible and real representative of Supermarket … provided a safe … productive … necessary context (?) [or something] for the conversations. I received many complements on my hosting … my making people feel welcome … perhaps that, in the context of the meetings, … is more useful … valuable … meaningful … than the quantity of meetings. One good well cared for meeting is better than two less well cared for meetings. Could … does … my being able to pay … give … attention to the meeting make it better?
I think that even if I have the option of two meeting rooms next year that I will only programme one. The other can be ’spontaneously’ booked – the development of something that John mentioned in discussing ’un-conferences’.
It has been, without a doubt, my best Supermarket. Not only did the meetings go well but I truly enjoyed myself – I met fantastic interesting dynamic people who make amazing things happen … I didn’t just meet them – I had time for them … and perhaps I allowed myself to feel that I was one of them … that I am part of the Supermarket family.
