“Our House in the Middle of the Street” is the title of public programme developed for Kunsthuis SYB at the Kunstvlaai
Dates: 23 November - 2 December, 2012
Place: Kunstvlaai, Festival of Independents Amsterdam
Curated by A.Serino icw Maritt Serena Kuipers.
Artists and participants: Brian Dudley Barrett, Lisa Mazza, Laura Windhager, Noa Giniger, Lea Porsager, Yael Messer, Marco Pasi, Aymeric Mansoux, Frans Willem Korsten, Italo Zuffi, Renske Janssen, Joaquín Cociña & Cristóbal León.
Credits image: “The Anatta Experiment” (2012), Lea Porsager, video still.
“Our House in the Middle of the Street” comprises a program of lectures, artists’ presentations and collective exercises revolving around issues of hospitality, private/public dimensions, openness, collectivity and self-education as suggested by the nature of SYB’s residency program.
Designer Sandra Kassenaar and artist Niels Vis are the authors of the on-site installation: a mobile multi-panel structure inspired by the homonymous book celebrating the ten year anniversary of SYB. This structure will change and adapt to the several activities of the week.
Programme:
On Saturday 24, media theorist and artist Aymeric Mansoux discusses the complexity of concepts such as openness and free culture and their potential to build their potential to build an alternative in "a society where information, code and law are forming an increasingly powerful trinity". Following Mansoux, professor Frans Willem Korsten will present his ideas on "the minimal conditions" for collectivity together with ZIMIHC, the Utrecht based band, performing since 1983, and from which he is a member.
Is it possible to explore a different approach to art experience through collective exercises? On Wednesday 28, artist Italo Zuffi invites the visitors to build up geometric shapes by taking part in his performance “Toothpick Geometries”. Simultaneously, the details of the geometry are filmed and projected onto a screen in real time. Zuffi’s “Toothpick Geometries” reflects upon the double nature of every collaborative process, which is extremely powerful but at the same time fragile and demanding. Italo Zuffi’s ‘Toothpick Geometries' is part of “PAY ATTENTION please”, a project co-curated by Valerio Del Baglivo and Angela Serino, promoted by Kunsthuis SYB, FARE and City of Milan.
On Thursday 29, art critics and writers are all invited to attend “Seen and Unseen”, the writing workshop by Renske Janssen. For a number of years, Kunsthuis SYB has organised a programme for reviewers, whereby young writers are offered the opportunity to write a review on a regular basis, which is then published on SYB’s newsletter and website. For Kunstvlaai, SYB has invited critic, curator and writer, Renske Janssen, to give a workshop on art writing.
During the workshop, the dos and don'ts of an art review will be discussed and new reviews will be written. Participation in the workshop is free.
Finally, on Saturday December 1, the whole day will be dedicated to residency models and experiences, under the title “Living and Working Together/Nesting Togetherness”.
The main questions underpinning the talks are: Why do artists choose to do a residency? In what way does the structure of a residency differ from other existing supporting structures for artists, such as the gallery, the project space, the academy or the studio? How can a residency contribute to the development of the artists today?
‘Living and Working Together’:
Taking inspiration from his recent book ("Artists on the Edge: The Rise of Coastal Artists' Colonies, 1880-1920", 2010), art historian Brian Dudley Barrett will talk about the ideological and practical reasons that led to the development of village art colonies.
Art theorist and curators Lisa Mazza and Laura Windhager have recently graduated at the Visual Cultures Department of Goldsmiths University London with their dissertation “How to Live Together? How to Work Together? On Residencies as Sites of Community and Production”. Here at the Kunstvlaai, they will concentrate on questions of production and representation within contemporary residency programmes, as well as the reciprocity between infrastructure and artistic production in those given spaces.
‘Nesting Togetherness’:
During her residency in 2011 in Kunsthuis SYB, artist Noa Giniger invited six fellow artists from different countries to stay with her, each for one week, for an in-situ dialogue. Giniger recently published the book “Ecstatic Streaming”, which concludes and translates “Zimmer for FAB” into a printed form.
In the late summer of 2011, artist Lea Porsager invited seven friends to Casa Anatta at former artist colony Monte Verità in Switserland. Initially inspired by the rich and dense history of the site, the project soon became an experiment in itself. “The Anatta Experiment” is a film and an installation realised for Documenta13 this year. The film will be screened at SYB’s booth at the Kunstvlaai.
Curator Yael Messer and philosopher Marco Pasi will comment on the works by Noa Giniger and Lea Porsager. Angela Serino will moderate the talk.
As further contribution to the Kunstvlaai, in the “Doubling Time, Cinema and Video Are” you can view the special screening of “The Apocalypse Community”(2012) by Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León; and “The Frisianl LanEscape” (2011) by Shana Moulton and Noa Giniger.
The programme of Kunsthuis SYB at the Kunstvlaai was supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Province of Friesland and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
