Thu, Oct 25 2012
Last week we were in Witte de With, Rotterdam, for a two-day meeting in preparation for the 2013 project Moderation(s). Moderation(s)
is a year-long programme of residencies, performances, exhibitions, workshops and
research initiated by Witte de With’s director Defne Ayas and Spring Workshop founder Mimi Brown.
At the core of the project stands ‘The Moderator’, incarnated
by Singaporean visual artist and writer Heman Chong. More news soon, in the meantime you can read more in this interview with the artist.
Artist and writer Heman Chong (left) introduces the Moderation(s) programme to participants and collaborators.
At the end of the first day of the workshop, Witte de With director Defne Ayas, gave a tour of their current show 'The Humans', a year-long project by visual artist and writer Alexander Singh (image above and three photos below), which "includes a variety of formats, from presentations
and rehearsals to discursive events that are informed by the props
produced on site. Leading up to the final presentation of his play in
the Spring of 2013, Singh transforms Witte de With’s second floor into
an artist’s studio." (text from Witte de With's website).
The exhibition included spatial design by architect Markus Miessen, including "a multi-purpose yellow monolith. This giant modular cube
consisting of sixty-four separate blocks constantly mutates in
accordance to a series of events taking place in 2012, including
Singh’s Causeries."
(from the website).
The previous evening to the workshop TENT and Witte de With hosted an evening of events which began with a lecture by Vivien Sky Rehberg's "Deschooling/Deskilling" lecture.
Downstairs TENT had the exhibition "Between the map and the territory"
which included the below installation by curator Maaike Gouwenberg and
artist Joris Lindhout, on their ongoing research into the "gothic as a
cultural strategy".
Bik van der Pol's piece "Accumulate, Collect, Show" (below) at TENT (originally produced as part of Frieze Projects 2011). View video of the piece changing the modular text elements to spell out a number of abstract idioms, quotes and maxims here.
(Above) view of 'Untitled (Assimilated being), version 2"( 2011) by Swiss artist Karin Hueber: "Hueber’s work consists of installations of architectural elements that
are apparently waiting to be used, as pieces of scenery for a stage
production, as attributes for a performance. Elements are bent, folded,
doubled, reversed or enlarged." (from the website).
On Sunday 21st we visited Amsterdam, quickly visiting the new spaces of de Appel and W139. de Appel presented the group show "Stem Terug! / Vote back!" which included a new presentation of the 2010 work "Local regulation" by Amikejo artists Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum (image below).
(Above) General view of the first room of the exhibition with works by Artur Zmijewski ("Them (Oni)", 2007), Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum ("Plaatselijke Verordening" (Local Regulation), 2010) and Otto Berchem ("Blue Monday", 2011).
(Above) General view of the first room of the exhibition with works by Sam Durant ("Tell it like it is", 2005), Yuri Veerman ("Red White Blue", 2012) and Otto Berchem ("Blue Monday", 2011).
(Above) Otto Berchem's "Blue Monday", 2011. Courtesy Gallery La Central.
The nearby W139 hosted the group exhibition "The Research and Destroy Department of Black Mountain College" (below) with the participation of 30+ artists whose work share the idea of 'collecting'.
View of the exhibition "Time, Trade & Travel" at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. More images here.
Following Bouwhuis' tour, there was an in conversation between American artist Zachary Formwalt and Dutch critic and historian Sven Lütticken in which they discussed Formwalt's film 'A Projected Geometry' (2012) (presented in the "Time, Trade and Travel") in relation to his previous film work such as "unsupported transit" (2011), amongst others.
Witte de With, TENT, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), de Appel and W139 were all part of Latitudes' curated programme 'The Dutch Assembly': 30 hourly talks, readings, artists presentations, performances, book launches, in conversations and screenings presented last February over the course of the five days of ARCOmadrid.
All photos: Latitudes | www.lttds.org (except when noted otherwise in the photo caption)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 2012, Amsterdam, artist talk, de appel, Heman Chong, Moderations, photo, report, Rotterdam, SMBA, Spring Workshop, The Dutch Assembly, tour, W139, Witte de With
Wed, Feb 22 2012
Rubén Grilo during his performance at 'The Dutch Assembly'. Space designed by Jasper Niens and Thijs Ewalts. Photo: Latitudes | www.lttds.org
(ES) Bea Espejo, "ARCO 2012, cifras y letras", El Cultural online, 23 November 2011
Videos ('The Dutch Assembly' related events/participants):
'Care', performance by Rory Pilgrim at 'The Dutch Assembly' at ARCOmadrid, Metropolis M
2012, ARCOmadrid, Book Launch, conversations, Embassy of The Netherlands, Mondrian Fund, performance, press coverage, talks programme, The Dutch Assembly