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GUSTAVO ARTIGAS (MX) Born 1970 in Mexico City, lives and works in Mexico City. Gustavo Artigas\' latest works relate gamestructures to disaster situations, creating interfaces to be played by spectators or specific human groups. Themes such as social tension and behaviour, encompassing extreme or unusual situations, are important subjects in his work. Artigas\' pieces have been presented at the Faites vos jeux! Art and game since Dada Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz. Akademie der Künste Berlin, Germany (2005), international 04, Liverpool Biennial, England. Gustavo Artigas for THE GO-BETWEEN: Stumble Project Whether simulated or genuine, to play this game you must take a risk, overcome fear and face the challenge of participating. Artigas’ invitation is simple…trip. trip n Those who participate in tripping will be celebrated on film. This compilation of trips, a monument to things gone wrong, will be available for everyone to watch. (C.M.) April 13/14/15 (location 2) MARJOLIJN DIJKMAN & ALETTA DE JONG (NL) Born 1978 in Groningen, lives and works in Rotterdam. Developing works in an on-site manner, Dijkman reacts to a specific context by making temporary spatial shifts or adjustments to a given space. These gestures often manifest themselves as installations that alternate the architectonic characteristics of a building, or site and as interventions into the social layers of public spaces. Raising questions as to the supposed neutrality of public space, Dijkman manages to provoke and activate the local population and officials to rethink discriminatory policies practiced through these particular uses of the public space. In a more formal way, her installations function as unexpected theater stages that shine bright in the dark and bring out these usually hidden and invisible systems of control. Working alone or in collaborations with various artists or collectives, Dijkman shows a strong belief in the efficiency of the artistic actions and interventions as ways to reflect on and improve the existing reality. These sometimes subtle and small interventions function as gigantic mirrors that reflect back the (hidden) image of the ones responsible for the establishment and practice of certain rules and regulations. Her definition of public space is wide and includes nature and urban environments in their totality. (Megan Bardoe and Vesna Madzoski, Hiscox Award) Marjolijn Dijkman & Aletta de Jong for THE GO-BETWEEN: City Food In 2005 Marjolijn Dijkman, Aletta de Jong and Dunja Herzog realized the project “City Food” in Basel, Switzerland. Wild plants and weeds were collected from around the city and were roughly identified as those that were edible or could be used for beverages or for medical infusions. The plants were presented in the exhibition space in a shop like situation. The shop was open regularly, and visitors were encouraged to share their personal knowledge on the use of these plants. For “THE GO-BETWEEN”, Marjolijn Dijkman will again collaborate with the artist Aletta de Jong on “City Food, the Bijlmer”. This time, the weeds will not be picked and offered, but the research gathered while exploring the neighborhood, will inform a new project that looks at the notion of survival. Questioning both, the present situation and the future of the Bijlmer, “City Food” will result in a mobile platform for conversations on the specific conditions in the Bijlmer, the Netherlands and abroad. April 15-22, visit Florijn 42 (location 1) for further information Special presentation April 20th, visit Florijn 42 (location 1) for further information Born 1973 in Santiago de Chile, lives and works in New York. Diego Fernández was born in Santiago, Chile in 1973. He studied fine arts at the Universidad Católica de Chile and later co-founded a nomadic artist-run space called Galería Chilena that organizes international events, publications and exhibitions. Diego Fernández\'s artistic practice includes extensive collage making, painting, and drawing as well as live musical performances in a duo called, Tazos. His work, which usually pulls imagery from mass media, points a finger at events which are often overlooked because they are not headline stories. Thus, his work poignantly reveals troubling stories and strange coincidences. At the moment he lives and works in New York. He has exhibited at Orchard, New York; Galerie Christian Nagel, in Berlin and Cologne; Galería Gabriela Mistral, Santiago de Chile; Galería Chilena, Santiago de Chile; Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Valdivia, Chile; and in the \"New Talent\" section Of Art Cologne 2005. Diego Fernández for THE GO-BETWEEN: Diego Fernández (in collaboration with Ian Szydlowski of Instituto Divorciado) A place for outcasts to pass unnoticed, where life rots, tyrants get decapitated, witches at the stake, small lines of blood travel between the cobblestones. After the fall of Spain, before the dawn and cradle of modern capitalism: multisided pilgrimage in awe of everything unnatural: eternal sunshine, steam columns from underneath, amalgamated crowd equalized in foreignity: the way they are raised and killed and the people involved in the rules of eating them; primordial brutality less offensive than our day rituals and spectacles: in the farm, in the apartment, in the local workshop, at the site of the open roast and final feast, in video of deferred killing, at Anton de Komplein Square for scheduled tin-can-phone session. History seems to play an important part in Fernandez's work, and the conclusions that he comes to through his explorations, propose history book re-writes, or, as in THE GO-BETWEEN, plays off our "dirty" primitive histories with our present -supposedly sanitary- ones. Screening April 15 (location 1), Spit-Roast April 21 (location 5) Born 1971 in Plymouth, lives and works in Amsterdam. Mark Hoskings sculptural work is often described through narrative. Objects, remade and transformed by the artist, are seen as the residues of scenarios of self-preservation and redemption from adverse and unexpected situations or disasters. Another dimension to Hoskings practice rebels against the fixed status assigned to objects within western consumer society through challenging their former use- value.This opposition of capture and freedom could be understood as a metaphor for the liberating process of object transformation that frees materials from their predetermined systems in Hoskings pieces. Mark Hoskings solo exhibitions include Radio Mayday at IBID Projects, London (2003), LElac, Geneva and Jerwood Gallery, London (2001). He has been included in group shows at Arnolfini, Bristol, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and Kunstverein Bregenz (all 2001) as well as the Lisson Gallery shows Ideal Standard Summertime (1995) and A Shot in the Head (2000). Mark Hosking for THE GO-BETWEEN:(Preview of) The Bijlmer Lights A monument needs not always to be set in stone. „There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument. They are no doubt erected to be seen – indeed to attract attention. But at the same time they are impregnated with something that repels attention“ wrote Robert Musil in 1936. When revolution comes, they are the first objects that manage to satisfy conflicting desires. A short time after, the heroes have been plunged into oblivion and the subjects have turned into representation. Never forget. Always remember. Their catalyst: potential for internal and external transformation, give monuments a respective place in social space and public debate. April 14 (location 3) Born 1971 in Berne, lives and works in Zurich and Rome. San Keller was born in Bern in 1971 and is based in Zurich. He mostly works with performance and minimal interventions in public space. Often he creates spontaneous communities that he invites to collectively follow his conceptual instructions. For “San Keller walks you home”, 2003 for example he walked exhibition-visitors home, what encompassed that a coincidential group had to agree on how to get every participant to her/his home and resulted in a playful nightly travel throughout New York. German curator Dorothea Strass describes San Keller\'s actions thus: \"His works are complex, cheerful and melancholy at the same time. They pick up the concerns of the social sculpture and, in the most marvellous way, carry it into the 21th century.\" San Keller for THE GO-BETWEEN: Did you ever visit an art museum? If not, San Keller takes you there! San Keller invites the inhabitants of the Bijlmer that have never been to an art museum, for a visit to one in Amsterdam. San Keller guides the group to an institution of their choice, pays their entrance fee, accompanies them through the exhibitions and afterwards invites the group to the museum café for refreshments. Date: April 21, 2007, 13:00 onwards April 21 (location 4) Born 1978 in Maastricht, lives and works in Amsterdam. Frank Koolen (NL, 1978) lives and works in Amsterdam, studied at De Ateliers from 2001 to 2003. The work of Frank Koolen can be described as an ongoing search for the ideal combination between the beauty of discovery and the happiness of recognition. A moment in which the everyday and the magical seem to collide, creating unexpected logic. In a dynamic process related style he uses all media to create a world in which nothing seems to be certain. Icons become trivial assets to a performance and trivialities are enlarged to icon like proportions. In his work duality often becomes contradiction and knowledge a misunderstanding. By doing so Koolen tries to test the meaning of an image or idea over and over again and creates space for questions about and reinterpretation of the chosen visual language. Frank Koolen for THE GO-BETWEEN: “Generosity Television” (G.T.V) is the first international podium to concentrate strictly on good intentions. In a world in which nothing seems to be certain and fear is constantly spread, “G.T.V” will be a stronghold for positive thinking and well-meaning thoughts and acts. In a documentary (but hopefully entertaining) style it will dedicate itself to finding and creating generosity in all shapes and sizes. People who help others unconditionally, institutes that focus on the unhappy, architecture that creates possibilities… Without losing hope that there is good in everything, “G.T.V” will roam the streets, looking to show this beautiful truth.”G.T.V” operates from a provisional studio at Florijn 42. From that base the quest for “The Generous” will start and generosity will be spread. “G.T.V” strongly believes, and therefore will prove, that the Bijlmer is one of the most generous places in Amsterdam. (F.K.) April 16 – April 20 (details to follow), April 20 Screening sessions (location 1) Born 1965 in Ayutthaya, lives and works in Bangkok. Surasi Kusolwong’s work encourages audience participation, blurring the boundaries between art and life. This Bangkok-based artist makes installations that recall scenes within local markets and massage parlours, playing on Western expectations of Asia. Toying with notions of cultural and economic values and the interplay between people, art, and consumer products, the artist blurs boundaries between public and private spaces—transforming the intimate exchange between visitor and artwork into an exploration of the post-modern economy.Using the concept of art as commodity, Kusolwong highlights the relationship between people, art and consumerism. Stressing cultural exchange instead of money, the artist intends for his market environments to be a place of social interaction. Kusolwong’s concept of the street market is ironically juxtaposed with the notion of the art market, shifting the level of domestic objects to a museum or gallery commodity. For the Sydney Biennale in 1998, Kusolwong’s theme was the street market, now being rapidly replaced with the supermarket or convenience store. At the street market, money was not important and objects were exchanged or given away freely instead. Surasi Kusolwong for THE GO-BETWEEN: Blonde wig, geometric tables, Plexiglas cube, silk blinds and rolls. Volkswagen Beetle, beanbag, Hollywood movie. Coca-Cola machine, lion, green carpet. Salesman, masseur, MC, vendor. Concept, involvement, separation – space, action, expectation – experience, production, critique – happiness, indeterminacy, context – necessity, irony, global economy – stereotypes, authority, location – freedom, intentions, critical position – confusion, slippage, physical presence – East/West, capitalism, consumption – engagement, concentration, relaxation – entertainment, slowness, state of responses – fusion, boundary, event – life, energy, machine – environment, service, audience participation – appropriateness, leisure, human condition – celebration, perception, autobiography. * Cross out those that do not apply April 18/19 visit Florijn 42 (location 1) for further information Born in Leeds in 1974, currently lives and works in Amsterdam. Daragh Reeves creates artwork that often reminds us of props, scripts, titles or scenarios. These activities form a re-consideration of storytelling in terms of film. From using close at hand material such as snacks on an airplane flight to UV light and laser, the films, drawings, installations and objects, occupy an idea of throwing light onto something, but also, (and often at the same time) explore the fundament of invisibility. The journey of the work after its completion as something viewable seems important too. Once on exhibit, the piece is often altered or changed by the artist, with the environment treated not as a “full stop” to the piece, but as a workshop space for extending the possibilities of the work. Bringing things closer to their essence seems a continued motivation, whilst continuously throwing up questions behind the work. Daragh Reeves for THE GO-BETWEEN: A film based on the script of a current Hollywood release Casting for all parts will take place in Florijn 42 on Sunday, April 15 HARALD THYS & JOS DE GRUYTER (BE) Born 1965 in Geel and 1966 in Wilrijk, live and work in Brussels. Since the second half of the eighties Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys have collaborated on visual work, works on paper, videos and sound art. Even though the artists are best known for their audiovisual productions, these works are inextricably bound up with their realisations in other media. Their whole body of work is characterised by burlesque friskiness and an almost childlike simplicity with humorous effect; nevertheless it always embodies a dark strand of paradoxical emotions or critical reflections. For the most part their videos start from trivial and almost corny situations and actions: a discussion between a man and a woman, who are trying to embellish their house (The Bucket) or a fairytale story (The Curse). These extremely familiar situations and fictitious observations are disrupted time and again by the artists. To this purpose the duo makes use of a series of techniques which they have derived from the dramaturgical jargon of theatre and TV-shows for children. The videos of De Gruyter and Thys balance on the verge of alienation: the strongly pronounced, exaggerated gestures, the sober settings and characters that are leaning towards apathy, degenerated characters, wandering about in an isolated world of their own. To them the outside world is unthinkable; as if there is a vacuum outside of these rooms or, at best, an imminent, invisible threat. These scenes often take place within enclosed spaces, creating a tense claustrophobia in the miniature stories, to which Thuys and De Gruyter lend the minimum of words and movement. The characters costumes, inconsistencies of logic and actions remind the viewer of both folk tales, medieval theatre and of the later actions of the surrealists. Harald Thys & Jos de Gruyter for THE GO-BETWEEN: For “THE GO-BETWEEN”, De Gruyter & Thys deliver "Wiwi" to the Bijlmer, a towering animal that arrives in bed, accompanied by a telephone. With its apparent ability to spread warmth from its eyes, "Wiwi" begins its days watching over the Bijlmer from behind the windows of Florijn 42. Gradually, it will begin to move between the houses of the area, always taking up position near a window, phone at hand, to watch the passing world. (A.C.) April 11, Arrival of Wiwi (location 1) |