2010: Platform for (un)Solicited Research and Advice / DAI & Manifesta 8 / TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS
Co-ordinated by Yoeri Meesssen (Manifesta) and Florian Göttke (DAI)
Guests: Jeremy Beaudry, Eric Beltran, Boris Ondreicka, Alfredo Cramerotti, Barbara Visser a.o.
Manifesta is the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, taking place in different cities and regions every two years. Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centers of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography. This includes fostering innovations in curatorial practice, exhibition models and education.
The Platform for (Un)Solicited Research and Advice was set up as a means to actively involve art students in the discourse of Manifesta and the development of the Manifesta Biennial, by providing a forum to further research into key themes surrounding Manifesta's projects and to provoke contextualization of topical issues. The primary modus operandi of the platform is based on the so-called 'brief', presented each month by an artist, curator, academic or other professional connected to Manifesta. 'Platform for Unsolicited Research and Advise', was a project from the Dutch Art Institute in close collaboration with Manifesta, run by Florian Göttke ( DAI) and Yoeri Meessen ( Manifesta 8).
Within the Platform, the students met the curators of Manifesta 8, several artists, and people involved in previous Manifesta biennials. Guest lecturers included: Hedwig Fijen, Marieke van Hal, Barbara Visser, Fay Nicolson, Alfredo Cramerotti, Denis Isaia, Boris Ondreička, Erick Beltrán, and Jeremy Beaudry.
As a result of the project the participants have set out to realize a parallel project at Manifesta 8 called Temporary Art Souvenirs.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS reflects the students reactions on biennials, curatorial ideas, the politics and economics around art, and local issues in the region of Murcia.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS is an artist run shop which was open from the 7th until the 17th of October 2010 during Manifesta 8 Art Biennial in Murcia and Cartagena, Spain.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS sells specially tailored art souvenirs to as wide an audience as possible, translating high art into low, low art into high, and making it all available for everyone to buy as a souvenir of this special, one-off art event that is Manifesta 8.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS forms an engaging commentary on the double nature of art as symbolic object and as commodity. The effects, problematics and possibilities of a temporal art event are explored in this unpredictable mobile shop, selling art as souvenirs and souvenirs as art. The shop's mobility allows it to transverse the boundaries between different social spaces, enabling art and ideas to reach a wide range of audiences.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS popped up at a different venue each day, including the Manifesta art venues, local squares, shopping malls, migrant neighborhoods and tourist centres.
TEMPORARY ART SOUVENIRS is a project realized by Lauren Alexander, Lado Darakhvelidze, Jimini Hignett, Anna Hoetjes, Jeroen Marttin, Eva Olthof, Julio Pastor and Patricia Sousa.
http://manifesta.org/2010/10/collaboration-with-dutch-art-institute-dai/