Monday May 12

On Monday we will be joined at the Van Abbe by the artist Ahmet Ogut. Ahmet, who is very familiar with the DAI (he taught with Steven a couple of years ago) will spend an hour giving a presentation on his work in the library. He will then be available for tutorials. As many of you have interviews, research etc to do in the museum there will not be time for everyone to see him so please let me know especially if you would like to talk to him. Ahmet has to leave for Sweden on Tuesday so will be unable to join us in Arnhem.

We have asked Ahmet to speak to us as - rather like Antonis - he is an artist who works very much within site, institutional and politically specific structures. His works, which include happenings, performances, installations, films or whole pedagogical structures respond to the time and place within which they are situated. As such, I am sure listening to him speak about his work will prove inspiring as we move towards the presentation in September. Equally, he is an artist who knows the Van Abbe well - having worked with us a few times.

You can learn more about Ahmet's work on his website - which is extensive and up to date.

Monday April 7

On Monday we will again be at the Van Abbemuseum where we will continue developing individual projects. We will be joined by our guest tutor Hadas Zemer. Hadas is an Israeli curator, designer, teacher - who has worked specifically in the field of mediation after he studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. She worked with the Van Abbemuseum for a number of years before moving back to Tel Aviv.  The reason for bringing her in at this stage is to think about how projects and ideas get mediated to the public. Following Antonis Pittas' focus on the 'conditions' of the projects and the institutional context, Hadas will take this one stage further.

During the day there will be the chance to visit the archives, galleries or talk to people in the museum relevant to your project. Hadas will meet with you individually or in groups.
On Tuesday we will hold face to face meetings in Arnhem.

Monday March 10

This week will once again begin in the Van Abbe. As we move into developing the summer project, during the next two or three sessions we will be joined by guest artists who will listen and give feedback to projects as they are developing. This is really to give another perspective - other than us as curators or the museum - and will help you formulate ideas and methods. I am delighted that Antonis Pittas will be joining us as a guest tutor for the next DAI week.

Antonis, who will be with us at the museum on the Monday, is an artist based in Amsterdam, whose work you will have seen on the second floor of the collection display at the Van Abbe. Antonis works in a range of media - including sculpture and performance and what I think is particularly relevant for us is the context specific nature of his practice and how it responds to a given setting (architectural, political, historical ...).  You can read more about Antonis' practice on his website: http://antonispittas.info/en/index

Monday February 10

This week will also take place at the Van Abbe and will focus on the collection display 'Once Upon a Time - the Collection Now'. The day is going to be led by Steven Ten Thije and Christiane Berndes (who led the 'Once Upon a Time' project). The reading is the short publication that accompanies the exhibition and will be a good way to prepare for the exhibition and the approach it takes.

During the day you will look at the four floors for the exhibition, as well as spending time in the archive with the head librarian, Willem Smit. He will also explain ho to access and use the digital archives, meaning if any of you want to carry out research on the museum, you can do this remotely.

On the Tuesday, Steven and Chris will both be in Arnhem for the face to face meetings. Following this session - and our previous day with Arte Util, we need to start thinking how we will approach the project in the summer. When we meet in March we will need to spend a day coming up with a proposal.

Monday January 6

The next block of the course takes place in the Van Abbe where we will look at the two exhibitions, 'Museum of Arte Util' and the collection display 'Once Upon a Time' as two different museum models. These will be used as a basis to think about how we will generate a project for next summer.
On the 6th we will meet at the Van Abbemuseum. We will begin the day with a discussion with Charles Esche who will introduce the two projects and what they reveal about the position and possibilities of the museum. We will spend some time going through the Museum of Arte Util with Nick Aikens, Annie Fletcher and Christiane, looking at the different projects, the archive and the lexicon of terms. The day will also include a Skype conversation with Tania Bruguera, initiator of the Museum of Arte Util. We will also start to discuss how or if the Museum of Arte Util might be used as a basis for projects in the summer.
We will also look specifically at the publication 'Toward a Lexicon of Usership', written by Stephen Wright, which we commissioned for the exhibition, asking you to consider the three different categories of terms within the lexicon relate to your own practice.

Tuesday January 7

Face to Face meetings with Nick Aikens and Annie Fletcher.

Monday November 25

The sessions on the 25th will be led by Steven ten Thije and Nick Aikens. In the second of the two reading sessions we will look at three texts in relation to ideas of 'transparency, agency and dispersion', that we discussed last session. These are texts by Didier Maleuvre ('Hegel's Guide to the Museum'), Jacques Rancière ('Aesthetics as Politics') and Felix Stalder ('The Fight Over Transparency'). Maleuvre's text tackles how we might address both the central problems and potential of the museum as a guardian of objects wrested form the world, whilst Rancière notion of 'aesthetics and politics' is key to understanding how humans, as political subjects, can position themselves and communicate their ideas. The third text by Felix Stalder directly addresses the notion of transparency in contemporary culture and how we must be wary of over-simplifying the terms egalitarian connotations. We will end the session by looking at Artur Zmijewski's Them (2007), which explicitly addresses the relationship between aesthetics and politics whilst alluding to the potential and limitations of both political and artistic agency.

Tuesday November 26

Face to Face meetings with Nick Aikens and Steven ten Thije.

Monday October 14

The first session in Arnhem will include an introduction to the course with Nick Aikens and Christiane Berndes, introducing us and laying out the year ahead. We will then begin the first of two reading sessions that begin, looking at two texts and a film work that serve to introduce some of the core ideas in 'Using the Museum': The first is Suely Rolnik, 'The Geo Politics of Pimping', and will relate to 'Resonating Surfaces' (2005), a film we will look at by Manon de Boer and which was recently exhibited at the Van Abbemuseum The second is an article about the Dutch artists Bik van der Pol that will give us a means of starting a discussion about different ways in which artists engage with institutions. We will end the day discussing three words – or principles – that the Van Abbemuseum deploys: Transparency, agency and dispersion discussing what these words mean to you and what are the implications of using them in an institutional context.

Tuesday October 15

Face to Face meetings with Nick Aikens and Steven ten Thije.