DAI-bulletin 2006-2007 number one September 2006

This is the first issue of the monthly DAI-bulletin in the academic year 2006-2007, informing you about our program, about important dates and events.

Students: please, PRINT THIS TEXT and keep it with you as an extension to your diary.
Alterations and additions to the program will be e-mailed to you.
SO PLEASE READ YOUR E-MAILS EVERY DAY.

THIS TIME IT IS PRIVATE:
News on alumni and/or current students and/or lecturers You are all most welcome to send in your announcements. Please reply if you want to be skipped from this monthly DAI-bulletin mailing list.

> DAI–Alumnus Sanjeewa Kumara who, together with his wife Sujeewa Kumari also a DAI-alumnus, went back to Sri Lanka after their studies in Enschede, mailed us:
‘Since last 2 years we are living in Colombo. During this period we participated in different kind of art projects and we also did solo projects. Soon I will post you the catalogue of the Triangle workshop in New York (www.triangleworkshop.org), in which I participated, as well as my recent solo exhibition catalogue.

Meanwhile Sujeewa and me are now regular visiting lecturers in the Fine Art Department of the University of Kelaniya in Colombo. Sujeewa teaches Multi Media and I mostly teach painting and drawing. We always remember our experiences in DAI when we are teaching.

Besides all this I am working in a project named Given Pepper got Ginger. It is supported by the Prince Claus Fund. In this project I hope to exhibit my artworks amidst colonial house hold items. The exhibition will take place in the Dutch Museum in Colombo end of this year. (The old ‘Dutch House’ on Prince Street, Pettah (Colombo 11) which houses this museum was built in the latter part of the 17th century and was initially the residence of Count August Carl Van Ranzow along with five other houses of the elite. Today, the sides of the street are choc-a-block with boutiques and stores of Muslim traders. The restoration of this building commenced in 1977 and was completed in 1981. This museum was opened to the public in 1982. This building embodies the unique architectural features of a colonial Dutch town house. The museum while displaying the Dutch legacy with the arte facts viz. furniture, ceramics, coins, arms etc. portrays facets of contemporary life and culture).


>A little bit of your city
A call for stories from Sjanet Bijker:
From the 25th of august Groningen has again a Well. Not an archeological excavation, but a product of this time. The Well consists of a round basin with seats, and is a mobile, physical, mental and virtual meeting place which tells stories from all over the world. The Well collects stories from the air around her. In the air hundreds of thousands of stories wizz by us, on GSM connections, radio and internet. The Well will tell these stories.
Not all of them, only the stories meant for her.

I’d like to invite you to write a story. That will be passed on by The Well. Pronouncing your words with the aid of a computer. The Well is about life and death. And everything in between. The Well is a tap, a bath, a place where stories are told. Where the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the extraordinary becomes the same old story. The more our ‘here and now’ seems arbitrary, the more important it feels. The Well makes everything sent to her into the ‘here and now’. And you can choose to be there. To sit down. To let time pass by in slow-motion. Or to be somewhere else, tell your story to people sitting down to listen to your words.

The Noorderzon audience (and after that the people of Groningen) would love to hear from you. You can get in touch with them and leave a story by the use of
www.de-bron.eu
Kind regards, Sjanet Bijker


> DAI alumnus Julian H. Scaff is working as an Adjunct Faculty in the Media Communications department at Webster University in Leiden.
This year he is teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses in visual design, digital video, and digital sound.
Julian also has a commission as a filmmaker and artist on a government-funded project titled A1 to research appropriate locations and strategies for public art, ecological, and cultural interventions along the A1 motorway between Amsterdam and Hengelo.

> ‘Majdanpek is located in Homolje Mountains on the eastern border of Serbia. The area has always been deeply rural. Although traditionally an agricultural community, the majority of the people, before and during Communism, worked in the mines (mainly gold mines) but lately these have been closed down and there are additional factory closures. The unemployment rate is very high and is still growing, and there is little alternative work available. When there is work, the salaries are very low and quite disproportionate to living costs. In this desperate situation the alternative developed by the local authorities are extremely polluting and dangerous, such as a recently proposed plant for recycling nuclear waste.
Consequently, many people leave the area for EU and other countries.

In a three-day seminar and two-week work shop, that took place this summer, local and international scholars/lecturers and artists were engaged in understanding the different facets of the situation of Majdanpek region and attempting to introduce imaginative changes in the public space. These were both in spatial and conceptual form through articles and site-specific art. The workshop included 6 scholars and 15 artists. The participating artists will be from the region of Majdanpek, from Serbia and international artists’. Amongst them DAI-alumnus Anne Schiffer and current DAI-student Daniëlle Davidson.
Art Interventions 2006. Artlink, Belgrade, Serbia.


> Hopes and Fears a project with the artists Maurice Blok, Martijn Stellinga, DAI alumnus Tsui-lun Liu, Frank Koolen, Ola Vasiljeva, Ivo van Werkhoven, DAI alumnus Anne Schiffer and Marcel van den Berg.
Hopes and Fears tried to deal with contemporary ethnocentric West European societies where sometimes no gray areas seem to exist; where our fear and anger are constantly juxtaposed against our desires, dreams and hopes. This summer the eight artists created two ‘separated’ and contrasting theme rooms at the Rael Artel Gallery in Pärnu, Estonia. One for the subject ‘Hopes’ and another that deals with the topic of ‘Fears’: a ‘dark’ and a ‘white’ room. The artists presented a confrontation of differing contemporary artistic visions on both subjects to the audience.
Pictures of the show and our other activities are available at: www.hopesandfears-estonia.blogspot.com and www.moskva80.com.


> Rolina Nell and DAI alumnus Maaike Sietzema share a fascination for the little tragedies in human life. Curious about their connections and differences in their way of working and subject matter, Rolina and Maaike were working during 4 weeks on a series of paintings for an exhibition in the glass cases of the Groot Handels Gebouw. Their show is called Family and it lasts till October 10.

Groot Handels Gebouw, Rotterdam, Entrance C (main floor, 6th and 7th floor)
The building is next to the Central Station, Entrance C at the Weena-side.
Open Monday to Friday, 9.00 to 18.00.
After 18.00 and on weekends, ask the concierge at the main entrance at Stationsplein 45 to let you in (To call Maaike dial 06-24523301)


> Last but not least: we are relieved and happy that our colleagues in Beirut with whom students and lecturers of the DAI have been involved in a most inspiring and energetic project on Hamra street last May in Beirut (as part of the ongoing Here as the Centre of the World), shortly before the Israeli agression in Lebanon, are all sound and safe.
Tony Chakar, philosopher, architect and artist from Beirut who was running the project together with Amsterdam based Manel Esparbé y Gasca and Alite Thijsen wrote a beautiful text under the title Little Hiroshima.
This text will represent him at the upcoming Kunst en Oorlog programme curated by Chris Keulemans where he was invited to lecture.
www.kunstinoorlog.nl.
‘And yet, I took the conscious decision not to travel abroad, not to be physically present and instead, to let a text I’ve written represent me. I could try and explain the reasons for my decision, like not wanting to bother with the paperwork process of obtaining the visa, or that after weeks of constant Israeli bombardments I feel too weak to take a long flight, or too weak to explain to anyone, once I arrive, what had happened and why, and especially too weak, or maybe too proud, to see even the faintest hint of pity in anyone's eyes’.


DAI PROGRAMME September 2006

WEEK 36

Welcome to the Netherlands
Introduction programme for those DAI-students that have just arrived in the Netherlands.

Tuesday September 5
10 AM Meeting at the DAI with Hilly Podde. She will arrange for bicycles and take students on a short cycle tour and teach them the basic DUTCH traffic rules.

Wednesday September 6
10 AM A What & Where (official places that one definitely needs to know) cycle tour with Hilly Podde into the centre of Enschede.
13 PM Departure from the DAI for a cycle tour with course director Gabriëlle Schleijpen and staff member Ricardo Liong-A-Kong to the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, PlanetArt, the recently renovated Synagogue by architect De Bazel and Villa de Bank, all in Enschede.
17 - 20 PM drinks and Indonesian meal.
20 PM DAI project room: video screening of a documentary on Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader.

Thursday September 7
8.57 AM SHARP: Departure from Enschede by train.
The DAI invites you on a trip to Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam to see two shows (one large and one smaller retrospective) on the work of two truly interesting Dutch contemporary artists:
- Bas Jan Ader - Please don’t leave me
- Daan van Golden - Golden Years


WEEK 39

INTRODUCTION WEEK
During this week the students not based in Enschede are supposed to stay in the DAI’s new student accommodation in the centre of Enschede (Kremersmaten 160) during the full course of two introduction projects that together will last for 5 days.
Five days of hard work. Day & Night.

September 25 at 11 AM (SHARP !) gathering at:
Kremersmaten 160 in Enschede for the Kick Off of the DAI introduction week.
Today: project one
LIST OF DEMANDS
A flashy one day COLLABORATIVE project with architect Paul van de Berg at Kremersmaten 160.

7 PM: drinks & banquet at the DAI, Hallenweg 4 at the campus.
Word of welcome by Tonny Holtrust, director of the Department for Art and Design of ArtEZ.

September 26, 27, 28: project two
The students from the Dutch Art Institute will spend nearly a week with Resonance’s workshop leaders Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann, to create works for radio transmitter and more then 20 portable radios. They will form the Dutch Art Institute Radio Orchestra (DAIRO).
Their pieces will be performed live in the Gasometer Oberhausen as part of a concert evening on the 29th September 2006.

September 29, 2006 at 19.00 hours (7 PM): the Resonance FM intervention at the Gasometer Oberhausen

For what is likely to be the last intervention of the Eu funded radio.territories project, Resonance 104.4fm ( London’s first radio art station) has teamed up with the Dutch Art Institute and the Dutch Art Institute Radio Orchestra (DAIRO) to produce an evening of experimental radio and sound works in the Gasometer in Oberhausen (Germany). The event is called KlangLangWelle. It also features the extraordinary British saxophonist John Butcher, and the electronics trio Tonic Train + Xentos starts at 19:00 h, entrance fee is 4 Euros. The roof of the Gasometer will stay open for the audience after the concert until 22:00 h.
A special radio edition recording of the evening with commentary by Ed Baxter will be made available for broadcast later.

The Gasometer is the biggest of its kind in the world, with a diameter of 68 meters and a height of 117 meters. The sheer size and the extreme acoustics make it a unique location that in the past has been used for exhibitions by the likes of Christo and Jean-Claude or Bill Viola.

The giant steel cylinder can also be considered as a big Faraday cage, meaning that it is difficult for radio waves to penetrate inside, but also that radio emissions from within the Gasometer will bounce off its walls almost like sound waves. The Gasometer is ready for its own, enclosed radio station.
http://www.resonancefm.com/
http://radia.fm/territories/interventions/resonance2
http://klingt.org/gro.tgnilk/events/2180/index.html