DAI-bulletin 2010-2011 number five February 2011

This is the fourth issue of the monthly DAI-bulletin in the academic year 2010-2011, informing you about our program during our so-called DAI-week.
Instead of asking its master students to be present at the institute on a daily base the DAI offers an alternative educational environment: once per month (11 times per year) students, faculty and invited guests come to Arnhem for a full week and take part in an intense program (consisting of lectures, artists talks, performances, seminars, face to face conversations, projects, master classes and workshops) that lasts from early morning until late at night. During the DAI-week, guest cooks prepares the afternoon and evening meals that students, faculty and guests enjoy together. Students spend the night in an accommodation provided by the DAI. In between DAI-weeks all return to their daily practices as artists and researchers - scattered over the Netherlands, or abroad.

Please note that:

- biographical notes on our guests can be found on our website under ‘Faculty’ and ‘ Guests’.
- all parts of the curriculum have to be attended by ALL students unless it is mentioned otherwise. - some evening presentations are open to interested members of the public.
Please call us at 026 35350916

DAI-Cantina
Lunch will be served daily from 13:00-14:00, dinner from 18:00-19:00 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday the 17th there will be a hot lunch and ‘doggy bags’ for the evening (no dinner).

PROGRAM DAI-WEEK FEBRUARY 14 - 18

February 14: Monday DAI - Publication

11:00–17:00 (Werkplaats Typografie)
For all 2nd year students
Pressing Issues – coordinator Rebecca Sakoun

Today PRESSING ISSUES will be held all day at the Werkplaats Typografie: Agnietenplaats 2, Arnhem.

2nd year DAI students and 1st year students of the Werkplaats Typografie will give short presentations on their work // publications projects. Afterwards, they will be paired up as artist/graphic designer duos for further collaboration on developing the publications.

11.00–17:00 ( Lecture Room)
For all 1st year students
Publishing Class
Framework: Binna Choi (Casco)
Support editor and coordinator: Chris Lee (Casco)

Today’s guest: AA Bronson

11.00–17.00  Workshop with AA Bronson      
         
Who is publishing for whom, who speaks and who listens? 'Publishing Class' is a two year program designed for the Dutch Art Institute by Casco - Office for Art, Design and Theory, delving into the act of publishing through and within artistic practice in close examination of publishing's social and political role. It is a class on publishing but also on the notion of the 'class' who publishes, especially in response to the time when artistic publishing has seen an upsurge in activity and interest in spite of the impending dematerialization of publishing.

For this session, AA Bronson, a New York-based artist and member of artists collective General Idea (1969-1994) joins the class with a day-long working project with the students group of developing a prototype for a new type of fashion magazine. With this idea, AA mentioned: 'I am concerned that while there has been an enormous explosion of new types of publishing in the visual arts world, there has been almost nothing in the fashion world that is similar.'

The outcome will be shared in the evening lecture by AA Bronson, entitled 'My Life in Books', which covers a variety of topics including Printed Matter and the NY Art Book Fair but also his practice.

19:00 – 21.00 (1st floor)
For all students and for students of Werkplaats Typografie
Publishing in Practice, or Parallel Inquiry

Today’s guest: AA Bronson

The lecture is open for the public. Please note the evening lecture takes place in Arnhem where the Dutch Art Institute recently found their new home: Kortestraat 27, Arnhem.

We are also pleased to inform you of 'Haute Culture: General Idea', the retrospective of General Idea at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris from 11 February till 30 April 2011. Please also refer to a reflection by AA Bronson on the nature of collaboration in the General Idea practice, published on this month issue of Art Forum.

February 15: Tuesday DAI - Presentation

10:30 – 21:00 (Lecture Room)

Performing presentation – Presenting performance

A four part seminar on presenting ones own artistic work
with David Weber-Krebs and Jan-Philipp Possmann /

CATALOG OF SITUATIONS

Theme

The situation in which we encounter an art work determines its potential to attract, repel, touch or inspire. While art works can be reproduced, represented or talked about, the  aesthetics change drastically in this process. But this transformation does not necessarily weaken or destroy the impact of the work. Instead, we believe that speaking or performing about art – being its author or its beholder – can enhance and enrich our and our encounter with this very art. Every act of transformation from one medium or form into another is an act of (re-)construction and produces a new work, a new situation of encounter and a new aesthetic experience. In an age of mechanical reproduction it is impossible for artists to control the conditions of encounter people make with their work or its reproductions. Hence we believe that it is essential to understand the mechanics of transformation and reproduction and to develop ways to speak about and represent our own work.

Background

Since 2008 we have been engaged as artists and theoreticians in a research project on aesthetics of reception, entitled CATALOG OF SITUATIONS. We have been investigating and creating different aesthetic situations and we have been developing strategies to communicate our experiences in the format of lecture performances or installations. We also have been engaged in an intense correspondence in the form of our Internet platform. Through these activities we aim to not only communicate experiences but to create new deep spaces of encounter and reflexivity.

Approach

In the seminar we will ask you to present your body of work and your artistic program to us and the group. Together we will develop ways to do so as effectively as possible. We will give some examples of representations and transformations out of our own practice and from the history of art and talk about the mechanisms and effects at play. As the seminar progresses, we will increasingly work in smaller groups to focus on your personal form of presentation. The seminar will put a specific focus on the format of lecture performance and on the role of the artist as performer and speaker.

February 16: Wednesday DAI-Thesis

Guided Tour into the ArtEZ Head Quarters in Arnhem

10.30 – 11.30

Rik Fernhout (DAI) and Yvonne Smit (Faculty Art & Design) will take you to the departments (dance, theatre, music, design, architecture)workshops and the library.

12.30 – 13.30 lunch
Starting 13:30 -16:00 (Reading Room)
Reading for Writing or How to do things with Theory
 Alena Alexandrova / Doreen Mende (evening only)

13:30 - 16:00 lecture by Marc de Kesel
On Bataille and Manzoni
(for both groups)
 
16:20 - 18:00 plenary session group Alena Alexandrova
For the plenary session everybody will read parts of Susan Buck-Morss' essay "The Flaneur, the Sandwichman and the Whore: The Politics of Loitering"
And parts of Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss, “Formless. A Users' Guide”.

Evening:

20:00 -21:00  continuation plenary session Alena Alexandrova

20.00 and onward
A late Reading Group with Doreen Mende: On account of the current people's riots in different countries in the Middle East Doreen Mende would like to do a reading with the group on the role of the observer from a likely geographical distance to the events, but via news reports, friends, facebook, interest, family etc. imbedded in our everyday life. She had previously different plans for this reading session, but decided to change them. It is essential to listen and watch and think about what is going on and how the marching people could be supported. Yet, what can we do from a distance and what not? To put it in another way: when is the solidarity in the West not just a further wave of a Western empathy for a zone of conflict? Yesterday Iran, today Egypt and tomorrow Thailand. Or should we reflect on that "This Is The Most Remarkable Regional Uprising That I Can Remember" as Noam Chomsky put it in a recent interview. This reading group session then is also a bit an experiment of Reading for Writing or How to Do Things With Theory, the latter in terms of an actual concern. We will enter the discussion with a very short text by Alan Badiou that he presented on January 19, 2011 at École normale supérieure as part of his seminar "Changer de monde" and reflected with an interview between Bernard Stiegler and Jacques Derrida. 

Februay 17: Thursday DAI - Autonomy

10:00-17:00 Face to Face

Face to Face meetings between individual DAI-students and individual guest advisors Doreen Mende, Alena Alexandrova, Miren Jaio, Leire Vergara, Isabel de Naverán, Tanja Baudoin, Florian Göttke,Dmitri Vilenski, Kristian Lukić, Renée Ridgway,Binna Choi and Steven ten Thije.

10:30 - 14:30 (Lecture Room)
Exclusively for participants in the project
TRACES OF AUTONOMY - THE ECONOMY OF SPEECH AND VOICE IN GLOBAL ART
PROJECT curated by the VAN ABBEMUSEUM/  Steven ten Thije Guest of the month: Wendelien van Oldenborgh

This DAI-week the workshop Traces of Autonomy continues its investigation into the history and practice of contemporary forms of artistic autonomy. After having discussed texts of Latour and Rancière, we will travel back a bit further and discuss Walter Benjamin's The Author as Producer. Benjamin's writing contains traces that remind both of Latour and Rancière, but does so in its distinct, slightly idiosyncratic way. Perhaps more than any other 20th century writer Benjamin explored the tension between theory, art and social, political, technological reality. Due to this richness and the rigorous manner in which he tried to map the relations between these poles, his work is sometimes difficult to access, but when you enter it is difficult to get out again.

Next to this we will visit the artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh to discuss the Dutch-situation as a case study. In the discussion, which will take place on Sunday 20 February in Rotterdam on a later to be disclosed location, we will talk about the particular way in which art has to navigate between an almost suffocating autonomy and a over-sensitive political climate. This situation becomes especially complicated in the light of the highly different forms of artistic engagement that materialize in the globalized art scene. When unable to invest in a presumed universal idea or movement of art, this global scene, is the shifty middle ground between different local situations that more form a connected mosaic of issues and ideas than a clear homogenous, flat surface. Where does this place us and how does it affect artistic production, will be key questions for our discussion on Sunday. As preparation please read the essay of Wendelien in the last E-Flux-magazine and the text of Sven Lütticken 'A heteronomous hobby'. All text can be found in the Dropbox.
After the session there will be space for face-to-face meetings.
http://theautonomyproject.ning.com/

Extra: Sunday February 20 Traces of Autonomy – group: studio visit Wendelien van Oldenborgh in Rotterdam.

DEPARTURE TO UTRECHT :

The Affect/ Production group will leave at 3 pm to attend
Springdance Salon 2: Hired Bodies & Dancing Nomads, with
Bojana Cvejic and Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink
At 16.00 at U-Theater Studio T, Kromme Nieuwegracht 20,Utrecht.

The other two groups (Negotiating Equity and Re-reading Public Images)  will leave DAI at 17.45 hrs.

18:45 – 21:00  BAK
Evening for all students
Exhibition ‘In the middle of things’
by Olga Chernysheva
Guided tour (in two groups) and exhibition
discussions with curator Cosmin Costinas and artist Olga Chernysheva

The Russian artist Chernysheva is now shown at BAK in The Netherlands, after recently participating at the Berlin Biennal, the ICP in New York and a film program at the MoMa. It turned out to be a very special exhibition, with a personal view on the changing climate in Russia, using a variety of media, as light boxes, photography, video and aquarelle paintings. Possible discussion items could be the artist’s view on contemporary daily issues in relation to historic Russian Realism. Is her realism a ‘critical’ strategy?

February 18: Friday DAI-Project

Affect/Production

09.30 Affect/ Production group will travel to Amsterdam, to IICD – HQ (Westerdok)
 Curated by If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, tutored by Phil Collins and co-ordinated by Tanja Baudoin
Today’s special guest: Leire Vergara

11:00 - 13:30: Introduction Bulegoa and Bilbao door Leire Vergara, IICD office. Research performance artist Isidoro Valcarcel Medina

13:30 - 17:00: Lunch and visit exhibition

17:00 - 20:00: Presentation Bulegoa & Isidoro Valcarcel Medina
in context of Performance in Residence in Het Veem Theater, Van Diemenstraat 410, Amsterdam.

This month Affect / Production will revolve around the visit of Spanish collective Bulegoa z/b and artist Isidoro Valcárcel Medina to Amsterdam, on the occasion of their involvement in If I Can’t Dance’s programme Performance in Residence. We will become acquainted with Bilbao as the destination of our trip coming Spring.

On Friday evening at 18:00 hrs, students will attend the public presentation Study of a Mobile Object in Space and Time:
a visit by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina to If I Can’t Dance, at het veem theater in Amsterdam. During this early evening gathering, Bulegoa z/b will talk with Valcárcel Medina and together they will present his work, focusing on his printed matter and audio works.
On Friday morning, we are meeting with Bulegoa z/b at the If I Can’t Dance office, to learn more about Bulegoa z/b and about Bilbao’s cultural scene.
Bulegoa z/b is a collaborative initiative based in Bilbao. Its members, Beatriz Cavia, Miren Jaio, Isabel de Naverán and Leire Vergara, have backgrounds in visual arts, scenic arts, and social theory and share an interest in processes of a.o. historization, cultural translation, and performativity. Bulegoa z/b is second to be invited by If I Can’t Dance to research a case study in the new programme Performance in Residence. Performance in Residence ‘hosts’ a performance-related (body of) work for a substantial period of time, allowing the researcher to engage in an in-depth inquiry. The aim of the project is to connect archival research to practice. Bulegoa z/b will develop together with Isidoro Valcárcel Medina a project in which they reflect on the relation between historization and performance.

Isidoro Valcárcel Medina (Murcia, 1937) is an important representative of conceptual art in Spain, hardly known outside of Spanish speaking countries. His body of work includes performances, sound pieces, architectural projects, installations and books. From his early practice up to the present day, he has asserted a critical attitude towards both art institutions and the art market, developing instead situations and scenario’s that allow him to engage in a more directly affective relation with his audience.
Extra: Saturday Feb. 19 IICD in Amsterdam. On Saturday afternoon, a workshop with Isidoro Valcárcel Medina and Bulegoa z/b.

Starting 10:00
Negotiating Equity
Organised by Renée Ridgway
Today’s special guest: Kristian Lukić

10.00 - 13.00  Presentation of Institute for Flexible Cultures and technologies – Napon, Novi Sad http://www.napon.org

Institute for Flexible Cultures and Technologies – NAPON is an organization dealing with emerging forms of technology, active in the field of social and cultural practices, critical analysis of technological growth and (re)interpretation of different notions and conceptions from more recent official and unofficial media and cultural history. The activities of NAPON organization include organization and production of various events: exhibitions and conferences, educational workshops, presentations, discussions and public forums.

Some of the subjects explored by NAPON up to now range from critical analysis of the phenomenon of computer games and social implications of game culture (the project Play Cultures, 2007-09), via fields of new economies in the context of virtual territories and resources Web 2.0 (the project Territories and Resources, 2008) up to treating a contemporary global phenomenon of world economic crisis and alternatives economies as a reaction to current state (the project Wealth of Nations, in Bristol, UK, 2009-2010).

14:00-17:00
lecture by Kristian Lukić  - Superstructural dependencies

This seminar is based on research conducted for the Impakt festival 2010 entitled Matrix City, curated by Stealth (Ana Džokić & Marc Neelen) and Kristian Lukić
http://www.impakt.nl/index.php/festival/festivalintro_2010

Through the technological superstructure of cities, the fast development of mobile devices and the automation of services, the urban environment is undergoing rapid changes. With Superstructural Dependencies, a discussion is opened on the effect of a state of complete dependency on such an artificial technical (urban) superstructure – not only regarding for instance resources like food, water or energy, but as well other key activities like communication. Does such a condition of far-reaching reliance provoke certain anti-urban notions? In addition to this, what are the implications of a growth in urban population, which in a couple of decades will contain 80% of the world population?

Starting 10:30
Re-reading Public Images
Project leader Florian Göttke
Today’s special guest: Dmitri Vilenski

10:30 Talk by Dmitri Vilenski about the work of Chto delat?

14:00 Arnhem Show and Tell: walking tour through Arnhem with Magdalena, Marija, Ptetra, Rui and Sander

Guest: Dmitri Vilenski from the Russian Artist Collective "Chto delat?"

The platform Chto delat/What is to be done? was founded with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism in early 2003 in Petersburg by a?group of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod.
www.chtodelat.org

Chto delat? works through collective initiatives organized by "art soviets," inspired by the councils formed in revolutionary Russia during the early 20th century. These "art soviets" want to trigger a prototypical social model of participatory democracy, translating an open system for the generation of new forms of solidarity into the realm of contemporary cultural work. The "art soviet" takes on the function of a counter-power that plans, localizes and executes projects collectively.

Usually, this process results in artistic interventions, exhibitions, or artworks (video films, radio plays, performances), which, in turn, trigger new issues of the newspaper. Most of these projects have a two-fold intent: on the one hand, we are interested in the translatability and actualization of left theory (classical Marxism, post-structuralism, post-operaism, critical theory) and artistic practice (situationism, documentalism, urbanism, realism) under post-Soviet conditions and how this relates to parallel efforts elsewhere. On the other hand, we have also often focused on actualizations of the potential of the Soviet past repressed in the course of Soviet history, floating signifiers that need to be captured and used before they are subsumed totally by the present mode of production.

Chto delat? is currently presenting the exhibition "What is to be Done between Tragedy and Farce?" at Smart Project Space in Amsterdam.