DAI-bulletin 2009-2010 number four December 2009
This is the fourth issue of the monthly DAI-bulletin in the academic year 2009-2010, informing you about our program and about important dates and events.
Please note that:
- biographical information 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.
DAI-week December 14 – November 18
Instead of asking its master students to be present at the institute on a daily base the DAI offers an alternative educational environment: during one week per month (11 times per year) everyone who is involved in DAI stays in Enschede day and night and takes part in an intense program (consisting of lecture presentations, seminars, face to face conversations, projects, master classes, workshops etcetera ) that lasts from early morning until late at night. During the DAI week, guest cooks prepare the afternoon and evening meals that staff, students and guests enjoy together. During the week students spend the night at one of the two DAI houses in the centre of Enschede. In between these so called DAI-weeks all return to their daily practices - scattered over the Netherlands, or abroad.
DAI-CANTINA: this weeks’ guest cook is Barbara Paternotte.
‘Although I have studied fine arts and communications, my true passion has always been cooking. After working in several restaurant kitchens, I started working as a free-lance chef and caterer in January 2008. Since then, I have cooked for private dinners, public events and started several collaborations with other entrepreneurs - ranging from cooking Indian food on stage in a Bollywood setting - to - dressing up as a cowboy shooting out condiments from a plastic pistol.
My aim is to look beyond the shelves of the giant supermarket chains and work with the ingredients that inspire me: seasonal organic ingredients and local produce.
Lunch will be served Monday from 12:00-13:00, other days from 13:00-14:00, dinner daily from 18:30-19:30.
TAKE NOTICE:
- All 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.
Monday December 14
THEORY PROGRAMME:
13:00–15:30 (space to be announced)
FOR ALL 1st YEAR STUDENTS
Introduction DAI-theory: thesis coordinator John Heymans will start the session with a lecture on Marshall McLuhan's life and work. Following the lecture, DAI students Eelco Wagenaar and Charlotte Rooijackers will introduce Arjen Mulder's book Understanding Media Theory.
13:00–17:30 (space to be announced)
FOR ALL 2nd YEAR STUDENTS
During the first part of this plenary session, thesis mentor Alena Alexandrova will focus on an introduction and discussion of central issues in media theory. The group will read and discuss a chapter of Arjen Mulder, Understanding Media Theory, "General Media Theory", pp.24-74. Two of the students will be asked to present Mulder’s text.
The second part of the session will be a writing skills workshop. The group will discuss the participant’s research projects, and more practical issues related to writing as developing an idea into a paragraph, followed by some writing exercises.
17:30-18:30 (project room)
For all students
Plenary meeting with course director Gabrielle Schleijpen. During this meeting we will also make the planning for Thursday’s Palaver Hour.
19:30 (project room)
FOR ALL STUDENTS
Bombs, bulldozers and development
Lecture by Michael Uwemedimo
In May, Nigerian government forces attacked communities in the western delta region with helicopter gunships and gunboats. Ostensibly an offensive aimed at up rooting militant networks, one village was ground to dust, glass melted into hard pools on the sand. Villagers returned some months later and began the process of reconstruction using the burnt beams and rusting corrugated tin sheets that they salvaged from the wreckage of their former homes. Some weeks later the first state-sponsored reconstruction efforts commenced, scaffolding was erected, cement was poured, and more villagers returned from the refugee camp and neighbouring communities. As some semblance of normal life returned and children played their own rebuilding games, the government announced that it would bestow the gift of 'development' to the community and promised to build a 'modern, model village.' All the former efforts at reconstruction were promptly ploughed into the earth. Not even the foundations remain.
Some hundred miles away, the bulldozers advanced on another community as people ran from their homes with whatever they could carry. This demolition exercise was carried out to make way for a commercial entertainment complex. When some weeks later a nearby community protested having their homes marked for demolition, they were shot, most in the back as they ran. Some died.
The government, the rebels they were ostensibly fighting and the international oil companies are all in their way invested in an economy of spectacular violence. What is the role of image making in this economy and how might it intercede on behalf of the fragile body which is threatened with such an overwhelming immediacy of violence? What is the role of the 'witness' and where is the 'audience'? How to work through issues of film form where issues of policy formation are so urgent? How to negotiate the discourses of law, legislation, development, and, dare we ask it, art? I would like us to discuss the possibilities for a practice on the cusp of art, advocacy and academia.
Tuesday December 15
Today we welcome Ina Klaassen the newly appointed dean of the Fine Art department of the ArtEZ Faculty of Art and Design. Recently ArtEZ implemented a new management structure that will bring bachelor and master courses from one specific discipline under common supervision. Thus bachelor as well as master courses in Fine Art, Communication Design and Fashion Design will now be managed by 3 different deans; this in contrast to the past were the management structure of the Faculty of Art and Design was organized along interdisciplinary lines and the master courses DAI, Werkplaats Typografie and the ArtEZ Fashion Masters had a common supervisor. Ina Klaassen will attend the last part of the lecture presentations by students as an auditor, and join us for dinner afterwards.
9:00-16:00
Face to face
Individual thesis meetings with Alena Alexandrova.
9:30–17:30 (project room)
For all students
Artist presentations
by DAI-students Julio Pastor, Raymond Huizinga, Petra Vacková, Jort van der Laan, Eva Schippers, Kostas Tzimoulis, Yen Yitzu and Barbara Wagner.
Their 20 – minute lecture presentations / performances will be reviewed on the spot by guest advisors Michael Uwemedimo and Margret Wibmer. The discussion will be moderated by Gabriëlle Schleijpen.
11:00-17:30
Curating (Beyond) Exhibitions: Critical Curatorial Practices and Contemporary Society
Dr.Marta Zarzycka and fifteen students of the master course ‘Curation (Beyond) Exhibitions, run by The Gender Programme and the Department of Art Management and Policy at Utrecht University, together with BAK, basis of actuele kunst, will visit the Dutch Art Institute. During the course of the day, they will be our guests at the student presentations and have face-to-face meetings with individual students. The schedule for the face-to-face meetings will be announced on Tuesday morning.
19:30 (project room)
For all students
‘Read the Masks. Tradition Is Not Given’.
A project by Annette Krauss and Petra Bauer, 2007-2009.
The art project Read the Masks. Tradition is Not Given. is a critical investigation into the Dutch tradition, “Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet” and discusses its underlying structures and its implication on Dutch society. The project provoked a lot of reactions in The Netherlands and triggered a lot of intense discussions, speculations, opinions and rumours which touched upon questions around national identity, xenophobia, racism, who has the right to speak, freedom of speech, the relation between art and politics etc.
Until now the project consists of an installation (2008), a performance and protest march that never took place (2008), a public debate (2008) and a film (2009). In the film, that will be screened tonight, Krauss and Bauer place the phenomenon of Zwarte Piet in a broader context and address the reactions they got last year when they tried to reopen a discussion around this tradition. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Annette Krauss.
Wednesday December 16
Today the DAI ’s student body is spread over several parallel projects.
9:00-16:00
Face to face
meetings with Annette Krauss and Michael Uwemedimo
10:30-17:30 (space to be announced)
GOODTRIPBADTRIP.reloaded
Curated by Mark Kremer with contributions by John Heymans
Today’s programme will have three parts: we start with the further development of the ‘Exhibitions of an Hour’, followed by a discussion of ‘Trip to the Enchanted Island’. After this, our exploration of the 1960s will continue with a.o. a screening of David Cronenberg’s ‘Naked Lunch’ after William Burroughs; a column by John Heymans on Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs; and Mark Kremer: Looking back at Sol LeWitt and Paul Thek: abstraction and empathy; Individual Mythologies: birth of a concept/the Beuys & Broodthaers cases.
10:30-17:30 (space to be announced)
AFFECTIONATELY YOURS
Curated by If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, tutored by Phil Collins (from January 2010 onward together with Hito Steyerl) and co-ordinated by Tanja Baudoin
Today’s guests: Kodwo Eshun, Anjalika Sagar (the Otolith Group)
The morning session with tutor Phil Collins will be devoted to a discussion of a reading from Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's book 'Touching Feeling - Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity- (2003). We will also situate the upcoming public moment at Wyspa in Gdansk within the context of Poland and Gdansk and talk about preliminary ideas.
In the afternoon guests Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar from the Otolith Group present their work. The Otolith Group was founded in 2002 by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar who live and work in London. The Otolith Group's artistic work addresses media archives, histories of futurity, the legacies of non-alignment and tricontinentalism. The Group also functions as a public platform for curatorial practice. Their latest publication 'A Long Time Between Suns' is made in collaboration with Will Holder and is co-published by If I Can't Dance, Sternberg Press, The Showroom, Gasworks, MACBA and Galleria Civica.
11:00-17:30 (project room)
PLATFORM FOR (UN)SOLICITED RESEARCH AND ADVICE
Organised by Manifesta
Today with: Barbara Visser
Also present: Yoeri Meessen and Florian Göttke
For this month’s meeting, Manifesta’s guest will be Barbara Visser. At Manifesta 7 Visser realized a site-specific work at the Palazzo delle Poste called Former Futures. The work stages the exchange of letters between Angiolo Mazzoni, the architect of the Palazzo delle Poste, and Fortunato Depero, an artist who was determined to win the commission for some large scale works for this building. Visser’s work deals with the uncertain relationship between recording and dramatizing questions of history and its possible representations. Images and texts included in her work are merely vessels for “future memories.” Their shape and appearance alter the content of what was once worth remembering. The ambiguity of particular codes and systems within the images, sounds and text employed in her work challenges the viewer to reconsider ingrained ways of perceiving the world. Former Futures looks at progress, and presents acceleration and deceleration as two sides of the same coin.
Together with Barbara Visser this months meeting of the Platform for (un)Solicited Research and Advice will focus on the challenges, opportunities and specific working methodologies a biennial poses from the artist’s point of view.
19:30 (project room)
For all students
‘INVASIA/2001, FLAT SPACE and other projects’
Lecture by Stefan Rusu
Artist-curator Stefan Rusu will present his curatorial projects among which INVASIA/2001: an exploration of various differences between the cultural contexts of Eastern Europe and Far Eastern regions (Mongolia, Central Asia), the role played herein by appropriation of socio-cultural aspects, and the re-evaluation of relations between Eastern Europe and Far Eastern regions. His recent project FLAT SPACE takes its departure point in a historical focus at the recent socialist history of the Republic of Moldova, and it involves the staging of a real size replica of a socialist apartment in the capital Chisinau. The apartment is designed to host an interdisciplinary platform for contemporary art and culture in the public space of Chisinau. Rusu will also discuss several other artistic projects that research and take part in the current socio-cultural developments in the Moldovan society.
Thursday December 17
9:00-17:00
Face to Face
meetings between individual DAI-students and individual guest advisorsFlorian Göttke, Mark Kremer, Phil Collins, Anjalika Sargar, Kodwo Eshun, Yoeri Meessen and Stefan Rusu.
10:30–17:00 (project room)
Negotiating Equity
Organised by Renée Ridgway and contributors to n.e.w.s (http://northeastwestsouth.net)
Today’s guest: Frans-Willem Korsten.
We will start the day with two hours on theory, gathering major points and then introducing some tools with which to read the urban environment. We will then take the time to read, after which we will discuss and will finish with some more political theory.
Reading the city
‘The idea that we can read our environment, which in our case is predominantly an urban environment, is as old as the study of rhetoric. In the last decades the ability to read the environment has been defined generally in terms of coherence or orientation. So far none of the studies concerned considers reading itself to be a political act. Reading is self-evident and has to be facilitated. In our way of dealing with reading our environment we will consider reading as perhaps the most basic political decision one can take. One has to choose sides first before one starts reading. Or reading should open up the possibility to switch sides. In that context we will be helped by gaining clarity about tools such as narrativity, theatricality, lyric, spectaclicity and gamistry.’
16:30-17:30
For all students
Studio Palaver
Studio Palaver, a concept by current DAI student Taf Hassam, is a student led initiative that aims to create further communication and dialogue between the practicing artists of the institute. Through using the Studio-visit as a model, Studio Palaver initiates a series of Palaveresque meetings to take place during the DAI weeks. The meetings include two one-on-one visits for every artist/student per DAI week, as well as a Studio Palaver Hour where five artists individually play host to a group of six artists. The intention of this hour is to incite exchange and discussion through various means, be it through the presentation of work or the creation of a shared experience. The idea is for the artist to treat this hour however he or she sees fit, encouraging creative responses and ways for using this hour in an investigative and “questionable” manner.
For the month of December, Chiara Fumai dressed as Taf Hassam will be presenting Studio Palaver Fotonovela!
Word Origin & History
palaver
1733 (implied in palavering), "talk, conference, discussion," sailors' slang, from Port. palavra "word, speech, talk," traders' term for "negotiating with the natives" in W.Africa, metathesis of L.L. parabola "speech, discourse," from L. parabola "comparison." Meaning "idle talk" first recorded 1748.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Studio Palaver brings Palaverists and Paleverers into a Palavering environment for a whole array of Palaver. Palavering has been made key in the practice of both Palaverers and Palaverists alike and with this in mind Studio Palaver aims to tend to all the various needs and desires for Palavering, with the hope of encouraging fresh approaches and new ideas for future Palaver makers. It is the aim of Studio Palaver to initiate Palavertors to take control of the hour; of its content; of what Palaver should be Palavered during the Palaver hours, including the location for such Palaver. The intention is to grant and allow space for the development of a ‘questionable’ Palaver practice. Palaver in essence is wholly organic, and so should only ever be met with Palaver, for it is the belief of Studio Palaver that there is no absolute practice for Palaver.
This month hosts are Frederik Gruyaerts, Taf Hassam, Jimini Hignett, Anna Hoetjes and Amanda Koelman
19:30 (project room)
For all students
Lecture by Wendelien van Oldenborgh
Wendelien van Oldenborgh introduces her practice with focus on her recent projects that touch upon under represented colonial history of the Netherlands intertwined with the contemporary politics, collective memory and persona histories, including the film 'Instruction', 'No False Echoes', 'Maurits Script'.
Friday December 18
10:30, Casco appartment, Utrecht
‘User’s Manual: The Grand Domestic Revolution’
curated by Binna Choi/coordinator Yolande van der Heide
Today’s guest: Wendelien van Oldenborgh
Wendelien van Oldenborgh shares her knowledge on Tia Ciata and her 'Open House' in relation to her own artistic practice. Ciata and the social formation of her private house has functioned as a model, if not premise, for Wendelien's ongoing project 'A Certain Brazilianess'. The project investigates productive relations between film and organization of space in the interest of creating a space whereby polyphonic voices and heterogeneity in social relations are hosted.
Tia Ciata, Hilária Batista de Almeida (1854-1924), was a priestess in a Afro-Brazilian cult in Rio de Janeiro. Her house was a personal dwelling, but also a meeting place for religious rituals. The parties in her house (originated from celebrations for the 'orishas', the saints of the cult) became known to all groups of the city, and it was one of the places where, allegedly, samba was developed. The ground plan of the house can be seen as a visualization of the experience of 'social proximity by layered accessibility'. From the street to the back yard is a route for public accessibility and shared experience, via forms of quasi-permeability towards a closed part, purely for the cult. Each stage in between was accessible, activities like dance and eating could be enjoyed by the guests, but those initiated in the cult it simply had more layers of meanings. More information: http://www.acertainbrazilianness.net/htmlpages/introduction.html
10:30, Amsterdam (exact location to be announced)
Negotiating Equity
Organised by Renée Ridgway and contributors to n.e.w.s (http://northeastwestsouth.net)
Today’s guest: Stephen Wright
10:30-13:00
I would like to review your contributions that you have already sent in this month: videos, audio tracks, images, powerpoints, whatever. We will discuss and contextualise the works as a group and try to come up with material for a one-hour ‘showreel’. n.e.w.s. contributor Stephen Wright will be joining us from Paris at some point.
14:00-17:00
Art, incidentally, is redundant...
but that should not be seen as its doom, but rather as its great fortune. It is redundant in that it has, bit by bit, done away with all material and perceptual externality with respect to other forms of human activity; it has sundered itself from everything - all the generic, geographic and other essentializing moorings that continued to fetter it throughout the twentieth century - except it own histories and self-understanding. This user-friendly presentation will focus on a cross-section of contemporary, incidentally artistic practices, whose coefficient of artistic visibility is deliberately impaired, situating them with regard to earlier conceptual practices of the 1970s, drawing some conclusions about the prospects of art after spectatorship.
10:45 at Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem
For 2nd year students
Publications Project
Today Delphine Bedel, James Goggin and Gabriëlle Schleijpen will be present.
The Publications Project is a collection of artists publications issued by the DAI and designed in collaboration with the designers from Werkplaats Typografie. The 2009-10 edition is directed by artist/curator Delphine Bedel. The Publications Project is an experimental research and production platform that aims to address the specific process of artist books production, from concept and design to distribution. Designers and artists are invited to team up in couples to develop one project, in close collaboration with an author. The format of this diverse collection can varies from magazine, essays, books, and artist editions to performance artefacts. Through very diverse perspectives the artists and designers reflect on publishing as a versatile medium. The limited editions are distributed through artist's performances, bookshops and artist book fairs.