2004 The Big Communication a.k.a the DAI-NAI project: for a period of 5 full weeks all 30 DAI students were residing at the Nanjing Art Institute joined by " Dutch" tutors and project-leaders: Stuart Bailey & Will Holder, Debra Solomon, James Beckett, Martha Colburn, The Otolith Group, Paulina Olowska, Sylvie Zijlmans and several others in order to team up with Chinese students and tutors / Co-ordination: Xia Xin and Rik Fernhout
PRESS RELEASE
‘THE BIG COMMUNICATION’
Dutch Art Institute, Enschede
Temporary address:
15 Huju Road, Jiangsu, Nanjing, The Peoples Republic of China.
An entire postgraduate art department ups and moves from the Netherlands to China - that’s not something that happens every day. But it’s just what the Dutch Art Institute is planning. On 23 March 2004 off they go - students, artists, designers and theoreticians together with the institute’s staff - to spend five weeks in China. There, at the invitation of the Nanjing Art Institute, they will implement a programme including two exhibitions and a large number of workshops and lectures. The project is made possible through the generosity of one of the oldest and largest academies in China, the Nanjing Art Institute. This body has kindly agreed to pay the lion’s share for fifty participants to stay in China. This is a clear indication of how the mutual interest of the two institutes in each other’s work has unlocked many doors.
Participants
The Dutch contribution to the project will take the form of voluntary tutoring and running of classes by 17 artists, theoreticians and designers, all of whom are on the staff (or are guest lecturers) at the Dutch Art Institute. They include: Stuart Bailey & goodwill, James Beckett, Martha Colburn, Manel Esparbé i Gasca, Kodwo Eshun, Rik Fernhout, David Groot, John Heymans, Hester Oerlemans, Paulina Olowska, Anjalika Sagar, Debra Solomon, Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Jianren Zhao and Sylvie Zijlmans.
The Dutch Art Institute
The Dutch Art Institute (DAI) offers postgraduate training for artists working in public and private domains, and is attached to the Institute of the Arts, ArtEZ. A maximum of 30 young artists of various nationalities pursue their studies at DAI, under the direction of prominent artists, designers and theoreticians. The programme consists of two parts: DAI private, which provides a more studio-based curriculum; and DAI public, that concentrates more on the collaboration between art and the public domain. Throughout the course, DAI offers students a broad range of workshops, lectures and projects.
Exhibitions
Two exhibitions will be mounted in Nanjing. The first, titled Luggage, will present work by all the DAI participants and offer an introduction to the Dutch Art Institute. The second exhibition will be held in the final week of the stay in China and will produced by Manel Esparbé i Gasca. Title Under Construction. It will provide a combination of dynamic manifestation, art exhibition and project report. A catalogue and a CD-Rom will be published for both these exhibitions.
www.dainaiproject.nl
During the period of the stay in China, events may be followed on this website www.dainaiproject.nl. Information can be found here about the participants as well as reports of the various events and activities. The Dutch Art Institute is also producing a video-documentary, which will record the progress of the entire stay, filming activities of the group and the project in general.
Information
From 2 to 5 March the DAI is organizing a China-week as introduction to the project. Experts in various areas such as the visual arts, film, literature, architecture, music, politics and history of China will furnish an introduction to the country. Further information about the project and the China-week can be found on this website www.dainaiproject.nl. You can also contact the coordinator for the Dutch Art Institute, Gabriëlle Schleijpen, or the projectmanager of The Big Communication, Rik Fernhout.