DAI Presentation at Kunstvlaai 6 curated by Lisette Smits
DAI participation at the Kunstvlaai 6
KUNSTVLAAI 6
70 artist run spaces & master programmes
Opening: Saturday May 6 at 16.00
Open: May 7 till May 15, 2006
Daily from 12.00 tot 18.00.
Westergasfabriek, Haarlemmerweg 8-10, Amsterdam
Dutch Art Institute
***********************************************
THIS TIME IT IS PRIVATE
For this presentation, the DAI invited Lisette Smits, former director of Casco in Utrecht, to visit our students and make a selection of their works. Her ‘tour’ of the DAI resulted in a selection of works that will be presented in an intimate and concentrated space. The outside of the presentation will be totally functional, revealing the backside of monitors, cables and other structural elements.
Lisette Smits: “Recently we’ve seen a new interest in autonomous works of art, whether it to be paintings or sculptures or new media related images and objects. In parallel to the historical avant-garde we also see a new interest in applied art - not design, but merely a general idealistic approach to apply esthetic values to every day life - a re-consideration of relations between the ethical and esthetical. This presentation wants to reflect that. Consisting of some 20 works, sketches and source material from 13 students coming from a variety of cultural backgrounds, the presentation is a non-categorical and non-thematic effort to put forward the works in a detailed, beautiful and seductive way.
Seduction through esthetics obviously is a tricky one. However, it is only one of the elements that manipulate seduction, and one that is the artist’s favorite. His / her aim is not to just seduce, but instead, to rapture. An intimate and esthetic presentation seemingly turns its back on the outside world, and could be perceived as a retreat from world problems - anxiety, conflicts and confusion on a global scale. However, it could perhaps be seen as a reflection of exactly this struggle: the individual, specific and personal in tension with the regulating, categorizing, neutralizing and controlling forces of globalization.”
Who are the artists in this show?
Paula Bugni, Idan Hayosh, Jolanda Jansen, Carlijn Mens, Susannah Mira, Adamantia Nika, Iris Tenkink, Tsui-lun Liu, Vitto Valentinov, Marianne Veirø, Pavlina Verouki and Xue Mu.
Kunstvlaai 6 ad (pdf, 150kb)
What is DAI?
The DAI (Dutch Art Institute) is one of the master courses of the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts. As of September 2003 the DAI targets young artists with two convergent educational programs: DAI private and DAI public. These programs help them to access different networks and, each in its own way, teach them to maneuver through the different domains, disciplines, scenes, trends, standards, traditions, and cultures in an agile, self confident, critical and independent way in order to define their personal attitude & practical approach in the end.
During a two year research period at the mainly studio based department DAI private, a clear vision on the meaning of autonomy in art and the possible roles and niches for autonomous art in society can take shape.
The possible connections between art and the public domain as inspired by a whole dynasty of artists but also by architects, designers, theorists and activists is the subject of research for students at the mainly project based department DAI public.
Together DAI private and DAI public offer education on a masters level to a maximum of 30 students. Each student is granted a small private studio at the DAI in Enschede. Students can use this place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For plenary meetings, presentations and seminars the DAI has a small auditorium & projectroom. The programme has a nomadic tendency and therefore a substantial part of DAI’s activities move from one location to another in and outside the Netherlands. The working language at the DAI is English. Each 2-year course ends with the awarding of a degree on a MFA-level.
The DAI is a practice based research institute but grants theory, knowledge production and reflection an important, shared position within the curriculum. Students at DAI public and DAI private, both recognize the urgency of participation in the discourses on the future of art in both the private as well as the public domain in the context of a globalizing world. Because of the enormous differences in the backgrounds of its very international student body DAI does not work with compelling formats, but instead ‘folds’ thematic seminars and conferences and lectures in a flexible way around running projects.
A good example is the upcoming (public) DAI conference with international guest speakers on May 23 and 24, 2006 in the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede as part of the much larger collaborative DAI project ‘Here as the Centre of the World’ which will bring together young artists from Beirut, Damascus, Diyarbakir, Enschede, Khartoum and Taipei.
( disclaimer: text relevant in 2006 only)