maandag 28 november 2016

EtcIV



While the main museum was festooned with paying VIP revelers, being herded around by vetted art-specialists, the foyer was sort of occupied by a more eager crew of performance oriented people... My kind of people... No big fuss, speeches or rigmarole, but just plain performance and video... The beginning was sort of a mystery since the " Holzweg" *was smaller than thought, envisioned, considered... But if fact it became just as majestic as the great wall, only this one meandered in matchbox size throughout the proceedings.

















(‘woodwork’, Ursula Gaisbauer & Adrien Tirtiaux, * ‘lumber road or way’ would be closer to holzweg, a road leading nowhere in a forest...makes it more poetic...)

Screenings by Provost and Laric, on the far side a banquet... hmm...
Minja Gu then proceeded to engulf us with scented wafts from various pots in which she had poured hard liquor, in fact she was releasing the spirit in the spirits and in the end the cookery was all drank but not drunk... Interesting.

Video with slightly too weak a sound to actually communicate with the vegetables by Laure Prouvost...

When entering I had been attracted immediately to a sumptuous banquet set for us... Felt like a continuation of the Buktabanket, but was admonished by a friendly lady to refrain from my base tendencies to snatch a bite and leave the table be until it was time... Well now the time came and became apparent... The lovely lady was in fact an amalgam of three or more personages (as well as the artist herself, Ariane Loze) that were converse politely during this banquet of reflective identities... She played the roles, dressed the consumes, propped the props, decoration, arranged the lighting, sound and rolled the camera, taking various takes of each setting and being the clap too... (like Duchamp sitting around a table with himself crossed with Goddard, and harking back to “Dinner for One”)


A wondrous mix of activities to watch and be fascinated by, being witness to a creative process which was basically a selfie-movie but much more than that. The video version
projected on the wall was a finished self-contained version shot in controlled circumstances, while this was part of a chaotic interaction between various actions and not so easy to keep on track... But Miss Loze held it together wonderfully and it worked on various levels... Performance in itself, a tad of theatre, construction, installation docu and soap... A momentary wobble created by the appearance of Dara Birnbaum's Wonder Woman on the screen nearby with excessive soundtrack ... But ,Le Banquet, remained a feast for sore eyes...
Hope to see the resulting video at some point, certain that it will be a successful piece of work... Highlight of the evening...






Behind another wall they were painting mineatures in drawing postage stamp size of Belgian Congo collectibles... A strange tableau vivant de nature mort one might say, but perhaps a bit stayed for a performance eve happening, or should have been there from the start instead of presenting it in the middle somewhere... but a mineature reminder of that strange slant in belgian identity, congo... (Tuur & Flip Marinus)




















Another duo though was well placed, two sisters Maika & Inca Garnica taped together with Laptop, beamer and soundbox, projecting written names of spaces while footsteps sounded the spaces rendered and projected to about the general area they might be... We followed suit and even thogh abstract, could join them in their foray about the house... Not bad at all.
Expecting Ria Pacquée to do something perhaps with some recent material (she had just sent some cats from Bangkok - photo-electronically that is...). But she had two video's on offer which I had already seen before, though not on such a screenscale... so always good to encounter on our ramblings...

Ludo Mich on the other hand did expand on earlier work, now donned in bluebeard and assisted by a redbeard ‘ironworks-man’ and former guitar-thrower on electronics - redfaced musicologists, say... though once the yelling started it did remind somewhat of... Well Ludo Mich of course... With bells (glockenspiel) attached...


Had to skedaddle and missed Jankowski, Traianova and Rafman Koord - fluwelen koord... And may just as well hang myself for it, since it was a good evening... There was some promise in the shady silhouettes of Camouflage-krampus-like figures mingling with the crowd - Thumbs up to the young crew that put it all together.
(The young SMAKkers, including Natali Sarisyan, Jeroen Staes, Nadia Bijl, Maud Gyssels, Pepa De Maersschalck)

marathonweek end

 
Saturday
 
I was going to be present on the opening of the cloudknitter story show but didn’t write down the address, thinking it was handelsbeurs wheras in fact it was oude beurs – by the time i figured it I had missed  it so I went along next day early to have a look... and was surprised by the extensive show on offer – more or less encompassing the whole building which had obviously been vacated by the various city administration offices housed there until quite recently... wandering the halls one could enjoy the artwork in an unconventionally easygoing manner, the kind of show I hadn’t seen in a while, ‘expo sauvage’ style but a bit more structured... I preferred not to read up on names and such too much since it was the whole as a whole which seemed more important – a bit like the wall downstairs with postal mail art contributions from around the world, equally sharing the same space without selection on whichever subjective criteria... and maybe that sums up quite well the cloudknitter thing, radio, activity, read and see, sky being the limit or not even... going strong for quite a while now and no reason to stop.





















mailing wall a bit like the one we did for secret archives continued at the HTH
 
Then off to the art-book fair at the academy, which I always enjoy but this time really couldn’t afford any of the goodies on display... pity because I did see some really interesting stuff – but had to be strict with myself – but could breathe some of the atmosphere and listen in on Luc Fierens de-presenting  a L’unità text in the hallway... good for him to keep the battle-cry alive, and hopefully the fair will remain a mainly amateur (as in love of special books) event, while retaining the historical (antique) bookstand too...
 
Pit stop at home and off again
 
To the aptly named second room where Wout Vercammen presented a three-hour show... and wow, again he catches me unawares, unexpecting me again... so to speak. I was by chang re-reading the Pierre Cabanne interviews with Duchamp and the sapect of “even” in the bride stripped bare came to mind – non-sensical? Who nose – but the spacial refash that WV presented had that very Duchampian (duchampion) knack of again turning your attitude a knotch further than you might have imagined... and with nearly nothing than the space itself and a few builders aides such a laser spirit level and blacklight day-glo, a couple of led’s and some crumples aluminum foil... moon landing!
 
Couldn’t stay long cause had reserved for an evening of performance at the Brass in Brussels “crash text” and of course got stuck in heavy traffic (saturdays are as bad as weekday office hours!)
The presentations were good, though somewhat into the theatrical, which is something I like to be wary about – at some stage the performative becomes a theatre piece, especially when performed on a stage, with lighting and microphone – reading, conference and dance... a bit tricky?... but the other pieces were in situ public space, machine room... and as such passable... lighting had a tendency towards the theatrical, and there was quite a bit of mime (obviously proficient in that genre, but a tad too present... the compute dancing screens came close to the performative since the author was sitting there generating the teXt at the time... new-tech versions... I guess so. The only real impromptu textless runaround was by Dialogist-Kantor, a version specially adapted from two (or more) divergent pieces, a constant work in progress and very fitting here too. Bang slam guitar instead of calling names of things and stuff.





















 
Back home to search for a parking space...
 
Sunday
 
Up bright and early for a trip to Wetteren near Ghent. Loods 12 with vieux connaissance Baudouin Oosterlynck presenting his sonore instrumantarium (seen at Peruwelz not so long ago, with some additions) along with Dominique Rappez and Florian Kinques... Whereby Rappez caught my attention with a strange combination of philosophical drawing, painting re-transferred and surface qualities to make the experience one of  reading rather than looking, sort of – not easy to describe.
 
Back towards Antwerp decided to have a look-see at the Chateau d’Ursel in Hingene where a ongoing artistic intervention project was taking place, and we had already missed. Knowingly too early, for we had another gig in the early afternoon, we just chanced it and with excellent result: We came across one of the participants, Gerard Herman, and he offered to give us a small tour in advance of the main offering that afternoon... a very agreeable experience of spooking about the castle and viewing the interventions with a leisurely eye... very becoming, and the small one-figured soccer games table he presented in a small room upstairs a very good intervention indeed, lonely writer’s garret with only a small wall to kick against.
Other works were good too, the nearby mystifying and intriguing presence of Denicolai & Provoost, for instance with calculations stamped – reproduced even on the windows overlooking the park... hmm. Considering the price of a daydream... enjoyed crawling through the barricaded hallway Luc Deleu devised, twisted together beams, making sure no damage is done to the doorframe, cushioned by ‘red jacket’ brochures... referring to the theme and person to which this whole project is dedicated: Emile Verhaeren, who lived just upstream at St. Amands.
Downstairs lots of information on the recent history of this kind of art – one of the curators Vaast C was busy with a journalist and the main hall was filling with guided tourists and conference-goers... time to head out again.
 
(did our familiar duty with coffee and chocolate cake, quite agreeable)
 
Heading for the last venue north of Antwerp, another castle, or rather manor house: Hof Ter Bist, where artists could intervene in & out – a project curated by Nadia Bijl, which was a refreshing look at some basic premises... though concentrated mainly about the manor house it was a wide ranging jaunt through today’s practice while not encumbering too much on the surroundings... works integrated in the existing picture worked well, while inside effectiveness ranged from using mainly the surroundings as well as just plain presentation... including one sound-set...
An agreeable round-about and perhaps the best way to take in all the various offerings... for it is sheer impossible to see all – as opposed to not so long ago when one was glad to find something going on...

maandag 7 november 2016

walkout

Left Nr. 98
A bit early, a bit before eleven, and headed east. Got into my car and joined the thick stream of traffic on the ring road, turning towards Brussels on the main highway south. Things went smoothly... Until the bottleneck towards Waterloo, and I decided to bet off at the next exit, not knowing where it would take me. I sort of got lost in suburbia... Noticed that I crossed the highway I was on twice... Still clogged up and anyway no way to rejoin it... Ended up on a boulevard heading towards the former palace of the colonies and decided to pull up and take a walk in the forest... It has been a long time that I've taken the time to take a walk just for the sake of it. In fact it had been some time that I had taken the time, just like that... It wasn't planned, just came about when the message from Unnoticed Art came up on the screen... Ping!  A suggestion to just walk away... Yes why not says I... So, now walking in the Zoniënwoud I came across a cross. 









Two sticks tied together with a bit of string... Reminding us that we are escapees, having cheated death again this day, this night, this moment in which we are obviously still alive. Alive like the mushrooms abounding around, they seemed to spring from everywhere all of a sudden... Only having noticed because I stopped at the cross... A cross in the forest... Reminded me of a cross I lugged all the way to Finland with the intention to plant it somewhere deep in the forest... But in the end brought it back having not even unpacked it... Though it did see quite a bit of action in it's wrapped state anyhow... But this cross seemed improvised... Kids maybe, emulating the wayside crosses along trunk roads where people had lost their lives, inadvertently, on their way to somewhere... lives cut short through folly or misdemeanour... Or just pure bad luck. Here it seemed more of a mystery, a playful mystery... Knowing that there probably was nothing buried at the spot (or perhaps a hamster?) and surmising it had something to do with the construction further along... A forest abode, a skeleton of branches awaiting a cover of leaves, or tarpaulin to make a kind of yurt or flattened teepee... Down in the gully but not entirely out of sight. 




Mushrooms everywhere, and big ones too... Wondering if I should chance it, but deciding not to pick any... Thinking way back when I was young going mushroom picking in a similar autumnal forest armed with a kitchen knife and wicker basket... Wonderful times now receded far away somewhere and only emerging now for this brief moment... What is it, nostalgia? Looking up in wonderment at the huge trees towering above me... Also something that is disappearing, large, old majestic trees... So few and far between nowadays... Hardly anything gets old anymore... Even buildings have become a sort of throwaway commodity surrounded by interchangeable landscapes of roll-on-lawn and potted shrubbery. 





















A clump of filigree fungal spores caught my eye... What a strange creature it seemed to be, hovering wispiness there on the forest floor, catching the light briefly... As if alive... And to be sure it was alive, but not in the sense of a small fluffy creature it pretended.. But a colony of interrelating strands like a mesh of communicating spirits all agreed to synthesise this bounty before it's too late.. I think it was horse manure. 
( I hear you thinking 'what a load of horseshit'!)



















Admiring the gnarled roots of large trees along the hollow way, considering that strange mix of nostalgic memory and frustration at there being so little regard for nature nowadays even though everyone is talking about it... It seems the more attention is focused on our environment the less efficiently it is protected...




Even here in this public forest large swathes are being cut... For regeneration they say, while making an easy buck on the age old trees being carted off to the sawmill... We really need to rethink fast... Faster than the climate conferences we get served up in the media... Anyway, trying to loosen my thoughts and try even to think of nothing I stumble upon a lake and bench and idyllic scenery with ducks and all that... 
I decide to have a coffee at a place called the spanish house... I guess an old mill or such, here in the middle of nowhere... Left over from bygone times and now part of recreational infrastructure... The spell is broken, I head back to where I left the car and drive to my old haunt at Beersel, where after more than three years the small museum I used to administer stands empty... Left to rot.. A crying shame... Hadn't been there in a while and the autumnal sphere of the abandoned site just made everything more ...



I stop for an apple that had just fallen from it's tree... A wonderfully tasty looking thing that just about flew ito my hands... Only slightly bruised... I take it with me for later on...
My former neighbour, whom I paid a short visit was battling it out with a major attack of chinese ladybugs... It seemed they were confused by the global warming weather to start their spring reconnoitring... Alas, it was late october and with the nights cooling sharply, in for a nasty surprise... 









Highway again, this time towards the south-west... Tournai, Lille I thought,  but exiting early to drive along the old road I used to take with a dear friend who is already dead for what is it... Eighteen years! How time flys and how recent it can seem... Again nostalgia in the low slung sun turning the scenery into a golden haze... At the town of Ath I stopped and entered the train station... Thinking I might just get on a train instead of driving... I have to drive enough as it is and like rather to be driven... And have always been fond of trains... But service has become so meagre that there was no destination in foreseeable time that interested me... So I got back into the car and headed due south... Skirting the castle at Beloeil and turning towards Peruwelz at Basecles, crossing the canal and heading up the hill to the basilique de Bon Secours on the french border...
 
Condé on the banks of the river Schldt in the parc naturelle des plaines de escaut et scarpe, Valenciennes and the tree lined boulevards that already reminded of Paris... well, we've come this far, why not the whole hog? A bit of highway before the peage starts, exit towards St. Quetin, over to le Cateau au Cambresis, where Matisse comes from... Good museum... Down to Laon with its wonderful cathedral perched on top of the world... Further down the Nationale Deux, Soissons, getting dark and one can already see the lights of planes converging on Charles De Gaule... Especially spectacular from the forest of Retz... Getting late... joining the main stream of the autoroute du nord we sail into the porte de clignotante as if nothing were more natural...  Naw, just kidding... Turned back and spent the night at Peruwelz before heading home next morning.