triangulation second part

 


But sitting here waiting for the train to depart reminds me that I forgot to make more of an issue of the image Bendy Glue sent as participation in the straatman outing, of a scene just outside his door in southern France, off the cuff and out of the box... As well as another image he sent for the recap, with a red, pink or blue bed and a wonderful text by Jean Giono(*) which I attempted to type after missing it in my dossier ( didn't copy it properly. .. Had the image but not the text, which was essential to consider the traveling bit.. The being en route entre ici et lá bas... ( ici n'est pas la bas) héé labas! (*) here it is:


C'est un long apprentissage, comme tout, car " Dans la solitude où nous allons être, il faut des vices (il ne faut pas en promettre), des petits vices pour qu'on ne soit pas emportés par des gros. C'est toute la question. Tant qu'on marche, l'esprit s'occupe; on va d'un endroit à l'autre; le monde vous divertit, mais quand on est sur place, il faut se faire chaque jour des horizons neufs, et soit même : voilà le danger. Tant que tu marches, tu as un nord, un sud, l'est, l'ouest mais si tu es seul et planté (c'est notre cas) il n'y a plus de loi, on part en bombe." (Jean Giono, L'iris de Suze). Mais, comme tout, ça pousse, ça pousse...


Which also reminds me that I wanted to do more with the 'unnoticed art' series, -consider here the simultaneous gig in Rotterdam ad. Chicago... Relating to simultaneous happenings in Bxl, Peruwelz and Maubeuge? (never realised) and on the other hand the "radicale 1924" which also sort of faded away... Though I did find out that it is not clear whether the walk was in fact 1924 or only the surrealist manifesto, hence, the walk is spot-on for this year in preparation of a major new shift in cultural settings, say from Dadada to surrealism at the time. (Control session beep beep) 

 So Whence where we? 

Here in Gent lots and lots of people boarding, and I thought it would be quiet because Wednesday and not quite late enough for rush hour... But nowadays every hour is rush hour... Seems to be a school trip. Bandy bawdy youth doing FU signs and being obnoxious. (de jeugd van tegenwoordig, la jeunesse de aujourd'hui) ...get a move on. Not really very tolerant anymore of what essentially would have been my youth too... How does that figure? Not enough time left? Is that the reason for being less involved with inconsequential things, nonsense, wasting time, easy goings on? Or just bored after all these years of the same inconsequential nonsense? Time for a new leaf? Time for change? For the better hopefully, though experience teaches us that things have a tendency to slide and get worse... Or is that just an impression? 

 Hustinex has disappeared! Why? how come? where to? How can i find out more without a password... Never had one i don"t think... No i don"t think! Think hard! The loss of an identity, does it matter? Is it essential to rekindle the same or a different identity, a related one? Does it have to stay in the family? Can it be dormant for years and then resurface without problems? What problems? Ha, identity swing, paradigm shift, arrest of affect, effect and effigy... Who will we burn today? Mourning the loss of someone who never existed, or never actually came to life at all, waiting in the wings to be animated, activated, inserted into life as it were, much like the virtual beings they pretend to have imbued with human traits... Already there are those that consider their avatar as important as themselves, and don't really know who themselves might be... Here a care in point... I had begun to add pictures I had made years ago to the portfolio of Hustinex just to give him a presence... Did they then become his? Are they his and no longer part of my own oeuvre? To be investigated... Zufall oder nicht?

 

 Perhaps look up some more about "talk to otiose" and the surreal dérive, lost in space and the text sent by Bendy... As well as reference to Marc Rossignols 11 corner ( have Jérôme and Julien as presenters fifty fifty... Non?

Picture of Rossignols corner invitation on the 11th 

travel (triangulation?)

 

Travels with René 

           Not many options when dealing with an invalid cat... Usual cat-sit unavailable, family with little time.. Not enough to take care of the poor invalid cat which is faring well but is not allowed to jump and climb trees... Which means someone has to be around all the time.. The other two can fare well and fend for themselves, as long as there is enough food and water, and some indication that they have not been a endowed... An occasional visit would suffice for the three days we were to be gone, but for René this was not an option... Nor was animal hotel, since it's too much stress and reminds him of hospital..... None of that thank you. So road trip is more or less the only option, to come along with is, even if uncomfortable and also somewhat stressful.  

Then again, He spent a week out among the hooligans drug dealers and bombers roaming the neighborhood where we live, and survives multiple operations and hospital visits afterwards... He could surly manage to see the benefits of a road trip with us... And he did. Though slightly apprehensive at the beginning and not pleased with the arrangement of a bench in the back of the car, he stopped complaining when brought up front in a carry-all with three sides latticework window... And was always fond of sitting on a lap... He soon became used to this arrangement... (not quite Bébèrt)

 

  First stop was the cemetery at Bad Godesberg...

 Apprehensive and a bit stressed at the beginning, partly because there were dogs around, barking at each other... Partly because there was a small wood which he would much have preferred to the open spaces.. But was not allowed, since we had some grave-refurbishing to do while we munched on a snack by way of break, lunch or whatever... He did not see the squirrel while we made our way back to the car, too preoccupied with passers by and surroundings in general (there was a big mock-up of an electromagnetic train towering above the little cat's holdall, looking ominous.  

We decided to keep him in his travel-pouch on L's lap, that way he could enjoy some of the scenery and the comfort of her lap... He slept most of the way. In Neustadt an dar Weinstrasse we put him back in his bench while we went for a coffee, and left him there for the ride up the valley to the cloister of St. Mary. This is no longer run by the old nuns but has been taken over by a sort of (virtual?) polish priest and consorts... Not really the same any more... But we did enjoy a walk in the woods, with René leading us astray between the trees... He seemed to enjoy it... After initial trepidation about the big dark wood, he soon realized it was safe and anyway he had two bipedal guardians to take care of his safety.  

We arrived somewhat late and only did some short walks between the rain, and attempted to have him reside in our bathroom at the lodging... But he was not keen and scratched at the door while wiling away... So back to the car where he had his nest and food and was accustomed to by now... Where he could listen to the rain and doze away... During the festivities we didn't have much time save for a few short walks, and so the second night was again in the car... The las morning though was dry and sunny, and we began with a walk at the cemetery, somewhat lost between the graves, but seemingly glad to be out and about. 

 

 Next the return journey, and again less time for walks, since we were doing the whole distance in one go... The parking lot in the village of Dahn I had envisioned as major pit-stop has been cemented over, so that plan had to be shelved... There were too many motorcycles about with their noisy exhaust, so René was not in the mood either... So on towards Luxembourg, where again construction and madding crowds made a simple walk into a nerve-racking enterprise.. Didn't want him ti slip his halter and bolt across the highway..  

But alls well that ends well... In how far the triangulation drive can count as a trip in the sense of the map-room is something I have to think about - it is also not quite sure if one can construe it as a triangulation drive, since we were pretty well following our regular route.. Slightly different along the Rhine, but more or less the same from Karlsruhe... Variations at the beginning and the end (having gone first to Bonn, then followed the river down before crossing over to the Palatine forest... And around Munich heading in by way of the old road and transversing town rather that attempting the circumnavigation, which was stuck chock-a-block (14km) and then there was the added deviation at Holzkirchen, which, had I known about it, could have been avoided by going via Bad Tölz...(remembering when airborne contingents (10^th SFG bat1) had a heliport (Baker AAF) there in the 70s) As it was, we returned via that route...)  

Triangulation drives were a series I had started back when I returned from Paris and when we combined different stations to create a encompassing round trip.. Including often parts of the map we had not yet visited, areas not yet known.. Often between France and Germany... But since 2015 I no longer used the term, considering perhaps that the series was finished... And this trip might be added as a footnote but is not really part of the series... I find myself doing a lot of retrospective references rather than new projects anyway.. Sign of the times I guess.. 

 So, what significance? Getting used to travel with an invalid cat as preparation for one's own creaking frame no longer able to withstand the rigours of extended travel? Tiredness , fatigue and disorientation, stress and weakness influencing the cadence of interchanges... Thinking of our attempt to train-hop our way across Germany, which went terribly wrong and ended up crammed into a taxi with strangers in the middle of the night... A reminder that the good times were definitely over.. That traveling for pleasure was a thing of the past.  

So perhaps it is a footnote and end to the series, not being worth it anymore... Or having to consider a completely different approach. (written on leaving Ostend, the geriatric Miami of the Belgian coast. ) ... In the museum I saw a frontispiece for a travelogue by Ana Boch, and thought that's what I need for my Borinageuse report... Lithographic style from the turn of the last century.. Reminding me that I too did enjoy applying that style to my work back in school... Lithographic pencils being my favorite.

  (map) not territory  (rott/ach  Ring / ler)

 

Excursion grand Hornu Straat(wo)man symposium

 It turned out to be a fine day for a pick-nick. Some cloud cover to accompany us on the trip, which went smoothly. We were 26, just the group for an alphabet – and so a homage to the AZART and absentee Guy Rombouts, as well as being practically half the bus – 52 seater half full half empty- perfect! Angel had brought with him the soundtrack of his Straatman-opera we performed in Amsterdam (and Bxl) in 2002, but alas there were technical difficulties to get it on the speakers...

 

 

(view of Straatman during the Opera preparations at the W139 in Amsterdam 2002...)

... which was a pity... but replaced with some sight-seeing information and a first reading of a Spinoza proposition, one proposed by Domino Thirion concerning 'Laetitia directé mala non est. Tristitia autem contrà directè est mala' and with that reminded us of absentee Laetitia Yalon who would not have missed this trip for the world. Yes we were here to be happy, glad ...alegria! The idea that there might be too much glee as foreign to us as it was to Baruch... Aided by a sip of 'Pineau de Charentes' that was brought on board to commemorate a similar bus-trip (though a lot smaller) proposed by Jef Lambrecht 31 years earlier 'on the 22^nd for his 44^th' to the first 'intercontinentaal entrepot' at Kassel during documenta IX to lay the foundations of a new unitary 'Belgian People's Party' (Belgische Volkspartei, Belgische Volkspartij, Parti Populaire Belge) under the flag of 'Black, Brown and Beige'...

 

 

(invite for the kleine Löwenkonferenz 22 for 44, Kassel 1992)

Thus reminding us all that this was in fact not a fifty-fifty but a non-fifty-fifty trip, an archival exercise at best, or not (to quote A.W., another absentee enthusiast)... yet another absentee or excused member Bendy Glue could not make the long trip from southern France but sent an image to be used as a surrogate landscape while traveling under cover... (which we did surreptitiously) Once we had entered the region of the Borinage (the exact borders of which are subject to an extensive investigation currently under way at the map-room of the Buktapaktop) we were reminded to prepare for the upcoming disembarkation: a small test to ready ourselves for arrival...

 

(during the test the only member not under cover was our main straatman himself – here caught on camera by Claudia Radulescu, who also shot this stowaway cowboy (Grégoire Motte) who with his son Edgar was one of the last-minute participants)

We had failed to secure safe passage for everyone and anyone with the museum administration, so decided to issue 'Laissez Passers' to all on board, with the notion that we would clear the accounts afterwards rather than niggle at the counter in the entrance-hall... if this should fail in any way, we were quite prepared to re-shape the whole operation into a syndicalist intervention and picket the institution, which might have also been an interesting thing to do... but as it was, clear sailing, with each of the anonymously shrouded straat(wo)men receiving their stickers without any hiccups at all...and so we streamed seamlessly towards the large courtyard, drawn in by the statue of the founder De Gorge with his missing left arm...

(more on that later...)

(arrival photo C Radulescu)
 

And broke out the pick-nick baskets... each and everyone sharing tidbits, while more towards the arches a table was set up with some drink and salad offered by the museum and where we could refresh ourselves while considering some of the proposals in Spinoza's 3^rd and 4^th section... considering that as part of the 'substance' we can use a self-knowledge akin to intuition to grasp the concepts at hand... self-knowledge of the modes – 'in which the substance expresses itself in certain and particular ways...' (using convergent, divergent and lateral thinking)...

We did however run into a snag with some concepts concerning human bondage, or the powers of affects... mainly due to translation: I had with me a Latin-Dutch version, while most of our group was francophone...

But first we gathered for a visit to 'in the instant' exhibition... beginning with the wondrous sculpture created by children with visual impairments... a plan-view of the museum turned into a hut, painted brightly with very discernible figurations... a perfect intro along a wall of early portraits into a light-emitting painting video of a visually impaired girl interacting with Abramovich... we donned our sheets and let the goings-on impress upon our selves as we were also impaired as it were, to understand more fully. 

 

( Tolmacheff, Mott and Montalvo coulnd't resist turning this solemn moment into a Marxist scene.. photo C Radulescu.)

The next image was an actual projection in which we the works of art could actually partake and participate in the projection of the painter painting the town of Castellón back in 2009 – and after being part of this (retro)projection (for the viewer under wraps – from the outside as regular projection) and emerging into the light (of the projector) it was the Maestro Pintor himself who was stigmatized by the museum's designer balustrade... Ouch!

(here Maestro Pintor explains his origins after being stigmatized – soon blood would flow from his wound – flanked by Maria with the flaming red hair (Degrève) and a bearded Moïsé Obst, long time acolyte, as well as Nep Nö, the state-street woman from Budapest - foto Toni G.)

Climbing the long flight of stairs to the great hall of traces, where Straatman had gestured his way out of blackened canvasses to the sound of classical modern music (voice, violin) at Vervoort along the Albert Canal near Antwerp in (2019?) - it was difficult to refrain from participating and cleaning all the rest of the sooty black from the canvasses, which would have created quite a situation!... from there to the old movies – the 8mm-strips we know from the eighties – in fact, once the maestro pintor projected his strips on strips under a white shroud – a sort of private interior straatman viewing at inexistent... 1989 I think... here though were many an expired friend and fifty-fifty aficionado to be seen in better times...

(straatman projection inexistent 1989)

 (amalgamated super-8 strips looped into an ongoing movie nostalgia)

 

(straat(wo) menphoto in front of 'Pintor' projection   - Maria Degrève)

Next was in fact becoming artwork oneself, entering into the realm of straatman, weaving between associative bits & pieces, fragments, views, connecting and disconnecting lines of errance and reference and historical pieces mingling with chance encountered, all reminiscent of past activities.. a fluid retrospective through which you can flow along different lines, observing every time a different combination of affects... and effects.

The next interludium, a space between spaces much like the synaps of our nerve-endings, is a personal thing – each to their own, uncovered or under cover, to take a moment to acknowledge these two special people – Isi and Bernd, who in their heyday brought about the special mix of verve and talent that made the corner behind the museum in Antwerp such an international hub of the latest goings-on... A to B, and here I think of more than one B:  Beuys, Broodthaers, Byars... who in turn influence us to this day...

(both graves were part of this operation – visiting Bernd at the beginning of plans and Isi towards the end... just before the pick-nick... (here a splash of liquid sustenance as gesture)

The great hall with it's large format communal patchwork-quilt-style paintings, becoming interior (land) scape of the endless dance, the whirling of straatman through time and places all over the world, be it Ripple Bar in Tokyo or the shifting sands of the Sinai desert...

(in the crypt inexistent graves, the actual bodies are inhumed elsewhere)

for a group-visit to the crypt there was not enough time... still work to do... sewing together some sheets to make one large enough for the monumental statue of De Gorge who had lost his left arm... a mystery that is prone to speculation... and some interesting stories – one of which related by Jérôme André of the museum; - concerns the inception of the museum- at the moment that the deed was to be signed between the architect who had saved the site from destruction and the province promising to create a contemporary art-site... a great storm appeared and the night before the signing lightning struck the statue of De Gorge... blowing him to pieces... (and the moment his arm went missing... alas no, it seems the arm was already gone... another theory is souvenir-hunters, or, considering the times the mine was closed, communist and republican sentiment still ran high... who's nose, do you think?)

All we could do is pay homage to this visionary and more-or-less philanthropic capitalist, taking with one hand and giving with the other (which is which, missing or not?) by offering him a straatman-costume and posing for a commemorative photograph bearing our left arms...

 

(from left to right in no order )

Guy Condé-Reis, Simone Gulden, Frederic Tolmacheff, Corinne Bertrand, Annick Nölle, Domino Thirion, Guy Cardoso, Lieve Lambrecht, Angel Vergara, Toni Geirlandt, Carlos Montalvo, Lise Duclaux et François, Claire Lavendomme, Claudia Radulescu, Beatrice Delcorde, David Evrard, Raya Lindberg & daughter, Veronique Dockx, Gregoire Motte & son, Heini Obst, Carine van Erps, Marc Lambrechts, and friend absent but there in spirit...

There was not much time for a philosophical debate, but we did make some references to Isi's favorite thinker, Spinoza, throughout the day and the confusion concerning the index and note-structuring between Dutch and French versions had us searching for the concept of 'Conatus' (ref Efficiendi est Ambitio III 31s) which Raya Lindberg wanted to expand upon but could not find the right reference in the Dutch version, and translation in French being not readily on hand we were flailing In the dark for a while - until Dominique Thirion came along with a French version – by which time the discourse had wafted along and become somewhat dispersed...

(wiki describes it thus; Spinoza's 'conatus' is a signal concept of his thought and one which appears as an axiom of modern treatments, particularly those of a political nature. Famously, the conatus doctrine provides: Each thing insofar as it is in itself, endeavours to persevere in its being.)

...but that was the nature of this open-air symposium under cover, the chance encounter or chance operations which conspired to get a sewing machine (for the drapes) and an umbrella (for the rain, which did not materialize – but the brolly was used to create a circle) and an operations-table, being that of a temporary pick-nick-office of this section of the European Theatre of Operations...

 

(magic moment in the correography as manu t. atempts a solo  - photo by Annick Nölle)

To wit; the last manifestation was a short interlude base on the basic premise of Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle - having quickly made a light dusted circle with Bolognese chalk (was going to use craie de Chamapgne but didn't find any – it was as wink towards Bernd, for whom ephemeral chalk was the perfect counterbalance to the heavy beams he used) up on the one side powerful art institutions, semi-public and private, (played by Manu Tete) and on the other side the authorized arstist (rather than the rights-holder) (played by Marc Lambrechts) and in the middle the poor artwork (interpreted sumptuously by Canine van Erps) on who's behalf this tug-of-war is to be executed... 

 

As the role of hapless anarchist poet Azdak who would be the presiding judge, Carlos M was chosen by popular acclaim. Proceedings were as in the original (in sketch form) until the judgment was to be made: expecting something along the lines of the judgment of Solomon, we were pleasantly surprised when the judge amalgamated into Dialogist-Kantor under the drapes, mingling as one and refusing to order a binary judgment at all: they were to lay aside their differences and live harmoniously together in a state of love, with no need for police cells or baton charges...

 

Judgment time: Dialogist-Kantor dissolving the issue through love: art institution and authorized artist go Scott-free, and the artwork is allowed to be it's natural self!

….on that positive and fraternal note we had to gather our things together in a hurry, since the bus was already waitung to take us back into the maelstrom of the civic life outside the walls of this grand cricus maximus of an arena.... to round off I offer you a portrait of Straatman (brandishing pastels) and his monumental effigy.... long live Straatman!

 

and again (#11)

 

First 'Art au Centre' of the year and I decided to have a bit of a preview for just my sneaky self, sort of like a one-man press opening without the tid-bits... Thought I I stayed for the official launch I would get in quite late, but sort of hesitated because an evening in Liége would not have been amiss either... Anyway, I sort of knew some of the haunts from previous editions, and thought I could wing it without map or brochure... But these were in fact already available, so no problem whatsoever...
Often a mixed bag, but always something to interest one or the other enthusiast, the series has become a pleasant fixture to a visit to the city especially when combined with some other something else which I proceeded to do... 

 But first things first -decided to do a loop from the Place St Lambert to Place St Leonard and then see... Which put me into position to check out quite a few windows before deciding what to do next. Just behind the Palace a wink by Petra Herzog at double take reality... Painted (or film) blinds denoting that the place was closed, with two laminates just skew enough to surmise a peeping someone or slightly rough handling... Which is it to be -the viewer can choose... Next up empty showcases by Hadrien Loumaye: except for a wild modification of colour, "vide peint" perhaps a handle one might use... One gallery I was planning to visit was closed, so moseyed on towards a couple of other (Thiriry Hanse) vitrines before considering the turn in my loop... By now geared up to see unintentional art in various shop windows... Or rather "hors serie" interventions... 

 Well the rue Fernonstrée was one big construction site, which made progress slow and muddy as well as losing one"s barings slightly... Nearly passed by Carole Louis: playful eycandy, cablesalad and junkseed rasins for possible rodents to boot... Boot being the image provided between what otherwise seemed like a punk terrarium for three blind (drunk) mice") window because behind barriers, but per chance she was there herself taking photographs and so realized and got to "meet the artist" to boot... Good omen.. 

Headed back towards town and saw Vered Ben Kiki's work across the road behind barriers... It was nice to see how strong her presence is even from a distance and less than optimal circumstances... The windows and the set-up very nice, in fact quite  a good location if it had not been for the roadworks.... And one could even consider this a "major show" in as much as it had been a long time since so many and such large works were displayed... Only sorry that she had to miss this upsurge in interest in her work... She would have enjoyed the display, surroundings, circumstances...  Since even in this strange messy building-site it had presence... Including the reflections of the window panes in the museum quarter... 

some takes (reflections permitting)

A certain surrealist quality, and I found myself taking more photographs of unintentional, Guillaume Bijl-style situations in the area, including the remnants of the gallery ( Brasseurs) we had another homage in just along the way and a number of empty stores... Who can keep up business with this mess in front of the door... But there were a number of AauC interventions along the (muddy) way,  (one by ESA St. Luc, another 'mauvais graines' by Julie Gaubert) and I took the time to visit the new (well, most recent) show at the Brasseurs II, 'mezza porta' by Jacques Di Piazza, which was quite a bit better than I thought it would be, adding to the semi-unintentional confusion and trop d'oeil (trompe d"oeil) effect without being literal... The leaking bath leaving the illusion of black water behind it, the spent sulfuric racing tyres in the basement alluding to distance without being anywhere near a solid wall, fake walls and layers, excavation cores of super-thick paintings and replica roofing combined with existent attributes which this sumptuous space had furnished itself...

 In the showcase a work by Indigo Deijmann surrounding a crush on an actor, a sort of exhaustive miniature museum and shrine... I didn't immediately find the next venues and decided I was going to leave it at that for the time being, intending on returning to continue the itinerary... It is in fact quite extensive and so perhaps best sectioned... And a good excuse to return for a second impression too...
( other recent trips to Liege were for less that happy occasions)