since we had let things slide a bit - need to get it back
beleive it or not, back to painting - very thin, very minimal but with a gesture or two... after all these years of conceptual constipation it seems like a good way forward...
first stop Düsseldorf
We started spring on March 8th with a coffee trip, celebrating Women's Day with a visit to the exhibitions in Düsseldorf: Yoko Ono at the K20 and Katharina Sieverding at the K21. The Yoko Ono exhibition was quite interesting, lots to see, including some from the early years that you don't get to see so often, and which charmed me and brought home how much of that eary work also influenced my own practice without really realizing it – osmosis - otherwise, a lot of weel-know stuff... and also very common these days, good to remember where the trends originally came from (I had forgotten, for example, that she participated in the DIAS in London... (Destruction in Art Symposium 1962, organized by Gustaf Metzger)... Katharina Sieverding was also interesting, you're more familiar with the early years in actionist Düsseldorf and have somewhat forgotten the large photographic works of the 70s... or repressed them, seen them as less relevant en though equally engaged as the earlier stuff -... good to take another look, but still not entirely convincing – heart in the right place, but the works just don't quite speak... the distance doesn't help.
Next stop Bonn
Fast-forward Meanwhile, it's April, and finally some time for a detour to Bonn... Yes The grave –. The cemetery was quite pleasant this time, with flowering trees and such. Birds were chirping, and someone had thrown their entire record collection into the general waste bin. I chose a German Grammaphon recording (Privilege Collection) of "Les Grandes Lieder de Schubert" (with Fischer-Diskau and Fritz Wunderlich, Grace Bumbry, and Irmgard Seefried, among others)... In true Romantic style, I lay down at the foot of the gravestone and Sighed and sobbed; Well, a bit Dadaist, yes – I'm thinking of the ProPathetic cabaret, for example, partly because this time we did a cult-culture combo and went to the museum (Bundeskunsthalle): Continuing our series on strong women: Sausan Sontag... interesting, but perhaps more of an overview for the younger generation who may not be so familiar with her work... Another (random) discovery was the exhibition "Para Moderne," which critically examined the lifestyle reforms since the turn of the befor-last century, including the slosh zone between Oberdada Baader's critique of democracy and Schultze-Naumberg's Nazi ideology, all the way to the Haeusserian swastika-communist superman... that's how quickly things can go wrong-wrong, hey – all the way to the alternative (commercialized) lifestyle of the hippies and to "today's false prophets & profits," so to speak - We probably needed a A decent iced coffee on the terrace of the art museum, just to be decadent... but much of the Bonn we knew is disappearing, like everything else. Nevertheless, I was delighted that some of the old avenue trees were still standing... (at Telekom, Friedrich Ebertallee) – because a lot of things are disappearing, and there's also a large construction hole behind the Science Center on Kennedyallee... we'll see wht that will become...
another leap / and back in Belgium
this time still with a strong sexual reference but on gender-neutral terms, or perspective – specifically sex work an violence – South Africa specifically; Candice Breitz breaking a lance for sexworkers (Ghost Series, Capetown 1994-96 TLDR 2017) and critical of the white middle-class hollywood womens stance, tho well meaning not relevant to the real world.. quite an eye opener, radical and relevant without becoming screamy, letting the voices of the practitioners carry the show – another strong showing in between a slightly stayed 'Broodthaerisan' environment the series of births revisited:reviewed – pushing baby back into the womb... that simple detournement setting off quite some tought... the matriarchal manifest on the other hand seemed a bit much... would have left it to the viewer of the strong imagry to ponder...
The (curious) reappearence of Yoshio Nakajima
I had the privilege of partaking in a rare manifestation of living live art archive with the reappearance of Yoshio Nakajima after 50 years of absence from Belgium. His name and the 'UNBEAT' are forever fixed in the annals of performance and street art in Belgium since the famous happenings in 1965... In fact one might well say that the loitering of this Japanese sage were instrumental in congealing the various tendencies of the time to create the myth that is has become:
Having arrived in Europe after his long hike/hitch-hike across Asia just in time for Szeeman's Documenta 5, he immediately was immersed in all that was going on at the time and was himself a purveyor of the oriental mystique that was all the rage...
Since the late 50's various tendencies such as abstract expressionism, new music and artistic investigations began to merge, Kaprow's first happenings were conceived as musical scores, the
'Jikken Kobo' in Japan mixed various disciplines in what they termed "Happyokai" (recital) based on dada (one hs to think here of one of Yoshio's friend Dada Khan (the 'failed' kamikaze)... as well as neo-dada and Gutai obviously)...
So this was an opportunity to see live for oneself the flavour of an event related to these historic references: for me on the one hand the inception of Provo in Amsterdam and the relation to Robert Jasper Grootveld, as part of the Jef L archive (here in the correspondence I found material from the later Ubbeboda Symposium... more on that later) but mainly and of course the dynamics of the happenings on the Meir in Antwerp, the Happening news and the 'Unbeat'-like names such as 'Nihil' and Happy() spacemaker... multimillionaire and Dusseldorf (sic) – Thom Jasper's Veilig-Verkeer-Magiër direct from RJG... A lasting albeit short interlude in the European 'dérive' that saw Yoshio Nakajima end up in Sweden...
So after all these years we have the opportunity to see what the fuss was all about... we are reminded that in those days, street performance was viewed as a major disturbance of the public order and the authorities had a difficult time to administrate a response: removal from the national territory was in fact all they could do – and did... Nowadays it seems completely laughable but it's all coming back. But in contrast to the rather wild and destructive fare of yore (thinking also of Metzger's Destruction in Arts Symposium) Yoshio has graduated to a more kind, light and ritualistic collaboration with positive vibes, even if with a critical note and reminder of our mistreatment of nature and each other (recently Ukraine and Middle-East) But the sharp edge of youth is rounded – some might say worn – and has a patina to it while still looking frash: the collaboration here was with Stakattak-frontman Nick Defour and performer & organizer Merzedes Sturm-Lie, a well as with an impromptu by Philippe Tonnard. Attendance was middling... it reminded me of the interest generated by the visit of Ben Patterson in the flux-year 2012... aside from a few academics and aficionado's there was hardly any response... here too the remnant of the public staying behind for the lecture (by historian ) in the anatomical theatre was meagre – but we got another performance which the others missed – making it an exclusive moment...
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Of course it was all recorded – nowadays the documentary aspect is out of all proportion – all the more reason to partake live, giving the flavour and sphere rather than just the metadata... The song and the movement conveying the vibrations – the 'vibes' as they used to say – an essential part of the experience, and as such I am very glad to have been a part of this rare occasion... the scale of which made it possible to be up close and personal for a brief encounter as it were...
of which kind is a bit of a mystery...
and must remain so.
Ho!
