Vooruit – Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space.

Alle rechten voorbehouden

For details: see link above  

The S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit Arts Centre are joining forces to overrun the town. “Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space” focuses on artists whose field of action is the ‘public space’. Unbounded and virtually unregulated, they hack into the town with unannounced interventions. Traces of this seep into the museum, where new and existing works are brought face to face with flashbacks from the seventies and nineties.

Electrified is the name under which the S.M.A.K. and Vooruit mount this biennial project. This second edition is taking up a decisive position on the crossroads of several directions in the visual arts. At the same time it will expose the friction between the areas where the two institutions operate: the S.M.A.K. in contemporary art and the Vooruit in media art, sound and performance art. In the quest for a shared ‘mentality’ in these different dynamics, the public space is taken as a common thread. In this case, the term ‘public space’ is all-embracing, without losing sight of the actual distinction between real and virtual public space.

In addition to probing the boundaries between the different fields of art and the way artists currently enter the public space, Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space is also a study of changing trends that have kept the notion of ‘public space’ in vogue for the last thirty years. In this sense, the project presents itself as a complementary triptych: sixteen artists, who operate internationally, with extremely varied backgrounds, will be showing new and existing work in the museum. More than half of them will also be undertakingactions in the town. These actions will be documented and gradually inserted into the exhibition. There is a supplementary Flashback section in which a framework for the project is provided by significant points in the quite recent history of ‘hacking public space’. This will involve the digital display of the work of about thirty artists who can count pioneering actions in the public space among their achievements. From the point of view of the plastic arts, a number of interventions from the 70s and 90s will be selected. They are closely related to, and are the predecessors of, later ephemeral public actions which were also recorded in non-artistic sectors (perhaps there more than elsewhere) as ‘Flashmob actions’. The so-called Flashmob activist entered the public space (usually unannounced) and hacked into it with temporary, interactive artistic actions. The intention was in the first place to arouse an ‘alienating’ effect in the spectator in the hope this would prompt him to engage in socially-critical reflection. This sort of rite-like development was also of some importance in media art. We can cite a number of striking actions from the mid-nineties that illustrate the ‘virtual’ shift in and broadening of the notion of ‘public space’. In recent decades this public domain has expanded infinitely with the rise and accessibility of the internet. In this sense, the term ‘hacking’ refers to the guerrilla-like nature of some actions on the internet and at the same time to the traditional, though equally clandestine ‘squatting’ in the real public space.

Electrified 02 – Hacking Public Space: practical details
Both the Flashback section and the urban interventions are presented in visual form in the S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit. The exhibition itself is in the museum. A Salon evening is also planned in the Vooruit, with talks by Alessandro Ludovico and others. He is the publisher of Neural, magazine for hacktivism and also guest curator of the historical section.

Artists: Ben Benaouisse, Carlos Rodríguez-Méndez, Amilcar Packer, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Dogma00, Javier Núñez Gasco, Roberta Gigante, Messieurs Delmotte, Ivan Moudov, Wilfredo Prieto, Lucas Murgida, Julius von Bismarck, Miet Warlop, Helmut Smits, Christophe Bruno, Pierre-Laurent Cassière.

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SHOW ME YOUR TRUE TYPE!

True Type is een evenement georganiseerd door studenten Grafisch Ontwerp en heeft als uitgangspunt de docenten van het Grafisch Atelier in Sint Lucas eens in de spotlight te plaatsen. Alle docenten zijn uitgenodigd om te komen praten/exposeren over hun visie op het Grafisch Ontwerp (op school) van vandaag. De eigen leefwereld, eigen werk, interesses, idealen en passie zijn het vertrekpunt. Zo krijgen de huidige én de toekomstige studenten Grafisch Ontwerp van Sint Lucas een inkijk in de verschillende persoonlijkheden van de docenten. Uiteraard is ook iedereen die geïnteresseerd is in Grafisch Ontwerp welkom!

Thursday, April 22, 2010 from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM (GMT+0100)

Sint Lucas Gent
Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst
Zwartezustersstraat 34
9000 Gent

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08/04/2010 19:30atTrumpet Action @ Palais Tokyo – Paris, France
13, avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, Ile-de-France 75016
Cost: €6

Rhys Chatham - trumpet and eletronics. Jean-Marc Montera - el. guitar Kevin Shea – drums A 19h30 :

 Figure importante de la scène underground new-yorkaise dans les années 1980, le trompettiste Rhys Chatham interprète des morceaux de son prpochain album en avant-première avec Jean-Marc Montera (guitare) et Kevin Shea (batterie)… Jean-Marc Montera est un guitariste d’avant-garde français. Surnommé “ le John Lee Hooker du noise“ spécialiste de l’improvisation libre et de l’expérimentation sonore se produisant en solo ou avec des combos de circonstance, il a collaboré depuis les années 1970 avec de très nombreux musiciens issus d’horizons divers (Fred Frith, André Jaume, Barre Phillips, Yves Robert, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Louis Sclavis, Michel Doneda …), ou avec des artistes d’autres domaines comme le théâtre (Sarah Kane, Biljana Srbljanović, Jean-Claude Berutti …), la danse (Odile Duboc …), ou encore les arts plastiques (Sandy Amerio). Kevin Shea joue avec Talibam! Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Peter Evans Quartet, Get the People and Coptic Light.

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BEMF – Brussels Electronic Music Festival.

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Nightwatching

26 Mar – 3 , 7, 11 Apr 2010

Martin Freeman stars as Rembrandt in Peter Greenaway’s lush tale about the painter’s great work, The Night Watch. Greenaway creates a drama that is an examination of the form and fabric of the painting, the intrigue behind its subject and the character of Rembrandt himself. Greenaway is in full flow here and Nightwatching takes its place among his most visually captivating and intellectually provocative films.

The Sunday 28 March, 3pm screening will be followed by a Q&A with Peter Greenaway.

Dir Peter Greenaway, Canada/UK/Poland/Netherlands 2007, 141 mins, 35mm

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Rother/Shelley/Mullan at Kilbi and Primavera Festivals – Sonic Youth’s MySpace Blog |.

Michael Rother and Friends Perform the Music of NEU!

with Steve Shelley, Benjamin Curtis, and Aaron Mullan

The legendary German group NEU! released only 3 albums between 1972 and 1975, but these albums had an influence wildly disproportionate to their modest commercial success; praised by and influential to David Bowie, Hawkwind, Iggy Pop, DEVO, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, Autechre, Radiohead, U2, Wilco, Primal Scream, and beyond. In May 2010 Gronland Records will release a box including these three LP’s and an incredible batch of bonus material. Also this year will be the first live presentation of this music in more than 35 years.

Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger first came to the public’s attention shredding Hendrix-toned riffs and pounding monotonous, tom-heavy beats in a particularly psychedelic 1971 version of Kraftwerk. The pair left after 6 months to form NEU! and took with them their tandem musical language that would go on to have a far-reaching influence. Dinger’s propulsive beat is often cited as the quintessential motorik drumming, while Rother’s guitar playing made something new from a variety of influences: The timbres were of rock music, but the melodic sense was something else- the scales were bittersweet and very European, accompanied by a Middle-Eastern style open-string drone. The trio of Rother, Dinger, and producer Conny Plank created a cohesive universe where straightforward tones and melodies intermarried with heavily processed elements, where reality could turn itself inside-out or stretch out seemingly forever.

Rother and Dinger parted ways after the third NEU! album. Rother concentrated on his collaboration with Cluster (Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius) as Harmonia, and starting in 1977, released a series of solo records. Dinger began a new project called La Dusseldorf. The pair regrouped in 1985/86 but were never able to complete another album to their mutual satisfaction. In 2008 Klaus Dinger passed away. Regarding the NEU! box set, Rother says: It was my aim to present Klaus Dinger´s musical strengths and visions just as much as my own ideas. All during the emotional process of reworking our album Klaus was on my mind and I contemplated what he would think about my decisions. I was very relieved and moved to hear from his heir Miki Yui that she was pleased with the result presented with the album NEU!´86.”

Inspired by revisiting these recordings, Rother has invited a group of musicians to visit theNEU! universe with him for a series of live performances: Steve Shelley, Benjamin Curtis, and Aaron Mullan will perform a limited number of concerts this year as ‘Hallogallo 2010’. This group will perform NEU! music and selections from Rother’s work with Harmonia and his solo albums.

Steve Shelley is best known for drumming in Sonic Youth since 1985. He has also recorded or performed with The Fugs, Allen Ginsberg, Arto Lindsay, Loren Mazacane Connors, The High Confessions, Christina Rosenvinge, Richard Hell, Giant Sand, the Matt Zivich Trio, Ron Asheton, Townes Van Zandt, Cat Power, The Raincoats, Brigitte Fontaine, Robert Quine, Enrique Morente and many others.

Benjamin Curtis is a member of School of Seven Bells, and was a founding member of Secret Machines. He has collaborated with Rother since 2004.

Aaron Mullan is ½ the guitars of Tall Firs. He has collaborated with Chris Corsano and The Matt Zivich Trio, amongst others.

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Ed Temleton

The Cemetery of Reason is conceived as a mid-career retrospective of the American artist Ed Templeton. The S.M.A.K. will be assembling into dazzling clusters of images the photos, paintings and sculptures he has done over the last fifteen years.

The exhibition tells the story of a pro skateboarder, a photographer, a drawer, a painter, etc. A story which, although it focuses on his own life and those of the people around him, transcends the autobiographical and exposes social and societal phenomena unhesitatingly but without pointing a finger.

Ed Templeton’s (b. 1972) work cannot easily be categorised. He was brought up in Orange County, a suburb of Los Angeles, and spent his youth in a world of skateboarding and punk music. While still very young he became a professional skateboarder and at the age of 21 set up his Toy Machine, a Bloodsucking Skateboard Company, for which he did all the artwork. From an early age he was passionate about drawing and painting, and was enormously stimulated by the work of Egon Schiele, Lucas Cranach, Balthus and David Hockney. Photography has also always been a constant interest. In the beginning he used his analogue camera as a recorder to capture inspiring images. In the mid-nineties he also started using it as a medium in its own right and since then his photos have been an integral part of his work. In the same way as he was never able to choose between skateboarding and being an artist – they fuel each other – nor has he ever been able to limit himself to one particular medium. Photos, paintings and sculptures complement each other, and are of equal worth, without hierarchy. Templeton often describes his drawings, photos and paintings by means of anecdotes, feelings and ideas that give a new, more profound interpretation to the images. When assembled in an exhibition, these images are deployed as parts of a broader story, but without losing their artistic independence.

Templeton mainly documents his own life and that of the people around him. He does portraits of himself and his wife Deanna, friends, family and the many people he meets on his skateboard tours. The photos he takes do not focus on skating itself, but on all the associated activities. The boys and girls who hang around near a skate park, the boredom of touring, the bloody falls, the late-night parties and the intimate encounters with his wife in anonymous hotel rooms. His career as a pro skateboarder means he spends a lot of time with youngsters who are at an uncertain phase of discovery in their lives. With dreams, hope, worries, the formation of identity and the presentation of the self to the fore. Templeton is ‘one of them’, a pro skate legend and an ‘example’. This gives him the opportunity to come very close to the world they live in and to record it. He depicts their sexuality, fears, aggression, joy and problems but does not judge them. Although his photo installations and paintings are often highly autobiographical, Templeton at no time tries to deal with his own difficult youth. On the contrary, he wants to create openness and offer insights and opportunities to those who want to grasp them.

The Cemetery of Reason takes the form of a whirlwind of photos, sculptures, drawings and paintings. In some cases, images are clustered by subject and reveal certain phenomena or events, but not in an imperative manner.

SMAK

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Arrington de Dionyso

Stephane Leonard

experimontag

Madame Claude

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© Chris Van der Burght

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