Archive for November, 2012

For ‘Ultimate Harmony’ Upominki was asked by the HARD-CORE group to organize an x amount of enthusiastic people who would wish to re-co-curate their project.  However instead, we chose to put the invitation on Facebook, and make it into an open call. Within a few days, posted as a public event the open call started by Upominki, gathered more than 15 people interested in the idea, yet first eight who reacted have been invited to participate at the end. (Text above is the original open call posted on the social media website.)

On the 9th of November the first group of co-re-curators started assembling the exhibition. Their task was to place the works in their most suitable positions. However because no work was physically presented to this group, instead each artist made an introduction on his/her piece i.e. the content of the work and some practical information (rough dimensions and the amount of equipment). Yet no visual material explaining the work or equipment being used was present during the artists’ presentations.

The second group of co-re-curators, invited on the 12th of November, was introduced to the project while the space was already filled with works according to the instructions given by the previous group. Surprisingly the focus of this team was mainly the conceptual part of the works, and how this could be highlighted in a group exhibition like this one. Such an approach resulted in the necessity of finding the most formal way of presenting each of the work.

On the 13th of November the last group came to co-re-curate ‘Ultimate Harmony’. While dealing with the two statements made already by their proclaimers, they managed to re-think the positioning of the works again, and found a way to communicate the entire exhibition with the audience. This group was asked by HARD-CORE to write a curatorial statement at the end.

The pictures below show the documentation of the very last set up. They are the result of curatorial decisions made by the last group yet with the consideration of all previous ideas.

Co-re-curators: Bas van Liempd, Dico Kruijsse, Georgie Harris, Jessica Tankard, Just Quist, Renée Staal, Roos Wijma, Rosa Sijben

‘Ultimate Harmony’ exhibition in three stages:

Eloise Bonneviot The infernal design 

Anne de Boer Icosahedron ico 1; Icosahedron ico 2; Icosahedron ico 3;

Hrafnhildur Helgadóttir An attempt to compose a self-aware art object

exhibition view

Daniel Dressel Untitled (detail)

exhibition view (on the right  Ada Avetist 6a: C.C. XIV 6b: C.C. XIII)

Our great exchange has been also expressed in money and objects both contributed by HARD-CORE. Upominki received €120 in cash, and some kitchen equipment also we earned €150 during our opening.

23 November – 2 December 2012

As a part of this year’s Kunstvlaai: Festival of Independents, Upominki presents Day Shifts: Taking Turns, a collaborative project by: Mercedes Azpilicueta (AR) with Ohad Ben Shimon (IL/FR), Sæmundur þór Helgason (IS), Dico Kruijsse (NL), Claire van Lubeek (NL), Eva Molenaar (NL), Robbert Pauwels (NL), Marija Repsyte (LT), Rosa Sijben (NL), David Stamp (UK), The Force of Freedom / Micha Prinsen (NL) and Roel Roscam Abbing (NL).

During the Kunstvlaai festival, Upominki will explore a very specific format of an event, i.e. the relay. The term, which derives from the Olympic relay running race, addresses the way members of a team take turns in performing a certain action. Each artist, as a member of Upominki’s relay team, takes a one-day shift and works on the spot during the ten days festival. Everyone uses the given space according to his or her own insight, as long as a trace of this action is passed on to the following participant, to be reshaped again. By using this method, the space is in a constant transition whereby the artist’s activities, in the lapse of events, create a particular rhythm. The space of the classroom serves as a condition for making connections through time, where all individual gestures influence the quality of a collective project.

Additionally to the project happening in the space, a video is presented on the corridor. In September this year, together with the artists Upominki produced a video work, which was shot and edited in exchange of labour by Joaquín Cociña. The image shows the group of artists and curators playing in the Upominki’s space the ‘Chinese whispers’ game. It invokes the ambiguities and possible misunderstandings of the meaning of a passed on message or statement, and how these ambiguities or misunderstandings don’t stop the process of passing on, but push it forward in creating new meanings.

In order to take part in Kunstvlaai festival this year, Upominki was asked to pay €300 fee. To make Day Shifts: Taking Turns happen we equally split this amount among ourselves and the artists.