Archive for the ‘events’ Category

Still from Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Musical about Death and the Maiden, 2018

~ S C R E E N I N G

Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Musical about Death and the Maiden 61′
The Last Train to Warsaw 22′

DATE: Thursday 27th of February 2020
TIME: 19:00 – 21:00

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Upominki cordially invites you to join them for a double screening by independent Polish artists and filmmakers from the generation of ’80 and ’90.

SIKSA and Dom Mody Limanka carry a certain commonality; with their exceptional autonomous approach they gained a recognition in both: the underground and the institutional context. The meeting of two opposite poles, is precisely what drives their work the most. By bringing these two productions and practices together, we wish to open up a discussion about the current political climate, and the socio-economical problems Poland is facing today. To what extent are they exclusive to their national context? Or are they rather universal concerns that should be discussed on a global scale?

This screening is a first of a few encounters realised in collaboration with emilia dudziec, Upominki’s current guest artist.

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SIKSA. Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Musical about Death and the Maiden

Directed: Piotr Macha + SIKSA
Script: Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Cast: Check yourself
Production: Hardcore DIY
2018, PL

Musical based on SIKSA’s Stabat Mater Dolorosa is a performative dream of making a movie come true, where both the dream and the movie are like chewing gum that has been tasteless for too long. A nostalgic invitation to a dancing story about a girl returning to her childhood, when she dressed up as different women using her mother’s wardrobe, and all the roles she played to please herself. This film is a tool for reconstructing the scenes from the youth, as well as a baroque farewell to all the glitter and unicorns. Stabat Mater Dolorosa is like a bayonet slashing through modern times. She gives us micro-performances with all her body, and at her own risk. SIKSA’s music is the scenario rejected, grinded, spat out, negated and intensified by the characters. Piotr Macha’s camera is one of the murder weapons that SIKSA would like to use to fuck up the modern reality. It’s a language of art that SIKSA has been using almost unnoticed since 2014. A gun, a girl and death – those are the times we live in.

SIKSA
Siksa (Alex Freiheit: scream and lyrics & Piotr Buratyński: bass guitar noises) is the most divisive Polish artist in recent memory, whose radical and brutally honest performances are smashing the patriarchy one gig at a time. Coming from punk, literary and theatre backgrounds, her shows dissect the Polish consciousness. To quote her own words, she’s a girl on a mission.

Production: Dom Mody Limanka, Jakub Dylewski
Camera: Jakub Dylewski
Director’s cooperation: Aleksandra Maciejczyk
Script: Monika Estera Dembińska
Sound and film editing: Asia Szczęsnowicz
Music: Marcel Baliński
2019,  PL

The Last Train to Warsaw is a final video production of the artist collective whose 5 minutes of fame has passed. The main characters are faced with the choice whether to move to the capital – Warsaw, and leave Lodz, a city completely destroyed and troubled by scarcity. Staying in Lodz would mean continuing their utopian project i.e. leading an artistic practice on the periphery.

DOM MODY LIMANKA
aka DML (Limanka’s Fashion House) an artist collective from Łódź (PL) operated between 2017 and 2019. The group’s activities were mostly focused on organising events in a rented flat – previously gynecological practice. In DML’s work art and life were interwoven. Just as in their flat, where the private: home, would always meet the public: a studio, gallery, showroom, or a shooting set for their last video.

Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Time: 19:00 – 21:30

Together with the Border Agency collective, we would like to cordially invite you to join and discuss their research titled Liquid Landscapes: what if the ground under your feet can’t be trusted?, through which the concepts of landscape, media, and identity are being addressed. This gathering is a proposition for starting a new conversation, during which each participant will be asked to reflect on the following question: what if the ground under your feet can’t be trusted? 

The participants’ answers will be then collectively discussed through the perspective of this research that questions the experience of a weaponized landscape. How can an everyday landscape become a weapon? Can a certain territory turn against its inhabitants? What strategies can we use in order to access and appropriate a territory that has been already weaponized?

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This activity is a side event of the Border Agency collective solo exhibition at the Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen. You are also invited to visit the exhibition opening on Sunday, July 7, 15.00. Opening speech at 15.30, followed by Q&A, drinks and music by Mayo. The exhibition will run until 1 of September this year. Kunstfort Vijfhuizen Fortwachter 1, 2141 EV Vijfhuizen.

Fort bij Vijfhuizen was part of a 19th cen­tury mil­i­tary strategy which trans­formed land­scape into a weapon by using water as a de­fense line. Con­sid­ering this Stelling van Amsterdam re­mained un­used and thus, in turn, be­came part of the land­scape, col­lec­tive Border Agency con­fronts in their ex­hi­bi­tion vis­i­tors with an “ac­tive” land­scape. For Liquid Landscapes they com­bine their on­going Land­mines Pro­ject with new work. This new in­stal­la­tion, made with local col­lab­o­ra­tors, ques­tions the ex­pe­ri­ence of a weaponized land­scape by linking the Stelling van Amsterdam and the mine­fields in the At­a­cama desert, at the bor­ders of Chile, Ar­gen­tina, Peru and Bo­livia.

Border Agency is an in­ter­na­tional col­lec­tive formed in Chile, which studies the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of land­scape and re­la­tion­ships that are es­tab­lished in dif­ferent com­mu­ni­ties. They use video, audio, dig­ital pho­tog­raphy, draw­ings and in­stal­la­tion. The col­lec­tive is run by Maria-Rosario Mon­tero, Paula Salas and Se­bas­tian Melo.

GALERÍA METROPOLITANA, within the framework of its curatorial program 
2018-2020, Strategies to divert Neoliberalism, presents:
Upominki (residency and research)

Friday 3 May 2019 at 19h

Weronika Zielinska (Upominki, Rotterdam) finishes off her residency in Galería Metropolitana, as part of an intercontinental exchange, which includes two self-guided residency programs between Santiago and Rotterdam. This exchange results from the same interests that both projects share with respect to: autonomy and self-initiative, economy and relationships; reciprocity and care. And, given that the two projects operate from the domestic space, we wish to frame this exchange as an extension of our work’ politics that crosses art and life.

From April 19 to May 2, Weronika conducted a research-based project in collaboration with Bruno, Lilly and Marc Klein, the artist’s closest family. In this period they have been developing meetings and conversations with the local communities of artists, academics, students, neighbours, activists and Mapuche creators in order to learn about the different feminist and other practices.

“Galería Metropolitana is spacious and children friendly with easy access for wheelchairs and strollers. By taking my family on a residency I meant to productively deal with the struggle of balance –between my work and life– without undermining one from another. By making the existing precarious conditions explicit, I used them as opportunities for creating new meanings. Shaped by trust and generosity not by distant prejudices, this project’s main objective was spontaneity and no high expectations. The given conditions weren’t obstacles, hence neither they were counterfeit nor new, for any one. As work is part of life, life becomes part of the work. Finally this project carries the approach through which I claim and make visible the artist-mother’ way, amidst the two modes of her being and operating in the world“. (WZK)

This project is kindly supported by CBK Rotterdam.

’Do I Look Like a Seahorse’? 

Date: Monday, April 8, 2019
Time: 10:00 – 12:00

Rania Atef (1988) is an Egyptian multidisciplinary visual artist whose work explores the notions of play and craft across a wide range of mediums including: painting, sculpture, installation and video. She obtained her Bachelor degree in Product design from the faculty of Applied Arts in 2011 and is currently enrolled in MASS Alexandria 2018/2019 program for Contemporary Art.  Atef has participated in a number of local and international exhibitions and festivals.

On Monday, the 8th of April, in collaboration with m/other voices and Upominki, Rania Atef will present her artistic practice and current project ‘Do I Look Like a Seahorse’ , reflecting on her experiences of motherhood, both as an experience and an institution within her native Arab context.

Please reserve via info@mothervoices.org as places are limited.

~ Wednesday 7 November at 12:45-14:45h together with Rotterdam based artist and architect Gill Baldwin, we will be hosting a workshop for children between 6-12 years from the Oude Westen primary schools, inspired by the artist’s fascination in dysfunctionality of architecture, curved lines and asymmetry. Maak je eigen droomhuis is being realised in collaboration with De Nieuwe Gaffel, a place for meeting, citizen power, participation, emancipation and reciprocity in the Oude Westen in Rotterdam.

~ Sunday 11 November at 15-18h closing event of Ger C. Bout Beyond the Moon. This event serves as a wonderful opportunity for a local get-together of different individuals and neighbourhood initiatives, actively involved in the on-going discussion on gentrification and social housing situation in the Oude Westen area.

This project is kindly supported by

image credits NIKA

Polymath – hominem universalis # 2

Sunday 3rd of June at 3PM

Dear…

We are very excited to invite you to the second of many conversations/collective imaginings/speculations/gatherings/meals and workshop situations, we’ll be hosting around the notions of giving, receiving and reciprocating.

In this opportunity we will have as a guest, academic and assistant professor at the Department of Business-Society Management of Erasmus University, Dr. Samer Abdelnour.

“The discussion will try to unpack a question that social scientists have long been preoccupied with: Can actors spark institutional change when they are deeply embedded in those very institutions they seek to change? The talk will give an overview of different ways of thinking about this question, and possible ways to think about actors and institutions.

We will do our best to apply this question to our own work as well as our community and societal ambitions. Bring your thoughts, ideas and questions!”

As part of this workshop, Samer would like to share a text that addresses some of the key themes we will be discussing:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0170840617708007

Over the course of the afternoon and alongside Samer’s presentation, readings and discussion, we´ll be looking into some excerpts of texts that may inspire our conversation.
We will revisit John Brunner’s sci-fi novel, Polymath, while we actively change and create the new physical space of Upominki.
As such, and for the purpose of this new beginning, we would like to offer a non-monetary transaction for your time and dedication in the creation of the new Upominki.

If you are interested in participating, we then ask you:
How could we reciprocate? What would you need most of a space like Upominki? How can we build a relationship that benefits both the space and your needs or desires? What can we do for you?

The gathering will start at 3PM at Upominki, feel free to propose someone who might be especially interested in these ideas.

Please confirm your participation so we can make sure to have enough food, drinks and tools for all of us.

We are really excited about these get-togethers and look forward to seeing you there!

Weronika and Natalia

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Polymath – hominem universalis is a series of gatherings meant to open up a discussion on the post-work post-home and post-capitalism time. Taking as a starting point the book of John Brunner, together with the invited guests, we tend to touch upon the notion’s like: skills, being skilled, being universal versus being trained in a specific field, being a hybrid person (among others).

image credits NIKA

Dear …,

Since the beginning of 2012 Upominki has been operating in Rotterdam, and beyond, as a platform for exchanging artistic ideas.

It became a space through which life and work connect. The unofficial opening of Upominki took place on the 20^th of March 2012, which was also the day of my …birthday. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe not. Yet, we (Natalia, you and myself) find ourselves almost at the same time of the year, six years further from Upominki’s initial thoughts on giving, receiving and reciprocating.

On appreciating and giving back.
On labor. On time.
On investment, knowledge and sharing.
On sharing knowledge, especially that of the artist, the mother, the friend, the lover, the neighbor
On care. On acknowledging the other, and oneself reflected in her/him/it/they.
On acknowledging the presence and consistency of those who decide to stick around, no matter the material return, the profit or advantage it may reward.

“A polymath is a man or woman adapted and trained for years, right up to the age of forty, to take on one job on one particular planet. Not a superman, not a kind of walking computer, just a person with a special kind of dedication who’s been worked on by a vast team of experts, chemically, surgically, intellectually… I couldn’t tell you this, because you’d expect me to perform miracles. First you had to get acquainted with me as a person, didn’t you? Otherwise you’d have regarded me as a machine.” Pg. 70

Today we are very excited to invite you to the first of many conversations/collective imaginings/speculations/gatherings/meals and workshop situations, we’ll be hosting around the above notions and questions, but also many more that may derive from our collective thinking.

Together with you we would like to establish a group of informal board of trustees, friends and colleagues, who are open to think, discuss and implement a communal idea of how to work together?

 “Point taken, Lex. I guess all of us want to go on seeing things run by popular consent, too, not by one man the way they are up on the plateau.” Pg. 102 

 Would you like to accept this invitation?

Over the course of the early afternoon on Sunday 25^th of March 2018, accompanied by food and warmth, we´ll be looking into some excerpts of texts that may inspire our conversation. During the reading/discussion Marc will develop a restoration workshop, where we will be invited to propose solutions, restore, fix or give new functions to objects that no longer serve their original purpose.

Therefore, please bring an object with you that needs restoration, has to be fixed and/or re-adapted but you never had enough time to do so.

The gathering will start at 12PM at Upominki, feel free to propose someone who might be especially interested in the idea.

Please confirm your participation so we can make sure to have enough food, drinks and tools for all of us.

We are really excited about these get-togethers and look forward to seeing you there!

Weronika and Natalia

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Polymath – hominem universalis is a series of gatherings meant to open up a discussion on the post-work post-home and post-capitalism time. Taking as a starting point the book of John Brunner, together with the invited guests, we tend to touch upon the notion’s like: skills, being skilled, being universal versus being trained in a specific field, being a hybrid person (among others).

Quotes: Polymath John Brunner DAW BOOKS, INC. DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, PUBLISHER 1301 Avenue of the Americas New York, N. Y. 10019

See more from Polymath – hominem universalis

The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home 

23rd of November 2017
12:00-15:00h
Upominki hosts m/other voices

During the event Lena will both introduce us to her practice within the ‘Institute for Art and Practice of Dissent at Home’ and narrate this part of her transdisciplinary practice through a contextual framing of ‘maternal practice’.

Lena Simic is a performance practitioner, scholar and pedagogue, born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, living in Liverpool, UK. She is a co-organizer of The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home and Reader in Drama at Edge Hill University, UK.
The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home  is an art activist initiative run from her home together with Gary Anderson and their four children Neal, Gabriel, Sid and James.
Together with her umbrella arts project Maternal Matters which collects a number of maternal video artworks and performances, The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home  has functioned as Lena’s methodological frame and artwork for her creative processes and outputs. Her autobiographical performance practice is informed by feminist discourse and its relation to everyday lived experience, memory and fantasy. Recent artist publications include: 4 Boys [for Beuys] (2016), Five: 2008 – 2012 (2014), a book documenting the first five years of the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home), The Mums and Babies Ensemble: A Manual(2015), Foundations with Free University of Liverpool (2012), Blood & Soil: we were always meant to meet… performance document, with Jennifer Verson (2011) and Maternal Matters and Other Sisters Artist Catalogue (2009).

Conversas is a series of weekly informal meetings made so that we can get to know and discuss projects and interests.

During the event three Conversadores (those who talk at Conversas) bring something to share with the gathered group, for thirty minutes each. As the title suggests itself, Conversas (Conversations in Portuguese) offer an equal set up from which all can benefit.
There’s beer for 2€ (donation for the next publication).

The eleventh series of Conversas Rotterdam is hosted by Upominki (Sint-Mariastraat 132B Rotterdam) and Publication Studio Rotterdam (Zaagmolenstraat 129a) and takes place on Wednesdays between 19.00 and 21.00 (4th of October – 6th of December). Weekly we will alternate between these two locations. This series is organised by Constança Saraiva, Harrie Bots, Oana Clitan in collaboration with Weronika Zielinska-Klein and Yin Yin Wong.

Conversas is a project by Constança Saraiva and Mafalda Fernandes initiated in Lisbon, in 2012.
Nowadays, it’s a project of many people and cities.
www.conversas.net

Events are open to all and the entrance is free.

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Posters of the series Conversas #101 – #110
Designed by Heike de Wit

Heike is a graphic design student from the Netherlands, currently doing an internship at
Publication Studio Rotterdam. One of the locations of the global network of Publication Studios, which
focusses on publishing and designing works of promising and sometimes starting writers and artists. Her own works consists of essays surrounding media theory—mostly current graphic design culture and visual anthropology—but also design fiction, visual essays, an intervention in the public domain and experimental typefaces are categories she practices. She likes quality time with people she loves and thinking about what to wear the next day.
www.heikedewit.com