Archive for the ‘subsidy’ Category

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.

~ 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

Beyond the Moon, Ger C. Bout, detail, Unseen Amsterdam, 2018

Beyond the Moon ~
Ger C. Bout

13.10 – 11.11.2018

Locations: Upominki, Sint-Mariastraat 132B and 136B

OPENING: 13 October 2018 19h

Beyond the Moon exhibition at Upominki, taking place between October 13^th and November 11^th, presents a collection of works by deceased artist Ger C. Bout. It is the second part of a project inaugurated past September during CO-OP at Unseen Amsterdam. Conveying the same title as the central piece, this exhibition is an experiment on the exhibition making itself, as well as on the exhibition formats that may channel the artist’s interests and work. It is a result of a collective effort, which brings along the collaborative spirits between Upominki, Ger’s wife Riitta and Ger’s legacy. While showing a selection of the artist’s archive that studies the multiple meanings of a house – within his material and collaborative projects and the Beyond The Moon series for example – we are physically and figuratively constructing a platform that carries and frames Bout’s practice. And thus his endless interest around ideas of hosting, housing and making together.

Beyond the Moon at Upominki is being realised within the framework of the on-going Window dressing project. Yet, especially for this occasion, Upominki inhabits the ground floor in the house of our neighbours that will serve as a platform, through which different moments for engagement with the artists’ archive will be made possible. Through simple adjustments these two spaces will be serving as sites for exhibition, workshop or a discursive event, depending on the situation.

Upon this endeavour we wish to explore the ways in which the individual artistic vision challenges that of the curator, and how they can merge or diffuse. We are interested in expanding the notions of collaboration and the manner in which the artist’s legacy can be transmitted outside of the sterile or the neutral. As we find ourselves most essentially motivated by the relationships we built throughout our creative processes. This project is a tribute to Ger C. Bout’s work and our friendship.

Upcoming events during the exhibition:

• Wednesday 7^th November at 12:45 – 14:45

Maak je eigen droomhuis in collaboration with the Nieuwe Gaffel, hosted by Rottterdam based artist and architect Gill Baldwin. 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.

• Exact date TBA soon

En wat nu?! A 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.

For more information see also here. For the most up to date information on our events follow our fb page.

This project is kindly supported by CBK Rotterdam, Gemeente Rotterdam.

With special thanks to Riitta Bout-Saari and Samer Abdelnour.

The House Project in Pori, Finland 1993

Beyond the Moon ~
Ger C. Bout

21.09 – 23.09.2018

during CO-OP at Unseen Amsterdam
Westergasfabriek

OFFICIAL OPENING: 20 September 2018 18:30-21:00h

In the Summer of 2016 the artist Ger C. Bout (1950 NL) approached Upominki, seeking for mentorship and assistance on the prospects of presenting publically his photographic work. Despite the generational gap, their open attitudes led them to a friendship. They spent some time discussing exhibition making, the possibilities and specificities of his practice and his interest in images. Unfortunately, before making the first public presentation of his photographic work, Ger deceased in May 2017 after a yearlong fight against cancer.

Together with the insight and support of his wife Riitta Bout-Saari, in the last half-year we have been investing in re-visiting the archive of Ger’s rich body of work, as well as his most recent photographic series. One of them Beyond the Moon will be presented at CO-OP during Unseen Amsterdam.
Beyond The Moon produced between 2013-2015 shows the artist long fascination in body-movement, as observed in theatre and dance. It is a series of large-scale black-and-white digital photographs capturing zoomed-in body parts. The series derives from the artist in-depth – medium and material – research into the subject of a body in its most abstract form. Through this work Ger reminds us that seeing and thinking, only seem to be the same, but in fact are very different. Beyond the moon brings a memory of the time when as a child we looked at the world without any preconceived notions, thus with no input in the memory of things. This work is the artist’s proposition to look at only one thing at the same time, in its most pure environment, and where the body is intentionally detached from any possibility of being erotically interesting. Finally, this sincerely aesthetic work may be seen as the artist’s turn towards the Wittgenstein’s idea of pictures, which by themselves do not carry any meaning, but only acquire one by being put to a specific uses and by being applied in a specific contexts.

Beyond the Moon exhibition at CO-OP – conveying the same title as the central piece – is an experiment on the exhibition making and the exhibition formats that may channel the artist’s interests and work. It is a result of a collective effort, which brings along the collaborative spirits between Upominki, Riitta and Ger’s legacy. While showing a selection of the artist’s archive that studies the multiple meanings of a house, within his material and collaborative projects, and the Beyond The Moon series for example. We are physically and figuratively constructing a platform that carries and frames Bout’s practice within his endless interest around ideas of hosting, housing and making together.

Subsequently to this international exhibition, between October 13th and November 11th we will be bringing Beyond the Moon to Rotterdam and presenting it in our space and in the neighbours homes. This shift will be the perfect moment to give different formats to the exhibition of Ger’s work, while also enabling his legacy to be shown in the city he loved, where he lived and worked. This simultaneous endeavour will create a wonderful opportunity for the local public to see the artist’s work in a neighbourhood/community context.

Through this presentation Upominki wishes to explore the ways in which the individual artistic vision challenges that of the curator, and how they can merge or diffuse. We are interested in expanding the notions of collaboration and the manner in which the artist’s legacy can be transmitted outside of the sterile or the neutral. As we find ourselves most essentially motivated by the relationships we built throughout our creative processes. This project is a tribute to Ger C. Bout’s work and our friendship.

Ger C. Bout (1950-2017) was a Dutch architect and artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Following years of completing furniture designs, architectural structures and installations, Bout began initiating large scale projects in public spaces internationally. In recent years he has focused on and incorporated photography into his projects. His ideas were always process based; he applied multiple techniques and skills to realise his work using varieties of mediums and expressions from architecture to furniture design, installation, drawing, performance, sculpture and photography.

This project is kindly supported by CBK Rotterdam, Gemeente Rotterdam.

With special thanks to Riitta Bout-Saari.

Tools to keep your house unfinished ~
Window dressing #4

15.07 – 30.08.2018

INAUGURATION: Saturday 14 July at 19:00h

Tools to keep your house unfinished by the Spanish artist Isabel Marcos, is a fourth site-specific intervention in the framework of Window dressing initiated by Upominki in the Winter of 2017.

Through the disruption of continuity and where ambiguity can be experienced – alternative spaces are being created. An ambiguity that rather than bringing us to a blur, can sharpen our senses and stimulate imagination.

Isabel Marcos believes that in such transitory spaces and in in-between realities, we find places for resistance. Where the in-betweenness exists, in a present that is looking to a future, the space questions its own identity and invites us to rethink this notion, as well as to delve into the relation between human subjectivity and inhabited structures.

Upominki is a space in transition, with upcoming walls and unexisting dropped ceilings. While being renovated collectively, we try to rethink its identity, values, means and future.

Through challenging the quotidian interactions between bodies and architecture, Tools to keep your house unfinished introduces plasticity and elasticity to both: the hard and rough surfaces, and to the tools that are being used in the renovation process. In order to invite the involved people to consider dysfunctionality as an ambiguous productivity, through these gestures – both physically and metaphorically – Marcos tries to obstruct the renovation of Upominki as such.

In the course of the evening we will screen the artist Horizon and skirting board (2015) and tell more about the start of our collaboration.

Come and join us in the on-going proces and feel free to bring anyone who might be interested!

///

Window dressing is an ongoing project since 2017 that gradually unfolds in the frontal window of Upominki. The project takes a form of smooth gestures that come and go, while being carried out by various invited artists. As the months go by, Upominki’s window becomes an on-site dialogue where the individual and the collective identity meet. Window dressing is made possible with the joint effort of beloved family and friends.

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

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

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

Natalia Sorzano graduated with degrees in Law and fine art from Los Andes University in Bogotá, 2010. Alongside her artistic practice, she worked in the field of human rights research, and coordinated the office for LGBTIQ affairs for the Colombian Government. On 2016, Natalia finished her MFA degree in fine art (cum laude) at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, where she is now based. She co-founded and co-directs the facilitative and collaborative artist-run platform by the name of GHOST. Her most recent exhibitions were at BÎTACORA (Bogotá 2018), M I A M I Prácticas Contemporáneas (Bogotá, 2017) and MACBA (Barcelona, 2017). Natalia composes and exemplifies conversations and encounters into music, video and installation works. Her practice explores belief practices, mixed identities and relation, channeling multiple voices and modes of story telling to juxtapose mysticism, politics, oral histories and theory.