A selection of the paintings series, Anywhere Reloaded has been selected for Input/Output, a competition and exhibition in De Bond (Brugge) with Hallveig Agustsdottir, Charlotte De Groote, Peter De Meyer, Marie-Laure Delaby, Filip Gilissen, Phillip Henderickx, Oscar Hugal, Berten Jaekers, Jonas Marga, Matgorzata Maria Olchowska, Sven Overheul, Jasper Rigole, Yoko Tack, Stijn Van Acker, Sofie Van Der Linden en Tamara Van San.

The works will be presented from  October 17 – November 15, 2009.
Opening on Friday 16th of October!

De Bond
Buiten Smedenvest 1 -8000 Brugge

During the last Threeplusone residency and exhibition that took place in Zennestraat 17 (Brussels) this late summer, I presented an installation mixing flickering light and painting projection with the help of Arduino , Processing and a small LDR.

The aim of the residency was to create new site-specific works, directly inspired from this old laboratory, and connected with the idea of “extension”, coming from certain questions that we wanted to raise, such as: How to extend a media with another?, How to extend an image into a space?, How to extend a space into a media?

Starting from that, I chose one of the rooms available in Zennestraat 17: the one completely painted in black during the last exhibition, except for a white frame. This room was especially made to welcome a projection… and suited to one of the works I wanted to achieve: a hybrid installation where outside light interfere with the inner lights of the image. A complete auto-sufficient system that the public could only look at and not interact with.

From this process, results an empirical dialog between  two flickering phenomenons, a tensed experience with a constantly appearing/disappearing image, touching nearly the state of film, but remaining always a still, questioning ourselves on the reality of the space, the image and the experience that we are living.

A video documentation of the installation will come soon but here you can already find some pictures…

For Expanded-Scapes (Leopoldskazerne, Ghent, 2009), I have shown recent works on generic spaces. Using maps and construction sites as underlying ground-works of the generic template, I create improbable spaces where imaginary/virtual flows (traffic, circulation, communication, economic exchanges) are the only inhabitants.

More pictures from Expanded-Scapes here!
More from Generic there!

threeplusone.wordpress.com

mural painting in my studio, Leopoldskazerne, Ghent, 2009
(work in progress)

Towards a generic vision is the working title of the proposal I made for the joint project on the notion of territory within the Threeplusone collective.

Recently, I started questioning the structures embedding the non-places. By what kind of territory and architecture are they generated? Mostly found in world-wide metropolis, these environments can be characterized by:

• serialisation of the void, of non-identity, of the non-place
• incorporation of mass / emptying of individuality
• systematisation of rapidity / efficiency / profitability
• integration of all elements into a main flow
• globalisation of these systems
• elimination of asperities, particularities

The space becomes invisible, nonexistent, generic, in opposition to a virtuality which becomes more and more personalized, individualized.

My intention is to produce works (paintings, drawings, installation,..) where these notions would appear by pushing further the process of emptying; towards a systematisation, a generic approach of the generic space self.

sketch for generic

Some displacement happens, we are now working in our new space, a floor under the previous one! Not much change unless that it’s not temporary anymore!

While thinking about new possibilities (should we have a coffee table? should I make a fresco inspired by Rem Koolhaas reflections on Generic city?), I had the visit of Dredd for his project “Artists in The World. The Never Ending Trip Art” which collects pictures of artists in their studio’s. There are my collegues from the Leopold’s kazerne and much more from Rotterdam, Berlin,…

Photo by Dredd

2009: my first Transmediale ever!
Topic: Deep North.

Mmmmh, was not sure about the trendy title but finally there is much more in this that I thought! Not the best exhibition display but some good works and very good debates. I never thought that a media art festival (usually used to be self-centered) could bring so much political, social and ecological engagement.

I will not reveal yet what exact direction it will make me take (but I can already say that I’m quite busy researching on generic architecture and activism in urban environment). However, I can already point at projects I saw there and that I really want to share (of course some received an award).

Michiko Nitta: Extreme Green Guerillas
This design project takes current green trends to the extreme. By proposing a community of people called “Extreme Green Guerillas” (E.G.G.), Michiko gives “a critical point of view on the current general green visions, because many green activities are used as a medium of consumerism.”

Therefore, she proposes extreme green solutions for sending messages (no emails, mobile phones or postal ways are allowed), eating (no CO2 footprints) and overpopulation (death at 40 years old).

Don’t forget: WE MUST NOT CONSUME WE MUST BE CONSUMED

Reynold Reynolds: Six apartment
This video project presents a view of six persons isolated in their own apartment with their own loneliness. A voice over of radio news talking about diseases and consequences of climate change is the only contact with the outside world, while these persons stand still in their own drift.

It makes of course echoes to our inability to act and our isolated lives in urban environment which (will) constitutes over to 80% of human environment.

Besides these projects, there is of course a lot more.. Just to give some names: HeHe with “Nuage Vert“, the “Tantalum Memorial” dedicated to the deaths caused by the Coltan war,…

Luckily, besides these serious issues, there was Club Transmediale! And the ArtKillArt party, and … well, welcome to the never ending festival!

Juan, Hallveig and I are participating at the Panoramatic group exhibition at Espace Ladda, Ghent. There will be up to 89 artists with commissioned works (panels in fact) which will hanged in a kind of panoramic way.

Opening on Friday 13 FEB 2009 at Espace Ladda, the temporary gallery next to Vooruit in Ghent!

From this Monday 5th of January until 27th February 09, some paintings of the anywhere reloaded project are exhibited in Nucleo’s office in Ghent. You can visit it during working hours from Monday till Friday.

Nucleo develops affordable, good quality studios in the city of Ghent and its surroundings for artists active in various art disciplines. I could rent a temporary studio from them this year, located in the beautiful Leopold Caserne.

contact: info@nucleo.be

Adress: Nucleo vzw
Lange Violettestraat 237-239
9000 Ghent, Belgium

photos: Kristina Ianatchkova