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Beyond Net.Art

 

 

By Caterina Davinio & Karenina.it

 

 

Gates is dedicated to Pierre Restany

 

ARTISTS - Belgium - Retie

With participation and collaboration of Factor 44

 

Re:    Gates / interim situation report / Factor 44

Where - When:

Factor 44, Bleekhofstraat 44, 2140 Borgerhout, Antwerp (Belgium) 

25/06, 30/07, 27/08, 06/09…

Bureau Du Port, (DK) Rue Simonis 20, 1050 Bruxelles  

29/06

T’Rozenhuys, (Iréne Vervliet) Rosenstraat 5, 2100 Deurne, (Belgium)

12/07

Retie, domain off the N35 between Turnhout and Geel (Belgium)

23&24/08

Quartair, Toussaintkade 55,   Den Haag, (NL) 

20&21/09

Artpool, H-1277 Budapest 23pf.52, (Hungary)

(maybe 17/10-02/11)

 

Participants:

Lieve Lambrecht, Ria Pacquée, Mulugeta Tafesse, Djuna Michielsen, Marc Hioco, Marc Rossignol, Patrice Verhofstadt, Carlos Montalvo, Toni Geirlandt, Herman Delahaye, Guy Rombouts, Chris Gillis, Jörgen Voordeckers, Djos Janssens, Eric Stenmans, Emilio Lopez-Menchero, Shay Zilberman, Leo Reynders, Andrew Webb, Daniel Weinberger, Guche Vercammen, Sven Bruyneel, Iréne Vervliet, Daisy & Mirabelle Wouters, Arjen Nelis, Anne Boxelaere, Harry Heirmans, Chris Straetling and others.

 

 

 

Factor 44’s Gates-activities are more or less on schedule (see proposal) and fit in well with other Factor-projects, augmenting and consolidating the networking aspect on a small level. The Gate project has become an integral part of other activities, so that on a local level it has already reached it’s aim as a transient & momentary state through which related activities pass.

Not only was the first documentation-installment performed (par hazard) in the country in which Pierre Restany grew up, but the following manifestations also borrowed heavily from new realism, (consider Harry Heirman’s  Orgel Defæct-background as a Tinguely-type influence) but fits in well with F44’s obstinate adherence to dadaistic tendencies.

 

The first public presentation ( June 25, 2003 at factor 44) was in fact a ‘presentation’. The gate was used to present not only itself, but also ongoing & developing projects such as ‘Text Associations’ by Odie Rynell Cash (Detroit, usa) in which we are involved, “Yemechereshaw Qeeld”, a theatrical narrative presented by Mulugeta Tafesse ( Addis Ababa, eth) and being currently worked on…and a collective book-project by Djuna Michielsen (Antwerp, b) which will be presented probably in September.. During this presentation the gate was used as a projective window through which the first ‘gate’-images ( those from the Moroccan trip earlier in june) were projected as well as a video by Ria Pacquée (Antwerp b)from that same trip. Also an interim video made by Chris Straetling

(Washington dc) was projected throughout in which a mid-sized gate was filmed through the basement window and recorded the passing of the day until evening. Various visitors proceeded to ‘play with the projection/gate/shadows, and some visual effects were recorded…

 

The second appearance was during a group-act-afternoon at the ‘Bureau Du Port’ in Brussels on June 29th called “Poor Sunday” In which Harry Heirmans & Chris Straetling performed an ‘occasional poetry’ reading & accompanying sound-work (Harry’s Orgel Defæct- a home-made concoction of mechanical kitchen-utensil-musical instruments) Other participants who were able to appropriate/include the ‘Gate’ in their presentations include Marc Rossignol (Brussels,b), HIOCO-‘boulenger imbecile’ (Ostend,b), Patrice Verhofstadt (Brussels,b), Carlos Montalvo (Asturias,e) and Toni Geirlandt (Ghent,b) as well as other interventions. This occasion was used to introduce the ‘gate’ to a public outside our usual Antwerp entourage and as a try-out for a later presentation…being:

 

The third manifestation took place at ‘T’Rozenhuys’ in Deurne (near Antwerp) on July 12th, and was more in a classical podium setting. Here too Chris Straetling ( as D.M. Mangelware) and Harry Heirmans ( as Ito Takahi) presented a version of the poor-Sunday act for a more literate & theatre-minded public. The evening was the 4th part of an ongoing revision series (KURK, KRUK, RUKK & URKK –un-readable kid logy knowledge) The poetry read was in fact teen-age poetry revised & unearthed for the occasion, and the orgel defæct is made of revised objects, instruments & machines..There were some technical difficulties with microphones & smoke-machine, but people seemed to have enjoyed it…

 

The fourth presentation (during our monthly Jour Fixe at f44) on July 30th was meant to incorporate exchange material, but due to re-scheduling and the fact that the Brussels-video did not arrive ( the cameraman suddenly went on holidays) we had to improvise with a reading from the most recent karenina.it e-mail and an impromptu version on the orgel defæct for those who missed it’s previous presentations. The proceedings took place in (‘backstage’) the half-finished construction for the “Yemechereshaw Qeeld” narrative theatre-project, ( with Mulugeta Tafesse, Mirabelle Wouters, Daisy Wouters, Guy Rombouts, Arjen Nelis, Anne Boxelaere, H.Heirmans & C.Straetling..) in which perhaps the ‘gate’ will play a small role on August 15, 16 &17..)

 

So far what has already taken place.

(details of sites & names below)

 

 

Re Gates / further plans

 

 

The ‘gate’ is to be used during Factor44’s yearly out-door weekend at Retie ( 23/24 August) in which it will be placed among the tree stumps of what was until earlier this year a small forest. We have invited participants to make some ‘sculptural interventions’ for this lost patch of green… Though not the Amazon, it does refer to the ecological concerns we all must have and the echoes of PR’s ‘manifest of rio negro’ which is perhaps appropriate for a white gate…

 

Another ‘gate’ documentation-session is planned for the monthly ‘Jour Fixe’ of the 27th of August at factor 44, -depending on materials received & circumstances..

 

The ‘gate’ may figure during the ‘season’s opening’ of an exhibition with Marc Rossignol, Eric Stenmans, Djos Janssens & Emilio Lopez-Menchero at Factor 44 on the 6th of September.. how this will happen depends on the exhibiting artists and will not become definite until shortly before the show..;

 

‘Gate’ will however play a prominent role in a group manifestation by Factor 44 during the ‘Haagse Cultuuravond’ on September 20th in “Quartair”, an alternative space in The Hague, Netherlands, called “ Cour/ Jardin” – based loosely on the construction of last years ‘between two chairs’-project, it involved dividing the gallery-space into flexible alternative subdivisions connected by a turning cube (turnstile) opening up to various areas / projects… aside from Factor-members, artists from ‘Quartair’ and ‘Stoom’ are invited to participate.. The ‘gate’ will be used as a moveable point of view/departure/reference… and if this idea works, will continue (possibly) in a following project…

 

(seen as the re-scheduling brings us further into the year..)

Our contribution to “..world of the third kind” a joint event by Artpool & P60 from 17th October to the 2nd of November in Budapest, Hungary.. what form or shape this will take is as of yet unclear, but feeds into the long-held notion that our binary approach needs a third point of view/reference/departure to continue… and the gate is a perfect passageway to do so..