GATES Planetary Project ARTISTS LIST
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By Caterina Davinio & Karenina.it
Gates is dedicated to Pierre Restany
ARTISTS - Belgium -
Borgerhout / Antwerp / Morocco
With participation and collaboration of the a artists and
groups:
Chris Straetling, Harry Heirmans, FACTOR44
Factor 44 Bleekhofstraat44 , 2140
Jour Fixe July/Juli/Juillet
Wednesday/Woensdag/Mercredi
+ ongoing projects / lopende projecten /
projects en course info:
Gates (CD/art electronis) Text Associations (ORC) parallel Realities
(Artpool/P60) preparation RETIE etc etc...
dear caterina
it's (still) the 4th of july, so i thought i'd send some updated info, even
though the dates have been pushed along somewhat (we're used to that)..
thanks for your info-mail..
I forgot that the project was dedicated to Pierre Restany, but the fact that
we begun in Morocco is a perfect co-incidence ( he grew up there)... and the
fact we are long-standing fans made it all the more apparent..
so, I made a video-compilation of the moroccan images with gate &
projected
them on the Jour Fixe (25th June) and have additional material from that
(video / later)
(see att some images)
Then we took the gate to Bureau du Port (Brussels, Poor Sunday 29/6/03)
where we 'interacted' with various additional participants while also doing
our own poetics ( we did a dramatic reading with back-ground soundscape
produced with self-made machinery much like Tinguely would have done... also
fitting)
from this there is also a video...
next we will take the gate to a poetry-action ( similar to bureau du Port)
at the 'Rozenhuys' in Deurne (12/07/03)... i will send the videos & pics
from all this by regular mail after that..;
i see you've taken up Odie RC/Oceastside up in the program... nice.
here some jpegs,
hopping 4th of July
ciao,
chris, Factor44
July 4
July 12
Bleekhofstraat 44
2140 Borgerhout
/Antwerp
Belgium
Is an independant, non-profit, artist-run space operating
since 1996 (an amalgamation of two other spaces ‘inexistent’ and ‘quarantaine’
from the mid 80’s to mid 90’s) As well as presenting others in our space, we
present our own activities (a wide range of loose member-configurations) in
other spaces.in Belgium & abroad..
Contact: Chris Straetling, Harry Heirmans.
Dates on which ‘gates’-activities are foreseen:
Preparatory activity has already begun, and first
contributions will be publicly collated during our monthly ‘Jour Fixe’ ( the
last wednesday of the month ) on June 25, 2003 ... further development will
proceed as of July 4th, and materials will be exchanged (hopefully) in time for
the following Jour Fixe which is the 30th of July 2003 at factor 44 from 8 p.m.
Further appearances of doorway or related proposed during ‘Poor Sunday’ 29th June at Bureau du Port (Rue
Simonis 20, 1050 Bruxelles) and URKK, Rozenstraat –Deurne (another suburb of
Antwerp) on July 12th.. as well as August 23/24 at Retie (open-air)
and the Jour Fixe 27th
August at factor 44, and possibly a final with collected material in The Hague
NL,(Quartair) on September 20th 2003… these dates all still to be
fixed..
Recap dates: ( at this point, more possible)
· 25 June: preparatory construction/projection
(*)
·
29 June: presentation at Bureau du Port, Brussels ( additional
participants???)
· (4 July official start)
· 12 July presentation at ‘T Rozenhuys’,
Deurne/Antwerp
· 30 July presentation at Factor 44 with
possibly material from central interchange (Rome)
· 23/24 August ‘en plein air’ at Retie, Belgium
during yearly fifty-fifty meeting..
· 27 August at factor 44 ( as Jour fixe,
further development)
· (6 September possible intervention during
opening show at Factor 44)
· 20 September (last?) presentations during
Haagse Cultuuravond / Quartair in The Hague, Netherlands
Involved Collaborators / Organizations…
Difficult to say, we work with a fluid base of
collaborators, depending on projects & possibilities… the above mentioned will
be involved, but there are more possible participants as the summer evolves..
we have a very short-improvisational working method in the summer, so a
definitive list of participants can only be given after the fact…
Our Bio…
As mentioned above ‘Factor 44’ is an amalgam… the main
operators (daily running of things) are
Chris Straetling, *1960,
Washington DC, USA- schooling: Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, and
Dalhousie University, Halifax, CDN, works with various media &
configurations, usually in group-projects… lives in Antwerp since 1986, ran
‘Inexitent’ from 1987-92 and ‘AK-37’ from ’92-95 and is co-founder of Factor
44.. also pamfleteer ( La Jeune Avrill, Fac Simili’ and F44 fanmag (D-7040)
since 1988.
Harry Heirmans *1957
Mortsel, B, schooling, theatre in Ameloo & Mechelen, B; Co-founder of
Theatre groups and various productions in Antwerp, and ran gallery ‘
Quarantaine’ from 1991-1995, before joining forces with above to form Factor
44…
Gates/ interchange prep
Part 1
“Rational Geographic”
Wasting no time, I immediately considered the ‘Gates’
project as a fitting continuation of my own long-standing concern with
displacement and cultural (re-) configurations… I proceeded to make a small
‘gate’ in white, approximately to the proportions of a doorway, and take it
with me on a trip to Morocco which had been planned just before together with a
performance & video-artist and a expeditionary sand-knot-er…(Ria Pacquee
& Lieve Lambrecht)..
Just before we left we passed by an exhibition opening of an
impossible architect of globe-trotting renown, and an American friend, who saw
my little gateway said: ‘just like national geographic’… (their frame is
yellow, though..) This did not perturb me, since I can see the humor of being a
nomad and fixed & fascinated by cultural crossing-points all my life
(having been born a foreign national and living in various countries before
settling here in Belgium…)
Anyway, off we set to the southern part of Morocco, along a
road which few tourists take and skirting the unclear Algerian border, a region
in which Judeo-Arabic, Berber and various ( deep south & sahara) Nomadic
cultures have mixed for centuries, and still seems unsettled and un-definable
until this day..;
Only some of the snap-shots taken with a cheap, plastic
nearly-throw-away camera would have the white gate in them… for various a
subjective reasons which still have to be clarified; and even less with people in them, due to the fact that this was
a very sparsely populated region, but also due to the fact in the back of my
mind, that these were preparatory images to be filled in later… Most of these
images are banal picture-postcard type images which have nothing to say on
their own, or hardly denote the difficulties in getting them.. braving
sandstorms and searing heat ( june is late to look at dunes) flat tires and
thirsty throats, but seeing rain before it evaporates and even a rainbow above
the wavering heat…
These images would have to be empty in order to fill them
in… already, without thinking, I had the idea that these empty doorways would
be filled with the sounds recorded by LL and augmented by the videos taken by
RP to congeal with visitors to the first showing, during which a life-sized
door would be used for real-time interaction, while my snapshots of the
maquette would function as a backdrop as in old Hollywood movies, in which the
actors are juggled in front of a fuzzy retro-projection just before going off a
cliff in their DeSoto for dramatic effect.
The soundtrack would be recorded later, after a two-day ride
through the kasbah-valleys, a beaten track to Marrakesh, where the Jemaa-el-Fna
would provide all the rhythms & stories we would need to make things more
palpable to a discerning audience…
This audience has to participate in the function of the
gate, between the perceived notion of transit and the real thing, leaving the
mountains of Morocco behind for a sojourn in the Moroccan district of Antwerp,
where cultures meet & clash simultaneously… Most of our neighbors are
Berbers, but are not kind to the reminder that they are.. not really Belgian,
and no longer really Morrocan.. a twilight of existence between cultures.. and
just the reason for passing through a gate of cognizance..;
After the explosions
in Casablanca the frame between cultures has become fuzzy like the
retro-projection.. a certain unease, distrust, wariness has wafted down on the
community… Jews no longer come out for their evening stroll, young Mohammedans
have picked up more attitude than is good for them, and Christians believe in
the primal good of all.. an interesting mix,- in fact more interesting than the
Mauritanian nomads one can see at desert gas-stations along the route… selling
trinkets since the salt-trade has dried up.
In this frame, this lost doorway, we depict our projections
– every one as they please, without even knowing it.. to a degree… (this on two
levels: one: the awareness of being involved in an ‘art-project’ and behaving
in a certain way,… and two: not aware of the project at all and reacting to the
image (or lack of) in a very natural manner..)
Re-Part 1 (technical notes)
a)
snap-shot images of miniature door-frame-maquette in
morocco will be projected on wall behind constructed life-sized door-frame in
the entrance-hall of Factor 44 and taped on VHS while public/participants react to this given…
b)
later, once the public has read some of the documents
accompanying the ‘installation’, they might re-emerge and act differently,
returning to act out personal interpretations of this situation..
c)
video & new snapshots re-incorporated into imagery
to make composite configurations (along with sound-track and manipulated
images)
d)
these will be forwarded to you in Rome, and augmented in
the next step to feed into the growing archive which no doubt you will amass.
By the time you receive our material, (before official
opening of project July 4) you will have received material from other sources,
and possibly have made copies to refer to us… so that we may continue with a
new batch of material… otherwise it becomes regurgitation..
Regurgitation is part 2:
(after official start 4 july)
depending on circumstances, our initial material would be
augmented by material sent by you, or texts which we might incorporate in this
second part, which might include more ‘poetry’…
a) seen that our next venue is
URKK, in which poetry plays a role, it would be good to add this
aspect to the visual & perhaps theatrical,
musical & documentary..
b)
depending on the situ at Bureau du Port, there might be a two-tier
approach, which could
culminate at the 50/50 venue in August in something more..
At this point it becomes speculative… after 3
versions it is difficult to know what will happen, especially when 3rd
parties handle open invitations to the project.. we will have to take it
step-by step.. (especially because we have our own summer-interchange programme
and perhaps some participants from abroad (visiting artists) would like to
participate in this project too, making for a double-exposure situ..
Please find in attachment some images from the
precursor-trip to morocco, with which you may do as you please, and expect more
soon… after our primary presentation to our members.
I have made a doorway (2,10m by 95cm x 15 cm) which will
serve as the ‘gate’ during the projection of the images mentioned.. and with
which the public will interact..
I will record it all on vhs and send you a copy
hopefully by the 4th of july…
Best wishes &
Thanks
Chris Straetling for Factor 44
