GATES Planetary Project ARTISTS LIST
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By Caterina Davinio & Karenina.it
Gates is dedicated to Pierre Restany
ARTISTS - Morocco
With participation and collaboration of the a artists and
groups:
Chris Straetling, Harry Heirmans, FACTOR44
Factor 44 Bleekhofstraat44 , 2140
Bleekhofstraat 44
2140 Borgerhout
/Antwerp
Belgium
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…
Chris Straetling for Factor 44
