ON THE INVISIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE AND THE RESONANCE OF LIVES - THREE PROPOSALS EXPLORED
Pedro Neves Marques invited by Futura resident Emily Verla Bovino at etc galerie, Prague, CZ
15, 16, 17 April 2010, daily at 18h
As part of the Karlin open studio project, Futura resident Emily Verla Bovino, in collaboration with Jiří Skála and Markéta Vinglerová, has invited artist Pedro Neves Marques to present three works in the context of a staged discussion-room at etc galerie. The initiative explores the potential of the artist residency as locus for dynamic exchange and forum for collaborative brainstorming around challenging concepts and ideas. The project is also an inquiry into the figure of the artist-as-researcher and looks to deliberate upon the potential of recent shifts regarding the role of the artist in both art-making and art administration. Pedro Neves Marques and Emily Verla Bovino met in residence in 2009 at the Fondazione Antonio Ratti Advanced Course for the Visual Arts with visiting professor Walid Raad.
One sees. As much as anyone else, one has a vision: hallucinations of possibilities past, present and future. Visions in the mind and in collaboration with History. Folds-unfolds in things given. Shifts. Voices. A misanthrope, but inevitably visions must become proposals; and a community of individuals formed.
During three days a set will be staged for three proposals to be shared. Eminently rhetorical, each proposal focuses on specific lives and existential events, with resonances both aesthetic and ethic. Presented before and elsewhere, these three proposals are brought together at etc galerie for the first time to resonate with each other in a frame for discussion, reflection and relation.
Topics of discussion transversal and to pursue among the three days will be the relationships of anonymity to exemplarity, of exemplarity to life and of life to the invisibility of performance; the (un)consciousness of being in the creative act - is it art? - and its consequences on spectatorship; is there a contemporary typology of art, and if so what is its relation to visibility and nomenclature? Is everyone an artist - seriously? - and if we say yes, is the question how or when?
The proposals will be made at an appointed hour on each day, with group discussion ensuing afterwards or in the meantime. Attendance on all three days is preferred.
15 April, Thursday, 18h: The Escape Route's Design
The Escape Route’s Design: Assessment of the impact of current Aesthetics on History, comparative reading of an example close to the city of Berlin (written in collaboration with Mariana Silva) stages a dialogue between the incomplete projects in Ilya Kabakov’s installational works and the series of attempts at crossing the Berlin Wall from East to West from the 1960s to 1989. Through this dialogue the supposition of an already made realization of Ilya Kabakov's proposals, most specifically in ‘The Palace of Projects’, by way of the historical events occurred at the Berlin Wall is advanced. Given the aesthetic revision of these historical events, it is proposed the consideration of a ready-made historical utopia, as well as, through a temporal synapses between art and life, the supposition of a invisible revolution already given in the past. A discussion room will be set at ect.galerie and the proposal read in common with the presence of the artist. Drinks will be served. For details and previous reading, a full version of the artist's text is available to print at http://e-flux.com/journal/view/61 . Previous reading is advised.
16 April, Friday, 18h: The Wandering Chief (1880-1891)
The Wandering Chief (1880-1891) takes as case study the process of abandonment of literature by Arthur Rimbaud and his subsequent life as merchant in the Horn of Africa, Harar and Aden between 1880-1891. Taking as starting point biographer Charles Nicholl's affirmation of Rimbaud's African life as his masterpiece the proposal is made in the vertigo of its understanding as art and its ethico-aesthetical consequences. A performance for two people will take place starting from 18h, followed afterwards by discussion in common mediated by the artist. Drinks will be served.
17 April, Saturday, 18h: The Tigris Expedition (1978)
The Tigris Expedition (1978) takes at its core the Tigris Expedition lead by anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl in 1978. The expedition had as main purpose the construction of a reed ship according to Sumerian models dating from 5000 years ago and its navigation through the Persian Gulf and Indic Ocean in search of ancient commercial routes between Sumer, the Hindus Valley and Egypt. After five months of voyage and on not being allowed to follow further into the Red Sea due to conflicts in the Horn of Africa, the expedition met its end on the shores of Djibouti by way of burning the ship as protest against the conflicts and international interests in the region. A performative reading will be take place starting from 18h, followed afterwards by discussion in common mediated by the artist. Drinks will be served.
Pedro Neves Marques (PT) is an artist and writer, currently living between London, United Kingdom, and Lisbon, Portugal.
Emily Verla Bovino (USA) is an artist and writer, currently residing between Prague, Czech Republic and Milan, Italy.
Special thanks to:
Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Prague, Ministry of Culture, Czech Republic and Prague City Hall, New York Foundation for the Arts and Viafarini.
