3 SEPTEMBER – 3 DECEMBER 2016
Preview: Friday 2 September, 6 – 8pm
Immersing the viewer in panoramic scenes of timeless and desolate islands, Dinh Q. Lê’s new film installation The Colony gradually reveals a sublime landscape with a complex history; set in the Chincha Islands off the coast of Peru, the rocky home to an enormous colony of birds.
By the middle of the 19th century the islands had become mountains of guano. A potent fertiliser, guano quickly became one of the world’s most valuable natural resources. British merchants controlled its trade, using indentured Chinese labourers working under brutal conditions. War was triggered by Spanish, American and Peruvian forces scrambling for control of the islands and in 1856, the US Congress Guano Act enabled it to seize uninhabited islands around the world. The advent of chemical fertilisers saw the islands re-colonised by birds. Architectural traces of the conflicted past remain in ruins.
The islands have not been permanently inhabited for more than a century, but labourers return to harvest the guano by hand every few years. Accompanied by Daniel Wohl’s elegiac soundtrack, Lê films from a boat approaching the islands, cameras on the ground and drones circling above to capture a bleak landscape haunted by its brutal past.
The Colony is part of The Artangel Collection, an initiative to bring outstanding film and video works, commissioned and produced by Artangel, to galleries and museums across the UK. The Artangel Collection has been developed in partnership with Tate, is generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Foyle Foundation and uses public funding from Arts Council England.
DINH Q. LÊ : THE COLONY (2016) SITE GALLERY commissioned and produced by Artangel
Experimental Education Protocol Residency curated by Angelo Plessas, Sterna Residencies, Nisyros Island
10 / 7 - 20 / 8 /2016
Experimental Education Protocol
Curated by: Angelo Plessas
Participants: Sepake Angiama, Andreas Angelidakis, Agnieszka Gratza, Oliver Laric, Quinn Latimer, Arvo Leo, Mia Lundstrom, Paolo Thorsen- Nagel, Garrett Nelson, Angelo Plessas
The “Experimental Education Protocol” is a new alternative education model based on joint experiential learning. It brings together and navigates through different views, personalities and approaches so that the participants learn from one another to produce work.
The Sterna organization invites Angelos Plessas and eight more artists and curators to create works through a new practice, a new “Experimental Education Protocol” at the Baths of Nisyros. For the second time the historical building becomes a point of meeting and creativity, contributing its own aura of collective life and coexistence.
Angelos Plessas proposes this new method to the participants so that it takes shape according to their experiences —their conscious— but also according to their mood — the unconscious. It is an experiment whose very nature requires experiential information, since the nine participants bring their ideas, observations and concerns with which to experiment with the experiential; an experiment in content and procedure where each person’s individual empirical research makes up the joint learning, while avoiding the rules of hierarchy or any academic educational approach.
At the same time the process of this experimental education will be open to the public. All people on the island, inhabitants and visitors alike, are encouraged to become part of this experiential and empirical condition which will contribute to the development of the project. In this sense, the content of the “Experimental Education Protocol” is infinite.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual publication featuring the works created as part of the project as well as theoretical texts by the participants. Additionally, the catalogue will serve as a record of the process of the “Experimental Education Protocol” in relation with the island and the Baths.
Meetings 10 - 21 July daily at 11:00 - participation is free of charge
Opening 21 July at 20:30 with a performance by the participating artists
Exhibition duration 22 July - 20 August daily 18:00-21:00 - entrance free
Baths of Mandraki
Sterna Art Projects/Residencies, Nisyros Island Greece
Lofoten International Art Festival, Norwegian Archipelago
LIAF presents works by international artists in a local and site-specific context and seeks to be an open, experimental and including meeting place for artists, audience and locals.
Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) was first initiated in 1991, as a local art exhibition with a broad range of expressions and with a regional profile. From 1999, the festival was given an international profile changing the name to Lofoten International Art Festival, and since 2009, the festival has been run by The North Norwegian Art Center (NNKS) and LIAF’s artistic advisory board.
LIAF presents works by international artists in a local and site-specific context and seeks to be an open, experimental and including meeting place for artists, audience and locals. LIAF acknowledges the complexity of place and seeks to be a discursive, engaged and social platform for different positions creating dialogue between the local and global. The prospect of developing and discovering new knowledge and understanding through art is the core of the festival. LIAF is not connected to a permanent location or space, but is invented anew every time by infiltrating and moving into already existing structures: Everything from a garage, a library, a shed, a bunker, a fish drying rack, a private house, a shop or an old warehouse. New curators also develop the festival every time, with diverse backgrounds, ideas and practices and in different ways bringing the familiar and unfamiliar together. By insisting on this open and experimental approach, we believe LIAF can be a place for exchange and involvement on multitude levels, every time revealing new things about our world and ourselves.
LIAF has taken place eight times since 1999 presenting artists like Gillian Wearing, Lawrence Weiner, AK Dolven, Ken Lum, Olafur Eliasson, Mari Slaattelid, Elmgren & Dragseth, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Pipilotti Rist, Geir Tore Holm, Eija Liisa Athila, Jesper Just, Amar Kanwar, Tori Wrånes, Michel Auder, Kjersti Andvig, John Giorno, Lene Berg, Lindsay Seers, David Horvitz, Mahmoud Khaled, HC Gilje, Karl Larsson, Shilpa Gupta, István Csácány, Lisa Tan and many more.
LIAF curators have been Tor Inge Kveum, Per Gunnar Tverbakk, Vibeke Sjøvoll, Gry Ulrichsen, Göran Christenson, Maaretta Jaukkuri, Taru Elfving, Richard Borgström, Helga-Marie Nordby, Thora Dolven Balke, Linn Pedersen, Anne Szefer Karlsen, Bassam El Baroni, Eva González-Sancho, Arne Skaug Olsen and Matt Packer.
METASITU at Metamatic TAF, Athens presents "Are we moving?"
METASITU presents the Summer Exhibition at Metamatic TAF, "Are we Moving?"
In January 2016 eight artists, a Captain and an expedition organizer made an attempt to reach the World’s most remote human inhabited place, the British Overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha. This remote community in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean can only be reached by boat from either the Brazilian or the South African coasts, after approximately seven to ten days of sailing from either. We never made it to the island...
The exhibition presents a unique mix of art works commissioned for the exhibition from the eight expedition participants - Liva Dudareva, Eduardo Cassina, Dominika Hadelova, Dominic Hinde, Nat Searle, Josefina Muñoz, Alvaro Padilla Vargas and Luis Carlos Hurtado Central Sureste dealing with both physical and metaphysical notion of island. A catharsis and a reflection on failure, banality and isolation.
Location: metamatic:taf
metamatic:taf is a pioneering cultural and digital centre in Athens. As well as a vibrant online cultural platform in Greece. It has a dual role of an independent space organizing and hosting cultural events related to all forms of artistic production and a point of social gathering for people bearing a new Athenian identity. Within just seven years of operation it has become an active space of sociability, in which everyone is welcome to attend, participate or watch events, an open space of assembly and dialogue, accessible to the public, seven days a week, all year round.
metamatic:taf vision for the period 2016 - 2017
For the period 2016 - 2017 metamatic:taf is collaborating with METASITU as their Artistic Directors with a goal to create an accessible platform for cultural and knowledge production, mainly through the use of different formats and radical programming aiming for a deep engagement with the audience.
Curators: METASITU
METASITU is an art collective founded in 2014 by Eduardo Cassina and Liva Dudareva. Their practice is research-based, highly mobile and trans-disciplinary, relying on the transnational networks, virtual and physical, where they draw inspiration and fascination from. METASITU often finds solutions by shifting existing paradigms and subverting existing behaviors; re-directing existing systems towards other ends, rather than direct physical or design interventions of colossal scales.
METASITU
- beyond place -
future@metasitu.com
http://www.metasitu.com
https://vimeo.com/165668461
http://theartfoundation.metamatic.gr/EN/arxikh/

LABVERDE: art immersion programme in the Amazon
LABVERDE
Art immersion program in the Amazon
September 15–24, 2016
Registration deadline: June 15
www.labverde.com
LABVERDE is an unforgettable and deep experience in the Amazon rainforest for artists from all over the world.
LABVERDE aims to help cultural makers understand and reflect on one of the main natural areas of the planet.
The journey starts with a boat trip and it gets deeper in an ecological reserve in the heart of the Amazon region, allowing a selected group of artists to explore different scales and perspectives of the rainforest along with the mediation of specialists in art, humanities, biology, ecology and natural science.
Life experience and theory will be integrated into ten days of intensive activities. A schedule of expeditions, lectures, workshops, presentations and seminars will enhance creativity, having nature as a common ground.
Among other themes, the participants will find out about landscape representation, nature art appropriation, innovative solutions for a sustainable economy, climate change and environmental impacts, forest sonority, local community extractivism culture, wild edible plants, entomology, natural history of organisms, fragmented areas in the Amazon and dendrochronology in the Amazon.
The network exchanges and the knowledge sets throughout the program will be an opportunity to develop innovative cultural content. After the program, participants will be able to improve their own creative discourses, identify natural environmental problems and solutions, and reflect on the role of art in influencing ecological behavior.
What is the LABVERDE program?
It is a ten-day immersion in the Amazon rainforest to explore the connection between nature, art and science.
Where is the program going to happen?
The journey will take place in two main research centers: Ecological Reserve and Floating Research Station in the center of the Amazon region.
Who can register?
Visual artists, architects, musicians, writers, dancers and other cultural makers.
How many people can participate?
Only 15 participants will be selected.
How to apply?
Candidates have to fill the application form at www.labverde.com and send the following documents:
–250-word bio
–500-word description of a creative project idea
–5 to 10 image portfolio
When is the dead line?
Registration will take place until June 15.
How much does the program cost and what is included?
The fee is USD 1,900. Accommodation, meals and transfers are included.
What if I cannot afford the program?
Artists are encouraged to request grants in their countries of residence or birth. Communication letters can be designed and offered as needed to the applicants. LABVERDE will also select two artists to participate in the program free of charge based on their artistic merit. To apply for this grant, participants must include a letter of motivation when registering for the program.
Who are the organizers?
LABVERDE has been designed by a multidisciplinary team of highly qualified international professionals from Manifesta Art and Culture and The National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). A world reference in tropical biology, INPA conducts research, surveys and inventories of fauna and flora, and investigates the sustainable use of natural resources in the Amazon (http://portal.inpa.gov.br).
Contact
Lilian Fraiji, info.labverde@gmail.com / T +55 92 99988 1301 (Brazil)
Island Hopping - The 2016 Setouchi Triennale
From this week onwards a small cluster of islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea will host its third international art festival. The 2016 Setouchi Triennale will run for a total of 108 days, and is expected to receive upwards of a million visitors, along with over one hundred new artworks joining the permanent installations already dotted across the archipelago.
Twelve islands in total will be taking part, along with Uno Port on mainland Honshu and the town of Takamatsu (known by fans of Haruki Murakami as the setting of Kafka on the Shore) on nearby Shikoku. This year’s thematic focus looks both inward and outward: paying particular attention to local Setouchi cuisine and traditions alongside ‘cultural exchange among Asian countries that are connected by the sea.
While the Triennale originally began as summer event, it has now extended into ‘a journey through the seasons’, running from March 20th to April 17th, July 18th to September 4th, and October 8th to November 6th. This attention to the distinct qualities of each season is distinctly Japanese, and is much utilised by its tourism industry; the arrival corridors of Tokyo Narita airport are lined with a quadriptych of cherry blossoms, a sun-topped Mount Fuji, fiery maple foliage and Hokkaido snow slopes. While the Setouchi archipelago may not be able to provide Mount Fuji and northern snow, the islands possess their own natural charms, with secluded beaches and woodland hemmed in by clear blue sea.
The islands have not always been such a natural idyll; in the 1960s and 70s the area faced problems with illegal dumping of industrial waste and it is only relatively recently that this widespread practice has been tackled by Japanese authorities. In addition to these ecological obstructions, the region has also had to cope with the dehabilitating effects of depopulation and the isolation of its aging communities, leaving a once busy and industrious area struggling to stay afloat.
Events like the Triennale are part of an ongoing movement to counter this downturn with the transformation of the area into a haven of artistic activity and production. This movement began in the mid-1980s, and has grown into a network of art activities, museums and installations crisscrossing the Seto Inland Sea. Naoshima, Setouchi’s main island and capital of sorts, is the project’s birthplace, and the islands involved are collectively referred to as ‘Benesse Art Site Naoshima’. Initiated in 1985 by a meeting between the Major of Naoshima and the president of Fukutake Publishing (now Benesse Corporation), the project’s goal was to transform the Setouchi area into a cultural and educational hub, attracting visitors from all over the world. Promoting the natural beauty of the islands was a focus from the beginning, with art becoming the project’s principal focus as it evolved throughout the 80s and 90s.
From these ecologically focused roots came the Naoshima International Camp, overseen by architect Tadao Ando, which invited visitors to stay in beachside Mongolian yurts beneath the watchful eye of Karen Appel’s totem-like Frog and Cat sculpture. Three years later came the hilltop Benesse House Museum, a museum-cum-hotel also designed by Ando and ‘based on the concept of coexistence among nature, architecture, and art’. In the late 90s, after a successful outdoor exhibition called ‘Out of Bounds’ featuring Yayoi Kusama’s yellow spotted pumpkin (perched on a pier beside the Benesse House hill, it has become an icon for the project), the project began to focus on site-specific artworks. This lead to the ongoing ‘Art House’ installations in the Naoshima’s Honmura District, where abandoned houses are transformed from the inside out by visiting artists. Since then many other installations have emerged across the islands.
In 2004 Ando continued his leading role in the Naoshima developments with the stunningly designed Chichu Museum, an underground structure lit entirely by daylight streaming in through geometric openings cut into the hillside. It houses large-scale work by James Turrell, Walter de la Mare and Claude Monet. Monet’s waterlilies hang in a vast gallery whose floor is exquisitely tiled with hundreds of tiny marble cubes, where visitors must change into white slippers upon entry.
The project leaders are keen to emphasis on the involvement of the island communities, who have participated in the installation of site-specific artworks along with working as guides and in the galleries. There are seasonal cafes, guest houses and bike rental businesses that have benefited from the steady increase of visitors, along with the resurrection of rice paddies on Teshima island that had declined when there was no one left to maintain them.
The 2016 Triennale welcomes back some familiar faces. Ando will be installing ‘Sakura no Mori’, a living cherry tree forest, and Yasuka Goto, whose arresting monochrome paintings based on local stories from Takamijima were shown in 2013, will also be contributing new work.
Shinro Ohtake returns with ‘Needle Factory’ an installation which incorporates an old ship hull found in boatyard on Uwajima. A contributor to the Art House project, Ohtake also created with Naoshima’s first bathhouse and literally immersive artwork. The I♥YU Bathhouse (“yu” = hot water in Japanese), is a mishmash of retro neon and glowing steamy windows. Having paid for a token in the colourful slot machine and duly shed their clothes, visitors will encounter pasted shunga lining the bottom of the baths and animated by the ripples of hot water, along with a veritas stuffed elephant presiding atop the wall separating men from women. International artists include Regina Silveira, a Brazilian artist whose installations play with visual illusion, and Christian Boltanski, who adds to his existing ‘Les Archives du Coeur’ on Teshima Island with a new work called ‘Animitas’, an installation of three hundred wind chimes.
The 2016 Setouchi Triennale runs from March 20th to April 17th, July 18th to September 4th, and October 8th to November 6th. The Benesse Art Site Naoshima is open to visitors all year round.
Text by Miranda Stuart
Source:
http://www.theartcircus.com/blog/2016-setouchi-triennale/
