On March 30, 7-9pm, we’re hosting a two-part event with and around what the punk polymath G.B. Jones and her Dutch counterparts have conjured into being through publishing.

The evening will begin with a conversation between graphic designer and researcher Rosen Eveleigh and Lot Oostveen, an editor of Wild Side—a magazine by and about the queer, lesbian and BDSM locale of Amsterdam and Utrecht in 1990-96.

Following this, G.B. Jones will take the stage so that we can finally—twenty-eight years after its first attempted publication and subsequent censorship—have a proper book launch for G.B. Jones, the artist’s only monograph featuring the complete raunchy collection of Tom Girls drawings. This publication is finally seeing the light of day thanks to our franchise sister Kunstverein Toronto, and will be available for sale and signing(!) on the night.

Limited spots available.
Entree: €10 (free for members).

In the 90’s, ‘Customs’ was really on a crusade against LGBT bookstores. […] I did a drawing at that time for Kevin [Killian] and Dodie [Bellamy] of two women standing in front of a bookcase ‘Subversive Literature #4: Two Sixteen-Year-Old Girls Reading Books Seized at Canadian Customs, 1995’ that showed the spines of all the books that had been banned to date by Canada’s customs agency. I took it from a list that was made by (the anti-censorship) group called PEN international, who I unfortunately only discovered after my books had already been burned—GB Jones (In conversation with D St-Amour, Jun 29, 2022)

I think one of the reasons [that] G.B. Jones started J.D.s was to create a world that, sadly, didn’t exist.—Johnny Noxzema

Kunstverein will begin the new year with the festive opening of the first European solo exhibition of punk polymath G.B. Jones (1965, Bowmanville, Canada). Please join us on January 20 between 5-8pm. Brace yourself… Here’s where we begin. 

In 1994, Feature Inc., a gallery in New York run by the gallerist known simply as “Hudson,” released G.B. Jones. This monograph of G.B. Jones’ work was doing triple duty as the 7th issue of Farm (Hudson’s publication for Feature) and the 8th issue of The Gentlewomen of California (Steve Lafreniere, the resident designer and collaborator at Feature Inc, his own publishing project). The monograph presented an extensive reproduction of her well known series of drawings collectively referred to as “Tom Girls”: originally published in Jones’ and Bruce LaBruce’s infamous zine J.D.s, (1985–1991). In these graphite  drawings, Jones replaced Tom of Finland’s iconic, “hyper-virile studs,” with equally horny, unrepentant leather dykes.Co-opting Finland’s objectified, male-on-male erotica, she presented a freeing world of sexually empowered female role models.

During that era (and more or less still to this day), under Tariff Code 9956 and Memorandum D9-1-1, Canadian customs officials held the power to exercise “prior restraint” of any book, magazine or picture they believed to be obscene. What constituted obscenity was ascertained through a quagmire of perplexing and recursive attributions that left Border Services agents primarily reliant on a system that was open to highly subjective interpretation—in short, Border Services agents were permitted to “use their own judgment”. As a result, anything attached to the LGBT community, regardless of their content, was targeted. So, when a short year later copies of G.B. Jones rocked up at a Canadian checkpoint, the artist received a notice from Canada’s Border Security Agency that the publication had been seized by customs officials and barred from entering the country. Finding herself already operating on a no-budget as filmmaker and with not a dime to spare, she was unable to secure legal counsel for the retrieval of the seized books, which consequently were burned by Customs agents. Despite tariff and language revisions, Canadian Border Services still retains many of the same rights as it did at the time, and Canada’s determination of “obscenity” remains just as ambiguous and subjective. The subjectivity of perversion doubled, the fantasy of power-play stripped to its very real reference point in this violent encounter with the state. 

Drawing out the moment around the publication of G.B. Jones’ monograph and its censorship in the mid-1990s, this exhibition will be both an earnest, admiring fan letter to G.B. Jones’ practice, and an homage to the perfectly vixen, queer world that Jones and her network conjured into being, via film, sound and Xerox. Importantly, it will also mark the belated, though no less significant, republishing and European launch of the censored monograph G.B. Jones. 

Within the framework of Jones’ exhibition, Kunstverein is happy to announce a series of events expanding on her practice. Jones is known for a variety of achievements, including the popularity of her post-punk band Fifth Column (1981-2002), the wide influence of the queer punk zines she co-authored, such as J.D.s, Double Bill, and Hide, the creation of the term “queercore,” and her prolific work as a “no-budget” filmmaker, scene photographer, and visual artist. As such, the public program will feature events that show the scope and influence of Jones’ varied practice both then and now. More concrete information about these event will be put inline soon! 

Kunstverein would like to thank the artist, Cooper Cole as well as Kara Hamilton
and Kari Cwynar of Kunstverein Toronto who, in collaboration with D St-Amour, initiated this important retrospective of Jones’ art practice and the reprint. An additional thank you to Olivier Goethals for working with us on the scenography. We would also like to thank our members and Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst for their continued support, as well as Stadsdeel Zuid for their project specific contribution to this exhibition.

Alex Balgiu, co-editor of the anthology Women in Concrete Poetry: 1959-1979 (primary Information, 2020), joins us in the exhibition space for a deep dive into Kozłowska’s use of concrete poetry. Durring this talk he will touch upon other constellations of women artists working at the intersection of the verbal and visual who sought to liberate words from the conventions of genre, gender, and normative syntax.

Serving: vodka shots and pickles!

Limited spots available.
Entree: €10 (free for members).

There is something exciting about a first draft – anarchic, scrappy, full of life, flawed. There is something in a first draft that a second does not. Our lives are full of misery, but what about the thrill of being here together, in this terrible time, knowing that life will not be so terrible once the next draft comes? – Sheila Heti, Pure Colour

Please join us at the bottom of a glass in celebration of Samantha McCulloch’s Lagoon: the first title of Kunstverein Publishing’s new series First Drafts. The launch will take place at lakeside distillery ’t Nieuwe Diep (Flevopark 13a, 1095 KE Amsterdam) on Wednesday June 29, from 6pm. McCulloch will give a reading from the book at 6:30 sharp and will take the form of a guided walk around the lake, through the bushes and in the grass.

Part prose poem, part reflection on the relations between writing and place, Lagoontells the story of the slow undoing of an idyll. In it the narrator walks for hours during long summer nights, gazing through the windows that line the streets. In between, she reflects on how she might write about the shifting space of the lagoon, where she spent summer holidays with her family years ago. In adolescence, the narrator watches quietly as her mother, father and sister go about building their holiday home. But she can sense something is awry, she just does not fully understand what.

It’s the perfect pocket sized book to grab before leaving town to various bodies of water, at just €18 (members enjoy a 50% discount).

Mariavittoria Campodonico, Jungmyung Lee, Linda van Deursen
Kunstverein’s Mobile Merch Shop
May 12–15, 2022
Various locations: pick-up points

As part of Amsterdam Art Weekend 2022, and with our own space still under construction, Kunstverein will be roaming around all across town. We will be selling a fresh batch of March Merch goodies at our mobile merch shop: socks by type designer Jungmyung Lee, pins by artist-designer Mariavittoria Campodonico and stickers by designer Linda van Deursen. Come and get them while they are not yet hot.

Here’s when and where to find us:

Thursday May 12, 2022:
6–8pm: Opposite Annet Gelink Gallery (Laurierstraat 189, 1016PL, Amsterdam). This stop will mark the launch of the *new* merch in the presence of Jungmyung Lee and Mariavittoria Campodonico.

Friday May 13, 2022:
12–4pm: Opposite Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Sarphatistraat 470, 1018GW, Amsterdam)
5–7pm: Museumplein Basketball Court (between Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum)

Saturday May 14, 2022:
12–4pm: Opposite Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Sarphatistraat 470, 1018GW, Amsterdam)
5–9pm: IJpromenade, in front of Eye Film Museum

Sunday May 15, 2022:
12–4pm: Opposite Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Sarphatistraat 470, 1018GW, Amsterdam)
5–7pm: Opposite P/////AKT (Zeeburgerpad 53, 1019AB, Amsterdam)

Sipping Dirty Feminist Martinis
May 13, 2022, 9pm–2am
On location: Het Hem

When our speakeasy bar, Bob’s Your Uncle, opened in the back of our exhibition space back in 2015, the first drink we served in it was a Dirty Feminist Martini – a recipe by the virtue of Melissa Gordon served in conjunction with the launch of PERSONA, an artist-led magazine which she co-edits. Since the drink still very much echoes in our activities, we invite you to come taste a serving of this resurrected beauty on May 13 during Amsterdam Art Weekend’s party at Het Hem. While you sip your drink, our director Yana Foque and our former colleague Reinier Klok will browse through their collection of MP3s between 11pm and 2am.

Tickets for the event cost €7,50 and can be purchased here. Members of Kunstverein can come for free. RSVP if you would like to attend.

Also, since part of the initiative at Het Hem is to highlight ​​Amsterdam’s project spaces, Kunstverein will be selling some of its editions and March Merch. What will we have in store? A bag by Rudy Guedj, an ashtray by Sarah Crowner and a keychain by Sabo Day.

Clara Amaral
She gave it to me I got it from her
On Location: Huis de Pinto (Sint Antoniesbreestraat 69, Amsterdam)
Launch: March 1,  7—9pm (free)
Performances: March 4—6, daily at 6pm, 7.30pm, 9pm (€12.5/ €8 for members)

She gave it to me I got it from her is a dormant performance in book form that skips through five generations of women in Clara Amaral’s family and hinges on the one in the middle—the last one in the sequence to not have been taught how to read or write. What at first sounds like some family trivia in actuality offers a glimpse into a deeply rooted sociocultural obstacle that many women in Portugal faced up until the 1950s, before the reform of the education system—which until then often excluded women on the basis of their gender or economic status. 

She gave it to me I got it from her is more than the sum of its pages. Of course, it can be read according to convention, from front to back, left to right, page one to page two, and so on. Most probably, in this case, the text will appear to be nonsensical. This stratagem is employed to underline the notion that the conventional isn’t necessarily right, while also emulating the frustration experienced by someone who is excluded from cracking the code of language. Alternatively, you can read the publication according to its score, which will reveal the path hidden in its pages. Better yet! You can let the author take you by the hand and lead you along this route with manual dexterity, ultimately ripping the structures it’s bound together by apart.

Attend the launch
For the occasion we have  organised a rare screening of Guy Sherwin’s film Messages (16mm, 35min), a diary-essay recording the development of language, in words and drawings, of his young daughter Maya which sits nicely in parallel to Amaral’s own practice. You’ll also have a chance to flip through the book, buy it on the spot and talk to Amaral in person. Please note that the launch on the 1st of March doesn’t include the performance by Amaral.

To join, simply show up. When we’ve reached full capacity we will adhere to a one-in, one-out policy. Please note that you will be asked to show your proof of vaccination, recovery certificate or a negative test when entering.

Attend a performance
Later that same week Amaral will activate the performance (60min) daily at 6, 7.30 and 9pm. Tickets to attend one of these moments on either March 4, 5 or 6 can be purchased via the website of our co-hosts Veem House for Performance. The audience for each performance is limited to a maximum of five.

In 2022 our members-exclusive Backing Vocals program continues. Over the past year we were thrilled to hear that some of these one-on-one conversations brought about new friendships, new collaborations or a nudge in the right direction. Such an outcome was beyond our biggest hopes for what this thing could be and do, so, onwards!

Image 1: Peggy Ahwesh, Tears of Eros, a lexicon in the style of Georges Bataille, video still.
Image 2: Peggy Ahwesh, The Color of Love, 1994, video still.

First Drafts—Open Call
Deadline: October 30, 2021

A first draft is usually something a writer hopes never sees the light of day. It is often too rough and more likely to land on the bottom of a desk drawer rather than in the hands of a publisher. However, inspired by the freedom Anne Turyn gave the authors she worked with for Top Stories and in awe of the writers she managed to give their first publishing opportunity to, we concluded: this is a risk worth taking! With this new series we aim to focus on publishing the work of young writers whose work is simply too weird or experimental for commercial publishers.

Mind you though, when we say young we don’t mean young in age necessarily—we mean young in the form of writing you are taking up. Maybe the draft you submit is the first attempt you’ve made to ever write a narrative-based manuscript, but you’ve written more standard art criticism your whole life. Or maybe it’s the first time you’ve written at all, instead usually working in another medium altogether. This is fine by us!

For this inaugural Open Call are welcoming the submission of complete but not-yet finalised or published manuscripts of any kind. They can be written in any language, but must be accompanied by an English translation (to assist with the editorial process). Artists and writers based in the Netherlands will receive preferential treatment, however we also welcome anyone who truly feels addressed by this open call, the Netherlands aside. If all this sounds good then please submit to this open call by filling in this form before October 30.

The candidate we will go forward with will receive a fee of €2000 as well as ongoing editorial, production and promotional support from the team at Kunstverein. Your book will be printed in an edition of 200 copies and distributed worldwide with the help of our distributor Idea Books.

Lucy Lippard & Jerry Kearns
Tense (Book launch)
June 25, 8–9pm

Tense is a never-realised publication by Lucy Lippard and Jerry Kearns from 1984 that we’ve now released on our imprint Kunstverein Publishing in a very limited run. The release accompanies our current exhibition Top Stories by Anne Turyn, as it was originally intended to become a Top Stories issue of its own. It was only recently—during the making of our show—that it was retrieved from the editor’s archives and finally sent off to the printer. On June 25 between 8pm and 9pm we will celebrate the fruition of an old idea in a new jacket alongside a talk and a drink with the authors and editor.

Salon Hang 24/7
June 19–28
On location: Hortusbrug—Dr. D.M. Sluyspad 6, 1018 DH Amsterdam
Open daily between 1–5pm, AND at night between 7pm–11am

Opening: Friday 18 June, 6–8pm. Exclusively for members of Kunstverein and professional guests of Amsterdam Art.

Overnight stays: Available from Saturday June 19 till June 29. Overnight stays, including breakfast, come at the rate of € 190, €130 for members, or free for gold members! Check availability.

For the fourth time in our twelve-year history we are happy to host our biennial Salon Hang, an exuberant, sensory-overloading group exhibition showcasing the abundance of local and international talent we’re happy to call our members.

For this edition we’ll take up residence in a former bridge house-turned-hotel suite adjoining the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam. Fancy! Because it’s special! It’s time to rekindle! Don’t you think? For ten days and ten nights we will highlight the practices of the individuals who back us—a multi-voiced community of thinkers and makers. Expect the lofty and the low, the known and the obscure all sharing a figurative bed.

With work by, among others: 

Ginger&Piss#5: Audience
From Saturday November 28, 1pm onwards
Kunstverein, Hazenstraat 28, 1016SR Amsterdam

Usually, for Kunstverein’s sporadic in-house magazine Ginger&Piss, five specific people are invited to speak their mind or provide candid critique on art world customs and traditions under the somewhat-cowardice disguise of a nom de plume. However, for this fifth issue, guest editors Reinier Klok and Isabelle Sully took a slightly different approach and extended that invitation to you as well, our audience. Split across two formats—a preliminary online magazine-cum-survey and the usual printed one—this Ginger&Piss serves two aimes. On the one hand it provides unfabricated answers to questions about who Kunstverein’s audience really is (or is not, yet!) and on the other it attempts to bring to the surface the many factors that can complicate statistical reasoning in the first place—the very reasoning that is insisted upon by funding bodies and boards alike in order to measure the levels of engagement at various institutions.

As is customary, a new issue is supposed to be combined with a performance and a crowd, but with the absence of that for the foreseeable future we decided to circumvent the limits of our space by stretching out the launch itself, like a rubber band in time. Instead, we would like to offer you a drink on the house when you have the time. That can be next Saturday at 1pm, but it might also be in a month from now, or a year. While you serve us by continuing to show up in support of our program, we’ll thankfully serve you a liquid translation of the answers given to the survey question: ‘What type of audience member do you consider yourself to be in relation to us?’ It’s an interesting mix!

Ginger&Piss #5: Audience is for sale for €15. Members get 50% off!

Seth’s Books Bookshop
November 26 – December 23
Laughter, Columbusplein 233, 1057 TP Amsterdam
Open: Tue–Sat, 11am–5.30pm

Duane Michals, “Photograph of Seth Siegelaub,” (1969) Courtesy of the Artist and the Siegelaub Collection & Archives at the Stichting Egress Foundation, Amsterdam.

In 1969, when Seth Siegelaub set up the exhibition January 5–31, 1969 he left these typewritten instructions for his then secretary Adrian Piper:

1. Get keys
2. Answer phone “Seth Siegelaub”
3. Catalogs are available only at gallery – if any one wants extras we will mail them. (except for the press)
4. If someone is interested in purchasing work, call me.
5. My other phone is 288-5031.
6. Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 – 5:30.
7. Gallery will exist for this month only.
8. Every morning turn on both Robert Barry pieces.
9. Lawrence Weiner has one freehold piece (see catalog) – if anyone inquires about this – tell them they can own the piece by making arrangements with Mr. Weiner at GR7-4113.
10. Haved people sign guest book.
11. The tpyewritten Information sheet is for press only.
12. For the first six hours of the exhibition (sat.) take a polaroid photo every 1/2 hour of the Huebler sawdust (looking into the hall) and then place it on the wall (with scotch tape) near the type-written document. At the end of the 6 hours (5 PM Sat.) remove the sawdust and throw it away.

To celebrate the launch of Seth Siegelaub “Better Read than Dead”: Writings and Interviews 1964–2013 (in which the above note is included) Kunstverein will take a cue from Seth’s instructions and transform our second space, located at Columbusplein 233, into a Seth’s Books Bookshop for one month only. The arrival of this new publication, modestly financially supported by Kunstverein, is especially exciting for us since it marks the important moment that this inspirational material by the hand of our dear friend and former board member Seth Siegelaub is made available to a larger audience in one concise volume, a wonderful initiative from our current board member Marja Bloem. The Seth’s Books Bookshop set-up in celebration of this occasion will be exclusively devoted to selling books by and about Seth Siegelaub, all of which make for perfect Christmas presents. The shelves will be stocked with, among others: How To Read Donald Duck, rare books on the history of textiles, The Joke Book and of course this newest publication.

Saturday, September 19, 7pm
Closing Event Summer Res(t)idency: Making Bread into Dough

As we are nearing the end of summer and slipping into fall, please join us on Saturday September 19 at 7pm at Hazenstraat 28 for the final event of this year’s Summer Res(t)idency, for which we have hosted the Swedish, Amsterdam-based textile artist Matilda Kenttä.

Since the start of summer, under the title Making Bread into Dough, Kenttä has explored the importance of valuing laziness over constant productivity during the time when most of us were enjoying ‘time off’. Kenttä has been toiling away at odd hours of the day on a vertical loom she installed in Kunstverein’s front space, weaving thoughts and conversations on gossip, the gendered history of labour and the development of the loom itself into the fabric of the very works she was making. With the space being open to visitors while Kenttä worked, the social and performative element of weaving also became central to her process. This aspect has been literally logged in the four works that were produced, as Kenttä noted the visitors she received alongside a list of recycled items she used (as well as their previous owners) to make the new pieces. To celebrate the four site-specific textile works that resulted from Kenttä’s res(t)idency—such as a towel for Kunstverein’s soon-to-be-renovated kitchen—we have invited Elina Birkehag, Amelia Groom, Adelheid Smit and Elaine Wing-Ah Ho to each write a short reflection on one of the four works. These texts will be made available as a collection on the 19th. We invite you to come and read them up close, right at home in their intended setting.

See you then!

Spring arrives at the café (BLOOD book launch)
June 18, 6–8pm
Columbusplein 233, 1057 TX Amsterdam

This event marks the unveiling of BLOOD, the newest publication on our imprint, edited and designed by Line-Gry Hørup. BLOOD has been six years in the making. This long-awaited publication presents the first-ever translations of the fourteen (and only) poems written by the Danish art historian and publisher R. Broby-Johansen in 1922, for which he was sentenced to jail. In vivid and gory details, the poems depict the red-light district of Copenhagen’s underbelly. In them, he defends those subjected to misery and poverty, and comments on the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie responsible for their misery. The appendix of the book gives a unique insight into Broby-Johansen’s methodology, interests and life following the end of his career as a poet, through photographs taken by Johannes Schwartz and translations of the archive by Hørup.

Since a more traditional book launch is currently out of the question, we’re launching the book with a special vinyl by the editor/designer, installed on the front window of our *new* publishing-oriented location in Amsterdam-West. Simultaneously, from afar, you can enjoy a series of audio recordings of the poems from the book here.

For orders of the book, please contact us via email. Kunstverein members receive 50% off publications.

Never have I found myself dancing in a crowd—or at any event for that matter—looking around and dividing the people that surround me into categories and percentages: 20% native speakers, 15% students, 35% non-binary, 48% parents, 50% smokers, 79% drunk, 12% fun …

Talk about a mood kill!

But imagine, if only for the sake of conversation, it was in your interest to undertake such a task. How could you even begin to categorise and quantify the community around you? Who makes up that community? How do you reach out to them? With full understanding of the delusional validation the data of your answers might provide, rest assured that these exact questions will rear their head when writing funding applications—an unavoidable reality in the cultural field. And, while jumping through hoops and trying to stay true to the audience that you already serve (hoping to grant them the dignity of not becoming a stereotype) as well as those “potentially untapped” audiences you’re gently puppeteered toward by the political desires embedded in each application, what comes to mind above all is: what makes you stick to us? Or is it the other way around, as current events have provoked me to ask—have we, unknowingly but ever so gratefully, been sticking to you?

To better understand this conundrum we decided, at the start of 2020, to devote the fifth issue of our in-house magazine Ginger&Piss to this, aptly titled “Audience”. In no way imaginable could we have foreseen then how important its preliminary online format would become, now that one country after another has gone into lockdown, the whole apparatus of society has started to slow down, institutions across the world are hosting exhibitions that will never be physically visited, and many of us are haphazardly putting together an “online equivalent,” legitimising our efforts (and our paychecks) despite the absence of, well, you.

This issue of Ginger&Piss—part confession booth, part audience survey in disguise—serves two aims: first, it seeks to provide unfabricated answers to questions about who our audience is (or is not) and to qualify their engagement with us, and second, it attempts to bring to the surface the many factors that can complicate statistical reasoning. We, who are in the business of creative license after all, are strikingly aware that questions can be shaped to receive answers that shine a favourable light on this or that. A multiple choice question can be formalised in a way that no matter which option you select it will return the predicted outcome, an outcome that is often geared towards placating funding partners. Hard data that spells out a whiny “you see!”

While this strategy is our main reason for going against the usual practice of rendering a survey authorless by acknowledging our guest editors Isabelle Sully and Reinier Klok as its architects, you will also find a number of contributions dotted throughout the survey written under the guise of a pseudonym (offering our authors the—somewhat cowardly—liberty to speak to their own experiences with data politics and audience profiling in the artistic field without having to fear backlash). It goes without saying that the answers you provide, making you both a subject of and an accomplice to this issue of Ginger&Piss, enjoy the same anonymity.

It will only take, as the vague invocation goes, a minute of your time…

here

Still from Dec 16 of the 365 Day Project by Jonas Mekas, edited with Elle Burchill.

Tonight at 7pm we are organising a one time only screening of films by Jonas Mekas and Elle Burchill in the presence of the filmmaker/editor herself at Cinema De Uitkijk, Prinsengracht 452. Entrance is 10€ (5€ for members). This screening is a part of our current exhibition Who’s Werner? that looks into the labour and voices of long term “assistants” of well known artists.

Who’s Werner? is on until the end of this week.

We invite you to attend the celebratory launch of Grace Crowley – the newest publication of Riet Wijnen on our imprint Kunstverein Publishing. This launch will take place within the exhibition Who’s Werner? on 24 November at 3pm with a reading by Riet Wijnen and Rindon Johnson.

Grace Crowley is a publication based on letters sent to the Australian artist and pioneer of modernist painting Grace Crowley (1890–1979) by friends, family and colleagues. Parts of those letters, which are now housed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the State Library of New South Wales archives in Sydney, were transcribed and categorized by Wijnen in subsections such as ‘Marital Status’, ‘Teaching’, ‘Hosting’, ‘Eurasia’, ‘X’, ‘Being A Woman’, ‘War’, ‘$’, and ‘Making Work’. The result is an alternative biography constructed solely through a living set of relations.

For the occasion Wijnen has invited writer and artist Rindon Johnson to read Conversation Six: Double Lines together. This fictional dialogue brings Grace Crowley and the British Constructivist Marlow Moss (1889–1958) together, which partly stems from Marlow Moss, a book by Wijnen previously published on our imprint in 2013. Through short monologues Moss and Crowley introduce us to important personal, professional and political relationships they maintained throughout their lives, and slowly parallels start to unfold between their two lives. Similarly to the book this conversation is also divided into subsections such as ‘Mentor’, ‘Lovers’ and ‘Gender’.

This publication was made possible with the support of Biennale of Sydney, Mondriaan Fonds, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stichting Niemeijer Fonds, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, and Stichting Egress Foundation.

Club Night #5
with Ola Vasiljeva, The Plant Orchestra, La Fureur de Vouivre & Bence Meijer

Take the night off and join us for our fifth club night on October 3 at 8pm with; a special soundtrack compiled by Ola Vasiljeva to a film by Mark Rappaport; a therapeutic listening session, as much as it is a dance, between Alexandra Duvekot and the flora surrounding her under the moniker The Plant Orchestra; a shamanic concert by La Fureur de Vouivre sculpting a dazzling weave of nature and technology evoking rhythms from their handmade flutes made from herbs and reeds. This is a NOT TO BE MISSED evening of concerts interlaced with songs selected by Bence Meijer (Haperende Mens) from his archive.

Note that this event will take place on location:

Cinetol, Tolstraat 182, 1074 VM Amsterdam
Entrance to the event is practically nothing (€6 normal price, €4 for Kunstverein members and neighbours of Cinetol)

Kunstverein thanks it (Gold)members for their continued support to our program. Together with Cinetol we also wish to thank Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stadsdeel Amsterdam Zuidoost and Volkshotel for their support to the Club Nights.

Clubnight #4: What Am I Doing With My Life?
with Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, Jokūbas Čižikas, Indriði Arnar Ingólfsson, Géraldine Longueville and David Bernstein.

13 Juni, 9 pm
at Cinetol
Tolstraat 182
1074VM Amsterdam
€6 (€4 for Kunstverein members and neighbours of Cinetol)

Storyteller, performer, sculptor, illustrator, singer and pianist Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson roamed Europe in the past two year as a self-proclaimed M.D. with his traveling rap opera What Am I Doing With My Life? (W.A.I.D.W.M.L?) referencing the failures and perils of Western medicine.

Since then Styrmir has recorded an artist LP containing all the dark humoured rap songs and lullabies he composed on that tour together with his “Medical Faculty” (consisting of Jokūbas Čižikas, Indriði Arnar Ingólfsson, Jurgis Paškevičius, Thomas Myrmel, Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Géraldine Longueville, David Bernstein, Anat Spiegel, Bergur Thomas Anderson, Arnar Ásgeirsson, Örn Alexander Ámundason, Hilmar Guðjónsson, Žygimantas Kudirka, Curver Thoroddsen).

The fourth edition of Cinetol and Kunstverein’s joined Club Night marks the Dutch release of this unique record and will be celebrated with a concert by Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, Jokūbas Čižikas, Indriði Arnar Ingólfsson & David Bernstein. Géraldine Longueville will brew a special sage potion for the occasion to calm the nerves.

The record, which also contains a set of drawings made by Guðmundsson especially for each track, will be for sale on the Club Night for a reduced price of €35.

Kunstverein thanks it (Gold)members for their continued support to our program. Together with Cinetol we also wish to thank Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stadsdeel Amsterdam Zuidoost and Volkshotel for their support to the Club Nights.

Dear all,

It’s been a year in the making! And now:

Join us on Saturday 25 May, between 5 and 7pm, for the launch of Ginger&Piss #4: The Intern!

Ginger&Piss is published whenever we see fit and its remit is simple: to provide a platform for candid critique but at the same time allow the AUTHOR to stay hidden. The concept dictates that each contributor writes under a pseudonym and is offered full anonymity by the editors. This use of pseudonyms can be considered an answer to the cowardice of the art world, albeit a somewhat hypocritical one. ‘Loud’, ‘Gay’ and ‘Private’ were the themes of number 1, 2 and 3 respectively; Ginger&Piss #4 is dedicated to ‘The Intern’.
The Intern is guest edited by our two long term ‘interns’, Claes Storm and Mark Emil Poulsen, and offers a voice to the sorrows and sighs of various interns within their network. But the magazine doesn’t only look at the issue from bottom up! It also contains the voices of those who have guided interns and have come to regret their efforts.

JUICY STUFF!

To give voice to the anonymous authors Gabriel Lester will read Re: Ginger&Piss #4 by ___________, Andrea Wiarda will read The Pencil Sharpener by Roxana Rosenthal, Chris Evans will read Doing Time by Mads-Egil Petersen – Interluded by – Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons’ intern – Sophie de Seriere reciting The Magic of The Assistant I, II & III by The Great Illusionist.

But the fun doesn’t stop there!

One week later on Friday 31 May at 7 pm, we invite you to join us for the launch of Octopus of Offshoots, a Werkplaats Typografie publication edited by the custodians of Speelplaats year 19 – Adriaan Van Leuven and Oliver Boulton. Together they proposed a way of working through imitation. Imitation, not so much in the aspect of ‘copying’, but in the idea of chewing, digesting and regurgitating an existing thing. The outcome of these exercises that took place at WT throughout 2018 will be presented along with new contributions to the publication: a series of readings written or composed by Adriaan Van Leuven, Line Gry Hørup, Mariana Lobão, Oliver Boulton, Robert Milne and Tabea Nixdorff.

You’re in a derelict wharf building. You lie outstretched on a balding lawn. You’re in a world of language and numbers and grids. You’re treading across a layer of unbroken snow. You’re on an escalator moving upward through a glass chute. You enter an empty courtroom. You arrive at a door. Your eyes open onto soft pink walls in a dimly lit bathroom barely larger than a coat closet. You remove all items from your pockets. You put your money in the slot.

Join us at POTTS this Friday, April 12 at *7PM sharp* for the launch of Second Thoughts: Selected Writings, an epic paperback compiling ten years’ of collected re-re-rewrites by Angie Keefer.

The author will be present, along with special guest, artist and renowned hypnotist Marcos Lutyens, who will perform a group hypnosis based on scripts originally composed by Keefer for The Hypnotic Show – an eyes-shut exhibition created by Lutyens and Raimundas Malašauskas – and republished in this new volume.

Refreshments will be served.

Second Thoughts: Selected Writings (544 pages) is designed by Scott Ponik and co-published by Plug In ICA. It follows Kunstverein’s earlier publication, Paper Exhibition: Selected Writings by Raimundas Malašauskas, as the second in a series of books featuring the work of one extraordinary author whose writing has never before been collected in a dedicated, single object. From Friday onward the book can also be ordered worldwide via Idea Books. €25 is its normal price, $20 at the launch!

^Angie Keefer is an artist and writer who lives in rural upstate New York. Lately, she makes desk visits at the Werkplaats Typografie and leads a seminar on artificial intelligence at the Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam. You can find out more about her exhibition history, her looks, her many and varied professional accolades, and her untimely demise on the internet.

^Marcos Lutyens’s practice centers on the investigation of consciousness to engage at the mental as well as at the physical level. Investigations have included consciousness research with social groups such as the third-gender Muxhe, Raeilians, synaesthetes, border migrants, space engineers, and urban designers. Marcos has exhibited internationally in numerous museums, galleries, and biennials, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); The Armory, New York (2017); and dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel (2012). Recently his work has been included in the 33rd Bienal de São Paulo and the Havana Biennial (2019).

POTTS
2130 VALLEY BLVD
ALHAMBRA, CA 91803
Los Angeles

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) Members, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, and Ammodo Fonds for their continued support of our program. We also wish to thank Werkplaats Typografie and POTTS for co-hosting this unique event.

Kunstverein goes wild at Studium Generale
Wednesday 27 March 2019
http://takeawalkonthewildside.rietveldacademie.nl/page/conference

• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
  Museumplein 10
  1071 DJ Amsterdam

he’s reading The Cut, on Deciem CEO Brandon Truaxe’s psychotic breakdowns posted live on his Instagram feed just days before his passing and in the next browser has New York’s Sex Diaries open. But that’s not all, she’s also looking for corrective bikinis, new glasses and a not too boutiquish Spanish hotel, a cheap flight to Dubai, where she can get her new face cleanser, cheaper and at How To Get The Most Out Of Your Next Coaching Session. She’s got Nora Turato’s script the good, the bad and the viscose open and is switching back and forth between it and her browsers…. About halfway into the script of she reads:

she prefers thank you over sorry.

She stops all searches there.

Imagine that. Consistently choosing thank you instead of using sorry – what would it entail? She promises herself to contemplate that later while she pulls out Bret Easton Ellis’s novel Glamorama from her shelves, lays it on her glass desk and then decides to google it instead of go through the actual book. And even though she has to admit that her bedside table now holds very different literature (The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success by Deepak Chopra, The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, 21 Lessons For The 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari), she thinks about Victor, poor Victor who finds himself in the quake of his hazardous media-centred life unable to stop the rush of the transitory where pseudo-famous looks and acts the same as famous. And maybe that’s the difference between 1998 and 2019: there IS no difference anymore between pseudo and non-pseudo, there is no need for capitulation. We can swim through it. To speak with Harari: we’re beyond the ‘global stories’ we’re in the ‘Trump moment’ hand in hand with the ‘Brexit period’.
But still….
She says:
Take a deep breath.

Take the day as a remedy, a retreat, a parachute drop out of this frippery and these pseudo-fame trappings. Take this day as a day of experiences, involvements, encounters, occurrences, friendship, digital avoidances, first person accounts, parallel perceptions, alternative languages and song. ‘In waves and ribbons, and transitions, accompanied by silences and lights. A stroll’ with Alice Chauchat and Raimundas Malašauskas. Listening to time travel with Rosalind Nashashibi. Encountering ‘a misdirected weeping angel within a close proximity communication method’ hosted by Austin Redman with Darío Dezfuli and Heleen Mineur. Dancing, swaying and being involved in the occasion of Isabel Lewis. Topped emotionally with a ballad sung to you by Mark Buckeridge.

• Studium Generale Rietveld Academie this year takes place at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on 27 until 30 March between 10 am and 5 pm. Entrance to the event is € 3,– (excl. museum entrance), Rietveld students and KV Members are admitted for free.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Ammodo for their support.

Club Night: Beyond the Desert, Do Ghosts Wither?

With Lucrecia Dalt, Love-Songs & Mitko Mitkov, Tintin Patrone & Orpheu de Jong
Invited by Phuong-Dan

20 March, 9 pm
at Cinetol
Tolstraat 182
1074VM Amsterdam

For this third edition of our monthly Club Night Hamburg based cultural anthropologist and DJ Phuong-Dan has selected a number of artists that through their practice will contemplate our (eurocentric) fascination for the foreign and explore both our glorification as well as our prejudices for the other, the unknown. The evening is a critical inquiry of our exotizing habits, of which the creation of stereotypes is one, but it is also an acknowledgment and acceptance of the foreign as a source of artistic inspiration. This ambivalence is approached in a diverse, playful way through; the musical contribution by Lucrecia Dalt, Orpheu de Jong, the band Love-Songs, a reading by Mitko Mitkov and an installation by Tintin Patrone.

These contributions do not want to provide an answer, but rather offer an illustration of how we can reflect critically, poetically and sometimes slightly dark humoured on our shared histories, routines and habits. Submerge yourself in a work made especially for this event by Tintin Patrone based on the popular Taiwanese Broadway musical from 2014 called ‘Fort Zeelandia’ depicting the Dutch presence in Taiwan, followed by a live performance of Lucrecia Dalt on the subject of Terra Nullius (No Man’s Land). After, Love-Songs will play a single one song titled Inselbegabung (Savant Syndrome) dealing with the phenomenon of someones extreme talent, in specifically one thing. Simultaneously, Mitko Mitkov will let us be part of his subjective imaginations of speculative islands. The evening will conclude with a listening set by Orpheu de Jong who will explore the topic by searching through his own collection of so-called Library Music – a genre which often categorizes music by continent, country or region and in doing so emphasizes the western construction and reduction of the faraway.

Phuong-Dan is a DJ based in Hamburg, Germany. For over a decade now he is both resident and host at legendary St. Pauli underground venue Golden Pudel Club. In addition, he works on a project-specific basis amongst others as a screenwriter, photographer and music curator.

Lucrecia Dalt dove into music full–time after working as a civil engineer in Colombia. Her pursuit of avant–garde sound brought her to Spain and then to Germany, where she currently resides. While highly technical, Dalt has always balanced the sharp mind of a methodical thinker with the restless heart of a passionate artist, gradually seeking a way to create handcrafted mental states through sound, maintaining a quantity of emotionality, merging accessible, melody with abstract structures, handcrafted effects and sampling. Her recent work develops around the ideas of repositioning fiction, time perception, scale, telluric effect, repetition, vocoding and sound dynamics.

TinTin Patrone is a German-Filipino multi-disiplinary artist who has worked as a composer, musician, actress, film and music producer, painter, performance artist and author. The connections between music, art, sound and experimental gesture is the general field TinTin Patrone is interested in. One focus of her creations lies on the visual elements of music, the tension between conceptual ideas and physical existence and how we relate to music individually and as a society. Her performances and installations include elements from musical Concept-Art, Fluxus and Social practice. Another important inspiration that informs her artistic practice is the culture of associations and clubs; she often performs with her orchestra or cooperates with other artists and collectives.

Love-Songs are Thomas Korf, Manuel Chittka and Sebastian Kokus. The trio has developed its own musical twist over the past few years. Different variations of Kraut music becoming an amalgamation of the heritage of German avant-garde pop music. Influences of Dub, Wave and Cosmic Music are obvious but rudimentary. The development of a new (musical) language is the primus of their work and finds a temporary climax on the recently released ‘Inselbegabung EP’ on Kame House Records.

Mitko Mitkov is a writer and publisher who lives and works in Hamburg. He is active in the fields of art and culture, initiating various projects mostly through his platform One%ofOne (oneofone-verlag.com).

Orpheu de Jong
Taking real pride and joy in unearthing and sharing his usually musical treats, Orpheu The Wizard is musically curious and invites his audiences to be so too. As versatile as he is eclectic, you are as likely to be floating in outer space one moment as you are rooted to a beat the next. Orpheu is a celebrated DJ known for the breadth and depth of his taste and the passion with which he plays. He is also the co-founder of Red Light Radio and the in house designer for Dekmantel.

Kunstverein thanks it (Gold)members for their continued support to our program. Together with Cinetol we also wish to thank Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Stadsdeel Amsterdam Zuidoost and Volkshotel for their support to the Club Nights. A special thank you for this event goes out to the Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam and RE:VIVE, an initiative by Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid.

2 notebooks
ca. 250 recipes
1 World War
1 prisoner of war and great-uncle, Giosué Fiorentino
1 artist and great-nephew, Leone Contini
1 keeper/transcriber and niece, Annarita Caputo
2 Kunstvereins, Amsterdam and Milano
1 graphic designer, Marc Hollenstein
1 launch

Please join us on February 28 at 7.30 pm for the launch of Kunstverein’s most recent publication, Riccetario Imaginato (The Imaginary Cookbook). The launch will be held at Mangiassai (Ruyschstraat 42, Amsterdam) and is accompanied by a 3 course dinner with custom wines. Places are limited, so please book your seat in advance via office@kunstverein.nl.

Riccetario Imaginato contains 250 regional Italian recipes drawn from two small handwritten notebooks, marked “B98” and “Ricettario Culinare n. 2” (“Culinary recipe book no. 2”). These notebooks once belonged to Giosué Fiorentino, and were compiled by him and other Italian war prisoners in a German prison camp. They had been brought there after having been captured by the Austro-Hungarian and German armies during the 12th, and last, Battle of the Isonzo (also known as the Battle of Caporetto or rather, the most disastrous defeat in Italian military history). Writing down these recipes and discussing the right way to prepare certain dishes became a survival strategy for this group of men who were succumb by hunger.
            It is the first time that the recipes from the notebooks have been published in both Italian and English, alongside the reproductions of the original pages of the notebooks.

            Simultaneously this book marks the end of a number of imaginary dinners organised by Kunstverein Milano and Amsterdam – with real food – that took place at several locations and were orchestrated, commented on, and hosted by the great-nephew of Giosué Fiorentino, Italian artist Leone Contini. This dinner and launch will be the final chapter.

The dinner includes a starter, a main and a dessert, 3 glasses of wine, coffee or tea and… a free book!

Price: €45 for members / €55 for non members.

Kunstverein wishes to thank our (Gold) members, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) and Ammodo. A special thank you goes out to Stadsdeel Oost for their support to this project!

Zapp Magazine Club Night with Kathe Burkhart, Sean Dower, Karl Holmqvist, Annika Ström stand-in and Cosy Camping.

20 February, 9 pm
at Cinetol
Tolstraat 182
1074VM Amsterdam

€6 (€4 for Kunstverein members and neighbours of Cinetol)

When was the last time you found yourself in a space where the ceiling was just a little bit too low, the music a little too loud, the drinks warm and everyone smoking, singing along to ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ between breaths… Without wanting to bring out too much of the nostalgia, we would like you to join us for the second Club Night* hosted by Kunstverein, at Cinetol.

This time the event is centered around Zapp Magazine, a (initially) quarterly magazine on VHS videotape which allowed you to watch exhibitions from the comfort of your own couch. The parts you didn’t like you could fast-forward through, the ones you did you could watch on endless repeat. It was an initiative by Corinne Groot, Jack Jaeger, Arnold Mosselman and Rob van de Ven. With the help of correspondents from all over the world Zapp had eyes and ears everywhere and covered exhibitions, performances and… afterparties!

While you can binge-watch all the original tapes in the exhibition featuring the full Zapp Magazine archive at Kunstverein until March 16, we invite you to experience the performative work of a few artists featured in the video tapes, live on stage during our second Club Night at Cinetol on February 20.

With Kathe Burkhart (Zapp #0 &1) reading from xx, Sean Dower (Zapp # 3 & 4) introducing a new musique concrète composition titled 331/2, a performance by Karl Holmqvist (Zapp #3 & 4), a tentative appearance by Aernout Mik (Zapp #6 & 9), and a stand-in performance by xx of Annika Ström hit ‘I Don’t Know What to Sing’ guided by casio-piano. Cosy Camping will provide tunes before and after.

During the event we will also screen extra footage from the Zapp Magazine archive, including footage from Lothar Hempel’s Lotusclub, selected by Rob van de Ven en Corinne Groot to set the scene.

*Club Nights is a series of events in which we focus on artists who as well have a ‘lesser known’ musical practice, or vice versa, and invite them to share their work for one night in the small club setting of Cinetol.

Cinetol and Kunstverein wish to thank Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) and Stadsdeel Zuid for their support to this program.

The New Body by Astrit Ismaili
8–15 December 2018
Opening: 7 December 2018

On Friday December 7, Astrit Ismaili will present their performance The New Body at Kunstverein. For The New Body, Ismaili designed a wearable musical instrument that challenges the biological body’s physical and mental capacities by adding to and changing natural (given) traits. The New Body underlines their ongoing engagement into body and gender politics, and their exploration of the human voice in relation to physical movement.

The performance starts at 7 pm sharp, but you can join us for a glass of Glühwein in front of our space from 6.30 pm. In the week following the performance, a ghostly hologram of The New Body will inhabit Kunstverein (on view during regular opening hours until December 15).

This performance has been made possible with the help of Mondriaan Fonds, LambdaLambdaLambda, Digital Spring, Salts, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Yesterday I heard someone speak on a podcast about Roger Ailes, the sinister strategist behind the success of Fox News (and the comeback of Richard Nixon), saying that Ailes’ insight was that if you provide them with “emotion, drama, and conflict,” the “people” will be yours: create non-stop emotion, drama, and conflict, and the society will replicate your presence through obsessive fixation, whether as supporters or detractors. In this sense, I’ve surely done my part to perpetuate the current insanity. And I think the play that’s in the back of the book is about this.

– Angie Keefer, in an email sent to Kunstverein on November 7, 2018.

Second Thoughts by Angie Keefer
25 November, between 3–5 pm

Kunstverein Publishing is happy to announce a new book by Angie Keefer titled Second Thoughts: Selected Writings 2008–2018. This book follows up on Kunstverein’s earlier publication Paper Exhibition: Selected Writings by Raimundas Malašauskas and embodies the second chapter in a series of publications that focus on bringing together the writings of one extraordinary author whose work has never before been collected in a dedicated single object. During the event we will be staging What Is What – a roundtable discussion among four “characters”; an artist, a professor, a political scientist, and a marketing executive (played by Mark Buckeridge, Annie Goodner, Gerardo Madera, and Angie Keefer), and a dramatic side character (played by Richard John Jones). This reading will start at 3.30 pm.

Second Thoughts: Selected Writings 2008–2018 is (now, at this very moment) being designed by Scott Ponik and, although the book will not be present at the time of the event, its wonderful author will.

C’était un rendez-vous
22 September, 9 pm
at Cinetol
Tolstraat 182
1074VM Amsterdam

€6 (€4 for Kunstverein members and neighbours of Cinetol)

From this autumn onward Kunstverein will set up five multidisciplinary evenings at Cinetol. The evenings will always explore a different intersection between art and music. This first evening we dedicate to C’était un rendez-vous, a short film by Claude Lelouch from 1976 that depicts one crazy, nearly nine-minute long (or short) ride through Paris. To shoot the film Lelouch mounted a camera on his Mercedes-Benz and drove like a mad man through the streets of Paris. In the beginning of the film the director notifies the audience that for this film “nothing was accelerated and no stunts were pulled” yet what he fails to mention is that, because he was unhappy with the sound of his own engine, Lelouch edited the engine sound of a Ferrari on top of his images.

Sound is quite often a subordinate to the viewing experience in most films, but a lot changes to that viewing experience when the score changes drastically. At the invitation of curator Yana Foque, No Age (Drag City), Jan Matthe (Für Dich Verlag) and Smari Runar Robertsson addressed this topic specifically. Each band made their own unique soundtrack for C’était un rendez-vous, which will be shown three times on the evening, each time with a different score.

No Age
No Age is an American noise-pop band from Los Angeles founded in 2006 consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt. The band is closely linked to the so-called Smell scene based around the similarly called club where they provided bookings. The duo acts as conductors, shamans, catapults, roadies on record and in live situations, delivering the people reductive rock n roll inspired by bursts of energy. Cosmic radiation amplification, cancerous tunes, infectious feelings, overwhelming joy. Active since 2006 until now, and possibly until forever.

https://noage.bandcamp.com

Jan Matthé, together with Stacks
Jan Matthé from Antwerp is mostly known for his publications and mixtapes, which he releases as Für Dich Verlag. Lesser known are his beautiful synth compositions among which is “Musik Für Grottekinder 1 +2”, a tribute to Soothing sounds for babies made on the occasion of the birth of his niece. Together with his brother Sis he makes electronic pop music as Stacks. Of this soon the third album will be ready.

http://www.soundcloud.com/risikopress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbrLgbqHDP4

Smari Runar Robertsson
Smári Róbertsson (Iceland, 1992) is a multidisciplinary artist and musician from Amsterdam. In his work he examines location-specific phenomena and topographical characteristics, which he translates into written works, sound compositions and site-specific installations. Through his works we encounter objects that have not only been formed by history, but which owe their autonomy and existence to the incidental processes that occur in the background of our own lives. Together with Masaki Komoto he also forms the musical duo Mr. Music.

https://soundcloud.com/muldurmuldur
https://soundcloud.com/mrmusicinc

Cinetol and Kunstverein wish to thank Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst (AFK) and Stadsdeel Zuid for their support to this program.

Food, honestly, sometimes is the reason why we make it out of bed. We’ve finally taken the step into making this a more structural part of our program and turned our fascination into a proper series. Throughout the coming year, Kunstverein will occasionally turn into a restaurant overnight, serving you both historical and contemporary delights (and dishes) by artists and collectives that have mediated their practices through the dinner, the restaurant, the produce… For the first edition in the series we are proud to present On a Ship by Grace Schwindt, co-produced by perform doc*.

The dinner and performance will take place at Kunstverein on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 September at 8pm on both evenings. The entrance will be € 40, this will include a three course meal with customary wines. As there are only 15 seats available per evening, please make a reservation via office@kunstverein.nl before Wednesday 12 September.

On a Ship is a new composition which interweaves live interventions with text, voice, sculptures and costumes, created by Schwindt and performed by opera singer Francesca Pusceddu, with several dishes of food loved and chosen by the artist and prepared by culinary talent Nick Jaël Bruynen. In the course of the evening the work examines the relationship between language and the physical, language and the emotional, and explores what can happen if language and the voice are separated from each other at first, and then joined again.

Grace Schwindt (b. 1979, Germany) works not only across different themes and stories but also across different media. All of her works are connected by topics such as the fragility of the body, the importance of objects in the construction of memory and history, and the influence of capitalism on society. In 2018 Grace Schwindt will have a solo exhibition at Rozenstraat – a rose is a rose is a rose in Amsterdam. Her performance Opera and Steel, which premiered at the Kaaitheater in Brussels last year, was part of the Something Raw festival in Amsterdam in March this year.

*perform doc supports performing artists by documenting their artworks, proposing a tailored and open manner for the art world to deal with performances when exhibiting, re-enacting or including them in their collection, as well as when having documentation on those works in archive centers after the completion of the live act of a performance. To keep the project close to the liveliness of performance, we program performances by the artists who will take part in this initiative. perform doc* is supported by AFK and would like to thank Rozenstraat – a rose is a rose is a rose for their support to this evening.

D
Κι αν στο έλεγα στη γλώσσα μου
Θα έπρεπε να κινηθείς στους μύες μου
Θα καλούσες εκεί που οι μύες μου σε θυμούνται
Μα στην δικιά σου, καμιά μνήμη δεν μένει

I
I’m afraid I forgot how to write, I forgot the fluidity of the rhythms of language. I’m afraid I even forgot how to spell the words and how to make them sound as consistent beings. It takes me seven minutes and one cigarette to write down three sentences. It takes one full stop. It takes one pause, one back and one play to start writing again.

During the course of the DIAL +31 203 313 203 show, featuring one of the keystone works by the visionary poet, activist, and artist John Giorno, Kunstverein is hosting a series of special evenings dubbed 3 Evenings on a Revolving Stage. This title is borrowed from a series of performance nights by the same name, organised by Jean Depuy at the Judson Church in New York in 1976, and lifts up a corner of what will be going on behind the curtain of Kunstverein’s backspace.

On June 7 from 8pm we give the floor to Danae Io and Ioanna Gerakidi who will be performing In The Current Of The Situation, a composition of oral stories and eroto-historiographies tracing the mnemonic representations of unrequited sentiments of eros, love, lust and desire. This email correspondence project is fragile, vulnerable, proximate, and intimate.

Again, the evening will be intersected with tracks from the Dial-A-Poem Records that criss-cross with the performance.

Serving: Drinks from the Lost in the Thrill of it All Bar, stocked with the favourite drinks of Bukowski, Burroughs, and Sexton.

As a part of the DIAL +31 203 313 203 show, focussing on the Dial-A-Poem service line set up by the activist and poet John Giorno in the late sixties, we are hosting a special radio show tonight between 9 and 10 pm on Redlight Radio. This broadcast will be hosted by Yana Foqué (curator at Kunstverein) and Jo Sandow (co-host Affiliated Station), and gives you the chance to listen to the Dial-A-Poem Poets from the comfort of your own home.

The show will feature the beatiful voices of:
Kathy Acker,
Laurie Anderson,
John Ashbery,
Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones),
Charles Bukowski,
William S. Burroughs,
David Byrne,
John Cage,
Nick Cave,
Diane Di Prima,
Ed Dorn,
Allen Ginsberg,
John Giorno,
Denise Levertov,
Frank O’Hara,
Charles Olson,
Patti Smith,
Diane Wakoski,

and many others featured on:
Disconnected,
Biting Off The Tongue Of A Corpse,
William S. Burroughs / John Giorno,
Totally Corrupt (The Dial-A-Poem Poets),
Big Ego,
Sugar, Alcohol, & Meat,
You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With,
Glenn Branca / John Giorno ‎– Who You Staring At?,
Life Is A Killer,
One World Poetry: Live From Amsterdam,
Lenny Kaye Connection ‎– I’ve Got A Right,
Better An Old Demon Than A New God,
A Diamond Hidden In The Mouth Of A Corpse,
Smack My Crack,
and Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming.

Tune in!

As part of the DIAL +31 203 313 203 show, featuring the Dial-A-Poem project by the visionary poet and activist John Giorno, Kunstverein is hosting a series of open mic events dubbed 3 Evenings on a Revolving Stage. On May 24, June 7 and June 16 we invite everyone to join us and our special guests to read some poetry. This could be a horoscope, a message you received from a friend, the lyrics to a polular song,… in short, it can be whatever you consider poetry to be but, to level the ground, we ask you to only come to these events if you are willing to rise to the occasion.

Among the crowd at the first event on May 24, starting at 8pm, are Mia You (NL/US), Line-Gry Hørup (DK) and Andrea di Serego Alighieri (IT). You will present one of her newest poems to us, Hørup will introduce her publication on the controversial poet Rudolf Broby-Johansen and the never before translated work ‘Blod’, while di Serego Alighieri will lead us through the work of Charles Olson and the poetry of Denise Levertov, to a reading of an unpublished prose poem by Lyn Hejinian.

The evening will be intersected with tracks from the Dial-A-Poem Records and drinks to calm the nerves.

We’re back, and kicking off the year with Amsterdam’s very first Artist Trading Card Fair (ATCF) happening Saturday 20 January, from 3 to 5pm. ATCF is initiated by Lotte Schröder, after having had a conversation with Anna Banana – whose extensive collection of Trading Cards is currently on view at Kunstverein.

Artist Trading Cards are miniature works of art created on 65 x 90 mm cardstock. They are original editions and, most importantly, self-produced. The idea, launched by Vänçi Stirnemann in April 1997 at INK.art&text (Zürich), is that you trade your cards – much like baseball cards – for others, with others.

Inspired by Anna’s collection and the simplicity and generosity of the idea, Schröder set out to make her own set of 9 cards. For the last day of Anna Banana’s exhibition, Schröder, in collaboration with Kunstverein, invited a.o. Juliaan Andeweg, Maria Barnas, Yael Davids, Constant Dullaart, Uta Eisenreich, Peggy Frank, Jennifer Tee, Sara van der Heide, David Jablonowski, Germaine Kruip, Laura Pappa, Florian and Michael Quistrebert, Ola Vasiljeva, Gabriel Lester, Freek Wambacq, Felicia von Zweigbergk, Maria Pask, Natalia Rebelo, Minne Kersten, Rudy Guedj, Nerijus Rimkus and Johannes Schwartz to participating in this ATC moment.

As a visitor you are invited to come take a look at the different sets-of-nine, that will be traded off and to come celebrate the new year.

Dear People:

The following material is intended to help you to increase the quality of your life; some are funny, some are serious, some are tasteless, some are ridiculous, but they are, each in their way, helpful.

If you do not wish to continue to receive this stuff, too bad. Comments welcome, nevertheless. Please feel free to forward this.

Until then,
Seth.

The Joke Book: Collected by Seth Sieglaub, p. 13

Come test your smiles and Ha-Has, and join us for holiday drinks and jokes on Friday 15 December between 5 and 7 pm, for the official launch of The Joke Book: collected by Seth Siegelaub. The amazing (and funny) Marja Bloem will give an introduction to the publication.

The Joke Book is the first printed edition of the complete jokes & messages file that was found on Seth Siegelaub’s computer by his partner Marja Bloem. It contains jokes, quotes and pieces of advice, that Seth Siegelaub collected since 1999 and regularly redistributed via email amongst his friends.

With contributions by: Alex Alberto, John Baldessari, Marja Bloem, Myrna Bloom, Martin Browne, Alan Kennedy, David Kunzle, Joel Miller, Loren Miller, Kay Robertson, Laurent Sauerwein, Seth Siegelaub, Joan Simon, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Peter Sinclair, Steven Wright; and an introduction by Huan Hsu (written after a long conversation with Marja Bloem).

After four days of hard networking and business card exchanging, join us on Sunday 26 November at 4 pm, for the presentation of the almost entirely sold out:

Oracles. Artists’ Calling Cards
Edited by Pierre Leguillon and Barbara Fédier

Serving: Poor Man’s Champagne

Artist Pierre Leguillon and independent curator Carrie Pilto will present the book and discuss the phenomenon of calling cards, which lay the foundations for a micro-history of social networks formed before the advent of Facebook.

This event is organized by Temporary Gallery. Centre for contemporary Art e.V., Cologne and hosted by Kunstverein.

Oracles presents 123 calling cards of artists from the 18th century to the present day, facsimiled and inserted into the publication. Oracles follows the history of the calling card, the social context in which it was produced, and related historical narratives.

The carded artists include:
Absalon, Anni and Josef Albers, John Armleder, Iain Baxter, Larry Bell, Joseph Beuys, Joseph Binder, Max Bill, Pierrette Bloch, Rosa Bonheur, Irma Boom, Aglaüs Bouvenne, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Broodthaers, Antonio Canova, Caran d’Ache, A.M. Cassandre, Chenue malletier, Iris Clert, Claude Closky, Le Corbusier, Silvie Défraoui, Sonia Delaunay, Fortunato Depero, Marcel Duchamp, A.R. Dunton, Céline Duval, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Yan Duyvendak, Daniel Eatock, Edward Fella, Sylvie Fleury, Schwestern Flöge, Piero Fornasetti, Hans Frank, Lene Frank, Emile Gallé, General Idea, Dan Graham, Wolfgang von Gœthe, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Walter Gropius, Guerrilla Girls, Hector Guimard, Friedrich Haeffcke, Raymond Hains, Keith Haring, Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, Anton Herrgesell, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Ray Johnson, Ana Jotta, Wassily Kandinsky, André Kertész, Martin Kippenberger, Paul Klee, Johann Adam Klein, Yves Klein, Július Koller, Joseph Kosuth, Yayoi Kusama, Carl Gotthard Langhans, Fernand Léger, Pierre Leguillon, George Maciunas, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Edouard Manet, Piero Manzoni, Christian Marclay, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Karel Martens, Annette Messager, Lucia Moholy, Piet Mondrian, Valérie Mréjen, Félix Nadar, Isamu Noguchi, The Offices of Jenny Holzer, Peter Nadin, Richard Prince and al., Yoko Ono, Claes Oldenburg, Nam June Paik, Francis Picabia, Adrian Piper, Emil Pirchan, Man Ray, Les ready made appartiennent à tout le monde®, Carl August Reinhardt, Gerrit Rietveld, Auguste Rodin, Edward Ruscha, Alexander Search, Willem Sandberg, Erik Satie, Gino Severini, Johan Gottfried Schadow, Egon Schiele, Oskar Schlemmer, Käthe Schmidt, Roman Signer, Alec Soth, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Jack Smith, Hélène Smith, Harald Szeemann, Sophie Taeuber, Karel Teige, Oliviero Toscani, Theo van Doesburg, Roman Vishniac, Andy Warhol, Weegee, Neill Whistler, Heimo Zobernig, Piet Zwart, Emmy Zweybrück Prochaska

With texts by:
Samuel Adams, Damarice Amao, Daniel Baumann, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Géraldine Beck, Paul Bernard, Christian Besson, Christianna Bonin, Véronique Borgeaud, Marie de Brugerolle, Garance Chabert, Kyrill Charbonnel, Yann Chateigné, Manuel Cirauqui, Chiara Costa, Caroline Coutau, Jean-Baptiste Delorme, Carla Demierre, Dakota DeVos, Corinne Diserens, Eva Fabbris, Patricia Falguières, Arthur Fink, Sophie Gayerie, Kati Gegenheimer, Mark Thomas Gibson, Nicolas Giraud, Victor Guégan, Andrea Gyorody, Nastassja Haidinger, Dean Inkster, Aurélie Jacquet, Elisabeth Jobin, Vincent Jolivet, Moritz Küng, Angela Lampe, Charlotte Laubard, Anaël Lejeune, Quentin Lannes, Pierre Leguillon, Charlotte Magnin, Nicole Marchand-Zañartu, Valérie Mavridorakis, Aurélien Mole, Michael J. Moore, Adrien Mouginot, Christiane Mühlegger, Émilie Parendeau, Ying Sze Pek, Corine Pencenat, Mathias Pfund, Fabien Pinaroli, Raphaël Pirenne, Paulo Pires do Vale, Carrie Pilto, Frans Postma, Jeanne Quéheillard, Fabienne Radi, Ivan Ristić, Vincent de Roguin, Paul-Louis Roubert, Margot Sanitas, Gilles Saussier, Elana Shapira, Klaus-Peter Speidel, Friedrich Tietjen, Rebecca Topakian, Gesine Tosin, Xiaoda Wang, Christophe Wavelet, David Zerbib, Célia Zuber

Oracles. Artists’ Calling Cards
Softcover, 320 pages, 123 color plates
20 x 26.5 cm
ISBN: 978-3-906803-16-6
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2017
Out of print, last three copies available at the event

2016 has passed, but some of its (political) diseases still linger…
Time to get to the heart of the problem…
Time for an alternative cure…
      Please join us on September 8 and 9 for the opening of Kunstverein’s new season and the Dutch premiere of Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson’s performance What Am I Doing With My Life?

What Am I Doing With My Life? is a traveling opera, a rap show and a comic routine combined, that deals with the subjects of (alternative) medicine, general health and death. The map for this touring performance takes on the shape of a body, with each European city on its path representing a different part in need of medical assistance.
      Aid and relief is given to its Amsterdam audience by self-proclaimed Doctor, Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson, with the help of local collaborators: Indriði Arnar Ingólfsson, David Bernstein, Géraldine Longueville, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Anat Spiegel, Thomas Myrmel and Annabelle von Girsewald (as tour manager).

●
On Friday September 8, at 7 pm the action starts with crystal tears, Mayan death flutes and lullabies performed within an architectonic intervention by Hreinn Fridfinnsson.

Serving herbal elixirs.

●●
One day later, on Saturday September 9 at 7 pm, the performance is repeated, but with a twisted end: a boom box-amplified procession, on bikes, leaves from Kunstverein and slowly crawls across Amsterdam to end at David Bernstein’s opening of Because Most of the Cosmos is Compost (Thinging Part V) at P/////AKT.

The performance on Friday is a members only event. Due to its specific context, space is limited. We advise you to arrive early on Friday and/or (on bike) Saturday.

Tabula Rasa
Smári Runar Róbertsson
21–25 June 2017
Opening: 22 June 2017, 17:00–19:00

Join us this Thursday June 22 at 5pm for the opening of Tabula Rasa by Smári Rúnar Róbertsson, as part of the Festival of Choices … This Thursday, June 22, join us for the the opening of Tabula Rasa at 5pm – as part of festival of choices – by Smári Rúnar Róbertsson … As part of festival of choices, join us for Smári Rúnar Róbertsson’s Tabula Rasa opening Thusrday June 22 at 5pm …Tabula Rasa, by Smári Rúnar Róbertsson, as part of the Festival of Choices, this Thursday at 5pm. Join us …

Tabula Rasa marks the end the start or reshuffle of Smári’s catalogue of works. During the build up of the exhibition Smári is trying to “touch the near future with a really long stick”. He is trying to grab hold of a condition that changes constantly and will keep progressing during his time spend at Kunstverein. His works are will become visual visceral metaphors for intangible things, “sweeping across your face at the speed of a second-hand. ”

The exhibition will run from Wednesday June 21 until Sunday June 22, during regular opening hours (1–6pm). The opening will take place on Thursday between 5 and 7pm.

Serving: Icelandic delight (Mamma kaupa brennivín)

Tabula Rasa is part of A Festival of Choices, Master of Fine Arts Graduation 2017, Sandberg Instituut, 21–25 June 2017, various locations throughout Amsterdam. A Festival of Choices emphasizes upon the relationship and choices made between the graduating student and the diverse range of institutions and organizations offered within the cultural landscape of Amsterdam. For more information and the full program, please check www.festivalofchoices.nl

Please feel welcome to join us on Saturday 3 June, at 5pm for the launch of Kunstverein‘s sporadic in-house magazine Ginger&Piss. With a musical intermezzo by Smári Runar Róbertsson*

Serving: Highball

Kunstverein’s in house magazine is a cross between an academic journal and a darts club newsletter. Ginger&Piss (the name is a misquotation of Laurence Weiner) is published whenever we see fit, each issue containing a limited amount of contributions that vary in length according to the subject matter at hand. Loud and Gay where the themes of number 1 & 2, respectively; Ginger&Piss 3 is dedicated to Privacy.

The remit of Ginger&Piss is simple; to provide a platform for candid critique but at the same time allow the AUTHOR to stay hidden. The concept dictates that each contributor writes under a pseudonym; the use of pseudonyms can be considered an answer to the cowardice of the art world, albeit a somewhat hypocritical one.

*and one final installment to this Salon Hang by Nerijus Rimkus. We’re happy to announce that since our opening we have added works by the following members: Christine van Royen, Frits Bergsma, Angelo Tromp, Gijs Stork, and Maria Barnas.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Ammodo for their support.

“In 2012, I was invited to the Facebook group ‘Hey, Let’s Hang Out in Parks, etc…’ There were 31 members and a total of 2 posts – 4 days apart – in May 2012. I think I went to a BBQ because of it? – It didn’t work out that great first time around but I’d like to give it another try.”

secret handshakes,
inside jokes,
short and long term encounters,
awkward situations,
and staged social events

Please join us on Monday, May 29, at 5pm for Lieven Lahaye’s joyful start of his week long Salon-Hang-Hang-out: Hey, Let’s Hang Out in Parks, etc…

Serving: Vin des Amis

Hey, Let’s Hang Out in Parks, etc… is Lieven Lahaye’s first long term performance piece, focusing on situations and what it evokes if, for instance, “a friend visits you at work”. The series of illustrious meetups will take place in and around Kunstverein, weaving through the city – and Kunstverein’s program – a number of interventions at various locations, starting Monday May 29 at Kunstverein (Hazenstraat 28, Amsterdam).

Hey, Let’s Hang Out in Parks, etc… is open to everyone, but subscription is necessary. Kunstverein members receive priority. You can subscribe to the series by sending an e-mail to lieven@kunstverein.nl with subject line ‘hey’ to receive the program and daily updates.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Ammodo for their support.

A Novelistic Simulation Of An Everyday Space –
A treatise on style.

17–21 May 2017

Nathan Azhderian
David Bernstein
Hreinn Friðfinnsson
Susanna Hoikkala
Johan Jensen Kjeldsen
Richard Kostelanetz
Børge Morgensen
Jo Niemeyer
Laura Pappa & Ronald Pihlapson
Florian & Michael Quistrebert
Nicholas Riis
Karen Sargsyan
Lycke von Schantz
Bert Scholten
Ikea of Sweden
Jay Tan
Ilmari Tapiovaara
Nora Turato
Frits Vanèn
Ola Wihlborg
Geo Wyeth
Ran Zhang
Bruno Zhu

Amsterdam Art Fair
Kunsthal Koper, Huidekoperstraat 28
Around the corner from De Nederlandsche Bank

Wed May 17preview and opening
Thurs May 1811–19
Fri May 1911–21
Sat May 2011–19
Sun May 2111–17

Please join us for the book launch of Hand Reading Studies by Valentina Desideri, Friday May 19, from 5 pm onwards.

Hand Reading Studies is a collection of conversations, readings and writings that proliferated from A Studio in Hand-Reading: Charlotte Wolff, an exhibition by Valentina Desideri that took place in Kunstverein, Amsterdam from 23 May to 25 June 2015.

For A Studio in Hand-Reading: Charlotte Wolff Desideri transformed Kunstverein’s space at the Gerard Doustraat into a Studio – a place that generates knowledge through different modes of being together. Throughout the exhibition, Desideri invited participants as well as visitors to gather for readings and in study. The Studio – and its bar – were open for readings during Kunstverein’s regular opening hours and punctuated by weekly contributions to the study by the invited guests and artists.

The publication we are presenting now picks up where the project left off, bringing together a variety of materials and publications that were generated in or reverberated from the Studio, with contributions by Dr. Charlotte Wolff, Anthony Blunt, Céline Condorelli, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Jessica Warboys, Jason Dodge, Mia You, Christian Hawkey, Annick Kleizen, and Valentina Desideri.

In the framework of Salon Hang Desideri will reactivate the Studio for the duration of one afternoon. Desideri will be joined by fellow readers Mia You and Annick Kleizen to provide readings and/or experiment on possible ways of reading whatever question, object, text or crisis anyone would need a reading for. You are equally welcome to join as a reader or to pose a question.

The readings begin at 5 pm and at 7 pm the book will be launched, with readings and drinks.

Please join us this Sunday 23 April, between noon and 9pm, for the third edition of Spring Performance Festival (SPF): a block party festival of performances at Cinetol Theater, Library (OBA) & Tolbar (Tolstraat 160–182, Amsterdam). Reservations are not required. FREE entrance (donations accepted).

With Performances/ interventions by, in order of apperance, Dr. Holobiont and the Lichens, niv Acosta, Johannes Büttner, Bruno Zhu, DYNASTY HANDBAG, and Geo Wyeth.

For more information + timetable go to:
www.kunstverein.nl/SPF2017
facebook
instagram

SPF is an initiative by Galerie Juliette Jongma & Kunstverein, Amsterdam in collaboration with De Ateliers, and organized by Jeanine Hofland.

SPF is generously supported by the Municipality of Amsterdam, Stadsdeel Zuid Special thanks to OBA, Cinetol. Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold)members, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Ammodo.

Reader,

Please join us for the launch of Reader, aantekeningen exemplaar, Werkplaats Typografie’s newest publication, on Saturday March 25 at 7pm. Along with the presentation of this new publication, seven special annotated versions with personal revisions and notes by Wigger Bierma, Malin Gewinner, Marijke Hoogenboom, Koen Kleijn, Andrea di Serego, Riet Wijnen and the editors themselves, will be introduced during the evening. Serving: Chameleons.

As part of Speelplaats, a parallel program of Werkplaats Typografie, participants challenged what was being offered in the school’s curriculum by introducing improvements or suggesting alternatives. Reader, aantekeningen exemplaar brings together these contributions made to the Speelplaats program alongside other like-minded initiatives by participants, guests and tutors in the shape of examples as well as reference texts and other materials. The reader borrows its title from an annotated copy of the catalogue Ruimtelijk Werk (1983), found in the library of Werkplaats Typografie, in which Wigger Bierma had penciled down what could have been done more consistently or what was lacking in his original design.

The reader was edited and designed by Nerijus Rimkus and Ronja Andersen with the support of Maxine Kopsa and contributions by Ronja Andersen, Danielle Aubert, Joel Colover, Valentina Desideri, Jason Dodge, Olya Domoradova, Paul Elliman, Rosie Eveleigh, Eloise Harris, Sarah Käsmayr, Maxine Kopsa, Raimundas Malašauskas, Robert Milne, Josse Pyl, Nerijus Rimkus, Charlotte Taillet, Maud Vervenne and Caroline Wolewinski.

The Werkplaats Typografie (WT) is part of the ArtEZ University of the Arts.

Kunstverein is extremely thankful for the support of its (Gold) members and the support of AFK and Ammodo.

Please join us on Friday March 3rd at 7 pm for Female Genius: an imagined conversation between Eva Kenny and Melissa Gordon on the past, present and future of Female Genius. With a reading by Melissa Gordon, followed by a Q&A.

Female Genius is the second launch of the book Painting Behind Itself. This publication was made on the occasion of Gordon’s exhibition at Vleeshal in 2016, and includes the essay “Painting Behind Itself” by Eva Kenny and an interview between Roos Gortzak and Melissa Gordon.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Stadsdeel Zuid, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and Ammodo.

Kunstverein during Amsterdam Art Weekend
24–27 November 2016

We are pleased to invite you to the numerous events happening at Kunstverein this week:

On Thursday at 3.30 pm we will give Amsterdam Art Weekend a first shot – literally. Kunstverein has invited artist L-D Garnier to prepare a work that is a drink, one that embodies the season, in spirit. This limited edition piece, entitled AFTERNOON AUTUMN, will be available for free but dispensed at our discretion, only during Amsterdam Art Weekend.

And…

On Saturday between 5–7 pm, we host Kunstverein Toronto. In the good company of the artist, editor and designers, you are welcome to join us for the launch of Collection/Correction, a publication that for the first time brings together the writings of Andrew James Paterson (Toronto, 1952). Collection/Correction is anchored upon a series of new and recent poems, but also includes four of Paterson’s fictocriticism texts that were published in IMPULSE magazine between 1980 and 1989 and the scripts from Paterson’s videos: The Walking Philosopher (2001), Eating Regular (2004), 12 x 26 (2008) and Passing (2013). The book is co-published by Kunstverein Toronto and Mousse Publishing, edited by Jacob Korczynski and designed by Laura Pappa & Lotte Lara Schröder (more information here: http://www.kunstverein.ca/).

Also!

Sorry! NO We Don’t Do REQUESTS, is our ongoing exhibition of twenty years of Will Holder’s work with publications, talks, printed matter, and teaching, requested in nine week-long presentations by nine different guests and shown at Kunstverein. This week, Maxine Kopsa, a guest in her own home, has requested a full house and a lost speech. Her generous visuals will be on display from Thursday until Sunday, during AAW opening hours (see below).

Please note:

Kunstverein will be open during Amsterdam Art Weekend on: Thursday 24 November from 1–6 pm; Friday 25 November from 1–10 pm; Saturday 26 November from 12–8 pm; and Sunday 27 November from 12–6 pm.

Collection/Correction is published with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Andrew James Paterson and Jacob Korczynski gratefully acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of their travel to launch Collection/Correction.

This Wednesday June 8 at BYU:

My friend Jonas is a pretty good dresser, I would describe his style as “JFK on a Sunday”. When, one day, he was telling me about his plan to buy a hat, I pointed at the first person wearing a Fedora and asked if maybe he wanted to look like that jerk. He told me “that guy isn’t wearing a hat, the hat is wearing him”. During B.Y.U. this Wednesday, June 8, I’m proposing we all wear hats (proudly), on the sidewalk in front of Kunstverein or inside the bar.

The night will also include a talk by Lieven Lahaye; about hats, caps and provisional thoughts on how, if we would just concede and go along with things, taking minimal steps towards social conformity, great social change might be brought forth.

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Serving: Manhattan

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

BYU #46 – Watermarks Broadcast
with DES (LT) and Kevin Rice (USA)

Join us this FRIDAY May 27th for a live broadcast of Watermarks at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE. Watermarks is a musical exploratory initiative set in motion by DES (LT) & Kevin Rice (USA). In their collaboration they focus on rare and beautiful sounds from below the surface; a sonic journey of presents a nighttime advance, of beautiful sounds from both past and present.

Doors open at 8 p.m.
Serving: A watered down cocktail

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

with Lotte Lara Schröder

Hello Inertia,

you are here as your physical self.
Not as the representation or your proclaimed truth.
Thank you for coming.

What I would like to share is personal. It’s a random, yet controlled sequence of images, thoughts, sounds. A representation of experiences. Experiences derived from a childhood fascination for the volcano, its literal and metaphorical presence, its untouchable energy.

Let it be violent and beautiful, nestle inside your body, through its frequencies and alcoholic fluids, mold you into a flow of volcanic energy.

For this night at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE, Lotte Lara Schröder will present a series of interdisciplinary works set in motion by and expiring mental report. The works are a metaphor for the slow, energetic build-up – similar to both volcanic as well as personal outbursts. Join us for a hot, energetic and undoubtedly, eventful night.

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Serving: Volkan Beer, Black and Blond*

*Volkan beer brings together, Lava Rock filtered mineral water and the best of local ingredients from the volcanic island of Santorini. Since the Mediterranean Island receives little rainfall, what grows on it is intense in flavor and limited in quantity. Volkan beer is a Greek Debt Free™ product. With every 1 euro of profit, they help reduce the Greek National debt by 50 euro cents. Help Greece.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday May 12 for the presentation of Fig. 3 with Nerijus Rimkus (LT)

Doors at 7.30 p.m.
Serving Ouroborus Liliaceae / Cruciferae

The third event in a series presenting one of the missing flowers of the final flower arrangement of blooming vegetables. Each event is an allegory presenting the ongoing research on the fine line between aesthetic assumptions and functional use.

*Fig. 1: June 3 2015, Blooming Radish. Fig. 2: October 10 2016, Final Flower Arrangement.

For the occasion Kunstverein is presenting the second postcard in its series. It will be for sale at Kunstverein or can be ordered via office@kunstverein.nl

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Welcome to the very first gathering of the Jack Lemmon Support Group at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE on Thursday May 5th.

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Serving: Little Mothers, the classic amongst classics.

Dear supporters,

Jack Lemmon was an actor not a sculptor. You all know that that’s not true. His sculptures are widely seen, but just not acknowledged as such.

We would like to invite you to re-make together a sculpture Jack Lemmon made for the film The Apartment by Billy Wilder in which he plays a character named C.C. Baxter that is forced out of his apartment by his superiors, because they want to use it for their adulterous acts. In his eagerness to climb the ladder he capitulates time and again, but despises himself for it. Disgusted and bored he carves out time with Dry Martini’s in a bar around the corner.

Please join us to re-circle the circle that Jack made and spiral downwards into the alcoholic void while imagining the space of your own apartments, and what they look like and how they are, without you in them.

Sincerely,
Bob and gerlach en koop

Please note that space is limited.
JLSG-members & KV-members have priority.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

An Attempt to Evolve (ongoing)
A talk by Will Holder
–
Wednesday 13 April, 8pm

–
In advance of the forthcoming Materialist Inventory, a book and an exhibition at Kunstverein this fall, Will Holder will give a talk about typography/ organisation of language/ automatic writing/ survival of ideas/ bodies as documents/ “sometime all of them will have the last touch of being, a history of them can give to them,”
–
Typographer Will Holder produces oral and printed publications with artists and musicians, and is preoccupied with conversation as model and tool for a mutual and improvised set of publishing conditions – whereby the usual roles of commissioner, author, subject, editor, printer and typographer are improvised and shared, as opposed to assigned and pre-determined. Particular attention is placed on an oral production of value and meaning around cultural objects, and how live, extra-informational qualities might be analyzed, documented and scored.
 Based in Glasgow, Holder is editor of F.R.DAVID, a journal concerned with reading and writing in the arts (published by de Appel, Amsterdam, since 2007). He co-curated TalkShow (with Richard Birkett) at the ICA, London, an exhibition and season of events concerning speech and accountability. Together with Alex Waterman, he edited and typeset Yes, But Is It Edible?, The music of Robert Ashley, for two or more voices (Vancouver: New Documents, 2014). Holder is a 2015 recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award.

Member’s only exclusive tour of Seth Siegelaub: Beyond Conceptual Art by Marja Bloem, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (RSVP to office@kunstverein.nl)

Marja Bloem, director of the Egress Foundation, Seth Siegelaub’s partner and a current board member of Kunstverein, will guide us through his impressive collection. The tour is guaranteed to give an inside perspective on the material on display and will allow us far more insight into Seth’s thoughts on contemporary art and the institutions around it. His pioneering approach, still today exceedingly urgent, should afford plenty of substance for conversation afterwards, when we conclude the tour with a drink at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE.

If you haven’t reserved a ticket yet, or would like to become a member in order to join this special members only event, don’t hesitate to contact us at office@kunstverein.nl.

The tour starts at 6 pm in the foyer of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Jokes With Seth Siegelaub
Friday 1 April 2016

An evening of presentations, screenings, talks and jokes at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Invited by Kunstverein, artist David Bernstein reads from a selection of jokes from Kunstverein Publishing’s forthcoming publication: The Joke Book. Collected by Seth Siegelaub (June 2016).

Program begins at 7 pm in the Teijin Auditorium of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The annual Spring Performance Festival (SPF) is hosted by Kunstverein and Galerie Juliette Jongma, this year in collaboration with De Ateliers, Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Vleeshal.
SPF 2016 will take place on Sunday 20 March and will include a.o. performances by Vaginal Davis, Simone Forti, Nora Turato, Raed Yassin, Mehraneh Atashi and Rodrigo Sobarzo de Larraechea.

For more information on the program and locations, see http://www.kunstverein.nl/SPF2016/

Join us Sunday 6 March for BYU #41: Ian F. Svenonius performs ESCAPE-ISM

Doors open at 5.30 p.m.
Serving: The Last Word
And with an introduction by Experimental Jetset

ESCAPE-ISM is a found-sound dream-drama performed by singer, author, filmmaker and talk show host, Ian F. Svenonius (known from Chain & the Gang, The Make-Up, Weird War, Soft Focus, etc.) on the occasion of the release of his new book of essays and stories, Censorship, now!!

ESCAPE-ISM is a live collage, a ritual offering to the fractured landscape of AM radio. A broadcast of doppler radar weather reports, drums, electric guitars, electro-magnetic tapes, eye-in-the-sky traffic reports, game-time sportcasts, guest appearances, live interviews, machines, sermons, sickening sounds, stolen samples world news and many opinions.

“Censorship Now!! is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea, documentary filmmaking, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more.” – Akashic Books

Please note that space is limited.
KV Members have priority.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday 18 February for the second adaptation of ‘Bibliomania: Haven O’More’ a play written and performed by Olivier Lebrun and Alex Balgiu.

“What can you do, when you are forty and – having avoided alarm systems, fooled the distracted librarian, squirmed through ventilation ducts, left the place with your precious catch and finally put it up on one of your extraordinary shelves – you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss.”

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Serving To Have No More

Olivier Lebrun is a French graphic designer based in Paris. He is the author of “Stolen Works of Art” (self published, 2010) and “A Pocket Companion to Books from the Simpsons in Alphabetical Order” (Rollo Press, 2012, 2013). He is currently working with Urs Lehni and Camille Pageard on the forthcoming monography of Bernard Chadebec (Rollo Press, 2016).

Alex Balgiu is a Romanian French designer and theorist. He specialised in the phenomena of animality and kinship in social relationships through (American) Literature. Together with Thierry Chancogne he also runs the publishing house and research platform Tombolo Presses.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

CANCELLED!

Dear member, guest & friend,

Unfortunately tonight’s BYU with Floris Vanhoof has been cancelled, due to illness. We are very sorry about this, as we were hoping to treat you all to a spectacular night with music, tequila and film by this young, experimental film-maker.
You are still welcome to visit us during the day (between 1–5 pm) to see our new show Hans de Vries ‘Works 1968–1975’ and we look forward to raising our glasses again on February 18 in the company of Olivier Lebrun & Alex Balgiu.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday or Friday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday 28 January for BYU #38: Gerard Herman

Experimental, solo-concert with instruments from Gerard Hermans personal collection of household objects — selected on account of how they sound, not how they look.

Doors open: 7.30 p.m.
Serving: Speak Low

Gerard Herman (BE, 1989) is an artist based in Antwerp. His work focusses on language and the absurdities of every day life – his observations are put into works of various form and media. Herman is also one-half of the publishing house Groepdruk as well as tutor at the graphics departement in KASK, Ghent.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday for BYU#37 with Glenn Ryszko

14012016.vid – a quadraphonic sound piece on intimacy.

Doors open: 7.30 p.m.
Evening starts at 8 p.m. with a short screening followed by the performance

Serving: specialized beers marked for the occasion by Lotte Schröder.
Live stream: 20 hrs

What does intimacy mean for a community that shares personal information via the internet like it was sharing a sandwich? How does this exchange function in its online surrounding and how does it reflect upon exchange offline? These questions form the starting point for the sound piece made for this intimate gathering. By ripping, analyzing and combining audio fragments from YouTube videos in which people share their very private thoughts with – potentially – millions of viewers, Glenn Ryszko focuses on a specific sort of interchange. 14012016.vid is a documentary on human behavior that varies in intensity from the extremely personal to the extremely random.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Friday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for ‘Curse of The Walking Techbane’

Doors open at 19.30
Talk begins at 20.00
Serving the Gremlin

Mathew Kneebone will talk about how experiencing a sequence of technical problems can lead to forms of superstitious behaviour. Supposedly able to short circuit electrical systems, magnetise objects, and block wireless signals, a Walking Techbane is someone who believes that their ongoing issues with technology are beyond coincidence.

Together with the talk will be a display of works by the artist.

Mathew Kneebone is an artist and former researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Amongst his interests are the methods that end-user’s adopt to cope with technological issues. His work addresses our relationship to technology through historically tracing examples of innovation, planned obsolescence, black boxing, and user-level anxieties.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Friday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for Date Night #3: GAME ♠ WAR ♥ LOVE featuring Jay Tan in a busker-inspired bodily communication.

Doors open at 19.30, performance will happen unannounced.
Serving: Endless Love (ft. Mariah Carey)

Jay Tan is currently, next to her usual practice, exercising repressed dreams of being a magical, french, butoh, acrobat (not unlike her fantasised version of Denis Lavant) and trying to tell people how she feels by talking less.

Date Night is inspired by the triangle of forces GAME ♠ WAR ♥ LOVE, mainly inspired by the special ménage between Michelle Bernstein and Guy Debord, but recurrent more or less unconsciously in all kinds of relationships and love affairs. With the aim of unveiling artists’ personal lives, side practices, dreams, habits or hobbies as connectivity catalysts, Date Night presents them in a space ruled by a common awareness of the attendees, which is that they might have the possibility to fall in love anytime, even during the same evening.

Emma Panza is the instigator of Date Night.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Thursday for “Quitting the Band” by Nickel van Duijvenboden – a reading and drum solo.

Doors open at 7.30 p.m.
Reading and drumming start at 8 p.m.

Serving the Bitter Apple

Nickel van Duijvenboden is a writer and artist from Amsterdam. He is currently about to leave the Rijksakademie, where he has been dedicating himself to paper and electronic correspondences and their spin-offs as an artistic mode. He has lately taken up drumming again, as a rhythmic consequence of writing and reading.

In his late teens and early twenties he used to be the drummer of a metalcore band with ties to the vegan-straight edge scene. This youthful experience in a way preceded a commitment to art and writing, and foreshadowed the precariousness of being in a community. It was marked by a gap between the joy of playing music together and the ideological rigour of the ‘scene’, which in fact amounted to a substitute form of conformism – a conformism within antagonism.

At BOB’S YOUR UNCLE Nickel will try to get out of his usual writerly and readerly role and improvise on the drums as an homage to whomever has had to quit the band.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Stand up, script, reverse
Friday June 26, 4-8pm
At Apollohal Gymnasium, Amsterdam, NL
–

–
Please join us for Stand up, script, reverse, an event that introduces the artists Alexis Blake and Ilke Gers‘ research process into the transference of knowledge through the body. The event is both a site of research and production. Participants are invited to join the artists and experts in investigating the conditioned and intuitive body by exploring the idea of play and freedom within rules and structured systems.

Participants will learn a new set of skills with self-defense instructor Cesario Di Domenico tap into their body and mind connection with sport psychologist Anna Loots and draw another awareness of the body in space with Blake and Gers.

Stand up, script, reverse is presented within the contextual framework of Disassemblies, which is part of Knowledge is a Does – a reading group formed during a residency period at the Jan van Eyck Academie.

As places are limited, 30 participants, please send an email to reserve to office@kunstverein.nl (members have priority).
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Apollohal Gymnasium
Apollolaan 4
1077 BA Amsterdam

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This project was made possible by the generous support of Jan van Eyck Academie. Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Cesario Di Domenico – Martial Arts Academy Amsterdam, Anna Loots – Vereniging voor Sportpsychologie Nederland, and Stadsdeel Zuid.

Join us this Friday, 19.30 – 22.00, at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for

A reading playlist.

The book launch of the exhibitions Spell to Spelling ** Spelling to Spell and Your Time Is Not My Time of the Curatorial Programme of de Appel arts centre. Designed by Dongyoung Lee.

A performance by Laurent-David Garnier, #INEFFABLE at 20.00

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Saturday 9 May for the Book Binding Consultancy

From 11 am to 8 pm

Maria Jimena Sanchez and Jungmyung Lee – book binding professionals – will be consulting and offering the best binding solutions for your specific/special printed projects.

There are two packages of consulting available:

1. Consultation
15 euros / 30 minutes

2. Consultation + Binding
10 euros (for a consultation) + tailored price depending on the number of pages, copies and binding solution

For either package you will need to book in advance. Please send your time preference and a brief description of your project to:

jungmyung@werkplaatstypografie.org
jimena@werkplaatstypografie.org

We will get back to you with a confirmation of your appointment before Saturday.

Please join us this Thursday 30 April, 7–10 p.m. for Mime Radio, the launch.

Expect music and stories.
Serving: Amateur Delight

Mime Radio was performed and written orally by French artist Benjamin Seror at a series of events over a two-year period, then transcribed and edited into a novel. The story revolves around a cast of eccentric characters, who meet at the Tiki Coco, a bar in Los Angeles that holds “Challenging Reality Open Mic” nights for amateur inventors and performers. Eventually, the protagonists get caught up in trying to help Marsyas, a character from ancient Greek mythology that lost his body after being defeated in a music contest against the god Apollo, to recover his voice, his very ancient voice. Unbeknownst to them, this recovery unleashes a disaster… Mime Radio is a novel about how language and perception can be one and the same.

Mime Radio by Benjamin Seror is Edited by <o> future <o> and published by: Bat; Adéra; CRAC Alsace; Kunstverein, Amsterdam; and Sternberg Press.

ISBN 978-3-95679-151-2
€ 20

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for summery drinks, readings and sun dance beats from Greece.

In the name of Half Man Half Orange

If magic is sometimes very close to nothing at all, it might be indeed possible to mistake one for the other. No wonder language found its origin in myths. This summer reader is about the cup of coffee that keeps us awake every morning. How much of it has to do with caffeine and how much of it with our will to believe in rituals? Amen.

This publication brings together all the spiritual advice, scientific gossip, self-esteem exercises and chronic fictions that were read, written, watched, played, forgotten and discussed over a year in Arnhem by the Werkplaats Typografie participants.

Half Man Half Orange
12 x 17cm; 288pp

With contributions by Amir Avraham, Fred Cave, Yana Foqué, Daniel Frota, Virginie Gauthier, Daria Kiseleva, Mathew Kneebone, Fay Kolokytha, Menelaos Kouroudis, Jungmyung Lee, Iván Martinez, Laura Pappa, Christine Pogatchnik and Maria Jimena Sánchez

Edited by Daniel Frota and Menelaos Kouroudis and with support from Maxine Kopsa
Designed by Daniel Frota

Published by Werkplaats Typografie/ ArtEZ Institute of the Arts
www.werkplaatstypografie.org
Arnhem, 2015





PLUS:

Witness the sneak preview of

Mime radio (notes for chapter I to XII)

Mime Radio was performed and written orally by French artist Benjamin Seror at a series of events over a two-year period, then transcribed and edited into a novel.

For the first time, Mime radio (notes for chapter I to XII) presents all the models employed as part of the Mime Radio performances. This series of notes draws a mental landscape of the story told in Mime Radio.

On view until Saturday 2 May with the Mime Radio book launch happening next week, on Thursday 30 April

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for The Hummingbird’s Perch by Scott Rogers

Come to rest fast beating wings.

Wear crimson, celebrate the thaw.

A bright spot in a spring shower.

Sweet citrus. Potent nectar. Hibiscus business.

The April migration takes its toll.

Stay a while.

Doors open at 19.30
Serving Nectar
Dress Code: Red accents
Video: Rufous Hummingbird at rest
Sound: Wingbeats chopped and screwed
Flowers: Tropical or seasonal

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Thursday 23 April, 7:00 pm
Mime Radio (notes for chapter I to XII)
Until 2 May

Thursday 30 April, 7:00–10:00 pm
Mime Radio, the launch

Mime Radio was performed and written orally by French artist Benjamin Seror at a series of events over a two-year period, then transcribed and edited into a novel. The story revolves around a cast of eccentric characters, who meet at the Tiki Coco, a bar in Los Angeles that holds “Challenging Reality Open Mic” nights for amateur inventors and performers. Eventually, the protagonists get caught up in trying to help Marsyas, a character from ancient Greek mythology that lost his body after being defeated in a music contest against the god Apollo, to recover his voice, his very ancient voice. Unbeknownst to them, this recovery unleashes a disaster… Mime Radio is a novel about how language and perception can be one and the same.
Each live chapter of the novel made use of props, models, costumes, music and sound effects. For the first time, Mime radio (notes for chapter I to XII) presents all the models employed as part of these performances. This series of notes draws a mental landscape of the story told in Mime Radio.

The exhibition Mime radio (notes for chapter I to XII) is on view from Thursday 23 April until Saturday 2 May. On 30 April, a special evening and launch is planned that celebrates Mime Radio in its entirety. Expect music and stories.

Mime Radio by Benjamin Seror is Edited by <o> future <o> and published by: Bat; Adéra; CRAC Alsace; Kunstverein, Amsterdam; and Sternberg Press.

ISBN 978-3-95679-151-2
€ 20

Join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for the long awaited bartending of Gabriel Lester, feat. Smári Rúnar Róbertsson

Doors open at 19.00
Serving Icelandic Brennivin

Lester and Robertsson will make a turn in the groove. But you gotta make it move. The Kunstverein will be packed, stacked and connected. Its gonna be the station. The centre for elevation. Getting down with fresh new creations. Yes a party is over here! Not a party over there! So all come on down, spread that vibe everywhere.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for
Date Night #1: GAME ♠ WAR ♥ LOVE featuring a karaoke session by Nathan Azhderian.

Doors open at 19.30, karaoke performance from 20.00

“… We all know how this performance is supposed to look, how it’s ‘supposed’ to sound – but the right effect remains elusive. What we get instead is more human, and less Beyoncé; flat notes and forgotten lyrics and awkward pauses in all the wrong places. More than anything else, the raw, messy sensation of expelling sound from our bodies. Sucking down air and then pushing it back up and struggling to shape it, pushing it back out onto the pop-imago like the human grease that spoils the perfect surface of the screen, together.”

With a special contribution by Matkissing Agency, to be discovered inside Kunstverein.

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Please join us this Saturday afternoon, at 5 pm for a talk by Luis Berríos-Negrón, a core collaborator of Paul Ryan’s Threeing at Documenta 13.

His Threeing rugs, developed together with Paul, were on view throughout Kunstverein’s Paul Ryan exhibition.

Luis Berríos-Negrón will be discussing flying carpets, the anxious prop, and his experiences with Paul Ryan and Threeing.

Doors open at 4 pm
Serving cookies and spiked cranberry tea

Luis Berríos-Negrón (Puerto Rico, 1971) focuses on visual arts, material economies, and mass customization through the lens of architecture. He holds a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Parsons New School for Design. While at the New School, he was teaching assistant to urban ecologist Jean Gardner, assistant editor/curator to conceptual artist Silvia Kolbowski, and studio assistant to photographer Larry Clark. While at M.I.T., he was teaching assistant to visual artist Antoni Muntadas, and performance artist Joan Jonas. His master’s thesis was co-advised by Dean Adele Santos, and director of the Center for Advance Visual Studies, Krzrysztof Wodiczko, co-read by William Mitchell, then head of the MIT Media Laboratory. He has received various awards, including first prize of the Parsons-Kalil Award for Smart Design 2002, first prize of the M.I.T.-Schnitzer Award for the Visual Arts 2004, and most recently the 2013 Royal Danish Council for the Arts International Visiting Artist stipend. In 2012, he was core collaborator exhibiting in Paul Ryan’s Threeing project at Documenta13, and in Ute Meta Bauer’s Future Archive at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. In 2013, he represents Germany with curator Matthias Böttger in the São Paulo International Biennial for Architecture, and will be in residence at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. From 2011 to 2013, he was Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Institute for Design and Architecture Strategies at the Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Sciences Department of the Technische Universität Braunschweig. In 2013–14, he will be Visiting Lecturer at the Münster University for Applied Sciences. Recent publications include Digital Utopia (Akademie der Künste, Berlin 2012), Space Matters (Ambra Verlag, Vienna 2013), and The Social Design Reader (co-published by Angewandte/ETH/Columbia Universities, Vienna/Zurich/NY 2013). He has an independent practice, is the founder of the Paramodular design group, and of the Anxious Prop art collective. Berríos-Negrón lives and works in Berlin since 2006.

Please join us for the launch and presentation of:

Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Seven Work Ballets

A lecture by Mierle Laderman Ukeles followed by a conversation between the artist and editor Kari Conte.

Monday 23 March, 19.30
Goethe Institut, Herengracht 470, Amsterdam

For reservations please contact the Goethe Institut:
Tel. 020 531 2900
info@amsterdam.goethe.org
Entrance: € 5; for Kunstverein members: € 3; Students: free

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s 1969 manifesto “Maintenance Art: Proposal for an Exhibition” was a major intervention in feminist performance practices and public art. The proposition argued for the intimate relationship between creative production in the public sphere and domestic labor – a relationship whose intricacies Ukeles has been unraveling, ever since. Starting in 1977, she became an unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, a position that enabled her to introduce radical public art as mainstream culture into an urban system serving and owned by the municipal population.

Through archival research, this monographic publication focuses on Ukeles’s work ballets – a series of large-scale collaborative performances involving workers, trucks, barges, and hundreds of tons of recyclables – which took place between 1983 and 2012 in Givors, Echigo-Tsumari, New York, Pittsburgh, and Rotterdam.

Edited by Kari Conte
Contributions by Kari Conte, Krist Gruijthuijsen; with 7 chapters written by Mierle Laderman Ukeles; a conversation with Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Tom Finkelpearl, Shannon Jackson

Co-published by Kunstverein Publishing, Grazer Kunstverein and Sternberg Press in collaboration Arnolfini, Bristol, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and Marabouparken, Stockholm. Design by Marc Hollenstein

Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Ukeles completed an undergraduate degree in history and international studies at Barnard and an MA in Interrelated Arts at NYU in 1973. Ukeles’ early work was experimental, and visually and symbolically conveyed the social unrest surrounding events such as the women’s movement and the Vietnam War. Since the 1970s, she has exhibited and performed widely, among others in C7500, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA (1973); Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists, Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1980, both curated by Lucy Lippard); Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York (1998), WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MoMa PS1, New York (2007–2008); Maintenance Art Works 1969–1980, Arnolfini, Bristol, and Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (both 2013). Ukeles is currently completing a permanent environmental public art commission for Freshkills Park in NYC, formerly the largest municipal landfill in the world, that will be completed in 2016–2017.
–
Kari Conte is a New York-based curator and writer. She is the editor and an author for Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Seven Work Ballets, published by Sternberg Press, Grazer Kunstverein and Kunstverein Publishing. Since 2010, she has been the Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP). At ISCP, she leads residencies, exhibitions, and public programs in which she collaborates with more than a hundred artists each year. Previously, she worked at Whitechapel Gallery, London and received an MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art. She has curated or organized over thirty international exhibitions, site-specific commissions and performances including contributions to the Aichi Triennale and Performa Biennial. She has given recent talks at institutions including Art in General, Bard College, Creative Time, Goethe-Institut, Independent Curators International (ICI), Ludwig Museum, Purchase College, and Sharjah Art Foundation.

SPF 15

Co-hosted by Galerie Juliette Jongma with de Ateliers, Upstream Gallery and Galerie Gabriel Rolt participating in the 2015 edition.


Friday 20 March

Upstream Gallery and Galerie Gabriel Rolt will serve drinks from 18.30,
Kunstverein from 19.00.

Marc Bijl
‘Start me up!’
18:45
Location: Intersection Ceintuurbaan/Sarphatipark and Tweede van der Helststraat
During ‘Start me up!’, Marc Bijl waves a chequered flag to lap traffic in De Pijp to a flaming Formule One finale.

Jeroen Jongeleen
‘Running Things’
19:00–20:30
Location: the runs will start at Upstream Gallery and pass by all SPF locations
While people raise their glasses to the arts in De Pijp, tempers are challenged when a group of visitors seem to be plundering the galleries.

House of Makers
‘Looking Back’
19:30 – 20:00
Location: Galerie Gabriel Rolt
Looking Back was created by artists Sterre van Rossem, Peter Leung, Matthew Pawlicki-Sinclair and Clotilde Tran-Phat and will be performed at SP15 as a site-specific work. The work is in its essence fluid and always displaced, forcing the artists to adapt constantly to new circumstances. It is constantly being vandalized and deconstructed in order to make space for a new piece to emerge, adapted to the circumstances of a new environment.

Paul Ryan
‘Threeing Session’ lead by Sevanne Kassarjian
20:00–21:00
Location: Galerie Juliette Jongma
The workshop introduces you to the collaborative practice of Threeing and invites participants to generate ways to make Threeing operative in their work and play. Please sign up via office@kunstverein.nl.

Laurent-David Garnier
‘Cocktail #3 Fast Ice Racing Sand Track – FIRST’
20:00–22:00
Location: Bob’s Your Uncle Sports Bar (Kunstverein)
Laurent-David Garnier develops the third of his series signature cocktails.

Stefano Faoro
‘I want to write them and say it is not going to last’
22:00
Location: Bob’s Your Uncle Sports Bar (Kunstverein)
After The Protagonists and The Means, the third and final chapter.
 Spoken words performance, circa 20 minutes.

Karaoke Police
23:00
Location: Tour begins at Kunstverein
Karaoke Police is a touring-game performance led by David Bernstein, Monika Lipšic, Marija Olšauskaitė, Jurgis Paškevičius and other special guests.

23:45
official start of SPRING

Saturday 21 March

The Dogs of Shame
‘Doing the Marina’
starts at 14:00
Location: Museumplein/Museum square and route to Galerie Gabriel Rolt
The public is invited to join the Dogs of Shame in their physically and mentally challenged ‘Doing the Marina’ method. A moving guerrilla performance in public space.

Death Shanties (Lucy Stein, Sybren Renema, Alex Neilson)
16:00-17:00
Location: De Ateliers
Death Shanties is a mixed media free jazz group featuring Alex Neilson (drums), Sybren Renema (sax) and former de Ateliers resident Lucy Stein (painting/ projections). Stein uses primitive devotional images, food stuffs and even her own hair in visceral, highly textured painted projections making Death Shanties a unique and immersive live experience.

Rent the Korean (Jungmyung Lee and Ingo Valente)
17:00–19:00
Location: Bob’s Your Uncle Sports Bar (Kunstverein)
Rent the Korean will offer you a bizarre experience while Jungmyung Lee and Ingo Valente serve rice balls and vj cooking for welcoming the spring awake from hibernation. It is under an Institutional Package in which there are secretive interactive moments between Rent the Korean and visitors at the Kunstverein.

Peter Schuyff
19:00
Location: Galerie Gabriel Rolt
Neo-minimalistic painter and sculptor Peter Schuyff, will close SPF by performing with his band The Woodwards in the garden of Galerie Gabriel Rolt.

Addresses:

Kunstverein
Gerard Doustraat 132
1073 VX, Amsterdam

Galerie Juliette Jongma
Gerard Doustraat 128a
1073 VX Amsterdam

Galerie Gabriel Rolt
Tolstraat 84
1073 SE Amsterdam

Upstream Gallery
Van Ostadestraat 294
1073 TW Amsterdam

De Ateliers
Stadhouderskade 86
1073 AT Amsterdam

SPF 2015 is made possible through the generous support of Stadsdeel Zuid

Will Holder and Alex Waterman read Robert Ashley
Will Holder and Alex Waterman will be reading an hour of duets from Robert Ashley’s opera’s “Dust” and “Celestial Excursions” as part of the reading tour of YES, BUT IS IT EDIBLE? The music of Robert Ashley, for two or more voices.
Edited by Will Holder and Alex Waterman. Published by New Documents, 2014

Location: Theater de Roode Bioscoop, Haarlemmerplein 7
Doors open at 7 p.m. performance starts at 8 p.m.
Tickets €11 and €6 for members (bring you membership card) via www.roodebioscoop.nl or reserve via office@kunstverein.nl

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

Please join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for
Date Night #0: GAME ♠ WAR ♥ LOVE hosted by The Dutch Oysters Club.*

Oysters and bubbles served from 19.30

“In pre-romantic, pre-modern time marriages or love connections were a matter of relatives, counselors, your uncle, your aunt, and so on … Today is similar, only instead of all those old wise uncles it’s dating agencies and marriage agencies. What they offer is precisely love without the fall, without falling in love, without this totally unpredictable traumatic encounter.” (Slavoj Žižek introducing Event: A Philosophical Journey Through A Concept, 2014)

*For the Date Night #0, the Dutch Oysters Club will be making their first public appearance. The founding members are Dina Danish, Bea McMahon and Emma Panza.

I’m With Her Records and BOB’s YOUR UNCLE presents:

Nancy Acid, live at Ellen de Bruijne

Thursday 19 February

Doors open at 8 p.m.
Gig starts at 8.30 p.m.

Ellen de Bruijne Projects
Rozengracht 207a
1016 LZ Amsterdam

The Performance Programme at Ellen de Bruijne Projects and BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is curated by Dorothé Orczyk.
10 January – 28 February 2015

Please join us Thursday 5 February for the radio feature
If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right #3 by Kerstin Cmelka.

A live DJ set and radio broadcast exploring female emotional desires and their attempts of expression in pop music.

Doors open at 7 p.m.
The set starts at 8 p.m.

Serving Negroni Cocktail

and

This Thursday BOB’s YOUR UNCLE’s newest franchise, the BOB’s YOUR UNCLE SPORTS BAR* in Bergen, Norway, will be hosted by Swedish artist Tobias Karlsson. The evening will feature pink cocktails, a soundtrack of 50’s love songs, and a re-enactment of one of Karlsson’s slam poetry performances from the 90’s.

*Appropriated by Amsterdam-based artist Carl Johan Högberg, BOB’s YOUR UNCLE SPORTS BAR is part of the exhibition “Shuttlecock, feat. Bob’s Your Uncle Sports Bar” at Hordaland Art Centre, curated by Anthea Buys. Read more about the exhibition here.

The Performance Programme at Ellen de Bruijne Projects and BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is curated by Dorothé Orczyk.
10 January – 28 February 2015

BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is designed by Robert Wilhite, open every Thursday, and brings you a special host and special servings each week. Reservations: bobsyouruncle@kunstverein.nl

Join us this Thursday at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE for a screening and Bärenjäger.

Doors open at 7 p.m.
Screening starts at 8 p.m.

A Recess and a Reconstruction
Written and directed by Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, 2011, 22 min.
With: Rachel Spicer as Hippolyta, Benjamin Seror as Manfred, and Francis Grew.

Somewhat at a loose end, two museum guides in a basement storeroom are marveling at the great resourcefulness of archeological museography. Elsewhere, on an excavation site, an archeologist standing by trenches and mechanical diggers is describing artefacts. Much further along, a young woman imprisoned in the underground recess of a castle lets her terror fantasies run wild. A Recess and a Reconstruction is a Gothic story where the line between what is past and what lies in the future is in the process of disintegrating.

Production I. I. I. I., with the support of Pôle Image Haute Normandie, Cultures France, FRAC Île-de-France, Mairie de Paris, Raven Row. Thanks to Marcelle Alix, Paris. Image: Maria de los Angeles Parrinello, sound: Arthur Beja, Sam Ryan, editing: Clement Tomé, costumes: Martin Hervé, catering: Michèle Monory.

Serving: Bärenjäger (bear hunter). In medieval times, bear hunters would enticing the bears with meschkinnes, a mead-like moonshine made by bee keepers and farmers which was irresistible to bears and humans alike. In the 15th century, the Teucke and Konig Bear Trap Company created the first professionally produced meschkiness (“Bärenjäger”). And it’s still made with natural ingredients using the same methods.

The Performance Programme at Ellen de Bruijne Projects and BOB’s YOUR UNCLE is curated by Dorothé Orczyk.
10 January – 28 February 2015

In collaboration with Kunstverein/ BOB’s YOUR UNCLE* Amsterdam, Ellen de Bruijne Projects presents different performances every week by the following artists:

*Kerstin Cmelka
Jeremiah Day
*Uta Eisenreich & Eva Meyer-Keller
*Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet
I’m With Her Records
Sarah van Lamsweerde
Eva Meyer-Keller
Erkka Nissinen
Janneke van Raaphorst
Geo Wyeth

Please visit Ellen de Bruijne’s website, Facebook as well as Kunstverein’s website to stay updated on the programme.

Join us this Saturday for Nora Turato does Rammellzee
Performance starts at 7 p.m.

Image: Rammellzee, copyright Vincent Vlasblom, NL

World premiere of ‘Shut Up I’m Counting’
Saturday 10 January 2015
At Rialto cinema
Doors open at 11.30 a.m. screening starts at 11.45 a.m.
A blini brunch follows at Bob’s Your Uncle

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Please join us for the premiere of Felix Salut’s extraordinary film ‘Shut Up I’m Counting’, a project on the cutting edge of film and graphic design.
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The movie is a parable of a complex and erratic world. Tara and Ohio are trapped in a reality packed with symbols, systems and fragments. They don‘t know how to escape from it. They are looking for the sign ‘X’ to show them the WAY OUT. Guided by the Oracle with its mysterious riddles, a turbulent adventure story evolves.
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The film is written, directed and produced by Felix Salut and has a duration of 27 min.
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Following the screening there will be a chance to speak with the director, Felix Salut, at Bob’s Your Uncle, and share in some Blinis and Cava. As well, we will be showing and playing the game Galapagos, as featured in the film.
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Tickets including blinis and cava: 5 EUR
As seating is limited, please send an email to reserve to office@kunstverein.nl (members have priority).

SOLD OUT
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The experimental film script of ‘Shut Up I’m Counting’ was published by Spector Books in 2014. It was awarded the Walter-Tiemann-Preis, a prize for innovative book design and typography.
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Duration: 27 min
Director: Felix Salut
Camera, Animation & Sound: Simon Krahl
Tara: Tara Khan
Ohio: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy
The Oracle: Karen Røise Kielland
Dot: voice by Yotam Haber
The Voice: Wendy Taylor
Magic Child: Noah Weigand
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Rialto cinema
Ceintuurbaan 338, Amsterdam
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This project was made possible by the generous support of AFK and supporters of wemakeit.ch. Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

Please join us for the Kunstverein Christmas party with Santa Robert Wilhite serving Santa’s Crutch.

Friday 19 December, from 7.30 pm.

This Thursday 4 December, BOB’s YOUR UNCLE will host a triple special:

• The Exhibitionist serves The Pete – a non-controversial cocktail.

• Adam Pendleton reads Hannah Weiner – from afar.

• And Kari Cwynar of Kunstverein Toronto launches KVT’s first publication:
a new edition of Schneemann’s iconic artist’s book, Cézanne, She Was A Great Painter (1976), published in conjunction with the exhibition Dear Carolee: Carolee Schneemann in Letters (on from November 27 – January 10).

Doors open at 19.30.

We’ll be playing some Rammellzee. Poems welcome.

Doors open at 19.30

Please note that space is limited so it will be first come first serve and members will have priority.

Hannah Weiner and Rammellzee
29 November 2014 – 31 January 2015

Preview: Friday 28 November, 5–8 pm

The show is about two people who use language/words and even letters in their very own way. Rammellzee liberated letters from their enslaved status in the alphabet so that they could do battle. And Weiner saw words in the air and on people.

We’ll have paintings by Rammellzee and books by Weiner.

Image: Rammellzee, copyright Vincent Vlasblom, NL

Events:
28 November: Tommy Oost live
4 December: Adam Pendleton reads Hannah Weiner
& January 2015: Nora Turato reads Rammellzee

K-tanglement
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14 September 2014, 8pm
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On September 14 at 8pm in Amsterdam and Milano and at 2pm New York and Toronto time, a simultaneous hypnosis performance will be held under the glow of giant billboard screens in NY, Toronto, Amsterdam and Milan. Following on from and inspired by “Color Therapy”, a project that brings abstract visuals and sounds that counterbalance weather and social traffic flows at these 4 locations, K-tanglement is a project that seeks to decolonize the mind from the sense of unitary location. Participants will be invited to listen to an audio that enables them to enter a trance state in which their unconscious minds will be invited to dematerialize, decontextualize themselves from the surrounding branding, dissolve into color-based emotions and finally develop a sense of simultaneous entanglement with participants in the other 3 cities.

If you would like to participate please register here.

K-tanglement : a project by Marcos Lutyens in collaboration with Kunstverein Toronto, Milan, New York and Amsterdam.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members and Stadsdeel Zuid.

There’s only two Alex Bailey’s
25–29 June 2014

Dear Maxine

I imagine you’re duly impressed, if not ‘weak at the knees’ by the photograph i’ve attached. It also shows TWO of the works i’ll be exhibiting. I consider the show as ’stuffing works’ down every orifice of the space. Much like a Gang Bang.

Kindest of Regards

Alex Bailey

 

The exhibition features work from Michael Bailey (UK), Alex Bailey (UK), Robert Chilton (UK), A Donkey (NL) and an amateur painting from deceased footballer George Best (NI).

Friday 27th June, 7pm, performance at Café Van Wou, Van Woustraat 25.

There’s only two Alex Bailey’s is part of A Festival of Choices, Master of Fine Arts Graduation 2014, Sandberg Instituut, 25–29 June 2014, various locations throughout Amsterdam. A Festival of Choices emphasizes upon the relationship and choices made between the graduating student and the diverse range of institutions and organizations offered within the cultural landscape of Amsterdam. For more information and the full program, please check www.festivalofchoices.nl

Mime Radio, The Final Chapters
Mime Radio is an orally written novel by Benjamin Seror.

“This is the story of an ancient voice. This is the story of how Marsyas, poor Marsyas recovered his voice millions of years after having lost it.”

Chapter X
Wednesday, 11 June 2014
Doors open at 7 pm, performance starts at 7.30pm

Chapter XI
Friday, 20 June 2014
Doors open at 7 pm, performance starts at 7.30pm

Chapter XII
Thursday, *26 June 2014
*Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Teijin Auditorium
Performance starts at 8pm

The story begins in a bar located in Los Angeles, the Tiki Coco. The bar is the center of the story where every night, a group of people attend the “Challenging Reality Open Mic” during which the audience is invited to take the microphone to present some new tools, techniques or ideas that could extend reality or at least shake at it a bit. This meeting will see the growing friendship between four characters, Angie, Bernhard, Benjamin and David, who move together to the Solog House built by one of them in the Hudson River Valley. This is also where they discover they have been followed by Marsyas, a character from ancient Greek mythology that lost his body after being defeated in a music contest against the god Apollo. The characters proceed to help Marsyas to recover his voice, his very ancient voice, without knowing what disaster this recovery could unleash.

Each chapter of the novel had been relayed orally through a cycle of improvised performances that are then transcribed to be later published in their entirety. One of the main concerns of this project is the use of a public event as a possible writing technique. Mime Radio follows on the principles of Cinema Vérité as described by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin when collaborating on Chroniques d’un été (1960), a film about the impact of different camera movements on a given situation. In this and other Cinema Vérité films, the audience replaces the camera and the central question becomes: What would change for an author if s/he were to write a story directly addressed to a particular audience?

The core subject of this novel is language itself: What are the possibilities of words, and how can they be used in the most efficient ways to make things happen? The question is also paramount to all the different protagonists of the story who come together at the Tiki Coco. At this bar, they organize nightly events where they stretch the limits of language to describe tools that challenge reality. Most of the characters that appear in the novel come from other novels such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as living artists with whom Seror is in dialogue.

Please make your reservations up until one day before each performance via office@kunstverein.nl. Please note that members have priority.

Launch Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif (reprint and translation)

Kunstverein presents on 4 September – in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam – a reading by Will Holder on the occasion of the reprint of Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif, with the first full translation of the material in English.

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Between 1932 and 1936 five edition of the cahier Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif was published in Paris by the eponymous association, uniting all movements who worked abstractly. The magazine not only formalised a new tendency for language in visual art, but also became a form of explicit self-promotion and opposition against the growing force of figurative Surrealism, led by André Breton. Two minimal yet clear criteria needed to be fulfilled to become a member of the association: you had to be an artist and work non-figuratively. This resulted in a list of members of long-forgotten artists mingled with names such as Kandinsky, Mondrian, Calder, Delaunay, Van Doesburg and Brancusi.
A year after the establishment of the association the first issue of the cahier Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif was published. Most of the members handed in documentation of work along with self-written texts. Those writings were visions about their own work, detailed explanations of the documentation, short viewing instructions, epistles about the true meaning of abstract art, essays on the relation between abstract art and evolution, straight forward explanations why a locomotive is not a work of art, and a poem about God being a copycat.

During the launch in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Will Holder will lead a small audience through the Museum’s galleries, stopping to read writings from Abstraction Création: Art non-figuratif to paintings and sculpture by their authors.

The publication is an initiative of Riet Wijnen and published by Kunstverein Publishing.

The readings will take place on 4 September at 7 – 7.30 pm, 8 – 8.30 pm, and 9 – 9.30 pm at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Reservation is required. Please send an e-mail to reservations@stedelijk.nl, including your preferred time slot.

Afterwards there will be drinks at BOB’s YOUR UNCLE.

Kunstverein wishes to thank its (Gold) members, Stadsdeel Zuid, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Stichting Stokroos and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.