Iratxe Jaio + Klaas van Gorkum

This seminar, organised by eremuak, will focus on the legitimisation discourses that inform public policies, to explore questions such as: new institutional frameworks, self-instituting processes, collective practices, definitions of participation in art and society, financing methods and the laws of patronage and heritage policies.

The seminar will take place over two days and is structured around two committees in which a number of different professionals will take part: artists, curators, and art historians. In each session, the debates will be preceded by a talk on the proposed subject.

Venue:
ARTIUM museum - Vitoria-Gasteiz - october 19 - 20

11 October: We are participating in a colloquium between Basque artists, featuring Nestor Basterretxea and Josu Rekalde, and moderated by Fernando Golvano, in the 1st International Congress on Art, Memory and Democracy.

Conference venues
Bilbao and Gernika: 9,10,11th october 2012
Elai Alai aretoa Gernika and Auditorium of the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao)

Presentation
Great works of art weave many senses and different aesthetic, ethical and political values into a single form. They set off genuine research into human existence and historical and social events, redefining what is thinkable, visible and experimentable. Picasso’s Guernica, painted in 1937, is a case in point of an artistic creation that brings together all these meanings in an open, critical, enigmatic dialogue. Painted at the time of the Spanish Civil War and commissioned by the government of the Republic for its pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris, it continues to be ackowledged as a universal symbol denouncing the barbarity of the bombing of civilian populations.

2012 marks the 75th anniversary of its presentation, in the Year of Cultures for Peace and Freedom. This provides an ideal setting for a review of its current significance and ongoing commitment to democratic values. It is also a good time to reflect on the deep-rooted links between creativity, remembrance and the permanent institution of a democratic project in the Basque, European and global contexts in the present time. This congress sets out to discuss these issues from the viewpoints of historical and philosophical clarification and of artistic and literary investigation.

research by walking is a curatorial project developed by Alba Colomo during her residency at Het Wilde Weten in Rotterdam. It centers on the role of artists in the social transformation of the South of Rotterdam - a zone with a large presence of 'creative professionals' - and on how this relates to the urban development policies of the local institutions. The high concentration of artists - and the acclaimed 'creative class' - that live and work in this part of the city, seems to be one of the strategies employed by the local authorities to regenerate the socio-economic environment of the area.

With: Kim Bouvy, Left Hand Rotation, and Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum.

9 October - 11 November 2012

Sala Rekalde

An exhibition at Het Wilde Weten, curated by Alba Colomo. With Iratxe Jaio & Klaas van Gorkum, Kim Bouvy and Left Hand Rotation. Only 15.05.2012 during De Derde Dinsdag

From the 28th of March to the 6th of April 2012, we gave a workshop at MASS Alexandria, Egypt, in collaboration with Elke Uitentuis. During this workshop, we focused on the concept of pre-enactment. The unstable transition period Egypt is in right now causes a lot of uncertainty, but also openings for new images of the future. This future could be the one we hope for, or its opposite, a dystopian vision of what is to come. The question is how we, as artists, can contribute to the development of a certain shared vision, a horizon to strive for. By enacting future scenarios in the present, the current politics of our daily lives will be put into another perspective. The goal of pre-enacting is to draw parallels and stimulate discussion on the proposals presented.

On March 2 and 3, an Occupy inspired campaign will take place in the Jan van Galen neighbourhood. Occupy Campaign is not selling anything, nor is it a political party. Occupy Campaign aims to bring politics back to their source: to the neighbourhood and the street. Watch the video below: