Essay : Performing the Margins – Mariska vd Berg

 

 

NL

Op 29 maart ‘18 vond het evenement ‘Working on the margins’ bij bkkc te Tilburg plaats. Tijdens de bijeenkomst werd er gespeculeerd over de urgentie van de 18 aanwezige AiR’s in Brabant en de mogelijkheden- en ontwikkelpunten voor de toekomst van dit netwerk. 

De dag kenmerkte zich door meerdere presentaties, waaronder een inspirerend betoog van hoofdspreekster Yasmina Reggad, die tijdens de conferentie in Gastatelier Leo XIII verbleef. Reggad definieert de ‘margin’ zowel als fysieke en mentale ruimte die doorbreekt wat zogenaamd ‘normaal’ zou zijn. Oftewel: een ruimte in-between, noodzakelijk voor verlegging- en bevraging van het systeem. 

Naast diverse presentaties vonden er meer kleinschalige werksessies plaats en werd er een panelgesprek gevoerd waar Bas van den Hurk namens Gastatelier Leo XIII zitting in nam, tezamen met Marcelle Hendrickx (Wethouder cultuur gemeente Tilburg) en Mayke Jongsma (Mondriaan Fonds). In het gesprek werd de niet-gedefinieerde aard en het belang van hospitality in een AiR onderstreept. 

In opdracht van bkkc, AIR Netwerk Brabant en DutchCulture/TransArtists heeft Mariska van den Berg tevens het essay PERFORMING THE MARGINS* (2018) geschreven, waarin zij Leo XIII uitgebreid analyseert: “Invisibility contributes to focus. (…) This is the value of the kinds of places that we have to stand for”, aldus Van den Hurk (in Van den Berg, 2018: 4). 

Het essay PERFORMING THE MARGINS geeft een heldere uiteenzetting van de in de conferentie besproken content en is hierboven te downloaden als PDF bestand. 

*Het essay wordt gepubliceerd in de oktobereditie van Kunstlicht 

 

EN

On 29 March ‘18 the event ‘Working on the Margins’ took place at bkkc in Tilburg. The conference covered a dialogue about the urgency of the 18 AiRs present in Brabant and this network’s possibilities- and opportunities of development for the future.

One of the presentations held at the conference was an inspirational speech by front speaker Yasmina Reggad, who stayed at Gastatelier Leo XIII during her stay in Tilburg. Reggad defines the ‘margin’ as both physical and mental space that breaks through what is supposedly ‘normal’.  In other words: an in-between space, which is necessary for pushing and querying the system.

In addition to various presentations, small-scale work sessions were initiated and a panel discussion was held in which Bas van den Hurk took part on behalf of Gastatelier Leo XIII, together with Marcelle Hendrickx (Alderman for Culture of Tilburg) and Mayke Jongsma (Mondriaan Fund). Here, the AiRs undefined nature and the importance of hospitality were emphasized. 

Commissioned by bkkc, AIR Netwerk Brabant and DutchCulture/TransArtists, Mariska van den Berg wrote the essay PERFORMING THE MARGINS * (2018), in which she extensively analyzes Leo XIII: “Invisibility contributes to focus. (…) This is the value of the kinds of places that we have to stand for”, says Van den Hurk (in Van den Berg, 2018: 4).

The essay PERFORMING THE MARGINS gives a clear explanation of the content discussed in the conference and can be downloaded above as a PDF file.

* The essay will be published in the October edition of Kunstlicht

 

 

Working on the margins – artist-in-residence programs today

Cracks in the state of things, in the state of norms..  Cracks leading us despite ourselves to new social practices and to new aesthetic practices which will reveal themselves as less and less separate from each other and more and more complicity.. (Felix Guattari, Cracks in the Street, Flash Art. 135 1987 p.85)

Often artist-run, these artist-in-residence programs provide open, relational, social spaces embedded in the locality of a village or city. They connect artists and create communities of practitioners: to test ideas, take creative risks and explore new directions in their artistic practice. Many of these initiatives operate internationally and function as local platforms for the production and presentation of new work. They develop their own lines of discourse, knowledge and understanding and often engage in an experimental manner related to their location, where local history, identity and other relevant topics are subject of investigation. Experiments that also transpires in the development of structures for production and presentation of art according to one’s own terms and ideas. A condition that altogether provokes new models that, in turn, open up the existing hierarchical structures of the art world.

By addressing the notion of the margins as a lens, we will explore the practice of different artist-in-residence programs: from the seclusion of a monastery in Vught to the dynamics of an artist-run space in Algiers. Together with artists, organizers, institutions and municipalities we will investigate the margins as a critical space we need to continuously retrieve and advance. How can this be addressed from the practice of artist-in-residence programs today, and how can this ultimately lead to new aesthetic and social practices in the arts and society?

Working on the margins consists of different stages. On January 18 opened an exhibition at bkkc about artist-in-residence programs in Brabant, curated by Ron Dirven, director of Van Gogh huis in Zundert. In collaboration with AiR Platform NL, Mariska van den Berg, art historian and chairperson of Platform BK will write an essay regarding the questions mentioned above as contribution to the program and conference on March 29.

Working on the margins is a program by bkkc in collaboration with Ron Dirven, director Van Gogh huis and Heidi Vogels, coordinator AiR Platform NL, DutchCulture. The program is developed after the current situation of artist-in-residence programs in Brabant and is a follow-up of the encounter – Air for Experiment, a symposium about the impact of small, context-based artist-in-residence programs in different regions in Europe, which took place in Delft in 2016.