Starting in the 2021/22 season, the professorship Artistic Connective Practices organises a series of encounters with practitioners, the research team of the professorship and audience, in order to explore the notion of Artistic Connective Practices. The series is curated by the Connective Intra-Activiteam: Falk Hübner, Danae Theodoridou, Aart Strootman, Juriaan Achthoven, Heleen de Hoon and Jan Staes.
The professorship Artistic Connective Practices aims to investigate how artists and their artistic (research) practices can contribute to the transformation towards a sustainable and resilient society. The lectorate explores how artists and specifically artistic researchers can make a contribution, right in the midst of society. Artistic Connective Practices aim to provide a perspective on complex issues through a number of core values, such as connecting through spending time together, rooted in agreed common ground, mutual respect and endless curiosity; affinity, integrity and kinship. With non-hierarchical and emergent forms of collaboration in an inclusive and diverse context as point of departure, these core values will be developed into research questions and concrete artistic research projects in the future of the lectorate.
But what are Artistic Connective Practices exactly?
A team of five researchers has made a first step in order to collectively and collaboratively give shape to three "terminological clouds": the artistic, the connective and practices. We collected a number of elements / criteria / descriptors for these three clouds, which can interact and overlap in a variety of practices, and enable us to ask questions to practices regarding notions and processes of artistry and connectivity. Now it is time to involve others into this collective process. Starting in the first half of 2022, we invite a number of guests from the professional field, whose practices we like to explore, and with whom we like to think about their work through the notion of Artistic Connective Practices. Each event will feature one practitioner, present work and get into conversation, getting into depth into the aspects of what might make the artistic work connective, in which way the connections take shape, emerge, with which motivations, and so on.
The events have a form of a "double bill". After an informal dinner of the team with the guest, the public part on the evening engages with both the team and audience, followed by informal drinks, snacks and conversation. On the morning after the team will meet the guest to continue the conversation more in-depth, to be able to follow up on themes and questions that emerged the evening before; to continue the thinking-together.
As the series is part of the lectorate, all events and conversations will be thoroughly documented, reflected upon and included in this ongoing Research Catalogue exposition that will cover the entire series and what the various events mean for the concept of Artistic Connective Practices.