Bart Lodewijks (1972, NL) makes large scale, linear chalk drawings in public and private spaces. The drawings can be found on building facades, in hospitals and offices, but also inside private homes and the surrounding streets. His distinct abstract drawings respond to the social context in which they are made. They make us wonder: when does a simple chalk-line drawing becomes an artwork? How important is the participatory approach and the connectivity with objects, surroundings and people? And what is my position towards it all?
https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/bart-lodewijks-white-lines/
During the evening with Bart Lodewijks it becomes clear how his work is both an artistic and a social practice: Drawing is central to it and always the point of departure, sparking or provoking conversations and what emerges from these conversations. Usually Bart starts by making chalk drawings in public space, which typically attracts people’s attention: “What is this?” – “It’s just a line.” They enter a conversation, which often ends with Bart asking them if they allow him to draw inside of their house (one example of such a process can be seen in this video). He meticulously documents his work through photos, and at a later stage publishes these in book-form: These books show images of the drawings next to written stories. These stories are not about the drawing itself, but of the people, the place and time in which the drawing has been made.
Bart Lodewijks’ work has a strong sense of ongoingness: His drawings are linked through their aesthetic and technique with which they are made, – the continuous “commitment to the straight line” – as well as through his approach of social exchange parallel to making the drawings, and the reccuring “move” from the outside (public space) to the inside (people’s homes). He describes his work as being “one drawing, actually.”
Several elements in Lodewijks’ work resonate with our notion of connectivity. Next to the obvious element of social exchange through artistic practice (the act of drawing in public space that provokes or encourages conversation, which in turn leads to drawing in private space), it is crucial that Bart is _taking time_ for this exchange – however, not as a “fetish” in itself, but always closely connected to the drawings, or even with the drawings as a catalyst for or topic of exchange, at least initially. He does this with great care and attention. This includes asking for help in specific situations (as e.g. when Bart’s needs a ladder), not only because he needs it, but also as a means to build connections and collective infrastructure between various residents in a neighbourhood, for example.
(reflection by Falk Hübner)
Lara Staal is a researcher, writer and curator. Between 2013 and 2016, she worked as a programmer at Frascati where she developed various sociopolitical programmes in which alliances were created between art and other fields on the basis of shared urgencies. Examples of this are “International Law, whose Law?” (2013), “Out of State” (2015) and “Other Stories, finding more than me” (2017). From a growing interest in developing innovative forms within which dialogue and reflection can take place, she developed the “Congress of Utopia” in collaboration with Jonas Staal in 2016. Since 2017 she has been working as a freelance curator in the performing arts and has developed works such as “The Evening of Anger” (together with rapper Gideon Everduim) and “Europe on Trial” (together with human rights activist Yoonis Osman Nuur). In the 2020-2021 season Lara Staal made the short film “The State of Justice” ( https://www.ntgent.be/en/productions/de-staat-van-de-rechtvaardigheid-lara-staal ) at NTGent about the improper treatment of refugees in Europe, and part of a series in which she focuses on several fundamental values in our society. In 2021-2022 season, she creates the performance “Dissident” together with six so called ‘problem cases’ from schools in Ghent.
Lara Staal is invited as one of the guests of the Connective Conversations on the basis of the insightful interdisciplinary character of her work, as well as of the strong connections this work draws between artistic/curatorial frames, society and politics.
Curating Imaginary Proposals
During the evening, Lara presents a number of her project, among them The Evening of Fury from 2018, a performance about anger, and about building alliances through shared anger; Europe on trial (2018), a staged trial against Europe that investigates the immigration policy of the European Union as a policy against human rights; and Dissident, a particularly striking work that Lara created in the 2021-2022 season at NTGent, together with six so-called ‘problem cases’, dropout kids from schools in Gent.
Dissident is a work about school and critique on the school system. The central change of perspective, and key point in this performance and its process is the switch from speaking about trouble kids to speaking with them; and together with this change, the piece asks the question if the kids actually get a voice through this performance, or if they just become instrumentalised (a teaser of the performance can be seen here). Lara does not over-romanticise the performance and its “message”, or impact. For her, art is a possibility to address things that are unbearable and need to be spoken out. Even if there seems to be no place to actually speak out, in art this is still possible. In times when nothing works, art can be an alternative – even if only a weak alternative. Lara is not interested in the question if this (or such) a piece is good art, actually – she is interested in the youngsters’ proposal.
Regarding the connective in Lara’s work and in _Dissident_ in particular, what stands out is a strong sense of attention and care, and the urgency to take responsibility for “matters of concern”, as philosopher Isabelle Stengers would call it. From Lara’s perspective, connectivity in not without obligation, it brings responsibility with it. As artists we do not only have the possibility or responsibility to ask questions, to lay bare what concerns us, but also to make proposals, to propose alternatives; even if these alternatives are imaginary and speculative.
(reflection by Falk Hübner)
Myriam van Imschoot & Marcus Bergner
Myriam Van Imschoot is a Brussels-based sound and performance artist. She holds an idiosyncratic place in the larger art field working in different media (voice/sound, performance, film) with numerous groups and their potentials in transitional societies. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally in galleries, musea, cinema's and theaters in Europe and the United States. Among many other projects, since 2014 she is working with a community of women, the YouYou group, who practice and deepen customs of trilling in Club Zaghareeds ( http://oralsite.be/pages/Club_Zaghareed ). With then, she also created the film Le Cadeau ( http://oralsite.be/pages/Le_Cadeau ). More about their work can also be seen in the movie made by Luca Mattei ( https://vimeo.com/575790306 ).
Marcus Bergner is an Australian artist based in Brussels. Marcus has made over 25 experimental films that have been screened extensively worldwide. Recently together with Myriam van Imschoot, he presented a series of workshops on sound poetry. He is a member of the Post Collective, an autonomous platform of co-creation, co-learning and cultural activism created by and for refugees, asylum seekers, sans papiers and accomplices. It seeks to introduce a range of artistic, cultural and employment opportunities, as well as provide an overall collaborative environment for its members regardless of their legal status. He is also a member of the Post Film Collective focusing on polyphonic cinema practice, composed of a kaleidoscope of perspectives.
Myriam van Imschoot & Marcus Bergner are invited as the guests of the Connective Conversations on the basis of the interdisciplinary character of their work, as well as of the sociability and community building qualities that are constitutive of their work.
Katja Heitmann (1986, DE) makes performance installations and theatrical exhibitions. Her work often confronts viewers with their own fallibility, through the use of extreme aesthetics. With a critical view on contemporary technoculture, the work constantly seeks different ways of connecting with society. This leads to an ongoing process of experimentation with new forms of performing arts, whereby the encounter between spectators and performers is the constantly shifting object of inquiry.
Lisa Heinis (1986, BE) works as curator of education at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and at Boijmans Hillevliet, where she focuses on the connection of artistic research with the neighbourhood and broader society. Boijmans Hillevliet is a meeting place in Rotterdam South, where residents, pupils and talented makers come together and can organise or participate in activities. Here Lisa and the team of Hillevliet are working with makers, social partners and key figures from the neighbourhood. The location in Hillevliet is a first step towards a broader program in the Southern area of the city, and is a striking example how an institution aims to build, explore and develop artistic connectivity in a larger community.
Lisa will join us together with filmmaker Seecum Cheung, who co-created a programme for young artists to learn professional documentary audio and video techniques and capture the lives of shopkeepers in Rotterdam South.
John Johnston has a background in the visual arts, and is head of the international Master Artist Educator (Artists Educators as Agents of Ex-Change) at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem. John graduated with a PhD from the University of Sunderland, presenting a portfolio and thesis that highlighted what he describes as ‘the intrinsic connectivity between artistic thinking and conflict transformation.’ He asserts that the world is in the grip of an apathetic education system that promotes a culture of inertia. This leads to the depoliticisation of society and a loss of agency. He states that an‘issues based arts education’ counteracts the effect of such inertia and leads to the development of the caring and critical society we need to change the world. He has worked in a variety of conflict and post conflict contexts including; Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa, Rwanda, Israel-Palestine and Lebanon.
John is recognised for developing a number of arts based methodologies that provide an artistic platform for marginalised and minority communities to gain voice and agency. Research Interests: Conflict Transformation, Arts Based Research, Issues Based Education and Social Engaged Practice.
Services, knowledge, skills, fun, nonsense, stuff: We exchange all the time. In our society, the nature of exchange increasingly becomes a kind of transaction. Goods and services are being exchanged for money. What if these standardized agreements fall away? If we get somewhere with different standards than money? Are there other ways of exchange thinkable?
As part of the Exchange project, Mojra Vogelnik Skerjl (dance company The100Hands Breda), Godelieve Spaas (Avans Hogeschool, professor Economy as a Common) en Falk Hübner (professor Artistic Connective Practices) work on the creation of a lecture performance on exchange, next to an interactive dance performance with The100Hands. Through shared time with stories, objects, critical reflections, Mojra, Godelieve and Falk share their progress in the creation of this lecture performance, from an artistic and reflective perspective.
Deze editie van Connective Conversations is dr. Emiel Heijnen te gast. Hij is lector kunsteducatie in Amsterdam en doet o.a. onderzoek naar maatschappelijk geëngageerde kunsteducatie. Hij komt een lezing geven over wat 'artistieke connectiviteit' betekent binnen zijn werk. Vragen die daarbij aan bod komen zijn: Hoe verhoudt het artistieke zich tot het educatieve en tot het maatschappelijke? Wat zijn binnen dit veld ervaringen of voorbeelden van jeugdparticipatieve praktijken? En hoe kunnen we kunsteducatie denken als manier om alternatieve perspectieven op de wereld te creëren?
Dr. Emiel Heijnen is lector Kunsteducatie aan de Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Zijn onderzoeks-focus is gericht op authentieke kunsteducatie, populaire media- & cultuuronderwijs, curriculum ontwerp en ArtsSciences-onderwijs. Hij is opgeleid als docent Beeldende kunst en vormgeving aan de Hogeschool Katholieke Leergangen (2e graads) en aan de Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (eerstegraads en kunstgeschiedenis). Hij promoveerde aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op het proefschrift Remixing the Art Curiculum: How contemporary visual practices inspire authentic art education. Onlangs heeft hij o.a. in samenwerking met de Fontys Academie voor Theater een boekje uitgegeven, getiteld: Wicked theaterlessen: Authentieke kunsteducatie voor docerende theatermakers (2023).
Sarah Vanhee is an artist, performer and author. Her transdisciplinary work travels in between civil spaces and institutional art fields. She worked in open fields, prisons, private living rooms, theatres, on public canvases, in corporate meeting rooms, etc. Recent works include, amongst others, Mémé (stage performance), bodies of knowledge (school), undercurrents (intervention), collected screams (lecture-performance), Unforetold (stage performance), The Making of Justice (film), Oblivion (stage performance), Untitled (meetings in private houses), Lecture For Every One (series of intrusions). While strongly embedded locally, Vanhee's work has been presented widely internationally in diverse contexts such as Wiener Festwochen (AT), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), FTA (Montreal), Festival d’Automne (Paris), Festival Actoral (Marseille), PuSh Festival (Vancouver), Jihlavava IDFF, Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven), Centre Pompidou (Metz), Short Theatre (Rome), iDans (Istanbul), Printemps de Septembre (Toulouse), Forum Alpbach, Noorderzon (Groningen), Theater Frascati (Amsterdam), Contour (Mechelen), etc. She co-published Untranslatables and wrote The Miraculous Life of Claire C and TT, as well as other texts. She regularly collaborates with CAMPO (Ghent) and Hiros (Brussels). Vanhee was founding member of Manyone vzw and BOK vzw. She holds a PHD from ARIA (Antwerp University) and KCA (Antwerp Royal Conservatory). Vanhee is currently active on words service. At words service, a words provider freely assists everyone who wants to say or write something but cannot find the words. Meanwhile, Vanhee is developing two new creations that both engage with sexuality: a video installation with longer living people; and a stage-piece with teenagers.
Jeroen Strijbos and Rob van Rijswijk are the makers and composers behind the producing music company Strijbos & Van Rijswijk. They envision art as a bridge between people and the environment, and are intrigued by the relationship between people and the experience of their living space - the city, nature and the cosmos. That bridge is essential for them in the light of multiple social and global challenges, such as climate change.
The company's mission is to design work that connects the public, with each other and the environment. In their work, the audience individually determines their own experience and results. Visitors have freedom of movement in relation to our spatial music performances. This makes their own choices visible and tangible. A new relationship can arise between people and the living environment. The public is given the opportunity to question and reconsider its interactions with the world, it is given the opportunity to reflect, rebuild relationships and make new connections.
Helga Baert is an art worker who has worked as artistic director and curator in different art organizations. Currently she is working on a pilot project carried by the Brussels Universities ULB and VUB, where she is developing a science festival that leans on STEAM pedagogies to engage broad audiences with sciences and scientific research using strategies developed within the arts. Earlier, in wpzimmer, a workspace for performing arts in Antwerp, Helga has worked extensively on initiating a process of transformation aiming at renewing its governance structures and becoming a space that hosts formal and informal relationships of exchange, learning and responsibility. Besides that, Helga has been active as an artworker in the independent performance scene since 2005. Throughout her artistic journey, she has collaborated with many independent artists from different corners of Europe. In 2008 she founded Mokum, a production platform for independent artists, which later in 2013 merged with another structure and was shaped into what is today Hiros a platform for artistic production and development of artistic trajectories. Helga was also a participant of the Creative Europe project RESHAPE (2019-2021) sharpened her understanding and development of collective and transformative governance models within the arts.
