Artistic Connectivity Unfolding

Falk Hubner

This publication presents the outcomes of the Connective Symposium, which took place at Fontys Academy of the Arts in Tilburg, in November 2022. The symposium was the first time that the professorship and research group Artistic Connective Practices, initiated in 2021, opened its work to the international field: We invited practitioners from all over the world to share their work and exchange about the concept of "artistic connectivity". "Artistic Connectivity Unfolding" is an attempt to share the experiences during the symposium with the broader artistic research audience, and to contribute to the body of artistic research work that is socially engaged. The exposition is potentially many things: In part, it is a piece of documentation of the symposium, in part reflections on and proceedings of it. It is also an explorative contribution to our emerging and unfolding discourse of artistic connectivity, — unfinished, fluid and moving — and thus a springboard for our future work on artistic connectivity.

The authors

Walmeri Ribeiro is an artist-researcher, associated professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies and in the graduate programs in arts at Federal Fluminense University and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Having a background in performance Art and media studies, her interest as an artist and researcher is in the relationship between Performance, Media Art, and environmental issues. She developed her Postdoc in the Department of Fine Arts, Concordia University (Montreal|Canadá – CAPES Fellowship), Ph.D. research at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC/SP- CNPQ Fellowship), and her Master in Arts at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP/SP).

FAPERJ Fellow (Young Scientist Program, 2019-2023), she is the coordinator of the Performance, Media Art, and Environmental Issues Research Laboratory - BrisaLAB| UFF and the Sensitive Territories project.
Author of the book " Territórios Sensíveis: práticas artísticas no Antropoceno (Circuito, 2023), Poéticas do Ator no Cinema Contemporâneo" (Intermeios, 2014) and co-author of the books "Arte e seus territórios Sensiveis" (Intermeios, 2014) and "Arte e seus percurso Sensiveis" (Intermeios, 2016), Artes: Novos modos de Habitar|Viver (Intermeios, 2019) and Territórios Sensiveis|Baía de Guanabara ( Circuito, 2020).She has participated in congresses, seminars, and Art exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. Her activities have been commissioned by Brazilian federal agencies, German agencies and prizes for research and art production.

Juriaan Achthoven (1990) works as educator, theatre maker and researcher. He studied physical acting at the school of Jacques Lecoq in Paris, theatre & education in Tilburg (BA) and contemporary dramaturgy at Utrecht University (MA). As an artistic researcher he is focussing on ways in which theatre can play a critical role in the development of ‘identity’ amongst youngsters. Since 2018, he teaches dramaturgy at a vocational theatre school in Den Bosch. Recurring interests in his work are: a polyphonic and transindividual approach to identity, working collectively, and the dissemination of performative knowledge.

Reyhaneh Mirjahani is an artist and artistic researcher with a strong focus on curatorial practice. She holds an MFA in Fine Art from HDK-Valand, Gothenburg University, and completed the CuratorLab post-master Program at Konstfack. Her practice exists at the intersection of visual art, research, curating, organizing, publication, and spatial interventions. Her work centers around critically examining the concepts of individual and collective agency in socio-political participation, while also exploring the role of ethics in shaping this discourse. She strives to employ collaborative and intersectional methodologies, drawing from artistic practice and sociology to create a discursive space that facilitates exploration and discussion of contemporary issues in all their intricacies. (www.reyhanehmirjahani.com)

Lizzie Lloyd is an art writer and researcher based in the UK. She explores art writing that holds theory, practice, experimentation, and subjectivity in the balance. She is interested in words as art, as well as words about art and particularly where those words reside at the intersection of art, history, literature and performance.

Her writing has been commissioned by numerous galleries including Temple Bar Gallery and Studios for Venice Biennale (2022), Bosse and Baum, Workplace Gallery, Field Art Projects, New Art Projects, Foreground, Hestercombe, Cubitt Residency Programme and Exeter Phoenix among many others. Her work has been exhibited/performed at Plymouth Art Weekender, No Format Gallery, Safehouse 1, and Phoenix Space Brighton. She is a regular contributor to Art Monthly and has contributed to publications including Art Review, Journal of Contemporary Painting, Frieze, and artnet. She has been writer-in-residence at Arnolfini, Art Writers Group: Plymouth, and at the CCA Brighton, in collaboration with Katy Beinart. Lloyd is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art and Art & Writing at University of the West of England, Bristol, founder of WITTA (Writing In /To / Through Art) which she runs with Kit Poulson, and co-editor in chief of JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students (soon to be renamed JAWS Journal of Art and Writing).

www.lizzielloyd.co.uk

Marike Hoekstra (1966) is an artist-teacher-researcher, working in the Netherlands. She graduated as a PhD at the University of Chester, UK, with a doctoral thesis titled “Artist Teachers and Democratic Pedagogy”. Marike works as a researcher and teaches at different institutions for higher art education in the Netherlands. As an artist she works with drawing and installation art. Previous research publications concern altermodern art education, artist teachers, young children, professional learning communities and inclusion, and art-based education research.
Marike is interested in the way artist teachers and studio spaces can contribute to art education as a site for third space pedagogies. She is the artistic director of Gastatelier de Vindplaats. https://marikehoekstra.nl/research

Elisavet Kalpaxi is an artist, researcher, and Senior Lecturer in Critical and Contextual studies at Bucks New University, UK. Her discursive interests lie with practice-based research in art and its contemporary criticality; also, with current discursive shifts in art history, theory and practice and changing narratives influenced by technological and socio-political/economic developments. Her work, theoretical and practical, has been presented in numerous exhibitions and conferences. Publications include the recently published book Context and Narrative (2019) written with Sri-Kartini Leet; ‘Photography and Museums of Mutuality’ (2019) in Stedelijk Studies; ‘Self-portraiture: On Photography’s Reflexive Surface’ (2016) in JAR: Journal of Artistic Research, and her practice-based PhD on ‘Narcissism and Narrativity in Photographic Self-portraiture’, Goldsmiths College, Department of Art (2012).

Katy Beinart is an interdisciplinary artist whose artworks include installation, public art, film and performance. Using processes of research and social practice to respond to the context and history of places and people, her work examines relationships between heritage, history and memory, culture and environment, performance and ritual, migration and home. She is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture (University of Brighton). https://katybeinart.co.uk/

Jessica Renfro is a Berlin-based vocalist, game designer, and artistic researcher using digital participatory practices to create playful, immersive social simulations that explore the concept of collective agency. She has performed as an opera and oratorio singer throughout the US and Europe, and since 2017, has written, produced and performed several multimedia productions in Europe and the US such as Lost in the Woods (2017) for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Dream City (2021) at Dutch Design Week, and Ètudes for the new normal: Compost City as a member of the Mann aus OBST ensemble (2022). She holds a M.M. and G.P.D. in voice and opera from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and in 2021 received an M.A. in Performance Practices from ArtEZ University in The Netherlands. Her research into participatory art has been published and presented in the APRIA journal (2020), the Politics of the Machines conference (2021), the co.iki 'Memory and Memoricide of the Land' residency (2021), the mur.at Initiative Netzkultur Worklab (2022), and the 13th Annual Society for Artistic Research Conference (2022).

Xenia Tsompanidou is a curator and producer based in Utrecht. She studied Literature & Culture and Political Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Arts & Society at Utrecht University. She is currently an assistant curator at SEA Foundation Tilburg and a project manager at Fontys Academy of the Arts. She has been involved in the curation and production of exhibitions, independent performances and other artistic projects. Her interests lie within the intersection of art and politics and in radical curatorial practices.

Falk Hübner (1979) is professor of Artistic Connective Practices at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Academy of the Arts in Tilburg, The Netherlands. With a background as composer, theatre maker, researcher and educator, he is active in a diversity of collaborations within and outside of the arts. His research focuses on the social-societal potential of artistic research, research methodologies, and the relation of the arts and art education to society. In 2019-2021 Falk conducted a post doctoral research at HKU University of the Arts on artistic research methodology and ethics. He is member of the board of *Forum+*, journal for research and arts, based in Antwerp. Next to his professional life Falk is a (ultra-)marathon runner. He lives in Rotterdam with his partner and their 5 children.

Eleni Kolliopoulou (1980, Athens) is a mixed-media visual/ performance artist and researcher particularly interested in the intersection between performance and philosophy.

She studied at the University Kapodistriaka of Athens in the Department of Methodology, History and Theory of Science (1998 -2003, BA). She moved to Italy in September 2007 to attend the ‘Philip Radice School of Physical Theater’. Between 2008 and 2013 she accomplished her BA and MA degree by the Academy of Fine Arts of Turin; She was in Germany (Hochscuele Burg Gibiechestein Halle an der Saale) as an Erasmus student for the academic year 2011/2012. Eleni was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for her practice-based PhD research at Ulster University (Northern Ireland, UK) in March 2020. Her research concerned the use of Butoh body notion in immersive Performative Installations. She was an adjunct lecturer at Performing and Digital arts University of Peloponnese during ac. Year 2021/2022 (GR). Eleni is currently pursuing an H.F.R.I. funded post-doctoral research project hosted by Ionian University, Department of Audio-visual arts, 2022-2024 (GR).

Dr. Işıl Eğrikavuk is a Turkish-born international performance artist and academic based in Berlin, Germany. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and a Ph.D. in Communication from Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her work utilizes storytelling, journalism and dialogue-based practices and examines critical themes including protest, feminism, identity politics, nature, and universal interconnectedness. These works take the form of temporary and permanent installations, interactive events and performances, photographic and video documentation, and text-based work.

Chrystalleni Loizidou (image right) is a caregiver, curator, and cultural studies scholar (PhD) with a life-practice in community-integrated learning through art, nature, and freedom-respecting technology. Hülya Koçak Dede (image left) is a Steiner pedagogue and organiser of handicraft activities for children and adults to develop a deeper understanding of the world and human being. Since 2019 they have been gathering with healers and pedagogues like Sylvia Hadjigeorgiou and Konstantina Kasina to hold space for beautiful atmospheres for community flow, soulful learning, and harmonious co-presence across borders, divisions and layers of alienation, on the island of Cyprus.

www.eimaste.net