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.
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/
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.
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.
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.
