MAY magazine by OPEN A.i.R Artist in Residence

Part of the project

Pilsen 2015 European Capitol of Culture

artistic program of Pilsen - European Capital of Culture 2015

www.plzen2015.cz

www.depo2015.cz

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INDEX PAST EVENTS GUILLAUME CHAVIN PAST EVENTS MICHAL CÁB PAST EVENTS ALEŠ ČERMÁK STATISTICS SHOWREEL PROGRAM NEW MEMBER KATEŘINA BLACKÁ

NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE ZITA OBERWALDER NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE JURAJ RATTAJ

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NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

EWA GŁOWACKA

01/ PAST EVENTS

Guillaume Chauvin â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A B C Z Project

GUILLAUME CHAUVIN The opening of the final presentation of the French photographer Guillaume Chauvin took place on the 11th of January. We had the option to present the book of A B C Z Project together with the volunteers who participated in the project. A lot of people came and there was a really pleasant atmosphere, as you can see on the photos taken by Lynda Phan, so we want to thank everyone. If you also want to check the video click here. Partner of the residency: Stimultania & ArtothĂ¨que Strasbourg.

02/ PAST EVENTS

Small in Japan/ Poème électronique pour le monde Extract from A.I.R. report for the Youkobo Gallery

MICHAL CÁB To describe my residency at the Youkobo gallery which lasted for two and a half of month is not a piece of cake. It was always an unspoken notion for me to visit Japan and to be faced to the Otherness (E. Levinas) – in any possible meaning – artistic, cultural, ethical, scientific, and religious. One old friend right after I came back to Prague in January told me this first sentence: “Yeah, I heard about one architect who visited Tokyo and afterwards went out of his mind. How do you feel?” It is true, that I was partially blasted off with certain experiences (Pachinko slots, Kabukicho and Nakano district, Electric city at Akihabara, non-presence for noise limit at places as Shibuya, Hokusai original shunga woodblock prints (ukiyo-e), gamification and commercialization of society, Onsen, and so on, and so on) but I have to confess that Japanese culture is very plausible to me. Although I realized that Japanese way of doing things is about kind of obeying given orders (i.e. there is a kind of totality) I found many examples which stress an importance of individuality. This is how I interpreted my first impression with local unique architecture. Second: Japan (or maybe I should say only Tokyo because in fact I did not leave the city much) is for me a culture of extreme poles – on one side there is noise-color-chaotic life all around stations and on the other side you can just make few steps aside and find yourself in a tranquility of a shinto or a buddhistic temple. This mixture and extremes are somehow present also in daily culture where Shichi-Go-San traditional celebration is shaking hands with KFC celebration of Christmas. List of examples could continue…

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02/ PAST EVENTS

Small in Japan/ Poème électronique pour le monde Extract from A.I.R. report for Youkobo Gallery

Whatever – let me say something about my “artistic mission”. In the proposal I suggested that I – as a sound-artist – can work and develop multichannel sound system. That sound-system is to be open-source based on Raspberry Pi2 microcomputer and programmed in Pure Data. It is supposed to be modular – as number of sound channels is derived from number of Raspberry Pi clients – and it is supposed to be also variable – as the system is using wireless WiFi network so it can be adjusted in any way to various spaces. This was defined as a “main goal” of residency and this work was presented at my final exhibition. I composed short electro-acustic composition Poème électronique pour le monde as a tribute to E. Varese. There is still a lot of issues to upgrade and solve which I am going to deal with during Spring 2016. There will be an exhibition in the gallery Školská28 with the title Nástrojáři (Instrument makers) where my sound-system will be presented. I was also give it a chance in theatre sound design as I will prepare a new piece with scenographer Kristýna Taübelová. After some upgrades and cleanup I will publish the whole project and code at GitHub as open-source. Well but besides this many other events happened. Of course I tried to get to know and comprehend Tokyo and Japanese culture which is completely impossible. Maybe this was a subconscious feeling and motive why I made short performance called “Small I Japan”... Well – I get touched with local noise musicians as Hakobune (Takahiro Yorifuji) or LZ129 (Ryota Okazaki) and we organised some gigs around Shinjuku (Buena Art Space, Rental Space). In the gallery we had a jam-session with Satoshi Ikeda and Yoko Arai. I visited all main national galleries and scientific museums and checked out also some smaller events (home based projects, some performances which were part of Tokyo experimental festival).

The meetings with philosopher and radio-artist Tetsuo Kogawa were important. We had a long and intense discussion about livecoding, Prague, Franz Kafka, broadcasting and FM transmitters. Tetsuo designed a minimal FM transmitter which he was using during his musical improvisations. I also implemented his design into my first exhibition which took place at the Youkobo gallery. We are going also to continue in collaboration (which has already happened during a celebration of Art‘s Birthday event and hopefully it will continue in our future Kafka project). The meeting with the feminist artist and performer Ito Tari who I personally visited and made some recordings with her was important. (Let me add that help of Youkobo team and of Karin Písaříková was essential to get in touch with aforementioned artists.) Afterwards I implemented Tari‘s voice into my composition. So generally I can say that I was very satisfied with my stay at Youkobo. I was faced to brand new and other culture which is always inspiring. And I had also time and space to work and experiment with new issues in my artistic practice – few times I even found myself so deeply sunk into my work that I was thinking to myself: “Hey, you are in Tokyo, you should get out and get some life...” So I followed my inner voices which is usually a good way... Just hope that our collaboration can continue somehow in the future. Partner of the residency: Youkobo Art Space & EU-Japan Fest.

02/ PAST EVENTS

Aleš Čermák POLO SHIRT (discipline)

ALEŠ ČERMÁK POLO SHIRT (discipline)

The final presentation of Aleš Čermák in Halle 14 took place on the 4th of February and the OPEN A.i.R team didn’t want to miss it. Once decided that we were going to Leipzig, we took the car at 2pm and drove for almost 4.5 hours away from Pilsen. We had enough time to talk about what our expectations were concerning the performance. We had already read about the project and we knew that it was surrounded by a controversial and hard theme: one of the most extreme ways of transportation used by migrants to cross the border, as the artist explains in his Vimeo account. When watching the video trailer, we can see a woman showing photographs of damaged bodies, people travelling by cars, images accompanied by questions such as „how long can catastrophe exist without new stimuli?; „we oscillate while waiting for the next big thing. How long has it been since something like that happened and how big was it actually?” or „what happens if nobody comes up with anything surprising anymore?“. The intrigue is built in. We arrived to Spinnerei and we were tired but amazed; what an impressive and inspiring place. Aleš Čermák was outside Halle 14, we wished him luck and got into the non-for-profit art space. Claudia, the coordinator of the artist in residence, kindly showed us the building and took us to the set. The show started. Video. Sound. Light. Text. Body. Action. The actress in front of us, Jindřiška Křivánková, is now staring at us with a penetrating and incisive expression. Her silhouette mixtures and Source: https://www.facebook.com/openairplzen/photos/pb.3905441 27753878.-2207520000.1445616923./620667361408219/?type=3&theater

changes with the different sounds and video behind her. She speaks „first, it is necessary to choose a suitable car. Not every car has the ideal proportions and not all of them can comfortably fit a body. It is important to pick the right car, because the journey tends to be extremely long and exhausting and one often has to wait inside for a long time in conditions which are far from ideal for human beings“. While she says the last sentence her finger and eyes are pointing to the man standing up in the right side of the set, Abdirezak Yusuf. He has a big, yellow and direct spotlight in front of him. She approaches him and the public starts thinking „is he a refugee? Has he arrived by car in these inhuman conditions? Has he gone through all of this situation?”.

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02/ PAST EVENTS

Aleš Čermák POLO SHIRT (discipline)

Now the big screen catches all of our attention. We watch videos recorded by the police on borders. Hard images to assimilate: hidden bodies inside cars, car crashes in the attempt to escape detention, and so on. The performance is arriving to its end, and we can feel our bodies tense up. Applause. More applause. We can firmly vouch for this performance; it won’t leave you indifferent. After the discussion forum we went to a bar and had the chance to talk with Aleš and we could even better understand his performance. Polo Shirt (discipline) is the second piece of his project called The Premonition of the Oncoming Failure. „I defined the project as a ‚social choreography‘ - a movement. The project consists of several disjointed episodes and is intentionally presented in different parts of Europe. It draws links among contemporary social issues – processes associated with bodily movements (vectors) and it attempts to analyse in broad, kinetic, philosophical, and geopolitical context the co-called topic of our time: The Migrant. When I had been preparing the work-in-progress presentation in Wien in March 2015, a physical aspect of movement was a starting point. During the following year, according to a complementary thinking, I came out with an idea which could be defined as a transcendental disposition of an object. For example the 3rd episode is created through the text called: Movement instead of a stagnation – movement of a vector, (click to know more). It is a general view point on a mobility, which is consolidated in a wider context. This is presented on a Migrant-figure, who becomes so-called ‚Representative of our time‘ (‚Object of our time‘). According to the 3rd episode I have made a research in North Africa to gather new material for to 4th episode, which is going to be presented during the year 2016“.

When asking about the questions we can read on the videos, Aleš keeps explaining „each epoch needs new impulses. What had been considered as a commonplace for years, doesn‘t exist anymore. The borders are expanding (in a geopolitical sense). Depending on this expansion, people are on move. The movement doesn‘t have to be only about war and conflicts. The movement from one place to another place allows a change, it allows to think differently. We are condemned to repetition, until one will come out with something new“. To sum up, we asked more about the theme of this second piece „everybody knows, that this way of migration is physically and mentally difficult. What is important for me is that the body is not an obstacle”. Partner of the residency: Halle 14 - Center of Contemporary Art.

03/ STATISTICS #statisticsarenotboring

OPEN A.i.R IN NUMBERS years 2013 - 2014 - 2015

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16 04/ SHOWREEL PROGRAM

SHOWREEL 2015 To be the European Capital of Culture in 2015 was a big challenge and Pilsen had been working hard to create a great cultural year. In the OPEN A.i.R. program we had a lot of artists, projects and events, and especially, a lot of amazing people who participated on it. It was a very special year and it would have not been possible without you. Our cameraman LukĂĄĹĄ Kellner has gathered the videos of every artist and has made this beautiful video full of wonderful memories. Click here to watch it.

05/ NEW TEAM MEMBER Kateřina Blacká

KATEŘINA BLACKÁ Hello everyone, My name is Kateřina and I come from a small village in the West Bohemia, close to the center of the Chodsko region, Domažlice. I am currently studying Foreign Languages at the University in Pilsen. I have just came back from a beautiful city Görlitz in Germany where I have spent the last five months on Erasmus. I hope I willl continue to have a great time here in Pilsen while working as an intern for OPEN A.i.R. I am interested in art and among others I love my old analogue camera Praktica MTL5B although I´m still learning to work with it properly. I like reading but I am also a big fan of sport. I can not wait to work in the beautiful and interesting space of DEPO2015 and I hope I will be a useful member of the team. I am looking forward to meeting you all. .

04/ NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Zita Oberwalder - HOTEL EUROPE

ZITA OBERWALDER Zita Oberwalder (*1958) is an Austrian photographer born in Leisach Osttirol who has been working as a freelance artist since 1987. Interested in architectural and artistic photography and its educational field, she has made exhibitions both at home and abroad. The journey occupies a very important place in her last artworks, consisting mainly of white and black photographs taken in her long travels within different countries. We can find identifying and common elements in these captured places, that the anthropologist Marc Augé describes as ‘de-functionalized territories’ or ‘Non-places’: airports, supermarkets or abandoned hotels, places that are becoming more and more usual in our landscape as a result of the globalised progress. Not only will we find those spaces but also the relationship of a human being with those ‘non -places’ and a personal and subjective view/experience of the artist. Lately, she has been working on the project “Hotel Europe”, in which she researches the relationship between the past and the present, in addition to historical and psychological frontiers. It is a work about borders, neighbourhoods, space / between / lands / no man’s land. While in Pilsen she aims to keep developing the project and, as she explains, ‘my work will be a possible translation of the city and its surroundings into pictures – on foot, by bus and train-‘. Without doubt, it would be a perfect chance to reflect on the meaning of our landscape, its altered nature in contrast to the urban scenario and the existential relationship we have with our surroundings. Here you can find more information about Zita Oberwalder’s last work “Kill your darlings”. Partner of the residency: S.T.A.I.R.; the region of Styria, Department 9 Culture, Europe.

Partner of the residency: K.A.I.R. Košice Artist In Residence.

04/ NEW ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Juraj Rattaj - OPEN SOURCE

JURAJ RATTAJ Juraj Rattaj (*1984) is a Slovak artist that has always been interested in the production and post-production of artworks; from the actual production of artefacts to the art business itself. However, after graduating at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design his interest towards the subject of Open Source began, and since then, this enthusiasm has continued to grow. He states: “The financial burden of the production has often discouraged me from the realization of the artworks. Therefore, I started to study how to work with CNC machine tools, and then the whole issue of Open Source and DIY –do it yourself- concept commenced”. Indeed, at the moment, the open source topic is completely present in his artistic process and he is trying to incorporate this phenomenon into his artworks. As he explains, the content of his project would have the “OS” essence: it would be an idea open to everyone, with the only purpose of improving the content itself and without a direct intention of enriching oneself. OS is a philosophical movement led by Eric Raymond. Juraj Rattaj sees this conception as a utopian issue these days, but adds that “technology have opened up different and new possibilities for creative industries. At the beginning I considered this technology mainly as a tool for simplifying the production of the artworks, but later I began to be fascinated with the community around the OS. The idea of OS is available to anyone who is interested in doing so. Each participant could become an author, designer or engineer. I find a parallelism with the utopic idea of Joseph Beuys who claimed that everyone can be an artist. He actually believed that everyone is an artist and he once said that every sphere of human activity, even peeling a potato can be a work of art as long as it is a conscious act,” finalizes Juraj. In the particular itinerary of our artist, this kind of OS projects take its shape, for example from individual outputs of collective collaboration, as individual objects designs, virtual forums, model database, discussions or monuments (understanding monuments as an objects requiring collective attention). Juraj believes that all these outputs are created in an effort to improve and enrich culture, environment, ecology, technology and so on.

05/ UPCOMING ARTIST

Ewa GŁOWACKA - PARALLEL STRUCTURE II

EWA GŁOWACKA Ewa Głowacka (*1988) is an artist from Wroclaw interested in graphic design, infographics, open workshops and DIY (Do It Yourself) projects. She has been associated with the independent culture for many years and in her short but intense career she has collaborated with different organisations. Since 2011, she is part of the print collective SITO CRK (now SITWA), which is an open screen-print studio where they conduct workshops, meetings, exhibitions, and execute graphic commissions. There are many reasons that bring her to Pilsen. First of all the Czech Republic has always fascinated her, by its art and specific sense of humour of its inhabitants. For couple of years she has been collaborating as a graphic designer with Czech cultural association Bludný Kámen. She is also able to understand Czech language and tries to speak it. One of the Czech-concerned projects is still ongoing and it is called „The false friends“ dictionary, consisting of words of the same spelling and totally different meaning in Polish and Czech languages. The icing of the cake is that the OPEN A.i.R. residency profile totally suits her interests and experiences, as it involves graphic work in the open studio, on the DIY basis.

“The project I would like to accomplish in Pilsen is a natural consequence of the projects I undertook in Wroclaw. The aim of the Parallel Structure II is to establish a dialogue with the representatives of independent culture from Pilsen. Thanks to proceedings of European Capitals of Culture a lot of new institutions were created and many interesting projects are taking place. I assume also that – like in case of Wroclaw – a lot of interesting independent events took place parallel to official programme of ECoC – most of them accelerated by natural needs of citizens, their critical attitude or just by the energy that naturally occurred with receiving the title of ECoC.“ “Meetings and interviews with cultural activists from Plzen, conversations and discussions based on getting to know each other and on the exchange of experiences – looking for consensus through conversation, learning how to be flexible and seeking for unconventional approaches to the creative activity-. I perceive that as a possibility of sharing my own experience from work in open workshops and independent art galleries and as a chance to speak frankly and openly on the subject of influence and effects of ECoC”. In other words, Głowacka wants to speak frankly and openly about the effects and the influence of ECoC in the independent culture scene now that the time has passed, “when emotions have subsided, people who were involved could rest and critics took some distance.” “The meetings will be summarized in the form of zine/mini-publication; a subjective archive created collaboratively and made by recorded interviews, maps, thoughts, infographics based on information and photographs from participants. This kind of visualisation will make the analysis easier to look at from the distance. Important and problematic questions would become subject of visual game, collage of meanings and forms. Common analysis of such notions as culture, participation and art definitely will be fruitful in interesting conclusions. My diary from the visit in Plzen will be also part of this publication – with all of my observations and comments noted in the form of concise infographics and drawings.” Indeed, this project will be her “next step in her infographic exploration”, a field in where her master thesis was focused on and a subject in which she has been deepening, improving and developing.

“I wonder how the structure of the artistic community in Pilsen looks like, if it’s similar to the one in Wroclaw, and if we have some points in common. What we can learn from them and what they can draw from us.” Partner of the residency: A-I-R Wro.

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