PRESS RELEASE
TRACER SIX CURATORS ON ART IN ROTTERDAM TENT. CENTER FOR VISUAL ARTS WITTE DE WITH, CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SEPTEMBER 10 – OCTOBER 24, 2004 OPENING: MULTI EVENT SEPTEMBER 9, 2004, 8.30 P.M. <logo TRACER>
TRACER, a collaborative project by TENT. and Witte de With on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of TENT is being launched on September 9. Based on observations and reflections on art in Rotterdam, TRACER is composed of a variety of specific sub-exhibitions, projects, and a program of activities. TRACER draws together various visions for the future of art in Rotterdam and for the role played by art institutions. In recent months, six curators have ‘traced’ contemporary art in the city. Their exploration of Rotterdam’s urban centre, the Port of Rotterdam and the Maasvlakte area for port-related industrial activities resulted in six thought-provoking visualizations. Andreas Broeckmann (Germany) fixes attention on the massive strategic oil reserve in the Port of Rotterdam, intended for international crises. For his exhibition Neuralgic, 90 Days to Shake the World, Broeckmann uses this oil reserve as a metaphorical starting point. Artists: Marnix de Nijs, Joe Cillen, Ursula Biemann, Joost Conijn, Heidrun Holzfeind, Dick el Demasiado, Knowbotic Research and AGF aka antye greie. Pelin Tan (Turkey), as a ‘foreigner’ in Rotterdam, carries her Turkish background with her like baggage. For her project Luggage from Another Climate she researched the artistic climate, the artists’ initiatives and the formal infrastructure from the perspective of the situation in Istanbul. Artists: The Buggers, Libia Perez/ Olafur Olafsson and Jan Konings. Her interviews resulted in a documentary film and two debates. In the first of these, on Rhizomatic Cities (Friday, September 10), Siebe Thissen, Esra Ersen, Hou Hanru and Jochen Becker discuss urban space and identity. Thomas Michelon (France) invited the artists Bojan Sarcevic, Matti Braun and Melvin Moti, as well as anthropologists and sociologists, to contribute to Cultural Transfers: Histories and Sharings, analyzing both the contradictory interpretations of collective symbolic spaces and the condition of the system of a (political) community. Ritsaert ten Cate (The Netherlands) opted for a highly personal approach. An inventory of his direct contacts with, among others, policy-makers, “officials” and directors in the Rotterdam art world forms the core of a “family tree.” The works of art selected by these people constitute the newest branches of this tree. It gives a personal face to Rotterdam’s art policy over recent decades. Ten Cate’s own selection was De Verwoeste Stad (“The Destroyed City”) by Ossip Zadkine. In his motivation, Ten Cate concisely explains the present-day relevance of this monument. Artists: Anna (Verweij - Verschuure), Cathrin Boer, Axel van der Kraan, Daan van Golden, bram van Waardenburg, Jeanne van Heeswijk/ Marten Winters, Erik van Lieshout, Joep van Lieshout, Willem Oorebeek and Ben Zegers. Annie Fletcher (Ireland) and Sarah Pierce (U.S.A.) have established the semi-permanent Paraeducation Department, which is inserted between the Witte de With and TENT. organizations. The Paraeducation Department is situated on the first floor of the building, where the administrative offices of both organizations are to be found. Analogous to the regular education activities, The Paraeducation Department creates a physical and organizational structure where informal groups, personal encounters and impulsive gatherings facilitate a learning process. As a model of practice, the department might serve an exemplary function.
<waanja> (Czech Republic) has drawn together a presentation of subsidized and tolerated public art in Rotterdam. His particular interest is the non-representative and engaged art that occupies the border zone between private and public space. Artists: ZEDZ, MVM, Bibo, Nicoline van Harskamp, presentation model: Artists’ initiatives and projects in Charlois, Rotterdam, 2001-2003, Hieke Pars, Robin van ’t Haar. Note for editors: For more information on TRACER please check our websites: www.tracerrotterdam.nl, www.tentplaza.nl or www.wdw.nl. Press conference: September 9, 5 p.m., curators and artists will be present. Please confirm your attendance through Bregje van Woensel (tent@cbk.rotterdam.nl). For further details: TENT.: +31 (0)10 413 5498 / Witte de With: +31 (0)10 411 0144. A series of publications are scheduled for release during the exhibition period.
TRACER Activities: Thurs. September 9, TENT. / Witte de With, TRACER multi event / opening 8.30 p.m.: including Kick Out the Jams! The MC5 Live, a video by Leni Sinclair & Cary Loren, lecture by John Sinclair, the White Panther movement’s founder and a concert by Applegarden Free entrance, for further information please call TENT.: 010-413 5498 Fri., September 10, Arminius, Museumpark 3, Rotterdam 8.30 p.m.: Rhizomatic Cities debate with Jochen Becker, Esra Esren, Hou Hanru and Siebe Thissen 10 p.m.: concert by AGF aka antye greie / SUE C Free entrance, no reservations, for further information please call TENT.: 010-413 5498 Sat., September 18, TENT. / Witte de With auditorium 11 a.m.- 4.30 p.m.: symposium on The Paraeducation Department by Annie Fletcher & Sarah Pierce. The Paraeducation Reading Group consists of 10 participants who are active as artists, exhibition organizers or education experts. This group met regularly for a form of collective learning on the basis of a shared affinity and mutual solidarity. The symposium is meant to present this approach to a wider public and discuss it with them. Participants among others: Anke Bangma, Jason Coburn, Jeremiah Day, Tanja Elstgeest, Annie Fletcher, Annabel Howland, Aletta de Jong, Maria Pask, Sarah Pierce en Apolonija Sustersic Thurs., July 15; Sat., Aug. 28; Thurs., Sept. 9; Fri., Sept. 17: reading groups (on invitation only) For reservations symposium, please call Witte de With: 010-411 0144 Thurs., September 23, TENT. / Witte de With, TRACER multi event 8.30 p.m.: film selected by Matti Braun: Satyajit Ray, The Home and the World, 1984, 140 min., preceded by a discussion with Matti Braun and Thomas Michelon For further information, please call Witte de With: 010-411 0144 Thurs., October 7, TENT. / Witte de With, TRACER multi event 8.30 p.m.: film selected by Melvin Moti: Martin Scorsese, Italianamerican, 1974, 45 min. For further information, please call Witte de With: 010-411 0144 Thurs., October 21, TENT. / Witte de With, TRACER multi event 8.30 p.m.: Go for Soft Institution! debate. With Christiane Mennicke (curator at Dresden Kunsthaus), Chus Martinez (curator at Sala Rekalde, Bilbao), Basak Senova (freelance curator) For further information and reservations, please call Witte de With: 010-411 0144 Thurs., October 21, B.a.d, Talingstraat 5, Rotterdam 11.30 p.m.: Windless, night-time cycle tour by and with Bibo For further information and reservations, please call TENT.: 010-413 5498 Sat., October 23, TENT. / Witte de With auditorium 2-4.30 p.m.: Cultural Transfers: Histories and Sharings conference Speakers to include Marc Augé (anthropologist and author of, among others, A Sense for the Other: The Timeliness & Relevance of Anthropology), Thomas Michelon (guest curator for TRACER / Cultural Attaché of the French Embassy) and Dirk Snauwaert (artistic director of Wiels, contemporary art center in Brussels). Film screening: Al Clah, Ombres Intrépides, 1966-68, 18 min. / Jean Rouch, Les maîtres fous, 1955, 18 min. For further information and reservations, please call Witte de With: 010-411 0144 On Friday, September 10, the day immediately after the opening of TRACER, sees the launch of “de Wereld van Witte de With.” For more information about this festival, visit: www.dewereldvanwittedewith.nl.