Primer Proforma 2010
30 Jan - 06 Jun 2010
MUSAC and artists Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba and Sergio Prego present PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day, a new approach to creating artistic projects that reaches beyond conventional notions of exhibiting and/or pedagogy
Project: PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day
Artists: Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba, Sergio Prego
Curator: Agustín Pérez Rubio
Coordinators: Helena López Camacho, Carlos Ordás
Pedagogic coordination: Antonio González, Amparo Moroño
Venue: Halls 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, MUSAC
Dates: 30 January – 6 June, 2010
- January 30, 2010. Launch of the project
- February 8. QUARANTINE. Beginning of Work Encounters
- April 10. Opening of the exhibition PRIMER PROFORMA 2010
MUSAC, Txomin Badiola (Bilbao, 1957), Jon Mikel Euba (Bilbao, 1967) and Sergio Prego (San Sebastian, 1969) present the project PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day as part of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León’s fifth anniversary exhibition schedule. Between January and June 2010, MUSAC’s more than 4,000 m2 of exhibition space will host a new approach to creating artistic projects that goes beyond conventional notions of exhibiting and pedagogy implemented to date by the Museum and the artists themselves. Badiola, Euba and Prego take on the challenge of a project that will ultimately achieve something more than the sum of their three individual contributions by actively sharing the creative process. The result of this challenge is PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day.
What is PROFORMA?
PROFORMA is a proposal to provide suggestions and information, specifying the terms and conditions for cooperation. PROFORMA is essentially a stage, a structure in anticipation of a commitment between MUSAC, artists Badiola, Euba and Prego, 15 volunteers and other agents.
This commitment leads us into a new experimental format, seeking to generate new forms of action that include production, exhibition, and above all, the generation of knowledge and meaning in a realm of art practise taking place within a museum context such as MUSAC.
Timeline
On a practical level, the scheduling of PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day will be:
- 30 January, 2010: Presentation of the project. Opening of three exhibitions. Each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works.
- 8 February – 20 March: Quarantine, 40-day confinement of the three artists in their exhibitions along with a group of fifteen volunteers, a working party with a programme consisting of 30 exercises to be completed in the allotted time. This experience in artistic work, within an exhibition apparatus, is targeted towards a transformation, both of the people involved and of the exhibitions themselves.
- 10 April: Opening of PRIMER PROFORMA 2010, a space that has been altered as a result of the unfolding of events during this artistic experience and the actions of those involved.
From that point on, PROFORMA will be able to take on a life of its own due to its prototypal nature, leaving it open to be performed by others in the future.
Procedure
Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba and Sergio Prego had been invited to exhibit at MUSAC over recent years. At one point, Agustín Pérez Rubio suggested the three artists show simultaneously, the idea being that the fruit of such a relationship would precipitate something more than merely the sum of their three individual contributions. After reflecting upon the various aspects involved, the three artists decided to take on the challenge, confident in their well-established relationship based on actively sharing their art-making experience. Thus, the three artists committed to creating something new: PROFORMA, a generic format that started taking shape through weekly meetings amongst the intervening artists and, occasionally, with the institution itself, laying the basis for this common project.
On 30 January 2010 each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works. It is important to note that nearly all the pieces to be shown are new productions created specifically for the MUSAC space.
Immediately afterward, on 8 February, the three artists will begin quarantine, a 40-day confinement in their exhibition space, along with a group of fifteen volunteers; a working party with a programme consisting of 30 exercises to be completed in the allotted time. This experience in artistic work, within an exhibition apparatus, is targeted towards a transformation, both of the people involved and of the exhibitions themselves.
Each director shall take on 10 exercises. The director of each, the other two directors and all remaining participants shall be involved in each exercise, in roles to be determined on a case-by¬case basis. In addition to the actors mentioned, the presence of external agents shall be required, in order to embody an external gaze and participation: segments of an audience called in on an ad hoc basis, in addition to guests who shall act as witnesses and will be charged with specifically regulated tasks within the activity in which they actively engage.
PROFORMA will therefore be a production based on a programme of 30 exercises distributed into 2¬hour modules (as 2, 4 or 6-hour exercises). Exercises will consist in the execution of a productive act; i.e., the generation of experiences, thoughts or physical bodies. Exercises shall be related to the works exhibited, representing their potential for development and transformation.
The aim of these exercises is to involve others, through a course of action, in a typically private experience. Each exercise will generate physical or immaterial outcomes that must be gathered for consideration by an editorial board or peer-review group that shall meet on a daily basis. The group shall review the materials generated, both in terms of direct analysis and of how they are to be communicated. The meeting will bring together the directors, volunteers and any other external agent invited to take part.
In order to select the 15 volunteers who will be key to the development of the project, MUSAC has launched a selection process open to individuals connected to art practices – not necessarily the visual arts –interested in actively participating in an experience of art as a form of knowledge¬gaining and communication.
Participants will be asked to commit to the excess that PROFORMA represents; an excess both in terms of the duration of activities to attend (8 hours a day over 40 days) and the intensity demanded by the pace of the exercises, the isolation and the concentration required. Participant’s regular attendance is absolutely essential over 6 weeks from Monday to Saturday, 8 hours a day.
Terms for entering in the selection are available on the Museum website: www.musac.es (Call for Volunteers), and applications will be accepted until 12 December. Once all applications have been assessed by Badiola, Euba and Prego themselves, results will be posted on the Museum website on 23 December.
Spatial considerations
Spatially, PROFORMA consists of:
- Three exhibitions that will become one. Each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works. The finished works, works in progress and assembled materials will all be subject to transformation as a result of the exercises intended to be carried out on the exhibitions themselves.
- A PROFORMA Studio. An isolated space within the core of the exhibitions. A restricted-access zone separated by a translucent membrane allowing for partial communication with the outside. Here, theoretical activities or those requiring a separation from the public exhibition space can be performed.
-A PROFORMA Module: A structured layout for the exercises proposed, it will include additional materials, sources, developments, etc., as well as the supplies or information sources decided upon in the daily meeting. This space will operate as an indicator of the PROFORMA project progress at every turn. It will contain the initial proposals in their various stages of completion and the program of activities. At the end of the experience, this space will bear witness to the development of the projects and the events that have taken place. It is from here that PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 can begin its independent existence.
What are the aims of PROFORMA? By Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba and Sergio Prego
PROFORMA aspires to be a university, in the original sense of the word: a congregation or community focused toward a common goal that reports to its own authorities; a university of artists for artists and non-artists. It is the symbiosis of museum, studio and lecture hall.
PROFORMA strives to be the catalyst, within an exhibition venue, for a process leading to an experience on a higher level than that of the mere consumption of finished works as cultural artefacts. It posits art as a path for gaining knowledge and communicating, simultaneously occupying the different planes of production, analysis and dissemination. It also proposes approaching the artwork from its myriad facets: as a product, a tool and an encounter.
It searches for a working format that allows for analysis of techniques through practise, for reflection on procedures and methods as well as for intensifying the experience.
It seeks a commitment with the aesthetic outcome as a vehicle for communication between participants as well as the public, at any stage of development or conclusion.
In educational terms, it will attempt to focus particularly on the artistic decisions taken within a creative process, usually invisible due to their immaterial and fleeting nature.
From its very conception, PROFORMA embraces its excessive character, both in terms of the duration of activities to attend (8 hours a day over 40 days) and the intensity demanded by the pace of the exercises, the isolation and the concentration required. This excess is intended to push the boundaries of the familiar and fuel a sustained search for creative solutions that take the possibility of failure onboard.
For those involved in PROFORMA, conditions will be sought that erase barriers in order to develop potential; conditions that minimise the self-censorship that stems from modesty, embarrassment or fear; as well as that which derives from trying to adapt to the conditions of the art system, with its trade in objects, people and ideas.
FIRST PROFORMA 2010: The Publication
On occasion of this innovative endeavour, MUSAC will publish a compilation of the process, development and outcome of the experience throughout the year 2010. The book will include texts by all participants in the process.
Project: PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day
Artists: Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba, Sergio Prego
Curator: Agustín Pérez Rubio
Coordinators: Helena López Camacho, Carlos Ordás
Pedagogic coordination: Antonio González, Amparo Moroño
Venue: Halls 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, MUSAC
Dates: 30 January – 6 June, 2010
- January 30, 2010. Launch of the project
- February 8. QUARANTINE. Beginning of Work Encounters
- April 10. Opening of the exhibition PRIMER PROFORMA 2010
MUSAC, Txomin Badiola (Bilbao, 1957), Jon Mikel Euba (Bilbao, 1967) and Sergio Prego (San Sebastian, 1969) present the project PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day as part of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León’s fifth anniversary exhibition schedule. Between January and June 2010, MUSAC’s more than 4,000 m2 of exhibition space will host a new approach to creating artistic projects that goes beyond conventional notions of exhibiting and pedagogy implemented to date by the Museum and the artists themselves. Badiola, Euba and Prego take on the challenge of a project that will ultimately achieve something more than the sum of their three individual contributions by actively sharing the creative process. The result of this challenge is PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day.
What is PROFORMA?
PROFORMA is a proposal to provide suggestions and information, specifying the terms and conditions for cooperation. PROFORMA is essentially a stage, a structure in anticipation of a commitment between MUSAC, artists Badiola, Euba and Prego, 15 volunteers and other agents.
This commitment leads us into a new experimental format, seeking to generate new forms of action that include production, exhibition, and above all, the generation of knowledge and meaning in a realm of art practise taking place within a museum context such as MUSAC.
Timeline
On a practical level, the scheduling of PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 BADIOLA EUBA PREGO 30 exercises 40 days 8 hours a day will be:
- 30 January, 2010: Presentation of the project. Opening of three exhibitions. Each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works.
- 8 February – 20 March: Quarantine, 40-day confinement of the three artists in their exhibitions along with a group of fifteen volunteers, a working party with a programme consisting of 30 exercises to be completed in the allotted time. This experience in artistic work, within an exhibition apparatus, is targeted towards a transformation, both of the people involved and of the exhibitions themselves.
- 10 April: Opening of PRIMER PROFORMA 2010, a space that has been altered as a result of the unfolding of events during this artistic experience and the actions of those involved.
From that point on, PROFORMA will be able to take on a life of its own due to its prototypal nature, leaving it open to be performed by others in the future.
Procedure
Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba and Sergio Prego had been invited to exhibit at MUSAC over recent years. At one point, Agustín Pérez Rubio suggested the three artists show simultaneously, the idea being that the fruit of such a relationship would precipitate something more than merely the sum of their three individual contributions. After reflecting upon the various aspects involved, the three artists decided to take on the challenge, confident in their well-established relationship based on actively sharing their art-making experience. Thus, the three artists committed to creating something new: PROFORMA, a generic format that started taking shape through weekly meetings amongst the intervening artists and, occasionally, with the institution itself, laying the basis for this common project.
On 30 January 2010 each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works. It is important to note that nearly all the pieces to be shown are new productions created specifically for the MUSAC space.
Immediately afterward, on 8 February, the three artists will begin quarantine, a 40-day confinement in their exhibition space, along with a group of fifteen volunteers; a working party with a programme consisting of 30 exercises to be completed in the allotted time. This experience in artistic work, within an exhibition apparatus, is targeted towards a transformation, both of the people involved and of the exhibitions themselves.
Each director shall take on 10 exercises. The director of each, the other two directors and all remaining participants shall be involved in each exercise, in roles to be determined on a case-by¬case basis. In addition to the actors mentioned, the presence of external agents shall be required, in order to embody an external gaze and participation: segments of an audience called in on an ad hoc basis, in addition to guests who shall act as witnesses and will be charged with specifically regulated tasks within the activity in which they actively engage.
PROFORMA will therefore be a production based on a programme of 30 exercises distributed into 2¬hour modules (as 2, 4 or 6-hour exercises). Exercises will consist in the execution of a productive act; i.e., the generation of experiences, thoughts or physical bodies. Exercises shall be related to the works exhibited, representing their potential for development and transformation.
The aim of these exercises is to involve others, through a course of action, in a typically private experience. Each exercise will generate physical or immaterial outcomes that must be gathered for consideration by an editorial board or peer-review group that shall meet on a daily basis. The group shall review the materials generated, both in terms of direct analysis and of how they are to be communicated. The meeting will bring together the directors, volunteers and any other external agent invited to take part.
In order to select the 15 volunteers who will be key to the development of the project, MUSAC has launched a selection process open to individuals connected to art practices – not necessarily the visual arts –interested in actively participating in an experience of art as a form of knowledge¬gaining and communication.
Participants will be asked to commit to the excess that PROFORMA represents; an excess both in terms of the duration of activities to attend (8 hours a day over 40 days) and the intensity demanded by the pace of the exercises, the isolation and the concentration required. Participant’s regular attendance is absolutely essential over 6 weeks from Monday to Saturday, 8 hours a day.
Terms for entering in the selection are available on the Museum website: www.musac.es (Call for Volunteers), and applications will be accepted until 12 December. Once all applications have been assessed by Badiola, Euba and Prego themselves, results will be posted on the Museum website on 23 December.
Spatial considerations
Spatially, PROFORMA consists of:
- Three exhibitions that will become one. Each artist will unveil an exhibition containing the conditions necessary for its later development. Each proposal will be presented in a varying degree of completion in terms of finished works. The finished works, works in progress and assembled materials will all be subject to transformation as a result of the exercises intended to be carried out on the exhibitions themselves.
- A PROFORMA Studio. An isolated space within the core of the exhibitions. A restricted-access zone separated by a translucent membrane allowing for partial communication with the outside. Here, theoretical activities or those requiring a separation from the public exhibition space can be performed.
-A PROFORMA Module: A structured layout for the exercises proposed, it will include additional materials, sources, developments, etc., as well as the supplies or information sources decided upon in the daily meeting. This space will operate as an indicator of the PROFORMA project progress at every turn. It will contain the initial proposals in their various stages of completion and the program of activities. At the end of the experience, this space will bear witness to the development of the projects and the events that have taken place. It is from here that PRIMER PROFORMA 2010 can begin its independent existence.
What are the aims of PROFORMA? By Txomin Badiola, Jon Mikel Euba and Sergio Prego
PROFORMA aspires to be a university, in the original sense of the word: a congregation or community focused toward a common goal that reports to its own authorities; a university of artists for artists and non-artists. It is the symbiosis of museum, studio and lecture hall.
PROFORMA strives to be the catalyst, within an exhibition venue, for a process leading to an experience on a higher level than that of the mere consumption of finished works as cultural artefacts. It posits art as a path for gaining knowledge and communicating, simultaneously occupying the different planes of production, analysis and dissemination. It also proposes approaching the artwork from its myriad facets: as a product, a tool and an encounter.
It searches for a working format that allows for analysis of techniques through practise, for reflection on procedures and methods as well as for intensifying the experience.
It seeks a commitment with the aesthetic outcome as a vehicle for communication between participants as well as the public, at any stage of development or conclusion.
In educational terms, it will attempt to focus particularly on the artistic decisions taken within a creative process, usually invisible due to their immaterial and fleeting nature.
From its very conception, PROFORMA embraces its excessive character, both in terms of the duration of activities to attend (8 hours a day over 40 days) and the intensity demanded by the pace of the exercises, the isolation and the concentration required. This excess is intended to push the boundaries of the familiar and fuel a sustained search for creative solutions that take the possibility of failure onboard.
For those involved in PROFORMA, conditions will be sought that erase barriers in order to develop potential; conditions that minimise the self-censorship that stems from modesty, embarrassment or fear; as well as that which derives from trying to adapt to the conditions of the art system, with its trade in objects, people and ideas.
FIRST PROFORMA 2010: The Publication
On occasion of this innovative endeavour, MUSAC will publish a compilation of the process, development and outcome of the experience throughout the year 2010. The book will include texts by all participants in the process.