Scenographies
14 Sep - 16 Nov 2013
SCENOGRAPHIES
14 September - 16 November 2013
With: James Beckett, Francis Burger, High&Low Bureau, Informal Strategies, Cindy Moorman, Antonis Pittas, and more.
Curator: Clare Butcher
‘Scenographies’ is a dynamic exhibition programme based around the archive of SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain. Over a period of eight weeks various artists and artists' collectives will approach the legacy of SKOR in a flexible exhibition setting designed by Antonis Pittas. The result will be a fragmented ‘scenography’ in SMBA – making apparent the complicated material and ideological context of this unique archive. In its own way each of the successive ‘acts’ of the exhibition and events programme will reflect parts of SKOR as an institution that realized more than a thousand projects in public space in the Netherlands over the past three decades.
With installations, performances, a film programme curated by High&Low Bureau, artist's talks with curator Alexandra Landré, a panel discussion, and a seminar in collaboration with Arte Útil Museum ‘Scenographies’ offers a lively programme that conserves, combines and complicates the tradition of public art commissions in the Netherlands. The SKOR archive is not employed in an effort to present a well-organized survey of the public life of art, but as a source for the presentation of various practices that take an active part in public life. The participating artists and other guests play with the disappearance of monolithic modernism, and dramatize the theatricality of our contemporary media landscape. In doing so they create a mise-en-scène of reflections and commentaries on a generation-long history of art in public space.
Together with the flexible background designed by the artist Antonis Pittas, within which the exhibition programme takes place, the temporary presentations of ‘Scenographies’ underscore the transitory nature and disappearance of SKOR. At the same time this theatre of change brings new perspectives of art’s role in the public domain. With this in mind, all the participants have sought dynamic ways of employing the public archive so that this cultural heritage might contribute to the future of art in public space in the Netherlands. This is also one of the reasons why the archive is being made accessible to the public by the LAPS Knowledge Centre at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. The aim is ultimately to keep all of the projects of SKOR and its extensive network of commissioners, civil servants, artists, publics, curators and others parties involved, available for research and inspiration.
Clare Butcher (1985, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a curator and writer who cooks. She is currently teaching in Fine Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recently she completed her MFA at the Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town, South Africa; initiated the Annex Residency Programme in collaboration with the South African National Gallery; and co-organized the Autonomy Project. Clare completed the de Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam in 2009, before and after which she has curated a number of exhibitions and programmes.
'Scenographies' is an initiative of the Lectoraat Art & Public Space (LAPS), Gerrit Rietveld Academie, in cooperation with Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), and supported by SKOR | Foundation for Art and the Public Domain.
'Scenographies' is accompanied by SMBA Newsletter nr. 133, with an introduction by Clare Butcher and contributions of Jeroen Boomgaard and Tom van Gestel, amongst others. The SMBA Newsletter is bilingual (EN/NL) and available for free in SMBA and as pdf.
14 September - 16 November 2013
With: James Beckett, Francis Burger, High&Low Bureau, Informal Strategies, Cindy Moorman, Antonis Pittas, and more.
Curator: Clare Butcher
‘Scenographies’ is a dynamic exhibition programme based around the archive of SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain. Over a period of eight weeks various artists and artists' collectives will approach the legacy of SKOR in a flexible exhibition setting designed by Antonis Pittas. The result will be a fragmented ‘scenography’ in SMBA – making apparent the complicated material and ideological context of this unique archive. In its own way each of the successive ‘acts’ of the exhibition and events programme will reflect parts of SKOR as an institution that realized more than a thousand projects in public space in the Netherlands over the past three decades.
With installations, performances, a film programme curated by High&Low Bureau, artist's talks with curator Alexandra Landré, a panel discussion, and a seminar in collaboration with Arte Útil Museum ‘Scenographies’ offers a lively programme that conserves, combines and complicates the tradition of public art commissions in the Netherlands. The SKOR archive is not employed in an effort to present a well-organized survey of the public life of art, but as a source for the presentation of various practices that take an active part in public life. The participating artists and other guests play with the disappearance of monolithic modernism, and dramatize the theatricality of our contemporary media landscape. In doing so they create a mise-en-scène of reflections and commentaries on a generation-long history of art in public space.
Together with the flexible background designed by the artist Antonis Pittas, within which the exhibition programme takes place, the temporary presentations of ‘Scenographies’ underscore the transitory nature and disappearance of SKOR. At the same time this theatre of change brings new perspectives of art’s role in the public domain. With this in mind, all the participants have sought dynamic ways of employing the public archive so that this cultural heritage might contribute to the future of art in public space in the Netherlands. This is also one of the reasons why the archive is being made accessible to the public by the LAPS Knowledge Centre at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. The aim is ultimately to keep all of the projects of SKOR and its extensive network of commissioners, civil servants, artists, publics, curators and others parties involved, available for research and inspiration.
Clare Butcher (1985, Harare, Zimbabwe) is a curator and writer who cooks. She is currently teaching in Fine Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Recently she completed her MFA at the Centre for Curating the Archive, University of Cape Town, South Africa; initiated the Annex Residency Programme in collaboration with the South African National Gallery; and co-organized the Autonomy Project. Clare completed the de Appel Curatorial Programme in Amsterdam in 2009, before and after which she has curated a number of exhibitions and programmes.
'Scenographies' is an initiative of the Lectoraat Art & Public Space (LAPS), Gerrit Rietveld Academie, in cooperation with Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), and supported by SKOR | Foundation for Art and the Public Domain.
'Scenographies' is accompanied by SMBA Newsletter nr. 133, with an introduction by Clare Butcher and contributions of Jeroen Boomgaard and Tom van Gestel, amongst others. The SMBA Newsletter is bilingual (EN/NL) and available for free in SMBA and as pdf.