Marcel Proust appears to be on Twitter!
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Nostalgia - Saudade /
It is the last few days of Tangent Projects, Project 5 and it brings to mind a conversation I had in the summer with a Brazilian woman. We talked about nostalgia and saudade, the Brazilian Portuguese word that all-at-once expresses a deep nostalgia and melancholic yearning for past good times spent with someone or something, but also a contentment to have experienced such happiness.
It’s how we feel about the ending of this exhibition, but we have a few more days left! So, for now, chega de saudade! :)
Bien Cuadrado will be open normal hours Wednesday - Friday, 11 - 15.30.
Nostalgia - "We can’t embrace the future if we’re longing for the past." /
As an interesting read in connection to our upcoming exhibition In Search of Lost Time and our general interest in Nostalgia, here's an interesting article written by Rafael Behr for The Guardian, dated December 2015.
Illustration: Andrzej Krauze (taken from The Guardian article).
"Nostalgia is a cultural and a cognitive phenomenon, and common memories are the glue that holds a society together in shared endeavour. Agreeing to look fondly on where we have been together makes it easier to travel onward without rancour. But our brains collude by adjusting our past to make it a neater fit with the present."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/23/embrace-future-longing-past-nostalgia-memories
Nostalgia - In Search of Lost Time /
As the text for this show is long enough, but there is still so much to say about nostalgia, we decided to set up a blog to collate all the articles, photos and stuff that are still floating around in our heads and continue to feed into the dialogue of this project.
From the moment we decided the title for this show, either we became more aware of all things Proustian or more Proustian things began to manifest on a regular basis. We are undecided on whether it is mere coincidence or something more synchronous...hmmmm...
These blog posts won't be in any kind of consecutive order, or potentially (most likely) not in any kind of order at all. It's just stuff, that we find interesting and don't want to get rid of. Think of it as sifting through some virtual hoarding.
Screen grab from Sense 8.
This is the image we selected to use on the website. It is a screengrab that Tsering took while watching Sense 8 and whatsapped to Laura. The character Jonas quotes Proust but badly "The bonds that bind another person to ourself exist only in our mind", it is actually "The bonds between ourselves and another person exist only in our minds", which is quite different. Jonas' quote seems to talk of a singular experience, WE attach ourselves to others. But Proust seems to be saying that it is an agreed act between people, we do it together. A shared bonding in our minds, notice the plural MINDS. He continues "Memory as it grows fainter loosens them, and notwithstanding the illusion by which we want to be duped and with which, out of love, friendship, politeness, deference, duty, we dupe other people, we exist alone. Man is the creature who cannot escape from himself, who knows other people only in himself, and when he asserts the contrary, he is lying."
More to come soon.
Catching Up With Lolo y Sosaku - Part 3. /
This is the third and final part of an article about Lolo y Sosaku and what they have been up to since our collaboration in May/June of this year. You can read parts 1 & 2 of this article here and here.
During September and most of October Lolo y Sosaku have been taking part in a residency in O Espaço do Tempo, Portugal. This will culminate in an exhibition due to open on October the 15th.
After all the speed and energy of Shanghai, it took Lolo y Sosaku a few days to settle into the more sedate rhythm of this particular residency. However, when they did, it had quite an influence on the work they produced during their time there. Situated in an old convent in the small town of Montemor O Novo, this quiet little corner of Portugal forced the duo to slow down and reconsider the ideas they had had in mind.
During the first week, they needed to buy materials and took a truck to the nearest town 100 kilometres away. On this journey, the landscape effected quite a change in them, the stillness of the oak trees in the dry fields under the hot midday sun calmed their frenetic minds. As time passed, their concept regarding the sound element of their work was transformed. They decided that instead of amplifying the installations - which they would normally do to increase and enhance the sounds made by the sculptural works - they would allow for the ambient sounds to work with the incidental music of the motorised art works. Thus, the random sounds coming from the environment would become an integral part of the overall sound.
The exhibition ("Montania") is not open yet, and unfortunately we have not seen the full documentation of these works. However, the photos in this short article are a sneaky preview and as soon as we have more images, we will be sure to post them here and on our Facebook page - so keep checking back or follow our social media pages for updates.
If you happen to be in the area, remember the opening night is Saturday October 15th and the exhibition runs until November 4th, all welcome!
Montania - Lolo y Sosaku
Galeria Contemporanea do Camara Municipal do Montemoro o Novo, Terreiro do São João de Deus, 7050, Montemoro o Novo, Portugal.
Opening - 18.30pm on October 15th, the show will run until November 4th.
Catching Up With Lolo y Sosaku - Part 2. /
You can read part 1 of this series here, it has some beautiful video and photo documentation of Lolo y Sosaku's time working with Bien Urbain in Besançon, France.
This second part is about their time in Shanghai.
Not long after Bien Urbain, Lolo y Sosaku set off for Shanghai to work on a project organised by Art World magazine and the Power Station of Art. This culminated in Lolo y Sosaku creating a substantial sound installation ("Motors 2") for the exhibition "Snacks" which launched on July 16th and closes on October 16th. If you happen to be in the area, we thoroughly recommend that you check it out while it is still on.
This exhibition aims to showcase "the unclassifiable ideas, experiments, and experiences of diverse life styles in different places all over the world".
The other 37 artists and artist groups participating along side Lolo y Sosaku in this show are Feng Li, Tang Yan/Boisbrain, Jin Ningning, Si Wei, Wen Ling, Dagua × Li Shanshan, Xie Shaojie, Chen Zhe, Dai Jianyong (Coca), Dong Pan, Xiang Yata, Dick Ng, Nathan Zhou, Wang Yiquan, Zhang Da, Zhu Fa, Yancong, Yang Xuede, Zhang Hui, Shen Wei, Yu Ji, Ouyang Yingji/Au Yeung Ying Chai, Liao Guohe, Hiroshi Watanabe, Yuichi Yokoyama, Hankil Ryu, Eduardo Kac, Brandon Ballengée, Marcel Dzama, Tomoko Sawada, Olivier de Sagazan, Morag Myerscough & Luke Morgan, Jan Bucquoy, Boonsri Tangtrongsin, Boris Hoppek, Escif and Christophe Demaître.
One half of the Tangent Team was lucky enough to go to Shanghai for the final stages of the install and the opening, unfortunately not the half that is writing this... and this team half is incredibly jealous! So, if you are in the area, don't miss out, get over there - the show is on until October 16th!
But for the rest of us who can't make it, here is a beautiful video and some installation shots of Lolo y Sosaku's "Motors 2".
You can read Art Radar's review of the show here.
In our third catch up with Lolo y Sosaku we will look at their residency in Montemor-O-Novo, Portugal. We will be posting that very soon! :)
Catching Up With Lolo y Sosaku - Part 1. /
Since working with us on our first project - which was exhibited in Fundació Gaspar earlier this year - Lolo y Sosaku have had a very busy schedule. This is part 1 in a series of 3 short articles about where they have been and what they have been up to since our collaboration.
The very morning after the opening of GOLD they boarded a train bound for Besançon, France to begin working on a project with Bien Urbain.
Photo by Élisa Murcia Artengo.
Every year Bien Urbain and the Association Juste Ici invite artists to spend time creating public works that "intervene in the daily life" of the peoples of Besançon. Other artists this year included Martha Rosler, Henrik Franklin, Maider Lopez, Myr Muratet, Harmen de Hoop, Daniel Munoz San, Escif, Clement Richem, Wasted Rita, Olivier Toulemonde, Sam3, Timofey Radya, Cyop & Kaf and Fermin Jimenez Landa.
These beautiful photos and video will give you some idea of the work Lolo y Sosaku made during this project.
It's really nice to see how their works look in an outdoor setting. Great job Lolo y Sosaku!
You can see more of the projects they worked on here.
We will post part 2 soon, which will have details of their very exciting project in the Power Station of Art in Shanghai.
The unstoppable Katy and Kuba! /
Exhibition news for Katy B Plummer and Kuba Dorabialski.
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