Untitled (two takes on crisis)

The participants of the Curatorial Programme 2015-16 of de Appel arts centre propose in Untitled (two takes on crisis) two projects, You Must Make Your Death Public and Rien ne va plus? Faites vos jeux!. Point of departure is a curatorial reflection upon institutions in crisis, starting from recent developments at de Appel arts centre.

The two projects embody two distinct voices. One is related to art works and artistic energies that fathom and face the crisis in an expanded context; the other is proposing a range of strategies out of the critical experience, resorting to therapeutic and educational journeys.

You Must Make Your Death Public
Initiated by Jussi Koitela, Renée Mboya and Asep Topan

You Must Make Your Death Public is an introspective project, which seeks to probe the notion of crisis in contemporary society and its institutions. With its inception in a specific moment of crisis, the project attempts to analyse power relations through an interrogation of the peculiar formulation of aesthetics, language and location. It will explore the ways in which the meanings, values and behaviours that a society produces and promotes through its cultural forms and practices, almost always privilege some groups at the expense of others.

In this way the project will seek to reach out to communities (for example, undocumented migrant workers through the contribution of Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina) for whom it is important to establish the sites of the so-called crisis. To tackle this issue, the project attempts to formulate co-speaking processes using different artistic practices, research trajectories and political positions, and will manifest in various formats including artistic contributions, a publication and a series of public engagements.

Contributors: Nana Adusei-Poku, Amal Alhaag, Maximiliane Baumgartner, De Rotterdamse Beeldmaatschappij, Platform BK, Freek Boon, Ben d’Armagnac, Colin Djukic, Pascal Gielen, Philipp Gufler, Lian Ladia, Lothringer13_Florida, Maria Guggenbichler, Minna Henriksson, Nancy Hoffmann, Manjit Krishna Kaur, Simone Koller, Dennis Neumann, Rabe Perplexum, Rune Peitersen, Margaret Raspe, Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina, Michelle Schulkens, Yasmine Soraya, Buyung Ridwan Tanjung, Nicoline van Harskamp, Louwrien Wijers, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, Mara Zust

Rien ne va plus? Faites vos jeux!
Curated by Laura Amann, Kateryna Filyuk and Alessandra Troncone

Rien ne va plus? Faites vos jeux! is an exhibition, series of public events, and a publication that inquire into a variety of ways of relating to the institutions of public life collapsing under the pressure of contemporary crises. Having followed the curatorial programme under the ongoing state of institutional emergency, the project conceives of a space for “critique as proposition” (M. Hlavajova), by offering intellectual and practical strategies to deal with crisis.

The title, by referring to expressions commonly used in the casino and in reversed order, underlines how from a situation where nothing seems to go anymore (Rien ne va plus), one can still make their own move (Faites vos jeux).

Within a theoretical framework consisting of five possible reactions formulated by the curators (Reflective Nostalgia, Inner Emigration, Fictional Reality, Permanent Reconstruction, and Liquid Status), artists will suggest viable answers to face or escape critical situations linked to institutions, exploring and also questioning the therapeutic potential of artistic practice.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive public programme; in this frame, artists and curators will draft and exercise scenarios of strategy-lessons in complementary formats.

Contributors:

Exhibition: Artun Alaska Arasli & Brendan Anton Jaks, Danilo Correale, Gluklya, Oto Hudec, Adelita Husni-Bey, Adrian Melis, Okin Collective, Adrien Tirtiaux, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Arseny Zhilyaev

Public programme: Anna Bitkina, Gluklya, Vera Hofmann and Ruchama Noorda, Oto Hudec, Daniela Paes Leão and Merel Willemsen, Pedro Reyes, Wilco Tuinebreijer, Olegue Zabava

The Curatorial Programme 2015-16 are: Laura Amann (Austria, 1986), Kateryna Filyuk (Ukraine, 1986), Jussi Koitela (Finland, 1981), Renée Mboya (Kenya, 1986), Asep Topan (Indonesia, 1989), and Alessandra Troncone (Italy, 1984). More information about the Curatorial Programme can be found here.

With thanks to Ammodo and the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux