The Inside Out, The Outside In
Quartair – Contemporary Art Initiatives
Toussaintkade 55
The Hague
Opening 3 March from 7 – 10 pm
Exhibition 4 until 26 March 2017
Friday to Sunday from 1 – 6 pm
An exhibition by Merel Noorlander, Ana Oosting and Mirko Lazović.
A waterbasin with sound (by Mirko Lazovic), growing clay sculptures (by Ana Oosting), mechanical pop-up installations with light (by Merel Noorlander). Three autonomous works by three different artists move, change over time, influence one another, connect with each other and form an unexpected whole that exceed the sum of the parts. The Inside Out, The Outside In is inspired by the works of philosopher Donna Haraway, who writes about the perception of time and the possibility of Chthulucene, a state of complete symbiosis between different organisms.
Three mechanically driven pop-up objects hang above the pool, in a continuous motion but unpredictable timeframe transforming from 2D to 3D, powered by engines and timers. Their inner shapes and materials reflect kaleidoscopic patterns of color on the walls, water surface, ceramics and ceilings, when folding open. At this point the light hits the inner structure of the objects and reflect a new layer that will appear and disappear in a continuous but ever changing cycle. Hence this kaleidoscopic effect does not have a fixed projection screen or a strict mechanism of lenses, but is in constant change, and in relation with all parts of the whole, which will influence the angles of light, the shape of the projection surfaces, colors, etc. Therefore the audience is invited to understand light, time, the environment and its parts, not as separate things with primarily intrinsic qualities, but as elements which are constantly morphing, mutating and in dialogue.
During the exhibition we organised a number of film screenings, artist talks and lectures in collaboration with Quartair:
Opening 3th of March
7.00 pm – entree with special drinks and bites
7.30 pm – opening talk by Martijn Verhoeven (Fine Arts coordinator KABK / scout Prix de Rome 2017)
10.00 pm – end
Hoogtij 10th of March
7.00 pm – open
Ongoing workshop Ana Oosting
8.00 pm – performance Kirsten Heshusius
9.00 pm – (sound)performance Wen Chin Fu
Ongoing performance Ludmilla Rodriques
10.00 pm – end
> Workshop ‘Making the invisible visible’ by Ana Oosting:
The boundaries of being a human are not always as clear as we’s like to think. We are engaged in a symbiotic relationship with many micro organisms that we carry in and on us. Scientists have even estimated that for every 3 human cells, we have 1 non-human one; every single one of us is a planet inhabited by bacteria and fungi.
Together with Ana Oosting, you can discover this hidden world, by taking samples of our own skin, saliva or maybe our phone, and growing the microbes on a nutrient base called agar. The results will be displayed during the rest of the exhibition, but you can also digitally track the growing results.
> Performance of Kirsten Heshusius:
Heshusius work is best described as visual poetry provoking universal thoughts about the world and existence itself. She develops her ideas in her atelier where her material research is persistent and ongoing. Within her performances she deals with body transformation and strong but minimal visual imagery often based on autobiographical events. Because the body functions as a mirror, through the transformations she provokes sentiments of recognition. Architecture and history provide a departure point placing the work in its surroundings. In her performance this evening her departure point is the symbolism of the dutch national flag. She will explore her boundaries, origin, the past and the influence of history on the present.
> Performance ‘Sounding Sugar’ of Wen Chin Fu:
Every material has its own hidden secret. By making, observing and listening we can find the entrance into this secret. The experiment started with the acoustic potential of sugar during a residency in former sugar refinery in Taiwan in 2015 together with Mariska de Groot. Tang is a percussion instruments made of crystallized sugar that was developed during this residency.
> Performance ‘Polytope’ of Ludmilla Rodrigues:
Polytope is a geometric structure which behaves both as a solid and as an empty space. It is flexible while being rigid. Polytope aims to engage the audience in a physical dialogue, where the articulation and lightness of the structure allow many different positions and dimensions. The work is an attempt to blur the border between public and performer, choreographer and dancer. Ludmila is interested in assessing our relation with the space in motion. And how the senses – focusing on tactility and proprioception – interact with the surrounding.
Lecture and filmscreening 17th of March
7.00 pm – entree
7.30 pm – lecture Ruben Beentjes, literatuur wetenschapper (Dutch)
8.00 pm – pause
8.30 pm – film screening ‘Tetsuo, the Iron Man’ of Shin’ya Tsukamoto (1989) in collaboration with Cinema Quartair. Short introduction of the film by Amir Vodka (English).
10.00 pm – end
> Lecture ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ by Ruben Beentjes:
Met de cyborg als filosofisch concept schiep Donna Harraway een instrument waarmee de mens niet begrepen hoeft te worden als een tweeledig wezen; half God, half dier; half humanist, half ongelikte beer. Cyborgs zijn ongelijksoortige, gedeeltelijk vleselijke dragers van betekenis- patronen die bestaan uit data, micro-prothesen als drugs en medicijnen, dildo’s en machines, en zelf weer als cellen opgaan in organisaties, virtuele netwerken, housefeesten, de snelweg en in sportscholen. Deze bionische mens verwijst niet door halfslachtigheid naar een transcendentaal rijk, maar is een technologische mutant, die voortdurend van betekenis kan veranderen. Deze lezing wil verslag doen van een onderzoek naar de implicaties van moderne en populaire verbeeldingen in film, filosofie en beeldende kunst van de cyborg.
Ruben Beentjes finished his masters at the UVA in literature, writes and gives lectures about Philosophy, Esthetics and Modern Art. At the same time he works as a carpenter and mechanic. Its especially this combination that we’ve asked him to give a lecture about cyborcs and the theory of Donna Haraway connected to our exhibition. This lecture will be in Dutch.
> Film screening ‘Tetsuo, the Iron Man’:
A man awakens from a nightmare in which his body is helplessly fusing with the metal objects around him, only to find it is happening to him in real life…
Shinya Tsukamoto’s vision of the marriage of flesh and technology is a black and white, industrial cyberpunk roller-coaster. An outlandish and brilliant display of the possibilities of modern day low-budget film making. The science fiction writer William Gibson called it “Primal 21st century cinema with gorgeously deranged energy.” Short introduction by Amir Vodka, this will be in English.
Lecture and filmscreening 24th of March
7.00 pm – entree
7.30 pm – lecture Laurens Sparrius
8.00 pm – pause
8.15 pm – film screening ‘Fast, Cheap & Out of Control’ of Errol Morris (1997) in collaboration with Cinema Quartair.
> Lecture by Laurens Sparrius, ecologist and lichenologist:
An introduction to the wonderful world of the symbiosis between fungi and algae. Combined they become something more than their single symbiont parts; a whole new organism called the lichen.
Ana Oosting will give a short introduction on the relevance of symbiosis and in particular lichen to the theory of Donna Haraway and the exhibition ‘The Inside Out, The Outside In’.
> Film screening ‘Fast, Cheap & Out of Control’:
The film interweaves the stories of four obsessive men, each driven to create eccentric worlds of their dreams, all involving animals: a lion tamer who is interested in the minds of wild animals; a topiary gardener who has devoted a lifetime to painstakingly shaping bears and giraffes out of hedges and trees; a man who is fascinated with hairless mole-rats; and an M.I.T. scientist who has designed complex, autonomous robots that can crawl like bugs without specific instructions from a human controller. As the film proceeds, thematic connections between the four protagonists begin to emerge.
Hilarious, sad, absurd, eerie and beautiful, “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control” is a film like no other. Starting as a darkly funny contemplation of the Sisyphus-like nature of human striving, it ultimately becomes a profoundly moving meditation on the very nature of existence.
This project is kindly supported by STROOM, Stichting Stokroos and Gemeente Den Haag.