PRODUCERS-PARASITES-HOSTS (Athens Mix)

Within the framework of my research into Asger Jorn´s writing and thinking I organize public sessions with special guests at a variety of venues. The guest´s practice, knowledge, insights, or responses are informative to my research, or steer the direction I take on a particular topic. The sessions also often respond to the context of the hosting institution, or to a specific request. Making the sessions public is a way to share and enter into a dialogue with the audiences.

National Bank of Greece Building (former Stock Exchange), Athens, used as the main venue for the Athens Biennial 4 – Agora, 2013.

‘Producers-Parasites-Hosts’ was a collaborative performative lecture with Amsterdam-based artist Annabel Howland and part of “The Non-Serious Lectures” (on economy and value) programme at the Athens Biennial – AGORA 2013. It took place on Thursday 28 November, 2013, in the disused National Bank of Greece Building (the former Stock Exchange), in Athens. Using the building of the former Athens Stock Exchange as its main venue, AB4 proposed AGORA not only as a place of exchange and interaction, but also as an ideal setting for critique. The main focus of this programme was to highlight and discuss the shortcomings of the economy.

Lecturing at the Athens Biennial 4 – Agora, 2013

audience at the lecture in Athens

I invited Annabel Howland to turn part of her work-in-progress ‘Producers-Parasites-Hosts’ into a 20-minute, multi-channel sound piece with slides, ‘Producers-Parasites-Hosts (Athens Mix)’. The work contains a multitude of voices, including research-scientists-turned-investment-bankers, a leading evolutionary biologist, economists, and an HFT expert, speaking about parasitical and productive relations. Parasites never benefit their hosts. So why would cooperators benefit their hosts at their own expense? And what is the role of ‘cheaters’? Through intricate editing, Howland builds up a speculative web that draws lines between art, finance and science. A documentation version of her sound performance can be found here: http://www.annabelhowland.nl/blog/athens-mix/

Annabel Howland, ‘Producers-Parasites-Hosts (Athens Mix)’, 2013, text slide

Howland’s artistic research into the world of finance and mutually beneficial relationships in biology stimulated me to develop a lecture that looks into Jorn’s ideas on the position of the artist in society. The lecture is to a large extent based on Jorn’s publication ‘Value and Economy – A Critique of Political Economy and The Exploitation of the Unique’, but is also indebted to Graham Birtwistle’s insightful publication ‘Living Art – Asger Jorn’s comprehensive theory of art between Helhesten and Cobra (1946-1949)’. For the lecture in Athens I compiled a somewhat ironic give-and-take chart, between artist and society. When Jorn provides ‘arguments’ that cannot be quantified, or balanced out on a chart, I discard them and proceed with explaining his notion of a ‘living art’. Here is a link to a sound recording http://www.annabelhowland.nl/blog/athens-mix/.

slide from give-and-take chart

House Museum Asger Jorn, Albissola Marina, 2013. Courtesy: Comune di Albissola Marina/MuDA Museo Diffuso Albisola

OVERVIEW PUBLIC SESSIONS

In the framework of my research into Asger Jorn´s writing and thinking I organize public sessions with special guests. The guest´s practice,  knowledge, insights, or responses are informative to my research, or steer the direction that I take on a particular topic. Oftentimes, the sessions also responded to the context of the hosting institution, or to a specific request. Making the sessions public is a way to share and dialogue with audiences. Below is an overview of the the sessions that took place so far. I also post more detailed reports.

 

PRODUCERS-PARASITES-HOSTS (ATHENS MIX) 

A collaborative performative lecture with Amsterdam-based artist Annabel Howland as part of “The Non-Serious Lectures” (on economy and value) programme of the Athens Biennial – AGORA, 2013. The lecture took place Thursday 28 November 2013, at the deserted National Bank of Greece Building (former Stock Exchange), in Athens.

 

HILDE GOES ASGER WITH MATTIN

Hilde goes Asger with Mattin consisted of a semi-public reading session, a performance by Stockholm-based (sound) artist Mattin and a lecture by myself at Casco, office for art, theory and Design in Utrecht, NL. The performance and lecture took place Sunday 12 Jan 2014, coinciding with “Utrecht’s Cultural Sunday”, and as part of Casco’s collective research (Un)usual Business on a new form of economy based on “weak” theory of “community economies.”

 

L’ARCHITECTURE SAUVAGE – ASGER JORN’S CRITIQUE AND CONCEPT OF ARCHITECTURE

A talk and interview with Silkeborg-based researcher, critic and teacher Ruth Baumeister at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam. This session took place Saturday 22 February 2014. Rob Voerman’s architectural installation ‘The Fifth Season’ conceptually and physically framed the event.

 

THE GRAMMAR OF SUBSTANCE

A talk by Berlin-based artist Shannon Bool and myself in the framework of the exhibition ‘Shana Moulton – episodes from Whispering Pines’ at Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, NL. The talks took place on 16 March 2014, coinciding with ‘de Haarlemse Lente’.

 

THINKING THROUGH MATTER

A talk by Ferdinand Ahm Krag and myself in the framework of the exhibition ‘Asger Jorn – Restless Rebel’ at the Statens Museum for Kunst / National Gallery, Copenhagen. The talks took place Saturday 22 March 2014.

 

COMPARATIVE VANDALISM

‘Comparative Vandalism’ was an exchange of thoughts on Asger Jorn’s Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism hosted by Officin Books, Paper and Prints Copenhagen. With Niels Henriksen, Ellef Prestsæter and Nicolas Malevé as special guests and with Søren AndreasenHelle BrønsLouise Hold Sidenius, Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Jørgen Michaelsen, and Teresa Østergaard Pedersen. The session took place Sunday 6 July,  2014.

 

PILLAR HUGGERS

A workshop and an exhibition at Or Gallery, Berlin. With Antonis Pittas, Johann Arens, Jay Tan, Klaus Weber, Christoph Keller, Hilde de Bruijn, Shannon Bool, Hadley+Maxwell. Exhibition dates: January 23 – April 18, 2015

 

KLARA LIDÉN, PILLAR HUGGER

A lecture by me, discussing the work of Klara Lidén (1979) through the lens of Asger Jorn’s ideas on vandalism. The lecture took place on January 6, 2016.

 

ASGER JORN: THINKING IN THREES

A session with Athens-based artists Kostis Velonis and Yiannis Isidorou hosted by Circuits and Currents, the Project Space of the Athens School of Fine Art. The session took place on January 8, 2016.

ASGER JORN – THINKING IN THREES

In his writing and thinking Asger Jorn discusses and interconnects a variety of issues and fields. The lecture ‘Asger Jorn – Thinking in Threes’ is the more or less natural consequence of me trying to find a way to deal with these complexities. It introduces Jorn’s practice in an inclusive way, discussing his art, groups that he was associated with, his publishing and thinking.

Lecture at Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj Napoca, 2012. Photograph: Stefan Jammer

 

Asger Jorn – Thinking in Threes was presented at:

– Rietveld Academy, Ceramics Department, Amsterdam (18 March 2014)

– M.F.A, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Tel-Aviv, Israel (3 November 2013)

– ADA – area for debate and art, Rotterdam (13 May 2013)

– Fabrica de Pensule, Cluj Napoca, Romania (22 June 2012)

– Artez (upon the invitation of Casco, office for art, theory and design, Arnhem, NL (7 July 2012)

Lecture at Artez, Arnhem, 7 July 2012. Upon the invitation of Casco, office for art, theory and design