the thinking hand

Views of the exhibition of Enzo Mari's paperweight collection

"the intellectual work", exhibition curated by barbara casavecchia
kaleidoscope project space, april 13 - 30, 2010, Milan

"mari has always investigated the role of the intellectual, the cooperation of thinking

and doing, heads and hands. words and things.(...) but there is more.

granting the papers months and years to mature, to form geological
layers of meditation, also means escaping the oppressive mechanisms of the productive
system, the compulsive logic of efficiency at all costs. it means affording oneself
the subversive luxury of taking all the required time to develop a good project. it means
extending the range of research in order to get an overall picture, acting against
the increasing hyper-specialization that restrains creative expression nowadays.

(...) perhaps the paperweights and the notes are ultimately talismans, there to exorcise

the risk of being complacent and giving up the search."

'I could affirm that the intellectual work

lies in saying NO.
negation is addressed not only to others,

but also to your own goal, because the final
aim is getting to the essence.' - enzo mari

source images & text: designboom

The title of this post is taken from an expression which Erik

recently used to describe his ideas of art education, De Denkende Hand

life comes first

Photo: Cihan Lacin, http://www.coid.nl

Life comes first and is the source of my work.
Work was never not meant to hollow life out,
no matter how passionate you are about it.
That's what I told an interviewer from the city
when she asked me
how I draw the border between life and work.

Quetions are beautiful things.
They often trigger a truth
that was not evident until that moment.

Raoul - one had to move to see

Foreseen, 1989, Eindhoven

Raoul who was always there for us, is no longer amongst us.
He stepped out of time and cut short the life he couldn't live anymore.
Raoul left some traces online and I brought some together here.
Because without attention for one another, each and everyone of us is alone.
Raoul: we had no idea we are so sorry (words by Annelys today at the ceremony)
~
Here are some notions and phrases, which for me remain associated with Raoul's curiosity,
enthusiasm and generosity; pieced together from memory, email fragments and just plain sadness.

"Een ander beeld vraagt om een andere (talige) structuur wil zij niet in haar mimetische kwaliteit het afleggen tegen de grotere macht waar tegen zij zich juist wil afzetten." - Date: 8 March 2007 19:03:22 CET

"Er zal dus eigenlijk een ander discours geproduceerd moeten worden dat meer het bricolerende weefsel zelf mimetiseert....." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"We moeten, en ik herhaal mijn argument van de laatste ontmoeing- het maar eens uitgebreid over representatie hebben..." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"Met tekst –want het leek de hele tijd die kant op te gaan- bedoelde ik niet een gedrukte –of anderszins gepubliceerde tekst maar het weefsel (textuur) van betekenissen die een museum om een kunstwerk weeft. (...) Kortom tekst als textuur en/of weefsel." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"Tamelijk eenvoudig eigenlijk. Wanneer je bijvoorbeeld kijkt naar de gemiddelde behandeling van een kunstwerk dan wordt het overgrote deel benut om te beschrijven WAT er zichbaar is en zelden HOE iets zichtbaar wordt gesteld."- Date: 13 May 2007 11:02:49 CEST

"De esthetica hernomen (Paul Frissen). (...) De kunsten en de vormgeving en hoe zij (misschien wel als verschil zijn weggevallen in de nieuwe media) kunnen deze rol op zich nemen." - Date: 13 October 2007 13:52:44 CEST

Bergon en Heidegger over de ervaring van de duur: "“zij valt samen met de wereld, zoekt daarin het singuliere en onherhaalbare dat op zijn beurt onpresenteerbaar is” - zie: H. Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics p.7

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi guys (Magnum P.I. Season 1976),
Hoi jongens,
Hé geluksvogel (zomaar in Detroit...),
Mijn waarde kenniskringleden,

Woekeren en opschorten
Dit spel is nooit waardevrij
Differentie als verlangen
Voorbij goed of slecht.....
Being-there
JONGENS, LEES MIJN VORIGE MAIL NIET. IK DRUKTE PER ONGELUK OP ‘SEND’ EN DEZE MAIL IS NOG NIET AF.....
Om mijn positie te ‘hernemen’.....
Ook wil ik nog even stilstaan bij
Tussen zien en weten
“Het lichaam is ruimte, het bewustzijn tijd” (Bergson) - en dit valt niet op te lossen [RT]
Zij [dit leven, dit landschap] wordt dus ervaren maar kan niet in haar geheel uitgedrukt worden.
Dit volgend wordt het voorgestelde uitermate interessant.

"In andere woorden: we maken betekenis door "tussen" de betekenisgevende
structuren te gaan 'staan' en niet meer door een plek (locus) aan te wijzen
waar deze gevonden kan worden." (over Lyotard's intrasemische ruimte)

Hier wordt ontwerpen ont-werpen.....

Komttie.
Voor jou altijd:
You’re welcome en het is altijd als steun bedoeld

Het was een goede middag.....
Succes!
Veel succes alvast!
En nu ieder een fijne avond!
Geniet van dit weekend!
Geniet van je weekend!
Liefs en goed weekend!
Tot gauw,

En zo heb ik nog meer mar zal ik het hier even bij laten?



www.raoulteulings.com
1959-2010

Déracinner les pensées

Unroooted countless blackberrie bushes today, to make space
for a small magnolia, a group of snowdrops and three handful of field flowers
(which we call sneeuwklokje –snowbell– in Dutch, and perce-neige –snow piercer– in French)

Noticed a few parallels between the way roots and thoughts behave

a small stem says nothing about the size of the root below
a small stem that looks like it's by itself often turns out to be connected to some bigger root
(sometimes many meters further, in any direction)
pulling gently on the root yields more result
a hard pull will break the root off, leaving it amputated
to free a root you need to dig the earth up in a circle around it
at first it looks messy but it's also refreshing
shaking a root and seeing clumps of earth fall apart in black dust feels REALLY good
it made me think of the earth globe racing through space
raking the earth till it's soft and even feels EVEN better



Also cleaned up an uncanny pile of trash that was under my terrace when I moved in
and that I had tried to ignore over the winter. After getting rid of the most horrible stuff
I was left with earth and bricks of every possible size. I masoned them into a more or less even surface.

Bringing some kind of intention or direction or reading mode into whatever material
you are confronted with always works - it turns it into something, at least.


eco cathedraal van Kunsthistoricus, architect en filosoof Louis Guillaume Le Roy in Mildam (fr)

about pets and what we call nature

This is a pet's cemetery, and the top picture the grave of a canary bird (!) in Het Groene Hart (the green hart of The Netherlands). Notice the cat following Ria, Henriëtte's mother, like a loyal guardian. Henriëtte & I have been visiting the area for the past weeks for a project we are working on - about how to frame (mentally, visually and in terms of recreation) the area of De Bovenlanden, an agricultural polder destined to become 'nature' in the near future.

Field Essays

Field Essays, the outcome of my research at the Professorship of Art and Public Space at the Rietveld Academie, and supported by the Amsterdam Foundation of Visual Arts Design and Architecture, is currently looking for its place in the world. It's talking to interested publishers but it's also exploring the adventure of self-publishing, which the NO ISBN Salon für Kunstbuch project celebrates.

Edited by | Sophie Krier
Authors | LucyandBart, Marek Pokropski, Sophie Krier
Graphic design | Andreas Tscholl
Print | Drukkerij Rob Stolk, Amsterdam
Copy Writing | Arden Rzewnicki
Cover image | “Pick of Sticks”, LucyandBart, 2009

Field Essays could not have been possible without the generous and critical voices of Jeroen Boomgaard, René Put, Ilse van Rijn, Willem van Weelden, Renée Kool, Raoul Teulings, Frank Mandersloot, Guus Beumer, Danièle Rivière, Bas Raaijmakers, Matthias Gmachl, Rachel Wingfield, Fatos Ustek, Bas Princen, François Roche, Antonio Scarponi, Bas van Beek, Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Alvin Ho, Julia Born and Marieke Stolk.

My world on air on "Werelds" @ TV Rijnmond, 26.01.2010

To know more about acroyoga and Dieke Bikker, the best teacher you can find, visit Salon Physique or Acroyoga! The images of the wrapping up of my exhibition were shot at TENT. Rotterdam, right after the BLURRRR exhibition.

side effects

Bas and Allan conversing during the dishwashing break in my kitchen.

Césare Pietrouisti once wrote really nice things about side effects of his work, in the book "Wat we want is free", on generosity and exchange in recent art. Pietrouisti: "With events in real time, there are always side effects that happen and I would try to recognize them and work with them. Usually, when we project something side effects are considered negative because they are diversions. (...) I like to think that an art practice is the only work with the freedom to consider side effects as a positive part of a project. At the same time, I think that we we cannot expect side effects, nor try to create conditions for having as many of them as we can. On the contrary, if we are not very precise and rigorous in our project definition, we won't be able to recognize the side effects, because we could be submerged by them and not see anything at all.(...) If everything is good nothing is good and you won't be giving meaning to anything whatsover." (p.79) A little earlier in the interview Césare Pietrouisti comments on the potential of documentation: "You can use the documentatin of a project as a mirror for what you have done, as a confirmation, or as a new source that, starting from your action, gives you the opportunity to go somewhere else, to move aside and explore side effects." (p.78)

The above snapshot was taken right after a well deserved lunch break today with five fellow colleagues, with whom I am working on a super exiting book proposal. My studio and home were instantly re-baptised in a kind of salon, with continuous discussions going on all the time. I don't remember sitting for such long stretches of time since a long time. Two days of talking and intensive cross questioning have exhausted me, and yet I still cannot help feeling the urge to sit down and write up all the meaningful things that have been said. On a Saturday evening!!! That's how good the energy is, which we generated together. For that I thank you, Marc, Froukje, Alan, Bas, and Jelle.

TENT.BLURRR

part 1) shows two films side by side, and three tables (copies of the ones in my home and studio), with archived drawings and writings, as well as (yet) unrealized plans.

part 2) featured scale models of places where I worked, or would like to work one day,

as an attempt to find out what made these spaces special. A small train rode up and down

the paper memories and desires.

BLURRR is an exhibition about blurring boundaries in today's artistic practices. Curator Mariëtte Dolle invited me to take part alongside 8 others, and in our first talks she told me that her two keywords for my way of working (she has keywords for all the artists she works with) were "doubt" and "challenge". I don't mind. Especially because Mariëtte's gaily inquisitive, 'jet set' mind helped me to see more clearly where I stand, and what is important to me. Thank you also Erik for advising me at the last moment (full of doubts...) on how to display the spin-offs of my practice, and on the title (still not sure about Ongetwijfeld - Undoubtly- though...).

BLURRR 9 september – 15 november 2009

Nina Boas, Iddo Drevijn, Sophie Krier, Walter Langelaar, Gyz La Rivière, Strange Attractors, Studio Spass, Esmé Valk, Volksrekorders

Met BLURRR verkent TENT. een ontluikende culturele praktijk in de energieke Rotterdamse kunstwereld: jonge kunstenaars leggen zich niet meer toe op één bezigheid of beroep, maar manifesteren zich en meer als multitaskers.

(...)

[achterzaal] Sophie Krier was de afgelopen jaren hoofd van de afdeling designLAB aan de Gerrit Rietveld Academie te Amsterdam. In haar eigen ontwerppraktijk richt Krier tentoonstellingen in, schrijft zij columns en essays en maakt films. In december 2008 brandde haar atelier af, en daarmee ook haar gehele archief van werken, boeken en andere inspiratiebronnen. Krier gebruikt haar aanwezigheid in TENT. om de kern van haar werk opnieuw te onderzoeken. Waar staat zij, wat is belangrijk en hoe nu verder? In een wandreliëf met kartonnen maquettes inventariseert Sophie Krier plaatsen waar zij heeft gewerkt of waar zij van droomt om ooit te werken. In de videofilm ‘En Garde’ trekt Krier als een hedendaagse Don Quichotte ten strijde tegen Fort Asperen. In de animatie ‘Kabouterrevolutie’ portretteert Krier 62 kabouters waarop Nieuw-Vennepse kinderen afgelopen zomer hun wensen voor hun stad projecteerden, als onderdeel van het project Lang Leve De Tijdelijkheid. Op drie tafels – een tafel met het verleden, een tafel met work-in-progress en één met toekomstplannen - onderzoekt Sophie haar bronnen, handschrift en ambities.