ICP/A BACKSTAGE

THE LAST SESSION

2009-08-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

THE LAST SESSION

Curated by Jan Van Woensel

Friday September 18th - Sunday October 18th, 2009

De Brakke Grond, Flemish Cultural Center, Amsterdam

The Session* is a collective of eight international designers and artists based in Amsterdam that creates thematic and interdisciplinary fanzines since September 2007. Belgian-American curator Jan Van Woensel (who lives and works in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles) is the first external editor, curator, and concept developer appointed by the members of The Session. Van Woensel curates a special edition around the theme of Endism and is not only a hard copy publication, but also takes the form of an international group exhibition, performances, curated film screenings, and live bands.

The participating artists are:

Tomas Adolfs, Stephan Balleux, Paulien Barbas, Delphine Bedel, Staffan Björk, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Fia Cielen, Christine Clinckx, Martha Colburn, Orpheu de Jong, Hadassah Emmerich, FIENDEN, Andrea Galvani, Tony Garifalakis, Joris Ghekiere, ioulex, Gert Jan Kocken, Experimental Jetset, Matthias Kreutzer, Alexandra Leykauf, Jen Liu, Liesbeth Marit, Kalle Mattsson, Oskar Nilsson, Nick Oberthaler, Dear Reader, Rafael Roozendaal, Kalle Runeson, Etta Säfve, Steve Schepens, Jens Schildt, Seher Shah, Helmut Stallaerts, Tarja Szaraniec, Monica Tormell, Dennis Tyfus, Philippe Vandenberg, Chad VanGaalen, Filip Vervaet, Anne Wenzel, and Fabio Wuytack

Live bands September 18th, 2009

With Adolfs Butler (Live), Experimental Jetset (DJ), FNNN (DJ), Ignatz (Live, BE), The 1982 (Live, BE), Moon & Sun (Live), Rene SG (Live), and more…

Also check out Orpheu de Jong's The Last Session Radio:

http://www.thelastsessionradio.com

*The Session does not work with a standard form or a recurrent basic theme, but produces on the basis of a regular process. Per session, one of the eight artists and designers determine the theme. This person is then also responsible for the editing, the design and production. This time Jan Van Woensel fulfils this role.

The Session is: Jens Schildt, Staffan Björk, Monica Tormell, Tomas Adolfs, Tarja Szaraniec, Matthias Kreutzer, Kalle Mattsson and Orpheu De Jong

Jan Van Woensel curates a The Last Session publication release party at Envoy Gallery in New York City on October 4th, 2009. More details will follow.

Info: office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com

Philippe Vandenberg (1952-2009)

2009-06-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

June 29th, 2009: artist Philippe Vandenberg passed away.

"“Il faut bouger dans la vie” were some of the first words from Philippe Vandenberg in response to my inquiry as to what the common thread between his paintings exhibited at the Envoy Gallery on Chrystie Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was. “Il faut bouger dans la vie, in other words… you must move in life.” The Belgian artist’s reasoning behind such a statement was that through mobility, we are able to rescue ourselves from depression. To be static is to lose everything—therefore we are most enriched by nomadic sensibilities. Indeed, the press release, put together by the exhibition's curator Jan Van Woensel, chose to emphasize this point in its introduction to the exhibition. To paraphrase Van Woensel, ‘Vandenberg paints to resist stagnation.’"

Excerpt from Sam Mirlesse's review of the exhibition L'image Maudite (The Cursed Image); Philippe Vandenberg's solo exhibition at Envoy Gallery in NYC, Dec 2008-Jan 2009.

Philippe, you'll be missed. Rest in peace

Bad Moon Rising 4

2009-06-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

(Taravat Talepasand)

(Lee Ranaldo)

BAD MOON RISING 4
curated by Jan Van Woensel

Marcin Cienski, David di Sabatino, Ida Ekblad, Hadassah Emmerich , Melissa Frost, Tony Garifalakis, Asma Kazmi, Richard Kern, Jannicke Låker, Lee Ranaldo, Reynold Reynolds and Patrick Jolley, Adie Russell, Seher Shah, Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir, Taravat Talepasand

galerie sans titre - 22, BLVD Barthélemy - 1000 Brussels

June 3rd - July 11th, 2009

galeriesanstitre@gmail.com www.galeriesanstitre.com

LAST DAY OF MAGIC

2009-04-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

(image: Brindalyn Webster)

Last Day of Magic
A Reenactment

Curated by Jan Van Woensel

Orange Alley Project
Saturday April 25th, 2009, from 6 to 9PM

Orange Alley (between 25th and 26th St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
http://orangealleyproject.com/

Featuring: Sung-Hee Chang, Emily Hoover, Amy Keefer, Dustin Kelly, Christine Kesler, Stephanie Lagarde, Elyse Mallouk, Amy Martin, Josh Martinez, Lynne McCabe, Piero Passacantando, Brin Webster

Last Day of Magic was a one-day closed performance of rituals about departure and transformation that took place on March 28th, 2009. The rituals are designed with a personal significance and shamanic purpose. They examine the artist's interpersonal experiences with belief, sacrifice, loss, disappearance, and memory. The undercurrent apocalyptic character of this project is based on the belief that after the last day of magic life ends. The project's focus however, is on the quality of the shared experience of a suspended moment before the end. In-group, the artists sang a song that honors the departed, built a fire, sacrificed personal objects, drank wine, and meditated. Last Day of Magic is a melancholic journey to the metaphoric edge of the cliff of life where the artists take halt, build a secret community and reside.

Each ritual is a performance designed by artists from Last Day of Magic and will only be performed by this group once. The original ritual ceremony of March 28th, 2009, is documented in video form, and as a set of published instructions that can be distributed and reenacted by others. At Orange Alley, twelve volunteers reenact the rituals and create their own last day of magic experience. The reenactment is open to the public.

Last Day of Magic is a project initiated, organized and curated by Jan Van Woensel in the framework of his 2009 cross-departmental class at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA. http://www.last--day--of--magic.blogspot.com Jan Van Woensel is an independent curator based in New York City and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of New York Magazine of Contemporary Art and Theory http://www.ny-magazine.org

New York Magazine of Contemporary Art and Theory

2009-04-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

Founded in 2008, NEW YORK MAGAZINE OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND THEORY is an independent, paperless magazine that brings quality essays about art and art theory. Aimed at a new generation of artists, curators, critics and scholars, we address concepts that critically expand on the past, present and future of art.

JAN VAN WOENSEL
Founder, curator and editor-in-chief
RUBA KATRIB
Curator and editor

Advisors: Nathalie Angles, Julieta Aranda, Nicolas Bourriaud, Greggory Bradford, Tamsin Clark, Jill Conner, Christine Hou, Heather Hubbs, Anthony Huberman, Richard Julin, Thomas Lail, Marlene McCarty, Kate McNamara, Julian Myers, Melanie Ohnemus, Hans Op de Beeck, Steven Rand, Jerome Sans, Basak Senova, Catherine Spaeth, Nato Thompson

URL: http://www.ny-magazine.org
Email: editor@ny-magazine.org

UN-SCR-1325, an exhibition referencing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325

2009-02-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Image credit: Yoko Ono, Snow Piece 1963, published in grapefruit, 1964. Wunternaum Press, Tokyo. Copyright of Yoko Ono

UN-SCR-1325

-An exhibition referencing the-
UNITED NATIONS SECURITY

COUNCIL RESOLUTION 1325

Vanessa Albury, Claire Beckett, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jen DeNike, Kathleen Hanna & Becca Albee, Karin Hanssen, Kati Heck, Ann Veronica Janssens, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Marlene McCarty, Sofie Muller, Adrian Piper, Adie Russell, Leah Singer, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, and Cindy Wright

Curator: Jan Van Woensel
Assistant Curator: Vanessa Albury

March 6 – April 11, 2009
Opening reception: Thursday, March 5, 2009 from 6 to 9 pm

The Chelsea Art Museum, home of the Miotte Foundation, is pleased to present the group exhibition UN-SCR-1325, which brings works by eight Belgian artists together with works by eight American artists. Referencing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, the exhibition focuses on the position of women in global and local sociopolitical contexts. The artwork in the show critically addresses topics such as religion, sex, identity, trauma and war.

UN-SCR-1325, adopted in 2000, is the first resolution passed by the Security Council that comprehensively addresses the impact of war and conflict on women and women's contributions to conflict prevention as well as conflict resolution and sustainable peace efforts. The exhibition acknowledges the great importance and value of this resolution. Instead of being illustrations of a political declaration, the individual works examine critical moments of social and psychological defect and disruption. Rather than portraying women as victims, the artists of the exhibition present works that expose the resilient reactions of women to negligence, discrimination and intolerance. Present and past occasions explored in this exhibition include the California Gold Rush, 9/11, the Iraq War, racial issues, domestic violence and sexism.

Many of the works presented in the exhibition find their inspiration in concrete time and place. From the staged repetition of a random action in the work of Joëlle Tuerlinckx, to the notions of space and isolation in the work of Sofie Muller, to the relational complexity between "you" and "me" in Vanessa Albury's work and to the survival objects of collaborators Kathleen Hanna and Becca Albee: these works reveal how the artists reflect upon the here and now. The exhibition confronts the viewer with physicality, femininity, transgression and action. "If women suffer the impact of conflict disproportionately, they are also the key to the solution of conflict", said former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2002. The exhibition UN-SCR-1325 demonstrates how women can be an important force for change in a situation of conflict. Through this exhibition we are invited to think consciously about how change can be suggested, accepted and successfully integrated in our societies. [JVW]

The exhibition UN-SCR-1325 is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium and supported by The Armory Show, Capitalatwork, Yasmine Geukens and Marie-Paule De Vil, and Office Jan Van Woensel.

http://www.unscr1325.blogspot.com
office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com
www.geukensdevil.com

The Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street (at 11th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011
USA

Bad Moon Rising 3, review #2

2009-02-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

Featured Review: Bad Moon Rising

By Jessica Baran
Published on January 27, 2009 at 2:23pm

Bad Moon Rising 3

A cacophony of rage and ruin, this traveling group show takes a laundry list of individual work and re-contextualizes it to look like a dense, end-all hideout for the current spirit of discontent. On blaring TV sets, videos depict a middle-aged woman crouching in an alleyway, looting the stuffing from a discarded Spiderman toy; a tuxedoed lounge singer repetitively crooning that sorrow conquers happiness; everyday folk testifying to having succumbed to the radical Christianity of a gay hippie preacher; and a primly suited man opening a black umbrella, setting it on fire, then dropping it and walking away. Absurd and ineffectual tangents punctuate and mitigate the larger claims of other work that points directly at specific political indiscretions. By balancing the prescriptive with the intuitive, curators Jessica Silverman and Jan Van Woensel achieve a rare success: a politically driven show that refrains from shrillness, issuing instead a kind of ominous forecast.

Through February 28 at Boots Contemporary Art Space, 2307 Cherokee Street; 314-773-2281 or www.bootsart.com. Hours: noon-5 p.m. Wed. and Sat. and by appointment.

Read the article online here

Bad Moon Rising 3, review #1

2009-02-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

Review: Boots kicks in with a dose of reality

By Ivy Cooper, Beacon Art Critic

Posted 5 p.m. Mon. Jan. 26 - In the midst of all the hoopla, hope and humanity generated by the Barackalypse, it had to happen: a reality check, something to remind us that the world still is in a desperate state and one election won’t — can’t — change all that’s wrong with this country.

Actually, reality checks have been springing up all over the place, if you care to look for them, in magazines and newspapers and, naturally, the Internet. Now at Boots, “Bad Moon Rising 3” is the art-world’s version of a reality check. Curated by Jessica Silverman and Jan Van Woensel, this traveling show is spreading serious cautionary tales in sometimes brutal, sometimes humorous language, and it ought to be required viewing.

More than 50 artists and cooperatives have put together a noisy bunch of videos, prints, flags, collages, montages, paintings, you name it. Standing in the maw of the show, it’s hard to know where one work ends and another begins, and that sense of collectivity is admirable, forcing your attention toward the message, and away from petty distractions like titles and dates and who-made-what. And what is the message? Not to abandon hope altogether, surely, but to temper it with a heavy dose of realism.

Ivy Cooper is an artist and professor of art history at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. To get in touch with her, contact Beacon features and commentary editor Donna Korando.

Read the article online here

BAD MOON RISING 3

2009-01-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

BAD MOON RISING 3

Boots Contemporary Art Space (St. Louis, MO)
January 16th, 2009 - February 28th, 2009

Opening reception January 16th, 6:30 - 10:00 pm

Vanessa Albury & Marthe Fortun / Tariq Ali / Julieta Aranda / Yossi Atia & Itamar Rose / Claire Beckett / Brice Bischoff / Zee Boudreaux / Greggory Bradford / Irma Cannavo / Mauro Ceolin / Lori Cheatle & Daisy Wright / Brian Conley / Meg Cranston / Custer's Revenge / Alain Declercq / Messieurs Delmotte / Blue Firth / Lonnie Frisbee & David di Sabatino / Tony Garifalakis / Daniel Goodwin / Deva Graf / Simon Gush / Hamza Halloubi / George Hennard / Pamela Jue / Jason Kalogiros / Paulus Kapteyn / Richard Kern / Ragnar Kjartansson / Wonder Koch / David Matorin / Christina McPhee / NECK FACE / Joe Heaps Nelson / Federico Nessi / Dustin Michael Pevey / Job Piston / Luther Price / Rage Against the Machine / Lee Ranaldo / Max Razdow / Ruth Sacks / Yoji Sakate / Joaquin Segura / Irgin Sena / Ben Shaffer / Elin O'Hara Slavick / Travis Sommerville / Ginger Wolfe-Suarez & Jeanne Moen Wolfe / The Weather Underground / Philippe Vandenberg / Ben Vautier / Pete Watts / Jackson Webb /

Curators: Jessica Silverman and Jan Van Woensel
Assistant Curator: Kara Smith

The traveling group exhibition Bad Moon Rising exposes some of the dark sides of the world's self-proclaimed greatest nation: the United States of America. With the election of a new President in November 2008, people are optimistic about the future of the USA's national and international politics, economy and warfare. Nevertheless, the country's continual increase in unemployment, poverty, the financial downfall, expensive and unreliable health care, equal rights and overprized education are problems that are yet to be resolved. Although the mantra-esque "Yes, We Can" encourages us to believe in a better future, we cannot start dreaming. Offensive, annoying, naughty and whimsical, Bad Moon Rising 3 helps to reminds us of some of the most disturbing facts of the USA's past and present. Through a selection of artworks, artifacts and a-historical references, major themes such as politics, religion, society, family, war and the media are disturbingly portrayed, casting a dark shadow over the USA's promised ideologies of freedom and prosperity.

**Photos are now available on Bad Moon Rising's website

**As an extra component to Bad Moon Rising 3, Jessica Silverman and Jan Van Woensel have invited the curatorial collective NAIL to create email exhibitions based on the concept of the project. A selection of 500 art professionals will receive the Bad Moon Rising email exhibitions. From January 19th - 31st, 2009, they receive one email per day containing each member of NAIL's contribution to Bad Moon Rising 3. For info please contact Jan Van Woensel at projectbadmoonrising@gmail.com

Please use the following link for more information on NAIL

Bad Moon Rising 3 is supported by the BRITISH COUNCIL and ARENAMEXICO

L'Image Maudite (The Cursed Image)

2008-12-31T14:01:00.000-08:00

Philippe Vandenberg (photo: Sam Mirlesse)

December, 2008, Philippe Vandenberg at ENVOY Gallery. Curated by Jan Van Woensel. Article in Whitehot Magazine.

By Sam Mirlesse

“Il faut bouger dans la vie” were some of the first words from Philippe Vandenberg in response to my inquiry as to what the common thread between his paintings exhibited at the Envoy Gallery on Chrystie Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side last week was. “Il faut bouger dans la vie, in other words… you must move in life.” The Belgian artist’s reasoning behind such a statement was that through mobility, we are able to rescue ourselves from depression. To be static is to lose everything—therefore we are most enriched by nomadic sensibilities. Indeed, the press release, put together by the exhibition's curator Whitehot’s own Jan Van Woensel, chose to emphasize this point above all others in its introduction to the exhibition. To paraphrase Van Woensel, ‘Vandenberg paints to resist stagnation.’

The paintings presented as part of “L’Image Maudite (The Cursed Image)” --at Envoy until January 25th-- offer a range of topics, mostly political in commentary, and both furious and playful in temperament. Where in one we see a caricature of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat splattered with graffiti (a man to whom Vandenberg compared Jesus Christ in casual conversation with me), in the next we see swastikas masquerading as party-goers, sporting colorful paper hats and dancing across a white canvas, to which Vandenberg comments that he means to reference the fascism we experience today—a fascism in disguise. Other paintings include a drawing of four women over a whitewashed canvas, underneath which the artist explained is a layer of animal blood (he calls this piece “Misery of the Day”), as well as a smaller work hung above where the absinthe is being served that depicts a smiling face drawn over some brown liquid – apparently the artist’s own blood this time, (this one called “The Laugh”). What is the common thread again? Indeed, the paintings span a period of time beginning in 1989 and leading up to the last few years of the artist’s life, and as a viewer, you certainly are aware of the collection of concerns and moments, one jumping off into the next.

Certainly he has moved, as he says, he has painted, and participated in his fair share of stagnation resistance. But the thing that strikes you the most is perhaps less this notion of the nomad, and more the sense of the frenetic mind, something slightly disturbed, something slightly out of step with the pace of the paint stroke itself, as if perhaps even frustrated by it. Indeed we get the sense of a nomadic thought process, more than a nomadic behavior or physical movement. It comes as no surprise therefore when Vandenberg tells me he is an admirer of the work of Francisco Goya, well-known for the often dark but satirical, thoroughly mad content of his work.

Perhaps this is his point, however—that Vandenberg should intellectually interact with his own political and social concerns through painting them. Like many artists before him and contemporary to him, his work is driven by his expression of a critique of the world we live in, an image-making for the purpose of exposing something that is true in his eyes. In this sense we can understand the thought process of a nomad as that being focused on search as a means to survival. To be stagnant would be to express nothing, to choose silence over a vocalization of stream-of-consciousness through paint would be to die, intellectually speaking. ‘The cursed images’ offered to us by Vandenberg this month in New York are proof of his own personal search, they are debris of a man’s movement.

Sam Mirlesse is a photographer and writer living in New York City. She is currently working on her MFA in Photography at Parsons the New School for Design. She has written for both the Amsterdam and Montreal editions of WhiteHot. Contact her at sabine.mirlesse@gmail.com or at her website www.sabinemirlesse.com

PHILIPPE VANDENBERG. L’IMAGE MAUDITE (THE CURSED IMAGE)

2008-12-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

(Left: independent curator and art dealer Jan Van Woensel, right: artist Philippe Vandenberg)

(Exhibition view: Envoy Gallery)

(Exhibition view)

(Exhibition view: painting "The Abyss")

(Exhibition view: painting "d'Apres le Chien de Goya")

(Exhibition view: painting "Kill Them All")

envoy enterprises . 131 Chrystie Street . New York . NY 10002
B D train to Grand Str . F train to 2nd Ave or Delancey Str . J M Z to Bowery . p: 212.226.4555 . e: office@envoygallery.com

Opening 18 December, 2008, 6 - 9PM

Exhibition 19 December, 2008 - 25 January, 2009. TUES - SUN 12 - 6PM

PHILIPPE VANDENBERG. L’IMAGE MAUDITE (THE CURSED IMAGE)

Curated by Jan Van Woensel

"The nomad image has been a scapegoat for civilization, which contrasts its own excellence with the nomad's raw and wild life. The nomad image has become an icon of anti-civilization and the nomad has been given the role of civilization's curse." (Niillas Oskal, Philosopher, Norway)

Philippe Vandenberg’s second solo exhibition in New York City presents a selection of paintings and drawings from the last twenty years that lead us through a complex, poetic and emotionally intelligent oeuvre of one of Belgium’s most prominent contemporary artists.

L’image Maudite (the Cursed Image) is an exhibition about nomadism. Philippe Vandenberg paints to resist. This act of resistance is one that carries the potential of safeguarding the artist from stagnation and immobility, artistically and conceptually. Resistance is not only the leitmotif of the painter; it is his attitude. Vandenberg continuously pushes his work to its most critical point, its ultimate deadline: the moment when the painting transcends and escapes the painter in order to fulfill its own potential. Metaphorically, the artist compares the act of painting with the kamikaze, and he obsessively scrawls L’important c’est le Kamikaze (The Important is the Kamikaze) on a series of large-scale canvasses. In one of his early writings the artist muses that There is no emergency exit. One can’t escape from his destiny. It is Philippe Vandenberg’s destiny to resist, revolt, curse, sacrifice and live the life of a painter in the margins.

“I am as free as I decide myself; as a painter I don’t have to justify myself nor do I have to consider other people.” Philippe Vandenberg, Painting as a challenge, 1984.

Philippe Vandenberg. born in Ghent (Belgium) in 1952, lives and works in Brussels (Belgium). His paintings and drawings were recently on view in The Visions Come exhibition at NADA in Miami and the traveling group shows Bad Moon Rising 1 at Silverman Gallery in San Francisco and Bad Moon Rising 2 at ISCP in New York. Le Point Zero, Vandenberg’s first solo exhibition in New York was hosted by the Orensanz Foundation | Center for the Arts in NYC. From April to August 2008, Philippe Vandenberg was the artist in residence at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. Vandenberg’s works were exhibited together with paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, James Ensor, Theodore Gericault and Karel Van de Woestijne, among others.

Jan Van Woensel is an independent curator based in New York and Los Angeles and Philippe Vandenberg’s agent in the USA. Philippe Vandenberg's website: www.philippevandenberg.be

LAST DAY OF MAGIC

2008-12-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

LAST DAY OF MAGIC

Artists: Virginia Arce, Amanda Charchian, Claire Cregan, Katrina Duesterhaus, Charlie Edmiston, Michaelvincent Garcia, Michelle Johnson, Elizabeth Mauceli, Kour Pour, Jonathan Stofenmacher, Carly Strauss

Curator: Jan Van Woensel

Bolsky Gallery
Otis College of Art and Design
9045 Lincoln Boulevard
90045 Los Angeles, CA

December 8th – 12th, 2008
Mon – Fr: 10am – 5pm

Opening: Monday December 8th, 6 – 8pm
Opening: Wednesday December 10th, 6 – 8pm

LAST DAY OF MAGIC is a project organized and curated by Jan Van Woensel in the framework of the Fall 2008 critic-in-residence class he teaches at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA.

LAST DAY OF MAGIC is an examination of illusion as well as disillusion that magic provides in culture: the search for the intangible; the revealing of deception, the removal of what’s obscuring. Magic changes the perception of reality. Magic is about surprise but also about secrets, lies and false beliefs. Each individually, the artists in the exhibition created a new artwork that interprets magic. The result is a multi sensory experience of artworks that touch upon themes as varied as entertainment, depression, belief, identity, addiction and the void.

More images will be posted online on the website of LAST DAY OF MAGIC

ONTHAASTING: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds

2008-11-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

ONTHAASTING: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds

Artists: Guillaume Bijl, Jacques Charlier, Cel Crabeels, De Brassers, Messieurs Delmotte, Gery De Smet and Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter

Curators: Jan Van Woensel and Niels Van Tomme

Onthaasting is a mental diversion through the use of recreation as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily life. It takes place on the outskirts of contemporary life: on mountaintops, in wide-open plains, in churches, in landscapes, in gardens... but most of all in the mind. The exhibition presents Belgian contemporary video artists within this conceptual framework.

1. Gallery Talk: Onthaasting; The Exhibition as a State of Mind
Date/Time: November 22, 2008, 5:00 PM
Location: AU Museum at the Katzen

Co-curator Niels Van Tomme will explain the concept of the exhibition Onthaasting: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds. Through wide-ranging references, Van Tomme plans to merge the national with the personal, the theoretical with the anecdotal.

2. Gallery Talk: Belgians on Holiday
Date/Time: December 20, 2008, 4:00 PM
Location: AU Museum at the Katzen

Jan Van Woensel, co-curator of the AU Museum exhibition Onthaasting: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds, explores the peculiar behavior of Belgians during their vacation at the beach. The lecture takes the 1996 surreal cult movie Camping Cosmos as a key example.

American University Museum
Katzen Art Center
4400 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20016-8031
USA

http://www.american.edu/cas/katzen/museum/index.cfm

JOSHUA TREE

2008-11-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

The High Desert Test Sites are a series of experimental art sites located along a stretch of desert communities including Pioneer town, Yucca Valley, Joshua tree, 29 Palms and Wonder Valley. These sites provide alternative space for experimental works by both emerging and established artists.

On November 7th, 8th and 9th, 2008, The High Desert Test Sites will host an expanded desert event in connection with the California Biennial.

Under the vision Lauri Firstenberg, curator of this year’s California Biennial, the exhibition has expanded beyond the scope of the museum to engage venues and sites from as far south as Tijuana, and as north as San Francisco. As a non-institution dedicated to the encouragement and support of art that "lives in the world" HDTS will host the following artists for a three day event.

HDTS CB08 is affiliated with the 2008 California Biennial, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art.

(In these pictures: artist Jeffrey Wells)

BARACK OBAMA

2008-11-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Chicago, Obama proclaimed that "change has come to America." Obama is the first U.S. President born outside the continental United States. President-elect Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Obama held his first press conference as president-elect on Friday 2008 November 07, in which he discussed the economy, Iran, the ongoing transition, and his search for a family dog.

SPACE WITHIN THESE LINES NOT DEDICATED - Opening Thursday October 30, 2008

2008-11-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

[Photo credit: Anthony Salamone]

Live improvisational performance by Leah Singer (projection) and Lee Ranaldo (sound)

SPACE WITHIN THESE LINES NOT DEDICATED

2008-11-01T09:02:00.001-07:00

[Photo Credit: Anthony Salamone]

SPACE WITHIN THESE LINES NOT DEDICATED

2008-10-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

[Photo Credit: Anthony Salamone]

Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo
Space Within These Lines Not Dedicated

Thursday, Oct. 30 through Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, at the Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College.

Opening on Thursday October 30th, 5 - 8PM
With a live, improvisational performance by the artists

Space Within These Lines Not Dedicated is an exhibition that explores the intersections and connections between things; sound and image, object and space, material and application, things fabricated, things found. Working individually and together, Singer and Ranaldo open a dialogue between themselves, where images and ideas contrast, compliment, re-occur, waver, juxtapose and contradict each other. Electric guitars hang in space; strobes flash against the light; quiet, still moments and loud moments that move loom cinematic; spoken word recordings alongside a variety of sounds from various sources build a fractured narrative. Their multifaceted works suggest that despite our collaged and contingent selves - and it is all we have - a voice can be found that reflects and refracts the very location and experience of living this fractured life adrift.

Leah Singer is an artist known equally for her self-published newspapers, film/video projects, and visual art. Leah’s signature silhouette drawings grew from a 1997 self-published, all-graphic newspaper called ‘copy’. This and subsequent editions have been included in various private and institutional collections including The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art.

Lee Ranaldo, co-founder of the experimental rock band Sonic Youth, is a writer, visual artist and musician. His visual art and sound works have been presented in galleries and museums worldwide. The visual art exhibition “Sonic Youth etc : Sensational Fix” recently opened at the second venue (October 10, 2008, Museion, Bolzano, Italy) of an extensive tour.

Jan Van Woensel, an independent curator, art critic and lecturer based in New York and Los Angeles served as curatorial advisor to Singer and Ranaldo in the conception of this show. He has previously curated exhibitions that have included works by Ranaldo and/or Singer in New York, Miami, St. Louis and Los Angeles.

Director HVCC Teaching Gallery: Tara Fracalossi
Curatorial Advisor Leah Singer & Lee Ranaldo: Jan Van Woensel
Press Contact: Jessica Shahda, (518) 629-7180, j.shahda@hvcc.edu
HVCC: http://www.hvcc.edu/teachinggallery

NEW ART FORUM -Studio Visits

2008-10-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

New Art Forum - Studio Visits
San Francisco, California

From: JESSICA@SILVERMAN-GALLERY.COM
http://www.silverman-gallery.com/

Dear all (please pass this on to those who may be interested),

Our second event of this season will be Saturday October 18th starting with a tour of Langton's current exhibition of Julio Cesar Morales "tomorrow is for those who can hear it coming", followed by visits with three Bay Area artists: Christina McPhee, Kamau Patton, and Brian Conley.

New Art Forum is for art enthusiasts and aspiring collectors. New Art Forum is a group for people who want to deepen their experience of contemporary art, to understand its driving issues and ideas, to uncover and champion its emerging artists and to create their own collections.

Some of the main interests of New Art Forum are:
•Discussions with artists, curators, collectors, and galleries
•Studio visits with emerging Bay Area artists
•Tours and walkthroughs of private collections
•Seasonal email highlights of events, and shows not to be missed
•Social networking with new and seasoned collectors, and others interested in contemporary art
•Tours of public exhibitions and collections, and travel to art destinations

Images top to bottom: 1. New Langton Arts 2. Christina McPhee (left) Maria del Carmen (right) 3. Queen's Nails 4. Kamau Patton (right) 5. Brian Conley (right, seated).

HOME SWEET HOME

2008-10-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco based curatorial collective NAIL focuses on experimenting with exhibition forms in a workshop setting. NAIL was founded by CCA's Curatorial Practice students as a part of the Professional Development class taught by Jan Van Woensel.

NAIL's inaugural project, HOME SWEET HOME, "takes over CCA's visiting artist apartment with objects culled from the homes of each of the 12 NAIL curators. Installed or enacted in the house, each intervention aims to transform the anonymous IKEA-furnished space into one full of activity and everyday objects that will come together haphazardly, much like the curators, each with their own agendas and ideas. This exhibition is focused on the process of pulling objects/actions together, learning about each other's affinities and interests. In sharp contrast to the idea of the 'invisible hand' of the curator, this project is wholly bound to the identities of the participants; their activity is the only 'art' to witness."

NAIL 1: HOME SWEET HOME
7PM, October 10th, 2008

Please check http://notalwaysinlocation.blogspot.com for more information and updates on the following NAIL projects

Metropolis Apocalypse - photos

2008-10-12T09:47:00.001-07:00

[Pictures by Lynn Maliszewski]

Metropolis Apocalypse

2008-09-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

Images top to bottom: flyer Metropolis Apocalyps--Tompkins Square Park, NYC--Johnny V--Chris Caggiano

In collaboration with Chris Caggiano and Jan Van Woensel, Johnny V organizes METROPOLIS APOCALYPSE at the Supreme in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Johnny V has been at the artistic and political forefront in New York City, most notably for his involvement in the underground Squatter/Punk movement. His ATTACK Art Show brought together these volatile elements and granted them voice, presenting works by artists who literally Assaulted the Senses.

METROPOLIS APOCALYPSE (L. E. S. Riot Era Artists 1988-2008) in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Riots. With recent input from Genesis P-Orridge ,is dedicated to the loving memory of LADY JAYE BREYER P-ORRIDGE.

METROPOLIS APOCALYPSE reflects the continuing struggle against gentrification spearheaded by a generation of artists and musicians on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

THE ARTISTS ARE:
Ron English/Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (of Psychic TV)/ Kevin FA-Q/Renna Zimmerman/ Thom Corn/ Dianne Bowen/ Dennis McNett/ Morrie Cramer/ Tony Wells/ Clayton Patterson/ Michael Roman/ Linus Coraggio/ Toyo Tsuchiya (Rivington School)/ Shalom Neuman/ Bob Barry/ John John Jesse (Nausea)/ Lauren Utter/ Victor Venom/ Bob Griffith/ Aaron Thompson (les nyc art)/ James Romberger/ Marguerite Van Cook/ Crosby Romberger/ Peter Missing/ Rupi Wegener/ Agni Zotis/ PondScum (Marvel Comics)/ Victor Poison Tete (Rat At Rat R)/ Paulo Pelosini/ Leah Tinari/ Greg Blaylock/ Chris Herbeck/ Robert Friedrich/ Chris Coffey/ Paula Rossi/ Ed Reicher (Fester)/ Glenn Cherney/ Ned Lindsay/ Dennis Yi/ Aaron Sinift/ Mac MacGill (WWIII Illustrated)/ FLY/ Eric Drooker/ Stephen Blickenstaff (Cramps cover artist Bad Music for Bad people)/ Dr. Zian Saxon/ Lawrence Van Abbema/ Pat Attack/ Tim McVicker/ Shawn McVicker/ Chris Caggiano (Iconicide)/ JohnnyV/ slUg/ John NIkolai/ Jason Ryan/ Toddi Distraughti/ Aurora Nocturnal/ Pat Moreta/ Robert Swanson/ Daryl LeVare/ John Czop (DC/ Marvel Comic Artist)/ Brett Kahler/ Jenniferocity/ M. Apparition/ Paul Garrin/ Julian (Snake Thrower)/ Jason Mitchell/ Brian Trash/ Eric Anderer/ Rob Ehrler/ Rupert Picott/ Stephen Ritterspoon/ Elena DeRosa/ Mo Browne/ Lori Lamson/ Martha McDonald/ Tony Santana/ Amy Toxic/ Loren Marks/ Jan Van Woensel & Katrina Duesterhaus/ Surreal Hazard/ Jen Allen/ Cedric Allen Hills/ Charles Lundergan/ Kirsten Flaherty/ Shanna Maurizi/ Anonymous (Street Artists)/ Plus More Special Guests to be announced...

For more information, please visit http://www.myspace.com/metropolisapocalypse08 (click title of this post to redirect)

BAD MOON RISING Special - photos

2008-09-17T11:28:00.001-07:00

BAD MOON RISING Special

2008-09-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

BAD MOON RISING special

Friday, September 12, 2008 - 7PM
curated by Jan Van Woensel

7PM: One-day Exhibition
8PM: Live Music Performance by Glass Ghost
(myspace.com/glass1ghost)

ISCP: International Studio & Curatorial Program
1040 Metropolitan Avenue, 2nd Fl.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.iscp-nyc.org

Vanessa Albury / Diana Artus (ISCP) / Richard Ashcroft / Elena Bajo (ISCP) / Kelie Bowman / Greggory Bradford / Olaf Breuning / Bettina Cohnen (ISCP) / Body Count / Emily Coxe / James De La Vega / Liam Everett / Lonnie Frisbee & David di Sabatino / Tony Garifalakis (ISCP) / Charlie Halsey / George Hennard / Annegret Hoch (ISCP) / Pamela Jue / Paulus Kapteyn / Richard Kern / David Matorin / Clayton Patterson / Job Piston / Luther Price / Lee Ranaldo / Max Razdow / Yoji Sakate / Jan Serych (ISCP) / Marie Snauwaert / Philippe Vandenberg

For the second ISCP Picture Parlor, the Bad Moon Rising special exhibition presents art that focuses on sociological and anthropological observations of contemporary life. The exhibition zooms in on individual and collective behavior influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics and authority. Bad Moon Rising special exposes examples of how the contemporary human navigates unstable environments and investigates emotions and states of being such as boredom, loneliness, isolation, escapism, fear, self-protection, anarchy, aggression, commitment, community, power, obedience and disobedience…

Curated by independent curator Jan Van Woensel, Bad Moon Rising is an ongoing project launched at Silverman Gallery, San Francisco in December 2007. Bad Moon Rising in San Francisco primarily focused on social, religious and political disturbance in the US. A varied selection of artworks, artifacts and a-historical references exposed some dark sides of the world’s self-proclaimed greatest nation. Participants included Rage Against the Machine, Tariq Ali, Claire Fontaine, Ben Vautier, Custer’s Revenge, The Weather Underground and others.

LOS ANGELES

2008-09-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

MONOCHROMATIC DINNER SERIES

2008-08-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

date: Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 9:18 AM
subject: Monochromatic dinner series...colour du jour: RED

"Hello,

We would like to invite you all to the premier of our monochromatic dinner series starting with the color RED.

The monochromatic dinner series is a series of dinner events that will strictly focus on one color and is inspired by Sophie Calle's chromatic diet. We ask the participants to contribute food in the chosen color and if possible also reflect the color in their outfit of the day. The colors will follow the colors of the rainbow song...starting with red and proceeding over... to yellow etc etc.. We will supply the main course and the Apperetif...

The dinner will take part next Tuesday August 5th at 8pm at our house on Dupont Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Please let us now if you will be able to attend and what you are planning on contributing towards the meal. Just respond to the entire list so that everybody knows what is already taken care off.

Best regards,

Courtenay Finn and Anna Gritz"

Attending: Jennifer Teets, Kimberlee Venable, Rachelle Cohen, Vanessa Albury, Jan Van Woensel, Courtenay Finn, Anna Gritz, Job Piston and many more.

Ox-Bow

2008-07-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Vanessa Albury finished a three weeks residence at Ox-Bow. She made a series of polaroid-studies capturing the light in her studio and experimented with film projections in the woods.

Ox-Bow, school of art and artists’ residency, has served as a haven for visual artists since 1910. Founded on the shores of Lake Michigan as an escape from the city, Ox-Bow’s campus encompasses 115-acres of pristine natural forests, dunes, a lagoon, and historic buildings. It is both defined and protected by the landscape that inspires the artists who live and work here.

ISCP: PICTURE PARLOR

2008-06-20T20:47:00.001-07:00

ISCP | International Studio & Curatorial Program
Picture Parlor - Video Art and Music

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 8PM

Kristine Siegel, ISCP's program director organized a curated evening of video art at their new location in the up-and-coming artists neighborhood called East Williamsburg or Bushwick, Brooklyn. The program features contemporary art by ISCP artists / curators and by artists living and working in New York.

'Little Emotions, Great Captains' is an exclusive selection of video art by internationally acclaimed artists. Loosely associated by an interest in the drama of everyday routines and incidents, these works race a diverse choreography of grand emotions and ordinary, yet ritualized gestures. Artists: Nanna Debois Buhl, Ann Garlson and Mary Ellen Strom, Sven Johne, Jesper Just, Ra di Martino, Guido van der Werve.

After the video screening, --SNAKE AND JETS AMAZING BULLIT BAND-- played as the first stop on their American tour. www.myspace.com/snakeandjet or www.snakeandjet.dk

ISCP is located at 1040 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 - Subway: L-Train to Grand Street, walk East on Grand a couple of blocks and follow the ISCP signs.

New web Journal on Curating

2008-06-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

Dorothee Richter in collaboration with Maren Brauner, Johanna Franco Bernet, Barnaby Drabble, Irene Grillo, Petra Haider, Damian Jurt, Christoph Kern, Wolf Schmelter, Thomas Zacharias launch a new journal on curating.

2:59 PM (3 hours ago)

"Dear Jan,

We started a web journal on curating, the first issue is out now, please see www.on-curating.org. The idea is to develop every issue with different project partners, we want to initiate a new kind of platform and discussion on topics around curating; curating seen as a way to engage... The different issues are supposed to offer a variety of formats, topics, and ways to (re) present them. My warmest regards, Dorothee"

----
www.curating.org
www.on-curating.org
www.curatingdegreezero.org

NO WAVE. POST - PUNK. UNDERGROUND. NEW YORK 1976 - 80.

2008-06-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Images: from top to bottom:
-Poster NO WAVE at KS Gallery and the Knitting Factory
-Jan Van Woensel and Vanessa Albury at the Knitting Factory
-Teenage Jesus and the Jerks starring Thurston Moore
-Teenage Jesus and the Jerks starring Thurston Moore
-The crowd at the opening of NO WAVE at KS Gallery

NO WAVE.
POST-PUNK.
UNDERGROUND NEW YORK.
1976-80.

organized by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley

June 13 - July 2, 2008

book party / opening reception Friday, June 13, 6 - 8pm

KS ART will present NO WAVE 1976-1980 an exhibition of photographs, paintings, sculptures and ephemera from that era. This show is organized in conjunction with the publication of NO WAVE. POST-PUNK. UNDERGROUND. NEW YORK 1976-1980. by THURSTON MOORE and BYRON COLEY for Abrams Books. Included in the exhibition are art works by James Nares, Nancy Arlen, Pat Place, Christine Hahn, Barbara Ess, Sumner Crane and photographs from the book by Julia Gorton, Robert Sietsma, Marcia Resnick, Stephanie Chernikowski, Godlis, Laura Levine, Lisa Genet, Bobby Grossman, and Hilary Jaeger.

This is the first book to visually chronicle the collision of art and punk in the New York underground of 1976 to 1980. This in-depth look at punk rock, new wave, experimental music, and the avant-garde art movement of the 70s and 80s focuses on the true architects No Wave from James Chance to Lydia Lunch to Glenn Branca, as well as the luminaries that intersected the scene, such as David Byrne, Debbie Harry, Brian Eno, Iggy Pop, and Richard Hell. This rarely documented scene was the creative stomping ground of young artists and filmmakers from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Jim Jarmusch, as well as the musical genesis for the post-punk explosions of Sonic Youth. It is here revealed for a new generation of fans and collectors. Thurston Moore and Byron Coley have selected 150 unforgettable images, most of which have never been published previously, and compiled hundreds of hours of personal interviews to create an oral history of the movement, providing a never-before-seen exploration and celebration of No Wave.

On Friday June 13th coinciding with this opening reception/ book party will be one-night-only reunion performances by Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (featuring Lydia Lunch, Jim Sclavunos and a surprise guest bass player) and the band Information at the Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street across the street from the gallery.

International Curators Program, New York

2008-05-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

(image: Jan Van Woensel at ISCP, New York.)

ICPA, the International Curators Program is coming back. Jan Van Woensel has recently lectured at ISCP and Location One about his ideas on curatorial programs today. He plans to launch a new program in the summer of 2009: a three months workshop that encourages interdisciplinary art practice and innovative exhibition models. Visiting lecturers to the program will include musicians, writers, philosophers, artists, activists, actors, scientists, and curators. Ten selected participants will work in group on a curated project in New York. Details on how and when to apply will be announced soon.

Stay tuned. Info will soon be available online, or email office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com

MU REVEALS PLANS TO OPEN SISTER SPACE IN NEW YORK

2008-04-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

For immediate Release: MU REVEALS PLANS TO OPEN SISTER SPACE IN NEW YORK. Jan Van Woensel reports, April 2008, New York.

MU is an innovative, cross-disciplinary art center located in a former Philips factory in Eindhoven, a municipality about 19 miles south from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The name MU is a derivation of the Japanese word 'MU', which stands for synergy; an added value that may evolve from a fusion of various elements (from the art world.) From 1998 to 2005 directed by Ton van Gool and currently under artistic leadership of Angelique Spaninks, MU is internationally known for its exploratory exhibitions that effortlessly wipe out the boundaries between high and low art. MU’s concept of fusion subtracts any form of hierarchy that might exist among artistic expressions such as painting, skateboarding, music video, fashion design, internet art, photography, advertisement, architecture, DJ, sculpture, magazine publishing, kinetic art etcetera.

To date, MU has established an impressive resume of group and solo exhibitions including the artworks of Mike Mills, Kim Gordon, Rita Ackermann, Spike Jonze, Susan Cianciolo, Jutta Koether, Geoff McFetridge, Chico MacMurtrie, Jocko Weyland, Aaron Rose, Mark Gonzales, René Daniels, Hannes Schmidt, Ari Markopoulos, Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, Swoon, Ephameron, Cosmic Wonder, Yoshitomo Nara, M/M, Barry McGee, Richard Prince, Experimental Jetset, and Neen.

In 2008, MU celebrates its tenth anniversary and reveals its preliminary plans to open a second space in the ever-vibrant New York. MU’s overseas sister space will be called MUSA: a fusion of the names MU and USA. These promising plans call for a further exploration of the unique mission of MU in an American context. What will MUSA add to New York’s already cross-disciplinary art scene?

To be continued (contact office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com for more information)

Le Point Zero: Philippe Vandenberg

2008-04-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Le Point Zero: Philippe Vandenberg

2008-03-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

Le Point Zero: Philippe Vandenberg
Curated by Jan Van Woensel

March 27th - April 4th, 2008, from 11am to 5pm

Armory Show VIP cocktail reception:
Friday, March 28th at 6pm (till 9pm)
With an audio-visual performance by Les Frères Zarakoff
(RSVP required: office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com)

Angel Orensanz Foundation | Center for the Arts
172 Norfolk Street (Between Stanton & E. Houston)
New York, NY 10002
www.orensanz.org

“The exhibition "Le Point Zero: Philippe Vandenberg" challenges the viewer to approach painting from a sensitive and personal point of view, as seen through the eyes of the painter who sometimes rises in glory and at other times fails and temporarily retreats. "Le Point Zero" attempts to elaborate on the a-sensational nature of painting, by exposing the zero degree in the artistic process: the void in which the painter finds himself after the painting has transcended, or when it fails to transcend.” (Jan Van Woensel, New York 2008)

“I am as free as I decide myself; as a painter I don’t have to justify myself nor do I have to consider other people.” (Philippe Vandenberg, Brussels 1984)

“The divided loyalties and doubled vision of this painter is perhaps related to Belgium, itself an amalgam of identities and a place where heritage and territory have nourished both fanaticism and a painting tradition that melds sensuous realism with spiritual devotion. Like the place he is from, Philippe Vandenberg’s paintings and the contrary space they inhabit offer no easy solutions, only anguish and the hope for transcendence.” (Susan Canning, New York 2008)

If you want to receive the full press release and images of the paintings on display, please email office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com

Satoru Eguchi

2008-03-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

In March and April 2008, New York based artist Satoru Eguchi is an artist in residency at Lokaal 01 in Antwerp, Belgium. Recently, Eguchi showed an impressive installation at the exhibition "Making a Home: Contemporary Japanese Artists in New York," that celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Japan Society in New York. Using cardboard, paint, and glue, he reproduced his former studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. An article about the exhibition was published at Whitehot Magazine:
http://whitehotmagazine.com/whitehot_articles.cfm?id=1023

Satoru Eguchi is working on his next full-scale installation at Lokaal 01. http://www.lokaal01.nl/actueel/index.php

Philippe Vandenberg

2008-02-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

Jan Van Woensel is currently in Brussels, Belgium, at the studio of Philippe Vandenberg for the selection of paintings. Le Point Zero, March 25th - April 1st, 2008, is the first solo exhibition of Philippe Vandenberg in New York after a short, succesful career back in the 1980's. The exhibition takes place at the Angel Orensanz Foundation | Center for the Arts at the Lower East Side (Norfolk, between Stanton and E.Houston,) and is organized in partnership with the Armory Show and the Belgian Consulate in New York.

More information will follow soon, or is available upon request at office.janvanwoensel@gmail.com (contact person Julia Knight, curatorial assistant.)

BAD MOON RISING

2008-01-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

BAD MOON RISING

Curated by Jan Van Woensel
Assistant Curator: Chuhee Kim

“America has created a unipolar world in which there is one master, one sovereign. This is pernicious, not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.” (Vladimir Putin, International Security Conference, Munich, 2007)

The group exhibition Bad Moon Rising exposes some of the dark sides of the world’s self-proclaimed greatest nation: the United States of America. The devout belief of the American leaders and their followers in that what is good for them is good for the rest of the world, brutally proves their ignorance and lack of understanding of other cultures, which inevitably instigates anger and distrust worldwide. Despite the many alarming signals of countries abroad, the USA continues to claim power and wisdom over the world for the sake of “the safety of our homes, families, and country.” Bad Moon Rising is a show about the Americans, for the Americans. Through a selection of artworks, artifacts and a-historical references, the USA is disturbingly portrayed, casting a dark shadow over its promised ideologies of freedom and prosperity. Intentionally, the exhibition is not an objective illustration of disturbing facts related to the United States politics, religion and society; moreover, the experience of Bad Moon Rising is upsetting and offensive.

Bad Moon Rising covers some of the most disturbing, sometimes deliberately forgotten aspects of USA’s society, religion and politics, and leaves no space for mercy. As an underlying statement, the exhibition excludes any significant reference to the past and current situation of ethnic minorities in the country. In this respect, Bad Moon Rising is a predominantly white exhibition stating that the white leaders, multinationals, both Republicans and Democrats, rednecks, and bible-thumbers cause most of the truly memorable blunders. God Bless America! [JVW]

Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
January 25th - February 27th, 2008

Vanessa Albury and Marthe Fortun, Tariq Ali, Mauro Ceolin, Custer’s Revenge, Claire Fontaine, Lonnie Frisbee and David di Sabatino, Simon Gush, George Hennard, Ragnar Kjartansson, Paulus Kapteyn, Luther Price, Rage Against the Machine, Yoji Sakate, The Weather Underground, Philippe Vandenberg, Ben Shaffer, Ben Vautier.

Off the record #2: experimental art platform, Shimbashi Station, Tokyo

2008-01-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

My friend Eric Van Hove organizes the second "Off the Record" project in Tokyo. ICPA participates:

Experimental art platform hijacking cellphone-run locker system, Shimbashi Station, Tokyo, Japan

Off the record is a punctual underground underway experimental art platform that takes place at various venues and subway stations in Tokyo. It hijacks the recently installed X-CUBE© locker system. Those lockers allow multiple users to exchange packages by using a touch screen and their cell phone numbers as digital-keys. The tactically curated Off the record exhibit simply substitutes the package with an artwork or installation.
Existing entirely in transitional public spaces, the show nevertheless remains hidden and visible solely within a private network: a person who has gained access to the work can only invite someone else to view it whose cell phone number they already have.

A chain reaction guest list:
The curator or the artist places the artwork, then invites the first person to the show by registering his cell phone number with the X-CUBE©, and calling him to confirm. In the following hours, the invited viewer arrives at the station, uses his cell phone to unlock the gallery space (the locker), and pays ¥100 to view the work. He then invites the next person by registering a new cell phone number and calling to confirm, and so on...
Think of a "Chinese whisper," a children's game in which a sentence is passed on from one player to the next, often with its meaning altered in transit.
Want to see a work? You need to find someone who's invited, and get him to invite you or go with him together to see it. There is no other way. This is a mean hi-tech mega-city: if you're rich, pop-up when you want...but if you're poor, be fast! It costs ¥100 every 3 hours.

For this second occurrence, invited curators included Clémentine Deliss (Metronome Press/Future Academy), Marjolijn Dijkman (Enough Room for Space), Pier Luigi Tazzi, Ouahiba Adjali (Arts en Liberté gallery), Svetlana Racanović, ICPA and Roger McDonald ([AIT] Arts Initiative Tokyo).

The Distance that Keeps You

2007-12-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Silverman Gallery is very pleased to present The Distance That Keeps You an exhibition of work by Vanessa Albury, Yoko Ono and Jas Ban Ader.

For her first solo exhibition in California, Albury selects photographs, videos, installations and sculptural objects themed around emotional and physical distance. Embodied in the works displayed, the artist’s personal experiences of remoteness from family, ex–partners, and the self are presented in a universal concept of the intrinsically difficult nature in dealing with loss, release, and trauma. The Distance that Keeps You is a dark, intimate, and poetic exhibition about the psychological effects of creating, opposing, and accepting boundaries between people. [JVW]

The Distance That Keeps You, Vanessa Albury with Yoko Ono and Bas Jan Ader will be on view December 19, 2007 until January 20, 2008. Opening reception: Tuesday December 18, 2007 7-10pm.

THE VISIONS COME at NADA Art Fair, Miami, Florida

2007-12-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday December 4th, 2007, the NADA Art Fair opens. The Visions Come shows works by Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, and Philippe Vandenberg. Come to say hi to the curator, Jan Van Woensel, and Noah Becker, the Whitehot Magazine editor.

Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Jan Van Woensel, Philippe Vandenberg

2007-11-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

On Thursday November 27th, Philippe Vandenberg, who visited New York for a week, met with Leah Singer and Lee Ranaldo. Jan Van Woensel curates an exhibition with works by Leah, Lee and Philippe at NADA Art Fair in Miami, Florida, from December 5th till 9th. The tittle of the show is THE VISIONS COME.

Left to right: Lee Ranaldo, Leah Singer, Jan Van Woensel, Philippe Vandenberg (photo by Guillaume Vandenberghe)

NADA: New Art Dealers Alliance at Art Basel | Miami Beach

2007-10-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

From Dec 5th to 9th, Jan Van Woensel curates an exhibition with artworks by Philippe Vandenberg, Leah Singer, and Lee Ranaldo. The exhibition will feature one new work per artist per day of the art fair.

A Miami photo report will be added to this blog after the show.

Images (from top)
Leah Singer, Philippe Vandenberg, Lee Ranaldo

WHITEHOT MAGAZINE FESTIVAL: Curated by Jan Van Woensel & Tracy Candido

2007-08-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

_______________________________________________________

FROM CYBER SPACE TO STREET SCENE: WHITEHOT MAGAZINE OF CONTEMPORARY ART
_______________________________________________________

Noah Becker's
WHITEHOT MAGAZINE FESTIVAL Curated by Jan Van Woensel & Tracy Candido

Press Release:

Print media is fast losing ground to up-to-the-second information on the web and art magazines are no exception. Web based Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art first came on line in March and was embraced by a growing international community of artists who sought immediacy for art news, reviews and informal dialogue.

Whitehot has attracted international writers, artists, curators and college professors as contributors to review art and interview artists and is hailed as one of the largest existing art communities covering art from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Zurich, and Tokyo.

WHAT: After five successful months the monthly cyber mag is leaping out of the click-n-scroll world to New York City's lower east side art scene. Celebrating with live music performances, cinema and an office on wheels, the event is tapped as the Whitehot Magazine Festival, a three-days event coinciding with the season's opening of many art galleries. Seven contemporary art galleries are participating in the festival which will also include live interviews with artists, live music, film, and printouts of selective editions of the magazine.

WHEN & WHERE? Thursday, September 6 to Saturday September 8, 2007.

Whitehot Trucks will be in two different locations on the Lower East Side in New York: The corner of Eldridge and Stanton, and in front of Envoy, 131 Chrystie St.

WHO: Whitehot staff will be interviewing the following artists:
Paul Laster, Carlo McCormick, Brent Green, Dana Schutz, Chico, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Jim Powers, Noah Becker and Jan Van Woensel, Robert C. Morgan.

Galleries that are involved are: Smith-Stewart, Envoy, Thierry Goldberg, Little Cakes, Sunday, Rivington Arms, 31 Grand.

Music bands that are performing live and all acoustic are: The Quavers, Brent Green, Huff This!, Forest Fire, Noah Becker Jazz Ensemble & Guests, Cassanova Brown.

Whitehot Magazine Festival partners are: ArtKrush, Flavorpil, Club Midway, Bushwick Film Festival, The Cascade High-school – Center for Multimedia and Communications.

MORE TEXT:

WHITEHOT Magazine Festival intends to bring people together in an atmosphere of art, music, cinema, and travel. It also provides an experience that follows the beginning of a new exciting art season in New York City. The Festival is loosely themed around concepts of migration, networks and the Internet. The Festival incites a creative meeting point for the Lower East Side community, musicians, art writers, artists, curators, tourists, and passers-by.

Three 10ft Whitehot Magazine trucks will be parked in close proximity of Envoy Gallery, and Amy Smith-Stewart Gallery. The WHITEHOT MAGAZINE OFFICE TRUCK will not only serve the purpose of a temporary office, but will be converted into a reading and interviewing space. The WHITEHOT MAGAZINE CINEMA TRUCK will showcase a curated selection of short art films and experimental videos selected from the Bushwick Film Festival. The WHITEHOT CONCERT TRUCK provides a live and acoustic musical program with up-and-coming bands from the USA and abroad.

The three days event is made possible by: Noah Becker (founder and editor-in-chief,) Jan Van Woensel (curator,) and Tracy Candido (assistant curator,) Kate Strassman, Greggory Bradford, Abby Luby, Joe Heaps Nelson (Whitehot Magazine writers,) Meghann Snow (Designer,) Tricia Owlett (Curatorial Intern,) and many volunteers.

2007-07-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Le Point Zero: Philippe Vandenberg

2007-06-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

In March of 2008, Jan Van Woensel curates and organizes the first major solo exhibition of Belgian painter Philippe Vandenberg in New York. Currently, collaborations with Armory Show VIP Program, the Belgian Consulate and Angel Orensanz Foundation | Center for the Arts, are being finalized.

Here you see some images of the exhibition location in Lower Manhattan. For more information, contact Jan Van Woensel at studio.vandenberg@gmail.com

Henchmen Sind Menschen, Brooklyn, NY

2007-06-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Billy Tran organized an exhibition with works by recently graduated students of NYU and SVA. I curated the exhibition on Sunday morning, opening on Sunday evening. Here are some images of the event.

Henchmen Sind Menschen: an exploratory exhibition into the world of henchmen, sidekicks and disposable people. At Secret Project Robot, 210 Kent Ave, from June 10 - June 16.

Doron Polak in New York

2007-05-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Doron Polak, my good friend, colleague curator and godfather of the MARKERS project, came to New York for a 4 days visit. Doron is currently working on MARKERS VI, an experimental art camp that he will install at Venice Biennale, and Documenta in Kassel.
I curate a film program for Doron and MARKERS VI, titled: Temporary Behavior. The program shows films by Michiel Alberts, Cel Crabeels, Stefaan Dheedene, Simon Gush, and Matthias Wermke.

Doron Polak lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel.

'Experimental Curating' Course at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, NY

2007-03-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

'Experimental Curating' course at 3rd Ward Brooklyn, NY, by Jan Van Woensel

The exhibition is a work of art (Harald Szeemann)

The independent curator is a multifunctional intermediary, working with the ambition to successfully complete his master plan: the exhibition. The course spotlights the elaborate artistic working methodologies of the independent art curator, traveling internationally and working in close collaboration with artists in different challenging environments. 3rd Ward’s new course ‘Experimental Curating’ shows how the process of exhibition making is one that requires the skills of working with diverse people ranging from artists to technical assistants to financial investors to press and the audience. ‘Experimental Curating’ explains how the various layers of artistic and intellectual labor involved in curatorial practice are similar to the skills of art practice.

The course will specifically explore non-traditional ways of exhibition making through a primarily practice-based learning experience. ‘Experimental Curating’ encourages the participants to work both in a group, as well as, individually on different aspects of curation: the conceptual development of an art project, visiting artists’ studios, working on the presentation of a concrete exhibition plan, and the completion of a curated group exhibition at the gallery space of 3rd Ward to take place in July 2007.

Instructor: Jan Van Woensel

Course includes:
1. Curation: Introduction and important figures
2. Experimental Art Projects, from Tokyo to New York
3. Guest speakers: Niels Van Tomme (Antwerp/Washington DC), Jessica Silverman (San Francisco), and Sofia Hernandez (New York)
4. Studio Visits at NYU, ISCP, and Location One in Manhattan
5. The exhibition, curated by the ‘Experimental Curating’ class at 3rd Ward Gallery

For more information, email Jan Van Woensel at janvanwoensel@gmail.com

www.3rdwardbrooklyn.org
http://www.myspace.com/3rdwardbrooklyn
http://icpabackstage.blogspot.com
www.icpa.be

Niels Van Tomme curates the 1st Multimediale in Washington DC

2007-03-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 22, 2007

MULTIMEDIALE
CAPTURING THE CAPITAL!
MULTIMEDIALE TO ACTIVATE ART, POLITICS & NEW MEDIA IN WASHINGTON, DC

April 19 – 22, 2007

http://www.multimedialedc.org

Washington, DC—We are pleased to announce MULTIMEDIALE, a four-day multimedia arts festival, Thursday April 19 through Sunday, April 22, centered around the theme Capturing the Capital! MULTIMEDIALE is presented by Provisions Library in association with the American University Art Department & the George Washington University Department of Fine Arts & Art History. Visit our Web site at multimedialedc.org for news and dialogue. MULTIMEDIALE is co-organized by artist Randall Packer & curator Niels Van Tomme. All events are free and open to the public.

Multimediale brings together new media artists from the Washington, DC area including: John James Anderson, Ben Azarra, Mark Cooley, Edgar Endress, Alberto Gaitán, Jeff Gates, Brian Judy, Bryan Leister, Rebecca Mills, Randall Packer, Siobhan Rigg, and Fereshteh Toosi.

A summary of artistic actions include: Assume the identity of your congressman... participatory citizens audioblog… pray at America's Grave, a burial site for the nation... a teacart interrogation of government's involvement in military conflicts... a forensic striptease that collects false remembrances of political events... performance protests in front of surveillance cameras... and much more!

Niels Van Tomme explains: “Washington is THE stage for world politics, so what about the art scene? Multimediale seeks to energize political art in Washington, a critical forum for reflecting on the political environment, offering radical conceptual frames for social and political change.”

For additional information, contact: info@multimedialedc.org or 202-299-0460
Contact: Niels Van Tomme: 202-445-3108, info@multimedialedc.org

Francis Alÿs at David Zwirner Gallery

2007-03-10T12:26:00.000-08:00

SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POETIC CAN BECOME POLITICAL, AND SOMETIMES DOING SOMETHING POLITICAL CAN BECOME POETIC

Francis Alÿs at David Zwirner Gallery

“During the months from December 1947 through June 1948, there was heavy fighting in Jerusalem and its immediate vicinity. The city was divided in two by the front lines, (…). The statutory basis on which the partition of Jerusalem rested was the cease-fire agreement signed on November 30, 1948 between Moshe Dayan, ‘commander of all the Israeli forces in the Jerusalem region’, and Abdullah al-Tal, ‘representing the Arab Legion and all the other forces in the Jerusalem area’. The lines were sketched on a Mandatory 1:20,000 scale map. Moshe Dayan drew the Israeli line with a green grease pencil, while Abdullah al-Tal marked his front line with a red one. The grease pencils made lines 3 to 4 millimeters wide. Sketched on this map, such lines in reality represented strips of land 60 to 80 meters width. Who owned the ‘width of the line’?”

White Hot Magazine

2007-03-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

Noah Becker (photo) launched a new online magazine on contemporary art, and Jan Van Woensel is one of the contributing writers. Go Go Go Check it Out at http://www.whitehotmagazine.com

Info on ICP/A is still available at www.icpa.be

PRIMAL SCREAM by Vanessa Albury & Marthe Fortun

2007-03-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

(Union Square NYC)

On Feb 28th, 2007, artists Vanessa Albury and Marthe Fortun performed a scream at several public places in New York City. Jan Van Woensel wrote the press release for their intervention.

PRIMAL SCREAM by Vanessa Albury & Marthe Fortun

New York, March 1st, 2007

Event: Emerging artists Vanessa Albury & Marthe Fortun screamed from the gut in three New York City locations: City Hall Park, Central Park Southeast, and Union Square Park, between 11:30 A.M. and 1:30 P.M. EST, February 28, 2007. They were impeccably dressed and carried mini-camcorders.

For immediate release

In his book entitled ‘The New Primal Scream: Primal Therapy 20 Years on’, dated 1992, author and psychotherapist Arthur Janov explains how people would find their real needs and feelings in the process of experiencing all their ‘pain’. One of the fundamental principles of Primal Therapy remains that therapeutic progress can only be made through direct emotional experience, which allows access to the source of psychological pains. In 1970, John Lennon produced his most raw, emotional album ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’, featuring a number of songs that were directly inspired by his experience in Primal Therapy.

Yesterday, on Feb 28th, 2007, artists Vanessa Albury and Marthe Fortun caused uproar to several randomly selected public spaces in the city of New York, by performing a single loud scream. As an attempt to detach the scream from its current aesthetic values since the punk and grunge movements, they reestablished its primal meaning and rawness through a public confrontation without any reference or context given beforehand. Set in a contemporary environment that equally suffers from anxiety and alienation, in some way, the intervention by Albury and Fortun can be called an act of ‘de-muting’ Edward Munch’s 1893 painting ‘Scream’. In New York City, basic human feelings such as safety and prosperity can be said being kept alive artificially ever since the spectacular disaster of 9/11. Yet, irreversibly, paranoia is omnipresent.

‘Primal Scream’ by Vanessa Albury and Marthe Fortun disturbed the local environment effectively, while at the same time it remained having a limited impact dependant on the span and duration of each scream. The intervention is in its purest form, a personalized primal revolt against social and emotional pressure in a high-tech and on commerce-focused city. At the same time, ‘Primal Scream’ is a radical act trespassing norms of social behavior that is subsequently reminiscent to contemporary strategies of terrorist attacks.

In order to preserve the original impact and unexpectedness of Albury and Fortun’s project, this press release is distributed one day after the actual event of ‘Primal Scream’. With the distribution of this text, the intervention is now appropriated by, and legitimized as belonging to the discourse of contemporary art.

(Jan Van Woensel)

For more information, contact Vanessa Albury at vanessa@vanessaalbury.com and Marthe Fortun at martheramm@gmail.com

VIP Cocktail Party, Armory Show, New York

2007-02-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

On Sunday Feb 25th, ICP/A went to a neat cocktail party that was organized to honor Kathelijne De Backer 10th year of directorship of the Armory Show. The gathering was organized at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, West from Central Park. Niels is writing a review on the Armory, Pulse, Scope and LA Art Fair for hART Magazine (Belgium). We discussed the fairs and came up with some general improvements. Many new ideas that we hope to realize next year!

I find the Armory ok. The book shop designed by Vito's 'Acconci Studio' was pretty, and we can be proud of Frank Demaegd's Zeno X Gallery booth which was one of the best at the fair. According to Niels, Annie Gentil's presentation at Scope fair was the best, displaying works by Kati Heck, Wesley Meuris and Kris Vleeschouwer. Antwerp, still our home town, was well represented at the NY art fair.

Backstage, where a lot more is happening

2007-02-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome at the ICP/A BACKSTAGE blog where the three active members of the International Curator's Program will publish photographs, texts and random activities. Backstage, we work as curators ourselves, write for magazines, meet artists, work at Universities and travel through time and space.

Check out Niels Van Tomme's current Washington DC based project themed around the topic of Art and Politics at:
http://www.multimedialedc.org/

More is coming soon!