Talk
08.01.16
1.
Asger Jorn – Thinking in Threes’, introduction into the
thinking/writing of the Danish experimental artist Asger Jorn by
Hilde de Bruijn.
2.
Alfred Jarry and Asger Jorn: The Epicurean Influence as Social
“Swerve” by Kostis Velonis
3.
What Asger Jorn help me [un]learn.” Theses concerning the movements
and modes of the artist in the symmetrified world of economics by
Yannis Isidorou
Asger
Jorn – Thinking in Threes’, introduction into the
thinking/writing of the Danish experimental artist Asger Jorn by
Hilde de Bruijn.
The
lecture starts out with a description of some of his work. This part
of the presentation serves to both contextualize Jorn in his own time
frame, and to introduce many of the key elements in his way of
thinking as his artistic output was always developed in direct
dialogue with his theoretical point of view. In the second part of
the lecture I will discuss the triolectic thinking method that Jorn
developed.
Hilde
de Bruijn is a curator in contemporary and modern art based in
Amsterdam. She studied Art History at the Radboud University,
Nijmegen, and took the Curatorial Training Programme at De Appel,
Amsterdam (2000/2001). She was Head of Exhibitions of former SMART
Projects Space, Amsterdam (2007-2010). She is currently a curator at
the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen (NL) where she creates
dialogues between the museum’ collection and contemporary
art(ists).
As
a freelance curator her main activity a curatorial research into the
writings of the Danish artist and thinker Asger Jorn together with
contemporary artists and art historians. The research is reflected in
the blog www.hildegoesasger.org.
Within this framework public events took place at various venues Or
Gallery, Berlin (2015); The Statens Museum, Copenhagen (2014); Nieuwe
Vide, Haarlem (2014); Officin – Books, Papers and Prints,
Copenhagen (2014); Casco, Office for Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht
(2014); AGORA, 4th Athens Biennial (2013).
Recent
publications: ‘Cobra and the Contemporary’, in: CoBrA. Una grande
avanguardia europea (1948-1951), Skira Edditore, Rome, 2015; ‘Asger
Jorn: The Secret of Art, in: Bocchicchio Luca and Valenti Paola
(eds), Asger Jorn. Oltre la forma, Genova University Press, 2015;
‘From a Calculated Forgetting to the Reality of the Archive’ in:
Tsivopoulos, Stefanos and De Bruijn, Hilde (eds), Stefanos
Tsivopoulos: ARCHIVE CRISIS, Shaking up the Shelves of History: A
Visual Essay on Media Images from the Recent Political Past of
Greece, Jap Sam Books, 2015.
Alfred
Jarry and Asger Jorn: The Epicurean Influence as Social “Swerve”
by Kostis Velonis
I
am trying to answer the question whether the swerve (κλιναμεν)
in the way that Lucretius defines it, involving the deviation of
atoms in the field of physics, contributes to a theory of free will.
If so, it can be operated by implication to the terms of a theatrical
(Alfred Jarry) and pictorial avant garde (Asger Jorn), and even
through clear morphological facts?
Μovements
that deviate from their expected precise recurrence, thus defining
what we call contingency, constitute Alfred Jarry’s way of
philosophizing, through Dr. Faustroll, as well as his nihilistic
caricaturizing, through the cowardly and greedy King Ubu.
Respectively, Asger Jorn’s commitment to ‘primitivism’ and also
his theoretical contribution to the practice of arabesque seeks
answers beyond the “experimental” context of his Zeitgeist. Both
of them, through the parody of physics (pataphysics) make use of the
deviant course (declinatio) which is the structural substance of
freedom.
Kostis
Velonis lives and works in Athens. He holds an MRes in Humanities and
Cultural Studies from London Consortium (Birkbeck College, ICA, AA,
Tate). He studied Arts Plastiques/ Esthétiques at Université Paris
8 (D.E.A). He earned his PhD from the Department of Architecture,
N.T.U.A University of Athens. He taught on the subject of domesticity
in relation to the avant garde movements as a Lecturer at the School
of Architecture of the University of Thessaly (2008-2011).
Selected
solo/group shows include (2015-2014): 2015: “Mount the Air”,
Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, “This probably will not work”,
Lothringer 13-Städtische Kunsthalle München, Μunich; “Super
superstudio”, PAC, Milan; “Adventures of the Black Square:
Abstract Art and Society 1915 –2015”, Whitechapel Gallery,
London; “Au nom de le Corbusier”, Maison Spiteris, Athens, “Rims
and Frontiers” Delphi Archaeological Museum, 2014: “ The Theater
of the World”, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; “This is Not My
Beautiful House”, Kunsthalle Athena, “No Country for Young Men”,
BOZAR, Brussels; “Direct Democracy” , MUMA, Melbourne , “The
Future Lies Behind Us”, AD Gallery, Athens, “Tout Feu Tout
Flamme”, Lefebvre & Fils, Paris
Forthcoming
solo show: Casa Maauad, Mexico City, Mexico, 2016 (artist in
residence).
What
Asger Jorn help me [un]learn.” Theses concerning the movements and
modes of the artist in the symmetrified world of economics by Yannis
Isidorou
Yiannis
Isidorou was born in Piraeus and he lives and works in Athens. In
most of his work and practices as an artist, he is seeking a coherent
commentary on the human potential for interpreting the world, and at
the same time a critical investigation on the utopia for the world’s
change, and the consequent dystopian realizations of these changes.
He
is co-founder and editor of the Greek e-magazine happyfew.gr /
danger.few, on politics, philosophy and art. Ηe was a founding
member of intothepill, an artists’ collective with diverse
activities and participations in international art projects and
exhibitions. Since 2009 he works with artist Yiannis Grigoriadis
through Salon de Vortex, an artistic co-operation for experiments and
affiliations between artists, writers, theorists, technicians,
workers, scientists and anyone else who can contribute to a thorough
research on democracy, dominance and decay in the late capitalist
European society. Since 2013 he is the artistic director of [ΦΡΜΚ],
the biannual journal in print, on poetry poetics and visual arts.
Supported
by DAAD Programme: Partnerships with Greek Institutions of Higher
Education 2014 – 2016 / A Cooperation between the Academy of Fine
Art Munich (ADBK) and the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA)
One
day of lectures and Q&A in the framework of HILDE GOES AGER, a
curatorial research into the thinking and writing of the experimental
artist Asger Jorn (1914-1973).
