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2013 Visible Award: Open Call for Proposals

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With a renewed advisory board composed of 18 curators and artists (98 weeks, Alessio Antoniolli, Zoe Butt, Heman Chong, Chto Delat?, Cosmin Costinas, Galit Eilat, Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Christine Eyene, Eungie Joo, Miguel Lopez, Sofia Olascoaga, Joseph Del Pesco, Raqs Media Collective, Bisi Silva, Pelin Tan, Claire Tancons, and Pauline J. Yao), the Visible prize comes to its second edition, and takes a step further in its aim to research, support and offer a discursive and productive platform to innovative artistic projects that are able to become visible also in fields other than the artistic one. The award not only takes up the discussions about the development of art in a responsible relationship with the complexities of social change, but it also offers artists real opportunities to produce, and thus the possibility to experiment and work on new visions that can have a significant impact on the shared imaginary and on reality itself.

For the first time, we are having a call for proposals, open until June 20 (UTC+1), to let artists and collectives submit projects, from which a selection will join the proposals nominated by the advisory board and will be published on our website. Ten shortlisted proposals will then be publicly discussed by a prestigious international jury chaired by Charles Esche (recently appointed 2014 São Paulo Bienal curator), and composed by a group of intellectuals operating in different fields of culture, that will gather next December at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, in order to assess the artistic projects and select the winner of the 2013 Visible Award.

2013 visible award – Description
2013 visible award – Entry Form

Postcards from the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali

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Last Saturday the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali has officially closed: memorable performances in the public spaces of Cali, the first public outcomes of the “Travelling School of Knowledge and Social Practice”, and the hectic performance marathon on the last days where the unofficial, spontaneous, performances were almost more than the ones on the program. These some of the highlights, together with the incredible series of lectures around the Cali artistic scene of the 60s and 70s, and two exhibitions that extended the format of the festival to other audiences and spaces.

We’ll be giving you a full report on the festival and its performances after the San Francisco event, where the spirit of the Cali Festival will be re-enacted in the Bay area, thanks to a collaboration with Kadist Art Foundation and the SFMOMA.
In the meanwhile please enjoy this selection of images from the five days of Festival, where to get a glimpse of the atmosphere that Helena Producciones offered the people of Cali last week.

 

The Festival is about to start

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Roberto Unterladstaetter, Minorias, 2009 (part of the exhibition "Accionar Bolivia. Una mirada al performance boliviano", curated by Maria Schneider, and presented at the Alianza Colombo Francesa de Cali.

Here in Cali everything is almost ready. On this very day the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali starts, the latest project by Helena Producciones, recipient of the 2011 Visible Award. Two main exhibitions, eleven conferences and panels, and obviously over fourty official performances, interventions and actions happening in the time span of five hectic days, when 24 artists from Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Equador, England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain and Venezuela, will take to the streets, the squares, and the art spaces of the third largest city of Colombia.

Arnulfo Medina Carreño, Manualidades Éticas. Colombia, 2012

The spirit of the festival hasn’t changed over the years: five artists from Cali, busy with their own individual careers decided 14 years ago to open a call for actions and performative gestures that emphasize visual commentaries on urgent social issues. It started as a small local event and at its 8th edition it has become one of the most important events to date about the state of performing art in the geo-political context of South America. Through the festival Cali is transformed from the capital of salsa to the capital of performance art, opening up a space for dialogue among artists living and operating in similar contexts, where the festival is read as a platform for mutual exchange and empowerment.

Julian Mateo Gomez Diaz, Politesis impresa. Colombia, 2012

A leading topic of this edition of the Festival, is to be recognized in the wish to establish new connections with the recent past of Colombia and its neglected artistic protagonists. A highlight is the retrospective exhibition on the work of Luis Angel Rengifo, titled La paradoja del realismo social al expresionismo comprometido, curated by Julian Dupont. The exhibition essay reads: “Luis Angel Rengifo accounts for the living testimonies of a society in conflict through his work, revealing those places and social groups (workers, peasants) that usually remain invisible. With Alipio Jaramillo, Carlos Correa, Hanne Gallo and later Augusto Rendón, Humberto Giangrandi, and Pedro Alcántara Herrán, Rengifo developed a new method of political aesthetics and representation. This curatorial project exhibits both his graphic productions in relation to personal items (a diary, bags and brushes, 16 mm film shot by the artist during his travels, and also landscape sketches).” Some works on show are being exhibited for the first time in thirty years due to family restrictions on the public showing of his works.

Luis Angel Rengifo, Piel al sol, engraving, 1964

Parallel to that an amazing group of keynotes speakers will offer a theoretical backbone to the whole festival, addressing the legacy of the Colombian avant-garde theater from the 60s and 70s, retracing the origins of the festival as a receptacle where political issues and artistic practices could find a dialogical space. Among them: Patricia Ariza, poet and theater actress, founder of the Casa de la Cultura, today Teatro La Candelaria, with Santiago García; Juliana Díaz, independent researcher and curator, that will speak about the Festivales de Arte de Vanguardia Nadaista de Cali (in her research she gives special attention to the Festival in 1966, a politicized event because of the death of Camilo Torres); Adriana Mejía, independent researcher and curator, is adressing the phenomenon of El Nuevo Teatro (The New Theater) in the sixties and about some specific places: El Teatro Experimental de Cali and the Teatro La Candelaria de Bogotá. María Fernanda Arias, researcher, professor and cultural worker, will present her PhD dissertation about film and cinemas in Cali during the sixties from the point of view of the audience, including in her analysis the cinema-clubs of the workers unions. Finally, María Sol Barón Pino is going to talk about the history and work of El Taller 4 Rojo and Taller Causa Roja; she will also present her research about Clemencia Lucena, an artist who worked for the Movimiento Obrero Independiente Revolucionario (Revolutionary Independent Labour Movement).

Helena Producciones, Paro de la justicia en Cali. Plaza de Caicedo, 2012

The festival features many other things that we will be reporting to you on this very blog in the coming days, with daily updates to be followed on our Facebook page and our Twitter profile. Please keep an eye on these pages in these upcoming days and don’t forget that, thanks to the Prince Claus Fund, the whole Festival will be live streamed on the Helena Producciones’ website.
See you in the streets of Cali!

The selected artists for the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali

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7th Festival: El Camión, 2008

7th Festival: El Camión, 2008

After an intense jury session that kept Helena Producciones - recipient of the first visible award – and the festival adjunct curators Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander, busy in choosing among some 300 applications received from all over the world, the Colombian collective has released the final list, featuring the 23 projects that made it to the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali. The open call attracted proposals from the whole of South America, and triggered the participation of artists from Europe and the United States, confirming the international interest that the Festival has obtained over its 15 years of existence. After a break of four years, a new edition is being put together, thanks to the production award received from visible, that acknowledges the value of such a collective and multifaceted project that the Festival is.

5th Festival: Santiago Sierra, 1 Lona Suspendida de la Fachada de un Edificio, 2002

5th Festival: Santiago Sierra, 1 Lona Suspendida de la Fachada de un Edificio, 2002

The Festival, that will take place from the 20th to the 24th of November, will support the production of the selected performances, as well as activating a series of other projects, that include commissioned performances, solo and group exhibitions, workshops, panel discussions, concerts, a travelling school and much more. A new press release revealing the program of the festival in more detail, will be soon released, announcing all the other names of the participants and the contents of the other activities.

7th Festival: Phil Collins, El Mundo No Escuchara, 2008

7th Festival: Phil Collins, El Mundo No Escuchara, 2008

During the several editions of the festival, many artists have had the chance to produce incredible performative pieces, that later circulated in biennials and other prestigious art venues. Artists such as Phil Collins, Santiago Sierra or Federico Guzmán, to name a few, have made their appearance on the list of participating artists in the past, and we’re now happy to announce the initial list that will compose the program of the 8th Festival de Performance de Cali:

  1. Ana María Rosero, Arley Candamil – Anyna, and Jiacomo Turrack, La Danza del Vicio Horror y Éxtasis. Colombia
  2. Andres Matute Echeverri and Liliana Vélez Jaramillo, Matrimonio. Colombia
  3. Arnulfo Medina Carreño, Manualidades Éticas. Colombia
  4. Claudia Claremi and Christian Fernández Mirón, Contra fortuna no vale arte. Spain
  5. Colectivo Sonido/Vision (Francisco Javier Lozada Méndez, Jorge Hernán Rosero Marín, Eduardo Garcés),Convulxion en las Calles. Colombia
  6. Colectivo Zunga (Karla Moreno, Ana Maria Villate, Lorena Morris, Maria Natalia Avila), A lo hecho pecho. Colombia
  7. Elkin Calderon and Johanna Marín, Un ratico “Kiss Me Motel / Performance Room”, Colombia.
  8. Ericka Florez, El Blanco Móvil. Colombia
  9. Esther Planas, Escuela de Calor. Spain/England
  10. Joaquin Luzoro, Clásico Vallecaucano. Chile/Germany
  11. Alvaro Herrera, Como un Rayo #3. Colombia
  12. Société Réaliste (Ferenc Gróf, Jean-Baptiste Naudy), Universal Anthem. France
  13. Antropotronica (Juan Melo, Jorge Barrero de Precarius Tecnologicus, Marcel Narvaez de Casamata), Kundur. Colombia
  14. Juanpablo Ordoñez V., Déjà Vu. Ecuador
  15. Julian Mateo Gomez Diaz, Politesis impresa. Colombia
  16. Miguel Kuan Bahamón, Los Chirris Chirrean. Colombia
  17. Julio N. Giraldo Diaz, Flirt Manifiesto. Colombia
  18. Luis Mondragón, Oasis (Untitled Event). Colombia
  19. Luisa Ungar, Alberto Baraya and Jonathan Hernández, Visita el Zoológico con visita guiada y selección musical aviaria. Colombia/Mexico
  20. María O. Schneider Canedo, Accionar Bolivia. Una mirada al performance boliviano. Bolivia
  21. Glenda Torrado Rodríguez and Matilde Helena Guerrero Gutiérrez de Piñeres, Coqueta. Colombia
  22. Renan Araujo, Técnicas de Desaparecimiento. Brazil
  23. Reinel Aicardo Arango Muñoz, Sin-sentido. Colombia
3rd Festival: Giovanni Vargas, Puntos de Contacto, 1999

3rd Festival: Giovanni Vargas, Puntos de Contacto, 1999

Save the date and keep on checking our blog and facebook page to receive previews of the new exciting festival de performance de Cali by Helena Producciones.

Mlu Zondi and NON NON Collective interviews

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The last two interviews that we are posting are: Mlu Zondi and NON NON collective, represented by Donna Kukama. The former is featured among the artistic practices that appear in the visible book, the latter is a collective that was nominated for the 2011 visible award, formed by Donna Kukama and Kemang Wa Lehulere.
The focus on the South African scene continues on the next post, with video documentation of the talks that took place at the CHR – Center for Historical Reenactments. Enjoy these two new contributions on our brand new video channel!

Interview – Mlu Zondi from Visible project on Vimeo.

Interview – NON-NON Collective from Visible project on Vimeo.

“What does visible mean to you?” Interviews at the CHR, in Johannesburg

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On the occasion of the talk, that took place last month in Johannesburg at the Center for Historical Reenactments, the co-curator of visible, Matteo Lucchetti, spent some time chatting with the artists that Gabi Ngcobo and he had invited for a round table discussion.
After the presentations of their work, and having shared a conversation about the common topics that recurred in their words, the artists sat down for some short interviews.

“How does the research that the visible project is carrying on, intertwine with your practice, if it does at all?”; “What does bringing visibility to your work mean to you?”. These are the questions that DALA, Donna Kukama, Made You Look, Mlu Zondi, and NON NON Collective, have tried to answer in the short interviews presented here.

On this post you’ll find Made You Look, Donna Kukama and DALA giving us their opinion on what visible means to them. Coming up in follow-up posts, are the remaining interviews and the documentation of the talk and conversation that took place on the night of the visible round table at the CHR.

Interview – Made You Look from Visible project on Vimeo.

Interview – Donna Kukama from Visible project on Vimeo.

Interview – DALA from Visible project on Vimeo.

Open Call – 8 Festival de Performance de Cali

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As promised, we are publishing hereby the english version of the open call for the 8 Festival de Performance de Cali 2012 by Helena Producciones. We warmly invite you to submit a proposal for a performance or artistic intervention in the context of the festival in Cali. Please feel free to spread the call through your networks. For any further information do not hesitate to send your inquires to the collective.

The artists collective Helena Producciones (Ana María Millán, Claudia Patricia Sarria-Macías, Wilson Díaz, Gustavo Racines and Andrés Sandoval Alba) are glad to announce the 8 Festival de Performance de Cali, Colombia, taking place from the 20th to the 24th of November, 2012.
The festival is the recipient of the first visible award, an international production award devoted to art work in the social sphere, initiated and supported by Cittadellarte – Pistoletto Foundation and Fondazione Zegna. This edition will have the curatorial input of Matteo Lucchetti and Judith Wielander, curators of the visible project. Participation, exchange and empowerment of rural and urban communities are founding characteristics of the projects run by Helena Producciones through the years. The different activities of the group propose sustainable models for which knowledge and creativity are used as critical and radical tools of intervention.

The 8 Festival de Performance is looking for actions with a responsible transformative potential in relation to civic society, that can propose a dialogue with art systems, institutional dynamics, and complex connections between power systems and grassroots society. The 8th festival will consider the Colombian social, political, economic, ethnic and cultural contexts, to converge them to the commonplace that the festival represents. Putting it in relation to the city and to Colombian society in general: dysfunctionality, corruption, crime, injustice, lack of opportunities, disconnection, limitations and poverty versus political art, ethical gestures, social activism, civil initiatives, dialogue and networking, interventions, publications, music and actions.

Through various academic positions the 8 Festival will bring to the present time, cultural experiences from the sixties and the seventies in Cali, when some self organized models allowed a connection between theatre, performance, film and collective action. During this edition, the Festival will create a link with another project created by the collective: the Escuela Móvil de Saberes y Práctica Social (Travelling School of Knowledge and Social Practice). For one of its chapters the Escuela will represents the educational component of the Festival, having Helena working with different civic organizations and cultural associations of the city. Helena Producciones is part of Triangle Network.

OPEN CALL 

The 8 Festival de Performance de Cali opens a call to visual artists, actors, dancers, collectives, community projects and other cultural subjects interested in contemporary arts, performance, actions, happenings, situations and other mediums, to propose a project for Cali, in its public space, for a day of performance, or for an exhibition space.

Each project should come with a description (max 2 pages), motivation (max 2 pages), visual material (5 to 12 images and/or video max 10 min) and a cv (each page of the project must carry the name of the proposer).

The deadline to receive the projects is the 20th of July 2012.

The selected projects will be made public on the 3rd of August on the web site of Helena Producciones

The selected artist will receive a small fee and budget for the production of the work.

The projects should be sent via email to 8festivaldeperformancecali@helenaproducciones.org

All activities held during the Festival are free to the public.

To know more about Helena Producciones and about the Festival de Performance de Cali please visit the official website.

 

Visible at the Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg.

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On the 18th of May, starting at 6:30 pm, a talk around the visible platform will take place as well as a roundtable involving a group of South African artists and collectives, some of whom are already part of the visible network. The event, curated by Matteo Lucchetti, co-curator of the visible project, and Gabi Ngcobo, member of the curatorial advisory board, aims to present the project to the local audience engaging in a conversation around some of the common issues and topics for art practicioners that operate in a constant dialogue with the social sphere. The list of invited artists includes Dala, Gugulective, Donna Kukama, Made You Look, NON NON Collective, Mlu Zondi.

Download the pressrelease

The event is part of the activities that visible is dedicating to its focus on Africa for the year 2012. Read here the report on the research trip to Addis Ababa that Judith Wielander made last April.

 

“8 Festival de Performance de Cali”. Helena Producciones launches the open call.

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Cali. On the local parade for the 1st of May celebrations, Helena Producciones “took to the streets” and publicly announced the 8 Festival de Performance de Cali, demonstrating next to the workers. The open call for national and international proposals to this edition has officially been launched, and so the winning project of the 2012 visible award has started its work towards the Festival. Soon we will publish the English version of the open call to visible network followers.

The independent collective Helena Producciones, is composed by Ana María Millán, Claudia Patricia Sarria-Macías, Wilson Díaz, Gustavo Racines and Andrés Sandoval Alba. The 8 Festival de Performance de Cali, Colombia, will take place between November 20 and 24, 2012. Save the date!


To get to know more about the project visit the dedicated page on the visible website.

Yangjiang Group. Last week at Eastside Projects, Birmingham.

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We’re glad to bring to your attention the Yangjiang group solo show at Eastside Projects in Birmingham, in its final week. The Chinese group’s project for visible was shortlisted among the four finalist proposals last Fall, and they’re now closing their first solo exhibition in the UK.

Yangjiang Group are designing and building a new large-scale artwork based on a traditional Chinese tea pavilion as the focal point of the exhibition in Eastside Projects. Visitors are invited to use the ten metre square, four metre high wooden and plastic pavilion, and can climb the first floor to view eating and calligraphy in the gallery.

“After Dinner Shu Fa at Cricket Pavilion” is a prototype community use cricket pavilion that combines post-planning, social shu fa (traditional Chinese calligraphy) and a space for hosting, cooking, eating, photographing, and watching cricket. The project is part of the longer term ambition to design a new multi use Cricket Pavilion for Coniston Cricket Club in the Lake District.

On 16th March a meal took place in the pavilion and, after dinner, guests watched the artists form a series of shu fa works from the food left over. The shu fa has then been photographed and large scale billboard posters have been pasted onto the walls of the gallery surrounding the pavilion.

to read more about the project go to Eastside Projects’ website.
Images are courtesy of Eastside Projects