Vijai Maia Patchineelam

For terra(t)rium, Vijai is bringing several copies of the book The Artist Job Description (2022) and would like to propose a collective reading of selected portions of the book. The book, through different strategies, recounts Vijai's personal experience of being inside and going through different art institutions. In an attempt at recognizing and dealing with, rather than avoiding the tensions that exist in the relationship between artists and art institutions at a time when most art institutions themselves are under the pressure of austerity-politics. From the recounting of an individual experience, Vijai hopes that the collective reading opens a space for a broader discussion around the topic where we can share our own relationships with and in art institutions.

The Artist Job Description, for the Employment of the Artist, as an Artist, Inside the Art Institution (2022) constitutes the result of Vijai Maia Patchineelam’s PhD research in the arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, University of Antwerp and a.pass, advance performance and scenography studies, Brussels.

Vijai Maia Patchineelam’s artistic practice focuses on the dialogue between the artist and the art institution. Placing the role of the artist as a worker in the foreground, Vijai’s research-driven artistic practice experiments with and argues for a more permanent role for artists — one in which artists become a constitutive part of the inner workings of art institutions. This displacement of roles is part of a larger trajectory of his recently concluded Ph.D. research titled, The Artist Job Description: A Practice Led Research for the Employment of the Artist, as an Artist, Inside the Art Institution at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the University of Antwerp and a.pass, advanced performance and scenography studies, Brussels. As outcome of his doctoral thesis, Vijai has published the book The Artist Job Description: for the Employment of the Artist, as an Artist, Inside the Art Institution, in 2022, with Track Report (Antwerp), in collaboration with OAZA (Zagreb) and a.pass (Brussels). As well as, the photobook Samba Shiva: The Photographs of Sambasiva Rao Patchineelam, in 2017, co-edited with and published by Revista Zum and Instituto Moreira Salles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt0gXMZdnFQ

Boyan Montero

 
Boyan Montero is an artist rooted in drawing, believing it can take countless forms. Drawing inspiration from life experiences and the complexities of human nature, Boyan often embraces their inner child for authenticity. Their work spans various media, including collage, text, sound, and digital media, allowing them to transform their drawings into installations and performances. Vibrant colors characterize their aesthetic, interwoven with childhood fairy tales and personal narratives. Furthermore, their research on the concept of the gift has led to multi-sensory installations, and their performances often incorporate text and involve collaboration with other artists.

https://vimeo.com/864005556

ccroissant studio

ccroissant is a design studio with a cro(i)ss-disciplinary approach. Working on the nexus of craft and design the studio pursues a philosophical inquiry into politics in the framework of an ethic of care. It sees the realm of art as space for play. By playing with language and symbols the croissant suggests a shift of posture, an exercise of phenomenology; a metamorphosis intended to subvert hegemonic approaches. The studio's current focus is on tables and tabling, its research method includes hosting aperitivo's around train tables and gerrymandering-twister on picnic plaids.

The studio is created by designer Evi Olde Rikkert (1994, Nijmegen NL) and philosopher-journalist-social worker Giovanni Pietracaprina (1988, Florence IT). Evi is currently affiliated as artistic researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and was recent resident at Morpho (BE) in 2023, while Giovanni currently works at welcome-centre Arcobaleno in Florence (IT), where croissant studio initiated a film club called multisub.club.

All that bounces melts into air - re-enacting ping pong diplomacy

As part of terra(t)rium ccroissant proposes/we propose a game of ping with books. The books function as paddle, threshold and potential starting point for discussion, rotation and revolution. A bookshelf/net will serve as an object-oriented and site specific bibliography. The selected library expands upon a conceptual framework which combines conflict (-solving, -avoiding and -mediating) and conviviality.

We reimagine the game of ping pong as method to approach political issues that have been bouncing around and provide a playful posture to address them: a non-direct, non-linear (or queer) method to approach canonical authors of political theory. This method which throws you off balance, forces you to dialectically face your friend/enemy, confusing you left and right — break point!

Practically: We will explain the “rules of the game” and introduce the selection of books, afterwards (and before) the audience is invited to play some ping pong and contextually flip through the books. We will provide a printed bibliography (as bookmark) which everyone can take away. The game could continue and take place as a sort of aperitivo-event.

http://www.ccroissant.be