calendario eventi  :: 

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22/1/2015

Two exhibitions

De Appel arts centre, Amsterdam

Melanie Gilligan
The Common Sense

Casco, de Appel arts centre, and De Hallen Haarlem are collectively presenting The Common Sense, the largest project to date by the artist Melanie Gilligan who is based in New York. The production takes the form of a sci-fi mini-series that unfolds across the three institutions and was made possible by this unique collaboration among two presentation institutions and a museum – the first partnership of its kind in the Netherlands.

Independently of each other, Casco, de Appel arts centre and De Hallen Haarlem shared an interest in the work of Melanie Gilligan, an artist whose work has been shown and praised internationally, but who still remains relatively unknown in the Netherlands. Gilligan's work deals with what is perhaps the crucial issue of our times, namely how technology and the economy instrumentalize everyday interactions and human relations.

New work
This experimental narrative drama, The Common Sense, tells a story of the future technology, 'The Patch', a sort of prosthesis which makes it possible to directly experience the physical sensations and feelings of another person. After a decade of transforming the conditions of work and social life, for the most part in accordance with economic demands, the technology’s networks suddenly fail causing massive disorientation. People withdraw into themselves, isolating themselves in their homes, since they no longer know how to communicate with one another in a meaningful way without the aid of the technology. When the system is again 'online', and The Patch is functioning again, the story splits into two separate parallel storylines. In one of the storylines after the rupture society undergoes a normalization and The Patch continues as a part of daily life. In the second storyline, groups come together to try to form social movements to resist the exploitative elements of the technology. In this way Gilligan raises questions about our present relationship to technology (mobile telephones, iPads, etc.), which increasingly define shapes our minds, our bodies, and the way we live and interact within a capitalist system.

The Common Sense will occur with different episodes shown in each space Casco will open with the initial episodes and background material while De Hallen Haarlem will host one of the parallel story lines on social unrest and de Appel will show societies return to order. The dates of the shows partially overlap with one another, so that for one weekend all three exhibitions are open simultaneously and will hold a bus tour to all three locations along with special events.

See for full programme www.thecommonsense.org

The Common Sense by Gilligan is a co-production of Casco, de Appel arts centre and De Hallen Haarlem.

The project The Common Sense is financially supported by Dommering foundation, Mondriaan Foundation and Fonds 21.

Courtesy Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf

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During the exhibition there is free entrance for fysical challenged people for the space have a lot of objects.

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Michael Dean
Qualities of Violence

Michael Dean (1977) produces sculptures and photographs, performances and publications – without exception, works that invoke diverse associations. As one critic wrote, “They evoke torture, salt licks, laughter, charcuterie.” In presentations his sculptures are usually accompanied by texts and images of text, dialogues of unallocated voices, or minimal, repetitious utterances of letters and words. Text and sculpture go hand in hand.

Dean’s works arise from his writing. He gives a physical form to a language which he has himself developed, based on a series of typographic alphabets which he designed himself. The images are therefore cryptic for the viewer – in fact inscrutable and impossible to read – but that is precisely what fascinates Dean: how can you transform spoken or written language into physical objects? How does the viewer interpret (i.e., read) these works, without recognizable letters? Furthermore, How does this experience of the illegible work compare to the artists experience of the world that gave origin to the work?

Michael Dean uses democratic materials. Some years ago Dean discovered the equally democratic and inanimate qualities of language and concrete. Initially he used it primarily to produce heavy, physical casts of typographically folded photographs, but more recently he has been making all sorts of seemingly natural forms, which rather often are reminiscent of body parts: a muscle, a tongue or a limb. In his work he tacks between the abstract and the figurative, between a sometimes legible, sometimes illegible visual language.

Qualities of Violence

In this exhibition Michael Dean moves the visitor or should we say Reader through a series of display consoles in which works appear to both ignore and implicate the reader or should we say viewer. If the works are words, the arrangements could be seen as syntactical, with the objects (including the body of the reader/viewer) becoming properties staged in a physical grammar of sentences and phrases seen and experienced. A physical linguistic space.

Qualities of Violence
See some dictionary definitions of Qualities: 1 the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; 2 a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something; 3 an inherent or distinguishing characteristic; a property.

See some dictionary definitions of Violence: 1 Behaviour or treatment in which physical force is exerted for the purpose of causing damage; 2 Intense force or great power, as in natural phenomena 3 Extreme or powerful emotion or expression 4 Distortion of meaning or intent.

Courtesy Herald St, London, Mendes Wood, São Paulo and Supportico Lopez, Berlin

Publication on sale during exhibition:
NOW LEAVES, Michael Dean
Published by Book Works and Wysing Arts Centre in association with de Appel Arts Centre and Extra City Kunsthal

During the exhibition there is free entrance for fysical challenged people for the space has a lot of objects.

Image: Michael Dean. Photographer: Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

Marketing & Publicity
Marieke Istha, coordinator 020 6255651 marieke@deappel.nl

Opening: 23 January 6 - 9 pm

de Appel arts centre
Prins Hendrikkade 142 1011 AT Amsterdam The Netherlands
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Sunday 11 am - 6 pm
Monday Closed
Adults €7,-
Students, CJP, Stadspas, children aged 13-18 €4,50
children aged 0-12 Free

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