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MIDSEASON
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DENISLAV GOLEMANOV, ELENI TSOMPANIDOU, KAMILE CESNACIUTE, MARNIX SIXMA
work period 11.10 – 07.11 2019 | SHOW 08.11 – 10.11 2020 | location: MUSIC DOME, STERREBOS
The music dome in an outdoor public park that het resort chose for this seasons midseason program sure was a challenging location for our new star artists: Denislav Golemanov, Eleni Tsompanidou, Kamile Censnaviciute and Marnix Sixma. How can you relate to a place that has a rich history but now functions as a hangout with quite an uncanny feeling. A place where you don’t want to walk alone at night.
The artists worked a couple of weeks at this location and had all kinds of different ideas and feelings. During the exhibition weekend the works were on display for 24 hours per day. Works were broken, moved and taken by visitors that expressed their ideas and feelings. Some good, some bad.
about midseason: In between seasons kunsthuis SYB and het resort bring you: midseason. A program focused on newly-grads, prepping them for their professional practises. During a 5 week program the midseasoners get lessons and go on field trips, whilst working towards a group exhibition. This year, Kamilė Česnavičiūtė, Denislav Golemanov, Marnix Sixma and Eleni Tsompanidou have been selected to participate in the second year of this program. The young artists are guided by former resort residents and members of SYB Circles. From 8 to 10 November the result of this process can be seen in the forgotten music dome in het Sterrebos in Groningen.
about the location: The Sterrebos is the oldest recreational park in Groningen. It was popular with the Stadjers; In 1928 the Groningen municipal architect Siebe Jan Bouma designed a musical dome for the Sterrebos, which was already laid out as a walking park in 1765. Here people could stroll along the star-shaped avenues and be seen.
The very functional shape of the music dome has its own unique character, the Amsterdam School can still be found in the decorative details. On Sunday afternoons people could listen to performances in the music dome by the music corps of the local militia. Now the function of the music dome is more or less a hang-out.
This project is part of Artist In Space, a program in which the Drenthe, Groningen and Frisian art institutions of platform Noordenaars work together to stimulate art talent in the North.
www.noordenaars.nl
full program - experiences
week 1:
location reveal & zero measurement
1.1 ✧ LOCATION REVEAL w/ het resort
After almost three months of suspense, Friday October 11th was the big day: the midseasoners finally were allowed to know the mystery location for this Midseason. Also, their hosts would finally be able to sleep again, knowing they couldn’t accidentally spill the beans anymore. Reaching the Sterrebos, one could see an aha-moment in all of the midseasoners. Yet, none of them knew what was hidden in there. Once they found out, they realized a lot of people would have the same. While pictures were being taken of them, everybody was chatting and walking about. The big question didn’t seem to be what to do with an abandoned music dome; the real question was how to react to something being completely forgotten.
1.2 ✧ ZERO MEASUREMENT w/ SYB circles
As a first class, the midseasoners went to Kunsthuis SYB to present their work to the SYB Circles during the so-called Zero Measurement. In SYB Circles, young artists and academics are encouraged to experiment with media other than critical texts to reflect on SYB’s residents and their projects. Their ideas and reflections will be expressed through podcasts, dialogues, talks or live events. In doing so, SYB aims to investigate the role that different new media can play in the field of art criticism.
The midseasoners’ presentations were quite the plunge in the deep. SYB Circles’ questions were spot-on, and so the discussions were intense from the beginning. A fruitful start, admittedly: As an artist you want to get to the core of your work as much as, if not more than any other person in the room. Therefore, there is no reason to hide any of your thoughts. Because all of the midseasoners shared this mindset, the Zero Measurement became an ideal way to get to know each other. No small talk. No bullshitting. Just a handshake, saying: “This is everything I know about myself. Nice to meet you too.”
week 2:
writing & rotterdam fieldtrip
2.1 ✧ WRITING w/ anna-rosja haveman & vanessa van 't hoogt
The second week was devoted to writing and riding. The week kicked off with Vanessa and Anna-Rosja guiding midseasoners in their written self-presentation. In the workshop artists wrote for one another, reflected in depth on each other's work and written statements. Through hours of questioning and answering each artist discovered something new, or a before not so much outspoken detail about their presentation of their work. More questions and possibilities arose for presenting art in different ways of written form.
2.2 ✧ ROTTERDAM w/ mylan hoezen (S01E02) & willem de haan (S02E01)
A field trip to Rotterdam slipped in the middle of the second week, so artists could have more diversity in the program. Mylan and Willem greeted artists at the station with a big misspelled 'ersort' sign and began a productive yet very fun fieldtrip with biking all around the city for sightseeing interesting public historical places. The two of them also planned a challenge for midseasoners to think of an artwork for one of the visited places and shop for the materials in five minutes. The challenge and dinner took place at Roodkapje, where artists could build, talk, present and have time to create three different descriptions for their new works.
week 3:
online presence & eindhoven field trip
3.1 ✧ ONLINE w/ ellen de haan
The midseason starts wrapping itself up into an image of a family-run business in a state of alert – and the necessary activities to get it back on track. After the group therapy sessions for understanding themselves and each other guided by Vanessa and Anna-Rosja, were very much directed inwardly, the midseasoners got the logical follow up: how do you present those same sides outwardly, more concrete: towards the world. Ellen's course for online presence was in the form of a fictional “autopsy” of a website, discussing its internal content, illnesses of expectations, and flaws while its creator cannot objectify or explain, so remains shut. This caused some doubts in them being verified, new ones to be revealed, but also some unconscious connections between artistic practice and website-structure to be discovered.
3.2 ✧ EINDHOVEN w/ alban karsten (S01E03)
The program for healthy and successful partnership continued with a team-building trip to Eindhoven, conducted by Alban Karsten and Kitty Maria. The midseasoners were almost instantly given a task to preserve their “baby” at any costs: plan, risk, steal, bribe. The stakes were high – if they were to be unsuccessful, it was likely that their exhibition would follow the same fate, but they made it, with finesse. After a role play game initiated by Tom Kemp, being another person and moreover be consistent and for convincingly long period it really felt like this week was full of successful sessions for bonding and as such, sprouting the seed of assurance in the success of their endeavors back in Groningen. It was lovely.
week 4:
how to group show
Three weeks have passed since the midseasoners stood in het Sterrebos, in front of the music dome, filled with surprise and a bit of nervousness about the challenging location. That was the moment that their first ideas were born and during the next weeks these ideas would change and involve. Being in the fourth week of the program and so close to it's end, these first ideas have a shape and the midseasoners are ready for the next step: making the work and putting together a show. The idea of making the work excites them, but the idea of putting together a group show leaves them wondering "How to do this?". Luckily, Esther de Graaf is there to help them with a class on "How to: group show!". During the class a thorough discussion took place about the form and intention of the works, revealing new connections between them. After the intense conversation the second part of the class is a walk through het Sterrebos which helps them clear their minds and visualise the show. The end of the class left them feeling ready and confident about their final steps.
