Was he a wicked man, a giant Canaanite or a true martyr?   There are many theories, but we can at least state with certainty that he evolved into the patron Saint of travelers in the West;  Saint Christopher.

One of the people of Performing Pictures, Robert Brečević, has brought Saint Christopher in a interactive video-shrine from Stockholm to Brussels.  And a safe journey it was.  This little devotional object is the first of a series of Saints (Exemplary Individualities) that the PP bring back to life.

Through time, all of these characters have been doomed to stillness, in some cases the subjects have been exposed through more than a thousand years of inert fixation!  PP believes it’s time to set them free, one by one and motion by motion.

On Sunday, nadine, Geska Helena Brečević (PP) and a whole community of church- and culture lovers came together in the Eglise Notre-Dame de Bon Secours in the city center of Brussels to perform a ritual for St. Christopher.
Jérôme Porsperger chanted beautifully and performed several actions before opening the artifact.  Christopher appears and carries a small, yet almost unbearably heavy child across a river.
The legend continues.  When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: “You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.” The child replied: “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.”

You too can set Christopher in motion by standing in front of the shrine at the Eglise Notre-Dame de Bon Secours until December 09, during the church’s opening hours (8:30-17:00).

Click for more pictures

9 labs joined forces with the 6 resident organizations in the Rue de la Senne 17, in the bid to infect it with more experimental art.  Pictures from this amazing event can be found here.

Since our complex Belgian federal system makes life extremely complicated for cultural initiatives in Brussels, it was about time that all our harsh frustrations and the ideas that rose from this complexity were formulated in a positive, ambitious and grand way.

And here we have it.  2 Years of hard work.  Hardly an object to be tucked away in the bookshelf, but a publication to be seen as a writing pad.  Yes, a place to scribble away and transform 2 years of ‘talktalk’ into ‘the real thing’!  Join forces and attack!

Their initial ideas on the format have pretty much stayed the same.  They’re working with microfilms, texts & audio fragments.  But of course, as their research is progressing, they’re thinking of “how to present the findings in a Live-format?”.

Content wise, their aims were clear: the exposure of the artist’s failure at intimacies, looking for confronting moments of fear, sacrifice, desire, pain, ….  Constructed or otherwise.  Two months later, research has taken them to new areas with new influences and ideas.  But overall they have been able to keep their goals close at heart.

An element that has changed a lot to their own expectations, is this notion of failure at intimacies.  The URA believe that their work here at nadine has taken them in another direction.  A direction where they are looking beyond their “selves” and making work about other realities and human conditions.

To understand more about this working period, you should go and check out their blog.
This blog can be seen as a giant research collection box.  There is no limit to the kind of connections and disconnections that can be made by visiting this online discovery zone.
Pre-set inquiries (of which the strongest one is ‘fear and desire’) along with the new lines of inquiry can definitely be found here.  New lines in the URA research are for example the research into texts and works by people such as Susan Sontag, David Lynch, Pasolini, Beckett,… They have become like new voices in their work.

You can see they have been ‘plundering’ media: remixing existing materials online and reworking them, shaping them into new forms or contexts.
The URA’s came up with a term: plundergraphics” to describe this process.  This is in line with the plunderphonics sound movement where source material is reworked into new shapes, meanings or messages.

In a way the blog represents this beautifully – it has become a storage point of multi-voiced ideas.  The question remains how this will be reshaped into a format where the audience can be a part of.

Let’s discover it this Friday, 25th – 8pm at Plateau.

Something is cooking in the arts laboratories.  Several lab’s are joining forces and team up with the Z17 residents to offer you a superb event during the BRXLBRAVO weekend.

In Zennestraat 17 Rue de la Senne, a former labo of the Ministery of Economic Affairs, a temporary artistic hub was opened in May this year.  During BRXLBRAVO, a cross-over of contemporary work from all disciplines will be presented, in the bid to infect the building with even more experimental art.

The platform arts-lab.be will use the occasion to display an artistic cartography.

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List participating organizations:

Bains Connective, Constant, Croxhapox, De Pianofabriek Werkplaats, FLACC, Galerie Fortlaan17, Het Entrepot, Josworld, Komplot, L’L, Lokaal01, Margarita Production, nadine, Q-O2, SECONDroom, SoundImageCulture, WP Zimmer

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The ARTLAB² – BrxlBravo@Zennestraat 17 program will be announced shorty.

Experts in the field came round to explain the technicalities behind this exciting technology and to help develop the ideas of the artists.  Not only did the artist have helpful one-on-one sessions with these tech wizards, they also had a great opportunity to exchange thoughts with the other participants.

It was intriguing to see the interaction between scientists and artists, both of whom build worlds, but in a very different way.  Pictures of the workshop can be found here.

They will be sharing one last intense week together at P-af at the begining of September during a third hands-on session.

Artslab nadine acts not only as an organiser, but also as an active partner that lends its support to artists who are interested in this matter and want to apply it to their work.

–Below you can find a Dutch resumé of the workshop by Loes Jacobs, one of the participants:

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De workshop Autonomous Energy Systems is gekaderd in een reeks van drie modules, geïnitieerd door bartaku. Tijdens de vorige workshop werd er onderzocht wat de mogelijkheden van photovoltaics zijn en hoe we zelf zonne-cellen kunnen bouwen. De conclusie was toen vooral dat opslag van energie van groot belang is om natuurlijk gewonnen energie daadwerkelijk te kunnen gebruiken. Deze volgende workshop had de opslag van energie en het maken van autonome energie systemen als onderwerp en hoe bijgevolg zonne-energie praktisch gebruikt kan worden.
Deelnemers presenteerden eigen projecten die ze autonoom wilden laten werken, i.e. zonder gebruik te maken van het elektriciteitsnetwerk. nadine treedt als platform op voor deze workshops om artiesten, die interesse hebben voor deze materie en ze praktisch willen toepassen in hun werk, ondersteunen.

Begeleiders Patrick De Koning en Jan De Capelle van de Katholiek  Hogeschool in Gent. De eerste dag trokken we naar Gent naar het labo van de technologiecampus waar het team van dr. Jan De Capelle een algemene introductie gaf tot energie-opwekking en de opslag ervan, allerhande manieren om energie op te wekken demonstreerde, alsook een inleiding over
verschillende soorten batterijen gaf.
Het werd een boeiende ontmoeting en informatie-uitwisseling was tussen technologists en artiesten. Beide werken echter op een zeer verschillende schaal, de ene op industrieel en theoretisch niveau en de andere op kleine praktische schaal voor artistieke toepassingen.

De twee volgende dagen vonden plaats bij nadine in Schaarbeek, waar Patrick De Koning en Bart Vandeput optraden als begeleiders. Hands-on werd iedereen persoonlijk begeleidt bij de uitwerking van de projecten die zeer divers bleken. Thomas Laureyssens probeerde photovoltaische cellen te hergebruiken en in specifieke vormen te maken voor een installatie en
werkte ook naar een bepaalde esthetiek die in zonne-cellen te vinden zijn. Olivier Meunier en Wendy Van Wynsberghe voedden een Arduino board via zonne-energie en kijken in de toekomst naar mogelijkheden met windenergie. Tim Rottiers ontwikkelde audio en licht modules die autonoom kunnen werken. Alexander Nieuwenhuis deed vooral research naar mogelijkheden met

zonne-energie in de theaterwereld. Christina Stadlbauer en Loes Jacobs voedden een camera en microfoon met zonne-energie. Cindy Janssens en Maarten Coppens ontwikkelden muziekkasten die autonoom in de open lucht kunnen spelen.

Hoofdreden om autonome systemen te maken was vooral om overal installaties te kunnen laten werken en uiteraard binnen het gedachtegoed van milieuvriendelijke projecten op te kunnen zetten.

De laatste dag werd een roundup gegeven van ieders project om te weten hoever iedereen stond en welke problemen iedereen tegen was gekomen.  Daarnaast werd er nog gepolst naar mogelijke projecten die in de volgende
workshop in St-Erme uitgewerkt kunnen worden.

Click for more pictures.

You can hear some of the stuff here:

fifi

screech2

screech3

balloon like

To know more about the context, read the previous entry on this blog.

Julie Vulcan will also be continuing research into Canticle/Anthem in October 2009 as part of a residency at Bundanon Artist Trust in Australia.

At the end of each residency Unreasonable Adults will present in-progress live ‘reports’/screenings, where some dangerous admissions will emerge and the line between private versus public information will be crossed…

Generally this phrase is used in reference to someone who wants to dress up something or someone … when it clearly not work.  It will definitely not render the person or the object more appealing, no matter how you tart it up.

As Urban Dictionary puts it: “Car salesmen are generally good at “putting lipstick on a pig” because they are always selling unroadworthy buckets of shit and try and hide their shitfulness by tarting them up.”

Recently the expression was often used during the American Elections of 2008.

The picture was taken from a Political Humor website “Apoliticus“.