The Studio for Arousing Tools: Assembly I
Rubén Grilo, Christian Kendreiko, Metaphysics VR,
Pentecostal Party, Suzanna Pezo, Jani Ruscica, Deanna Smith,
Luisa Ungar, Ersi varveri, Paky Vlassopoulou
5 August — 15 October 2017
M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp
The tool is a construction instrument, a mechanism, a means, thus the name alludes to the act of both building and re-shaping, in which doing and knowing shape one another.
The Studio for Arousing Tools was created from a desire and necessity to open up a space in which to share differences, experiences, opinions and desires, and to make the link between cultural production and the political and social dimension. The Studio for Arousing Tools is thought of as a place for experimentations, social exchanges and collective experiences; an international and itinerant space for production that remains in constant construction.
The Studio for Arousing Tools continues to takes shape around intimate, semi-public assemblies that materialise in varying scales in places permanently and temporarily inhabited by its multiplicity of collaborators.
TUESDAY 3 OCTOBER
Ersi Varveri The lost page on the gas fire
Lunch & Conversations
at The Pinkhouse, Italiëlei 63
13:00–14:00
Christian Jendreiko The Hermestia Approach
Workshop
at The Pinkhouse, Italiëlei 63
14:00–16:00
Rubén Grilo
The Slater Society
Presentation
at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art
16:30–18:00
Paky Vlassopoulou Smoking and waiting. Waiting and smoking. (The Stranger I)
Performance
at Draakplaats, 2018 Antwerpen
19:00–23:00
WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER
Metaphysics VR
Workshop
at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art
12:30–18:00
Luisa Ungar Conversation
Conversation
at L'Entrepot du Congo
18:00–19:00
THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER
Metaphysics VR
Workshop
at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art
12:30–18:00
Jani Ruscica Felt The Moonlight On My Feet
Performance
at MHKA Museum of Contemporary Art
18:30
Christian Jendreiko RIDDLE & LUST
Action for voice, text & electronics
Performance
at M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art
19:30–21:00
FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER
Christian Jendreiko The Hermestia Approach
Workshop
at The Pinkhouse, Italiëlei 63
16:00–18:00
Ersi Varveri There is only dancing with the flavours
Dinner & Conversations
at The Pinkhouse, Italiëlei 63
18:00–late
Christian Jendreiko & Pentecostal Party
Performances
at The Pinkhouse, Italiëlei 63
21:00–23:00
Jani Ruscica Felt The Moonlight On My Feet
Interpreted readings of historically censored poetry,
performed by Antwerp based tap-dancer Suzanna Pezo
Every Song
by Federico Garcia Lorca
We Real Cool
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Wild Honey Is a Smell of Freedom
by Anna Akhmatova
Thursday 28 September, 18:30
Thursday 5 October, 18:30
Thursday 12 October, 21:30
Drop City, Antwerp
6th Floor, M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art
Antwerp Leuvenstraat 32, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
All performances are FREE
Jani Ruscica (°1978 Savonlinna, lives and works in Helsinki) is interested in how one defines one’s location, one’s placement in the world, and how this definition continuously changes according to personal, cultural, representational and scientific factors. In Ruscica’s practice, temporal layers reflect on the contemporary zeitgeist, creating new meaningful relationships. Taking a collaborative approach to the making of an artwork, Ruscica regularly works with scientists, theatre makers, craftsmen and street performers. Drawing from a myriad of sources; historical, scientific, cultural and political, his works are characterised by the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements that trigger unexpected, multilayered meanings.
For the work Felt the Moonlight on My Feet dancer Suzanna Pezo has been presented with three pieces of poetry chosen by Ruscica for reasons including their political and social censorship during the course of their existence. Each poem has been translated into Morse Code, itself further translated and interpreted by Pezo into a dance piece. The pieces will be performed throughout the projects' duration at M HKA. Consistent with Ruscica’s practice to date the collaborative work explores the intersections between language, place, culture, sculpture, sound, theatre and performance, focusing on posing questions related to the processes of translation and cultural representation.
The piece explores language, interpretation and censorship in relation to bodily movement as well as allegorically utilising the material properties of felt and its use in various industries: as a sound or vibration damper, in machinery for cushioning and buffering moving parts, its uses within art, musical instruments and printing processes.