NEWSLETTER May 2006
FLACC
workplace for artists
FLAC© is becoming FLACC. From now on the organisation
presents itself unambiguously as a workplace for visual artists and
makes the transition from an ‘art’ policy to an ‘artists’ policy. From
now on the programme, profile, arrangement of the space and communication
will be geared above all to the artist. FLACC intends to create the
organisational, substantive and technical conditions that will enable the
realisation of several unique artist’s projects. Every year the organisation
will select a maximum of fifteen artists – national and international, young
or experienced – to set up a new project. Admission will be determined on
artistic criteria and the way an artist questions and redefines the notion
of a ‘workplace’ through their work. FLACC will operate as a receiving organisation
too: other artists can also be selected to work in Genk on the basis of a
project proposal. The actual workshops and facilities are only one of the
resources FLACC will provide the artist with. The ambition is also to make
expert guidance available on content and practical matters from colaborators
within or outside the organisation, including an international network of
experts. Accommodation is also available too, and there are good contacts
with the business world. FLACC will regularly show what is created in the
studios. This will be done in presentations, workshops, talks and an annual
open day, together with a yearbook that records, documents and reflects on
all the artist’s projects. As a workplace for artists, the organisation aims
to establish flexible joint ventures with as many partners as possible. In
this regard, FLACC is now in dialogue with other workplaces with an eye to
complementary operations. There are also arrangements with museums, galleries
and cultural centres to enable the work created at FLACC to find its way to
a broad public.
GREGG SMITH
‘How much information should a story provide before the
spectator can project themselves into it?’ It was on the basis of this question
that Gregg Smith (1970, Cape Town, South Africa) became the first artist
to be selected in the framework of FLACC’s new operations. After studying
at the University of Cape Town, Smith had a residence at the Rijksakademie
in Amsterdam and later at the Fresnoy Studios at Tourcoing in France. He now
lives and works in Paris. His work has recently been shown at the Dakar Biennale
in Senegal, at the Gasworks Studios in London and at the film festival in
Rotterdam. From April till the end of May he is be developing a new
installation at FLACC, one which extends earlier experiments with video and
performances in public space. This project, as with his previous work, takes
as a starting point a scenario based on an ordinary personal dilemma. Smith
then explores the medium of narrative with a view to personally implicating
the spectator in the viewing process. This subtle boundary between spectator
and narrative framework is at the heart of his work. The installation Smith
is currently working on in Genk will be exhibited this July at ‘Le Plateau’,
FRAC (Fonds régional d’art contemporain) Île de France, Paris (www.fracidf-leplateau.com).
More information about the artist and his work on www.greggsmith.co.za
and www.veryrealtime.co.za.
GREGG SMITH IN CONVERSATION WITH JILL MAGID
18 May 2006, 7 pm, FLACC, Casino Waterschei, Genk
On 18 May Gregg Smith’s project will
be shown to the public and presented by the artist in a conversation with
fellow artist Jill Magid (1973, USA). Magid works as a director and
performer in public space and her work refers to our society’s ubiquitous
‘disciplinary systems’, such as camera surveillance. Projects by Magid have
recently been presented at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at the 2004
Liverpool Biennale. She lives in New York and is a ‘visiting artist’ at the
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. More information on her
and her work can be found on www.evidencelocker.net
and www.libration-point.net.
GREGG SMITH EXHIBITION:
NIE MEER
22 April to 28 May 2006, De Warande, Turnhout
In parallel with the project at FLACC,
De Warande in Turnhout is holding an exhibition, called Nie meer, of
work by a new generation of artists from South Africa, including Gregg
Smith, Bridget Baker, Candice Breitz, Frances Goodman, Pieter Hugo, Mustafa
Maluka, Zen Marie, Tracey Rose, Greg Streak and Billie Zangewa. It is compiled
by Ellen Loots of de Warande and the artist Ives Maes in collaboration with
FLACC. Opening times: Tuesday to Friday: 2 to 6 pm, Saturday & Sunday:
10 am to 6 pm (closed on Mondays) / admission free. More information on www.warande.be
ANN CLICTEUR & PAUL CASAER IN SITU
As part of the future
workplace policy, the present exhibition space at Casino Modern in Genk will
be given a few additional functions and will be rearranged. FLACC chose the
interior architect and exhibition designer Ann Clicteur (1964, Ostend)
to set up her own full-scale workspace project on this basis. As a sparring
partner she invited the artist Paul Casaer (1967, Brussels) to help
her think it out. The exhibition hall is being converted into a workspace,
in the broadest sense of the term: a place where artists can reflect, model,
present, communicate, etc. Clicteur and Casaer want above all to respond to
the wide range of needs and forms in contemporary art and its production.
They are also exploring the possibility of working in several media, scales
and light situations. At the end of September this duo will launch a handbook
in which they will introduce a series of virtual and utopian configurations
to the public. This workplace project is at the same time the start of the
step-by-step completion of a broader project.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
At the request of FLACC,
the artist Maddy Arkesteyn (1966, Goirle, Netherlands) is carrying
out a practical project on the workplaces for visual arts in Flanders as part
of her Culture Management course at the University of Antwerp. The aim of
her study is to make an inventory and an analysis and to outline several scenarios
for complementary work in the various workplaces. More information on this
project in the next newsletter.
FLACC AS A RECEIVING
ORGANISATION
- Gregory S. Maass
(1967, Hagen, Germany) and Nayoung Kim (1966, Seoul, South Korea) have
for the past month been working at FLACC on their sculpture Alfred Hitchcock
in Guilin. This work is the centrepiece of the Beauty of Being Numb
exhibition at the Munich art centre’s ‘mini-salon’, which opens on 28 April.
- Stefan Serneels (1968, Wilrijk, Belgium) is carrying out a project
in the mine buildings at Waterschei. It is an installation and video called
Hikikimori, Western Style, which responds to seemingly ordinary themes.
- Ellen Visschers (1981), a former student at St. Lucas Ghent and the
Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, will at FLACC be carrying out research in which
she probes the properties of bronze.- Stefaan Tavernier (1975), a student
of photography at St. Lucas Brussels, created his graduation project, Natura,
in FLACC’s digital studio.
UPDATE ON FLACC INFRASTRUCTURE
FLACC also regularly
invests in upgrading its studios. For example, the digital unit now has a
large-format printer with archive-quality inks and an A3 format flatbed scanner
with sheet feeder. The range of cameras has been extended with a digital HDV
video camera. In the metal workshop there are now machines for rolling and
bending sheet steel.
WWW.FLACC.INFO
FLACC’s website has been thoroughly redesigned in the
light of the new workplace policy and will therefore be offline for some time.
The newsletter will keep everyone who’s interested informed. FLACC remains
accessible by e-mail and telephone.
FLACC
Casino Modern
André Dumontlaan 2, B-3600 Genk
T #32 (0)89 84 52 23
F #32 (0)89
84 52 24
E flacc@skynet.be
www.flacc.info