Sunday 11.12.2022, 2 p.m. - 7 p.m.

Helen Dowling, Custom Make-out, photo series with Carmen Canela & Lina Bembe

We happily invite you to a special event on Sunday the 11th of December. We come together for the finissage of Marie Zolamian's exhibition, and the end of a major chapter of our organisation. At the end of 2022, the programme initiated still under two organisations, FLACC and CIAP, comes to an end. We are grateful for the last years and for the experiences and encounters they brought. We are looking forward to starting 2023 with new ideas, energy, and humour – in the style of Jester.

On this special day, some of our artists will share elements of their research or project. Alongside this, we will hold a farewell drink together with some departing colleagues. Luuk Nouwen worked as an artistic leader at FLACC and the past year as a Senior leader artistic trajectories at Jester. Tine Deboelpaep has worked as an artistic assistant in recent years at CIAP and Jester. Lisa Costantini has been working two years at FLACC, CIAP and Jester in administration and at the ceramic studio.

PROGRAMME
14u00 – presentation The Forest Underground (audio piece) by Miriam Sentler (location to be announced)
15u00 – artist talk with Sarah van Sonsbeeck and Rana Hamadeh, moderated by Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg (small auditorium)
16u00 – tour exhibition by Marie Zolamian & goodbye drink (exhibition space)
17u00 – film screening and talk with Helen Dowling (small auditorium)
18u00 – presentation by Alain Nsenga (small auditorium)

It is the final day of Marie Zolamian’s solo show Droomland. Seize the last chance to be wowed by Symbiocene, one of the artist's largest paintings to date: an impressive landscape, stretching effortlessly across the width of the exhibition space. The work takes you into a colourful, mysterious universe that emerges from Zolamian's oeuvre and reflects on the political meanings of the landscape in contemporary context.

Miriam Sentler presents her audio installation The Forest Underground, developed in collaboration with composer Drake Stoughton. The duo has been inspired by the sounds and the acoustics of the coal mines, where the voices of birds, crickets, and trees were heard on a daily basis while accompanying the miners. In their piece, Sentler and Stoughton compose a quasi-fantastical, transhistorical soundscape of that 'underground forest'. The work will have its premiere on December 11th, followed by a conversation with the artists. You can read more about the project here.

Helen Dowling will give us a glimpse into her upcoming film and ongoing research initiated in 2020 with the support of Sint Lucas Antwerp and continued during her research at Jester. Terms of Intimacy engages the image of sexuality and femininity in mainstream pornography by developing strategies to repurpose the acting and means of production within custom pornography. As part of the research, Dowling has been working on a new film, in collaboration with Custom Performers. Fragments of the work in progress will be presented, and the screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist.

At Jester, Sarah van Sonsbeeck continued her research into 'immaterial architecture' – things that affect our living environment that might not be immediately tangible or escape our control – such as molehills, which inspired her most recent series of ceramic and bronze works. Rana Hamadeh’s interdisciplinary projects often question the authority of historical voice, creating visibility around erased or unrecorded voices. In theatrical performances, sound works, texts or games, she creates space for discursive approaches to subject matter. At Jester, she tested the waters of becoming a game designer and ceramicist. We host a conversation between the two artists about their practice, moderated by Jester's artistic director Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg.

Alain Nsenga comes from a miners' family. This personal story fueled his fascination with the history and impact of mining across the globe. For his research, he interviewed miners from Congo and Limburg, and discovered links between their stories of migration, hard labour, and underground friendships. On the 11th, he will present parts of the research that was earlier on show at Z33 as part of On Trade Off – Charging Myths.

The Forest Underground by Miriam Sentler and Drake Stoughton was realised with the support of Jester, Emile van Dorenmuseum and O&O subsidy of CBK Rotterdam.

Jester is a small organisation with big ambitions. Jester is a vibrant contemporary art organisation, with an active membership programme. To strengthen our small but lovely team, we are currently looking for secretary and a financial director.

Click here for more info!

Saturday 17.12.23

Luca Tichelman

On Saturday the 17th of December, Currents#10 opens at Marres, Maastricht. Artists Luna Mahoux, Loïs Soleil, Luca Tichelman and Loran van de Wier had a working period at Jester for the past few months, during which their work for Currents developed further. Currents is an annual exhibition of work by newly graduated artists from the Euroregion, curated by young curators. Join us in Maastricht for the 10th edition of Currents.

Currents is a collaboration between Marres and Z33. Former FLACC supported this track by providing a short working period for some of the artists. Click here for more information.

15.02.23 and 11.03.23

Animatronic Operetta - Toon Fibbe

You don't have to miss us for long because we can't wait to launch the new Jester programme in 2023! On February 15th we kick off the year with a film programme that will take place eight times in 2023 in the small hall of the Energy Building at C-mine.

On March 11th opens Charming for the Revolution at Jester at C-mine, a group exhibition featuring work by Carly Rose Bedford, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz and Toon Fibbe. That same weekend, Transitions takes place in Maastricht, a large-scale project by Video Power focusing on video art. Jester is contributing to this with an installation and film programme linked to Charming for the Revolution.

Droomland

10.09 – 11.12.2022
Opening 10.09.22, 15:00 - 19:00 uur

This autumn, we proudly present Marie Zolamian's (°1975, LB) new monumental work during Droomland, her solo exhibition at Jester. Her work finds itself at the distinction between colourful, familiar scenes, full of art historical references, and a déjà vu-like dreamy world where mysterious silhouettes and creatures appear. Like a fictitious ethnologist she keeps an observational images diary, for which she draws inspiration from testimonies, local history or cultural customs linked to the place from which she works. In this way, the artist touches on themes such as integration, community building and self-rooting and how these concepts manifest themselves in a globalized world.

Marie Zolamian Admonestation, 2022.
Image by courtesy of the artist

In preparation for her solo presentation at Jester, the artist briefly stayed at the Emile Van Dorenmuseum, where she soaked up the stories that enfolded the Genk tradition of landscape painting. The echoes of the stories and the encounters while staying in Genk, provided the initial impulse towards creating a new, large-scale work that offers us an intimate glimpse into the mystical universe expressed in Zolamian's various paintings and drawings.

Practical information
In the weeks before, Marie Zolamian will be working in situ to develop this monumental creation. The exhibition will open on the 10th of September, between 3 pm and 7 pm. You can find Jesters presentation space at the 1st floor of the C-mine Energy building. Droomland is on view until 11 December 2022.

Be Courageous
Listen. Truly Listen
Be accepting
Don't Be Clever
Trust – Others, Yourself and the Unknown
Be (in the) present

It is with great pride and excitement that we announce the merger of two well-known organisations for contemporary art, FLACC and CIAP, into a new organisation which we have chosen to name Jester *. You can find us here: www.jester.be

Over the past few years, the teams at FLACC and CIAP have been working hard to find a common direction that preserves the special qualities of both organisations in Jester. In this way, the strong solo exhibitions, editions and publications for which CIAP is known, together with the deepening of particular visions or the possibilities for material experimentation, which lie at the core of FLACC, will be brought to the fore through the new programming.

CIAP has traditionally been a members' organisation. Jester embraces its members, makes room for member projects and aims to further serve increasingly more members from its future location in Genk. FLACC has a tradition of accommodating artists in Genk at different times so that they may work with proper focus and attention. This residency operation will also be retained in Jester.

Soon Jester will be working from its own home, built on the large former mining site C-mine. This is a hub where various global transformation processes and their economic, ecological and demographic consequences manifest themselves and become tangible through art and culture. Through its stimulating, generous and critical presence, Jester aims to make a significant contribution to the creation of a locally anchored, vibrant cultural oasis, with national and international reach.

image © 51N4E

Determined to create a distinctive and singular experience, the team at Jester decided to start from a number of basic concepts found in improvisational theatre. These will provide us and everyone involved in the programme with the opportunity to respond to current events or changes at any given time. Improv makes it possible to create a story whose direction and outcome are not always determined.

The team at Jester invites you to join them in Genk. In the course of 2022, you will be able to enjoy the programme that emerged from FLACC and CIAP's ongoing programming. From 2023 onwards, Jester invites you to embrace the unknown.

Are you curious to see how we work towards a new story?
Join us as a member and follow us via our newsletter or social media!

Warm regards,
Jester

* Jester is a professional joker at a medieval court, who is allowed to hold up a mirror to the monarchs. The stories jester tells are laced with humour, yet often have a serious message at their core.