Memory-Lab Pavilion - Workshops, C-mine Genk
Saturday 24.09, 01.10, 15.10.2022 from 1pm - 4pm

The Memory-Lab Pavilion by Erica Ferrari and Ana Catarina Mousinho is a participatory art installation on the C-mine site, which functions as an artist workshop, an exhibition space, and a meeting place. The pavilion is a work in progress – in the course of five weeks, the duo will organise a series of workshops and invite participants to co-create the installation.

The participants in the workshops are invited to explore how memories and stories can be transferred through bodily and material gestures. Ferrari and Mousinho will introduce the participants to several gestural drawing and sculpting techniques, using natural materials like clay and charcoal as well as the materials associated with construction sites, such as plaster, concrete, and debris. The focus of the workshops is not on their physical outcome, but rather, on the process of working and making together, exchanging stories, and creating new memories.

Practical information
The public workshops take place on the following Saturdays: 24.09, 01.10, and 15.10.22, between 1 and 4 pm. On those days, you can join a workshop or come by and meet the artists. The installation is located at C-mine, behind the LUCA School of Art building.

Click here for more info.

Daniel Frota de Abreu at performance festival CROSS BORDER
Saturday: 24.09.22, 11am - 6pm, Aachen (Germany)

For the first time, the network of the Euregio Very Contemporary organises a joint Art festival. Institutions from Belgium, the Nederlands and Germany will present international performance artists: Daniel Frota de Abreu, Tessa Knapp & Yoshie Shibahara, Catinca Malaimare, Vanja Smiljanić, Luca Soudant, Britta Thie.

Jester resident Daniel Frota de Abreu (1988, BR) will present his work True, False, Truly False, Falsely True (2022), which he developed during his residency. The lecture performance weaves relationships between notions of mimesis, media manipulation and scientific objectivity from colonial documents, botanical drawings and editing techniques used in newscast.

The performance festival CROSS BORDER takes place at Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen (DE). More practical information can be found on their website

We say goodbye to Luuk Nouwen after many years of working together. With a love for art and a keen eye for exceptional artists, Luuk worked with great dedication on long trajectories with artists from all over the world. Luuk was also an active force in the region in setting up partnerships and initiating new initiatives. From FLACC, he contributed to the development of the new buildings and the merger with CIAP. Projects with Trevor Paglen, Ariane Loze, Jumana Manna, Vaast Colson, Marjolijn Dijkman, Vincent Meessen, David Bade & Tirzo Martha, Aslan Gaisumov, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Thomas Raat, Sarah van Sonsbeeck en Antonio Vega Macotela are just some of the special collaborations from the past.

© Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Refracciones, Video stills, 2016

In the last year, Luuk, together with Jester's artistic team, contributed to the new direction that Jester is taking, where the method, in which artists can work and experiment without pressure to present, will continue to exist.

“I am proud of the beautiful and special projects that I have been able to set up with more than 125 artists and the many fine collaborations with cultural partners. These were special projects with often an innovative or experimental character, in which established artists explored new paths or where less experienced artists could take significant steps in their development. I never did all this by myself, I did this with the FLACC/Jester team. A big thank you therefore goes to my colleagues, because without them these projects would not have been possible.

The years at FLACC taught me a lot, and were intense. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to enjoy a well-deserved rest, and confidently move on to the next project. What the future brings is not yet clear. If you want to stay informed about my future plans, please send a message to mail@luuknouwen.nl." - Luuk Nouwen

Our Jester team and Board wishes him a bright future!

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.

The Memory-Lab Pavilion

10.09 – 16.10.22

Erica Ferrari (°1981, BR) is an artist and researcher based in São Paulo. Her practice, spanning participatory installations, sculptures, and urban interventions, explores the interplay of politics and memory in the public space.

Image by courtesy of Erica Ferrari

During her working period in Genk, Ferrari is continuing her PhD research into rethinking monuments as social movements and ephemeral gestures. Together with artist Ana Catarina Mousinho (°1980, BR), she will transform the idea for the Memory-Lab Pavilion into a space for encounters and experimenting with embodied memory. The artists will organize a series of workshops, during which the participants will be invited to draw, sculpt, and explore together how memories can be created and cultivated through bodily experiences.

Practical info
The installation is located on the C-mine site, behind the LUCA School of Art. Simultaneously with the vernissage of Marie Zolamian's exhibition, we celebrate the starting point of the project. The ground floor of the installation is open to the public seven days a week, and the visitors are invited to come and see the work in progress. The public workshops take place on three Saturdays this fall: 24.09, 01.10, and 15.10.22.

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.