Several Persons

Space and Copy (Classes from October, 2020 to January, 2021)

Academy of Fine Arts of Mons, Belgium

Spatial Research studio

With the collaboration of Djos Janssens

Select a real space, then by moving any furniture, and/or adding any props or furniture found on site or nearby, as well as possibly changing the lights, create a space that evokes the mood of the work of one of these three artists of your choice: Vincent Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, Louise Bourgeois.

Make the work that Georgia O'Keefe would make in Bruce Nauman's place. Make the pastiche that she would make, marked with both her signature and that of Bruce Nauman.

Assign a color to each accessible classroom, or to each room in your house that would be accessible. Explain why you assign a particular color to a particular room.

Make a work of art. Then, reproduce this artwork as many times as there are accessible rooms in your school or home, each time changing the variation from the original artwork a little, influenced by the room where the variation is displayed.

Determine the dominant color of the accessible rooms in your home or classroom, by establishing a color chart of the present shades, by object and/or surface, and deducing from this as rationally as possible the dominant shade.

Make a mood map of each room that is accessible to you, in school or home. Take pictures of each room and attach a written description of the atmosphere, the emotion that emanates from each room, trying to be more objective than subjective.

Make a list of the spaces that are available to you at home or at school. Open two folders on your computer, titled: Objective / Subjective. In the Objective folder, collect photos and written descriptions of these spaces that are as objective as possible. In the Subjective folder, collect photos and written descriptions of said spaces that are as subjective as possible.

Make a work that Alicja Kwade and Haegue Yang would create if they worked together under one artist name.

Make a work that Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic would create if they worked together under one artist name.

Make a pastiche of a work by Camille Henrot that is missing something.

Collect ten objects that you find in your school or home. Give them a title and an attribution: attribute them as they are (without modifying them) to 20th or 21st century artists, as if they were authentic creations.

Write a small 6-page visitor's booklet explaining the current exhibition in one of the rooms of your house or school, even though there is not, a priori, an exhibition in the room you have chosen. Pretend there is, and imagine it, and tell it to a visitor.

Write a statement for an exercise of your choice that would engage the notions of space and copying. Ask two of your classmates to do the exercise independently and submit the results to you to present to your teachers.

Make a Duchamp-like Box-in-a-Suitcase: a miniature copy of all the important works you have made, transportable in a small container (no larger than a suitcase).

Create a space like a Russian doll: a space, in a space, in a space, in a space, in a space...

Write words (not sentences) on paper fragments that describe the visible elements of a room of your choice, at home or at school. Glue these pieces of paper to the items you are describing, as if you were identifying each thing. Be as specific as possible. Then take a photograph of the "named" room in detail.

Write words (not sentences) on pieces of paper that describe the unseen elements of a room of your choice at home or at school. Tape these pieces of paper around the room where you feel it is most appropriate to identify and locate the invisible elements you have identified. Be as specific as possible. Then take a photograph of the "named" room with your glued paper fragments in detail.

Make a list of the materials involved in each object and surface in a room of your choice. Write down the techniques used to obtain and transform these materials. Also indicate the origin of these materials, according to your interpretation if you do not have visible information on this subject.

Take a recent newspaper. Cut out all the pictures that represent spaces. Write a caption below the image that explains what space is represented in the image.

Take a recent newspaper. Cut out all the images that represent spaces, excluding from the image by cutting out or obliterating the figures present.

Take a recent newspaper. Cut out all possible images. Classify these images according to nomenclatures that you define yourself.

If the artist Matthew Barney were an architect and urban planner, what city would he build? Sketch the city plan, and gather images (other than images of the artist's work) to establish a visual panorama of your proposal.

Turn an open space into a closed space.

Turn a closed space into an open space.

Make a logical space illogical.

Make a sad place funny.

Turn a space in your home or school into a funeral site.

Rethink the ergonomics of a room in your home or school, moving objects and furniture around to make it more practical, easier to access, easier to navigate.

Select two spaces in your school or home: transform one into a maximalist space, the other into a minimalist space.

Transform one space in your home or school into a space with an African character, according to an African country of your choice (transform it by engaging the art of arranging objects and furniture according to the aesthetics of an African culture chosen by you). Then do the same, in the same space, by coloring the layout with an art of arrangement more characteristic of an Asian culture of your choice.

Read Paul Gauguin's biography on the internet and collect images of the places where he lived. Then select another image for each location image showing a corresponding contemporary location, as if Gauguin had lived in our time.

The exercise of the schema (Class December, 13, 2019)

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels

Art History Class

I wanted to submit an exercise revolving around the founding myths of art history. It may seem a bit naive, but as John Cage and Sister Corita Kent used to say: "Consider everything as an experiment". I am therefore curious to see what your reaction to this exercise might be. I would also like to hear your point of view, based on your experience as a creator, which is as good as mine.

 The instruction would be this: I would like to see you make a diagram representing what the creative act could be, and a discipline of art history that would account for it, (re)modelled according to your convictions/intuitions. How would this be drawn, articulated? I would like to see your thought structured. I am asking you to build a kind of cosmogony of creation. 

We will proceed in groups: each group will discuss for a while how a diagram can be drawn, either by going through an individual sketch stage, cross-checked by a pooling of opinions, or by going directly through the collective debate, tending to arrive at a consensus on the way to realize the diagram.

Each group will then come and briefly present their sketch to the class. An oral support to the diagram is expected: where it is explained to the others, where all the information it carries is given. Don't think that you need to be knowledgeable to engage in this vast portrait of the creative act. On the contrary, I am addressing you who have a creative experience already underway. Please feel free to base this on your personal perception, which you will try to extrapolate.

Drawing this schema of a new history of art (or in other words, a schema of the creative act, in time and space) suggests that you make a statement on the following notions:

Art

Work

Artist

Consciousness/unconsciousness

Time

History

Space

Artistic movement

Fashion

Success, fame

Contexts of reception

Medium, discipline

Technique

Talent

Genius

Inspiration

Influences

Biography

Copy, plagiarism

Once your schema is in place, and your ideas are clear, your group should be able to respond to the following questions, even if they seem naive (this exercise is about having the audacity to go back to the root of these questions, to see what plant, what tree would emerge, with all its ramifications, subtleties, laws).

Thus, you must imagine that your group will have to face the following questions, which you will have to answer, to defend your schematized hypotheses:

What is art? What is not art?

What is a work? What is a finished work? Unfinished? Completed, unfinished ? Successful? Failed?

What is an artist ?

What is talent ? The absence of talent?

Is the work of an artist shaped by the place where he lives?

Is the work of an artist shaped by the life he leads? By what happens to him ? By the family context from which he comes?

What is inspiration? Where does inspiration come from? When does it occur?

What is the relationship between art and suffering? Art and religion? Art and politics? Is art the means of expression of suffering, of religion, of politics?

What is the relationship between art and pleasure ?

What is the genius ? What is the influence ?

Is art a universal language? If so, how can we describe the way this universality works?

Is it possible to copy art ?

Does art function on the principle of originality ?

Is art subject to a moral? 

What is the avant-garde ? What is avant-garde, who is avant-garde ?

What is fashion?

What role does the artist play in a society? In the Western society? In the East?

Who is an artist and who is not?

What is an artistic movement? Does an artistic movement have a limit in time? In space ? Are the artists all singular or are they linked by certain aspects, and which ones?

What is history? The history of art? Who writes history? The history of art? Does the history of art follow the history of humanity ?  

Is art history fair (equitable, ethical, democratic - how to define this "fairness"...)? If it is unjust, how to make it just? Should art history select/value some artists more than others? Some works? According to what criteria? Are some works better than others? If so, in what way are they better?

What is a masterpiece? What is a minor work, an early work?

Is it the context of reception that determines art? Is nature an artist? The only artist ? Is time the artist ? Is space the artist ?

Is it the artist or the viewer who makes the painting ?

The principles of collaboration (Classes from November to December 2019)

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels

"Let Love Rule" Seminar

In collaboration with Lola Martins-Coignus, Loraine Furter, Florence Cheval, Aurélie Gravelat

Time 1: Students are asked to write down as many principles of collaboration as possible (they can also be "immoral" principles, as they are found in the working world, or even absurd, poetic principles). Some principles of collaboration for example: One is the hand, the other is the mind / Some do the so-called manual work, the others the so-called intellectual work / One gives a basic idea, the second appropriates it and then gives it back to the first, who modifies it again / One launches an idea, then all the others (or the other) determine the limits surrounding its implementation / One gives an instruction, the other executes it once to the letter, another time in a more vague way / One gives an instruction, the other does the opposite. .. Everything is pooled afterwards, in a large pot of collaborative principles.

Time 2: Students are asked to bring in stimulus objects of any kind. For example, a newspaper article, a picture, an object bought at a flea market, a natural element... Any possible element, even abstract ones.

Time 3: Work groups of two, three, four (or more) students are drawn at random. Each group draws a collaborative principle from the common pot, and a stimulus object. The groups are formed on the basis of the very realistic principle of "double job" (student + student job / teacher + food job). They must therefore run two hares at the same time; be involved in the creation of two projects (at least) and manage the "agendas" of these two groups.

Time 4: On the bangs of the groups, two "UN observers" are appointed. These observers observe. They follow the progress of the collaborations. The power relationships, the interactions, the working methods at work around them.

Time 5: The groups, equipped with their principles of collaboration and their stimulus-object, create an artistic work based on them. For example, this would give: One is the hand, the other the mind / on a newspaper article talking about the steps taken by Pascal Smet to establish a bicycle path around the inner ring road in Brussels, to three students. The group organizes itself around these constraints. One can possibly multiply the groups, the use or combination of instructions, the number of final creations, etc.

Time 6: The group comes together, this time in a horizontal hierarchy. Each participant writes a testimony in the form of a combination of texts/images/drawings gathered in a pdf, going back over the experience of the said form of collaboration and its result. It is an exercise in editorial formatting and meditation on what this or that form of collaboration generates, according to this or that work protocol.

Time 7: An exhibition of the printed pdf's (possibly replayed, depending on the space) is organized in the last place, where all the pdf's are gathered, in addition to the "objects" produced during the previous workshops, guided by the other participants (Lola, Loraine, Florence). These objects are sent to us so that we can integrate them into the exhibition. 

 

What would we do if we would be americans? (Classes from November 14 to November 19, 2016)

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels

Workshop during the SHARE week, dedicated to the French Theory

(The following text, intentionnally mixing French and English in an irreverent way, was distributed to the students, as an introduction to this workshop)

Je me souviens I remember du film français of the French Movie Les visiteurs avec Jean Reno and with Christian Clavier who was really hilarious sans parler de la délicieuse Valérie Lemercier just astonishing it was en 1993 il y a bien longtemps déjà we can call it a cult movie c’était vraiment fantastique avec Godefroy de Montmirail et sa cotte de maille and Clavier who is known for some great quotes like jour/nuit jour/nuit playing with the interrupteur et alors ce qui est extraordinaire avec ce film a surprising move is that ils ont décidé de faire un remake destiné au public américain but I think that Valérie refused to play in it du coup ils ont dû lui dénicher un remplaçant and it was the same for other actors anyway le film se passait cette fois en Angletterre et aux Etats-Unis et it was titled Just Visiting a kind of joke in itself I guess sorti en 2001 ce remake a été un flop monumental because Gaumont invested a huge amount of cash in it beaucoup de thunes my god.

Je vous propose like an invitation I mean really kind de prendre part à un workshop de deux jours thus very intense au cours duquel vous serez invité à réaliser your own remake de votre propre meilleure œuvre the best one it doesn’t matter if you work with textile or with photography ou que vous êtes un sculpteur just bring your best work with you physically très important de ne pas l’oublier and also take the tools you used to make it amenez aussi les instruments dont vous vous êtes servi pour faire et même pour finaliser cette œuvre matériellement and bring also some other tools that may be usefull for you comme de la colle, une perceuse, de la peinture rouge, du bois, some pieces of metal, some sheets of glossy photo paper, a huge canvas et tout ce qui vous excite lors de la première journée you will copy yourself en vous mettant dans la peau et dans la tête d’un artiste américain what is the american aesthetic of the time ? et quelle est la tienne ? ami français ou belge si il y en a un qui traîne là par hasard because I mean it’s interesting to consider what are les paramètres de l’imaginaire américain d’une part et les données de votre imaginaire on the other side pendant la seconde journée on termine les œuvres et immediately we build an exhibition with all your double works l’œuvre originale et la copie américaine and we’ll just look to what it gives and we’ll have some fun and everything is gonna be alright enfin j’espère je compte sur votre enthousiasme délirant.

En résumé / abstract

> You come with ta meilleure œuvre d’art personnelle of your life achievement

> Tu viens avec les outils que tu as utilisés to make this work in the past

> You listen to me because je vais vous montrer un peu d’images d’artistes américains du moment, you’ll see that they are quite motivated

> Tu fais une nouvelle oeuvre in a very short time qui sera un remake à l’américaine de ton oeuvre

> Tu participes à la construction d’un very nice group show express where both of your works will be exhibited

Mute (Class of November, 9, 2015)

National School of Visual Arts, La Cambre, Brussels

Drawing section : Module 5

In collaboration with Catherine Warmoes

> prior request by e-mail: bring as many drawing utensils and sheets of paper as possible, as well as the initial object

Students bring an object they found on their way to the school and create a first drawing/work from it. Then they each randomly draw a phrase from Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies and modify their drawing accordingly. They pass their work to another student who continues the work based on new phrases drawn from the hat.

A conversation about the work in progress between the teachers and the students is established only through texts and drawings made on the board with chalk. For the rest, the teachers remain silent all day. 

To conclude, a screening of the film: Le rayon vert by Eric Rohmer

The hanging of photography (Classes from February to May 2015)

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels

Photography section (under the direction of Chantal Maes)

The objective of this course is to reflect on the way you present your images, in order to determine what form of scenography best serves your purpose. Which scenography of your photographic work, for which space? The focus of the reflection that we will develop together will of course be your final jury. We will see to what extent I will be able to support you until the end of this final exhibition, or if I will leave you at the doors of it. In the latter case, my goal will have been to give you the necessary tools to adapt to a given place and to deploy your work with the most strength possible. What you will do afterwards, from exhibition space to exhibition space.

Here is a brief presentation of the four sessions I propose (this can still be adjusted as we go along, but the gist is there).

* Class 1: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 (starting at 9:45 am)

In this first class, I will review each of your respective portfolios to discover your work that I am not yet familiar with. You will present the gist of it to me, and I will give you feedback on what appears to me at first glance, just as it happens in jury, except that it will be less solemn and there will be no grades at stake of course. I will spend about 30 to 45 minutes with each student. For ease of reference, we will go in alphabetical order to determine the order in which each student will appear. Feel free to be there early, so we can adapt.

* Class 2: Tuesday, February 24 (starting at 9:45am)

For this second meeting, I will ask you to do some preliminary work consisting of research and visits. During our meeting, we will analyze the fruit of this preliminary work, so it is essential that you have done it beforehand (you can start as soon as you read this letter, no need to wait until the end of the first class to do it, as it may take some time).

So I ask you to bring me, so that we can discuss it:

- Archival images of your past hangings, whatever they may be (even if there was only one image in one place, or in a group show).

 - A collection of at least 50 photos of exhibitions found on the Internet identifying at least five ways of hanging photographs (to be taken in the broadest sense, the presentation of photographs today including a multimedia dimension, a sculptural dimension etc.). I hope that through this research, you will question what exists as a diversity of hanging practices, even if they are a priori far from those that you usually implement.

- Finally, I would like you to take a tour of the galleries/museums in Brussels and to take pictures of at least three exhibitions in which three different hanging policies are implemented. It is not absolutely necessary that they are photography exhibitions. If other types of works are exhibited and you manage to highlight, through your photographic report, the scenographic logic that presides over the exhibition, the goal will be reached.

Here again, we will meet individually, for about thirty minutes, this time in reverse alphabetical order, for a change.

* Course 3 (date to be determined).

This third class will be more practical: we will test a concrete presentation of your work in the studio space (and/or in a specific space of the school, such as the second floor gallery where some juries have previously been held). The idea would be to have two students always busy: while one is presenting me with his test hanging, the other is preparing his in the other space, and then the first one picks up and makes way for the next, while I see the other. We'll confirm this process later, but this will probably be it.

For this test exhibition, I am asking you to bring prints of your work that are a priori of low quality. These prints should be at least three different sizes, so that we can gauge the impact of your images, depending on their size. There is absolutely no need to spend a lot of money on these prints. Low quality black and white prints will do just fine. It's really the size issue we're probing here (from smallest to largest); which is why you might want to give yourself the freedom to test your images in a size you're not used to. Of course, if you have any color test prints that you're circling around this year, bring them along too, so we can test them similarly.

In addition to the B/W prints, you may want to bring a projector, electric spotlights, or other hanging devices that you may be thinking of.

Also, a very important practical note: bring all the hanging materials you will need (water level, tape measure, clamps, lath, tacks, and so on). Don't rely on others or on the school, get used to being independent. You are never better served than by yourself.

* Course 4 (date to be announced)

For this last class, I will probably be with you in the exhibition space you will have found for your final jury. I will then be there to guide you, on a case by case basis, in the space in question. If the venue is not yet available, we will look at your jury preparation together at the workshop, and make final adjustments.