Aaran Gallery

3 to 6 pm

Procedures of Everyday Practice

Curated by Magdalena Ziółkowska

Part of Seismograph on tour

Partner: Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Krakow

Everyday practices are tactical by nature. They try to take advantage of the possibilities in a situation which is already determined. They find a way of slipping through the cracks in control. Our methods of speaking, communication, reading, dressing up, walking around town… even the tiniest activities, are based on learning about tactics. Technocratic structures fill up every day, multiplying our predetermined actions but not eliminating our agency. Tactics battle with time, since they do not have their own base from which to operate but adjust to what is already there. They sneak into spaces that might open for only a short while and utilizes the data they can gather there. Time organises and dictates events, while tactics search for opportunities to create their own benefit. We all play for these “opportunities” – the weak against the strong, the excluded against the dominating, the invisible against the visible. By choosing tactics, we allow ourselves to organize our individual practices – our experiences, meetings, bonds, battles and joys – for ourselves while learning how to survive in the world of others. Varied tactics were with us throughout the ages – let us recall the Metis of ancient Greece, the goddess of both prudence and perversity, one of the thousands of Oceanides, who combined wisdom with cunning and concocted a treacherous potion for Cronus to deliver Zeus’ siblings. These subterfuges of ancient mythology were preceded by the primordial intelligence of the world of animals and plants, using camouflage, simulation and ruse to ensure the survival of their species in a hostile environment.

Moving from the world of nature to the city and its landscapes, while following the Kraków tradition of Tadeusz Kantor, we might suggest that the best medium for art is found in the regions outside of official awareness; places that are shameful, hidden away in bourgeois interiors, subject to prohibitions and penalties, and overwhelmed by conformity. This place for art has a therapeutic and cleansing effect on an individual – it is a space of conflict, of clashing ideological influences and of the social and political sphere. It can also be a tool for the recognition of everyday reality and its deconstruction into prime factors. The presentation of Procedures of Everyday Practice points to the concept of tactics and how they are utilized by the youngest artists in this city – graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków – Róża Duda, Agnieszka Fluder, Krzysztof Furtas, Martyna Kielesińska, Magdalena Lazar, Marianna Serocka, and Michał Soja. Through their work, they learn how to define their own courses of action.

Selected videos:

Magdalena Lazar, Atoms, 2010, b/w, sound, 00:08:37’
Martyna Kielesińska, There is no thing to be worried about, 2016, colour, sound, 00:04:03
Krzysztof Furtas, Hominism, 2015, colour, sound, 00:08:00
Róża Duda and Michał Soja, Gold mine, 2017, colour, sound, 00:10:20
Marianna Serocka, Wavemaster, music by Undine, colour, sound, 00:06:37
Style="margin-bottom:15px;"Agnieszka Fluder, Monitoring, 2012, colour, sound, 00:03:14

6 pm

Lecture

by Magdalena Ziółkowska

Magdalena Ziółkowska holds a PhD in Art History, is a curator and graduate of the Institute of Art History, University of Warsaw, School for Social Research in Warsaw, and Curatorial Training Programme (de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam, 2006/07). She worked as guest curator in Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2006–2010) and curator in Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz (2008–2014) where she initiated and curated a number of projects and publications, among them international platform for researching Central- and Eastern European practices Art Always Has Its Consequences (2008–10), Working Title: Archive (2008–09), individual show by Sanja Iveković. Practice Makes the Master (2009), Eyes Looking for a Head to Inhabit (co-curator, 2011), Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin. Facts, Incidents, Accidents, Circumstances, Situations (co-curator, 2013–14).

In 2012 she co-founded Andrzej Wróblewski Foundation (www.andrzejwroblewski.pl)– a NGO devoted to develop and popularise the knowledge about life and work of one of the most inspiring and remarkable post-war Polish artist. Beyond the solo show Andrzej Wróblewski. Constantly Looking Ahead (National Museum, Krakow 2012–13), the Foundation co-published with Adam Mickiewicz Institute a bilingual monography Avoiding Intermediary States. Andrzej Wróblewski (1927–1957), worldwide distributed by Hatje Cantz.

Since 2015 she is a director of Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art in Krakow where she co-curated “All Mounds Can Be Seen from My Window” (2015), “Aurélien Froment / Krzysztof Pijarski. Moiré” (2015), “Prabhakar Pachpute & Rupali Patil. Harbingers of Chaos” (2016). Currently she is working on international conference “Exhibition as a medium of history” (31.03–1.04.2017) and upcoming solo exhibition of Ines Doujak (September 2017).

Her research and writing focus on history of exhibitions and display, artists' writing and post-war museology.

Rooberoo Mansion

5 pm

Art, City, and the Politics

Curated by Pouria Jahanshad

For the 7th edition of Limited access Festival, Pouria Jahanshad has selected three urban documentaries. These films portray the city as a space of interaction and confrontation between different forces. Hence the city represented in these three documentaries is a city engaged with the politics; The city where art is deeply connected with everyday life and everyday life merges with art, so as Henri Lefebvre puts art could become an act of the liberation. These films trace various subcultures trying to claim their rights to the city despite being rejected/banned by the authorities.The Right to the city, often a forgotten, yet undeniable matter which can be revived through art and the documentaries in this program depict efforts of artists challenging the symbolic order of the authorities.

New Media Projects

4-7 pm

Remote Homecoming Chapter Two

Curated by Amirali Ghasemi / Parking Video Library

Remote Homecoming is a platform designed to bring videos made by Iranians across the border remotely back home, and to bridge the gap between so-called “inside” and “outside”, while acknowledging.these terms are fading rather quickly or at least are changing tremendously as we speak, still there are numerous obstacles to communicating between the scenes and there is a lot to be learnt. Chapter one of remote homecoming was a selection of short films, videos, and performances from a wide range of Iranian artists from emerging to established and tried to show a gradient of practices across various disciplines and mediums, and was premiered at Limited Access 3 in Tehran & London. The 2nd edition of this program hopes for widening the definition of the medium by sharing a variety of approaches, frameworks, and mediums. To imagine an aperture to what is yet unseen even in this post-social network era we live in.

Ever decreasing the level of attention span, with the massive flux of data running on shallow and fragmented streams, one should appreciate having offline time, pretending everything is not about having the fastest access to “the latest” and to start having faith in “the slowness” again.