The following names of artists have been announced for ARCUS Project 2008 Ibaraki, Artist-in-Residence Program:
Paulien Oltheten
Daniel Salomon
Joshua Sofaer
At the preliminary selection by ARCUS Project Administration Committee, 350 applicants from 63 countries/regions have been narrowed down to 32 finalists. The final selection has done by 3 international curators – Giovanni Carmine (Director of Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Switzerland), Joseph Del Pesco (Curator of Artists Space, US) and Gridthiya Gaweewong (Artistic Director of Jim Thompson Art Center).
Asian Cultural Council (ACC) has been supporting ARCUS Project for long years. With the support of ACC and recommendation of ACC Taipei, Ya-Chu Kang from Taiwan will be invited as one of the resident artists this year.
(Born in 1982, Place of birth: The Netherlands, Lives and works in: Amsterdam)
Paulien Oltheten is an artist who works mainly on photography and video. She collects and analyzes a number of anonymous people’s daily gestures and actions. From this archive of gestures, one can find the differences among cultures and structure of the society. She herself describes her way of approach as anthropologist rather than artist.
During the stay in ARCUS, Oltheten is planning to create series of photography and video with recording people’s daily life. During the open studio, she is going to have lecture/performance.
“Through photographs and video the artist presents an investigative approach: identifying idiosyncratic moments, gestures, and unintentional performances of people in public-space and without instrumentalizing or limiting the meaning(s) of the resulting works.
The carefully selected collection of found performances point to the subtleties of social mores and unconscious physical or situational communication. Supporting these findings with a lecture and contextual exploration, the artist unfolds the process and reads the images as a performance of her own.”
Joseph Del Pesco
(Born in 1976, Place of birth: Denmark, Lives and works in: Paris)
Daniel Salomon has conducted projects in motif of “Esperanto” language since 2003. Esperanto is invented based on the utopian idea “one world” which crosses over the nations. Many individuals and groups are learning and using Esperanto nowadays, however, it is still far from its idea as the “second language for all people”.
Salomon’s projects so far include: speech and lecture in Esperanto, Esperanto football team, Esperanto fast food restaurant, Esperanto sausage production company, Esperanto diplomatic conference. These projects show his process of exploration of the “commonness” or “mutual understanding” under the global situation which often creates contradiction and conflict.
At ARCUS Studio, Salomon is going to create an Esperanto fashion brand and promote it with unique brand logo. He will also research on the Esperantists in Japan.
“Languages are a central medium for the understanding and the development of knowledge. The idea to have Esperanto as topic for his work makes Salomon’s art not only very contemporary, but kind of “funny”… Nevertheless his approach is very serious and constructive and his work is very coherent and consistent. On the other hand, his performative approach is very actual and makes him very adaptable to different contexts. I think his project makes very much sense in the Japanese context, or at least from an European point of view. I’m very curious to see the result!”
Giovanni Carmine
(Born in 1972, Place of birth: UK, Lives and works in: London)
Sofaer has worked on the projects which involve collaborative work and audience participation in his creating process. For example, in the “Scavenger” series which was conducted in SFMOMA and Tate Modern, audiences were divided into small groups and they raced for collecting the strange garbage and information which found in the neighbor of the museum. The group which brought back the funniest thing got the prize and the object was exhibited in the museum. Sofaer tries to reveal the border between the daily life and performance as well as the form of exhibition.
Sofaer will be working on the project which includes the collaboration and participation of the local community. The project theme is “Garbage and Recycle”. He will conduct research on the garbage collection system in Moriya and recycling facility, and create the project.
“Blurring between art and life, his interest in sustaining the relationship with materials culture and everyday rituals by proposing to do research on waste and recycle materials is an up-to-date issue that we all concerned. Japan is well known for the materials culture productions, his project will create awareness to audiences about the recycle issue. It shall reinforce that artistic project can reach another level, getting away from the art world to reach real world. By engaging with the system, people and playing with the notion of an ‘scavenger’, ‘hunt’, or ‘competition’, this strategy will help artist and audiences to learn from this process together.”
Gridthiya Gaweewong
(Born in 1980, Place of birth: Taiwan, Lives and works in: Taipei)
Kang has been interested in Japanese culture and history, as well as those influences on the local people and will research on those cultures. Especially, she is focusing on textiles, dyeing and Ukiyoe and will visit those factories. Based on the research, she will create the work which features the relationship between Japanese traditional costume and human boy. Also, she is planning to collect Japanese daily things for creating her work. Kan’s works will be open to public during the 23rd Japanese Cultural Festival as a solo exhibition and workshop.