torino street art in biella…

…so back in Biella… a couple of our residents, Aastha Chauhan and Raphael Franco invited street art collective URBE from Turin to work on some external walls at Cittadellarte.

Together they came up with the idea of  drawing on the walls using a high pressure water jet to clean away the accumulated dirt and expose the true surface below. The technique was hugely effective…

Below they used a more lo-fi technique of wiping away the dirt again using a stencil. Anyway, beautiful work i think…and kudos to Aastha and Raphael who are always very generous in sharing possibilities through collaborations…

emilia telese über art proffessional…

It’s the 3rd year we have invited Emilia Telese, Italian born, UK based artist and professional practice expert to come to UNIDEE and run workshops on professional practice for artists. I really like her workshops, they are always concrete and useful and perfect for anyone having an art-organisational-crisis!

Emilia breaks down the reality for us as artists on necessary evils such as how to operate within the art system effectively when applying for funds/grants/project submission…She talks about fundraising and about the do’s and dont’s of a good artists statement, sounds simple but all my good intentions tend to go out of the window as soon as i start to write a statement. Some things to bear in mind…

A statement is NOT a bio, but instead the philosophy of your work
A statement is NOT a marketing pitch, no emphatic pitching please!
Avoid vague jargon and express your concept clearly (to quote E. T. no ” my work is about memory and identity” please!!!

Also for sure its a good idea for a few critical friends to pick at your statement before you send it off…

She also recommends “Career Suicide” Alistair Gentry

Incidentally and ironically i stumbled across  the “Arty Bollocks Generator“  a month ago, it automatically generates artists statements full of art jargon that say and mean nothing! anyone wanting a laugh should check it out…

Mind mapping as an exercise in visualising your art project holistically

UNIDEE in progress…

…well well well, after 116 days, we had our open studio. I never had so much responsibility before for such an event. UNIDEE in progress is supposed to be a work in progress rather than an exhibition in the classic sense, but it still brings with it all the problematics of a group show. On the day itself, L, my boss pretty much disappears under an avalanche of guests and partners, obligations…it’s a part of her job that i don’t envy, all that smoozing, all the politics that come with running an institution within an institution, the constant search for grants and partners…am happy to stick with the arty part…

Of course there was technical help and support, but we were short staffed and at some points i felt like i was going to be split into 14 pieces…i would stride past people saying in a shrill voice “everything all right, every thing ok?” and i would here people mutter “she’s a bit stressed isn’t she…” Too bloody right i was… and then something miraculous happened…around about 3pm, as doors were about to open, the spaces had been cleaned, the technical problems all but ironed out…and the whole thing was looking pretty bloody good actually. I have posted lots of photos on the official UNIDEE blog i have been keeping of the event, but here i wanted to mention one of my favourite moments.

Sara Hany Abed’s performance: a young Egyptian artist who has never done anything like this before, quietly got on with writing a list of  “some of the advantages of being an artist, a female, and arabic muslim” Really simple, really direct, and really, in that place at that time, moving…

The Fondazione is not an easy space to show in, you are always battling with the spectacular architecture and vast scale of the place itself…and then there is our zero budget!!!…and then you are trying to have some kind of cohesion between numerous works and projects. But (and obviously i am a bit biased here) i think this was a strong show…It was not an easy year for sure, but the work was concentrated and very focused and made for a very strong group experience and some powerful performances…

14 desks…

Am repeating the images i posted the other day in my UNIDEE blog, because this is indeed a very interesting time, we are in the last 10 days of a 4 month residency and the studio space is about to dramatically change.

Everything will be cleared out and next week we will start to install works. You can become very accustomed life in to a residency, every experience (both good and bad) becomes heightened, and you can pack into 4 months what you might normally experience in one year. So it is a big deal to have to clear out your studio space. Right now i think the desks in our space look very beautiful, full of work and ideas hence this post:

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in on the joke…

…another nice moment during the UNIDEE residency…Michelangelo Pistoletto, totally in on the joke as Kosta Tonev, a UNIDEE artist in residence interviews him about a particularly ugly pair of shoes he (Kosta) bought in Biella because they were decorated with a symbol that looked suspiciously like Michelangelo Pistoletto’s own symbol for the Third Paradise.  Pistoletto (un prompted), an old pro in the art of performance and irony, answered all questions deadly seriously but with a glint in his eye, managing to juggle the absurd with high art…it was a very nice moment…

below is an excerpt from Kosta’s film:

“I am interested in the discrepancy between the intentions of the author and the meanings that are expressed unintentionally. I want to challenge the concept of authorship often seen as uniqueness and originality.” Kosta Tonev

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