Whit the thaw comes a bit more movement – aside from the chore of cleaing up after winter and refurbishing some dilapidation, we embark on a two-tier activity round: one is archival, making use of the space to investigate some materials that will be handy for a presentation at the BPS22 in Charleroi for the summer (more on that later) and the other
Participation in an interventions at Maubeuge, “La Machine Kunst” instigated by D-K and involving a sort of subjective urban re/de development scheme run out of a local office, identified as ‘succursale’ of this very interdependent dep…
It is to be undertaken in three parts, (schemes A, B and C) as well as an aside investigation of sculptures in public spaces… as part of the investigation about those spaces as a whole – Maubeuge is a good case in point because the planning of the town after it’s destruction in the war was a concerted global effort, in which some aspects seem to have been more relevant than others.
in the old days municipal crews were constantly active in maintaining the parks and plants around the city – nowadays it is mainly contractors who do temporal interventions at intervals often subject to budgetary considerations… and more often than not postponed.
Waiting somewhat still to see how the winter progresses, but already shifing some stuff to be able to get into gear once the weather clears… and if the construction sites alongside allow…
…been laid back for too long, and in the meantime losses are mounting, so we have to try to make more use of what we have – for truely, we have more than we think…
Nature for instance – rekindle some of the verve we had back with the ‘remembering nature’ project proposed by Gustav Metzger (see blogpage) and the fact that it is still not translated to actual brass-tack action – too much talk and no act… bla bla bla…
For some reason the mere existence of the place has become an issue again – true, this year has seen very little to no activity there, due to various factore that are beyond the scope of the place itself – but does connect with the surroundings, which have changed quite a bit… (for the worse)
So,
time to consider if it is still a viable venue, or if we should just leave it behind after investing mildly for some ten years… on the one hand a pity, on the other a bane – if one does not do anything then one can’t really fret either, or.. (either / or) and admittedly, have left it to rot somewhat…
(not that it can’t be refurbished and all that) – a matter of time, having enough time to do something about it, and the willingness too…
(now that my contract ends with the year, I was hoping to spend some more time there… and mayber get something going again, be it literary, pseudo-graphic, conceptual sort of entity to relate to the others… all still in the abstract projective…)
One of the notions is to combine it with the ‘bizarre’ project commencing in early 2024 in which I might consolidate or lose entirely some fictive entities and personae, relationships and references… I had already been making notes in the general direction of a plan, scheme or proposal… (Might be a problem because this is the Walloon part and culture-exploits are being segregated… on the other hand just a reason to attempt a unitary project- as antidote)…
Fifty Fifty archive symposium englobant un rassemblement de straatmannekes & -vrouwtjes.
le 22 août est le jour dans laquelle le bras a perdu son maîtreIl y a maintenant 13 ans que nous étions invitées à tenir une réunion d’archives Fifty-Fifty dans la tente d’Angel Vergara Santiago – Une fois de plus, Straatman nous invite à une réunion symposium pour discuter et éclairer l’état des affaires archivistiques dans l’arène du Grand Hornu près de Mons (Saint Ghislain) dans le Borinage.
At the nearby Musée de Beaux Arts de Tournai – one of my favorites – a wonderful exhibition is (still) taking place in which the quiet and understated prevails… something we are in dire need of it seems to me… A refreshing oasis of calm and consideration, of slight reverberations we hardly ever pay attention to, including the one emanating form our own body, corpus reverberatus, responding to the wavelengths of our surroundings.
Baudouin Oosterlynck has achieved a wondrous balance within the sumptuous architectural creation by Horta and one’s own personal sonic and visual space – the exhibition “entre l’oeil et l’oreille” is a combination of installation, laboratory, cartographic and historical voyage into the absence/of sound – in the middle he placed his “A Pro-Peau Nr. 2” – a cone shape partially enclosed with paper membrane, a body of an instrument in which to linger – and depending on the actions of oneself or others outside, listen to… the space, not only one’s own but that of all present and the halls themselves, all being directly connected… it is the first time that I actually listened to this museum.
instruments, landscapes of silence
At various intervals on tables and plints, some of his ‘Instruments d’écoute‘ often glass receptacles in which one can not see the sound one creates – underlining the magic of this wonderous nothingness while demonstrating empirically it’s function… for careful and considered participation by the public… To one side the geographic tables of places the artist has visited in his quest for silence, surrounded by paintings from the collection in which artists too, have been inspired and attracted to far-flung wilderness scenes, places of solitude an solace, alone with one’s creative talent in the world at large – In another room instruments, historical rarities and unique pieces surrounded by images of musicians or creators in their surroundings – the potentiality of a not-yet commenced work aptly illustrated by Fantin-Latour’s “Portrait of Miss Budgett” and the empty Harp-case (Arp-case) which has obviously traveled the world and which you can listen to via stethoscope… or make music with itself, as with the see-through piano lid, pane of glass responding to the touch with vibration…
The (H)arp sounds nothing yet…
Sonorous vessel in space
On the other side the artist’s wide and varied collection of glasses (prothèses pour l’oeil) from all continents and all ages, aptly framed by works found in the collection dealing with the issue of correcting sight – with the “Racommodeur de Souflets” from the XVI century as case in point – further through to the space dominated by humongous allegories a collection of acoustic prosthesis ‘pour l’oreille‘ in which the visual aspect is the most striking, being made of shiny brass and worn in different ways… one has to be disciplined enough to not touch these works – being so very attractive… But there are periodic demonstrations and concerts by the artist along with the percussion department of the conservatory just down the road…
visual aides, bifocal and more
sound reflection/refraction
Having visited a number of exhibitions by Oosterlynck, including one here in Péruwelz not so long ago, I sort of knew what to expect, but was still amazed at the intricate and sympathetic way he combined his work with the museum itself (the work of a fellow artist as it were) and the collection and the physical proportions… quite an achievement and a wonderful surprise – well worth going back to more than once … for those that couldn’t be there; a complete and voluminous catalogue is well worth acquiring and re-experiencing at home…
meant to be working on the roof garden, but was way-laid by the chimney
sweep, huh…
but we had a conversation with some possible new neighbors, now still living on a boat in Ghent harbour, but looking at a place nearby (Bon Secours) to plant veggies and stuff – that would be a nice addition to the alternative scene – but still a lot of if’s to consider…
….this summer did not get to do much because both houses left and right began major works – lots of banging an whirring and such, so we decided not to schedule any sort of activity just yet (had planned for punctual meets…)
so the windows were also sort of sorry, waiting for Godot i suppose…
Decided suddenly on an additional excursion to Paris even though we had said the visit to Charleville – Mézières would be our August trip for this year…. But my eye fell on a special offer by the French Railways and the fact that we did want to see Ann Veronica Janssen’s intervention under the pendulum of Foucault… So we decided to take the opportunity to make use of our Peruwelz-succursale (depinterdep) as springboard and took the TGV from Valenciennes… Making all very manageable and easy, at least we hoped so… We had not always been lucky with fast train connections, and so it was somewhat fingers crossed.
grandes hommes et une femme….
Woke up early because I thought my alarm went off, but after a while, already puzzled by the darkness of the morning, I noticed it had not been the alarm but a message from the SNCF to say that the wifi on our train wasn’t working… Thus, much too early and bleary-eyed chugged off to our way-station where we boarded the tram to Valenciennes, since I wanted to save parking fees for down-town, cutting periphery costs further… In the end it all went well, though a good bakery in V was a bit of an idle hope.. Train was comfy though, one of the newer ones… Not many passengers until Arras… And that’s where the price is from… Slow going till there (via Douai) and then speedy along the fast line to Paris. On arrival could curtail our tendency to go strolling from the station and took the metro to Odeon, where we then did have a decent coffee before heading towards the Jardin du Luxembourg, to then peal off towards the Pantheon.
This immense building has regained some interest of late, after years of relative calm… With the installation of permanent works for the ‘pantheonisation’ of Maurice Genevoix in 2020, six large vitrines by Anselm Kiefer and a sound work by Pascal Dusapin, the place has been revitalised and now with the intervention of Ann Veronica Janssens under the Pendulum of Foucault seemingly quite an attraction… With reason. While only one of the numerous shows she has in France this year, she managed to find just the right balance to avoid being too present in this imposing space but the literally reflect it while reminding us, though Foucault, that we are just part of the whole, turning slowly through space.. The space subverted while being elucidated… I saw one visitor approach the mirror as were it a huge gap in which one could fall into the cupola instead of the cover to the central space of the labyrinthine crypt below… Interesting idea since the bombast of the place relies on the diminutive remains which our physical life on earth leaves us to ponder… The pendulum marking each passage with a slow grace and constancy, and in this case reflected to form an eight forever turning in on itself… A fifty-fifty movement as it were.
An impressive intervention in an impressive space, in which the work of Kiefer also functions but takes a bit of getting used to: while well integrated in the space and materially sympathetic, they do somewhat stand out and hopefully with time and patina recede into the whole… But as an update it seems to work…
Down to the crypt to consider the other question we had posed ourselves after the trip to Charleville-Mézières, namely the controversy if Arthur Rimbaud should be ‘pantheonised’ too… Along with Verlaine of all people… This is a bit of a headache, and gut reaction would be: No way! Rimbaud was practically against everything this bombastic war-mongering monument originally stood for and still retains in its epic murals and huge figures towering over us mere mortals… On the other side also, the conceivers of this place would flip in their mausoleums if riff-raff such as Arthur and Paul should gain access… All sides would agree that it is completely impossible…
But wandering around the crypt one can’t help notice that there is still a lot of space… The builders probably thought the nation would keep producing prominent figures at a frightful rate… Ah, Vive la France… But quite a few of the cells are used as storage for all sorts of stuff and could easily house (even a live) riff-raff (SDF) poet or two… More to the point would be what the existing (permanent) residents and their next of kin or sponsoring entities would think… Probably they would balk, and who knows, some illustrious residents might move out! Merde!, not another (ever so long) season in hell?. No matter if the illuminating light breaks out of Rousseau’s tomb…(égalité, huff, Voltaire just across the way) So, on balance I think it’s better to leave him in Charleville cemetery, punishment enough.
still room for more SDF poets…
Speaking of which, another conundrum concerning these two cities – we headed down the hill to my old haunt in the Marais, more specifically the Place des Vosges, still not sure if it is copy or original of the Place Ducale in Charleville… But here it is… They were conceived at around the same time by brothers, (some say father and son) both architects, one Clement, the other Louis Métezeau, one in 1606, the other in 1612… Or around that time, accounts vary… (various architects in family, buildings attributed but not certain…) It seems quite a few people are confused & don’t really know: Parisians consider the Place Ducale as ‘try-out’, the Charlevillians see the Place des Vosges as a copy… So having now visited both within a fortnight, we still don’t know… (thus remaining a fifty-fifty question for next time)
Returned to the Gare du Nord via Port de Chapelle and were impressed that there seem to be more Indians than ever before, displacing to some degree the Africans from the neighbourhood, thus as with all cities, movement afoot all the time, even if in the city centre one might cling to the illusion of timelessness… For a bit between the tourist hoards… The ride back to Valenciennes was on time and a bit crowded, but late sunshine and pleasant cloud-play made it pass quickly, regaining our car and Belgium in good time and home before long… Well worth it.
.. it all seems to be much faster than one is used to… suddenly it accelerates, and long whiles are left behind at breakneck speed… change in spurts, short spurts, and then calm again…so much for thinking this might be a forgotten corner which could remain unobtrusive….
But there is too much to do elsewhere and so we find the activities at Péruwelz are reduced to an occasional visitation to the forest green and the grand canal – while still enjoying immensely the lovely garden… but plans for a working printshop are still in limbo, even though a lot of the material required is there… a matter of time and organization to get it up and running…
we see it as a summertime project (along with the usual fix and upkeep) and hopefully by autumn there will be some progress, and who knows, maybe even a small production…
depinterdep 