Guest editor: Dunja Nešović Deadline: 21 August 2022 Published: January 2023
Failure – the notorious F-word – is inevitable. The discrepancy between the expectation (or promise) and the ability (or willingness) that produces failure can equally result in catastrophe, resistance, or even mundane disappointment. The different manifestations and outcomes of failure correspond to anthropologist Arjun Appadurai and media scholar Neta Alexander’s proposal that failure is a judgment.[1] As a judgment, failure is defined by both the structures of its appearance and the agents producing and affected by it.
We’re happy to announce the launch of the new issue of Kunstlicht at BAK on June 10 at 18:30. The issue is titled Algorhythms: Living in and out of Sync with Technology. We are looking forward to seeing to in Utrecht!
Guest editor: the editorial team Deadline: 18 April Published: October 2022
In All About Love (1999),bell hooks remarks that values of money and work have replaced love and community. This reverberates to the present tense, when a crisis of compassion has become a hot topic in the healthcare industry. It goes without saying that hooks wishes to reverse this, and “return to love”. Love is a tender dissent to the disarming structures of capitalism.
This event was originally planned on February 18, but due to bad weather the event has been postponed to February 26. Our apologies and we hope to see you there.
Location: VU Art Science Gallery, De Boelelaan 1111, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Date: 26 February, 2022, 4-6 pm Time: TBD
Join us for an evening in the VU Art Science Gallery, amidst the exhibition that inspired it all. This launch is hosted by the guest editor of this issue, Maria Chiara Miccoli, and Kunstlicht’s editors-in-chief, Joyce Poot and Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen.
Meanwhile, Bar Boele will serve drinks infused with sonic bubbles by DJ Zero and the illustrious OMFO.
In this issue of Kunstlicht, the reader is invited to investigate how zero has captured the imagination of scientists and philosophers alike. This issue of Kunstlicht compliments the exhibition 0 Starting from Zero, which features the artworks of Jennifer Tee, Jan Robert Leegte, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand and Nicky Assmann, who visualise various aspects of the number zero. The contributions in this issue philosophically expand on the concept of sūnya and zero even further, whilst simultaneously interpreting this concept as a void and /or a fullness.
JENNIFER TEE, ATOMS SERIES #2, 2016, HAHNEMÜHLE MUSEUM ETCHING PAPER, 350 GMS (FRAMED), 66,5 X 66,5 CM (EACH). EDITION OF 3. COURTESY GALERIE FONS WELTERS, AMSTERDAM. PHOTO GERT JAN VAN ROOIJ.
Unfortunately, this launch is cancelled due to the covid-19 restrictions. We plan to re-schedule this in February. Please check this page for updates.
Location: VU Art Science Gallery, Amsterdam
In this issue of Kunstlicht, the reader is invited to investigate how zero has captured the imagination of scientists and philosophers alike. This issue of Kunstlicht compliments the exhibition 0 Starting from Zero, which features the artworks of Jennifer Tee, Jan Robert Leegte, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand and Nicky Assmann, who visualise various aspects of the number zero. The contributions in this issue philosophically expand on the concept of sūnya and zero even further, whilst simultaneously interpreting this concept as a void and /or a fullness.
The contributors to this issue delve into the complexity of zero from several perspectives, enquiring about social structures, digital constructs, systems of perceptions, and the fields of contemplation and observation. The reader is thus encouraged to approach the concept of zero as a liminal space that overcomes the boundaries between art, philosophy, and science, opening to interdisciplinary analysis.
Please join us for an afternoon in the VU Art Science Gallery, amidst the exhibition that inspired it all. This launch is hosted by the guest editor of this issue, Maria Chiara Miccoli, and Kunstlicht’s editors-in-chief, Joyce Poot and Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen.
JENNIFER TEE, ATOMS SERIES #2, 2016, HAHNEMÜHLE MUSEUM ETCHING PAPER, 350 GMS (FRAMED), 66,5 X 66,5 CM (EACH). EDITION OF 3. COURTESY GALERIE FONS WELTERS, AMSTERDAM. PHOTO GERT JAN VAN ROOIJ. RISO RENDER FOR KUNSTLICHT COVER BY RISOWISO.
We’re happy to announce the launch of the new issue of Kunstlicht at Framer Framed on October 16th at 19:30. The issue is titled The Worldliness of Oil: Recognition and Relations, and delves into how oil continues to shape individual experiences and national identities, propelling conflict and creating disparate economic opportunities.
Date: Saturday October 16th Time: 19.30h Register here for free
In this double issue of Kunstlicht, the reader is invited to investigate the (parallel or displaced in time) relations between, and experiences of, oil nations, or petrostates, if you will. These are countries that are marinating in resources, but also deeply entrenched and engaged in resource conflicts and wars. Those who live on and support themselves off the lands and oceans are directly impacted by this industry, and consequently its economy and politics. The contributors to this issue delve into these complex cultural fields from a wide range of perspectives relating to the past, present and future.
During this launch Kunstlicht will present a reading from Clementine Edwards, and speak with artist Tanja Engelberts and writer Niloufar Nematollahi, all introduced by the guest editors and curators Anne Szefer Karlsen and Helga Nyman. Please join us for an evening in the name of the experiences of oil hosted by Kunstlicht’s editors-in-chief, Joyce Poot and Anna Sejbæk Torp-Pedersen.
Clementine Edwards is a Rotterdam- and Naarm/Melbourne-based artist who works across sculpture, film, performance, writing and jewellery. Her ongoing research line is material kinship, which she locates in the context of climate colonialism. Soon Clementine publishes The Material Kinship Reader, co-edited by Kris Dittel. clementineedwards.com.
Tanja Engelberts is currently a resident at the Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. She graduated from a master fine art at Chelsea College of Art & Design after studying sculpture and monumental arts in both the Netherlands and Japan. Her works are included in the collections (a.o.) of Clifford Chance (UK), Nationale Nederlanden (NL) and the Ucross Foundation (USA).
Helga Nyman is an art historian and curator at Stavanger Art Museum, Norway.
Niloufar Nematollahi is a Rotterdam-based artist and researcher currently studying Middle Eastern studies and international relations. Intrigued by the intersections between culture and politics, Nematollahi studies artifacts such as stories and propaganda in order to construct a truthful representation of people’s entanglements with political dynamics of all sorts. Currently, Nematollahi’s research focuses on the links between the Iranian oil industry, labor movements, and resistance literature in the south of Iran.
Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and Professor of Curatorial Practice, currently programme director for MA Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen, Norway.
Ruby de Vos is a PhD candidate at the University of Groningen, where she is finishing her PhD “Living with Toxicity: Toxic Temporalities in Contemporary Art and Literature”. She writes about art for various platforms, and has curated, among others, Mngrv by Susanne Kriemann at Galerie Block C in 2020, and After Hiroshima: Cultural Responses to the Atomic Bomb, a cultural week about nuclear weapons at various locations in Groningen in 2019.
With thanks to Felix Meritis and their Cultural Emergency Hospital. Felix Meritis opens their doors to make their corona-proof facilities available to other cultural institutions or artists who are also struggling due to corona, but want to keep creating. To support that, they are offering our facilities free of charge. That way, Felix Meritis allows others to catch their artistic breaths right in the beautiful center of Amsterdam.
We are very excited to announce that on June 11, we will host a livestreamed launch of our newest issue Spellbound as part of Felix Meritis’ program Cultural Emergency Hospital.
This issue focusses on rituals and magical practices within contemporary art and visual culture. Join us online for an evening full of artists’ performances, a studio visit and two presentations from contributing writers, and hopefully a bit of enchantment.
The Magical theme related to ‘spells’ is understood in the widest interpretation possible, as something supernatural, something which goes beyond traditions of rationale or logic. And importantly, Magic also is understood in this issue as something which is at the heart of rationale and logic itself, undermining these epistemologies’ promised security. Why, when, and how do we cast spells? What spells do we need right now? The issue is filled to the brim with contributions answering, nuancing, and broadening our scope.
The language of this program is English. The link to the livestream can be found on this page on the day of the event.
This program is part of the Cultural Emergency Hospital of Felix Meritis: Felix Meritis opens their doors to make their corona-proof facilities available to other cultural institutions or artists who are also struggling due to corona, but want to keep creating. To support that, they are offering our facilities free of charge. That way, Felix Meritis allows others to catch their artistic breaths right in the beautiful center of Amsterdam.
Femmy Otten, detail of “Ontklede dagen”, 2015-2016. Riso print by Riso Wiso, Arnhem.
