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Artist Talks MAMbo

Artist Talks on the occasion of the International Award for Participatory Art

Mel Chin, Pablo Helguera and Jeanne Heeswijk, the three finalists of the International Award for Participatory Art, will stay for a research period in September/October 2010 in Bologna. The purpose of their trip is to get to know the territory and to prepare a proposal for a project to be realized in the capital of Emilia-Romagna in 2011. During the residence they will present their work in a conference at MAMbo Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna.

MEL CHIN. Somethings are more valuable than others  September 14th 2010 – 6.00 pm
Mel Chin (Houston, Tx 1951)
has a broad range of approaches, including multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and individual works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas. He expands the catalytic possibilities of art into issues confronting entire cities and pioneers ways art can provoke greater social awareness, responsibility and action. His lecture will highlight aspects of his mutative strategies, evolutionary development and philosophy by explicating solitary objects, actions, film and collaborative expeditions.

PABLO HELGUERA. Contrappunto Sociale  September 21st 2010 – 6.00 pm
Pablo Helguera (1971) is a Mexican born and New York based artist. Considering  the relationship between history, cultural production and language, Helguera’s work often adopts the format of the lecture, museum display strategies, musical performances and written fiction. He has performed and exhibited at many museums and venues, from MoMA to the Havana Biennial. His project  The School of Panamerican Unrest, was a nomadic think-tank that crossed the continent by car from Anchorage, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, making 40 stops in between. In 2008 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship. He is Director of Adult and Academic programs at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He is the author of ten books, including The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style (2005), a social etiquette Manual for the art world; the novel The Boy Inside the Letter (2008), Theatrum Anatomicum (and other performance lectures) (2009), the play The Juvenal Players (2009) What in the World (2010) and Urÿonstelaii (2010).

JEANNE VAN HEESWIJK. Fields of Interaction  October 19th 2010 – 6.00 pm
Jeanne van Heeswijk (Born 1965, lives and works in Rotterdam The Netherlands) 
is a visual artist who creates contexts for interaction in public spaces. Her projects distinguish themselves through a strong social involvement. With her work, Van Heeswijk stimulates and develops  cultural production and creates new public (meeting-) spaces or remodels existing ones. To achieve this, she often works closely with artists, activists, designers, architects, software developers, governments and citizens. 
Projects include: Talking Trash, personal relationships with waste, MCA Sydney, It Runs in the Neighborhood, a hospital soap series for and by the University Hospital of Stavanger; The Blue House, a long term pilot project in IJburg (Amsterdam) of participatory urban planningDwaallicht, a narrative monument for a working-class neighborhood, Rotterdam; and Face Your World, StedelijkLab Slotervaart, an interactive design lab for youngsters, Amsterdam. Van Heeswijk's work has been featured in biennials such as those of Bushan, Taipei, Shanghai and Venice. She regularly lectures on the topics of urban renewal, participation and cultural production. 

International Award for Participatory Art is a biennial project which started in 2010. The intention of the Award is to support an artistic production beyond market strategies, and to stimulate a source of inspiration for participatory techniques through a biennial call for entries. The jury of the newly founded International Award for Participatory Art, consisting in Julia Draganovic, Rudolf Frieling, Alfredo Jaar, Bert Theis and, for the Legislative Assembly of the Region Emilia-Romagna, Luigi Benedetti, has selected the three finalists of the first edition of the prize. Mel Chin, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Pablo Helguera are invited to spend a research period in Bologna and develop a site specific project idea. The winning project, selected by the same jury, will be created in 2011. Beside the budget to accomplish the project, the winning artist receives an award of 15,000 Euros.

An initiative of the Legislative Assembly of the Region Emilia-Romagna, Italy

 

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