6 juni 2015
Today, saturday, was a very busy day: there was an unending stream of visitors goïng past our booth and in the afternoon we were part of Talks, a part of Art Athena in which discussions and lectures were pesented to an interested audience. Together with three other initiatives from Holland we tried to give an idea of our artistic practice. The space was not crowded but the talks were received well. As for EX-MÊKH: Greek artists wondered about how we financed all our activities. The city of Den Haag and especially STROOM, the bureau that executes cultural politics of the city, is very active in facilitating artistic endeavour. In spite of the national budget cuts artists in Den Haag have serious advantages because of the policy of this institution. On the other hand a project like the Malieveld does not cost a cent, it just takes energy to go to the Malieveld every week, to create something there and to discuss it. George Oreopoulos, the mediator of the talks wanted to know how high the tension would get between the three participators in EX-MÊKH during our projects, but I could reassure him: though discussions can get fierce we are and will stay good friends which helps a lot to get results. The other initiatives: IS-Projects from Leiden, the Tupajumi-Foundation from Rotterdam and kunstenaarsinitiatief Elders from Den Haag also showed their activities of which the first two are not only national. Elders from Den Haag is still young, but they do strive for more international exposure trying to get attention to the quality of perception of art. here you wil find some pictures:
Before the Dutch Initiatives Finnish Initiatives took the table. Here MUU from Helsinki with their exhibiting artist explained their way of working
George Oreopoulos, the mediator and the guy who is responsible for Beton Radio, an art show on Greek radio.
Berenice Staiger talked about the activities of the Tupajumi Foundation and explained the TFHMF award
The succesful FITAX-happenings were also explained
EX-MÊKH had prepared a brief history of our activities which your humble correspondent talked about
With an interesting backdrop we felt very professional
Questions were answered accordingly
IS-Projects was represented by Iemke van Dijk and curating artist John Talmann. First Iemke told about how IS Projects started in their own home in Leiden and how they developed in an initiative that is not very well known in Holland, but shows mainly international activities. Then Tallman explained about how their presentation @ Platforms Project came to life. ( Sorry for the bad picture, something went wrong at that time)
A picture of the living room of IS-Projects in Leiden
Finally Liesbeth van Woerden and Liesbeth Bos of kunstenaarsinitiatief Elders explained their preconditions and showed mood pictures of their activities which worked wonderful in combination with the graphic mind-maps.
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