Muntadas
f x fear
what is fear? where does it come from? do we understand it? on our third drop of the alphabet, the artist Muntadas leads us through a looming reflection on the nature of fear.
fear is a sentiment.
Muntadas centres his work around information- the way it is disseminated and consumed, the way it affects the angle under which social issues and public opinion are shaped, and the way in which certain ideas are promoted and championed whilst others are censored and silenced.
Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz galeriampa.com/en/artists/representeds/antoni-muntadas/
Galería Joan Prats www.galeriajoanprats.com/muntadas/
Hannah Collins
e x earth
the voice of the artist is happy to share Hannah Collins’ reflections on our own possible relationship with the earth and on hopeful beginnings.
Hannah Collins uses photography, film and sound recordings as ways of identifying sites, situations and communities that are tightly shaped by their geographical location, to address historical and social behaviour patterns. her work is innately linked to her extensive travels through the world.
www.hannahcollins.net
www.maureenpaley.com/exhibitions
hannahcollins.net/news
www.galeriajoanprats.com
Ana Prvački
h x humour
until the alphabet is complete, no subject is too light or too grave, from love, to humour to A.I. just follow the letters of the alphabet and prick up your ears!
artists have much to contribute to the debate in our society but often times their voices are difficult to find. we bring artists and their views closer to you, because listening to new ideas, to new perspectives can push you out of your comfort zone and open up your mind to perceive the world from different angles.
Ana Prvački’s training and background in music, theatre, mask work, architecture, fine art and beekeeping, informs a cross disciplinary practice that ranges from watercolours to video, performance and augmented reality. in the words of Marina Abramović: «her tools are her wit and humor, through which she delivers a clear message straight to the public».
www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/gropiusbau/programm/artist-in-residence/ana-prvacki/start.html
Oriol Vilanova
c x collection
is a collection an expression of a desire or is it a remedy to cover a need?
Oriol Vilanova pushes us to confront our relentless chase for happiness, masked under the pursue of accumulation and excess.
each collection is a biography that defines us.
the voice of the artists invites you to discover our 4th drop of the alphabet and to gently revise how you feel about being a custodian or being a keeper.
by rummaging through flea markets, his favourite places for research, Brussels based Oriol Vilanova builds up a collection of postcards to create a “thinking machine” that provides the conceptual foundations for his plays, installations and performances generating a visual encyclopaedia that probes history and stories.
Esther Ferrer
t x time
is it possible that the pandemic has forced us, all of us and all together simultaneously, to question the concept of time?
Esther Ferrer muses about the physicality of time, a material that can be pushed and stretched and turns heavy or light leaving a trace of anxiety behind.
the voice of the artist throws this question out: will we ever go back to a ‘normal’ time?
the work of Esther Ferrer is centred around performance art and the use of her own body as a point of reference that relates to space and to social situations. her work is direct and devoid of any spectacularisation, often embracing humour to create empathy.
Nástio Mosquito
m x Mosquito
this is M for Mosquito, M for Much More, M for Multiplicity.
Nástio Mosquito is demanding from us more involvement, more engagement, more connection, more ‘contamination’ with others so we become the FULL human-fuckers we all need to be M to the C to the H, our 6th contribution to the alphabet, invites us to fulfil all the multiplicity of multiple possibilities out there.
multimedia artist and elucidator Nástio Mosquito is known for performances, videos, music and poetry that show an intense commitment to the open-ended potential of language.
easily misread as a kind of mockery, it is the extraordinary expression of an urgent desire to engage with reality at all levels.
Gary Hill
d x death
Gary Hill’s poetic and quiet reflection of death, and the inevitability of what TIME brings, is beautiful and elusive creating a disoriented feeling of possibility.
is death the still point that causes the ripples that touch others once we are gone?
are you prepared to consider what your legacy might be like?
Gary Hill is a pioneer artist in video installations that mix images, texts, sounds, music and performance to give a disorientating experience.
he understands the imperfect and disappointing nature of representation. he uses technology and language, through video and sound to create poetic and playful works in which the perception (and reception) of the viewer is an integral part of the work itself.
Alexandra Pirici
o x ongoingness
ongoingness as the capacity to persist when we encounter precarious moments, when endurance and frailty manifest themselves and carry us to go on against all odds.
Pirici speaks here of ‘ongoing action’ as a choice of a quiet determination to keep up with our endeavours, to allow us time to be present.
in periods like these, when we live in a permacrisis, how do we continue to uphold our responsibilities?
Alexandra Pirici is an artist with a background in dance and choreography who works undisciplined, across different mediums. she choreographs ongoing actions that fuse dance, sculpture, spoken word and music. her works deal with monumentality or the history of specific places and institutions in order to playfully tackle and transform existing hierarchies.
Venice Biennale
https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2022/milk-dreams/alexandra-pirici
Arash Fayez
i x in-between
what happens when our mind and our body find themselves between two locations, two cultures, two identities? we can occupy that space either longing for what we had, who we were, or we can embrace it with the trepidation of what is to come.
Arash Fayez reflects on the nature of what being in-between really is- is it a transient state or does it become permanent and paralysing?
Arash Fayez investigates conditions of displacement and notions such as statelessness, limbo, and in-between. his projects explore situations where the mind is in limbo and the body is in between two locations, two cultures, or two identities.
Lúa Coderch
a x attention
one can either pay attention to somebody or something, or one can draw the attention of others. attention can be commanded or it can be given, but it is always an active choice that requires engagement.
Lúa Coderch turns a group of isolated individuals into a unified body of audience by telling a ‘story’ – so the attention the story excites becomes the agent of change in that group.
through videos, performances and installations, the work of Lúa Coderch deals with the ways we try to make sense of our perceptions, and with how stories and images are essential to give form to our lives.
Tim Etchells
l x limits
“thinking through the idea of ‘Limits’ is a really useful way for me to engage with creative possibilities in any situation.”
there are limitations in whatever we do, constraints that force us to push and wiggle in order to turn them into possibilities, into rich, varied and ripe outcomes.
Tim Etchells is an artist and a writer whose work shifts between performance, visual art and fiction. he is drawn to the performative aspect of language and uses it to open thoughts, questions and ideas into the viewer. he is the leader of the Sheffield-based performance group Forced Entertainment.
Website:
timetchells.com
Jonas Staal
p x propaganda
the term propaganda is richer in meaning than we may think – Jonas Staal uses his voice as an artist to make us reflect on other possibilities the word brings.
ditch the negative connotation of propaganda and instead consider it as a way to plant seeds, ideas, and imaginaries, that can be harvested across a different generation to build alternative worlds.
embrace the freedom to propagate the world-making capability of art and turn against dominant and rigid attitudes.
Jonas Staal is a visual artist and activist whose work deals with the relationship between art, propaganda, and democracy. he is the founder of New World Summit, an artistic and political organization that develops parliaments with and for stateless, blacklisted, and autonomist organizations.
Website:
www.jonasstaal.nl
Galleries:
www.gallerialaveronica.it/
Yiannis Pappas
can Yiannis Pappas’ beautiful reflections on what is sacred, become the roadmap we all should follow in order to create a better society?
take this opportunity to remind yourself of the beliefs that are worth holding on to.
the work of Berlin-based performance and visual artist Yiannis Pappas is laced with an appreciation for ritual, beauty and discipline. he has a deep fascination for the relation between space and the human body in natural and urban environments and works using opposing dynamics: figurative and abstract forms, soft and hard materials, the durational and the ephemeral…
wepresent.wetransfer.com/stories/yiannis-pappas-selected-by-marina-abramovic
Pablo Bronstein
Pablo Bronstein’s meditation on value is an exercise of self-reflection; why is it that we long for the places, for the things and for the people that once rejected us? like the immigrants who “looked towards the Europe that had expulsed them for that sense of taste and sophistication”.
Pablo Bronstein’s work centres around period design and architecture, often incorporating elements of satire in a commentary on taste. his drawings of buildings range from historically accurate and analytical to overly ornamental and decorative, and this interest in architecture’s character and vitality frequently extends into live work, including performance and film.
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson ruminates on what reality is: a truth that is one and whole and shared by all, or is it shaped by perception and moulded by each one of us in order to make it more palatable?
reality is made of dreams and of actions. it is fuelled by the desire of imagining a future full of possibilities.
Lynn Hershman Leeson is widely credited for her innovative work investigating issues that are now recognized as key to the workings of society: the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression.
www.bridgetdonahue.nyc/artists/hershman-leeson-lynn/works
altmansiegel.com/artists/lynn-hershman-leeson
Marcus Coates
b x burden
Coates’ work probes our relationship to the unknowable, the invisible, the mute and often solitary experience of bearing a burden. on a mysterious backdrop drawing, maybe a self portrait, he embarks on a dreamlike journey searching for reassurance and solace.
carrying a burden can sometimes be the ultimate selfless expression of love or the source of deep sorrow – how can we share the load? it is the cousin of silence, there is no burden if there is communication.
by exploring the lived realities of people, animals and nature, Marcus Coates attempts to understand how we relate to each other and the world around us. he re-enacts states of being and exercises a process of radical empathy. his motivation is to review relational tools. these explorations move beyond the limits of conventional language. he works collaboratively, bringing in members of the public, as well as experts from a wide range of disciplines, such as anthropologists, ornithologists, choreographers, politicians, psychiatrists. together with Coates, they seek answers to questions about humanity, the natural world and the cross overs between them. new ways of relating are proposed and put into practice.
www.katemacgarry.com/artists/36-marcus-coates/
www.marcuscoates.co.uk
www.artangel.org.uk/project/the-directors/
Marta Skoczeń
y x you
at the sound of rain drops over tin roofs we are transported to an imaginary journey on the metro, where people are all seating together-yet, it feels they are all far away from each other, inhabiting the isolation of their own bubbles.
the space that lies in the contrast of the physical, the real, and the illusory, is perhaps where the seed of the self, the you, grows and flourishes. the place from where we look at ourselves and we question how others see us.
Marta Skoczeń’s reflections take us into the un-familiarness of the everyday.
Marta Skoczeń is a Paris based polish artist whose work focuses on femininity, memory, nature and the meeting of past and present. her background in photography deeply informs the nuanced narrative and the pace of her films, shedding an eye that is nostalgic and critical simultaneously.
www.galeriedohyanglee.com/en/marta-skoczen/
www.loop-barcelona.com/awards/#acquisition-award/
www.martaskoczen.com
Olivia Plender
there are very many ways in which to voice one’s convictions and beliefs- artist Olivia Plender found herself hanging out with a group of witches, a set of very strong women who were into witchcraft and gathered periodically to practise their rituals and celebrate nature.
they were celebrating the importance of community, as a mean to deliver care and mutual support. the very ordinary and mundane organisational aspect of these encounters revealed a powerful and radical form of feminism and of activism.
Olivia Plender’s artworks often start with research into social movements and their histories; because what we think we know about the past inevitably shapes what we believe is possible in the future.
she is interested in the relationships between gender, power and authority, and the ways in which they shape how history has been written. her most recent projects focus on feminist history and were developed in collaboration with feminist groups and women led activist organisations in London.
Nicole L’Huillier
undulation is the push and pull relationship between habit, order, and novelty. it is the beating heart of all processes; from how we experience time, each day being utterly unique in the way it resembles all the other days, to how we imagine our reality.
Nicole L’Huillier’s reflection is inviting us to become open and porous to different interpretations and rhythms – what if we were to behave like a membrane that bounces us into other imaginations and ways of doing? what if we were to break free from the centre and inhabit corners that sit furthest away from our usual gravitational pool?
Nicole L’Huillier (b. 1985) is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher from Santiago, Chile. her practice centres on exploring sounds and vibrations as construction materials to delve into questions of agency, identity, collectivity, and the activation of a vibrational imagination. she holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT (2022).