Female Alliances in 'She spins the thread, she measures the thread, she cuts the thread'

23 augustus 2021 by Nadeche Remst Leave a comment

Mila Lanfermeijer ‘Private viewing temptress’ (detail), 2020. Courtesy: Mila Lanfermeijer and Nest. Photo: Charlott Markus.

My grandmother used to collect articles, photographs, and other ephemera that reminded her of someone she knew. She would send me an article that she had neatly cut out of the newspaper and put in an envelope, and I would receive it on my doorstep. Nowadays, most of my friends text me when they read or see something I might like or need to know: “I just read this, and I had to think of you.”

The exhibition She spins the thread, she measures the thread, she cuts the thread at Nest, The Hague, is precisely about these intimate moments of connecting with other people. Having a chat with someone you never met before, finding common interests, or having different thoughts on a particular subject. The exhibition is a conversation between the three artists, colleagues, and friends: Mila Lanfermeijer, Ana Navas, and Evelyn Taocheng Wang. They got to know each other between 2012 and 2014 during the two-year residency program at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. In their studio spaces, they talked about each other’s ways of working, discovering shared interests, and the use of similar materials (textile, drawing, painting) and approaches (repetition, appropriation, research). Read more

Intimate Geographies – in conversation with Charbel-joseph H. Boutros and Stéphanie Saadé

2 augustus 2021 by Nadeche Remst Leave a comment

In October 2019, I traveled from Amsterdam to Beirut to visit the eighth edition of Home Works, a biennial on cultural practices in Lebanon, organized by Beirut-based institution Ashkal Alwan. As the opening reception drew to a close, the streets filled with protestors who demanded political reform, the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the improvement of Lebanon’s failing public infrastructure, and solutions to the country’s soaring debt and ongoing economic crisis. At the moment when the protests filled the city of Beirut, on October 17, I was visiting the solo exhibition The Distance Between your Eyes and the Sun by Charbel-joseph H. Boutros at Beirut Art Center. Back then, no one could have predicted that this was the only day the exhibition could be open. During the week’s protests, Ashkhal Alwan postponed the exhibitions, public lectures, and performances, and eventually, they canceled the entire edition of Home Works. In their public announcement, they stated that cultural institutions are not isolated from “civic, political, economic, and ideological contexts, but rather shaped as a result of and in response to historical events and their repercussions.” Read more

Performing the Archive: on the Feminist Group Le Nemesiache

28 juni 2021 by Nadeche Remst Leave a comment

The exhibition From the Volcano to the Sea at Rongwrong explores the archive of the Italian feminist collective Le Nemesiache, active in Naples in the 1970s and 1980s. Giulia Damiani, curator and research fellow of art organization If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution in Amsterdam, translated the group’s practice in dialogue with Arnisa Zeqo, director of Rongwrong, and curator Sara Giannini (If I Can’t Dance), making the archive public for the first time.

Entering the exhibition space, I receive a stamp with the logo of Le Nemesiache on a hand-out. It gives me a nostalgic feeling, reminiscent of entering a nightclub, where you receive a stamp on your hand to signify that you’ve been granted access. Receiving the stamp by ‘host’ Arnisa Zeqo, director of Rongwrong in Amsterdam, creates a performative dimension that lingers during the rest of my visit. Read more