LunarmagmaoceanLove is a one night event with a series of video screenings and discussions as a part of NURTUREart’s Videorover: Season 9.
The title, LunarmagmaoceanLove, is coined by artist and poet Ali Van, looking at the Earth as a living organism in which various elements interact with passions, emotions, and agencies—a dynamic entity in a constant state of flux. As the title implies, the event focuses on the idea of non-human agencies and interactions. We will watch a series of video works, listen to a poem, interact with natural and artificial objects, and discuss the key concepts that are central to understanding what we think of the non-anthropocentric world. We will look at the book Vibrant Matter by Jane Bennett and the philosophical discourse called Speculative Realism for our theoretical impulse.
*All participants and audiences are encouraged to read the first chapter of Jane Bennet’s Vibrant Matter, “The Force of Things,” before they come to the event. The reading will be posted here soon.
Participants are also invited to bring along a video work to include in the screening (your work or found) as a part of this event. If you are bringing a video, please arrive 15 minutes early.
Core Participants:
Organizing Actant: JaeWook Lee
Proposing Actant: Sarah Demeuse
Commentary Actants: Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Thyrza Nichols Goodeve
Lyricizing Actants: Ali Van
Assemblage Actant: Simone Couto
Nonhuman Actants: various objects assembled by Simone Couto
*Actant is a term coined by Bruno Latour, referring to a thing that is an autonomous force, unleashed in the world. An actant is not a substance or a form but an event.
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About the Participating Actants:
JaeWook Lee is an operant among all other human and non-human operants in the universe. He operates as an artist, writer, amateur scientist, semi-philosopher, and sometime curator. Lee takes exhibition-making as a primary medium. Lee’s work has been exhibited internationally such as the 4th Post-Global Mediation-Beyond Limits, San Diego (2014), the 4th Hotel de Inmigrates, Montevideo (2014), 5to. Festival Internacional De Videoarte De Camaguey, Camaguey (2013), MANIFESTA 9 official parallel event, Hassalt (2012), and Seoul International Photo Festival, Seoul (2009). He has received grants from 4th SINAP: Sindoh Artist Support Program, Arts Council Korea, International Exhibition Grant (2011), and Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Exhibition Grant (2008).
www.jaewooklee.com
Sarah Demeuse (Belgium) reads, writes, translates, and makes exhibitions. Trained as a specialist in Romance Literatures, Sarah started her career at Columbia University. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Tulane University, a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley, and an MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College. Her academic research and publications about Spanish literature focus on art criticism, the impact of new technologies on literary practice, and on the relations between visual culture and writing. Since 2008, she works primarily outside of the school-gates, though these interests and education experiences continue to inform her current work with contemporary artists. In 2010, together with Manuela Moscoso, she founded Rivet, a curatorial office that combines exhibition making with publications, events and long-term collaborations with artists: www.rivet-rivet.net. She was the Curatorial Cloud Fellow at 9th Bienal do Mercosul in Porto Algre, 2013.
Ali Van
Artist and poet
In thermotaxia Ali writes,
A chiral walk / of macchic fold / in vauclusian breathing
Opening , unto
A garden of occipital bearings
Vesting observations and body lightness
In allegorical, voxful, plaited affects
Of the everyday .
b. New York; n. Hong Kong;
r. B.A. Art, Yale University, M.F.A. Visual Arts, Columbia University,
l./w. in and out of Os.
http://alexandravan.com
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy is a curator, writer and traveler. She is the curator of contemporary art at the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Sofía was also the artistic director of 9th team of research advisors to the 55th Venice Biennial in 2013, an agent for the 2012 dOCUMENTA(13) in Kassel, and a board member of the Kunstverein in Amsterdam. At different times in the past decade, Sofía was director of the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and held curatorial positions at Art in General and Americas Society, the latter two in New York. Her writing about art and culture is published regularly in magazines and catalogs, and she writes frequently in her blog: www.sideshows.org. Originally from Mexicali, Sofia lives in New York City, although she spends most of her time conducting curatorial field research in Latin America.
Thyrza Nichols Goodeve is an art writer, artist, and interviewer active in the field of contemporary art and culture. She worked as a research associate at the Whitney Museum of Art on the American Century Exhibition, and was Senior Instructor at the Whitney Independent Studio Program. Goodeve has published numerous essays in Brooklyn Rail, Art-Agenda, Artforum, Parkett, Art in America, Artbyte, The Guggenheim Magazine, The Village Voice, and Camerawork. She has worked closely with artists Matthew Barney, Ellen Gallagher, Yvonne Rainer, Michael Joaquin Grey, Matthew Ritchie, Joseph Nechvatal, Heide Hatry, Eve Andrée Laramée, the Quay Brothers as well as written on Jeff Koons, Raymond Pettibon, Tony Oursler, Lesley Dill. Her publications include: How Like a Leaf: A Conversation with Donna Haraway, New York: Routledge. 1999; Ellen Gallagher. London: Anthony d’Offay, 1999; Cremaster 5, Matthew Barney Cremaster 5, New York: Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York: Frankfurt am Main, 1997; Louise Bourgeois, Collaboration with Paolo Herkonhoff, New York: Phaidon Press. 2003.
Simone Couto is a multimedia artist and a poet. She has dedicated her efforts towards the integration of art, science, nature and language, exploring new art forms and exhibition formats. Her latest research focus on how subjectivity and the human passion exist within this merge. Her visual and performative works have been exhibited in galleries (Momenta Art, 2014 and Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, 2011), the Embassy of Mexico in DC (2012), in art fairs (Governor’s Island Art Fair Exhibition), in cultural centers in the USA (PioneerWorks Center for the Arts, 2014; Invisible Dog Art Center, 2013; Electronic Arts Intermix, 2013; Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA, 2013) and festivals (Dumbo Arts Festival, NY, 2010). In 2013, Cuto was part of a selective residence in Italy, producing a public installation-performance inside of the Well of Matera, a world heritage monument preserved by UNESCO. Her poetry has been published in Brazil. In 2007 and 2009, Couto was invited as a poet to be part of the International Literature Festival of Paraty (FLIP) writing residency. Her work can be accessed at http://simonecouto.com
This event is sponsored by the Gaheon Sindoh Foundation.