It feels like summer in the city [KT2009, i]

may 23, 2009.

I am in the city of Maastricht, in the south of the Netherlands, blessed by a most delightful and very sunny weather, for the 10th edition of the yearly Kunsttour, which is taking place between may 21st and may 24th ( * ).

This 10th, jubilee-edition, of the Kunsttour focuses on sound art, in its so many and so very different guises. It is subtitled ¨Best Before¨, and thus puts a spotlight on the 'sustainability' vogue in general - and that of art in particular ...
Reason enough to once again bring the Found Tapes Exhibition to Maastricht´s Kunsttour ( ** ).

Unlike last year, this time around the whole of the Timmerfabriek building on the Boschstraat has been opened up to the Kunsttour, and it was only when walking in there (from the back side) early yesterday morning that I fully realized what a fantastic place this actually is.

"3 Caniches (2008)" - Florentijn Hofman's inflatable black poodles at the back of the Timmerfabriek in Maastricht.

I began by walking around the large, probably former production, hall, which has been split into two floors. Here are pictures of two of the larger of the many, many works on view in the Timmerfabriek. The first shows 3 out of 11 large charcoal & siberian chalk drawings by Leonid Babiichouk, a young 2008 graduate of the ABKM (Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht), a series of Rabelais-ish scènes entitled "Vendetta I-XI".

3 from "Vendetta I-XI (2008)" - Leonid Babiichouk.

Every eight minutes or so from a little further there came a hellish clinking and clanking. That sound, as I was told by Mikel Angelo - a colorful artist, who contributes a wall filled with turned canvases carrying colorful names to this 10th Kunsttour - is part of the installation just around the corner of the wall with the "13 Vendetta's". The sound - says Mikel Angelo - is that of part of the heap of metal tins tumbling down onto the concrete floor. The very shiny looking sculpture called "Blikken sculptuur der fantasie", and the little take-away card informs us that this is a work by Arjen Zuidgeest and installation genie Thomas Gobbele.

'Blikken sculptuur der fantasie (2009)' - Thomas Gobbele en Arjen Zuidgeest (left) and Mikel Angelo's turned canvases (back and right).

I set up my 'foundtaping consultation room' in one of the two little glass rooms overlooking the large Timmerfabriek hall, next to the studio of Radio Kunsttour, as last year with lots of energy and dedication animated by Timo Eckhart.

The 'foundtaping consultation room', one of the two little glass rooms in the Timmerfabriek. (Click the picture to see a detail.)

On the table, in the right hand corner at the back of the room, you see a sculpture that I found in the street, on the Cabergerweg. Walking over to the Timmerfabriek, I almost literally fell over it ... I call it "best_before hostess (jpn)", because I already had photocopied a number of little cards with that written on it, so I put one of them with the sculpture to give it a name. You may click the glass room picture above to see the 'best_before hostess (jpn)' in more detail, though, of course best will be to come over to the Timmerfabriek and see the real thing ...

A disadvantage of being a participant in an event like this, is that there is little time to go and see what some of the others artists are doing and presenting, especially when works are spread out over a great many different locations (the tenth Kunsttour counted 62 of them, to be precise). But I did manage to sneak out for a while on friday afternoon, and made a swift hop over to some of the locations with some of the soundart ... more about that in a next episode ...

For today (may 23rd) and tomorrow (may 24th), here's what's happening: Rébus is coming over from Paris; between 16h and 18h we will join Jodi Rose and others, and make the Hoge Brug sing. Then in the evening we will be at Kaspar König's ArtSpace Rondeel, where Rébus will install a version of Alvin Lucier's classic 'Music on a Long Thin Wire' (1977).

On sunday 24th I will contribute opinions and found sound to the 'expert panel' on Houdbaarheid en Kunst (art and sustainability), between 16h-18h in the Timmerfabriek. Now that is an interesting subject, that I indeed discussed here not so long ago, in relation to divers conservation projects undertaken, for example because to the quickly aging physical carriers and formats used in the production of video- and other 'media-art'.

It was again on the Cabergerweg that I took this picture, of an image left to fade on walls and windows of some of the abolished factory buildings lining that road, that somehow indeed seems to nicely illustrate a point I'd like to make next sunday ...

next: A sound is a sound that sounds [KT2009, ii]

 

notes __ ::
(*) This is what we did at the Kunsttour the previous three years: in 2006 with my Found Tapes Exhibition I was at Stichting Intro / In Situ. The next two years we hopped over with ookoi. In 2007 we did "leve ookoi!" in the ArtGarage, an Urban Myths new media lab. And last year we had our base in the Timmerfabriek, from where we took the Radio Raudio Kunsttour Mobile out into the streets of Maastricht. [ ^ ]
(**) And while I am foundtaping in Maastricht fpcm roams the streets of New York, one minute clipping (twitter.com/NYC1M) [ ^ ]

tags: Maastricht, Kunsttour, found tapes, foundtaping

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