Jef Geys
Quadra Medicinale Singapore
Opening Reception: Friday, 30 November 2018, 7.00 — 9.00pm
Guest-of-Honour: His Excellency Mr Andy Detaille, Ambassador of Belgium in Singapore
The opening evening is supported by the Embassy of Belgium in Singapore
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore presents Quadra Medicinale Singapore, the late Belgian artist Jef Geys’s first institutional exhibition in Asia. Geys’s conceptual practice adopted an interdisciplinary and collaborative process of research and knowledge-formation, and was driven by his belief that art should be intertwined with the everyday.
For Quadra Medicinale (2009), Geys invited residents of Villeurbanne, New York, Moscow, and Brussels to demarcate a geometrical quadrant, with their home or workplace at the centre, and document 12 unassuming street plants, or “weeds.” From this collection, the collaborators uncovered the productive, and often times medicinal, properties of these plants.
Quadra Medicinale is structured as a universal manual capable of being replicated anywhere and has, since its first presentation at the Pavilion of Belgium during the 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2009, been realised and shown in various cities including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2010). The exhibition was followed by similar methods of botanical and medicinal plant studies as documented in the accompanying publication Kempens Informatieblad. This alternative model set up by Geys for collective knowledge production, sharing, and documentation has, underlying its process, a socially-active role: Geys asked questions such as, “What can a homeless person who has a toothache, for example, chew-on to ease the pain, and to eventually cure the problem?”
On view will be four chapters of the project, including a newly-created Singapore chapter following Geys’s instructions with contributions by local collaborators, Louise Neo and Teo Siyang. Each chapter includes framed plant specimens with their characteristics labelled, photographs of the site where the plants were originally found, as well as maps of the geographical quadrant explored. Through inciting a collaborative process, Geys created a unique model for knowledge production and sharing.
Questioning mainstream and organised systems of urban planning and information dissemination, Geys casted doubt on the fundaments of language and visual representation, interrogating art’s relation to meaning-making. He produced a text explaining the Quadra Medicinale project that has been translated into 10 languages, with annotations by the artist himself on the translations. Their display as large-format scrolls, further probes systems of interpretation, communication, and accessibility. A selection of these text scrolls and a Malay translation, produced for this exhibition, will be shown.
Quadra Medicinale Singapore introduces an artistic practice that questions the hierarchies and adaptability of nature and society, provoking reflections on both their communicable and imperceptible structures. It also poses the question of whether conceptual artworks can be continued after an artist’s passing.
In addition to the elements from Quadra Medicinale, the exhibition includes two paintings from Geys’s Seed-bags series (1963–2018), a long-term project the artist started when, during his own gardening process, he discovered that the image of the vegetables or flowers pictured on the bag did not match the actual plant. With these paintings, which Geys would create every year, he challenged the accuracy and truth of commercial photography. The medium, however, played a significant role in the artist’s practice enabling him to accumulate an extensive archive of his own projects and interests.
In The Single Screen, Day and Night and Day… (2002), his 36-hour-long film produced for Documenta 11 (Kassel, Germany), will be screened in parallel to the exhibition. This film is a mesmeric sequence composed of thousands of black-and-white photographs Geys took from the mid-1950s to 1998.
The exhibition is made possible by generous loans from the Jef Geys Estate and Air de Paris.
Quadra Medicinale Singapore is curated by Dirk Snauwaert, Artistic Director at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, in collaboration with Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong, NTU CCA Singapore. Snauwaert was the Curator of Jef Geys: Quadra Medicinale in Venice 2009, commissioned for the National Pavilion of Belgiumby the Flemish Community. Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
The Singapore Chapter, Quadra Medicinale Singapore (2018), is now permanently installed at NTU, Earth Observatory of Singapore, as a gift of Jef Geys Estate. Please click here for the English translation of the Malay scroll on view.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Jef Geys (1934–2018, Belgium) was among Europe’s most respected yet under-acknowledged artists. Producing artwork since the 1950s, Geys’ practice probes the construction of social and political engagement, and his work radically embraces art as being intertwined with everyday life. Geys graduated from the Antwerp Arts Academy before settling in Balen in the Kempen region of Belgium, where from 1960 to 1989, he taught art at a state school, focusing on educational experimentation in the arts. Since the late 1960s, Geys has been the editor and publisher of his local newspaper, the Kempens Informatieblad, and subsequently produced them in line with his exhibitions. He is known for his meticulous archive of his work, which in turn becomes generative of other works.
Geys represented Belgium in the 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2009. His work was included in Documenta 11 in 2002, Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1997, and the 21st Bienal de São Paulo in 1991. He has exhibited worldwide including at M HKA, Antwerp (2017, 2011, 2009); IAC Villeurbanne/Rhone-Alpes (2017, 2007); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015); Cubitt, London (2013); CNEAI, Chatou (2016, 2014, 2012); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2013, 2009); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2010); Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2009); Pori Art Museum (2005); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004); Kunsthalle Lophem (2003); Kunstverein Munchen, Munich (2001), amongst others.
LOCAL COLLABORATORS
Louise Neo (Singapore) is a botanical researcher and the co-author of Wayside Flowers of Singapore, a full-colour guidebook that showcases the diversity of wildflowers in Singapore and interesting facts about each species. Neo is a contributor to Urban Forest (uforest.org), a non-profit online platform that aims to provide an accessible and convenient identification guide to the diversity of plants in Singapore and the region.
Teo Siyang (Singapore) is a full-time data analyst with a biology degree and the founder of Urban Forest (uforest.org), which aims to provide information about the diversity of plants in Singapore. The platform was built on the belief that the first step in conservation is enabling people to identify the nature around them so they can foster a deeper connection with it.
CURATORS
Dirk Snauwaert (Belgium) is Artist Director of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and was involved in its creation since July 2004. At WIELS, Snauwaert has curated exhibitions of Tauba Auerbach (2013) and Mike Kelley (2008). Prior, Snauwaert was Co-Director of the Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps where he was in charge of the exhibition programme and the development of the FRAC Rhône-Alpes collection. He was Director of the Kunstverein Munich from 1996 to 2001, where he curated solo shows by Rita McBride (1999), William Kentridge (1998), David Lamelas (1997), and Fareed Armaly (1997). He was also the curator of Jef Geys at the Pavilion of Belgium, 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) is the Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore; Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU ADM); and an editor of the Afterall journal. Previously she was Professor and Dean of the School of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London (2012–13) and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, where she served as the Founding Director of ACT, the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (2009–12) and as Director of the MIT Visual Arts Program (2005– 09) at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Bauer worked with Jef Geys on his Documenta 11 project.
Khim Ong (Singapore) is Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore. Previously, she worked as an independent curator and held curatorial positions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, and Osage Gallery, Hong Kong. Ong was Manager, Sector Development (Visual Arts) at the National Arts Council during which she contributed to conceptualising NTU CCA Singapore. Selected external curatorial projects include Re|Collecting Asia, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2017), the Southeast Asia Platform, Art Stage Singapore (2015), and Landscape Memories, Louis Vuitton Espace, Singapore (2013).
#ntuccasingapore #QuadraMedicinaleSingapore
Image caption:
(Left) Jef Geys, Quadra Medicinale Singapore, 2018, dried plant from West Coast Link, Singapore, 46 x 34 cm. Courtesy Jef Geys Estate and NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.
(Right top and bottom) Jef Geys, Quadra Medicinale Singapore, 2018, researched and collected by Louise Neo, photo on site: the street name, the plant. Courtesy NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Public programmes
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An introduction to the life and work of Jef Geys, an artist and educator who had, for a large part of his life, produced works and engaged with educational experimentation in the arts that are intimately connected to his locality, yet addresses universal modes of being and living.
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BIOGRAPHIES
Jef Geys (1934–2018, Belgium) was among Europe’s most respected yet under-acknowledged artists. Producing artwork since the 1950s, Geys’ practice probes the construction of social and political engagement, and his work radically embraces art as being intertwined with everyday life. Geys graduated from the Antwerp Arts Academy before settling in Balen in the Kempens region, where from 1960 to 1989, he taught art at a state school, focusing on educational experimentation in the arts. Since the late 1960s, Geys has been the editor and publisher of his local newspaper, the Kempens Informatieblad, and subsequently produced them in line with his exhibitions. He is known for his meticulous archive of his work, which in turn becomes generative of other works. Geys represented Belgium in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. His work was included in Documenta 11 in 2002, Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1997, and the 21st Bienal de São Paulo in 1991. He has exhibited worldwide including at M HKA, Antwerp (2017, 2011, 2009); IAC Villeurbanne/Rhone-Alpes, France (2017, 2007); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015); Cubitt, London (2013); CNEAI, Chatou (2016, 2014, 2012); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2013, 2009); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, USA (2010); Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2009); Pori Art Museum, Finland (2005); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004); Kunsthalle Lophem, Belgium (2003); Kunstverein Munchen, Munich (2001), amongst others.
Dirk Snauwaert (Belgium) has been involved with WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels since July 2004 and in January 2005, was appointed Director. Before joining WIELS, Snauwaert was Co-Director of the Institut d’Art Contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps, France, where he was in charge of the exhibition programme and of the development of the FRAC Rhône-Alpes collection. He was Director of the Munich Kunstverein from 1996 to 2001. He was also the curator of Jef Geys’s Quadra Medicinale at the Belgian Pavilion, 53rd Venice Art Biennale in 2009. Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) is the Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore; Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU ADM); and an editor of the Afterall journal. Previously she was Professor and Dean of the School of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London (2012–13) and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, where she served as the Founding Director of ACT, the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (2009–12) and as Director of the MIT Visual Arts Program (2005– 09) at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.
Image caption: Courtesy Jef Geys Estate.
“Dealing with with that garden occurence was pure sentimentality. If you are working in your garden, you are occupied in your garden! Nothing more but certainly nothing less. But if you are going to ask yourself too many questions then you are missing the point. You must just go to your garden, digging, planting and harvesting there.” –Jef Geys, in Kempens Informatieblad – Venetië, 2009
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Variously described as the “ultimate film” and an “anti-film,” Een dag, een nacht, een dag…, (Day and Night and Day…) (2002) is a 36-hour-long projection of a compilation of thousands of photographs from Jef Geys’s archive. Photography and the archive feature heavily in the artist’s practice, which concentrates on the connection between art and everyday life. In 1998, Geys published Al de zwart-wit foto’s tot 1998 (All the Black-and-White Photographs until 1998), a five-centimetre thick volume containing approximately 40,000 photographs produced between 1950 and 1998, in random order and in the form of contact prints. The photographs, which presented a wide range of subjects and abstained from selection or interpretation, presented an inventory of the artist’s life, and speaks to the importance of photography to Geys as a means to record, collect, and document life. In 2002, Geys extended this book project through the film Een dag, een nacht, een dag…, (Day and Night and Day…), which was presented at Documenta11 at Kassel in 2002. It illustrates a similar approach to photography as the ultimate medium to represent the vernacular, and offers an archive that oscillates between the private and the public, art and the everyday. Though the film will be hardly seen in its entirety, its dramatic sequence of pictures emphasises the flow of time.
BIOGRAPHY
Jef Geys (1934–2018, Belgium) is among Europe’s most respected yet underacknowledged artists. Producing artwork since the 1950s, Geys’s practice probes the construction of social and political engagement, and his work radically embraces art as being intertwined with everyday life. Geys graduated from the Antwerp Arts Academy before settling in Balen in the Kempen region of Belgium, where from 1960 to 1989, he taught art at a state school, focusing on educational experimentation in the arts. Since the late 1960s, Geys, who was also part of the Mail Art movement, has been the editor and publisher of his local newspaper, the Kempens Informatieblad, and subsequently produced them in line with his exhibitions. He is known for his meticulous archive of his work, which in turn became generative of other works.
Geys represented Belgium in the 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2009. His work was included in Documenta11 (Kassel, Germany) in 2002, Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1997, and the 21st Bienal de São Paulo in 1991. He has exhibited worldwide including at M HKA, Antwerp (2017, 2011, 2009); IAC Villeurbanne/Rhone-Alpes (2017, 2007); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015); Cubitt, London (2013); CNEAI, Chatou (2016, 2014, 2012); WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2013, 2009); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2010); Bawag Foundation, Vienna (2009); Pori Art Museum (2005); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2004); Kunsthalle Lophem (2003); Kunstverein Munchen, Munich (2001), amongst others.
This screening is part of the exhibition Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Jef Geys, Day and Night and Day and…, 2002, Installationsansicht Bawag Foundation. Copyright Oliver Ottenschläger.
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Join this conversation with the curator of Quadra Medicinale, first presented at the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition in 2009, and learn more about how it started. Local collaborators will also share their experiences implementing Jef Geys’s methodology.
BIOGRAPHIES
Dirk Snauwaert (Belgium) is Artist Director of WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and was involved in its creation since July 2004. At WIELS, Snauwaert has curated exhibitions of Tauba Auerbach (2013) and Mike Kelley (2008). Prior, Snauwaert was Co-Director of the Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alps where he was in charge of the exhibition programme and the development of the FRAC Rhône-Alpes collection. He was Director of the Kunstverein Munich from 1996 to 2001, where he curated solo shows by Rita McBride (1999), William Kentridge (1998), David Lamelas (1997), and Fareed Armaly (1997). He was also the curator of Jef Geys at the Pavilion of Belgium, 53rd Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. Snauwaert was an NTU CCA Singapore Curator-in-Residence in 2015.
Louise Neo (Singapore) is a botanical researcher and the writer of Wayside Flowers of Singapore, a full-colour guidebook that showcases the diversity of wildflowers in Singapore and interesting facts about each species. Neo is a contributor to Urban Forest (uforest.org), a non-profit online platform that aims to provide an accessible and convenient identification guide to the diversity of plants in Singapore and the region.
Teo Siyang (Singapore) is a full-time data analyst with a biology degree, and the founder of Urban Forest (uforest.org), which aims to provide information about the diversity of plants in Singapore. The platform was built on the belief that the first step in conservation is enabling people to identify the nature around them so they can foster a deeper connection with it.
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: (Left) Teo Siyang. (Right) Louise Neo.
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Meeting Point: NTU CCA Singapore, Block 43 Malan Road
Workshop fee: S$15
Registration is required via Peatix: foragingatgillmanbarracks.peatix.com/
*Developed for participants aged 13 and above.
Join this interactive walk in search of edible plants around Gillman Barracks and discover the rich amount of food growing around us. Learn how to find edible plants to add to your next home-made salad and be surprised by the kinds of grass found in our urban environment that are commonly used in traditional medicine.
BIOGRAPHY
Alexius Yeo (Singapore) is the Director of Carbon InQ, a local company that teaches Agriculture-based experiential learning programmes at schools and firms. He is also Founder of Project 33, a family-initiated farming movement uniting neighbourhoods through community farming, cooking, educational activities, as well as the practice of “sharing first” that involves sharing a portion of what one grows and owns with the community.
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image credit: Courtesy Carbon InQ.
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Judy Freya Sibayan looks back on 45 years of artmaking, with the first 20 years as the basis of her work of Institutional Critique. Taking the subject position of the “ex-centric” (the inside-outsider), she parodies the institution of art. It is here she is able to gain agency by enacting auto-critiques of the institution to which she belongs. She has done parodic performances of the gallery (Scapular Gallery Nomad, 1997–2002), the museum (Museum of Mental Objects, 2002–07), the art archive (The Community Archives, 2010), and the art consultancy (Performance Art Consultancy: Life, Art, Criticality, 2018) to name a few. The talk will be followed by a discussion between Sibayan and curators Ute Meta Bauer and Khim Ong.
BIOGRAPHIES
Judy Freya Sibayan (Philippines) is a conceptual artist living and working in Manila. She taught at De La Salle University for three decades and has exhibited and performed in museums and galleries worldwide. Former Director of the erstwhile Contemporary Art Museum of the Philippines, she has been the Museum of Mental Objects since 2002, a life-long parodic performance. She is also Co-founding Editor and Publisher of the online Ctrl+P Journal of Contemporary Art and the author of The Hypertext HerMe(s).
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) is the Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore; Professor at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU ADM); and an editor of the Afterall journal. Previously she was Professor and Dean of the School of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London (2012–13) and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, where she served as the Founding Director of ACT, the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology (2009–12) and as Director of the MIT Visual Arts Program (2005– 09) at MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Bauer worked with Jef Geys on his Documenta 11 project.
Khim Ong (Singapore) is Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes at NTU CCA Singapore. Previously, she worked as an independent curator and held curatorial positions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, LASALLE, and Osage Gallery, Hong Kong. Ong was Manager, Sector Development (Visual Arts) at the National Arts Council during which she contributed to conceptualising NTU CCA Singapore. Selected external curatorial projects include Re|Collecting Asia, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2017), the Southeast Asia Platform, Art Stage Singapore (2015), and Landscape Memories, Louis Vuitton Espace, Singapore (2013).
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Courtesy Calle Wright.
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Registration required via Peatix: medicinalherbs.peatix.com
*This programme will be conducted in Mandarin.
Programme will start at NTU CCA Singapore, Block 43 Malan Road and end at NTU Community Herb Garden, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue near Jalan Bahar Gate. One-way transportation from NTU CCA Singapore to NTU is provided.
In conceptualising Quadra Medicinale (2009), Jef Geys asked local collaborators to identify plants that grew on the street, and to research their potential medicinal or beneficial properties. The NTU Community Herb Garden is dedicated to the cultivation of such plants and is home to more than 300 species of tropical plants and herbs with medicinal properties. Ng Kim Chuan founded the Garden in 2009, together with a small group of volunteers consisting of staff, students, and members of the public, to serve as a charitable resource of medicinal herbs for the poor and the needy. Ng will give a tour of the Garden, with the assistance of Lee Jin Long, NTU student, and share his knowledge and work surrounding these medicinal herbs, especially as alternative treatments for cancer and chronic illnesses.
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Courtesy NTU Community Herb Garden.
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Ethnobotany—the study and use of plants in human culture—has long been practised in Southeast Asia. In the early 1800s, William Farquhar, the first British Resident and Commandant of colonial Singapore commissioned a collection of 477 watercolours—a testament to the knowledge, application, and reverence people had about plants in the 19th century. In this talk, Marcus Ng delves into the natural and cultural histories of some of these plants and look at their usages, which range from the mundane to the magical.
BIOGRAPHY
Marcus Ng (Singapore) is an independent researcher, writer, and curator, with a particular interest in natural history. His research focuses on the way in which biodiversity has shaped the nature of places and its inhabitants. He is the curator of two concurrent exhibitions at the National Museum of Singapore featuring the William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, Desire and Danger (2016–18) and Magic and Menace (2018–ongoing).
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Prickly-leaved Elephant’s Foots (1803–1818), William Farquhar Collection of National History Drawings. Courtesy National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.
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“Weeds” are not a group of related plants (like “orchids” or “gingers” or “palms”), nor are they plants with shared physical characteristics (like “trees” or “shrubs”). Although weeds defy easy definition, their name suggests something unwanted or out of place. Many, however, are quite beautiful and merit closer examination and appreciation. This talk will explore different aspects of weeds – what they are, their place in the human psyche, their fascinating life histories – and their inextricable link to human existence.
BIOGRAPHY
Shawn Kaihekulani Yamauchi Lum (United States/Singapore) helped form the Nature Society (Singapore) Plant Group with the intention of promoting an interest in plants and plant conservation as part of a broader effort to promote Singapore’s natural heritage. He is a strong advocate of public participation in nature discovery and monitoring, and believes that our quality of life is made better by becoming acquainted with the beautiful and diverse living world around us.
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Documentation of Exhibition (de)Tour: Medicinal Herbs by Ng Kim Chuan, gardener, NTU Community Herb Garden, Singapore, Saturday, 12 January 2019.
Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.
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SCHEDULE
Saturday, 2 March 2019
4.00 – 6.30pm
The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road
4.45pm
Filmmaker Inge Godelaine (Belgium) will introduce her films and be available for Q&A.
Margaret Tait, Garden Pieces, 1998, 11 min 30 sec
Filmmaker-poet Margaret Tait’s last film Garden Pieces is a triptych of “film-poems” composed around the theme of the garden. Garden Pieces is a vibrant, experimental film that utilises live action shots and hand-painted elements to draw upon the wanderings of daily life and the search for fleeting moments of presence, dropping a myopic intensification of experience in favour of an exuberant engagement with the world.
Margaret Tait (Scotland, 1918–1999) was a Scottish filmmaker and poet who is known for her body of work combining poetry, portraiture, music, ethnography, and animation. Tait made more than 30 films in her life, which have been screened at international film festivals and venues.
Uriel Orlow, The Crown Against Mafavuke, 2016, 18 min 45 sec
The Crown Against Mafavuke is based on a South African trial from 1940. Mafavuke Ngcobo was a traditional herbalist who was accused by the local white medical establishment of “untraditional behaviour.” The film explores the ideological and commercial confrontation between two different yet intertwining medicinal traditions and their uses of plants, with slippages across gender and race that further questions notions of purity and origination. The re-imagined court case is filmed at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria, where the Rivonia trial was held that sent Mandela and his fellow accused to the Robben Island prison.
Uriel Orlow (Switzerland/United Kingdom) is a Swiss artist based in London. Orlow’s practice is research-based, process-oriented, and multi-disciplinary, including film, photography, drawing, and sound. His work is concerned with spatial manifestations of memory, and looks to the botanical world as a stage for politics at large.
Jef Cornelis, Kunst Als Kritiek. Wanneer is Kunst Wel Kritiek? 4. Wanneer de Kunstenaar in alle Ernst Speelt. (Art as Criticism. When is Art Criticism? 4. When the artist is in all seriousness.), 1973, 4 min 47 sec
This film is part of a series of short sketches thematically focusing on the question, “When is Art Criticism?” developed for the BRT (Belgian Radio and Television) broadcast network. For this fourth episode, it proposes an answer: “When the artist is toying around in all seriousness.” It highlights the Belgian artist Jef Geys, whose approach is best described by the phrase “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” In Geys’s statement, framed as a public announcement, the artist uses the programme’s broadcasting time as a publicity stunt, revealing the mechanisms of the medium of television. In a lengthy word of thanks, the extensive media bureaucracy is stripped of its front, mentioning the relative cost of the programme and the broadcasting time.
Part of the BRT television series “Openbaar Kunstbezit” (“Public Art Heritage”). A second version was adapted for the NOS, a Dutch radio and television broadcast network.
Jef Cornelis (Belgium) worked as executor, director, and scriptwriter for the BRT, the Dutch-language Belgian public broadcasting corporation (1963–98), producing an impressive body of work comprising of over 200 titles. Cornelis, as a radical TV director, often served as a provocateur, a cultural critic, and a negotiator of the arts, whose work is generally considered ground breaking, artistically and cultural-historically. His films have been featured in solo exhibitions at many art institutions.
Inge Godelaine, 7 x Jef Geys, 2014, 27 min
7 x Jef Geysis a documentary film by independent filmmaker Inge Godelaine, who worked for many years with Geys.
The film interviews seven people who each have a different relationship with the artist—Yves Gevaert, Mia Dammen, Hugo Criekemans, Greta Meert, curator Dirk Snauwaert, daughter Nina Geys, and Joris Note—creating a unique portrait of the artist through the people who knew him.
Inge Godelaine, Villa Wintermans, 2009, 50 min
Inge Godelaine travelled to São Paulo 18 years after Jef Geys created his architectural intervention Villa Wintermans for the 1991 São Paulo Biennale. Replicating a Flemish modernist villa of the cigar manufacturer Wintermans from Balen that was later used as a school, Villa Wintermans was one of the most complex public projects Geys completed. In this film, Godelaine searches for the remnants of the Villa which have vanished or rotted away, and interviews some of the schoolchildren then about their experience with the donated building. The documentary is an echo of a forgotten artistic deed, and the eventual disappearance of art and architecture.
Inge Godelaine (Belgium) is an independent filmmaker who worked for many years with Jef Geys on his projects, and realised a number of reports and documentaries on the artist. Apart from artist portraits or narrative films about art, she also produces short animated films in which she uses the moving image as if it were pencil and paper. In her oeuvre, Godelaine works with various mediums and disciplines in order to translate her stories through images, unfolding a visual language that is sometimes cryptic, ironic or humorous.
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A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Jef Cornelis, still from Kunst All Kritiek, 1973. Copyright VRT and courtesy Argos, Centre for Art and Media, Brussels.
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Meeting Point: Block 43 Malan Road
Registration required via Peatix: wondersofnature.peatix.com
Nature reserves and parks are often thought of as places to seek out beautiful and interesting plants. It may surprise us that fascinating and useful plants can actually be found all around us – many people call them weeds. In this workshop, participants will look for “weeds,” see where they grow and identify them. We will search for information on their ecology, their broader distributions, and their various uses. Come prepared to spend a day learning about amazing plants that we encounter (and more often than not, overlook) every day. We may discover that our neighbourhoods are richer and more beautiful than they already are.
BIOGRAPHY
The Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) has been an active member of Singapore civil society for over 60 years. It functions as an activity, advocacy, and outreach group, while delivering the scientific data needed to monitor the state of local wildlife to manage, protect, and promote it. NSS works with the conviction that a Singapore with thriving nature is a better Singapore for people and for wildlife.
A public programme of Jef Geys Quadra Medicinale Singapore.
Image caption: Documentation of Workshop: Foraging at Gillman Barracks with Alexius Yeo, Carbon InQ, Saturday, 15 Dec 2018. Courtesy NTU CCA Singapore.