STOP LOOK GO

Between 31 October until 30 November 2021 I was attached to Kathmandu, Nepal. During my stay I stayed at SPACE A Art Trust in central Kathmandu. Within the time frame I created and implemented  in total four projects combined under the working title STOP LOOK GO. The projects included two interdisciplinary collaboration projects , one Social Sculpture Workshop and one artist talk.

Curator was Neda Haffari from SPACE A Art Trust

The project was supported by Stroom, The Hague, Netherlands.  

STOP LOOK GO

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STOP LOOK GO. In collaboration with the flautist Mrs. Yajoo Acharya (Bhaktapur, Nepal). The work combines music, video and performance. The theme of the work relates to the city of Kathmandu and its social and urban environment. The city is reflected and interpreted through metaphorical images, improvised performance and flute music. The live premiere took place on November 21, 2021 at the renowned Mandala Theatre in Kathmandu, Nepal. There will also be an edited art and performance video version.

Yajoo Acharya is a young female flute player from Bhaktapur which is 13 km away from Kathmandu . Her instrument is the traditional flute. She studied at the DEPARTMENT OF PERFORMING ARTS AND MUSIC OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA, India

She interpreted and accompanied the images and live performance with a very personal and improvised flute play.

STOP LOOK GO was the main part of my multi-part art project of the same title in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Live Performance Connected - Not Connected 

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A selection of  images from my performance Connected - Not Connected at Bikalpa Art Center, Latipur, Kathmandu, Nepal from 9th of November 2021. It was a revised version of my previous performance Connected - Not Connected with some new elements added . At the same time the performance was a spontaneous collaboration work with musician and sound artist Adam Tinkle (USA) who accompanied the performance with his clarinet.

Social Sculpture Workshop Unfolding - Unwrapped

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Part three of my project STOP LOOK GO was my "Unfolding-Unwrapped", social sculpture; performance workshop, performed at the Nepal Academy of Fine Art (NAFA) , Kathmandu on 15th November 2021

Participants:

Aasha Simkhada, Akriti Simkhada, Binita Rai, Bipana Pathak, Kiran Shrestha ,Namuna Maharjan, Rajaki Aryal , Sabin Khanal.

Supported by Nepal Academy of Fine Art (NAFA), Kathmandu

Artist Talk, Video presentation

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A presentation and an artist talk for the graduating students of the School of Arts / Department of Art and Design of Kathmandu University at the Nepal Art Council

EROS 24/7

Project no. 1 : Thomas Zollinger, Philemo Murkano, Elisabeth Schär and myself (camera)

 Project no. 2 : Tobias Gürtler, Philemo Murkano, Mark Lüthi (camera) and myself

14th of October and 22nd of October 2021

Curator / Artistic Director Elias Kirsche (Basel, CH)

Between 14th of October and 22nd of October 2021 I participate at the Project Residence EROS 24/7 near the French/Swiss border by Basel, CH, in the village of Illtal, France

The aim of this project residency was that an interdisciplinary and mixed group of artists and non- artist should exploring for 8 days how erotic phenomena such as desire, seduction, lust, devotion, jealousy, play, death affect the inspiration and production of Art. Artistic means were one's own erogenous body, the written and spoken word, voice, movement, musical and visual techniques. What does erotic mean to us in its cultural-historical dimension? What role does the Eros play in the art, who, if one follows Plato and Socrates, mediates between the human and the divine world (cf. “Symposium”)? Using erotic art from different epochs and cultures, contemporary interpretations and implementations are to be proposed.

I created two personal projects in collaboration with Thomas Zollinger, Philemo Murkano, Elisabeth Schär, Tobias Gürtler and Mark Lüthi. As well I participated in several projects developed by the other participating artists.

Project No. 1 with  Thomas Zollinger, Philemo Murkano, Elisabeth Schär, 

Three screen dance and performance video projects 

Eros & Thanatos with Alex Mars & Anna Grabowska

Sometimes you get so lonely it just makes sense with Anne Rosenbaum

The Ashes of Eden with Jana Schmück

Since 7th of July until 30th September 2021 my temporary working location is in the province. In a small town called Schirgiswalde-Kirschau. Located in the federal state of Saxony, Germany . Around 65 km from Dresden and 11 km from Bautzen.. It is a three month fully funded artist residency. However the projects I had in mind for to create during the residence began quite arduous because not every project I would liked to developed and to work on was possible to do at the residence location.

All three projects I am am working on are collaboration projects. All of them belong to the categories Screen Dance and Performance Video  

In Berlin I worked on the video on photo project Eros & Thanatos with with Alex Mars and Anna Grabowska

Afterwards in Dresden I worked with Anne Rosenbaum on the project Sometimes you get so lonely it just makes sense 

Finally in the last half of August I was now able to create directly on the spot the Screen Dance and Performance Video project The Ashes of Eden with the local female dancer Jana Schmück (Bautzen), director and founder of tanzART 

or-ga-nis-mus / pIAR 2021

Opening 27th of August 2021

Alliance Francaise Kumasi.

Old Bekwai Street, Ahodow Roundabout

Kumasi, Ghana

(also  live stream on zoom, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube )

Presented by perfocraze international Artist Residence 2021 in collaboration with Alliance Francaise. 

or-ga-nis-mus is the final exhibition of this year's pIAR residence period. The show presents video, performance, installation, photography and graphic work of 15 artists who stayed at pIAR this year

Two video’s work of mine will be screened which I created during my stay at pIAR in February 2021

train journey

I can not see – Stay behind (art video version of the live performance with Eric Kofi) 

12th SMIFF - Seoul Metro International Subway Film Festival

COCOON II will be screened at 12th SMIFF in the category International Special Screens : 60 seconds in Seoul, Korea

The 12th SMIFF - Seoul Metro International Subway Film Festival  will be held from 17th August to 10th September 2021.

Venues:

CGV Yeongdeungpo

Monitors on Seoul Metro subway lines

Permanent screening inside Seoul Metro Stationen

Seoul Metro International subway Film Festival website

Seoul Metro’s YouTube

COCOON II is a short one minute version of my live performance and video performance COCOON.

Subway, the place of our everyday life is being reconstructed as the place of culture with film! Through extreme short films of 90 seconds, subway becomes a moving theater and through production of subway films, it becomes a filming location. Subway can be transformed as a new cultural place when we deconstruct the border of art and daily life by stimulating our imagination hidden in our life.

An unnoticed Art Festival 

Selection Volunteer Nico (Morning)

Selection Volunteer Ineke (Evening) 

The festival took placed on 19th of June 2021.The date is not announced to the public, neither to the artists who created the performances concepts. This non-announcement belongs to the festival concept.

The Nieuwstraat Festival fits in a series of Unnoticed Art Festivals. It balances on the line between public and private. It shows artworks hiding in normality. The language, used to express the works, fits in the average social behavior in public space and, because of that, remained unnoticed to bystanders. Passers-by will observe the actions, but may not recognize them as performance art.

Creating the concepts and executing the works are split. Artists send their concepts more or less as manuals. The chosen works are carried out by a group of (both experienced and inexperienced) volunteers.

My Performance Concept for the volunteers

To document by photographic means objects lying on the ground in Nieuwstraat.The objects should not be permanently attached or fixed to the street level.

The objects which should be looked for includes everything what is movable. Among others dead inspects, dead birds, paper, plastic pieces, metal objects, feathers, leaf's, lose stones, broken glass, cigarettes stubs, garbage, mouth masks, blood stains and grease stains. Regardless how big or how small.

More information and images on my blog (Images by volunteers Nico and Ineke) :

https://www.johannesgerard-visualart.com/2021/06/unnoticed-art-festival.html

 9th International Video Poetry Festival

My video work “Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy” with Theatre group STAGE DFT is part of the:

9th Video Poetry Festival (The Institute of Experiential Arts), Athens, Greece

6th of June 2021

Now online 9th International Video Poetry Festival - Digital Platform (filmpoetry.org)

The work is performative and visual interpretation of the poem with the same title written by the Russian poet Aleksandr Blok

The International Video Poetry Festival in Athens attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry. 

Side Specific Performance in Kumasi Ghana 

On the 9th of February 2021 I conducted in collaboration with Eric Kofi a live performance on a pedestrian bridge in the center of Kumasi, Ghana. The performance had two parts the first part had the title I Can Not See and the second part "Stay Behind" . The performance is part of my currently art project. Beside the performance the project includes a workshop and two presentations

The project is supported by Stroom, The Hague, NL and perfocraze international artist residence, Kumasi, GH 

Social Sculpture Workshop Unfolding-Unwrapped in Kumasi Ghana

On the 13th of February 2021 I conducted my Social Sculpture Workshop “Unfolding-Unwrapped” with a small but very creative group of participants. The workshop was presented in public space in the Aparde suburb of Kumasi, Ghana. The workshop is part of my recent art project at pIART 2021 (perfocraze_international). Curator Va-Bene E.K Fiatsi (crazinisT artisT)

Supported by Stroom, The Hague, NL / perfocraze_international artist residency , Kumasi, Ghana 

Perfocraze International at crazinisT artisT studiO, Kumasi, Ghana

7th International Biennial of Performance, "Emancipation"

7th International Biennial of Performance, - "Emancipation"

30 January - 8 March 2021

My two videos "bare to you and me" and "conecta-no conecta " was shown in the 7th International Biennial of Performance, on the 30 and 31 of January 2021 at Sala E, Cinemateca Bogota, Bogota, Colombia.

Both videos were also presented on 2nd and 10th of February on the website of PerfoArtNet

Art has shown that it allows to liberate, point out, question, criticize and transform beings, minds and contexts, for this reason the VII Biennial is a space where art, body and thought. They reflect on emancipation; which is the act of liberating or freeing oneself from a person, circumstance, rule or control system. So we invite you to peacefully emancipate yourself with artistic-bodily events that make it easier for us to reflect on what is happening in our social environment. The use of the body and art are fundamental in the claim of many rights, it seems that the world is sick and we need to heal it with small and large actions.

More information

http://www.perfoartnet.org

REVIEW 2020

Aktionsraum 2 (action room 2),  Kunstverein Ebersberg

Performance Ablösen (peel off) with Tanja Wilking (Rodinmuse)

Performance Isolate (Isoliert) 

Photos Performances Peter Kees

Aktionsraum 2 at art association Ebersberger Kunstverein 

25th of September (opening) - 4th of October 2020

Galerie “Alte Brennerei” im Klosterbauhof 6,  85560 Ebersberg (near Munich) Bavaria, Germany

Curator Peter Kees

 On the 2nd and 3rd of October 2020 I conducted two performances “Ablösen” and “Isoliert”

“Ablösen” was conducted in collaboration with Tanja Wilking (Rodinmuse), Munich (D)

 Aktionsraum 2 included also a video program. Three video works of mine were screened. "Whither goest thou “, “koud slova” and “conecta – no conecta”

My project was supported by Stroom, The Hague, NL 

kodekü - Collision of the Arts 

Kodekü - (Kollision der Künste) - Collision of the Arts, Bischofswerda, Germany , 03.09.-13.09.20

I was taking part in this 10-day art project in which artists from various disciplines and international origins come together, live and work in

There is currently a lot of discussion about how it is possible to revitalize rural regions. An important point here is the question of how the creative scene can be drawn into the small town and networked with one another. In order to counteract the politically precarious situation in the east of Saxony, Germany the cultural revitalization of small cities is an essential concern. This is exactly where our project starts. Between 03.09.2020 and 13.09.2020 I created and conducted two side specific performances. The first one was a variation of >isolate< at the KAS, Altes Kino. Followed by the performance >connected-not connected< performance at Schillerpark on 13th of September 2020. This performance was in collaboration with cellist Ulrich Thiem (Dresden) who accompanied the performance with his cello. Also in this performance I integrated the Land Art installation >Tor< (Gate) which I created in the Schillerpark. The performance became a multidisciplinary and collaboration work , combining performance, music and installation in one piece. Furthermore I gave a performance workshop on 10.09.20 at KAS for school children. 

Geumgang Nature Art Biennale 2020 

Geumgang Nature Art Biennale 2020   -   29th of August 2020 – 30th November 2020

Yeonmisan Nature Art Park, Geumgang International Nature Art Center

98 Yeonmisan Gogae-gil, Wooseong-myeon, Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea

SHIFT:ibpcpa

SHIFT_IBPCPA : 26/08/2020_21:00-22:00 (UK time) 22:00-23:00 (Central European Time) 

PARTICIPATORY Video PERFORMANCE | ‘CONECTA NO CONECTA’ LIVE PERFORMANCE ‘I CAN NOT SEE + INTERVIEW

Link to Live Performance "I can not see"

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1yoKMXppvQzxQ?t=2m49s&fbclid=IwAR2ZPRJdlCMi6Os-DjmnhywQTShdFgkTonDVpXqZWaYtEN5DQH624oLaCsw

Link to Interview :

https://www.pscp.tv/w/1YpJkNmmnQrGj?t=2s&fbclid=IwAR28ZhxHIrDVA_kaiLVHswCSTwz91cZjuLPLQwszRgfEBc4g0H2bhdVG7FQ

Made in Mind 

 MADE IN MIND, 20.07.2020, Mcube Gallery,  Kathmandu, Nepal.

AT TORRANCE ART MUSEUM IN LOS ANGELES, USA

AT TORRANCE ART MUSEUM IN LOS ANGELES, USA

My video work "isolate" is part of Seven Memorials for Humanity, which was curated specifically for TAM by Wilfried Agricola De Cologne. “isolate:” is presented in the first program in the series Corona! – Shut Down? from 18th July to 24th 2020. 

OMVA 2020 One Minute Video Art 

QuAr(T)antine