Hidden Sculptures
The work ‘Hidden Sculptures’, by Josh Schwebel.
Part of Unnoticed Art Festival#2
The work ‘Hidden Sculptures’, by Josh Schwebel.
Part of Unnoticed Art Festival#2
And no, sorry but we are not disclosing the name of the city!
You will have to wait for the reports.
(if you want to know why, read this interview)
©Kim Hospers
We are very happy to announce the program of
Unnoticed Art Festival #2:
Alice Vogler (US), Andrew McNiven (GB) , Bucky Miller (US), Chris Wildrick (US) , Connor Frew (US), Edwin Stolk (NL) , Elia Torrecilla (ES), Florence Jung (FR), Frans van Lent (NL), Heath Schultz (US) , Heinrich Obst (BE/DE), Ieke Trinks (NL), Ienke kastelein (NL), Irina Danilova & Hiram Levy (US), Isaac Chong (DE/HK) , Jeanette Joy Harris (US) , Jonathon Keats (US/IT), Josh Schwebel (CAN), Joyce Overheul (NL) , Julia Dahee Hong (CAN), Lee Nutbean (GB), Liam Herne (GB), Marika & Leopard (RU/DE) , Mark F Beasley (US), Mathias Will (DE), Maureen Bachaus (NL), Mikio Saito (JP) , naakita feldman-kiss & Roby provost Blanchard (CAN) , Nanne Muskens (BR), Nico Parlevliet (NL) , Paul Money (GB) , Paul Shortt (US) , Peter Christenson (US), Raluca Croitoru (RO) , Roekoe M (NL) , Royce Allen Hobbs (US) , Simon Farid (GB) , Tamar Banai (IL) , Thomas Geiger (AT), Thomas Tajo (IN) , Vladimir Ivanov (BG), Yvo van der Vat (NL) .
More information wil follow soon!
This interview was first published online in Dutch on 20 January 2015 on MetropolisM.com.
Translation: Willem Jan Gasille.
An interview with Frans van Lent, who organized the most conspicuous inconspicuous festival of recent years. Set in Haarlem, it was hidden from all laws of modern art events. Why?
Domeniek Ruyters:
The Unnoticed Art Festival, which took place in Haarlem last year, was without any doubt the least visible art festival of that year. You are the spiritual father of that event. Can you tell us something about its background?
Frans van Lent:
Actually, I should first say something about my work. Until 2012, I recorded my performances on video, they were not seen live, there was no-one there to observe them. The works came about in seclusion. The viewer saw the work later on, as a projected moving image. They were not present at the work itself, they were present at the showing of the work. Another place, another time, another event. In my performances the physical experience is paramount and it is exactly that aspect that I wanted to share. In the end, video as a medium was not suitable for this purpose. I had to find another form.
In 2013, I carried out a performance in a train driving between Amsterdam and Berlin (In a Train). I asked five travellers to take part. The outline was no more than a series of inconspicuous movements according to a predetermined score.
When it was over, the participants were very enthusiastic, not so much about the design of the movements, but rather about the – secret – collaboration in public space. This work knew two different public groups. Firstly the travellers who were involved in the work by performing it, secondly the other passengers who were reading a book or were looking out of the window and were not aware of any performance being carried out. The fact that the second group were not involved, had an important role in the process. It isolated and defined the first group, the participants.
These thoughts gave rise to the idea of organizing something big, which would drive the contrast home: a festival that would not be directed externally, to an audience, but rather internally, directing itself at the experiences of the performing participants.
Domeniek Ruyters:
Where did you manage to get the participants from?
Frans van Lent:
Twice I placed an Open Call on a number of websites and internet forums. The first one was an international call for artists to submit their performance concepts and the second one was a national call for volunteers to actually perform the works.
Domeniek Ruyters:
What exactly was the question?
Frans van Lent:
It said that we were looking for ‘performance concepts for performances that hide themselves in everyday life. Work that because of the language used blends in with acceptable social behaviour in public space and therefore probably will go unnoticed by the passer-by’.
I added that the concept and its actual performance would be separated. The ideas would be put into action by a group of volunteers. For that reason I asked the artists to submit their ideas in the form of ready to use manuals as much as possible.
Many of the performers would be inexperienced volunteers and would need their tasks to be described as clearly and simply as possible. Actually, I realized that this would mean that a part of the authorship would be transferred, which would demand a blind trust in the integrity of the performers. We were positively surprised by the enthusiasm and willingness expressed in the responses to the calls. Seventy artists submitted their works for selection.
Domeniek Ruyters:
Was it difficult to find a location?
Frans van Lent:
The location had to meet a number of conditions (size, crowd, walking distances). In the end it was quite easy to find a suitable city. In all respects, Haarlem was the right choice.
Domeniek Ruyters:
Can you tell us about the event, how did it come about?
Frans van Lent:
We carefully kept the location of the festival secret to prevent people to come looking (and become an audience). Even the participants did not know where the event would take place until they arrived at the spot. Our group of 40 spent the night in tents at a camping site.
On Saturday at 11 o’clock the programme started with a loud scream in a park. All weekend, a mini-bus drove to and fro to bring everyone at the right moment to the sites and to collect them again. When they returned to the camping site, each performer noted down their personal experiences in a few lines, as a means of documentation. No visual recordings were made, as cameras on the spot would define the events too much.
On Saturday night four chefs prepared a meal for the entire group. Since everyone was present, contacts could be made and experiences exchanged. On Sunday morning, the first performance of that day took place as early as 8 o’clock. At 6 o’clock in the evening the festival ended, with yet another scream in a park.
Domeniek Ruyters:
All art wants to be visible, but this art wants the opposite. Why?
Frans van Lent:
This art is looking for visibility too, perhaps even more. However, the audience was not just an audience, but had a key role in the coming about of the work, they collaborated with the artist. Their translations of the performance concepts were an important part of the work.
The passer-by was no more than a mere passer-by. If the passer-by perceived the event, it would often have been a passive perception, seen from the exterior. Because of this lack of much attention from outsiders, the – often inexperienced – performers could focus on the essence of the work. Their experiences, both individually and as a group, were important. This invisibility, this being ‘unnoticed’, was in fact not the aim, but the means.
Domeniek Ruyters:
Did the participants think differently about this? Did they talk about it on the spot?
Frans van Lent:
Since each volunteer chose to take part in the festival, the concept Unnoticed was meaningful to everyone. They talked much among each themselves about the public effects of their performances. Even though in the street everything is visible for everyone, the performances did not attract much public attention as they were not presented in an artistic context. The current code is to ignore the acts of a person we don’t know, to grant them a certain privacy.
Everyone who uses public space has their own motives and aims for doing so. The participants dealt with this in different ways. Some sought concentration and internalization of the work, while others were primarily outgoing and focused on confrontations. The programme was deliberately designed as broad as possible, giving both ends of the scale their space.
Domeniek Ruyters:
When can you call an event like this successful?
Frans van Lent:
That mostly depends on the experiences the participants had when they carried out the performances. Being unnoticed is less important, but it contributes to the quality of the experiences.
Domeniek Ruyters:
This reminds me of flash mobs. But then again, these want it to be visible in social media. You don’t. Why was it important to stay out of the media?
Frans van Lent:
Flash mobs are organized with a direct public effect in mind. They are usually quite spectacular and over the top. They seem to be meant to surprise as many people as possible, and to convert public space into theatre. This is opposite the intention of the festival, in which the individual experience is the focal point. Performances that hide themselves in everyday life.
Domeniek Ruyters:
This sounds rather Calvinistic, a sort of denial of image, away from the spectacle. As if a certain purity would be touched once it gets in the media?
Frans van Lent:
There was no reserve towards the media whatsoever, except of course if publicity could obstruct the design of the festival. The performances had to take place without any public attention. Attention from the media would have turned the street performances into special events. We could do nothing else but keep the locations top secret. However, I did offer several journalists to take part as a volunteer, without their cameras of course. That might have yielded an exceptional story, but unfortunately no-one took it up.
Domeniek Ruyters:
From what I gather, for all those involved the festival was a very satisfying, enriching experience. Does it make you long for more? Will there be more? Are you working on anything else?
Frans van Lent:
This was an intense experience for everyone involved and will be remembered long afterwards. I don’t know yet if it will be organized in this form again. On 31 January 2015 the book Unnoticed Art will be published, which contains reflections about all the artists’ performance concepts as well as the reactions of the participants.
After the festival I set up a website, theconceptbank.org, where artists present their ideas ‘open source’. Visitors of the site can print the concepts for their own use and carry out the performances at a time and place of their choice. At this moment, 17 concepts (by 12 artists) are online and the collection is expanding. And other experiments with the ‘unnoticed’ form will continue. Soon I will be carrying out a work (The Parallel Show) simultaneously with four colleagues at five different gallery presentations. Parasitic performances, since they will not be announced and we are strictly speaking just visitors of the exhibitions.
Afterword
In April 2016 TheConceptBank comprises 44 artists and 75 performance concepts (TheConceptBank.org).
So far TheParallelShow took place at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, Naturalis Bio Diversity Center in Leiden (NL), Museum M in Leuven (B), Tate Britain in London (UK) and Art Rotterdam Art Fair (NL).
More will follow (TheParallelShow.com).
The second Unnoticed Art Festival will take place on June 24/25 2016. We are looking for ± 30 volunteers to carry out all works in the center of an undisclosed Dutch city.
On friday June 24 (15.00) you will be picked up at an announced spot in the Netherlands and a van will bring you to a camping near that undisclosed city (you will have to bring your camping stuff).
On Saturday morning (early) we will all leave for the city center and during the day we will, individually and in groups, carry out every work in the program. For reasons of documentation everybody writes down some personal experiences afterwards. Documenting the works by camera is not appreciated because of the unnoticed character of the festival!
Back at the camping at the end of the day a great dinner will be served to conclude the festival (created and cooked by Jasper Budel & Friends). It is conceived as a way to thank all participants and sponsors.
If you want to join the festival as a volunteer you are welcome to write us your personal motivation at: volunteer@unnoticedartfestival.com.
Please keep in mind: apart from the offered program (incl. transport van, camping, meals) we don’t have funds for extra (travel-) expenses!
On June 24/25 2016 the 222lodge will organise a second festival for Unnoticed Live Art in an undisclosed Dutch city.
The Unnoticed Art Festival 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 behaviour in public space and, because of that, remained unnoticed to bystanders.
Creating the concepts and executing the works are split. Artists send their concepts more or less as manuals. In the festival the chosen works will be carried out by a group of (both experienced and unexperienced) volunteers.
The volunteers have a double roll. They are participants as well as audience. They are responsible for realising the performances in the best possible way and, doing that, they fully experience the works. In fact they become part of it. The public is not excluded in this way but it is actually embedded.
The location of the festival remains a secret. That way the passers-by are accidental and without knowledge of the occasion. They are unaware.
They have their own aims, their own occupations, their own thoughts.
You are very welcome to send your concept to 2ndfestival@unnoticedart.com.
The deadline is 1st of March 2016.
After the first festival in 2014 a book was published: http://www.japsambooks.nl/en/books/forthcoming-titles/unnoticed-art/141.
The first festival showed works of:
Rafael Abreu Canedo (BRA), Sarah Boulton (GBR), Derek Dadian-Smith (USA), Craig Damrauer (USA), Dino Dinco ((USA), Mr. and Mrs Gray (NLD), Linda Hesh (USA), Hiroomi Horiuchi (JPN), David Horvitz (USA), Daan den Houter (NLD), Jeroen Jongeleen (NLD), Ienke Kastelein (NLD), Jonathon Keats (USA), Joke van Kerkwijk (NLD), Kees Koomen (NLD), Margreet Kramer (NLD), Gavin Krastin (ZAF), Frans van Lent (NLD), Steef van Lent (DEU), Gretta Louw (AUS), Lilla Magyari (HUN), Maria Martens (SAV), Andrew McNiven (GBR), Janet Meaney (AUS), Tim Miller (GBR), Marnik Neven (BEL), Joyce Overheul (NLD), Nico Parlevliet (NLD), Malin Peter (SWE), Jess Rose (GBR), Julie Rozman (USA), Roekoe M (NLD), Joshua Schwebel (CAN), Edwin Stolk (NLD), Topp & Dubio (NLD).
Buy it here!
Contents:
-preface,
-artist concepts/responses,
-essay Three Positions.
74 pages (135 grs),
size: 20 X 13 cms (7,9 X 5,1 in).
300 copies printed
ISBN/EAN: 978-90-808675-0-5
© Frans van Lent 2014
In gesprek met Frans van Lent, organisator van het meest opvallende onopvallende kunstfestival van de laatste jaren. Gehouden in Haarlem heeft het zich onttrokken aan de wetten van de moderne kunstmanifestatie. Waarom?
In 2013 voerde ik een performance uit in een rijdende trein tussen Amsterdam en Berlijn (In a Train). Ik vroeg vijf medereizigers deel te nemen. De opzet was niets meer dan een serie onopvallende bewegingen volgens een tevoren bepaald schema.
Na afloop waren de deelnemers erg enthousiast, niet zozeer over het ontwerp van de bewegingen maar vooral over die (geheime) samenwerking in de publieke ruimte. In dit werk was sprake van twee verschillende publieke groepen. Ten eerste de medereizigers die in het werk waren betrokken door het uit te voeren, ten tweede de andere passagiers die een boek lazen of uit het raam keken en die zich van geen performance bewust waren. De onbetrokkenheid van deze tweede groep had een belangrijke functie in het proces. Het isoleerde en definieerde de eerste groep, de deelnemers.
Vanuit deze overwegingen ontstond het idee om iets groots op te zetten, het contrast meer op de spits te drijven: een festival dat zich niet naar buiten richt, naar een publiek van toeschouwers, maar dat zich juist naar binnen richt, naar de ervaring van de deelnemers/performers.
Verder heb ik aangegeven dat het concept en de uitvoering gescheiden zouden zijn. De concepten zouden worden gerealiseerd door een groep vrijwilligers. Ik heb aan de kunstenaars gevraagd hun concepten om die reden zoveel mogelijk te noteren als gebruiksklare handleidingen.
Onder de uitvoerende deelnemers zouden zich veel onervaren vrijwilligers bevinden, voor wie de opdrachten zo helder en eenduidig mogelijk moesten zijn. Ik realiseerde me dat we eigenlijk vroegen om een deel van het auteurschap af te staan wat vooral om veel vertrouwen vraagt in de integriteit van de performers. We waren aangenaam verrast over het enthousiasme en de welwillendheid waarmee op de oproep werd gereageerd. Zeventig kunstenaars hebben werk ter selectie ingestuurd.
De locatie van het festival hebben we zorgvuldig geheim gehouden om te voorkomen dat er speciaal publiek op af zou komen. Zelfs de deelnemers wisten tot het moment van aankomst niet waar het zou gaan plaatsvinden. We hebben als groep van veertig personen in tentjes op een camping overnacht.
Zaterdag om 11 uur startte het programma met een eenzame schreeuw in een park. Het hele weekend reed er een personenbusje af en aan om iedereen op het juiste moment naar de locaties te brengen en weer op te halen. Teruggekomen op de camping noteerde elke performer, bij wijze van documentatie, in enkele zinnen zijn of haar persoonlijke ervaringen. Er is geen visuele documentatie gemaakt omdat ook de aandacht van camera’s de gebeurtenissen teveel zou definiëren.
Op zaterdagavond werd op de camping door vier koks voor de hele groep gekookt. Iedereen was aanwezig dus er konden contacten worden gelegd en ervaringen worden uitgewisseld. Zondagmorgen om 8 uur vond in de binnenstad alweer de eerste performance plaats. ’s Middags om zes uur eindigde het festival met opnieuw een schreeuw in het park.
Bij het festival is een catalogus uitgegeven. Meer informatie bij de kunstenaar