toolbox res&ref

During the kunstenfestivaldesarts APT works together with a group of international artists, reflecting on the esthetics, ethics and politics of the performances presented at the festival.

We ask the participants of the RES&REF group to prepare a toolbox. During the project, all the artists involved in the RES&REF-program will get to know each other('s work) a little bit better during the presentation session on the 23th (work presentation day = participants can bring DVD, texts, pictures to present their artistic work to the group). But often these presentations don't leave enough time to really dig into each other's work, to clarify references, to link the work to a political, social or personal context, and so forth. So, next to the first presentation sessions, we foresee some time in our lounge, for each of you to present their personal 'toolbox' . A toolbox consists of a container of your choice (a box, a handbag, a plastic tub, a traveling bag,...) filled with five objects that for your practice as an artist are important. Anything is possible:

-the book you read when you were 12 and discovered you wanted to become an artist
-a DVD of your favourite soap
-an object you used in your last performance, that is important to you
-an 'objet trouvé' that for some reason you can't get rid off
-a text that inspires your work over and over again
-a favourite song that haunts you
-...

Using these toolboxes and the way you present them to each other, we will set out for a ten day modification trajectory of your chosen tools: objects can be discarded or exchanged, copied and taken over, modified or questioned. The evolution of your toolbox could be monitored on our blog-pages, and functions in some way as an archive. This way we hope to get an insight into your working methodologies, strategies, organization, etc..,
The material of the toolboxes will be presented during the more informal days in between the RES&REF discussion: we prepare a cosy living room/lounge with a DVD-player, a beamer, a library etcetera, so that you can watch the material together. Of course this is also the place for you to look at each other's work, share it with the other artists in the house, open up the discussion with them etcetera.