Output details

WAR AS EVER! (Portfolio of outcomes: 35 artworks, performative actions, conference and publications. Exhibition at The Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands. 21 Jan – 25 March 2012)

Research leading to artworks, exhibition, performative actions, conference and publication; embedded in theoretical reflections on visual culture, the archive and the museum in general. The result of an invitation from Atlas Van Stolk Collection (Museum Rotterdam/Historical Museum) to make accessible one unique artifact, the Van Kittensteyn Album, engravings of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire (1568–1648). Through visual interpretation and photographic re-presentation similarities between historical and current political and religious conflicts were presented. Testing a critical model and strategies for linking artistic research and the contested concept of ‘the public’ and citizenship, the partnering of the two museums and the extending of their normal domains through engagement with a large number of ‘publics’ was negotiated by the artists. A devised character The Print Pedlar (Tracy Mackenna) undertook a series of ‘performative actions’ adopting significant institutions as key points within which to engage audiences in conversations on human suffering and violence in a city undergoing re-planning since the 1943 aerial bombardment. The Pedlar’s Blog is a textual afterlife that interrogates the project’s issues and subjects. The conference, "War as Ever? The artist and the institution entering the conflict zone" (02 March 2012), brought together critics, historians, photojournalists, curators and artists to present and debate. The associated publication "WAR AS EVER!" (July 2013), documents the project visually and analyses through commissioned texts; Onomatopee 2013. The co-authored forthcoming journal paper "WAR as EVER!: Art Practice as Interface", (Mackenna, T and Janssen, E) is published in The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, (2013).

The slide projection 'Seeing is Believing' was commissioned by Onomatopee, for research project WHO TOLD YOU SO? ?2 Truth vs. Organisation, 9 June - 15 July 2012. Curator Freek Lomme. 9 artists; Elena Bajo, Heath Bunting, Anikó Loránt and Tamás Kaszás. Project specific texts: Alfredo Cramerotti, Wim Langenhoff, Markus Miessen