On 5 October last, the Flemish Culture Prize for Visual Arts was awarded to Harald Thys, former researcher Fine Art, and Jos De Gruyter at the Museum M in Louvain. Thys and De Gruyter collaborate to make installations, videos and performances. According to the jury, they have “a sharp eye for the banal and the absurd. The universe they have created shows great sensitivity to the world as a whole. Their image of man and the world is dark, but without the dogmas of cynicism that often thrive in that darkness. At the same time, their work is childishly simple and has a burlesque kind of joy. (…) Their work stakes out (…) a mental freedom that we would be in danger of forgetting, without this kind of art.”
More info: http://www.cultuurprijzen.be
Watch videos of the lectures and debates during The empowerment of the Right/the dissolution of the Left, last Saturday at the Jan van Eyck Academie, at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jan-van-eyck-academie.
The Jan van Eyck is delighted to welcome again Slovenian sociologist and culture critic Slavoj Zizek. Zizek is one of the speakers at the The empowerment of the Right/ the dissolution of the Left event. The public sector is facing severe economy measures. The budgets for culture, education and health care are being cut. The measures are implemented by the political right. The political left, in this period of turmoil, does not seem to be able or willing to meet force with force and turn the tide. Has the left become unsettled? Does the binary division between left and right still apply to read the current political developments and state of flux? Can the left reinvent itself and find an answer to the spreading attitude of rigidity and xenophobia?
The Jan van Eyck Academie hosts this debate and invites you to enter into discussion with Slavoj Žižek, former researcher Design Merijn Oudenampsen and researcher Theory Oxana Timofeeva.
Registration for this event is closed
25 years ago the Jan van Eyck Academie awarded the Charles Nypels Prijs to Swiss artist Dieter Roth for his ‘epoch-making book objects’. To mark this occasion, the Jan van Eyck has invited artist Olaf Nicolai, publisher Jan Voss (NL) and curator Corinne Diserens (FR) to contribute to a programme of lectures, screenings and discussions on Monday 31 October 2011.
Entrance is free, but please register at coordinator.events@janvaneyck.nl
Sven Augustijnen, artist and former researcher Fine Art, was awarded the 2011 Evens Arts Prize. The work of Augustijnen centres around the ambiguity in documentaries. By means of various media, like film and photography, he explores the fine line between fiction and documentary to the point where the audience can hardly distinguish fact from fiction. The Evens Art Prize was presented to Augustijnen by Alain Seban, director of the Centre Pompidou (Paris, FR).
More info: http://www.evensfoundation.be
In exactly 118 days the Jan van Eyck Academie will present its new policy plan for 2013-2016. For more than sixty years, the Jan van Eyck has taken up a unique position within the Dutch cultural landscape. The new policy plan will confirm this position.
Recently the Jan van Eyck Academie has become active on Facebook and Twitter. For news, events and more you can follow us on http://on.fb.me and on #!/jve_academie.
Call for Applications Fine Art
The Jan van Eyck Academie still has positions available in the Fine Art Department for the next academic year, starting on 1 January 2012. Artists are invited to submit proposals for individual research projects.
Deadline for submissions is 1 October 2011.
More information, including the 2011 application form, can be found under the 'applications' button.
This exhibition was set up on the occasion of the first lecture in the series Landfill, pits and rubble mountains by researchers Design Alexander Negrelli and Ina Kwon. You can visit the exhibition from 13 until 23 September 2011. more info
As of 5 September Lex ter Braak, director of the Jan van Eyck Academie, will usually be present in the academy on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The Board of the Jan van Eyck Academie Foundation cordially invites you to join them as they say farewell to director Koen Brams on Friday 9 September from 3 pm onward. At the request of Koen Brams, the programme will focus on a preview to the – wayward – functioning of the post-academic institutions within the cultural infrastructure. The farewell event will take place at the Maastricht Academy of Music (Bonnefantenstraat 15, Maastricht) at 3 pm, with speeches by Ankie Bosch on behalf of staff, Mladen Dolar on behalf of the (advising) researchers, Prof. C.J. Hamelink, chair of the Jan van Eyck Academie Foundation, and Koen Brams, director Jan van Eyck Academie 2000-2011. At 4.30 pm there will be a reception at the Jan van Eyck Academie, followed by an informal gathering with music, dance and a buffet.
If you wish to attend this event, please inform us before 2 September via anne.vangronsveld@janvaneyck.nl or +31(0)43/350.37.84.
Ms. Vangronsveld can also answer any queries regarding the farewell event or the programme.
At the Impulse Theater Festival in Düsseldorf, Andros Zins-Browne has received this year’s Goethe Institute award for his production The Host. He shares the price with She She Pop and their Fathers for Testament. With the support of the Goethe Institute both productions will set out on an international tour next year.
This is what the jury said about The Host: “When the three cowboys set foot on stage in The Host they do what cowboys have always done. They set to work, clean up and rip the floor out from under ornery nature in order to use that floor for the western dance of civilization. That is, until nature – in the form of gigantic inflatable air cushions created by the artist Stefan Demming – turns everything upside down again. This isn’t just an amusing pot-shot at masculine self-images. With The Host the choreographer Andros Zins-Browne has created a stage installation full of slapstick humour and stoically born effort, in which a cowboy becomes Sisyphus and in all seriousness poses questions to what extent the world can be conquered. Andros Zins-Browne has found a clear aesthetic approach that negates any single, one-dimensional interpretation. It is rare that elements of dance and visual art come together in such an essential manner and develop their very own language of images. (...)” more info
As a reaction to state secretary Halbe Zijlstra’s policy of retrenchment the Jan van Eyck Academie has decided to give the world an idea of who has contributed to the history of the academy since it was established more than sixty years ago. The window panes and walls of the unique building designed by architect Peutz are hung with banners that list the names of artists, designers and theorists from all corners of the world who spent research time at the Jan van Eyck. They are all ambassadors of the institute; they have made the city of Maastricht widely known and have made the Jan van Eyck an established name. They have, each in their own way, contributed to the state of art, culture and science in the Netherlands and beyond. The list gives a clear indication of the breeding ground that Maastricht and the Jan van Eyck have been. Without the Jan van Eyck the cultural landscape will definitely be more barren.
The accompanying photos show the action and the names that adorn the Jan van Eyck building.
See the photos here.
The plans of the Secretary of State Halbe Zijlstra and the incorrect media reports that the Jan van Eyck Academie is closing have generated many reactions. We have received many expressions of support by individuals and groups who are backing the academy in its efforts to ensure possibilities for artists, designers and theorists to experiment, develop and create. We have set up the website Jan van Eyck – a Defendable Space with short statements about the Jan van Eyck Academie. Support the academy by sending your statement to janvaneyck-adefendablespace@janvaneyck.nl and view the website here.
On 1 July 2011 Berto Aussems went into retirement, having worked at the Jan van Eyck as coordinator time-based media no less than 25 years. Berto will celebrate his retirement with his colleagues in September. Over the next few months, up to 1 November 2011, Berto will be replaced by Ben Brack and Tim Rutten.
This weekend some newspapers have published the letter 'Jan van Eyck – a Defendable Space’. This letter is requesting State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra to withdraw his plans to stop financing post-academic institutes like the Jan van Eyck Academie at the latest from 2017 on. The academy is happy to see the letter signed by a long list of names from people within and outside of the academy, from the national and international fields of arts, culture and education. If you want to support the Jan van Eyck Academie, you can sign this letter by sending an e-mail to judith.lindekens@janvaneyck.nl or enter a comment at janvaneyck-adefendablespace@janvaneyck.nl. The contributions can be accessed here
Dear Mr. Zijlstra,
Honoured members of the Lower House,
The memorandum announced by the Secretary of State today does not signal a new beginning, as he indicated earlier, but simply the end of an internationally valued cultural climate, unparalleled anywhere in the world.
For Thorbecke – the spiritual father of the Secretary of State Zijlstra, or at least of his party – the policy was the result of a long-term vision. He saw the political manager as the designer of the age, who interprets historical lines and develops a vision for the future on that basis. Compared with his predecessor, the measures proposed by the Secretary of State pale into insignificance. They choose short-term results which do not take into account historically acquired benefits and social developments.
One prominent Dutch collector called the Secretary of State’s memorandum a new "iconoclasm". This comparison is striking and appropriate. The field of the "visual arts" is crippled in and by this memorandum, with fatal consequences for the public.
Paul Hendrikse receives Young Belgian Painters Award-Langui
Former researcher Fine Art Paul Hendrikse has received the Young Belgian Painters Award-Emile en Stephy Langui. The jury decided that the € 12,500 price was to be shared between David Catherall and Paul Hendrikse, having been equally seduced by the quality of display and contents of the different approaches of both artists. Catherall was praised for his conceptual way of dealing with reality, Hendrikse for his more documentary/historic approach. Since 1950, the Young Belgian Painters Award is granted every two years to visual work of a young artist. In this way the YBPA wants to promote and support young art.
Paul Hendrikse builds on existing cultural and artistic legacies. The work of Hendrikse often arises out of a fascination with a person who occupies a speculative or over-determined place in history. This person is deployed as a guide and leads Hendrikse to undertake a journey or actively generate an experience. In his work Hendrikse explores the intersections of history, biography and fiction. His projects often involve performance or performative elements and are mostly the result of extensive research and intense artistic collaboration with authors, actors, philosophers and so on. For the Young Belgian Painter Award, Hendrikse created an adaptation of a series of works that he made in 2009/2010, which deal with the complex and intriguing life and work of the South-African poet Ingrid Jonker.
Next to their availability on the website and in bookshops in the Netherlands, Europe and outside of Europe, Jan van Eyck publications will now also be for sale on www.amazon.de.
During the KunstTour the Jan van Eyck Academie will reveal itself once more in all its facets, presenting innovative ideas about theory, fine art and design.
On 27 and 28 May, advising researcher Theory Mladen Dolar, together with Lorenzo Chiesa and the universities of Kent and Ljubljana, will organise the conference The human animal in contemporary philosophy, psychoanalysis and science.
Apart from this, visitors can also look around and feast their eyes on various presentations. On 28 and 29 May researchers of the Fine Art and Design departments will present their work in Local Wavelenghts. Haseeb Ahmed, Adrian Alecu, Jasper Coppes, Vanessa Desclaux, Paul Gangloff, Edwin Gardner, Marcel Hiller, Dominique Hurth, Ina Kwon, Alexi Kukuljevic, Christophe Lemaitre, Axel Loytved, Adrien Lucca, Emilio Macchia, Vasilis Marmatakis, Alexander Negrelli, Bavo Olbrechts, Nathania Rubin and Andros Zins-Browne will exhibit their search for other forms of presentation, experimenting with sound, light, space and time.
Book lovers, too, will be rewarded. On 28 and 29 May they can browse the double copies of books from the library that are now offered for sale. What’s more, they can also peruse and buy the new publications of the Jan van Eyck Academie, which are on display as well.
More information and the complete programme can be found under the header 'events'.
The Jan van Eyck Academie, post-academic institute for research and production in the fields of fine art, design and theory, announces the appointment of Lex ter Braak as its new director, starting 1 July 2011. Over the coming months, Lex ter Braak will focus on the position of the Jan van Eyck Academie as post-academic institute within the new cultural basic infrastructure; to that end he will develop a new policy for the Culture Plan Period 2013-2016.
From 2000, Lex ter Braak was director of the Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) in Amsterdam. From 1993 to 2000, he was director of the Vleeshal in Middelburg. Apart from these directorships, Ter Braak also works as a freelance writer/critic for Vrij Nederland, writing on literature and fine art, and has contributed to various monographs and art magazines.
Our current call for applications is now closed.
Artists, designers and theorists are invited to submit proposals for individual or collective research projects for a one-year, two-year or variable research period in the departments of Fine Art, Design and Theory. The deadline for submissions is 15 April 2011. The call will be supported by a recruitment campaign designed by Luisa Lorenza Corna and Emilio Macchia, researchers in the Design Department. More information can be found under the 'applications' button.
The Fine Art department has invited researcher Adrien Lucca to exhibit his latest works in the hallway of Jan van Eyck Academie. A new wall has been built close to the entrance, on which works on paper are mounted. The ‘display proposition’ consists of a chain of short-term exhibitions over the year, showing different series of works. The configuration, the colour of the wall, the lighting may vary depending on the requirements of the consecutive parts of the exhibition. more info
In the light of Opening Week 2011 researchers and advising researchers from the three departments (Fine Art, Design and Theory) collaborated in a joint exhibition, aiming to bring to attention the wide range of material practice at Jan van Eyck Academie. Part of the work is still on show until the end of this month; visitors are most welcome to take a look. more info
The Jan van Eyck Academie is pleased to welcome David Bennewith as an advising researcher in the Design department. Bennewith was a researcher in the same department from September 2007 until February 2009. In that period, he completed his prize-winning book Churchward international typefaces on New Zealand type designer Joseph Churchward. At JVE’s Design department, Bennewith will run the newly initiated project *Latent Stare*.
In the new academic year twenty new researchers begin their research period at JVE. We welcome the following five artists, five designers and ten theoreticians:
Fine Art researchers: Haseeb Ahmed, Adrian Alecu, Christophe Lemaitre, Mariagiovanna Nuzzi and Nathania Rubin.
Design researchers: Edwin Gardner, Emilio Macchia, Vasilis Marmatakis, Nenad Romic and Rasmus Spanggaard Troelsen.
Theory researchers: Vanessa Desclaux, Michele Filippini, Sara de Jong, Katja Kolsek, Alexi Kukuljevic, Claudia Landolfi, Karl Lyden, Jamila Mascat, Gregor Moder and Lucia Pradella.
Later this month, we will also welcome Frances Loeffler (Fine Art department) and James Penney (Theory department); early February, Adria Julia (Fine Art department) will also start his research period at JVE.
The Jan van Eyck Yearbook 2009, designed by Jack Henrie Fisher (researcher Design), has been recognised by the jury of the Best Designed Annual Reports as one of the winning designs this year. The jury report especially praises the design (including the choice for paper) and the graphic care with which the book has been produced. The Best Designed Annual Yearbooks is organised by the Grafische Cultuurstichting (Graphic Culture Foundation), in cooperation with Uitgeverij Compres and Antalis and with support of BNO/Pictoright. The selected Yearbooks will be added to the Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam (NL). more info
Parallel to the exhibition of works by BACA winner Francis Alÿs, becoming ahh exhibits the work of five young artists and one designer from the Jan van Eyck Academie. Participating artists are Wolfgang Fütterer (DE), Marcel Hiller (DE), Dominique Hurth (FR), Axel Loytved (DE) and Nicholas Matranga (VS), all in the Fine Art department, and Paul Gangloff, of the Design department. The BACA is the only important prize for international fine art in the Netherlands. The prize is intended to honour an artist on the grounds of his/her exceptional oeuvre and influence on other artists. Becoming ahh will be on show until 27 March 2011. Paul Gangloff designed the exhibition catalogue in the form of a diary for the year 2020. more info
The Jan van Eyck Academie has a vacancy for the position of director. The academy is especially interested in candidates who feel connected to the concepts and ideas which form the basis of the academy’s present policy and who welcome the challenge of developing substantive elements of their own within the policy framework for research and production in the fields of the visual arts, design and theory. Furthermore, he/she will, on the basis of a personal vision and involvement, convincingly formulate the ideas in the policy plan 2013-2016 Cultural Plan. Additional information about the key candidate requirements, about making an application, about terms and conditions of employment et cetera can be accessed when clicking the subject heading “vacancies”. Closing term for applications is 23 November.
One hundred thirty seven thousand and sixty-one: the new JVE Yearbook alphabetically composes an unfiltered list of all the written words produced at the JVE in 2009, and counts every recurrence. The language of the academy, in all of its institutional registers, is thus enumerated as a totality. A surplus to this written word count, as image and speech, finds its place on the book’s jacket and cover. The JVE Yearbook 2009 was designed by Jack Henrie Fisher, researcher in the Design Department.
Koen Brams has decided to resign his position as director of the Jan van Eyck Academie. He is renouncing his position so as to give his successor sufficient time to settle in and prepare the writing of a new policy plan for the Culture Plan period 2013 – 2016. Brams wishes to focus his attention on his own research projects and publications.
In consultation with the Board of the Jan van Eyck Academie Foundation it has been decided that Brams will stay on as director – with all corresponding authority and responsibilities – until 31 December. The Board is currently deciding on the form, content and time-line for a procedure to recruit a new director.
To receive the monthly Jan van Eyck newsletter by email including the upcoming events, please mail to: brief@janvaneyck.nl, subject heading 'subscribe'.