Harbinger
Public programme, curated screenings, an exhibition and a publication: HARBINGER was an extensive curatorial project at venues across Ghent. Made in partnership between art@CMS (CERN, Geneva) and Kask (Ghent), it aimed at drawing closer lines between arts and science
Images of Harbinger 2 Subtle Collisions, UGent Botanical Gardens, July 2019, Ghent. Photos Ingel Vaikla
A HARBINGER is a forerunner. Historically linked to the idea of providing lodgments in advance, it indicates something or someone foreshadowing events in the future. Prediction, intuition and foretelling playing a particular role both in the arts and in science, Harbinger invited the audience to look at the unknown through both disciplines to welcome what is next.
1. Public Programme
HARBINGER I: FIRST SIGNS was the first act of HARBINGER. Four consecutive weekends of presentations, debates and curated screenings on the crossroads between art and science. Debated themes were the complex relations between data, debt and speculation as well as the connections tying matter and consciousness together. Every conference was followed by a weekend of curated screenings at Kunsthal Gent.
OPENING EVENT:
DISCOTECA CLANDESTINA
Paolo Danese (IT) and Algis Kaveckis (LT) form the audiovisual performative team of Discoteca Clandestina. Harbinger opens up with the duo's psychotronic audiovisual performance, an Ascension Disco DJ set joined by themes from artist book “Discoteca Clandestina: an Eschatological Disco Survival Strategy Plan or The End Times". During their set, the artists claim to inject their detailed timeline and descriptions of the future untill the year 4009 into the (un)conscious mind of their viewers-listeners-dancers.
Preceeded by Esoteric Disco, warm-up by guest DJ Alessandro Parisi.
CONFERENCES:
SCI-ART: FRAMING ARTS AND SCIENCES
with BARBARA VANDERLINDEN - art critic, editor and curator and MARJAN DOOM - director of Ghent University Museum
Moderator: Jonito Aerts Arguelles (CLEA, VUB)
GOING SHORT: PREDICTION AS DEBT & DATA TRACING MAPS TO THE FUTURE
with LIAM GILLICK - New York-based artist, via slideshow and JAMES BEACHAM - filmmaker and post-doc researcher at CERN
Moderator: Jonito Aerts Arguelles (CLEA, VUB)
preceeded by THE DRAKE EQUATION, a performance lecture exploring the (non) existence of extraterrestrial and the implications for humanity. By CHRIS DUPUIS, KASK
BEYOND MATTER: CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE HORIZON
with JOHAN GRIMONPREZ - visual artist, post-doc researcher KASK and lecturer at School of Visual Arts, New York
Moderator: Stan Bundervoet (CLEA, VUB)
2. Exhibition
HARBINGER II: SUBTLE COLLISIONS.
5 July - 17 July 2019
Inspired by the notion of interaction used in particle physics HARBINGER II: SUBTLE COLLISIONS is an exhibition focusing on common grounds between art and science. Rather than presenting metaphors of such an encounter, it departs from the observation that both fields use notions of prediction and intuition as tools.
HARBINGER II: SUBTLE COLLISIONS is a show about matter and the universe, about energy, light, gravity and time, about circles, black holes and space, and how particles and ideas collide. It combines new works of artistic researchers affiliated with KASK & Conservatorium, developed after a visit to the CERN facilities in Geneva, with works by other artists selected by the postgraduate students of Curatorial Studies.
With works by:
Véronique Béland
Joris Blanckaert
Maria Boto & Kristel Peters - Color Biolab
Michiel De Cleene
Edith Dekyndt
Elias Heuninck
Nicolas Lamas
Ives Maes
Daan Paans
Other Women’s flowers
Pratchaya Phinthong
Leticia Ramos
Joost Rekveld
Dominique Somers
Todèl (Delphine Wibaux & Tom Rider)
Chantal van Rijt
Ian Wilson
Special events:
Workshop: KASK art researchers Maria Boto & Kristel Peters
COLOR BIOLAB is a transdisciplinary research project approaching the color field from different perspectives: from sustainable production and application, to the use of color as a common language between art and science. Starting from traditional coloring, to living organisms or waste, the project aims to reflect about the possibilities of new coloring sources, and the implications involved.
Workshop: Other Women's Flowers
Other Women's Flowers is a project dedicated to discussing, spreading and encouraging women's & non-male writing. Its centre is a biweekly gathering where we discuss texts & the ideas proposed in them while sharing a meal. Through reading, discussing and sharing we aim to enlarge the constellation of female voices in the literary and theoretical landscape and, ultimately, encourage women to speak.
Performance: Advienne Que Pourra
Performance with Laura Fautré, Loucka Fiagan, Salomé Genès, Killian Madeleine, Sophie Vendryes. Creation: Salomé Genès
Sound design: Julien Gasc.
Five bodies are thrown, contracted, compressed,
condensed, massed, rubbed. Dispersed.
The space is saturated with ping-pong balls.
Do I move, am I moved?
In Advienne Que Pourra gestures coming from specific experiences are thrown around like ping pong balls. The collaboration between people coming from different backgrounds is key for a unique encounter, promoting an experience of human collisions in time and space.
3. Publication:
HARBINGER III: IMPERFECT AGREEMENTS
A third space of the Harbinger project, HARBINGER III: IMPERFECT AGREEMENTS is a publication made through the contributions of participants of the whole project to contemplate their own interpretations of Harbinger.
Click here to know more about the publication
For further information:
︎ http://harbinger.schoolofarts.be