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Guestbook: Mindmapping The Rest of Now
Manifesta7 - Trentino – South Tyrol Region
Project Tabula Rasa: 111 days on a long table
August 3rd - August 10th 2008
Ex Alumix, Bolzano
http://www.manifesta7.it
OAS is composed by: Luis Fernandez Pons, Silvia Marzall,
Valentina Sartori, Bernhard C. Striebel
Curated by: Denis Isaia in conversation with Raqs Media
Collective
Concept:
We are a temporary heterogeneous group of artists, as to
age, nationality and artistic approach. Our common denominator
is the work with and in a defined context, regarding people,
spaces, history, and so on. We have constituted the group
in 2008 on occasion of the Manifesta 7, in order to activate
temporarily the transitory (art)site “room 124”
as a historically and poetically charged environment. In
response to the idea of an art project that stays as open
as possible we propose a process that is based on an interactive
mind map structure.
Starting from the curatorial reflection on residue and
the proposal of rescue of what is left behind in
processes of valuation, we asked ourselves how this could
be projected on the specific context we would experience
at the art event Manifesta 7. From the many contexts in
which the Alumix building is embedded (such as historical,
economical, geographical, etc.) we want to concentrate on
three aspects: the architecture, the documented history
and the exhibition. Our project is an open forum dealing
with the past of Alumix, its presence, as well as the future
plans. Creation of value is always connected to appearance
of residues and rests. Any process of valuation goes along
with judgement. To judge means to accept something and reject
something else according to a certain measure of value.
We would like to apply this idea on the context of Manifesta
7: what is considered valuable in such art-event-context
and what is left behind? We think that the reactions of
the visitors could be considered as a form of residue: they
aren’t valued as important as for example those of
art critics or experts. Therefore we want to create a temporary
space to register the visitors` thoughts, emotions and opinions.
Entering room 124, which is the last station of the Alumix-parcours,
the visitors will come upon with a table to sit down at,
have a rest, drink some water and react on the mind map
on the table.
Mind map: The first stage of our project
consists in the skeleton of a mind map using material about
Alumix, such as historical photo-details and future architectural
plants, which will be fragmented, combined with text and
included in the basic structure. Visitors will be invited
to expand, correct, stress and comment the given structure
with pens being at disposal on the table. Contrarily to
the linear structure of a text, a mind map is an extendable,
variable structure that visualizes the possibility of multiple
connections and that includes, through empty areas, the
open possibility of something forgotten, not considered,
or left out. As a special example of the concept of “residue”
we want to include fragments of unrealised proposals of
ex-Alumix-workers documented in the trade-union’s
archive.
Formally the paper is divided in three longitudinal areas.
The external ones stand for the past and the future of Alumix;
graphical elements are more concentrated there. The central
area is a blank space, almost devoid of information. It
could stand for the present time. We will work with reduced
graphical means and use only one colour. Presenting the
daily worked sheets on the wall is an act of (temporary)
valorisation of the visitors’ reactions. Further it
stresses the process-related character of the work allowing
a comparative view of differences and absences.
As room 124 has a separate entrance, we would like to request
free access to our work in order to offer this network space
to people that usually frequent the industrial zone but
are not necessarily involved in the art system, for example:
workers, Alumix-bar customers, old people and ex-workers,
foreign people, young people, and so on. For this purpose
we will have to think about an organisational solution and
a special form of making it public for example through flyers,
personal invitation to ex-workers, etc.
Open Anonymous Society, Berlin, april 2008
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