ALSTUBLIEFT (as you please) Rotterdam

There was a small but nice event that was organized by a couple from here, who I believe are originally from Belgium named Joe and Vanita. Avant-gardist, along the lines of Chris and Cosey, very...shall I say Belgian, flux, experimental noise and deep thought. There were also a couple of dance acts and musicians playing. It was a nice evening in and it's nice to be able to walk out of your room right into an event. I learned a lot about the young Rotterdam arts community though and maybe why the Flemish separated from the Dutch. Both the dance performances used elements of absurdity to get across some strong political elements, combining some performance art theories that owe respect to early avant-garde and conceptual practices however, each dance still had strong (very strong) academic influences...this maybe because they were students. Now this is the part that made me realize that Rotterdam is as someone told me last night "a white cube" when it comes to arts, essentially trendy. Joe and Vanita are avant-gardist whose practices are rooted in a different system of the avant-garde, that 70's, political, happening real shit!

So Joe and Vanita are performing and Vanita does some vocal instrumentation (similar to Yoko Ono vocals) where she keeps up and/or replaces the notes that Joe is playing either on sax or homemade instruments and people start to mimic, laugh, flash lighters and sway. Not everyone and not a majority but still some..and a couple of them were two of the dancers who performed. Basically rude. What is so sad about all this is that the only reason any of the 28 and under art crowd are basically allowed to do anything in the art world is because people before them were brave enough to do it first. The reason you can add absurdist elements into art has a lot to do the generation before them. So generally no respect for the avant-garde in Rotterdam. Which makes those who know me understand why I am taking it to its extreme through the most simple of practices. I've cut back my energy level on this project because the type of work I produce and others like Joe and Vanita produce isn't to help set your status among your peers in the art world. Rotterdam is purely academic and a little provincial yet, they want to use purely vanguardist strategies and give them elitist character. Rotterdam is a great city for dance and music.

It's like the Turner Prize this year. Ok all of a sudden the art market is dropping and painting and craft aren't selling and the winners of the prize this year (and rightly so because of their hard work) are mostly painters and crafters. When installation was hot it was installation, when video was hot it was video, etc., etc. Give it character and it makes it work, put the academy behind it and you're justified. I obviously will never get this prize.

So I've tried to work in the academic elements with avant-garde ideas and I'm going back to purely avant-garde. Not being concerned with what technology can do. Just seeing what happens when I decide to do something with it. Experiment with everything and learn the absolute truth about nothing.

NEXT BLOG: Who Knows

notes: Blair was in town and performed at the eetcafe here at the residency. I posted a couple of pics.