Last Friday – the 21st of February – two art students from Paris launched their first two workshops for their nomadic collaborative art project artist_in_progress in Amsterdam, at VLLA and Mixtup Project. Work made here is now forwarded to workshops in Berlin and finally in Prague up till March 2nd. After that the students travel back to Paris, where an art exhibition will be held and an ‘autobiography’ will be written. All collaborators in this art project decide together what will be presented in the exhibition and in the book, which both will be launched in Paris, respectively in June and July 2014.
The art students – called ‘organs’ in this project – brought sketches from France to the table, along with some keywords and art materials to work with. In Amsterdam those sketches were interpreted by creative people. To get a clearer picture, think of the collaborative art creation as a massive Chinese Whisper Game: you could define the art works as ‘crossing border’ whispers, whispered from Amsterdam creatives into ’the ears’ of Berlin creatives who interpret it and ‘whisper’ it along to Prague. Each city contributes to a different state of the artist’s work.
Picasso would have loved this project as everybody – beginner or pro, child or grandma, and everyone in between – can join in to be an artist, each participant can use their own media of expression. Art students and founders of this project Simon and Marie: “artist_in_progress is a new kind of artist whose organs are creative people located anywhere in the world. The plan is to work though the principle of exquisite corpse.”
At VLLA the art workshop was held at one of our easygoing free clubnights VLLA op VRIJDAG (transl.: VLLA on Friday), and Kim van Poelgeest managed to rearrange the Mixtup program lastminute to be able to host the art workshop on Saturday, at this brand new ultracreative spot at Ferdinand Bolstraat. The art works created at these spots turned out very different in style and level of creation.
VLLA ‘DIY’ organs
Visitors present at VLLA spontaneously started working with balloons, paper, crayons etcetera. The artist_in_progress workshop tuned in perfectly with the ‘happy go lucky DIY vibe’. Simon and Marie: “It’s been a pleasure to meet all the people at VLLA, watching such a DIY fever all over the place and hearing their deep and humoristic explanations about their creations.”
When a creation was finished, each and every participator was taken to a more quiet spot in the VLLA garden outside to explain their creation in a short interview. Exerpts from these videos will be taken to Berlin, where creative inhabitants will take up the creative hints from these ‘Amsterdam organs’, let their inspiration flow, and follow up with their own new creation: a dance, a sculpture, a painting or whatever artform suits their fancy. Those creations will be brought to Prague and finally to Paris for a final exhibition in June, the ‘birth’ of the ‘artist’.
[FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUM OF THE ARTIST_IN_PROGRESS WORKSHOP AT VLLA]
Mixtup Project ‘Organ Pro’s’
On Saturday Mixtup pushed the level of creation up sky high. The workshop attendants present ‘dived’ into a collaborative art bubble, which really shows in the pics and video shot that evening (and the enthousiastic comments posted the day after on their Facebook eventpage!)
[FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUM OF THE ARTIST_IN_PROGRESS WORKSHOP AT MIXTUP]
Missed it? Wanna participate?
For the ones reading this, thinking bummer, I missed it! No worries, you can still join in on this project in April, when a worldwide online event will be held. In the meantime stay tuned and hit the like button on the artist_in_progress Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Artist_in_Progress/579010415519446. Through that page you can follow the track of this nomadic art project, see what events are coming up, and check out the art works of creative minds in Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague.
About artist_in_progress
More info about artist_in_progress
http://cargocollective.com/artist_in_progress
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Artist_in_Progress/579010415519446
Tips for locations in Berlin or Prague are very welcome.
Mail to: artist_in_progress@live.com
Or contact them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simon.aip.3
