Part of the airWG series

A man stops. Closes his eyes. He covers his ears with the index fingers of both hands. He tilts his head upwards and makes a sharp, muffled noise. 

His body contracts at the same time, raising his right foot. The gesture looks like the beginning of a ritual but does not continue. It lasts six seconds. The spasm goes through his brain, his shoulders, his chest, the muscles of his arms and forearms, his stomach, his pelvis, his thighs and his calves. He shows no communication and continues his way.
(Pau Masclans, 2024)

Pau Masclans presents scenarios where reality and abstraction friction and make space vibrate. His work is based on the manipulation of the physical through twists and turns that lead to unstable results rubbing with everyday life. 

During his residency at airWG, September - December 2024, the Barcelona-born artist will present at puntWG the open corpus of work KRAMP EN KRIMP (2024).

Generously supported by Fundació R. Amigó Cuyàs / BBAA, Universitat de Barcelona.

The WG-studios celebrate their 40th Anniversary of existence in September - October with an array of celebrations. For 40 years the WG-premises has been a green oasis for the arts in the Centre of Amsterdam with studios, homes and little companies and organisations.

Enjoy the Open Ateliers 2024, Central Exhibition in puntWG, Neighbours' Day & Filmfestival.

• Open Ateliers weekend - 28 - 29 September 2024
  More than 60 WG-artists will open their ateliers in the afternoon from 12 - 5 pm. In the WG-Pavilions 18, 19 and in WG-Pavilions 1 and 2.

• 2024 WG-PREMISES 40th Anniversary Celebration Group exhibition - 28 September - 6 October 2024 
  See the works, small in size, of more than 80 WG-Artists, daily from 12 - 5 pm in puntWG.

• Workshops and activities - 28 September 2024
  For Neighbours' Day, near WG-Pavilion 1 and 2 on the WG-PREMISES.

• Filmfestival - 24 and 25 September 2024
  In the cinema of LAB111, the film festival follows the theme ‘Time’, inspired by the quote of Margaret Atwood “Time is not a thing that passes ... it's a sea on which you float.” (The Year of the Flood, 2009).

• A performance By Nicoline in IICD - 20 September
  Seven Scenes for the Black Box - Nicoline van Harskamp met Jaike Belfor, Lidewij Mahler en Cézanne Tegelberg. 
  "If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution are happy to invite you to attend the tryout of Nicoline van Harskamp’s Seven Scenes for the Black Box. In this performance, van Harskamp speculates on the ways in which the technology of synthetic speech is rooted in the technology of acting. The short scenes in this try-out are played by four humans and one neural network named Prosodia. 
  
  We invite audiences to attend the performance and give their feedback, supporting the artist in developing future editions of the work. You are very welcome to take part in the moderated feedback session that starts shortly after the performance." The tryout by Nicoline van Harskamp, who is our housemate within the Wilhelmina Gasthuis studio complex, coincides with the 40th anniversary of AtelierWG.
  Doors open: 19.00
  Tryout: 19.30-20.30
  Feedback session: 20.45 – 21.30
  Tickets: €7,50 & €5 (student), free fro housemates of AtelierWG.
  
  If I Can’t Dance is structurally supported by the Mondriaan Fonds and AFK. Seven Scenes for the Black Box is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Pauwhof Fund. 

Key Addresses:

• puntWG routemap - Entrance to the central exhibition in puntWG, WG-Plein: opposite to no. 80, 1054 DM Amsterdam, easy to reach with public transport. Parking WG-plein is near: via Overtoom, Eerste Constantijn Huygenstraat.

• WG-Pavillion 18, (WG18) Marius van Bouwdijk Bastiaansestraat  1 t/m 187, 1054 RV Amsterdam

• WG-Pavillion 19, (WG19) WG-Plein 1 t/m 78, Ingang A, 1054 RA Amsterdam

• WG-Pavillion 1, Marius van Bouwdijk Bastiaansestraat (MBvB-WG1)/ Pesthuislaan 1-77 e.o.

• WG-Kunst, Marius van Bouwdijk Bastiaansestraat 28 (MBvB-WG1), 1054 SP Amsterdam

• WG-Pavillion 2, (WG2) Pesthuislaan 2- 98 e.o. 
  
  
• Cinema LAB111, Arie Biemondstraat 111, Amsterdam (former lab of the former Wilhelmina Hospital)
  
  
• IICD, WG Plein 881.

Contacts

Contact Open Atelier Team Huurdersvereniging WG: openatelierswg@gmail.com

Contact puntWG projectteam atelierWG Series: atelierWG@puntwg.nl

Contact Filmfestival Chair Huurdersvereniging WG: voorzittervereniging@atelierwg.nl

Part of the puntWG Open Call Series

A color, a mineral, and a myth - Kobold on the Unemployment Line; an exhibition in three  installments is a collaboration between artists Helena Sanders (US/NL) and Michael Petri (Vienna, AT) opening August 17th until September 8th. The exhibition imagines the limits, transformations and excavations of materials, labor, language and landscape through the fever-dreams of a time traveling Kobold. This folkloric figure dating back to the 15th century is a creature reported to live  in coal and silver mines, mimicking the miners in dress and behaviour, and causing havoc and  disruption to their routines and efforts to extract. Both the mineral and the color blue Cobalt, take their name directly from this being who reluctantly mediates the worlds of the mineral and human intelligences.  

Helena and Michael have created new works including a lighting scenography, matte paintings,  audio installations, ceramic and sculptural work. 

From the Carboniferous Era to a speculative future - as Scale Trees become coal seams become  synthetic dyes - the Kobold finds itself unemployed, buying things on layaway, and we’re left making due without.  

Through the exhibition, the artists will host three events (installments); an opening event, a guest artist presentation, and closing event - during each, the artists will add or amend works within the exhibition.  

August 17 : Installment 1
Exhibition opening with a short introduction and performance moment.

August 31 : Installment 2
Artist talk/workshop with guest artist Annika Kappner. 

Liquid Dreams: Shared stories 

Together we will journey through the shared history of human and mineral intelligence. A  multidimensional and multi sensorial adventure of co-creative evolution from supernovas  to quantum computing, via dating apps and health trackers. 

September 7 : Installment 3
Closing event -with an artist talk / presentation moment. 

Generously supported by AFK.
With technical support and contribution from: Martin Poisel, Michael Fux, Katrina Niebergal, Nicole Martens, Anami Schrijvers, Marcus Zilz, Charlott Markus, and Ticho Brouwers.

Photography by Ilya Rabinovic

Part of the atelierWG series

As we’ve dared to call the monkeys in the Zoo by Irish names,
Erin’s sons, in wrath, declare us snobs and flunkies; 
And demand that we withdraw them – nor should we ignore their claims---
For it’s really very hard --- Upon the monkeys.

The exhibition Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg draws on recent Irish history and fuses these events with artificial intelligence (AI), to reflect on the creation of alternative, speculative (historical) narratives.

At the core of the exhibition are several old cartoon publications from the 19th and 20th centuries, in which the Irish were depicted as apes; to dehumanize and morally suppress them, or used as propaganda in the struggle for Ireland's independence. 

Mockingly embracing this painful part of history, Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg showcases paintings, prints and a video installation that builds on this theme and breaks with, or perhaps at times embraces, existing stereotypes.  

In line with the latter, we naturally expect you to come for a drink.

We look forward to seeing you at the opening on Thursday, August 1st 2024, from 5 PM to 9 PM. 

(During the exhibition, puntWG will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and by appointment)

Part of the atelierWG series

In his film KALI WAAL and the accompanying spatial installation, Jasper Coppes shares the outcome of a long term collaboration around a controversial sand quarry lake in the Netherlands.

A group of foreign researchers visits a site of ecological controversy and learns of the strange events that are happening to the lake and its human and non-human inhabitants. Can the natural reserve be healed with toxic mud as industries claim?

In the short film KALI WAAL, landscape design is both poison and remedy. A nature reserve in the Netherlands is the setting for an ecological controversy. Decades of industrial sand extraction created lakes so deep that no light can reach the bottom. The lakes have seemingly become lifeless pools of water. Industries recently started to dump contaminated mud in these lakes, claiming that such undeepening will increase the biodiversity. A group of young researchers gradually discovers that this landscape is neither an innocent rewilding project, nor an ecological dead-end. As resilient forms of life take center stage a new ecology of plants, alga, animals, and machines increasingly takes over the film.

Fiction as Resistance: Jasper Coppes in conversation with Mira Sys

On Saturday 27 July at 17:00 exhibiting artist Jasper Coppes opens the doors of puntWG for a public talk about the research behind his film. He will have a conversation with journalist and writer Mira Sys, whose research into contaminated lakes was the key inspiration for KALI WAAL. Jasper and Mira invite you to join the conversation and explore the ways in which fiction and environmental justice might go hand in hand.