As part of the Brussels Gallery Weekend OFF-Program
June resident Adrian Schindler invites you all Saturday from 6pm to the lecture-performance “The vulnerability of the snake at the time of sloughing its skin and the figure of the German soldier”. A new text for an upcoming publication written in response to the various meetings that took place at the SUPERDEALS space around the photographs taken by his great-grandfather during World War II.
SUPERDEALS, Saturday June 23rd, 6pm
Lecture-performance at 7 and 8pm (in French)
From June 4th to 26th, Adrian Schindler will be in residence at Superdeals with the collection of photographs taken by his great-grandfather during World War II, which includes more than three hundred snapshots. He has studied these images for many years and has often written about them, but he has written little about his relationship with them and even less about how others look at them. During these three weeks, he will receive at the gallery on an individual basis those who would like to consult these photographs and, if they wish, discuss them with him. These meetings will voluntarily not be documented, but will feed in a diffuse way a writing work of which a first draft will be presented at the end of the residency. This project consists both in exposing a family archive to the interpretations, desires and questions of others, in setting up a space of trust where contradictory feelings in response to this kind of historical documents can coexist, and in thinking about the possibility of writing in first person while carrying a multitude of voices. It is the first time that this collection will be presented in its entirety.
(…)
Papy lève son panneau STOP.
C’est toujours le problème de la séduction, ça me flatte les dessous de bras. Il faut l’accepter, en être conscient, ramener la peinture à ce qu’elle est. Lorsque je suis trop séduit, faut que je gratte, racle, ponce. Tout ce qui me drague, je m’empêche de l’aimer.
Papy donne le feu vert. Le peintre continue sa marche en direction du travail. S’arrête dans un café juste à coté de son bureau. Les tables sont vides. Il neige. Personne ne s’arrête. Le barman essuie des verres à eau. Il s’assoit au comptoir et commande une formule café-croissant.
Je ne veux plus choisir, ne plus avoir à choisir. Mettre en dehors le choix de la composition — il n’y en a plus c’est plein cadre. Mettre en dehors le choix du format — j’ai trouvé le bon. Réduire les couleurs — pourquoi pas. Se sacrifier à un geste comme si tout était vain. On a le sentiment d’une trace prise dans un support, des traces de raclage comme si le papier avait été plié comme un accordéon, et sous la trace il y aurait presque un paysage…une digue…une succession d’actions qu’on pourrait presque se figurer. Je me suis censuré de la figure et voilà qu’elle revient en courant, comme s’il en sortait nécessairement quelque chose…oui…ça figurerait presque quelque chose.
‘The Hannah Arendt Working Group is dedicated to reading the texts of Arendt out loud around a table at public locations across Europe and the United States. Arendt, one of the titans of 20th century thinking, created a body of work that is simultaneously poetic, philosophical, and prophetic. The text for the April Brussels group will focus on culture and politics from the newly released Thinking Without a Bannister. The Working Group is led by Fred Dewey, April artist in residence at SUPERDEALS and author of The School of Public Life (Doormats 2015, 2nd printing 2017). In summer ’17, Dewey led a version of the Working Group, “The Portable Polis,” across Berlin, sponsored by ZK/U. The Brussels gathering meets Sundays in April at 1 pm, at SUPERDEALS. Free text copies will be provided and all are welcome. No advance reading or prior experience with Arendt are necessary.’
www.hyperallergic.com/319934/readers-diary-fred-deweys-from-an-apparent-contradiction-in-arendt