Instructions for Placemaking: to her, and with her
15:00–19:00
de Appel, Tolstraat 160, Amsterdam
to her, and with her, Noor Abed and Zeynep Kayan
About to her, and with her by Noor Abed and Zeynep Kayan
In the midst of these dreadful times, we found ourselves naturally in a continuous correspondence – on friendship, on what is to be done, on cultivating hope and a space for creation. Through improvisation, the performance reflects a space in the making; a correspondence of sound and scenes in creation. Holding the very present moment in a stream of our unconscious, on continuous grief, death, friendship, and ways of being and acting together.
The performance will be on intermittently between 3-6pm during the opening event of the group project. Simultaneously, a performance in Jakarta will respond to the performance at de Appel.
About Our People are Our Mountains: Instructions for Placemaking
In Our People are Our Mountains (quoting from Amílcar Cabral’s words on the Guinea-Bissau's liberation movement), artists and collectives in Palestine and elsewhere who work on questions around land from different perspectives, collaborate with majelis (assembly) Jakarta by sending instructions remotely. Utilizing instructions, rather than physically transferring works or facilitating travel, stems from ethical, political, and environmental considerations. The act of sending instructions is also a way to point to the physical and symbolic distances, particularly emphasizing the profound difficulties associated with moving in and out of Palestine, especially during the ongoing genocide. This initiative, therefore, is an act of transmission and trust—artists will transmit their creative directives to counterparts in Jakarta, who will, in turn, realize, contribute to, perform, or enact the instructions in place.
In the Amsterdam iteration, the instructions will be presented, whereas some of them will be activated throughout the coming weeks. Every week of the presentation span, a new video by the participating artists and others will be screened on loop for one full exhibition week. In addition a programme of performances, workshops and gatherings will take place throughout the project span. The group project opens with to her, and with her, a performance by Noor Abed and Zeynep Kayan
Photos: Nikola Lamburov
Bios
Zeynep Kayan’s artistic practice focuses on exploring the repetitive structural setup of the variations she creates by using video, photography, sound and performance. She is interested in finding gestures that are connotative, restored behaviors, the action of invisible forces on the body through repetition in movement and sound.
Noor Abed aims to examine performances of the community and social movements in relation to rituals of waiting, resistance, and mourning. What role do aesthetics play in the performance of the ritual? And can we consider ‘performance’ a method of survival?
