neue Gesellschaft
für bildende Kunst

via video conference (zoom):
https://zoom.us/j/95034977950

Networks of Care is a serial events platform for the exchange of ideas on how to preserve temporary, ephemeral, project-based, and/or collective artistic practices. The guests of our next event have many years of experience in making artistic legacies accessible: we welcome artistic researcher Amalia Calderón and curator Megan Hoetger from the Amsterdam-based performance art production house “If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution” and Mark Waugh, Co-Artistic Director of the UK charity Art360 Foundation that advises artists’ estates. Together, we will discuss the potential of collaborative archival practices, as well as the challenges of sharing responsibilities. The conversation will be moderated by Vivian van Saaze (Maastricht University/Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage).

Amalia Calderón and Megan Hoetger will share insights into Gift Science Archive,  a monumental 18-month collaborative performance of archiving – or archive performance – initiated by the Dutch American artist Sands Murray-Wassink, which was  commissioned by “If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution“ as part of their Edition VIII - Ritual and Display biennial program. The performance — and, with it, the production of an inventoried and preserved archive —  has foregrounded the intergenerational processes of remembering involved in the act(s) of cataloging, placing emphasis on the webs of social relations holding objects together in affective fields. As such, it has been an experiment in re-thinking value production through “documentation.”

Mark Waugh will present the work of Art360 Foundation, an independent charity providing artists and estates with consultation and practical support towards archiving and legacy planning. The Art360 Foundation aims to empower artists and their representatives to preserve a life’s work through archival and legacy support. It wants to preserve and make visible previously unseen aspects of the UK’s cultural heritage for present and future generations through a bursary program, public events and learning opportunities. The Art360 Foundation program promotes the diverse contributions of visual artists to society and the expertise of freelancers who are critical in supporting the preservation of artists’ archives.

This Networks of Care event marks the launch of the newly established collaborative research network “LACUNAE - Contemporary Artists´ Estates between Public Heritage and Private Inheritance.” LACUNAE brings together public institutions, non-governmental organizations and private actors to pursue three main aims: 1) taking stock of the current connections and disconnections in networks of care around contemporary artists' estates and how they serve to include and exclude certain artistic practices and marginalized groups; 2) advancing and advocating for current networks of care and the management of marginalised artists' estates; and 3) developing possible new connections in networks of care that will allow for greater collaboration between public and private actors in the future.

“Networks of Care” takes place in cooperation with CoCooN, dedicated to the preservation of urban, collective and artistic practices.

Full Image Captions:

Collage of notes and sketches toward the development of giftsciencearchive.net; assembled by Amalia Calderón and Megan Hoetger in June 2021. Gift Science Archive is an 18-month durational performance (December 2019 - June 2020) commissioned by If I Can't Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, curated by Megan Hoetger and realized as a collaboration between Amalia Calderón, Megan Hoetger, Sands Murray-Wassink and Radna Rumping. Giftsciencearchive.net is a website for publicly accessing the Gift Science Archive catalog; it is currently being developed by Kommerz design agency and will launch in September 2021.