Thought Sculpture
Zach Blas, Andy Holden, Trapp Dominika
27.04.2018. 5.30 - 8 pm.
Andy Holden: Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Universe
Part-lecture, part-documentary, part-conspiracy theory, Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape is an animated lecture, in which the artist describes his theory that the world has now become a cartoon. To understand the world, we therefore have to examine how cartoons work, and this is done through exploring the ten laws of physics as they appear in the cartoon landscape. The artist is transformed into a cartoon avatar to explore these laws of the cartoon universe, humorously weaving together physics, economics, philosophy with the history of the animated cartoons. Law 1: Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation, takes us from Newton, to the 2008 banking crash, to how to be an artist in a world where everything has been done, yet certain actions seem to reoccur, and a new type of logic is required.
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape has been show at Tate Britain, Venice Biennale (2017), Glasgow International (2016), Kunsthalle Viborg, Denmark; Kunstverien Weisbardne; Artuner, New York, and the Future Generation Art Prize, Ukraine.
Andy Holden (b. 1982) lives and works in Bedfordshire, UK. He graduated from Goldsmiths (London) in 2005. Holden is both a multi-media artist and a musician whose body of work is varied and spans across different techniques. He first came to the attention of a large public in 2010 for his ‘Pyramid Piece’ and ‘Return of the Pyramid Piece’, exhibited in the Art Now series at Tate Britain. He has exhibited and performed in such institutions like K-W Berlin; Pulse, New York; Performa 13, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; ICA, London; Kunsthalle Rotterdam and Frankfurter Kunstverein.
Dominika Trapp: Peasants in Atmosphere – Footnotes
The ensemble Peasants in Atmosphere attempts to give an interpretation of the heritage of traditional culture along critical considerations and bridge the progressive strains of contemporary art and a new generation of the ‘Táncház’ (folk dance house) Movement in the form of collaborative work based on extensive research. Their musical piece and the publication was presented as the final event of OFF-Biennale Budapest 2017.
The presentation-performance at Trafó is based on the documents of the preliminary discussions and will be accompanied by live-music by Márton Bertók, Ádám Kiss-Balbinat and Áron Porteleki. The production attempts to outline the process of synthesis between the members with different backgrounds and artistic intentions, and to show some lines of their partly-common histories.
Dominika Trapp (1988) graduated at the Painting Department of the University of Fine Arts, Budapest in 2012. In her recent research-based projects she deals with the relation of the subject to global/local trends, and the artist’s competence within this context. In her curatorial works she attempts to create a dialogue for communities that are separated from each other because of cultural, political, geographical or other reasons.
Lecture-performances by Zach Blas, Andy Holden and Dominika Trapp
Curator: Borbála Szalai
Venue: Trafoclub
Free entrance. The lecture-performances by Zach Blas, Andy Holden will be in English, the lecture by Dominika Trapp will be in Hungarian.
Curator: Borbála Szalai
Venue: Trafoclub
Free entrance. The lecture-performances by Zach Blas, Andy Holden will be in English, the lecture by Dominika Trapp will be in Hungarian.
For further events of the series please visit the following link.
Zach Blas: Metric Mysticism
In this lecture-performance Blas gazes into the crystal balls of Silicon Valley and charts the transmutation of big data into a magical substance that predicts—and polices—our future. Focusing on the appropriation of mysticism and magic by Silicon Valley start-ups and governmental surveillance agencies alike, Blas suggests that the crystal ball, a transparent device that permits one to see into the future, has come to stand in as a paradigm for how tech entrepreneurs prefer to imagine the algorithmic processing of information. Blas asks, against the prediction of the future, if redirecting our gaze can offer a way to better comprehend the crisis of the present?
Metric Mysticism is Blas’s most recent lecture-performance that has been already presented in the last months at Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Gasworks, London; Tensta Konsthall, Spånga, Sweden; and in e-flux, New York in conjunction with Blas’s first solo show in New York at Art in General.
Zach Blas is an artist and writer whose practice confronts technologies of capture, security, and control. Recent works have addressed killed chatbots, time travel, the securitization of romance, biometric capture, policing as mysticism, smart drugs and psychedelia, the crystals balls of Silicon Valley, and dildos. Blas is currently a Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and he has exhibited, lectured, and held screenings internationally, recently at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival; Art in General, New York; Gasworks, London; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; e-flux, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; and Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.
In this lecture-performance Blas gazes into the crystal balls of Silicon Valley and charts the transmutation of big data into a magical substance that predicts—and polices—our future. Focusing on the appropriation of mysticism and magic by Silicon Valley start-ups and governmental surveillance agencies alike, Blas suggests that the crystal ball, a transparent device that permits one to see into the future, has come to stand in as a paradigm for how tech entrepreneurs prefer to imagine the algorithmic processing of information. Blas asks, against the prediction of the future, if redirecting our gaze can offer a way to better comprehend the crisis of the present?
Metric Mysticism is Blas’s most recent lecture-performance that has been already presented in the last months at Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Gasworks, London; Tensta Konsthall, Spånga, Sweden; and in e-flux, New York in conjunction with Blas’s first solo show in New York at Art in General.
Zach Blas is an artist and writer whose practice confronts technologies of capture, security, and control. Recent works have addressed killed chatbots, time travel, the securitization of romance, biometric capture, policing as mysticism, smart drugs and psychedelia, the crystals balls of Silicon Valley, and dildos. Blas is currently a Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and he has exhibited, lectured, and held screenings internationally, recently at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival; Art in General, New York; Gasworks, London; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore; e-flux, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; and Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City.
Andy Holden: Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Universe
Part-lecture, part-documentary, part-conspiracy theory, Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape is an animated lecture, in which the artist describes his theory that the world has now become a cartoon. To understand the world, we therefore have to examine how cartoons work, and this is done through exploring the ten laws of physics as they appear in the cartoon landscape. The artist is transformed into a cartoon avatar to explore these laws of the cartoon universe, humorously weaving together physics, economics, philosophy with the history of the animated cartoons. Law 1: Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation, takes us from Newton, to the 2008 banking crash, to how to be an artist in a world where everything has been done, yet certain actions seem to reoccur, and a new type of logic is required.
Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape has been show at Tate Britain, Venice Biennale (2017), Glasgow International (2016), Kunsthalle Viborg, Denmark; Kunstverien Weisbardne; Artuner, New York, and the Future Generation Art Prize, Ukraine.
Andy Holden (b. 1982) lives and works in Bedfordshire, UK. He graduated from Goldsmiths (London) in 2005. Holden is both a multi-media artist and a musician whose body of work is varied and spans across different techniques. He first came to the attention of a large public in 2010 for his ‘Pyramid Piece’ and ‘Return of the Pyramid Piece’, exhibited in the Art Now series at Tate Britain. He has exhibited and performed in such institutions like K-W Berlin; Pulse, New York; Performa 13, New York; Whitechapel Gallery, London; ICA, London; Kunsthalle Rotterdam and Frankfurter Kunstverein.
Dominika Trapp: Peasants in Atmosphere – Footnotes
The ensemble Peasants in Atmosphere attempts to give an interpretation of the heritage of traditional culture along critical considerations and bridge the progressive strains of contemporary art and a new generation of the ‘Táncház’ (folk dance house) Movement in the form of collaborative work based on extensive research. Their musical piece and the publication was presented as the final event of OFF-Biennale Budapest 2017.
The presentation-performance at Trafó is based on the documents of the preliminary discussions and will be accompanied by live-music by Márton Bertók, Ádám Kiss-Balbinat and Áron Porteleki. The production attempts to outline the process of synthesis between the members with different backgrounds and artistic intentions, and to show some lines of their partly-common histories.
Dominika Trapp (1988) graduated at the Painting Department of the University of Fine Arts, Budapest in 2012. In her recent research-based projects she deals with the relation of the subject to global/local trends, and the artist’s competence within this context. In her curatorial works she attempts to create a dialogue for communities that are separated from each other because of cultural, political, geographical or other reasons.
Photo: András Kollman
