Archive

Pecha Kucha Freestyle

July 10, 2009


Artists: Olivier Babin (ISCP), Rhys Coren (ISCP), Koenraad Dedobbeleer (ISCP), Baris Gokturk, Adam Kleinman, Liz Magic Laser, Vaclav Magid (ISCP), John Menick, Bjargey Olafsdottir (ISCP), Anna Ostoya, Jochen Plogsties & Ivy Haldeman (ISCP) Alexandre Singh, Samu Szemerey, Hong-An Truong, Wendy Vog

Curated by Anaïs Lellouche & Hajnalka Somogyi

One often-claimed asset of residency programs is that creative people working in close proximity might inspire one another. You put together twenty-something cultural producers from all over the world into a building (in a city where, so it seems, every fifth person works in the arts anyways), you let them stroll around town, meet their peers and other people and new ideas will spark, art will flourish. When curators visit the studios, what they first get is usually a standard presentation of the artist's work of the past few years; however, the “real” discussion begins when all the collateral stories, ideas and experiences are put onto the table. On a summer night event, shouldn't we skip the first part and see how “inspiration” works?

'Pecha Kucha' (chatter in Japanese), is an international social event initiated by architects who were tired of never-ending presentations by their verbose colleagues. It consists of a series of slide projections by the participants who also comment on the visuals. It has strict rules: one can present twenty slides for twenty seconds each, which allows everyone to speak and shine for no less and no more than 6 minutes and 40 seconds. So far, Pecha Kucha has been usually mistaken as a tool for presenting one's own projects “fast food style”; we suggest that it has an even greater potential in triggering a chat about anything but one's oeuvre.

On the occasion of Pecha Kucha Freestyle, participants – ISCP residents, and artists, curators and architects from NYC – were asked to present on anything that goes on in their minds; to share impulses, memories or obsessions that influence their work, to tell true stories, fiction, and lies, to impart theories and suspicions that inform their thinking process. You won't see their artworks, we don't even promise that you will get a thorough insight into how art works. However, this playful format will certainly allow for a jam of eclectic source materials, quickly alternating between slapstick and serious, performative and poetic, found, archived and invented; giving you long-awaited translations of eighties Russian punk-rock, Sempé comics on NYC, the secret systems of bank vestibules, and animal presenters, mustaches and mullets... You will want more.

Pecha Kucha Freestyle is curated by Anaïs Lellouche and Hajnalka Somogyi was chosen from an open call made by ISCP to students of the Center of Curatorial Studies (CCS) at Bard College and the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts.

This exhibition is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Pecha Kucha Freestyle was supported by Dos Equis.