© CCA
– A project by Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna in co-operation with Vivian Ostrovsky, Ruti Gadish and Sergio Edelsztein, CCA, Center for Contemporary Art – Tel Aviv
– A three-day programme with Austrian, Swiss, British, American, Danish, German, and Israeli artists and scientists at the CCA – Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
CCA – Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
at the Rachel & Israel Pollak Gallery2a
Tsadok Hacohen St.
Tel Aviv 6129702
Israel
When atoms move straight down through the void by their own weight, they deflect a bit in space at a quite uncertain time and in uncertain places, just enough that you could say that their motion has changed. But if they were not in the habit of swerving, they would all fall straight down through the depths of the void, like drops of rain, and no collision would occur, nor would any blow be produced among the atoms. In that case, nature would never have produced anything.
Lucretius, ii: 216-224, translated by Brad Inwood, in: B. Inwood and L. P. Gerson (eds.),
The Epicurus Reader, (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994), p. 66
Artists and scientists participating in Navigating the Unknown, Fears and Pleasures of Dizziness aim to explore how to move at the edge of the knowledge that defines the borders of our known world, as we would like to think of it. Where our knowledge ends, we stagger. From the days of the flat-earth theory through the detection of gravitational waves, this has not changed. Ever since, this kind of dizziness has been an inspiration tantamount to fear and fantasy which exploits its interim nature. In this context, dizziness is seen as the passage into the Unknown, the navigating in terrain vague.Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond's artistic research project Dizziness–A Resource aims to showcase the productive side of the ambiguous state of dizziness, in artistic creation as well as in philosophical and scientific thinking. The whole phenomenon of dizziness can only be understood through a combination of reflecting and experiencing; hence our multidisciplinary approachWhat is Dizziness? Dizziness is a condition of the body and/or the mind indicating a deviation from what has been so far conceived as normal or usual. In medical terms, dizziness is associated with two sensations: spatial disorientation and instability. It can refer to vertigo, presyncope, disequilibrium, or a non-specific feeling such as giddiness or foolishness. Creative artistic behavior purposefully searches for this deviation, as does philosophical and, more generally, scientific thinking.As far as thinking and creating are concerned, dizziness is, first and foremost, a movement and an impression of a movement, in both corporeal and psychological sense, as well as in a metaphorical sense. This movement can lead to flow experiences, to euphoria, but at the same time to aporia, paralysis, inaptitude to act or move consciously or rationally.A condition of dizziness may occur in situations of exploration, intoxication, in creation and in crisis. Dizziness can evoke extreme uncertainty. In economic theory, the term vertigo refers to a lack of knowledge concerning potential outcomes of a choice and of alternative options for choice. Similar to dizziness it indicates a situation in which the possible states of the world cannot be imagined. In this sense, it defines a hold onto imagined continuity. As a condition, it forces a re-rearrangement of the current navigational system. But how does one navigate the unknown?Monday, 21 March, 2016
18:00
Sergio Edelsztein, Director of the CCA, Tel Aviv, greeting and introduction.
Andrea Braidt, Vice Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, greeting and introduction.
18:30
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, introduction to Dizziness – A Resource and to Navigating the Unknown. Presentation of participants
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond and Karoline Feyertag, HASENHERZ, screening and lecture-performance. Preview of the film Dizziness.
Matti Mintz, Anxiety and Dizziness, lecture
Anna Jermolaewa, HASENHERZ, screening of videos, 2000-2012.
19:45
break
20:00
Yael Bartana, Pardes (Orchard), screening (Israeli premiere)
21:15
PANEL: Anderwald + Grond, Feyertag, Mintz, Jermolaewa, moderated by Sergio Edelsztein
-----Tuesday, 22 March 2016
18:00
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, introduction
Vivian Ostrovsky, Fears and Pleasures of Being Dizzy, screening
Catherine Yass, Lighthouse, HASENHERZ, screening and discussion
Maayan Amir, Ruti Sela, Extraterritoriality and Involuntary Bodily Movements, lecture
Chen Sheinberg, Dizziness, lecture
20:00
Robert Prosser, Of Kings and Queens, performance (English/German)
21:00
PANEL: Ostrovsky, Amir, Sela, Yass, Sheinberg, Prosser, moderated by Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond
----Wednesday, 23 March 2016
18:00
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond, introduction
Charlotte Hug, Insomnia – circular dizziness, audi-visual performance
19:00
Marcus Steinweg, Dizziness, lecture
20:00
Lior Noy, lecture
Maya Shmailov, Personalities of Boundary Crossers, lecture
Mathias Benedek, Creative Dizziness in Artists’ Working Process, lecture
21:00
PANEL: Hug, Noy, Steinweg, Shmailov, Benedek moderated by Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond
21:30
Swiss Apéro
Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela are best known for their artistic research on exterritoriality. In their lecture, they will talk about involuntary body movements.
Yael Bartana’s latest video work follows her friend, artist Michael Gedalyovich, on a spiritual journey to the Amazon basin, where he loses himself in an Ayahuasca ritual led by Dona Francesca.
Mathias Benedek and Anderwald + Grond have launched a survey to detect the possible interconnectedness of the feeling of dizziness and creative behavior in artists.
Karoline Feyertag specializes in French philosopher Sarah Kofman. Together with Anderwald + Grond she researches philosophical aspects of dizziness.
Following her first composition-performance within the framework of Dizziness – A Resource, Charlotte Hug now combines her visual, performative and musical abilities in her latest work INSOMNIA – circular dizziness for solo voice and viola in a Son-Icon room-score.
Anna Jermolaewa's video work reveals her keen eye for the absurd element in seemingly every day situations and behavior.Joachim Koester, artist, New York, U.S.A.
Joachim Koester’s works examine the unconscious and unexplored abilities of the mind and the body. His film Tarantism deals with the Italian legend of the intoxicating Tarantella.
Psycho-biologist Matti Mintz is fascinated by the topic of balance in terms of its obvious control of movement and its magic regulation of emotional states.
Lior Noy is studying group improvisation and creativity using a natural science approach.
Vivian Ostrovsky and her collaborator Ruti Gadish researched the representation of dizziness in feature and documentary films as well as on the Internet. Their research resulted in the beginning of a moving image archive on on-dizziness.org project blog.A certain number of these images that were later re-projected onto different supports or objects – sometimes moving, sometimes still – will be shown in the form of a hopefully disorienting installation at the CCA.
Aiming for dizziness, Robert Prosser’s performance, made of literature and voice, deals with various forms of ecstasy: as a phenomenon occurring among demonstrating masses, and a powerful way of losing control, and also as honest form of individuality, an origin of art. Art itself is a language and the act of speaking becomes in this performance body and mind, music and instrument, rhythm and storytelling.
In his lecture, Chen Sheinberg will explore instances of dizziness created in film throughout film history.
Maya Shmailov is looking for personality traits of so-called boundary crossers, people who combine existing disciplines or create new ones.
Marcus Steinweg, together with artist Thomas Hirschhorn, developed the term headlessness in the context of behavior in artistic and philosophical creation. In his lecture he strives to explore philosophical aspects of dizziness in terms of his philosophy.
Catherine Yass is best known for her use of architecture in her video and installation work. Many of her works deal with vertigo and dizziness in this context.
Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond have initiated this research on Dizziness –A Resource. Together with a team of artists and scientists they aim to shed light on the productive side of dizziness.For further information, please see: http://www.on-dizziness.com.
Suported by:
FWF – Austrian Sience FundAcademy of Fine Arts, Vienna
MA 7 City of Vienna – Literature
University of Graz
Austrian Cultural Forum, Austrian Embassy, Tel Aviv
The Swiss Arts Council Pro-Helvetia
The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Division for Culture & Sientific Affairs
