LANDSCAPES EXHIBITION
The exhibition project ‘Landscapes’ took place from the 14th until the 22nd of March at ‘Intro in Situ’ in Maastricht, Netherlands.
The initiative to create this exhibition was taken in an effort to put my idea into practice and explore the dynamics of exhibition making as a freelance curator. It also came as a reaction to the lack of creative participatory events for amateur artists in the city of Maastricht. The project was self-managed, curated and financed.
Who is the artist? How can a person without the official identity of an artist create art? How does the amateur artistic eye respond to its surroundings? How does the city look like through the lenses of amateur non-refined photography? What choice of pictures can relate to the local audience? Those were some of the questions which constituted the pole of my curatorial choices.
The focus of the exhibition revolved around two main poles. What I aimed to do was first of all to challenge the notion of the ‘artist’ as a professional practitioner of art by showcasing art made exclusively by people who do not boast such a label; Secondly, to focus on landscape photography and poetry made in and/or about Maastricht and its surroundings. In this way I wanted to make a strong connection between the visitors and the content of the exhibition by ‘making it mean something’ to the audience. It was particularly interesting how people chose to respond in different ways to the stimulus and this was exactly the point of the exhibition; to trigger reactions and make people reflect on what they were seeing and how this related to their own personal experiences.
The initiative to create this exhibition was taken in an effort to put my idea into practice and explore the dynamics of exhibition making as a freelance curator. It also came as a reaction to the lack of creative participatory events for amateur artists in the city of Maastricht. The project was self-managed, curated and financed.
Who is the artist? How can a person without the official identity of an artist create art? How does the amateur artistic eye respond to its surroundings? How does the city look like through the lenses of amateur non-refined photography? What choice of pictures can relate to the local audience? Those were some of the questions which constituted the pole of my curatorial choices.
The focus of the exhibition revolved around two main poles. What I aimed to do was first of all to challenge the notion of the ‘artist’ as a professional practitioner of art by showcasing art made exclusively by people who do not boast such a label; Secondly, to focus on landscape photography and poetry made in and/or about Maastricht and its surroundings. In this way I wanted to make a strong connection between the visitors and the content of the exhibition by ‘making it mean something’ to the audience. It was particularly interesting how people chose to respond in different ways to the stimulus and this was exactly the point of the exhibition; to trigger reactions and make people reflect on what they were seeing and how this related to their own personal experiences.
Photos taken by Vanessa Souli
I created an activity which would invite people to participate in the creation of meaning. After entering the exhibition there were some poems hanging on the wall on the left and seven poems in multiple copies were hanging from some clips. On the right, there were instructions on how to ‘play’ the activity'. People were supposed to take a poem, go around the exhibition and see with which picture they would match the poem. Then, they could take a piece of paper from behind them and write down to explain their choice or simply write a story of their own. Then they could drop this ‘assignment’ in a box as they went.
Apart from the creative contribution, another very important axe of audience involvement I was interested in was feedback. Therefore, when people entered the exhibition, they were given an envelope which enclosed a first paper with information about the exhibition and the second was a paper where one could write their feedback. It was particularly interesting that almost all people who visited the exhibition (70-80) left some feedback about what they liked or not liked. It seemed that people were highly motivated to engage and share their opinions.
The core of my curatorial practice in the case of this project is my belief that art lies in the soul and manifests itself in emotions relating to the surrounding landscapes and not to a specific reaction to the current political, social, economic environment. I believe that art should not only serve the politics and current debates but I highly value art which is employed for meditative and reflective purposes than raising awareness. Therefore, my choice of highlighting the natural beauty and life of the surrounding landscape has been a conscious decision.
When it comes to the practical matters in the space, I chose to put the pictures on the wall in relation to what was most striking for the entrance, what needed to be in a wall by itself because of its color intensity and how the space could be made into ‘a whole made of pieces’ which would make sense together. What was the most important thing for me was to keep the exhibition simple, understandable and easy to navigate through. I did not want to make the people tired of too much information but most importantly, I wanted to give them space to talk, reflect and comment.
What I have really hoped with the selection of works is to give a holistic, natural and yet expressive overview of the city which would mean something to the spectators. Therefore, I chose pictures with and without human presence from various parts of the area of Limburg with a focus on Maastricht.
I created an activity which would invite people to participate in the creation of meaning. After entering the exhibition there were some poems hanging on the wall on the left and seven poems in multiple copies were hanging from some clips. On the right, there were instructions on how to ‘play’ the activity'. People were supposed to take a poem, go around the exhibition and see with which picture they would match the poem. Then, they could take a piece of paper from behind them and write down to explain their choice or simply write a story of their own. Then they could drop this ‘assignment’ in a box as they went.
Apart from the creative contribution, another very important axe of audience involvement I was interested in was feedback. Therefore, when people entered the exhibition, they were given an envelope which enclosed a first paper with information about the exhibition and the second was a paper where one could write their feedback. It was particularly interesting that almost all people who visited the exhibition (70-80) left some feedback about what they liked or not liked. It seemed that people were highly motivated to engage and share their opinions.
The core of my curatorial practice in the case of this project is my belief that art lies in the soul and manifests itself in emotions relating to the surrounding landscapes and not to a specific reaction to the current political, social, economic environment. I believe that art should not only serve the politics and current debates but I highly value art which is employed for meditative and reflective purposes than raising awareness. Therefore, my choice of highlighting the natural beauty and life of the surrounding landscape has been a conscious decision.
When it comes to the practical matters in the space, I chose to put the pictures on the wall in relation to what was most striking for the entrance, what needed to be in a wall by itself because of its color intensity and how the space could be made into ‘a whole made of pieces’ which would make sense together. What was the most important thing for me was to keep the exhibition simple, understandable and easy to navigate through. I did not want to make the people tired of too much information but most importantly, I wanted to give them space to talk, reflect and comment.
What I have really hoped with the selection of works is to give a holistic, natural and yet expressive overview of the city which would mean something to the spectators. Therefore, I chose pictures with and without human presence from various parts of the area of Limburg with a focus on Maastricht.