20 years later and numerous and invaluable encounters, relationships and projects later, Myvillages wants to celebrate rural realities and imaginaries with you, in the manner of their work: close to the ground, together with others, curious, critical and tangible.
Myvillages cordially invites you to join them for one day of Rural Rotterdam on Friday 17th November 2023 at TENT.
Programme:
Rural Rotterdam Tour
11.00 – 16.00h
Keywords: former farmland, rural migration, colonial histories and trans-local knowledge
Meeting Point: Myvillages Studio and Archive, Ericastraat 8
NOTE: please register for this part of the day, as places are limited
Gathering at TENT to connect and reconnect
16.00 – 18.00h
For the last 20 years Myvillages has passionately been connecting communities, individuals and spaces using an a-national and trans-local identifier: “the rural”, to acknowledge a term that is common within a local European history – without wanting to define it.
Myvillages is exploring rural realities in different constellations and along different intersections, creating commoning space for localised and land-based knowledges, and (re-) connecting skills along the way. Myvillages’ work is a space-maker for a multi-vocal rural, whether it takes place in a book, in a village hall or in an exhibition. To celebrate and enjoy the networks that have grown out of this, Myvillages is inviting to a gathering of friends, comrades and partners in an informal atmosphere, with guests from nearby Boerenzij and colleagues from across Europe. Meeting for coffee and cake at TENT, these two hours embody a trans-local geography around a shared interest in “the rural” as a mindset, a certain practice or a shared identity, and to explore and use the term in togetherness. Please join to celebrate with Myvillages and to connect and re-connect across their local and trans-local networks.
Participants: With the Myvillages founders Wapke Feenstra, Kathrin Böhm, Antje Schiffers, and comrades, partners, allies and friends.
“De-urbanising the Museum” Panel&Discussion at TENT
18.00 – 20.00h
Is art urban? With this fundamental question Myvillages started to self-organise in 2003, to address the ubiquity of the urban in contemporary art, through our collective practice and direct action. By the mid 90ies “globalisation” and “urbanisation” had become dominant cultural and economic terms, and Myvillages recognised an astonishing lack of interest to work with the rural. The Myvillages initiative was an emancipatory step to undermine preconceptions of the rural, looking at forms of cultural production, pre-conceptions and power relationships. Franciska Zólyom, director of Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig and Charles Esche, director of the Van Abbemeuseum in Eindhoven, are starting the session with reflections on the rural relationships their institutions have and hold. The following panel with invited guests (names to be confirmed) will discuss why art spaces would want to address the rural, why a de-urbanisation seems necessary, and how to avoid the urban gaze.
Myvillages has worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig on the two-year long exhibition “International Village Show” (2014 – 16) and the Myvillages’ Rural School of Economics is currently connected to The Soils project at the Van Abbemuseum.
Anniversary Celebration
20.00h
On the Boerenzij (South Rotterdam) – with DJ Reza Afisina (ruangrupa) and good food. Register in advance via mail@myvillages.org
Language: English