V
MIRIAM STONEY
Miriam Stoney grew up in Scunthorpe, in the north of England, and studied art and architectural history in Oxford and London. Now she lives and works between London and Vienna as a writer, researcher and translator.
06. September 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
sonnig grau,
21°C
#miriamstoney #growing #winking
EXPERIENCE SCREAMS, “GROWTH THROUGH DESTRUCTION!”
[Excerpt]
I wrote myself notes, reminding me to water her plants. I found a receptacle to carry water from our sink to her pots, and then I even had to rein it in, not to become overzealous, since I discovered that plants could also get too much water, which could in fact lead to death. The neighbour would be away for just two weeks, she said, so the watering action was maybe a four- or five-time thing. But then, as her return loomed, I found I’d become attached to the little shoots, which had started to find form and some even aroma; they had become recognisably something, the name of which I might have looked up in a book or with an app, if I had had someone with whom I could swap notes.
IV
KENNETH STITT
Kenneth Stitt which is me, is from Newcastle now living and working in Porto; Kernneth which is me, mainly works with poetry on a day to day basis; But has several bands and makes drawings sometimes and writes stories; Kenneth which is me has also been a clown; St Fransis clown causing mischief in museums; Kenneth which is me wanted to be a painter but now not so much; But would’t say no if someone offered him materials and a studio… [read full text in PDF]
22. August 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
sehr gut,
32°C
#kennethstittdotcom #poems #halfpoems
KENNETH STITT DOT COM – POEMS AND HALF POEMS
[Excerpt]
I think the idea of being a poet was always a good one, seeing the world differently with detachment, somewhere living the dream on a mountain drinking milk from mountains goats, that kind of thing, anyway it´s never really like that for me, I have ended up with the half poem, going all the way was far to painful, I like the half way. Being pretentious can be fun because you can pretend to go all the way, you can pretend like you are great, like you have just arrived from battle when really you have just felt anxious in the post office and your at the very bottom of the totem pole, as far as I am aware the totem poles are hierarchy things, half poet being at the bottom, with cleaners, trash collectors and the rest of those guys.
Half poems like half people have the feeling of alwys being in limbo not reaally belonging to anythings, one foot in the door the other out. I like half poems they are less extreme than full poems and manage expectations.
III
JOHANNA KOTLARIS
Johanna Kotlaris is an artist based in Zürich. She holds a BA Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam and a MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam. She often works with writings which she develops further into physical text works, performances and readings, audio pieces and music, videos and installations.
25. July 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
festlich ernst,
27°C
#johannakotlaris #achtundneunzig
#zweitausendzwanzig #kosmos
TVTB – UNVERÖFFENTLCIHTE TEXTE GESCHREIBEN ZWISCHEN 1998 UND 2020
[Excerpt]
If you rest a moment
you see that
you have asked for a lot.
You have asked for a lot and it is
ok
ok
ok
that you have asked for a lot.
If you rest a moment
you see that asking
never is a problem.
Questions
questions
questions
multiply when
asked
asked
asked like
plant seeds
ingested, digested and
distributed in the fox’s feces.
And then growing when
shat
shat
shat
out somewhere
onto a new piece of land. But
never into problems.
Never.
Never.
Never.
If you rest a moment
you see that
answers are problematic.
Answers.
Answers
hold a
big
big
big
problem within
their very core:
the aspiration to logic.
If you rest a moment
you see that
early darkness is not your enemy
and is not to be fought
it is here to say:
look
look
look
at this
smashed rat
in front of your
house door––I am
bringing it to you
like the cat that
gifts its prey.
Look
look
look
at it
closely
and let it
not
not
not
give you a grudge
have you sniffle
or pour tears
but let the
blood
blood
blood
and
bowels
bowels
bowels
be
joy that
spills
spills
spills
into the eyes that
shall now finally consider
darkness as light’s
cuter cousin.
If you rest a moment
you see that
one can live in a big city in deep winter
and love it like a summer house
even if, or better: particularly because
the bus driver doesn’t let you step in anymore although he is stuck at the red light
so you wait and overhear a conversation you wouldn’t have heard if you would have stepped into the bus
and:
you think about how one gets to understand who they are by being with who they are with
And that one can also just as easily forget who they are by being with who they are with
but one can also just as easily see who they are not by being with who they are with
and by seeing who they are not they draw the outline of their very self
You think about how that outline of the very self is outside of one’s skin because one is composed of things they like, love, wish, have experienced, will experience, imagine, detest, listen to, say, dream, masturbate on, and so forth. But how also that outline is so intensely bodily because experienced in the very center of oneself in a totally visceral way, like literally in their lower belly and the chest. And those are physical places on the actual body.
You think about how you should write this text in a more honest way and use the pronoun I instead of „they“ or „you“
And if I would use I instead of they or you, I would dare to say that I think about how I think that I easily loose a sense of myself when I am attracted to someone
And how being attracted is actually such a terrible thing
such a negative form of movement
since when one is attracted they are
I am sorry
I meant to say
since when I am attracted I am pulled away from my stance
I am literally taken away from my center, I am attracted
shifted into the foreign
But ok, I realize that if I use the pronouns “they” and “you” it might actually be easier to write.
II
NATALIE BRÜCK
Natalie Brück is a German artist (*1989 in Saarlouis) living in Berlin. In 2019 Natalie produced the work „Festkleben – ein Sprechstück“ for Ruine München, a format showcasin not (or to a lesser extent) object oriented works. „Festkleben" only exists when the artist is reading, better speaking it. Natalies’s stubborn, doubtful and critical outspoken sayings form an artistic practice she uses to fragment the limitations of language that vary between straight statements and the impossibility of giving thoughts a format, that potentially creates meaning.
15. March 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstrasse 26
(1.Stock)
CH–8045 Zürich
dicht neblig,
17°C
#nataliebrueck #festkleben #reden #sprechen #sagen
FESTKLEBEN – EIN SPRECHSTÜCK
[Excerpt]
The speechplays and videos by Natalie Brück draw her audience into a pull in which the artist verbalises her own observations and surreal memories, sometimes stoically, sometimes rhythmically. The incipient and submerged thoughts are staged through the concise use of her voice in a poetic to disturbing way.
Beschreibung Sprechstück A piece about sticking, running fast, not wanting to get stuck, reoccurring loss of sound, production sites, becoming more flexible!
Vertrieb, Verlag: Hammann von Mier Verlag und Ruine München
USB-stick in box with spoken word piece, approx. 30 min (language is German)
Vertrieb über: https://hvm-books.com/publications/festkleben und https://www.ruine-muenchen.de/
I
SYLVAIN MENÉTREY
Sylvain Menétrey is also an independent writer, publisher and curator. He co-founded the art and photography periodical Dorade (2009-2013), worked at Fri Art, Fribourg’s Art centre (2013-2016), and co-directed the Art space Forde in Geneva (2016-2018). He also is the editor of Issue-journal.ch and a teacher in Visual Arts at HEAD – Genève.
22. February 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstrasse 26
(1.Stock)
CH–8045 Zürich
lebendig warm,
7°C
#sylvainmenetrey #bedtalk #sleep
#insomnia
BED TALK
[Excerpt]
Starting from recent critiques of semiocapitalism which defend sleep and time off as a form of resistance against the constant extraction of cognitive ressources from the digital workers, in this essay Sylvain Menétrey focuses on the symbolic object and recipient of the entanglement of work, leisure and rest: the bed. His research convenes a series of contemporary artworks from artists such as Julia Scher, Lili Reynaud Dewar or Holly Herndon, which expand our understanding of the use value of the bed. At the same time a protective and intimate place and a space vulnerable to surveillance and isolation, the bed also emerges as a space for political struggle. In opposition to previous critiques which rely on the individual, the author tries to imagine collective and subversive ways of using the bed politically.
V
MIRIAM STONEY
Miriam Stoney grew up in Scunthorpe, in the north of England, and studied art and architectural history in Oxford and London. Now she lives and works between London and Vienna as a writer, researcher and translator.
EXPERIENCE SCREAMS, “GROWTH THROUGH DESTRUCTION!”
[Excerpt]
I wrote myself notes, reminding me to water her plants. I found a receptacle to carry water from our sink to her pots, and then I even had to rein it in, not to become overzealous, since I discovered that plants could also get too much water, which could in fact lead to death. The neighbour would be away for just two weeks, she said, so the watering action was maybe a four- or five-time thing. But then, as her return loomed, I found I’d become attached to the little shoots, which had started to find form and some even aroma; they had become recognisably something, the name of which I might have looked up in a book or with an app, if I had had someone with whom I could swap notes.
06. September 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
sonnig grau,
21°C
#miriamstoney #growing #winking
IV
KENNETH STITT
Kenneth Stitt which is me, is from Newcastle now living and working in Porto Kernneth which is me, mainly works with poetry on a day to day basis But has several bands and makes drawings sometimes and writes stories Kenneth which is me has also been a clown St Fransis clown causing mischief in museums Kenneth which is me wanted to be a painter but now not so much But would’t say no if someone offered him materials and a studio
KENNETH STITT DOT COM – POEMS AND HALF POEMS
[Excerpt]
I think the idea of being a poet was always a good one, seeing the world differently with detachment, somewhere living the dream on a mountain drinking milk from mountains goats, that kind of thing, anyway it´s never really like that for me, I have ended up with the half poem, going all the way was far to painful, I like the half way. Being pretentious can be fun because you can pretend to go all the way, you can pretend like you are great, like you have just arrived from battle when really you have just felt anxious in the post office and your at the very bottom of the totem pole, as far as I am aware the totem poles are hierarchy things, half poet being at the bottom, with cleaners, trash collectors and the rest of those guys.
Half poems like half people have the feeling of alwys being in limbo not reaally belonging to anythings, one foot in the door the other out. I like half poems they are less extreme than full poems and manage expectations.
22. August 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
sehr gut,
32°C
#kennethstittdotcom #poems #halfpoems
III
JOHANNA KOTLARIS
Is an artist based in Zürich. She holds a BA Design from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam and a MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam. She often works with writings which she develops further into physical text works, performances and readings, audio pieces and music, videos and installations. She uses language and voice as tools to question notions of order and definition, a practice which is rooted in a belief in the non-binary, non-linear and non-categorical. This sentiment also roots in her interest in dissecting and creating narratives around boundaries and relationships. In her works the emotional and personal is often intertwined with the social or political, trying to elaborate on how this interplay creates power relations, senses of identity, autonomy, alliance and interdependence.
TVTB – UNVERÖFFENTLCIHTE TEXTE GESCHREIBEN ZWISCHEN 1998 UND 2020
[Excerpt]
If you rest a moment
you see that
you have asked for a lot.
You have asked for a lot and it is
ok
ok
ok
that you have asked for a lot.
If you rest a moment
you see that asking
never is a problem.
Questions
questions
questions
multiply when
asked
asked
asked like
plant seeds
ingested, digested and
distributed in the fox’s feces.
And then growing when
shat
shat
shat
out somewhere
onto a new piece of land. But
never into problems.
Never.
Never.
Never.
If you rest a moment
you see that
answers are problematic.
Answers.
Answers
hold a
big
big
big
problem within
their very core:
the aspiration to logic.
If you rest a moment
you see that
early darkness is not your enemy
and is not to be fought
it is here to say:
look
look
look
at this
smashed rat
in front of your
house door––I am
bringing it to you
like the cat that
gifts its prey.
Look
look
look
at it
closely
and let it
not
not
not
give you a grudge
have you sniffle
or pour tears
but let the
blood
blood
blood
and
bowels
bowels
bowels
be
joy that
spills
spills
spills
into the eyes that
shall now finally consider
darkness as light’s
cuter cousin.
If you rest a moment
you see that
one can live in a big city in deep winter
and love it like a summer house
even if, or better: particularly because
the bus driver doesn’t let you step in anymore although he is stuck at the red light
so you wait and overhear a conversation you wouldn’t have heard if you would have stepped into the bus
and:
you think about how one gets to understand who they are by being with who they are with
And that one can also just as easily forget who they are by being with who they are with
but one can also just as easily see who they are not by being with who they are with
and by seeing who they are not they draw the outline of their very self
You think about how that outline of the very self is outside of one’s skin because one is composed of things they like, love, wish, have experienced, will experience, imagine, detest, listen to, say, dream, masturbate on, and so forth. But how also that outline is so intensely bodily because experienced in the very center of oneself in a totally visceral way, like literally in their lower belly and the chest. And those are physical places on the actual body.
You think about how you should write this text in a more honest way and use the pronoun I instead of „they“ or „you“
And if I would use I instead of they or you, I would dare to say that I think about how I think that I easily loose a sense of myself when I am attracted to someone
And how being attracted is actually such a terrible thing
such a negative form of movement
since when one is attracted they are
I am sorry
I meant to say
since when I am attracted I am pulled away from my stance
I am literally taken away from my center, I am attracted
shifted into the foreign
But ok, I realize that if I use the pronouns “they” and “you” it might actually be easier to write.
25. July 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstraße 26
[1.Stock]
CH–8045 Zürich
festlich ernst,
27°C
#johannakotlaris #achtundneunzig
#zweitausendzwanzig #kosmos
II
NATALIE BRÜCK
is a German artist (*1989 in Saarlouis) living in Berlin. In 2019 Natalie produced the work „Festkleben – ein Sprechstück“ for Ruine München, a format showcasin not (or to a lesser extent) object oriented works. „Festkleben" only exists when the artist is reading, better speaking it. Natalies’s stubborn, doubtful and critical outspoken sayings form an artistic practice she uses to fragment the limitations of language that vary between straight statements and the impossibility of giving thoughts a format, that potentially creates meaning.
FESTKLEBEN – EIN SPRECHSTÜCK
[Excerpt]
The speechplays and videos by Natalie Brück draw her audience into a pull in which the artist verbalises her own observations and surreal memories, sometimes stoically, sometimes rhythmically. The incipient and submerged thoughts are staged through the concise use of her voice in a poetic to disturbing way.
Beschreibung Sprechstück A piece about sticking, running fast, not wanting to get stuck, reoccurring loss of sound, production sites, becoming more flexible!
Vertrieb, Verlag: Hammann von Mier Verlag und Ruine München
USB-stick in box with spoken word piece, approx. 30 min (language is German)
Vertrieb über: https://hvm-books.com/publications/festkleben und https://www.ruine-muenchen.de/
15. March 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstrasse 26
(1.Stock)
CH–8045 Zürich
dicht neblig,
17°C
#nataliebrueck #festkleben #reden #sprechen #sagen
I
SYLVAIN MENÉTREY
Sylvain Menétrey is also an independent writer, publisher and curator. He co-founded the art and photography periodical Dorade (2009-2013), worked at Fri Art, Fribourg’s Art centre (2013-2016), and co-directed the Art space Forde in Geneva (2016-2018). He also is the editor of Issue-journal.ch and a teacher in Visual Arts at HEAD – Genève.
BED TALK
[Excerpt]
Starting from recent critiques of semiocapitalism which defend sleep and time off as a form of resistance against the constant extraction of cognitive ressources from the digital workers, in this essay Sylvain Menétrey focuses on the symbolic object and recipient of the entanglement of work, leisure and rest: the bed. His research convenes a series of contemporary artworks from artists such as Julia Scher, Lili Reynaud Dewar or Holly Herndon, which expand our understanding of the use value of the bed. At the same time a protective and intimate place and a space vulnerable to surveillance and isolation, the bed also emerges as a space for political struggle. In opposition to previous critiques which rely on the individual, the author tries to imagine collective and subversive ways of using the bed politically.
22. February 2020
19:00 Uhr
Töpferstrasse 26
(1.Stock)
CH–8045 Zürich
lebendig warm,
7°C
#sylvainmenetrey #bedtalk #sleep
#insomnia