[Nettime-bold] Still Living

Still Living | November 11 - December 17

Work by Úna Henry, Javier Marchan, Claudia Schmacke, Karin Trenkel
Curated by Thomas Peutz

Opening Friday November 10, 21.00 hours.

We never anticipate evils before they actually arrive...So many funerals pass our doors, yet we never dwell on death. So many deaths are untimely, yet we make plans for our own infants (....); No promise has been given you for this night - no, I have suggested too long a respite - no promise has been given even for this hour. (Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam, IX.1-2; X,4). With these words Seneca tried to console Marcia with the death of her son Metilius. The idea that a wise person should be able to walk away from all Fortune's gifts calmly, was Stoicism's most peculiar and extreme claim. According to Seneca a wise person can't lose anything, because he is self-sufficient and has everything invested in himself. Seneca's wisdom was however more than theoretical. Exiled to Corsica after having been falsely accused by Empress Messalina, he found himself abruptly stripped of all luxuries and wrote to his mother: Never did I trust Fortune, even when she seemed to be offering peace. All those blessings which she kindly bestowed on me - money, public office, influence - I relegated to a place from wich she could take them back without disturbing me. Between them and me, I have kept a wide gap, and so she has merely taken them, not torn them from me (Seneca, Consolation of Helvia, V,4). At the end of his life, when his friends learned that he had been sentenced to death by Nero, they blanched and began to weep, but the philosopher, in the account provided by Tacitus, remained undisturbed and strove to check their tears: Where had their philosophy gone, he asked, and that resolution against impending misfortunes which they had encouraged in each other over so many years? 'Surely nobody was unaware that Nero was cruel!' he added. 'After murdering his mother and brother, it only remained for him to kill his teacher and tutor' (Tacitus, Annals, XV, 62).

Life has been considered as a preparation for death from the times of Socrates. At the same time Epicurus has taught us that there is nothing dreadful in life for the man who has truly comprehended that there is nothing terrible in not living. Starting from there, one could even strive for happiness. Epicurus observed that of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one's life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship. Such was his attachment to congenial company, that he recommended that one try never to eat alone: Before you eat or drink anything, consider carefully who you eat or drink with rather than what you eat or drink; for feeding without a friend is the life of a lion or a wolf (quoted in Seneca, Epistulae Morales XIX, 10). But how to deal with the death of a friend? The Romans would probably not say that he has died; rather that he had lived. Winter brings on cold weather; and we must shiver...And we cannot change this order of things...it is to this law that our souls must adjust themselves, this they should follow, this they should obey...That which you cannot reform, it is best to endure (Seneca, Epistulae Morales, CVII, 7-9);
Life goes on...and we are still living.

This exhibition is for Sara, Yessica and David.

SMART Project Space | www.smartprojectspace.net
Exhibtion Space open tuesday-sunday 14.00-20.00 hours

1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, NL-1054 BW Amsterdam
Post Office Box 15004, NL-1001 MA Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 427.5951 / 5952 | Fax.: +31 20 427.5953
Email: info@smartprojectspace.net

About SMART Project Space

SMART Project Space is an Amsterdam-based foundation which initiates and organises exhibitions of art not ordinarily accessible to the public.

It originated from a strongly felt need among young european artists and independent curators for an alternative to established museums and galleries.

The exhibitions involve artists brought together because their work presents thematic or conceptual links, affinities, oppositions or conflicts, thus providing a platform for discussion and exchange.

SMART Project Space primarily exhibits the works of emerging artists and artists who deserve greater visibility. In the selection, the focus is on quality among the young, the new, upcoming and exciting; not on what is safe and established. The organisation is managed in close collaboration with the artists.

Projects of diverse character and extension, not of necessity confined to one given location, are backed up by SMART Project Space.

The SMART Project Space Performance Program focuses on works of dance, drama, music and film which involve collaborations with the visual arts, and particularly those works that involve new technologies. Exhibition-related performances take place through-out the year.

Panel discussions and other public education events accompany exhibitions and filmprograms.

The Lecture Program presents series of lectures on topics concerning issues in the contemporary arts.

ALMANAC, Art on Television and ALMANAC, Special Edition are weekly programs of Art-cinema and Video-art produced by SMART Project Space and broadcast on the local television networks of Amsterdam and Rotterdam

In conjuncion with every exhibition, an edition of SMART Papers (ISSN 1381-5822) is published.

Current programs are supported in part by funding from the Mondrian Foundation, the City of Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and the European Cultural Foundation.

You can obtain any additional information you may require from SMART Project Space Foundation, at the above address.

About ALMANAC, Art on Television and ALMANAC, Special Edition

ALMANAC, Art on Television and ALMANAC, Special Edition are two weekly programs of Art-cinema and Video-art, produced by SMART Project Space.

In each broadcast of ALMANAC, Art on Television a series of artists' tapes is selected on the basis of a central theme or concept. The concept of a broadcast is self-evident from its title and its programming. There are no introductory texts. The broadcasts are to be considered and are treated as exhibitions on television. In ALMANAC, Special Edition, longer tapes and films of visual artists are programmed.

ALMANAC, Art on Television and ALMANAC, Special Edition are broadcast on the Amsterdam Arts Channel A1, every Saturday from 23.00 until 01.00 hours and on Rotterdam TV, every Sunday night from 01.00 until 02.00 hours. An e-mailing is done, inviting people to watch the program, very much the same way people are being invited to attend an opening or private viewing in an exhibition-space.

We work with DV/DV-cam. Betacam SP, U-matic SP (BVU), Low-band U-matic, Super-VHS and other regular formats are welcome. If possible the material should have an European format (Pal). However, NTSC can be transferred.

In recent broadcasts of ALMANAC, Art on Television, work was shown by: Liesbeth Abbenes, Marina Abramovic, Carlos Aguirre Morales, Babak Afrassiabi, Justin Anderson, Tiong Ang, Janine Antoni, Ben d'Armanac, Rodolphe Astier, Attwell & Affourtit, Clint Bagwell, George Barber, Miguel Barreda, Marcus Bastel, Robert Beck, Sanne Beeren, Sadie Benning, Otto Berchem, Anita di Bianco, Liz Bischof, Christian Burns, Neus Buira, Shane Carn, Monica Castiglioni, Abigail Child, Pia Cseri-Briones, Donigan Cumming, Alan Currall, Michael Curran, Gustav Deutsch, Lisa DiLillo, Herbert Distel, Delphine Doukhan, Smadar Dreyfus, Justin van Duurling, Benni Efrat, Tracey Emin, Alicia Framis, Paco Freire, Stuart Gazzard, Patrick de Geetere, Mariska van Gelder, Bart Gorter, Dan Graham, Halflifers (Torsten Z. Burns & Antonio Discenza), Håvard Haugseth Jensen, Úna Henry, Jozef van der Heyden, Alexander Honory, Judith Huemer & Tom André Skullerud, Ingrid Jejina, Renée Kool, George Kuchar, Quirijn Kuchlein, Carter Kustera, Thomas Kutschker, Peter Land, Ardele Lister, Ida Lohman, Javier Marchan, Pia Marais, Janet Merewether, Dylan McNeil, Matthias Muller, Lisa Muskat, Sabine Mooibroek, Mark Neville, Hayley Newman, Atsushi Ogata, Tsuyoshi Okubo, Dan Oki (Slobodan Jokic), Lennaart van Oldenborgh, Owen Oppenheimer, Vivian Ostrovski, Helen Paris, Linda Pollack, Lisl Ponger, Liza May Post, Walid Raad, Jennifer Reeder, Oder Or Reifenberg, Steve Reinke, Hunter Reynolds, Michelle Remy, David Rimmer, Pipilotti Rist, Pablo Rodriguez Jáuregui, Adi Rosenblum & Markus Muntean, Anke Schäfer, Andy Seklir, Stuart Sherman, Cornelia Schmidt-Bleek, Trebor Scholz, Marcel Schwierin, Ross Sinclair, Joshua Singer, Peter Stel, Annika Ström, Annegret Suaudeau, Robert Suermondt, Cordelia Swann, Tomoko Take, Fiona Tan, Marianne Theunissen, Tony Thijssen, Koen Timmermans, Graziella Tomasi, Muriël Toulemonde, Peter Tscherkassky, Wanda Tuerlinckx, Gitte Villesen, Barbara Visser, Cathy Wagner, Erik Wesselo, Olav Westphalen, Sonja Wyss