[Nettime-nl] myvillages.org newsletter 2007

["Wapke Feenstra" <wapke@euronet.nl>]

myvillages.org newsletter June 2007
Please read below about the most recent myvillages.org activities and plans:

- Rural Art Space now online
- Residency at Grizedale Arts, UK
- myvillages.org Grizedale Blog
- The Best Place, Hardenberg, NL
- New Research Project, NL/UK
- Höfer Goods 2007, Germany
- A Grizedale Arts TV production at the A Foundation, London


Rural Art Space now online: www.ruralartspace.net
Outcomes and papers from the Rural Art Space Symposium are now online. The
Symposium took place in January 2007 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire (UK) and was
part of a two months myvillages.org project called Why We Left the Village
and Came Back. 
The symposium itself was a partnership venture between myvillages.org,
Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery and the School of Art and Design,
University of Wolverhampton. 
The website and report have been edited and set up by Kathrin Böhm, who is
currently an AHRC Research Fellow at Wolverhampton.


Residency at Grizedale Arts, UK
Grizedale Arts (www.grizedale.org) runs an extremely interesting programme
from its base in the Lake District, a rural and highly touristy area in the
North West of England. Every year Grizedale invites six artists and artist
groups for a residency to develop a proposal on an open brief basis.
Wapke and Kathrin spent a week in the Lake District in late March 2007, to
see and hear more from the team running Grizedale Arts, and to understand
its cultural context and curatorial ambition. 
myvillages.org Grizedale Blog: 
www.grizedale.org/blog/myvillages
myvillages.org is currently using their new Grizedale blog to describe and
refine first impressions following their residency, and to continue their
conversations with Grizedale Arts, which will result in a proposal for/with
Grizedale Arts for 2008.


The Best Place, Hardenberg, NL
Wapke Feenstra has been invited to an art programme in the rural East of the
Netherlands. Her idea is to explore the area based on conversations and
exchange around the concept of cultural ground. 
This August Wapke will be travelling around the area with a solar-powered
text display attached to her car, and set down at spots that have been
identified as the best place by locals. The display will signal The Best
Place and mark a temporary space for collecting stories, mappings,
photographs of the view and cultural soil drilling. Additionally each spot
will be analysed historically, focusing on the former use and ownership of
the ground. 
A publication of the project is scheduled for December 2007, which will also
link to Antje Schiffers Landleben project for the same area. 
The Best Place is a joint project by Wapke and Antje and myvillages.org.


The relationship between landownership and the development of cultural
spaces in a village setting
Wapke Feenstra and myvillages.org have secured some funding from the
Heritage Department of the Netherlands Architecture Fund to propose a larger
research project that looks into the development of new cultural spaces
within rural settings, especially in regards to their inter-dependence on
other forces of power, such as landownership and the dynamics of cultural
and political claims.
The first micro research in 2007 will be done by Wapke Feenstra and her
sister Pietsie Feenstra in collaboration with villagers of Wjelsryp. The
project will focus on issues as culture of land ownership and its past and
current affect on cultural social spaces. 
Although the village culture of Wjelsryp has become less introvert over
recent years (due to tourism, new residents etc) it still has a collective
and dynamic and memory of its own, and a lot of the authenticity of the
place lies literally within the ground. 
public works will be contributing with their experience from several rural
projects and a particular interest into the development of new spatial
typologies for rural cultural spaces.
A joint research project by myvillages.org and public works.


Höfer Goods 2007, Höfen, Germany
Höfer Goods started in 2006, with the launch of three new products that have
been developed together with the women from the village Höfen, the product
designer Angelika Seeschaaf, the porcelain designer Manfred Frey and Kathrin
Böhm, who is from the village.
The new series of Höfer Goods for 2007 are currently being explored around
issues of textile and multifunctionality. Again, they?ll be presented during
the annual village fete on the first weekend in October, together with the
sale of other local produce and an exhibition of special Höfer objects. 


A Grizedale Arts TV production at the A Foundation, London
myvillages.org and public works are currently discussing ideas for a joint
contribution to the pilot programme of A-TV, curated by Grizedale Arts for
the A Foundation.
First ideas circulate around concepts of informal exchange, village shop and
a growing international rural network. The TV station will go live in
September 2007.

For further information visit
www.myvillages.org






Kathrin Böhm
public works
Northgate House
2-8 Scrutton Street
UK London EC2A 4RT

Phone: 0044 (0)20 70929100
Mobile: 0044 (0)7941 696 515
Fax: 0044 (0)20 70929101
Email: kathrin@publicworksgroup.net
Web: www.publicworksgroup.net
           www.myvillages.org

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