Throughout this academic year, the students and curator Katia Krupennikova not only discussed their work individually, but also met as a group to collectively engage in the process of making this exhibition. They started from abstract questions such as “Who has power to exhibit or to deny visibility?”, “What is the role of the artist and the curator in the process of making an exhibition?” and “What is the role of the artist in society?” They continued on to practical matters: the title of the show and its general organization. In the process of creating this exhibition, group feedback sessions and discussions played a key role.

Futures Without… synthesizes and emphasizes the group’s search for common ground, beyond merely sharing time and space within the institutional framework of an art school education. Every artist in this exhibition is a bright and devoted individual whose work is inspired by personal research interests, zooming in on the social, political and cultural constructs that surround them. Abstract or concrete, external or internal, political or intuitive, social or personal, physical or mental, spatial or temporal—all the works in the show imagine what the world could potentially look in the future, depending on how the past is remembered and how the present is acted upon.

The artists question what social, political and historical constructions and perspectives are pertinent to reimagine. What difference would it make, and for whom, if an object, concept,
perspective, or living being were to be forgotten, dropped, extinct, dead, invisible, disregarded, or brought to the front, made visible, cared for, healed, accepted, gained subjectivity, given solidarity, collectively defended?

When this exhibition ends, its participants will continue their artistic paths on their own, going through a very palpable transition into what from today’s perspective is seen as the
future. Future is in fact happening right now. Graduating as a visual artist today means taking an individual responsibility for the present, and therefore also for the future. Acting in alliance with other active and responsible members of society, an artist is empowered to influence the status quo. Through critical thinking, imagining or actively engaging with political and social realities, art has the potential to determine what kind of future we will live
in, and who constitutes that “we”.

With contributions by: Ana Flores, Nandini Hasija, Filippo Giuseppe Iannone, Ziyu Jiang, Tammie Kang, Tatiana Kolganova, Ioannis Kouzapas, Ana Linhares, Ganesh Nepal, Katja Prins, Manju Sharma, Dan Armand Stancu, Manuela Viezzer, Shuxi Wang, and Gilly van Zanten.
Curated by Katia Krupennikova

Every day, throughout the course of the exhibition, the participants of Futures Without… welcome you to a varied program of performances, readings, games and concerts. Please find more information and a detailed events schedule below.

Tammie Kang, time to times, 2019, performance with video projection, 15 min.
This performance revolves around the notion of time and the artist’s memories of her grandfather. Starting off by reading sentences from David Eagleman’s Sum, Kang aims to create an immersive space where different perceptions of time can be imagined. The performance presents a different kind of intimacy through storytelling and through the exploration of time as presented in the video projection.

Tatiana Kolganova, Being a part of…, 2019, participatory performance, 20 min.
How do we humans feel, perceive and understand our position within the natural environment? Are we external observers or are we part of that which we try to understand? This performance explores our everyday surroundings from different perspectives, opening up the possibility of experiencing reality in different ways.

Ana Linhares, On Constellations: Reading through the Gaps, 2019, 20 min.
This performance revolves around a collection of objects owned by members of a diplomat family who worked and traveled within former Portuguese colonies at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ana Linhares deconstructs this material and relating family narratives in search of alternative readings, interpretations and understandings of power relations.

Ganesh Nepal, This Man Who Is Called Man, 2019, 20 min.
In this performance, the artist will produce raw bricks with an original brick mold used in housing projects in Nepal. Whilst his hands are forming the bricks, Nepal will speak about migrant workers in their own words, describing migrants’ hidden emotions and the relationships that were broken in order to find work and survive. To stay true to their stories, Ganesh Nepal will speak in his native language, Nepali.

Manju Sharma, Please keep me with you at all times, 2019, reading-performance, 30 min.
This performance is based on the artist’s written work Citizens of Elsewhere. Sharma will perform the first pages from Part IV in dialogue with her suitcase sound installation. Reading the text out loud allows the artist to engage with the audience through storytelling. The sound installation interrupts the reading, mirroring current tensions in the ethno-geographical political environment in the UK.

Manuela Viezzer, Promise Me, 2018, game and participatory performance, 30 min.
Promise Me is a sculptural object that is also a game. During the performance, the game will be played by the artist and the audience. The players are invited to make a promise to perform a certain behavior in the near future that involves their eating habits.

Gilly van Zanten, Render Movement, 2019, performance and sound piece, 20 min.
On 4 July 2019, Gilly van Zanten will render and carry out the movement of his artworks: their place, their presence, their state of being and their transformation. Along with these acts, he will perform a sound piece, which will be assembled by clarinet and keys (a modular synthesizer and Hammond organ).

Additionally, Van Zanten welcomes everyone to join a musical intervention on Friday 5 July 2019 and on Wednesday 10 July 2019 between 15.30 hrs and 19.00 hrs and to improvise together with The Im-provisation Group Amsterdam.