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discovering what to practice

In the process

The Living Room(s) at W139 Amsterdam

On the 17 of December the Living Room(s) collective will host an event as part of the project: Kitchen139: A Ten-day Communal Kitchen Experiment. During the event, which is initiated by W139 Amsterdam and Casco Utrecht, we will cook dinner for the audience, present our unique decision making method and create a space and for people to be together, even for a few hours. As Chirsmas time is ahead of us, we would also like to bring some Christmas spirit into the event and to celebrate the end of the year. The event will be broadcast live in Red Light Radio.

For more details about the event and the other collectives who are participating:
http://w139.nl/en/article/20350/kitchen139/

Everyone is welcome to join and have dinner with us. In the meantime, we will inspired our self with another Sandra Lee episode:

And now, the photos!

After recovering from the long night at de Appel arts center, we now happy to upload some documentation of our Revolutionary Playground.
All photos by:  Ilya Rabinovich.

Hugo Herrera Tobón finalize the "People's Street Wall" outside de Appel

At the entrance: the "Tent Cathedral". On the right: Roni Levit's "Change alert!" info-graphic map

Reading and recording in the "Book&Tapes" tent

Les Croissants Terribles in an unforgettable show (thanks to the police ...)

Outside the "Reverse Anger Management" workshop with Yonathan Keren and Yuri Veerman

In the main tent: Theater maker Alexander Karschnia (and Thomas Myrmel) in a revolutionary speech

Poet Tjistke Jansen exercise silence in public

Historian Markha Valenta performing

People watching Rune Peitersen on stage and get inspired by his speech

For more photos, visit Ilya Rabinovich’s Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.308359452509763.84194.260496757296033&type=3

Our next event: Museum night @ de Appel art center

The Living Room(s) present:

Revolutionary Playground
A night of performances, activities and workshops
November 5th, 19:00-02:00, de Appel art center

During Amsterdam’s Museum Night, the Living Room(s) collective will transform de Appel art centre into a Revolutionary Playground full of events and happenings. Looking at the tremendous global civic awakening that is now taking place in cities around the world, the event invites visitors to participate, experience and react to the current changes together with artists, performers and musicians. The site will serve as an info-center, workshop and performance platform offering activities concerning protests, activism and social change.

The event also refers to de Appel’s current exhibition: Specters by Sven Augustijnen. The exhibition focuses on one of the darkest pages in the colonial history of the Belgian Congo: the murder of Congo’s first democratic elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba in 1961. Lumumba’s election was the outcome of Congo’s first wave of civil awakening and an expression of Congo’s citizens’ will. As implied in the exhibition, it is the joint forces of governments and global institutes that oppressed the social change in Congo and allowed the murder of Lumumba. Looking at what social movements all around the glob fight for, one can find many disturbing similarities between past forms of colonialism and today’s economic colonialism.

Revolutionary Playground is inspired by and coinciding with this current global tendency. It is a contribution to the on-going protests, while at the same time asking how art, artists and art institutions can create a common and inspiring space to act locally in a global context.

The various activities will take place throughout De Appel’s gallery space:

Main Tent
Speakers, performers, poets, musicians and theater makers will take the stage to argue for and play with the notions of change and freedom.
Participants: Markha Valenta, Rune Peitersen, CroissantsTerribles and Alexander Karschnia (andcompany&Co)

Creative tents
E.H.B.M – ( Eerste Hulp Bij Machteloosheid) – One on one sessions with facilitator Yonathan Keren and artist Yuri Veerman to regain your power as an active citizen.

The people’s street wall – take part in covering de Appel outside wall with protest slogans from all over the world with graphic designer Hugo Herrera Tobón.

Global tents  
Live skype with activists from Madrid, Cairo, New York, Tel Aviv and Santiago; get lost inside a revolutionary audio library, watch images of hope and rage from all over the globe, become a resistance DJ and play your favorite protest song; exchange knowledge and experience with others.

Special visual contribution by Roni Levit Studio and Roi Alter

Time line of the night:
19:00 –Global tent activities start
20:00 – Creative tent workshops start
20:30-22:00 – Main Tent performance (1st round)
23:00-24:30 – Main Tent performance (2nd round)
* Menu of delicious soup, Cassava pancakes, cider and hot coco rum will be the highlights of MOES bar

Bios of the participants:

Markha Valenta is an Historian (University of Amsterdam) specializing in the relationship between religion and politics. In recent years she has carried out research on the Dutch and American political and public reactions to Muslims. She is now beginning a project on the relationship between democracy, religion and ethnic diversity in three ‘global cities’ (Amsterdam – Mumbai – New York).

Yuri Veerman – Yuri Veerman vertaalt het Wilhelmus naar het Arabisch op http://www.trotsopnederland.ma, laat zien wat er gebeurt als je kunst halveert op http://www.slashart.nl en verzamelt meer dan 300 ‘FREE’ T-shirts op http://www.free-tshirts.info. Voor overige projecten gaat u naar http://www.yuriveerman.nl.

Yonathan Keren is trained as a singer at the conservatory of Amsterdam. Since then he has worked as a teacher in the educational system and as a corporate trainer. He currently teaches at the AHK (the arts academy of Amsterdam), coaches voice professionals and works as a group facilitator, specializing in conflict resolution. Yonathan is an accredited Deep Democracy instructor and teaches facilitation of decision making processes, group dynamics and conflict resolution.

CroissantsTerribles – Les Croissants Terribles a.k.a. Los Tortillas Terribolos is a three man, six armed and legged Waitsian freakfolk orchestra. Sound is their thing, as other stuff. Dutch, English or French? No problem! All of the above! Still looking for a choir though!

Hugo Herrera Tobón  is an Amsterdam based multi-disciplinary art director and designer. Since 2006 he has been art-directing graphic identities and developing print, 3D and web material for a number of musicians, performers, artists and organizations, creating artistic concepts for exhibitions and visual communication strategies. His work reflects his passion for displacement, typography, iconography, conceptual contemporary art, Latin American literature and photography.

Rune Peitersen  is a Danish artist, live and works in Amsterdam. Founding member of artists groups Clacite Revolt and Platform Re-Set. Peitersen interested in ‘the voice of the artist’ and developing ways to make it heard.

The Living Room(s) is a collective of artists and cultural mediators from different disciplines engaging with social change, collective action and the practice of everyday life. We are parasites, hosting and being hosted by different venues in our neighborhood and beyond, creating event-driven interventions in collaboration with performers, theoreticians and artists.(https://livingroomamsterdam.wordpress.com/)

Buy a ticket for the Museum Night:
http://www.n8.nl/2011/tickets/

New season for The Living Room(s)

Dear Friends,

The Autumn is here and with it a whole new season of activities from The Living Room(s)!

You are warmly invited to join us this weekend in a special neighborhood gathering in Bos en Lommer. During the Bos en Lommer art routs we will open a portable living room with Jeroen playing the banjo, a pop-up library of goodies, the living rumors to chat with and cake (as per usual)!

Stay tuned for our event in De Appel during Museumnacht and more exciting activities in the city and abroad coming very soon!

Hope to see you there,
The Living Room(s)

It’s happening

and the million people demonstration is coming up

The beach

 

Summer home

We’ve concocted a beautiful series of unusual events to accompany the  duo exhibition of Bojan Fajfric and Nevet Yitzhak in Jeanine Hofland contemporary art. Talks, performances, discussions and lots of collective creativity!

All the events will take part in the gallery itself- De Clercqstraat 62, Amsterdam. We are looking forward to see you!

Sunday 03/07 – 1700h: Artist Noa Giniger will talk about her latest project FAB with Curator Angela Serino.

In SYB, Noa Giniger (IL/NL) turned the intimate creative process inside out and opened her studio doors. Six artists from different countries stayed with her — each one for one week — for an in-situ dialogue. The outcomes of these encounters have been interwoven into a more universal discourse via a weblog; this ongoing mosaic registers the isolated shared time and reveals the exchange of thoughts and emotions that took place during the residency.
The invited artists are Gaelle Boucand (FR/DE), Anat Spiegel (IL/NL), Halina Kliem (DE), Shana Moulton (US), Keren Benbenisty (IL/FR) and Rada Boukova (BG/FR)
The project was supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, The Fonds BKVB and the Maison Descartes – Intitut Français de Pays-Bas.

Saturday 09/07 – 1900h: Wilbert and Geert know a road from Nijmegen to Istanbul.

Composer Wilbert Bulsink and illustrator Geert Glas cycled 9000 kilometers across Europe: via Scandinavia to Istanbul and from there onwards to Macedonia. Wilbert and Geert will discuss their extraordinary trip and the piece it inspired them to write for the Rosa ensemble: a mix of music, field recordings, songs, stories, images and live-animation.

Thursday 14/07 – 1800h: How to discuss the neo-liberal shift in Dutch society – the how in a performance, workshop and discussion.

Myrna Lewis, creator of the facilitation method Deep Democracy, which was a fundamental instrument in the transition from Apartheid to Democracy in South Africa, will lead a discussion about the current social and political situation in the Netherlands. The discussion will open with a short Deep Democracy workshop and will include a performance by Yonathan Keren.
Come and experience the method we are using in our very own Living Room(s)!

Sunday 17/07 – 1700h: Acoustic Sunday afternoon- Jæ and Anat

Anat Spiegel’s first performance of her solo project and new material from Jæ’s upcoming album: a Sunday afternoon delight!