WRITING OUT LOUD
masterclass by Stefan Vanthuyne & Inge Henneman
In this masterclass you explore and discover how you, as a visual artist, can use writing as an instrument in your thinking and working process; as a way to look critically at your own work and the work of others, but also as a way to get closer to yourself and your artistic practice. As you can think aloud, here you will write aloud. The purpose is not to become a writer, but to become familiar with words and to find your own voice to talk about your work. Thus, the common thread throughout the master class is the laying of a solid foundation for an artist's statement.
At the start of the masterclass, we give due attention to your notebook and diary entries, which you start keeping prior to the masterclass. Could they be important for artists, for example, to sharpen their awareness in observation and expose to us how we see and think? Throughout the week during interactive sessions we share our influences, references and sources, we map our genealogy as an artist, and reflect on what occupies our minds on a daily basis. We do word and writing exercises (possibly in relation to images) that pull you out of your comfort zone and your familiar artistic vocabulary. We literally cut, shred and paste text into new sentences and constructions. We visit a museum, where you choose a work to write about. We respond with words to each other’s work and talk about the relation we experience between words and the visual. We read a couple of artists' texts. But we stay away from the hermetic ‘art speak’ and look for more personal and free forms like letters, conversations, stream of consciousness or visual poetry.
Wilfried Huet (to be confirmed) of Gagarin magazine will show how you can open up the whole matter of text and art when 'the artist in his/her own words' stays away from explanation or justification. Poet and writer Charlotte Van den Broeck comes to visit and brings her experiences with her. On Thursday there will be an intervention by Mekhitar Garabedian, who will lend us his perspective on an exercise in artistic research.
Prior to the start of the master class, participants are required to start keeping an observation diary with daily reflections (from the beginning of October), as a personal preparatory exercise. These diary entries in your notebook will be the starting point for the shared process that takes shape in an open but confidential and secure research environment.
>> This masterclass is part of the RESEARCH WEEK October 2020 and ARTICULATE | BAUHAUS 1 0 1.