On Saturday 12 November Viral Radio presents the first performance of austere electronic music duo Raime in Amsterdam. They will join reknowned French multi-instrumentalist – and friend of Non-fiction – Pierre Bastien at the Moving Buildings Festival. Moving Buildings is a festival on music and media art, organised by P60, the Schouwburg Amstelveen and Cobra Museum of Modern Art
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Machinefabriek live at [F]luister from Renier Eclectro on Vimeo.
During this first edition of a series of two Aura-salons and a finissage, as part of the Aura-project, Castrum Peregrini will confront artists, poets, writers and creative thinkers with the concept of aura as set out by Walter Benjamin. He defined aura as the distance between a purveyor of the work of art and the work itself. With the advent of mechanical reproduction, he argues, the distance has been closed, aura diminished, and the work of art democratized.
Fast-forward 70 years later, we are confronted with the rich and ‘auratic’ heritage of Castrum Peregrini.
But what will remain of it when this treasure trove is further opened to the public and is reinterpreted and reproduced by artists and journalists through photos, moving images and other means of communication? What will happen to its aura? This first Aura-salon questions Walter Benjamin’s alarming prediction that:
“that which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.” (Walter Benjamin)
With contributions by (a.o.)
- Allerd van den Bremen & Renée van Marissing (theater-makers)
- Amie Dicke (artist)
- Erik Lindner (poet)
- Joachim Umlauf (Director Goethe-Institut Amsterdam)
- Ton Venhoeven (Architect Venhoeven CS)
- Michiel van Iersel (curator Aura-project and partner at Non-fiction)
- Lars Ebert (Castrum Peregrini)
- Machinefabriek (electro-acoustic musician)
Date: Thursday 28 May
Time: 20:00 – 23:00 hrs
Address: Herengracht 401, Amsterdam
Language: Dutch/German
Contact: 020 623 52 87 or mail@castrumperegrini.nl
The next Aura-salon will be on Thursday, 11 June, 20:00 – 23:00 hrs with contributions by (a.o.) Jan Baeke, Pierre Bastien, Theu Boermans, Amie Dicke, Dragan Klaic, Tracy Metz, Macha Roesink en Henk van der Waal.
The Aura project is being made possible through the generous support of the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, VSB Fonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Lira Fonds, Goethe Institut Amsterdam and Genootschap Nederland Duitsland
Today the Aura exhibition, curated by Non-fiction’s Michiel van Iersel, was reviewed by the Amsterdam newspaper Parool. The article gives a pretty accurate description – in Dutch – of the exhibition’s theme and the works on show. We are very happy that they included a large image of Amie Dicke‘s installation in the abandoned room of one of the late residents of this former hiding place.
Strangely enough, the article is (not yet) available online, so the following image is the best we can offer right now. (For our Dutch-speaking audience, notice the missing part in the title of the review: onderduikadres). And of course now we look forward to the next review.
On Thursday May 28 from 20:00 hrs, we will organize the first of a series of Aura salons with a guided tour, performances, statements and music with contributions by (a.o.) Allerd van den Bremen, Machinefabriek, Erik Lindner, Renée van Marissing, Joachim Umlauf, Ton Venhoeven. We hope to see you there.
Source: Parool, May 22, page 15