about

Vision Forum London
Autumn 2010 –  2012

 Time Capsules and Conditions of Now

‘Time capsules’ and ‘conditions of now’ are two notions that continuously oscillate on the phenomenological reception of the spatial and the relational. The former adheres to a withdrawal from continuity of events whilst falling in another realm of continuum with differing parameters, whereas the latter delves around the reception of the continuum through its defining elements such as the present moment and investigation of ‘now’ in its potentiality. In that sense the project is structured upon at first sight conflicting and gradually as eventually relevant concepts. The theoretical framework is under the influence of theories of time from quantum mechanics to meditation, from psychoanalysis to social science aiming to rearticulate the phenomenon of knowledge and its methods of presence, production, and reclaimed social and imaginary space.

The project brings together participants with diverse backgrounds and practice, who produce in the domain of visual arts, and focuses on time capsules and conditions of now, thematically evolving around the idea of allowance of creative and prolific individuals to encounter non-ordinary realities, which aim to influence their work on a relevant and discreet sense. The Vision Forum London project is composed of encounters varying in their nature and vicinity. In other words, the encounters will span the social and the personal through involvements in differing conditions of one’s relating him/herself to the selected sites. The sites vary in their nature and presuppose a certain sense of disconnection with their outside realm. That is to say, visits to houses of currently-living or have-long-passed-away significant individuals with a cross disciplinary practice are scheduled and positioned as the time capsules; whereas the conditions of now will be provoked on the sites of encounter. These visits will be preceded by a retreat to a town outside of London where participants will be part of a non-ordinary activity of silent togetherness whilst the personal space will be the site of encounter within the presence and the togetherness of the group. The accumulation of these activities are in the domain of the discreet and invisible influence in the sense in which the participants will not be asked to produce anything out of or directly relating to the former encounters in the means of translation. These unconventional encounters deal with the domain of creative and influential while looking away from the conventional context of artistic and creative production. In that sense the project is an irregularity with its unutilized nature and focuses on, as well as supports the expansion of borders in thinking, doing and making. Nonetheless, the project means to deliver a variety of outcomes as new works in artistic, curatorial and authorial terms depending on the practice of the participants.

The first phase, September – December 2010, will start of with a meeting of a group for a table soccer tournament and is composed of visiting houses of significant personas who have brought together a wide-research on knowledge through relating to science, psychology and arts. The houses that are to be visited belong to Swedenborg, T.S. Eliott, Julian Barbour, among others. The houses for visit are positioned as sites with the aspect of time capsules in the way in which another reality is being encountered through delving into the objecthood of things as well as conceptual articulations of practices and perspectives.

The second phase, January – May 2011, is composed of working among the group for the outcomes such as making a publication, a series of exhibitions, a series of events and talks and any other artistic interventions in London. The second phase is where the experience of the first phase flourishes, not in the sense of implementation of what the first phase consisted but reflecting individually and collectively on the experience and involving in various modes of production.

Initiated by Fatos Ustek, curator & art critic

Participants:
Lisa Skuret, artist & writer
Vanda Playford, artist & practicing GP
Jean Matthee, artist & theorist
Kaz, artist
Ole Hagen, artist & lecturer
Soledad Garcia, curator & writer

Vision Forum London is a node of Vision Forum an organization which initiates contemporary art events that transgress the boundaries between performance, exhibition, workshops and education. It grew from a series of events organised by Curatorial Mutiny in collaboration with KSM at Campus Norrköping, Linköpings Universitet in Sweden 2005-2007. Vision Forum took its present form in 2008, it does not have a physical location or a program, but responds to the needs of the group of artists and curators that are part of the network any given moment. 

visionforumlondon [at] gmail.com