Avant-garde Below Zero: Koen Vanmechelen

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Avant-Garde Below Zero

Introduction:

In short, Avant-Garde Below Zero is a controversial artistic project treating of “artificial Avant-Garde Art in the deepfreeze culture” organized by the young artist Geoffrey de Beer

Geoffrey de Beer: "Avant-Garde, often spelled avant-garde, is a term used to indicate actions or movements that are new or experimental in nature. The word avant-garde originates from military practice where it indicates the “advance guard” of highly qualified soldiers that explore the territory before the rest of the army, in order to determine the future course. The avant-garde concept became a metaphor for the work being done by artists and intellectuals by which they draw ahead of the masses. "

This project aimes at artificially creating a new avant-garde movement.

“The first realization of an avant-garde today would be the avant-garde itself.” Guy Debord (The Avant-garde in 1963 and afterwards.)

Method:

Freezer meals are Avant-Garde. They run ahead of their time of consumption. You buy them now, only to be eating them within a few days, weeks, months or even years (just when you feel like it). Way before the masses will consume them, freezer meals have been prepared by real chefs, they have been frozen and distributed. Therefore, the freezer is the perfect device to produce Avant-Garde.

"I propose to freeze art made by contemporary artists and progressive movements and groupings."

The idea is that someone who isn’t acquainted with the arts, buys a work of art created by a contemporary artist he fails to understand. In order to make their purchase more accessible, the frozen works will be sold by a mail-order company that specializes in deep-frozen products. You will buy art just like you would by frozen sprouts, cakes or fish-sticks for future consumption. You are not to defrost the work of art until you consider yourself ready for it, i.e. when you believe to understand what it is about. Only then you can put it on your cupboard or hang it on your wall. Only then you can “consume” it. Of course you can also consider it to be an investment and leave it in the freezer. This way Avant-Garde can be a safer investment than bank shares.

That way, the masses will be able to consume avant-garde art at the exact same time of its production, whereas normally they can only take part in its consumption much later.
As from the 1st of June, artists were invited to freeze their (avant-garde) art. To that end we have provided a production space/lab (Base Bèta) on the domain of the Verbeke Foundation. This space is at the disposal of the artist’s experiments and creations. The artists are absolutely free to determine the content. Prices of the works are deliberately kept low (they will range from 5 to 666 euros) in order to reach the broadest public as possible. It is our intention to refund this sum in full to the artists to cover the costs of production.

Practically:

As from Juin 1st, the artists will be asked to freeze their (avant-garde) work.

On September 18th, the first part of the project officially takes off on the opening at Base-Alpha. From this moment on we will distribute our frozen products.

From November 1st onwards, the exposition will move to Base-Béta to be part of the Verbeke Foundation’s winter exhibition.

Contact:

I.F.M.A./ Geoffrey de Beer
Base Alpha / Kattenberg 12, 2140 Antwerp Belgium
Base Bèta / Verbeke Foundation Westakker 9190 Kemzeke Belgium
geoffreydebeer@hotmail.com
phone: 0032 (0)486 56 62 82

Avant-garde Below Zero

donderdag 10 september 2009

Koen Vanmechelen

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