Monday Night 11.25.02 -- Cesare Pietrouisti -- Presentation/Discussion

Contents:
1. About this Monday
2. About C.P.
3. About Oreste
4. About Nomads and Residents

http://www.undo.net/oreste
http://www.nomadsresidents.org

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1. About this Monday

Monday Novermber, 25 2002

When: 7pm
Where: 16 Beaver Street, 5th Floor
Who: Open to All

Artists who produce work with groups/collectives
Artists who produce solo-work/projects
Artists who do not produce
Artists who organize
Artists who invite other artists
Artists who create situations
Artists who add

Well, somehow it would seem that this list could
be complicated by and added to through a discussion with
Cesare Pietroiusti. Recent NYC resident/artist, but
now residing in Rome, Cesare will be on hand to present
and discuss his individual projects/practice as well
as his collaborative efforts, which have included
Oreste and Nomads & Residents.

All are invited for what should be a very special evening.

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2. About C.P.

Cesare Pietroiusti's art practice focuses on problematic and paradoxical situations that are hidden in common relationships and in ordinary acts -thoughts that come to mind without a reason, small worries, quasi-obsessions that are usually considered too insignificant to become a matter of discussion, or of self-representation. The artist explores choices and intentions formulated by subjectivities other than his own, and the ways in which to make these choices become his own choices.

For the project Louisiana Museum, May 6 to 13, 1996 (Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen 1996) the artist spent seven days closed in a gallery space of a museum, and lived each day with the food and the things selected by another person.

In 1994 Pietroiusti was available to do 'useful' things for anyone of the audience who would make a request: he walked dogs, gave shots, cleaned out cellars, and more. In 1997 he published Non-functinal thoughts (ed. Morra, Naples), a small book containing approximately one hundred useless, parasite or incongruous ideas to be realised as art projects by anyone. Some of these ideas have been executed by artists and curators, such as for the exhibition "Democracy!" (Royal College of Art, London, 2000) and "One hundred things that are certainly not art" (Platform, Vaasa, 2001).

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3. About Oreste

Who is Oreste? Nobody is Oreste. It is not a group that produces collective artworks. It is not a trade union for artists. It is not a non-profit organisation. Up to now it has been a variable set of people, prevalently made up of Italian artists who have been working together with the aim of creating spaces of freedom and of action for ideas, inventions, projects since about two years ago when a summer residency programme was set up by them in Paliano.
These artists "found" each other (and continue to find each other in a ramified and open process) and make a habit of collaborating and relating with others. Their way of working is probably shared by many others, in Italy and internationally.
Residency programmes, workshops, web sites, meetings, trips, live or e-mail conferences, books, theoretical discourse and public statements. Such practices show the vitality of Oreste and its ability to join resources, qualities and experience, to question languages and be open to differing contexts and relationships, to identify and experience channels of communication without prejudice.

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4. About Nomads and Residents

Typically big cities are in a continuous flux, with a coming and going of people, some who settle in, and some who stay temporarily or just move through. Newcomers enter this flux and add their stories, their experience, their views , they become part of the life of the city, and make connections with others, both residents and non-residents. The city, as a space, contains these possibilities not by being a collection of buildings, nor by being an urban environment, but rather through the dynamic relationships between people, relationships which provoke an active engagement. Strangers become friends, ideas become practice, models are being transformed into action: since the connection of people is based on a certain coincidence of being in the same space, the models that are being developed, consciously or unconsciously, are random. These processes offer the possibility of surprise, of finding valuable things not specifically sought for. Samples are being collected to create a ground for new ideas: by forgetting things, in order to create space, to organize new things, to unfold this new space.

We will make connections with people who live here and with people who visit, by setting up a small, organic network of collaborators. All thus being "informers" we will create and organize public events in a variety of places, using and temporarily moving into the existing spaces in the city, in this way making visible parts of our personal histories next to a new, common "history". These existing places will be places set up by residents and by newcomers, who thus became residents, temporarily or permanently. We will invite artists, guests, curators, critics, activists, travelers and passers-by, to present insight into their practice, their ideas, histories, and drives. These choices will be inevitably at random, a coincidence, a discovery, but they will, at the same time, be closely connected with the personal practice and life of each informer.

We will make these connections partly out of our own interest, partly out of idealism. In this way we will investigate the tension between the collective and the individual interest, which may include of all kinds of ingredients: e.g. the wish to make a difference, gain attention, engage with a new environment, an interest in others and their ideas, satisfying ourcuriosity....a service, creating opportunities.

The curatorial and organizing group will consist of New York based and temporary residents. The core group, in order to set up the events and toconnect the different "guests" with "hosts" will actively inquire as to who is coming to New York and when, who would be interested in presenting his/her ideas, which spaces would be interested and available, etcetera. This will be an open core group which would welcome advice, ideas and the nthusiastic support of others. When a member of this core group leaves, he/she will find an appropriate replacement. For each event they will approach appropriate existing spaces, be they institutional art spaces or non-institutional (non-art) spaces. They will negotiate with the host-space, and organize and curate the event, obviously and preferably in close collaboration with the guests and this host-organization. The events will be partly informal and casual, and might be presentations, lectures, talks, slide-shows, small exhibitions, performances.