THE ANNEX
From 1 January to 31 December 2007, Studio Annex 0.2 is for one year transformed into The ANNEX. The Annex functions like an additional residence and production / research space within the existing structure of the Jan van Eyck Academie and opened up space for artists to work there for maximum three or four weeks. This was done to break through the closed selection procedure of the academy, which only admits a relatively small group of residents to conduct research in the Jan van Eyck Academy. The Annex tried to open up this community with a more informal and flexible space. Besides the invited guests, researchers from the Jan van Eyck organised meetings, small presentations, discussions or film screenings in the space. Selecting residents into the ANNEX was open for suggestions from all researchers, so researchers sometimes invited artists in order to collaborate with them. There were guests who visited the Jan van Eyck several times, whereas others only came for one concentrated period of time. Nearly all residency periods concluded with a performance, lecture or a small exhibition display.
Residents included: Gilles Aubry (FR/DE), Pascal Bircher (GB/FR), Maurice Bogaert (NL), Ties Ten Bosch (NL), Dani Gal (DE), Harmen de Hoop (NL), Dunja Herzog (CH), Aletta de Jong (NL), Stéphane Montavon (CH), Savage (GB), Vera Tollman (DE), Krzysztof Wegiel (PL).
One activity of Swiss artist Dunja Herzog, meant to revitalize the original function of the ANNEX, this used to be the bronze workshop in the Jan van Eyck, but since there are no researchers actively using bronze nowadays the workshop closed. Her project ‘Pah’Bet, Discourse of the Fetish’ is rooted in the Bamoun culture in Cameroon. Her personal contact to the bronze casters created the basis for the project. The invention of the myth of Pah'Bèt is dealing with the status of tradition and his manifestations and tries to question the notion of reality. Based on realistic facts in combination with fiction it activates the viewer to think about the position, tradition and politics around the bronze culture in Cameroun at this moment. Besides the practical (producing the Pah'Bèt) and the inventive part (set-up of the mythology) there was research developed in the historical field and in the global economical context of trade. There is a strong focus on the Chinese influence on the production of bronze casted objects, which could lead to the vanish of this most important part of the Cameroon culture. Dunja has worked on the publication, video documentation and presentation format of this project in the ANNEX.
Participant Maurice Bogaert worked twice in the ANNEX and started the production of a new project there. He made a small-scale model of the set of a Dutch soap series called Onderweg naar morgen. He also began a video work, whereby he imitates the camera movements of the soap, but shows the set without any actual characters and storyline.
Another topic that came up in the ANNEX was archiving. In the format of three informal 'Material Gatherings', several artists working with image archives and representation discussed each other’s methodologies as well as the issues of seeing, use of photography and archiving.
