Monotàk presents: The Annes, Myrmel/Kis/Endo, Huisman, Oorebeek
2024-11-28 20:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | GROND, Bijdorpstraat 1, Amsterdam, 1096AP, Netherlands
Electronic music / Film / Improvisation
w/ The Annes, Myrmel/Kis/Endo, Huisman, Oorebeek
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: €10 recommended, sliding scale

Composers group Monotàk hosts another benefit concert for GROND with duo the Annes (Anne La Berge / Anne Welmer), Thomas Myrmel with Dodó Kis and Sato Endo, and films with music from Ricardo Huisman and Christina Viola Oorebeek.
THE ANNES first met more than a quarter of a century ago. At that time they played a flute and a few laptops. A lot has happened since. It has been tremendously wonderful to meet again and play together. This GROND show is their first duo appearance after quite some time. This time they will play flute, a couple of laptops and more electronic devices and gadgets.

Convex Stream is a composition by Thomas Myrmel, with excerpts from John Ashbery’s Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror. It is perfomed by Thomas Myrmel (Trombone/electronica), Dodó Kis (recorder/effects) and Sato Endo (dance).
Thomas Myrmel (1982, USA) is a composer, performer and multifaceted artist. He is a co-founder of composer collective Monotak and the musicians organisation Splendor.
Dodó Kis is a Hungarian recorder and EWI player, based in Amsterdam, and curator of the Nebular sessions
Sato Endo is a maker of interdisciplinary performances, working independently and project-based at theaters, art venues and at various sites. Sato often incorporates video with choreography.

Christina Viola Oorebeek

PeRiOd pOiNt blAnK (2016, revision 2021)
for Fixed-Media and Kinetic Collage

Orignally written for live performances of DUO VERSO, Stefan Gerritsen,guitar and Matthijs Koene, panflutes, with fixed-media and video, I decided to make a music video-only version of ‘PeRiOd pOiNt blAnK ‘ in 2021. This incorporates recordings of DUO VERSO and the fixed-media, but with a visual concentration on the Crip-walk by ‘Ghost’ and added electronic materials and transformations to the music.
Starting as a stylized set of foot moves spelling out neighborhood territories and the name of the Crips, a street gang in South Central, Los Angeles, the Crip Walk gained the status of a staple of hip-hop dance, and went viral among street movers over the globe as the Clownwalk, the Crownwalk. The elegance of its movements is contrasted by the harsh realities of gang life in a megalopolis, something man often combines – for example, making beautifully decorative armour and weapons to go to war in…

somewhat incongruous __ raps and new sounds, tv statics and shifting temple textures, from territorial street walk to dance suite

https://www.christinaoorebeek.com/

Ricardo Huisman – “virtual (kitch)en damast” – slow animation with soundscape (8:01 min.), 2022

Uit de serie: “virtual textiles”, (virtuele) tactiele collages van verschillende media, materialen incl. wollen dekens als digitale fotowerken of als slow animations al dan niet met sound- scapes, met verschillende historische verwijzingen, (actuele) thema’s. De “virtual textiles” tactiele collages, zijn (tijdelijk) tot stand gekomen met en door hergebruik van (textiele) restmaterialen, gereedschappen, oude (foto)boeken uit de jaren 70, (kleine) objecten, enz. in mijn atelier.

Tryout: studies of light and wind
2024-11-24 17:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London)
In preparation for the performance evening Intricate Interplays at Korzo in The Hague on November 30th, Marije Baalman is working in GROND’s blackbox for a few days with brand new light objects, wind machines and spinning paper objects. During these rehearsal days, she is joined by Dieter Vandoren and Ludmila Rodrigues, who bring drone music and inflatables to the performance.
On this Sunday early evening 17:00 and 19:30 you are invited to join a tryout of this theater for the senses and give feedback to the process.
Intricate Interplays is a performance evening of iii (instrument inventors initiative) hosted at Korzo on November 30th. It creates an experience in which the participating artists explore the idea of weather through performativity and audiovisual means. The evening is a collaboration between Mihalis Shammas, Marije Baalman, Dieter Vandoren, Mariska de Groot, and Ludmila Rodrigues, bringing together different instruments together in a new performative constellation.

'Oost, West, Thuis weg...' & 'Spiraling on.. and on..' // Janne Groen en Wytze Minne de Swart
2024-11-17 16:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London)
-For English see below-
Dans / Muziek
with Janne Groen en Wytze Minne de Swart
GROND
Bijdorpstraat 1,
1096AP, Amsterdam

16:00:00 (doors: 15:30)
Tickets: €10 aanbevolen, sliding scale
Een gedeelde middag met danseres en maker Janne Groen en componist, saxofonist en GROND-lid Wytze Minne de Swart.
De voorstelling bestaat uit twee gedeeltes:
Oost, West, Thuis Weg… is de titel van de work-in-progress voorstelling van danseres en maker Janne Groen, over de zoektocht naar (h)erkenning van haar Indische identiteit en het verlangen naar verbinding met haar vaders geboortegrond. Janne brengt dit persoonlijke proces tot uiting in dans, spoken word en in samenspel met gitarist Seyoum Yuno.
Janne is met haar voorstelling onderdeel van het Nieuwe Makers Festival RRReuring 2025, georganiseerd door Podium Mozaïek. In augustus 2024 heeft zij hier vooronderzoek voor mogen doen tijdens het Zomerlab. Ze zal vanaf december verder repeteren voor de première, die plaatsvindt tijdens het festival in februari 2025.
‘Spiraling on.. and on..’ is een verzameling van nieuwe werken van saxofonist en componist Wytze Minne de Swart, die voor deze selectie van nieuwe werken inspiratie heeft gevonden in het korte verhaal ‘de Bibliotheek van Babel’ van Jorge Luis Borges. Waarin een magisch maar realistische, oneindige, spiraalvormige bibliotheek wordt beschreven vol met metaforen uit het menselijk bestaan. Wytze heeft deze vormen als muzikale basis genomen voor de stukken en hieraan thematieken uit het dagelijks leven aan getracht te verbinden.
___
A shared afternoon with dancer and maker Janne Groen and Composer, Saxophone player and GROND-member Wytze Minne de Swart. The performance consists of two separate parts:
Oost, West, Thuis Weg… is the title of the work-in-progress performance by dancer and maker Janne Groen, about the (re)search into recognition of her bicultural identity and the desire for connection with her father’s roots. Janne expresses this personal process in dance, spoken word and in collaboration with guitarist Seyoum Yuno.
Janne’s performance is part of the New Makers Festival RRReuring 2025, organized by Podium Mozaïek. In August 2024, she was able to do a pre-research for this performance during Zomerlab. She will continue rehearsing from December on for the premiere, which will take place during the festival in February 2025.
Spoken language during performance: Dutch

Spiraling on.. and on.. is a collection of new works by saxophonist and composer Wytze Minne de Swart. For this selection of new pieces, he drew inspiration from the short story The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, which describes a magical yet realistic, infinite, spiral-shaped library filled with metaphors reflecting human existence. Wytze has used these forms as the musical foundation for the compositions, aiming to connect them with themes drawn from everyday life.

Rosa Ensemble presents: TIENTJE
2024-10-20 20:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London)
Contemporary music
Rosa Ensemble presents: TIENTJE
Compositions: Floris van Bergeijk, Wilbert Bulsink, Jeroen Kimman
w/ Koen Kaptijn, Mei-Yi Lee, John Dikeman, Peter Jessen, Jeroen Kimman
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: each audience member receives € 10 (after registration)
Rosa Ensemble, in the performance TIENTJE, research the value and meaning of their music. To do this, they need a test audience. Join the experiment and receive 10€ as a compensation!

Note from Rosa Ensemble:
Composers Wilbert Bulsink, Floris van Bergeijk, and Jeroen Kimman wrote new pieces for TIENTJE. Your contribution is essential to enlarge the knowledge about the value of our music, and not only improve our artistic performances, but also learn better to understand how our music influences life.
Why would you join?

You get the chance to listen to a diverse array of compositions and share your personal reactions and thoughts
You contribute to the growing knowledge about the impact of music on the human experience.
You meet like-minded people and share your passion for music.
Your contribution is priceless for the contribution to the future musical performances of the Rosa Ensemble
You will receive 10 € (a ‘tientje’).

Please reserve your seat via https://rosaensemble.nl/voorstelling/tientje/
email: publiciteit (at) rosaensemble (dot) nl
Credits
Concept & Idea: Vera Jessen Jührend, Floris van Bergeijk, Wilbert Bulsink, Jeroen Kimman
Compositions: Floris van Bergeijk, Wilbert Bulsink, Jeroen Kimman
Design: Eveline Didderen
Direction: Willem Wits
Performers:
Koen Kaptijn – trombone
Mei-Yi Lee – percussion
John Dikeman – saxophone
Peter Jessen – double bass
Jeroen Kimman – guitar

Concert: ANTHANO, Seijiro Murayama, Chris Pitsiokos
2024-10-19 20:00 - 22:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Improvisation / Contemporary music / Electronic music
w/ANTHANO, Seijiro Murayama & Chris Pitsiokos
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: €10 recommended, sliding scale (at the door or Online)
On Saturday 19 October, GROND is welcoming to Amsterdam the duo ANTHANO, Seijiro Murayama, and Chris Pitsiokos.
ANTHANO consists of the musicians Anton Lambert and Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris, based in Belgium and in Greece respectively. This October they meet for a tour in the low lands, bringing their halldorophone and live-electronics improvisation sets to Amsterdam. The same evening, we have the pleasure to host the France-based Japanese percussionist and voice improviser Seijiro Murayama and Chris Pitsiokos, saxophonist and improviser based in New York and Berlin. For this event, Murayama and Pitsiokos are taking GROND’s stage as a duo.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
ANTHANO is newly found duo, a collaboration between Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris (GR) and Anton Lambert (BE). They first crossed paths in Athens in the fall of 2023 through their shared passion for experimental and innovative sound. With Anton’s practice in live electronics and Thanos’ expertise of feedback-augmented instruments and electronics, particularly the halldorophone, they started improvising together. This creative synergy sparked a series of recordings, weaving diverse sonic worlds into feedback loops and giving birth to a new album set to release in spring 2025 on the Italian label Kohlhaas. Ahead of the album’s release, Anton and Thanos will bring their soundscapes to life in a series of live performances across Belgium and The Netherlands in October 2024. These concerts are a dive into the realm of improvisation and sound experimentation, where haunting field recordings, intricate feedback loops, and deconstructed textures create an immersive auditory experience. Don’t miss the chance to witness this collaboration as it unfolds in real-time.

Seijiro Murayama was born in 1957 in Nagasaki, Japan. He has been working on improvisation since 1980. He uses voice and percussion and tries to apply his practice of improvisation to other fields of creative activities. Graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Eiichi Chino, Masahiro Nishie, Toshihiko Izutsu, Fumio Koizumi, Shuzo Kuki, then French Literature + Philosophy through skew reading, in particular, Blanchot. Their influence seems to have determined his activities’ direction since then. In 1982, he toured the United States with Keiji Haino, and during his stay in New York just after that, he encountered theradical, provoking music of John Zorn, a lower Manhattan emerging force. After coming back to Japan, through the explosive sound trio Absolute Null Punkt, under the influence of Akira Aida, Kenichi Takeda, Masami Akita, the magazine Transonic, musicians Derek Bailey, Kaoru Abe, etc., he embarked publicly on an exploration of improvisation. Although he temporarily refrained from performing due to some doubts about the styles of the first generation of improvisers he had followed, he restarted playing, thanks to the movements such as Onkyo in Japan in the 90’s. In 99, he had an opportunity to live and work in France, which changed his way of thinking and playing, he began to concentrate in particular on solo improvisation. Today, he mainly performs in solo, duo and trio formats. As for collaborations with other fields’ artists, he notes that even if he has experienced quite a lot of sorts of collaborations with dance and theater, his current interest is more towards words, images and sounds.

Chris Pitsiokos (b. 1990) is a New York/Berlin-based saxophonist, composer and improviser. While Pitsiokos does not concern himself with genre, broadly speaking his music falls under the umbrella of experimentalism, including noise, improvised music, experimental jazz, free jazz, noise rock, new music, minimal music, drone and art rock. As a soloist he has developed a unique voice on the alto saxophone: his expansion of the instrument’s vocabulary has served to multiply its emotive and formal possibilities. He has recorded over 30 albums as a leader or co-leader.

Eilectronight
2024-10-17 19:00 - 22:00 (Europe/London)
Eiwerk showcases, with live electronic performance,s DJ’s, VJ’s, beats and more…
free entrance / gratis toegang

New Emergences presents: Spelltown 1
2024-10-10 20:00 - 22:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Improvisation / Electronic music
w/ Mehrnaz Khorrami, Dominique Chabot, Jasna Veličković, Dan Gibson, Anne Wellmer, and Semay Wu
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: €10 recommended, sliding scale
New Emergences and GROND come together and host an Improvisation – Electronic Music evening.
Spelltown is NE’s new concert series, a gathering for experimentation and improvisation. Its first edition is a collaboration between GROND & NE members: together we invited newer and older friends and join each other on stage. The participating artists are Mehrnaz Khorrami, Dominique Chabot, Jasna Veličković (GROND), Dan Gibson (NE), Anne Wellmer (NE), and Semay Wu (NE).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Mehrnaz Khorrami is an electro-acoustic composer and violin player based in The Hague, the Netherlands. She studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and has a background in classical music. Mehrnaz’s artistic practice is centered in designing sound installations, audiovisual performances, and live electro-acoustic improvisation. Her compositions integrate diverse sounds, including custom-made acoustic instruments, urban spaces, and synthesized sound generated and manipulated through creative coding.

Dominique Chabot is a versatile double bass player, based in Amsterdam. She is active in classical, contemporary and improvised music. She performs regularly with ensembles and orchestras in the Netherlands and abroad. The projects she enjoys most are the ones that collaborate with other disciplines.

Jasna Veličković is a Belgrade-born composer and performer based in Amsterdam. Her artistic output has been developed through an interaction between a life-long fascination with the sound, an enduring interest in an intricate encounter between music and technology, and an inclination toward experimentation.
New Emergences is a platform for advocating diversity within digital media culture, electronic & contemporary music, and sound art. The NE Foundation is based in the Netherlands and consists of a group of composers, improvisers, performers, and researchers working in the field electronic music. It is part of an engaged music and art community that acts on the notion of grassroots activism that desires the honest, the curious, and the provocative.
Performing New Emergences members
Semay Wu – Composer, Media artist, Cellist & Performer
Anne Wellmer – Composer, Performer, Media artist
Dan Gibson – Composer, Sound artist, Instrument builder & Designer

BRUNCH CONCERT: Jeannine Valeriano, Michiel van Dijk, Tom Aldrich, Vinkepeezer
2024-10-06 15:00 - 16:30 (Europe/London)
photo: Ben van Duin.

Electronic music / Improvisation / Spoken word
w/ Vinkepeezer, Jeannine Valeriano, Michiel van Dijk, Tom Aldrich
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
15:00 (doors: 12:00 for Brunch)
Tickets: € donation
Improvisation with Jeannine Valeriano (voice), Michiel van Dijk (bass clarinet), Tom Aldrich (keyboard) and Ivo Bol (electronics)
Vinkepeezer (Ivo Bol) will perform a few songs from his new abum “Everything is a Frequency“, with Jeannine Valeriano and Tom Aldrich.

Whether she speaks, recites or sings, spoken word performer, singer and writer Jeannine Valeriano paints musical narratives with her voice. She conveys emotions and distinguishes herself with her own work in a combination of songs and spoken word. Her cultural background spans 5 continents; She grew up in the Netherlands in a mix of cultures and is of Caribbean, Jewish, Spanish and North American descent.
Michiel studied classical saxophone with Leo van Oostrom and jazz saxophone with John Ruocco at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Michiel played with almost all of them renowned orchestras and ensembles in the Netherlands. As a composer and arranger he has made music for various theater productions and ensemble.
Tom Aldrich was active as a musician in New York during the 90’s and early 2000’s, most notably as accordionist/composer/arranger in the experimental jazz group the Four Bags, with whom he performed at top NY venues such as BAMcafe, Knitting Factory, Celebrate Brooklyn, and at Symphony Space with legendary vocalist Jackie Cain. Moved to the Netherlands to pursue composition studies at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague from 2006-2010, where he composed for groups such as ASKO ensemble and Bang on a Can Allstars. He has worked with artists ranging from pop songwriting icons Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to jazz luminary Kurt Rosenwinkel, and his music has been performed in the U.S., Netherlands, Japan, Poland, Scotland, Italy and Serbia.

Vinkepeezer (Ivo Bol) reworks found sounds, lost tapes, old and live electronics and excess sounds from vinyl records into new musical constellations. Vinkepeezer’s third record ‘Everything is a frequency”, inspired by spirituality and conspiracy thinking, is released in October on Kazemat records.

A performance evening with ANTIPODAS Collective
2024-10-04 20:00 - 21:30 (Europe/London)
ANTIPODAS Collective @ GROND, a performance evening

October 4th
start: 20.00, doors open:19.30
end: 21.30

Antípodas is a collective of artists from diverse backgrounds, coming together to explore transdisciplinary practices, instant composition, using somatic bodywork as an entrance into imagination and collaboration, facilitating connection. Established in 2022, the group delves deeply into these domains, questioning established performance norms regarding time, space, audience relationships, narrative, and dramaturgy.
Believing in the intrinsic value of art beyond entertainment or utility, Antípodas opposes values like efficiency, profit, and passive consumption. Their work focuses on creating rich imagery, sounds, and movement, emphasising poetry and imagination. They promote deep listening and shared experiences, sharing time and knowledge from an inclusive, embodied viewpoint.
Their approach centers on creativity and imagination, offering non-linear stories and inviting active audience engagement. They value non-hierarchical teamwork, co-creation, and integration of art into daily life.
The members of the Antípodas Collective:
Geerte de Koe, a violinist and workshop leader who specializes in instant composition and bodywork in community art; Marc Nukoop, a maker and performer in the fields of dance, (electronic) music, objects, video, writing; Diederick van Rijsewijk, an interdisciplinary performer and musician who combines music, language, imagination, and movement to connect with audiences. Pau Sola Masafrets, a cellist, improviser, composer, and performer who explores contemporary jazz, classical music, free improvisation, and performance art; Laisvie Andrea Ochoa, a choreographer, dancer, and video artist who leads “ConCuerpos,” an inclusive dance company that started in Colombia; Femke Jansen, a dancer, hydrologist, and basket weaver who highlights connections among people; Lux Sauer a dancer and choreographer who incorporates feminist and gender themes in their work.
For this occasion of Antipodas @ GROND the participants will be: Marc Nukoop, Pau Sola Massafrets, Geerte de Koe, Diederick van Rijsewijk and Laivie Andrea Ochoa

Concert: AMR, Yukari Uekawa, Vinkepeezer, KTONIOS, & Cem Altınöz
2024-09-28 20:00 - 22:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Electronic music / Improvisation
w/Anna Maria Rammou, Uekawa & Vinkepeezer, more (t.b.a.)
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: €10 recommended, sliding scale
On Saturday 28 September, GROND members and friends get together for an Improvisation – Electronic Music concert. The live-electronics performer and GROND member Vinkepeezer (Ivo Bol) is performing together with the saxophone and suling player Yukari Uekawa from Japan. The same evening, the Athens-based electronic music artist Anna-Maria Rammou is bringing to Amsterdam her live-electronics set for a solo performance. Finally we close the evening with the audiofivual live performance “Solarization” by KTONIOS (Davide Ghelli Santuliana) and Cem Altınöz, inspired by the concept of “meridian demons” that among ancient Mediterranean civilizations manifested at midday, emerging from the abyss.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anna-Maria Rammou (AMR) is a sound artist and composer of electronic music based in Athens (GR). She creates site-specific compositions for live performances. Her work has been released on cassette in various labels, most notably by the Parisian imprint “Vice de Forme”. She has written music for the award-winning short film animation Pulsión (2019) by Pedro Casavecchia. Her sound is characterised by noise and electroacoustic elements. She uses analog gear as well as programming languages to produce sound and processes live sound derived from semi modular synthesisers, acoustic instruments and field recordings. She is a resident host on a bimonthly radio show at stegi.radio.
Vinkepeezer (Ivo Bol) reworks found sounds, lost tapes, old and live electronics and excess sounds from vinyl records into new musical constellations. Vinkepeezer’s third record ‘Everything is a frequency”, inspired by spirituality and conspiracy thinking, is released in October on Kazemat records.

Yukari Uekawa is a classical trained saxophonist. Yukari has a passion for contemporary dance, Indonesian Gamelan music and improvisation. She has recently been active as an improvisator, incorporating the movements of Butoh and Japanese traditional dance into her own unique sound.

KTONIOS is the artistic research and musical project of multimedia artist Davide Ghelli Santuliana, a project that translates the folk music from Southern Italy into a swarm of noise, industrial sounds, techno, acid melodies, reverberating loops and ambient digressions.
Cem Altınöz (1993, İstanbul, TR) works and plays with images and texts. As a multi-media artist, he investigates the role of imagery and image-making in one’s self-representation, self-reproduction, and self-destruction.
KTONIOS and Cem presents together Solarization, an audiovisual performance inspired by the concept of “meridian demons” that among ancient Mediterranean civilizations manifested at midday, emerging from the abyss.

Symposium: We Don't Want To Be Stars (But Parts Of Constellations)
2024-09-20 00:00 - 2024-09-22 23:59 (Europe/London)
INTRODUCTION & PROGRAM
‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’ Symposium, Amsterdam, organized by Suns and Stars in collaboration with GROND

INTRODUCTION
The three-day symposium ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’ [1] developed by Suns and Stars revolves around the question: How do we create a meeting place for practicing and honing the art of mutually dependent coexistence? The symposium is, so to say, a cooperative gathering in which the common is not defined in terms of identity, but as the work of connection and the alliance between (local) communities, human and nonhuman, that act, build, and create in common. As such, the symposium can be understood as an ongoing experiment in which we engage in a kind of improvised study by “talking and walking around with other people, working, dancing, suffering” [2] and passing time together. All while eating collectively prepared meals. The idea of shared giving-and-receiving offers an opportunity to explore a form of communal being in which we can become elusive builders of an unconditional meeting place. With contributions of: Alaa Abu Asad, Anastasija Pandilovska, Doe Maar Niet, Eléonore de Montesquiou, Elke Uitentuis, Fani Konstantinidou, Femke Ravensbergen, Ivana Vaseva, Lianne van Roekel, Margit Säde, Marjoca de Greef, Mohamed Alnoor Hedjaab, Natalia Papaeva, Stefano Harney, Sojung Jun, Viktorija Ilioska, and We Sell Reality. Suns and Stars are a nomadic art space and a platform for relational art practices and open-ended research. For several years now, Suns and Stars have been exploring, together with artists, how art practices can function as social spaces where other potentialities can be conceived and shaped. The curatorial and artistic research trajects regarding ‘the act of translation’ and ‘the concept of borderland’ by our curatorial duo Marjoca de Greef and Anastasija Pandilovska are not meant to be curatorial frames for ‘We don’t want to be stars’, but points of departure from which other artistic projects can sprout or join in. For the symposium we have invited artists and others who are not necessarily working with translation or borders, but who have relational practices. Artists, researchers, curators, and writers who develop their work in collaboration rather than in an autonomous space, thus inviting other people into their artistic practices.
We found an inspirational partner in GROND because the collective is building a meeting place in such a way that the members of GROND are truly living ‘the art of mutually dependent coexistence’. Based at ‘Het Nieuwe Bajesdorp’, the GROND collective has just finalized a fabulous space for artistic encounters and experiments; an open space to bolster collectivity, sustainability, cross-pollination and process-based practices, manifesting in a makers’ space, black box, kitchen, canteen, and two gardens. The communities of Bajesdorp and GROND are demonstrating that working and living as a collective is a way to learn how to embrace the process, to give and to take, to be flexible, to share authorship, to be creative in an organic way, to deal with conflicting interests, to be generous, and to let go. Together, they aspire to plunge into a state of learning in pursuance of a practice of solidarity. As such, GROND is a role model and a trailblazer developing new recipes for living and working together to fight alienation, which is increasingly dominant in our society.
GROND is not only giving space to the symposium; members of the GROND community are part of the program as well with workshops, cooking and live performances. The symposium is part of the long-term project (2023 -2026) ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’ organized and initiated by Suns and Stars. The project is a collaborative undertaking between Eesti Kaasaegse Kunsti Muuseum (EE), Faculty of things that can’t be learned (MK), and Suns and Stars (NL) and various local organizations. Events like artist residencies, exhibitions, and symposia will take place in Skopje, Tallinn, and Amsterdam, and a website in the making: wedontwanttobestars.eu

PROGRAM
Friday 20 09 2024 starting at 17:00
● (17:00 – 18:30) Friday Reading Group, guided by Anastasija Pandilovska and Marjoca de Greef, focused on fragments of Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony. And fragments of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands / La Frontera : The New Mestiza: Wind tugging at my sleeve / feet sinking into the sand / I stand at the edge where earth touches ocean / where the two overlap/ a gentle coming together / at other times and places a violent dash./ (…) / 1,950 mile-long open wound / dividing a pueblo, a culture, / running down the length of my body, / staking fence rods in my flesh, / splits me splits me / me raja me raja
● (18:30 – 19:00) … as part of the Reading Group: 싱코피 Syncope (2023) a film by Sojung Jun Syncope unfolds a music-making journey involving performers who travel to distant places in search of sound and who diverge from and exist outside the realms of speed, capital, and modernity. Syncope weaves together the stories of women crossing borders and immigrating through the medium of sound. Mediated by Gamelan – the traditional ensemble music of Indonesia performed with percussion instruments – these narratives are experienced through synthetic sound and their interwovenness, and cut across the conventional modes of perception. By intersecting multiple narratives, overlapping the rapid pace of modern transportation, the fluidity of language as it crosses borders, the ecological speed of plants escaping cultivated gardens, and the speed of data, Sojung delineates a history that embraces diversity and refuses to overlook differences. In Syncope, Sojung postulates – and at the same time glimpses into – multiple futures to come.
● (19:15 – ///) Choir Rehearsal by ‘Doe Maar Niet’. ‘Doe Maar Niet’, initiated by Elke Uitentuis, is an experimental choir of migrants and non-migrants,singing politically charged songs from different language areas during their exploratory rehearsals. Theirfirst experiment is the song De Bom by the Dutch pop group ‘Doe Maar’. The choir ‘Doe Maar Niet’ invites people, who have fled places where the bombs are falling right now, to relate to this Cold War song about the threat of a speculative bomb and the love for a stranger. The choir is exploring how to learn a song in an unfamiliar language, how to employ ‘the act of translation’ while probing the boundaries of cultural appropriation. Choir members include (so far!) Mohamed, Huda, Majde, Wafa, Marc, Leyley, Mazen, Jasna, Mahmoud, Marjoca, Hamo, Aziza, Anastasija, Teferi, Elke …
● (///- 20:30) Hope for the Best – Prepare for the Worst is a performative training by Viktorija Ilioska, for imagined and imminent futures, exploring themes of co-existence and adaptability. In a collective choreography, Viktorija initiates haptic thinking through (hand)gestures, meditative exercises, and collective movement, inviting the audience to slowly engage and envision possible ways of beingtogether. Join her in transplanting futures in the garden of GROND …
● … accompanied by Things Go in Two, In Pair, a film by Viktorija Ilioska and Eléonore de Montesquiou (in the making). In Things Go in Two, In Pair, an experimental film, Eleonore and Viktorija explore the nature of connection. The film meditates on pairs, touch, movement, and the space between ‘me’ and ‘you’. As it questions why things seldom come in fives and what it means to move forward, it delves into themes of intimacy and separation. The dialogue reflects on the perpetual search for connection, often in pairs, sometimes in fours, but almost never in fives, pondering:

“We, we, things go in two, in pair.
Many things go together, many things do.
Sometimes four, or more, but almost never five.
We wonder why, why never five?”

Saturday 21 09 2024 starting at 12:00
● (12:00 – 13:30) Kinderworkshop Protest Banner Making for Children by Elke Uitentuis
● (12:00 – 13:30) Construction Workshop by Femke Ravensbergen – How To Use a Plunge Saw, a workshop for people who, as a rule, would step back if something needs to be built.
● (14:00 – 15:30) Saturday Reading group – guided by Anastasija Pandilovska and Ivana Vaseva, focused on fragments of Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, chapter “Of Opacity”. And fragments of Stefano Harney and Fred Moten’s The Undercommons : Fugitive Planning & Black
Study: A speculative practice is study in movement for me, to walk with others and to talk about ideas, but also what to eat, an old movie, a passing dog, or a new love, is also to speak in the midst of something, to interrupt the other kinds of study that might be going on, or might have just paused, that we pass through, that we may even been invited to join, this study across bodies, across space, across things, this is study as a speculative practice, when the situated practice of a seminar room or squatted space moves out to encounter study in general.
● (16:30) A group conversation with (online present) Stefano Harney – A talk about the idea of ‘study as sociality’ in relation to Édouard Glissant’s writings on ‘difference’ and ‘multiplicity’. What drew us to the idea to appraise the symposium as ‘study’ was that it enables a kind of engagement in which a process of ‘becoming-in-common’ is open to difference. And perhaps, by being together in what we do, we can learn to understand “that it is possible to be one and multiple at the same time; that you can be yourself and the Other; that you can be the Same and the Different”.[3] We are looking for alliances that ruffle the barriers of the notion of identity, counteracting the myth of cultural purity. Maybe we can become familiar with the thought that “with the Other, you can change with the Other while being yourself, you are not one, you are multiple, and you are yourself. You are not lost, because you are multiple. You are not broken apart, because you are multiple”. [2] Acknowledging the breath we draw from The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study while working on the symposium and Stefano’s long engagement with the notion of study, Suns and Stars invited him to join us in conversation that will navigate across the above mentioned points of departure. Stefano Harney is an activist, teacher, and writer who works collaboratively and collectively in the classroom, in research, and in social practice. He is a black studies scholar who has taught in the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, art criticism, American Studies, and business & management. Stefano is co-author with Fred Moten of The Undercommons: fugitive planning and black study (2013) and of All Incomplete (2021).
● (19:00) I am writing a sentence (2024), a performance by Natalia Papaeva
өө – өө – өө
Natalia Papaeva is a visual/time-based artist born and raised in Buryatia (Eastern Siberia) and based in the Netherlands. Her artistic process is set in motion by text – read or written – which then translates into movements, images, sounds. Often, her endangered birth language materializes in her practice. It brings the Buryat language from the domestic sphere into the public realm and by doing so she resists the notion of endangerment.
● (20:00) Fani Konstantinidou – Bacterial Dance – live performance
Fani Konstantinidou is a composer and performer interested in the sonic imprints of cultural, cross-cultural, and social identities. She composes music utilizing urban and rural sonic events, combined with conventional musical instruments and self-designed, digital musical environments. In the context of the symposium, Fani presents a live iteration of Bacterial Dance (2022). Animated by the worlds revealed in video-microscopy the polyphonic confluence of sonic gestures reads different bacteria movements. Simultaneously imagining the relations between organisms that fold and unfold in the multiplicity of speeds and falterings.

Sunday 22 09 2024 starting at 13:00
● (13:00 – 13:30) In the absence of the invasive: Can we finally look at the Japanese knotweed as a green future companion? Performative reading in three acts, 30 minutes by Alaa Abu Asad. From ‘The dog chased its tail to bite it off’, 2018– an ongoing research on unwanted species, mainly known as invasive species. This performative reading traces the history of the Japanese knotweed plant (Fallopia japonica), actual policies, national campaigns of combat and control, social / economic / political effects, the conflation between natural and national history, and most importantly the language (whether verbal or visual) used when talking about the plant and other invasive species. The reading also imagines alternative ways of living with these species via raising questions about mass production ethics, exploitative forms of economy, and a common future.
● (13:45) FARM UP: Fermentation as a revolutionary metaphor and uplifting praxis. A fermentation workshop by Lianne van Roekel and Mint Park. “People who Ferment Together, Stay Together!” The tactile sensations, the smells, and sounds – produced by the microorganisms’ natural tendency to forge transformation – are incentives for gentleness and slowness. In this workshop, in which we will be making Kimchi & Sauerkraut, the praxis and the metaphorical aspects of fermentation are blending smoothly. Lianne draws gratefully on the queer food activist and King of Fermentation, Sandor Katz who states that microbial structures will guide us “far from absolute boundaries and rigid categories. They force us to reconceptualize. They make us ferment.” Max 15 people!
● (16:00) Sunday Reading Group, guided by Anastasija Pandilovska and Margit Säde, focused on fragments of Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium Teachings and the Arts by Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez. And fragments of Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins:
“How does a gathering become a “happening,” that is, greater than a sum of its parts? One answer is contamination. We are contaminated by our encounters; they change who we are as we make way for others. As contamination changes world-making projects, mutual worlds—and new directions—may emerge. Everyone carries a history of contamination; purity is not an option. One value of keeping precarity in mind is that it makes us remember that changing with circumstances is the stuff of survival.” (…)
Contaminated diversity is not only particular and historical, ever changing, but also relational. It has no self-contained units; its units are encounter-based collaborations”
● Screening in the Black Box Space: 그린 스크린 (Green Screen), 2021 by Sojung Jun. In Sojung’s work Green Screen, the term ‘green screen’ connotes a two-fold meaning. It is a reference to the chroma key video technique in which the ‘green screen’ is a temporary background. Simultaneously, it is a reference to the rich green hues that fill up the screen while following the border landscape of the Demilitarized Zone of the Korean Peninsula. A zone where entry and exit of people has long been restricted. The music for this video is 북한 가야금과 하프를 위한 〈칠석〉(Seventh Night for Harp and North Korean Gayageum) composed by 김지영 (Jiyoung Kim ) en 신수정(Soo Jung Shin) for an earlier work of Sojung titled Eclipse II. Inspired by the life and music of the composer 윤이상 (Isang Yun), who likened 칠석 (Chilseok, Seventh Evening), the folktale of the separated lovers 견우와 직녀(Gyeonu en Jiknyeo, who could only meet one evening a year) to inter-Korean relations, the composition primarily focuses on two separate(d) entities and rhythms. The sound transmitted from the almost virtual and vigilantly guarded landscape brings about an affective temporality. With Green Screen, employing montage as an image poem and the deliberate introduction of deterioration (glitch) during the transmission and circulation of digital images, Sojung expands the contemplation on boundaries by forging joints and connections that reject a singular perspective.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 20 – 22 09 2024
● Play corner with puzzle (sur) le terrain by Eléonore de Montesquiou. (sur) le terrain is the result of the walks on the Marineterrein, Amsterdam, which Eléonore conducted during her residency organized by Suns and Stars in the beginning of this year. Sketching and grabbing human traces of the surfaces reflects how puzzled one can be before a collective project begins to
assemble its pieces and build an image.
● Cooking by Mohamed Alnoor Hedjaab. Mohamed has been part of the art collective ‘We Sell Reality’ for several years and he is now a member of GROND as well. For GROND, he is focusing on setting up a canteen. During the symposium, Sudanese meals will be served according to the ideas of Langar tradition. Mohamed will be the cook and guide. Langars or communal kitchens have existed since the sixteenth century. The free meals served in Sikh temples or gurdwaras for visitors regardless of background, identity, gender or income symbolize equality [4]. What sets Langar apart from food banks or soup kitchens is that the practice of giving and the practice of receiving is open to all. So anyone who wants to contribute to preparing and serving the meals as well as anyone who wants to eat is welcome. This idea of shared giving-and-receiving offers an opportunity to explore a form of ‘communal being’ that does not accept one-sided dependency (often unintentionally caused by charity), but rather provokes and acknowledges our interdependency and vulnerability. Langar nurtures and reinforces ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’.
_______________________________
1. The title of this project is borrowed from Gloria Anzaldúa’s radical and inherently gentle poem The New Speakers.
2. Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, The Undercommons : Fugitive Planning & Black Study (Wivenhoe: Minor Compositions, 2013), 110.
3. Manthia Diawara, “One World in Relation: Édouard Glissant in Conversation with Manthia Diawara.”NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, no. 28 (May 1, 2011): 7, https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-1266639.
4. We have encountered this more than 500 year old concept of Langar in the chapter “Langar” by Simar Preet Kaur in Untranslatable Terms of Cultural Practices: A Shared Vocabulary. https://www.akademie-solitude.de/de/online-publications/langar/

NL
Introductie en Programma
‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’ Symposium Amsterdam.
Georganiseerd door Suns and Stars in samenwerking met GROND

INTRODUCTIE
Het driedaagse symposium ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)'[1] zal zich richten op de
vraag: ‘Hoe creëren we een ontmoetingsplaats voor het beoefenen en aanscherpen van de kunst van het
wederkerig afhankelijk samenleven?’ Het symposium is als het ware een coöperatieve bijeenkomst waarbij het
gemeenschappelijke niet wordt gedefinieerd in termen van identiteit, maar als het werk dat leidt tot verbinding; de
alliantie tussen (lokale) gemeenschappen, menselijk en niet-menselijk, die gezamenlijk handelen, bouwen en
creëren. Als zodanig kan het symposium worden opgevat als een doorlopend experiment waarin we ons
bezighouden met een soort geïmproviseerde studie door met elkaar te praten, rond te lopen, te werken en samen
tijd door te brengen. [2] Dit alles terwijl we koken en eten. Iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het bereiden
en serveren van maaltijden en iedereen die wil eten is welkom. Het wederkerig geven en ontvangen biedt de
mogelijkheid om een vorm van ‘gemeenschappelijk zijn’ te verkennen die uitgaat van onze onderlinge
afhankelijkheid en kwetsbaarheid, en deze zichtbaar maakt en erkent.
Met bijdragen van Alaa Abu Asad, Anastasija Pandilovska, Doe Maar Niet, Eléonore de Montesquiou, Elke
Uitentuis, Fani Konstantinidou, Femke Ravensbergen, Ivana Vaseva, Lianne van Roekel, Margit Säde, Marjoca
de Greef, Mohamed Alnoor Hedjaab, Natalia Papaeva, Stefano Harney, Sojung Jun, Viktorija Ilioska, and We Sell
Reality.
Suns and Stars zijn een nomadisch kunstinitiatief. We functioneren als een platform voor relationele
kunstpraktijken en open-einde onderzoek. Voor elk nieuw traject nodigen we wisselende deelnemers uit om een
tijd, soms een aantal jaar, samen op te trekken en ideeën te verkennen. Uitgaand van het eenvoudige idee dat
kunstenaars verreikende kennis hebben van het domein waarin ze werken, bieden we kunstenaars de ruimte om
te onderzoeken, te verkennen en te ontwikkelen vanuit hun eigen praktijk. Door niet thematisch te werken en
materiële en sociale interacties en interdisciplinaire allianties te stimuleren, fungeren we als een tijdelijke
gemeenschap waarin materiaal, kunstenaars en publiek samen bepalen welke richting Suns and Stars opgaan.
Suns and Stars denken na over gemeenschap en solidariteit, niet gericht op identiteit, maar vanuit een opvatting
over gemeenschap die werkt “met gedeelde middelen en tactieken en door collectieve arbeid.” We nodigen
kunstenaars, onderzoekers, belangengroepen, curatoren en schrijvers uit die hun werk niet in een autonome
ruimte ontwikkelen, maar in samenwerking. Zo onderzoeken we de processen die werkzaam zijn binnen
artistieke praktijken, en hoe deze praktijken sociale ruimtes zijn waar alternatieve mogelijkheden en speculatieve
werelden kunnen worden gebouwd en bestaan.
In GROND hebben we een inspirerende partner gevonden. Het collectief bouwt aan een ontmoetingsplek waarbij
de leden van GROND laten zien hoe het is om volgens ‘de kunst van het wederzijds afhankelijk samenleven’ te
werken.
Het collectief GROND, gevestigd in Het Nieuwe Bajesdorp, heeft nog maar net een fantastische ruimte voor
artistieke ontmoetingen en experimenten gerealiseerd; een open ruimte om collectiviteit, duurzaamheid,
kruisbestuivingen en procesgebaseerde praktijken te versterken, bestaande uit een werkplaats, black box,
keuken, kantine en twee tuinen. De in elkaar overvloeiende gemeenschappen van Bajesdorp en GROND laten
zien dat werken en leven als een collectief een manier is om: het proces te omarmen, te geven en te nemen,
flexibel te zijn, auteurschap te delen, op een organische manier creatief te zijn, om te gaan met tegenstrijdige
belangen, genereus te zijn en los te laten. Samen streven ze ernaar om zich in een staat van leren te storten en
zo een praktijk van solidariteit na te streven. GROND is een rolmodel en een wegbereider in het ontwikkelen van
nieuwe recepten voor samenleven en samenwerken om de vervreemding, die steeds dominanter wordt in onze
samenleving, tegen te gaan. GROND geeft niet alleen ruimte aan ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of
constellations)’; leden van de GROND-gemeenschap maken ook deel uit van het programma van het symposium
met workshops, kook- en live-optredens.

PROGRAMMA
Vrijdag 20 09 2024 vanaf 17:00
● (17:00 – 18:30) De Vrijdag Reading Group, begeleid door Anastasija Pandilovska en Marjoca de
Greef. We lezen fragmenten van Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands / La Frontera : The New Mestiza.
En fragmenten van Don Mee Choi’s DMZ Colony:
Wind tugging at my sleeve / feet sinking into the sand / I stand at the edge where earth
touches ocean / where the two overlap/ a gentle coming together / at other times and places a
violent dash./ (…) / 1,950 mile-long open wound / dividing a pueblo, a culture, / running down
the length of my body, / staking fence rods in my flesh, / splits me splits me / me raja me raja
● (18:30 – 19:00) … onderdeel van de Reading Group: 싱코피 (Syncope), 2023, een film van Sojung
Jun. Syncope is een intercontinentale muzikale zoektocht met in de hoofdrollen vrouwelijke musici die langs
de invloedsferen van kapitaal, moderniteit en jachtigheid navigeren. Begeleid door de klanken van de
gayageum – een Koreaans snaarinstrument – en elektronische muziek gecombineerd met gamelan –
een Indonesisch percussie ensemble – verweeft de film de verhalen van vrouwen die op zoek gaan naar
gewichtloze en drijvende klanken, klanken uit het nu en uit een verloren paradijs. De symbiotische
soundtrack van geluiden en klanken accentueert het spanningsveld waarbinnen de vrouwen opereren.
In de voetsporen van avontuurlijke – uit tuinen en parken ontsnapte – planten, en op de golven van
grensoverschrijdende stemmen en composities, volgt Syncope langsrijdende treinen en bewegende
landschappen “in different speeds”. Sojung schetst samen met de muzikanten Soon A Park, Célia Huet
en Sowall een kluwen van geschiedenissen en “dreams of disappearing railway tracks” in een visuele
stroom van geluiden.
● (19:15 – …. ) Koorrepetitie met ‘Doe Maar Niet’
‘Doe Maar Niet’, opgericht door Elke Uitentuis, is een experimenteel koor bestaande uit migranten en
niet-migranten en zingt tijdens de (onder)zoekende repetities politieke liederen uit verschillende
taalgebieden. Hun eerste experiment is het lied De Bom van de Nederlandse popgroep ‘Doe Maar’.
‘Doe Maar Niet’ nodigt mensen uit die gevlucht zijn van daar waar de bommen op dit moment vallen, om
zich te verhouden tot dit lied uit de Koude Oorlog over de liefde voor een onbekende en de dreiging van
een speculatieve bom. Het koor onderzoekt hoe ze een lied in een onbekende taal kunnen leren, hoe ze
‘de praktijk van vertalen’ kunnen inzetten terwijl ze de grenzen van culturele toe-eigening aftasten.
Koorleden zijn voorlopig en o.a. Mohamed, Huda, Majde, Wafa, Marc, Leyley, Mazen, Jasna, Mahmoud,
Marjoca, Hamo, Aziza, Anastasija, Teferi, Elke …
● (20:30 – …. ) Hope for the Best – Prepare for the Worst by Viktorija Ilioska
Een performatieve training voor imaginaire en zich aankondigende toekomsten, waarin vormen van
co-existentie en aanpassingsvermogen worden verkend. In een collectieve choreografie traint Viktorija
het ‘tastend denken’ door middel van (hand)gebaren, meditatieve oefeningen en collectieve
bewegingen, waarbij ze het publiek uitnodigt om zich langzaam te bemoeien met de choreografie en
mogelijke manieren van samenzijn voor te stellen. Vergezel haar in het planten van toekomsten in de
tuin van GROND …
● …. begeleid door Things Go in Two, In Pair, een film van Viktorija Ilioska en Eléonore de
Montesquiou (in de maak)
In de experimentele film Things Go in Two, In Pair, onderzoeken Eleonore en Viktorija de aard van
verbinding. Hun dialoog initieert samenzijn, contact en beweging en bespeelt de ruimte tussen ‘jij’ en ‘ik’.
Terwijl zij zich afvragen of het zin heeft om door te gaan en waarom dingen zelden in vijven komen,
verdiepen ze zich in de betekenis van intimiteit en scheiding. De film reflecteert op de voortdurende
zoektocht naar verbinding, vaak met z’n tweeën, soms met z’n vieren, maar bijna nooit met z’n vijven,
peinzend:
“We, we, things go in two, in pair.
Many things go together, many things do.
Sometimes four, or more, but almost never five.
We wonder why, why never five?”

Zaterdag 20 09 2024 vanaf 12:00
● (12:00 – 13:30) Kinderworkshop protest spandoeken maken voor kinderen door Elke Uitentuis
● (12:00 – 13:30) Bouwworkshop door Femke Ravensbergen – Hoe gebruik je een invalzaag
Een workshop voor mensen die in de regel een stapje terug doen als er iets gebouwd moet worden.
● (14:00 – 15:30) De Zaterdag Reading Group, begeleid door Anastasija Pandilovska en Ivana
Vaseva. We lezen fragmenten van Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation, hoofdstuk “Of
Opacity”. En fragmenten van Stefano Harney and Fred Moten’s, The Undercommons : Fugitive
Planning & Black Study:
A speculative practice is study in movement for me, to walk with others and to talk about ideas,
but also what to eat, an old movie, a passing dog, or a new love, is also to speak in the midst of
something, to interrupt the other kinds of study that might be going on, or might have just
paused, that we pass through, that we may even been invited to join, this study across bodies,
across space, across things, this is study as a speculative practice, when the situated practice
of a seminar room or squatted space moves out to encounter study in general.
● (16:30) Groepsgesprek (online) met Stefano Harney – A talk about the idea of ‘study as sociality’
in relation to Édouard Glissant’s writings on difference and multiplicity.
Wat ons aantrok in het idee om het symposium als ‘studie’ te beschouwen, was dat het een soort van
samenzijn of samenwerken mogelijk maakt dat openstaat voor verschillen. We dachten: misschien
kunnen we, door samen te zijn in wat we doen, leren begrijpen “that it is possible to be one and multiple
at the same time; that you can be yourself and the Other; that you can be the Same and the
Different”.[3] We zijn op zoek naar allianties die de barrières rondom het concept identiteit verkennen en
de mythe van culturele zuiverheid bestrijden. Misschien kunnen we vertrouwd raken met de gedachte
dat “with the Other, you can change with the Other while being yourself, you are not one, you are
multiple, and you are yourself. You are not lost, because you are multiple. You are not broken apart,
because you are multiple”.[3]
De ademruimte, ons gegeven door The Undercommons tijdens het werken aan het symposium en
Stefano’s lange ervaring met ‘studie’, waren de beweegredenen voor Suns and Stars om hem uit te
nodigen. We zijn dankbaar dat hij met ons en ons publiek in gesprek gaat over ‘studie als sociale ruimte’
in relatie tot Édouard Glissant’s schrijven en denken over de beweeglijke begrippen ‘difference’ en
‘multiplicity’’.
Stefano Harney is een activist, docent en schrijver die samenwerkt, of anders gezegd, collectief werkt in
de klas, in onderzoek en in de sociale praktijk. Hij is een Black Studies scholar en heeft lesgegeven in
de disciplines Antropologie, Sociologie, Kunstkritiek, American Studies en Bedrijfskunde. Stefano is
samen met Fred Moten co-auteur van The Undercommons: fugitive planning and black study (2013) en
van All Incomplete (2021).
● (19:00) I am writing a sentence, performance door Natalia Papaeva (in de maak)
өө – өө – өө
Natalia Papaeva is geboren en getogen in Boerjatië, Oost-Siberië en sinds 2013 gevestigd in Nederland.
Haar artistieke proces wordt doorgaans in gang gezet door (zelf geschreven) teksten, die zich soms
vertalen in bewegingen, beelden en geluiden. Het Boerjatisch буряад хэлэн – opgenomen in UNESCO
wereldatlas van bedreigde talen – is vaak terug te vinden in haar tekeningen, video’s en performances.
Hiermee brengt Natalia haar geboortetaal van de huiselijke sfeer naar de publieke sfeer en verzet ze
zich tegen de notie van bedreiging en verlies van identiteit.
● (20:00) Bacterial Dance door Fani Konstantinidou
Fani Konstantinidou is een componist en performer die geïnteresseerd is in de akoestische imprints van
culturele, interculturele en sociale identiteiten. Ze componeert met stedelijke en rurale geluiden en
klanken voortgebracht door conventionele muziekinstrumenten in zelf ontworpen digitale omgevingen. In
het kader van het symposium presenteert Fani een live versie van Bacterial Dance (2022) ondersteund
door microscopische beelden van werelden vol dansende bacteriën. Bacterial Dance belichaamt de
onstuimige gebaren, vaak resulterend in meerstemmige versmeltingen en intense relaties tussen
organismen die zich vormen en ontplooien in verschillende tempo’s en interrupties.

Zondag 22 09 2024 vanaf 13:00
● (13:00 – 13:30) In the absence of the invasive: Can we finally look at the Japanese knotweed as a
green future companion? Performatieve lezing in drie bedrijven van 30 minuten door Alaa Abu
Asad. Onderdeel van het langlopende onderzoek ‘The dog chased its tail to bite it off’, (2018 – ….)
naar ongewenste soorten, voornamelijk bekend als invasieve soorten.
Deze performatieve lezing bespreekt de geschiedenis van de Japanse duizendknoop (Fallopia
japonica), het actuele beleid rondom de plant, de nationale campagnes voor bestrijding en beheersing,
de sociale / economische / politieke effecten daarvan, de vervlechting van natuurlijke en nationale
geschiedenissen, en vooral de taal (zowel verbaal als visueel), die wordt gebruikt wanneer er over de
plant en andere invasieve soorten wordt gesproken. De lezing stelt ook alternatieve manieren voor om
met deze soorten te leven door vragen op te werpen over de ethiek van massaproductie en uitbuitende
vormen van economie en over een mogelijke gemeenschappelijke toekomst.
● (13:45) FARM UP: Fermentatie als revolutionaire metafoor en verheffende praktijk door Lianne
van Roekel en Mint Park. “People who Ferment Together, Stay Together!”
De sensaties, geuren en geluiden geproduceerd door micro-organismen – als zij zich overgeven aan
hun natuurlijke neiging om vaak en veel te transformeren – zetten aan tot zachtheid en traagheid. In
deze workshop, waarin we samen kimbi & zuurkool maken lopen de praktische en de metaforische aspecten van fermentatie soepel in elkaar over.
Lianne put dankbaar uit de kennis van de queer voedselactivist en ‘King of Fermentation’, Sandor Katz,
die stelt dat micro-organismen geen rigide grenzen en categorieën kennen: “They force us to
reconceptualize. They make us ferment.”
● (16:00) De Zondag Reading Group begeleid door Anastasija Pandilovska en Margit Säde,
We lezen fragmenten van Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez’ Let’s Become Fungal! Mycelium
Teachings and the Arts. En fragmenten van Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End
of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins:
How does a gathering become a “happening,” that is, greater than a sum of its parts? One
answer is contamination. We are contaminated by our encounters; they change who we are as
we make way for others. As contamination changes world-making projects, mutual worlds—and
new directions—may emerge. Everyone carries a history of contamination; purity is not an
option. One value of keeping precarity in mind is that it makes us remember that changing with
circumstances is the stuff of survival.” (…)
Contaminated diversity is not only particular and historical, ever changing, but also relational. It
has no self-contained units; its units are encounter-based collaborations.
● De hele dag in de Black Box van GROND: 그린 스크린 (Green Screen), 2021, een video installatie
van 전소정 (Sojung Jun)
In de film 그린 스크린 verwijst ‘green screen’ naar de chroma key video techniek – waarbij het groene
scherm een tijdelijke achtergrond is die later kan worden ingevuld – en naar de rijke groene tinten die
het scherm vullen, terwijl de grens tussen Noord en Zuid Korea – de Gedemilitariseerde Zone – wordt
gevolgd. De Gedemilitariseerde Zone is een landschap waar de aanwezigheid van mensen sinds lange
tijd aan strenge banden is gelegd. De muziek voor deze video is 북한 가야금과 하프를 위한 〈칠석〉
(Zevende Nacht voor Harp en Noord-Koreaanse Gayageum) gecomponeerd door 김지영 (Jiyoung Kim )
en 신수정 (Soo Jung Shin) voor een eerder werk van Sojung getiteld Eclipse II. Geïnspireerd door het
leven en de muziek van de componist 윤이상 (Isang Yun), die in zijn werk de relatie tussen de twee
Korea’s linkt aan het volksverhaal 칠석 (Chilseok) over de gescheiden geliefden 견우와 직녀 (Gyeonu en
Jiknyeo, die elkaar slechts een avond per jaar mogen ontmoeten), ontwikkelt deze compositie zich
voornamelijk rondom gescheiden entiteiten en ritmes. De muziek, die lijkt op te stijgen vanuit het
zwaarbewaakte en deels virtuele landschap, maakt het vluchtige moment van samenzijn tastbaar.
Green Screen is gemonteerd als een beeldgedicht, met gebruik van de verstoringen (glitches) die
optreden tijdens de transmissie van digitale beelden. Sojung verrijkt het denken over de betekenis van
grenzen door verbindingen en connecties te smeden die een enkelvoudig perspectief vrijwel onmogelijk
maken.

Vrijdag, Zaterdag en Zondag, 20 – 22 09 2024
● Speelhoek met puzzel (sur) le terrain van Eléonore de Montesquiou
(sur) le terrain is het resultaat van de wandelingen op het Marineterrein, Amsterdam, die Eléonore begin
dit jaar maakte tijdens haar residentie, georganiseerd door Suns and Stars. Het willekeurig schetsen en
verzamelen van menselijke sporen op het terrein weerspiegelt de verwarring en onzekerheid die de start
van een collectief project omringt. (sur) le terrain vangt het moment vlak voor er – uit het samenvoegen
van de delen – een beeld ontstaat.
● Mohamed Alnoor Hedjaab kookt
Mohamed maakt al enkele jaren deel uit van het kunstcollectief We Sell Reality en is nu ook lid van
GROND. Voor GROND werkt Mohamed aan het opzetten van een kantine. Tijdens het symposium
begeleidt hij het koken, serveren en afruimen van de maaltijden naar Soedanees recept, volgens de
ideeën van de Langar-traditie [4]. Langars of gemeenschappelijke keukens bestaan al sinds de
zestiende eeuw. De gratis maaltijden die in Sikh-tempels of gurdwaras worden opgediend voor
bezoekers ongeacht hun achtergrond, identiteit, gender of inkomen, staan symbool voor gelijkheid. Wat
Langar onderscheidt van voedselbanken of gaarkeukens is dat de praktijk van geven en ontvangen voor
iedereen toegankelijk is. Dus zowel iedereen die een bijdrage wil leveren aan het bereiden en serveren
van de maaltijden als iedereen die wil eten is welkom. Dit idee van gezamenlijk geven en ontvangen
biedt de mogelijkheid om een vorm van ‘gemeenschappelijk zijn’ te verkennen die niet uitgaat van
eenzijdige afhankelijkheid (vaak onbedoeld veroorzaakt door liefdadigheid), maar die uitgaat van onze
onderlinge afhankelijkheid en kwetsbaarheid, en deze zichtbaar maakt en erkent. Langar voedt en
versterkt ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’.
Het symposium ‘We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)’ is onderdeel van een langlopend project
dat lokale en artistieke gemeenschappen en hun methoden en praktijken in Estland, Noord-Macedonië en
Nederland onderzoekt. Het project is een samenwerking tussen Eesti Kaasaegse Kunsti Muuseum (EE), Faculty
of things that can’t be learned (MK), en Suns and Stars (NL) en heel veel lokale organisaties.. Events zoals artist
residencies, tentoonstellingen en symposia zullen plaatsvinden in Skopje, Tallinn en Amsterdam en een website
in de maak: wedontwanttobestars.eu

1. De titel van het project is geleend van Gloria Anzaldúa’s radicale en tedere gedicht The New Speakers.
2. De ideeën over deze vorm van ‘studie” vinden hun oorsprong in het boek The Undercommons : Fugitive
Planning & Black Study van Stefano Harney and Fred Moten.
3. Manthia Diawara, “One World in Relation: Édouard Glissant in Conversation with Manthia Diawara.”
NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, no. 28 (May 1, 2011): 7,
https://doi.org/10.1215/10757163-1266639.
4. We leerden van het bestaan van dit meer dan vijfhonderd jaar oude concept Langar in het hoofdstuk
“Langar” geschreven door Simar Preet Kaur in het boek Untranslatable Terms of Cultural Practices: A
Shared Vocabulary. https://www.akademie-solitude.de/de/online-publications/langar/

Concert: Monoták & friends
2024-09-12 20:00 - 22:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Electronic music / Improvisation / Spoken word / Video
w/ Monoták, Dirk Bruinsma, Nout Ingen Hous, Allan Segall, Nico Wandel, Jasna Veličković, Hessel Veldman, Marianna Maruyama
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: regular €10 or more, discount €6
Composers collective Monoták hosts an evening with special guests and friends.

Jasna Veličković, Hessel Veldman, and Marianna Maruyama will present a absurd and unhinged improvisation.
The same evening, the composer Allan Segall will premiere a new work with a film by artist Nico Wandel, and we will experience a reincarnation of Dik Bruinsma’s project PumpOrgan. PumpOrgan plays a contemporary hybrid of rhythm and blues, early rock ‘n roll and swing. A kind of hybrid pulse-based music with an avant-garde architecture.

* Monoták is a collective of composers, performers and artists taking matters in their own hands. We compose, perform as an ensemble, and organise concerts, events and festivals.

SPORT & SPEL CLUB BALREEP
2024-09-11 17:00 - 23:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Board games / Sports / Food
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
Every Wednesday, 17:00–23:00
Admission: free
Fancy a game of table tennis? Conquer the world in a game of Risk? Or simply enjoy a thrilling football match on the big screen? It’s all possible and more! Starting September 11th, Grond will be the epicenter for sports and games every Wednesday, a new clubhouse for young and old.
Enjoy a drink and a healthy meal while playing your favorite game with friends, discussing the last training session with your teammates, or competing against others for the ping pong monthly cup and eternal fame.
Our activities include (but not limited to) board games, table tennis, streetball, live sports on the big screen, monthly cup competitions, food and drinks.

For more info and weekly updates follow us on Instagram

Open Day: GROND - 24 hours Oost
2024-09-07 14:00 - 20:00 (Europe/London)
Come meet GROND during our open day on September 7, 2024!
GROND is a breeding place in the new Bajesdorp building in Amsterdam East, with a black box theater, studios, a canteen and gardens. GROND is a collective of artists, composers, chefs and other creative minds. The cross-pollinations between the gardens, art, technology, performance and music will be shaped into concerts, performances, workshops, movie nights and various other cultural activities starting in September 2024.
Starting in 2003, Bajesdorp was a series of squatted houses. Squatters worked and lived there for years in the vacant houses originally intended for the prison guards of the Bijlmer Bajes. These have since been demolished and a new neighborhood is taking their place: “The Bajeskwartier. Here, Bajesdorp rises from its ashes with a new place for experimentation and solidarity, run by the collective GROND.
GROND is located in the Bajesdorp building, a 10-minute walk from subway station Spaklerweg. Bajesdorp is a wooden building behind Hotel Jansen, unfortunately not visible from Wenckenbachweg.
Including:

tour of the building and garden
kids workshop
music by DJ Quartier Mustache
our kitchen is open for drinks and food!

Kom kennismaken met GROND tijdens onze open dag op 7 september 2024!
GROND is een broedplaats in het nieuwe Bajesdorp gebouw in Amsterdam Oost, met een black box theater, studio’s, een kantine en tuinen. GROND is een collectief van kunstenaars, componisten, chefs en andere creatieve geesten. De kruisbestuivingen tussen de tuinen, kunst, technologie, performance en muziek worden vanaf september 2024 vormgegeven in concerten, optredens, workshops, filmavonden en diverse andere culturele activiteiten.
Bajesdorp was vanaf 2003 een serie van kraakwoningen. Krakers werkten en woonden daar jarenlang in de leegstaande huizen die oorspronkelijk bedoeld waren voor de gevangenisbewakers van de Bijlmer Bajes. Deze zijn inmiddels afgebroken en er komt nu een nieuwe wijk voor in de plaats: ‘Het Bajeskwartier’. Bajesdorp herrijst hier uit haar as met een nieuwe plek voor experiment en solidariteit, die gerund wordt door het collectief Grond.
GROND is gevestigd in het Bajesdorp gebouw, 10 minuten lopen vanaf metrohalte Spaklerweg. Bajesdorp is een houten gebouw achter Hotel Jansen, helaas niet zichtbaar vanaf de Wenckenbachweg.
Met o.a.

rondleiding door het gebouw en de tuin
kids workshop
muziek van DJ Quartier Mustache
Onze keuken die open is voor drankjes en een maaltijd

Concert: M. Koutsomichalis, F. Konstantinidou
2024-09-05 20:00 - 22:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Electronic music / Noise / Improvisation
w/ Marinos Koutsomichalis, Fani Konstantinidou
GROND Bijdorpstraat 1, 1096AP, Amsterdam
20:00 (doors: 19:30)
Tickets: regular €10 or more, discount €6

GROND opens its doors for an electronic-improvisation music concert. Marinos Koutsomichalis (GR/CY) will open the evening with a solo post-human radio performance utilizing his DIY instruments. In the second half of the evening, the GROND member Fani Konstantinidou will join him for a duo live electronics improvisation set.
Marinos Koutsomichalis is an artist, scholar, and creative technologist based in Greece and Cyprus. He is broadly interested in the materiality of self-generative systems, (post)digital objecthood, sound, image, data, electronic circuitry, perception, selfhood, landscapes/environments, and the media—technologies we rely upon to mediate, probe, interact with.
Post-human radio is an open-ended laboratory vis á vis radiofrequencies and radio related technologies. It manifests in a number of different fashions; most notably as an audio-based improvised performance piece, but also with a series of bespoke instruments, micro-compositions, a diary of SWLing (shortwave listening) and QSOs (amateur radio contacts), field radio-walks, and other.

Fani Konstantinidou is a composer and performer interested in the sonic imprints of cultural, cross-cultural, and social identities. Her musical ideas are expressed in various formats such as site-specific and multichannel compositions, improvisation, and through collaborative projects with artists of various disciplines. Within this context, she performs live-electronics and composes music for solo instruments and small ensembles.
