#35: The artist fee should be good.|#94: No objections? Just do it.|#34: We pay artists.|#60: Look after all tools. The moment it looks like things are missing it means that things are missing.|#112: Spaces today don’t need to be curated, but occupied.|#28: Make Contracts.|#82: Clean and sterile looks professional, but really boring.|#91: Embrace doubt.|#90: The best systems have a failure or ‘a hole’ in them…|#20: Are exhibitions the most suitable form for the art that we present?|#2: Bring something new to the city of Ghent.|#21: Live with the exhibition, spend time with it.|#141: Start a Publication Studio at Kunsthal Gent in the nearby future.|#81: Things come alive when there is friction.|#23: That’s a very interesting piece, but how would it behave in a pizza joint?|#68: Once in a while we need to get out of utopia and get something done.|#111: Do it together.|#59: Always protect the floor when painting (or pouring concrete)|#40: Follow the artist|#39: Be the early stepping stone in an artist’s career|#47: Artists need to be supported more than ever in the development of their practice due to the gaps that have been created in the field of fine art|#124: Do less, do it better.|#19: Have fun at the exhibition.|#4: Pay what you can.|#119: Be a space of production.|#35: The artist fee should be good.|#94: No objections? Just do it.|#34: We pay artists.|#60: Look after all tools. The moment it looks like things are missing it means that things are missing.|#112: Spaces today don’t need to be curated, but occupied.|#28: Make Contracts.|#82: Clean and sterile looks professional, but really boring.|#91: Embrace doubt.|#90: The best systems have a failure or ‘a hole’ in them…|#20: Are exhibitions the most suitable form for the art that we present?|#2: Bring something new to the city of Ghent.|#21: Live with the exhibition, spend time with it.|#141: Start a Publication Studio at Kunsthal Gent in the nearby future.|#81: Things come alive when there is friction.|#23: That’s a very interesting piece, but how would it behave in a pizza joint?|#68: Once in a while we need to get out of utopia and get something done.|#111: Do it together.|#59: Always protect the floor when painting (or pouring concrete)|#40: Follow the artist|#39: Be the early stepping stone in an artist’s career|#47: Artists need to be supported more than ever in the development of their practice due to the gaps that have been created in the field of fine art|#124: Do less, do it better.|#19: Have fun at the exhibition.|#4: Pay what you can.|#119: Be a space of production.|
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Elien Ronse - "Oh i love you elien" (on friendship)

Elien Ronse (Ghent/Brussels) works in Kunsthal Gent's Development Programme in August, November and December 2021.

"Oh i love you elien" (on friendship)

In and around Kunsthal several actions will take place to celebrate and question friendship. Together with new and 'old' friends, I visualise the complexity of friendship relationships and the political impact that can exist in those intimate relationships.

Throughout life the expectations and habits within friendships shift. As a child and teenager, friendships are often a central element (in positive and less fun ways) . It's quite normal to sleep-over at a friend's home, to pass on a ‘buddy book’, to declare each other ‘best’ friends. In adult life these signifiers disappear, friendships seem less important and are replaced by romantic relations and nuclear families. In our late-capitalist society, romantic relations are celebrated on Valentines Day, wedding anniversaries and more, but rarely we do the same for friend-relations.

To me, friendships are often changing and complex relations where mental, financial and other care takes place. They are a great model for how we as society might expand concepts of intimacy and care, where we can understand how to live and work together, how to unlearn the internalised idea of individuality and how to recognise interdependence. Friend relations don’t come with social scripts, they have less patterns and ceremonies, they can progress in many ways. For this reason they are important examples to counter imaginations around the nuclear family, favoured and encouraged by neoliberal politics. We can act towards change together with friends, it is a site where in unorganised togetherness we find strength to bear and resist capitalist normative logics.


(from correspondences)


Unfortunately I forgot my dream but you appeared in it

Okeeee, that's enough, thank you, haha

Oewist lienie?

You the best 2.0

Oh i love you elien

Me too, love! Super fun

You bring unexpected visitors, thank you!

With or without energy, welcome

I put a key in the closet, if I go to sleep, you can always come in.

Not good without ronsiewonsie

Look girlfriend!

Oh great, catching up with you is always so nice

It's not urgent and it's never a bad thing not to pick up.

Would you like to brush my hair?

We need to talk some more

For tonight, half a pizza if you feel like it?

I have to ask x times but I'll call you later

Also çava, nothing special to report

but we will find some time for L and E

hope you find that ok dear friend

I eat when you come (if you come)

super yes our favourite "we'll see"

no problem sweetie

I will try again to pass a short hello

you are so cute

fragile party

tearoom

wiii love you 2

you've called early bird, everything okay?

No problem darling enjoy what was fun if you can

you are f a n t a s t i c

yes please, we take it easy

My favourite longest friend ever

I think of you

lots of love from here


ELIEN RONSE

I am a white Belgian hetero female highly educated visual artist relating in non-monogamous ways and financially living under the poverty line (in Belgium). I engage in projects where different fields merge such as contemporary art, community work, political activism, theoretical research,… I am often traveling for work and until now I was supported by residencies such as Das Weisse Haus (Vienna), Pier-2 Artcenter (Kaohsiung), Digital Art Studios (Belfast), Zarya (Vladivostok), YARAT (Baku, postponed),… I participated in events and exhibitions in Silent Green (Berlin), Pleasure Zone (Basel), Hotwheels (Athens), Barimart (Gwangju)… Next to that I am/was engaged in collaborative practices such as Manoeuvre, Cultureel Centrum Truck Stop, De Koer, Other Women’s Flowers, Para-instituut voor KUNST en precariteit (Gent),… I recognise all of them as a stage (to some degree) for my visual work. I'm holding an MA in Arts received in Dutch Art Institute, a degree in Social Work and I recently graduated from the Advanced Master program in Sint Lucas Antwerp.

Photograph: Simon Baetens

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