metropolis m

Temporary Autonomous Research

Falke Pisano
Henk Slager
Ilse van Rijn
Jeremiah Day
Jeremiah Day
Nicoline van Harskamp
Oliver Marchart

This year, the Shanghai Biennale will experiment with a completely novel form of presentation: city pavilions. This new curatorial strategy is part of the Shanghai Biennale’s ambition to present itself as the Biennale of the 21st century and to finish with the 20th century paradigm as defined by the Venice Biennale. In the first novel edition of the Shanghai Biennale, thirty cities will participate. Among them are: Berlin, San Francisco, Habana, Istanbul, Taipei, and Amsterdam. The first Amsterdam Pavilion is curated by Henk Slager. As point of departure, he selected a connotation that has always been characteristic for Amsterdam: the city of Amsterdam as refuge for thought and experiment. Three artists participated in the Amsterdam Pavilion: Falke Pisano, Jeremiah Day, and Nicoline van Harskamp.

In the publication Temporary Autonomous Research three artists’ texts will particularly stipulate the position of the works presented in the Amsterdam Pavilion. Nicolien van Harskamp introduces the part of the script of Yours in Solidarity where the characters discuss the topicality of Hakim Bey’s concept TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone). Van Harskamp also connects thinking about TAZ with the topical discussion on artistic research. Falke Pisano, however, approaches her research project from a more methodological perspective. In her text, she explores a possible relation between production, transparency, responsibility, and research. Jeremiah Day, presents his contribution as a subtext: an investigation into fabricated narratives, ‘testi-lies’, that are part of the systematic corruption of the LA justice system.

In addition, two essays will contextualize the themes in a broader perspective. Ilse van Rijn focuses on the paradoxical, ambiguous character typical for the relationship between artist’s text and artistic practice, inferring the role such texts seem to play in the current debate on artistic research. Oliver Marchart discusses the interaction between artistic research, autonomy, and heteronomy, and its meaning for how the current art practice points to a society dominated by knowledge production in, for example, the form of ‘action research’.


Temporary Autonomous Research. Amsterdam Pavilion, 9th Shanghai Biennale, 2012. Editor Henk Slager. Texts by Falke Pisano, Henk Slager, Ilse van Rijn, Jeremiah Day, Jeremiah Day, Nicoline van Harskamp, Oliver Marchart.
Published by Metropolis M Books, Utrecht, 2012

The book will be presented on September 29 in Shanghai and published in The Netherlands on October 9, as free supplement to Metropolis M No 5-2012. It is also available for €7 in the webshop of Metropolis M.

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