We are happy to unveil “exercise in mediumship #3: genealogy of refusal” by Adele Dipasquale, the fourth chapter in our new series of Open Letters!

The Open Letters project invites The Hague artists to occupy our large storefront window with messages of urgency and vulnerability.

“exercise in mediumship #3: genealogy of refusal” consists of the reproduction of a ‘ouija board’—the object used to communicate with spirits during seance—where all the letters have been crossed and the only possible remaining reply is ‘no’. Eventually, inside the board there are some of the answers given by Joan of Arc during the trial in 1431 when asked about the nature of her ‘voices’. When forced to speak with the binary language of the patriarchal inquisition, Joan of Arc refuses its grammar. The work engages with forms of defiant silence and refusal and is inscribed in an ongoing exploration of practises of mediumship in a (his)story of silenced women. The project reflects on using one’s own body (or one’s own body of work) as a physical vehicle for someone else’s voice. What does it mean to be a channel for somebody else’s voice? To literally embody someone else’s voice as during seance? Then, are feminist practices forms of mediumship practices?

Adele Dipasquale (IT, 1994) is a visual artist based in The Hague. Working across various mediums as moving images, analog film, voice experimentations and writing, their work explores the politics of language and the relationship between magic and words. Their latest research is investigating forms of silence, acts of defiant mutism and practices of mediumship in feminist genealogies. They currently are artist in residency at Cripta747 (Turin, IT) where they are working on a film on how to lose your voice with a group of young children.

“exercise in mediumship #3: genealogy of refusal” is on view in our front window for the duration of a month, and is freely accessible from the street at any time. 

Image credit: Spirits talks n.1 (video still), 2022, by Adele Dipasquale.

Page Not Found presents “Cultural Remittance Pawnshoppe”, a cycle of events curated by Clara Balaguer and Meenakshi Thirukode (Instituting Otherwise). The second episode of the cycle welcomes artists Ming Lin and Renan Laru-an for an online gathering.

(^-)≡☆ SYNOPSIS (^-)≡☆

Artist, publisher, curator, and researcher Ming Lin (aka Canal Street Research/Shanzhai Lyric) presents her work through the archetype of The Hamlet, upending notions of authorship, borders, and property as constructed categories, not only from the lens of Shakespeare’s legendary play—a script that may have been bootlegged by an “author” who may not even have existed at all. Curator Renan Laru-an presents his work through the archetype of The Exhibition, thinking through what exhibitions could be without art history, without artists and curators, as artistic experiments or curatorial correctives, as transmissions of heritage outside of the exhibitionary complex, as miracles.

(つ≧▽≦)つ ABOUT THE PAWNSHOPPE (つ≧▽≦)つ

To Be Determined (Primary Cell: Meenakshi Thirukode and Clara Balaguer) build a series of long distance remittance sessions at Page Not Found, featuring people who are intimate with migratory realities as a lifestyle that begets archetypes for a practice. Whether by fleeing further South, draining towards the North, or exiting contested “centers” and “canons,” their work explores what exists on the margins, not because it lacks value but because it has been grossly misclassified—by empire, patriarchy, casteism, or any other intersectional oppressions—as unremarkable.

Balaguer and Thirukode have proposed a series of conversational alchemies between India and the Philippines. They ask each guest pairing to present their work in light of an archetype they are practicing, researching, or becoming. A publication will be printed and pawned at the close of these conversations.

(^_<)～☆ GRATITUDE (^_<)～☆

Cultural Remittance Pawnshoppe is made possible by a generous institutional consortium between Page Not Found, the Collecting Otherwise research group at Het Nieuwe Instituut and PrintRoom.

┬┴┬┴┤·ω·)ﾉ BIO’S ┬┴┬┴┤·ω·)ﾉ

Renan Laru-an is a researcher and curator working from the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. He is the Public Engagement and Artistic Formation Coordinator at the Philippine Contemporary Art Network (PCAN). He studies ‘insufficient’ and ‘subtracted’ images and subjects at the juncture of development and integration through long-term projects, such as Promising Arrivals, Violent Departures, Lightning Studies: Centre for the Translation of Constraints, Conflicts and Contaminations (CTCCCs) (2016); among others. Laru-an (co-)curated the 6th Singapore Biennale: Every Step in the Right Direction, Singapore (2019); Motions of this Kind, SOAS, London (2019); A Tripoli Agreement, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2018); the 8th OK. Video – Indonesia Media Arts Festival, Jakarta (2017) with ruangrupa; among others.

Ming Lin uses both Canal Street Research Association and Shanzhai Lyric as her professional aliases. Canal Street Research Association is a temporary center of operations for itinerant research unit Shanzhai Lyric. Bringing their roving investigation of bootleg goods to the epicenter of counterfeit culture in New York City, Shanzhai Lyric repurposes 327 Canal Street, a branch of Wallplay’s On Canal, as space for gathering ephemeral histories, mapping the major thoroughfare’s lore, past and present, and tracing the flows and fissures of global capital. The project is the first phase of a larger body of work examining counterfeit culture in relation to contemporary notions of property. 

Meenakshi Thirukode is a writer, researcher, educator and feminist killjoy based in NewDelhi, India. Her areas of research include the role of culture, collectivity and micro-politics from the POV of a queer femme subjectivity, located within the realm of a trans-nomadic, transient network of individuals and institutions. She runs ‘School of IO’, which is a space of unlearning, dedicated to navigating ‘study’, as a radical tool of political agency.

Clara Balaguer is a cultural worker and grey literature circulator. Frequently, she operates under collective or individual aliases that disclose her stewardship in any given project, the latest of which is To Be Determined.

To Be Determined is a loosely organized structure for leaking access to cultural capital, recently migrated to Rotterdam from Parañaque City. TBD is a network of sleeper cells curious about models of non-extractive research, diasporic remittance flows, rehabilitating the body public/published body, mutual industry, and secretarial agency.

ε=ε=┌(;￣▽￣)┘PRACTICAL ε=ε=┌(;￣▽￣)┘

This event takes place online. Join the livestream here.

Starts at 15:00 The Hague time, 9:00 New York time, 21:00 Manila time.

Image credit: Window view of the temporary space of Canal Street Research Association on 327 Canal Street, New York City, November 4th – December 31st, 2020 

Please join us on October 8 — for the Iran Solidarity Gathering, held at Page Not Found! The program for the evening, includes talks and screenings of works by Iranian artists, including:

1. – A short film “Sediment”, with introduction by the artists Vida Kasaei and Amir Komelizadeh (VidAmir).
2. – A talk about the current situation in Iran, as well as how non-Iranians can help.
3. – Presentation of Newsha Tavakolian‘s audio-visual collection “Listen”.
4. – A collection of artistic content produced in this short urgent time by Iranians inside and outside Iran.

We kindly thank Fatemeh Asgharzadeh for helping to organise this event as well as all the contributors! This event is taking place during the Museumnacht in The Hague! We are looking forward and hope to see you there!

Starts at 19:00.

Image Credit: Still from “Sediment” (2019) by VidAmir