The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund: November exhibitions 2021 at Casco Art Institute, Working for the Commons and Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art Further exhibitions to open in December 2021 and later in 2022. Family Connection: Den tur circumstancia nos lo sigi move (Under all circumstances we will continue to move), 6 November 2021 - 20 January 2022 Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht https://casco.art/ Family Connection presents a group exhibition consisting of vibrant, mixed - media artworks which use as a point of departure a 1983 video report of the Antilliaanse Carnival in Utrecht, made by then art student Rudsel Martinus. Seated, Martinus speaks directly into the camera, stressing the importance of keeping th e Caribbean communal memory of Carnival alive. He speaks in Papiamentu – the Spanish and Portuguese - based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean – referencing a deep connection to traditions of marronage (the process of extricating oneself from slav ery) and refusal. Now an artist and a member of the Family Connection collective, Martinus shared this material with his nephew Quinsy Gario in 2019, and this exhibition, titled after the epilogue to the recording, is the collective’s response. After stu dying the video report and its historical position, as well as the broader development of Carnival in the Caribbean, Family Connection presents a collection of artworks that speak of generational solidarity and revolutionary actions. In the unearthing of s tories that have long been dormant, the members look at the Black Caribbean craftsmanship involved in producing Carnival costumes, the choreography of the masses in public space, the genealogies of the soundscapes that inspire movement, and the historical poetics that came to the fore while organising the Carnival in Utrecht. Family Connection is an artist collective based in both Curaçao and The Netherlands. Formed through kinship and beyond, it includes Quinsy Gario, who studied in Utrecht and has been a ctive both in the fields of art and politics. This family of artists brings together vibrant, mixed - media artworks (in this instance, by Rudsel Martinus, Glenda Martinus, Gala Martinus, Quinsy Gario, Jörgen Gario, Caldron Lewis and Whitney Lewis), enacting Carnival and offering the possibility to experience and examine together its legacy as a signature of Afro - Curaçao identity and collectivity in the Netherlands. Family Connection was started by sisters Glenda and Gala Martinus in 2005 and continues to inv olve different members of the family. Ola Hassanain: Workable Geographies, 6 November 2021 - 20 January 2022 Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht https://casco.art/ Ola Hassanain ’s Workable Geographies is an ongoing artistic research project that focuses on the relationship to land in Khartoum (the capital city of Sudan) and elsewhere. Hassanain visualises data and conversations through maps and architectural forms in an effort to capture the dynamic complexity of the built environment as an extension of human ecology. Her work focuses on how we can summon subjectivities to exist together outside of state forces that cause displacement, and w hich regulate and hold the coding for the reality of lived life. In this project, sensing what we cannot confirm is tangible and a way of perceiving that might allow us to imagine futures that are lived differently. Hassanain proposes that we read across m aterial collected about the ground we stand on, enclosures we inhabit, and specifically, what that could say about urbanity under the political climate in Khartoum. Hassanain and her interdisciplinary collaborators and partners gather information and mate rial through the use of the design methodology of “charreting” for their collective work in order to generate visions for the future. Charreting is an intense period of design or planning together using semantic analysis and brainstorming techniques. Hassa nain’s Workable Geographies coalesces with Casco’s recurring inquiry into property relations and private/public dynamics, proposing an imagination and sense of the commons and commoning practice. Ola Hassanain has been based in Utrecht since she left Sud an, her home country, to pursue her graduate studies. Even with geographic distance, Hassanain has been keenly observing and engaging with the ongoing social and political shifts in Sudan, situating her observation in other political contexts and exchangin g them with other artists and other critical practitioners in the Netherlands as well as internationally. With her background in architecture, Hassanain takes spatial analysis as the basic framework for her work to eventually unfold in sculptural installat ions, performances and video essays. Workable Geographies is part of her long - term project which explores the complex and dynamic relationships to land in the urban centre of Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, during a time of social and political transi tion. It shows a global pattern of the ongoing privatisation of land and alienation of human relationships through the property regime. For the works in the exhibition, she collaborated closely with Khartoum - based research studio Studio Urban, among others , to gather data and information from governmental agencies. Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide): The Mother Mountain Institute, 6 November 2021 - 20 January 2022 Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht https://casco.art/ Sara Sejin Chang 's (Sara van der Heide) The Mother Mountain Institute is an ongoing artwork and artistic research project that collects testimonies from mothers who have lost a ch ild to transnational and transracial adoption. These testimonies have been processed by the artist into a sound piece. The Mother Mountain Institute shares the stories of two mothers from South Korea and Bangladesh whose children were stolen and trafficke d for transnational and transracial adoption. The centrepiece of the installation is a mountain, whose presence evokes a spiritual entity, a patient shelter, and a companion for meditative walks who might provide answers to impossible questions transcendin g reason or logic. Inside this space representing the universe, a woman's voice narrates the story of a mother and in alternation the mountain speaks. As an ongoing project, The Mother Mountain Institute mobilises us to intervene in the current transnation al adoption system that embodies colonial order and capitalist logic, and ultimately imagine what an institution could be like if it were based on motherhood and the mountain, as a resource of consolation and wisdom. The installation is accompanied by twen ty drawings of mountains made from 2015 to now, undertaken at mountains known for their spiritual qualities. Since the late 1990s, Korean - Dutch artist Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide) (b.1977 in Busan, South Korea) has created a rich body of work that traverses an array of formats and mediums, including film, writing, immersive installations, performances, and painting. Chang combines spiritual evocations, historical research and the unraveling of colonial narratives creating works that act as hist orical repair, healing and belonging. With repetition and insistence, Chang has been questioning Eurocentric systems of categorisation andracialisation, and their penetration into all levels of life and contemporary Western society. Her work can be seen as poetic and intimate gestures that centralise a meta - cosmic and inclusive approach to modernity, transforming the meaning of value and time. Mariëlle Videler’s 365 PLANTS [at the depot of Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills], 6 November 2021 - 19 December 2021 Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons Winkelcentrum Leidsche Rijn Centrum, Hof van Bern 33, Utrecht https://casco.art/ Dutch artist Mariëlle Videler presents 365 PLANTS, an artwork that forms part of an ongoing project that also consists of 365 BIRDS / 365 PLANTS / 365 INSECTS. The outcome of a year - long collection of intricate, almost extraterrestrial plants, Videler created 365 PLANTS not by looking or thinking o f a plant, but by using small scissors and black ink to slowly sense the plant. By creating every day and by using direct and elementary techniques such as drawing, cutting, and ink - washing, Videler hopes to reconstruct the senses. She shares an imaginary, post - human reality with the visitors with the aim of strengthening our relationship with the world around us. Mariëlle Videler (1970) works across media, creating installations, drawings, objects, videos and performances. Based on the belief that all org anisms have equal value, she creates a pathway through the textures of the world. She explores a new, intensive way of feeling, perceiving and acting, identifying herself with a traveler who makes physical, but above all, imaginary journeys. For the past t en years, she has conducted intensive research into the knowledge, ideology and craft of Indigenous cultures such as the Colombian Kogi and the Inuit of Greenland. Her practice and work are a sensory search for consciousness and physicality. Saeeda Saeed: Clapback Fury , 13 November - 12 December 2021 Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art Markt 1, Middelburg https://vleeshal.nl/en/ In 2018, the state - supported Saudi Electronic A rmy created thousands of fake Twitter accounts to promote the veneration of rulers both online and offline. Similarly, in 2017, legislation was put in place where “retweeting narratives that go against the state, the royal family or religion” is seen as an act of terrorism punishable by a thousand lashes and a 10 - year jail sentence. Critics, both in and out of the kingdom, face harm, with their families and friends threatened, shamed and harassed. In response to this reality and throughout her practice, S aeeda Saeed has been devising counterstrategies to somehow disturb these well - oiled machines. Impacted by the constant loss of both physical and digital autonomy for individuals around the globe, she attempts to claim some semblance of control through this rhythm and dance piece, Clapback Fury . Comparable to the gameplay of “Dance Dance Revolution,” each step produces nonsensical meme insults and directly tags Saudi state - run accounts with the intent of drowning out official tweets. The work uses play, humo ur and joy as a means of release, a joy that opposes the despair of a political reality without an alternative. Visual activist Saeeda Saeed (1988, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) has spent the last number of years developing guerrilla communication platforms that transgress Saudi state - controlled media. Her practice collectivises power through incremental, joint collaborations with self - organised microstructures within her community. In her recent work, Saeed has pivoted to design interventions within Twitter in re sponse to recent legislation that reconstituted “the act of retweeting narratives that go against the state or religion” as an act of terrorism. Saeed devised a series of counter posting strategies to drown out official state - run tweets and allow users to safely mask their IP locations. Among them is Instant Meme Noise Reactor (2020), an object that spits out nonsensical, humorous insults to state - run accounts each time they post and Portable Clickfarm (2019) that utilises physical movement and the human bo dy as a disruptive tool in gaining digital autonomy. Editors’ Notes The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund Encouraging experimentation and creativity at the highest level, the Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund enables artists to realise am bitious production ideas. Each year, a series of newly produced artworks will be acquired by the Hartwig Art Foundation and then donated to the Dutch national art collection (the “Rijkscollectie”). The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund is managed an d overseen by The Hartwig Art Foundation: www.hartwigartfoundation.nl The curatorial team for the Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund special project 2 020/2021 consists of Sharmyn Cruz Rivera, Iris Ferrer, Aude Christel Mgba, Jo - Lene Ong and Rita Ouédraogo. The artists chosen to participate in this project are Kent Chan, Mariana Castillo Deball, Anna Dasović, Em’Kal Eyongakpa, Family Connection (Jörgen Gario, Quinsy Gario, Caldron Lewis, Whitney Lewis, Gala Martinus, Glenda Martinus and Rudsel Martinus), Ana Guedes, Ola Hassanain, Neo Matloga, Kevin Osepa, Maria Pask, Joy Mariama Smith, Geo Wyeth, Mariëlle Videler, Saeeda Saeed and Sara Sejin Chang (Sara van der Heide). For the complete schedule of presentations, full artist biographies and further information, please visit the respective institutions websites and www.hartwigartfoundation.nl For press requests please contact: Rhiannon Pickles at Pickles PR rhiannon@picklespr.com | +31 (0)615 821 202