October 2015, on the road againAfter our stay Basel we flew back to London for a brief business interlude, and then back to Switzerland again to pick up the van and continue our road trip south towards Italy. The Red Van broke down near the top of the Gotthard pass, and while we waited for the breakdown company, a very friendly Swiss chap (also travelling in a van) stopped to see if he could help us and then waited with us for over an hour. Once we were up and running again he accompanied us to the top of the pass to make sure the van could manage the steep climb. Everyone had advised us not to go through the very long and boring Gotthard tunnel, but instead go over it, to take in the beautiful views... unfortunately for us we saw only thick cloud, rain and fog!
We coasted down the other side and across the border towards Saronno (north of Milan) to spend a few days with Jay's aunt Katharina and her boyfriend (Jay's sort-of-uncle) Francesco. Here we also had the van properly checked over by their mechanic and then we set off through the beautiful landscape of Piemonte (endless vineyards, hills and castles) and Liguria (Genova, Le Cinque Terre), Carrara, Pisa and finally Livorno for the ferry to Palermo in Sicily...
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26 August - 30 September: Venice to BaselAugust ended with a trip to the Venice Biennale and a visit to see Delphine's Italian great grandmother in Venice. Then we drove to Swiss Jura to prepare for 'A Thousand Lives' a retrospective exhibition and celebration of Jay's father's life and work. After a flying pit-stop to London, September ended back in Switzerland with Delphine's first birthday and a visit to her other Italian great grandmother, in Basel. This summer she has also visited her 3 grandmothers, 1 grandfather, aunts, uncles and cousins, lucky girl. The Venice Biennale, overall, felt (even more than usual) like a theme-park this year, pandering to the global museum trend of creating entertainment, rather than art, for the visitors. Works were also (even more so than usual) literal and lazy in their political and pseudo poetic cliches (fences, holes in walls, smashed windows, bricked up entrances, black flags etc). Back on the road, a breath of fresh air came in the form of the amazing 14 century frescos in the Sud Tirol town of Bressanone/Brixen. In Switzerland, people travelled far and wide to celebrate Franzueli Rechsteiner, aka Schlössli's life and work and it was a great day. The exhibition was curated by Jay & Chiara and held across two sites, the artist's home/studio in Lugnez and l'Atelier d'Ar Ko in Boncourt, a gallery run by Darko Vulic. The show presented a cross-section of Schlössli very varied and extensive oeuvre, together with film screenings and an ambitious Wunderkammer archive by Jay. For more information and better pictures of the whole retrospective visit: http://franzuelirechsteiner.weebly.com/a-thousand-lives.html all photos below by Chiara & Jay unless otherwise credited - thanks to all those who contributed! 7 - 25 AugustOur journey continued east across France and on into Italy.... Art exhibitions, mostly other people'sWe visited a few galleries and museums this month... With Phil & Natalie of ID Projects and Jan and Chris of The Caravan Gallery we visited: CAC in Meymac, near ID Projects in Haute Corrèze, Limousin, France Vassivière (or its full name The International Center of Art and Landscape at Vassivière Island), Haute-Vienne/Creuse, Limousin Treignac Projet, Treignac, Limousin, where we were welcomed by founder Sam Basu. Then, after leaving Limousin, we went on to Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, MAM St Etienne Institute of Contemporary Art, IAC Lyon. We had a very short pop-up shows in the car parks of MAM St Etienne and The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon. Many of museums and galleries we wanted to visit in places like Lyon, Grenoble, Turin, Milan, were either closed for holidays or between exhibitions. We're looking forward to the Venice Biennale next... The Red Van in-situSome of the many places we parked in recent weeks, some practical, some mundane and some very beautiful... Life in (and out) the vanWe were back on the road for a week and then visiting family in Italy...Delphine has had a busy time too: several teeth all at once, more crawling space, paddling space and more adoring fans. Work in progressWe are not blogging about our work here, but instead on our individual studio pages:
Jay's work in progress Chiara's work in progress We've just had a week-long residency at ID Projects, St Angel, Haute Corrèze, courtesy artists Phil Ilingworth and Natalie Dowse. We were delighted to be the very first ID Projects residency - hopefully the first of many!
We also spent time with the inspiring artists Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale of Caravan Gallery, who were there at the same time. At the end of the week we held a trial exhibition - see our Stealth Gallery page for more info and pics, proud to say we had 100% turnout! We showed a selection of work created this week and over the 3 weeks of our road trip so far, For more information about our work as it develops, please visit our individual Stealth Studio pages: Jay Rechsteiner and Chiara Williams. 31 July: the journey so farThis week we continued our journey to Alloue in the Charentes region, then south west across the Bordeaux region for a couple of days at the beach, then back East, into the Perigord Noir region, along the Dordogne and finally over into Haute Corrèze, which is where we are now, in Saint Angel, parked in the grounds of artists Phil Illingworth and Natalie Dowse's home. Phil and Natalie are in the midst of self-building from a stone ruin, doing most of the work themselves, including the roof! They are incredibly resilient and very patient, and still manage to keep their respective art practices going. Chapeau. Also guests here are Jan and Chris of the Caravan Gallery. Another hard-working, hard-travelling couple who use their caravan as an kind of art vehicle too, in more ways than one. A happy coincidence and lots to talk about! I've met them before of course, but never had the pleasure of so much time to talk. Jay is pictured below wearing Phil's trousers after ripping his own trying to climb out of the bathroom window after getting locked in...Delphine is tackling a banana that is almost as big as she is. 21 - 31 July: more in-situ shotsSome of the other places we parked this week, sometimes just for a few minutes, sometimes overnight... 21 July: Haiti via AlloueOur 15 mins of fame...in the national newspaper of Haiti: http://lenational.ht/?p=4067, courtesy a young writer Dangelo Néard who is currently in residence at La Maison du Comédien Maria Casares, Alloue, France (Charentes), and who we had the pleasure of meeting on 21st July. Jay did an artist residency here in May 2013, so it was good to go back, chat to the programme director and stay in the same room too! Lakes, rivers, oceans, castles and factoriesThe river Lot, the Dordogne, some lakes and ponds, the Atlantic, where Delphine had her first experience of the ocean, plus some promontories of the rocky and also man-made variety... Life in the vanThe everyday stuff, sleeping, playing, storage, washing, peeping toms, resting under shady trees... 25 July: The pervertWe had a rather bizarre experience with a pervert...who knows though, he could be a serial killer too...we had stopped for the afternoon in a peaceful and shady forest picnic area by the roadside, frequented by other families too, so it looked fairly innocuous. We ate lunch and made some work, but gradually the type of visitor changed and the mood became a little sinister. A strange man in a car was staring at us, for at least 10 minutes. Jay suggested we move on, but I was busy finishing some work and hadn't really noticed this, Then the man walked over to us and stood much too close to me. Very uncomfortable. Very weird. Trying not to panic I casually mock-swatted some mosquitoes to create some space and begin to pack up our things to leave. By now back on the other side of the car park, the man stood next to his car, still watching us and waving something in his hand. As we drove off we saw it was a 50 euro note!?!?!...we were relieved to be back on the road. About a km down the road we had to pull over briefly to close a cupboard in the back that we had overlooked in our haste to get away. At that point we saw the same car pass us. Oh no. When we drove on we saw him pulled up ahead, waiting for us. He followed us relentlessly for several more kilometres and we couldn't shake him off. The sun was slowly setting and it was no longer funny; we needed to find somewhere populated and safe, quickly. After what seemed like endless empty road, we pulled into a small village called Damazan. All looked deserted, apart from the main square, where we pulled to a sharp stop in front of a bar - L'Escapade Damazanaise. The blue car stopped behind us. Jay got out and confronted him, immediately the curious locals, our handy witnesses, joined in. I filmed, photographed and called the police to report the incident and number plate. But after a few minutes, the man, who was unfazed and in complete denial, drove off. One of the local families kindly offered us their drive to park in for the night, as well as coffee and their warm hospitality. The next morning they gave us a generous breakfast of croissants and pains au chocolat. The father was a fireman and the two boys Leo and Louis loved our van because it looked like a pompier van, so I drew them a little souvenir to say thanks. Nonetheless a very strange night indeed. Cultural stuff and art and all that...If you want to see more about things we've seen, thought and made this week, aside from perverts, cruising spots and getting locked in toilets, visit our individual pages: Chiara's page is here, Jay's page is here. We are getting ready for a pop-up exhibition somewhere soon.
This selection of road trip photos covers our journey from 12 - 20th July, from Calais to the Charentes region. We have been following small roads through even smaller villages, stealth camping along the way and visiting a few friends. We had wanted to blog daily, but poor wifi/signal has necessitated a different approach. In each place we stopped, we also began the process of making work in our own very individual ways, work in progress can be found on our respective pages in Stealth Studio. July 15 Montreuil d'Argile July 15 Les Aspres Jul 16 La Bazoche Gouet July 17 Rille July 18 between Rille and Richelieu July 18 Chateux de Gisieux July 19 chez Fabrice et Sylvie near Angouleme Sculpture 2
date: 15 July 2015 location: Ste-Gaiuburge – Ste Colombe abandoned ELF station The conversion of the van 4-split screen Converting the van is a BIG job. My DIY skills are on a scale from 1 - 10 at about 2. Chiara's skills however make up for my low score. She is somewhere between 9 and 10. When converting a van you either do it right or not. There is no in-between. I think there is. There is always an in-between. But hey, I am not alone in the van. Insulation and fresh air are important. Condensation is a killer. Hackney Wick, Fish Island: Den-city 1, curated by Rebecca Feiner Den-City 1 allowed us to carry out preliminary tests to determine the parameters and logistics of our road trip: Holiday adventure in a van camper van art residency (living) sculpture performative journey mobile exhibition social experiment The first idea was to work on the conversion of the van into a mobile road trip unit / camper van during the event as a practical performative action. During the work the van became a sculpture. It wasn't just a van any more. This opened up the questions of what the van actually is. Is it simply a van? Is it a sort of art mobile? A gallery? The social aspect of the project has become my main focus, especially at a time when rents are going through the roof (in London) and the affordable housing is something like 80% of the market value according to Boris Johnson. Here we have it all: a place to live, to work and show off what we think should be hanging on the walls of people who consider 80% of the market value (GBP800.000 for a three bed room flat!) is okay. work-in-progress installation/sculpture 26 June work-in-progress installation/sculpture 27 June The beach shelter we installed on the second day has a very practical purpose: sun protection for Delphine. It is the perfect marriage of art and pragmatism. various found objects, a drawing and work materials/tools for the conversion of the van The book and the clock are from our former house mate Amy, the box of chalks used to belong to Chiara's grandfather. The beautiful diagram-drawing by Chiara reminds me of my other project By-product. The remaining tools are all used for cutting foam etc. The two books are part of my on-going hand-written diaries. There is also a piece of foam we use for the insulation of the van. There is also a ruler as you can. I enjoy creating arrangements of things. I like creating order and have things perfectly line-up. Another project of the same kind is Archive of a Thousand Lives. Chiara drawing a diagram of the layout of the van. This is a trial set-up of how we can work and show work at the same time. Chiara breastfeeding in the van. This drawing highlights the beginning of my search for identity, functions problematics of Stealth Gallery.
People do not seem to understand what Stealth Gallery is. Most people think we are a gallery and do not know what we are doing. To me personally our presence at Den-city was an ephemeral sculpture that represents migration and movement, the very nature of who and what we are. We travel and settle down and then move on. |
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August 2016
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