Kaleidoscope's Arena 2012: Day program

For its fifth edition (May 25–27, 2012), ROMA CONTEMPORARY art fair returns to the beautiful spaces of MACRO Testaccio with a renewed and enriched project.

At the core of its program of collateral events is the ROMA CONTEMPORARY Arena, a temporary pavilion designed by Dutch artist Jeroen Jacobs installed in the courtyard of MACRO Testaccio. Curated for the second year in a row by KALEIDOSCOPE, the program will center on debates, meetings, interviews and performances involving the protagonists of the international contemporary art scene. Whilst the last edition focused on the scene of three international capitals, this year KALEIDOSCOPE chose to invite three non-profit art spaces – Studiolo, Zurich; Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon; and 1857, Oslo – to introduce their own activity and offer an overview of the area they’re based in through the voices of artists, critics and curators. During the three-day fair, the visitors will get familiar with different ways of conceiving an independent space, while getting in touch with the protagonists of the art scenes in three of the most vibrant cities worldwide.

DAILY PROGRAM
FRIDAY 25 May 2012

Day program curated by STUDIOLO (Zurich)

h. 4 PM: Balthazar Lovay interviews Studiolo about the interests that motivate their activities and the context of artistic production in Switzerland.

h. 4.30 PM: Studiolo talks with Uri Aran & Elizabeth Neel about their intimate artistic dialogue, which resulted in a series of sculptures investigating the notion of game.

h. 5.30 PM: Alexander Hempel presents a new performance, that he ironically describes: In the struggle for survival someone of the organizers had the idea to take some of the investors money and to put it into a frame program of some kind of importance which was to glue to the obsolete business with the exhibition booths. To make it not so sticky it was agreed to name the whole thing “satellite” or something like that. However, a season later the competitors did the same and all the lead was gone.

h. 6 PM: Studiolo talks with Fabian Marti, Andro Wekua and Gabrielle Schaad, focusing on their
respective dealings with history and the exchange between generations.

SATURDAY 26 May 2012
Day program curated by KUNSTHALLE LISSABON (Lisbon)

h. 4 PM: Ricardo Nicolau interviews Kunsthalle Lissabon about the challenges and goals behind their activity, after 3 years of inhabiting the mainstream and infusing it with criticality.

h. 4.30 PM: Kunsthalle Lissabon talks to Mounira Al Solh about her alter-ego artist, Bassam Ramlawi, a fictional companion that has been present in much of her recent production.

h. 5.30 PM: Pedro Barateiro presents the performance How to make a mask, in which he makes a mask in front of the audience, keeping up with his recurring themes such as the past, theatre, language, voice.

h. 6 PM: Kunsthalle Lissabon talks with Marina Fokidis and Filipa Ramos about stretching the limits of the “kunsthalle” as a means of researching new relevant institutional models.

SUNDAY 27 May 2012
Day program curated by 1857 (Oslo)

h. 4 PM: Johanne Nordby Wernø interviews 1857 about their hows and whys and the doubt running through different levels of collaborations, exhibition design and press releases.

h. 4.30 PM: 1857 interviews Copenhagen Suborbitals about showing the world that human space flight can be different from the usual expensive and government controlled project.

h. 5.30 PM: Petter Ballo presents the performance The Dogs of Caracas (with music by Henrik Lie), composed of spoken word, improvised music, dancing, light and pyrotechnics.

h. 6 PM: 1857 talks with Toke Lykkeberg and Esperanza Rosales, touching on the subject of the non-commercial, uncommercial and post-commercial.