About Suns and Stars
Suns and Stars are a nomadic art space and a platform for relational art practices and open-ended research. For every new trajectory, we invite new partakers to explore and co-create. Dedicated to the simple concept that artists have in-depth knowledge of the domain they are working in, we offer artists leeway to research, explore and develop.
By nourishing material and social interactions and non-prescriptive, process-based and cross-disciplinary alliances, we act as a temporary community in which humans and nonhumans, artists and audiences codetermine which tracks Suns and Stars are heading for. Suns and Stars depart from “a notion of the common that focuses not on identity but on the shared resources and tactics of collective labour.” Alongside our offline activities, we run an online platform: In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo. Attracting artists, researchers, special interest groups, curators, and writers who develop their work in collaboration rather than in an autonomous space, we seek to elucidate processes within artistic practices, and how these practices can become social spaces where alternative potentialities and speculative worlds can be conceived and shaped.
More context to the images
1. Anastasija Pandilovska, For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking (2019). By attentively investigating the House of Culture “Koco Racin” in Skopje and its historical meaning as a home and a place that was initiated to nurture culture, Anastasija Pandilovska employed the space and invited it to be part of her composition. She stirs space and by doing this she makes space and explores the possibility for the locus to become a work on its own. For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking was part of Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (CDCM), initiated by Suns and Stars and organised as a threefold in cooperation with Press to Exit project space (MK) and Slobodne Veze (HR). The longterm project examined artistic affiliations with collected and protected objects, to explore and reinforce unorthodox approaches and associations with cultural heritage collections. Suns and Stars developed a program containing a number of events: an artist in residence research project made accessible with a process exhibition in Amsterdam, the exhibition For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking in Skopje, and an online symposium working towards a publication.
2. Marjoca de Greef and Anastasija Pandilovska, Curatorial and Reception Room (2022) in the group exhibition In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo #3 developed from the practices of Sarah van Lamsweerde, Aram Lee, Richtje Reinsma, Anastasija Pandilovska and Marjoca de Greef.
An overarching theme is often used to give the audience a tool to understand the exhibition and the works on display; a frame to guide perception. By removing this frame, we gave space to artists to develop their practice freely, according to their expertise and insights, but we also lost a means to increase the receptivity of the viewer. That is why we had expanded our curatorial practice into a physical presentation to shed light on the complexity of collaborative art practices and the working methods of artists. Moreover, during the opening hours of the exhibition, we were present to discuss the works and the contexts in which these works had been developed. Photo by Maarten Nauw.
3. Suns and Stars organised with artist Emmeline de Mooij and curator Marjoca de Greef, restorative workshops and performances on repair and maintenance techniques, titled Huishoudschool (Domestic Labor School), during 'the contemporary health resort' Cure Park in Amsterdamse Bos (2017). Taking care for each other and our environment is becoming increasingly important in an overstrained world. Housekeeping and most care tasks are characterised by a repetitive element, if performed well, these routines have the appearance of a ritual and therefore they have spiritual potential. Huishoudschool is a recovery place for objects and people. Photo by Vika Ushkanova.
By nourishing material and social interactions and non-prescriptive, process-based and cross-disciplinary alliances, we act as a temporary community in which humans and nonhumans, artists and audiences codetermine which tracks Suns and Stars are heading for. Suns and Stars depart from “a notion of the common that focuses not on identity but on the shared resources and tactics of collective labour.” Alongside our offline activities, we run an online platform: In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo. Attracting artists, researchers, special interest groups, curators, and writers who develop their work in collaboration rather than in an autonomous space, we seek to elucidate processes within artistic practices, and how these practices can become social spaces where alternative potentialities and speculative worlds can be conceived and shaped.
1. Anastasija Pandilovska, For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking (2019). By attentively investigating the House of Culture “Koco Racin” in Skopje and its historical meaning as a home and a place that was initiated to nurture culture, Anastasija Pandilovska employed the space and invited it to be part of her composition. She stirs space and by doing this she makes space and explores the possibility for the locus to become a work on its own. For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking was part of Collective Domain of Cultural Memory (CDCM), initiated by Suns and Stars and organised as a threefold in cooperation with Press to Exit project space (MK) and Slobodne Veze (HR). The longterm project examined artistic affiliations with collected and protected objects, to explore and reinforce unorthodox approaches and associations with cultural heritage collections. Suns and Stars developed a program containing a number of events: an artist in residence research project made accessible with a process exhibition in Amsterdam, the exhibition For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking in Skopje, and an online symposium working towards a publication.
2. Marjoca de Greef and Anastasija Pandilovska, Curatorial and Reception Room (2022) in the group exhibition In the pause of a gesture there might be an echo #3 developed from the practices of Sarah van Lamsweerde, Aram Lee, Richtje Reinsma, Anastasija Pandilovska and Marjoca de Greef.
An overarching theme is often used to give the audience a tool to understand the exhibition and the works on display; a frame to guide perception. By removing this frame, we gave space to artists to develop their practice freely, according to their expertise and insights, but we also lost a means to increase the receptivity of the viewer. That is why we had expanded our curatorial practice into a physical presentation to shed light on the complexity of collaborative art practices and the working methods of artists. Moreover, during the opening hours of the exhibition, we were present to discuss the works and the contexts in which these works had been developed. Photo by Maarten Nauw.
3. Suns and Stars organised with artist Emmeline de Mooij and curator Marjoca de Greef, restorative workshops and performances on repair and maintenance techniques, titled Huishoudschool (Domestic Labor School), during 'the contemporary health resort' Cure Park in Amsterdamse Bos (2017). Taking care for each other and our environment is becoming increasingly important in an overstrained world. Housekeeping and most care tasks are characterised by a repetitive element, if performed well, these routines have the appearance of a ritual and therefore they have spiritual potential. Huishoudschool is a recovery place for objects and people. Photo by Vika Ushkanova.
1. Anastasija Pandilovska, For there was nothing, but matters touching, matters talking (2019). Photo by Marjoca de Greef.
2. Marjoca de Greef and Anastasija Pandilovska, Curatorial and Reception Room (2022). Photo by Maarten Nauw.
Emmeline de Mooij, Huishoudschool (Domestic Labor School)(2017). Curated by Marjoca de Greef. Photo by Vika Ushkanova.