Getting out of Miami and into Houston, Texas was not that easy. It took about 40 minutes of begging to get in an overbooked flight that I actually booked two months ago. I guess that is the misery and challenge of modern air traffic to figure out how you actually assure to be on a flight if you are not traveling business class and/or are the lucky client in a super upgrade mileage program.

<<G. Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston, Texas>>

In Houston I changed my means of transportation and was escorted by Rick Lowe. Being the founder of the „Project Row Houses“ Lowe explains the history and so far developments and results of the 1993 established neighborhood based art and cultural organization located in Houston’s Third Ward.

<<Time based art work in courtyard of one of the housing areas of Project Row Houses>>

Continue Reading »

left: Mark Schwindenhammer (Space Other, Boston), Justin Berry (artist and founder of Alogon Gallery, Chicago) and Rebecca Gilbers (artist, Chicago)

right: Juan W. Chavez (Boots Art Space, St. Louis) in discussion with Gamaliel R. Herrera (Space Other, Boston)>>

The last couple of days I spend in Miami at Art Basel Miami. Of course it was not possible to visit all 22 art fairs that were taking place during this mega event but most important I was able to follow up some Heartland contacts and meet up artists and institutions such as artist Matthew Day Jackson, curator Lisa D. Freiman from the Indianapolis Museum of Art, curator Stephanie Smith from the Smart Museum in Chicago, artist and project space curator Justin Berry from Chicago, Robert Kloos from the Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, curator Doryun Chong from the Walker Art in Minneapolis, Juan Chavez artist and curator from Boots Art Space and others…

Here am I back again in the United States following up upon on what the Van Abbemuseum have been working on in the last couple of months collaboratively with US institutions and individuals. Following up upon the very many conversations and meetings of the first research travel in July/August 2008 we, the curators, decided that I will go back to the US on a second trip.

From the 3rd until the 20th of December I will travel to Miami, Houston, Memphis, Knoxville, St. Louis and Chicago to research on site, following up established contacts and doing studio visits with Heartland based artists. In Memphis it is planned to concretize the collaboration with the Rhodes University of Memphis as well as the Memphis College of Art to host at least one artist in residence from Europe for a period of about two months. The first artist in residence of the Heartland project is going to be the Dutch/American artist Otto Berchem. The Amsterdam based artist is looking forward to the challenges, and most exciting prospects, of spending a prolonged period of time in Memphis beginning of 2008: tackling the clichés and pre-conceived notions, both his own, and those of a Northerner/European of the ‘Heartland’, and specifically of the South. After Memphis I will continue traveling together with co-curator Stephanie Smith from the Smart Museum in Chicago. We will go on a road trip together from St. Louis to Chicago to experience some unique historical sites of the “Heartland” and meet up with custom and culture of the region alongside the way. Beginning of March 2008 Charles Esche and Kerstin Niemann plan to continue the third part of our research travels in the Heartland region, among others visiting the collaborating institutions for the artist in residence projects, the Smart Museum in Chicago as well as other contributing institutions and individuals.

You as a visitor of the blog and a follower of our travels are invited to get active. Feel free to add comments to the different experiences and subjects, that we, the researchers, report upon. The webblog is an interactive tool for us and the museums to think through the importance and the influence of the experiences on the road.

Note: As a reminder on what the “Heartland” project is about here a few notes: Timed to coincide with the next U.S. presidential elections that will provide European audiences with a more nuanced picture of the Heartland region the Van Abbemuseum in collaboration with the Smart Museum in Chicago plans to present a group exhibition in October 2008 examining the situation in the “Heartland”. This project is an ambitious collaboration between two transatlantic art institutions: the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven/NL and the Smart Museum, Chicago/IL. These two sites combine insider and outsider perspectives on the visual culture in the region and are developing a working methodology where both perspectives will be presented in each location. The exhibition “Heartland” is co-curated by Charles Esche, Kersten Niemann, and Stephanie Smith. Esche is Director of the Van Abbemuseum and Co-Editor of Afterall Journal and Books. Niemann is Research Curator at the Van Abbemuseum and Founder of Filter, an international contemporary art plattform in Hamburg. Smith is Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Curator of Contemporary Art at the Smart Museum.

What a coincidence -just a few days after my return form the Heartland the movie The Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing started in German movie theaters. Of course I had to go and see the documentary that observes the band for three years throughout the US. This band that counts to the most successful female artists alive in the States spoke out in public what they think about President Bush. Something like: We are ashamed that President Bush is coming from Texas… In the documentary you witness personal and professional consequences that this free speech evoked and how controversial civil courage and music is observed and discussed in different parts of the US. Because of their political statement they have been banned from all kinds of country radio stations, which were their main target audience. Over the past years they (had to) developed their music and started up again with an identity that came from country, left it and experimented with new forms and styles of music. I begin to think that they have moved in a direction of contemporary country music, that is „officially“ not considered to be country, but certainly opened the doors for new developments of what country can be, in which direction country may go and how we can also understand country music….

Excerpt from Not Ready To Make Nice (2006) on the album Taking the Long Way from the Dixie Chicks:

….
I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don’t mind saying,
It’s a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice,
I’m not ready to back down,
I’m still mad as hell
And I don’t have time
To go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

I’m not ready to make nice,
I’m not ready to back down,
I’m still mad as hell
And I don’t have time
To go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is
You think I should

Forgive, sounds good.
Forget, I’m not sure I could.
They say time heals everything,
But I’m still waiting…