The team has been traveling quite a bit! Pauline Autet, one of Elbowroom's curators recently spent five weeks in Venice, Italy, attending the New Zealand pavilion Secret Power at the Biennale di Venezia. On Mondays, most of the Biennale is closed and so the 'invigilatori' or attendants of the different pavilions and exhibitions get together for some sort of social gathering.
Katharina Joseph, Director of contemporary art gallery KAJO COLLECTION hosted such a brunch on a sizzling hot Monday and the traveling nature of her gallery was a connecting point so Pauline and Katharina decided to get together again and discuss their projects, goals and how they could collaborate in the future.
Katharina Joseph, Director of contemporary art gallery KAJO COLLECTION hosted such a brunch on a sizzling hot Monday and the traveling nature of her gallery was a connecting point so Pauline and Katharina decided to get together again and discuss their projects, goals and how they could collaborate in the future.
What brings you to Venice?
KAJO - We launched the first exhibition of our traveling art gallery in the heart of Venice this summer exhibiting works by German artist Birgit Wolfram. The idea of a traveling art gallery was born only a few months ago in April 2015. Since then I thought about the best location to debut with our first exhibition. With the 56th Venice Biennale taking place right now, Venice seemed to be the perfect city for it. Afterwards our travel continues to Berlin, Amsterdam and London.
ER - Elbowroom is a moving art gallery for many reasons. We wanted an alternative to being fixed to one location in response to the world around us which seems to be always moving and transforming. Between Noelia, Catherine and myself who formed Elbowroom, we represent at least 5 different countries so I think we always felt part of and kept looking out to an international art movement. In practical terms, as a non-profit that runs without funding to promote our artists and create high quality projects, there is no budget to pay rent. But we like our nomadism and as the three of us all work and study full time, the mobility allows us more flexibility.
What inspired you to start a gallery that is mobile?
KAJO - I was inspired by our contemporary society, which is constantly on the move. We travel, change places and live abroad. I envisioned creating my gallery to operate outside the confines of the traditional gallery space. Hence, our gallery constantly circles the globe to expose artworks of contemporary artists. Our mission is to provide exhibition spaces around the world to promote our artists and stimulate society’s need for artistic creations. We aim to redefine the concept of space. For instance, we team up with existing galleries, as well as enrich spaces that are no usually used for exhibitions. It allows us to make art more accessible.
ER - Over the multiple conversations we've had since we first met we found that we shared a passion to promote emerging talents and although Elbowroom and Kajo Collection operate on different gallery models, we very quickly connected because we had similar perceptions of the role creative arts can play in society and of our goal to introduce it to diverse environments and audiences.
Elbowroom looks for venues that are not conventionally used for the presentation of art and we rely on the support of property owners who allow us to use their vacant shop or office spaces for a short period of time in exchange for a spring clean, freshly painted walls and a new injection of life in their often empty properties. We've seen every time how this generated new interest in the property but still our biggest struggle is to be given access to one of the many empty properties in the city.
How do you choose your exhibition venues and do you find this to be a challenge?
KAJO - Luckily, we have a strong network of people who support our initiative and help us finding the exhibition venues. It is very important to us to expose our artists internationally. Hence, we choose our exhibition spaces according to the city we would like to show their works and engage with the art community. The greatest challenge is the management of the exhibitions as the entire team of Kajo Collection operates in different cities around the world. But, our mission is very strongly shared by all team members, which translates across boundaries. We aim to make art more accessible by placing our artists in dynamic surroundings to enrich newly discovered locations with art.
ER - We've also spoken a lot about audience engagement. Kajo Collection and Elbowroom produce a similarly fluid mix of projects from exhibitions, events, happenings, talks etc.. and this is linked to our belief in redefining and reinventing the use of non-gallery spaces and the format of a gallery; therefore prompting our audiences to question conventional ideas around art presentation.
Elbowroom is big on interactive and immersive experiences because we find that to be engaging for a broad audience. We are also big on collaboration because we think unique outcomes can be created that can be more powerful than its individual parts and we find our position as curators to be ideal facilitators of such collaborations.
How do you seek audience engagement and how do you see your role as leader of your Gallery?
KAJO - We are currently working on a project in Amsterdam, which will take shape by the end of this year. The venue is a private home of a curator, who curated an exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale. We will create the first Amsterdam Art House exposing artworks in a very personal space, which gives a new level of engagement, as we will invite our audience to join us for dinners and talks with the artists. I believe the initiative will create a new level of intimacy and inspiration for our artists and their creations. I see myself as a connector because the most valuable moments in life are the times you instantly connect with someone due to shared interests, as we did during the brunch in Venice.
I believe that we live in reoccurring circles, therefore our communities are already somehow connected and the magic of connectivity brings us forward in life because once we share a similar interest we unlock our creativity, imagination and realise communal projects.
ER - Back in Wellington, we are about to host an event which will have a form we haven't used before – an evening of illustrated talks. It still under development but the idea is to have a few speakers share their recent experiences of a project or a research trip with a group of people from the arts community. New Zealand can feel pretty isolated sometimes and yet people move and travel a lot so its about creating a platform to share those experiences.
What are your upcoming projects?
KAJO - The next exhibition Revelation will show artworks by Russian-German artist Yury Kharchenko in Berlin, Germany. His works focus on the formal and emotional possibilities of painting. Hence, they are both non-representational - pure visual phenomena like sounds – and representational - simple shapes, which form the backbone of the cycle. Yury Kharchenko’s paintings are delightful in their texture and their sense of color, stimulating the senses and arousing strong feelings. The exhibition opens on the 22nd of October.
In the meantime, we are building up a network of Art Ambassadors who engage with artists and art institutions in the city they are based in to organize Kajo Collection’s Happenings, which pop up, travel and wander around the world to invite our audience to engage with the artworks and artists alike. During a Happening art talks, lectures and other art related events take place. Due to the shared nature of a gallery on the move, we would also like to build up an artist exchange network between Kajo Collection and Elbowroom, to expose our artists on a global level.
ER - Over our conversations in Venice we talked a lot about the mutual benefits of community building between organisations like ours across the world and of the possibilities that could be created. This lead us to discuss a future collaboration between Kajo Collection and Elbowroom to build bridges that connect our communities and form stronger networks. Most of all this would allow the artists we work with to have the opportunity of being involved in a show on the other side of the world, further expanding and exposing their practice.
KAJO - Yes and distance wouldn't have to be a barrier in a joint project if we think smartly and use digital media for our benefit. Our shared aspiration and enthusiasm for the arts can be used to cross boundaries and bring the international art community closer together.
With our shared interest in working across borders we are looking forward to the challenges and possibilities that would come from a collaboration.