Flex the Mind

Gabriel Lester’s New Years lecture on exercises for a elastic brain
Open to all Rietveld & Sandberg students

One would expect our advanced civilisation to be amongst the most open-minded and adaptable in time. One would imagine our instinct of survival and our common sense easily adjustable to ever changing circumstances and insights. And even if this might be doubted or prove disappointingly incorrect for most of humanity, suborn, narrow-minded and stiffened up, one would at least expect the mind of the artist to be amongst the most elastic of minds. However, this assumption might also be wrong or taken for granted much to easily. The mind needs maintenance and exercise, because in the face of artistic creation, it is an art in itself to stay flexible and open-minded.

In his New Year's lecture Gable Lester will address ways to flex the mind and look at a number of contemporary artists suppleness, in terms of living, thinking and creating. Furthermore, the lecture will focus on a number of different methods to exercise ones thoughts, alternatives ways of living and techniques to interpret, digest and associate any given material. And it will also be a fun lecture, highly inconsistent and academically flawed. Do join!

Thursday January 19

12.30 hours The GYM Rietveld Building

"When I started I was 17 and it was just too young. I noticed it when I was stuck in the beginning of every assignment. I worked on ideas only because I thought it would impress the teachers, but only in size, not in concept. As if only hard work would be enough. I quit after half a year and went to America for 5 months. I was fed up with Rietveld but I was mainly angry with myself because it felt like giving up. I didn't want to have to do something anymore. But after five months of almost doing nothing it started to itch again. I wanted to have a goal, I wanted to learn new things. It's important to have a goal for yourself.

When I came back home I applied again, but with a completely different mentality. I had confidence that something would come out of every assignment and told myself: ''trust that you can do something with whatever comes out of this.'' In the process of working you'll always find something you can be passionate about. The biggest difference in my mentality was to have faith in that process and start small. I found joy in researching and experimenting with materials and techniques instead of working towards an end result.

You have to let something happen and arise. You don't have to know what will happen eventually and where it will lead to." - Emile Weisz, 19, The Netherlands

Open day: Friday 27 January 2017

More info

10AM - 6PM

extra opening hours dogtime: 2PM - 7.30PM

During the annual OPEN DAY all departments and workshops open their doors to show all aspects of studying at the Rietveld.

More information

Facebook event

Until January 19, 2017

Sint Nicolaasstraat, Amsterdam

MATERIAL DIALOGUES
A project of the design class of all seven groups of the Basicyear.

The Basicyear is the first year of the four-year bachelor programme in Fine Arts and Design. At the Gerrit Rietveld Academie all students enter the Basicyear before commencing a specialisation. One of the core subjects of the Basicyear programme is design. The students work with assignments. For the Eight Cubic Meters project the students were asked to literally fill the vitrines with material that was generated as a side-track of the current assignment. Seven groups, seven current assignments and as a result seven different vitrines, filled by hundred and forty-six individuals. Participating students:

Group A: Not In My Name
Group B: Manicurated
Group C: Valuables
Group D: December Soup
Group E: When SCOBY ruled the world
Group F: Utility Wear
Group G: Habits to Rituals

A: Simone van Aalten, Minjoo Choi, Chloé Delchini, Klara Eneroth, Irene Ha, Kieran Hinde, Johannes Iversen, Morta Jonynaite, Ursula Marcussen, Roxane Mbanga, Grace McMullen, Alice Peach, Tamar Pool, Cehan Sabuncuoglu, Daniel Slats, Helmer Stuyt, Milad Taheri, Frides van de Ven, Annan Yap, Kirill Zakomoldin
B: Joris Angenent, Lisa Arkhangelskaya, Sanne van Balen, Ossip Blits, Elena Braida, Lucien Easton, Sarang Han, Lizzy van Itallie, Carl Jacobsen, Dora Jacques Piaszek, Silke Jonk, Mayis Kaygi, Frankie Magnuson, Jiyun Mun, Celeste Perret, Beatrice Vancaillie, Alizé Wachthausen, Danielle Yaor, Javier Zamora Velasquez, Louise Zangato, Vukan Zarkovic
C: Tasio Bidegain, Laura Bouman, Dora Brandt, Laure Duclaux, Tomas Feijó, Karly Gerharts, Rebecca Hult, Hannah Jacques, Riun Jo, Frída Karlsdóttir, Tatiana Kuznetsova, Laura Læssøe, Elias Pedersen, Geraldo dos Santos, Maxime Selin, Clemens Stumpf, Loïc Vandam, Meis Vranken, Columba Williams, Darwin Winklaar, Jessica Wolfe
D: Dion Acton, Johan Adam, Aleksandra Bokova, Alba Boustanji, Linda Caracciolo Borra, Jesper Dobbeling, Millie Honnebier, Raphaelle Hugues, Bronwen Jones, You Hee Kim, Jana Köplin, Yumu Liu, Florian Lutz, Daria Nakov, Mark Emil Poulsen, Johannes Reisigl, Mare Roorda, Maud Rosé, Astrid Sandbæk, Jan Wester
E: Chandra Conforti, Linda Da Costa, Lucie Gérard, Max Glader, Justine Grillet, Bart Houwers, Yilang Jiang, Brigita Kudarauskaite, Tara Eva Kuijpers Wentink, Filipp Luzin, Zep Nieuwenhuijs, Jennifer Radusin, Julia Rappen, Ignas van Rijckevorsel, Yuri Sato, Mads Sørensen, Juul Stahlie, Franca Ullrich, Tom Vincent, Emile Weisz, Wieke Willemsen
F: Daniel Alhassid, Vica Allakhverdyan, Sofie Bredholt, Rose Brouwer, Ivan Fucich, Paula Garcia Sans, Matilda Kenttä, Màtè Kohout, Julia Lok, Mona Mercier, Nicolas Muratore, Emre Özakat, Kariem Philippa, Ruben Raven, Seonmi Shin, Joanna Skupinska, Christian Stender, Eefje Stenfert, Finn Theuws, Renée van Zadelhoff, Nomin Zezegmaa
G: Sofia Baytocheva, Astrid Fleury, Oskar Frere Smith, Melle van Herwaarden, Feline Hjermind, Dick Huppes, Jim Klok, Bedri Kaan Korkmaz, Kim Lang, Simon Marsiglia, Célia Nabonne, Vanille Ougen, Youngjin Park, Nadja Schlenker, Wooryun Song, Parel Strik, Iza Tromp, Edith Wallin, Ilona Westrik, Maria Yzaga de las Casas, Johannes Zacharias

"It’s almost impossible to finish something in the Basicyear, and when is something finished anyway? Is it finished when you decide it’s finished? In general you focus more on starting something. To start something, to get something out of your hands and then the process comes.

Sometimes I’m not even able to start, I guess that’s my biggest struggle right now. And then, well, the hardest part about studying anyway is to not discourage yourself by all the opinions of everyone, to not float away. You always have to stay honest to yourself." - Ilona West, 24, The Netherlands.

Open day: Friday 27 January 2017

More info

10AM - 6PM

extra opening hours dogtime: 2PM - 7.30PM

During the annual OPEN DAY all departments and workshops open their doors to show all aspects of studying at the Rietveld.

More information

Facebook event

10AM - 6PM

extra opening hours dogtime: 2PM - 7.30PM

During the annual OPEN DAY all departments and workshops open their doors to show all aspects of studying at the Rietveld.

More information

Facebook event

A group exhibition with works by Rietveld alumni Helena Aðalsteinsdóttir, Ásgerður Birna Björnsdóttir and Minne Kersten.

Opening: Saturday 17 Dec, 16h00 - 19h00

Exhibition open: Sunday 18 Dec, 16h00 - 19h00

@Zeeburgerdijk 112 - ring the doorbell!

Forms of Junk Space: Creation always brings along its parasites

1. With designing his sky scraper (restaurants below, offices on top), the architect didn’t intend to generate streams of air around his building. Streams that make bikers clutch their steering wheel, when they turn the corner. Streams that make skirts blow up in summer. He didn’t foresee how people press their backs to his walls, when it rains. Because a perfect angle of dryness arose.

2. When we were born we dragged a shadow with us. It lingers in each shape and state we find ourselves in, as a silent witness: when we drive our cars, when we’re toddlers, in our role as sister, when we’re celebrating. Did you ever notice (acknowledge?) your shadow when you were crying?

3. The emptiness after using a product (cans, plastic bottles, cups, a backyard pool in winter). Maybe we are only capable of connecting memories to objects we have to fill instead of finish: chairs, shoes, closets.

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Rietveld students (2nd academic year) who are interested in the interaction between artistic processes and theoretical research and want to receive the tools for theoretical reflection on their own work and on art in general can now apply for the Honours Programme 2017/2018 until 10 January 2017.

Click for all information on the programme (and how to apply).