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If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution

De Appel presents : ‘If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution’ Edition II : ‘Feminist Legacies and Potentials in Contemporary Practice’

16 November 2006 - 14 January 2007

As an agile and experimental curatorial platform, ’If I Can’t Dance...’ departs from a spirit of open questioning and enquiry with artists. This year it looks specifically at the legacies and potentials of feminism in relation to art today. Beginning with the quote of Emma Goldman : ’If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution’, the project explores the critical and celebratory implications of this statement.

‘If I Can’t Dance...’ is not trying to sum up a contemporary feminist art or to collate an aesthetic for feminism, but rather to explore how feminist thinking on all levels (social, artistic, political, theoretical, ideological or structural) may be important in our cultural life. There is currently a rich artistic discourse, which taps into this legacy and manifests itself in the materiality and language of visual art, but also interrogates how artists choose to perform themselves and their work within the dominant visual economy. The project aims to explore these tendencies as inquisitively and openly as possible.

Developing ’If I Cant Dance...’ with De Appel makes it possible to articulate a historical context for this legacy very precisely. Established in 1975, this art centre has a rich history of showing experimental art for over thirty years and a revived interest in its programming now. Archival documentation exploring this legacy from the late 70’s and early 80’s will be presented. These practices provide an interesting comparison to the vernacular used by artists to think through ideas of agency, singularity and political empowerment today.

’If I Can’t Dance...’ doesn’t offer a determined survey in the form of a single exhibition, it works repeatedly with an expanding group of over thirty artists in a series of public platforms. To this end, in Amsterdam ’If I Can’t Dance...’ manifests itself as an exhibition and a series of performances at De Appel, a symposium at De Balie, an ’insert’ by the Otolith Group into the exhibition ’Just in Time’ at the Stedelijk Museum CS and with two evening events at Club 11.

Opening/Afterparty De Appel 17:00-20:00/’t Zonnehuis 20:00-24:00 November 16, 2006 With : ’Act’

Exhibition De Appel November 17, 2006 - January 14, 2007 With : Alexandra Bachzetsis & Lies Vanborm, Bless, Kate Davis, Pascale Gatzen & Myrza de Mynck, Karl Holmqvist, Jutta Koether, Claudia & Julia Müller, Isabel Nolan, Paulina Olowska, Falke Pisano, Stefanie Seibold, Lucy Skaer, Frances Stark, Lily van der Stokker, Sue Tompkins, Haegue Yang and a selection from the archive of de Appel.

Performance Weekend

Saturday, January 13 :

Will Holder "Recital of Gertrude Stein’s ’The Making of the Americans’" Continuously from 13:00-19:00

Haegue Yang "Storage Piece" 16:00-16:30

Sue Tompkins "Grease" 17:00-17:30

Maria Pask and Esther de Vlam "The Birds and the Bees" 18:30-19:00

with : Vela Arbutina Melanie Bonajo Carolin Reichert Tania Theodorou Marianne Vierø

percussion : Simon de Swaaf

Sunday, January 14 :

Will Holder "Recital of Gertrude Stein’s ’The Making of the Americans’" Continuously from 13:00-19:00

Sarah Pierce/The Metropolitan Complex "Readings from ’The Meaning of Greatness’" 15:00-16:00

Haegue Yang "Storage Piece" 16:30-17:00

Judith Hopf "’What do you look like’ ? Acrypto Demonic Mystery" 17:30-18:00

planningtorock "Inside me outside you" 19:00-19:30

The "Shadow Cabinet" A selection from the archive of de Appel, made by Frederique Bergholtz, Nell Donkers and Stefanie Seibold, with documentation of performances by a.o. Martha Wilson, Valie Export, Gina Pane and Carolee Schneeman is presented in the ’Shadow Cabinet’ and can be visited between 13.00-19:00.

Project Pascale Gatzen Pascale Gatzen, together with a.o. Myrza de Mynck, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Jonas Olsson and Marc Nagtzaam, collaboratively works on developing a clothes collection, due to be presented on January 19th at W139 in Amsterdam. The working space (at the attic of De Appel) is accessible for the audience between 13:00 and 19:00.

Project Students Rietveld Academy Third year students from the Graphic Design Department of the Rietveld Academy developed publicity campaings for the performance "Act" by Alexandra Bachzetsis and Lies Vanborm which was playing with the systematics and features of the secret, unannounced performance. Documentation of these projects is on show between 13:00 and 19:00 continuously.

Entrance : free Reservations : press@deappel.nl

Symposium I : ’Feminist Legacies and Potentials in Contemporary Art Practice’ De Balie November 18, 2006 With (a.o.) : Iris van der Tuin, Helena Reckitt, Daria Martin, Aneta Szylak, Karl Holmqvist and Sue Tompkins.

Symposium II : ’Curating and Feminism Today’ Stedelijk Museum CS at Club 11 December 7, 2006 With (a.o.) : Mirjam Westen, Heike Munder (tbc) and Bettina Steinbruegge.

Insert in ’Just in Time’ Stedelijk Museum CS December 1, 2006 - March 11, 2007 With : The Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar & Kodwo Eshun) and a selection from the archive of the Stedelijk Museum CS.

Film- and Performance programme Stedelijk Museum CS at Club 11 December 21, 2006. On the occasion of the launch of the 4th issue of GLU magazine. With : Susanne Winterling (curator of the film programme ’The Fantasy of Failed Utopias and a Girl’s Daydream’ with contributions by Emily Roysdon, Marriage, E.E. Cassidy, Erika Vogt, Kat Ross, Kaucyila Brooke, Margo Victor, Lynn Chan, and Eve Fowler) and Djuna Barnes (DJ afterparty).

Curators ’If I Can’t Dance...’ is curated by Frederique Bergholtz and Annie Fletcher

Partners Edition II of ’ If I Can’t Dance...’ has four phases at : Huis & Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht, March & May 2006 | de Appel, Amsterdam, November, 2006 - January, 2007 | Huis & Festival a/d Werf, Utrecht, May 2007 | MuHKA, Antwerp, September - November, 2007

Financial Support Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, British Council, The Netherlands Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, Municipality of Amsterdam, Ministry of OC&W, Mondriaan Foundation, Stichting Cultuurfonds van de Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten.

Information For updated information on the programme and addresses of the venues, times, entrance fees and opening times check : www.ificantdance.org