WORM x Amarte “AFFECT” (2023)

The four-month residency AFFECT started out with an open call for developing a site-specific, interdisciplinary project. Three makers (individual or collective) were selected, each developing on pre-existing ideas, and using the space to expand the possibilities inherent in their creative practices.

On October 14th 2023, the public were able to witness these projects in a continuous flow, from one space to the other. Starting at S/ash gallery, moving onto the Foyer and finishing in UBIK, each project made use of site-specific conditions in WORM, becoming a collaboration between the artist and the possibilities of the space.

AFFECT invites the audience to witness the ongoing journey of these projects. Passing through the multiple spaces of WORM, we reflected on our bodies, senses and collective presence in the room. The artists worked separately throughout residency period, but the final coming together of these works marked the emergence of new thematic connections and artistic entanglements.

In “Forceful Catering”, Kexin Hao reproduced traditional techniques of making mochi through performance, combining dance and spoken word as a way of engaging with the practice through her own corporeal archive. Accompanied by a track created by collaborators 10_r3n and Marie Komatsu, Kexin pounded a ball of glutinous rice, the space reverberating with each blow as the rice became increasingly malleable. Inspired by various Chinese work songs and intrigued by how they historically functioned in aiding the labour process, she collected elements from three to create one of her own. She experimented by subverting traditionally inscribed meanings, using her own iterations as “a playground of possibility”, creating new narratives and intertwining them with the old.

The serving of the mochi was the final act of Kexin’s “Forceful Catering”. The audience, having watched the ritual process, ate the mochi with the awareness of its multiple representations. Our attention was directed toward the body and its promises for reimagining a collective corporeal memory.

Sabine Pendry and Nadia Bakhsi’s “Nóstos” was a an explorational sound and radio piece dedicated to sentimentality, an inquiry into the past and the various acts of conjuring it up in the present.

The artist duo are interested in nostalgia’s affective capacities, as something felt both collectively and personally. The listeners experienced the composition though silent-disco headphones in WORM’s foyer, creating a unified solitude. Collaging various sonic material with their own compositions, “nóstos”  was a broadcast to the senses. As we listened, what was stirred in each of us depended on our own memories and experiences, and the identities constructed from these phenomena. Each listener reacts to this sonic soundscape uniquely, and yet the cultural references and meanings we share tap into how nostalgia can be experienced as a public feeling.

In “Dark Grey Almost Black”, artist duo Marta Wörner and Nikos Ten Hoedt created a liminal club environment in UBIK, experienced as a continuous oscillation between the real and the spectacle.

Taking the modern club space as a territory for contemporary ritual, they explored the interrelatedness of everyday actions and performance. The audience were not voyeurs, but active participants in the creation of it. It was difficult to tell who was performing or not, as all bodies became both the observers and the observed. It was perhaps best imagined as how one chose to observe, and what meanings they inscribed on the space. That was how we determined the event’s status as being one thing over another. All elements for the club were there, and yet we were unsure. Are we watching a performance or not?

WORM received a good amount of feedback from both the artists and the audience. All projects drew a large crowd of visitors, and an exhilarating atmosphere was felt throughout the night. The projects linked the spaces together unexpectedly, but each artist could present the outcome of their creative processes individually. It was a delight to witness all projects evolve and come into their own, and the residents showed a tangible sense of development within their artistic practice. This collaboration between the Amarte Fund and WORM was a success, igniting a creative energy that we hope will flourish further and potentially branch out into cultural spaces in other cities.

For further Amarte projects or artist fundings, check their website: amarte.nl