Django Jane (installation)
Various Artists, Django Jane, video, 10’12’’, 2021.
Django Jane (1) is a video installation that addresses the issue of gender and racial inequality in the art world. The project questions the under-representation of women and the systematic racial inequality in the art industry.
The world of classical music could very well serve as a case study to illustrate the fact that most art institutions are still primarily run by white male directors. It is also an environment where self-aggrandisement and vanity are seen as acceptable “additional qualities" of the composer. Classical music/composition education has traditionally been an expensive art form to be educated in, leading to social and geographical imbalances.
Django Jane (video) is an experimental animation film made of more than 2500 portraits downloaded from the Internet. The portraits of composers (2) from the Middle Ages to the present day are superimposed to create an amalgam of profiles of the artists in a given period. The film travels slowly and gradually through time, exposing gender/race inequalities (3) in the arts in general and evolving with the technology (4) used to portray artists. The film is intentionally without a soundtrack, but must be accompanied during the screening by placing a piano in the space where the public can score the movie.
The film is intentionally without a soundtrack, but must be accompanied during the screening by placing a piano in the room for the audience to play.
"Django Jane" is "a response to me feeling the sting of the threats being made to my rights as a woman, as a black woman, as a sexually liberated woman, even just as a daughter with parents who have been oppressed for many decades. Black women and those who have been the 'other', and the marginalised in society” Janelle Monáe. The Guardian, 2018.
from Notker Balbulus (840 - 912) to Alma Deutscher (2005).
71,73% men, 92,35% caucasian.
icon-tempera painting-intaglio-oil painting-monochrome photography-color photography-digital photography-selfie.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
About 20 years ago, Trudo Engels created a collective consisting of 24 fictional artists. The composition of the collective is very diverse, in terms of skills, gender, age and geographical origin. Over the years, the group has developed into a collection of fully-fledged artists who regularly exhibit, publish and set up various public projects together.
This specific practice can be seen as a long-term artistic project that presents itself as an autonomous collective, each member of which contributes its own research topics and specific practices to the Gesamtkunstwerk. This fragmented way of working allows Various Artists to bring together many topics, interests and disciplines into a common artistic practice. It also enables them, through the use of different presentation forms or personalisations in combination with group exhibitions, to offer an alternative to the usual concept of “the artist” as a specialist or brand. Through the realisation of different works and projects, Various Artists explore and experiment with new forms of authorship and questions “the artist” as a unique creative model.
This ‘practice-based’ research into the individuality and status of the artist emerges the idea of seeing “the artist” as an institution that adheres to a number of laws that do not necessarily apply to the individual artist. Various Artists have never believed in an immaculate conception of artistic ideas and have therefore adapted the collective to Brian Eno’s Scenist theory, in which artistic ideas are created through the ability to read ones surroundings, including fellow artists, and to allow oneself to be influenced by them.
From 2015 on Various Artists concentrated on the creation of artistic work for the more mainstream arts field, such as Galleria Continua in San Gimignano (solo exhibition, 2015) and Joey Ramone Gallery in Rotterdam (solo exhibition, 2017 and 2018), festivals such as Pixelache in Helsinki (2016), or presence at art fairs (Stockholm (2015), Athens (2016), Cologne (2016), Amsterdam (2017), Rotterdam (2018), Athens (2019)).
For the next five years (2021-25), Various Artists will operate their gallery space: n0dine, Brussels in addition to an in-house Art Market with the program “Ontology 21-25 Deauthorize!”. They will present a multitude of projects related to the “ being an artist “ and which mainly include collaborations. This curatorial project will accompany future works by Various Artists who consider a variety of collaborative practices an essential part of their artistic DNA.
The choice to work under one of the most generic headings in the art world has far-reaching consequences for the collective. Reversing the public and professional perception towards “a variety of artists “ is an almost impossible task. On top of that, elevating “jumping from one branch to another” to art means, for them, constantly going back to Start in the hope that one day the metaphorical tree will become visible. This perpetual recommencement - along with the negation of the individual - aims to keep asking questions about the role artists can play in a seemingly finite world.