Fieldwork: Marfa is the joint project of two leading European art academies, Les Beaux-Arts de Nantes and HEAD – Genève (Geneva University of Art and Design). This international researcher-in-residence program is dedicated to the practice of art in public space, critical approaches to landscape and borders and artistic projects based on field investigation methods.

Located in Marfa, Texas, USA, this unique       platform is intended for emerging artists, curators and researchers whose projects require immersion into the specific environment of Marfa and Texas territory, and encourages the development of experimental research methods, diverse modes of inquiries and fieldwork practices.

The program comes with a research grant of 2000$, enabling the applicants to stay in Marfa for a two-months residency period and to unfold their research with the support of a series of professional partners and educational structures. The Fieldwork: Marfa research program is based on the idea that the residents develop their own research projects in relation to academic programs and curriculum of the two art schools involved.

The two European schools have chosen to build this program in Marfa because its location and context offer a very wide range of research opportunities. The program relies on a collaborative network of like-minded international art schools and universities, research structures, art institutions and cultural events (The Contemporary Austin, Marfa Book Company, Albuquerque UNM Art&Ecology department, The school of Art at the University of Houston, Center for Land Use Interpretation, L.A, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Le Grand Café, Saint Nazaire, and more).

Residents are selected on the basis of a research project in direct relationship with the context, through all its material, historical, epistemological as well as political dimensions.

The application must be submitted in English. A driving license is strongly recommended. Among the 6 chosen candidates, 2 are alumni of HEAD-Genève and/or Les beaux-arts de Nantes.

For more information about the program and application procedures please visit: http://www.fieldworkmarfa.org/node/8

"Emerging artists are encouraged with programs such as Fieldwork Marfa, the brainchild of two major European art schools, ESBA Nantes Métropole and HEAD Geneva. The international research-in residence program is dedicated to the practice of art in public space, critical approaches to landscape and artist projects intended for emerging artists, curators and researchers; six lucky artists are selected a year."

The full Travelmag.com article can be found HERE

"On Friday, April 4, curator Martha Kirszenbaum presented Fetish and Figure, a program of six films and videos at Fieldwork: Marfa, at the invitation of current research residents Pauline Beaudemont and Elise Lammer. Projected on the gallery wall in a continuous sequence were works by Kenneth Anger, Agnieszka Polska, Isabelle Cornaro, Shana Moulton, Ursula Mayer, and Michael Robinson. An episode of The Twilight Zone from 1960 completed the program, which ran for a total of 72 minutes." (...)

The Full review can be found HERE 

Etienne Chambaud and Vincent Normand are in Marfa to work on their current research project: La Nuit Sauve.

La Nuit Sauve intends to travel across the symbolic stratification of sites of knowledge or landscapes that have shaped the modern gaze projected on Nature, in which they have crafted physical or symbolical borders: a natural history museum, a biosphere reserve, a zoo and a desert. It will be composed of both a feature film and a book.

Our curator in residence, Elise Lammer started writing for 60 pages. You can now follow her West Texas adventures. First post on roadkill cuisine: Streetmeat and Highway Pizza!

Follow her here: http://www.60pages.com/furry-frisbees-in-texas/

Our two artists in residence, Pauline Beaudemont and Elise Lammer welcome curator and writer Martha Kirszenbaum for a special film screening at the Fieldwork: Marfa gallery space. 

"Fetish and Figure" brings together six films and videos by artists and filmmakers that address both the fetishisation of objects and the exclusive relation between the representation of objects and the body. Exploring the theme of "tableau vivant", this program challenges the presence of the human body that disintegrates, allowing objects to come to life on screen as the camera captures them. The proposed works share a common approach of feminine iconography constructed around sophisticated accessories - perfume bottles, enchanting jewelery and shimmering pieces of clothing - while questioning images of voluptuousness and consumption and, finally, reflecting on human solitude, existential melancholy and physical disappearance.

Program (approximate running time: 72 min):

Kenneth Anger, "Puce Moment", 1949, 16mm, 7 min
Agnieszka Polska, "Plunderer’s Dream", 2011, HD video, 3 min 56 sec
Isabelle Cornaro, "Premier rêve d’Oskar Fischinger (Part 1 and Part 2)", 2008, 2-channel 16mm transferred to minidv, 3 min 14 sec
Shana Moulton, "The Galactic Pot Healer", 2010, Digital video, 8 min 32 sec
Ursula Mayer, "The Lunch in Fur / Le Déjeuner en Fourrure", 2008, 16mm, 7 min 30 sec
Michael Robinson, "These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us", 2010, Digital video, 13 min
The Twilight Zone, episode “The After Hours”, 1960, 30 min

Martha Kirszenbaum is a curator and writer based in Los Angeles and Paris. She serves as the director and curator of Fahrenheit in Los Angeles and is the 2014 associate curator of La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France.

NEW RESIDENTS / Tomorrow we welcome our two first 2014 residents, Pauline Beaudemont and Elise Lammer. 

Reflecting their common interest in concepts such as non-site, spirituality, dreams and mystic phenomena, Pauline and Elise aim at drawing a cartography of Marfa's subconscious. Their idea is to conduct a field research both into Marfa's inhabitants' minds and Marfa's landscape. They will approach the town's onirism in a pseudoscientific and systematic way. This project follows up Elise's long term interest in animism and subliminal episodes, and Pauline's recent Master Thesis project, for which she explored the representation of dreams in visual arts.

Please join us this Wednesday February 19th at the Fieldwork: Marfa gallery for a screening of artists Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni new series of films. 

Fabien Giraud is a former resident of Fieldwork: Marfa and will be present to introduce this new body of works.

---

BASSAE BASSAE 
film 35 mm, 9 min, 2014 

THE UNMANNED - OOOO - THE AXIOM
Season 1, Episode 0, 26 min, 2014 

THE UNMANNED - 2045 - THE DEATH OF RAY KURZWEIL
Season 1, Episode 1, 26 min, 2014 

THE UNMANNED - 1997 - THE BRUTE FORCE
Season 1, Episode 2, 26 min, 2014 
 

--

FIELDWORK: MARFA GALLERY
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 19TH - 7 PM 
ALL WELCOME. DRINKS AFTER

http://www.theunmanned.com/

Opening on the 2nd of January: 

"Good Bye, I Love You"
Teaser and Lamps 
Work in progress
by Ceel Mogami de Haas & Vianney Fivel

Emilie Ding discusses her painting and sculpting residence at Fieldwork Marfa.

http://marfapublicradio.org/blog/talk-at-ten/emilie-ding-painter-and-sculptor-at-fieldwork-marfa/

Fieldwork artists in residence Ceel and Vianney invite you to a screening of the Opera Perfect Lives by Robert Ashley (1983, 173min).

Join us this Thursday November 21st at 8PM at the Fieldwork gallery on 212 E San Antonio St.

* Appetizer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1LWC39Ehm4

New Fieldwork: Marfa residents Ceel Mogami de Haas and Vianney Fivel invite you to a screening of Ed Atkins' "Death Mask 2 : The Scent" (2010 , 8min) and "Death Mask 3" (2011, 35min).
The projection will be at the Fieldwork gallery, 212 E San Antonio St, TONIGHT, Tuesday November 12th at approximately 8.00PM.

http://edatkins.co.uk/

New Talk at Ten on Marfa Public Radio: Fieldwork Marfa research directors, Yann Chateigné and Ida Soulard, join us with the artist, Elisa Larvego, to discuss the Fieldwork Symposium: “Borders Studies and The Limits of Things,” as well as Larvego’s work in the region.

> listen to the episode

220 candidates from 37 countries have applied this year for the Fieldwork Marfa residency program

The jury was composed by Jean-Pierre Greff (Director, HEAD – Genève CH), Yann Chateigné (Dean of the Visual Arts department, research co-director of Fieldwork: Marfa, HEAD  – Genève CH), Ida Soulard (art historian and research co-director of Fieldwork: Marfa, beaux-arts Nantes), Etienne Bernard (curator and director, Contemporary art center Passerelle, Brest FR), Julien Fronsacq (curator, Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Emmanuelle Chérel (art historian and teacher, les beaux-arts de Nantes FR).

Fieldwork: Marfa is proud to announce that the next researchers-in-residence, for the year 2014 will be:

• Marcos Avila Forero
• Pauline Beaudemont & Elise Lammer
• Amanda Beech
• Etienne Chambaud & Vincent Normand
• Luc Mattenberger
• Marta Riniker Radich

Fieldwork: Marfa invite you to the opening of
Salt Cedar, Elisa Larvego

Opening: Friday, October 4th, 6-8 pm
Exhibition from October 5th to November 4th 2013

The exhibition focuses on the way the border leaves its mark on the daily life of Candelaria's inhabitants and on their environment. With still photographs, videos and texts, it shows how this geographical line is separating the families and how it generates environemental issues.

FIELDWORK: MARFA GALLERY
212 East San Antonio Street
Marfa, Texas 79843, USA
(432) 729-1801

Elisa Larvego, Abandoned shirt on the way to the mexican border, Candelaria, Texas

> more information on SALT CEDAR, ELISA LARVEGO EXHIBITION AT FIELDWORK: MARFA GALLERY (pdf)

Borders Studies

and The Limits of Things

at HIGHLAND ANNEX

ADMISSION: FREE

09:15 am - OPENING

Pierre-Jean Galdin, Jean-Pierre Greff, Yann Chateigné, Emmanuelle Chérel, Ida Soulard

10:00-12:30 am

Cinema and Social Imaginary in the Mexico-U.S. Border BY Norma Iglesias-Prieto, Professor Chicana/o

Studies, San Diego University (US)

Various Arrests in and around the Big Bend Region, by Camel Collective/Carla Herrera-Prats, artist (us/MX)

Salt Cedar, by Elisa Larvego, artist (CH) >>>

Exhibition walk-through at Fieldwork: Marfa Gallery

02:00 pm

Questioning Border art: relational esthetics in conflictive place, by Anne-Laure Amilhat-Szary,

Geographer, Université de Grenoble (FR)

Dust Breeder, by Yann Chateigné, Head of the visual arts dpt, Head-Genève (CH)

Cemetery of the Unwanted, by Emilie Ding, artist (CH)

04:00 pm

Discussion

THANKS TO THE CROWLEY THEATER MARFA

FIELDWORK: MARFA annual MEETING#2 IS FOLLOW

BY THE OPENING OF SALT CEDAR , ELISA LARVEGO

AT FIELDWORK: MARFA GALLERY FROM 06:00 TO 08:00 PM

> DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROGRAM (pdf)

> more information on SALT CEDAR, ELISA LARVEGO EXHIBITION AT FIELDWORK: MARFA GALLERY (pdf)

Fieldwork: Marfa is pleased to welcome the new artists in residence, Camel Collective, with the artists Carla Herrera-Prats (MX/US) and Anthony Graves (US).
Camel Collective is the name under which Anthony Graves and Carla Herrera-Prats have worked since 2005. Through exhibitions and performances such as “The Second World Congress of Free Artists” at Casa del Lago, Mexico City (2013) “Howls for Bologna” at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst (2010), “A Facility Based on Change” at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2011), and “Una Obra Para Dos Pinturas” at the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan (2012), the group’s interest have centered on the problematics of labor, education, theater, and collectivity.

www.carlaherreraprats.com

http://vimeo.com/71000180

Fieldwork: Marfa Gallery will be closed from July 29 to August 15.

Thanks to the 220 applicants from 36 differents countries!

The call for application 2014 is now closed since the 1st July 2013.

Entry deadline for application: June 30th, 2013

Talk - Ida Soulard & Fabien Giraud at Marfa Bookstore

The Marfa Stratum is an ongoing project made of two distinct elements :
1) a series of scultptures speculating on the geological becoming of human formations in the region of Marfa (Texas) in the form of synthetically aggregated core samples,
2) a book unfolding the complex dynamics which have come to constitute this particular “human event stratum”.
 

This talk will present the state of our research at the term of our two months residency at Fieldwork Marfa.

It will speculate on an ever repeating Marfa: our present stuck in an infinite geological loop where Marfa rises and vanishes in an everlasting oscillation over millions of years. The conference will address the possibility of creating a map of this situation and ways to navigate through it.

Entrada was the term coined by spanish conquistadors of the 16th century and described by Charles Nicholl as a journey where “you left the margins, the settled, the known and made your entrance into that unmapped interior where just about anything was possible”.

In Marfa, the axiomatic monsters of the cartographies of Conquistadors are here replaced by neoliberal chimeras wandering in the immaculate oil innervated white cubes of art institutions. From the deflagration of cocaine infused dopamine in the brain of international curators to the cognitive erosion of the ecological crisis, our book will be both a grotesquely realist epic of neoliberal art and a practical manual to build escape vessels out of its stasis.

On Marfa Public Radio, Ida Soulard & Fabien Giraud in residency at Fieldwork Marfa
describe their latest sculpture and book project, Marfa Stratum.

> listen to the episode

NEW!!! Research Documents Show 

Wilfrid Almendra
Giles Bailey
Elisa Larvego
Charlotte Moth
Benoît-Marie Moriceau
Charles Stankievech
Tove Storch

> more informations (pdf)

Fieldwork: Marfa Gallery

open on Friday to Sunday

12am - 2pm 

4pm - 6pm

Entry deadline for application: June 30th, 2013
The thematic focus for 2014 is: "borders". On 6 candidates chosen, 3 are alumni from HEAD Genève and/or les Beaux-Arts de Nantes.

Residents are selected on the basis of a research project in direct relation­ship with the context, through all its material, historical as well as political dimensions.

For more information please visit: http://www.fieldworkmarfa.org/call-for-application-for-2014-residents

How to apply: http://www.fieldworkmarfa.org/applicationform.

Tomorrow the next step of the Living on the Edge series., this time with focus on the Drug War. “Americans are crazy about drugs” says federal public defender Liz Rogers from Alpine, Texas. She and her colleague, investigator Octavio Vasquez are probably the ones that knows most about this having to defend immigrants and “mules” – people carrying marijuana across the Mexican American border.

A starting point for this discussion could be last weeks guest, Enrique Madrid; “the war on drugs we know how to win it. You won it, I won it we don’t take drugs – right, no weapon can win this war” 

Joachim Hamou, Fieldwork: Marfa artist in residency is pleased to present you at Marfa Book Company the first session of Living the Edge  Talks, presentations on surveying, border control and critical geography  April, 11, from 6pm.

Enrique Madrid is a historian and activist living in Redford on the Mexican American border. On Thursday he will be presenting his concept of the United States of North America at Marfa Book Company starting 6 PM. His vision is to dismantling the borders of the whole North American continent. "The abyss between USA and Mexico is already filled by millions of inhabitants and this is the fastest growing region in North America. Now there are 20 million people living here but in 20 years there will be 50 millions. And no border patrol will be able to stop all those people crossing the border"

Big Bend is the name of the region in South Texas following the shape of the border with Mexico. On the Mexican side there is an equal bend just west of the first mentioned. Enrique points out that this is a region that is geographically, culturally and symbolically intertwined and he propose the region should be renamed The Great Big Bend.

Fieldwork: Marfa is pleased to welcome for 2 months: crystal am nelson and Joachim Hamou

Joachim Hamou (DK), lives and works in Copenhaguen, DK
crystal am nelson (USA), lives and works between the East and West Coast of the USA

> see the article Fieldwork Marfa researchers-in-residence delve into social issues, Coppola, 
by John Daniel Garcia, Big Bend Sentinel, March 21st, 2013

Joachim Hamou, crystal am nelson, and Vera Delebecque, Fieldwork: Marfa
photo by John Daniel Garcia

Coordination of the residence until July 2013:
Véra Delebecque (FR), alumna graduated 2012 of Nantes School of Art

- Le Monde, Emmanuelle Lequeux, 26 novembre 2012 (French)
- Les Inrockuptibles, Claire Moulène, 9 avril 2012 (French)
- Le Quotidien de l'art, Emmanuelle Lequeux, 16 mars 2012 (French)
- Big Bend Sentinel, Wilfrid Almendra, Coffield Park to get sculpture playground, basketball court, April 5th, 2012. By ALBERTO TOMAS HALPERN
- Marfa Public Radio, Talk at ten Emily Bovino, Februar 7th, 2012
- Big Bend Sentinel, Fieldwork Marfa launches international research in residence program, October 6th, 2011. By STERRY BUTCHER
- Marfa Public Radio, Talk at ten, October 3d, 2011

177 candidates from 36 countries from all over the world had applied to the call for applications last spring 2012.

The jury was composed by Yann Chateigné (Head of the Visual Arts department, Head Genève CH), Etienne Bernard (curator and teacher, les beaux-arts de Nantes FR), Emmanuelle Chérel (art historian and teacher, les beaux-arts de Nantes FR), Kathy Alliou (French Ministry of Culture), Sophie Legrandjacques (head of the Grand Café, contemporary art center in Saint-Nazaire FR).

Fieldwork: Marfa is pround to announce that the six researchers for the year 2013 are:

Camel Collective (MX/USA), live and work in New York, USA
Emilie Ding (CH), lives and works in Berlin, G
Vianney Fivel & Ceel Mogami de Haas (CH), live and work in Geneva, CH
Joachim Hamou (DK), lives and works in Copenhaguen, DK
Fabien Giraud & Ida Soulard (FR), lives and works in Paris, FR 
crystal am nelson (USA), lives and works between the East and West Coast of the USA

(It's hard to find a good lamp)

Charles Stankievech Fieldwork: Marfa researcher in residence

The electromagnetic installation HOMELAND SECURITY (It's hard to find a good lamp) is the latest fieldwork and publication by artist Charles Stankievech. The project emerges from his time spent as a researcher-in-residence at the Fieldwork: Marfa residency in the southwest border town of Marfa, Texas—a site famous for two reasons. On the one hand, Marfa was the home of Minimal artist Donald Judd and his long-term project the Chinati Foundation which houses his 100 aluminum boxes and Dan Flavin's epic six building light situation. On the other hand, Marfa has a 100 year militarized history, from a base established to stop guns being smuggled south during the Mexican Revolution circa 1910 to the current War on Terror and War on Drugs focus on Chihuahua (Mexico's most infamous state for drug cartels and violence) directly south of the town.

HOMELAND SECURITY consists of 36 electrifying fluorescent bug zappers suspended in a grid from the ceiling of the town's central public space—an enormous outdoor canopy. For two weeks (including the open-house weekend of the Chinati Foundation), during the dark hours of the night the lethal devices will fill the site with their blue glow and crackling sounds hinting at the paradoxes of security and beauty.

A small book presents the artist's typical associative matrix through his selection of images and texts from the related cultural field, ranging from archival letters to country music lyrics, from historic patents drawings to recent scientific studies. The book is co-published by Marfa Book Co. & Paper Pusher.

A Performance of Donald Barthelme's 'I Bought a Little City' in Marfa, TX (venue to be confirmed) and Tom/Lutz: Two Scenes in 1983

with Tanja Baudoin (Amsterdam), Giles Bailey (London) and Charles Stankievech (Berlin)

The preselectioned candidates will be informed by the end of  2012

The final selection will be published on www.fieldworkmarfa.org at the end of 2012

Fieldwork: Marfa is pleased to announce its first annual symposium, which will take place on March 14th and 15th at Crowley Theater in Marfa, TX.

> download the program (pdf)
> detailed program

The program is held by ESBA Nantes Métropole, HEAD — Genève
and Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
-
With the advise of SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain,
The Netherlands.

This meeting is conceived as an international research platform dedicated to the practice of art in the public space, critical approaches to landscape/borders and artistic projects based on field investigation methods. The program is structured around the presentation of specific projects developed on site by six artists in residence. Artists, teachers and writers from each school are invited to present their own research on complementary issues, contextualized there, in dialogue with the residents. A series of interventions by special guests will complete the whole program, which is intended to share these numerous practical and theoretical explorations with the group of students, as well as with and a broader audience.

The symposium is accompanied by two public events: on the first evening, the opening of the exhibition which will be held at Fieldwork: Marfa Art Space, presenting the projects of the first six artists in residence; on the second evening there will be a screening of the US premiere of the audiovisual show "The Mirage of History", preceded by talk with artist Rosa Barba (IT).

Participants: Wilfrid Almendra (artist), Etienne Bernard (ESBA Nantes Métropole), Jeroen Boomgaard (Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam), Emily Verla Bovino (artist), Yann Chateigné Tytelman (HEAD—Genève), Sean Dockray (The Public School, Los Angeles), Erin Elder, Nina Elder and Nancy Zastudil (PLAND, Tres Piedras, NM), Katharina Hohmann (HEAD—Genève), Elisa Larvego (artist), Johan Lundh (curator and writer), Eden Morfaux (ESBA Nantes Métropole), Benoit-Marie Moriceau (artist) Charlotte Moth (artist), Theo Tegelaers (SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain), Noura Wedell (ROSKY School of Fine Arts, Los Angeles), Frank Westermeyer (HEAD—Genève)

A HAMMER TO THE HEAD FOR TALK AT TEN 
By Emily Verla Bovino

In 1981, artist and writer Donald Judd signed his name to a German phrase he found on the wall of one of two artillery sheds at Fort D.A. Russell, Marfa, Texas. The phrase, translated in English, reads, "It is better to use your head than to lose it." In the two sheds, Judd would install the post-contemporary memory theatre, otherwise known amongst the cognoscenti as 100 Works In Mill Aluminum.  

On Tuesday February 7 and Wednesday February 15th, Talk at Ten on Marfa Public Radio (10 AM CST on KRTS 93.5 FM) will broadcast the first segment of a two-part series entitled A Hammer to the Head for Talk at Ten: On a Neuromorphic Architectonics of Narrative.

The program will include the broadcast of works by radio philosopher Gregory Whitehead and poet David Antin, with introductions by Emily Verla Bovino, a resident of Fieldwork: Marfa.  Segment one will feature Dead Letters, an experimental documentary by Gregory Whitehead produced in 1985.  Segment two will feature line, music, counterpoint, disjunction and the measure of mind, a talk by poet David Antin given at the St. Mark's Poetry Project in 1984 .

Image: Raimundii Llullii Maioricani, De Alchimia Opuscula Quae Seguuntur, 1548 

Benoît-Marie Moriceau, FR. Lives and works in Rennes, FR. 
Charlotte Moth, UK. Lives and works in Paris, FR. 
Tove Storch, DK. Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK.

Wilfrid Almendra, FR. Lives and works in Cholet, FR. 
Emily Verla Bovino, USA. Lives and works in La Jolla, CA. 
Elisa Larvego, CH. Lives and works in Geneve, CH.

and US premiere of Robert Smithson's "Breaking Ground: Brocken Circle/ Spiral Hill" (1971-2011) about his only earthwork still in existence outside the United States. Forty years after the completion of Brocken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971) in Emmen (The Netherlands), the film that land artist Robert Smithson had never been able to finish due to his untimely death, has now been completed as a video with support from Dutch partners and SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain.

We are proud to announce that the six first researchers to take part into Fieldwork: Marfa research program are:

Wilfrid Almendra, FR. Lives and works in Cholet, FR.
Emily Verla Bovino, USA. Lives and works in La Jolla, CA.
Elisa Larvego, CH. Lives and works in Geneve, CH.
Benoît-Marie Moriceau, FR. Lives and works in Rennes, FR.
Charlotte Moth, UK. Lives and works in Paris, FR.
Tove Storch, DK. Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK.

They have been selected among 151 applications from more than 30 countries.

Jury members:
Kathy Alliou, visual arts advisor for the French Ministry of Culture
Etienne Bernard, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for ESBA Nantes Metropole
Jeroen Boomgaard, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Yann Chateigné Titelman, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for HEAD-Genève
Zoe Gray, curator, Witte de With contemporary art center, Rotterdam 
Theo Tegelaers, senior curator, SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain, Amsterdam

ESBA Nantes Métropole is supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Consulate General of France in Houston, Texas.

HEAD–Genève is supported by Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva.

Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam is advised and supported bySKOR Foundation, The Netherlands.