Today we wander, but stay focused on why we are here.
When we interviewed Maria Nordman in 2015 about her participation in FurkArt in Switzerland, she told us she traveled there twice, but each time was not allowed up the mountain because of snowstorms. In turn, she asked us if we knew Tjoba? Then she re-directed us to the heroic nomadic project at De Appel in Amsterdam (1981-82) where some time after we discovered a wonderful history outlining the framework of what it means to make art in public space. The archives of De Appel are a sacred portal to hidden worlds unseen by digital dwellers.
We returned to be inspired once again by this magical predecessor, find guidelines, follow her footsteps, and try to go beyond what happened before us. Not coincidentally, Tjoba in Malays means "let’s try". We didn’t expect to find more new information but came to meditate in silence on a bygone miracle. Just as the historical faithful have gone on pilgrimages for centuries. Hoping an inexplicable cure will free us from guilty sins.
Emphasizing the emergence and disappearance of dramatic moments where and when forces converge. Our sin remains to keep yearning for the miraculous and continue a search for what it means to be between dimensions. To become a vessel, a utensil to mentally travel and jump between different timelines and perspectives. Let’s end here with a handwritten note that we found in the archive (maybe Wies Smals, founder of De Appel in 1975).
“If the destiny of Art lies in absence and in nothingness, their disclosure promises the maximum of intensity. But to follow this praxis, what is it that materializes?”
(Quote from Germano Celant on Maria Nordman in Artforum March 1980)
Special thanks to Nell Donkers for the warm hospitality at De Appel Archives.
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