And catch up with and follow important reflections on the future of art, cultural policy and democratic practices in Leipzig and outside it.
Some time ago, we introduced you to Pam (de Bahr) – a persona of artist maeshelle west-davies, who blurs the boundaries of the pop and the political. Whilst reflecting on the online interactions and staging forms of youth and young adults, she exposes our self-centered and pretentious behavior on social media.
But her work means more than social criticism or a merely online aesthetic experience, it explores the ‚social’ on the web, in the sense that she shares her experiences, and her reach and impact become less spatial. It’s art going online up to the social web sphere, with all its possibilities. „A trend, which is becoming more and more a part of the art world” – as she defines. According to the artist, this reality affects not only expression, but the relation with the public and also the forms of financing artwork – properly, how artists survive: “I remember about 10 years ago, someone asked if I was on ETSY. I shuttered at the thought. Now I know several artists who are pretty much exclusively selling online… and they aren’t hobby artists”.
But Pam becomes even more interesting for us, because she is still strongly connected to reality. Not only because the virtual is part of reality, or because she exposes our behavior in the passing forms from the physical to the virtual, but because she is a glocal Leipzigerin (in the broad sense of it).
Her experiment explores new ways for artistic expression (it is not only about display or reach, but interaction), tapping already the future of it, and therefore pointing to developments and to an environment, which open new challenges and possibilities for art itself. In other words, it is very contemporary and relevant.
Being Leipzigerinnen, Maeshelle and Pam, also have to deal with the very down to earth Leipzig’s changing reality, where artists are facing the consequences of the gentrification of a city (ergo of their working and living conditions), which they helped to build and enhance – a problem, actually, that is not exclusive to Leipzig.
During the congress + festival “Kultur | Standort.Bestimmung”, a project of the Initiative Leipzig + Culture, Pam will camp in front of the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (GZK), Karl-Tauchnitz-Straße 9-11, to join (in loco and online, on You Now) the conversations about current and future conditions for artists and art in Leipzig and in Saxony, in Germany and in Europe. As maeshelle west-davies states: “With public funding cuts and real estate prices rising, making it increasingly difficult for artists to afford studios, the topic of the future of art and how it’s funded is a valid topic. How it affects the work and the public, we have yet to see. Pam is camping out because she’s homeless. She’s the homeless artist turning to the net for exposure. They love her there!”
Meet Pam either in her tent, or on You Now, and don’t forget to follow the amazing program of Kultur | Standort.Bestimmung
YOU NOW Broadcast times (CENTRAL EUROPEAN TIME):
https://www.younow.com/PamdeBahr
Monday: 21 Sept. 7pm – 9pm
Wednesday: 23 Sept. 7pm – midnight
Thursday: 24 Sept. 7pm – midnight
Watch Friday around 7pm as she dismantles the tent and goes to galerie KUB.
Check for more details and up to date information on facebook.
If you’ve gotten already very curious, you can check the video below, where Maeshelle and Pam are so nicely introduced by Jason Joel:
