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Jan Ackenhausen
- Male
- London
- United Kingdom
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- Blog Posts (9)
- Groups (18)
- Photos (4)
- Photo Albums (2)
- Videos (1)
Jan Ackenhausen's Groups
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Mapping our minds
10 members
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THE DOCUMENT: TRUTH/FI...
7 members
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Raqs Media Collective ...
12 members
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From Camelot to Damascus
12 members
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Damascus; Narratives o...
11 members
Helllloooooooooo!!!
I am...
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Profile Information
- Age
- 26
- I am...
- In love...
- I have a website
- http://iwiwaa.blogspot.com
- Artistic Field or Interest
- Photography, urban theory, etc...
- Profession
- Student
- Artistic and professional experiences
- I could be a theatre technician, but instead I am a dweller and writer, interested in all kinds of expression in a (sub)urban context, border(line) activity and other controversial spaces in the Middle East and beyond. I mainly write for rekto:verso art review and I am member of the I Wish I Was An Arab collective.
Projects_ 1998 co-founder of GNARP video collective / 2005 I Wish I Was An Arab collective about cracks in urban networks, youth culture, ideology and borderline activity 2006 Sl*ts and Sh**khs: short documentary for De Bazaar about the ambiguity of religious and music channels on Arab satellite television; production: De Balie (Amsterdam, NL) / Everything you see on television is true: short introduction into the social relevance of Syrian television serials and the boundaries of censorship; production: NIASD (Damascus, SYR) / technical elaboration of the workshop and media-festival Connected, NIASD (Damascus, SYR) / Mindmapping the border: introduction lecture to contemporary art in Syria and Lebanon during the Wakha Wakha festival (Tafoughalt, MAR) / On public space and scenography: workshop developed for and conducted at the Lebanese-American University (Beirut, LEB) / 2007 [play-rewind]: performance-lecture about art production in wartime, for Scenofest-Prague Quadrennial 2007 (Prague, CZ) / Publications_ 2006 Denial: article about the visual implication of homosexuality in the streets of Damascus for GUS Magazine (BE) / Rutinas de un Día con Coche Bomba: article about the murder on Lebanese minister Pierre Gemayel for El Correo (ES) / 2007 Even op adem komen in Beiroet: on the Nafas exhibition in Beirut, for rekto:verso (BE) / Iedereen is het met me eens, maar ik kan niet zeggen wat het is: on censorship in Syria and beyond, for rekto:verso (BE) / Other_ 2007 construction of a “Bubble”-tent to be used for art events, for Citymine(d) (BE) / advisor for a thesis on the cultural institutional collaboration programmes between Flanders and Morocco, EHB/Rits (BE)
- Statement
- What makes a city a place? The urban planner? The highways? The museums, monuments, historical buildings? The people, the cars, pubs, parks? Its historical meaning? Having spent a considerable amount of time in Damascus and the Middle-East, has left me with more questions than answers. Reloading Images is one of the results of these questions.
For me, Damascus is a city of the past. The PR slogan “Welcome to the cradle of civilisations” only confirms the idea of Damascus as a “has-been city”. It is merely a memory of its once glorious past. But modernity has definitely had, and still has, a major influence on the city. Modernity as a concept.
Although Damascus is the capital of Syria, with nearly 6 million inhabitants, it is hardly a metropolitan place. Major urban interventions got stuck in their own grandeur. They have created a space of great conflict between the harmonious vision of traditional lifestyles and the coercion for modernity, as zillions of satellite dishes gaze at the sky. Unfinished grotesque projects lie side by side with historical monuments. The big concrete ruin of an unfinished mosque – looking like an abandoned car park – imposes itself on the colonial styled Martyr’s Square. Attempts to build a subway network have temporarily “stranded” and left the city with several big building pits and huge piles of sand.
But the city moves on. And so does a society. A great deal of Damascene life takes place on the street, as young people stroll the streets, hanging out with friends in parks and on street corners. It is where the city as a concept clashes with the city as a space: the concept vs. the real; the conscious city vs. the subconscious city. Modernity seems imposed. What is modernity in the first place?
- Research interests
- the city as a platform. Whenever the city or the space changes, the society changes with it. That is the rule of the city. The city does not provide for the people, the people provide for the city. They change their relationship to the space, they change their habits to the space, whenever the space changes. The changes of the space are always superficial: they reflect harmony, superficial beauty, they are conscious. The changes of society, as a reaction to the changing environment or space, are often unconscious, non-systematic, and unpredictable.
The city is a platform, space of opportunities. How does a strictly regulated city become a platform for young people, for artists, for a society? And how is the city's role as a public platform renegotiated in the process of history, modernisation, and “development”?
the imagined city. How does a place become a space; a city? Is it through its conceptualisation, its physical development, its geographical location, its imagination, its archiving? I suppose it is a bit of everything. I am particularly interested in the relation between the concept and the real, the imagined and the physical, the constructed space and the experienced space.
Something only exists when it exists in a photograph. The politics of the image in the construction of a space or a place is therefore very important. And the actual image or consciousness we have of a place can be influenced or altered through images. I suppose it won’t take long before today’s city marketing strategies will also invade Damascus. Maybe Damascus Cultural Capital is a first step. Or a second one, after the slogan “The cradles of Civilisations”. It contributes to the image of the city, and the actual image, the pictorial language used to describe the place, becomes more and more important; the city becomes more conscious of its own representation.
I want to look at the photographic consciousness of Damascus. How has the city been pictured, what has been shown (or not shown) of it, and what has it archived of itself, how was it visually represented throughout recent history? And how does this constitute the actual consciousness and image of a city, or the city of Damascus?
One of my focus points would be the photographic consciousness of Damascus. How has the city been pictured, what has been shown (or not shown) of it, and what has it archived of itself, how was it visually represented throughout recent history and today? And how does this constitute the actual consciousness and image of a city, or the city of Damascus? As part of this, I would look at its photographic history. I want to map out how the city took shape in photographic production, dealing with the issue of Damascus as a city. What material is available, why and what is its meaning in contemporary Damascus? How are images used, interpreted and accordingly destroyed or archived? And what are the alternatives to archive the city, other than the photographic practices found?
A first step might be looking at the subconscious image we keep of a place, where we live, or lived, or where we were born... What would be the earliest memory we have of this place, or what would represent it, specifically for Damascus?
- How did you end up with Reloading Images?
- I sortof invented it
Jan Ackenhausen's Photos
Jan Ackenhausen's Blog
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Architecture of the Future
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Architecture of the Future
PingMag 22 Dec 2008 Category: Architecture, Japan
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Architecture of the Future
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, an exercise in Metabolist architecture.
Once you arrive in Tokyo’s busy commercial district of Shimbashi, a short walk from the station brings you to a noisy highway overpass, and beside that the futuristic Nakagin Capsule Tow… Continue
PingMag 22 Dec 2008 Category: Architecture, Japan
Nakagin Capsule Tower: Architecture of the Future
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, an exercise in Metabolist architecture.
Once you arrive in Tokyo’s busy commercial district of Shimbashi, a short walk from the station brings you to a noisy highway overpass, and beside that the futuristic Nakagin Capsule Tow… Continue
Posted on December 23, 2008 at 2:18am —
Delfina Foundation
From the Delfina Foundation
Artist to Artist International 2009
Call for proposals from UK-based visual artists.
Visiting Arts in partnership with The Delfina Foundation are pleased to announce Artist to Artist International 2009. The 2009 scheme will introduce a geographic focus by inviting artists from across the Middle East and North Africa.
The programme provides an opportunity to bring together artists to i… Continue
Artist to Artist International 2009
Call for proposals from UK-based visual artists.
Visiting Arts in partnership with The Delfina Foundation are pleased to announce Artist to Artist International 2009. The 2009 scheme will introduce a geographic focus by inviting artists from across the Middle East and North Africa.
The programme provides an opportunity to bring together artists to i… Continue
Posted on December 19, 2008 at 7:24pm —
Signs of Conflict
Earlier this year the exhibition Signs of Conflict opened in Beirut during the Home Works festival. The exhibition tries to make sense of the visual language used during the Lebanese "Civil War", more specific the political posters use during the conflicts. This research was carried out by the American University in Beirut.
The collection of political posters is now available online, through the AUB Jafet Library.… Continue
The collection of political posters is now available online, through the AUB Jafet Library.… Continue
Posted on November 10, 2008 at 4:27pm — 1 Comment
Moving art underground
From NOWLebanon:
NEW Opinion
Moving art underground
Why the Ministry of Culture should step in and put this image back in an art gallery
November 7, 2008
American-Israeli playground featuring Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah alongside Christ on a… Continue
NEW Opinion
Moving art underground
Why the Ministry of Culture should step in and put this image back in an art gallery
November 7, 2008
American-Israeli playground featuring Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah alongside Christ on a… Continue
Posted on November 8, 2008 at 1:00pm — 1 Comment
memory of a city
I was thinking a few days ago of how I think back to my first visit to Damascus, in March 2005. The reason why I eneded up in Damascus was rather funny, as I initially wanted to visit a friend in Costa Rica. But when the flight turned out to be too expensive, the sales person at the travel agency friendly told me "with your budget you can go to Damascus". So I did, not having the slightes clue of where Damascus was, what to expect... Back then I was trying to get a job in Mexico; quite a differe… Continue
Posted on July 25, 2008 at 7:21pm —
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