Ouunpo Ouvroir d’Univers Potentiel Saturday, 23 January 2010, Rome.

Ouunpo

Ouvroir d’Univers Potentiel

Saturday, 23 January 2010

2:00-6:00 pm

MACRO, via Reggio Emilia 54

Please join us for the first meeting of the newly founded Ouunpo, taking place in Rome. You’re more than welcome to enroll in one of the following sections, or just drop in while the meeting is in progress.

Share ideas with Oounpo members Meris Angioletti, Daniele Balit, Yane Calovski, Cecilia Canziani, Jacob Dahl Jürgensen, Adrienne Drake, Mark Geffriaud, Raimundas Malasauskas, Darius Miksys, Jacopo Miliani, Daniela Paes Leao, Samon Takahashi, Stephen Whitmarsh!

Creation

is the first and most important section. New methods of experimentation are discussed, with descriptions and examples, and Ouunpo members will talk about new ideas for projects. A constraint can be presented by one or more Oounpo members. Many constraints can also generate complements, variations, renovations.

Rumination

is the section in which possible, ‘not yet worked out’ projects are examined. Here, ideas of new constraints are discussed, though they are still not developed enough to produce a work and, consequently, to be part of the previous section.

A part of the ruminations are also reflections on fundamental oulipian notions: constraint, potential, etc.

Erudition

is a conversation about works by non Ouunpo members. In this section works that were created before the existence of Ouunpo are presented. The authors of these works are called “plagiarizers by anticipation”.

It is not unusual that an erudition, after discussion and adaptation, leads the workshop towards one or more creations.

Action, past and Future

features Ouunpo activities around the globe. All actions that have been staged outside of the workshop (public lectures, commissions, etc) are recalled and discussed in order to be evaluated and to list the next scheduled or interventions.

Small Talk or Gossip

Well, that’s straightforward enough!


Notes:

Oounpo is the final step in If you don’t want god you’d better have a multiverse, an itinerant project which explores the concepts of time, space and the role of subjectivity. The project intends to address art as place where these concepts can be translated into form and become the location for interplay between artists, curators, academics and the public.

Ouunpo is a play upon Oulipo: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (“workshop of potential literature"), a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, while other notable members include novelists Georges Perec, Italo Calvino and Hervé Le Tellier, poet Oskar Pastior and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud. The group defines the term 'littérature potentielle' as: "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy."

Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration. As well as established techniques, such as lipograms and palindromes, the group devises new techniques, often based on mathematical problems such as the Knight's Tour of the chess-board and permutations. Oounpo works in the same way, though its primary concern is visual art.

If you don’t want god you’d better have a multiverse is produced and organised by 1:1projects in collaboration with Vision Forum and KSM Linköpings Universitet, Sweden.

Partners Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; press to exit project space, Skopje

Supported by KSM Linköpings Universitet, Danish Arts Council, Mondriaan Foundation