The Avant-Garde Never Gives Up

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2011, an audio-visual installation and performance by Andrea Božić and Julia Willms

For this project, Andrea Božić and Julia Willms invited two painters, Yvonne Grootenboer and Emile Miedema, to re-produce a painting they had never seen. They painted it by listening to art historian Jan van Adrichem describe it in words. It took 7 hours to make this painting. Božić and Willms translated this intense live performance into an installation that re-creates the process.


The original painting was made by Asger Jorn, one of the founders of Situationism:  L'Avant-garde se rend pas,  made in 1962, is one of his Modifications (détournements) in which he took a painting found at the flea market by an  anonymous painter and painted it over. Ultimately, L’Avant-garde se rend pas is a painting made by two authors.

The Avant-Garde Never Gives Up is a derivation of the performance After Trio A by Andrea Božić, based on Yvonne Rainer’s minimal dance Trio A (1966) and No Manifesto (1965).  In After Trio A, two dancers are asked to learn the original Trio A dance phrase live in front of the audience during the performance, copying from the monitor on stage.

Portraits, a live performance in which two painters paint a painting they have never seen, listening to a person desribe it, is a derivation of the The Avant-Garde Never Gives Up made by Božić and Willms in 2012.

Duration: 2 Hrs 10 min

Tour: de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Metz (F), Galerie Obrist, Essen (D)



Concept, filming, editing and installation Andrea Božić and Julia Willms Painters Yvonne Grootenboer and Emile Miedema Speaker Jan van Adrichem Advice on the original painting Sven Lütticken photo Andrea Božić

The installation was made within the framework of the exhibition Genius Without Talent at de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam

Exhibitions:

- A World, GAM | Galerie Obrist, Essen, Germany, 2013

- 1917, Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France, 2012

- Genius Without Talent, De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2011