va dee natland sb?

Now the difficult part comes... so... what is Natland SB?

Natland SB is initiated in Bergen Norway and run by Hilde N (the director managing) and Sluik R (a disposable curator). The issues it exposes, items it presents are collected from their immediate surroundings.

Natland SB continues a thought and questions a quote made popular by German architect Mies van der Rohe: less is more. Natland SB agrees and suggests to add in this century: but how much.

Natland SB dismisses todays trend of a future recyclable and sustainable society as a modern indulgence to ease the soul. Natland SB investigates the decomposability of contemporary art forms meanwhile contributing to clarify the fact art is the only stable science humans have.

Natland SB started as an online gallery showing daily objects they and their neighbors want to get rid of at the communal waste facilities of a housing estate just north of Paradis. In this compound was conveniently enough already a nail in the wall. Natland SB simply started to hang the rejects on this nail, photograph and publish them.

Natland SB also organizes happenings like seminars and meetings of the rectangular table. Natland SB furthermore gets involved into other outdoor matters like a gallery on site or the temporary participation in so-called artistic dialogs.

One effect of the Natland SB activities is less visual rubbish around some places. This might be in the end the biggest contribution. Natland SB is without sorrows.

Vem er Sb Natland?

first manifest - afterwords

Question: Give me a towel to dry.

Answer: Here. It is a lot of dirty dishes... It happened as it could have. I am not sure the outcome is the same seminar i expected beforehand but the first manifest is now history. Could afterward consider to recycle the title into Natland SB less is more how much but Seminar or Natland SB but how less is much more Seminar or Seminar how much more but less is Natland SB and so on. It was revealing. It was also pretty organic and digestible. I can not speak for other participants but next to the the cigar of Mies van der Rohe one other thing grew during the day and that is the question what the size and value of a view is. A new way of thinking is actually a new way of thinking. It is not re-thinking old ways or the ways we are on now and obviously we need to switch, obviously... Focusing on a branch does not make any tree in the forest more outspoken... but it was a very nice gathering. It makes no sense to revisit the spoken words here. Everybody who was present selected and kept to their own. But one could say that situations and people were pretty much re-sized in the morning program. That cup is not dry.

Question: The cup is not clean. OK... there was an afternoon excursion organized as well?

Answer: Yes, despite the weather we circled the grounds around the galleri for an hour or two, more or less. Walking and talking, wandering and wondering. Outside, the words spoken and heard float away with the weather and it is, next to that, great to make in the argumentation a point by saying: look here (or there) that is exActly what i mean. Sadly we actually lost one or two persons during the walk but we also picked some ramsløk for the soup!

Question: biggest revelation or discovery?

Answer: That is something i noticed just before the dishes but maybe would have stayed unnoticed without the seminar yesterday: We live in this house exactly 2 years. And we never hovered it, electrically i mean. Somehow we thought it would make sense to do it now, just before leaving to the second manifest, and so we borrowed a machine and guess what: it has an eco button! I have a guilty conscience now that i just hovered the whole house turbo, ignoring it. Yes, do laugh but be aware i have the right brush in my hands to clean dirty mouths!

Question: NO! No wait, calm down, get off and don't get off the hook too fast. Explain the details this time. Clarify and metaphor it a little?

Answer: The simplifying truth is that the Bosch Exclusiv Casa 1400 W is a criminal machine! It is build by the suckers of producers on this planet as a way out, escape, to make the consumers responsible. It is in principle the same as what the Catholic church did in the middle ages with the indulgence, the remission of temporal punishment still due for a sin that has been sacramentally absolved. It is a planned kongsi, scam, of those who withdraw from the huge damage done. They force us to think: We have the choice to make changes! But why not to produce a ecological hoover in the first place or just not to produce? I have been a neatly functioning biodegradable vacuum cleaner for two years in our house without thinking about it and now i have a guilty conscience of doing the house with a noisy sucking turbo Bosch Exclusiv Casa 1400 W with a build-in bolt to go eco if i want??

Question: The towel is soaked.... tears!

( in the background: dishwater going down the drains drowning the sounds of the clock).

first manifest - prelude

Question: How much less rain than today tomorrow? What is going to happen? Is dropout F S correct when he describes it as if he will be missing fun but less fun than the super nice girl he is with or more like B B calling it a sophisticated holiday he is looking forward to have?

Answer: Rain is a divided sea or billions of little lakes if you want. It depends on your size if you can swim in it or not. I am a dishwasher maybe but certainly no soda machine in their leisure time... so everybody is equal and some are more equal than others. I am the only one who gives myself names but i can be fun to be around with for one day. Move on.

Question: What is a seminar and how does a Natland SB seminar work? What did you prepare for this event? What is the agenda?

Answer: A seed plot is what seminar actually means. So a ground to spread, fertilize and harvest and share the thoughts of those present. I do not think there is much difference between our NSB and those academics in that sense. We will definitely have the playground. We can be the landmine flowers.

Question: Nice?

I am the driver tomorrow of the semicar and i tend to go seemingly without a map or plan. No not seemingly at all. I do not have a map or plan. It is however a method that suits me. I would call it the optimal use of associative thinking, meaning a mental process of making associations between a given subject and all pertinent present factors without drawing on past experience. Free jazz of thinking. Including the hopping and jumping, falling and thumping. I am shaved.

Question: Yes?

There is 9 liters of fish soup on the stove but haven't checked if we have enough plates and spoons to eat it from. Got some extra bread and tea and coffee. Checked with the director managing the space today and there are enough chairs and even a video projector we can use. Thank you South Africa! There are 10 expected guests. Mainly master degree students from the local academy for architecture. Some of which I tutor through their exams. I catch them from the road a little after ten and we start with a visit to the nail in the gallery. That will lead to coffee and introduction of participants. I want to talk about me, Mies, apple and worm and now also evidently mention Polke. Before i am there we are already deep into the matters. I actually see my moderating as one long performance. I have to pump up. This is part of it. And i am as unpredictable as the weather. In the afternoon when it is dry and the sun comes through we go for a walk. A wander around and we see what we find. On that route i have some things hidden: confessions, words and images. Hungry and tired we return. Others can confess too.

Question: Ha, sounds like a Heimat film scenario! The title of the seminar has changed? It was Natland SB how much less is more Seminar 2010 and now it is Natland SB but how much less is more Seminar 2010??

Answer: Yes, i wanted to emphasize my need to get more closer to me and take a slight distance from you.

(in the background: full fat smelly simmering soup)

first manifest - expectations

Question: It is Thursday night and the days before the seminar were sunny and silent and smelly. Worried?

Answer: It will rain, thanks to X. Natland SB art Galleri can not really bother about the strike going on in the disposing world of nightmen. Less floorspace creates deeper views and the exposements are surrounded by sweet scents. Flies appear as permanent guests. I am not worried about the seminar but do search in my head for a deeper meaning for less. Silly? It is a first born and it needs cuddling. We live in a complicated world because of our ignorance. I do. I do not just aim for a flatter world. Not at all, just...

Question: Stuck? To sustain is to persevere or to suffer? What are you cooking? Did you check the plants?

Answer: Instead of making a program, a schedule, arranging the key, finding the pan, getting access, i made a walk this afternoon to the goldfish pond. Yes, this Allium Ursinum, these particular plants they sadly already flower. Meaning it's taste turns into smells... Sometimes in the process i begin to take the seminar serious too! I pick a film and start to analyze it, ha! For instance participant S P gave me this week a documentary to watch from which i learn that recycling is not only ridiculous but actually criminal. In the mind i decide hypocritically to prolong the time of some items around me. I am no less. The main character in that film says: it is not about right or wrong but we need a whole new way of thinking. I think this idea came to him while driving his car. He is Canadian. I forgive him for that too. Why should i mention his name? Also watched a documentary about Mies... will take back that remark about just form... some of his clever lines i will remember: one about proportions between things... often there is nothing but still there is a proportion... and: only flexibility (in architecture) has value... why is inevitable disappointment embedded in any visionary idea even when there are no expectations connected to it... I do not like martinis, but i share that one with him.

Question: Any last orders?

Answer: Sorry X but do not bother to come the 15th. We are flying!

Question: How much footprints less to walk to Lidéřovice?

(in the background: a clock still ticking, some items around seem to shine and smile more than they normally do, outside it is dark, but not for long)

first manifest - drops

J W, an expected contributor to the seminar, has send a message he is called for other duties and will not come. J W wrote following: Below is something from a wall in Brussels, seen last weekend. It seemed to me like it could represent a scenario for the seminar!

Natland SB asked for more and got from J W in return:

I offer this short extract from an essay entitled 
Digital Magic, Cybernetic Sorcery: On the Politics of Fascination and Fear by Stephen Pfohl, just published on Ctheory.net

"Everything begins magically in the electricity of communication. The sky crackles with lightning and the atmosphere changes. Oxygen bonds with hydrogen and tears stream down my cheeks. I get e-mail from you and my brain ignites. You keyboard your imagination in the direction of my mind and my spine tingles. Text messages spark suggestive ritual pathways between us as our genes tumble together, magnetized by the rhythms of a time belonging to neither of us alone. We toss and turn in waves of affect, intense but uncertain about what might happen next. Then, when trying to say what any of this really means, even our best words fall face down and flat.

Energetic transmissions loop between us, then reverse rhythm; first layering, then switch tracking, then again back to the flow. In this way we communicate, not by discursive language with all its grandeur and lack, but by synaptic pulsation and a rhythmic oscillation between what fascinates us and what makes us afraid. Here things are actualized in magical rituals of "song, tone, key, rhythm, timing, intonation, loudness, silence, color, odor, taste, touch, shape, gesture, facial expression, body posture, movement, displays, dance, drumming, clicks, whistles, sighs, cries, screams, mimicry, and play."

The whole essay is HERE

first manifest - open agenda

Till now about 12 people have confirmed their participation to the Natland SB how much less is more Seminar 2010 so it will happen this coming Saturday the 12th of June. Nobody is a stranger and everybody at least knows another. YOU are IN and Natland SB counts on you now. A new adventure starts:

The location of the seminar will be in and near the Natland SB art Gallery. So, if you travel from the centre you take for instance trolleybus 2 to the end. Where the Holy Grail is and the parking of KIWI supermarket at Birkelundstoppen. At the pedestrians crossing you follow the sign Natland SB into a small road which slightly goes up and bends left after a while and left again ending on a roundabout with a view. That is where you are expected around 10.30 on that morning. Somewhere along this road you will probably find the strategic moderator too.

For the start of the program an excursion to the Natland SB art Galleri is in the plans. From there it is just a question of continuance. Natland SB Seminar is an experiment but takes the tasks wittingly serious. It aims to be more than just another cup of tea but not that much more. In times of higher expectations the goals are lowered but our limits are aimless towards the sky.

The least: the Seminar is for free except for those who want or can contribute a small token; the suggestion is from 50 NOK up to what ever you carry. Reimbursement in empty bottles is also excepted. Natland SB's next activity is in Lidéřovice on the 24th. Natland SB has no idea how to get there at this moment.

Coffee, tea and some food will be provided. Furthermore: every initiative taken by you to make the Saturday not only sunny is very appreciated.

T P replied: I can bake some rundstykker if you want to.

first manifest - study material

backwards = forward / double hight = triple sight / maintanance of enemies / stupid = the new loud / less choice = more freedom / the less i do the more i am / contemporary = temporary / global = inter regional / hereafter = here now / capitol of Norway = Minsk / a bird twitters / ulay says: pirates pirate pirates / emotion = neglected intelligence / landmine flowers / i am fat / duchamp's silence = overrated / the world = flat / consumer = product / smaller = bigger / we = who / I want to be fat again / i am too sad to tell you / Ivanhoe = a communist / less = really less / strategic art = public science / i am a dishwasher / tilbake = back.

first manifest - commitments

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Monday, 31 May 2010 10:31:30
Von: X An: the disposable curator
Betreff: Re: We can not get in time to your breakfast....

Hi Ron!

Looks both interesting and quit a bit of fun. The questions you arise are very much both critical and interesting. If I understand the project, it is a seminar/workshop were we first of all meet, talk and exchange ideas and thoughts, but are to bring one hunted and failed work of art to exhibit and demolish. Reducing the number of things. Participate in the act of making less. A kind of a new type productivity, and poetic and political answer to a world so completely hung up in consumption that it without exaggeration is about to eat the hole potential future. I would very much like to part of such an act. I have quit a few things on my conscious :) It would probably be a very good idea to decompose them, recompose them, or at least make them into something like a fertilizer for rare flower, trees or other kind of natural growing structure.

About my agenda... It was 12th June? We expect our baby 14th, I participate on a exhibition in Oslo 10th, we are invited to a wedding the same day, let it rain

X - the artist

Monday, 31 May 2010 12:28 Ron Sluik wrote:

Ha X,

You are mixing up some things but i am happy, very happy, with your letter. The seminar is the seminar on the 12th of June. The art works disposal (or Hall of Shame) is (maybe) in October during B-OPEN. You have enough time to collect your rubbish. In between is the meeting around a rectangular table in Lidéřovice. So if you can not make it because of an opening on the 10th, wedding on the 12th and a baby on the 14th I invite you for my son's birthday on the 15th. He will be there 2.

R - the disposable curator

first manifest - clarifications

Answer: Who says that the title is too cryptic?

Question: That is what some say after reading the invitation for the seminar. Maybe to give some rough insight information of the research done with a sauce of spicy social anthropological arguments and plenty micro-macro statistics and graphics as proof.

Answer: Where to start? In Carnac? Again... architect Mies van der Rohe was the one to use the phrase " less = more " and mainly referring to form. The present situation of our society is however asking for much more less. In the near future the word less will have an extended meaning and most probably replace a silly word like recyclable. It has to. But that makes you immediately think about how much less it is gonna be, does it not? Will it be a happy degressing future or are we finally waking up and getting the job done?

Question: no kidding... actually sounds pretty serious.

(in the background: a clock is ticking, some children are playing, bicycle is passing, fine volcano ashes cover the ground and suppress the sounds in Natland).

first manifest - observations

'can I have a little bit more less tits' - more text

first manifest - experiments

'Dobler du høyden, tredobles utsikten' - more text

first manifest - mailing

-----Original Message-----
From: post natland [mailto:postnatland@gmail.com]
Sent: Mon 5/24/2010 4:28 PM

To: Y
Subject: would you be willing to send this to all Your readers?

*Natland SB art Galleri* is inviting to participate in the:
*Natland SB how much less is more Seminar 2010*
12 June - 10.00 - 22.00 - Bergen Norway.
(exact location will be revealed in a later stage)
Read more about it on Natland SB outdoor
activities. Host is the former contemporary artist Ron Sluik
Visit Natland SB art Galleri or contact us: postnatland@gmail.com


On 24 May 2010 17:38, Y wrote:
Hei Ron

The seminar info is a little bit cryptic for me, and i even know you a little bit.
Could you possibly give more detail, or is it all about how less is more- is this the conceptual framework for the seminar?
Who will be speaking?
I can make a post about this on X but I need a little bit more information.
Oh yes- I would love to participate as well. But I cannot make it until ten in the evening, A will be in B and I on my own with C.
But until C is back from D, put me up as a participant.

Cheers and see you soon
Y

Not much later Ron Sluik replied:

You make me smile Y,

No it is not cryptic at all but rather metaphoric maybe. Let's call it visual language. I always work like this and i always get away with it and that is for a long time now. I do actually believe that in my method more things are outspoken than in the genuine art historic review.

I am not a theoretician and see as any sane artist all things out there just as tools to use. I would have invited Marcel D and Joseph B but they are both dead and would not have come anyway. Please look at the attached picture: Funny i found this book yesterday behind KIWI and read, ha ha ! There is part of the answer! (click on photo to enlarge).

The way i experience art has maybe left us already during the interbellum period. Appel was still fun when he said: I do not paint i hit.

Senis Besmegenis promised to see if he could come and thought of taking Carla T. Hauser with him. Can not get through to David Hammons. Hirst would love to speak but i can not stand his voice. Mies van der Rohe was the first one to use the phrase 'less = more'. It is all in wiki.

We are living in a time changing. Boring part looks over and the devoluting part is ready to begin. But how much can we handle? How much less?

Hilsen, Ronnie the disposable curator of Natland SB art Galleri.

first manifest - participants

Natland SB how much less is more Seminar 2010 Bergen

...but those who do not take the following serious are not invited to participate anyway.

Natland SB art Galleri has nailed me to be the main host This event will happen on Saturday the 12th of June in Bergen Norway and takes more or less half of a day starting at 10.00 in the morning and ending at 10.00 in the evening.

The seminar is intended to be an intensive and interactive exchange of thoughts and views, tools, tips and methods. It might be some times academic relevant but in the mean time as easily disposable. The day includes lectures, viewings and a meal. It will include out- & indoor fieldwork and discussion & research to make us hungry enough. It aims to develop and enhance our mental resistance, multiply several mental tools which are worthwhile in times to come. I like to focus on emotion as a creativity and discuss our personal ethics within global forms, explore associative thinking, revalue our self-positioned bastions and introduce the true meaning of senism.

Participants have to be at least open towards Natland SB art Galleri activities. I dislike to waste the day on monologues of attack and defense (yes it is, no it is not) I intend to create a constructive playgrounds for the exploration of the temporary subjects which will pass.

As mentioned before there are no guarantees for the outcome or success of the seminar and it might feel like a day on the tracks with dangerous speeds, cross overs, unexpected side roads, new views and some dangerous blindfolded shortcuts but always with good spirit, a right sense of size, Duchampian enthusiasm and tolerance. But i warn you to make sure to get your piece of the cake.

The location will be at a later date revealed to the participants after their confirmation. There is limited space. Natland SB art Galleri takes responsibility for the selection. Persons interested are urged to contact as soon as possible. The conversation language will be second hand English.

Natland SB art Galleri is fresh and independent. The Seminar is for free except for those who want or can contribute a small token. The moderator is a moonlighter.

contact: postnatland@gmail.com

first manifest - announcement

NATLAND SB how much less is more SEMINAR 2010 IN BERGEN

With sincere pleasure and constructive senism Natland SB art Galleri organizes the first outdoor manifestation which will happen at a special location in Bergen Norway, Saturday 12th June 2010. There is not much to tell about it ahead. Just trust Natland SB. This seminar is open for all. There is however a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 16 participants. Persons interested are requested to email promptly (meaning: NOW) and await details.

contact: postnatland@gmail.com