CÉLINE MANZ

Animated extract of the chapter ‘Partheneia’ on top of the still life “Panaches de mer, lithophytes et coquilles“ 1769 by Anne Vallayer-Coster (Paris 1744 - Paris 1818), Louvre. Direct link:www.celinemanz.com/partheneia.

Temporary presentation of the ongoing project that was shown during the OPEN STUDIO at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris on 7 September. The installation "Cento" revolved around fragments of my master dissertation with the same name at the Royal College of Art in London, Contemporary Art Practice - Critical Practice and featured several text fragments of said dissertation - including a shortened chapter in form of the website above -, a case study, as well as the series "Nues" that conisted of a diashow, prints, polaroid, light installation and holographic fabrics.

During my ongoing residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris I am reproducing a text through walking. The project is inspired by Paul Auster’s novel „City of Glass“, where a private detective secretly follows a linguistic professor who is walking patterns through the streets of New York, which, when transcriped from a map, recreate letters.

In hommage to Boris Vian I use the method described by Auster to reproduce the two pages from Vian’s controvertial novel „J’irai cracher sur vos tombes“ that led to the famous law suit that ultimately played a role in his early passing. The work will be gathered on a website later in the year.

According to the legend, Boris Vian and publisher Jean d'Halluin met in Paris in 1946 to discuss an offer for a book. An admirer of Henry Miller's, the editor asked Vian to write a story in the likes of 'Tropic of Cancer'. Vian, taken by this proposal, agreed under the condition to make it a bet, vowing that he could write a best-seller in no more than two weeks time. And indeed, Vian wrote 'J'irai cracher sur vos tombes' (I shall spit on your graves) in a fortnight during a vacation in August and published the book under one of his many pseudonym's names: a fictional African-American writer called Vernon Sullivan. Due to the erotic nature of the text the editor advertised it as a “novel which the Americans didn't dare to publish” and that was presented to the French audience thanks to the translation by Boris Vian. In a twist of fate similar to that of Miller's, Vian was sued in early 1947 by the “Cartel d'action sociale et morale” because of the novel's 'obsenity' - with a looming conviction of twenty years in prison and 5000 Francs in fines. The lawsuit was initated by a protestant architect named Daniel Parker – who was previously also responsible for banning Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' in France. As a reaction to the lawsuit, Vian would write a second Sullivan novel, 'Les morts ont tous la même peau' (The Dead all have the same skin), the very month of his prosecution. Its protagonist was a triple murderer that went by the name of Dan Parker. The book was published in 1948. After an annotated edition of Vian's 'I shall spit on your graves' was found lying next to the cadaver of a woman who was the victim of a crime of passion, Vian was facing a conviction as a “murder by proxy”. Although he previously privately admitted being the novel's author, he now had to publicly deny authoring Vernon Sullivan's books. To make his case more credible, he hastily edited some English texts which he claimed to be the 'originals' that served for his 'translation'. The not-authorship was believably established and, in 1947, the prosecution suspended. With the release of the bill of amnesty of 1947 an investigating judge advised Vian to make use of the bill to finally admit his authorship in public. Which he did, under the wrong assumption that he could no longer be liable for the novel. Meanwhile Daniel Parker and his 'Association to defend morality' were waiting for the English translation of 'I shall spit on your graves' to be released to take back the stage with another lawsuit. With success; the novel was banned in 1949 and Vian was sentenced to pay a compensation that far exceeded the income he gained from his sales. Unable to pay the fine, he had to sell all his copyrights on the book. In the subsequent years, many adaptations of his novel were made, most of which against the will of the author. The one he rejected the most was a film adaption by Michel Gast. During the process of production the author vehemently fought the producers who, in his opinion, utterly failed in their interpretation of the original material. Having lost all his copyrights, the only remaining possibility to distance himself publicly from the project was to insist on his moral rights -which legally forced the producers to remove his name from the credits. When the film hit the theatres in 1959, he was suffering from complications caused by a live-long heart weakness and at first refused attend a screening. It is said that it was his friends that made him change his mind and attend the premiere. While the opening credits were still on, Vian suffered a heart attack. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, at 39 years old.

Limited edition of 8 unique photograms on the occasion of the London Open 2018 at Whitechapel Gallery. Waxed oak frames in size 42 x 29,7cm and UV glass, costum made by the Frame Factory in London.

Series of case studies that investigate issues around legacy and copyright in digital age.

Website including the research here

Images: Kunsthalle Basel, courtesy of Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt, photos by Nici Jost.

(Autoplay does not work on Chrome since the April 2018 update)

Part of

deuxpiece presents: SCREEN_by ADA W. POTTER: 5 NEWSLETTER / 5 WEEKS / 5 ARTISTS - Aida Cheng (CN/USA), Esther Hunziker (CH), Céline Manz (CH), Jessie Stead (USA) & Daniela Brugger (CH).

Ada W. Potter's project SCREEN_ [ "screenspace"] is an email-based art "space" that produces monthly artworks, sent/received via email. Each participating artist creates a unique artwork for each installment. Email recipients are asked to subscribe. This opt-in structure is meant to elicit an engaged audience and help the project avoid spam status. Subscribe here

Link video

Comission for the group show "Chäs u Chole" at Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland.

"Chees and Coal. A photographer from Gondiswil, Johann Schär (1855–1938) 3 x 3 contemporary approaches. David Elsener, Nicolas Fernandez, Matthias Gabi, Nina Haab, Urs Mannhart, Céline Manz, Valerio Moser, Nele Stecher, Maria Ursprung.

Stately farms, beautiful cows, proud cheese makers, youngsters and cheerful women picking berries in the forest – Johann Schär's photographic documentation of a sedate rural life at the beginning of the 20th Century has no comparison in its density and quality in Switzerland. The documentation of the coal surface-mining in and around Gondiswil is unique and gives an impressive testimonial of this rare activity of mining in Switzerland.

For the first time, Kunsthaus Langenthal presents an overview of Johann Schärs's (1855–1938) work. Over 4000 glas-negatives, historic prints, album and postcards were secured, researched and digitalized by Fotobüro Bern.

The exhibition was curated by Markus Schürpf (Fotobüro Bern) and will be accompanied by an extensive catalogue that will be published on 18 March 2017.

Under the title «3x3» the Kunsthaus invited nine artists and writers to approach the photographs by Johann Schär from a contemporary perspective and react to them with a new work." Source: Website Kunsthaus Langenthal

Episode for RietveldTV

Based on some of Hitchcock's notorious scenes that subverted the 'Hays Code' and an artist's trials and tribulations to make the perfectly legal piece of appropriation art.

Details taken from screenshots of online museum catalogues which are not allowed to show reproductions of artworks from their own collections due to copyright limitations. Commissioned work for the 100th issue of the Dutch Art Magazine Tubelight. With interview.

Website Original habitat

Html, Google Street View, digital collage

Contribution to the Pictures Generation issue of Metropolis M Magazine. Based on Sherrie Levine’s Statement from 1982, including plagiarized quotes by Sherrie Levine, Sarah Charlesworth and Barbara Kruger. Samples of interviews and artist statements given between 1981 and 2016:

THE TRIANGULAR NATURE OF DESIRE

I worked for many years using images from popular culture, but never related to the word ‘appropriation’. I'm not interested in stealing images. I want to know what this strange world of images is that I live in. This is why I deconstruct images, take them apart, to find out what they're made of, how they function and how they picture the world for us. A symbolism is attached to particular images, becomes marked in the unconscious. So I abstract objects that socially carry a strong emotional charge or symbolic significance. The arrangement of images is loaded in many different ways which allows multiple interpretations. The viewer completes the act of interpretation. It allows even contradictory interpretations. To me, a picture is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture. To exorcise it, to rearrange it, to reshape it, to make it my own, involves unearthing it, describing it, deploying it in form, and then rearranging it. Casting my world back into the given world. It’s like a reformulation of language, a recreation of a new metaphor. I'm interested in as many layers of meaning as possible. The more you know, the more meaning and the more history can be brought to bear on it. Ergo the viewer is very, very important. He is the tablet on which all the quotations that make up an image are inscribed without any of them being lost, so to speak. I did a lot of commercial art for money and freelance illustration stuff when I was younger, so I do understand how magazines work. I use images drawn from that culture because I see in each piece an interface between my personal subjectivity and a given world. Being socialized within similar constructs of myth and desire, it is not surprising that most people are comforted by popular depictions. Sometimes these images emerge as ‘semblances of beauty;’ as confluences of desirous points. We have seen that pictures and words have become the rallying points for certain assumptions. There are assumptions of truth and falsity and the narratives of falsity are called fictions. In most design work, received images and words are arranged and aligned to produce assigned meanings. I am engaged in rearranging and realigning these dominant assignments. The idea is to broaden the discussion, not to narrow it. The idea of multiple images and mechanical reproduction fascinates me. When I first started to work as a commercial artist, I was really interested in how advertisers dealt with the idea of originality. If they wanted an image, they'd just take it. It was never an issue of morality; it was always an issue of utility. There was no sense that images belonged to someone; all images were in the public domain and as an artist I found that very liberating. I just imagined that they're mine. Over the years, I've come to the conclusion that copyright and so-called intellectual property is a euphemism for corporate control in so many ways. But don't get me wrong. I believe in copyright. I do. But it's been taken to such lengths. So much of our sense of art history is based on copies, fakes and forgeries. I think of originality as a trope. It's not that I don't think that the word ‘originality’ means anything or has no meaning. I just think it's gotten a very narrow meaning lately. What I think about in terms of my work is broadening the definitions of the word ‘original’. Sometimes when things are almost original they can be as disturbing. When it is close, but not the same, as the original, in my mind, there's a different kind of tension. The pictures I make are really ghosts of ghosts; their relationship to the original images is tertiary, that is, three or four times removed. I like to celebrate doubt and uncertainty. To provoke answers but don’t give them. To withhold absolute meaning by incorporating parasite meanings. As far as the visual presentation goes, I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty. A lot of people are like me: they have relatively short attention spans. So I shoot for the window of opportunity. Whatever power, whatever affect the images have, works on its own. A new work should have as much aura as its reference. The tension between the reference and the new work doesn't really exist unless the new work has an auratic presence of its own. It's all about what the work makes you think about. Somebody would say, ‘They’re really awful but come to think of it, they’re really beautiful.’ A picture's meaning lies not in its origin, but in its destination.

STUDIO 47 is a collective reflection on property and ownership in digital age initiated by Céline Manz. The studio’s activities are complemented on the website studio-47.org. For information on the program please contact us here

STUDIO 47 originates from a coalition with the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Foam and De Appel and is part of the 3Package Deal, a program supported by the AFK and Bureau Broedplaatsen Amsterdam.

STUDIO 47 PRESS is the publishing platform of STUDIO 47. The publisher’s program solely consists of works that are the result of an artistic appropriative practise. The publications are printed in small editions and available as free PDFs on studio-47.org/press.

8 artworks and the corporate logos of their respective owners.

Series of physical and digital Logo-Reproductions of artworks that are the most representative pieces in the corporate art collection they belong to. A Logo-Reproduction is a technique that uses the corporate logo of a respective artwork owner as a digital brush. The reproductions are made on the occasion of the exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Netherlands Association of Corporate Art Collections – VBCN. Presented both on wall-filling advertising banners and a website, the BANNERs were juxtaposed with the original artworks that served as their models. The work is based on statistics made by the winners of the VBCN Open Curatorenprijs, Alix de Massiac and Vincent van Velsen. The exhibition united the most representative and the most exceptional art works from 29 Dutch corporate art collections. Exhibition views showing "Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken: Jeroen Henneman - Koningin Beatrix" and "AMC: Wouter van Riessen - Narcissen" made by Konstantin Guz.

Catalogue accompanying the installation BANNERs - 8 artworks and the corporate logos of their respective owners.

Free download of the full publication.

Collaboration with Xavier Fernandez Fuentes.

Handout.

Improvised dance piece superposed with a live sound performance created by two laptops which were connected via Skype, recorded at Banana Beach in Tel Aviv in May 2014.

Collaboration with Israeli dancer and choreographer Yuli Kovbasnian.

Banana Beach is a variation on the "Interference" piece we repeatedly performed in Tel Aviv earlier in 2014.

Commissioned work for the Dutch Art Magazine Metropolis M for the issue Nr 3 2014 - Summer of Love & Hate: Tribute to Ed van der Elsken.

After Ed van der Elsken's 'Beethovenstraat 1967'

Courtesy of Metropolis M

Enter here for free download.

In collaboration with Xavier Fernandez Fuentes .

"What, they seem to be asking, can one do after all has been displayed, when provocation becomes conformist? Sisley’s milk-fed version of porno chic may just lead the way out of the rut and into a new season. It’s got all the subversion, with ironic, wholesome, goodness to boot" - M.K.Hoffman on Sisley's 2001 campaign 'Hungry for love' shot by Mr. Richardson.

"Terry's a really cool guy. There's something very beautiful, very raw about it and I'm glad that there is a photographer out there that does work like that." — Noot Seear, Model

44 ColorWave poster prints in DIN A1

Nominated for the Gerrit Rietveld Award in Fine Arts 2013

Art - Das Kunstmagazin: Interview 06.05.2014

Limited edition, 25 copies.
Thesis, Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam. Practical tips when working with appropriated images, including an introduction on copyright, frequently asked questions about the notions of “copy” and “originality”, a chapter with case studies, a checklist and a list with further links.
Click here for the thesis essay "What do you know about art, you're not a lawyer".

Aude Debout, graphic designer, and Annelies Lesuis, lawyer specialized in copyright.

1 hour 28 minutes 04 seconds of clapping, webcam performance.

Video and audio installation.

Extract. Reflection on how an alternative history of Cinema could have looked like without the Hays Code.

Title inspired by Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s essay on photography and postmodernism. First reflections on gender representation in photography.

Photographs under hypnosis.
Rietveld Uncut is an annual happening at the Brakke Grond Art Center in Amsterdam. Each department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie is invited to contribute a project. The 2011's edition theme was the living object. Taking the photographer's ambition to "photograph the beyond" by word, I asked a hypnotist to hypnotize me during the opening and convince me that I was able to photograph the invisible.

The Rorschach Tableaux are Inspired of Roland Barth's Essay "Camera Lucida", in which he describes his unability to -literally - recognize himself on photographs. These 4/5 inch analog portraits were abstracted in the darkroom. Following the principle that photography is a highly subjective medium, the viewer is invited to create his own projection on the person portrayed.

Extract from a series of photograms made with objects which belonged to my grandparents. Both of them had the habit of keeping whatever could be re-used again. When clearing their flat we found an extensive collection of neatly stored everyday objects; used wrapping paper, buttons, corks, elastics, nails, etc. I felt very attracted by these little objects which told my family's story over many years. Before throwing them away I used a part of this collection for an abstracted photographic review. By lightening the photographic paper indirectly with mirrors, glass and punctual lights, the photograms don't show their imprints but just their reflections.

Experiment.
Three photographs a day, all uploaded before midnight, dealing with the double meaning of the french word "vanité" (meaning both vanity and vanitas). As the capacity of free websites is limited, the project ended the day no further pages could be added.
Enter here.