SLOUGHT FOUNDATION 2008 Sixth Anniversary Annual Report Into the Open: Positioning Practice , U.S. Pavilion,La Biennale di Venezia (2008) Photo by Ryan Reitbauer/Duggal Visual Solutions A nonprofit institution founded in 2002, Slought Foundation ('Sl-aw-t') is internationally renowned for its cultural activities. Culture means more than just preservation or presentation to us; it means the exchange of ideas, the creation of concepts. We work with communities in intimate and participatory ways, exploring new forms of practice and belonging.
As a grass-roots institution, we value agility and the experimental dis - position. The name of our organization is derived from the word 'slough,' and gestures towards ecological metaphors of rejuvenation and rein - vention. In our first seven years, we have presented hundreds of exhibi - tions and educational programs internationally and in Philadelphia, operating at the forefront of curatorial innovation in North America.
Our recent selection by the U.S. Department of State to represent the United States at La Biennale di Venezia (2008) is an enormous honor for our small West Philadelphia organization, and recognizes a new spirit of community activism and inclusiveness across the country. In the ab - sence of major public and private support for organizations that chal - lenge conventional wisdom, the local site and cultural practice are becoming newly empowered. In Conversation with Braco Dimitrijevic’s “The Casual Passer-By I Met at 3.01pm, Philadelphia, April 9, 2007” (2007) Braco Dimitrijevic’s “The Casual Passer-By I Met at 3.01pm, Philadelphia, April 9, 2007” at the University of Pennsylvania (2007) About the Foundation
Slought Foundation ('Sl-aw-t') is a nonprofit organ - collaborations that enrich and expand our under - ization for the 21st century. Our mission is to high - standing of practice. Our planning process and pro - light inventive and interdisciplinary practice by gramming similarly emphasizes collaboration, collaborating with leading artists and architects in visitor interaction, and critical feedback as genera - an intimate and participatory environment. We en - tive principles, responding to concerns such as: courage new forms of sociability and activism How do cultures select what they mean by culture? through public programs that are purposely critical For whom and to what end do we protect, preserve and provocative; we invite audiences to consider and present culture in a globalized world? Can we criticality itself as a source of dynamism and en - mitigate conflict by promoting cultural dialogue and joyment. Rather than conceiving of our public as exchange? What should peripheral organizations homogeneous, we undertake each Slought Foun - aspire to in relation to the prevailing economic and dation project with the intent of establishing rela - educational focus of major cultural institutions and tionships with new and emerging publics. We seek funding platforms? Many of the individuals we to present a provocative curatorial agenda that re - present emphasize research as a fundamental com - sponds to the particular issues and challenges our ponent of their work, and they challenge us to re - communities face today, and we envision our ac - consider the politics of exhibition display and tivities as a bridge between different socio-eco - prevailing curatorial approaches by evading clear nomic and cultural communities. distinctions between artist, critic, and curator.
Our primary activities in our Philadelphia location Join us in exploring and generating new forms of are complemented by international projects in cities sociability and activism and share information such as New York, Berlin, Venice, and Paris. Our about our activities with friends and colleagues. cultural offerings demonstrate our commitment to Look for coverage of Slought Foundation in na - contemporary cultural life, and the importance we tional and international media. place on cultivating cross-cultural and institutional Exhibition Selections
2008 - 2007 Into the Open: Positioning Practice Official U.S. representation at La Biennale di Venezia, 11th International Architecture Exhibition, with assistance from the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the U.S. State Department Another Tomorrow: Young video art from the collection of the Neue Galerie Graz
The Day You’ll Love Me (El Dia Que Me Quieras) Che Guevara and the films of Leandro Katz NORTH Territorial Agency | John Palmesino, Ann-Sofi Rönnskog Power Fields: Explorations in the Work of Vito Acconci SWITCHER SEX: Video Works from the Teutloff Collection Peter Weibel, Patricia Piccinini, Landau Sigalit, Ju gren Klauke, Tracey Emin, et al.
Ecstatic Truth: Documenting Herzog 'Documenting' Werner Herzog, Beat Presser The Ways to Post History: A Braco Dimitrijevic Retrospective featuring The Casual Passer-By I Met at 3.01 pm, Philadelphia, April 9, 2007 German Video Art from the Kunstmuseum Bonn: Joseph Beuys to Today Joseph Beuys, Klaus vom Bruch, Jochen Gerz, Ju rgenKlauke, Imi Knoebel, Christof Kohlhöfer, Sigmar Polke, Mar - cel Odenbach, Carl Otto Paeffgen, Ulrike Rosenbach, Jan Verbeek SLOUGHT IN BERLIN / The New Epistemology William Anastasi, Arakawa + Gins, Gu netr Brus, Hélène Cixous, Braco Dimitrijevic, Fred Forest, et al. Art and Society: The Work of Fred Forest 2006 - 2002 Primal Secretions: A Gu ntreBrus Retrospective Guy Debord: 'The Arts of the Future will be radical transformations of situations, or they will be nothing' Tactics: Early Video Works by Dennis Oppenheim, 1970-1974 CONFLICT: Perspectives, Positions, Realities in Central European Art Marina Abramovic, Braco Dimitrijevic, Nebojsa Seric Soba, Michael Milunovic, Danica Dakic, Maya Bajevic, et al. Vera’s Room Maria Chevska, Hélène Cixous Comicology: The New Magical Real Marc Bell, Charles Burns, Dame Darcy, Kim Deitch, Anders Nilsen, Ron Rege, Jr. Hermann Nitsch, Die Aktionen : 1962-2003 The Revolt of the Bees, Wherein the Future of the Paper-Hive is Declared With the University of Pennsylvania Rare Books and Manuscripts Library Sun Ra meets Napoleon: Fragments of the Alter-Future Sun Ra, Giovanni Belzoni, Jean-François Champollion Arakawa + Gins: Architecture Against Death Non-Retinal: David Stephens’s Kovert Konflagration Kovenant Cities Without Citizens: Statelessness and Settlements Rosenbach Museum Holdings, Gans and Jelacic Architecture, Lars Wallsten, Katrin Sigurdardottir Détente: Russian Contemporary Art in Video Format Oleg Kulik, Leonid Tishkov, AES (Tatyana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovitch, Evgeny Svyatsky), Olga Stolpovskaya Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting / Oct 05 - Jan 11, 2003 Jasper Johns, Sol Le Witt, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Oskar Kokoschka, Josef Albers Into the Open: Positioning Practice , U.S. Pavilion,La Biennale di Venezia (2008) Photo by Ryan Reitbauer/Duggal Visual Solutions Featured Project:
Into the Open: Positioning Practice (2008)
The exhibition Into the Open: Positioning Practice, the official U.S. representation at the 11th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, was co-organized by Slought Foundation in 2008 and high - lighted the means by which architects reclaim a role in shaping community and the built environment, to ex - pand understanding of American architectural practice and its relationship to civic participation. The exhibition received over 120,000 visitors and was praised extensively in the international press, including The Herald Tribune and The Guardian .
Into the Open: Positioning Practice explored how architects, urban researchers, and community activists are meeting the challenges of creating new work in response to contemporary social conditions and ad - dresses factors challenging traditional methods of architecture, such as shifting socio-cultural demo - graphics, changing geo-political boundaries, uneven economic development, and the explosion of migration and urbanization. At the same time, it advocated for an expanded conception of architectural practice and responsibility. The sixteen practitioners included, all of whom actively engage communities in their work, demonstrated multifaceted responses to social and environmental issues.
Into the Open: Positioning Practice was organized by Slought Foundation, in collaboration with PARC Foun - dation, and with The Architect's Newspaper as media partner. It was presented by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. Educational Programming Selections
2008 - 2007 Beyond the Act: After the Biennale Emiliano Gandolfi, Teddy Cruz, William Menking, Aaron Levy
Blood Orgies: Hermann Nitsch in America Hermann Nitsch, Aaron Levy, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Osvaldo Romberg, Andreas Stadler, et al. Reversible Destiny - Declaration of the Right Not to Die: International Arakawa + Gins Conference/Congress Shusaku Arakawa, Madeline Gins, Dorothea Olkowski, Arthur C. Danto, George Quasha + Chuck Stein, Don Ihde, Shaughan Lavine, Shaun Gallagher, Stanley Shostak, Trish Glazebrook, James Harithas, et al. City Girls, Flappers, and Feminist Film Theory | Seminar by Laura Mulvey SLOUGHT A PARIS | la maison rouge, fondation antoine de galbert, avec Sciences-Po Hélène Cixous, Braco Dimitrijevic, Fred Forest, et al. FROM WORD TO ACTION TO ARCHITECTURE | Public Nuisance Vito Acconci, Annette Fierro, Liz Kotz, Alan Licht, Christine Poggi, Frazer Ward, Matthew Witkovsky, et al. Is there a world beyond media? Art as a rewriting program Peter Weibel On the Ecstasy of Ski-Flying: Werner Herzog in Conversation In Defense of Sloth: Eclectic and Entertaining Presentations About that Most Philosophical of Vices Katherine Carl, Brian Dewan, Brian Dillon, Daniel Rosenberg, Pierre Saint-Amand, et al. Democracy and Disappointment: Alain Badiou/Simon Critchley on the Politics of Resistance Conversations with Braco Dimitrijević's 'The Casual Passer-By I Met...' Screening the Avant-Garde Face | Seminar by Mary Ann Doane Samuel Weber on Networks, Netwar, and Narratives Samuel Weber, Catherine Liu, Peter Krapp, Eduardo Cadava Evasions of Power: Institutions Anselm Franke, Sarah Herda, David Kazanjian, Thomas Keenan, John Palmesino, Katherine Carl Honoring the Work and Person(s) of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe (1940-2007) Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Avital Ronell, Claire Nancy, Dennis Hollier, et al. 2006 - 2002 Slought Foundation 2006 Award for Rogue Thought Catherine Liu, Marjorie Perloff, Jim English, Avital Ronell, Gregg Lambert, et al. Cross-Catalytic Architectures with Cecil Balmond Cecil Balmond, Peter Lloyd Jones, Peter Davies, David Ruy, Jenny Sabin On Bareback Subcultures and the Pornography of Risk Tim Dean, Robert Caserio, Heather Love, et al. Film as Critical Practice: The Cinema of Guy Debord and the Spectre of the Situationist International Thomas Y. Levin, Keith Sanborn, Anthony Vidler
On Testing, Torture, and Experimentation: On The Test Drive with Avital Ronell
Cities: Public Seminar by Hélène Cixous Literary Honeycombs: Storage and Retrieval of Texts Before Modern Times | Seminar by Anthony Grafton ¡Zizek! and the Public Intellectual Craze Astra Taylor, Eduardo Cadava, Anne Norton, Daniel Dayan, et al. Hal Foster and Brigid Doherty on Body & Performance William Anastasi’s Pataphysical Society William Anastasi, Thomas McEvilley, Joseph Masheck, et al. The Politics of Mourning | In Conversation with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak My Lacan is Burning: Revisiting Jacques Lacan’s 'Television' Neurotic Cities: Barnes in Philadelphia A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture Rafi Segal, Eyal Weizman North (2001) by John Boskovich John Boskovich, Laurence Rickels, Catherine Liu, Gary Indiana Architecture: the Future of Memory | Lecture by Daniel Libeskind A Lacanian Plea For Fundamentalism | Seminar by Slavoj Zizek
Evasions of Power Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design (2007) Left: Vito Acconci in Conversation with students at Acconci Studio, New York
On the Ecastasy of Ski-Flying: Werner Herzog in Conversation with Karen Beckman (2007) Performance Selections
2008 - 2007 Polwechsel | Archives of the North Werner Dafeldecker, Martin Brandlmayr, Michael Moser, Burkhard Beins
Helmut Lachenmann in Conversation / Live Performance by JACK Quartet Ossatura Elio Martusciello, Fabrizio Spera, Luca Venitucci, with Ensemble Noamnesia Animal Junction Jungle Joe presents a mother and baby sloth, with "Honey" the kinkajou (from Winnie the Pooh), and "Oliver" the Eurasion eagle owl (largest owl in the world) 'Et tournment les sons dans la garrigue' | The Music of Luc Ferrari Vincent Royer, David Grubbs, with Ensemble Noamnesia Live Performance by Marek Choloniewski American Independents / Live Concert with Alvin Curran 2006 - 2002 Live Concert with Uri Caine Ensemble Noamnesia with Chao-Ming Tung/Wu Wei/Hong Wang VOICE SPHERE / ARCHITECTURE & DESIRE (for voice, glove, and live electronics) Franziska Baumann, Matthew Ostrowski Live Concert with Matthias Kaul and Ensemble Noamnesia Live Concert with Carl Stone Live Concert with Helsinki Trio Franz Hautzinger, Burkhard Stangl, Werner Dafeldecker, Didi Bruckmeyer Morphology / Face Shift: Live Performance by Elsenaar + Scha Live Concert with Prince Lasha Trio Prince Lasha, Odean Pope, Tyrone Brown, Craig McIver Live Concert with Henry Grimes and Marshall Allen Live Concert with Mat Maneri Quintet Mat Maneri, Tim Berne, Craig Taborn, Michael Formanek, Randy Peterson Interstellar Space is the Place: Concert with Marshall Allen, Rashied Ali Live Concert with Sonore Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustaffson Unplayable Music: Nancarrow for 4 Hands Live Concert with Ligeti/Björkenheim Poetry Engines and Prosthetic Imaginations Jim Carpenter, Bob Perelman, Nick Montfort, Jean-Michel Rabaté Live Concert with KOCH-SCHÜTZ-STUDER The Strange Case of Mademoiselle P: A Reading by Brian O'Doherty Chris Mann: dunno how to get there but wouldn start from here Live Concert with Sunny Murray Factor Sunny Murray, Khan Jamal, Sabir Mateen SEVEN VEILS (Poetry in Moving Media) Thalia Field, Jamie Jewett, Alexander Devaron The Social Mark: Poetry Readings Rodrigo Toscano, Jeff Derksen, Louis Cabri, David Buuck, Mark Nowak, Alan Gilbert, et al.
Power Fields: Explorations in the Work of VIto Acconci (2008) Left: Morphology/Face Shift: Live Performance by Elsenaar + Scha (2005) Publication Selections
2008 - 2007
Another Tomorrow: Young Video Art from the Neue Galerie Graz The young-and very youngest-positions in Austrian video art have been brought together in this publication in an ex - emplary summation of the work now being done in the field. Each work poses its own detailed question about how to make art amidst virtually uncontrolled consumerism.
Vito Acconci in Conversation at Acconci Studio, New York A conversation with artist/architect Vito Acconci and students from the University of Pennsylvania, exploring his engagement with the page, the streets of New York, galleries, and public environments. This DVD publication includes For Your Ears Only, a companion CD (40 min) featuring a selection of audio works. Democracy and Disappointment: On the Politics of Resistance A conversation between Alain Badiou and Simon Critchley addressing the politics of resistance, with a brochure featuring their recent philosophical writings about politics, heroism, and poetics. This DVD publication is accompa - nied by images of artist Jeremy Deller's The Battle of Orgreave (1991). On the Ecstasy of Ski-Flying: Werner Herzog in Conversation A conversation with filmmaker Werner Herzog and Karen Beckman about aliens as a fixture of our imagination, the fundamental achievement of the human race, and the ecastasy of ski-flying. This DVD publication includes a brochure with writings by Werner Herzog, and photographs from Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde by Beat Presser. Blood Orgies: Hermann Nitsch in America A critical examination of pioneering work by Viennese Actionist Hermann Nitsch, with photo and video documenta - tion of his ritualistic performances since 1962. The publication includes a complimentary DVD featuring Hermann Nitsch's Die Aktionen, 1962-2003 (PAL, 13 min). Featuring contributions by Adrian Daub, Lorand Hegyi, Susan Jarosi, Jean-Michel Rabate, Michele H. Richman, Osvaldo Romberg, and Dieter Ronte.
Tooth and Nail: Film and Video 1970-1974 by Dennis Oppenheim This DVD video and booklet features a selection of legendary film and video works by Dennis Oppenheim, in which the artist uses his own body as a site of experimentation on the personal. With contributions by Aaron Levy and Willoughby Sharp. SLOUGHT for Export | Publication Series A retrospective catalogue prepared for exhibitions at Heike Curtze Gallery in Berlin, ZONE:Chelsea Center for the Arts in New York, and la maison rouge - fondation antoine de galbert in Paris, documenting over 200 past perform - ances, public conversations, exhibitions, and publications by international artists and theorists who have realized projects at Slought Foundation since its inception in 2002. 2006 - 2002 Rrrevolutionnaire: Conversations in Theory, Vol. 1 Dynamic conversations about violence, mourning, and revolution in contemporary art and life, with Eduardo Cadava, Thomas Y. Levin, Jean-Michel Rabaté, Avital Ronell, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Anthony Vidler, and others. Edited by Gregg Lambert and Aaron Levy. Ex-Cities by Hélène Cixous Celebrated author and theorist Hélène Cixous explores in this new publication the relation of art and literature to cities and their destruction, in collaboration with Maria Chevska's installation "Vera's Room." With a special audio CD of the author reading and contributions by Jean-Michel Rabaté, Eric Prenowitz, and Aaron Levy. William Anastasi's Pataphysical Society Engages work by conceptual artist William Anastasi in relation to literary and artistic predecessors including Jarry, Joyce, Duchamp, and Cage. Artist Series. Essays by Thomas McEvilley, Steve McCaffery, others. The Revolt of the Bees Explores metaphors of the hive with an interdisciplinary approach that spans contemporary art, curatorial studies, and literary criticism. Essay by Anthony Grafton and Thomas Keenan, with a complimentary DVD video exploring an archive in disarray with Gary Indiana. Published with the University of Pennsylvania Rare Book Library.
C's Aesthetics: Philosophy in the Painting Explores the development of modernism and aesthetics through the work of postimpressionist Paul Cézanne in the analytical tradition of twentieth-century philosophical thought. By Joseph Masheck.
Cities Without Citizens Essays and visual documents engaging issues of citizenship, human rights, and the architecture of cities. Featuring essays by Gayatri Spivak, Giorgio Agamben, Arakawa+Gins, Eduardo Cadava, and others. Published with the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia. Of the Diagram: The Work of Marjorie Welish Essays about diagram and poetic form in relation to work by artist and critic Marjorie Welish, with essays by Kenneth Baker, Norma Cole, Carla Harryman, Bob Perelman, Frances Richard, Thomas Zummer, others. Study Program Selections
Slought Foundation offers a variety of curatorial study programs and pedagogical course offerings in partnership with the Departments of English and the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as other collaborating institutions in the Greater Philadelphia region. These courses combine critical theory and practice by providing students with classroom instruction about the theoretical issues involved in presenting contemporary culture and hands-on experience in realizing contemporary exhibitions, symposia, and publications. Through personal interaction with critics and curators, and studio visits and trips to galleries and museums, the students also come to understand the challenges and creative possibilities of the curatorial process. These class offerings are among the only undergraduate seminars of their kind in the country, providing students with opportunities to gain practical and theoretical knowledge about the process of curating at a leading contemporary arts organization such as the Slought Foundation. One example of these course offerings was the Fall 2007 Halpern-Rogarth Curatorial Seminar on the work of Vito Acconci in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, taught by Christine Poggi, and organized in conjunction with a Spring 2008 exhibition, conference, and publication at Slought Foundation entitled "Power Fields: Explorations in the Work of Vito Acconci.” The 2007-2008 RBSL Bergman Foundation Curatorial Seminar in the Departments of the History of Art and English at the University of Pennsylvania, taught by Aaron Levy, was a two-semester advanced undergraduate seminar that provides students with an intensive opportunity to participate in the curation of cultural programming at Slought Foundation. Over the course of the academic year, students actively contributed to the realization of a variety of projects including a campus-wide retrospective of Paris-based installation artist Braco Dimitrijevic, a conference on the cultural history of sloth and laziness, as well as publications on the work of Viennese Actionist Hermann Nitsch and DVD releases featuring Werner Herzog and Alain Badiou in conversation. Students in conversation with Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins at the artist and architect’s New York studio (2007) Democracy and Disappointment: Alain Badiou and Simon Critchley on the Politics of Resistance (2007) Slought Foundation Profit & Loss November 2007 - October 2008
Total Income Book Sales 19,726.29 Collaborative Revenue 23,694.46 Donations 134,461.74 Facility Rentals 600.00 Foundation Grant 225,326.00 Government Grant 90,000.00 In-kind donations 187,140.74 Interest Earned 74.59 Performances 150.00 Sale of Assets (Furniture/Equipment) 0.00 Ticket Sales 310.00 Total Income $681,483.82 Expenses Advertising 2,023.43 Bank Charges 983.87 Banquets and Meetings 36,192.31 Honoraria & Fees 35,670.42 Insurance 2,211.46 Legal & Professional Fees 880.00 Office Expenses 8,767.47 Postage & Shipping 52,269.37 Printing 52,516.84 Professional Development 53.88 Rent 10,161.00 Repair & Maintenance 4,257.48 Salaries 97,500.00 Services Rendered 236,417.54 Supplies 29,794.05 Taxes & Licenses 15.00 Telephone & Internet 2,936.60 Travel 29,350.08 Travel Meals 276.34 Total Travel $29,626.42 Utilities 5,000.00 Website 568.60 Total Expenses $607,845.74 Net Operating Income $73,638.08 Net Income $73,638.08 Board of Directors
Judith Stein Kira Strong Tom Lussenhop Abe Levy Aaron Levy Jean-Michel Rabaté Osvaldo Romberg
Advisory Board
Eduardo Cadava Dennis Oppenheim Lorand Hegyi Dieter Ronte
Staff
Executive Director: Aaron Levy Senior Curators: Osvaldo Romberg. Jean-Michel Rabaté. Aaron Levy
Coordinator: James Carpenter Assistant to the Director: Elyse Derosia, Laura Buck Publications assistant: Deborah Grossberg Architectural Consultant: Srdjan Weiss / NAO 2008 CEC curatorial fellow: Marko Stamenkovic
Volunteers: Stephen Donahue, Jeremy Butman, Karen Froehlich Interns: Ashley Thompson, Becca Starr, Jackie Backer, Meghan Clendaniel Young enthusiasts participating in Slought Foundation’s neighborhood outreach program (2007) Foundation Support
Generous support for Slought Foundation and the 2008-2009 season received from:
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Austrian Consulate General / Cultural Affairs Section Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State CEC ArtsLink Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Philadelphia Music Project, an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences 2007-2008
Additional grant support provided by:
Argosy Fund for Contemporary Music Foundation for Contemporary Arts Helena Rubenstein Foundation New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities Philadelphia Cultural Fund Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation Support for La Biennale di Venezia
Generous support for Slought Foundation and the United States representation at La Biennale di Venezia received from:
Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Benefactor Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts Robert Rubin and Stephane Samuel PARC Foundation
Special thanks to Duggal Visual Solutions for generous assistance in the design and fabrication of exhibition display materials
Sponsor Oldcastle Glass
Patron inSite San Diego/Tijuana Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Supporter Thornton Tomasetti FXFOWLE Architects Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects Abe and Pat Levy Perkins Eastman Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative / The Pew Charitable Trusts Samuel S. Fels Fund Larry Levy Weidlinger Associates Kartell Jack Stern Jack and Bea Morton Bernice Gersh Foundation Pilkington and Leggett Shimkin Foundation Michele Richman Deborah Levy Slought Foundation 4017 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3513
Slought.org | [email protected]
Ph: 215.701.4627 Fax: 215.764.5783