‘STICHTING NUTTELOOS’ WITH JULIA FISCHER AND OTHERS

Project proposal ‘The Never Used Church ’

Nutteloos is an artist collective focused on finding un-used spaces and transforming them into spaces for site-specific art installations. These spaces become an entrance in which to connect to the history of the site and to the community around. 

This project we want to realize in a church in the village Chateaugay in France. The reason we chose this specific church is because of its unique history. It was built in secret in the back yard of two sisters as a gift for the village, but because of the circumstances the authorities of the village never acknowledged the church building, and it was not officially consecrated. The few church activities that took place in the church had to be performed in secret. The church remains a sensitive subject in the village still after 200 years. 

This led us to a discourse on when is a church a church and how does a space relate to its use. 

We want to make an exhibition about ‘Traces’ in the church.

As a group we would like to take the chance of getting inspired on the location to realize an authentic site-specific project. The investigation on the spot is the central aspect in our working method.   

For us it is very interesting that the church never had an official religious purpose but that the community has found so many alternatives uses for the building. 
Two-hundred years of existence must have left physical evidence of activity in the church. We are eager to investigate the traces that are left behind. 
 
We will begin with documenting traces that catch our interest. We are planning to use the traces to create stories or emphasize certain qualities and characteristics.

We are not only aiming to find out more about the church’s history. We are also interested in exploring what the traces tell us and what happens if we try to form our own story from those traces. 

As a result we see a collective installation using the full potential of the unique space including different media such as sculpture, video, installations, drawing, interventions, and sound. 

The mayor of the village has agreed on letting us use the location in the period of 26th of July to the 15th of August. The participants of the project are nine students from different departments of the Rietveld Academie. 

The method of the Rietveld is to teach its students to work independently and to become autonomous artists. This is an initiative brought together by this spirit and as such it should be encouraged. It is an important step to take the initiative to form a collective in which we can work together towards future projects that could not be realized by anyone of us on our own. We are a group of very motivated and hardworking students and learning to realize a project of this size would be a very important step in our developments as artists.

For the project we need financial support to cover the costs of material and publishing. See attached budget.

Vincent Knopper (BK), Maria Gondek (VAV), Emilia Bergmark (VAV), Julia Fischer (Architecture), Tim Mathijsen (BK), Anne van Duren (BK), Rosa Sijben (BK), Sandra Christiensen (BK), Linn Hallstrom (VAV), Nadja Voorham (VAV), Ada Kruszynsky (BK) 

Stichting Nutteloos.