Comedian Elena Gabrielle is back with a bang in her new comedy show "Ok!?" where she challenges her audience to answer one simple question - are you okay? Are WE ok?! Run time approx 60-75 minutes. Not sure what to expect, watch one of Elena's stories on Youtube: www.youtube.com/elenagabrielle🥳
To those who have no time to play
Description
'To those who have no time to play', is the largest solo exhibition by the Amsterdam-based artist Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya), curated by Charles Esche. In keeping with her previous work, the exhibition involves many collaborators, from Kyrgyz textile workers and recent migrants to the Netherlands to musicians and writers.
The exhibition
To those who have no time to play is structured around four elements, each with its own unique architecture. These are two yurts, a dome, and a stage where there will be occasional live performances. The works take viewers from Amsterdam to Bishkek, and via St. Petersburg back to Amsterdam again.
On the stage in Framer Framed, we see hanging dresses singing Antigone Update, a new version of the Greek tragedy Antigone written by Gluklya with Matras Platform. Antigone Update will be performed live during the exhibition opening on 13 October. Matras Platform is an informal mixed group of migrants and travellers from around the world living in Amsterdam; Gluklya initiated the group during the COVID pandemic.
The Red Yurt introduces the stories and artworks of women textile workers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, operating under harsh conditions at home for the export trade to Russia. The dome resembles a melting snowball, inside which videos show the annual 1 May protests in Gluklya’s birthplace of St. Petersburg. The artist recorded these protests from 2017 to 2019, since then, the Labour Day demonstrations have been banned.
The small yurt is an intimate space to read the diaries of Gluklya and Murad Zorava written during their stay in the former Bijlmerbajes prison in Amsterdam Zuidoost, when it was used both as an artists’ incubator (broedplaats), and an asylum centre.
Although conditions in Bishkek or St. Petersburg might seem far removed from Dutch society, bringing these different social and emotional geographies together through art emphasises their connections. It is impossible to ignore the many disasters looming on the horizon: the climate crisis, extreme social inequality, the war in Ukraine and the harsh working lives of people supplying cheap goods to Western high streets. Gluklya relates it all in a surreal landscape, where humour appears unexpectedly. She takes us on an associative journey through global abuses, whether forced labour and migration, economic exploitation or abuse of power.
Exhibition opening
The exhibition opens on the 13th of October (19.00-21.00). At 20:00, there will be a live performance in the context of the exhibition.
The exhibition can be visited between 14 October – 22 January 2023.
Supported by
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap; Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst; Stichting DOEN; Stadsdeel Oost; Van Abbemuseum.