Tomorrow the next step of the Living on the Edge series., this time with focus on the Drug War. “Americans are crazy about drugs” says federal public defender Liz Rogers from Alpine, Texas. She and her colleague, investigator Octavio Vasquez are probably the ones that knows most about this having to defend immigrants and “mules” – people carrying marijuana across the Mexican American border.

A starting point for this discussion could be last weeks guest, Enrique Madrid; “the war on drugs we know how to win it. You won it, I won it we don’t take drugs – right, no weapon can win this war” 

Joachim Hamou, Fieldwork: Marfa artist in residency is pleased to present you at Marfa Book Company the first session of Living the Edge  Talks, presentations on surveying, border control and critical geography  April, 11, from 6pm.

Enrique Madrid is a historian and activist living in Redford on the Mexican American border. On Thursday he will be presenting his concept of the United States of North America at Marfa Book Company starting 6 PM. His vision is to dismantling the borders of the whole North American continent. "The abyss between USA and Mexico is already filled by millions of inhabitants and this is the fastest growing region in North America. Now there are 20 million people living here but in 20 years there will be 50 millions. And no border patrol will be able to stop all those people crossing the border"

Big Bend is the name of the region in South Texas following the shape of the border with Mexico. On the Mexican side there is an equal bend just west of the first mentioned. Enrique points out that this is a region that is geographically, culturally and symbolically intertwined and he propose the region should be renamed The Great Big Bend.

Fieldwork: Marfa is pleased to welcome for 2 months: crystal am nelson and Joachim Hamou

Joachim Hamou (DK), lives and works in Copenhaguen, DK
crystal am nelson (USA), lives and works between the East and West Coast of the USA

> see the article Fieldwork Marfa researchers-in-residence delve into social issues, Coppola, 
by John Daniel Garcia, Big Bend Sentinel, March 21st, 2013

Joachim Hamou, crystal am nelson, and Vera Delebecque, Fieldwork: Marfa
photo by John Daniel Garcia

Coordination of the residence until July 2013:
Véra Delebecque (FR), alumna graduated 2012 of Nantes School of Art

- Le Monde, Emmanuelle Lequeux, 26 novembre 2012 (French)
- Les Inrockuptibles, Claire Moulène, 9 avril 2012 (French)
- Le Quotidien de l'art, Emmanuelle Lequeux, 16 mars 2012 (French)
- Big Bend Sentinel, Wilfrid Almendra, Coffield Park to get sculpture playground, basketball court, April 5th, 2012. By ALBERTO TOMAS HALPERN
- Marfa Public Radio, Talk at ten Emily Bovino, Februar 7th, 2012
- Big Bend Sentinel, Fieldwork Marfa launches international research in residence program, October 6th, 2011. By STERRY BUTCHER
- Marfa Public Radio, Talk at ten, October 3d, 2011

177 candidates from 36 countries from all over the world had applied to the call for applications last spring 2012.

The jury was composed by Yann Chateigné (Head of the Visual Arts department, Head Genève CH), Etienne Bernard (curator and teacher, les beaux-arts de Nantes FR), Emmanuelle Chérel (art historian and teacher, les beaux-arts de Nantes FR), Kathy Alliou (French Ministry of Culture), Sophie Legrandjacques (head of the Grand Café, contemporary art center in Saint-Nazaire FR).

Fieldwork: Marfa is pround to announce that the six researchers for the year 2013 are:

Camel Collective (MX/USA), live and work in New York, USA
Emilie Ding (CH), lives and works in Berlin, G
Vianney Fivel & Ceel Mogami de Haas (CH), live and work in Geneva, CH
Joachim Hamou (DK), lives and works in Copenhaguen, DK
Fabien Giraud & Ida Soulard (FR), lives and works in Paris, FR 
crystal am nelson (USA), lives and works between the East and West Coast of the USA

(It's hard to find a good lamp)

Charles Stankievech Fieldwork: Marfa researcher in residence

The electromagnetic installation HOMELAND SECURITY (It's hard to find a good lamp) is the latest fieldwork and publication by artist Charles Stankievech. The project emerges from his time spent as a researcher-in-residence at the Fieldwork: Marfa residency in the southwest border town of Marfa, Texas—a site famous for two reasons. On the one hand, Marfa was the home of Minimal artist Donald Judd and his long-term project the Chinati Foundation which houses his 100 aluminum boxes and Dan Flavin's epic six building light situation. On the other hand, Marfa has a 100 year militarized history, from a base established to stop guns being smuggled south during the Mexican Revolution circa 1910 to the current War on Terror and War on Drugs focus on Chihuahua (Mexico's most infamous state for drug cartels and violence) directly south of the town.

HOMELAND SECURITY consists of 36 electrifying fluorescent bug zappers suspended in a grid from the ceiling of the town's central public space—an enormous outdoor canopy. For two weeks (including the open-house weekend of the Chinati Foundation), during the dark hours of the night the lethal devices will fill the site with their blue glow and crackling sounds hinting at the paradoxes of security and beauty.

A small book presents the artist's typical associative matrix through his selection of images and texts from the related cultural field, ranging from archival letters to country music lyrics, from historic patents drawings to recent scientific studies. The book is co-published by Marfa Book Co. & Paper Pusher.

A Performance of Donald Barthelme's 'I Bought a Little City' in Marfa, TX (venue to be confirmed) and Tom/Lutz: Two Scenes in 1983

with Tanja Baudoin (Amsterdam), Giles Bailey (London) and Charles Stankievech (Berlin)

The preselectioned candidates will be informed by the end of  2012

The final selection will be published on www.fieldworkmarfa.org at the end of 2012

Fieldwork: Marfa is pleased to announce its first annual symposium, which will take place on March 14th and 15th at Crowley Theater in Marfa, TX.

> download the program (pdf)
> detailed program

The program is held by ESBA Nantes Métropole, HEAD — Genève
and Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
-
With the advise of SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain,
The Netherlands.

This meeting is conceived as an international research platform dedicated to the practice of art in the public space, critical approaches to landscape/borders and artistic projects based on field investigation methods. The program is structured around the presentation of specific projects developed on site by six artists in residence. Artists, teachers and writers from each school are invited to present their own research on complementary issues, contextualized there, in dialogue with the residents. A series of interventions by special guests will complete the whole program, which is intended to share these numerous practical and theoretical explorations with the group of students, as well as with and a broader audience.

The symposium is accompanied by two public events: on the first evening, the opening of the exhibition which will be held at Fieldwork: Marfa Art Space, presenting the projects of the first six artists in residence; on the second evening there will be a screening of the US premiere of the audiovisual show "The Mirage of History", preceded by talk with artist Rosa Barba (IT).

Participants: Wilfrid Almendra (artist), Etienne Bernard (ESBA Nantes Métropole), Jeroen Boomgaard (Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam), Emily Verla Bovino (artist), Yann Chateigné Tytelman (HEAD—Genève), Sean Dockray (The Public School, Los Angeles), Erin Elder, Nina Elder and Nancy Zastudil (PLAND, Tres Piedras, NM), Katharina Hohmann (HEAD—Genève), Elisa Larvego (artist), Johan Lundh (curator and writer), Eden Morfaux (ESBA Nantes Métropole), Benoit-Marie Moriceau (artist) Charlotte Moth (artist), Theo Tegelaers (SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain), Noura Wedell (ROSKY School of Fine Arts, Los Angeles), Frank Westermeyer (HEAD—Genève)

A HAMMER TO THE HEAD FOR TALK AT TEN 
By Emily Verla Bovino

In 1981, artist and writer Donald Judd signed his name to a German phrase he found on the wall of one of two artillery sheds at Fort D.A. Russell, Marfa, Texas. The phrase, translated in English, reads, "It is better to use your head than to lose it." In the two sheds, Judd would install the post-contemporary memory theatre, otherwise known amongst the cognoscenti as 100 Works In Mill Aluminum.  

On Tuesday February 7 and Wednesday February 15th, Talk at Ten on Marfa Public Radio (10 AM CST on KRTS 93.5 FM) will broadcast the first segment of a two-part series entitled A Hammer to the Head for Talk at Ten: On a Neuromorphic Architectonics of Narrative.

The program will include the broadcast of works by radio philosopher Gregory Whitehead and poet David Antin, with introductions by Emily Verla Bovino, a resident of Fieldwork: Marfa.  Segment one will feature Dead Letters, an experimental documentary by Gregory Whitehead produced in 1985.  Segment two will feature line, music, counterpoint, disjunction and the measure of mind, a talk by poet David Antin given at the St. Mark's Poetry Project in 1984 .

Image: Raimundii Llullii Maioricani, De Alchimia Opuscula Quae Seguuntur, 1548 

Benoît-Marie Moriceau, FR. Lives and works in Rennes, FR. 
Charlotte Moth, UK. Lives and works in Paris, FR. 
Tove Storch, DK. Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK.

Wilfrid Almendra, FR. Lives and works in Cholet, FR. 
Emily Verla Bovino, USA. Lives and works in La Jolla, CA. 
Elisa Larvego, CH. Lives and works in Geneve, CH.

and US premiere of Robert Smithson's "Breaking Ground: Brocken Circle/ Spiral Hill" (1971-2011) about his only earthwork still in existence outside the United States. Forty years after the completion of Brocken Circle/Spiral Hill (1971) in Emmen (The Netherlands), the film that land artist Robert Smithson had never been able to finish due to his untimely death, has now been completed as a video with support from Dutch partners and SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain.

We are proud to announce that the six first researchers to take part into Fieldwork: Marfa research program are:

Wilfrid Almendra, FR. Lives and works in Cholet, FR.
Emily Verla Bovino, USA. Lives and works in La Jolla, CA.
Elisa Larvego, CH. Lives and works in Geneve, CH.
Benoît-Marie Moriceau, FR. Lives and works in Rennes, FR.
Charlotte Moth, UK. Lives and works in Paris, FR.
Tove Storch, DK. Lives and works in Copenhagen, DK.

They have been selected among 151 applications from more than 30 countries.

Jury members:
Kathy Alliou, visual arts advisor for the French Ministry of Culture
Etienne Bernard, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for ESBA Nantes Metropole
Jeroen Boomgaard, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Yann Chateigné Titelman, Fieldwork: Marfa research program manager for HEAD-Genève
Zoe Gray, curator, Witte de With contemporary art center, Rotterdam 
Theo Tegelaers, senior curator, SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain, Amsterdam

ESBA Nantes Métropole is supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Consulate General of France in Houston, Texas.

HEAD–Genève is supported by Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva.

Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam is advised and supported bySKOR Foundation, The Netherlands.