For the Enacting Populism show at the Kadist Foundation, Foundland presents a video installation and accompanying publication entitled: “Simba, the last prince of Ba’ath country” as part of an on-going investigation into pro-regime propaganda images, which are created by the Syrian Electronic army and distributed on Facebook and social media. We are interested in tracing the digital content and context of the original stock images transformed by the Syrian Electronic Army, in order to better understand the way propaganda rhetoric is created and understood. We consider our investigation as artists and researchers a contribution to the fantastic work and endless energy which is being invested by activists around the world in the struggle against the Syrian regime.

Foundland’s video installation is a playful re-interpretation of stock images before these images became used for propaganda, sketching a placeholder-rife political visual landscape.

While President Assad maintains that mysterious “armed groups” are responsible for the widespread killing of civilian protesters in his country, he can only prove this by showing reporters images of the perpetrators. Meanwhile Western media, although not allowed to enter Syria, report that Assad has in fact hired armed gangs to shoot at protesters for the purpose of photographing them in action. A powerful and ruthless regime is obliged to be media savvy in a time when it’s resilient and fearless citizens maintain the power to report events through social media to the rest of the world. Finding out the “truth” behind what exactly is happening becomes a complex investigation of eye witness accounts, rumours, confessions and lies. Foundland member, Ghalia Elsrakbi closely followed the events of the Syrian uprising through the Internet and personally experienced her Facebook account transform into a battleground of political opinion and a vehicle for propaganda, both pro and against the Assad regime.

For the Impakt festival’s “Free State” exhibition, at Academie Gallery in Utrecht, Foundland presented an entirely fictional narrative of perseverance and protest, based on a personally selected archive of Internet evidence related to the present situation in Syria.

photographs by Pieter Kers for Impakt Festival

Click here for full story, presented at Mediamatic, 4 May 2011.

Extracts and observations on Facebook during a national uprising.

“The “profile picture” was used as the most evident way to align Facebook users with a political side. Users could emphasise their alignment with the regime by posing on their profile as Bashar al-Assad himself, or as the supporting the resistance, often indicated with the use of images of famous Syrian leaders from the past. The flag, took on a specific symbolic and dynamic meaning as a profile picture. Changing elements like an enlarged red stripe indicated recent violent activities. The flag became a moving barometer and illustration of current unfolding events.”

A publication with texts by Lauren Alexander, Clare Butcher, with extracts from David Blom (Oom Bolo) and Charles Nkosi.

This publication forms part of the Cardboard Monument project, carried out in Soweto, Johannesburg from January until March 2011. It reflects on the significance and impact of community driven activist public art, using the Cardboard Monument project as a case study.

Book concept and design by Foundland.

Copies of the White Elephant are available on request by email: lauren@foundland.org

Funded jointly by the Dutch Art Institute and Mediafonds, Amsterdam

The White Elephant publication was launched on 6th July 2011, as part of the “IT TAKES MORE TO STOP US” event at the Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem, The Netherlands. The poster illustrations are silkscreened and available in 3 colour versions just as the covers of the publication. The typographic illustrations are derived from the sign writing work of Victor Mofokeng, executed as part of the Cardboard Monument project.

OUT NOW! Cover and visual essay published in December 2010 issue of Open Cahier on art and the public domain.

Text and visuals by Foundland

For the December issue of Open magazine, we chose to develop a series of visuals which investigates the connection between reality TV and populism in an international context. We present a speculative set of power playing cards as visual investigation. The idea of combining playing cards, political branding imagery and that of reality TV, refers to the fleeting way in which strategies are ‘played’ to momentarily win public popularity. The full text will be available for download on our website soon.

Foundland was invited to create the visual identity for “Enacting Populism“, an on-going research on the possible relationships between art practices and populist aesthetics. A year long project which includes presentations at Extra City, Antwerp, a residency at Air, Antwerp and exhibition curatored by Matteo Lucchetti to take place in 2012 at the Kadist Foundation in Paris.

The concept for the visual identity is to visualise the world according to the populist. Populist politicians are reknowned for their clear and emotionally driven messages which can often lead to widespread popularity of sensational and generalised ideas. We visualise their strategy of articulating the enemy, whether that be the elite, immigrant, or leftist politican. We contribute to Enacting Populism by exposing the logic of antagonism.

See blog: www.cardboardmonument.net

Cardboard Monument is an on-site public intervention on Walter Sisulu Freedom Square, in Kliptown, Johannesburg in South Africa. An existing monument was built in this square in 2000, and intended for entertainment/ educational use by locals, but which in reality is only primarily visited by foreign tourists. Cardboard Monument is a cardboard replica, and outdoor events platform built in collaboration with Funda Community Art College, used as performance, debate and hangout spot, between 3rd and 6th March 2011, it is an artwork sculpture in its self. The public intervention will be followed by a documentation website and publication. This project is kindly funded by the Mediafonds and the South African National Arts Council.

COMING SOON in 2011

Greyland is a concept for an alternative, virtual zone for stateless people; people who cannot return to their homeland. It offers this, by claiming a virtual, online territory, for the purpose of research and visualization of findings.

In collaboration with Rosie Heinrich

Foundland presented their recent research on populism and its relation to reality-tv and celebrity culture at Ignite Amsterdam 2.

Foundland was invited by Mediamatic to participate in a research, exhibition and publication project about Amsterdam North. 22 artists and designers from Arabic countries as well as from Holland spent time in Amsterdam North this summer. Amsterdam North suffers from a bad reputation in the eyes of Amsterdammers. Despite the rapid gentrification of North, it is still the home of many of Amsterdam’s far right wing voters. Mediamatic, together with a team of Arabic designers created the first Arabic tourist guide for Amsterdam North, which distributed with the Parool newspaper. (click here for the result) It is an tourist guide for Amsterdam North written in Arabic and Dutch including artist’s interventions.

Foundland was inspired by the visual codes of Arabic travel books, where mapping is less about marking terrain and more about locating the miraculous. The Girl, the Pot and the Frog is a multi-layered installation presented at the exhibition at Mediamatic. We show a collection of findings related to magical and sublime moments: including an arrangement of magically enlarged found objects from public space and inhabitant’s gardens in North, a series of photographic images and a peep hole collection of architectural wonders.

Read an interview with us about this project.

The April/May 2010 issue of HTV de IJsberg has the title: An artist’s guide to the galaxy: This issue explores artworks which have a resemblance to science and the work of science, which is close art.

With special editorial assistance of Daan Noppen
Contributions by among others: Collectie Huis Marseille, Jan Fabre, Irene van der Mheen, Elias Tieleman, Sieger J Duinkerken and Simon Faithfull.

Should artists’ works pick a political side in the upcoming elections or do they stand above all sides? By hacking or commenting on messages of policital parties, do you generate attention for the object that’s commented upon thereby risking misinterpretation?
What forms of art interventions are the most effective in public campaigning?

Foundland organised an evening of discussion, together with a workshop, coinciding with the Dutch municipal elections. We used existing political campaign materials donated by parties, to create artistic interventions, which we posted back into public space. The participants were artists and designers as well as psychologists, activists and comedians.

The campaign including posters, seed packets, workshops and lectures, subverts historical quotes and changes their meaning- to be about gardening for example, was executed in public space end February 2010, to counter the political campaigning before Dutch local elections.

for more: www.sunshine.foundland.org

A dialogue between Ghalia Elsrakbi and Lauren Alexander, in the form of a comic book. Two separate personal stories, one told by Lauren from South Africa, and one by Ghalia from Syria (read from the right in Arabic). In the centre of the book is a transcribed dialogue, with the central question: “Why do we insert our own personal story, and sometimes our own image, into our artwork?”

Commissioned by Nieuwe Vide Gallery, Haarlem for the Body Double exhibition

This issue of HTV de IJsberg had the title:
POLEMIEK: Post-propaganda

In collaboration with artist Jonas Staal
Contributions by among others: Merijn Oudenampsen and Daniel van der Velden

New years greeting card 2010
For Kosmopolis Denhaag

A campaign exposing the use of stereotyped images, as found in public advertising spaces in Amsterdam.

Video stills: Taken from the documentary “I have something to hide” by students of the Sandberg Insituut 08.

We were invited by Atti Democratici, an Italian based inquiry into the relationship between art and democracy, to design a poster for their project communication. The project proposes a geographic interpretation of the theme thanks to the designers’ different cultural and political backgrounds.
In collaboration with Lungomare, Bolzano

“Internet als Middelpuntvliedende Kracht”

The internet as a central influential force

The emergence of web2.0, and TV programs such as Idols, marks the arrival of a  new marketing trend. It is called “consumer generated content” and diverges from the traditional monopolist branding practices.

We can see the same marketing techniques at work in the domain of politics. In the Netherlands we have seen the emergence of ‘de Nieuwe Politiek’, or Politics 2.0, which is to be found in both in the established parties as in the new populist ones. We have seen the media and the web breaking the bounds and changing the rules of politics as expert administration, the rise of populism has forced politicians to adopt more popular formats, language and practices, importing mostly American techniques.

Poster design & presentation at
KNWA conference VOX POPULI
In collaboration with Merijn Oudenampsen

We created a new visual identity for Bureau Jansen en Jassen, a research bureau who investigate amongst other things, the activities of the Dutch police force, and the Ministry of Justice.

Caché – Exposé researches Dutch detention and deportation centers. These centers are built in obscure and hard to reach places on the outskirts of towns. The project included documentary-like footage taken in these camps, particularly considering the view from inside through typically black gauss windows. Also part of the project was a map of Holland which exposed all of the locations, and the routes to arrive at these usually undetected detention camps.

More info: www.cache-expose.net

Visual inquiry into forms of protest in the Netherlands, specifically related to the connections which exist between immigration and politics. The results were presented during the “Democracy in Action” exhibition in the Atrium, City Hall in Den Haag, September 2009.
In collaboration with Jonmar van Vlijmen and Eutopia

During the “Zichtbaar afwezig”project of the Stedelijk Museum. We created a programme, whereby children at the Fons Vitae Lyceum in Amsterdam would be able to take home the artworks (reproductions) of the Stedelijk Museum.

Children photographed these by means of a disposable camera, the results can be seen on the project website: SIMH

A research based project investigating the role of images as they are used in NGO direct mail. Through interviews and investigative research in co-operation with NGO’s and advertising agencies, I compiled my story into a comprehensive direct mail package- with a 1,3 meter long guilt letter, complete with accept giro/ donation cheque attached and a promotional pamphlet.

The growing discussion on the migrant identity confronted me with my own identity and my relation towards the Netherlands. The suppressing and bureaucratic immigration policy that confines, limits any personal development in the country that you live in, cooperate in and work in for years, made me and the numerous people in the same position despair. The discrepancy between being Dutch on the one hand and being legally shut off on the other I have tried to show with this project. It thereby raises the question what is it that makes you Dutch? Is being Dutch dependent on the possession of an official document? Is it dependent on where you reside? Where you were born? Or is it related to your own intuitive connection with everyday, Dutch reality? Whatever the answer to these question may be; at this point I was without a passport and merely marginally Dutch.

A publication on the dynamics of collectives in the context of social networks. Published by the Students of the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam in collaboration with Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters .

Each contribution to the publication was a lose A3 poster, which when placed together formed a book of visual interpretations. The launch of the publication, and party, “Children of Roena” took place in October 2008 at Mediamatic.

The Collective Masters logo, was created for the graduation exhibition of the Design Department of the Sandberg Instituut. For this, we used all of the logos of the past educational institutions from all the students of the department. From 5 different countries and 14 different institutions, came the Collective Masters logo. We also created a large fake Masters diploma as insert for the booklet, thereby commenting of the role of formal education institutions in the art world.

Foundland (Ghalia Elsrakbi and Lauren Alexander) is a young multi-disciplinary art and design practice based in Amsterdam. With backgrounds in graphic design, art and writing Foundland’s approach focuses on research based, critical responses to current issues.

We are a non-profit organization, established in 2009. Since our inception, we have continually focused on critical analysis of topics related to political and place branding and the way recent trends in these fields affect citizens in the Netherlands. Our field of interest is not limited to the Netherlands and we are currently busy with projects exploring similar themes in South Africa and Syria.

We consider the public domain of conventional media such as advertising, printed matter, the internet as well as art spaces as locations for our research and visual output. We like to foster collaboration with institutions and individuals according to current projects.

Please do contact us if you would like to work with us, or get involved in our projects:

info@foundland.org

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Foundland is:

Ghalia Elsrakbi (Damascus, SYR) Ghalia completed a BA in Graphic Design at Artez Kunstakademie, Arnhem, followed by a Masters n Design at the Sandberg Institute. In 2009, she followed a research post graduate at Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.

Lauren Alexander (Cape Town, ZA) Lauren completed a BFA in Graphic Design at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2005). After shortly working in advertising, she left South Africa to pursue a Masters (design) at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, and thereafter an MFA at the Dutch Art Institute Arnhem (2011).

Project based collaboration and website design:

Dirk Vis

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Institutional collaborators and funders:

Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst

Dutch Art Institute, Arnhem

Eutopia Magazine, Amsterdam

Extra City, Antwerp

Funda Community Art school, Soweto, South Africa

HTV de Ijsberg, Amsterdam Arts newspaper

Jansen and Janssen, Political research bureau

Mediafonds, Amsterdam

Open Magazine, Cahier on art and the public domain

Onomatopee, Eindhoven

or-bits foundation, London, UK

Krisis Magazine, Brescia, Italy

Lumen Travo Gallery, Amsterdam

Mediamatic, Amsterdam

Manifesta 9, Genk, Belgium

Netwerk Democratie, Amsterdam

National Arts Council, South Africa

Pavilion Journal, Bucharest, Romania

Pro demos, The Hague

Nieuwe Vide Artspace, Haarlem

Sandberg Institute, Design Department

Studium Generale, Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam

Impakt Festival 2011

Artists, designers and research collaborators:

Rosie Heinrich, artist

Matteo Lucchetti, curator

Erik Hopmans, industrial/interior designer

Gaia Tedone, curator

Freek Lomme, curator

__________

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