• INTRODUCTION • CONCEPTS • MADE OF WALKING • FILM ARCHIVE & VIDEO • ESTATE & ARCHIVE •
Stefaan van Biesen and Anna-Maria Mestdagh were approached by the CVK (Center for Flemish Art Archives) to discuss how the heritage of their artistic oeuvre and that of the Milena principle (+ Wit Urban Team), can be preserved for the future and can be consulted for possible scientific research.
The heritage includes videos of their projects and performances by fellow foreign artists. Thus, beyond the fisical archive, there is also a digital archive that should find its place in future art history & research.
Photo: Anna-Maria Mestdagh, Geert Vermeire, Filip Van de Velde & Stefaan van Biesen.
On Oct. 22, 2024, the core group of the Milena principle met to discuss how to manage and preserve our organization's heritage and archives. Geert Vermeire (director of art projects) and the board of directors: Filip Van de Velde (SMAK, Ghent), Anna-Maria Mestdagh and Stefaan van Biesen (both trustees of the privation foundation Van Biesen-Mestdagh).
the Milena principle is a multidisciplinary project where art connects with a cross-border aspect. Ecology encompasses a range of issues including in relation to environmental, sociological, social, economic aspects. Ecology is one of the conceptual foundations of the Milena principle. All projects are starting from an ecological approach. We are working with environmentalists, arts centers that combine art and ecology in their functioning like the convent of Tibães in Portugal, Der Wachsblock, Ingrid Pee in Germany. Ecology as a state of mind: indecision about [or ignoring] the remediation of contaminated sites is a metaphor for 'postponing the future'.
Origine and shaping a network of friendship
It is with some amazement and pride that we note that the Milena principle already exists for more than 20 years! The first meeting was during the art project 'Vertical Flows' ['Verticale Stromen' Bredene Belgium 2000]. The curator of this project was art historian Filip Van de Velde and the organization was in the hands of Geert Vermeire. The photo above is one of the only surviving images of a meeting in Bredene, an 'orchard conversation' in preparation for the project. When this photo was taken, there was no question of an organization. It was a group of like-minded friends who decided to work together on a regular basis. This picture is symbolic of the emergence of the Milena principle and the further evolution. 20 years later, the Milena principle has become a nomadic organization located in Belgium and at the same time structurally active in a number of European countries and overseas, both in partnerships at the institutional level, art institutions, museums, universities and art schools as with collectives and individual experts, academics and artists from different disciplines.
the Milena principle came officially into being during a first ‘table of meetings’ in the early summer of 2003 and manifested itself in the exhibition 'Omtrent Melancholie' [About melancholy] of curator Filip Van de Velde, some months later. These were also non planned sought-after events, that we seized upon.
the Milena principle arose out of the convergence of experiences of a number of artists, experiences which grew, and arose from their own artistic path of life. It did not arise from a programme.
[Gepäckträger] Table of Meetings in the house of Niki Fröhling Amsterdam Netherlands 2006.
In the old Italian language 'Milena' means 'the beloved'. The name ‘Milena principle’ refers to the return of a young Bulgarian lawyer from Sofia who decided to follow her heart after a turbulent period in the millennium. For her, this meant leaving behind a safe, settled life in her own country and a new life to be started all over again with the prospect of an uncertain future. As a nomad of a new era travelling between different cultures, she was unexpectedly present at the first lecture as a travelling companion in june 2006. This inspired the group, to see her arrival as a symbol of thinking beyond boundaries, and to link her name to the group, the projects and the lectures. So the name 'the Milena principle' was born.
In 1919 Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist, writer and translator, discovered a short story [The Stoker] by Prague writer Franz Kafka, and wrote him to ask for permission to translate it from German to Czech. The letter launched an intense and increasingly passionate correspondence. Jesenská and Kafka met twice: they spent four days in Vienna and later a day in Gmünd. Eventually Kafka broke off the relationship, partly because Jesenská was unable to leave her husband, and their almost daily communication ceased abruptly in November 1920. They meant so much to each other, however, that they did exchange a few more letters in 1922 and 1923 and Kafka turned over to Jesenská his diaries at the end of his life.
Annemie Mestdagh (B) [production assistent, photographer, webmaster], Geert Vermeire (B) [curator, writer, performance artist and managing director of the Milena principle], Stefaan van Biesen (B) [visual artist, multi media, sound artist, writer], Filip Van de Velde (B) [art historian, curator and working at S.M.A.K, museum of contemporary art Ghent Belgium], Bregt Smeets (B) [dental research, criminologist].
Jan De Wachter †2020
In the beginning the Milena principle was shaped through the collaboration of Peter De Schouwer (B) (traveller and writer), Dr. Simona Vermeire (Port/Rom) (literature critic, author, editor), Julie Snauwaert (B) (teacher), Jan De Wachter (B) † 2022 (visual artist), Ann Meeus (B) (nurse), Sylvie Duhamel (B) (visual artist), Herman Bervoets (B) (information expert), Lutgard De Keersmaeker (B) (manager of an art gallery), Vincent Ghadimi (B) (musician and composer), Imel De Boeck (B) (pharmacist), Niki Fröhling (Nl/G) visual artist), Walter Van Dam (B) (writer), Linda Ivens (B) (education), Dr. Xue Mhin (China/B) (doctor and acupuncture), Ingrid Pee (G) (philosopher), Dr. Rhea Thönges Stringaris (G/Gr) (art historian and writer), José Da Costa Reis (Pt) (Biscainhos Museum Braga), Margot Dieleman (B) (photographer, WIT: urban team), Eric Windey (B) (visual artist, WIT: urban team), Lynn Louise Pauwels (B) (research the Milena principle - VUB university Brussels),
'Hospitality for strangers' Gustave van de Woestijne 1920 [ 66,5 x 74,5 cm] © Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent België.
• INTRODUCTION • CONCEPTS • MADE OF WALKING • FILM ARCHIVE & VIDEO • ESTATE & ARCHIVE •