The following slides show selected exhibitions and curatorial projects produced collaboratively within collectives and with the invaluable support of many incredible friends.
Cinema
An Hà and Yolanda He Yang
December 8, 2024 - January 10, 2025
Horseroom, Worcester
Curated by Asja Mijovic and Julia Petrocelli
In her youth, Joan of Arc did many household chores: spun wool, helped her father in the fields and looked after their animals. She made soap by mixing dirt, tallow and ashes. Her mother provided Joan’s religious education as a daughter of the Catholic Church.
At night, my family showers, then I shower.
We all use the same bar of soap, and the wind from the open bathroom window blows the water and the stray hairs from the corner to the left. I pick them up from the drain and arrange it in twirls on the tiles along with the dirt, tallow, ashes stuck to the porcelain floor. And tomorrow the soap is smaller. Around 1453 years before Joan of Arc’s death, Pliny the Elder, whose writings
chronicle life in the first century AD, describes soap as “an invention of the Gauls”.The word sapo, Latin for soap, is connected to a mythical Mount Sapo, a hill near the River Tiber where animals were sacrificed.
I drive through a long tunnel at the mountain’s base. The glowing image of the landscape at the end of it widens as I approach, revealing a pasture where a herd of wild horses graze near a flowing stream. Not many animals were sacrificed in Roman religions, except for eating. One of the only known exceptions is the October Horse, a sacrifice to the god of war, during horse racing festivals at the end of the agricultural season in the third century BC. The frame of the tunnel breaks my vision, sunlight beams past as the wind whips. The horses pass, the stream runs red as it rolls by my window.
The sound of a flock of birds lifting in the air!
Cinema is an exhibition of works that collect and assemble time.
marketplace
Dates: Dec 2- 4
Curator: The Gems Collective [Terry Cole, Ivy Lockhart, Estefania Morales, Julia Petrocelli and Asja Mijovic]
Location: Subcentral Cultural Center Cambridge, MA
Poster Design: Terry Cole
Collective Instagram
Dates: Dec 2- 4
Curator: The Gems Collective [Terry Cole, Ivy Lockhart, Estefania Morales, Julia Petrocelli and Asja Mijovic]
Location: Subcentral Cultural Center Cambridge, MA
Poster Design: Terry Cole
Collective Instagram
Marketplace considered a circulating economy operating in close proximity to online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist but manifesting in face to face transactions.
The exhibition featured nineteen artists, one other collective, a band and a DJ from Boston, Hamburg, Manchester and Missouri.
The exhibition featured nineteen artists, one other collective, a band and a DJ from Boston, Hamburg, Manchester and Missouri.
Artists Are Presents at the Raveformat: rave
Date: Nov 4 2023
Bromfield House
Country: USA
DJs: Dj Skip, Dioklet
Curators: The Gems Collective [Terry Cole, Ivy Lockhart, Estefania Morales, Julia Petrocelli and Asja Mijovic]
A happening: 8hr rave organized by the GEMS collective in a Somerville residence made during the preparation for the "Marketplace" exhibition, the event was inspired by Hito Steryl's article "The Terror of Total Dasein." Subverting the economy of presence it featured mystery artists behind the Marina Abramovic masks.
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Simlish & Simulacra
Format: Exhibition. Happening.
April 8 2023
Sunset House, Somerville
Curators: Wanjie Li, Seth Gordon, Asja Mijovic
Poster design: Adrian Wong
A pop art event at Sunset House blended the official language of EA's Sims with Baudrillard's critical theory on Simulacra & Simulation. Curated by house inhabitants, Seth Gordon, Wanjie Li and myself, it showcased 30 artists exploring invented language, linguistics, games, simulations, and avatars.
Attendees were given explicit instructions to don themselves in randomly generated Sims outfits. The exclusive entry requirement for the event was simple: attendees had to bring a Simoleon bill, Sims' in-game currency, which we previously reappropriated, resized to dollar dimensions, and distributed clandestinely around Boston, the SMFA, and Tufts campus. At the event, Simoleons took on a new significance—they became the sole currency accepted for the purchase of libations and any consumables available. The party unfolded into a night of ephemeral internal economy, rife with debates over the amount of Simoleons at hand, spontaneous theft, and impromptu exchanges between Simoleons and actual dollar bills.
To enhance the experience, Amazon Alexa-connected speakers, placed in the middle of the room, issued a command every hour for ten minutes, compelling attendees to "speak in Simlish." Those unfamiliar with the official Simlish lexicon were encouraged to invent their own language on the spot. The event unfolded as a transient convergence of linguistic experimentation, artistic expression, and digital subversion, blurring the boundaries between reality and simulation.
Format: Exhibition. Happening.
April 8 2023
Sunset House, Somerville
Curators: Wanjie Li, Seth Gordon, Asja Mijovic
Poster design: Adrian Wong
A pop art event at Sunset House blended the official language of EA's Sims with Baudrillard's critical theory on Simulacra & Simulation. Curated by house inhabitants, Seth Gordon, Wanjie Li and myself, it showcased 30 artists exploring invented language, linguistics, games, simulations, and avatars.
Attendees were given explicit instructions to don themselves in randomly generated Sims outfits. The exclusive entry requirement for the event was simple: attendees had to bring a Simoleon bill, Sims' in-game currency, which we previously reappropriated, resized to dollar dimensions, and distributed clandestinely around Boston, the SMFA, and Tufts campus. At the event, Simoleons took on a new significance—they became the sole currency accepted for the purchase of libations and any consumables available. The party unfolded into a night of ephemeral internal economy, rife with debates over the amount of Simoleons at hand, spontaneous theft, and impromptu exchanges between Simoleons and actual dollar bills.
To enhance the experience, Amazon Alexa-connected speakers, placed in the middle of the room, issued a command every hour for ten minutes, compelling attendees to "speak in Simlish." Those unfamiliar with the official Simlish lexicon were encouraged to invent their own language on the spot. The event unfolded as a transient convergence of linguistic experimentation, artistic expression, and digital subversion, blurring the boundaries between reality and simulation.
Making Kin
Date: Nov 4 2022
Location: Sunset House,
Somerville, USA
Format: Pop-up exhibition, party
Curators: Asja Mijovic, Julia Petrocelli, Wanjie Li
Poster design: Asja Mijovic
Influenced by the urban energy of Paris and creative energy of Beaux Arts academy, upon my return to the States in fall 2022 I curated and organized an exhibit at my residence in Somerville with the students from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Making Kin was the intitial attempt for us to connect, make kin and build lasting creative connections. The event responded to scarce opportunity to exhibit imposed by the university culture.
The title “Making Kin” echoes Donna Haraway’s The Companion Species Manifesto (2003) and Staying with the Trouble (2016). It is the effort to recognize kin in the entangled mesh that connects all species and things of the Earth. The “Party/ Exibition/ Manifesto” event invited its members and guests to meditate on human connections to other-than-human entities and come dressed as something they would like to make kin with (bacterium, yeast, kombucha scooby, hedgehog); as well as enjoy etheral and probing musical performances by Roman Barten-Sherman, Ed Hans, Kyle Tomlinson, Quinn (DrFartens), an old ventilator and others that joined in.
Date: Nov 4 2022
Location: Sunset House,
Somerville, USA
Format: Pop-up exhibition, party
Curators: Asja Mijovic, Julia Petrocelli, Wanjie Li
Poster design: Asja Mijovic
Influenced by the urban energy of Paris and creative energy of Beaux Arts academy, upon my return to the States in fall 2022 I curated and organized an exhibit at my residence in Somerville with the students from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Making Kin was the intitial attempt for us to connect, make kin and build lasting creative connections. The event responded to scarce opportunity to exhibit imposed by the university culture.
The title “Making Kin” echoes Donna Haraway’s The Companion Species Manifesto (2003) and Staying with the Trouble (2016). It is the effort to recognize kin in the entangled mesh that connects all species and things of the Earth. The “Party/ Exibition/ Manifesto” event invited its members and guests to meditate on human connections to other-than-human entities and come dressed as something they would like to make kin with (bacterium, yeast, kombucha scooby, hedgehog); as well as enjoy etheral and probing musical performances by Roman Barten-Sherman, Ed Hans, Kyle Tomlinson, Quinn (DrFartens), an old ventilator and others that joined in.
Boxenstopp
Date: July 7-10 2022
ektr 365, Dusseldorf, GE
Format: Exhibition, Residency
Curators: Rosalie Becher, Sofia Magdits
Poster design:
Video documentation of opening night Instagram
"Boxenstopp" was a collaborative exhibition initiated by a group of artists, including those on exchange at the Beaux Arts de Paris and students from the local Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Over the course of 11 days, we squatted and transformed a former Alfa Romeo car dealership into a pop-up art space. The exhibition featured a curated arrangement, turning the venue into a functional living space with a kitchen, a sleeping area, and a living room.
The homemaking project unfolded over the 11 days of the exhibition, concluding with everyone dispersing to various corners of the world. The name "Boxenstopp," translating to "pit stop" in English, encapsulates the concept of our venture – a service station for refueling, learning, exchanging ideas, cohabitating, and creating. Our venture from Paris to Düsseldorf to everywhere else is a stop to refuel, learn, exchange, cohabitate and create before returning home.