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Artist Thalia Hoffman defends her dissertation on the research project GUAVA: A CONCEPTUAL PLATFORM FOR ART-ACTIONS at Leiden University. The exhibition GUAVA جوافة//גויאבה, presenting the outcomes of the research project executed within the conceptual framework of the GUAVA PLATFORM, is open from 9 October until 18 October at gallery Old School in Leiden.

Within the context of the GUAVA PLATFORM, Thalia Hoffman researches how she, as an artist, can continue to live in a conflicted landscape, east of the Mediterranean. Hoffman presents the ongoing process of an artist dealing with her socio-political surroundings through a research into 'art-actions'. The GUAVA 'art-actions' comprise a series of three short films, an online radio station, two performances, a geotagging website, and a scent collection.

In her dissertation, Hoffman argues that by suspending direct references to the conflicted landscape and by instead experiencing it in alternative ways, the GUAVA 'art-actions' allow the artist, participants, and visitors the opportunity to re-articulate their state of living in this area.

Both the 'art-actions' and the research that convey the GUAVA PLATFORM are presented on a website. Here, the different components are not bound to a hierarchical relationship between theory and practice that might restrict their possibility to interact. The website enables visitors to navigate between the artistic and discursive elements in a nonlinear way.

PUBLIC DEFENSE THALIA HOFFMAN
13 October 2020 at 11.15
Access the livestream here

EXHIBITION GUAVA جوافة//גויאבה
9 October–18 October 2020
Opening hours: Fri–Sun 11.00–18.00, Mon–Thu by appointment
Gallery Old School, Pieterskerkhof 4A, Leiden

SUPERVISORS
Prof. dr. Janneke Wesseling, Professor in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts, Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University
Prof. dr. Kitty Zijlmans, Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory/World Art Studies at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society
Maria Pask, artist, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague