As Obama said once before: everyone should go to Egypt at least once in their life because Egypt is the cradle of our civilisation.

I’ve never been to such a fascinating place as Egypt. I was overwhelmed by chaos, dust, dirt, love, beauty and so on. But most of all by the warmth of the people.It’s a 100% self-regulating country full of mystery and excitement: everywhere you look something amazing or crazy is happening.At the same time things are there and disappear, things happen and don’t happen, places are there and the next minute it looks like they never existed and the same goes for the people.I’ve been extremely priviliged to meet the local people of Cairo. My guide Mini Noshy, General Manager of the Townhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art in Cairo, enabled me to meet and cook with local people. He showed me Cairo, its people and their hearts, I discovered a new talent in myself, because in no time I was able to get people to open up towards me when I visited them. They showed me their houses, their rules, their kitchen secrets and they made me a central presence in their families. I met families from different social classes who lived scattered all over Cairo.

Model Citizens – Continuum in SCHUNK

The “Model Citizens – Continuum” project is a result of an artist-in-residence project taken up by artists Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitenhuis in the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo.

Intrigued by social changes taking place within an urban setting, Osterholt and Uitenhuis created an astonishingly true-to-life scale-model of the Antikhana district in Cairo. Collaborating with local artists, the personal wishes of local residents were assimilatetd into the model, as a result of which the once so realistic model was gradually changed into a utopian Liliputian landscape.

And the model continues to evolve. During the exhibition, on a daily basis, the artists will continue working on the model in ordeer to visualise the remaining ideas of local residents of Antikhana.

EGOTRIP.TV - reflection of a perspective video-shifter

installation in SCHUNK until the 14th of March 2010

The EGOTRIP.TV exhibition project, created by film maker Daniel van Hauten, uses video installatieons to bring togheter lives and dreams creating moments where reality and fiction become inseparable.

With a mix of charm and emotion, the individual stories of people in Recife, Brazil are transformed into idiosyncratic descriptions of everyday life in this South American city. An unembellished portrayal of individual reality is the result. It is a portrayal that is likewise a reflector of the omipresence of the media, a phenomenon from which the individual imagination is barely able to detach itself. In EGOTRIP.TV stories from everyday life clash with the flux of time and space in dreams. With a self-constructed photographic camera, van Hauten moves into picture to show how those interviewed deal with the tension between wish and reality.

EGOTRIP.TV came about in the context of a Made in Mirrors - residency in Recife, in March-April 2009

v>Dj: Daniel van Hauten / Bert Habets

dream vs real life from Daniel van Hauten on Vimeo.

left sound channel = marcellos dream life
right sound channel = marcellos real life

Presentation of Bárbara Wagner's monograph of her work up to date: Bárbara Wagner O que é bonito é pra se ver, is collaboration with DSM and Museum Het Domein in Sittard. The presentation was held on Friday, November 27th at 5:00 pm in the headquarters of DSM in Heerlen where the photo presentation from Barbara Wagner's ‘MIM series' from the collection of Het Domein in Sittard was showed

The project in Het Domein highlights a group of primarily young Brazilian artists who explore socio-political issues through interventions in public (urban) space and in social structures.

Bárbara Wagner (1980, Brasília, Brazil) is a Brazilian photographer who in her work explores the issues of periphery, self-representation and exoticism in the context of cultural globalization.
The ‘work in progress’ displayed at DSM shows her research on social stereotypes in local cultural communities that she photographed in the cities of Recife (Brazil), Guangzhou (China) and Sittard (Netherlands). In their daily lives her subjects go beyond – and defy – the cultural canons of beauty, behavior, happiness, civility and welfare.

The managing director of SCHUNCK is pleased to invite you to the opening of the “Osterholt & Uitentuis, Model Citizens – Continuum” exhibition on Friday, January 29th at 5 p.m.

The “Model Citizens – Continuum” project is a result of an artist-in-residence project taken up by artists Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitenhuis in the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo.

The managing director of SCHUNCK and the chair of MIM are pleased to invite you to the opening of the exhibition “Daniel van Hauten EGOTRIP.TV” on Friday January 29th, at 5 p.m. at SCHUNCK.

The EGOTRIP.TV exhibition project, created by film maker Daniel van Hauten, uses video installatieons to bring togheter lives and dreams creating moments where reality and fiction become inseparable.

Maria Barnas, MIM resident in Recife, is researching the history of the recently restored garden designed by Burle Marx in Recife.

Daniel van Hauten is a MIM resident in Recife. On his live blog www.egotrip.tv one can follow his residency.

New ways for Made in Mirrors, Schunck-Glaspaleis, Heerlen, Het Domein, Sittard.
The foundation Made in Mirrors (MIM) presents itself en its activities in relationship to the idea of Antropofagia, developed in Brazil to describe certain cultural dynamics that seem to be very relevant for current global cultural development.

Preparation

In April 2008 it became clear that there would be an educational exchange project in the summer/autumn of the same year with the framework of Made in Mirrors between MaMaM, a museum in Recife, Brazil and Museum Het Domein in Sittard, The Netherlands. Contacts were made between the institutions involved and within a short time span plans had to be made. Jerika Vertegaal, educator at Museum Het Domein would spend two weeks in Recife and that her colleague at MaMaM Tereze Nuema would come to Sittard in September/October.

The Project Dykes of Friendship, part of Made in Mirrors Foundation Residence Program, promoted, in the period from the 14th to 29th July of 2008, in Recife, the residence of the Dutch art-educator Jerika Vertegaal (linked to the Museum Het Domein, in Sittard). Working with Tereza Neuma (coordinator of educational department of the Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães – Mamam, in Recife) and her team of mediators, Jerika took part in the development of an art-education project experienced by children, teenagers and adults of the municipal school Nossa Senhora do Pilar, an institution that is Mamam’s partner in this project.

The MIM experiment involves taking risks. When I was invited to join the team that is now working for two years on connecting people through Dutch, Chinese and Brazilian cultures I thought I knew what it was about. And then I didn’t. Let me start at the beginning .

Recife – Guangzhou – Sittard: 4/10 2008 – 23/11 2008

Bárbara Wagner is a Brazilian artist who has been interested in researching on the issues of periphery, self-representation and exoticism in the context of cultural globalization. Taking part in the Residence Program of the Made in Mirrors Foundation, Bárbara will travel to Guangzhou (China) and Sittard (The Netherlands) in order to observe how these cultures deal with those issues, as continuity of her project BrasíliaTeimosa, developed in one of the most vibrant suburbs of Recife (Brazil).

Made in Mirrors is not only about the exchange of cultures it is also about the exchange of knowledge.

For the exchange project Made in Mirrors, Museum Het Domein is searching for a temporary volunteer who speaks Brazilian / Portuguese.

Made in Mirrors will not longer be only concentrated in Sittard but will spread her activities all over the region of South Limburg.

Ann Demeester, director art institute De Appel, gave a curator workshop in Guangzhou, China.

The “Keywords Workshop” by the Chinese artist Xu Tan is based on his long term research project “Searching for Keywords” and the workshop will function as an interactive studying process and communication tool to enrich the dictionary of “Keywords” within the global context.

Dutch fashion designer Els Beusen is working in Guangzhou currently together with local Chinese fashion students to set up a whole collection made of ecological fabrics. Els keeps a weblog for Made in Mirrors.

During the last few weeks a lot has changed for the nature and content of this project. Not only are we currently staying with three people at the MIM studio, we are also getting involved in more and more interesting projects.

Now over a week has passed since my arrival in Guangzhou city.

A Proposal to the Proposal Submitted to the MIM Program Made of No Titles.

A one week pressure cooker meeting was meant to give the Dutch partners of Made in Mirrors project a impression of (artistic) Recife and also, to evaluate the first project year as well as to elaborate proposals and plans for 2008. Cristiana Tejo, director of MaMaM, organized a diverse visitors program including several art foundations; studio visits and talks with curators who reside in Recife.

It is about 40ºC or hotter in Guangzhou in July en August. Museum Het Domein therefore offers “cool’’ refuge to the Chinese with *Chinergie – The China Summer Show*. This series of exhibitions, events, and presentations came into existence through the synergy of Vitamin Creative Space and Museum Het Domein and it will be the cause of quite some extra heat!

The proposal Life Project is raised from Cao Fei’s interests in DSM, which is “active worldwide in nutritional and pharma ingredients, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The company develops, produces and sells innovative products and services that help improve the quality of life. “ (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

Actually inspiration is my privacy, hand is the underwear of my inspiration, very unfortunately because of this underwear, I was indecently exposed; Like all the cases of being indecently exposed, they were recorded in various form, soft, hard, dry, wet, motional, static, quiet, blusterous, blurry, clear and so on, they have become the best points of exposing one’s personal qualities; and just like some of those people, my inspiration was indecently exposed and seen by others, I’m very excited, am extremely high! - By Gwemo

from Chinese Youth Culture Show- Inspiration Indecently Exposed
Curated by Sue, Dave, Alex, Ban

At the invitation of the Province of Limburg, Museum Het Domein presents a cocktail of creative vitamins for body and soul at Gouvernement aan de Maas in the context of the BIPOLIS event, which takes as its theme Thought on Food/Food for Thought. In the context of the international exchange project Made in Mirrors, Vitamin Creative Space, an art institution based in Guangzhou, China, and also one of Museum Het Domein’s structural partners, focuses on art as a vitamin, spiritual sustenance for society.

On May 10, the Dutch artist Rik Meijers took off in the direction of Guangzhou, China. He was the first artist affiliated with Made in Mirrors to take the position of artist in residence to realize artistic projects in Guangzhou. Rik Meijers visited Vitamin Creative Space, an independent contemporary art institution in China that partners Made in Mirrors. The initial concept of Rik Meijers’ stay in China was to experience the cultural differences between Guangzhou (China), and Sittard (the Netherlands) from up close.

Just recently, the first Artist in Residence project took place in the context of the project Made in Mirrors. This May 10, the artist Rik Meijers took a plane in the direction of Guangzhou, China. For two weeks he participated in a full program that introduced him to Chinese culture and numerous Chinese artists, teachers, and curators. In Vitamin Creative Space (one of the partners of Made in Mirrors) he completed a mural entitled Today is a very fucked up day. In addition, he held a lecture in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and he took part in the I-Market in Suzhou.

28th May 2007 by Vitamin Creative Space
The first artist from MIM, Rik Meijers with his wife Desiree arrived Guangzhou on 11 May. There was an opening for Chu Yun’s exhibition, lots of art people came. Rik caught up with the dinner and was able to meet and communicate with them. From 11 May to 25 May, Rik visited the underground bookstore, urban village, stone church, the Da Fou temple and QINGPING market in Guangzhou city, and had a brilliant lecture for the student in Guangzhou academy of fine art. At the same time, Rik visited Suzhou for I-mark in the weekend, and finished the wall painting on the wall in Vitamin.

In the project room of Museum Het Domein in Sittard fashion designer Els Beusen (1980, Haarlem) and Hiroaki Kanai (1982, Osaka) presented a book and clothing made following a one-month residency in Guangzhou, China as part of the Made in Mirrors project.

The young fashion designer Els Beusen (1980) has traveled to Guangzhou, China last November to experience how the Chinese think about and work with fashion. The closure of this research was a workshop, which was organized by Els and her co designer Hiroaki Kanai for Chinese fashion students.