Partytent Art Center (P.A.C.)
P.A.C. is a framework and experiment.
Partytent Art Center or, P.A.C., is an art center that stimulates experimentation in the showcasing of art in public spaces and values spontaneous interactions. The center hopes to encourage artists to take more autonomy over the presentation of their art practice and the public space.
Anyone who chooses to set up a partytent and show work in its vicinity automatically becomes the director of that Partytent Art Center. This project-based directorship aims to establish a decentralized, horizontal structure, with curating and responsibility resting with the individuals who set up the tent. The art center’s program is shaped by those who engage in this temporary role.
The center requests documentation of all presentations in the form of photos or videos. This documentation is shared on our Instagram page, which serves as an archive. P.A.C. provides a manual for creating your own partytent and encourages artists to source a tent from their local environment. Additionally, the P.A.C. has a little stock of partytents available.
What’s in it for you, why do you have to do all the work? Great question, if its not for you its not for you. We are trying to invigorate the relations between people, not just those active in the art world. This means that a little work from everyone is required and you can’t buy a house with peanuts, unless you run a peanut business. Why are the only acceptable goals when showing art: money and fame? A conversation with a stranger, someone outside your bubble, is not valuable? They might just change everything you were so certain about.
During the graduation exhibition of KASK School of Arts, a new art center—Partytent Art Center (PAC)—was officially inaugurated on the Bijloke campus and at other locations in public spaces in Ghent. On Tuesday, August 20, 2024, the co-curator of the Graduation Show, Simon Delobel, met the two artists behind the project, both alumni of the Master’s program in Fine Arts at the School of Arts.
SD: Let’s start with two simple questions. Who are you, and how did the PAC project come about?
PAC: If it’s okay, we’d actually prefer not to mention our names in the interview. This seems particularly irrelevant for the future of the center… and its past.
Our collaboration began because we ended up in different countries and missed each other. During one of our conversations, the idea arose to use titles to shed more light on things.
Later, while we were in the Hofgarten park in Düsseldorf, we wondered what would happen to the image of a public sculpture by a prominent artist like Henry Moore if we placed a party tent over it. This led us to think more about appropriating public space and how to present within it.
SD: The party tent has become the medium of your duo practice…
PAC: We saw the party tent as a kind of canvas, a space that you can fill, much like a blank canvas for a painter. The object of the party tent became a starting point for us.
Shortly after, we decided to involve other people in the concept and asked them to think about that canvas.
SD: From our very first meeting, I remember your hope that the Partytent Art Center would help young or newly graduated artists to present their work without having to wait for an invitation from a gallery or a curator. In my view, this made the PAC a project of institutional critique.
SD: What does the future of the PAC look like, and what role do you see yourselves playing in the story?
PAC: Through conversations with both participants and visitors, we realize that there is still much care needed for the PAC. So at the moment, we are still the caretakers of the PAC, but we are aiming on early retirement from that role.
Like a child coming of age, the PAC is a story of trial and error. We are currently handling the maintenance and communication— such as posting photos documenting past events on Instagram. The plan is for people to be able to fill out a form on the future PAC website, which will then generate a blog post.
Everything we do as a duo is in a sense connected to the PAC, because of the use of the partytent. At the moment, we are working on compiling a collection of 100 ideas for the PAC!
SD: May the PAC live a long, fruitful, and surprising life!
PAC: And let those who feel called to action put up a party tent!
This article was originally published in Graduation / Onrust, Publication, 10.2024
Text by Simon Delobel
