intermission museum of art (ima) was founded in 2020 by rose van mierlo and john ros, in response to the cultural, social, environmental, economic and political fissures that make themselves evermore present during times of crisis and put stress on accepted systems of operation. ima provides a space for critical thinkers to respond to these moments of friction by investigating them as meaningful sites of production, instigating dialogues which will culminate in a public archive. collaborative responses will be organized around themes, and though they exist on their own (as editions), they co-exist as larger ideas (in volumes).
inspired by modern, postmodern and contemporary examples of institutional critique, ima carries forward meschac gaba’s suggestion that the museum is “not a model…it’s only a question.” its name references this question as open space: the flipping movement of a hand searching through archives, gaps in the pavement, performance interludes, tv-commercials, coffee breaks and silent pauses; all moments of unpoliced disruption that are typically un-institutional. at its core, ima therefore proposes the museum as a site of uncertainty; a building without walls; a non-hierarchical collection of interdisciplinary narratives and voices; both a guest and a host; and an exercise in cross-pollination. it resists the architectural premise of power that underwrites the white cube, democratizing the exhibition in terms of access. instead, its architectural premise is that of lateral networks; its vision decentralized and participatory.
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>> about the founders
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volume ii | 2022
ghostly matters | alice wilson + neja tomšič
10 january – 27 february 2022
press release | digital card | view exhibition
“beyond my back fence is a communal garden, we have a gate that opens onto it, it is able to be accessed by over 60 flats. i think on average one person a week goes in there, very occasionally on a sunny day a group will sit at the bench. the space is occupied by a gang of stray cats, the extended family of a neighbour’s long haired ginger cat, they’re hostile and fight a lot. it could be a nice space, it probably is a nice space, when i go in there, i feel all the eyes of the surrounding flats and i worry about treading in cat shit. i would really like to connect with this space, i stare at it beyond my garden fence for at least 20 minutes every morning, watching for squirrels.
i don’t want to go there. i prefer it as somewhere I look.
i’ve been thinking about the things we see every day but that we never enter, spaces or places that are visually familiar but not physically. the spaces we occupy and then the ones we look at, how do we occupy them, is that the difference between space and place?”
“there is something about what you said that resonates with me: a space valuable as a sight but not as a place to enter. although i am drawn to enter it, i always enjoyed just looking at it. i walked around the fences again today. signs say that the place is under video surveillance, although i didn’t see any cameras and i doubt it’s true. i found a new spot to observe it and saw it from a different angle. about a half of it is a lake. i wish i could tell you the colour of water, but i somehow overlooked it. birds and ducks found it and made it their home. then a big part of it is a concrete platform on which stand the remains of construction pillars, made of concrete and iron rods, and when I looked at them i had the fantasy of having a place like that open for walking or sitting around, among huge abandoned concrete sculptures. i wouldn’t want to change anything there, just open it, remove the fences and let people walk through.”
matter-of-fact | deanna lee + kirsten nash
07 march – 24 april 2022
press release | digital card | view exhibition
for our collaborative project, we sought to explore the intersection of our individual studio practices through the concept of collage. we were excited to take the opportunity offered by collaboration to play with and navigate new, unfamiliar media——of making work with moving imagery in the form of digital video——to investigate ways to bring together expressions of our respective and overlapping interests and ideas.
our collage process has produced a series of experimental encounters and gestures that manifest a conversation. the works embody a practice of interactions and contributions that bring together bits and pieces: elements, views, influences, inspirations, and interpretations, of the surrounding landscape and of our direct and mediated experiences of the material and immaterial world.
the ravenswood generating station is a formidable presence in long island city, and its complicated history and uncertain future served as an icon, a reflection of our current time as well as the focal point of our attention. we made drawings based on: the power-plant stacks; smoke; particles in the atmosphere; tracings of drawings; and aspects of the nearby queensbridge houses, such as building-complex plans, trees, and rubbings of wood benches. we then incorporated smartphone videos of: power lines, power-plant stacks and smoke, midtown manhattan and smoke, and trees near the queensbridge houses. by combining various materials and processes, we visually fused tangible and intangible images that were made with low- and high-tech methods.
our works explore the interaction, interrelationship, and interdependence of the material and immaterial, of parts (typically tangible and visible) and particles (typically intangible and invisible). in our works, we use components that are material and immaterial. some material components are: paper, ink, graphite, water, pigment, wax, tape, computer hardware (devices, connectors, charging blocks), hands, and eyes. some immaterial components are: electricity (although this is material at the particle level), images (moving and still) in analog vision and in digital representation, wireless internet connections, cloud computing, and ideas.
through layering and merging various parts and particles, we created works that synthesize our material and immaterial responses to the textual prompt “matter/of/fact” and our known and felt understandings of that phrase. our art made in collaboration is the product of an unscripted conversation, and the works are not designed to be conclusive in message or intent. they are ephemeral efforts to make discernable, comprehensible, or relatable our essential human endeavors of interpreting and interrelating the complexities and challenges of the world.
ouroboros | ayesha kamal khan + catalina tuca + joshua j. araujo + mariangela ciccarello
02 may – 19 june 2022
press release | digital card | exhibition
translators’ note
translation is like walking on a common ground, bridging two extremities, filling an empty space between two sensiblities, two cultures, or two different ways of experiencing the world. a translation is a negotiation, an interpretation and ultimately a re-interpretation.
in the case of the work that follows, the ground we are walking on is not really a common one but, rather, one that is unfamiliar and mysterious. the texts appearing in the pages below have in fact been translated from a language which belongs not just to a different culture but to another species.
since the nineteenth century, ethology has made surprising discoveries related to animal behavior. with the work included herein we are achieving a further, marvelous step: the first translation in history from a form of written communication composed by non-humans.
this work has taken place during several decades and involved the participation of professionals operating in different fields, including marine biology, philology, archeology, literature and art. everything began in 2003 when several stones were discovered in a cove in amoros, a tiny island between the cyclades and the dodecanese islands in southern greece.
the stones first intrigued the archeologists who found them because of the strange little holes present on their surface which made them think of a pattern or illustration. they decided to transport the stones to the institute of biological science and philology in athens. after a few months of studies, the research team developed a first hypothesis according to which the engraving on the stones were prehistorical representations similar to the ones found in lascaux, with the difference that in this case the images were not painted but carved.
however, the fact that the engravings were abstract undermined this theory. after a year scientists arrived at the conclusion that the signs were not illustrations but rather ideograms, closer to a hieroglyphical alphabet. because the signs were carved on small, lightweight stones, scientists thought that they could serve as exchangeable documents or messages, the equivalent of a letter or its more contemporary form, an email. however, another element continued to intrigue the scientists: the images were engraved with a minutia which would be difficult to attribute to a prehistoric civilization.
a new and bizarre theory was developed: the engravings on the stones were not the product of the human hand but of another species. despite the absurdity of the argument, the institute of biological science and philology decided to invest in an exploration of this path.
a refined observation system was installed in the water where the stones were discovered. after three years of observation, the discovery left the scientists perplexed. the recordings showed that the engravings were created by fish through a process of sucking algae and plankton present on the stones. thus, the hypothesis was confirmed. however, there were no traces of intention in the behavior of the animals. they were simply responding to a primal need.
with their alphabet theory unproven, the archeologists felt that they had been too romantic in their speculations and the institute of bsp regretted the amount of money invested in what appeared to be a naïve dream.
when all seems lost, it is often in transformation. the situation took a new turn in 2015 when a manuscript was discovered in the library of syros, the capital of the cyclades. the means which brought the text to the island remained mysterious. its physical condition was poor, the ink was faded and the paper significantly damaged. written in ancient greek and difficult to date, it contained a previously unknown greek myth, a heartbreaking story between a god and a mortal, which appears in this publication as well. there was nothing particularly original or visionary in the myth, which resembled the thousands of myths and legends already known.
what intrigued the scholars were a series of symbols and drawings present alongside the greek text. at a first glance they thought about the map of the cave mentioned in the text but when the manuscript was transferred to the institute of bsp the similarity between the illustrations of the myth and the engravings of the amoros stones became clear to all. a process of deciphering – still in progress- began, which has now allowed us to arrive at a first version of some of the inscriptions on the stones, present in this publication.
similar to the process which led to the interpretation of ancient egyptian hieroglyphics through the discovery of the rosetta stone, the first translation from the amoros stones into a human language has been done in ancient greek. below is a translation from ancient greek to english which a group of translators from different nationalities has been working on for the last several months.
before allowing you to navigate the text on your own, we would like to remind the reader that every translation is also and always an invention.
with our sincere wishes for a fluid experience,
the translators
specious reasoning | jeffrey martin + david mccormick
27 june – 14 august 2022
press release | digital card | exhibition
ima + platforms project | volume ii archive
intermission museum of art x platforms project
13-16 october 2022art is not for sale
ima vol ii @ athens school of fine arts
athens, greece
press release | card
catalogue | purchase catalogue
featuring collaborations by:
alice wilson + neja tomšič
deanna lee + kirsten nash
ayesha kamal khan + catalina tuca + joshua j. araujo + mariangela ciccarello
jeffrey martín + david mccormick
+ new prints by john ros
after a successful and exciting second year of initiating and archiving digital creative collaborations, ima is pleased to announce it is generously being hosted by platforms project, an independent art fair in athens, greece, to present physically its volume ii archive.
this year’s physical manifestation will see ima inhabit the space of the art fair, while questioning the fictional model that makes up art-as-commodity that underpins the art economy. utilising the methodology of the fair (while joyously engaging both the word’s origins in as a place of trade but also its emphasis on a moment of celebration and implication of equity) ima will embed its archive in global micro-talks with volume ii participants as well as presenting “objects” (not) for sale. additionally, ima will be presenting its latest catalogue: a collaborative curatorial project highlighting volume ii’s projects.
volume i | june 2020 – october 2021
preface — persona/e | rose van mierlo | john ros
june – august 2020
press release | digital card | view exhibition
ima’s inaugural edition preface — persona/e, features a collaboration between co-funding directors rose van mierlo and john ros, is an introduction as well as a question. what does it mean to be a person? where is the limit between the intimately known, and the publicly strange? which fictions underwrite our sense of being in the world, of being alive, of being perceived both by ourselves and others? in a time of virtual space, reality tv, and online personalities, how do we negotiate, expand, and play with the porous limits between self and other?
translation | ana čavić | sally morfill
september 2020
press release | digital card | view exhibition
according to laurent jenny, the intention of the artist/writer henri michaux’s early graphic work was ‘to reconcile writing and drawing, which after all are both attributes of the same line’01. in the digital animation, rules that order the reading of clouds, 2016, the medium for sally morfill and ana čavić’s exchange is the nomadic line – a fluid signifier – as it shifts back and forth between the contexts of drawing and writing.
where jacques derrida identifies that the source of a translation ‘lives and lives on in mutation’02, always at a distance from the origin, the series of sequential translations that operate in rules that order the reading of clouds reconfigure the same ‘kit’ of lines; each time pushing the visual or literary meaning further from its originary starting point. as the same lines are composed into drawing or poetry, new meanings and readings emerge. the kit of lines are the constitutive parts of a single digitised line drawing of a dynamic skyscape, which is the starting point for the animation. a series of rule-based exchanges occurs, in which čavić and morfill take turns moving a specific number of lines, each time creating a new translation of what came before. the skyscape is gradually deconstructed and recomposed as a poem, then in turn, the poem is deconstructed and reconfigured as a drawing. through the animation process a generative call and response is set in motion as image translates into poetry, and poetry translates into image – emulating the unpredictable and mutating movements and readings of clouds.
[01] jenny, l. (2000) ‘simple gestures.’ in de zegher, c. (ed.) untitled passages by henri michaux. london, new york: merrell publishers ltd, the drawing center, pp. 187-198.
[02] derrida, j. (1985) ‘des tours de babel,’ trans. j.f.graham, in j.f. graham (ed.) difference in translation, ithaca, ny: cornell university press, pp. 165-207.
outside-in — inside-out | jaimini patel | carli toliver
october 2020
press release | digital card | view exhibition
as gaze, object, subject, surface, space, opening, proposition, safety, longing, discernment, inversion, approach, insight, definition, interface, simultaneity, curiosity, encounter, touch, attempt, illusion, contingent, necessary, opposite/the same, naming, bleeding, eroding, thickening, transgression, aperture, encroachment, disparity, exchange, reaching, afterimage, contraction, concealment, intimacy, avoidance, fold, subversion, portal, exposure, trace, manifestation, rejection, receptiveness, vulnerability, possibility.
collaboration artwork
ima | outside-in ⏤ inside-out
by jaimini patel, carli toliver
intimacy | kate casanova | sarah faye mcpherson
november 2020
press release | digital card | view exhibition
as gaze, object, subject, surface, space, opening, proposition, safety, longing, discernment, inversion, approach, insight, definition, interface, simultaneity, curiosity, encounter, touch, attempt, illusion, contingent, necessary, opposite/the same, naming, bleeding, eroding, thickening, transgression, aperture, encroachment, disparity, exchange, reaching, afterimage, contraction, concealment, intimacy, avoidance, fold, subversion, portal, exposure, trace, manifestation, rejection, receptiveness, vulnerability, possibility.
visible/invisible | aurora de armendi | jessica del vecchio
december 2020
press release | digital card | view exhibition
art proper … emerges when sensation can detach itself and gain an autonomy from its creator and its perceiver when something of the chaos from which it is drawn can breathe and have a life of its own
― elizabeth grosz. chaos, territory, art: deleuze and the framing of the earth
with invisible/visible, aurora de armendi and jessica del vecchio combine print, video, and voice to explore the homogeneity of languages, the disappearing of native languages, and the feminist potential of imperceptibility, as theorized by elizabeth grosz. with the pandemic our mouths are covered, we are speaking to each other via mediated screens, and writing in chats. singing has become something dangerous: the open mouth, an opportunity for harm. the traced monotypes for this piece can be viewed as viewfinders, representations of mouths, open eyes, the opening of caves. the song can be heard as an open mouth, a longing, a faraway cry.
colloquy | mike cloud | nyeema morgan
january 2021
press release | digital card | view exhibition
everything I know about warhol i learned from kusama. everything i know about kusama, I learned from kosuth. everything I know about kosuth i learned from magritte. everything i know… is an audio work composed of causal narratives related to the subject of art and artist making. the title is derived from a work by art critic bob nikas where he imagined a fictitious conversation between his heroes andy warhol and on kawara.
either, or | lauren k. alleyne | matthew fischer
february 2021
press release | digital card | exhibition
the theme of either, or felt particularly pertinent in the context of this pandemic and 2020 in general—hoax or crisis | trump or biden | quarantine or liberty | online or in-person | reality or science fiction — and on and on…
either, or is also the space that resists fixity. a space where othernesses encounter and do not resolve — where you’re both in your house and at a conference in japan, where you’re engaging with nature even as you’re using technology to capture that engagement.
either, or is ink that might become a word or an image. a letter from a federal agency that becomes a poem.
either, or offers an opportunity to recalibrate, to see from another perspective.
either, or is a portal: enter.
a trembling line | mira dayal | marina kassianidou
march 2021
press release | digital card | view exhibition
a trembling line takes the form of a series of linked pages of visual materials that ask for a viewer’s heightened attention to the margin, the liminal, and the off-screen in order to progress through the ensuing pages. somewhere between an adventure and an examination, the project invites the computer user into formal and conceptual play with what it means to perceive, read, and access.
dayal’s and kassianidou’s practices converge in a trembling line — a quiver, a hair, a crack, a speck of dust, a friction ridge — whose movement is barely perceptible. slight as it may be, this line has might: it recalibrates our vision. squint, get closer, wipe the screen. what kind of labor does subtlety engender? when is nuance valuable in, and valued by, society? to be able to discern subtlety may be nothing less than to prove one’s humanity. this statement is neither existential nor optimistic: consider the recaptcha test, in which one was formerly required to transcribe words indiscernible to machines in order to distinguish oneself from software, malware, or the unaccompanied computer (and to assist google books in digitizing publications). machines have vastly improved their reading abilities, so the latest versions of recaptcha tests instead rely on contextual information about a user’s behavior — now, the program discerns nuance in the user rather than the user discerning nuance for the machine.
the ability to discern nuance, arguably an important political skill, is also a fraught metric of humanity, relying on a set of assumptions about the user’s vision, tongue, and abilities. to recalibrate is to reset and rectify a tool, to “measure against a standard” anew. take that against: we could measure in comparison with a standard, or we could measure in a way that opposes a standard.
the line quivers and shakes, refuses to flatten out. it is one, but it is made up of many. zoom in, look longer, enlarge the imperfections, and unfurl a map of alternate, forking and circuitous paths.
pulse and rhythm | lynn silverman | jason sloan
april 2021
press release | digital card | view exhibition
interior lights, 2019, is a hybrid work combining black and white photographs with sound. the video presents an imaginary house and sounds generated from electromagnetic fields unique to each light source depicted. in actuality, this house is a composite of views photographed in different homes. for many of us “home” connotes a personal space and may be thought of as a metaphor for self. perhaps amplified now more than ever, is the meaning we place on our immediate surroundings, necessitated by our need to quarantine during the last twelve months of the covid-19 pandemic.
interior lights blurs the boundary between the individual and the world through shared experience, as evidenced by the number of framed photographs of family, friends and mementos collected from everyday life, travels or important events. clock faces serve as pauses or intervals between groups of images. light and sound are the connecting threads throughout the film, while the camera journeys from the basement foundation to the attic eaves, highlighting intimate details of domestic life along the way. the literal and metaphorical depictions of pulse and rhythm play a role in determining space and time through our evermore public facing personal selves.
adaptation | lindiwe matshikiza | flora parrott
may 2021
press release | digital card | view exhibition
in 2015 a new species of fish called a cave loach was discovered by divers in an underground, labyrinth cave network in germany. parrott went over to meet with dr. jasminca behrmann who had been studying the new species at konstanz university. during the trip she also met with the diver who made the discovery, joachim kreiselmaier.
the idea of the ‘moment of recognition’ has been central to this project but so has learning more about the biology of the fish. the cave loach evolved from a surface-dwelling, sighted species to a creature without pigment in its skin and an altered eye structure, affording it little to no vision. its shape has become elongated, and its metabolism decreased. they slowed and stretched as they moved underground. the project focusses on the way the fish navigate, which is very different to surface loaches. it seems to be aided by sensors in their skin, as they read the space through vibrations; they have adapted to their new, profoundly dark surroundings.
t/here or t/here | jodi hays | ayanah moor
june 2021
press release | digital card | view exhibition
greet. large book. found. exchange. weight. textile. fold. scarlet. cardboard. beige. pattern. lean. use. woven. weave. dye. wood. sculpture. dad. bookends. pillow. carve. approximate. text. painting. purple. denim. stump. decorative object. home. fiber. sky blue. place. tend. white-bodied. studio. fragment. black subject. whiteness. fisk. bruise. plant. thread. limit. invitation. hbcu. print. permission. discourse. offering. allowance. pwi. gift. black romantic. care. aubergine. listen. welcome. the continent. gold. history. pleather. initiate. authentic. restraint. curves. rest. domestic. brown. photo. fabric. stack. burgundy. shift. generate. place. box. repeat.
ima + stand4 | volume i archive
ima | stand4
10 september — 23 october 2021
intermission museum of art + stand4 gallery
archive: volume i
stand4 gallery | brooklyn, new york, us
opening reception | 10 september, 7-9pm eastern/us
directors discussion [zoom] | 02 october, 11am-12pm eastern/us | register
closing reception | 23 october, 12-3pm eastern/us
press release | card | poster
purchase catalogue
checklist | price list
after an ambitious and successful first year of initiating and archiving digital collaborations, ima is pleased to partner with stand4 gallery and community art center in bay ridge, brooklyn, ny, to mount a physical manifestation of the archive. ima’s archived volume i exhibitions from june 2020 through june 2021 will be included. an exhibition catalogue has been produced to celebrate the close of volume i and is available to print-on-demand.
the exhibition, archive: volume i, will open with a reception on friday, 10 september, from 7-9pm and will be on view through 23 october 2021. the gallery is open saturday’s from 12-3pm and by appointment. the exhibit will end with a closing reception on saturday, 23 october, from 12-3pm.
stand4 gallery founder and artistic director, jeannine bardo, will host ima founding directors and curators, rose van mierlo and john ros, via zoom for a discussion about ima, collaborations and institutional critique on saturday, 02 october 2021, from 11a-12p. zoom registration required.
this exhibition represents a new collaboration between stand4 gallery and ima whereby hosting the digital archive, stand4 gallery becomes ima and vice versa. this symbiotic relationship enhances each counterpart while implementing an additional layer of collaboration. as a fictional museum and performative project, ima challenges the status quo on the social role of museums by engaging with its fictional structures of operation. it explores the tangible effects fictionality has in the social and economic world and suggests alternative models of exhibiting while sparking meaningful conversations. its online form enables ima to exist in several places at once and reach multiple audiences. it is neither real nor unreal, but can be read as a critical text. its second form is performative: ima is both artwork and museum. it can only exist through the hospitality of others.
ima + stand4 available publications
exhibition catalogue
ima | archive volume i
collaboration artwork
ima | outside-in ⏤ inside-out
by jaimini patel, carli toliver
collaboration artwork
ima | preface: persona/e
by john ros
a museum of (un)real things
by rosanna van mierlo, august 2021
in the months leading up to launching ima i had been doing research on the relationship between feminist art, fictioning and subversive activism. this was “pre-covid”. our ability to be alarmed struggled to extend to any crisis happening in the unfamiliar “over there”. we still existed comfortably in the collaborative fantasy that we could have globalism economically, but not socially, or—god forbid—corporally.
at the time, i was interested in how fictioning could be a tool for resistance, for tracing and drawing modes of escape, theoretically but also practically. i wasn’t interested in aesthetics, formalism, or the surface of things. instead, i wanted to think about fictioning as a kind of wayfinding into the future, or strategy for becoming in times of crisis. i wanted to extend the term to investigate not just art-practice, but also its institutional contexts. ima was a way to put theory into practice; both museum and art project, real and fake, it asked a question simply by being there. what makes a museum? what does it allow for and what does it negate? what is its relation to power and crisis? and how does it deploy fictioning as a means of self-justification, as well as erasure?
originally conceived in the middle ages as a public construct of legal inviolability, fictioning evolved through literature and performance to what we now commonly think of as “fiction”: a story or character that is written or performed. however, fictioning exists much more broadly, making itself felt in almost every aspect of our world: socially, politically, sexually, artistically. fictioning brought us money, the economic market, instagram, wire transactions, legislation, fake news, gender, the list goes on…
the problem then becomes how to describe something so all-present. at the time of this writing, i still speak about fictioning with discomfort. it is a term i find myself, more often than not, wrestling to control. fictioning as practice is a slippery slope. at other times, i find some footing, finally getting comfortable with its specificity. the problem is not that fictions are untrue; the challenge, instead, is their undeniable realness in our lives. as such, fictions are not merely personas, or even stories, they are mechanisms, formulas, and tricks. they burrow small side-steps to dominant narratives, outlining loopholes to the unknown like teasing a thread on an old woolen sweater. before you know it, the whole damn sleeve comes apart and you keep getting it caught on things.
fictions are similarly activated by desire, curiosity, and an openness to getting caught unexpectedly. the question that delineates a fiction is not traceable by asking “what is it”, but rather by asking “how does it operate”? fictioning is part of the social contract. fictions are rules, agreements, or legal and monetary constructs we have collectively signed up for. even though we, on some level, know fiction’s abstract unrealness for what it is, we have faith in the real, measurable outcome of the processes they allow for.
against this rather precarious framework it becomes interesting to look at institutions, as they are drawing their basis for existence from being, first and foremost, something that is “in operation”. a business out of operation is defunct. similarly, museums run on the premise of operation, turning art into visitor numbers, capital, or engagement figures. at its core, the idea of the museum is, of course, ridiculous. it is nothing more than an architectural construct, cemented by a web of fictions; contracts outlining its value and status.
both meschac gaba’s museum of contemporary afrikan art and ian allan paul’s guantanamo bay museum of art and history have valuably explored the fictionality that underwrites the museum as a concept, while at the same time using fictioning as a suggestion for a better future. by absolving locality, architecture and other physical denominators, they operate solely on the fictions that give the museum life. working within that fictionality alone, they are able to expose those same operations as absurd, politically failing or economically undesirable. fictioning becomes the only mode for political agency left to us. this is the operative methodology that drives ima forward, into unknown terrain. ima is not a thing, not a “what”, but a fictional tool for institutional questioning. it is an operative non-entity that tries to open up a space for unexpected conversations.