This spring If I Can’t Dance and mistral are happy be able to virtually welcome you to "In Good Company (Horsepower): Materials from the Gift Science Archive, 1993–present," an exhibition opening up the process of Dutch American artist Sands Murray-Wassink’s ‘monumental’ 18-month collaborative performance "Gift Science Archive" to the public for haptic engagements with the artist’s work and archiving process. Each Friday an exhibition curator will lead an online tour (see schedule below), offering participants windows into Murray-Wassink's practice.

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A queer cult figure in the Amsterdam art scene for nearly two decades, Sands Murray-Wassink (b. 1974, Topeka, Kansas) is a painter, body artist, writer and perfume collector indebted to various forms and permutations of intersectional feminist and queer art, with Carolee Schneemann, Hannah Wilke and Adrian Piper serving as key coordinates. As Murray-Wassink has moved in and out of institutional visibility over the years, his archive of art and non-art ‘studio objects’ has continued to grow. For his current commission with If I Can’t Dance, the artist has chosen to work with this massive collection of materials to create "Gift Science Archive," a durational performance with different chapters, including archiving activities at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (where Murray-Wassink is a guest resident); process events spread out across locations; and exhibitions, the first of which takes place at mistral.

"In Good Company" follows from the collecting and collective ethos of Murray-Wassink's practice and his "Gift Science Archive." With over 2000 ‘studio objects’ now unearthed through the performance, the exhibition in mistral shares for the first time bodies of work and stacks of ephemera—including objects, documents, print materials, performance relics and more—dating back to 1993 when the artist began to develop his studio practice. Together with members of the Gift Science Archive team (Murray-Wassink, Megan Hoetger, Radna Rumping and Amalia Calderón) and mistral staff, visitors are invited to peruse the database and to pull materials from the archive for a closer look and a story. The ‘research experience’ is thus set into relational motion, and storytelling is taken up as a primary, valid and valuable mode of knowledge production and transmission.

PLEASE NOTE: Zoom links for the tours will be sent out the morning of your tour. Make sure to watch for an Eventbrite email around 10am on your chosen Friday!

23 April 17-18hr with Megan Hoetger

30 April 15-16hr with Huib Haye van der Werf

7 May 17-18hr with Megan Hoetger

14 May 15-16hr with Huib Haye van der Werf

21 May 15-16hr with Huib Haye van der Werf

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The exhibition is co-curated by Radna Rumping and Huib Haye van der Werf (mistral, Amsterdam) together with Megan Hoetger (If I Can’t Dance, Amsterdam).

"Gift Science Archive" is a commission of If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution and is supported by the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. The project is curated by Megan Hoetger as part of the If I Can’t Dance’s Edition VIII – Ritual and Display finale programme running between October 2020 and December 2021, and also including new productions by Derrais Carter, Pauline Curnier Jardin, Giulia Damiani, Sara Giannini, MPA and Lisa Robertson.