Ben Schot

Ben Schot (born November 15 1953, Zierikzee, The Netherlands) is a Dutch artist, writer, publisher, and freelance curator.

From 1981 to 1986 Schot was trained as an artist at the art schools of Rotterdam and The Hague, The Netherlands. His activities cover various disciplines and techniques: drawings, audio and video works, installation art, and performances. As a writer Schot publishes articles and fiction in various magazines. In 2000 Schot founded the publishing house Sea Urchin Editions which publishes works from the avant-garde and counterculture, such as works by Henri Michaux, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Serge Gainsbourg, Vivian Stanshall & Ki Longfellow, and André Breton.

Some of the projects organised by Schot are "Oulipo" (1997) about the French literary movement of the same name, "Shells" (1997), a project on the museum as an institute at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, "Submerge" (1997) on the films of surrealist-biologist Jean Painlevé, "Towers Open Fire" (1998) on the films of William Burroughs, and "I rip you, you rip me" (1998, in collaboration with Ronald Cornelissen) on the radical and psychedelic counterculture of Detroit in the late sixties, early seventies. On various occasions Schot gave lectures and presentations on Sun Ra, on whom he wrote an article as well. As a member of the revolutionary collective The Buggers he staged a "Missed Encounter" between former Provo leader Roel van Duijn and former chairman of the White Panther Party John Sinclair in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 2005. As part of the event Hugh Hopper, Mark Hewins, and Frank van der Kooy were invited by Schot to do a concert at the auditorium of the museum. In 2006 Schot put together an exhibition of material from the archives of the Dutch underground press Cold Turkey Press for the Historical Museum of Rotterdam. In 2008 Schot organized the project "Kingdom Come" about the notion utopia for the Dutch art institute "TENT". The project consisted of an exhibition in which various artists, publishers, and thinkers were invited to react to the concept "utopia", a book fair for independent publishers, a discussion with Roel van Duijn, the screening by René van der Voort of the documentary "Revisiting Father" about Father Yod and the Source Family, and a performance of the Japanese musicians Yoshida Tatsuya of the band "Ruins" and Kawabata Makoto of "Acid Mothers Temple".

Pseudonyms

*Benjamin Jakobson
*H.W. Kleppe
*The Buggers

Publications in English (selection)

*"Launched into eternity" - tekst in "Collect/Recollect", Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,Rotterdam, 1999
*"Hare-brained/Hair-brained" - comic in collaboration with Ronald Cornelissen, Wormhole #1, Rotterdam, 2000
*"Astro-Black Mythology" - article on Sun Ra published in Blastitude #13, Chicago, 2002
*"The fire, the fire is falling!" - manifesto published in Open #10, NAI publishers, Rotterdam, 2006
*"The shining moon, the dead oak tree, nights like this appeal to me" - essay on the phenomenon "comeback", Metropolis M, 2007

External links

* [http://www.blastitude.com/13/ETERNITY/sun_ra.htm Article on Sun Ra by Ben Schot]
* [http://www.sea-urchin.net/buggers/index.html Missed Encounters, project by The Buggers]
* [http://www.sea-urchin.net Sea Urchin Editions]
* [http://thebookbeat.com/backroom/?cat=43 Essay on the phenomenon "comeback" by Ben Schot]