Art and politics in (post)communism

Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review, vol. XI, no. 4, 2011

Special issue: Art and Politics in (Post)communism

ARGUMENTUM

CATERINA PREDA, Art and Politics in (Post)communism. The Transformation of Institutions and Artistic Practices in Central and Eastern Europe (pp. 597-605)

ARTICULI

SIMON PAUL BELL, Laibach and the NSK: Ludic Paradigms of Postcommunism (pp. 609-619)

AMY CHARLESWORTH, ”Warte Mal!”. Construction and Consumption of Female Subjectivity after the Velvet Revolution (pp. 621-631)

ANDREI POAMĂ, Il était une fois un pays. Propagande, pouvoir et ténèbres dans l’Underground d’Emir Kusturica (1995) (”There once was A Country”. Propaganda, Power and Darkness in Emir Kusturica’s Underground [1995]) (pp. 633-645)

MARIA ALINA ASAVEI, A Theoretical Excursus on the Concept of Political Art in Communism and its Aftermath (pp. 647-660)

FLORENTINA ANDREESCU, The Changing Face of the Sacrificial Romanian Woman in Cinematographic Discourses (pp. 661-674)

ELENA ARHIRE, Le Centre National de la Cinématographie: articulations du postcommunisme roumain (National Center of Cinematography: Articulations of Romanian Postcommunism) (pp. 675-686)

CRISTINA STOENESCU, Continuităţi şi contraste în spaţiul artistic postcomunist românesc (Continuities and Contrasts in the Postcommunist Romanian Artistic Space) (pp. 687-699)

TIJEN TUNALI, The Politics of ”Roma Inclusion” at the 52nd Venice Art Biennale (pp. 701-711)

ZORAN POPOSKI, Spaces of Democracy: Art, Politics and Artivism in the Post-socialist City (pp. 713-723)

Summary: In the countries of former Eastern Europe, the collapse of socialism and the subsequent onset of neoliberal capitalism have resulted in a massive transfiguration of urban public space at the hands of commercial interests. Drawing on insights from major theorists of public space, this paper explores the transformation of urban space in the post-socialist cities of Central and Southeast Europe (Skopje), focusing on examples of creative reuse, artistic conversion and social re-writing of the urban landscape in the face of massive economic, political and social changes.

Keywords: public space; spatial practices; artivism; Macedonia

ELENA GKARTZONIKA, Post-Cold War Trajectories of Memory and Oblivion in Bulgaria and Kosovo (pp. 725-736)

RECENSIONES

JACQUES RANCIÈRE, The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, Continuum, London, New York, 2010 (ALEXANDRA IRIMIA), pp. 739-741

JACQUES RANCIÈRE, Dissensus: on Politics and Aesthetics. Edited and translated by STEVEN CORCORAN, Continuum International Publishing Group, Great Britain, 2010 (ANDRA GRIGORE), pp. 741-744

MICHAEL SHAPIRO, Cinematic Geopolitics, Routledge, New York, 2009 (IRINA VELICU), pp. 744-747

MICHAEL SHAPIRO, The Time of the City: Politics, Philosophy, and Genre, Routledge, New York, 2010 (JOHN SWEENEY), pp. 747-752

BORIS GROYS, Art Power, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2008 (GABRIELLA CALCHI-NOVATI), pp. 753-755

PIOTR PIOTROWSKI, In the Shadow of Yalta. The Avant-garde in Eastern Europe, 1945-1989, translated by Anna Brzyski, Reaktion Books, London, 2009 (ALEXANDRA NEACŞU), pp. 756-760

ANCA BENERA, ALINA ŞERBAN (ed.), Bucureşti. Materie şi istorie. Monumentul public şi distopiile lui, R.A. Monitorul Oficial, Bucureşti, 2010 (ELENA ARHIRE), pp. 761-765

INTERFERENCE - NETHERLANDS

Interference -Schaduwspel-
1 till 11 dec. 2011
Breda, Netherlands

Interference explores the significance of art within science and science in art, guided by milestones in scientific progress.
Interference 2011-2012 is inspired by The Allegory of the Cave by Plato a philosophic milestone in which the quest for scientific and systematic thought is first set.
For the first part Het Schaduwspel artist were asked to research the function of moving images in a public space. The city centre of Breda will be the stage for eight projections.

Projections can be seen daily 1 - 11 December between 17.00h and 24.00h.

Zoran Poposki's video 'Different' will be screened as part of the DVD Project selection to mark its fifth-year anniversary.
Location: ‘t Ezelsoor Bredase Boekenmarkt, Veemarktstraat 52 - 54
1 till 11 dec. 2011 from 17.00 till 23.00 hours

Opening
The Opening of Interference – Het Schaduwspel will take place thursday 1the of december in collaboration with the Huis voor Beeldcultuur:

19:00 Doors open Huis voor Beeldcultuur
19:30 Openingceremonie Huis voor Beeldcultuur
20:45 Openingceremonie Interference – Het Schaduwspel
location: Kasteelplein
21:00 Première ’t Turfschip van Breda van Studio Smack
21:30 Walk along all Interference projections, artists will be present
23:30 Performance Sculpture (UK) at Huis voor Beeldcultuur

Pre-Opening / Blinde Muur

Thr. 10 nov 20.00h
Blinde Muur: a selection from the DVD-project
Chassé Theater

Pre-Opening / ETALAGE

Thr. 24 nov 20.00h
ETALAGE Innercity #113 – Steph Byrne
Trainstation Breda CS

Grand Opening Interference

Thr. 1 december

19.30h in collaboration with Huis voor Beeldcultuur

20.45h Worldpremière animationfilm 't Turfschip van Breda (Studio Smack)
23.30h Performance Sculpture

DELAWARE CENTER FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Not So Distant Memory
Exhibit Dates:
Nov 4, 2011 - Jan 5, 2012
Location: Moving Media Hall
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
200 South Madison Street | Wilmington, DE 19801 | 302.656.6466
Hours: Tue, Thu, Fri & Sat: 10 to 5 | Wed & Sun: 12 to 5 | Mon: Closed |

This hour-long presentation features contemporary video works centering around the history of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1943-1992). Made by artists from ex-Yugoslav republics and provinces, the works contain a multitude of voices and perspectives: from the performative and more politically engaged to the lyrical and humorous. The focus is not on developing an over-arching theme or conclusion but experiencing art from a particular region that is often neglected by the West.

Participating artists: Leban-Kleindienst (Slovenia), Borjana Mrdja (Bosnia & Hercegovina),Renata Poljak (Croatia), Marija Djordjević (Serbia), Alban Muja (Kosovo), Danilo Prnjat (Montenegro), Mladen Miljanovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Boris Glamočanin & Sandra Dukić (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Zoran Poposki (Macedonia).

Related programming:

November 3
Curator of the Moving Media video Not So Distant Memory Boshko Boskovic will speak about video works centering around the history of The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1943-1992).

November 4 Art Loop
Q & A with Boshko Boskovic and Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art Maiza Hixson.

The DCCA, a non-collecting art museum founded in 1979, presents between 20 - 30 exhibitions annually of regionally, nationally and internationally recognized artists that explore topical issues in contemporary art and society.

CYBERFEST 11 ST. PETERSBURG

Digital artist and theorist Zoran Poposki will present a video performance at the 11 CYBERFEST International Cyber Art Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 18-23 November 2011. The work will be shown as part of Not So Distant Memory, a video program curated by Boshko Boskovic.

The 11. festival edition is dedicated to the theme Show Us Your Tongue, and includes: exhibitions (media installations and interactive objects), media performances, sound art, educational program (lectures, workshops, movies), video art program, media art for children, and media opera.

According to the statement by the curator Marina Koldobskaya:"Tongues could be simple or complex, archaic or modern, alive and dead, one’s own and somebody else’s. One’s own, native tongue, is, as a rule, but one. We acquire it practically at birth and lose it together with life. If the tongue is lost, everything collapses. Many tongues are not better than one – even builders of the Tower of Babel realized that. The contemporary art is similar to that great construction – tongues got mixed. It has been a few generations already, starting with Pop Art, that artists have been using the language of mass culture and politics, sociology and psychoanalysis, journalism and advertisement, glossy photo and traditional painting, design and graffiti, theater and film, street activism and academic studies, business and outsiderism. A word emerges when a phenomenon emerges; a statement – when there is something to say; a tongue – when there is a community. The international art crown today is not unlike the population of Diaspora: people talk each in their own way, each does his own thing and each lives in his own conditions – and it is no longer really clear what characteristics and what common belief make people recognize their own kind. For how long will art preserve itself without its own speech? And what is capable of giving new vocabulary, syntax and grammar to the contemporary art that has been for several generations already leading the unenviable life of mocker, parodist, doppelganger of the “real life”? New technologies that change the civilization before our own eyes is a challenge that will have to be met; a reality that is worthy of discussion; unlimited possibilities that are impossible not to use. One should answer the question: will the art remain the mocker that would everlastingly stick out its tongue to the “big boys” or will it acquire its own tongue, on which it will say most important words – to itself and to everyone."

Skopski urbani prikazni

SKOPSKI URBANI PRIKAZNI

6 AKTO Festival of Contemporary Art

A performance in public space by artist Zoran Poposki in front of the Oficerski Dom in Bitola on 11 August 2011 at 8 PM will mark the start of the 6th International Festival of Contemporary Arts AKTO.

AKTO will be held until Sunday, under the motto "(Never) Work", inspired by a graffiti "Ne travaillez jamais" by the French philosopher Guy Debord in the 1950s. The festival, which this year places emphasis on the visual arts and music, announced 30 prominent participants from Macedonia, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Mexico and Finland, and over twenty famous musicians from Macedonia, Serbia and Canada.



Artists include: Zoran Poposki, Igor Toševski, Neda Firfova, Atanas Botev, Filip Jovanovski, Nikola Uzunovski (Macedonia); Mancasola Basillico, Progettozeropiu (Italy); Beatrice Andre (France); Ania Puntari (Finland); Nemanja Cvijanović, Marijana Vukić, Petra Kovačić, Vlasta Delimar (Croatia), Detext, Warren Neidich (USA), Walter Steinacher (AT); Gaston Ramirez Feltrin, Ruben Gutierez (Mexico), etc.

ProArt International Summer School

Arts -- Politics -- Economics. New perspectives of the arts

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat, Munich, Germany

July 31 - August 6, 2011

Arts, politics and economics have always existed in a dynamic interdependent relationship, which is, in part, stimulating, and, in part, produces contradictions or even oppositions: The arts are integrated into political and economic functional relationships, but they also appear as political protagonists, whose aesthetic strategies - whether explicit or implicit - reflect societal events or provide guidelines for successful coexistence in society. The spectrum of theoretical debate in the study of the arts ranges from questions concerning the position of the political in the aesthetic and aesthetic forms of expression of the political, to those who devote themselves to the political role of art or discuss the relationship of art and economics.

The interdisciplinary summer school, which incorporates the subjects Art History, Art Education, Musicology, Music Education and Theatre Studies, aims to discuss the following aspects:

How does the political manifest itself in the arts against the background of its dissolution of boundaries and internationalisation?
To what institutional change are the arts subject in the light of (global) structural political and economic changes?
What role does the study of the arts play in this process?

9 Art Stays International Festival of Contemporary Art

Digital artist and theorist Zoran Poposki will present a video performance and hold a lecture within the 9. International Festival of Contemporary Arts "ArtStays" and Summer Academy of Contemporary Arts in Ptuj, Slovenia on 28 July 2011.

The 9. festival edition is comprised of about 50 new projects by established and young international artists from the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Russia etc. The festival is part of the 2012 Maribor European Capital of Culture.

Poposki will present a video performance in a public space, whereas the lecture will focus on several of his projects regarding the relationship between the socially engaged art practice and social-political issues originating from the transformation of urban space in Skopje, challenges related to art operations in the public sphere, as well as tactics for interaction with diverse publics.

Artists:

Zulkifle Mahmod (Singapore); Jeongmoon Choi (Korea); Alice Andreoli, Mariantonietta Bagliato, Resi Girardello, Valentino Menghi, Elisa Bertaglia, Chiara Sorgato, Gabriele Grones, Thomas Braida, Peppe Perone, Lemeh42, Lucio Perone (Italy); Eike Berg (Germany/Hungary); Dia Bögi, András Zalavári, Tamás Fehérváry, Adrien Dorsánszki, Krisztián Szőke, Dominika Trapp, Dia Zékány, Benjamin Nagy, Kiss Gábor Attila, Vera Romhány, Máté Csató, Katarina Sevic, Endre Koronczi, Szacsva y Pál, Beöthy Balázs, Eszter Szabó, Marianne Csáky, Csongor G. Szigeti, László László Révész, Miklós ErhardtRita Varga (Hungary); Lynn Book, Robin Starbuck, Lou Mallozzi, Mary Ting, Kristin Mariani, Jean Marie Casbarian, Shawn Decker, Martha Rosler, Nina Sobell (USA); Nicolás Dumit Estévez (USA/Dominican Republic); Knoll+Cella (Austria/USA); Sujin Lee (USA/Korea); Johannes Knesl (USA/Austria); Katharina Klement, Manfred Kielnhofer, Christoph Luckeneder, Mounty R. P. Zentara, Alexander Hengl, Daniela Auer, Theresa Eipldauer, Maria Luz Olivares Capelle, Matthias Bernhard, Mark Fridvalski, Vinz Schwarzbauer, Matthias Peyker, Sebastian Koch, Christine Katscher, Christian Bazant Hegemark (Austria); Nebojša Despotović, Miroslav Ničić (Serbia); Doris Schmid (Switzerland); Alexandre Murucci (Brazil); Zoran Poposki (Macedonia); Nemanja Cvijanović, Miljana Babić, Ivica Buljan (Croatia); Borjana Ventzislavova (Bulgaria); Jaša, Matej Sitar, Tanja Verlak, Aleksander Velišček, Suzana Brborović, Jon Derganc, Tina Dobrajc, Mito Gegič, Urška Mazej, Dušan Fišer, Nika Autor, Jurij Meden, Staš Kleindienst, Sebastjan Leben, Vesna Bukovec, Evelin Stermitz, son:DA, Maja Cimermam (Slovenia), Monika Grycko (Poland); Olga Schigal (Russia/Germany); Karoe Goldt (Germany).


Curators:

Jernej Forbici, Slovenija, Galerija FO.VI
Marika Vicari, Italija, KUD ART STAYS
Laszlo Laszlo Revesz, Madžarska, Akademija za likovno umetnost v Budimpešti
Eike Berg, Nemčija / Madžarska, VideoSpace, Budapest
Gunter Damisch, Avstrija, Akademija za likovno umetnost na Dunaju v sodelovanju s Kro Art Contemporary
Dušan Fišer, Slovenija, Tovarna umetnosti, Majšperk
Lindy Poh, Singapur
Lynn Book, ZDA, Wake Forest University & Transart Institute
Giovanni Sasso, Italija, Galerija Nuvole Arte Contemporanea
Bianca Maria Rizzi, Italija, Galerija Bianca Maria Rizzi
Matthias Ritter, Nemčija, Galerija Bianca Maria Rizzi
Ksenija Orelj, Hrvaška, Muzej moderne i suvremene umjetnosti Rijeka
Emanuele Beluffi, Italija, Kritika, Milano
Vladimir Forbici, Slovenija, Galerija Tenzor
Mitja Gegič, Slovenija, za Akademijo za likovno umetnost v Ljubljani
miha(son:DA), Slovenija, EX-garaža, Kino Udarnik & ArtFemTV

Monument: 1000 Alexandras (2011)

Made up of randomly chosen female names found on social networks of current citizens of Skopje named Alexandra, 1000 Alexandras is conceived as a multimedia monument to all Alexandras currently living in Skopje, Macedonia. 

Initially selected to be shown during the city-funded 2011 Skopje Summer Festival as a public projection onto the newly-erected 33-meter-high bronze statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje's central square, the project was prevented from being realized due to a denial of permit by the municipal authorities to use the public space of the city square citing “security concerns”. The project was subsequently converted into a video for a 140m2 video billboard located in the main square of the city overlooking the statue. However, it was again prevented from being shown by a last-minute cancellation from the company operating the video billboard, without any explanation. This makes the video the first art project censored on ideological grounds in post-socialist Macedonia.

Questioning cultural and material values, conventions and authorities, Poposki's projects celebrate the importance of the ordinary and the overlooked in his tactical use of instruments of historic memory creation/glorificati.on. Continually calling for a celebration of the present, of the creative power of the everyday and the multitude, their aim is to create a new urban alphabet of the topographic, political and affective idiosyncrasies of public spaces in Skopje.

Monument: 1000 Alexandras (cont.)

* UPDATE: The public art project Monument: 1000 Alexandras WILL NOT TAKE PLACE in the planned location (City Media's LED video display at the main square in Skopje, Macedonia), due to a last-minute cancellation by the company operating the video billboard, without any explanation.

This comes after a previous denial of permit by the municipal authorities to do the public art project in the form of a projection onto the newly-erected statue of Alexander the Great in Skopje's central square.

Made up of randomly chosen female names found on social networks of current citizens of Skopje named Alexandra, 1000 Alexandras is conceived as a multimedia monument to all Alexandras currently living in Skopje. Questioning cultural and material values, conventions and authorities, Poposki's projects celebrate the importance of the ordinary and the overlooked in his tactical use of instruments of historic memory creation/glorification. Continually calling for a celebration of the present, of the creative power of the everyday and the multitude, their aim is to create a new urban alphabet of the topographic, political and affective idiosyncrasies of public spaces in Skopje.

Monument: 1000 Alexandras from zoran poposki on Vimeo.

Monument: 1000 Alexandras

Zoran Poposki

Monument: 1000 Alexandras

24 June, 20:30-21:30, City Square, Skopje

public screening on 140m2 HD LED video billboard

Covering an area of 140m2 and centrally located in the main square of the city, 1000 Alexandras is a multimedia monument to all Alexandras currently living in Skopje , made up of randomly chosen names found on social media sites. Originally conceived as a projection/intervention onto the recently erected monument of Alexander the Great (Warrior on a Horse), the project is realized in its present form due to fact that it was not granted a permit from the municipal authorities.

Zoran Poposki's projects in public space rely on Situationist tactics to explore possibilities for collective intervention into the urban geography. Questioning cultural and material values, conventions and authorities, Poposki's projects celebrate the importance of the ordinary and the overlooked in his tactical use of instruments of historic memory creation/glorification. Continually calling for a celebration of the present, of the creative power of the everyday and the multitude, their aim is to create a new urban alphabet of the topographic, political and affective idiosyncrasies of public spaces in Skopje.

As a space shared by all citizens, public space is a major source of local identity. Moreover, public space is the place where people communicate and interact with each other and engage in discourse on issues of public concern and is therefore a prerequisite for public freedom. Thus the right and the necessity for citizens to use public space as something that belongs to them and as a place for public debate and engagement in public discourse.

1000 Alexandras is part of the exhibition Skopje: between science and fiction, curated by Jovanka Popova, as part of the festival Skopje Summer 2011.

T-BA21: SohoinOttakring Working Conversation

Start: 15. June 2011 20:00
Venue: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contempory
Address:Himmelpfortgasse 13, Wien, Wien, Austria, 1010

Special Guest: Zoran Poposki, artist
Host: Victoria Hindley, artist

Public spaces are sites of interaction, encounter, and communication. Shared by all, the public sphere is also a source of local identity, and a place where heterogeneous groups assert this identity. Since it is also a space of exclusion, this right to representation must be continuously reasserted. Zoran Poposki will discuss several of his projects that focus on the relation­ship between socially engaged artistic practice and the sociopolitical concerns rising from the transformation of urban space in Skopje, Macedonia. In his lecture he will address the challenges of working in the public arena and what it means to attempt to engage different publics.

• In collaboration with Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Event in English

Zoran Poposki is a transdisciplinary artist and theorist based in Skopje. His work explores issues of liminality, identity, and public space and has been exhibited internationally. He is the author of “Prostori na mokta” (Spaces of Power, Skopje: Templum, 2009).

Victoria Hindley is an artist, writer, and independent curator. She works primarily with photography, language, the book form, and in collaboration with others. Her work challenges the cultural construction of meaning(s) through applying strategies of decoding such as abstraction, humor, and decontextualization as a way of investigating representations, stereotypes, and other naturalized concepts. Victoria studied literature, semiotics, and visual arts in the US and Europe and has a BA in Literature and a MFA in Visual Art. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally since the early 90s; she currently teaches at Transart Institute in Berlin/New York.

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Urban Conflicts Conference

URBAN CONFLICTS
ETHNO-NATIONAL DIVISIONS, STATES AND CITIES
19 – 21 May 2011,
Queen’s University Belfast
www.qub.ac.uk

The Conference is to be held at Queen’s University Belfast on 19 – 21 May 2011. It is organised by the Conflict in Cities and the Contested State ESRC Research Project (2007 – 2012) and partly sponsored by the World Bank's World Development Report 2011 - Conflict, Security and Development.

This is a multi-disciplinary conference with a focus on the nature and dynamics of ethno-national conflicts as manifested in contested cities. Conversely, it questions how cities and everyday urban life are used - and abused - in the containment of these wider national conflicts, and it explores their potential for achieving the self-sustaining moderation, constructive channelling or resolution of conflict. It aims to enhance dialogue between academics and non-academic urban policy practitioners and community activists working in such contested cities.

The conference adopts a multi-dimensional and multi-level approach to ethno-nationally divided cities, historical and contemporary. It incorporates questions of empire, national state and city interrelationships, international and historical comparisons, city planning and regeneration, political, economic and cultural developments, everyday life, violence, resistance and agonistic urbanism.

The conference will include plenary and parallel sessions, round table discussions and a guided tour of Belfast’s ‘peacewalls’ and ‘shared spaces’. The opening keynote address will be given by Saskia Sassen.

At the City Museum Skopje

Joie De Vivre (Joy of Living)
5-22 May 2011
City Museum, Skopje

The project Joie De Vivre (Joy of Living) has the aim to stimulate and develop cooperation between artists in Skopje (Macedonia) and their fellow artists in Podgorica (Montenegro), as well as to present a part of the vibrant contemporary art scene in these two cities, thus presenting the cities of Skopje (Macedonia) and Podgorica (Montenegro) as culture centers in this part of the Balkans.

Artists from Macedonia: Ismet Ramicevic, Bedi Ibrahim, Dijana Tomic Radevska, Aleksandra Petrusevska, Goce Nanevski, Atanas Botev, Marija Sotirovska, Zoran Poposki, Slavica Janaslieva, and Nehat Beqiri.

Artists from Montenegro: Tijana Dujević Liscevic, Natasa Djurovic, Tijana Gordic, Adin Rastoder, Darko Djurovic, Nada Kazhic, Marko Lukovac, Ilija Nikcevic, Milos Popovic Miki, and Zeljko Reljic.

Portrait of the Artist as a Cultural Worker

Zoran Poposki, Portrait of the Artist as a Cultural Worker, 
archival pigment print and acrylic on canvas, 70x38 cm, 2011

Publication – From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010)

The publication From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), created as part of the regional project Let’s Talk Critic Arts, will be presented on April 11 at 7 pm at the Art Center of the University Library “Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade.

The publication explores practices of critical contemporary fine arts – practices of research, progressive and experimental actions by contemporary fine artists from the 1990s to the present, in four countries in the region – Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. These are practices which focus on issues such as identity aspects (national, cultural, religious, ethnic), workers’ rights, social integration of minorities, global market fluctuation trends and its impact in the local context, unscrupulousness of capital, the position of women, spatial devastation, art institution system issues, and many others.

Contemporary visual art is discussed through the works and experiences of Igor Grubić, Sanja Iveković, Andreja Kulunčić and Darko Šimičić (Croatia), Stevan Vuković, Milica Tomić, Danilo Prnjat and Živko Grozdanić Gera (Serbia), Neven Korda, Marko Peljhan, Marija Mojca Pungerčar and Maja Smrekar (Slovenia), and Bojan Ivanov, Zoran Poposki, Mira Gakina and Žaneta Vangeli (Macedonia).

The publication maps out and theoretically reviews critical and research practices, and contemporary fine arts practices oriented towards the contemporary civilization moment, which have been active in the context of the independent cultural scene since the 1990s, but which have also been present in the institutional frame. The authors provide only drafts of the political, social, economic and cultural changes of the local contexts, through four segments, due to a lack of space. Each segment focuses on the practices and context of a given country, i.e. the capital as the primary focus, and in addition to the introductory word by the authors, it includes interviews (with authors, theorists, curators, organizers…) who contribute to the recording of these artistic practices based on their experience, work and knowledge.

The segments deal with the Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, and Zagreb scenes. All the authors devised their approaches in an effort to present the fruitful and creative production of these cities, to the greatest extent possible. The authors involved in the creation of this publication are Jasna Jakšić (in collaboration with Tihana Bertek, Maja Gujinović, Ana Kovačić, Srđan Latrezom, Petar Novak, Tino Novak, Tamara Sertić and Leda Sutlović) from Croatia, Nebojša Vilić from Macedonia, Vesna Tašić (in collaboration with Vesna Milosavljević and Miroljub Marjanović) from Serbia, and Miha Colner and Nika Grabar (Slovenia).

The authors of the segments faced a gruelling task – how to tell the story of a period on only 50 pages (which was predefined for every segment), and how to select only four protagonists for every city, among the many protagonists of the art scene? The authors applied different criteria – they strived to select precisely those respondents who could provide a cross-section of the discipline development, some were selected because their work is a paradigmatic of critical and socially engaging practices, while some were inescapable authoritative and creative minds…

The publication is a type of platform that is available to the public, with the wish to encourage further collecting and evaluation of art and cultural endeavours in the past 20 year in these four cities, as well as in those that could not be included in this project.

The book was conceived as a multilingual publication in English, in addition to the local languages (Croatia, Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian), in order to enable better insight into contemporary artistic practices in post-Yugoslav cities both for the local and international public.

The publication is available for free download under the Creative Commons Licence Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported unless it is not differently stated. The publication will be also distributed in CD form to galleries in Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje and Zagreb.

The LTCA project will be concluded by promotion of the publication From Consideration to Commitment: Art in Critical Confrontation to Society (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb: 1990-2010), but it is open for comment and further research.

The LTCA project was initiated and implemented by the cultural portal SEEcult.org (the SEEcult.org Civic Association) from Belgrade, Serbia, in collaboration with the Artservis.org portal (Center for Contemporary Arts, SCCA-Ljubljana) from Slovenia, Forum Skopje from Skopje, Macedonia, and the Kulturpunkt.hr portal (Alliance of Associations Clubture and Kurziv – Platform for Matters of Cultural, Media and Society) from Zagreb, Croatia, with support from the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), and national/local donors.

Public Interfaces: first peer-reviewed newspaper

Public Interfaces

NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES

»A fake is a fake. Anyway« Les Liens Invisibles

»We can only guess that fake publishing will mark the dawning of a new information era« The Financial Times

NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES is a fake newspaper presenting cutting edge research in an accessible FREE tabloid format. The newspaper is a 100% genuine copy of the famous Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The increasing demand for publication of academic peer-reviewed journal articles must be met. Unfortunate examples demonstrate that this may lead to plagiarism. This is not a viable solution. Research must be original and academia is not lacking original content. But perhaps researchers need new visions of how to produce research? Perhaps the readers need new ways of consuming research? Why not imagine academic research as something that can be consumed on a daily basis, in the train or at the breakfast table?

On April 1, at 13 am, NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES will be handed out to the public at the metro station ‘DR Byen/Universitetet’ in Copenhagen as well as at the central railway station in Aarhus and the State Library. Also, issues will be tactically placed in selected free newspaper stands and at University lunchrooms worldwide.

Emerging from the Digital Aesthetics Research Center and the Center for Digital Urban Living (Aarhus University), the aim of NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES is to encompass the changing concept of the ’public’. This is the result of an ongoing research in the computer interface.

CONTENT: Our starting point is that the computer interface is a cultural paradigm affecting not only our creative production and presentation of the world but also our perception of the world. We recognize that in the past decade, interfaces have been expanding from the graphical user interface of the computer to meet the needs of different new technologies, uses, cultures and contexts: they are more mobile, networked, ubiquitous, and embedded in the environment and architecture, part of regeneration agendas and new aesthetic and cultural practices, etc.. NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES investigates these new interfaces that affect relations between public and private realms, and generate new forms urban spaces and activities, new forms of exchange and new forms of creative production.

The newspaper is organised into thematic strands (URBAN, ART, CAPITAL) and brings together researchers from diverse fields – across aesthetics, cultural theory, architecture, digital design and urban studies – united by the need to understand public interfaces and the paradigmatic changes they pose to these fields.

All articles derive from an initial conference and PhD workshop held in January 2011, at Aarhus University. NYHEDSAVISEN: PUBLIC-INTERFACES and the full papers can be downloaded and commented on our website:

http://darc.imv.au.dk/publicinterfaces/

The newspaper and event was kindly supported by Center for Digital Urban Living, Digital Aesthetics Research Centre, and The Doctoral School in Arts and Aesthetics, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Brief histories

WINTER/SPRING 2011 BRIEF HISTORIES brings together contemporary works responsive to the unfolding events in the region and the larger global happenings of the day. Diverse participants, from six continents, present photography, moving image, installation, drawing, text, and web-based work. Themes lying within their contributions reflect upon social geography, power and authority, labor and capital, private and public space, and the media.

With telepresence of information, temporality has transformed from its traditional linear progression (past, present, future) to a coexistence of past and present–on demand. In this respect new media networks broadcast multitudes of distinct perspectives, which in turn destabilize a definitive narrative. The challenge has become to maintain a critical, artistic, and curatorial practice that is responsive and relevant, and that is capable of keeping its place amongst rapidly changing contexts and shifting meanings.

BRIEF HISTORIES is an attempt to address this need for immediacy, by bringing together artists and writers to respond with works that are significant to the context of our present day reality.

Curated by: Fawz Kabra and Isak Berbic

When: March 19 – April 1, 2011

Where: Sharjah University City, United Arab Emirates

Participating artists: Sarah Abu Abdallah, Tarek Al Ghoussein, Hala Ali, Abbas Akhavan, Brandon Alvendia, Tairone Bastien, Myron Beasley, Sema Bekirovic, Amir Berbic, Isak Berbic, Dunja Blazevic, Sofia Bytterbier, Jean Marie Casbarian, Nada Dada, Karee Dahl, Vincent Dermody, Nicolas Dumit Estevez, Renate Ferro, Zlatan Filipovic, Eric Fleischauer, Geissler/Sann, Khaled Hafez, Ibro Hasanovic, Samuel Jablon, Frans Jacobi, Emilia and Ilya Kabakov, Jeremiah Bendik Keymer, Wes Kline, Vincent Leow, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Laura Marks, Timothy Murray, Damir Niksic, Brian O'Doherty, Melentie Pandilovski, Zoran Poposki, Colin Reaney, Michael Robinson, Ben Russell, Shirin Sabahi, Larissa Sansour, Nebojsha Shoba Sheric, Edgar Serrano, LeRoy Stevens, Deborah Stratman, Pelin Tan, Ubik, Lantian Xie.

Creative positioning in urban geography

Posters in the streets of Dublin

UpStart Collective launched its campaign to promote creativity during the Irish General Election 2011 on Tuesday 1st February, by reinterpreting the spaces commonly used for displaying election campaign posters in Dublin City.
1000 posters, submitted by artists, writers and poets are being put up across the centre of Dublin.
The objectives of UpStart are to encourage a debate on the role of the arts in this state, by highlighting the importance of creativity and ingenuity when society is in need of direction and solutions, and to emphasize the value of the arts to public life. The future development of the country requires a healthy cultivation of the Arts.

Spaces of democracy

CAA's 99th Annual Conference

At CAA's 99th Annual Conference in New York from February 9-12, 2011, the ARTspace Media Lounge presents a roster of innovative video programming, with selections made by renowned artists, professors, and curators specializing in new media; they are shown on a continuous loop during the conference, featuring a different hour-long program each day.

An outstanding program is lined up for New York, featuring videos assembled by nine curators, including Boshko Boskovic, Alexander Campos, David Familian, Claudia Hart, Martha Kirszenbaum, Karen Moss, Aily Nash, Debra Riley Parr, and Catherine Sullivan. The framework for the program can best be described by the title chosen by the organizers, Band of Outsiders, the irresistible title of Jean Luc Godard’s 1964 film, which prompts the notion of a collective challenging of boundaries. The goal is to reflect the independent and adventurous mettle that has always characterized art production in New York City.

The video program Not So Distant Memory, curated by Boshko Boskovic, comprises of an hour-long presentation of video works from the territory of what used to be Yugoslavia. The approach is topographical and takes as a starting point remembrance of a place that has expired in history. The process is a simple one: connecting the dots of national groups that once cohabited within a construct through the basis of video art. Aesthetics are politics and in featuring artworks from ex-Yugoslav republics and provinces (Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia) there is a danger that the exhibition be perceived as an excessively sentimental yearning to return to a past period that once existed, namely The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1943-1992). One is fully aware that returning to the past is an irrecoverable process and the aim of this presentation is to showcase the production of recent artworks that happen to be framed upon a territory that once existed.

The works contain a multitude of voices and perspectives: from the performative and more politically engaged to the lyrical and humorous. The focus is not on developing an overarching theme or conclusion yet experiencing works from a particular region that is often neglected or esentialised by the western contemporary art world.

Participating artists in the exhibition are: Danilo Prnjat (Montenegro), Marija Djordjevic (Serbia), Renata Poljak (Croatia), Boris Glamocanin & Sandra Dukic (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Mladen Miljanovic (Bosna & Hercegovina), Borjana Mrdja (Bosna & Hercegovina), Leban-Kleindienst (Slovenia), Alban Muja (Kosovo), Zoran Poposki (Macedonia).

Interview

"Citizens should actively be involved in decision-making about what their surroundings should look like. They have the right to use and create public space. In the widest sense, citizens have the right to the city - to live and to produce public urban space through working and living in the city. The city is not just a collection of buildings, but is rather a result of the interaction between the citizens.

I want to see the city as a space of radical democracy, where citizens of every level would be involved in making decisions. Creating opportunities for dialogue between different social groups at every level. That means opening up public space into a place for dialogue and debate, as well as space for the representation of different social groups.

My thesis is that art necessarily requires public space. Art is by its nature dialogic - it addresses the other in order to engage into a process of communication and exchange."

More from the interview at Zurnal MK (in Macedonian).

Public Interfaces

Conference and PhD workshops | 12-14 January 2011 | Aarhus University, Denmark.

The Public Interfaces conference and Ph.D. workshop brings together researchers from Aarhus University, University of Plymouth, and guests to address the broad theme of Public Interfaces. It is organised by the Centre for Digital Urban Living (DUL), Digital Aesthetics Research Centre (DARC), and Dept. of Aesthetic Studies, Aarhus University.

Emerging from DUL and DARC's ongoing research around interface criticism, the aim is to broaden issues to encompass the development of urban interfaces, and the changing concept of the 'public'.

The following questions act as points of departure:

Whilst experimentation and developments in the culture of free software reflects emergent and self-organizing public actions, how does this modify our understanding of public interfaces? Can the public interface be used as a useful concept for understanding changing relations between public and private realms within other fields? Does the public interface offer a way of further examining relational aesthetics, the cultural regeneration agenda and public art? Does the public interface provide new understandings of the relationship between creative production and the free market sphere? How does the possible dissolution of the public and private spheres relate to bio politics and contemporary forms of power? Does the public interface suggest new borders or even the dissolution of borders between the public and private, humans and machines, the centre and periphery?

The conference and workshop are organised into three thematic strands: Art as public interface; The public interfaces of urban space; The public interface and capital.

Speakers: Merete Carlson (DK), Phil Ellis (UK), Christian Rhein (DE), Nina Valkanova (BG/ES), Tobias Ebsen (DK), Kevin Carter (UK), Thomas Bjørnsten Kristensen (DK), Andrew Prior (UK), Morten Riis (DK), Nina Gram (DK), Lars Bo Løfgreen (DK), Robert Jackson (UK), Magda Tyzlik-Carver (UK/PL), Tatiana Bazzichielli (IT/DK), Jacob Lund (DK), Malcolm Miles (UK), Morten Breinbjerg (DK), Brett Bloom (US/DK), Rui Guerra (NL/PT), Jørgen Bang (DK), Martin Brynskov (DK), Robert Brown (UK/US), Lone Koefoed Hansen (DK), Zoran Poposki (Rep. of Macedonia), Christian Ulrik Andersen (DK), Søren Pold (DK), Joasia Krysa (PL/UK), Geoff Cox (UK/DK), Mikkel Bolt (DK).

Organisers:Jacob Lund (DK), Geoff Cox (UK/DK), Christian Ulrik Andersen (DK).