Neighbours in Dialogue: Istanbul Collection for Ars Aevi

Exhibition /// PRESS RELEASE
Neighbours in Dialogue
Istanbul Collection for Ars Aevi

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Beral Madra (Istanbul)

ARTISTS: Steve Sabella (Jerusalem); Wafaa Yasin (Galilee); Sanan Aleskerov (Baku); Lamia Joreige (Beirut); Vahram Aghasyan (Erevan); Khaled Hafez (Cairo); Shalva Khakhnasvili (Tbilisi – Paris); Farhad Moshiri (Teheran); Dilek Winchester (İstanbul);  xurban collective (Istanbul – Izmir - New York) and Andrej _erkovi_ (Sarajevo).

ARS AEVI MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SARAJEVO
IN COOPERATION WITH
BM CONTEMPORARY ART CENTRE ISTANBUL
COLLEGIUM ARTISTICUM GALLERY SARAJEVO
Sarajevo, October 2008
The Ars Aevi Project is unique in the world of contemporary art. It aims to create a regional South East European centre for world contemporary art in Sarajevo, the city known to the for its multicultural history and recent wounds, but also for being a true meeting point of artists of the world. In fact, Ars Aevi is a wide network of artists, curators, institutions of contemporary art, architects, government and non-governmental organisations, administrations and other individuals working together to form an exceptional collection of contemporary art, named the Ars Aevi Collection, that will be housed in a museum designed by the prestigious architect Renzo Piano.

Nuclei of the Ars Aevi Collection are formed by museums, centres, galleries, foundations and other institutions of contemporary art with which the Ars Aevi General Directorate makes an agreement for cooperation. To date, Ars Aevi Collection nuclei have been formed by museums or centres of contemporary art gravitating towards the Western Europe – in Milan, Prato, Venice, and Bolognano in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Vienna in Austria, and in its home town, in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The second phase of enrichment of the collection is gravitating towards the East and Ars Aevi has proudly received a new addition to the Collection, formed by the prestigious Turkish curator Beral Madra in Istanbul in March 2007. Formation of new nuclei is either ongoing or planned in Zagreb in Croatia, Cetinje in Montenegro, Athens in Greece and Belgrade in Serbia in the course of the following years.

In March 2007, through collaboration with the City of Istanbul and the Beral Madra Centre for Contemporary Art, and with the support of the European Cultural Foundation and Prince Claus Fund, and under the auspice of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Kültür A.Ş., the Ars Aevi Collection was enriched with a new nucleus - the Istanbul Collection. The Istanbul Collection comprises works by artists from the South Caucuses, Middle East and Mediterranean who all belong to a younger generation, but have already received wide international acclaim: Steve Sabella (Jerusalem); Wafaa Yasin (Galilee); Sanan Aleskerov (Baku); Lamia Joreige (Beirut); Vahram Aghasyan (Erevan); Khaled Hafez (Cairo); Shalva Khakhnasvili (Tbilisi – Paris); Farhad Moshiri (Teheran); Dilek Winchester (İstanbul); xurban collective (Istanbul – Izmir - New York) and Andrej _erkovi_ (Sarajevo). The founding exhibition presenting the new works of the Ars Aevi Collection was entitled “Neighbours in Dialogue – Istanbul Collection for the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art Sarajevo” was created and coordinated by Ms. Beral Madra.

In May 2007, the works in the Istanbul Collection arrived in Sarajevo with the intent of them to be presented to the public as a group exhibition in October 2008. The exhibition organisers hope to facilitate the encounter of younger artists form the East, the West and from Bosnia and Herzegovina and by holding the encounter in Sarajevo, in context of the Ars Aevi Project, to promote Sarajevo as a cultural meeting point. At the same time, the exhibition showcases art from the South Caucuses, the Middle East and the East Mediterranean that usually receives unfairly less prominent coverage in the Western media.

The connection between the works of these artists is their occupation with the conditions in which art is created, the occupation of the state of the soul and their social environment. The Ars Aevi Istanbul Collection nucleus will, therefore, physically and strongly connect the countries from the East, creating a balance with the great number of existing Western artists in the Ars Aevi Collection.

The concept behind the Ars Aevi Project was formulated during the first months of the siege of Sarajevo, conceived as a utopian vision in the darkest days of the siege of Sarajevo. Sixteen years on, Ars Aevi is developing in cooperation with the world’s most eminent artists, artistic directors, museums, centres and foundations of contemporary art, together showing that today it is possible to discover and apply new ways of museum management. The “Istanbul Collection for Ars Aevi Collection” serves as further proof that through cooperation artists can be the builders of a new Europe.


INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL PROJECT
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SARAJEVO
General Directorate, Sarajevo, Centar Skenderija, Terezija bb Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tel: 387 33 216 919
Fax: 387 33 216 927
arsaevi@arsaevi.ba
www.arsaevi.ba

NOTES ON “CAPTIVATED BY BAKHCHESARAY” EXHIBITION

It is always difficult to sum up the developments in art scenes and come up with a precise panorama.  The most precise observation is that the content and the form of art and art making has changed since the beginning of the 1990s. The change is very much related to the socio-political and ideological alterations (alterations and not transformations because of the recurring instances of the one-time political ideologies). While the gradual evaporation of the most solid factor, namely the nation-state ideology is being replaced by a pious national ideology, in tune with the neo-liberal freedom and permissiveness, the micro-level socio-political issues float up.  Thus the alteration reflected itself as completely free and unrestricted declarations of macro or micro-level individual statements through art-works. As the art-works of today are far from being hermetic and metaphorical, one can say that art making is serving as a tool of a neo-anarchist attitude and proclamation. The dissident individual utilizes art making in order to have a visible presence within the socio-political panorama of his/her territory.  However, this panorama, with on the one side nearly fully occupied by the politicians and bureaucrats and on the other side by the business people, who in general are not so interested in contemporary art production, opens for the artist a new arena of struggle. In the underdeveloped local art markets of the region, the artists are exposed to make extra efforts for their economic welfare. In most of the countries around Turkey, the economies are in difficulty and the infrastructures of culture industries are absent or inadequate.

Even if the blockbuster exhibitions are full of photography and video works, painting is still the most demanded form of art-work in the local art market and artists are keen to show their painting skills, because painting—or the handmade art work—is still a signal for the public to discern whether the artist is professional or not.   Today’s young generation is reflecting its ideas, concepts, interpretations, criticism mainly through painting, photography and video, but also through artistic and cultural events which they organize particularly without a curating hand in it.

Throughout the 1990s, the urgency of the artist was “identity” in political, ethnic, gender-oriented locations with references to their origins or traditions. Since 2000, while a group of artists of Turkey are running after more global pursuits, producing works for international curators and audiences by following the concept and strategy trends, another group is still dealing with the local issues and problems. Sometimes, the artworks look like newspaper headlines with pictures or propaganda posters dealing with daily local politics.

Photography with all its possibilities of true or false representations, with its illusive appearances or with its possibilities of monumentality is being utilized by almost all artists. Documentary photography is the basis of socio-political artworks as well. Yet, the ambiguous issue in photographic works is the relation of the image to the conceptual framework of the artist’s manifestation, or the already worldwide consumed criteria that are repetitively being employed for the impact of the photographic image. Convincing and persuasive photographic work comes with its theoretical and philosophical background which can only be mapped out in the expanded oeuvre of the artist.

Regional exhibitions, or exhibitions that unite artists from neighboring countries that have past and present political and cultural relations are no doubt a fertile soil for new productions and events. When I was curating together with Magda Guruli the first comprehensive show of Georgian artist in Istanbul during the 10th Istanbul Biennale, I indicated that we have to admit the weakness and the absence of communication and knowledge in the relationship between the culture and art worlds of Turkey and those of the Soviet world during the Cold War period and that presently we (mostly curators and museum directors) are making a special effort to fill the vacuum created by the apathy between 1950-1990 via cultural and artistic activities.

In the 1990s, when the discovery of the other was the fundamental quest, West European curators and museum directors have united the artists of East Europe, Balkans, Greece and Turkey in eclectic group shows. Looking back to those exhibitions, there is no doubt that they have motivated the artists to democratic openness and the local art scenes to acknowledge international criteria. The encounter of the artists of the onetime polarized cultures created a new synergy in transforming the theoretical, philosophical and conceptual fundaments of contemporary art. The macro-events have prepared the field for in depth encounters or i.e. the empty parts of the macro-picture can only be embroidered meticulously through a more profound collaboration, which I believe Bahcesaray exhibition will be an interesting model.

Beral Madra, March 2008

CONTEMPORARY ART IN BAKHCHISARAY

PRESS RELEASE: CONTEMPORARY ART IN BAKHCHISARAY

CAPTIVATED BY BAKHCHISARAY/ ZACHAROVANI ___________ / PLENENNYE BAHCHISARAEM / _______________ ___ ____________ / BAHÇESARAY'A TUTULDU /

Bakhchisaray State Historical and Cultural Preserve 

28.09 2008 - 28.10. 2008.
Opening - September 27, 2008 at 16.00.

Organizers: Bakhchisaray State Historical and Cultural Reserve / Moscow Museum of Modern Art / The State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki / Contemporary Art Center BM (Istanbul), Gallery "Collection" (Kiev)

Curators: Maria Tsantsanoglou (Greece), Beral Madra (Turkey), Olga Lopuhova (Russia), Oleg Bayshev (Ukraine)

With the support of PROEKT FABRIKA Centre of creative industries, ISTANBUL METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY KULTUR A.Ş., fund for Art Projects

The Crimea has long been a crossroads of diverse cultures, a place where many nations and peoples have come together. It has provided inspiration for artists, writers, poets and musicians since antiquity. Drawing attention to the unique historical heritage of Bakhchisaray and the cultural diversity of the region, and its interaction with neighbouring countries, the organizers of the present project see art as a universal language capable of bridging gaps both between people and between peoples. Despite the ambiguity of the current political situation in the Crimea and deep historical differences, it is hoped that this exhibition will find common ground between the national and cultural entities involved and point towards the possibility of harmonious coexistence. Bahchisaray State Museum, the adjacent park, the Turkish cemetery, Sokolinaya Tower and other historical and cultural surroundings will offer spaces for the site-sensitive projects of the participants. The project will bring together leading artists from Greece, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, countries which have been closely linked to the Crimea for centuries.

GREECE

Nikos Alexiou is presenting a work based on patterns and motifs from the floor of San Marco Cathedral in Venice. It is a project that puts the artist in the position of an archeologist who draws what he has found rather than simply making a photograph, in order to understand it better. The artist has worked hard with a similar project in the Iveron Monastery in Mt. Athos where he lived for four months. To some extent Nikos Alexiou is influenced by the work of the Ukrainian monk of the 18th century, Vassily Grigorovich Barsky, who travelled to

 Mt. Athos and copied patterns he found in the monasteries. Bringing images from San Marco to Bakhchisaray is a gesture of offer and recognition to a highly artistic environment of great historical importance.

Elli Chrysidou, impressed by the Falcon Tower of the Palace, creates a mystical kingdom of birds that leave their traces without showing themselves. The invisible side of birds is the first strong impression that people get when visiting this very unusual tower which housed the Palace falcons. These traces are reinforced with drawings not exactly of the birds themselves but of an indeterminate memory of them through space.

Babis Venetopoulos is a video artist working with the technology of digital images and thus with its obvious possibilities to deconstruct the image through the flexibility of the digits causing stunning transformations. In his work for the Bakhchisaray exhibition, the artist presents his aesthetic view of incarceration and distortion

 with the image of young turning old and getting transformed into a bird. This is shown in two cages in which a young man and an old man have the movements and the eyes of birds. Above all, he examines the effect of time on human existence.

Richard Whitlock will show STANDING WAVE, a sculpted relief of shiny metal, representing the liquid surface of a pool, which he has made specially for the ‘Divan Hall’ of the Palace.He will also show two pictures of indoor spaces of the Bakhchisaray Museum, composite photographs from which, in the Byzantine tradition, linear perspective has been eliminated.

TURKEY

Murat Morova will exhibit a wall drawing with the Turkish title “HUSTLE AND BUSTLE”.  The figure masterfully created with the technique of calligraphy by the artist displays the indecisive movement between being crashed by the weight of the world or giving up to carry it.

Melih Görgün will exhibit his video and sound installation “DEATH IS ON THE OTHER SHORE” that tackles the question “How can an individual submitting or resisting to the confusing ambiguities of the globalisation capture the changes and transform it to a positive energy or to a self-determined position?” This work discreetly creates the ambiguous environment to react to this question.

Nazlı Eda Noyan will exhibit five digital prints with the title “FINELY EMBROIDERED” with a video supplement displaying her grandmother’s embroidery pieces with Intricate, flowery, abstract and beautiful motives that were left unfinished. Her prints show how she completes these pieces with her hand work: detailed, social, abstract and sad.

Sıtkı Kösemen will exhibit portrait photographs of a family. Kösemen’s photographs can be called as hybrid documents, a description that emphasizes the combination of research, journalism, documentation and artistic intervention. His photography series on individuals may depict a cross section of a complex society, but the intentional simplicity of rendering allows them to remain open to multiple interpretations.

UKRAINE

The Ukrainian Crimea, once the zone of influence of the Greeks, Ottomans and Russians, is now at a dangerous intersection of the new imperial interests and possible new clashes.

Aleksandr Gnilitsky in his work GREAT WASHING creates a symbolic metaphor of a harmonious unity of countries participating in the project, putting in a common space of symbolic attributes of Ukraine, Greece, Turkey and Russia.

The work of Maksim Mamsikov MARINE BATTLE creates the image of a paradise resort in Crimea, but this "paradise" is illusive and any sharp movement can interrupt its existence.

Aleksandr Roitburd dedicated his work to the tragic fate of the artist in the twentieth century, creating two portraits of K. Korovin and F. Shalyapin in explanation of the sculptural group at the entrance of country house of K. Korovin in Gurzuf. Russian painter K. Korovin lived and worked for many years in Gurzuf (1910-1917). In 1910-1912 he built his studio-cottage "Salambo" to his own design. In Soviet times it was used as a rest-home, and since 1947 is has been the Creativity house of the State Art Fund.

Oleg Tistol in his picturesque installation THIRD ROME depicts with irony
the imperial ambitions of current residents of the Crimea, who gave this name to the pathetic Gurzuf casino.

RUSSIA

The installation of Nikita Alekseev "A LIVING STONES" deals with the Krymoross monument, the only monument to have come down to us, and in almost perfect condition, which relates to the worship of a mysterious people living on the Crimean peninsula between about 1700 - 1850 AD (XX - XXI centuries of the old era). The inscriptions on the monument have been reconstructed with the Atman-subkvark method of Hukuty - Fandakbashi but although the language and writing of Krymoross have been successfully investigated and decrypted by C. Lu, these inscriptions almost defy interpretation. Among the 101 stones, can be found such inscriptions as: "Living stone, allocating oil and gas", "Living stone connected to the Internet", "Living stone, listening to the rose", etc.

Vadim Zakharov, together with the long-time hero of his works Pastor Zond, will show photographs taken in the Crimea done in a late ‘90s style translating their neutral "private" detention into a profound philosophical reflection on life and our place in it today.

Konstantin Zvezdochetov has long worked with the relocation of historical subjects and the subjects of art history in the aesthetics of cartoons of the Soviet journal "Crocodile". Created in this style and filled with a mass of new connotations, phantasmagoric paintings with bright ornaments and heroes unimaginable in reality appear in Bahchisaray museum to re-create its fantastic atmosphere – something between the "Thousand and One Nights" and Russian fairy tales by Afanasyev.

Andrey Filippov, in his REFLECTIONS ON TIME "revitalizes" the old fountain of Bahchisaray museum, located near Sokolinaya tower. We will wonder whether the sounds of the water in this audio installation are lamenting the bygone glory of Bahchisaray, or hard times to come.

Special guest of the festival from Germany Haralampy Oroshakov will attempt to appropriate the historical Bahchisaray palace complex by impressing the seal of his family earldom on various elements of its decor.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: BMADRA@TNN.NET

Intercultural Dialogue: Utopias and Situations

Conference / Debate
25 - 26 June 2008
Palais du Rhin, Strasbourg

On the occasion of the Conference on “Intercultural Dialogue : utopias and situations”, to be held in the Palais du Rhin by courtesy of the Alsace Regional Department for Cultural Affairs (DRAC) and with the support of the Council of Europe and the Strasbourg Italian Cultural Institute, Michelangelo Pistoletto will present his scheme to create a Mediterranean Cultural Parliament. The presentation will take place around his artwork entitled “Love Difference Table”, a mirror-table in the shape of the Mediterranean. For several years the Italian artist has been working on art co-operation and the means deployed to implement this particular way of helping European citizens face their social difficulties in different political situations.
Three continents meet together around the Mediterranean Sea, an area of historical mingling and cultural diversity but also the scene of conflicts. The specialists attending the conference will put forward their various assessments and proposals for facilitating the movement of artists between the Meditarranean countries and those of Europe, while improving working conditions through concrete projects involving sustainable development, respect for minorities and cultural specificities and the promotion of dialogue between people by means of art exchanges.

The debates, to be introduced by specialists in cultural activities, from the private and public sectors and European institutions, as well as artists themselves, will endeavour to define the objectives and means of intercultural dialogue in Europe, and more particularly around the Mediterranean, and to put forward new proposals for art and cultural projects based on direct co-operation between organisational structures at all levels and artists.

The debates will be chaired by Daniel Riot, journalist and director of RELATIO, a website specializing in European affairs.

Two-way French-English interpretation will be provided for the entire proceedings taking place in the meeting room of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhin, in the Palais du Rhin.
Palais du Rhin 2 place de la République, 67000 Strasbourg

MY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS FORUM

Before my statement for this forum, I would like to make some remarks on the last moments of the discussion:

Beginning of the 20th century newspapers in over 40 languages were being published. Now, the status quo bans the use of foreign words…Neo-conservatism and neo-nationalism is more present than ever…

· When we talk about culture industry in non-EU territories, we should talk with the names of the cities and not countries.

· The monthly salary of the coach of the national soccer team is 75.000 EURO and he is a pure nationalist. He might be the most powerful person in the eyes of the millions of people. He and his soccer players have no affinity to art and culture. My salary as the visual arts director for Istanbul 2010 is 2000 EURO. The yearly turnover of art in Turkey is 10 million USD including the auctions; and only 2 million of this is related to contemporary art; most of it is being used by corporate art and culture institutions for branding strategies.

· I closed the exhibition space in 2000 and worked in mobility. Last year I was offered a space. I opened again a space with my two colleges with the ambition to resist the corporate culture monopolies that is determining the art and art making in Istanbul. It is an alternative space.

It is always difficult to sum up the developments in art scenes and come up with a definite panorama and to determine the tools of moving forward. The most definite observation is that the content and form of art and art making has changed since the beginning of the 90’s.

The change is very much related to the socio-political and ideological alterations. Alterations and not radical transformations because of the emergence of the one-time political ideologies: Re-nationalization, neo-liberal fundamentalism, re-forming of a lost political territory by being driven by the deterritorializing violence of Integrated World Capitalism (Bourriaud, 101).

While the gradual evaporation of the most solid factor, namely the nation state ideology is being replaced by a pious national ideology, in tune with the neo-liberal freedom and permissiveness, the micro-level socio-political issues of local cultures or marginal cultures float up. These alterations were reflected into the art making as completely free and unrestricted declarations of macro or micro-level individual statements through art works.

As most of the art works of today are far from being hermetic and metaphorical – because they are mostly sociology and documentation based, one can say that art making is serving as a tool of neo-anarchist attitude and proclamation. Evidently this attitude owes its force to the absence of the international market interests in the region, because art market is also manipulating the aesthetics and content of the works that represent non-Europe as Souad indicated this morning.

The dissident individual, the contemporary artist of emerging or developing democracies utilize art making in order to have a visible presence within the socio-political panorama of his/her territory. However, this panorama is on one side shadowed by the politicians and bureaucrats and on the other side by the business people who own the financial resources but in general are not so interested in contemporary art production. The other shadow is: In Turkey advertisement and the media is extremely influential in manipulating the public opinion; every cultural event has to make itself visible in the billboards and the media. This opens for the artist a new arena of struggle. 

In the underdeveloped local art markets of the region, the artists are exposed to make extra efforts for their economic welfare. In most of the countries around Turkey the economies are in difficulties and the infrastructures of culture industries are absent or inadequate; or the official culture visualizations and the private one’s do not go together. The art making in most of these countries have been saved by the EU funds and partnerships in the last decade.

Even if the block-buster exhibitions are full of photography and video works, painting is still the most demanded artwork in the local art market, and artists are keen to show their painting skills, because painting- or the handmade art work- is a sign for the public whether the artist is professional or not. Curating has played a great role; even if it is not an established profession yet.

Today’s young generation is reflecting its ideas, concepts, interpretations, criticism mainly through painting, photography and video, but also through artistic and cultural events which they organize particularly without a curating hand in it. Curating as a profession is not yet in demand; a young generation of art managers, culture theorists and curators will be visible only then when the necessary infrastructures (museums, art centres, art institutions) with independent administrations will be established.

Throughout the 90’s the urgency of the artist was “identity” in political, ethnic and gender-oriented locations with references to their origins, traditions or geographical, socio-political state of belonging. Since 2000, while a group of artists of Turkey are running after more global pursuits, producing works for international curators and audiences by following the prevalent concept, form and strategy trends, another group is still dealing with the local issues and problems. Sometimes, the artworks look like newspaper headlines with striking photography or like propaganda posters that deal with daily local politics.

Photography with all its possibilities of true or false representations, with its illusive appearances or with its possibilities of monumentality is being utilized by almost all artists. Documentary photography is the basis of socio-political artworks as well. Yet, the ambiguous issue in photography works is the relation of the image to the conceptual framework of the artist’s manifestation, or the already worldwide consumed criteria that are repetitively being employed for the impact of the photographic image. Convincing and persuasive photography work comes with its theoretical and philosophical background which can only be mapped out in the expanded oeuvre of the artist.

Regional exhibitions or exhibitions that unite artists from neighboring countries that have past and present political and cultural relations are no doubt a fertile soil for new productions and events. As together with Magda Guruli I was making the first comprehensive show of Georgian artist in Istanbul, during the 10th Istanbul Biennale, I indicated that we have to admit the weakness and lack of communication and knowledge in the relationship between the culture and art worlds of Turkey and those of the Soviet world during the Cold War period and that presently we (mostly curators and museum directors) are making a special effort to fill the vacuum created by the apathy between 1950-1990 via cultural and artistic activities.

The same with Middle East; the networking started late 90’s and it is too early to expect solid results.

In the 90’s, when the discovery of the other was the fundamental quest, West European curators and museum directors have united the artists of East Europe, Balkans, Greece and Turkey in eclectic group shows. Looking back to those exhibitions, there is no doubt that they have motivated the artists to democratic openness and the local art scenes to acknowledge international criteria. The encounter of the artists of the onetime polarized cultures created a new synergy in transforming the theoretical, philosophical and conceptual fundaments of contemporary art. The macro-events have prepared the field for in depth encounters or i.e. the empty parts of the macro-picture can only be embroidered meticulously through a more profound collaboration.

The existing network should be sustainable; we have to continue.

Beral Madra © 25 June 2008

International Festival of Contemporary Art
Futuro Presente/Present Continuous
Faenza, from 23 to 25 May 2008


The Festival
Three days dedicated to present-day art and the directions in which it is developing, in the company of artists, critics, curators and the entire sphere of professionals, scholars and opinion leaders that gravitate around the international contemporary art system.
The city of Faenza will be hosting events, round tables, debates and workshops conceived not just for those directly involved and the ever-increasing fans of contemporary art, but also as a means of bringing art closer to the public at large.

The city
The initiative forms part of the project entitled “Ideas in motion- Faenza towards the evolved cultural district”, promoted by the Municipality of Faenza and supported by local cultural organisations, under the scientific guidance of Pier Luigi Sacco. With this Festival and many other projects, the city is proposing its candidature as the first Italian case in which the integrated development model of the evolved cultural district is actually applied.

The programme

Forum: Art and Curatorial Schools, Next Step
The recent development of the contemporary art system is leading to an increasing demand for training of the artistic professions. It poses a series of questions concerning their practices, training standards and networking at an international level.
Speakers: Okwui Enwezor (San Francisco Art Institute), Larry Rinder (California College of the Arts), Robert Storr (Yale University School of Art), Maria Lind (Centre for Curatorial Studies at Bard College), Marco de Michelis (IUAV).*

Contaminations
Contemporary art is producing ever-greater hybrid crosses with architecture, design and fashion. The conversations from the "Contaminations" cycle set out to examine its meaning and critical areas, reflecting on future developments of this dialogue between the various disciplines.
Speakers: Achille Bonito Oliva (art critic), Stefano Boeri (Abitare), Maria Luisa Frisa (IUAV), Antonio Marras (stylist), Cristiano Seganfredo (Fuori Biennial), Mathieu Mercier (artist).*

Museums: projects and perspectives
Contemporary art museums are complex organisations in which cultural programming issues intermingle with those of its relationship with the surrounding area, management strategies and the formation of international collaboration networks.
Speakers: Gerald Matt (Kunsthalle Wien), Udo Kittelmann (MMK Frankfurt), Giacinto Di Pientrantonio (GAMeC, Bergamo), Danilo Eccher (Macro, Roma), Eduardo Cycelin (Madre, Naples), Iwona Blazwick (Whitechapel, London), Angela Vettese (Civic Gallery of Modena), Carlos Basualdo (Philadelphia Museum of Art).*

Coming Shows
A series of conferences that provides a glimpse of the highlights of the international cultural programme scheduled for the coming year. The direct protagonists will explain their project ideas in the course of the event.
Speakers: Hedwig Fijen (Manifesta), Fabio Cavallucci (Civic Gallery, Trento), Angela Vettese (Civic Gallery of Modena), Okwui Enwezor (Biennial of Gwuangju), Francesco Bonami (MCA, Chicago), Iwona Blazwick (Whitechapel), Massimiliano Gioni (New Museum, New York).*


New horizons for the evolved cultural district
In Italy, the relationship between contemporary art and the local area is becoming increasingly close, and involves a wide variety of individuals. To what extent can a contemporary art museum become the protagonist of a project for local development that focuses on the knowledge-based economy?
Speakers: Pier Luigi Sacco (IUAV), Julia Draganovic (PAN, Naples), Marco Pierini (Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena), Ludovico Pratesi (Pescheria Centre for Visual Arts, Pesaro).*

Italian entrepreneurs in contemporary art: projects and perspectives
Italy is making its mark on the international scene with its ability to involve businesses in the artistic field, not so much as suppliers of resources but as cultural operators with their own strategy. This forum provides a view of some of the most innovative and interesting experiences of recent years.
Speakers: Gianluca Winkler (Pirelli RE), Maria Paoletti Masini (Teseco), Gail Cochrane (Spinola Banna Foundation, Banna di Poirino).*

To be made
Some of the greatest protagonists of the artistic scene of our times tell their story in a conversation on their future projects, with curators and professionals of international standing.
Speakers: Marjetica Potrc (artist), Gabi Scardi (curator), Agnes Kohlmeyer (IUAV), Germano Celant (Prada Foundation).*

Policy/Politics
Today’s cultural policies are a pivotal element of the contemporary art system, both from the point of view of the disbursement of funds and of the creation of new containers, the development of new commissioning models, and interaction with other cultural supply sectors.
Speakers: Flavio Albanese (Domus), Aneta Szylak (Wyspa, Gdansk), Marketta Seppala (Frame, Helsinki), Chus Martinez (Frankfurter Kunstverein), Laura Capel Tatjer (Institut d'EstudisTerritorialsUniversitat Pompeu Fabra / Generalitat de Catalunya).*

Art incorporated: Looking Ahead
The commercial dimension of art has an increasingly complex role to play which is not confined to mediation between artist and collector; rather it is consolidating its position as a structured entity with ambitious plans that almost compete with those of the cultural institutions and large-scale exhibitions.
Speakers: Marko Stamenkovic (curator), Beral Madra (curator), Viktor Misiano (curator), Branko Franceschi (Rijeka Museum of modern and contemporary art), Minhea Mircan (Mnac, Bucharest) Barnabas Bencsik (Acax, Budapest), Marina Sorbello (uqbar, Berlin), Alexis Hubshman (Scope Art Fair), Jonathan Watkins (Ikon Gallery, Birmingham), Roberto Pinto (curator).*

Coffee Table discussion: an overview of young Italian art, by Alberto Garutti
Alberto Garutti, one of the key figures of the dialogue with the most recent generation of Italian artists, discusses the prospects and critical areas of the young Italian scene of recent years with them.

Forum: Futuro Presente/ Present Continuous, projects and perspectives
A collection of comparative statements underscore the emerging issues and most delicate aspects on which the curatorial world of contemporary art is focusing.
Speakers: T.J. Demos (University College London), Pamela Lee (Stanford University, Stanford - CA), Alexander Alberro (University of Florida).*

Coffee Table Discussion: Magazines
What is the role of specialist magazines today in diffusing, promoting and constructing contemporary art? What position do they play in the market? Italian and foreign entities compare notes and outline the prospects for the sector’s publishing wing.
Speakers: Simona Vendrame (Tema Celeste), Michele Robecchi (Contemporary Art Magazine, London).*


Institutional contributions
The relationship between public and private and the role of institutions in supporting young artists and promoting contemporary art in Italy and abroad: these are the issues to be tackled by the directors of institutions attempting to get to grips with enhancing artistic creativity, and the representatives of the regional and local authorities which include present-day art in their cultural policies.
Speakers: Pio Baldi (DARC), Fiorenzo Alfieri (Gai).*

Collateral Initiatives
In accordance with the wider project entitled “Ideas in motion - Faenza towards the evolved cultural district”, of which the Festival forms a part, the local cultural organisations will be participating in an intense programme of initiatives scheduled throughout the city.

MY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS FORUM:

From curatorial theories to curatorial practices

Coming from a country where recently an Italian artist Pippa Bacca was brutally killed, I would like to express my grief if it has a meaning at all.

Pippa Bacca’s death opened the discussion about how much contemporary art is existing outside of Istanbul. Contemporary art is confined to three districts of Istanbul; therefore curating in Turkey now must be redefined. It is evident that contemporary art should be transmitted to the other 35 districts and to the 79 cities in Turkey. A gigantic task awaits the next generation curators. My generation and the generation of the 90’s were too much involved in getting Istanbul into the international map. Now, it is the hot spot, gravity center or the trendiest
place! However the cityscape with its ambiguous components of history, modernism and postmodernism is shadowing the contemporary art production, so that the foreign eyes cannot see the knotty realities.

My curatorial venture since 1987 can be assessed in three stages: the introduction of curatorial theory and practice to the art scene of Istanbul; the international encounter through exhibitions; and drifting apart from conventional curating and quest for new ways of exhibiting.

In the 80’s, within the context of the periphery curating was a distant model of making exhibitions in relation to the architectural and socio-political space. However, the exhibitions launched in historical buildings in the 1st and 2nd Biennale of Istanbul contributed to the concept and the aesthetics initiated by Harald Szeemann. The theory and the practice were austerely attuned.

In the 90’s Istanbul art scene adopted itself to the requirements of the globalization trends and step by step the curator’s subjective interpretation and choice became the main endeavor in exhibition making. The sterile content of the exhibitions changed to a hybridized substance with an intention to divert the viewers’ attention to the momentum of the artwork rather than to the process and sustainability of the artwork. The theory, with the support of striking titles elaborated the showiness of the exhibition.

In the last decade curating turned away from its previous glittering course, became an almost ruthless mediation/intervention within the neo-liberal culture industry. Utilizing the effect of multi-culti artworks from different modernities and systems the exhibitions became a platform of antinomy between the theory and practice. As a consequence curating is under continuous scrutiny about its real intentions and alternatives. Respect and favor to the artist’s ambitions and intentions spring up.

Curating is a very “cool” profession; yet in its deep center it is romantic. There is always a desire of making dreams become reality, emphasize what is human, escape the dogmas of the art world, and use the art as the point of focus rather as distraction.

In this sense, even if the current art market and job trends pushes the goals of the conscientious curator to the corner, curating today – at least in the region where I am operating- willingly or unwillingly presents ways of escape from the dogmas, ways of transporting art from one community to the other, even if there are political and geographical obstacles, ways of infiltrating into the crevices of electronic media.

For EU curators Istanbul art and culture scene is still a field of discovery of not only artists and art works, but also collectors, sponsors and partners. What they discover in the art making is of contradictory character: they discover that the appearance and the being are not the same; that the existing infrastructure is mainly misguided and mismanaged -even if there are some exceptions-; that the official cultural politics is not updated; that the Istanbul art scene stands on the shoulders of artists and idealistic individuals; that Istanbul itself is a stage of a surrealist play.

The current socio-political-economic context based on the continuous crises generated by the clash of modernist ideologies with the ideologies of global capitalism, the clash of nation state ideology with the consumer individualism is the most fertile aspiration field for contemporary art; which is a paradox when we consider that the country and the people suffer from these dilemmas. Even the foreign curators and artists benefit from this ambiguous context.

Beral Madra, March 2008

Forum Skopje
„A Soul for Europe”
Vom 4. bis 6. April 2008 trafen Akteure aus Kultur, Wirtschaft und Zivilgesellschaft mit Vertretern aus der Politik in der Crystal Hall des mazedonischen Parlaments zusammen.

ThemenNeue Formen der Kooperation zwischen Politik und ZivilgesellschaftKultur als Motor für die Entwicklung EuropasEuropäische Verantwortung und Herausforderungen für lokale und regionale AkteureKulturelle Vielfalt und soziale Kohäsion in Südosteuropa - Trends und PolitikenZu den Teilnehmern gehörten Mitglieder des Europäischen und des Mazedonischen Parlaments, darunter Doris Pack und Jelko Kacin, Vertreter der Europäischen Kommission, der Präsident des mazedonischen Parlaments, Ljubisa Georgievski, die Staatssekretärin für Kultur Elisabeta Kancevska Milevska, Mitglieder des Mazedonischen Parlaments, darunter Flora Kadriu und Vasko Shutarov, die Schauspielerin Labina Mitevska, der Koordinator des Stabilitätspakts für Südosteuropa Erhard Busek und dessen Direktorin Marijana Grandits, sowie zahlreiche zivilgesellschaftliche Akteure aus ganz Europa.

Organisatoren

Das Forum Skopje – „A Soul for Europe“ wurde organisiert der Europäischen Bewegung Mazedonien und der zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisation Public Room Mazedonien in Zusammenarbeit mit der Initiative „Europa eine Seele geben“ und der Felix Meritis Stiftung Amsterdam.

PartnerAußenministerium der Republik Mazedonien, Kulturministerium der Republik Mazedonien, Sekretariat für europäische Angelegenheiten Mazedonien, Stadt Skopje, Post Mazedonien, Vertretung der Europäischen Kommission in Mazedonien, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Skopje, Ramkovski Foundation Skopje, On.net, MAT, Italienische Botschaft Skopje, SECI.
refereto the website:http://www.berlinerkonferenz.eu/

MY CONTRIBUTION TO THIS FORUM:

B2C = B2B? Business to Culture = Business to Business?
An ambiguous formula!
Adoption of culture as base for creation of new business trends;
Paving the highway Culture Business;
Added value and support cooperationMutual benefits;
Instruments to encourage people active in the cultural sector to acquire managerial and entrepreneurial skills;
Help the business world develop a consciousness for the potential of development of the cultural sector
And ambitious goals!
The relation of arts and culture to business consists of many layers. From the self-employment and solidarity in micro capitalist artists initiatives to the total hegemonic economy politics of the corporations.The formula B2C = B2B has many negotiations and conditions of interaction in each layer.The most crucial issue in the balance of this formula is to change the image problem of the arts and culture productions when viewed by most businesses.Conventionally arts and culture are either seen as the suitable decoration for the boardroom or as part of some attractive factor of a company’s corporate social responsibility agenda. They are rarely seen as a source of potentially hard edged interventions to change the way a company works, thinks and performs.
Quoting Lucrezia de Domizio Durini, in an essay written for September-October 1988 issue of the one time art magazine Contemporanea.•“…I saw the figure of Mr. X with increasing clarity: the drawn face, the satisfied expression. I saw him seated in his manager’s armchair, across from the table where he confronts the most arduous situations in such a way that they are advantageously overcome. The place behind that table represents the source of power. Every time I am forced to sit in front of him, he seems to rob me of something secret, something he covets for his own: the movement of my thoughts. •….His position was clear. Mr. X would never sit at the roundtable where for years Eric Fromm and Joseph Beuys, Jacques Lacan and Martin Luther king had seats, and where the art and culture of the twentieth century was kept alive!”
I always remember this paragraph of the essay when I have to present a project to a potential sponsor, who most of the time is a manager of a multinational company.Adorno has formulated our caution towards the business men:“In our age the objective social tendency is incarnate in the hidden subjective purposes of company directors, the foremost among whom are in the most powerful sectors of industry steel, petroleum, electricity, and chemicals.”Twenty years ago the relationship between the business world and the cultural experts was much more complicated and strained than today. Even though the art movements such as Fluxus, Land Art, happenings were advocating the involvement of large public, arts and culture was still a field for the privileged and was confined into the sterile museums. For the business world arts and culture was classified into “leisure and luxury”, rather than into “market and commodity”.He was the bridge between Adorno’s highly cynical culture industry criticism and global culture industry conditions of today.
Concerning the above mentioned ambitious goals Warhol, in his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) wrote:"Business art is the step that comes after Art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist. After I did the thing called 'art' or whatever it's called, I went into business art. I wanted to be an Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art."
Today, the cultural operators may not feel like Lucrezia Domizio Durini and me, when they meet business men, managers and directors of companies. Warhol’s statements and attitude bestowed them with a rose garden without thorns.They would feel highly cool and maybe overconfident; because the distribution of arts and culture products of all kinds provide a worldwide audience, the art market is the safest market and practically every industry has an arts-related product or event.The latest advertisement of Ford Focus cars is a good example; an orchestra plays with instruments made of Ford car parts.
However, the same example justifies Adorno’s statement:"Culture is a paradoxical commodity. So completely is it subject to the law of exchange that it is no longer exchanged; it is so blindly consumed in use that it can no longer be used. Therefore it amalgamates with advertising. The more meaningless the latter seems to be under a monopoly, the more omnipotent it becomes. The motives are markedly economic. One could certainly live without the culture industry; therefore it necessarily creates too much satiation and apathy."
•The potential for the art market of this century is rapidly developing not only with the ever-growing market value of the so-called “modern and post-modern masterpieces”, but also through the continuous movement of artists and art goods and networking. The creative people who are able to conceive and produce the images, create performances, sounds and music, the theoreticians who write the texts which nourish this culture and art market are human commodities that control the plexus of knowledge.
•The statistics in EU and USA show how the arts have become an essential part of their economy. Commodities that are arts related, such as painting, sculpture, photography, films, books, records, documentaries, design and computer generated images and sounds, are all major players in international markets.
•Consequently, all nations are re-adjusting or will re-form their culture industries and policies according to the requirements of this global cultural market that even determines the contents, trends and practical parameters of these products.I don’t want to sound too optimistic, but today, arts and culture products determine the success in the global economic competition and necessitate communication and information exchange that can exploit the boundaries between the economical, political, religious and ethnic polarities of the world. The sustainability and economic value of arts and culture products display a significant guideline for democratic processes. The only obstacle in front of this positive exploitation seems to be the religious dogmas and various fundamentalisms.Even if the culture industry represents a very important part of the global economy, in the region I am coming from this is not yet an achievement that can gratify a real transformation, despite some remarkable developments in re-forming the state controlled cultural infrastructures and establishing private ones, in promoting arts and culture towards an international recognition and in investing into the creative individual.Even if the Dubai Art Fair (19-22 March) has organized a highly intensive forum with established dissident artists from the Western world (such as Lawrence Weiner, Daniel Buren)The topic was: Art Patronage in the Business Age: Working with CorporationsCompanies working with artists and art institutions; creating art projects; strategic partnerships with museums; working with artists for corporate research and development.Organizers of the first Gulf Fair being held in Dubai have come across a tricky problem. As part of Dubai's efforts to brand itself as a centre for art and commerce, the fair was delighted when high-profile galleries such as White Cube, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Max Ling and Albion agreed to take part. But things got a bit sticky when all participating galleries - whose clients include Tracey Emin and Jeff Koons - were asked to only show art that was appropriate to display in an Islamic state. (March 2007)

Today, we sum up and speak rather of Business of Culture which encompasses all art productions and their global markets. It can address any scale of business. The clients includes artists, art experts, the general public, the arts and heritage councils, civic authorities, educational institutions, festivals, galleries, orchestras, museums, film and media, arts centers, theatres, leisure companies, cultural regeneration agencies and the creative and tourism industries.

Yet, this vibrant business of culture today confronts three key troubles:
The global and the local: the tension between global ideas and the power and authority of local/national cultures forms one trouble. The objective of bridging these two contradictory positions needs skill and clever strategies
Cultural difference: cultural difference as an obstacle to communication provides the second trouble, and the objective here is to examine ways, in which difference is freely manifested.
Different Modernities: the third trouble focuses on the levels of modernity across cultures. It is a political and cultural commitment to consider different stages of tradition and history versus ideas of modernity and post-modernity. Here the objective is to identify this inevitable difference and, through that process, to begin the negotiations that lead to greater understanding.

There is always art criticism on art market, which is connected to the criticism of capitalism. The art market with its mega art fairs are now strongly manipulated by dealers and collectors (private or corporate). This profitable business platform is at the same time a social platform and social communication for artists, which most of time is a selection platform that includes or excludes them. Usually the ones who are excluded attack polemically the art business system, but many established artists also tackle the art-business system with their works.
Paradox is that they do not acknowledge the discrepancy between their financial success and the system criticism. Here the omnipresence of the art-business and the radical forms of art making confront each other, but it creates a fertile field of free expression and debate…
In this dilemma, art is considered as the other capital, which embodies the social values, energies and forces.Some may think that within the mechanisms of the global capitalist economy this other capital should be considered to be lost. But everyday we witness new initiatives, blissful cases of new art production which take care of this loss. Namely the artists who are still working on the margins of the mainstream culture business maintain and support the ideologies and avantgard function of art in the form of the Dada and Fluxus aesthetic.
This other capital seems to be inexhaustible.
©Beral Madra, 5 April 2008

Sunday, April 13, 2008

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENT ARTISTS AND ART WORKERS

THE ITALIAN ARTISTS PIPPA BACCA AND SILVIA MORO SET OUT FROM ITALY TO REALIZE A TROUBLESOME PERFORMANCE IMPLEMENTING THEIR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AS PART OF THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POWER THEY RECEIVED FROM THE POSITION ART HAS REACHED IN THE WORLD TODAY. THEY WERE WEARING WHITE WEDDING GOWNS SPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR THIS TASK, WITH THIS SYMBOLIC OUTFIT THEY WANTED TO REFLECT THEIR PEACE MESSAGE ON THE PERMANENT STATE OF WAR IN THE WORLD AND ESPECIALLY IN OUR REGION. THEY PASSED BY BALKAN COUNTRIES, COMMUNICATING THEIR MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE THEY MET ALONG THE WAY, AND ENTERED TURKEY.

THE ISTANBUL ART SCENE EMBRACED THEM, SUPPORTED THEIR PERFORMANCE AND SAW THEM OFF TO ANATOLIA, WHERE THEIR DIFFICULT AND PERILOUS JOURNEY TO ISRAEL SHOULD HAVE PROCEEDED. SILVIA MORO COULD ONLY COMPLETE THIS JOURNEY UNTIL ISKENDERUN, IN TURKEY; PIPPA BACA’S ROUTE ENDED IN A TRAGIC DEATH.

AS THE ART SECENE IN ISTANBUL, WE SEE THIS INCIDENT FROM TWO PERSPECTIVES:

IT IS A GREAT NECESSITY IN TURKEY TODAY TO CARRY OUT ARTISTIC ACTIONS QUESTIONING, INTERPRETING AND CRITICIZING THE EXISTING ORDER; BECAUSE THE INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD OF THE TURKISH PEOPLE IS EXTREMELY CORRUPTED BY TRIVIAL DAILY POLITICS AND THE UNPRODUCTIVE AND RESTRICTIVE DISCOURSES OF POLITICIANS AND STATE MECHANISMS. CONTEMPORARY ART ACTIONS ARE ONE OF THE RARE FIELDS THAT OPENS THE DOORS OF THOUGHT, INTERPRETATION AND CRITICISM. IN THIS CONTEXT, THE STATE AND LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS MUST IN ALL RESPECTS SUPPORT CONTEMPORARY ART PRODUCTION AND ACTION. THE MURDER OF PIPPA BACCA, AN ARTIST WHO WAS A GUEST IN OUR COUNTRY, MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO DROP FROM THE AGENDA.

PIPPA BACCA IS A FEMALE ARTIST. AND TODAY WE FACE A VERY CRITICAL REALITY. IN TURKEY EVERY DAY WOMEN ARE KILLED BY MEN. THE DARKNESS OF THE PRIMITIVE MALE DOMINATED SYSTEM WHICH PROVIDES THE BASIS FOR THIS DETERMINATION TO DESTROY WOMEN HAS SETTLED OVER THIS COUNTRY. PIPPA BACCA IS ONE OF THE MOST RECENT VICTIMS OF THIS PERVERSION.

THE ART SECNE OF ISTANBUL FEELS DEEP SADNESS AND INDIGNATION. WE WILL NOT LET THIS MURDER BE FORGOTTEN AND WE WILL CONTINUE THE NECESSARY ACTIONS.

WE OFFER OUR CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILY OF PIPPA BACCA. WE APOLOGIZE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ART WORLD FOR FAILING TO PROTECT PIPPA.

SIGNED BY:

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ART CRITICS, TURKEY SECTION (AICA TURKEY)

EUROPEAN CULTURAL ASSOCIATION (EUROPIST)

LAMBDA ISTANBUL LGBT SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION

UPSD (THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PLASTIC ARTS)

GALLERY NEV

MACKA ART GALLERY

BIS (BODY-OPERATIONAL ARTISTS ASSOCIATION)

19 JANUARY COLLECTIVE

NEW SOLUTIONS FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN

HAFRIYAT
ARTIK MEKAN

THE APARTMENT PROJECT

KAOS GL

PEMBE HAYAT/PINK LIFE LGBT SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION

ÇATI CONTEMPORARY DANCE ARTISTS ASSOCIATION

Open Space Zentrum für Kunstprojekte

ASK (EURASIA ART COLLECTIVE)

ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY GRADUATES ASSOCIATION

BORDERLINE CONCEPTS POSITIONS IN CONTEMPORARY ART

In the 80’s and 90’s the world was still polarized and we were discussing the order of center and periphery. The world was divided by real and conceptual borders even walls, which designated the center to an absolute sovereignty on the periphery. Now we tend to speak about an all encompassing global world, yet again with multifarious states and concepts of borderlines. In an era of mass migration, globalization and instant communication we cannot trust a map reflecting the borderlines between the countries. Illegal immigration is a vast business, global capitalism erases all national distinctions and instant communication accelerates the interaction of peoples and systems in an immeasurable way.
We are used to think of a border as a fence, a sea, a river or a mountain pass. Today's borders cannot be defined as such. They are transient, constantly remade by technology, new laws and institutions, and the realities of global capitalism -- illicit as well as legitimate. With borders much more indefinable, opportunities for profit multiplied and cross-border activity or illegal emigration boomed. The fluid, unpredictable nature of modern borders is evident even among the most geographically isolated and remote nations on earth.
On the other side the borders became the entrance to horror, abyss and death. Paradox is that throughout the 90’s art has profited from the cross-border activities and legal or illegal emigration. Artists and different art making forms and aesthetics traveled to the so called main-stream art centers and transformed the content and aesthetics of contemporary art. Yet, the reverse of this opportunity displays the reality that there is a mainstream art world and it is not so accessible.
Today, borderline art and art making is the hot topic of all debates and exhibitions. With this borderline, we mean the ambiguous zone between interconnected territories/fields, i.e. established orders or different systems. This zone is open to sides, giving opportunity of unpredictable extension and obliterating or disturbing the control and power of the established orders or systems to each other. These territories may represent country blocks, geographical regions or even cities with their heterogeneous systems, even if the global economy and politics are the ubiquitous cover.
The border zones can exist as patrolled borders, as intersecting margins or as real and virtual networking. According to the medical terminology, borderline is not as safe as in the socio-political sphere. Borderline personality disorder is a symptom of major childhood traumas. The so called borderline subjects are giving histories of such trauma, including physical abuse, sexual abuse and witnessing serious domestic violence. Even though now borderline productions in art are being evaluated as attractive, motivating, inspiring and “neo”, we should look into the prerequisites, rationale and roots of this production. There may be similarities between the medical and artistic/cultural meaning of borderline. The creativity emanating from the borderlines of different memories, systems, orders, habits and everyday life realities may not necessarily have welfare, peaceful, constructive and encouraging background. Here I would like to quote Julia Kristeva. In an interview she was asked: “Given the fact that you have written a lot about the importance of the so-called "sick" states of mind, could you tell us whether they are related in any way to Art? Would you see Art as the means of healing them or do you see it as an independent entity? Is Art a sort of "love" for you (the way Freud would have it) and a sort of human cure?” Kristeva replies: It has always shocked commentators when I affirm my agreement with the ancient Greeks who viewed art as catharsis or purification and I would add that it is a sort of sublimation for the "borderline" states, in the broadest sense of the term, that is, it comprises those characterized by fragility. If we analyze contemporary art, we get the impression that two types of fragility are examined by contemporary artists. On one hand, we have perversion, that is, all sorts of sexual transgressions…They testify to the existence of these states, as well as that of a certain desire to make them public, or even share them with others, that is, to take them out of their closet which is a soothing action after all despite its commercial aspect since one turns a "shameful thing" into something positive. So you see, here we have something that transcends the notion of "cure" and is at times something gratifying. Some think that these works are scandal-oriented; others think that they rejoice in ugliness, yes, certainly there are elements of such orientations in them, but, on the other hand, the existence of these works is also a research -- often in a very specific manner -- on the anticipation of difficulty of living. "
This is her approach to the relation of contemporary art making and all borderline states (psychological or sociological). The practice has shown us that art has played a curing role – maybe not directly but in a disseminative way - in this matter. The contemporary art works build up a rich and vast cognitive space for awareness and consciousness.
In the same interview there is also a passage on Voyeurism, which for contemporary art is the most used tool or stratagem to explore and exploit the borderline states in individual and social life. "
Q: Does contemporary art have to do with Voyeurism, as is the case with the most recent literature nowadays which purports to describe the most intimate states of the body and the soul? Kristeva: Absolutely! This is ever the case with literature and when it does not try to treat perversion, it is deals with psychotic states, that is, the states of identity loss, the loss of language, the borderline cases which cohabit and coexist with delirium and violence, but all of this does not have to bear the imprint of something negative. Some think that these works are scandal-oriented; others think that they rejoice in ugliness, yes, certainly there are elements of such orientations in them, but, on the other hand, the existence of these works is also a research -- often in a very specific manner -- on the anticipation of difficulty of living. And Art can play an important role here since it can contribute to a certain creative assumption of such a difficulty. Nevertheless, I personally remain a bit skeptical of a certain drift or tendency of contemporary art to content itself with such, so I believe feeble appropriations of these traumatic states. We remain here at the level of the statement of the clinical cases with almost documentary style photography of these cases wherein the investment and the effort made in the exploration of new forms or new thoughts remains less visible. So, it is something regrettable which every so often leaves me with the impression that when I visit museums or read certain art books, I am looking into psychoanalytic or even psychiatric archives. But, perhaps this is an indispensable experience.
Interview conducted by Nina Zivancevic, In Paris, March-April 2001 / www.16beavergroup.org / mtarchive / archives / 000285.php)
When we consider art making and culture industry manifestations within the context of European integration process at the local and regional level, we can see that there are borderline conflicts in memory blocks, ethno-cultural frontiers and in system discrepancy. Or, if we look to the mega-poles we can see that there are layers of different marginal groups and districts which merge in the cultural or commercial centers of the city. The borderline realities and stories are utilized by artists to apply their statements and criticism through various forms of art making. With their work they act as transmitting agents between the social classes which in turn serves democracy in a clandestine way.
Borderline strategies of today’s art making is a part of democratization process.
Last month, right here in Athens an installation was realized for the most crucial borderline problem of our region. The border in geographical and official meaning is now on the acute stage of nation state ideology, police state, racism and discrimination. It is being performed in its extreme models. Illegal immigration or refugee movement, the logical consequences of global economy of politics are being swept up away from the city centers to the city margins and further to the actual borders. Kalliopi Lemos, in her work “Crossing” installed on an abandoned factory ground in Eleusis, tackles with this border and borderline people problem in a very audacious way. This installation of abandoned boats of illegal emigrants and documentation of their names needs close attention and should be preserved there for the global viewer.

To this enlightment issue I will present two examples of borderline art and culture operation in Anatolia “A consumption of Justice”, A meeting and exhibition of artists from South Caucasus, Middle East and the Balkans, realized in Diyarbakır Art Center, May-June 2005. Diyarbakır with its historical background and Kurdish identity is the cultural capital of South East region of Turkey. The city is a borderline zone in many connotations: Geographically the city is in contact with Middle East and South Caucasus; culturally it is representing the difference within the homogenous national state ideology; in reference to the trauma it endured during the 90’s civil conflict the borderlines between the social classes are significant. In 2000, the art center was placed within this complex structure as a cultural and artistic laboratory for local and international communication and exchange. This exhibition was one of the major events within the initiatives and goals of the center.
Sinopale, the 1st International Sinop Biennial was realized between August 15- September 3 with exhibitions, installations, interactive activities and performances in the historical arsenal and in different public and private spaces. Sinopale, designated as the first biennale on Anatolian territory, is conceived by Melih Görgün, an artist who was born in this city with the support of local and international individuals and institutions. The conceptual frame of the first Sinopale is determined as SEY / THING. Sinopale aims to project the state of being a "thing" in contemporary art, and comprises propositions which will provide confrontations of the individual with the state of being "art". Curator: T. Melih Görgün For further information: www.sinopale.org , www.sinopale.net, www.sinopale.com, www.europist.net/sinop


Beral Madra, November 2006 / Conference Text, AICA Hellas, Athens