[natural-fiber] Let's Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity

  • From: venzha christ <venzha@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: HONF list <natural-fiber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 16:21:25 -0800 (PST)


 
Let's Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity 

February 4th – April 25th, 2010

Participating artists: Nanna
Debois Buhl (Copenhagen / New York), Jens Haaning (Copenhagen), Raul
Keller (Tallinn), Eva Labotkin (Tallinn/Tartu), Tanja Muravskaja
(Tallinn), John Phillip Mäkinen (Helsinki), Csaba Nemes (Budapest),
Audrius Novickas (Vilnius), Danilo Prnjat (Belgrade), Johannes Paul
Raether (Berlin), Joanna Rajkowska (Warsaw), R.E.P. Group (Kiev),
Twożywo (Warsaw), Shlomi Yaffe (Prague), Katarina Zdjelar (Rotterdam)
and Artur Żmijewski (Warsaw)

Curator: Rael Artel


'Let's
Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity' is an
international exhibition of contemporary art, and its goal is to pose
critical questions about contemporary nationalism, to acknowledge the
problematic nature of the currently prevalent national discourse, and
to create a counterweight in the public sphere. This exhibition project
reviews and analyses the complex cultural and political process through
which a nationalist ideology becomes a national identity, and also
looks at its mutual relationships and negative aspects. 

It is
difficult to overrate the topical nature of national issues. In the
local Estonian cultural space, some of the events that have caused the
greatest confrontations, anger and violence in recent years have been
conflicts over monuments that perpetuate different treatments of
history. From Europe and the world come constant stories of illegal
immigrants and the Schengen visa space, as well as news of right-wing
extremists and racially-motivated crimes committed by neo-Nazis. Who
can live in Estonia and Europe and under what conditions? Who has the
right to have a say in local matters? Who can demand political rights
and who must simply be content with the opportunity to earn and to
consume? The nationalist way of thinking has been welded into the
collective mentality to such an extent that casting any doubts on it is
seen as inappropriate. The exhibition project 'Let's Talk About
Nationalism! Between Identity and Ideology' dares to raise doubts and
invites us to once again review the mechanisms of collective
self-awareness in the context of the contemporary world.

A
number of internationally active artists working primarily from a
critical approach have been invited to participate in this exhibition
and to display both earlier works and pieces that have been adapted to
the Estonian cultural context or made specifically for the Kumu Art
Museum exhibition. The works displayed in the project are conditionally
divided into three groups: ideological habits, reproduction of a nation
and conflicts. This exhibition will cast doubt on the dominant national
agenda's truths, which are spared (self-)criticism, and will approach
the topic of contemporary nationalism from many different sides.
Considering the specifics of an art museum geared to a wider audience,
we have avoided focusing on a narrow aspect of the issue and have
instead decided to create a more panoramic picture. There are no
complete answers or standard solutions at this exhibition – just
questions. The choice of works might be characterized as a selection
that is as open as possible and maps the area to the widest possible
extent. Each work here is a potential premise for wider discussion.

The
project 'Let's Talk About Nationalism! Between Identity and Ideology'
was prepared by a series of events called 'Public Preparation', which
on one hand is the format of collective work to map and understand
contemporary nationalism and the issues of critical art practices and,
on the other hand, it functions as a curatorial strategy to gather and
systematize positions and concepts. All the meetings of 'Public
Preparation', during which this exhibition was prepared and its
conceptual framework produced, studied the links between contemporary
art and the daily social reality that has been shaped by nationalist
ideology. More detailed information on 'Public Preparation' project is
available in www.publicpreparation.org.

The exhibition has been fully translated into Estonian, Russian and English.
Press photos are available in digikogu.ekm.ee/lisa/press 
Media partner of the exhibition is artishok.blogspot.com
An extensive education programme, supported by the Open Estonia Foundation, 
will accompany the exhibition.


Events:

February 4th at 12 p.m.
Artist
talks with Joanna Rajkowska (at 12 p.m.), Jens Haaning (at 2 p.m.) and
Csaba Nemes (at 4 p.m.) will take place at the Education Centre in Kumu.

February 9th at 6 p.m. 
A
screening of 'The State of Exception Proved to Be the Rule'. Dir.
Eduard Freudmann and Jelena Radić, Serbia, 2008, 84 min. In Serbian,
with English subtitles.

9 March at 6 p.m. 
A screening of 'Rocking The Nation'. Dir. Borbala Kriza, Hungary, 2007, 70 min. 
In Hungarian, with English subtitles

30 March at 6 p.m. 
A screening of 'Letter from Moldova'. Dir. Joanne Richardson, Romania, 2009, 28 
min. In Romanian, with English subtitles; 
and
'Red Tours'. Dir. Joanne Richardson and David Rych, Romania/Germany,
2010, 50 min. Different languages, with English subtitles

A
series of discussions, meetings and artist talks will take place during
the exhibition in the Public Preparation Social Club (in the education
room, on the 5th floor of Kumu). Additional information in media and
mailing-lists.


Publications:
The exhibition is
accompanied with a trilingual catalogue, which is edited by Rael Artel,
designed by Jaan Evart, and published by the Art Museum of Estonia. The
catalogue is free and also downloadable here (1.7Mb): 
www.publicpreparation.org/failid/hp/Kumu_A4_lores.pdf

The
reader 'Public Preparation – Contemporary Nationalism and Critical Art
Practices' which will document the 'Public Preparation' project and
contextualize the show will be published during the exhibition.


Sponsors:
The
exhibition would not be possible without kind support by Danish Arts
Council, Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tallinn, Estonian Academy
of Arts, Estonian Cultural Endowment, Estonian Ministry of Culture,
Finnish Institute, Goethe Institute, Hungarian Institute, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, Mondriaan Foundation, and
Open Estonia Foundation.


 

venzha
the house of natural fiber
yogyakarta new media art laboratory (HONF)
Jl.wora wari A80/6 
Baciro Yogyakarta
Indonesia
T : +62 (0) 817468621 
F : +62 (0) 274 564276 
E : venzha@xxxxxxxxx
     venzha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
URL : http://www.natural-fiber.com




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