calendario eventi  :: 

X

6/2/2006

Pogovarjanja / Conversations / Conversas

Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana

Curated by Ricardo Basbaum (Rio de Janeiro) and Bojana Piskur (Ljubljana)

Ricardo Basbaum (Rio de Janeiro) and Bojana Piskur (Ljubljana) Project Conversations unites a diverse group of artists, both individuals and groups. It is not governed by a common structured concept, but is mainly concerned with a different way of thinking or contemplation on art and society, in terms of their functioning, collective work and reflection. Thus a special social space is created where no single language of truth is prevalent. Instead it enables the transformation of the voice of the other. And since all meaning is relative and provisional, there is a certain tension which points to other possible contexts as well. Conversations are a sort of dialogue with its own dynamics. The best conversations are those which neither speaker can control. Conversations generate a play-like situation, and involves an exercise on how to keep oneself in a permanent state of awareness and change (flexibility). There's nothing specific to be achieved in a conversation, except that when the participants feel they are done - that is, when they have finished a particular dialogue - they simply cannot return to the places they left (a transformation will have occurred). Therefore, conversation is a modality of movement.

Romano (Rio de Janeiro)
Radio waves have a public dimension that is frequently imperceptible, because we are used to listening to the radio at home. The private audition of commercial radio has kept us apart from the creative and communicative possibilities of the medium, which is not only an unidirectional transmission to a network of listeners but a tool for stimulating thinking and communication among us.

The radio program for Pogovarjanja puts together, via the web's continuous flux of transmissions, fragmented inputs from several artists who are separated by distance, producing a permutation of our urban murmurs. In its extension, the radio takes the shape of the streets, existing in both places simultaneously. There are no distances anymore in this place where time is the same for everyone.

o.u.c.a. / l.i.s.t.e.n.

Daniela Mattos (Rio de Janeiro)
The piece I'm working on with the Slovenian artist Franc Purg, and which is to be presented at Pogovarjanja, deals with the issue of distance, which is also used as a means of getting closer. We are exchanging several short videos of 'paths', sending them via e-mail to each other, maybe as a way to find ourselves. I think this kind of 'visual conversation' makes it possible, as a rhizomatic relation, for us to somehow access what has become of us and our emotions.

Franc Purg (Celje)
Can a work of art be created by two people who don't know each other, who are of different sexes and who come from a different generational, geographical and cultural background?

What happens with the roads we tread and drive many times a day, the roads on which we don't see or notice anything exciting, if we watch a video document of them on screen? Do we really constantly need to reflect on our lives? Is life itself not enough? These are these questions that follow me, while I am working with the Brazilian artist Daniela Mattos.

Marssares (Rio de Janeiro)
For humoristic reasons, I move the sound.

Alex Hamburger (Rio de Janeiro)
I chose visual and sound languages early in my quest because the achievements in the field of intersemiotics (the possibility of the interaction of different esthetic languages) made it possible for me to delve further in my uneasiness of what poetry should be.

Joze Barsi (Kurescek)
Statement from a conversation with Ian Wilson, conceptual artist from the 1970s, "oral communication is a lot more than language; it is one of the best mediums for the dissemination of ideas" refers to communication which should lead to an idea, to a result. Wilson never allowed his discussions to be recorded, which I think was the correct choice. The act itself was enough.

Contrary to the informed conversation I direct my attention to casual, everyday communication, which can take place anywhere - at an opening, in the street, etc. English speakers call it "small talk - light social conversation". Contrary to the above described notion of conversation, here form is more important than content and thus closer to culture. To put it differently, I'm not interested in the dissemination of ideas or convincing someone, in being directed to a certain goal, solution or solving. This reminds me too much of efficacy, of seeking justification from society, being efficient and thus being a meaningful member of the society. No, I'm interested in quite the opposite, in something which is seemingly meaningless, conversation as a form of standard or casual communication be it simply saying hello to someone or chatting with your neighbours.

Japan is a densely populated land of islands, where this form of cultural behaviour is very complex. The depth of a bow and the language structure enable such cultural expression. Seemingly very formal and contentless forms convey complex meanings and reveal how it is possible to live in such a small place. Isn't culture at the same time like the glue which sticks the society together? If we compare this with the original meaning of the word pattern, then pattern is an arrangement or a sequence which brings individual pieces together. Half of a heart carved in a slat of a picket fence outlines the surface, totality with a heart pattern.

But don't worry; I'm not saying light social conversation at an exhibition opening is my work of art. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no notion how to formalize the "small talk" idea.

Do nothing is sometimes a good solution.

TEMP

TEMP is currently the name for an informal self-organised production network of groups and individuals. We are organised heterogeneously and non-hierarchically, and we continue to evolve and adapt to our action projects. Thus we try to maintain an organic and open structure of the network, which allows us to seek new ways of participation and organization beyond the framework of institutions. Through such action we can avoid the sterility, formalisation, and enforced tolerance and concepts, which public work necessarily dictates. Also due to its dynamic nature and the flow of people and ideas, our method acts as a safeguard against political or personal abuse of our work.

We are interested in the disappearing public space in the broadest terms. We focus on working from bottom up, through the following strategic levels: informal city as the context, active space as the discursive field, constructed situation as the message and creative deregulation as the operating mode.

Between 10 February and 10 March we will transform the gallery into a working space, where workshops and panels will be held. A the same time, the gallery will be an information centre, where the gathered data will continue to enrich the existing database, consisting of maps, a model, documentary, research and artistic material. The base will be the source of inspiration for the urban interventions, set up in the vicinity of Skuc and in the empty space of the Ljubljana old town. The TEMP project investigates the issue of uniting and working within a collaborative network. It is for this reason that a temporary structure of different associations, groups and individuals, which, in the context of the project, will have to find creative ways of communication and new ways of thinking and creating, will be set up.

Image: Ricardo Basbaum: Diagram, 2006

Opening on February 7th at 8 pm.

Opening performance: Daniela Mattos, Make Over

Live streaming, Rio de Janeiro - Ljubljana, 8 February at 7 p.m. (Skuc)

For further information contact Alenka Gregoric, artistic director of the Skuc Gallery

Pogovarjanja / Conversations / Conversas is a part of On Difference2
project? http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de

Funded by Culture 2000, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and Cultural Department of the City of Ljubljana.

Media support by Radio Student Ljubljana.

Galerija Skuc
Stari trg 21, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija

stampa

permanent link