'SCHENGEN Control Observation Point' by Schauplatz International

taken from Laura Palmer Foundation project's description

Schauplatz International, one of the most interesting Swiss independent theatre groups of the moment, employs journalistic methods in its work. The artists always begin by conducting thorough research: interviewing people, searching for information on the Web, inspecting the site, and comparing various viewpoints. The result is a theatre that is community-oriented, political, and documentary. Schauplatz has, for instance, recreated onstage the interviews immigrants have to go through when applying for asylum in Switzerland, re-enacted live the movie Free Willy, and exposed tax fraud in the Swiss town of Zug through the active participation of tax experts and corporate managers. Poland’s admission to the Schengen zone and the fact that Frontex, the European Union’s external-border security agency, is located in Warsaw, were the reasons for Schauplatz’s interest in Warsaw and the 10th-Anniversary Stadium. In the middle of the field of grass that had overgrown the pitch the artists recreated a portion of Poland’s eastern border, which is also the EU’s Eastern border, on a scale of 1:1. A control observation point was constructed on the crown of the stadium, from which viewers were able to monitor the EU’s Eastern frontier. During the eight hour-long live installation, the artists picnicked on the pitch, held discussions about the abstractness of borders, the construction of national identity, and the meaning of the EU flag. Their voices were relayed to the crown of the stadium, and binoculars and telescopes were provided for the viewers to view the action.

The starting point for the performance was the reflection that stadiums and borders are meant to build national identity. While stadiums are concrete architectural objects whose construction takes several years to complete, borders are products of our imagination, involving contracts, symbols, and potential violence. Both borders and stadiums are supposed to tell us who we are. Until recently, Frontex had its offices near the Stadium. The agency, in collaboration with the police, the military, and the secret services operates rapid-intervention teams and organises people-hunts and charter deportations. As a result, illegal immigrants resort to ever more dangerous ways of crossing borders. On their way to work every day, Frontex employees passed the Stadium, a place that, like national borders, used to divide people between legals and illegals. Schauplatz’s one-day live installation required close observation. When the artists saw the 10th-Anniversary Stadium for the first time, they immediately realised that their performance had to dialogue with scale, with dimension — ‘large’ vs. ‘small’, the hugeness of the stadium vs. the littleness of the individual within it. They wanted to give the viewer the possibility of different views. One of those was looking through binoculars at an ordinary piece of grass, where nothing happens. The artists did not force themselves on the stadium; instead they created a situation of live exhibition, turning themselves into objects of display. They also invited special guests.

One of those was software expert Hubert Kowalski, who in a matter-of-fact manner described the functioning of software that makes it possible for border guards to tell whether it is a human or animal crossing the border. He described robots that can recognise movement, objects, or the presence of living organisms, and explained the functioning of heat-sensitive cameras installed along borders. He also added that his hobby was re-enactments of historical battles. A little earlier a refugee from Chechnya, Aslan Dekaev, had appeared on the pitch, followed by someone who re-enacts events from World Wars I and II. The artists then wondered out loud whether fifty years from now military-history enthusiasts will be re-enacting the events in Grozny. The situation of obliqueness, uncertainty, and non-action created by Schauplatz was intentional, as the artists consciously renounce control of the situations they set in motion. With their subdued inaction, they provoked viewers to stroll about the Stadium, to enter the field of action — as if the artists’ presence were not important, and they were the reason the viewers were there. ‘We had the impression we had become a sonic background for the audience. It may be somewhat disappointing for an actor, because it means he has failed to attract viewers’ attention. But the Stadium seems to have simply been more important than us.’

http://www.schauplatzinternational.net/

Art after Crisis

Art After Crisis is a website by traveling writer Chris Keulemans. Ever since his first visit to wartime Sarajevo, he has been fascinated by the way artists reinvent their work, their city and their life after a period of war or dictatorship.
The next year, Keulemans will continue his trips through these cities. Sarajevo, Sofia, Algiers, Beirut, Prishtina, Tirana, Jakarta, Kabul, Buenos Aires, New York, Baghdad...
Along the way, all the material he collects will be on the site. Travel stories, audio interviews, video shots, the photographs of his girlfriend and co-traveler Riette Mellink. And of course, the new art of all these cities itself.
Each city tells its own story through the artists who live there. But it seems that art also follows universal patterns when reinventing the place it comes from: from the original euphoria through the emotional backlash to the emergence of truly new places and ideas. Check out the Beirut Metro Map, the Tirana pyramid, the erotic imagination of Jakarta, the Anne Frank of Sarajevo and all the others...

non-western | are you or have you ever been? by Linda Wallace

http://www.lindawallace.eu/
'In her video non-western Linda Wallace subtitles her fascinating,rhythmic montage of Dutch vistas, highways and people with long stringsof numbers. These "facts and figures" describing Dutch society slidethrough the images at a fast pace, for instance: the total number ofnon-western immigrants in 2050, the percentage of non-westerners in thebiggest cites, and the total numbers of non-western young people.Wallace knowingly uses bureaucratic "truths" rather than the complex,contradictory and dynamic daily reality that the statistics hide. Whatdo these statistics do? The inclination towards statisticalessentialism, where lives become stuck in unambiguous, unalterable andirreconcilable identities is characteristic of the contemporary publicdebate, and bears a striking resemblance to the corners and straightlines of the Netherlands landscape.'
http://www.allochtoonen.eu/

ROUGH GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM | BORDER INQUIRIES

http://roughguideamsterdam.wordpress.com/
Border Inquiries is a live-connected public discussion between Belgrade and Amsterdam about the new and ever-changing borders on the Balkans, as part of the "Rough Guide to Amsterdam" festival, at Dom Omladine in Belgrade, November 28 - 30, 2008.
The discussion will take place simultaneously in the spaces of De Balie and Dom Omladine, connected live via internet. The event brings together researchers, activists and engaged citizens in both cities around issues of border control, border management and migration, to discuss how these issues reflect the precarious relationship of the Balkan region to the European Union.
Borders act as filters, not simply as inclusion and exclusion mechanisms. What the border filters out or lets through is dependent on who operates the border.
A peculiarity of the Balkan condition however, is that there are so many overlapping spheres of interest and power that is deeply unclear who actually operates the border? What are the mechanisms deployed in the region to maintain and manage the borders (technological, policing, regulatory, legal, etc.)?
The aim of this gathering in two cities is to create an open forum where a first attempt is made to map the complex transnational presence of the multitude of agencies (OSCE, NATO, UNMIK, KFOR, SFOR, and various missions from the EU, USA and Russian Federation) involved in consolidating the volatile Balkan borders. The discussion could lead to a larger visualisation and mapping project.
With: writer and new media developer Florian Schneider (Kein.org), filmmaker Želimir Žilnik (tbc), artist and author of "Schengen without effort" Vahida Ramujkić, artist and researcher Zoran Pantelić (new media center Kuda.org), art and media explorer Kristian Lukić (new media center Kuda.org), Milenko Srećković (FreedomFight - Zrenjanin), artist Željko Blaće (Mi2 / Jan van Eijk Academy) (tbc), artist Darko Fritz (tbc) and researcher Paul Keller (Kein.org / Knowledgeland).

De Balie produces a programme with video diaries, debates, music, films, photography, theatre, video art and graphic design in co- operation with several partners. Through art and discussion, De Balie wants to attack the existing clichés. Not the differences, but the similarities between Serbia and the Netherlands are the main focus. Both countries show cracks in their national self-image and in both countries, ‘national identity’ is currently a hotly discussed topic, as is the question of how to relate to one’s country’s past.

The Imaginary Border Academy

http://borderacademy.org/
http://borderacademy.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

borderLands hackLab

The borderLands hackLab is based in San Diego, California. Our goals are to:
* provide technology for radical groups in san diego
* work towards technical self-sufficiency within our radical community
* challenge the tradition of racism, sexism and homophobia in technical education
* educate people about free software ideals and the usage of free software
* utilize our privilege as people in the U.S. to share technology with people who don't have the same level of access
Generally, their goals are to create more radical technology in san diego and provide tech solidarity abroad, specifically to the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico.
The borderlands hacklab is a network of hackers, artists and activists in the San Diego/Tijuana border region. They are creating a space for autonomous technology, that is, technology within autonomous social movements, operating outside of the State or the traditional forms of the left such as political parties or unions. When they say radical above, they generally mean anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-authoritarian, or pro-decentralization of power.
From the Jargon File: "hacker: n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet Users' Glossary, usefully amplifies this as: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular...
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations."

wiki - docs, updates, events and announcements

Victims’ Symptom

commissioned by LabforCulture and curated by *Ana Peraica* (Croatia/The Netherlands)
<http://victims.labforculture.org/>.
Is the cultural production of victims preventing us from seeing the actual victims? Why does the mass media prefer to talk in terms of numbers? Are we losing our capacity for empathy? These are just some of the questions explored in the Victims’ Symptom project through critical texts, commissioned artworks, interviews and reflections by the curator and a number of renowned theorists and artists.

Rainbow Platform - An initiative under the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008

Your Europe - contribute to the diversity consultation.
From now until 16 May you can rewrite how Europe should tackle cultural diversity. Help shape the future by going online and responding to a paper produced by the 'Rainbow Platform' - Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue, an initiative of the ECF and Culture Action Europe (EFAH) - facilitated by LabforCulture.
You can comment on the recommendations in the paper and even add your own submissions! Just log on to the site http://rainbowplatform.labforculture.org> quickly register, read Rainbow Paper II and contribute your comments/changes. This paper brings many issues of intercultural dialogue to the fore. Should there be a system of monitoring and reporting on the practice of intercultural dialogue, and if so, who should do this? Is it right that the EU should 'mainstream' diversity policies in its various programmes? Can there be an agreed 'European standard' for supporting culture?
The set of recommendations is very much a work-in-progress. Your constructive feedback is absolutely vital. The results will be discussed at a plenary meeting of the Rainbow Platform in Brussels on June 4th 2008 - the same date on which the Platform becomes an officially recognised discussion partner with the EU institutions.

Since October 2006 the Rainbow Platform (Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue) has brought together over 200 organisations from many sectors to share intercultural dialogue practices and discuss links to policy. The results were made public in January 2008 ( Rainbow Paper I ) and have been built upon since: Rainbow Paper II is now ready for on-line consultation.

The Platform was initiated by EFAH and ECF and is supported by a grouping of European foundations: an attempt to strike links between the thinking on cultural diversity in the arts and culture with that of organisations in the fields of life-long-learning, youth, social affairs, anti-racism, minority rights and inter-religious dialogue. The Platform engages with the political process under the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 and beyond.

For details go to
ECF:Advocacy Actions
EFAH:Civil Society Platform for Intercultural Dialogue

Encounters with Civilization: From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa By GEZIM ALPION

BOOK REVIEW
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=30&id=228850&usrsess=1
Spotlight: Strangers with human faces?

The reader has a vast repertoire of narrative styles to engage with... A review by Bonita Aleaz

Encounters with Civilization: From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa (A collection of essays on Albania, Egypt, the United Kingdom and India written between 1993 and 2006)

By GEZIM ALPION
EDITED BY GASTON ROBERGE
Meteor Books in association with St. Xavier's College, 2008
Price: $19.95

The last paragraph of the foreword by Gaston Roberge perhaps foregrounds and becomes the running theme of the book under review. Gezim Alpion is a foreigner 'encountering' diverse life styles, ideologies and processes. He is positioned in Britain but typifies the deep-seated pathos of the foreigner, experienced universally down the ages. He remains the perpetual onlooker, desirous of inclusion, but is subject to 'social closure'. However, the work does not end on a pessimistic note, rather it foregrounds the essentiality of definitive faith in the human person, and it is this that ultimately underlines continuity of civilizations. Encounters with Civilizations from Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa spans centuries and cultures, but despite the apparent impossibility of encapsulating within a slim volume the extreme diversity of cultures chronologically quite distinct from each other, there is a running theme that provides the link. It is a work on Albanians as the 'other' in different locales encountering different cultures, and Gezim is the distant Albanian onlooker recounting the varieties of 'social closure' encountered /negotiated or even pulverized by his compatriots in different time periods. The locales visited are Albania, Egypt, Britain, and India and the styles of narration adopted are equally varied. They range from the dialogue style of drama, imaginary conversations with a ghost, to the mournful cry narrated by a native on seeing his land being vilified in the name of progress. The reader has a vast repertoire of narrative styles to engage with. Two important behavioural traits appear throughout the book and the author has taken considerable pains to weave the manifestations of these traits in each of the locales presented in the book. These are 'foreigner complex' and 'social closure'. The saga of Muhammad Ali is not very well known. Generally referred to as the founder of modern Egypt, Ali was an Albanian and had been registered with the Sultan of Turkey's army. He was deputed to Egypt, then under the Turkish Sultanate to restore the authority of the Porte to a chaotic Egypt. The country had been reeling under waves of alien rule since centuries, the Polemic Pharaohs who originated from Greece, the subsequent Roman suzerainty; the Mamluk overlordship; the Ottoman, the French and finally British rule. So there were ample historical records to almost institutionalize Egypt's 'foreigner complex'. It was Mohammed Ali who set in motion the reverse process, initiating the military, economic and cultural rebirth of the country. The Albanian veneration for cultural antiquity was used to re-impose the concept of worth for one's own culture and national pride. Foreigner complex is actually a double-edged behavioural trait. It may develop both within the foreign ruler towards the subject 'other', or among the subjects towards the alien ruler. Ruth Phillips Martinez believes that an average human being's inner reaction to 'foreigners' is the same as that of canines, both bare their teeth at each other. This is primitive instinct borne of distrust and animosity. Foreigners in different lands to a large extent carry their "national" gods with them. To what extent blind adherence of the same is resorted to by the foreign ruler or to what extent such influences are sought to be curbed, depends on the motivation of the ruler. On the other hand, the perception of inferiority, in lifestyles and speech may inbreed rebelliousness among the subject people, which eventually can have different outlets, revivals of ancient cultural traits being one form. The north-eastern tribal communities of India effected a backlash against monolithic christianizing processes and near total denigration of their past. There has been a tremendous surge towards rewriting their history through indigenous lenses today; this is coupled with even state sponsored 'revivals' of ritualistic cultural practices. The Kosovars of Albania on the other hand are unfortunate indeed in not having experienced the largesse of a ruler such as Muhammad Ali. They remain under foreign occupation denuded totally of any hopes for total autonomy or even of peace. The treatment meted to Albania by the European occupation is in keeping with, as Gezim explains in a different section altogether, the imagery of the 'backward' and 'strangest' state in Europe, in the British media. Racial prejudice towards the Balkans is not new but goes back to the period of Octavius Caesar, who crowned himself King of Egypt in 32 BC, since then the West has relentlessly pursued the looting and plundering of 'inferior' cultures and civilizations. In order to retain its political and subsequent economic dominance over the eastern parts of Europe, the continuous maligning of the 'infidel' became a routine exercise. Gezim notes with some emotion, the maligning enters fiction, particularly children's fiction. JK Rowling the creator of the famous Harry Potter series, in at least three of her novels posits Albania as the hapless area, housing the evil 'darklord' Voldemort; Agatha Christie, and Herge, the creator of the Tintin series have equally typified the Balkans as harbouring evil, mystery, ignorance, set apart from the civilized sophistication achieved by the West. There have also been instances where the Balkans have appeared in writings of authors who have never visited the area, setting the trend for what is referred to by K.E.Fleming as "fictional Balkan woods". A content analysis of British newspapers published between 2001 and 2006 shows a spate of articles showing Albania's skewed presence, all of them at a time when " Albania had experienced political stability, law and order… (was) maintained across the country, and many Albanians (had) seen an increase in their savings and a significant improvement in their living standards."(p109) The implication here is that there is a deliberateness manifested in, and through the media to retain the imagery of Eastern Europe's confused chaotic state vis-a-vis the progress and sophistication of Western Europe. Social closure is the other significant issue dealt with, in the book. Even though British Home Office statistics reveal that asylum seekers constitute 2-3 per cent of the population, recent polls have shown a vastly inflated figure: such people constitute 23 per cent of the country's population. It can be argued according to the author that the tabloid press is largely responsible for the reported and unreported racial tensions in recent years. The almost paranoid reaction to such reporting can well be imagined, since the tabloid readers often read " anything else". A report in The Guardian perhaps best sums up the extent of 'social closure ' in vogue in Britain against immigrant skilled/ unskilled labour: "More than half of university staff is employed on short-term contracts. Those requiring work permits have no right to stay in the country once the contract expires…It is hard to imagine a more effective way of keeping your workforce passive and afraid". (The Guardian, 23/7/2003). Gezim does not disclose personal experiences of immigrant university professors, perhaps it is an extremely delicate issue. However, his slim volume contains a remarkable play that he authored. If only the dead could listen has been staged across Europe to packed audiences. This perhaps brings out most significantly the piteous state of the outsider, when confronting another similarly positioned on foreign soil. The Indian component in the book has portions on Mother Teresa, the Albanian in Indian soil. Most of it refers to passages from his earlier work Mother Teresa: Saint or Celebrity? with some additional information provided by the editor. The book has important messages for those wishing to seek their futures on foreign soil, though Indians' wishing to relocate in their pursuit of the elusive 'better futures' do not officially categorize as asylum seekers, yet, they become equally subject to behavioural traits such as foreigner complex and social closure in the areas supposed to furbish such futures. (The reviewer teaches in the Department of Political Science, Calcutta University)

www.geobodies.org/

Ursula Biemann is an artist, theorist and curator who has in recent years produced a considerable body of work on migration, mobility, technology and gender. In a series of internationally exhibited video projects, as well as in several books "Geography and the Politics of Mobility" (2003), "Stuff It - The Video Essay in the Digital Age“ (2003), „The Maghreb Connection“ (2005) she has focused on the gendered dimension of migrant labour from smuggling on the Spanish-Moroccan border to migrant sex workers in the global context. Her experimental video essays connect a theoretical macro level with the micro perspective on political and cultural practices on the ground.
Insisting that location is spatially produced rather than pre-determined by governance, she made space and mobility her prime category of analysis in the curatorial project "Geography and the Politics of Mobility" (2003) at the Generali Foundation in Vienna, „The Maghreb Conncection“ on migratory systems in North Africa, Cairo/Geneva (2006) or the recent art research projects “Black Sea Files” on the Caspian oil politics at Kunstwerke Berlin (2005) and „Sahara Chronicle“ on trans-saharan mobility. Biemann's practice has long included discussions with academics and other practitioners, she has worked with anthropologists, cultural theorists, NGO members, architects, as well as scholars of sonic culture. Her video essays reach a wide and diverse audience through festival screenings, art exhibitions, activist conferences, networks and educational settings.
http://www.geobodies.org/

"Passing Drama", by Angela Melitopoulos

"Passing Drama", by Angela Melitopoulos, 1999,
Experimental documentary on refugee history of refugees from Asia Minor (1923) who fled to Greece and became work slaves in Hitler's Germany in WWII. The film translates the sound-picture of my family's migration history that was passed by voice from one generation to the next
http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=5023106219120789424&hl=de
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pAqy4U0xjg
Short text
Passing Drama a videoessay directed by Angela Melitopoulos 66 min, PAL, Digibeta, 1999, (German and Greek language, subtitled in English) contact: nc-melitoan@netcologne.de
„PassingDrama“ is based on different recollections told by refugees. This videoessay is the woven sound picture of the migration of Angela Melitopoulos’family. Drama is the name of a small city in Northern Greece. The city is inhabited by refugees who are survivors of deportations from Asia Minor to Greece in 1923. In World War II their children escaped the Bulgarian occupation and became workeslave in Hitler’s Germany. Interviews with those refugees connected to Melitopoulos father’s recite of his departure from Greece to Vienna are tracing a diagonal path through Europe crossing four different national states. The homeland of these refugees was changing continuously. Their storytelling relates to the local condition of integration. To choose recites from people who have experienced an exodus nearly forgotten in European history meant to consider ways of making the process of forgetting a part in the process of notation (montage). Telling a story, which has been transmitted, retold, re-memorised from one generation to the next meant to make a film on the subject of refugee narration itself. Fragments of recorded interviews formed the voice level in that the story appears as a texture made out of different densities of concret or superfluous „thought-flows“. In their narration the refugees connected their own words with generated word-constructions of others. The recalled words of others intensified through the melody of their voices.

Award of the German Filmcritics for experimental video 2000 Award of the Council of Europe, VideoArt Festival Locarno Award of Internationale Mediafestival Medi@terra Athens
http://www.videophilosophy.de/
http://eipcp.net/transversal/0107/melitopoulos/en/#_ftn3
http://www.eipcp.net/bio/melitopoulos
http://www.videophilosophy.de/tc-geographies.net/workshops/istambul_03.html
http://www.projektmigration.de/
http://www.transitmigration.org/
http://dictionaryofwar.org/en-dict/v2v/Timescapes_Angela_Melitopolous
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1201/rcfr13b.htm
http://www.republicart.net/disc/representations/melitopoulos01_en.pdf
http://www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/001760.php
http://freebitflows.t0.or.at/f/participants/angelamelitopoulos
http://www.fdk-berlin.de/en/arsenal-experimental/news-display/article/486/273.html?cHash=12ba233e05
Full Play is a Multimedia Installation performance that took place at the Villette Numerique, which means “Digital Village” at the Parc de la Villette located in Paris, France on September 24th thru September 29th, 2002. http://actioncamfilms.com/fullplay/fullplay.htm

Est-ethics of Counter-Documentary

by joanne richardson

DOCUMENTARY. DOCUMENT. EVIDENCE, EXAMPLE, PROOF, LESSON, FROM DOCERE, TO TEACH. Documentary film production has wavered between the contradictory illuminations of its etymological shadow. As an extension of photography, documentary is, if we can believe Roland Barthes, "indifferent to all intermediaries"–mimesis accomplished. Documentary codes have been developed to create an irresistible sense of immediacy, objectivity, and authenticity: synchronized sound, long takes with hand held cameras, wide angles, unobtrusive editing, standardized 24-frame speed, use of newsreel footage, oral witness testimonials, the disembodied talking heads of those in a position to know, the centralization of perspective. Such technologies of truth, once invented, become naturalized. In the documentary’s attempt to capture the movement of the real, the mediating activity of the... [more]

Joanne Richardson
Born in Bucharest, grew up in New York, currently living between Cluj, Romania and Berlin. Founder of D Media (http://www.dmedia.ro) in Romania, an NGO for the production and dissemination of art and digital culture. Editor of Subsol webzine (http://subsol.c3.hu), and author of essays on social movements, postcommunism, immaterial labor, copyleft, tactical media, the history of the avant-gardes, and experimental film & video in Eastern Europe. Recent videos on nationalism, delocalization, migration, activism, precarity and borders.

Adventures in Cultural Politics

Danny Butt’s writings on cultural politics - http://acp.dannybutt.net
http://www.dannybutt.net/acp/

eipcp - european institute for progressive cultural policies

http://www.eipcp.net

The current issue of the eipcp web journal transversal undertakes a specific survey of the territory of ex-Yugoslavia. The starting points of post-Yugoslavian institutional critique are based on partly shared experiences from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and the neoliberal transformation processes of the past twenty years. Yet they also fan out into a multitude of breaks, discontinuities and dislocations, depending on the different positions in these neoliberal/neocolonial processes that have developed in the geographies between Croatia and Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Slovenia.

http://transform.eipcp.net/transversal/0208

Borderline by VideoActiv-Berlin

Borderline: Süd-Ost Europa / Borderline: South-East Europe
Eine knapp einstündige doku über grenzen, eu-osterweiterung, roma - aus der perspektive der menschen, denen wir auf unserer reise begegnet sind.

borderline, is a one-hour doco about borders, the EU's growth into the East, aswell as the Roma people - told from the perspective of the people, whom we have met on our journey.


2002, 55min, auch als engliche Version (Bestellung in Doitschland)(8€ + Porto 2,50€) :: ONLINE BESTELLUNG BALD VERFÜGBAR 2004, 60 min, english/german (International Orders) (8€ + postage 4,50€) :: ONLINE ORDER AVAILABLE SOON
http://www.videoaktiv-berlin.org/borderline.htm

"GAZA: LIFT THE BLOCKADE" - The Relief Convoy on its way

"GAZA: LIFT THE BLOCKADE" - The Relief Convoy on its way
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html

Performance?

Place In Place Of: Alexandria‘Place In Place Of: Alexandria’ is a work in progress by Jeremy Beaudry that manifests itself as a set of site-specific interventions, performances, and documents based in Alexandria, Egypt. Equally important and essential, this project will be co-created as a collaboration with local art and architecture university students and recent graduates. The research and documentation will be collected, reconstituted, and recontextualized on the Web at alexandria.placeinplaceof.net

‘Place In Place Of: Alexandria’ is the first project in the series of events, workshops, exhibitions, and lectures collectively titled CLEOTRONICA: Festival for Media, Art, and Socio-Culture organized by Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), more information will be available on CLEOTRONICA in February.

Posted on Jan 11, 2008
In what sense does my presence in Alexandria constitute a performance? (And if it does, what does that mean? Is it even all that significant?)
I think I’m wrestling with a definition of performance here. Admittedly, as a discipline with a unique history, my knowledge of performance is weak. Is performance dependent on some degree of intentionality? Or can performances be staged unknowingly by actors in the course of everyday actions and movements? What is the frame that is drawn around a particular body (or bodies) in a particular space and during a particular time to distinguish a performance? Must there be a receptive audience in order to legitimize the action(s) as a performance? What role does documentation fulfill in the reception and validation of a performance? Must a performance be made public?
I know this is happening: My movement through the city is conspicuous; it is noticed by the inhabitants of Alexandria. I can’t remember the last time I have been so aware of my own visibility in public spaces. Merely walking down the street elicits curious stares, smiles from children, excited greetings in English. (”Hello! Welcome! How are you?”) If I happen to be taking photographs of the funny things that I take photographs of, or walk through the market pointing a microphone in every direction, then I sometimes achieve the status of spectacle. It is this attention that I’m not used to and that has me considering my stay here as a performance.
Back to (dictionary) definitions. Perform is somewhat ambiguous, oscillating between “carry out, accomplish, or fulfill” and “present to an audience.” Similarly, performance: “action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function” and “act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment.” Well, these aren’t very helpful at all actually…
Precedents come to mind: Mierle Ukeles washing the steps of the museum or shaking hands with every sanitation worker in NYC, Ulay and Marina Abramovic walking towards each other and the end of their relationship on the Great Wall of China, Gordan Matta-Clark and friends running the Food restaurant, Vito Acconci following strangers on the street, Alan Kaprow’s downtown happenings, Sophie Callie having her mother hire a private investogator to take surveillance photos of her, Situationist drifting in Paris, Francis Alys carrying a gun through Mexico City or a leaky can of paint, Joseph Beuys living in a NYC gallery with a coyote for a week, Alex Villar occupying public niche spaces, Bas Jan Ader sailing out to sea and never coming back, Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire in protest, terrorists flying planes into buildings… There are countless others.
That I would consider my presence in Alexandria as a performance has, essentially, to do with my body in space, and how the presence of my body changes that space, changes the people in that space. And what that presence might mean. My otherness here produces a kind of emanation that people visibly sense. My otherness stems from my appearance as a white western-looking male which, as Bassam (ACAF curator) notes, carries with it a degree of cultural power: my body is draped in the garments of western (mostly American) hegemony. If I do acknowledge the effect that my body has on the spaces I move through, I wish to do so without placing too much importance on these small changes. But they have significance in their own right that I am trying to come to terms with.
Finally, relating to the more modest sense of performance, I have thought about the pedestrian histories of the city as being performed by its inhabitants. My mundane performances in Alexandria—my own pedestrian histories—are compiled alongside theirs as we live out so many routines, paths, stories, etc each day.

Related Links:
http://meaning.boxwith.com/
http://thinktank.boxwith.com/
http://alexandria.placeinplaceof.net/
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)
http://www.acafspace.org/

ISTANBUL: Roma, Roms, Gitanos NEED URGENT INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT!

Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 21:30:13 +0200
From: "Pelin Tan" mailto:Tpelintan@gmail.com>
To: aslikiyak aslikiyak@celikdizayn.com>
Subject: ISTANBUL: Roma, Roms, Gitanos NEED URGENT INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT!

The historical Romani district of Istanbul, Sulukule, is to bedestroyed under the name of "urban renewal" and the Roma living thereare to be expulsed out of the city. Please react and show your supporturgently!...

Sulukule PlatformLe quartier historique des Roms d'Istanbul, Sulukule, sera demoli souspretexte de "renovation urbain" et ses habitants gitans serontexpulses en dehors de la ville. S'il vous plait reagissez et montrezvotre soutien en urgence!...

La plateforme de Sulukule
El barrio historico de los gitanos d'Istanbul, Sulukule, seradestruido con el pretexto de "renovacion urbana" y sus habitantes vana ser expulsados fuera de la cuidad. Por favor protestar y manifestarvuestro apoyo de urgencia!...

La Platforma de Sulukule
Istanbul'un tarihi Roman mahallesi Sulukule, "kentsel yenileme" adialtinda yikilmak ve mahalle sakinleri kentin disina surulmekisteniyor! Lutfen acil olarak tepkinizi ve Sulukule sakinlerinedesteginizi gosterin!...

Sulukule Platformu
URGENT CALL FOR SULUKULE ROMANI COMMUNITY
Your support urgently needed against exclusion of Roma from historic Sulukule!One of the oldest Romani communities in the World, the Sulukule Romani population is being forced to leave their historical neighborhood.The Sulukule neighborhood, situated in the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul is being depopulated through a gentrification project implemented by the Metropolitan and Fatih municipalities of Istanbul. As it stands, the project, promoted as an "urban renewal" is in its last phase. In February 2008 the demolishing of the houses will be started.Despite the efforts of the local people, of the Sulukule Association for the Enrichment of Roma Culture and for Solidarity, of the academicians from several universities, and of the NGO's, the project is developed by local authority under non-transparent conditions, without consulting the community and without considering their demands, needs and feedback.The alleged "urban renewal project" is a reconstruction plan which involves the complete demolition of the current neighbourhood, home to more than 3000 Roma, and its replacement with housing which is unaffordable for most of the original inhabitants. The Roma will be forcibly moved from their 1000 year-old historical neighborhood to an area 40km outside the city. Moreover, as the municipality wants them to pay for the public housing they will receive, this forcible move is accompanied by a debt obligation that they will not be able to meet.Because it will evict the Roma of their home, annihilate and assimilate the Roma culture in Istanbul, the project needs to be stopped. Your support is crucial to carry out this feat.The 1000 year-old home of the RomaThe Roma first came to Istanbul from India in the 11th century when the city was still the capital of the Byzantine Empire. And they spread around the World from here. Following the conquest of the city by the Ottomans in 1453 and with the permžssžon of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, they were settled near the city walls in the Sulukule as well as in the nearby Ayvansaray neighborhoods. For hundreds of years, Sulukule acted as a pilgrimage location for Roma from all over the world. It is one of the most important cultural centers of Roma music and dance as it continues to be a crucial worldwide resource for training musicians and dancers.Your support is needed for the cessation of the "urban renewal project"Because;The Sulukule urban renewal project is a non-transparent non-participatory project.It is against the clauses of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.It is implemented in the buffer zone of the ancient land walls of Istanbul, which are on the World Heritage list. As such, it fails to abide by the principles of the Vienna Memorandum and the Convention regarding the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
To help prevent the forced exile of the Sulukule Roma,
To protect the historical and cultural values of Istanbul, which are on the World Heritage List,
Please express your objection to this project by writing to the following officials,

Abdullah Gül
President of Turkey
Mail Address:T.C. Cumhurbaskanligi
Cankaya-Ankara
Turkeye-mail: cumhurbaskanli_i@tccb.gov.tr

Recep Tayyip Erdo_an
The Prime Minister of Turkey
Mail Address:BasbakanlikKžzžlay
Ankara
Turkey

Ertu_rul Günay
Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey
Mail Address:T.C. Kultur ve Turizm Bakanligi
Ataturk Bulvari No. 2906050 Opera
Ankara
Turkeye-mail: ertugrul.gunay@kulturturizm.gov.tr

Kadir Topba_Mayor of Istanbul
Mail Address:Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediye Baskanligi
Sarachane Istanbul Turkeye-mail: baskan@ibb.gov.tr

Mustafa Demir
Mayor of the Fatih district of Istanbul
Mail Address:Büyük Karaman Cad.No. 53
Fatih Istanbule-mail: mustafademir@fatih.bel.tr

Contact Persons:Hacer Foggo (hacerfoggo@gmail.com)
Derya Nüket Özer (deryanuket@gmail.com)
Viki Ciprut Izrail (vikichco.@hotmail.com)
Pelin Tan pelintan@gmail.com
Ph.D cand. / research assistant
Institute of Social Sciences
ITU Architecture Faculty, Taskisla 34437 - Istanbul phone: +90 2122456631
http://www.tanpelin.blogspot.com/
http://www.slowfood.com
http://www.sulukule.org/

Visual Foreign Correspondents presents Sharam Entekhabi from Iran

In Iran Haji Firouz is a clownesque character in blackface, traditionally heralding the Persian New Year: Nowruz. With song and dance he spreads good cheer and inaugurates the festive season. Set within a busy shopping street in West-Berlin, Entekhabi enacts his own version of Haji Fairuz. However, his continuous efforts and increasingly exaggerated gestures to attract attention and become included within a...
http://www.visualcorrespondents.com/
http://www.entekhabi.org/

http://urbanpilgrims.org/

http://urbanpilgrims.org/ Angela Dorrer

Urban Pilgrims are travelling from city to city to find out what places and its people are really about. The project is an examination of urban spaces on various levels: an online questionnaire among inhabitants about legends, rumours and personal experiences in their city, continuously growing online archives and guided tours in public using collective performance with behavioural instructions.

Urban Pilgrimages are poetic urban extracts. They dig their way into the grain of cities to find out what places and its people are really about. Participants get involved in individually tailored, dramatized performances about their city, based on an online survey, a blog and continuously growing internet archives.

Urban Pilgrimages can take on various forms, such as behavioral instructions or procession-like journeys with collective movement, gesture, sound, props, food, music and personal encounters. The personalities and communities within the given place with their stories and emotions become the artistic material. Individual experience becomes a public field, which generates a new cartography of a place - the essential toolkit for the 21st century voyager.

Interview: Angela Dorrer (dansk).