24 May 2010

Seminar & Workshop at Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau KSA:K

The transdisciplinary seminar and the workshop dedicated to documentation and research are a part of the CHISINAU- Art, Research in the Public Sphere - a cross-disciplinary platform that will investigate the connections between political and cultural symbols and propaganda and its impact on the urban environment, the interference between personal narratives and imported ideologies and cultural discourses in relation to the public sphere. The project aim is to explore the dominant institutional and political discourses that have shaped the society and the urban landscape of the city of Chisinau in the course of its recent history.

A number of visual artists, curators, historians, designers and sociologists from the Balkan (Romania, Serbia, Montenegro) and Baltic (Lithuania and Estonia) countries, as well from other EU countries (Poland, France, Austria, The Netherlands) that have experienced similar social and cultural processes and phenomena will present their research and case studies related to projects dealing with art and the public sphere and to the connections between the public and private acceptions of space placed in various cultural and ideological backgrounds.

The workshop the participants will examine how certain versions of the past are produced and given prominence in the public media, civic life and state politics, and in the flow of daily lives, from the former policies to the present political and economic discourses that dominates the society. Launching a project related to the public sphere today, in the middle of globalization and of an aggressive capitalist society that has reduced the role of art to that of mere decoration, means that public art should become a tool of critical engagement, with political and social connotations. What is the current look of the city and where are the real roots of the deep nostalgia for the former symbols and the ghosts that still haunt the society – these are some of the questions that the project participants will try to answer with their projects and contributions to the project.

Participants:

Angela Serino – curator, art manager, The Netherlands, Klaus Schafler – visual artist, Austria, Vladan Jeremic&Rena Raedle – curators, social activists, Serbia, Danilo Prnjat – visual artist, Serbia, Joanna Rajkowska – visual artist, Poland, Kaja Pawelek – curator, Poland, Dumitru Oboroc – visual artist, Romania, Alina Popa&Irina Gheorghe (The Bureau of Melodramatic Research) – visual artists, Romania, Ferenc Gróf &Jean-Baptiste Naudy (Societe Realiste) – visual artists, France/Hungary, Rael Artel – curator, art manager, Estonia, Floe Kasearu – visual artist, Estonia, Catalin Gheorghe – art critic, theorist, curator, Romania, Virgil Paslariuc – historian, Moldova, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu – philosopher, writer, Moldova, Tamara Nesterov – historian, archaeologist, Moldova, Indre Klimaite – visual artist, Lithuania, Ghenadie Popescu – visual artist, Moldova, Tatiana Fiodorova – visual artist, Moldova, Maxim Cuzmenco – visual artist, Moldova, Vladimir Us – artist, curator, Moldova, Ana Marian – art critic, theorist, Moldova

Project partners in Moldova: Alliance Francaise de Moldavie, Kulturzentrum Akzente/Chisinau, the Goethe Institute/Bucharest, Polish Cultural Institute/Bucharest, Austrian Cultural Forum/Bucharest, the UNESCO Chair of South-East European Studies within the Faculty of History of the Moldova State University, National Museum of History and Archaeology, Directorate for Culture of the Municipality of ChiÅŸinÄ?u

CHISINAU- Art, Research in the Public Sphere is supported financially by Allianz Kulturstiftung, Germany, Alliance Francaise de Moldavie, the Goethe Institute/Bucharest, the Polish Cultural Institute/Bucharest and the Austrian Cultural Forum/Bucharest.

Project partners:

E-cart.ro Association, Campina, Romania (www.e-cart.ro)
E-cart.ro is a cultural association that encourages and promotes independent artists and facilitates public access to contemporary art. Its current projects include a Department for Art in Public Space, initiated in 2009, consisting of a platform for debates, artistic interventions and publications.

MEEM- Rael Artel Gallery: Non-Profit Project, Tallinn, Estonia (www.publicpreparation.org/)
NGO MEEM is a non-profit organization mainly dedicated to the production, distribution and promotion of contemporary art. The current project, Public Preparation, a platform for knowledge production and network-based communication focuses on the growing tendencies of nationalism in contemporary Europe and their critique in contemporary art.

Center for Contemporary Art - [KSA:K] (www.art.md)
[KSA:K] Center is a non-profit, independent institution established in 2000. The new strategy of the Center is the development of cultural forms and art practices that reflect the dynamic of the social, political and economic transformations of the society. The Center supports advocacy activities in promoting cultural policies suitable for defining and strengthening the position of artists and contemporary art practices in society.

Project Manager/Curator - Stefan Rusu