21 Nov 2013

Letting Space: The Transitional Economic Zone of Aotearoa

TEZA is an experiment in how a distinctly New Zealand autonomous zone might operate. As an examination of occupation from pakeha (white), maori and new immigrant perspectives, it includes issues of foreign intervention to assertion of tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) over tribal boundaries. TEZA asks how a travelling group might work culturally with those who hold mana whenua (traditional authority).

Situated in a razed site in a beachside suburb in the severely damaged eastern suburbs of Christchurch, TEZA asks 'How can artists establish a collective environment outside of galleries and institutions which allows for the genuine exchange, development and banking of ideas?'

Christchurch is a New Zealand city commencing a societal and cultural rebuild after earthquakes in 2010-2011. It has hosted recent interventions and projects that have begun the disruption of the economic basis on which the City was founded. TEZA bears witness to these projects and challenges a group of visiting artists to assist permanent change and the grounding of people who themselves feel in transition.

This project follows on from four years of Letting Space's ambitious independent public art projects in urban spaces that seek to engender social change and increase the public commons.

The TEZA model is adapted from that of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), commonly employed by multinational companies to extract resources from a foreign territory.

'The SEZ,' writes author Richard Meros in an essay about TEZA, 'is a space within a nation that is dedicated to the theology of global capitalism. Think of it like the state of the Vatican City in Rome. Each zone is surrounded on all sides by a nation, and this nation suffuses the zone with its culture, but the zone operates under its own legislative conditions.'

Letting Space explores how the SEZ model might be turned from exploitative to beneficial ends. While the SEZ gives people freedom to extract and destroy without oversight, TEZA aims to create an autonomous zone that not only provides freedom from coercion but also the freedom to create new relationships, allowing for the recognition of new systems of value and forms of exchange.

Full programme at www.teza.org.nz

Creative Core
Richard Bartlett, Tim Barlow, David Cook, Phil Dadson, Stuart Foster, Mark Harvey, Simon Kaan, Kerry Ann Lee, Kim Paton, Kura Puke, Tim J Veling and Te Urutahi Waikerepuru

Partners
Renew Brighton, Positive Directions Trust and New Brighton Project

Major Funder
Creative New Zealand

Other Funders
Canterbury Community Trust, The Chartwell Trust, Massey University, University of Canterbury and WINTEC

Supporters
Gapfiller, Loomio, Ngai Tahu, Ngai Tuahuriri, The Physics Room, Pak n Save Wainoni and Our Daily Waste

Associate Artists
Ron Bull, Priscilla Cowie, Heather Hayward, Kiwi Henare, Trudy Lane, Margaret Lewis, Kim Lowe, Gabrielle McKone, Michelle Osborne, Nathan Pohio and Kayla Ward.

Writers
Gradon Diprose, Anake Goodall, Melanie Oliver and Michelle Osbourne.

Letting Space: Mark Amery, Sophie Jerram and Helen Kirlew Smith