366 Liberation Rituals, 17 November - 15 December 2010
Opening: 16 November, 7 pm
Project curators: Margarethe Makovec and Anton Lederer
Participating artist:
Igor Grubic
366 Liberation Rituals. Every day, and at least a whole year long. The
day over the 365 days of a normal year not only hints at the
extraordinary quality of the project but already indicates the
direction: one year is not enough, it cannot be enough to liberate
oneself. To free oneself from the dominant thought patterns of
contemporary society. And to break free towards new thinking, towards
new readings of our everyday surroundings. Using art. To leave the space
of art, this protected field, and to enter into a dialogue with a
reality that is constantly being redefined by our contemporaries. To try
to intervene in reality through an artistic language. The colour red. To
focus on symbols and texts of critical thinking. To keep down the costs
of the individual interventions while at the same time creating as much
meaning as possible. In a European country to establish references back
to its socialist past. To disobey 366 times.
Information on the artist:
Igor Grubic
Red fountain
On the day of the official visit of the U.S. President George W. Bush to
Croatia, in front of the National Bank of Croatia at the Croatian Nobles
Square (where also the International Monetary Fund offices are situated)
I coloured the water in the fountain blood red, symbolically alluding to
the blood of the victims of Bush's international policy as well as
protesting against the IMF policy. The action of colouring the fountain
was carried out as an illegal action, despite strong security measures
and a large number of police officers monitoring the square as well as
the circulation of citizens. The action also served as a direct
provocation to the atmosphere of an emergency-like state in the country
during Bush's visit, as well as the regulation of public space and
citizens' behaviour, ranging from subservient cleaning of parks to
welcome the American president, up to covering up and neutralizing any
attempt of expressing criticism and resistance.
Scarves and monuments
By placing scarves on monuments, I aimed at reviving them and giving
them an aura of active fighters in our everyday life. Placing the
scarves on monuments was often done at the same time as "Little quotes
lessons". Both actions were carried out with the aim of awakening and
questioning (the impact of) our cultural and political heritage. I
placed the scarves on monuments to heroes of the anti-fascist movement.
Bicycle and flag
"Under all those flags that fly... one day I accidently found a way... I
am free...". (from a song by Haustor)
I wrapped the Croatian flag around its pole and around it I tied an
unmarked red cloth. With this act I wanted to symbolically strip the
state flag of its meaning. At the break of dawn I drove around the city
on a bicycle, as a 'phantom of freedom'. I managed to bring a smile to
the faces of sleepy commuters on their way to work.
Christmas trees
Several days after New Year's celebration, I would walk around different
city districts in the morning, looking for Christmas trees that had been
thrown out as garbage. I walked around neighbourhoods representing
different social structures: middle-class, elite, as well as barracks
where homeless people live. I put red baubles and a red star on top of
the trees that I came across, suggesting a potential unity in a
celebratory nostalgia for the past times.
Series of seminars and workshops by Gülsen Bal and Igor Grubic
"System Errors"...
Dates: 9 - 19 November
Location: Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung, TU Wien and Open Space
Language: English
Critical practice that builds upon the mapping of the creative moment of
thinking differently implies an awareness of the mechanisms of
methodology and the interaction of different planes of practice. What
different kinds of engagement and encounters can thus arise from the
possibilities and limitations of multi-directional models of curating
that situate themselves at the edge of spaces of production? The hereby
emerging new "models of production" call for an expanded notion of what
creative practice is or could be. Certainly, this is to realise that one
of the potentialities of art -- understood as an activity of creatively
interacting with the world -- lies in exploring the complexities
surrounding the "production of subject." Furthermore, as O'Sullivan
points out, critical practice today faces the fundamentally political
question of "where are the dissenting/creative subjects of today? And
how are they being produced?"
To address potential "models of production" of contemporary artistic
practice in relation to these dynamics, the artist Igor Grubic will run
a three days workshop conceived in dialogue with his installation work
366 liberation rituals at Open Space -- Zentrum für Kunstprojekte. This
installation forms part of the project System Errors, a series of
micro-political actions and interventions performed by the artist on an
almost daily basis seeking to disturb or rearticulate the cultural
meanings of acts of power.
To underpin these concerns, the course will provide an introduction by
Gülsen Bal, the founding director of Open Space, to the current
discursive shifts occurring within contemporary creative practice and
future perspectives these new crossovers between art and politics may
produce.
This seminars and workshops will be held in English.
For more information see:
http://www.openspace-zkp.org/2010/en/events.php?y=2010&p=40
http://twoday.tuwien.ac.at/vcu/topics/8+System+Errors
supported by:
BM:UKK
Stadt Wien - Kulturabteilung MA 7
We would like to thank our colleagues from Zagreb Ivana Bago and Antonia
Maja_a who have cooperated with us within the framework of the long-term
project Land of Human Rights and who have made possible the 366
Liberation Rituals by Igor Grubic on the part of the g-mk | galerija
miroslav kraljevic.
° About us:
Open Friday, Saturday 13.00 - 18.30 and open for the rest of the week
days by appointment only.
Admission free
Open Space
Zentrum für Kunstprojekte
Lassingleithnerplatz 2
A- 1020 Vienna
Austria
(+43) 699 115 286 32
for more info: [email protected]
http://www.openspace-zkp.org
Open Space - Zentrum für Kunstprojekte aims to create the most vital
facilities for art concerned with contributing a model strategy for
cross-border and interregional projects on the basis of improving new
approach.
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