From: Meta Haven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 21 December 2006 10:38:59 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Art & Politics: Dutch research investigates former Ceausescu
Palace
Dutch design research investigates former Ceausescu Palace
Public conference to take place on January 11 in Bucharest, Romania
Amsterdam-based design research studio Meta Haven is investigating the
implications and role of the former House of People in Bucharest as an
icon of national identity, culture, and political rule. The project,
carried out since 2005, has resulted in texts and visual proposals,
and two conferences.
The project’s second and main conference, Regimes of Representation:
Art & Politics Beyond the House of People, will take place on January
11, 2007, in MNAC, the Romanian national museum of contemporary art,
located in the former House of People.
A keynote lecture will be held by leading political theorist Chantal
Mouffe, who will address ‘agonistic politics and artistic practices’.
Other speakers are Nicolas Bourriaud (curator and art historian),
Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield (philosopher), Marcus Steinweg
(philosopher), Augustin Ioan and Ciprian Mihali
(architects/philosophers). An opening speech will be given by Ruxandra
Balaci, artistic director of MNAC, and introduction and moderation are
provided by Vinca Kruk and Daniel van der Velden, (Meta Haven), who
are in charge of the research into the building.
The House of People
The former Casa Poporului, now Palatul Parlamentului, and its current
co-function as a museum of contemporary art, will be the point of
departure for a discussion of the relation between politics,
imagination and representation, both in and beyond the post-communist
condition. MNAC is one of various attempts to use contemporary art and
creative forces to transform a former ‘totalitarian’ symbol into one
for democracy, but it is unique in simultaneously being housed in the
same building as the government. The central question for the
conference is: can art ever ‘take over the central location of power,
being a symbol of openness and democracy’? Can, consequently,
imagination influence or take over the meaning of a building that is
an essential logo of totalitarian rule?
Meta Haven: Design Research is an Amsterdam-based think tank that
pro-actively engages into issues of political and territorial
representation, producing both analysis and visual work. See
http://www.metahaven.net and http://www.museumofconflict.eu
Regimes of Representation: Art & Politics Beyond the House of People
is organized by the Jan van Eyck Academie and Meta Haven: Design
Research, generously supported by the Royal Dutch Embassy in
Bucharest, and kindly hosted by MNAC.
---
More information on research and conference
For more information please call Meta Haven: Design Research by phone:
+31 (0)64 831 65 43 and/or +31 (0)62 427 67 97,
or send an e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
High resolution visual material is available on line, by request,
please e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reservations
Reservations for the symposium Regimes of Representation: Art &
Politics Beyond the House of People can be made online via
http://www.museumofconflict.eu
______________________________________________
SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe
Info, archive and help:
http://coredump.buug.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
