Activities in a frame of the European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012, Slovenia
Multimedia Centre KIBLA, Maribor and KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti (KGLU), Slovenj Gradec announce the international contemporary art project â entitled âSOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconsciousâ â to be held from November 15 to December 20, 2012. SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious exhibition, conference, workshops, lectures Dates: November 15 â December 20, 2012 Venues for the project: KIBLA Multimedia Centre in Maribor, KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti in Slovenj Gradec (KGLU), Slovenia Opening day at the KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti, Slovenj Gradec: November 14, 2012 Opening day at the KIBLA Multimedia Centre, Maribor: November 15, 2012 Participants: 30 artists from more than 11 countries The international contemporary art exhibition SOFT CONTROL is being held as part of the Maribor â European Capital of Culture 2012 programme. The project will be presented at two sites: at the KIBLA Multimedia Centre (Maribor) and the KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti (Slovenj Gradec). SOFT CONTROL will be curated by DMITRY BULATOV, artist, new media theoretician and curator of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad branch, Russia). The exhibition will feature the work of thirty artists from eleven different countries. The status of European Capital of Culture provides a powerful impulse towards the realisation of new ideas and projects. This helps to draw in both local experts and internationally renowned professionals to participate in the cultural life of the city. Devoting special attention to contemporary readings of culture and the exchange of innovative ideas, the KIBLA Multimedia Centre (Maribor) and KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti (Slovenj Gradec) have initiated a large-scale international project focused on the latest forms of artistic creation that have emerged at the intersection of art, science and technology. âThe KIBLA Multimedia Centre is one of the most important organizations involved with contemporary art in Slovenia and Europe todayâ, remarked MMC KIBLA president and project director Aleksandra KostiÄ. âFor the past fifteen years we have built up a great deal of experience in conducting various art projects and festivals.â The current project seeks to analyse the impact of the development of advanced technologies on the modern individual, and to elaborate cultural strategies for re-establishing peopleâs sense of engagement in the technological processes under way. The capacity of an enterprise to both make a memorable impression on the audience and become a significant cultural event is largely determined by the cooperation of major curators, artists, philosophers and art theoreticians. In order to impart a universal format of artistic expression to the collective efforts, MMC KIBLA and KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj gradec invited Dmitry Bulatov to curate the exhibition. Aleksandra KostiÄ commented on the choice: âDmitry Bulatov is a well-known expert in the field of new media. As curator of the National Centre of Contemporary Arts (Russia) he has brought about more than twenty major international exhibitions and publishing projects devoted to various aspects of the interactions between art and high technology.â âSOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconsciousâ will demonstrate various patterns of the use of new technologies in the current artistic process, and also present works of art that subject the role of technology and the media in contemporary civilisation to critical analysis. âWhen choosing the theme of the exhibitionâ, notes Bulatov, âwe proceeded from the idea that science and technology are not merely tools that we use to achieve designated goals. On the contrary, technologies are raising new invisible boundaries all around us, penetrating into and transforming all spheres of human activityâ. This raises the question of how we ought to understand the nature of control, of the compulsion that forces each and every one of us to participate in the formation of technological systems. In Bulatovâs opinion, âthe task of the exhibition can be summed up as follows: to show how artists create new forms and new identities, not, however, as the protagonists of a historically determined technological narrative, but as the creators of that narrativeâ. Artists including Marina AbramoviÄ (Serbia/USA) with Suzanne Dikker and Matthias Oostrik (The Netherlands), Bill Vorn (Canada), Stelarc (Australia), James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau (United Kingdom), Polona Tratnik (Slovenia), Floris Kaayk (The Netherlands), Leo Peschta (Austria), Seiko Mikami (Japan), David Bowen (USA), Tuur Van Balen (Belgium), Stefan Doepner and Lars Vaupel (Slovenia / Germany), The Tissue Culture & Art Project: Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (Australia), Maja Smrekar (Slovenia), Kuda begut sobaki (Russia), Andy Gracie (United Kingdom / Spain), Brandon Ballengee (USA), Louis-Philippe Demers (Singapore), Ursula Damm (Germany), Guy Ben-Ary and Kirsten Hudson (Australia), Boredomresearch: Vicky Isley and Paul Smith (United Kingdom), Arthur Elsenaar and Remko Scha (The Netherlands) and others were invited to participate in the exhibition for this very reason. All in all, the SOFT CONTROL exhibition is projected to show more than twenty technological art installations, some of which are being promoted as both international and European premieres. Commenting on the project's format, Bulatov emphasises: âThe foundation of our exhibition lies in works of art that were created using the latest 21st-century technologies: robotics, information technologies, biomedicine and nanotechnology. Artworks like these are the ideal way to convey a sense of time, which combines signs of life (like a living organism) with those of a technically reproduced artefact. This is of utmost importance when we are dealing with the approach of a new post-biological age â a stage of our human existence when the technological constituent of one or another organism will not only become inseparable from the biological, but in the long run will even overtake itâ. Along with the exhibition programme, the SOFT CONTROL project will involve other noteworthy events, all distinguished by this synthesis of artistic disciplines and scientific/technological research. Throughout the month, MMC KIBLA and the KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec will host educational lectures and discussions, seminars and master-classes given by well-known experts in the field of contemporary technological art. Andrei Smirnov, director of the Theremin Center (Moscow State Conservatory), specialist, practitioner and theorist in the sphere of DIY theremin sensors â experimental sound in general â will run workshop with inclusion of theoretical elements from the history of the sound avant-garde. Maja Smrekar & Dr. Å pela PetriÄ (Slovenia) will lead an intensive 2 day art workshop for those who interested in using biological technologies and examining issues of biotechnology and genomics. Educational program will also include video screenings from major international media-art festivals and institutions such as: PRIX Ars Electronica (Austria), VIDA: Art & Artificial Life International Competition (Spain), MediaArtLab Centre for Art and Culture (Russia), Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) (USA), IMPAKT (The Netherlands), The Prometheus Center (Russia), and others. The showpiece event of the educational programme will be an international conference involving theoreticians and artists from Europe, USA, Canada, Australia and Singapore, to be held 16-17 November 2012. Conference participants invited include recognised experts in the field of contemporary art and new technologies such as Roy Ascott (Plymouth University, UK), Erkki Huhtamo (University of California Los Angeles, US), Andy Pickering (University of Exeter, UK), Pier Luigi Capucci (NABA International Academy of Arts and Design, Milan, IT). The conference will place special emphasis on the presentation of new strategies in contemporary technological art and training and education in the field, as well as practical presentations. Famous artists and practitioners including Marina AbramoviÄ (Serbia/USA), Stelarc (Australia), Polona Tratnik (Slovenia), Seiko Mikami (Japan), Jurij Krpan (Slovenia), Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr (Australia), L.-P. Demers (Singapore) will enjoy the opportunity to express themselves in the papers, lectures and discussions. Technological art today is a site for the testing of various artistic innovations. However, it is clear that this research into the New should not be seen merely as narrowly-specialised technical or aesthetic experiments, but first and foremost as cultural utterance and cultural activity. Only then can the results of the artistsâ investigations have a significant influence on thought and social life. This is the sort of goal set by the âSOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconsciousâ project â it aims to provide visitors with an opportunity to learn to relate to technology not as our slave or as a simple extension of ourselves, but as a mysterious construct with which we enter into creative unions and conclude cautious agreements. The project will be realized with the support of The European Capital of Culture Maribor 2012, The Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Slovenj Gradec City Council, Maribor City Council Organized and produced by KoroÅ¡ka galerija likovnih umetnosti Slovenj Gradec and MMC KIBLA ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre
