Herewith we would like to invite artists, researchers, experimenters, tinkers, thinkers, organisers, etc, to apply for a residency at MoKS.

What we are looking  for:
People who are interested about researching and carrying on experiments on sustainable models of operation. Be it either in soft or hardware, in social or physical structures, human interactive processes or engineering techniques- we are looking for creative models of sensitive change and evolution.

Proposed time: 1-2 months, may, june, july, august 2010
Facilities offered: monthly grant €500 + free studio space and apartment

application deadline is March 10th 2010

More information:
http://moks.ee

we have just finished the documentation of the exhibition series, that we have organized and curated in the last decade of the last millenium.

just have a look at:

http://vimeo.com/channels/mediascapezagreb

ahoi

Ingeborg Fülepp & Heiko Daxl

mediainmotion.de, mediascape.info and strictly-berlin.de are part of the collaborative project X-OP: eXchange of art Operators and Producers.
This project is partly funded by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Culture Programme

Pierre Schaeffer’s work, among the ones most often mentioned when we speak of art and “new media” in the 20th century, is actually only partially known. Reduced to one single concept, musique concrète, it has become only famous pre-history of something as widespread as the sampling technique. It therefore seems that today it poses no challenge before us. But is that really so? What would Schaeffer tell us if he were here today with us, celebrating his hundredth birthday? And who is he actually: a media researcher or an artist?
In this context, Rijeka offers itself as a surprisingly adequate location: although Schaeffer has not visited this city during his life, at a certain point of time it has been a scene of another episode, whose interplay of “new media”, wartime, and art, maybe in a different way and in a different sense, seems to be resounding from Schaeffer’s work as well: Are media and art allies at all, or do they have opposite interests?
At the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Pierre Schaeffer’s birth, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka organizes an international meeting at which we would very much appreciate your participation. The basic information about this event please find enclosed and a detailed elaboration of the program will follow after your application. Hoping that our collaboration on this project will be successful,
Conference Board
Dalibor Davidović (University of Zagreb, Academy of Music, Croatia)
Nikša Gligo (University of Zagreb, Academy of Music, Croatia)
Seadeta Midžić (musicologist, Zagreb, Croatia)
Daniel Teruggi (Groupe de Recherches Musicales / Institut National de l’Audiovisuel, Paris, France)
Jerica Ziherl (MMSU, Rijeka, Croatia)
Honored guests
Jacqueline Schaeffer
François Bayle
Ivan Picelj

Conference Topics:
1.  Media OR art?
* Machines à communiquer: Schaeffer’s experience and media theory
* Acousmonium
* Beyond language
* Art from the spirit of science?
* Planetary culture – planetary power?
* Production, distribution, creation – fundamental research and its application
* Entering the substance of sound – new foundation of art?

2. Media AND art?
* Pedagogy of the sound object
* Solfeggio of the sound object
* Analysis of electro-acoustic music
* Radio and art
* Performance, presentation, technologies
* Music/art as a research result?

None of these subjects are ment to be exclusive; any may be combined, others added. Criticism of the terminology, categories and assumptions made in this list will be perfectly acceptable. We also encourage papers on the margins of electroacoustic music and papers which discuss works in the fields of intermedia, installations, radio art, video music, multimedia, sound art etc.

Call for submissions
The official language of the conference is English. For the participants who will hold a lecture / read their paper, travel and accomodation expenses will be covered by the organizer. Deadline for presentation proposals receipt: April 30, 2010. Submissions including a summary of maximum 900 characters with spaces are to be made electronically to e-mail: . Deadline for summary receipt:  May 30, 2010
Paper acceptance decisions will be emailed to applicants by the beginning of June.
Following the event, accepted papers will be published by the MMSU.
International conference „pierre schaeffer: mediArt“ is part of the collaborative project X-OP: eXchange of art Operators and Producers. Project is partly funded by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Culture Programme

ConcentArt e.V.
Kreuzbergstr.28
D-10965 Berlin

Telefon +49 (0)30. 7007 16 45
Fax +49 (0)30. 7007 16 46
E-Mail concentart@gmx.net
Web www.concentart.org

1.Alexandra Dementieva – Belgium www.alexdementieva.org
Alien space – interactive video installation
2.Dominik Eggermann – Switzerland
Pseudo Mpeg – Internetmachine
Automatic Explorer – Internetmachine
Between Wikipedia & Youtube
3.Democracia (Pablo Sanchez, Ivan Espana) – Spain www.democracia.com.es
Charity – video object
4.Filip Markiewicz – Luxemburg
Disco Guantanamo – Grafik
5.Victor Kegli – Hungary
Light Object
6.Timo Kahlen – Germany www.staubrauschen.de
Sound sculpture.
7.Costantino Ciervo – Italien www.ciervo.org
Media objects.
8.Sibylle Hoessler – Germany www.sibyllehoessler.de
Schlossplatz – Photo.
9.Heiko Daxl & Ingeborg Fülepp – Germany/Croatia www.mediainmotion.de
AZOTH

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m e d i a i n m o t i o n berlin/zagreb
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d a x l & f u e l e p p gbr
info@mediainmotion.de
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mediainmotion.de in cooperation with ConcentArt e.V. is part of the collaborative project X-OP: eXchange of art Operators and Producers.
The Project is partly funded by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Culture Programme.

Deadline for workshop and project proposals is March 1st, 2010

Proposals must include a clearly written concept and plan for implementation including any required materials of budget costs. Upon acceptance MoKS can assist with necessary invitation letters for artists requesting supplementary funding.

Contact:
 moks (at) moks.ee

MoKS
Mooste 64616
Põlva maakond
ESTONIA

“Novi(media)grad / Citta(media)nova”
City Permutations

“per(mutations)” Symposium, Part IV

Infinite Games

31. August – 3. September 2009

“Infinite games do not have a knowable beginning or ending. They are played with the goal of continuing play. An infinite game continues play, for sake of play. If the game is approaching resolution because of the rules of play, the rules must be changed to allow continued play. The rules exist to ensure the game is infinite. Examples could be the life of a culture and its participants, the act of artistic creation, participation in activities such as Renaissance Fairs or other non-goal-directed play, role-playing games in which playing rather than winning is the motivation. Ultimately, life itself is the fullest realization of the infinite game. Beginning to participate in an infinite game may be involuntary, in that it doesn’t require conscious thought. Continuing participation in the current round of game-play is voluntary. “It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely” (Wikipedia)

click here for video-documentation

MMSU (MMCA), December 8th, 2009 – January 13th, 2010

Opening: December 8th, 2009 at 7 p.m., MMSU, Rijeka
www.bq3.mmsu.hr

Artists:
Croatia: Helena Bulaja, Vlatko Čerić, Dalibor Martinis, Ivan Marušić Klif
Italy: Elastic Group of Artists Research, Lorenzo Pizzanelli, Carlo Zanni, 0100101110101101.org
Hungary: Marton Andras Juhasz, Adam Somlai Fischer, Janos Sugar, Julia Vecsei
Slovenia: Uršula Berlot, Marko Košnik, Luiza Margan & Miha Presker, son:DA

Artistic Director of the Biennial : Christiane Paul (USA/GER)
Program manager: Ksenija Orelj, MMSU
Curators: Nina Czegledy (HU), Peter Tomaž Dobrila (SL), Darko Fritz (CRO), Elena Giulia Rossi (IT)

Wednesday, December 9th, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., MMSU
Lecture by Christiane Paul: 3 BQ – Perspectives on Media Art Discussion with BQ artists and curators

For the third time the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art presents one of the most important regional art events – the Quadrilateral Biennale. Its history began in 2005 with a cultural exchange between four neighbouring countries, the members of the Quadrilateral initiative – Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Italy, with an emphasis on presenting contemporary art practice, its recent developments, exciting statements, new forms, and media.
Unlike its thematic predecessors, Relativism (2005) and Heroes of Culture (2007), this year’s Quadrilateral Biennale is for the first time concerned with new media art – the art that uses digital technologies, which have deeply affected contemporary society, as its medium. The Quadrilateral Biennale will examine different angles and intersections emerging from new media in their relation to the specific political, economic, and cultural context of the participating countries.
The curatorial team – Christiane Paul (USA/GER), Nina Czegledy (HU), Peter Tomaž Dobrila (SL), Darko Fritz (HR), and Elena Giulia Rossi (IT) will present 16 works of media and digital art, one of the most innovative fields of art in its aesthetic and technological constellations. On display in the MMSU and at several other Rijeka venues, the exhibition will be integrated into the urban space of Rijeka, which, during the time of the Biennale, will turn the city into the regional centre of new media art.
The exhibition provides insight into characteristics of media art, such as its connectivity, interactivity, and adaptability, thus reflecting on the current state of information society, while transcending national borders and generating a much wider regional effect. In addition to this, the Biennale hosts Christiane Paul from the USA as artistic director, and, in the OFF program, four artists from countries that are not members of the Quadrilateral. This also gives the exhibition the character of a multilateral event, transforming the initial geographic format into an open matrix of the connections and perspectives that form the framework of contemporary media culture.
The curatorial selection offers different perspectives on contemporary art and culture, directing our attention to multiple relations between forms and themes. Among these are Intersections between different media, such as film, photography, and performance, as well as time/space intersections (enabled by telecommunications) and the ones between local and personal histories and natural and technological space. (Christiane Paul)

The Croatian Selection

With the site-specific installation Global Picture / Sensor of Human Condition the artist Dalibor Martinis will illuminate the globe on the Transadria building in Rijeka harbour. Daily reports on the global economy, stock markets, disasters, health, international relations and conflicts, civil freedoms, ecology, and media provide data for measuring the current state of humanity, which, by means of a software application, is translated into changes in the color of the globe. Similar displays will simultaneously transmit the Global Picture in Zagreb and Zadar.
The work of Vlatko Čerić, one of media art’s pioneers, will be represented by the algorithmic abstract animation Pulsation, while Ivan Marušić Klif’s work Telephoning 2 will connect the MMSU with public telephone booths in Croatia, creating a non-material, temporary sound sculpture. The interactive film Mechanical Figures – twentythousandcycles.NET by Helena Bulaja, inspired by the life and work of Nikola Tesla, guides the user around the world and through the history of technological and social development, from Zagreb to London, New York, Tokyo, and New Zealand.

The Italian Selection

In their series Synthetic Performances, the duo 0100101110101101.org reenacts historical performances by icons of contemporary art in the virtual world Second Life. The Elastic Group of Artistic Research explores metaphors of the contemporary urban metropolis in the video Remix City – an informational matrix that interweaves economic indicators, technological processes, statistic data, and image and language systems.
In his work Marinetti alla Quarta the artist Lorenzo Pizanelli brings to life the spirit of F. T. Marinetti, the founder of Futurism, by means of artificial intelligence, while Carlo Zanni manipulates the reality of space and time by creating a hybrid film genre mixing documentary and fiction, net art and film.

The Hungarian Selection

In his work iGarden, Marton Andras Juhasz examines the borders between science and art, trying to illuminate the invisible, quantitatively inexpressible relationships between people, technology, and nature. In her composite, interactive video Rendez-vous à seconde, Julia Vecsei explores urban and everyday life in the same location at different time intervals.
In the video-installation Mute, Janos Sugar ironically transforms TV broadcasts of actual electoral debates from different countries into a discussion about power relations within the system of contemporary art. With his collaborators, Adam Somlai-Fischer, trained as an architect, built a new kind of camera, the Wifi Camera, which visualizes a dynamic – invisible to the eye, but actually omnipresent – electromagnetic space established by wireless connections.

The Slovenian Selection

In their installation Formication, the artist duo Luiza Margan & Miha Presker show living organisms, ant colonies, whose life emerges through the drawings they make, forming a new and dynamic drawing topology. Uršula Berlot is also concerned with the intersection of nature and technology, science and art. In her video-work Pulsation, she tries to penetrate the mechanisms of cognizance and creative processes through the diagnostic methods of X-rays, embodied in moving images of the author’s brain.
In the work Panorama, the artist duo son:Da shows how we increasingly identify with technology, thus losing our central position in our relationship to the world of machines. In his interactive installation Ditopia Signpost, Marko Košnik enables the viewer to get acquainted with the museum as institution (location, facilities, people…) and investigates the issues of public and less public spaces, as well as the perception of space from different angles and technological positions (net connections, surveillance cameras, navigation systems…).

Program:

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009, 7 p.m., MMSU, Opening of the exhibition: 3rd Quadrilateral Biennale
Arca Fiumana – After Art Party, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, December 9th, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m., MMSU
Lecture by Christiane Paul, Artistic Director of the Biennale: 3 BQ – Perspectives on Media Art
Discussion with BQ artists and curators

Wednesday, December 9th, MMSU, 2 p.m., Accompanying program
Žarko Violić (Croatia): happening Scents and Odours – Taste Sculpture,
Reach of Smells and the Perception of Taste

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009, 7 p.m., MMSU, Accompanying program Presentation of the Proceedings of the International Symposium (New) Media Art in Museums
http://mmsu.multilink.hr/

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009, 7 p.m., MMSU, Accompanying program
Tomislav Brajnović (Croatia): Presentation of the international interdisciplinary project The Arctic Circle / http://www.thearcticcircle.org/

BQ Tour
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Applications for the BQ tour and guidance through the exhibition: +00385 51 492611, 492 615; mmsu-rijeka@ri.t-com.hr
Entrance fee: 15 Kn

BQ OFF program
From Tuesday to Friday, January 19th – January 22nd, 2010, MMSU
The invited artists introduce themselves: Alban Muja (Kosovo), Tanja Ostojić(Serbia / Germany), Nada Prlja (Macedonia), Michaela Strumberger (Austria)
Friday, January 29th, 2010 – 9 p.m. – 1 a.m. MMSU, The night of the museum – VJ- ing@mmsu.hr; VJ-ing: lole.kee.bolek, DJ-ing: miće mace

BQ3 is part of the collaborative project X-OP: eXchange of art Operators and Producers. Project is partly funded by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, Culture Programme

X-OP Events – Istanbul

5-6-7 November 2009

Organized by Apartment Project

Programme

05.11.2009

10:00 – 13:00

X-OP meeting

Kibla (SI) , Taidekoulu MAA (FI), Media in Motion (DE), Apartment Project (TR), Egon March Institute (SI), Instituto Politecnico de Tomar (PT), Transforming Freedom (AT), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka – MMSU (HR), CIANT (CZ) and MOKS (EE).

Address: Babylon Lounge

Jurnal sokak Nr:4, Amalımescit, Tünel, Beyoglu

13:00 – 14:30

lunch break @ Babylon Lounge

14:30 – 17:00

X-OP meeting

Address: Babylon Lounge

Jurnal sokak Nr:4, Amalımescit, Tünel, Beyoglu

Event

at 18:30

“Sound Locations, Transpositions” by John Grzinich

45 minutes, sound and video performance

Address: Apartman Projesi

Seh Bender sokak Nr:4/1, Tünel, Beyoglu

06.11.2009

10:00 – 17:00

Bienale visit (optional)

13:00 – 14:30

Lunch

Event 1

at 17:00

MEDIAINMOTION

HEIKO DAXL & INBEBORG FÜLEPP

“Playful Structures”, total 66 mins. video screenings

Address: Apartman Projesi

Seh Bender sokak Nr:4/1, Tünel, Beyoglu

Kira Visitor,  Germany 1998, Betacam SP Video, 12.00, Video: Heiko Daxl, Sound: Mona Mur  / Mix: Heiko Daxl, Text: New Civilization Network, produced by adm./com.

The Thin Line Between Fiction and Fact, Germany / Danmark, 2008 , DV Video 6:00, Video: Heiko Daxl, Musik / music: Pixel, produziert von / produced by media in motion – Berlin/Zagreb ;

Yahowa Stackridge  / Crack Groove, Germany /Japan 1999, Betacam SP Video, 17:00, Video: Heiko Daxl, Sound: Merzbow a.k.a. Masami Akita ;

Avant  / Garde / Robe, Germany 2001/03, Beta-SP Video 5:00Video: heiko Daxl,  Ingeborg Fülepp, produziert von / produced by media in motion – Berlin, Freunde-Aktueller-Kunst, Zwickau ;

Caisse en Deux,Germany 2003, Beta-SP Video 5:00, Video/Sound: Heiko Daxl, produced by media in motion – Berlin/Zagreb ;

Euriental Colours, Germany/Turkey 2004, DV Video 4:00, Video/Saund: Heiko Daxl,  Ingeborg Fülepp, produced by media in motion – Berlin ;

Liquid Graphics, Germany 2005/06, DV Video 14:00, Video: Heiko Daxl,  Ingeborg Fülepp, produziert von / produced by media in motion – Berlin/Zagreb, Musik / music:  Igor Kuljeric ;

Tomaten – Paradeis, Germany 2005/06, DV Video 3:00, Video: Heiko Daxl,  Ingeborg Fülepp, produced by media in motion – Berlin/Zagreb ,

www.mediainmotion.de
more videos see here

Event 2

at 18:30

Hırvatistan’dan  4 video  / “4video From Croatia”

Küratör | Curator: Jerica Ziherl & Danino Bozic

Sanatçılar | Artists: Irena Škorić, Goran Škofić, Alen Floričić, Marko Tadić

Address: Rumeli Han (Apartman Projesi Rumeli Han’da / Apartment Project @Rumeli Han)

Istiklal  caddesi ,Nr:48, CBlok ,49, Kat: 6,Taksim

Irena Škorić, Farewell, short fiction film, 16 mm, colour, stereo, 12 ’, 2008 screenwriter and director: Irena Škorić; cast: Ivan Brkić, Asim Ugljen; director of photography: Bojana Burnać; editing: Borna Buljević; music composer: Pere Ištvančić; production: Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb

Goran Škofić, Corpus video / spatial installation, colour, sound, loop, 2008

Alen Floričić, UNTITLED No 01/09, 2009, ambiental video projection

Marko Tadić, I SPEAK TRUE THINGS, 2009, animation, 5.4’’, edited by Iva Blašković, music designe by Damir Očko

Event 3

at 19:30

Address: Rumeli Han (Apartman Projesi Rumeli Han’da / Apartment Project @Rumeli Han)

Istiklal  caddesi ,Nr:48, CBlok ,49, Kat: 6,Taksim

Demir kaç para? /”How Much Is the Iron?” by Peter Tomaz Dobrila

installation

at 20:00

Byzantine Cadillac by Cameron Bobro, Peter Tomaz Dobrila and Luka Dekleva

audio visual cabaret

at 21:00

Primal Noise by Luka Dekleva and Cameron Bobro

at 22:00

Concert

Cem Tan, Drums ; Özün Usta, Contrabass ; Okan Yılmaz, Keybord, Organ & Synthesizer ; Cotton AV, Visuals

07.11.2009

11:30 – 13:00

Art School MAA students meeting with two bienale artists: Inci Furni and Canan Senol

(open to X-OP, optional)

13:00 – 14:30

Lunch

Event 1

at 17:00

Exhibition opening

Armin B. Wagner
lame box, installation

“The lame box allows me to collect, centralize, manage, distribute and archive my rich media files.”

Address: Apartman Projesi

Seh Bender sokak Nr:4/1, Tünel, Beyoglu

Event 2

at 19:30

Operabil Para (version Istanbul) -performance with topographic imagery

artists: Egon March Insitute – Marko Kosnik & Dirk Bruinsma

Address: Rumeli Han (Apartman Projesi Rumeli Han’da / Apartment Project @Rumeli Han)

Istiklal  caddesi ,Nr:48, CBlok ,49, Kat: 6,Taksim

Andreja Kuluncic´s work „image of the ‘other’ by andreja kuluncic“ representing by Jerica Ziherl and  Djanino Bozic

The new project by Andreja Kuluncic is the result of a year-long research on the topic of social distance, with a focus on the formats of occurrence and construction of the image of the ‘others’, i.e. marginal social groups, in the local mass media.
The initial part of this complex project involved several stages: research, sociological survey, discussions and collaborations with experts in social and humanistic sciences. Now, at its final stage, the project continues with a set of direct actions that further explore ways in which it is possible to raise the sense of responsibility of the media as well as reshape the perception of both those who produce and those who read, watch or listen the media-generated  content.
The artist’s tactic is thus based on subtle infiltration into dominant and discriminating models of constructing the image of the ‘other’. This is achieved (in close collaboration with journalists from the mainstream media) by a series of subtle insertion of positive, ‘normalizing’ news as well as with the individuals, organizations and initiatives belonging to the marginal groups in Croatian society. This collaboration formulates a crucial part of the project as the various media representatives, through the project, engage in exploring and initiating possibilities of an alternative, non-discriminating approach and discourses.
Looking into the models in which those – who are in the local context perceived as Others (whether this is defined through their sexual orientation, race or religion).
The lecture was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Muzeum Lapidarij

Andreja Kulunčić

Andreja Kulunčić never begins an artwork for no apparent reason. It may seem rather arbitrary or redundant to write something like that at the beginning of a text written to present and, as far as possible, summarize several years of intense work done by this artist, as well as her active presence on the Croatian and international art scene. However, the purpose of this statement is to indicate the radical shift that Andreja Kulunčić has taken in her artistic practice with respect to the conventional modernist paradigms of artistic subject, which one may succinctly express, among other things, with the famous saying: “No day without a line”, whereby brushstrokes would manifest a more or less successful association with a sort of supernatural inspiration that guarantees artistic quality and artistic genius. According to that point of view, it is rather irrelevant what time or space that artistic activity is taking place in – as a matter of fact, it can take place anywhere, since the supernatural inspiration, thus understood, cannot be circumscribed by the earthly coordinates of time and place.
For Andreja Kulunčić, it is precisely the time and place, the “here and now” of a specific social moment, that are the crucial factors of – and eventually also the primary reasons for – her artistic activity. Ever since 2000, when she realized her project called Nama, her work has been linked to relevant social and political issues, which she most frequently articulated precisely in public spaces – including not only urban spaces, but also the mainstream media. In order to understand the way in which Kulunčić approaches this public space – how the topics that she seeks to make visible are becoming a part of urban and media space (otherwise saturated by commercial and spectacular attractions) – it is necessary to define one of the basic strategies that she has been using in such projects: that of mimicry. The form of her artworks, placed in public places, is often mimicking the existing forms of public communication: newspaper ads, advertising billboards, city-lights posters, news articles, radio documentaries, etc. These forms serve to “sneak” closer to the targeted recipient of her message – the passer-by and consumer of the media, used to the informing and advertising strategies that are commonly employed in conveying the message.
However, what makes Kulunčić’s work a mimicry – a skilful, subversive exploitation of conventional forms – is the fact that the message she is making visible is exactly the opposite of the usual mass-messages sent off by commercials and by the media. It is an inversion of content that “awakens” the observer or even shocks him, throwing him out of his slumbering “state of spam,” of being overwhelmed by consumerist urges and the prevailing political passivity. The Nama project (2000), for example, took place in the midst of a long strike of Nama’s employees because the insolvent department store was on the verge of being closed down. Whereas the media were constantly reporting on the dramatic situation of the employees, Kulunčić made an inversion and even ironized the situation. She conceived of an advertising campaign for Nama, in which disadvantaged female workers of the rundown company were posing like models, their photographs flooding Zagreb in the form of city-lights posters. The characteristic feature of Kulunčić’s work is that she transposes the underprivileged subjects, as well as the social problem as such, from their inferior position into a temporarily superior one. Instead of pity, which is what the media were offering at best, she turned the employees of Nama into the empowered protagonists of action, while the key message was no longer the ruin of Nama or the individual tragedies of its miserable workers (with whom one could sympathize or not), but rather the ruin of Nama as a collective tragedy of the society.
Art projects by Andreja Kulunčić never contain an explicit narrative of an individual’s destiny; instead, the particular (a name, a person, etc.) emerges as an image of the general, or rather, the particular simultaneously presents a picture of the broader social problem. It is precisely with that ‘a-personal’ approach, by avoiding individual destinies, that the artist has managed to evade all pathos or further exoticization of the ‘other’. The point is to raise the awareness of the fact that an individual problem can also be social and that, by taking another turn, it can become individual again, since a social problem necessarily affects each of its members. In Austrians Only (2005), the artist designed and published appealing advertisements in colour in an Austrian newspaper, in which she was offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to Austrian citizens only: an “excellent” job of a cleaning man/woman, with a minimum salary and with no social rights. By this mimicking gesture, she turned the problem of illegal immigrants in Austria – which had already become a question of the collective subconscious in that country, including the suppressed hypocrisy of ‘legal’ Austrian citizens – into a problem of “genuine” Austrians, since she brought them into a situation where they were forced to imagine themselves in an embarrassing and deprived position of illegal immigrants.
Kulunčić’s most recent project On the State of the Nation (2008) likewise includes interventions in the mainstream media. The artist has been publishing a sort of virus-news in the Croatian media, in cooperation with journalists and members of social minorities, which force the dominant white, male, Catholic-Croatian citizen, precisely while he is reading his favourite sports news, to remember uneasily the existence of the Others: homosexuals, Chinese, or Roma, who likewise constitute the Croatian society and who share one and the same social and living space. Thus, the project has formulated a new model of promoting tolerance and more generally – a possibility of deconstructing the ‘otherness’ in the Croatian society.
Beside in Austrians Only, Andreja Kulunčić dealt with the issue of illegal immigrants in a project entitled 1CHF=1VOICE (2007/2008), which turned that invisible segment of Swiss society into the sponsors of Swiss government in a campaign that invited illegal immigrants to make donations for the reconstruction of the Swiss parliament. Kulunčić has called it a ‘political/artistic’ intervention, since this time she quite literally gave a voice to those who did not have it, by which she did exactly the opposite of what so many participatory art projects do, namely isolate the Other by ‘helping’ him/her and thus reasserting his/her position of Otherness. Contrary to that, Andreja Kulunčić regularly succeeds in avoiding the position of the ‘helping hand’ and the trap of patronizing – since by the afore-mentioned inversion she turns expectations into wonder, attracts attention, and dislocates the observer’s position into that of a reflecting subject, excluded from everyday life.
Is the very fact that an art project is collaborative, participatory, and empowering enough to legitimate it as socially praiseworthy and in extension important for promoting pluralism of all sorts, genuine democracy, etc.? Does such an approach (ethically biased) make it more difficult to evaluate projects such as those by Andreja Kulunčić as art projects? In order to reflect properly on socially engaged artistic practices, one should also reflect on their limitations, contexts, responsibilities, or rather questions such as: whom does such a practice address, what is its social function? It seems, however, that in evaluating such practices, apart from considering strategies they use or their social efficiency, one should also keep in mind the very origin of the practice and its primary motivation. As British critic Claire Bishop has suggested, “the best socially collaborative art does not derive from the superegoic injunction to ‘love thy neighbour,’ but from the position of ‘do not give up on your desire’”. The first approach (”love thy neighbour”) presupposes a certain amount of sacrifice and actually derives from the politically correct position that takes for proper what is “proper” in the eyes of others, while the logic of the latter relies on taking responsibility for one’s own desire rather than acting on account of feeling guilty. Beside the fact that Andreja Kulunčić never embarks on a project for no apparent reason, as we have stated in the first sentence, she also never embarks on one without a strong feeling of responsibility, combined with an equal amount of artistic curiosity and flexibility that, in collaborative or other processes that her projects must go through each day, leaves enough space for surprises and unexpected outcomes. In all those situations, Andreja Kulunčić never gives up on her desire.

Ivana Bago and Antonia Majača
Zagreb, December 2008
for the catalogue “Andreja Kulunčić” printed in January 2009
published by Rigo Gallery, Novigrad, Croatia

WEB PROJECTS

Closed reality: embryo

http://embryo.inet.hr

Distributive justice

http://www.distributive-justice.com/

PROJECTS IN PUBLIC SPACE

http://www.andreja.org

NAMA

Austrians only

Woman.index

1 CHF=1 VOICE

Bosnians out!

State of the nation

PROJECTS IN DIFFERENT MEDIA

http://www.andreja.org

RECONSTRUCTION

Andreja Kuluncic

Visual artist. Born in 1968. Studied sculpture, graduating in 1992 from the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. From 1992 to 1994 studied at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. Works and lives in Zagreb.

Collective exhibitions & festivals (selection):

2009, Museum of contemporary art, Zagreb. Exhibition “Collection in motion” from the permanent collection.
2009, Institute of Contemporary Art-Dunaujvaros, HU. Exhibition “Agents and Provocateurs” (the project was stopped by the local politicians).
2009, REX, Beograd. Exhibition “RECONSTRUCTIONS: private = public = private = public”.
2009, Exhibition “Weak Signals, Wild Cards”, deAppel Curatorial Programme, Nort-Amsterdam.
2009, Labin City Gallery, exhibition “Finalists” from the Filip Trade Collection of Croatian contemp. art.
2009, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany. Exhibition “A pair of Left Shoes – Reality Check in East Europe”.
2009, Stiftelsen 3,14 Bergen, Norway. Ehxibition “Soft Manipulation”.
2009, 43rd Zagreb Salon /anti-design/permanent alternatives.
2008, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Exhibition “Soft Manipulation”, project “New prison”.
2008. Moderna galeria, Ljubljana, SLO. Exhib. “Museum in the street“”. Project “Bosnians out!”
2008, Exhib. “Comunication”, Galery Ružić, Slavonski Brod, HR.
2008, Donumenta2008 – Croatia, Regensburg, Germany.
2008, SPAPORT, Banja Luka, Bosna and Herzegovina.
2008, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL. Exhibition “Another city, another life”
2008, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, UK. Exhibition “Positive Critical Imagination”.
2008. Urban festival, Zagreb. Project „I’m sorry … I’m not sorry“
2008, On-line exhib. „Victims’ symptom“, LabforCulture, Amsterdam. Project „Bad News“.
2008, Exhib. of Baranja Art Colony, G. Waldinger, Osijek / GMK, ZG. Project „Reconstruction“
2008, Exhib. „Schengen women“, Moderna gallery hosted by SKUC, Ljubljana.
2007, Exhibition „Work to do!“ Shedhalle, Zurich, CH. Project „1CHF=1VOICE“
2007, Contemporary Croatian Art, National Academy of Art New Delhi, India.
2007, “Nature&society / Parallel Lines“, Muzej Rupe ,Dubrovnik
2007, Exhibition „World Factory“, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute, SF.
2007, Exhibition „Private dancers“, Gallery O3ONE, Belgrade.
2007, Exhibition „Woman in Crossroads of Ideologies“. HULU, Split, Croatia.
2006, “Eastern Neighbors“, Cultural center Babel, Utrecht.
2006, HTMlles: Export 2, Belgrade, Sofia, Istanbul.
2006, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria. Exhibition “Destroyed Worlds”.
2006, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden. Exhibition “Normalisation“.
2005, MMSU Rijeka, Croatia. Exhibition “1. Biennial of Quadrilateral”.
2005, P.S.1, New York, USA. Exhibition “Day labor”.
2005, Tirana Biennale 3, Tirana, Albania.
2005, Generali Foundation, Wien, Austria. Exhibition “How society and politics get in picture”.
2005, Festival of Region, Upper Austria. Project “Austrians only”.
2005, Exhibition “Just do it!“ Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz, Austria.
2005, Iaspis Galleriet, Stockholm, Sweden. Exhibition: “Nuisance or Necessity?”
2004, Exhibition «A New Past», Marronnier Art Centre, Seoul, South Korea
2004, Liverpool Biennial International04. Liverpool, England.
2004, Exhibition «exUFexTension», Zagreb, Croatia. Urban festival.
2004, Generali Foundation, Wien, Austria. Exhibition “Collected Views from West or East”.
2004, Exhibition “Passage d’Europe”, Saint-Etienne, France. Museum of Modern Art.
2004, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany. Thematical focus «Cyborg Bodies». Proj. “Cyborg shop”
2004, Exhibition “Re-Location”, Halle fur Kunst Luneburg, Germany.
2003, U3, 4th Triennial of Contemporary Slovene Art, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia
2003, 8th International Istanbul Biennial, Turkey.
2003, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Exhibition “The American Effect”.
2003, Ludwig Museum Budapest, exhibition “Moszkva ter Gravitacio”
2003, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US. Online exhibition “Translocations”.
2003, 4th Austrian Triennial on Photography, Graz.
2002, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria. Exhibition “Plus Ultra”.
2002, Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany. Project “Distributive justice”
2002, Manifesta 4, European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Frankfurt/Main. Proj. “Artist from…”
2002, Exhibition “The Misfits”, Expo Park Moskau/ Kunstraum Kreuberg Berlin.
2002, Museum of Contemporary Art, exhibition “Here Tomorrow”. Zagreb, Croatia.
2002, BigTorino Biennial of Young Art, Torino, Italy.
2001, Artspace, exhibition “Model Citizen”. Sydney, Australia.
2001, Museum of Contemporary Art, exhibition “To Tell a Story”. Zagreb, Croatia.
2001, Galeria Nationales des Artes, exhibition “Becoming”. Tirana, Albania.
2001, Exhibition “Zadar Live”. Zadar, Croatia. Proj. “City walks”
2001, WUK Kunsthalle Exnergasse, exhibition “What, How & For Whom”. Vienna, Austria.
2001, Generali Foundation “Double Life” exhibition, Internet / CD-ROM part. Vienna, Austria.
2001, The Alternative Museum, New York. Winter 2001 web-based exhibition.
2001, VIDEOLISBOA, International video festival, web selection. Lisbon, Portugal.
2001, 10th Triennale-India. New Delhi, India.
2000, Gallery The Brewery Project, exhibition “Flip”. Los Angeles, USA.
2000, 5th International Festival of New Film, GrandPrix in new media category. Split, Croatia.
2000, Gallery SKUC, exhibition “A Small Country for a Big Vacation”, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2000, FILE Electronic Language International Festival, invited work. São Paulo, Brazil.
2000, Exh. “What, How & For Whom”, ZG, Croatia. Proj. “NAMA:1908 employees, 15 dep. stores”
2000, EMAF, European Media Art Festival 2000. Osnabruck, Germany.
2000, Exhibition “Ambience 90″. Sarajevo, BiH & Rijeka, HR.
1999, Mediaterra’99 festival (5th place). Athens, Greece.
1999, VIPER, Internat. Film Video and Media Festival. Lucerne, CH. Proj. “Closed reality-embryo”
1999, Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and Mediterranean. Roma, Italy.
1998, Museum of Contemporary Art, exhibition “Media – Scape 6″. Zagreb, Croatia.
1998, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, exhibition “Post68”. Vienna, Austria.
1998, Museum of Applied Art “Internet.galaxis’98″. Budapest, HU.
1997, Biennale of Young Artists, Moderna Galerija. Rijeka, Croatia.

Solo exhibitions (selection):

2008, Gallery Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb, Croatia.
2008. Gallery Rigo, Novigrad, HR.
2006, Gallery PROZORI, Zagreb.
2006, Gallery NOVA, Zagreb.
2005, Art in General, New York, USA.
2003, Extended Media Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia.
2003, Art Centre Silkeborg Bad, Denmark.
2002, Artspace Visual Art Centre. Sydney, Australia.
2001, Gallery Multimedia Cultural Center. Split, Croatia.
2000, Gallery Miroslav Kraljevic. Zagreb, Croatia.
1996, Intermedia Arts. Minneapolis, USA.
1996, Gallery SC. Zagreb, Croatia.
1994, Gallery Tam Tam. Budapest, Hungary.
1994, Gallery Darat Al Funun, Abdul H. Shoman Foundation. Amman, Jordan.

Grants/Workshops:

2005, Artist in Residency, Art in General, New York, USA.
2003, Artist in Residency, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, US & ArtsLink/CEC Int. Partners
2002, Artist in Residency, Artspace. Sydney, Australia.
2001, Workshop of the 10th Triennale-India. Jaipur, India.
1999, SEAFair’99 Workshop. Ohrid, Macedonia.
1998, Grant in C3 (Center for Culture & Communication). Budapest, Hungary.
1996, ArtsLink Soros CCA. Minneapolis, New York.
1994, Installations and performances. Lake of St Anna, Romania.
1993, Royal Academy of The Haag. The Haag, Holland.

Awards:
2001, Award on 10th Triennale-India. New Delhi, India.
2000, GrandPrix in new media category. 5th International Festival of New Film. Split, Croatia.
2000, Second award on the croatian net.art competition [mi2]. Zagreb, Croatia.

Co-founder of non governmental organization Multidisciplinary Authors Projects and Actions (MAPA) for art, science and technology which have been founded in June 2001 in Zagreb, Croatia.
Since 2009. works as assistant professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb, New media department.

Address: Bernarda Vukasa 47, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Mob.:+ 385 98 903 93 29
e-mail: andreja.kuluncic@zg.t-com.hr
web-site: http://www.andreja.org

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