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The New Cultural Imperialism | Anti - Bodies | A Game of War: Art and Terrorist Resistance |

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The New Cultural Imperialism
Perspective In Defnition
By Steven Dryden
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An exercise before embarking: write down on a piece
of paper your definition of culture without looking in a
dictionary and then ask a friend, colleague or complete
stranger (assuming they are not one and the same) to
do the same.
As long as I can remember dictionaries have held a
special fascination for me and I have never understood
peoples reluctance to use them. To me, understanding
has always been about more than regurgitating facts
and figures learned many half moons ago and taken
as truth from the bank of memory. Understanding,
much like life, is about dragging yourself out of bed
every morning and defining yourself to the world
you find yourself inand everyday that world is very
different. Reason, truth, meaning, all of these words,
little ideas, have definitions in dictionaries, and each
dictionary, depending on age and publisher will have
a slightly different definition, a different truth. Our task
is to use these definitions as the building blocks for
our own definitions of self, the object, emotion and
people we encounter. Meaning, as has been observed
by countless others before me is in a state of flux
depending upon circumstance and you.
When Im faced with an idea such as New Cultural
Imperialism it seems easy, almost default to think of
the negative things in society that the vast majority of
people do, think or like and tear them to pieces, belittle
them and frame them in these words such is my feeling
toward Imperialism being a nasty, dirty word. But by
doing this, by taking the easy option I negate the scale
of the ideas that are actually being presented to me.
These words, clustered together, seeking to manifest
themselves as one; they rely both independently and
together on the idea of the other, something opposite,
inferior or different in order for them to be defined.
Culture is perhaps the biggest idea within this cluster.
Two examples of attitudes towards the word are best
summed up by quotes, and fortunately they are from
both sides of the political spectrum.
When I hear the word culture I reach for my wallet
Marx (Groucho not Karl) . When I hear the word
culture I reach for my gun Goering (Herman, the Nazi
not Munster)
Culture is something that has as many definitions as
meanings and in the course of exploring definitions it
becomes apparent that to define culture is to declare
war on understanding, a war on notions of self and
place that will be constantly waged, because to begin
to comprehend why we assert some ideas above
others begins to answer the larger, far more complex
questions of existence. Looking at the argument of
defining culture going on within the anthropological
community* we get an idea of how distinct and separate
ways of thinking about culture can lead to very different
ways of being, existing and thinking about who we are
within relationships, communities and the world.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his work Phenomenology of
Perception was not the first philosopher to consider
the idea of Phenomenology; he has not been the last,
but his idea that meaning and our relation to objects
are individual, personal and only definable within each
of us at a given moment in time has been a revelation
to me. Could the idea of phenomenology also be
prescribed to words? In my experience, (I would also
hope from the exercise above to be able to have some
form of proof or evidence) culture, like all words, is
defined first and foremost by the person defining
based on personal experience of an idea (in this case
the idea of culture), rather than a dictionary definition.
This becomes increasingly dangerous when ideas like
culture are used to defend or justify other ideas such
as imperialism.
Regardless of how we define, and we ultimately always
will, we are left in the ominous position of knowing that
just as we define something as being we have also
defined something as not being; for something to be
cultured, something invariably must be uncultured.
Nature, above all, is what we seek to define ourselves
from when we talk about culture. We have learned, we
have evolved and think, we control our environment,
we build, we pass our knowledge on. Nature no longer
controls us, we control it. The notion that that which we
understand can not harm us is perhaps the principle
idea that has given man the confidence and will to
explore and put into practice other ideas, such as
imperialism
The more you know the less you understand-
(Tao le Ching)
Imperialism - the policy of extending the rule or authority
of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of
acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies.
Where do we begin? How to comprehend and define?
To justify (and we all feel that need to justify). To start
we must try.
Imperialism is the one word out of the three clustered
that depends so much on words to justify our need for
it. Terror is the latest word used to justify imperialism;
it is spoken by leaders pointing fingers and speaking
rehearsed speeches into TV cameras. A word that
seeks to define a feeling now used to justify again
and again in some other place and toward some other
people and given different words for the same act;
liberation, freedom, democratic, controlled explosion.
People speak of terror it as if it is something they do
not deserve, that it is unjust, an unnatural condition to
live under rather than accepting fear, in any form, as a
part of us, part of our survival.
Previously the word uncultured has been used to
justify the occupation of other countries, the taking
of resources and the exploitation of the people
within them justified by words that we still struggle to
comprehend, define or even put into practice. Here
we get into the murky waters of humanity our need
to define and classify, to differentiate ourselves from
each other. To classify is to protect, to define is to
understand and what we understand can not harm
us. What we understand that others dont, we can
use against them, make them appear to be the lesser
that requires our guidance, our way of seeing. We sit
ourselves on a pedestal, clutching a dictionary, whose
contents will right letters, bills, laws, treaties, contracts,
and declarations. We speak, we speak words whose
meaning morph into other meanings like a game of
Chinese Whispers
www.anthrobase.com/Dic
Cover Image: The Gainsborough Packet: Matt Stokes (2009)
,16mm Film Transferred to Hard Drive. Courtesy of the
artist and Workplace Gallery.
GB: Can you tell me a little about how the project
started and what the initial parameters were?
ZS: Anti-Bodies: beyond the body ideal was
launched in February as a visual arts network
and rolling curatorial programme. The programme
explores different attitudes to the body, contrasting
the particularity of the artists body-concept against
the ideal body-machine of the Olympic athlete so
revealing underlying idealisations of the body as they
are reproduced in different everyday social contexts.
It takes the form of a series of contemporary art
projects curated and produced by the network
partners and an engagement programme. The
network involves five organisations based in the south
west of England each of which work in relation to the
international contemporary art context: Arnolfini in
Bristol, Kurator in Plymouth, Plymouth Arts Centre,
ProjectBase in Cornwall and Spacex Gallery in
Exeter. The network collaborates with a range of
production partners nationally and internationally.
Anti-Bodies was initiated by Arts Council England,
South West, in dialogue with Relational and is
developed with the network. It has emerged out of a
shared interest to encourage people to participate in
a process of critical reflection upon, and engagement
with, the Olympic Ideal of the body and to extend
notions of context-led working and participation in the
wider social realm. I developed the curatorial theme
and commissioned curators based in the region to
propose projects in response. The programme is
facilitated by Relational with support from the Arts
Council, which continues to fund the engagement
programme and aspects of production. The programme
is planned to run until 2012, funding permitting.
GB: You mention that you have personally developed
the curatorial theme and I wondered how this fits with
your own research interests?
ZS: The idea for the overall curatorial framework of
Anti-Bodies is a development of my ongoing interest
in different re-presentations of the body. In 1996,
I co-curated The Visible and the Invisible, for inIVA,
which presented a series of context-led projects,
contrasting the artists conception of the body
against more generalised cultural representations,
within distinct areas such as medicine, the sciences,
architecture and different cultural traditions.
GB: Can you talk about the thinking behind Anti-Bodies
and the reason for the provocative title?
From a medical perspective, the programmes title
refers to the anti-bodies produced by our immune
systems in response to things that threaten us. In this
sense, the title could be seen as a poetic idea of my
body fighting off the imposition of an ideal body. In
the context of everyday life, Anti-Bodies refers to the
underlying models of the ideal body which produce
Anti -Bodies
Theo Jansen, Animaris Rectus, 2008,
Photo copyright Loek Van Derklis
An interview between Gemma Brace and Zo Shearman, curator and
co-ordinator of the overall Anti-Bodies programme, and Director of Relational, Bristol.
power hierarchies, for example around issues such as
race, gender, sexuality or disability, privileging those
bodies closest to the supposed ideal model. It also
refers to the way in which, as a political event, the
Olympics applies the ideal model of the athlete to the
state striving for supremacy in the sporting arena, with
the athlete becoming an emblem of state identity and a
metaphor for national wellbeing. Anti-Bodies is also an
opportunity to unpack the way in which the Olympics
refers to a fantasy of universalism, a Western concept
based upon the ideal of common shared values. The
notion of the ideal body as a common denominator
can work as a kind of cultural imperialism, covering up
the real inequalities of social and economic conditions
around the world. Similarly, in the Paralympics, athletes
are invited to compete and aspire to an ideal model
of the body by transcending their disabilities. Rather
than accepting difference, the Olympic ideal invites
participants to overcome the particularities of their own
body so as to be tested against the standard model.
GB: You have been awarded a London 2012 Inspire
Mark as part of the Cultural Olympiad. What influence
do you think that the Olympic commission for London
has had on this project?
ZS: Anti-Bodies is a response to the Olympic ideal of
the body. As the body is a key site of cultural enquiry
we hope the programme is of relevance to a range of
artists, curators, audiences and contexts. As you say,
the programme has been awarded the Inspire mark, this
is meaningful for us in terms of dialogue. The project
is essentially an Arts Council initiated and supported
project developed by Relational and the network.
GB: You suggest that the Olympics refers to a fantasy of
universalism. However the danger with deconstructing
any idealization or myth is that you are always going to
be approaching it from a particular cultural standpoint.
How successful do you think the international nature
of the pen Anti-Bodies submission process has been
in terms of diversifying the projects parameters?
ZS: The programme reflects on the idea of universalism
from a number of different cultural positions. All the
artists participating in the curated projects work
internationally and their projects are being developed
in dialogue with partners who have different cultural
perspectives such as Townhouse Gallery in Cairo,
LX2.0 in Lisbon and the Marina Abramovic Institute
for the Preservation of Performance Art in the US.
Each of the organisations involved have very different
models. For example, Arnolfini is one of Europes
leading centres for the contemporary arts, whereas
ProjectBase is a non-building based organisation
that commissions internationally established
artists to work with local communities in Cornwall,
and Kurator is a curatorial agency and research
platform at the intersection of art and technology.
The engagement programme is integral to Anti-Bodies
and seeks to widen its social and cultural reach. It
offers opportunities for more people to contribute and
be involved. Its being developed by the network to
engage different communities in the wider social realm
through interaction and participation. The engagement
strands include Kurators Open Anti-Bodies, an open
submission, presentation and curatorial platform which
places an emphasis on open source principles. Open
Anti-Bodies is accessed via the Anti-Bodies website
and invites the submission of projects in response
to the Anti-Bodies theme. All projects submitted are
archived and we are planning to develop the platform
to invite artists, curators and others to curate their own
selections of projects. The engagement programme
also includes wider inclusion projects, a rolling
programme of events, talks and projects presented by
the network partners, and further development of this
website including the commissioning of critical texts and
downloadable resources and facilitated discussions.
GB: You suggested earlier that the notion of the ideal
body as a common denominator can work as a kind
of cultural imperialism can you expand on what you
mean with this idea in relation to some of the different
aspects of the project?
ZS: Anti-Bodies projects dont illustrate this idea
directly, rather they resist this kind of cultural
imperialism by re-presenting different ideas of
the body so negating the ideal body concept.
As part of a programme of artist performance work that
Arnolfini is developing within the framework of Anti-
Bodies, it presented in May the only UK performances
of Small Metal Objects by one of the worlds foremost
performance companies, Australias Back to Back
Theatre. Staged in Bristols Broadmead shopping
centre amidst the pedestrian traffic of the city and with
individual sets of headphones, the seated audience was
wired into an intensely personal drama that emerges
from the crowd. The project was a collaboration with
production partner the Bristol Old Vic. Led by actors
with learning disabilities, Back to Back also undertook
workshops during their visit with a Bristol arts
organisation Art + Power to develop a new work which
will be presented as part of an Arnolfini Anti-Bodies
Live Art Weekend later this year, funding permitting.
In July of this year, Spacex and Newcastle upon
Tyne-based production agency Amino will launch a
national tour of Dutch artist Theo Jansens work as
part of Shrewsburys Darwin Festival. In the summer
of next year, the project will tour to Spacex and nearby
Exmouth beach and to Newcastle upon Tyne where it
will be presented with the Centre for Life and Newcastle
University. Theo Jansens mechanical creature-like
skeletal devices he names strandbeest (translated
as beach animals) apply a mix of the basic principles
of Darwinian evolution and engineering to invest the
machines with animal-like abilities which enable them
to walk and respond to their environment. They have
no electronic elements; can capture and store energy
from the wind to power their movement; and much of the
materials used in their construction are recycled scrap.
In January of next year, Plymouth Arts Centre will
present The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow,
a curatorial collaboration with Marina Abramovic,
her Institute for the Preservation of Performance
Art which opens in 2011, and the Manchester
International Festival. This exhibition, off-site project
and performance festival will commission seven new
live durational works by emerging artists. These will
include a project for Anti-Bodies in Second Life by Eva
and Franco Mattes (based in Germany), who have
previously re-enacted in Second Life performances by
Marina Abramovic and Ulay. Also, by Francesca Steele
(based in the UK), whose ongoing project involves
her attempt to become a professional body builder.
ProjectBase is working with the Townhouse Gallery,
Cairo, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Post-Museum,
Singapore on a major 2 year research project led by
Paris-based artists Lucy and Jorge Orta called Drifting
Raft culminating in a performance or exhibition in
each location in 2010-11. The project involves young
people in communities in Cornwall, Cairo, Yorkshire
and Singapore exploring intercultural exchange
and social networks. Working together with young
people through community outreach workshops put
into place by the partners, clothing will become the
focus of discussions (both locally and internationally
through the projects exchange programme), to record
personal histories encountered through migration
related to, or provoked by the item of clothing.
GB: There are a lot of intriguing projects instigated
by Anti-Bodies, I wondered if any ideas have been
generated around the medium of film or photography
bearing in mind its popular use as a tool for
disseminating both cultural and body ideals?
ZS: Relational is currently working with Picture
This Moving Image in Bristol to produce a new
animation work by UK-based artist Melanie Jackson
this year. This will be based on international flora
and fauna: specifically national trees and animals.
The reasons for their nomination by nation states
are often anachronistic, but stemmed from a desire
to cement a sense of national identity and re-
iterate a symbolic national value. The animation will
respond to the theme in a broad sense looking at
the Olympic body through these symbolic national
identifications. The work will create a morphing
GB: It appears to me that their technological reading
of the term could just as easily work as a metaphor
for cultural imperialism using the base construct of
infection. The term antibodies in this respect seems
to refer then to the neutralising affects of the project,
how do you see this working as part of the long-term
aims for Anti-Bodies?
ZS: Rather than having a neutralising effect, I
understand Anti-Bodies as revealing some of the
underlying ideal models of the body that produce
power hierarchies and offering us alternative
or different ways of thinking about the body.
GB: Finally, I wanted to suggest that Anti-bodies
approach to the ideal body as presented by the Olympic
athlete could be read as essentially challenging, in
relation to this what do you hope will be the legacy of
your involvement with the Cultural Olympiad?
ZS: We envisage the key legacies as being a
significant programme of reflexive and meaningful
projects which engage people with different ideas of
the body; the broadening of the audience for visual
arts within the south west of England; the raising of the
profile of the south west as a centre for international
contemporary art; the establishment of the network
and development of the network organisations.
The Anti-Bodies projects are curated by Sara
Black (ProjectBase), Helen Cole (Arnolfini), Geoff
Cox/Joasia Krysa with Luis Silva (Kurator with LX
2.0), Nicola Hood with Ben Ponton/Lee Callaghan
(Spacex with amino), Paula Orrell (Plymouth
Arts Centre) and Zoe Shearman (Relational).
individual body and forest of representations.
Its planned to produce 2 versions: a
short animation for online/mobile/Big Screen
platforms, and a longer HD film.
GB: Anti-Bodies is developing into a real collaborative
venture and I was particularly interested in the project
Infected being ran by Kurator and LX 2.0 involving
the artists Carlos Katastrofsky and Heath Bunting
could you develop on the nature of this project?
ZS: Kurator and LX 2.0 commissioned Heath (Bristol)
and Carlos (Vienna) through an open call titled
INFECTED: VIRAL CALL FOR VIRAL WORK. This
open call via internet networks invited proposals for
new online projects to infect the Olympics, responding
to the idea of the virus. By virus they mean to draw
attention to any agent that is able to reproduce itself
and spread over communications networks and infect
the host body. The cultural form of a virus embodies the
principles of negation in keeping with the AB theme.
Heath is developing a new reiteration of his Status
Project which makes visible the street and institutional
status systems which we spend our days navigating
and which facilitates easy movement within them.
For Anti-Bodies he is surveying Olympic sports.
Carlos is developing vir.us.exe, a windows
programme which, once executed, will delete
itself. Spread virally via the internet, it will become
a meta virus spreading not because it is an
actual virus but because it is perceived as such.
The artists are undertaking residencies to develop the
work with the Art & Social Technologies Research group
at the University of Plymouth in May which involved
a seminar discussing art, sport, viruses and curating.
The commissions will be launched in June and Oct
through a series of events and further commissions
are planned for later in the year, funding permitting.
Lucy + Jorge Orta, Orta
Water - Antarctica Fluvial
Intervention Unit (2005-08),
courtesy Galleria Continua.
A Game of War: Art and
Terrorist Resistance
Andy Murray
Most artists on the London scene could never be
terrorists. At worst, some arty-types can be irritating,
but the state has very little to fear from even the most
brightly coloured cartoon characters. They could
never pose a threat because, first, they would have
to be organised (that means getting up before noon),
and second theyd have to remain inconspicuous.
The types of underground networks that terrorist
organisations have to form are not congenial to
networking around private-views and sceney bars as
prominent as a set of traffic lights. Bring em on, I say.

I am being quite unfair. Terror-artists are necessitated
by an authoritarian political climate, whilst the political
climate in Britain is at best, indifferent. In 1970 Cildo
Meireles printed messages like Yankees go home on
redeemable Coca-cola bottles, before putting them
back into circulation, in reaction to the Brazils military
regime and US Imperial Power; in 1985 Krzysztof
Wodiczko projected a swastika on South Africa House
as an art-attack against the apartheid regime. As
there isnt a popular desire for militant insurgency
in Britain (though things are heading that way)
Britain does not breed terror-artists, but civil-artists.

There is an analogy between the civil and the terror-
artist in Deleuze and Guattaris discussion of the games
of Chess and Go. Civil-artists are like chess-pieces.
Weve all met those peacocks at private views and
art-fairs, they are Kings, Queens, Bishops and Pawns.
They have self-defined roles and hierarchies, and
people entering the game as Pawns will do their best
to squirm through to the other end of the board without
getting screwed over, so that one amongst many may
become a Queen or Knight: a screwer rather than a
screwee. In that respect, chess is remarkably political.

The terror-artist, on the other hand, is like the Go piece:
an anonymous, nameless individual indistinguishable
from other such individuals. It is easily confused with
the pawn, but it is far more dangerous. Whereas a
chess piece can only take one piece at a time, a single
Go piece can appear from nowhere and devastate
entire formations in one vicious move. So, unlike the
bottom-feeding Pawns striving to establish their roles
and identities, the Go-piece seeks to disrupt entire
structures that form and secure such identities. This
is what Deleuze and Guattari meant when they said
that: What is proper to Go is war without battle lines,
with neither confrontation nor retreat, without battles
even: pure strategy, whereas chess is a semiology.

The Dadaists were the most influential Go-piece-
avant-gardes of the first half of the 20th century, and
it is no coincendence that they revelled in playing
games, whether these be board game (Duchamp was
an avid chess player), word games, erotic games,
theatrical games, or just pissing around. Jean Arp
retrospectively described the standard conduct of
those at Caberet Voltaire as such: Tzara is wiggling
his behind like an oriental dancer, Janco is playing an
invisible violin, Madam Hennings is doing the splits,
Huelsenbeck is banging away on the great drum with
Ball accompanying him on the piano. Tzara did spoil the
Debord playing a game of war
with Alice Becker-Ho.
US military achieves in the Middle-East what it refers
to as Full Spectrum Dominance, that is, a complete
control of the movements and communications
through, air, land and sea, and the communications
network across them such as the internet and radio,
it could never eliminate an insurgency that seeks
to destroy these networks from a space outside of
them. Deleuze and Guattari calls these networks
the State Apparatus; and the political realm which is
external to the State Apparatus, the political realm
of the terror-artist or Go-piece, is the War Machine.
But how can one think communicate and act outside of
the influence of the State Apparatus? The Situationist
International, of which Debord was the leading figure,
conceived of two strategies: drive and dtournement.

Drive translates from French as drifting, hinting at the
War Machines transient existence. It involved forms of
co-existence with the environment and associates that
was open to experiences outside of commercialised
or timetabled leisure and work. An example of this
practice is the possible rendezvous, whereby, a
person is invited to go somewhere at a specific place
and time. He might meet someone, he might not.
Someone might have been sent to the same place to
meet him, but neither person has any way of knowing
the other. So they may meet each other, encounter a
random stranger, or they may just admire the view.

Such drives characterise the art-actions Jir Kovanda
performed during the 1970s. These actions seemed
to be an attempt to find forms of communication
beyond the jurisdiction of the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republics state censorship. He described his actions
as: not intended for the people who were present
when the actions happened. The message was
intended for those who would read them as actions.5
His actions usually involve confronting pedestrians in
an anonymous fashion, such as purposefully bumping
into them, standing on the pavement with outstretched
arms, or even turning around on escalators to look
them in the eye at close range. I think his more
poignant work was less confrontational, an example
A pioneer of Dadaism and Surrealism,
Duchamp was equally passionate about
chess. In 1923, Marcel Duchamp,
playing at his best in championships.
fun a bit later by writing the Dada Manifesto, but even
this confirmed Dada to be a game without a rule book
the rules being made up as the game went along.

As farcical as it may seem, Dada served as a powerful
critique of European Modernity after the Great War. If
hundreds of thousands of men were to be randomly
decimated at by bombs, shells and guns; wasnt it
rational to act with according irrationality: to randomise
compositions, to dress up as women, to sing nonsense
verse, to depict men as machines; to collapse the
distinctions between High and Low, moral and immoral,
serious and frivolous, sane and insane? Even for the
Pawns that did make it to the other end of no-mans
land, the medals with which they were decorated
often remained a resented achievement. If the
Dadaists were such chess pieces, they did not attack
other pieces. Rather, theyd stomped off the board,
attacked it, and bit any fingers that dared touch them.

Another game designed in 1980s by Guy Debord, one of
the most prominent inheritors of the Dadaist (anti-)game
rules, offers similar terrorist tactics. At first, this game,
A Game of War, would seem to be more like chess.
Pieces have distinct identities and powers as infantry,
artillery and cavalry. However a players units have to
remain within his communication network of relays and
bases to maintain these identities. The Game of War is
therefore more like Go in that any formation, no matter
how strong, can be rendered defenceless by a single
enemy unit that can disrupt a line of communication.
This is a small lesson on the fragile dependency
of personal and institutional powers and identities
upon information and communication networks.
It is these networks that the terror-artist attacks.

However, the Game of War does not represent such
terrorist attacks, as it depicts two equally opposed forces
in a pitched battle. Terrorist resistance, rather, involves
imbalanced sides: a hegemonic power and a rebelling
insurgency. In a Game of War the game is definitively
won when one network defeats another. However,
in reality, wars are never so conclusive. Even if the
of which is described by the title of one action: I
arranged to meet a few friendswe were in a small
group on the square, talkingsuddenly I started
running; I raced across the square and disappeared
into Melantrich Street Meeting in large groups was
a potentially dangerous affair, but Kovandas drive
eliminated this danger. Although the State Apparatus
could silence other State Apparatuses by controlling
the communication networks, it cant stop the War
Machine, which, as Kovandas work illustrates, can
communicate through broken lines of communication.

The same principles that govern the strategy of drive
are also those that form terrorist cells and methods
of communication. Cell-networks are broken and
diffuse, sacrificing efficiency for security. This is
why so few significant members of Al-Qaeda have
been arrested. It is impossible to screw information
even out of the most knowledgeable suspect, as
different cells could be connected to other cells only
by a single individual. Furthermore, many cells that
operate by the name of Al-Qaeda may be completely
disconnected, and work under the direction of
broadcasted, rather than directly communicated,
commands. The terrorist cell organisation therefore is
not unified by an infrastructural apparatus, but through
a common cause. This is what Sir Ian Blair after the
7/7 bombings when he commented that:Al Qaeda is
not an organisation. Al Qaeda is a way of working.6

The second way of working I previously mention is
dtournement - which is the terrorist action itself. It
translates as something like derailing, hinting its form
as a type of sabotage. It has no basis apart from its
disruptive goal. Debord describes it as the flexible
language of anti-ideology that is nothing but its own
truth as present critique7 . Meireless insertions into
ideological circuits and Wodiczkos projection onto
South Africa house are both examples of dtournement.
My favourite such art-attack occurred during the 1950
Easter Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. Disguised
as a Dominican monk, a 22 year-old Michel Mourre
went to the pulpit, and declared to the congregation
that: In truth I tell you, God is dead. We vomit out
the agonizing insipidity of your priests, because your
priests have generously manured the battlefields of
our Europe.8 Mourre was arrested after nearly being
lynched. 8 What was Mourre in this case? A Bishop
that wasnt a Bishop- a dtourned Bishop? A cunning
Go piece strategically sneaking into the just the right
place at the right time? However we describe it, the
action, like any successful terrorist attacks, has a
disruptive affect disproportionate to the power of the
individuals who enacted it. As the oppositional strategy
of the War Machine, dtournement therefore debunks
the myth that individuals cant change anything.

One may make harsh moral judgements on such artistic
and political strategies, so lets end by considering the
activities of those civil-artists who choose to get by
as Pawns within the Apparatus. This was the subject
of another board-game released after the collapse
of socialism in Kovandas Czechoslovakia. It was
called Building the Stalin Monument. It was quite
similar to monopoly, however the treasury chest cards
contained intriguing details such as: You have been
appointed leader of the School Union. To admit the
steelworks directors son, accept a favour of 10,000
crowns and Make sure that your child continues his
training paying a bribe of 3,000 crowns to the Regional
Secretary.10 So although the terror-artist often deals
with misdirected, often unspeakable, opinions and
actions, at least they have some opinions and perform
actions upon which they are misdirected. This is more
than can be said of certain civil-artists who play the
system those Pawns who play up and play the game.


Jiri Kovanda
xxx I arranged to meet a few friends.we were standing in
a small group on the square, talking.suddenly, I started
running ; I raced across the square and disappeared into
Melantrich Street. January 23,1978
Staromestske namesti, Prague
Black & white photograph with printed text on cardboard
29,7 x 21,3 cm, Edition 3
Make Yourself
at Home: The Louvre
Abu Dhabi
Janine Armin
Although the Easts relationship to the West is a
turbulent one, paying for occupation seems a uniquely
bizarre turn, until you learn its the United Arab Emirates
thats paying, and that the product is the Louvre.
The UAE, known more for its gaudy cityscapes than
nomadic history, is sensitive to the prot inherent to
appropriating a widely recognized organization, even if
its an emblem of French culture. Banking on the artistic
calibre of the Louvre and other Western museums could
strengthen its tourist industry. The price demonstrates
their condence that it will: UAE capital Abu Dhabi is
paying the French government $520 million to use the
Louvre name for a museum on the cultural miasma off its
shores, Saadiyat Island, and an additional $747 million
for art loans, special exhibitions and management
advice. Oil-rich Sheiks are investing a purported 100
billion into this and other grandiose museums on the
island including the much-lauded Museum of Islamic
Art in Doha designed by the original Louvre architect
IM Pe, the Zaha Hadid-designed maritime museum
and the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim museum.
But in addition to the substantial monetary sum, is
there a cultural one? If so, who pays? The Louvre
Abu Dhabis proposed balance of Western and Eastern
art could mitigate the risk of weighing Enlightenment
or Renaissance art over Islamic, or vice versa. This
is not a cut-and-paste, Mubarak Al-Muhairi, director
general of the Tourism Authority, told the Times. We are
creating the Louvre Arabia, the Guggenheim Arabia -
not the Louvre or the Guggenheim in Arabia. There
will be works from the collections of both museums,
of course, but there will be curators and works of art
from here, from Tehran, from Egypt, from Syria, from
Morocco. We are bringing the West to the Middle East,
but also showcasing the Middle East to the West. In
another statement, UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa bin
Zayed al Nahyan, expressed desires to create a world-
class destination bridging global cultures, and Louvre
Rhythm 0 (1974) -
Marina Abramovic
Mixed media
The Louvre Abu Dhabi, designed by the French architect
Jean Nouvel. The building is expected to cost about $108
million to build, and will include art from all eras and
regions, including Islamic art.
director Henri Loyrette echoed his words saying, It
will not be dedicated to occidental art but will show
all kinds of artistic creations. It will set up a dialogue
between west and east, between north and south.
The interchange between Abu Dhabi and Paris has
already begun, with Islamic art gaining a foothold in
France as part of the Louvre deal. Donating $32.5
million to the Louvre to refurbish a wing of the Pavillon
de Flore for the display of international art, Abu
Dhabi will also nance a new Abu Dhabi art research
centre in France and the restoration of the Chteau
de Fontainebleaus theatre as well as increase its art
holdings under the supervision of French museums.
Where Theres an Appetite
Exhibits in France and Abu Dhabi, suggest the
appetite for Islamic art is strong. Recent shows were
held at Dubais Ghaf Gallery, Al Qibab Gallery and the
Contemporary Art Gallery, and Art Paris Abu Dhabi
saw approximately $16 million sales in 2007 with a 20
percent increase in registrants for 2008. From January
through May of 2009, London gallerist Charles Saatchi,
one of the art worlds foremost market indicators, held
showings of works by 19 members of the next
generation of young boom artists from places like Iran,
Syria and the UAE. Kader Attia, a French Algerian living
in Paris, presented Ghost, a room crowded
with Muslim women wrapped in silver clothing,
showcasing the markedly more modest range of
materials that tend to be used by Islamic artists
as opposed to their formaldehyde-friendly colonial
counterparts. Artists tackled themes of racial, religious
and sex-oriented trauma; Ramin Haerizadeh offered up
photographs of two semi-naked men entitled Men of
Allah, while Shirin Fakhim, an Iranian living in Tehran,
showed sculptures of Tehran prostitutes constructed
from discarded clothing, old lamps and other refuse.
Its no surprise that emerging markets would prove
an appealing locale for investors, with buying from
the Middle East at Christies auctions rising globally
by 400 percent in the last 4 years, according to Jussi
Pylkkanen, chairman of Christies Europe. With ofces
in Dubai since 2005, Christies most recent October
sale in Abu Dhabi assembled $350 million of art in
Abu Dhabi including work by Mark Rothko, Francis
Bacon and Claude Monet, to attract emerging market
buyers in the Middle East, Asia and Russia. The
Wall (Oh Persepolis), a nearly 2-meter tall bronze
sculpture covered in hieroglyphics by Iranian Parviz
Tanavoli, sold for $2.84 million. Christies isnt the
only organization aware of this growth sector. In
the face of a possible international downturn in the
nancial markets, the global art market is looking to
the emerging markets of the Middle East and South
Asia to keep it fueled, Director of Art Dubai John
Martin was quoted as saying. The growth of the
regions nance sector is creating a new generation
of young, highly educated collectors, he continued.
The shifting nancial framework in the West spurred
by the depleted housing bubble anticipated the
surge in emerging markets, with Middle Eastern
investors buying up property in the US and other
western countries. In 2008, the Abu Dhabi Investment
Authority, the largest state-run sovereign wealth fund
with a total asset value of $875 billion, bought an
$800 million stake in a well-known Western landmark,
New Yorks Chrysler Building. Could the Louvre
of the East, sure to boost tourism and bolster the
Middle Eastern markets, call Middle Eastern investors
home? By the time the Louvre is complete in 2013,
it might already be a relic of the Wests nancial
boom period, of a resource thats no longer needed.
The nancial changes could amount to a bigger trend,
however, one resulting in a redistribution of cultural
power. Growing decit has decreased faith in the
dollar in America, increasing the need for capital from
emerging markets. If capital does not get a suitable
rate of return, and the currency is weakened, the
money leaves. Given the countrys hold on global
markets, and its long-replicated monetary policy, other
Western markets are susceptible, to the benet of
An image of the Louvre Abu Dhabi,
scheduled to open in 2012.
A visitor looks at a late 16th century
Quran manuscript from the Deccans
Qut Bshahi Sultanate, at the
Louvre museum in Paris.
of the East, or as a genuine interest in creating equanimity
between cultures, will take longer to decipher. Maybe
its a combination of an archaic interest in exoticism
and a thorough representation of Islamic art that will
be the gateway to a more sound display of cultures.
Certainly, the internet-wide supposition that the next
Damian Hirst will be from the East is predicated on
the success weve already seen among Islamic artists
in the UK, such as 26-year-old Ruh al-Alam who recently
incorporated Arabic into his
work shown at the Whitechapel
Art Gallery, and Saatchis vindication of a slew of
young art mavens. If museums commit to equitably
displaying art from diverse cultures, and art and
commerce dont become indistinguishable, this
could be the next in the bevy of positives to arise out
of the desperately re-calibrating nancial system.
the East. Asia is already gearing up for the shift. At
the Asian Development Banks annual meeting in
May, speakers called for a region-wide stock market to
boost liquidity and attract the sovereign wealth funds
that have previously drawn to American markets.
Controversy
Interestingly, dissent over the decision to raise a Louvre
in Abu Dhabi is coming largely from France; 4,700
French art historians and museum experts signed a
petition objecting to the sale, against the corporatization
of museums, to which Loyrette responded:
Were not selling the French legacy and heritage. We
want this culture to radiate to parts of the world that value it.

Given the conict, selecting Jean Nouvel as architect
is a wise choice. He is experienced in navigating the
liminal space between cultures, having designed
the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in the 1980s.
For the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Nouvel has created
a satellite structure with a dome he describes as
made of a web of different patterns interlaced into a
translucent ceiling which lets a diffuse, magical light
come through in the best tradition of great Arabian
architecture. Such adept structuring will likewise be
necessary in order to avoid the cultural overkill of Abu
Dhabis scaffolding-latticed neighbour, Dubai.
Concerns remain that the rapid development could
amount to a nauseating architectural pile-up.
Aside from the practical structure of the Louvre Abu
Dhabi and the cultural makeup of the art it houses, the
promise of an improved cultural relationship is a weighty
hope. In a statement, French President Nicholas
Sarkozy said that the museum will be the chance for
all French and foreign visitors to the Louvre to see that
Islam is progress, science, renement, modernity, and
that fanaticism in the name of Islam is to out Islam.
Whether this affectionate response is fueled by the
orientalism famously considered by Edward Said
outlining the Wests often fantastical misinterpretations
Art Histories, the Canon and
Globalisation: Re-framing the
Discipline for Cultural Inclusion
Diana Newall and Grant Pooke
In 1950 Ernst Gombrichs The Story of Art confidently
asserted art history as the canonical study of great
male artists, a narrative which was presented as
largely self-evident and unproblematic. Fifty years
on, the picture, so to speak, looks very different.
In part, this arose from, and through, the politics of
gender and the New Left. More recently, ongoing geo-
political, economic and cultural shifts have continued
to emphasise the wests diminishing global reach.
Throughout the intervening period, an art history rooted
in a western-centric canon, has faced accumulating
pressures to both its relevance and viability.
Recent debates within art history have begun to
explore this changing cultural landscape and the
broader demands of an increasingly globalised art
infrastructure. But progress, especially in the UK,
remains partial at best and broadly centred around a
few institutions. The ground breaking GLAADH project
(Globalising Art, Architecture and Design History,
20013) provided some Higher Education institutions
with the opportunity to expand their art history syllabus
beyond a western focus. Degree curricula at the
School of World Art Studies and Museology (University
of East Anglia) offer a broad-based engagement with
world art studies and The Open University include
non-western art within their programme. Since its
founding in 1994, Iniva (Institute of International Visual
Arts) has supported art, events and publications
which reflect and celebrate Britains cultural diversity.
However, despite these developments, tangible
changes have yet to embed within mainstream art
historical research and teaching curricula. Elsewhere,
other voices continue to question the hegemonies
associated with the western tradition of art history
and artistic practice. These include, for example,
James Elkins, ed. Is Art History Global? (London and
New York, 2007), Terry Smith, Okwui Enwezor and
Nancy Condee, ed. Antinomies of Art and Culture.
Modernity, Postmodernity and Contemporaneity
(Durham & London, 2008) and Kitty Zijlmans and
Wilfried van Damme ed. World Art Studies: Exploring
Concepts and Approaches (Amsterdam, 2008).
A central issue within debates re-framing art history is
the formation and application of art historical canons
and the inclusive or exclusive patterns or paradigms
they create and sustain. The canon is a product of
cumulative text-based judgements and debate. What
might a future art historical discipline look like if it went
beyond these textual frameworks, taking on board
Exiled Garden detail
oil and collage on panel
14 X 18, 2005,
copyright Samira Abbassy
of the human being and create softly or brightly
coloured transparent, layered and ethereal forms.
These issues of individual, cultural and collective
identity, and the negotiations between them, are not
new but can be seen in art spanning the centuries. Art
created at the intersections and boundaries between
cultures has always, if possibly less self-consciously,
involved the appropriation of motifs and styles which
link past and present in a search for a visual identity and
a sense of place. Similar blending can be seen in the
works of El Greco born Domenikos Theotokopoulos
on Crete during the period of the Venetian colony,
whose early works were rooted in the islands Byzantine
heritage, and who travelled to Italy and Spain before
settling in Toledo in the late 16th century. Perhaps
more radically, the renewed interest in classical forms
and values of the so-called Italian Renaissance can
be seen in the same terms as a re-negotiation with
past and present art forms and cultural signifiers.
The issue of making art history more relevant within
a post-imperial and culturally diverse world requires
the ongoing re-framing of the discipline. The research
project to develop the concept of the boundary is
intended to make a modest contribution to these
debates and to offer new perspectives for the future.
It is planned that the project will result in a book,
provisionally titled Contemporary Art, Art History and
Globalisation: Concepts and Practices and a symposium
to be held at Margates Turner Contemporary in 2011.
The research project will also develop resources and
case study material for Higher Education institutions
to use to broaden the curriculums cultural inclusivity.
The authors would like to thank Samira Abbassy for
her support and for her contribution to this article.
post-imperial debates, critical theory and inflexions
contemporary art practice? These questions and
debates have informed a recent research proposal
involving the University of Kent and academic
colleagues at The Open University and the UEA.
One of the projects central concepts is the idea of
the boundary. Not only are boundaries implied by
canonical judgements, but they are also integral
to much contemporary and postcolonial cultural
theory. Postcolonial theory engages with issues of
migration, diaspora and imbalances of power between
different groups and across cultural boundaries.
The concept of hybridity the blending of artistic
practices across cultural boundaries has been
variously identified as a product of imperial and colonial
hegemonies or as a means of subverting power
imbalances. But as a concept, the boundary remains
under explored and theorised within art history. One
of the aspirations behind this collaborative research
project is to explore and evaluate the boundary and its
role within art historys future framing and direction. The
canonical tradition of art history is formatively concerned
with a textual framework of macro-descriptors, like
Renaissance and Modernism, and the boundaries
which they create. These terms define the values,
relationships and priorities which underlie most aspects
of the discipline from the chronologies and national
identifiers used to differentiate the canon, to the course
titles of undergraduate curricula. These delimitations
have been broadly determined by the cultural
priorities of art historians rather than the specificities
and complexities of the art in its original context.
The exclusive and reductive value judgements
implied by this textual framework contrast
with the tenets of cultural equality and
diversity embedded in postcolonial principles.
The divisive structures of Orientalism, articulated by
Edward Said, have historically situated approaches
and assumptions within western art history, even
if more recently some art historians have sought
to reconsider and revise these constraints and
closures. Postcolonial theories, pioneered within
literature studies, consider interactions and
relationships across cultural boundaries, exploring
for example, imbalances of the colonial-imperial
legacy, subversions of hegemony through hybridity,
issues of identity and modalities of meaning arising
from classifying descriptors like gender, class, nation
and ethnicity. The boundarys significance for both
canonical art historical approaches and postcolonial
theory, suggests that it could be a powerful organising
metaphor for exploring ways to re-frame the discipline.
Of course noone specifically talks about the nature
of boundaries. In traditional art historical discourse,
they might be understood as the intersection between
periodisations such as the Early Renaissance and
High Renaissance. They situate canonical concepts,
for example recent debates have considered the range
and exclusions of critical categories such as Modernism
and Postmodernism. They also frame, at the broadest
level, concepts of west, non-western, east etc.,
which compartmentalise and divide art historical
debates. But at the intersections, the realities of visual
cultures suggest that such categorical boundaries
are more opaque. Recent scholarship has sought
to re-frame western art historical discourse to avoid
some of these reductive interpretations. Others are
developing new methodologies which seek to explore
cultural complexity without resorting to oppositional
frameworks or relying on reductive categories
(Claire Farago and Donna Pierce, Transforming
Images: New Mexican Santos In-between Worlds
The Pennsylvannia State University Press, 2006)
This is not to say that cultural, ethnic, social or
historical boundaries do not exist, but it is to suggest
that the nature of artistic activity at the boundary is
more complex and nuanced than the binary opposition
suggested by traditional periodisations and canonical
terms. It is perhaps possible to visualise artistic activity
at any time as a multi-faceted tapestry of interactions
and relationships across cultural, ethnic, social and
historical boundaries. Overlaying this are the canonical
structures of the art historical discipline which variously
focus on and privilege one part of the tapestry over
another. Simply re-focusing the canon may alter what
art is brought to the fore or alter the value system which
defines the selection, but the textual structures remain
reductive. Embedding a more pluralistic and focused
conception of the boundary within the structures and
theory of art history may offer a platform for increasing
the disciplines inclusivity and social relevance.
It is arguable that the problems of using textual
language to define the complexities of art will always
produce provisional results, but an art history without
any textual structuring would be unworkable. However,
the demands for greater cultural inclusivity suggest
research is required to explore ways to re-frame the
discipline. Such radical deconstruction has not been
applied to the specificities of art history as a discourse.
Some of these issues and displacements are being
explored by contemporary artists. For example, the
Iraqi born and now New York based artist Samira
Abbassy (b.1965), is concerned with the experience
of diaspora, exile and cultural heritage. She uses
self-portraiture to explore fundamental issues of
human identity and displacement, engaging directly
with aspects of her dual cultures Arab-Iranian and
British. In 2004 she described her work as excavating
through layers of often contradictory cultural identities.
Drawing on Persian, Islamic and western
artistic traditions, including 17th century Persian
manuscripts, Arabic and Persian calligraphy and
Indian motifs, Abbassy creates images which
mediate facets of physical and metaphysical identity.
The work Exiled Garden (oil and collage on panel,
14 x 18, 2005), portrays a flower-like, multi-headed
woman shrouded in black, emulating a peacock
feather, and two bird-women apparently poised to
fly to a new life. The work eloquently situates issues
of migration, immigration and emigration. Although
clearly referencing Abbassys own experience, it
employs motifs which suggest a timeless, mythic
and transcendent sense of place. Her work takes
imagery from early Persian anatomical draws made
before dissection, which allude to different aspects
Black, White,
and Dutch-Print
By Diana Graham
Victorian Philanthropist Parlour (1996) by Yinka
Shonibare initially appears to be signaling Shonibares
African identity through the use of African textiles,
which dominate the installation. However, when the
piece is further investigated it becomes explicitly
clear that Shonibare uses signifiers of authenticity
and cultural difference in order to mockingly tease
out subscriptions of identity. Shonibare has identified
the major gap in Western cultural production in which
Africa is still seen as an exotic entity of the other in
the West, which marginalizes African artists through a
demand for the portrayal of authentic identity within
their work. As a result, it is deemed a necessity to
include elements such as authentic African signs,
the use of primitive iconography, and traditional
motifs in order to gain international recognition in the
global art world. Shonibare performs identity in his
work, and has attained international success by doing
so. Through his performance however, he negotiates
the boundaries of identity and demonstrates that
a single African representation does not exist.

One of the prevailing problems within African cultural
production is that the study of African art remains largely
a Western discipline, and thus critique or acceptance
is based on Western aesthetic responses to African
visual culture. African art forms are still subjected to a
static system of classification and perceived as existing
outside of history; because the West fails to
acknowledge Africa as dynamic and changing
the basic stereotypes of nave, exotic and
untrained artists becomes the exclusive
arena of interest to be accepted in the West.

The use of excessive signifier and the portrayal of an
exaggerated difference is very apparent in Shonibares
work, perhaps more so than other African artists.
Shonibare could be emphasising his African identity
because it is less immediate to him. Shonibare was
born in Britain to Nigerian parents, and moved back to
Nigeria with his family as the age of three, returning to
London from Lagos at the age of seventeen where he
has remained since. Shonibare is Yoruba, Nigerian and
British; as such, he has had to deal with discrepancies
of his hybrid identity throughout his work. Regardless
of living in England, and being British, he has still
felt pressure to conform to Western demands of
representing identity, and authenticity within his work.

A recurring element in many of his works is the
incorporation of African textiles, which often appear
in unexpected places with the effect of exoticising
the piece, portraying primitive stereotypes of Africa
while startling the viewer into wondering why it is
there. The use of these textiles is fundamental in
understanding Shonibares work, as the underlying
argument is that authenticity is not always what it
seems to be. The fabric that has become known to
Yinka Shonibare, Reverend on Ice, 2005,
Fibreglass, cotton, (Dutch wax), leather ,
wood and steel, National Gallery of Victoria
signify Africa is in fact based on Indonesian batik
manufactured in the Netherlands and Britain (it is often
referred to as Dutch Wax) and then exported to West
Africa. While the cloth is often worn in Brixton and
Brooklyn to indicate black pride, and is very popular
in West Africa, it is actually a foreign commodity thus
negating its authenticity as a symbol of Africanness.

Shonibare began experimenting with Dutch Wax in the
early 1990s and in 1994; he executed one of his first
works to gain him recognition and acknowledgement.
Double Dutch (1994) is an installation comprising of
a series of paintings using Dutch Wax with rectangular
paintings aligned in a grid, wall-bound against a pink
background. It was however, not the postmodern
devices employed in the installation that attracted
attention but the design of the fabrics, which drew
in curators and critics as they viewed the use of the
material as references to Shonibares African identity.
Double Dutch is demonstrable of Shonibare realising in
order to gain recognition he had to excessively display
his differences. However, he also realised that he was
involved in a sort of Culture Game in which he could
use the language that was expected of him, but surpass
it in order to still be making the sort of art that was
challenging and interesting to himself. By endorsing
the fiction of his Otherness by using African signifiers,
Shonibare created a difference between the Western
system and himself, the outsider, which subsequently
granted him access to this system. While on the
surface, Double Dutch presents a formally appealing
work, Shonibare executed this installation with every
aspect thoroughly worked out so that under the surface
nothing is as it seems and the work has no direct
relationship with Africa or any other defined place..

The choice for the title, Double Dutch, is perhaps the
most fascinating part of the installation. It indicates that
Shonibare was engaged in a game that he understood
and could exploit. The title presumably refers to the
fact that the fabric is not African at all, but is a product
of the brand Dutch Wax, automatically stripping the Yinka Shonibare, maquette
for HMS Victory
of a period room often seen in museums. The work
presents a late 19th century parlour with everything
covered in a wax-print design of his own using the
repeated motif of black footballers. The inherent
theatricality as in many of his works is undeniable
here; however in this work he has set the stage for
an absent narrative and absent cast leaving the
viewer to question to whom does this parlour belong.

This work functions to critique period rooms,
which construct a singular perspective of how
things were during the period on view. However,
Shonibare extends his critique in order to suggest
alternative histories through his use of the wax-
print and comments on relationships of power
demonstrating the hypocrisy of philanthropy. To him
the idea presented in the work is relatively simple:
The philanthropist wants to help the less fortunate,
however, in this opulent environment of the parlour,
where he has decorated his walls with images of
black footballers, there will always be a relationship
of patronage; or, if you like, a relationship between
the haves, the colonial philanthropist, and the so-
called have-nots, the poor colonials. Philanthropy is
more about dominance in the colonial context than
it is about altruism; it is more of a condescending
idea where the power relationship is never equal.
(Yinka Shonibare)
The Thatcher government in the 1980s in Britain
reintroduced Victorian values, which led Shonibare to
question what these values were and why they should
be brought back. The Victorian era is marked by its
progress and expansion; and can be seen as the
beginning of modernism. Integral to Britains profitability
however, was its dependency and exploitation of the
colonies. While the period of Great Britain represents
one in which the subjection of others (namely the
colonies) was necessary for their progress, Shonibare
plays with aspects of aesthetics in order to divert
the inherently political nature of his work. This is
particularly evident in Victorian Philanthropist Parlour
in which Shonibare combines his acute aesthetic sense
piece of the ascribed Otherness imposed on the
work itself and Shonibare. However, as Olu Oguibe
points out, there are other, more significant meanings
associated with title as well. Double Dutch is the
name of a childrens game of rope skipping that was
originally found among African Diaspora populations.
In order to be proficient at the game, nimbleness and
agility of body, sight and mind are integral. The game
involves one person jumping over two ropes moving
at the same time in opposite directions-unlike most
games where players are matched, the Double Dutch
player is caught in the middle of things, between those
flipping the rope and the ropes themselves. This could
be seen as an apt metaphor for Shonibares social, or
cultural position in which he is stuck in the middle of
two cultures. The term Double Dutch, also refers to
a language game, which is similar to Pig Latin. In this
game, players encrypt their speech by applying a set
of code combinations. Once again, agility is requisite
in order to insert the right letters in the right places
with sufficient speed in order to form comprehensible
speech. Both of these games are performative in
nature. Shonibares title therefore references games
in which the players are masters, and he indicates
his readiness to engage as a participant in the culture
game of the West with the adequate nimbleness and
agility required in the other versions of the game.

Wit, humour, and irony are central elements throughout
his work. Shonibare makes the difference between the
wax prints themselves and the association that have
been imposed on them apparent, which provides
a resource to critique notions and stereotypes of
identity. His deconstruction of the material allows his
work to enter the arena for European consumption
as it is seen as art referring to African authenticity,
however, Shonibare extends this practice into
different contexts in order to signal the arbitrariness
of the imposed assumption of African authenticity.
It is through this logic that Victorian Philanthropist
Parlour becomes significantly important as Shonibare
uses the wax-print in order to open up its function to a
European arena. This work can be seen as a parody
of opulent ornament and decoration and his sharp
wit in order to critique colonial values and lifestyles.

Continuing with his investigation of colonialism,
Shonibare is reproducing Vice Admiral Horatio
Nelsons Ship for an installation to be on view on the
Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2010. Nelson
was responsible for Britains greatest naval victory,
defeating the combined French and Spanish navy at
the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Shonibare will place
a scale replica of the ship inside a giant glass
bottle. The ships sails will be made out of Dutch
Wax, extending his investigation of a political identity.

The Western art market actively shapes a fixed reality
for viewers creating expectations of African art
forcing artists to embrace the stereotypes in
order to gain recognition. Homi Bhabba has
addressed this fixed reality writing: Colonial power
produces the colonised as a fixed reality which is
at once an other and yet entirely knowable and
visible. It resembles a form of narrative which the
productivity and circulation of subjects and signs
are bound in a reformed and recognizable totality.
The key point in Bhabbas understanding of the fixed
reality is that the other is static and visibly recognisable
through signs. As such, it becomes difficult (especially
for artists) to contest what they are expected to be. In
producing art, artists are expected to demonstrate their
authentic identity, and traditional cultural productions;
otherwise their art is viewed as being a copy of
Western artistic practices and subsequently rejected.
Yinka Shonibare, MBE
The Sleep of Reason (Africa), Courtesy the artist,
James Cohan Gallery, NY
In Lindsay Seers moving video documentary of her
life, shown in the Altermodern exhibition at Tate Britain,
we are told by several narrators of the artist becoming
the camera and later becoming the projector. These
two becomings involve Seers placing a piece of film in
her mouth to form an image, or strapping a projection
device to her head to project light out into the world.
Nicolas Bourriaud, curator of Altermodern as well
as writer and theorist, seems particularly drawn to
these types of transformations today. Listing more
examples, he writes in the exhibition catalogue of how
Simon Starling relocates a piece of furniture from one
continent to another by radio waves, Katie Paterson
transmits silence from the Earth to the Moon and
back. And Darren Almond teleports bus shelters from
Auschwitz into the gallery.
None of these becomings actually took place. Just
as, this morning, when I filled my mouth with water, I
did not become a water bottle. In common language,
words like camera and teleport are too specific to
bend this far.
What Altermodern proposes, through language and
imagery, is a lyrical take on contemporary art one
where the artist becomes a poet or a shaman figure,
capable of performing mystical transformations, living
a nomadic lifestyle. We see in the exhibition catalog
Shezad Dawood and Olivia Plender use imagery of
American Indians. Sparticus Chetwynd writes of rituals
and of entering into a state of trance. But perhaps the
clearest example of this nomadic theme is artist Marcus
Coates, who literally dons animal outfits and performs
shaman rituals, as confusing as they are funny.
Jon Meyer
Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009
Tate Britain, London
3 February 26 April 2009
The poetic tone in Altermodern is a new departure
for Bourriaud, whose earlier theorising is far more
operational. In his book Relational Aesthetics (1998)
Bourriaud describes how Christine Hill works as a
checkout assistant, Cattelan feeds rats cheese, and
Hirakawa puts an ad in a newspaper. These are
mundane everyday tasks. No magic here. In relational
aesthetics, instead of the artist transforming, it is
the viewer who is transformed by the experience.
Relational art adopts a collaborative model, one that
rejects the authorship of the artist. The attention is on
the everyday (serving a meal, watching a movie) rather
than the market-driven aesthetic objects in galleries.
Relational aesthetics is always both anti-author and
anti-aesthetics.
In constrast, Altermodern embraces aesthetic objects.
Loris Greauds installation vibrates with minimalist
aesthetic austerity, and Subodh Guptas mushroom
cloud of stainless steel utensils has an arresting
presence, to name just two examples. Authorship
also returns, and many of the selected artists have
strikingly individual voices. Bob and Roberta Smith
places humorous shrines in the galleries once a week,
consisting of painted signs and found objects. He calls
them a physical conversation. These temporary altars
are based on conversations that Smith and Bourriaud
hold each week. Although outtakes of the conversation
appear on some of the signs, the original conversation
remains private. Smith therefore occupies a position
of authorial power as an interpreter, filtering a
private event to create an aesthetic representation for
public consumption. This, too, has a shamanistic feel
- Smith is talking to the gods of theory (or god in
this case) and producing public signs based on this
Extramission 6 (2009)
Lindsay Seers,
Still fromVideo
Firebird, Reebok, Badger
and Hare (2008) -
Marcus Coates,
Still from video
private interaction. The return to aesthetic objects
and authorship in Altermodern is not a rejection of
the social. Bourriaud retains his commitment to the
dynamic circuit of relations that extend beyond the art
object. Each artwork in the show refers in some way to
something outside of itself, removing any pure notion
of autonomy. For instance, Ruth Ewans gargantuan
accordian is a monumental aesethetic object. It is
also also a working instrument used in social song
gatherings. Through this dualism Ewan embraces
a wider and more diverse relationship between the
social and the aesthetic.
Since the 90s in art there has been a split between
what you could call autonomous art practices (such as
painting and sculpture) and social art practices (which
cover a wide range of relational and collaborative
activities). These two camps have tended to sneer at
each other. The social crowd labels their counterparts
too elitist and market oriented. Meanwhile the
autonomous crowd responds with accusations that
social practices lack rigorous criteria for evaluation or
artistic relevance.
Through Altermodern, Bourriaud is, it would seem,
joining Claire Bishops call (in Rediscovering
Aesthetics, 2009) to seek art that exists in the midway
point between social and autonomous, weaving
together elements of both. Such art clearly argues
from opposite poles at once - being both aesthetic
and anti-aesthetic, authorial and anti-authorial. In the
worst case the result is a total cancellation: art that
tries too hard and fails in a compromise that lacks any
coherence. However, I think Altermodern (and other
recent shows) indicate that when such art succeeds, it
does what all great art does: it exists as a paradoxical
hydra, a multi-headed creature where no one head
defines the identity of the whole.
Who am I, and how do I fit into society? We are all
liable to contemplate this at some point in our lives,
and it is certain that our society would function in an
entirely different way without some form of stratification.
RANK explores how artists have envisioned our social
identities and differences, from the Renaissance
untill today. Beginning its tour of the UK at Leeds
City Art Gallery, the exhibition features almost 100
contributions ranging from little-seen works to the more
renowned. Input from a diverse range of artists, leading
economists, social scientists, historians, geographers,
government agencies and press all come together to
form this unique exhibition.
As RANK questions, how do we even begin to
classify the 45 million people that inhabit England?
All societies are unequal, but they describe their own
inequalities differently, stated George Watson in 1998.
The exhibition divides into 4 sections, each exploring
different aspects of social order. Section One is titled
Picturing Politics: The Face of Order. The pieces in
this section aim to depict our political system. Above
the entrance to the exhibition space is a piece by
American artist Jenny Holzer, who is famous for her
short, profound statements which are often projected
onto the sides of buildings or displayed on LED
billboards. The work titled Truisms (1984) features a
small electronic strip of moving text, announcing lines
such as GOOD AND EVIL. Placed above the entrance
it seems to be in a position of supremacy, visible only
when visitors leave the room to move through the
show. It is as though the piece is observing the goings
Grace Beaumont
RANK: picturing the social order 1516 - 2009
Leeds City Art Gallery
11 Februrary - 26 April 2009
on below and making reflective comments. Near by
is Ruth Ewans piece All Things are Common, which
involves a stack of coloured posters on the gallery floor
which illustrate the working class in the style of a 17th
Century print. By allowing young children to colour
the posters, Ewans intention is to investigate how we
learn to be ourselves as we grow up by exploring the
way in which the children relate to the characters in
the picture. Visitors to the gallery are invited to take
away the posters, as a souvenir.
Section two of the show is titled Picturing Geographies:
Inequality is a spatial matter. Amongst many prints and
etchings is John Bull Sinking into the Profound (1831),
an image by an unknown artist. Here John Bull, being
the personification of the English people attempts
to climb the hierarchical tree, but is smothered by
Englands main institutions. The unknown artists
message here is clear, that imagining a society in
hierarchical terms results in defeat for the majority.
This section also features many pieces which display
national statistics, such as The Daily Telegraphs
survey of the richest towns in the UK (2007). Here
brightly coloured rosettes are proudly pinned to a
large felt map to represent richer non-metropolitan
areas, based on average house prices. Alongside this
however is a British Household Panel survey which
ranks the happiest places to live in the UK, revealing
that interestingly almost none of these richer areas
even make the list.
No Them Only Us (2007)
Mark Titchner
Double-sided print
Moving through to the next room you are met with a
large scale piece by Mark Titchner. No Them Only
Us (2007) is a double sided print and has a definite
presence in the small space. Benrick Ltds satirical
Mainstream Day, commands us to stop rocking
the boat and complete with diagram suggests ways
in which to go about your day in order to be as
conventional as possible. Titchners piece questions
whether we are trapped in our own prejudices. This
section is titled Picturing the Social Panorama and the
works here aim to imagine society as a whole and the
ways in which we go about our daily lives. Titchners
print highlights the strain inequality poses on our
society, but loses its impact due to the way in which it
is placed in the exhibition space. It sits uncomfortably
in the middle of the room and visitors walk around it to
view the surrounding works, which are pedestrian in
comparison.
Picturing Economics: Visualising Capital looks at how
wealth is shared between the inhabitants of Britain and
how this spreads to the rest of the worlds population. A
sculpture by Evan Holloway, an American artist meets
you at the door and explores the idea that all men are
created equal. Capital (2005) features a pyramid of
clay figures, connected via a trail of excrement which
flows from backside to mouth, holding them together.
The structure sits on steel stilts, which lift it up off the
ground. Holloways vulgar take on American politics
represents his view of the economy of the richest
country in the world, and ironically toys with the US
constitutions founding idea.
Upon leaving the exhibition you cannot help but feel
overwhelmed. The literal bombardment of information
is difficult to take in and you find yourself lost in a sea
of facts and statistics as you wander from one artwork
to the next, feeling sheepish that you are ignoring the
pie chart on the wall near by. The major works in the
show lose their clout in the case of Mark Titchner, and
sadly may even go unnoticed if visitors fail to look
up and observe Jenny Holzers extremely influential
Truisms.
The addition of these surveys and diagrams certainly
results in an interesting and educational experience,
but in terms of an exhibition creates a bizarre mishmash
that is difficult to enjoy in its entirety.
































Capital (2005)
Evan Holloway
Montreal, tucked inside French Canada, lifts its
skinny wrists like antennas to heaven and invites the
world to learn what it means to be a cultural
community. It is no surprise that the rst entirely open
source themed art biennial took place in Montreal
this year. If this review functioned as an extension of
the open theme, it would have numerous contributors
and it would be written, rewritten, mashed up,
expanded, contracted, devoured, disseminated, it
would launch into innity. With open source culture,
there is no ending in sight. Which is part of why this
particular exhibitions audience is generationally
dividedsome do not want there to be an end to
art history. The Montreal biennial is an interactive
statement on societys cultural relationship to
ownership, value systems, and the loss of individuality.

The artistic director, Claude Gosselin, categorized
the biennial into four sections: open cinema, open
music, open design, and visual arts that commented
on and instigated openness. To get the biennials
blood owing, the Kokoromi Collective
partnered up with Concordia Universitys TAG
(Technoculture Art and Games) research group
to play highly technological games with the public
during the rst 17 days of the biennial. Words like
sexy, play, and love were sprinkled throughout
the Kokoromi blog that documented this collaboration,
thus highlighting that the appeal of open source
Veronica Kavass
Open Culture
Montreal Biennial
May 1-31 2009
culture revolved around human interaction and fun.
The games industry is the dominant gateway to the
vast eld of open culture. Taking part in a playful and
competitive alternate reality leads individuals to a
mindset where it is natural for their identity to
transition into an amorphous, collective one. It is is not
to be mistaken for a David Reissman brand of
conformity. No, this is not a lonely crowd shouting
through life like a herd of sheep. Games became
popular because they distract people from real life.
It is just that we are getting to a point where the
distraction/escape is breeding a new sense of real life.
Film is fertile territory for open source experimentation,
but it also challenges the traditionally acclaimed role of
the auteur. English speakers didnt really start dropping
this French word until lm theory exploded in the 1950s
and to this day it is the creative medium that hails
individual names more than any other. It is diffcult to
imagine an auteur like Michael Haneke enthusiastically
handing his lm over to the public to remake.
Several cinematic projects were exhibited at the
biennial but the 8 courts 1 Collective initiative
appeared to be the most...open. Eight rising Montreal-
based lmmakers wrote and directed lms based on
personality tests that the public completed over the
course of a year. The common traits that accumulated
in the tests determined the protagonist of the lm: a
psychologically imbalanced twenty- something artistic
insofar as 64 university film departments have screened
different versions. It follows the mash-up musician,
Girl Talk, through his process of sampling popular
song clips and remixing them to create legendary
dance parties while potentially facing heavy copyright
infringement law suits. It features organisations like
the Mouse Liberation Front, the famous public domain
lawyer Lawrence Lessig, Gilberto Gils copyleft
efforts in Brazil based on the belief that nothing can be
created in a vacuum. Screening Rip! during the last
weekend of the biennial proved this exhibition to be
an argument. The Montreal Biennial raised its case
against cultural imperialism and proposed a solution
based on a limitless sharing of ideas. As Gosselin
stated, I didnt want to create an exhibition that was
shaped like a circle...this is a spiral...and it is ongoing.
female (one wonders if those are the only types that ll
out personality tests or if this represents Montreal). The
next step involved nding different actors to play the
same role based on the direction the eight lmmakers.
The editorial process was collaborative and didnt
carve space for a dominant vision. Death of the auteur.
Another artist, Perry Bard, presented her ongoing,
traveling open cinema project Man with the Movie
Camera www.dziga.perrybard.net to the biennial. In
this case Vertovs 1929 film Man with a Video Camera
serves as a foundation for the constant remaking
of the film which consists of a worldwide montage.
Bard provides a website where anyone can upload a
visual reinterpretation of a single scene. The constant
remakes of the film are projected in juxtaposition to
the real film in the biennial. She commented that she
was scared before this projectthat her name would
be associated with whoever uploaded footage. The
publics level of creativity and talent became equated
with hers. Open cinematic projects dont involve much
filtering. Value systems become revised and, as Vertov
understood it, we are challenged to decode life as it is.
Life as it is happens to be the inspiration for Richard
Wentworth and Cao Guimaraes, the two headlining
non-Canadian artists in the biennial). In his research,
Gosselin noticed that each artist, unaware of one
anothers existence and living on opposite sides of
the planet, were taking photographs of everyday
people developing last minute solutions to the
mundane snags in life. According to both artists,
impromptu barbeque grills made out of wheelbarrows
and broken chairs is what makes art today. Open
art credits the aesthetic of function over form.
One of the last events to take place at the biennial was
the screening of the Brett Gaylor film Rip! A Remix
Manifesto. The film is a manifesto - and perhaps the
most successful product of open cinema to date. The
films availability to use and remix has been popular
(2009) Daniel Jolliffe,
Open Culture
Montreal Biennial:
Thoroughly embracing the POLSKA! Year, the
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is currently showing
two exhibitions which celebrate the diversity of Polish
art since the second World War. Take A Look At
Me Now: Contemporary Art From Poland and An
Impossible Journey: The Art and Theatre of Tadeusz
Kantor combine in an attempt to allay cultural tensions
and highlight cultural comparisons.
Take A Look At Me Now: Contemporary Art From
Poland is an eclectic and heady mix of stunning and
sturdy work. The layout of the exhibition dictates
that you gravitate clockwise and the initial works
highlight increased urbanisation. This theme is
exemplified by Nicholas Grospierres photographs of
modernist architecture, namely tenement flats, which
speak of isolation amidst the masses. The feeling of
insignificance is highlighted in Zory where a lady
brusquely walks. She represents the individuality
of each apartment, and suddenly each apartment
becomes the owners castle: unique and reflecting all
the nuances of the rainbow.
Around the corner, in its own little booth, is a video
high on colour, humour, and narrative: a veritable visual
explosion. Katartzyna Kozyras Summertime is an
explicit folk tale unmasked to reveal intrigue, violence
and horror: brought to the fore by a neurotic house-full
of little people who are reminiscent of Kathleen Turner
Jade Montserrat
Contemporary Art Norwich
Take A look At Me Now: Contemporary Art From Poland and
An Impossible Journey: The Art And Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
2 June until 30 August 2009
in Serial Mom. The exhibition culminates in more
video and photographic work, painting and mural work
but it is the installation by Olaf Brzeski that leaves the
viewer stoic and prepared for Kantor. Brzeski takes the
bull by the horns and, by filling the space with broken
porcelain that spills onto the floor, figuratively crosses
borders in order to confront the viewer. This anarchic
and brutal work speaks of a society fractured and
splintered: the comic-bookesque anthropomorphised
porcelain figures are shattered shards of their former
selves. Take a Look At Me Now is an exciting and
robust exhibition: be prepared to take a break before
embarking downstairs to An Impossible Journey,
where the work becomes reflective, but highly
politicised.
An Impossible Journey starts in a long corridor, and
is filled with Kantor memorabilia: sketches, posters,
books, musings, video performances; a whole gamut
of work that is a mere glimpse through Kantors record
of achievement. Aptly, you amble past the educational
centre, where on my visit I happened upon school
children that were busy, happy and carefree creating
interpretive artworks of the Sainsbury collection.
On arrival in the main room of the exhibition, an eerie
crypt-like atmosphere prevails. I trespassed cautiously
towards the lauded Dead Class, past Kantors
emballages on canvas that are straight from the New
Extramission 6
(20Kantor09) -
Lindsay Seer
Video
Image, Tadeusz Kantor, taken from
the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
York School (Kantor was a master appropriator). The
Dead Class, imagined in the installation is realised fully
in the film, which the cadaver-like mannequins watch,
and is one of Kantors Theatre of Death performances.
Also entitled The Dead Class, the performance lays
bare the holocaust nightmare through a macabre dance
of death played out by actors and the dummies.
The exhibition demonstrates Kantors prolificacy with
an array of examples of his artistry as painter, stage
designer, draftsman, actor, poet and happening artist
and thus requires a substantial amount of time and
energy from the viewer. As upstairs, there is so much
to take in at this exhibition. All I may suggest is leave
the day free to see both and your head space light
enough to take it all in!
Image, Tadeusz Kantor, Courtesy of
the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Celebrating its 10th year, Dundee Contemporary Arts
(DCA) rounds up some of the most successful artists
to emerge from the city in the past ten years for their
current exhibition, The Associates. Featuring the work
of artists such as Lucy McKenzie, Fiona Jardine, Ellen
Munro and Scott Myles, to name but a few of the 17
graduates on show here. All having previously studied
at Dundees Duncan of Jordanstone college of art and
design, and have since progressed on to bigger and
better things. Collectively this group of artists have
exhibited in just about every major gallery in Scotland,
and most with established international reputations.
As a relatively recent graduate of the city myself, I must
be one of many eagerly awaiting the opening of this
exhibition, which is so clearly is designed to rekindle
some kind of old love, and renewed sense of pride
in the city, so many graduates seem only too keen to
leave behind them. The exhibition itself is a bustling
assortment of works. Although rather than a display of
sheer creative talent or challenging ingenuity, I cant
help but feel it has something of a lucky dip about it,
although in the best possible sense. With just about
every possible medium represented here it sits as a
bit of a feast, if slightly overwhelming. From intricate
drawings, collages and photography pieces, to larger
scale sculptural works and collaborative installation, to
film and experimental animation works Its all here.
Tucked away at the back of the gallery space are the
animation works by Katy Dove, one of the highlights of the
exhibition. A refreshing use of the medium, more usually
associated with monsters trying to kill each other than
as a form of experimental filmmaking. The animations
Jamie Campbell
The Associates
Dundee Contempoary Art Gallery
20 March 2009 - 21 June 2009
themselves, often described as Kaleidoscopic, have a
certain hypnotic quality about them. Using simplistic
shapes and a hand-made aesthetic, the colourful
arrangements move in synchronised fashion to upbeat
music. Which as it happens, is also produced by the
artist and her eight piece band the Muscles of joy, who
will also be performing in the gallery space later next
month. Another striking work, if manly for its scale,
is the collaboration work of Lucy McKenzie and Alan
Michael. Consisting of three walls painted to resemble
a 19th century room, complete with wood panelling
and marble fireplace, this work acts like a stage set in
the gallery, and provides the backdrop on which other
works are hung.
Adjacent to this is Graham Littles largest sculptural
work to date, Facts are stupid things (fruit verses
fashion). Although minimalist in form, the intricately
painted sculpture is covered in vibrant patterns and
imagery, and despite the stiff competition from other
large works in close proximity, manages to sing out in
the gallery space. Although a good variety of interesting
works are on display here, the exhibition seems to
raise more questions about the position of Dundee, in
regards to its art scene, and future of its graduates,
than of the art works themselves. It seems to confirm
Dundee as a place in which to nurture talent, but not
keep it, with most of the artists featured being much
more closely associated with Glasgow than Dundee.
I left the exhibition not quite as overly optimistic as I
had hoped for, but not feeling negative either. Instead
I had a quieter sense of confidence and renewed
confirmation that if they can do it, then why cant we
Installation views of The Associates
photographed by Ruth Clark
Copyright Dundee Contemporary Arts
No need to shout...
Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie: Class Hegemony in
Contemporary Art is the latest installment of a project
that has already shown in London, Stockholm and
Cairo. The basic premise of the exhibition is to question
and reveal the exploitative nature of the artworld and
the ways in which it is still dominated by a certain social
strata based on economic prosperity and I suppose,
cultural education.
Many of the works are performative in nature using
actors to play out a given role. In Neil Cummings
version of the TV show Faking It, for example, a caf
waiter is set the challenge of trying to fool the panel
of experts, an art critic, a curator and an artist, into
believing he is a real practicing artist. Hassan Khans
photographic and textual documentation Decoy
works on a similar level. Four actors were used to
infiltrate, fake it, at an exclusive Stockholm private
view. Excerpts of dialogue that takes place between
the actors and the genuine private view attendees
are reproduced in texts. They are meant, it seems,
to expose art world pretense and artificiality as when,
the curator of a new East London Gallery, is caught
declaring outright to one of the actors that he wants
to seek out artists to show in his gallery early in their
careers before they have established themselves,
then theyre much easier to shape. Such notions of
curators, critics, buyers and gallerists making artists
and the power game that entails is clearly riling for
Lizzie Lloyd
Lap Dogs of the Bourgeoisie
Arnolfni, Bristol
May 2- July 5 2009
artists yet the vitriol with which Khan expresses this
annoyance seems slightly at odds with the fact that he
is after all still here, still working as an artist as part of
a curated mainstream touring exhibition.
Natasha Sadr Haghighians I Cant Work Like This,
is for me, one of the more successful and complete
pieces both conceptually and aesthetically. Indeed
where other works have shied away from clearly
aesthetic concerns, no doubt because of its assumed
alliance with traditional conservative and right wing
sensibilities, Haghighian creates a work that is both
thought provoking and equivocal. Nails have been
hammered into the walls of the gallery, they are all bent
this way and that by the imprecise force of their driving
blows. They form a dense grey cloud on the wall of the
gallery (made all the more interesting by the various
shadows that are cast by the overhead spot lighting) in
the middle of which clearings of exposed white wall form
the words I Cant Work Like This in crisp block letters.
On the floor underneath two hammers lie strewn along
with a scattering of un-bent nails and their now empty
container. But what are we to make of all this? Unlike
the more vocal components of the exhibition this piece
welcomes a little more thinking and looking on the part
of the viewer, a little more deciphering. For me the
nails resemble a swarm of people seen from above,
surrounding and quite literally describing the stenciled
letters. They are bent over, as if crippled by the force
of the blows which they have undergone, and yet they
remain just about standing, a humble yet vital part of
the artwork.
Natascha Sadr Haghighian, I cant work like this,
(2008) Photo: Carl Newland
thrived on exclusivity either in terms of those who can
afford to buy or make art or volunteer in galleries or
subsist on the mostly low wages of art institutions
or write about art for a living. With so many jostling
nonetheless to be a part of this club, founded on such
laughably archaic modes of conduct, no wonder its
effects are so far reaching. Still set upon an imaginary
plinth, teasing us with the possibility of national and
personal cultural betterment, art it seems has the
power to affect far and wide.

Nevertheless this exhibition as a whole feels slightly
mechanical. It is a bombardment, an unabashed rant
at the art-world to which all of these artists, showing
in mainstream public art galleries are of course
indebted. This irony is not lost on the artists I am
sure, but the sense of disgruntlement is so potent, the
political, social and cultural message so unsubtle, I
am inclined to remind myself of Irit Rogoffs thought
that art does not have to be overtly political in its
subject matter in order to produce a political effect,
thus constituting a politics rather than reflecting one. I
am left feeling unsatisfied by, ironically given recurring
theme of the exhibition, a sense of over-curation in
this group show, it all feels over-determined. The
fact that art is still to a high degree the reserve of the
economically prosperous is, of course, shameful. But
the exhibitions rallying theme, with the thumbs down
to the bourgeoisie, risks suffocating the more nuanced
works, such as Haghighians or Kellers, by its single
minded intent. It is as if the message came first and
the art, an auxillary second, a means of demonstration.





The Freedom of Negative Expression
Chris Evans, Courtesy of the artist
San Kellers photographs of how parents display their
offsprings work also manages to get further than mere
shouting about the injustices of the art system. The
interesting idiosyncrasies and sometimes incongruities
of artworks displayed in domestic contexts opens up
a variety of questions about what art means in a world
wider in scope than elitist art circles. Art becomes
more human, less imperialist and demanding outside
of the gallery space. The images are devoid of human
presence except for their multi-layered traces, their
semi-private accumulations and arrangements of stuff,
their personal histories. Curiously at once banal, witty
and loaded, artworks sit alongside every day objects
perhaps offering some kind of insight into where the
artist came from, if that matters, if youre interested.
When the domestic world is then introduced into the
gallery in the form of photographic representation
the issues become even more entangled. In a show
about what and who makes or can make an artist the
introduction of parentage is telling indeed. Are links
being drawn between parent and curator with the
implication that at some point you need to go your
separate ways for personal growth? What I like about
this and Haghighians piece is that they are thoughtful,
quietly unassuming and lasting. They are works that
suggest ways in which they might be read without
forcing themselves into a single and unequivocal self-
reflexive dead-end.
The issue of spectatorship also slips into this exhibition.
There is a feeling of uneasiness as the viewer,
especially in the role of art critic, becomes complicit in
the morally questionable economic system by which
the art world is organised and the hierarchies of power
that play out behind the scenes. Our mere presence
in the gallery space means that we implicitly accept
the terms by which art is made and displayed. Art as
a physical commodity is not only sought by buyers
both private and public but it also provides its own
intellectual and cultural currency, its own kudos for the
culturally aspirational. To be a gallery-goer means
inclusion and acceptance. The art world has always
Since winning the Becks Futures Prize in
2006, research - based practice has seen him
investigating many aspects of musical sub-cultures.
Long After Tonight, (2006), was Stokes prize winning
work, a 6 minute video documenting and demonstrating
the balletic movements of Northern Soul dancers- a
musical subculture interested in obscure American
music- in a Dundee Church hall, captured as they dance
the night away. During the sixties and seventies, it was
this church, St. Salvadors Church in Dundee, Scotland,
which housed some of the citys first dance events.
Northern Soul gatherings used obscure, up-tempo
African American soul music as its basis. This music
was taken from its roots in American cities and
wedged into these smaller Scottish and English towns
and cities. This injection of African American culture
into these more traditional dwellings saw the fusion of
more traditional Folk dancing, with the higher tempo,
more flamboyant styles of African American styles of
dance, creating a sort of early break-dancing event.
Re-invention is something that Stokes has investigated
in his latest film work, The Gainsborough Packet,
on show at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in
Gateshead is a co-commissioned work between Baltic
and 176 Gallery in London.
Chris Morgan
The Gainsborough Packet; Matt Stokes
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
4 March - 10 May 2009
In the film we see the dramatisation of the life,
trials and adventures of an ordinary man from
Newcastle upon Tyne named John Burdikin (Sam
Lee). The work consists of a film, music and lyrics
inspired by letters written by Burdikin in 1828 and
discovered by Stokes in the Tyne and Wear archives.
At first it feels as though youve stepped into
a Hovis commercial or are watching an advert
for Beamish Museum. With an accompanying
score by folk musician Alistar Anderson, an actor
and vocalist playing the part of Burdikin strolls
through a series of events laid out in the letters.
At times verging on corny or over dramatised, The
Gainsborough Packet explores the idea of dramatisation
or roleplay, tipping its hat very much towards period
dramas but never quite sitting comfortably in this
genre. The video production and musical score are
of a very high standard. The lyrics by John Boden,
and music by Alistair Anderson, offer an uplifting yet
haunting ambient score with wistful Northumberland
Pipes. In places however it flows a little too quickly
and never really goes into any depth regarding, what
we are led to believe, are very important events in
Burdikins life. Events deemed important enough to be
highlighted and extracted from the letters by Stokes.
Matt Stokes
The Gainsborough Packet
2009, 16mm Film Trans-
ferred to Hard Drive.
Courtesy of the artist and
Workplace Gallery
musical or drama series? The underlying theme of
Stokes Gainsborough Packet is to question the idea
of artist as story teller, as documentary maker, as
historian or preacher, and the means by which they
inform their audience. Can we believe any of what
they say?
When one takes into account Stokes past works, he
has an undeniable interest in music, and the cultural
aspects surrounding music. Its easy to assume that
the seeming Americanisation, of modern culture, the
accessibility to music, music videos and celebrity has
led Stokes to indulge in the medium of the modern
music video, and to use it as an artistic tool like a
painter might use new printing techniques. It would
almost seem fitting to be able to download The
Gainsborough Packet as a video and play it on an
iPod or to watch it on Youtube. It has that glossy finish
sensibility to it in the way in which John Burdikin (Sam
Lee) communicates with the camera with a one-to-one
relationship, leading its gaze around each scene of his
story.
However it does seem to be missing dance moves,
scantily clad wenches in the background, or some sort
of overly rehearsed hand movement.
From Fiddle Maker to Fireman, oh what a life this is.
Now what make you of this my dere friend Pybus?
Make of it what you will, Pyebus.
This is NOT a period drama. Its aim isnt to draw a
story out over three weeks, giving youre Mam or Gran
something to watch on Mothers Day. It speaks much
more of a modern day music video. Its style is one of a
polished, condensed narrative set to music, removed
from its original material but with a generous infusion
of the period in which it was originally written. To some
it may seem like a failed attempt at a musical, period
drama. For me, it is an abstract fusion of music video
and lunchtime news report. It is entertaining and to the
point, if at times over dramatised.
For me though, Stokes has called into question the
very effects of dramatisation and the reinvention of
archive material or stories using modern story-telling
techniques. By tipping his hat to the period drama
whilst questioning its validity, Stokes has asked us
to question everything we might have been told, or,
more accurately, shown, through stories. It is not a
documentary, it never could be. It is a dramatisation of
events that happened in a time when words were the
only documentary tool.
We know as a viewer of a period drama that what
we are watching is an interpretation of a story, an
entertaining version of events. The Gainsborough
Packet is Stokes entertaining version of some of
Burdikins lifes events. However, the letters Burdikin
has written may also be an entertaining version of his
own life. We will never know. However, Stokes has
asked us to question the validity of John Burdikin as a
story-teller himself. Is he documenter, or story teller?
How much truth can we put into Burdikins life the way
he has written it? Do we really care? Stokes has taken
Burdikins words and embellished them with modern
production techniques, in a similar way Burdikin may
have also taken his own life and embellished it with a
certain gilding, to entertain his intended reader.
But why show this in a Gallery? What makes The
Gainsborough Packet any different to any other
Matt Stokes
The Gainsborough Packet
2009, 16mm Film Transferred to
Hard Drive. Courtesy of the artist
and Workplace Gallery
Salon09 is an open submission exhibition, which creates a platform for practitioners to present
their work to an invited audience of artists, collectors and curtors. Last years Salon included 63
artists working in Painting, Printmaking, Photography, Collage, Drawing,
Sculpture, and Installation (including sound)
This year we are introducing a selectors prize of 1000, and the John Jones Award for
Contemporary Painting, which will consist of 12 months support towards professional
development, a monetary prize of 500 and a 200 bursary for John Jones services.
Selectors for Salon09:
Margot Heller; Director of the South London Gallery,
Ceri Hand; Director of Ceri Hand Gallery
Gordon MacDonald; Head of publications,Photoworks Gallery, Brighton
The Salon is produced by Matt Roberts Arts, a not-for-profit organisation based in South London,
dedicated to supporting the professional development of artists, and creative practitioners.
Produced by Award Sponsor Media Supporter
3rd-19th September, 2009
Matt Roberts Arts, 25 Vyner Street, E2 9DG
www.salon09.co.uk
POLAND
Laznia - Centre of Contemporary Art is an of-
ficial art institution with exhibitions of contem-
porary art and an artist-in-residency program,
educational activities, and a programme for so-
cial integration. Residencies take place for 1 to
3 months, when Accommodation and Studio
are provided.
Deadline: None
For further information please visit www.laznia.
pl/en/index1.htm or e-mail office@laznia.pl
ESTONIA
MoKS Artists Residency A combined living
and studio situation is available to use free of
charge from March 1st through November 30th.
Residency periods can be arranged from 1 to 6
months. People working in all disciplines of art,
e.g. visual, performing and media arts, music,
criticism, research etc. are encouraged to apply.
Deadline: 15 September
For further information visit www.moks.ee or: E-
mail moks@moks.ee
ESTONIA
Residencies at Polli Talu Arts Center-2009/10
Deadline: ongoing
POLLI TALU ARTS CENTER www.pollitalu.org in
Estonia has one last opening left this summer sea-
son - in the art studio from Sept. 1 - 19. Please visit
our residency page www.pollitalu.org/english/resi-
dencies/res.english.html directly for conditions and
application procedures.

Marika Blossfeldt, an Estonian who had left her na-
tive country as a very young child to live in Germany
and, later, New York City, welcomed the opportunity
to purchase Pollis Farm in 1995. Her vision was to
transform the complex into an international arts cen-
ter. The opportunity to purchase the property and
realize her vision arose only after the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1998 Polli Talu Arts Center was registered as a
non-profit organization in Estonia. 1999 marked the
first season of artistic and educational activities at
Polli Talu Arts Center.
HUNGARY
International Ceramic Studio, the mission of the stu-
dio is to promote the formal, aesthetic and techno-
logical development of ceramics, an art which plays
an important part in the formation of cultures, and to
help foster creative skills. The studio is open to the
challenges of all ceramics research and design and
for experimentation. Plaster workshop and several
kilns (electric kiln, wood-burning salt-glazed kilns,
coke-burning, oxidation reduction and Rakukilns,
and gas kilns). Reference library.
The International Ceramics Studio (ISC) is located
eighty kilometers from the Hungarian capital, Buda-
pest. E-mail info@icshu.org_www.icshu.org
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EUROPE
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Deadline Ongoing.
HUNGARY
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS RESIDENCIES,
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

The Hungarian Multicultural Center (HMC) is
currently accepting applications for the Buda-
pest -International Artists Residencies. Now with
a price reduction! Monday, December 28 - Mon-
day, January 11 --Deadline (must be received)
by September 6.

The Hungarian Multicultural Center, Inc.
(HMC), 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, invites
interested visual artists, writers and musicians
to submit application for its residency program
in Budapest, Hungary. Its principal focus is an
international residency program to which artists
from around the world are invited. The residen-
cies offer participants a unique opportunity to in-
teract with other artists representing a variety of
cultures and backgrounds. Accepted applicants
are expected to speak and understand English.
Approximately 6 artists are invited for each
session. The residence offers 2 bed per room/
bath as living quarters. Studio, room, breakfast,
lunch, exhibitions, seminar are included in the
cost.

While HMC does not provide funding for resi-
dencies, we are helping to facilitate the creation
of program and the cost of the exhibitions. We
encourage the applicants to apply for a grant or
scholarship. Applications should consist of:
- 5 - 10 images/ writers 5 page writing /
- Artists statement, Project Description
- One-page resume
- $35 application fee

Email: bszechy@yahoo.com (Beata Szechy,
president)
Deadline: Sep 6, 2009
RUSSIA
Proekt Fabrika/creative industries centre. Founded
in 2004 at the premises of the Technical Paper Fac-
tory October. The factory is situated on the edge
of Moscows historical centre. he project is focused
on Young Emerging artists support, creating new
cultural landscape and developing social projects.
http://www.proektfabrika.ru
Email: space(at)proektfabrika.ru. For information
and to apply, please write to space@proektfabrika.ru
Deadline: Ongoing
RUSSIA
The Society Free Culture is an independent or-
ganization (SFC). Discipline: Dance, Literature,
Media Art, Multi Media, Photography, Printmaking,
Sculpture, Theatre. The SFC operates as a creative
union of contemporary artists, musicians and other
creative cultural workers. 1 rehearsal studio, 35
production studios (ateliers) , 6 exhibition places a
library/documentation centre (Archive and Library of
Independent Art) and 1 artist in residence atelier.
E-mail p-10@mail.ru_www.p-10.ru
Deadline: ongoing
LITHUANIA
Europos Parkas, An international artists residence
is situated in beautiful landscape just 19 km north of
the town centre of Lithuanias capital. The program
is open to creative people of any nationality working
in any field. The residence welcomes artists through-
out the year. There will be good traditional food
served three times a day.
E-mail hq@europosparkas. lt_www.europosparkas.
lt
Deadline: February, April, June
LATVIA
Electronic text + textiles project. This residency
is based in Riga, the capital of Latvia. A week to
several months.It welcomes artists, designers, writ-
ers, researchers and theoreticians working within or
across the fields of literature and the arts, in par-
ticular textiles related. If selected for the residency
Electronic Text and Textiles Project Residents have
to secure their own funding for their travel, subsis-
tence, and materials.
E-mail info@e-text-textiles.lv_www.e-text-textiles.
lv/indexeng.htm
SLOVAKIA
The Bridge Guard Residential Art - Science Centre
supports artists, scientists or any other profession-
als working on projects with the idea of bringing
together, connecting, bridging. The Bridge of Sturo-
vo will be the daily concern of the artist or scientist
in residence, therefore he/ she will be the bridge
guard.
Application Criteria, a scientist, who has a research
work, or an artist, who has a project in the line with
the aims of Bridgeguard can stay 3 to 6 months
and work in the Centre. Residency is for 3 to 6
months, Accommodation and public presentation
expenses paid by host.
E-mail info@bridgeguard.org / www.bridgeguard.
org
SLOVENIA
LindArt is an artist-led initiative which strives to
provide a meeting point for artists working in
traditional visual disciplines (painting, fine print,
drawing, sculpture). It brings together up to 12
artists of all nationalities for 10 days to work, ex-
change dialogue and experiment in a way that is
mutually beneficial. The platform of our workshop
is based upon the motto of co-operation
Meals, accommodation, work space and materi-
als are provided along with technical support and
facilities at no cost to the artist.
The workshop is open to young (under the age of
35) artists from all countries, who are working in
traditional visual disciplines (painting, fine print,
drawing, sculpture). Applications from recent art
graduates or students are also very welcome.
E-mail lindart.lendava@gmail.com_www.lindart-
lendava.com
Deadline: Ongoing
SLOVENIA
Art Centre Slovenia, Individual artists are invited
to develop their work at the Art Center. This resi-
dency is covered by a scholarship they are al-
ready entitled to, or else they must present the Art
Center a project proposal to be submitted to the
Slovene Ministry of Culture. Artists interested in
individual residency should contact the Art Center
for further information.
E-mail info@artcenter-slovenia.org
www.artcenter-slovenia.org/index2.htm
Deadline: Ongoing
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EUROPE
GREECE
Visiting Fellowship British School of Athens
This is a non-stipendiary research fellowship
in any branch of the arts or sciences related
to Greece, for a period of approximately three
months, the most effective time being between
January and March when the maximum number
of long-term students are in Athens and a large
number of external events take place.
The Visiting Fellow is expected to conduct a
programme of his/her own research, give a pub-
lic lecture at the School and, if possible, lead an
informal seminar. He/she should also be will-
ing to concern himself/herself with the current
students and their work.
The Fellow is offered free accommodation in
the Visiting Fellows flat in the Hostel and ac-
commodation is also offered to accompanying
spouses/partners at a reduced rate, who are
most welcome. Regrettably, children cannot be
accommodated in the Hostel. The School will
pay one return airfare London-Athens.
The position is usually advertised for two years
at a time and when open will be advertised on
this website, in addition to other venues, with
details of how to apply. Website: http://sas.
ac.uk/
ITALY
Photoworks Fellowship, British School at Rome
Open to experienced, mid-career photographers
and media artists (that is, artists whose practice
concentrates on the making or use of photography,
film or video) for 3 months (AprilJune 2009).
A research grant of 1,000/month, and a travel al-
lowance of 200 is available. Applicants must be of
British nationality, or must have been continuously
resident in the UK since June 2005.
Deadline: 13 June 2008.
For further details of how to apply please visit www.
bsr.ac.uk
ITALY
Nosadella.due, Bologna, is a residence for artists
and international critics set up as a long-term cul-
tural project, unique in its type in the city and the
area, in which the residents find a space for current
artistic expression and contemporary culture.
Accommodation, board, travel and cost of produc-
tion of artwork is covered for up to 2 months. The
artist residence programme takes place in spring
and autumn; the curator residence at other times
during the year.
Application Criteria: Artists and curators are
selected by invitation
Please visit www.nosadelladue.com or e-mail info@
nosadelladue.com
PORTUGUAL
Binauralmedia and Nodar Artist Residency
Center announce: International Open Call for
Art Projects
Artists residencies at Nogs are organized and
produced in cooperation between Binaural and
Associao Nodar, a community and cultural
organisation of the village of Nodar. From March
through November each year Nogs offers hous-
ing, audio and video equipment, food and a so-
cial space for the artists-in-residence to network
with other artists and the public. Other trips to
local spots of interest or to performance spaces
are also supported by the organisation.
Please visit www.binauralmedia.org, or email
info@binauralmedia.org
E-mail vparaiso@futurnet.es
Selection of 12 art projects to be developed dur-
ing several 2-week residency. September 2009
Art disciplines: Phonography; sound installa-
tion; vocal performance; sound poetry; acoustic,
electroacoustic or electronic improvisation /
composition.
TURKEY
IRP - Istanbul Residency Programme.
Istanbul Residency Programme (IRP) was initi-
ated in January 2003 and is open to contempo-
rary visual artists, critics and curators of con-
temporary art. Each residency lasts for a period
of between three and six months.
Eligibility - IRP accepts artists, critics and cura-
tors of contemporary art coming from countries
supported by the funding organizations col-
laborating with the programme. (http://platfor-
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mgarantilinks.blogspot.com/) Please note that IRP
cannot accept applications directly.
Contact: platformgaranti.gsm@gmail.com
Call for Applications - Mobility Programme 2008-
2009. Closing Date: Thursday May 23rd before
midnight (Brussels time)
ALBIANIA
TICA,the program is structured as a thematically
focused, project-based residency program, with a
clear intention to encourage artists from different
backgrounds and experiences to work together
towards a final presentation (exhibition, publication,
event). A studio space and Accommodation in Tira-
na, for two months are provided, as well as a return
flight ticket and a monthly allowance of 400 Euro
For further information visit www.tica-albania.org or
e-mail contact.tica@gmail.com
Deadline: 30th of May
GREECE
KINITIRAS DANCE SPECTACLE was founded in
1996. Since then, Kinitiras has a continuous pres-
ence in the field of dancetheatre focusing on the
theatrical character of dance. The company is work-
ing based on the theories of Rudolf Laban, Augusto
Boal and Devised Theatre with dancers, actors and
amateurs creating its own type of performer.

The main goal is the social questioning that derives
through the influential and raw body language.The
contemporary but narrative approach of the the-
matology in a spirit of sarcasm and black humor ,
through speech and movement , are basic elements
of the company.

cities of the Renaissance: Florence & Siena. The art-
ist residency program provides the ideal combination
of living and working in a setting of truly inspirational
beauty.
Artist residency consist of sojourning from 7 to 90
days, with a possible time extension subject to avail-
ability.

This period covers a program based on the personal
project proposal presented. As an archive of activi-
ties is scheduled to publish a yearbook representa-
tive of the various experiences hosted and produced
using photos and texts of artists and events.
The artists with a special interesting project have a
public event that offer a venue to test their ideas in
a dialog with other artists, curators, and the general
public. Help will be given from La Macina di San
Cresci staff to organise a local exhibition on a
theme related to their Residency project.

Please see our website for application
procedure and details.
www.chianticom.com
info@chianticom.com

La Macina di San Cresci, Pieve di San Cresci 1
50022 Greve in Chianti (FI), ITALY
Deadline: open call
ITALY
Starting from music and sound, Velvet Factory works
in particular on those forms of art which have in time
their main medium of research and creation. The
laboratorium happens in both physical space and
electronic space,
http://velvet.it
Email: roberto(at)velvet.it
Deadline: Ongoing
The educational aspect of dance and theatre occu-
pied KINITIRAS all these years so the idea of creat-
ing its own studio became more than essential. KI-
NITIRAS STUDIO will be ready by the end of 2008
in order to offer artistic residencies, workshops,s
eminars and lecture demonstrations to artists and
amateurs. In adddition KINITIRAS is encouraging
the young creators from the company to present
their work and to explore their artistic ideas. www.
kinitiras.com
Deadline: July 30th, 2009
GREECE
The Apothiki, is an Art Center situated in the Kastro,
the historical heart of Parikia, capital of the Cycladic
island of Paros.
In cooperation with artists, art galleries, foundations
and cultural institutions - both Greek and inter-
national, this multi-functional space will continue
to host contemporary art exhibitions and cultural
events and provide a working and living space for
artists in Residence.
During their stay, visiting artists will also be in con-
tact with the growing international artist community
on the island. The International Paros Artist Circle
(www.IPAC.gr) cooperates closely with Apothiki.
The invited artist is based in the Apothiki, in private
studios nearby or at another location in Paros and
the programme will run from mid-September 2004
till mid-June 2005.
ITALY
Florence, Italy, La Macina di San Cresci is accept-
ing Applications for 2009, 1st June to 30th
December inclusive.We are located above Greve in
Chianti in the heart of Tuscany, between two great
as of May 2008. The teams chosen will be provided
with: a monthly grant of a minimum sum of 1500
Euro per person (maximum two people per project),
and accommodation is available nearby.
Deadline: 15th of October
FRANCE
CAMAC, Marnay-sur-Seine.
The artists residency programmes aims to bring
together artists from all countries and all disciplines
for periods from one to four months. Camac is con-
nected to the Unesco-Aschberg program. Every
year one bursary of 2 month residency is given to
one visual artist and one writer, including ticket,
board and lodging, Private bedroom with bathroom,
individual studio.
For further information visit www.camac.org or e-
mail camac@camac.org
CYPRES, Marseille regularly welcomes artists, re-
searchers and technicians from different disciplines
and cultural horizons for a period of Three months
to one year. Studio, board, food, technical assis-
tance and technical facilities, are covered.
For further information - info@cypres-artech.org
Deadline: July 31 for Tnot bursary
FRANCE
CatArt is an international centre for research and
creation situated in the pretty village of Sainte
Colombe sur lHers, in the Languedoc Roussillon
region of southern France, between Toulouse, Mont-
pellier and Barcelona. CatArt aims to support and
promote creativity in every branch of the visual arts
in a unique, completely unspoilt and tranquil setting,
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FRANCE
Couvent des Rcollets The City Hall of Paris
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Offers a residents programme. The winners will
be accommodated in one of 6 available studio-
flats for a period of 3 months to 1 year.
Application address:
For further information www.international-recol-
lets-paris.org/accueil-en.php
E-mail odile.froument@mairie-paris.fr
Deadline: June 21
FRANCE
Institut Claude-Nicolas Ledoux The institute
contributes to contemporary creation
Bringing together artists within a multidisci-
plinary or international context. Accomodation is
available for the Minimum of 1 month, and there
is no maximum limit.
For further information visit www.salineroyale.
com or E-mail saline.royale@wnadoo.fr
The process at 104 is composed of 3 phases:
research, experimentation and production.
Residencies are for 1 to 10 months and will start
tence stipend of 500 per month.
Website: http://www.ica.org.uk/Flax%20Art%20Studi
os+17424.twl
Deadline: Submissions are reviewed September /
October
NETHERLANDS
B93 Artists Residency - There are two-guest studios,
located in a building owned by the city of Enschede,
available for a period of up to Three months. One
studio is equipped with computers and software
fitted for video art, sound art, and installation. The
other studio is very light and suitable for painting,
drawing and small-scaled sculpture.
Please Visit www.b93.nl or E-mail: petragroen@
gmail.com
Deadline: open application
SPAIN

Can Serrat is pleased to announce our Full Stipend
for writers.The residency is open to artists in all fields
regardless of nationality or age.

Visual documentation of recent work (10 jpg im-
ages). Cover letter introducing yourself and stating
preferred residency months. Curriculum Vitae.
A short summary of the project/work planned for the
residency period.
Please, e-mail applications to stipend@canserrat.
org. Please, dont send applications by mail unless
you have to send a video. Note that we do not send
materials in return. Candidates are asked to e-mail:

Applications must be received by the 31st of July,
2009.
aims to celebrate the best of contemporary Europe-
an art. A shortlist of thirty artists will be decided by a
judging panel of renowned arts experts and profes-
sional and announced in August 2008. An exhibition
of the short listed works will follow at a major Lon-
don venue. The winning artist gains the first prize of
Euros 25,000.
The Sovereign European Art Prize is open to artists
working in Europe. It accepts submissions in any 2D
medium. This prize is aimed at artists who are prac-
ticing and exhibiting successfully, but who would
benefit from the platform and further international
recognition the prize would give them.
There is a voluntary charity donation requested of
$10
Please visit www.SovereignArtFoundation.com for
full terms and conditions. For further details please
contact Rachael Hornsby on 020 7389 0555 or
Email rachael@SovereignArtFoundation.com
DEADLINE: 30 June
IRELAND
IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art provides opportu-
nities for artists to research and develop their prac-
tice in a challenging, dynamic environment within
which they can form new ideas and approaches
and/or engage themselves in theoretical research
and discussionS. The museum offers working
space, accommodation and meals.
Please visit www.imma.ie or e-mail info@imma.ie
Deadline: 31 March, 30 September
BELFAST
Flaxart covers space, accommodation and a subsis-
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encouraging artists both to develop their own
projects and to exchange ideas with colleagues.
ttp://www.catart.org
Email: catherine.cordelle(at)gmail.com
Name: Catherine Cordelle
FRANCE
Draw International, Rue du chateau. Applica-
tions are open to all artists (fine-arts, crafts,
design, sculpture, architecture).
DRAWinternational offers artists, teachers and
students the opportunity to extend professional
practice through cultural exchange. Proposals
are accepted for those artists who we feel we
can assist in a professional capacity.
The workshop/residency fee is always nego-
tiable and based upon each particular group or
artists requirements.
Residency application via, info@drawinterna-
tional.com, http://www.drawinternational.com
Email: info(at)drawinternational.com
Deadline: Ongoing
GERMANY
The Schinkel Progressive Residency. This ap-
peals, above all, to young architects, artists,
designers, curators. It offers the opportunity for
participants to look into and beyond the medi-
ums and thematic positions of their work for a
period of up to 3 months. In addition to a large
studio space in the center of Berlin and free-
living accommodations for the duration of the
residency.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOT CURRENTLY BE-
ING SOUGHT. PLEASE VISIT www.schinkel-pro-
gressive.org FOR REGULAR UPDATES
GERMANY
Knstlerhaus Bethanien, It looks after 25 studios,
3 exhibition studios, and a media lab. It is a project
workshop, and an event location. Resident artists
are hosted for a period of twelve months and usually
conclude their stay with the realisation of a project
on the institutes premises.
Artists cannot apply to the Knstlerhaus itself, but
only via partner institutes. A list of all co-operating
partners and those colleagues who should be ap-
proached there is available at http://www.bethanien.
de/kb/index/trans/en/page/applications
Acceptance to the International Studio Program
takes place through a jurys decision. Individual ap-
plications are not accepted.
(www.bethanien.de/kb/index/trans/en )
GERMANY
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart constitutes
a meeting point for artists from the worlds various
continents and cultures, as well as for representa-
tives of different artistic fields and positions.: Re-
cipients, who must be a maximum of 35 years old
receive a monthly allowance of around 1000 euros a
month.
Please visit www.akademie-solitude.de or email
mr@akademie-solitude.de
Deadline: Application round between 31 July and 31
October.
The Sovereign European Art Prize
Held annually the Sovereign European Art Prize
society in Ekens and City of Raseborg are, in an
open competition, commissioning an art work of
permanent character to commemorate the time that
visual artist Helene Schjerfbeck lived and worked in
Ekens. The Artists Association of Finlands compe-
tition rules are applied on the competition.

The competition objective is to create a long-stand-
ing public art work for the southern end of the Skep-
partrdgrden park in Ekens. Skeppartrdgrden
park is situated in the centre of Ekens, in the City
of Raseborg. The area is a park along the leisure
boat harbour Sdra viken, which is on the boundary
of the old town, where Helene Schjerfbeck sought
inspiration and motives for her work.

For full details and application information please
see: www.proartibus.fi

Deadline: Jan 15, 2010
FINLAND
The Fiskars Artist Residency
is based in 90 km west from Helsinki, in the munici-
pality of Pohja.. Foreign artists, writers and scien-
tists are invited to apply for the residency over a
period of 1-3 months The artist in residence does
not pay anything for the stay in Fiskars, but finances
the trip to and from Fiskars her/himself.
For further information visit www.onoma.org/res-
idenssi/residenssien.htm or e-mail sade@kahra.nu
Artist in Residence in Ekens, 1 hours drive or train
trip west from Helsinki. The artist is expected to par-
ticipate in the local cultural life by giving workshops
and exhibiting his/her works. The guest artist also
donates one piece of his/her works to the art collec-
tion of the Pro Artibus foundation.
The residence is situated in the oldest one-floor
FINLAND
HIAP - Helsinki International Artist-in-residence
Programme
It gives time and space for creative work in a
stimulating environments and the possibility to
present to the public. The cultural complex is the
working-site for about 50 Finnish artists studios,
and several other artistic and cultural commu-
nities. Accommodation, studio, and board are
offered.

For further information please visit: www.hiap.fi
or e-mail jaakko@hiap.fi
Salo Art Museum will increase and improve
contacts between local artists and domestic and
foreign guest artists. Accommodation and work-
space for 1 to 4 months.
Application address:
For further information please visit www.sa-
lontaidemuseo.fi or e-mail veturitalli@salo.fi
Deadline: ongoing
FINLAND
Ekens, Finland, Helene Schjerfbeck art work
commission, open competition. The Pro Artibus
foundation, in association with the Schjerfbeck
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NORTHERN
EUROPE
stone building in the town of Ekens, in the
neighborhood of Vocational College Sydvst
and surrounded by a park.A daily allowance
of 20 goes towards covering the artists living
expenses. A mobile phone can be arranged and
a bicycle is available.
For further information visit www.ekenas.fi or e-
mail Asa.Lonnqvist@ekenas.fi
Deadline: 30 September
ICELAND
The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists
The guest studio is situated at hafnaerstratei
16 in the center of Reykjavik, in close proximity
to the National Gallery and The Reykjavik Art
Museum, and is available for a period of one
month.
Visit: www.sim.is or e-mail sim@simnet.is
Deadline: 1 April, 1 October
SWITZERLAND
IAAB (International Artists Exchange Program)
is an exchange program for artists and cura-
tors from abroad to come to one of the 7 IAAB
studios in the Basel region, where they are
given free accommodation and working facilities
for Three to six months. Food, health insurance,
individual travel expenses, studio, working ma-
terial may also be covered.
Slyst Artist in Residency Centre offers artists
accommodation, and workshops during their
residency gives those taking part the enriching
opportunity of intercultural dialogue.
Please visit www.iaab.ch or email e-mail iaab@
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DENMARK
FAIR is a new residency program for Nordic artists
at the Factory of Art and Design. The purpose of
FAIR is to create the possibility for an international
artist to realise a project at the Factory of Art and
Design.
Monthly grant of 5.000 DKK (app. 670 euros), cov-
ered travel expenses, accommodation, a studio at
the Factory of Art and Design and a bike.
In order to apply one has to be a professionally
working artist. The artist must be from one of the
Nordic or Baltic countries or have his or her pri-
mary artistic practice in one of these countries.
(Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the
Faroe Islands, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia).
E-mail stine@ffkd.dk_www.ffkd.dk
Deadline: May 1
DENMARK
Slyst Artist in Residency Centre - SAIR - has
been established by VAK -The Art Worshops of
West Sealand . VAK is an important element in the
SAIR programme because of their experience with
artists working in the production of a broad range
of mediums. The accomodation and working stu-
dios that SAIR offers artists during their residency
gives those taking part the enriching opportunity of
intercultural dialogue.
The visiting artists will be offered free accomoda-
tion at the Slyst Castle; a private bedroom, a
private studio, free acces to the VAK workshops
and a monthly fee of 1342 euro.
E-mail tine@soelystcenter.dk_www.sair.dk
Deadline: November 1
merianstiftung.ch _
DENMARK
The Visual Arts Centre in Copenhagen. Paid by
host, The visiting artists will be offered free accom-
modation at the Slyst Castle; a private bedroom,
a private studio, free access to the VAK workshops
and a monthly fee of 1342 euro.
The Danish Art Councils Committee for Internation-
al Visual Art gives preference to artists who meet
a high professional standard and are interested in
actively engaging with the Danish art world. Living
space is provided, and also a grant of 10.000 DKK
(about 1.300 euro) to cover expenses.
DIVA Artist-in-residence program. To promote cre-
ative exchange between Danish and foreign artists
and art institutions, The Danish Arts Council has
established an artist-in-residence program in Den-
mark. From 3 to 6 months. Application for shorter
periods of residency is also possible.
Contact: Danish Arts Agency/Visual Arts Centre,
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 2, 1553 Copenhagen,
Denmark. For further www.danishvisualarts.info/
502000c and e-mail visualarts@danish-arts.dk
For further information www.sair.dk or E-mail tine@
soelystcenter.dk
Deadline: August 15
NORWAY
Nordic air Bergen offers a place for working, sketch-
ing and research. The residency is organised by
Hordaland Art Centre which is located close by the
residency_s studio and apartment. Hordaland Art
Centre is an artist-run institution with its own gal-
lery. In addition they organize seminars and vari-
ous other activities. Studio, accommodation, travel
expenses (up to NOK 5000,-) and a grant to cover
other expenses during the artist_s stay (NOK 7000,-
/month).Application Criteria: Artists from Nordic
countries are eligible. Send CV, images of previous
works and artist statement / project proposal for the
residency period.
E-mail hks@kunstsenter.no_www.kunstsenter.no
Deadline: August 15
NORWAY
The city of Kristiansand in southern Norway now
welcomes applications for the city`s artist in resi-
dence program. To be eligible for the residency you
have to be a professional artists, preferably, fine
artist or craft artists.

The aim with the program is to strengthen, promote
and develop collaboration and network between
contemporary artists in Kristiansand and other
national and foreign artists and to enrich the cultural
stage of our town. We can offer a 3 months (+/-)
residency in a rent-free accommodation and addi-
tional studio. The artist must cover all other expens-
es such as living costs, travel, materials, insurance
and transport.

The Cultural Rucksack program and grant
Applicants must use the enclosed application form
on our homepage. The application should consist
of a proposal/statement with purpose and aim for
your stay, CV and letter(s) of reference. Incomplete
applications will not be considered.

Please visit www.kristiansand.kommune.no/ncms.
aspx for futher information. Kristiansand on the Res
Artis website : www.resartis.org/index.php

Deadline: Sept 1st, 2009

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