Dance/USA’s vision is to lead the professional dance industry by providing value to a strong, diverse membership base and encouraging the membership to be responsive to current economic, demographic and participation realities. But, with limited time at the Annual Conference, sometimes we are unable to have all the conversations we’d like. So, this year we’re adding something new: a UN-Conference! This special block of time is dedicated to discussing the topics which are important to you, proposed by you, and not offered in other Conference programming. We welcome you and your voice at the professional dance table!
Click here to make and vote on suggestions for topics and/or questions you’d like to see discussed in our mini UN-Conference. Your suggestions will determine the conversation during this engaging afternoon!
We’re down here in the hot Texas sun, working with the Fusebox Festival to look at te environmental, economic and cultural impacts of the festival. One of the centerpieces of this venture is a data visualization project looking at the density of participation in the festival over the course of the afternoon and evening. It’s been interesting in the complexity it’s shown with how people interact with the city. Here is a sample of the work, which we’re also presenting large scale as handmade objects this weekend. If you’re in Austin, com check it out!
Six intensive weekend workshops led by artists renowned for their approaches to making, facilitation and participation.
Artsadmin’s Weekenders are open to all practitioners regardless of level of experience; all that is required is an openness to meet, talk, play, perform and collaborate. The second series of Weekenders starts in September 2010 and runs through to April 2011. Come to one or all – each Weekender operates as a stand-alone while the series as a whole offers an opportunity to work with an outstanding range of artists.
The next series of Weekenders will be led by Station House Opera (Julian Maynard Smith), Simon Vincenzi, Kira O’Reilly, Oreet Ashery, João Fiadeiro and Karen Christopher.
Curated by the Artists’ Advisor at Artsadmin, the series reflects a wide range of performance practices. The content of each Weekender will be unique to the lead artist, reflective of their practice and responsive to the group of participants. 25 – 26 Sep 2010: Julian Maynard Smith
13 – 14 Nov 2010:Â Simon Vincenzi
11 – 12 Dec 2010:Â Kira O’Reilly
12 – 13 Feb 2011:Â Oreet Ashery
12 – 13 Mar 2011: João Fiadeiro
16 – 17 Apr 2011:Â Karen Christopher
All Saturday & Sunday 11am – 5pm
Please be sure you can attend both days in full
£60 per weekend
Strictly limited to 16 places per lab.
I haven’t been posting on the Eco Art Blog recently; as I’ve said before, others are doing a better job at that than I have the time for. Also, the end of grad school has piled on a lot of time-consuming activities, like mounting a thesis show.
But I am happy to announce a new project I’m working on at the 18th Streets Arts Center in Santa Monica, California. It’s called Fine Art 626-394-3963, and I’m inviting you to call or email me to talk about art and what you want from artists and the institutions that show art work.
The project really needs your participation, so I hope you’ll call or email. For more, visit the project blog at fineart6263943963.blogspot.com.
Our Winter issue, featuring eco-policy and representations during the COP15 Summit in Copenhagen, is now available! Â Keep an eye out for our next call for participation!
Call for participation Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown International Seminar/Workshop for Contemporary Art Professionals: November 10 – 11 2009
Muzeum Sztuki Lódz Poland
Guest speakers: Marina Grzinic and Jens Haaning.
Muzeum Sztuki in Lódz, in collaboration with Public Preparation, an international platform for knowledge-production and networking, is calling for applications to participate in a two-day seminar/workshop dedicated to the critical exploration of interconnections between nationalist ideology and the capitalist economic system.
Amongst other groups, the contemporary art community is witnessing growing tendencies toward nationalism, which in the most radical cases take the form of violent intolerance, racism and xenophobia. With the very recent appearance of the global financial crises, protectionist policies have emerged, re-gained in popularity and started to play a central role in the emergency plans for economies directed by national governments. Capitalism forms a fundamental part of modern economies and, having developed hand in hand with modern nation state apparatuses, recent changes in the global economy and the revival of nationalism force us to recognise, discuss and examine, the changes in relations between these two super-forces which drive the world. In focusing on the symbiotic link between nationalist ideology and the neoliberal capitalist order, we would like to invite art professionals, especially curators, theoreticians and artists, who have been dealing with this issue and related topics in their prior practice to participate, to share their knowledge, experience and ideas during “Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown”.
The questions that might be addressed during the two-day seminar/workshop could be articulated as follows: How are national values and traditions used as an excuse for economic activities and corporate politics? How is capital used as a tool of power to fulfill nationalist-imperialist policies in particular regions? How might the return to protectionist politics influence nationalist movements in contemporary Europe during this crises of global capitalism? How do they deal with migration and transnational identity? Why do nation-states behave like companies and companies act like nation-states? What is behind states branding themselves and using marketing tools and companies becoming multinational empires with their own rules and regulations? How is art and culture instrumentalised for the sake of strengthening national identity and promoting the nation?
The seminar/workshop consists of a seminar and a screening open to the public plus discussion on November 10, 2009 continuing with closed workshops on November 11, 2009. The workshops will be held by Marina Grzinic and Jens Haaning.
We greatly regret that Muzeum Sztuki and the Public Preparation teams cannot provide accommodation and travel grants, but we are able to provide supporting letters for funding organisations and assist with individual fund-raising. And of course we are happy to advise on budgeting options such as good value accommodation.
About the Public Preparation platform: “Nations in the Age of Global Economic Meltdown” will take place within the framework of Public Preparation events. Public Preparation is an international platform for knowledge- production and networking. First and foremost it is a space for international collaboration focusing on the current practices of critical thinking and production in the field of contemporary art. The main agenda of Public Preparation is to concentrate on questions linked to the concept of an artist as a citizen. Contemporary art is a crucial part of the public realm, exhibition spaces are places for open discussion and artists have the power and responsibility to be actively engaged in the process of examining, imagining and changing social reality. The current phase of Public Preparation activities deals critically with the growing tendencies of nationalism in contemporary Europe, aiming to envision alternative ways to think about the global community. More information about Public Preparation project can be found at www.publicpreparation.org
Call for Participation The Bat-Yam Biennale is pleased to announce the open call for participation in Urban Action 2010.
The Bat-Yam Biennale functions as a laboratory through which attitudes in and towards urban space are examined. Urban Action 2010 continues the urban action begun in the first biennale , in which Hosting was the theme.
The 2010 Bat-Yam Biennale invites urban interventions that examine the city’s “flexible” nature. We invite anyone involved or interested in urbanism to propose interventions in the city of Bat-Yam.
We are looking for innovative proposals that will lead to the development and improvement of urban life.
For more details, go to:Â www.opencall2010.biennale-batyam.org Please send all submissions to:Â applications.batyam@gmail.com
Deadline for submissions: August 30th, 2009
Bat-Yam international biennale of landscape urbansim Curators: Sigal Barnir and Yael Moria Asst Curators: Yael Caron and Adi Gura
We have had my brother-in-law staying Jeremy Deller’s latest project, It is What It Is. We have been working with Jeremy on the Bat House Project. Both works provide a mechanism, a vehicle (literally in the case of ‘It is What It Is’) to encourage debate and engagement with particular issues.
Dragging a wrecked car from Iraq across the States is simply not art, said my brother-in-law very firmly, fixing his attentions solely on the object rather than the discourse generated.
An alternative to the car being in the States, it could have been on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square instead of Antony Gormley’s forthcoming project. But both works pull us members of the public into art that ultimately is process not product.
Why is it that many people just won’t have it that the purpose of art is to elicit participation from us, to open up thinking, to encourage us to review the human condition and to nudge or provoke a response? Why can’t they relax and just accept that artists can use whatever materials they damn well choose – be that the human body, a urinal, oil paint or bronze or a cork screw to actify that purpose.
The site is still up of the road diary by Nato Thompson that is part of It is What It Is, although the trip ended on 17 April 09. I urge you to read it and see what, as Thompson says, “digging into public lifeâ€, has revealed.
Meanwhile off line It is What It Is has provoked more conversation in our house than any more conventional piece of art over the past two weeks. This is far more important to me than convincing my brother-in-law that it is art. I did get a rueful smile from David when I noted that having argued for half an hour the night before, he came down to breakfast the next morning wanting to begin all over again. And then seemingly tangentially, we started talking about war.
After all the second part of the work’s title is ‘Conversations about Iraq’.
Dance/USA’s vision is to lead the professional dance industry by providing value to a strong, diverse membership base and encouraging the membership to be responsive to current economic, demographic and participation realities. But, with limited time at the Annual Conference, sometimes we are unable to have all the conversations we’d like. So, this year we’re adding something new: a UN-Conference! This special block of time is dedicated to discussing the topics which are important to you, proposed by you, and not offered in other Conference programming. We welcome you and your voice at the professional dance table!
