POGOVARJANJA / CONVERSATIONS / CONVERSAS
February 7 - March 10, 2006
Jože Barši, Daniela Mattos, Alex
Hamburger, Marssares, Franc Purg,
Romano, TEMP
Curated by
Ricardo Basbaum
(Rio de Janeiro)
& Bojana Piškur (Ljubljana)
You are kindly invited to attend the
opening on February 7th at 8 pm.
Opening performance by Daniela Mattos:
Make over, 2006
Project Conversations
unites a diverse group of artists, both
individuals and groups. It is not
governed by a common structured concept,
but is mainly concerned with a different
way of thinking or contemplation on art
and society, in terms of their
functioning, collective work and
reflection.
Thus
a special social space is created
where no single language of truth is
prevalent. Instead it enables the
transformation of the voice of the
other. And since all meaning is relative
and provisional, there is a certain
tension which points to other possible
contexts as well.
Conversations
are a sort of dialogue with its
own dynamics. The best conversations
are those which neither speaker can
control. Conversations generate a
play-like situation, and involves an
exercise on how to keep oneself in a
permanent state of awareness and change
(flexibility). There's nothing specific
to be achieved in a conversation, except
that when the participants feel they are
done – that is, when they have finished
a particular dialogue – they simply
cannot return to the places they left (a
transformation will have occurred).
Therefore, conversation is a
modality of movement.
Romano (Rio de Janeiro)
Radio waves have a
public dimension that is frequently
imperceptible, because we are used to
listening to the radio at home. The
private audition of commercial radio has
kept us apart from the creative and
communicative possibilities of the
medium, which is not only an
unidirectional transmission to a network
of listeners but a tool for stimulating
thinking and communication among us.
The radio program for
Pogovarjanja puts together, via the
web’s continuous flux of transmissions,
fragmented inputs from several artists
who are separated by distance, producing
a permutation of our urban murmurs. In
its extension, the radio takes the shape
of the streets, existing in both places
simultaneously. There are no distances
anymore in this place where time is the
same for everyone.
o.u.į.a./ l.i.s.t.e.n.
Daniela
Mattos (Rio de Janeiro)
The piece I'm working on
with the Slovenian artist Franc Purg,
and which is to be presented at
Pogovarjanja, deals with the issue
of distance, which is also used as a
means of getting closer. We are
exchanging several short videos of
'paths', sending them via e-mail to each
other, maybe as a way to find ourselves.
I think this kind of 'visual
conversation' makes it possible, as a
rhizomatic relation, for us to somehow
access what has become of us and our
emotions.
Franc
Purg (Celje)
Can a work of art be
created by two people who don't know
each other, who are of different sexes
and who come from a different
generational, geographical and cultural
background?
What happens with the roads we tread and
drive many times a day, the roads on
which we don't see or notice anything
exciting, if we watch a video document
of them on screen? Do we really
constantly need to reflect on our lives?
Is life itself not enough? These are
these questions that follow me, while I
am working with the Brazilian artist
Daniela Mattos.
Marssares (Rio de Janeiro)
For humoristic reasons, I
move the sound.
Alex Hamburger (Rio de Janeiro)
I chose visual & sound
languages early in my quest because the
achievements in the field of
intersemiotics (the possibility of the
interaction of different esthetic
languages) made it possible for me to
delve further in my uneasiness of what
poetry should be.
Jože Barši (Kurešček)
Statement from a
conversation with Ian Wilson, conceptual
artist from the 1970s, “oral
communication is a lot more than
language; it is one of the best mediums
for the dissemination of ideas” refers
to communication which should lead to an
idea, to a result. Wilson never allowed
his discussions to be recorded, which I
think was the correct choice. The act
itself was enough.
Contrary to the informed conversation I
direct my attention to casual, everyday
communication, which can take place
anywhere – at an opening, in the street,
etc. English speakers call it “small
talk - light social conversation”.
Contrary to the above described notion
of conversation, here form is more
important than content and thus closer
to culture. To put it differently, I'm
not interested in the dissemination of
ideas or convincing someone, in being
directed to a certain goal, solution or
solving. This reminds me too much of
efficacy, of seeking justification from
society, being efficient and thus being
a meaningful member of the society. No,
I'm interested in quite the opposite, in
something which is seemingly
meaningless, conversation as a form of
standard or casual communication be it
simply saying hello to someone or
chatting with your neighbours.
TEMP
TEMP is currently the
name for an informal self-organised
production network of groups and
individuals. We are organised
heterogeneously and non-hierarchically,
and we continue to evolve and adapt to
our action projects. Thus we try to
maintain an organic and open structure
of the network, which allows us to seek
new ways of participation and
organization beyond the framework of
institutions. Through such action we can
avoid the sterility, formalisation, and
enforced tolerance and concepts, which
public work necessarily dictates. Also
due to its dynamic nature and the flow
of people and ideas, our method acts as
a safeguard against political or
personal abuse of our work.
We are interested in the disappearing
public space in the broadest terms. We
focus on working from bottom up, through
the following strategic levels: informal
city as the context, active space as the
discursive field, constructed situation
as the message and creative deregulation
as the operating mode.
Between 10 February and 10 March we will
transform the gallery into a working
space, where workshops and panels will
be held. A the same time, the gallery
will be an information centre, where the
gathered data will continue to enrich
the existing database, consisting of
maps, a model, documentary, research and
artistic material. The base will be the
source of inspiration for the urban
interventions, set up in the vicinity of
Škuc and in the empty space of the
Ljubljana old town. The TEMP project
investigates the issue of uniting and
working within a collaborative network.
It is for this reason that a temporary
structure of different associations,
groups and individuals, which, in the
context of the project, will have to
find creative ways of communication and
new ways of thinking and creating, will
be set up.
For further information contact Alenka Gregorič, artistic director
of the Škuc Gallery on +386 1 251 65 40, galerija.skuc@guest.arnes.si.
The programme of Škuc Gallery is supported by the
Ministry
of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Cultural
Department of the City of Ljubljana.
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