Radical Education - Spaces in becoming

Painted facade, Tirana, Photo: Marjetica Potrč, 2006

1. Resistance as creation (Monday, 21 April)
2. Thinking politics: Current issues in political activism (Saturday, 3 May)
3. (Im)possible spaces of art (Saturday, 10 May)
4. Kosovo: art - education - politics (Tuesday, 13 May)

You are invited to attend the four part symposium Spaces in becoming organized by Radical Education / MG and Social Center Rog between 21 April 2008 and 13 May 2008 at the Social Center Rog in Ljubljana (Trubarjeva 72). More info at http://www.mg-lj.si/node/168
The Spaces in becoming are not idealized projections of social emancipation disregarding the existing neoliberal trends and gentrification. On the other hand, we cannot speak of them only in terms of recuperation that immediately transforms independent artistic, cultural and other social initiatives into a market commodity for global consumption. These initiatives must be considered from within, one must think with them, remain constantly in touch with the local environment, and stay within the political context from which they emerge. Only thus can we make them stronger, expand them, and bring about new ones.

21 April 2008 at 6 p.m.
Social center Rog, Ljubljana

First public discussion "Resistance as creation"

The pressure exerted by the authorities, the attempt at physical eviction, and the absence of media coverage of this event, did not weaken or curtail the activities of the self-organized cultural and political groups and collectives at the Social Center Rog in Ljubljana. Quite the opposite; the international network of European social centers, artistic and cultural institutions, initiatives, and individuals operating on institutional and independent levels was reinforced. Many expressed their solidarity with a letter of support and participation at a public tribune on 27 March and united in the struggle for shared cultural and political urban spaces. Similarly, migrant workers and asylum seekers in Slovenia have organized and formed, with the support of the social center activists, the World for Everyone movement. They organized a series of discussions, visiting all the faculties of the Ljubljana University; the next stage is a public manifestation in the streets of Ljubljana on 19 April. The discussion on 21 April will include the protagonists of the World for Everyone movement, of the Invisible Workers of the World movement, and the activists-researchers of the social center. It will also serve as part of the preparations for the European meeting of social centers in June 2008 in Ljubljana. In addition to the relations between social movements, social centers and artistic and cultural institutions and collectives in Slovenia and Europe, we will discuss the forms and methods of communication with local communities, and the instruments of legitimacy for an alternative organization of urban life and labor.

Participants: Irfan Besirevic (Social Center Rog, Erased), Barbara Beznec (editor-in-chief of the Magazine for the Critique of Science), Artur Dzaurov (asylum seeker, World for Everyone), Savik in Natan Isaakov (asylum seekers, World for Everyone), Assylbek Dzhumagaziev (asylum seeker, World for Everyone), Vladimir Kristof (asylum seeker, World for Everyone), Andrej Kurnik (Center for the Critical Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences), Polona Mozetic (Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law), Tanja Pecek (journal Predor, Social Center Rog), Sara Pistotnik (Social Center Rog), Armin Salihovic (Invisible Workers of the World), Saban Sabic (Invisible Workers of the World).

Moderator and contact person:
Aigul Hakimova, agsa@mail.ru

Concept and contact persons for the symposium:
Gasper Kralj, gasperkralj@yahoo.com
Bojana Piskur, bojana.piskur@mg-lj.si

Organizers: Radical education / Moderna galerija and Social Center Rog.
The Social Center Rog participates in the Hosting Moderna galerija! action.

3 May 2008 at 6 p.m.
Social center Rog, Ljubljana

Second public discussion: "Thinking politics: Current issues in political activism"

At 8 p.m., screening What Would It Mean To Win? by Oliver Ressler and Zanny Begg. It was filmed at the G8 summit protests in Heiligendamm, Germany, June 2007 and focuses on the current state of the counter-globalisation movement.

Today, true politics is politics outside the Party. The party sequence as a revolutionary sequence in the 20th century has ended, its political experiment has failed, mainly due to the fact it was linked to the State. Can alter-globalization movement be seen as one of the new political forms that could signal the beginning of a new historical sequence, or should we rather see such political forms as the Zapatista movement, political groups of sans-papiers and erased, autonomous trade unions struggles as the real political alternatives? Political activism faces many controversies: the Seattle generation of alter-globalization movement has suffered many defeats (e.g. Genoa), with its activities blocked or limited due to the post-9/11-criminalization. Nevertheless, the last instance of anti-G8 struggle has reaffirmed the need for global networks of resistance and showed some perspectives for future actions. In our workshop we would like to address some specific questions regarding the principles of politics and political organization: can we still speak about revolution as a strategic concept; how can we then avoid the dialectics between state and revolution, or multitude and empire? How can we connect local struggles with a global movement? Where in local politics can we find examples of different politics (Autonomous Tribune, Rog factory, etc.)? What are the new topics that have to be discussed (NATO in the Balkans, transition, etc.)?

Participants: Darij Zadnikar (philosopher, political activist), Tjasa Pureber (student activist, Autonomous block), Andrej Pavlisic (political activist), Tine Frece (political activist, A-infoshop).

Moderator and contact person:
Gal Kirn, galkirn@gmail.com

Concept and contact persons for the symposium:
Gasper Kralj, gasperkralj@yahoo.com
Bojana Piskur, bojana.piskur@mg-lj.si

Organisers: Radical Education / Moderna galerija, Social Center Rog
The Social Center Rog participates in the Hosting Moderna galerija! action.

Saturday, 10 May 2008, 3 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Social center Rog, Ljubljana

(Im)possible spaces of art
This discussion will focus on the radical changes in principles, methods, theoretical and practical fields and modes of various kinds of knowledge production in contemporary art. The ideas on how artistic, activist and political networks can be intertwined with other heterogeneous networks will be discussed and practical examples of interventions given. Are (revolutionary) art practices possible only within (revolutionary) spatial practices? How important are these spaces and practices in a political sense, i.e., can they create a "possibility of politics?" Are they characterized solely by collective creation, temporariness, self-organization, shared authorship and informality? How is it possible to achieve and sustain a relative autonomy of these newly created spaces? Does that also have to do with how they can connect to others and to other movements?

Lectures
15.00. - 15.30: Marjetica Potrč (Ljubljana): Frontier Power
15.30 - 16.00: TEMP: case studies of local urban interventions
16.00 - 16.30: Nebojša Milikić (Belgrade): presentation of two projects; Flux and KEF

17.00 - 18.00: Break

Panel talk
18.00 - 20.00
Participants:
Janna Graham (Goldsmiths College, London); Minna Henriksson (artist); Margarethe Makovec (Rotor, Graz); Bojana Piškur (Moderna galerija / Radical education); Marjetica Potrč (artist); Reartikulacija (Marina Gržinić, Staš Kleindienst, Sebastjan Leban and Tanja Passoni), speaker: Sebastjan Leban
Moderator: Adela Železnik (Moderna galerija)

The symposium will be in English

About the participants:

Janna Graham is an organizer, educator and writer living in London.
A chronic collaborator, she is a member of the collectives Ultra-red, the Committee for Radical Diplomacy and the Micropolitics Research Group. From 1999-2005 she worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and at Whitechapel Gallery in London as an educator strategizing with activists, organizers, community groups and artists on collective actions around the policing of urban youth culture, migration and anti-racist initiatives with indigenous people. In London she is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the department of Visual Cultures and is working with others on an analysis of free labor in the cultural industries.

Graham will speculate openly about the concept of 'radical diplomacy', citing examples in which those working within and outside of conventional notions of 'institution' have come together to organize radical projects at the intersections of pedagogy, art and political organizing. She will refer to examples of Ultra-red's current project on the politics of migration organizing in the rural context in the UK and the increasing recuperation the language of 'arts education', 'participation' and 'critical pedagogy' in projects of gentrification, 'creative' urbanization and neo-liberalization in the Anglophone context.

Minna Henriksson is visual artist from Finland, based in Helsinki and Istanbul and currently on artist-in-residency in Ljubljana hosted by Galerija Kapelica and Moderna galerija. She works conceptually and research based, often on works for specific and given context. She has exhibited her works internationally in many solo- and group exhibitions.
Together with sociologist Sezgin Boynik in the recent years she has also been working on the topic of connection of contemporary art with nationalism. One of the outcomes of it is book ?Contemporary Art and Nationalism ? Critical Reader?, which she co-edited with Mr. Boynik and it was published with MM-Publications and EXIT - Institute for Contemporary Art, Pristina in 2007. Also she has worked in visual art as curator and organizer.

Minna Henriksson will introduce the art scenes in Helsinki and Istanbul and reflect on possibilities and impossibilities in them for a radical art practices. Also from personal experience she will address questions such as whether there is a way to avoid national representation when working internationally, and if it is possible to produce any kind of significant knowledge within nomad practices like artist-in-residencies.

Margarethe Makovec is the artistic director of < rotor > association for contemporary art in Graz, Austria http://rotor.mur.at
Makovec will present the "Land of Human Rights", a project dealing with the status quo of the human rights in Europe seen from the perspective of visual art, which will also work on the issue in an analytical and visionary manner. Over a period of three years the discourse on human rights in Europe will be disseminated in the general public with the means of art. The discussion shall purposely be based on issues "in front of one's own door" or "inside one's own house".
The planned activities are supposed to reach a broad audience and shall make us aware of the following fact: In many respects the observance of human rights is not guaranteed in Europe too!
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 comprises thirty articles, which also outline rights that the general public would not expressly count among its general notion of human rights. Many of these codified rights are permanently being violated in different European countries and constantly in danger of fading to the background even more than they have up to now. Among them there are the following:
The right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution; the right to social security; the right to work and to protection against unemployment; the right to form and to join trade unions; the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being; the right to education;
Communicating with human rights activists and researchers, artists who engage in the above-mentioned aspects of the human rights discourse will present their works or develop new works.
The project is co-organized by art institutions from six countries:
< rotor > association for contemporary art, Galerija ŠKUC, Ljubljana, g-mk | galerija miroslav kraljević, Zagreb, Trafó House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Faculty of Art and Design - JEPU, Ústí nad Labem, riesa efau / Motorenhalle, Dresden

Nebojša Milikić is an artist, researcher and cultural activist, who lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia. From 1996 - 2007 - organizational, artistic and curatorial practice in visual and relational arts; political and socially engaged artistic projects and actions; research projects and public campaigns targeting problems of social and political communities in transition; critical texts on politically charged cultural and artistic production; workshop moderator and lecturer at home and abroad.

Works in Cultural Center Rex (NGO) in Belgrade, as the coordinator for youth-related programs and the editor of YEAST, the youth web-magazine for culture and politics (www.rex.b92/kvasac).
Milikić will present some experiences from the projects Flux and KEF, projects that are commonly seen as innovative tools of democratization, decentralization and inclusion in cultural production.
FLUX is the project of distribution of contemporary artistic products and productions beyond the borders of the present system of production and presentation of art. It had its challenging spatial and temporal outreach with a quite inspiring outcomes (www.rex.b92.net/flux02)
The Short Electronic Forms Fair (KEF) is the project that tries to breach or ignore the borderlines between artistic and advertising practices. Its concept and content hold certain political potential but the question is which one(s)? (www.rex.b92.net/kef)

Bojana Piškur is a curator in Moderna galerija and a member of Radical Education. Bojana Piškur will discuss the revolutionary possibilities of a "moment", and the ways on how to prolong these points of creative spontaneity, which are revolutionary in their very nature and affect subjectivity in such a way that the new and subversive subjectivities could be constructed further on.

Marjetica Potrč is a Ljubljana-based artist and architect. Her work has been shown extensively around the world. Her on-site projects improve the relation between the individual and society. In 2005, she co-organized the LHE Lost Highway Expedition. Potrc has won several awards including the Hugo Boss Prize, the Guggenheim Museum New York
(2000), and the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics Fellowship at the New School, New York (2007). Marjetica Potrč will give a talk entitled Frontier Power comparing
three of her recent research projects: the Western Balkans (LHE), the Amazonian state of Acre in western Brazil, and the city of New Orleans. She will address how the breakdown of twentieth-century modernism is followed by territorialization, which stops at the final
frontiers of the human body and the structures that shelter it.

Reartikulacija is an art project by the group Reartikulacija. It is based on precise intervention logic; through contemporary theory, critic, art projects, activism and extreme organization it aims to intervene in Slovene, Balkan and international space. The platform allows networking with other critical, activist, theoretical and art subjects in Slovenia, Europe and worldwide, who are interested in the possibility to create and maintain a dialogue with concrete social and political spaces.
The presentation of Reartikulacija entitled Reartikulacija as a platform for extreme organization will rework the platform basis as the space of intervention in the social and political spheres with the idea to establish different political and theoretical practices for contemporary art seen as a social practice.
The logic of this space of intervention is a formulation of a contemporary discourse, which is not only limited to formal solutions but is based on research and application of new radical-critical strategies in terms of content.

TEMP is the name for an informal self-organised production network of groups and individuals, active between 2004 and 2007. They were organised heterogeneously and non-hierarchically, and continued to evolve and adapt to their action projects. They tried to maintain an organic and open structure of the network, which allowed them to seek new ways of participation and organization beyond the framework of institutions. Through such action they could 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, their method acted as a safeguard against political or personal abuse of their work.
They were interested in the disappearing public space in the broadest terms. They focused 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.

Adela Železnik, MA in Art History, is a senior curator for public programmes at the Moderna galerija, interested in contemporary visual art and in the ways how it is transferred, interpreted and contextualized to the publics.

Kosovo: art - education - politics
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 at 6 p.m.
Alkatraz gallery, Metelkova

You are invited to attend the fourth public discussion in the framework of the symposium Spaces in becoming organized by Radical Education / MG and Social Center Rog. More info at http://www.mg-lj.si/node/168

Spaces in becoming are not idealized projections of social emancipation disregarding the existing neoliberal trends and gentrification. On the other hand, we cannot speak of them only in terms of recuperation that immediately transforms independent artistic, cultural and other social initiatives into a market commodity for global consumption. These initiatives must be considered from within, one must think with them, remain constantly in touch with the local environment, and stay within the political context from which they emerge. Only thus can we make them stronger, expand them, and bring about new ones.

Kosovo: art - education - politics

Contemporary art in Kosovo emerged from the singular biopolitical situation (social exclusion, extreme segregation of ethnic groups, war violence, transnational interventions, etc.) that eventually led to a complete isolation and fragmentation of the society. Conversation with artists from the School of Missing Identity will provide a practical example of an independent artistic and educational initiative that touched on the complex and difficult topics of identity, ethnicity and nationalisms. The School of Missing Identity has influenced the contemporary art scene at large, and was an inspiration for creating the Rizoma Art Space. Nevertheless, the young generations of Kosovo artists share the argument that their context and their conditions have changed dramatically since 1999. For that reason Stacion, Center for Contemporary Art was founded in 2006. A series of cultural debates has created an interesting and important platform for addressing relevant topics and critical readings of contemporary art works. This discussion, proposed by contemporary artists, art and social critics from Kosovo, will be based on three practical examples. The participants will attempt to connect the arts, activism and education, focusing on alternative education, political participation, and the meaning of emancipation in the arts.

Participants: Mehmet Behluli, Sezgin Boynik, Gani Llalloshi, Dren Maliqi, Shkelzen Maliqi.

Moderator: Sezgin Boynik

Concept and contact persons for the symposium:
Gašper Kralj, gasperkralj@yahoo.com
Bojana Piškur, bojana.piskur@mg-lj.si

The debate will be in English.

The symposium is organized by Radical Education / MG and Social Center Rog.

PARTICIPANTS

Mehmet Behluli is an artist and professor at the Prishtina Academy of Fine Arts. He is one of the founders of the School of Missing Identity and of the Rizoma gallery in Prishtina.

Sezgin Boynik is a sociologist researching phenomena such as underground movements, punk, subversive and radical politics, nationalisms and how they are related to visual arts. He is a professor at the University of Prishtina.

Gani Llalloshi is a painting graduate (1989) from Prishtina; he later also graduated in graphics and painting in Ljubljana. He resides in Piran.

Dren Maliqi is a young artist from Prishtina. His work Face to Face recently provoked an extreme reaction when it was exhibited in Kontekst Gallery in Belgrade; the reaction resulted in polemic discussion of the role and significance of politics in art.

Shkelzen Maliqi is a philosopher, political analyst, art critic and journalist from Prishtina. At the beginning of the 90s, he was one of the founders of the Social-Democratic Party of Kosovo and its president between 1991 and 1993. He has published numerous books and articles in various Kosovar and international media.

This debate is supported by the Kosovo Open Foundation.

Program of the symposium:
1. Resistance as creation (Monday, 21 April)
2. Thinking politics: Current issues in political activism (Saturday, 3 May)
3. (Im)possible spaces of art (Saturday, 10 May)
4. Kosovo: art - education - politics (Wednesday, 14 May)


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