Wyspa Institute of Art 22.01.2010, 12:00

Jan. 22 installation of Linda Pollack “Habeas Lounge” will fill up the last time within the confines of exhibition “The Political Designers”. "Serving the common meetings, discussions and debates Pollack’s work can lead multifaceted dialogue of issues concerning democracy and the ways it works.

his time, invited guests will be the curators of four sections included in the project "Re-Designing the East: Political Design in Asia and Europe" - Iris Dressler (Germany), Keiko Sei (Thailand), Nikolett Eross (Hungary), Maks Bochenek (Poland). This is an opportunity to summarize existing research on the resistance movements and the art actions changing and shaping the political systems in some countries in Europe and Asia. On the red couch, you can listen to presentations on problems and phenomenas related to the theme of policy and design and participate in special workshops conducted and prepared specially for the exhibition " Political Designers " by Jacek Niegoda.

ProgramMe

12:00
Keiko Sei

Since 2006 coup d’etat, Thailand has been on interenational political map, which is not usually associated with the tourists’ paradise. The April-May crisis in 2010 has confirmed the situation deteriorating and becoming more complex. People that watch news from Thailand may notice that it is somewhat color-coded, especially Yellow and Red, the colors that symbolize the two main camps of the political stage. Representing different classes and regions, each of them has created distinctive aesthetic in their activism. In my talk I will present this phenomen, as well as professionals’ works that respond to the situation.

Keiko Sei - writer, curator, and advocate of independent media. After working as a video curator in Japan since the early 1980s, running an organization for videoart and independent video, she has moved to Eastern Europe in 1988 to research the communist bloc media scene. Since 2002 she has been based in Bangkok to continue her research on independent media in Southeast Asia, especially Burma where she founded the Myanmar Moving Image Center in 2003. She was editor of documenta 12 magazines project (2006–2007).

13:00
Maks Bochenek

In 1975, representatives of the countries of Europe, the United States and Canada have adopted the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. On this occasion, and that same year a Polish artist Hubert Hilscher created a poster commemorating the Polish participation in the CSCE. In 2007, Jacek Niegoda used to Hilscher’s work as a citation to the instructions he’s created health and safety activists in the culture of working in post-industrial areas. Poster of Hilscher and instructions developed by Niegoda pond indicate the period of 30 years, during which the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - transformed and institutionalized in the 1994 of the CSCE) aimed among others about leveling the economic and equitable access to culture in Eastern Europe. The presentation will focus on the Loaf of assumptions and achievements of the programs in the context of OSCE activities in the Gdansk Shipyard.

Maks Bochenek - curator, art historian. Since 2005 he has worked at the Wyspa Art Institute. Curator of exhibitions such as "Schoenberg", "The Shalter " "In Camera", "Political designers. "

14:00
Lunch

14:30
Jacek Niegoda

Europe - Poland, security and cooperation. Occupational safety and health of workers’ post-regeneration territories. Practical exercises. A brief physical training in enhancing the independent attitude of non-institutional cultural activities.

Jacek Niegoda - He studied at the Sculpture Department of Fine Arts in Gdansk, prof. Grzegorz Klaman and professor in the Laboratory of Intermedia. Witosław Czerwonka (1991-98). Collaborated with the Wyspa Gallery and the Open Atelier (later Łaźnia Contemporary Art Center) in Gdansk. In 1995, together with Mikołaj Robert Jurkowski, Rafał Ewertnowski, Piotr Wyrzykowski, Maciej Sienkiewicz and Artur Kozdrowski founded the Central Office of Technical Culture (CUKT). In 2000 he was one of the originators and authors of the project and form Cukt Victoria - a virtual candidate for the Polish president. His works are in collections of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Łódź. In its embodiments refers to the relationship between power, technology, art.

15:30
Iris Dressler

During the development of the exhibition “Re-Designing the East. Political Design in Asia and Europe” (Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, September 25, 2010 – January 9, 2011), which reflects critical and resistive design practices in (Eastern) Europe and (South/Eastern) Asia, the city of Stuttgart went through a radical politization of its citizens. The conflict is about a huge project of urban and traffic development, called “Stuttgart 21”, whose relation between public costs and public effects is highly unbalanced. The basic critic of the protesters is directed against the intransparency of the project’s development, the exclusion of the voice of the citizens, the hierarchical structure of the regional political system and its dense entanglement with investors’ and private economy’s interests.
From the end of 2009 on the conflict – which is almost 20 years old – started to involve more and more citizens to publicly fight against this project. Since than, weekly demonstrations (during the summer 2010 even two demonstrations per week) with up to 100.000 people are taking place, and many many other events. The fence of a first building site of the project is used as a collective protest and information board, and via online platforms, workshops etc. people organized their own, independent ways of knowledge production concerning the whole issue as well as forms of protest.
Against this background, at a certain moment of the development of “Re-Designing the East”, it was clear to us, that it would be important to include a reflection on the current local resistance whose representation cultures were generated in quite a spontaneous, heterogeneous way. Finally, one section of the “Re-Design”-exhibition (which opened a little later) has been dedicated to the resistance against “Stuttgart 21”, entitled “The Art of Not Being Governed Like That“. It has been both, a part of „Re-Designing the East“ and independent from it. This experiment of relating global issues of resistance with local one’s turned out to be very fruitful. In my presentation I will focus on some aspects of this dialogu

Iris Dressler - She studied art history, philosophy, and literature in Marburg and Bochum. In 1996, she jointly founded with Hans D. Christ the Hartware MedienKunstverein in Dortmund, which she directed until 2004. From 2002–2004, she also served as free-lance Curator for Media Art at Dortmund’s Ostwall Museum. In 2003, she initiated the research project and symposium 404 Object Not Found: What Remains of Media Art?. Since 2005, she is co-director of the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart with Hans D. Christ. One of the main focuses here is to explore open and mulitperspectival forms of curating. Dressler has published numerous texts and also edited exhibition publications on contemporary art and artists.

Godz. 16:30
Nikolett Erősss

The presentation is about competing modes of rememberance, as they are on public view in the contemporary Budapest.
The two examples the presentation is based on – the Statue Park and the House of Terror – use different strategies of staging an epoch - with reluctancy in the one case and by offering a passionate environment in the other. However both ways avoid fostering the work of memory.

Nikolett Erősss -  curator, ran Trafo Gallery in Budapest between 2006-2010
Currently she works for the Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest .

17.30 End

An exhibition by:
Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk

in co-operation with:
Trafó Gallery, Budapest; Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart and Total Museum, Seoul




In conjunction with
In Charge. The Role of Political Designers in Transformation

Supported by
Erste Foundation, Vienna, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Dolnośląskie Towarzystwo Sztuk Pięknych

Main sponsor


This work has been funded with support from the European Commission. This
publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.