[spectre] THE SABOTAGE MONUMENT

[geert lovink]

 THE SABOTAGE MONUMENT
Alien creator HR GIGER designs the "Sabotage" Sculpture.

watch the pics: http://sabotage.at/sos/sculpture.php

State of Sabotage

- August 30, 2003, 1PM: State Formation on Harakka Island, Finland
- Amorph! Festival - "Summit of Micronations" August 29-31, 2003
- SoS: MindState & State Art

On August 30, 2003, during the "Micronations" Festival on the uninhabited
Finnish island of Harakka just off of Helsinki, Sabotage Communications will
declare itself a state and change its name to "SoS - State of Sabotage."

First started by artist Robert Jelinek as a project in 1992, in operation
since 1994 as an international music and art label, collective and
organization, Sabotage now, in 2003, draws its own artistic conclusions and
declares itself a state - a state in time, with its citizens' territories
constantly growing, but without the demarcation of national borders.
Everyone can own an SoS passport and enjoy the status of an SoS citizen. SoS
is a physically vital collective body, installed in real daily social and
political space. It is a growing organism whose dynamics, spirit and
diversity are shaped by the citizens themselves.

Amorph! Festival / Helsinki, August 29-31, 2003

»Summit of Micronations«

>From August 29th to 31st , "Amorph!," the most important and influential
performance festival of Europe, will take place in Helsinki. This year's
theme is "Micronations" and the festival will deal performatively with
mini-states, artistic state models, utopias and visions. Fitting to the
theme, the festival was relocated to the uninhabited island of Harakka, just
100 meters off of Helsinki. During this first-time three-day international
summit of mini-states on the island, conferences, presentations,
proclamations and performances will be presented of and by representatives
of the individual micronations.

Participants:

The Principality of Sealand, NSK State (including the band Laibach),
Transnational Republic, Ladonia, Kingdoms of Elgaland & Vargaland, State of
Sabotage.

www.muu.fi/amorph03/

STATE OF SABOTAGE - State Formation
Date: August 30, 2003, 1:00pm
Location: Highest point of Harakka Island

www.muu.fi/amorph03/program.html#embassies

Inaugural ceremony and unveiling of the "Sabotage" sculpture by HR GIGER and
ROBERT JELINEK. Musical accompaniment and live act by PHILIPP QUEHENBERGER.

www.muu.fi/amorph03/micronations/sos.html

"SABOTAGE" sculpture manifesto by HR GIGER

The word "sabotage" comes from the French word "sabot" and means "to trample
with wooden shoes." A sabot is a clog with a leather top. At the beginning
of agricultural mechanization French farm workers threw their "sabotes" into
harvesting and processing machines (which were taking their jobs), thereby
blocking the complicated mechanics of the mowing and threshing machines and
rendering them useless. For the sake of their labor, they engaged in
"sabotage."

The State of Sabotage is manifested in a unique sculpture that serves as a
monument to artistic vision, territorial free spaces and independencies.
Sabotage mastermind Robert Jelinek invited the Swiss visionary artist H.R.
Giger to design the sculpture. H.R. Giger's sculpture model consists of a
pair of shoes cast in an iron/copper form and welded to a metal base. The
sculpture will be installed at the highest point of Harakka Island. Visitors
to the island can step into the shoes and, by wearing them, comprehend the
island as space and merge with the ground. The unveiling of the sculpture
will be accompanied by a musical live act by Philipp Quehenberger. The
sculpture will remain forever on Harakka Island.

HR Giger is considered one of the last and most important representatives of
fantastic realism. The artist, born 1940 in Chur (Switzerland), discovered
the water pistol during the seventies, developed his typical style and in
the following years created his most famous pictures as well as the
large-format book Necronomicon, which served director Ridley Scott as a
visual template for Alien, the internationally successful film of 1979 that
also earned Giger an Oscar. Giger's record covers, which he created for
Debbie Harry and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, are now considered to be some of
the best in music history. Giger's neo-myths located in a bleak
technological world are known less from his groundbreaking paintbrush
originals than from wild adaptations, reproductions and plagiarisms at all
levels and branches of the cultural chain of production, whether whimsical
horror merchandise, music video accessories, bicep tattoos or cyber-games.
As a favorite child of pop culture, teen posters and biker-wear, Giger was
first recognized by "cultural studies" as a crossover phenomenon that could
not be more contemporary.

Giger designed sculptures and furniture environments over the course of his
entire career. Along with further film projects like Poltergeist II and
Species, Giger collaborated with drug guru Timothy Leary, the Viennese
actionist Günter Brus, and the surrealist Salvador Dal?. In 1998 Giger
opened his own museum in Chateau St. Germain in the Freiburg town of
Gruyeres, which presents his most important paintings and sculptures from
the last four decades.

www.hrgiger.com
www.giger.com

SoS - MindState & State Art

SoS rejects national borders, political dogmas, instrumentalization, and
religious fanaticism. Diplomacy is conducted through artistic sovereignty
and trans-nationality - art in state as a direct form of independent state
art. The territorial property or rented space of SoS citizens (apartments,
houses, offices, businesses, property, garages, etc.) is registered in the
electronic SoS embassy. The ground space (floor plan) is connected to other
SoS ground spaces, forming a whole represented in the internet by a
cartographic map. With each new citizen, the geographic and geo-physical
territory of the state grows. With an increase of citizens and their real
territories a virtual continent emerges in the process.

SoS - Self-organized State

At the beginning of 2004 a real piece of land (650 hectares) will be
purchased from "Bald Rock Bush Retreat" (35 km from Tenterfield / near Baron
Bay / East Australia) and placed at the disposal of SoS citizens and
utilized for projects. Additionally, the opening of temporary embassies
worldwide is planned.

For further information, contact:

SoS State Department & Embassy
Burggasse 100/4-5
1070 Vienna / Austria
Phone +43-1-5267436
Fax +43-1-5267644
you at sabotage.at
www.sabotage.at

Amorph! Festival
Organization: MUU RY
Nervanderinkatu 10,
00100 Helsinki, Finland
Phone +358-(0)9-625 972
Fax +358-(0)9-4368 6470
Amorph!03 producer Mirva Pulkkinen
amorph at muu.fi