[spectre] Arte.Act [u]

[Geert Lovink [c]]

> From: "WYSPA" <wyspainfo at wp.pl>
>  
> ‘Arte.act: The Political Potential of Art’
> at Wyspa Institute of Art
> Event accompanying “Dockwatchers” exhibition
>   
> “Arte.act: The Political Potential of Art” a conference organized by 
> ‘Krytyka Polityczna’ (‘Political Critique’) and the Wyspa Institute of 
> Art
> Curators: Magda Pustola and Aneta Szylak
> Timing: September 3-4
> Place: Wyspa Institute of Art / Wyspa Progress Foundation
> Ul. Doki 1, building #145B
> 80-958 Gdansk, Poland
> Phone.: (+48) 691 916 601 / (+48 58) 320 4446
>  
> www.krytykapolityczna.pl
> www.wyspa.art.pl
>  
> ‘Krytyka Polityczna’, Warsaw-based quarterly, and The Wyspa Institute 
> of Art, located in the historic Gdansk Shipyard, welcomes an 
> international and interdisciplinary group of intellectuals, artists 
> and activists: Irit Rogoff, Stefan Nowotny, Therese Kaufmann, Aneta 
> Szylak, Waldemar Baraniewski, Dorota Monkiewicz, Adam Mazur, Lukasz 
> Ronduda, Benjamin Cope, Katarzyna Bratkowska, Kinga Dunin, Magda 
> Pustola, Slawomir Sierakowski, Maciej Gdula, Edwin Bendyk, Grzegorz 
> Klaman, Marek Sobczyk, Mateusz Falkowski, Konrad Pustola, Grupa 
> Twozywo,  Rene Lűck, the participants in the ‘Arte.act’ project. The 
> conference, preceded by the ‘Dockwatchers’ exhibition, is aimed at 
> verifying the subversive potential of art in contemporary Poland. 
> ‘Arte.act’ refers to politicization of culture, power relations 
> organizing the cultural field, and emancipatory character of artistic 
> activities.
>  
> As the appropriation of culture in Poland have been constantly 
> reinforced and have become highly destructive, Magda Pustola and Aneta 
> Szylak, the curators, want to reverse the process so that art can 
> seize politics. Together with other participants in the ‘Arte.act’ 
> project, they want to verify what is the real influence of art, and 
> whether it is worth thinking of art as an efficient instrument for 
> political action today.
>  
> Is art a pre- or non-political method of doing politics? Or just one 
> of the technologies of power, of regulatory techniques, with artists 
> as politicians’ direct competitors? Why everybody wants art to be 
> political? Is art able to create a space where political means 
> alternative, not instrumental? Happening alongside the official 
> celebrations of the 25th anniversary of Solidarity, the conference 
> intellectually comments on this one of the most symbolically and 
> politically charged events in Polish history. It uses works presented 
> at the ‘Dockwatchers’ exhibition as a direct point of departure for 
> the debate.
>  
> The funding has been provided by the Minister of Culture, The 
> Foundation of Janusz Palikot, Austrian Cultural Forum, the 
> Communication Unlimited advertisement agency,  Lot Polish Airlines, 
> Polmos Jozefow and the publishing house Słowo/obraz terytoria.