[spectre] Fwd: Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009 ’ Sofia Launch Event

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009
18th and 19th September

Organized by InterSpace, Sofia

Hosted by Goethe-Institut
Bulgarien, Sofia
<http://www.transitland.eu/>http://www.transitland.eu/

Transitland. Video Art from Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2009 - 
Sofia Launch Event


The collaborative archiving project Transitland, realized on the 
occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 
launches with a comprehensive website and a series of discussions and 
screenings in Sofia, followed by events in Budapest and Berlin. It 
presents a selection of 100 single-channel video works, produced in 
the period 1989-2009 and reflecting the transformations in 
post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. The selection of works was 
made by an international jury from 350 videos, proposed by 40 
nominators - curators, art critics and artists.

The project focuses on an extensive and turbulent time and space 
span. The territory of "Transitland" is quite close to being a half 
of Europe - population and territory wise. Once called as the 
"Eastern bloc" without further specification, it was conceived as 
somewhat homogeneous, dark side of Europe behind the Iron Curtain. 
Central and Eastern Europe with different sub-regions now covers 24 
post-socialist European countries. Twenty years ago this territory 
belonged to only 9 states.

Transitland is not only the widest-spanning presentation of video art 
from Central and Eastern Europe but also a unique attempt to address 
and reflect upon an extensive period of transformation and changes. 
The mere breadth of time and geography and the complexity of the 
transition process are still beyond perception not only from outside 
but also within the region. Besides the numerous discursive and 
documentary attempts to describe, analyze and contextualize the 
transformations, a multitude of viewpoints and aspects, presented 
through the media of video art are meant to provide a unique asset of 
aesthetic and critical positions to the current discourse on the 
transition period.

The Sofia launch event features discussion panels and a series of 
screenings. The first discussion panel addresses the question of 
expectations right after the Fall of the Wall, the second one traces 
what actually was happening in those 20 years and the third - leads 
to the ultimate question where we are heading now. It gathers artists 
and curators with personal curiosity, first-hand experience and 
intellectual engagement with the transition period in Central and 
Eastern Europe. A series of screenings and discursive events will be 
taking place in Budapest organized by the Agency for Contemporary Art 
Exchange and the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in the following 
months. In Berlin the project will be premiered by transmediale 
festival for digital arts and culture from 6th to 8th November at 
Collegium Hungaricum Berlin. Further presentations of the archive are 
being planned for 2010.

Transitland is realized by InterSpace Association Sofia, transmediale 
festival for art and digital culture berlin and Agency for 
Contemporary Art Exchange and Ludwig Museum-Museum of Contemporary 
Art Budapest, with associated partners D Media, Cluj and Videoaktiv, 
Berlin.

It was made possible with support from Culture 2007-2013 Programme, 
the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, the 
European Cultural Foundation, the Culture programme of Sofia 
Municipality and the Hungarian Cultural Fund.