[spectre] Fwd: "Lost in Transition" opens soon in Tallinn, Estonia

[Eric Kluitenberg]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Rael Artel" <rael at publicpreparation.org>
Date: July 18, 2011 23:05:48 GMT+02:00
To: pp at publicpreparation.org
Subject: "Lost in Transition" opens soon in Tallinn, Estonia
Reply-To: rael at publicpreparation.org


PRESS RELEASE 18.07.2011

Exhibition title: Lost in Transition
Framework: Your Periphery Is My Centre
Venue: CAME, Põhja 35, Tallinn, Estonia
Dates: Jul 22–Aug 28, 2011

Artists: Arnis Balcus (Riga), Alexei Gordin (Tallinn), Wojtek Doroszuk
(Krakow/Rouen), Ivan Jurica (Bratislava/Vienna), Flo Kasearu (Tallinn),
Gergely Laszlo & Katarina Ševic (Budapest), Zampa di Leone (according to
artist's words, from "the Arse of the Balkan"), Anna-Stina Treumund
(Tallinn), Katarina Zdjelar (Belgrad/Rotterdam)

Curator: Rael Artel (Pärnu)


Do you remember the Summer of 1991? Can you recall the weather? What did
you do on August 19th? How did you spend your evening? Where were you and
with whom, when you heard about the coup d'état in Kremlin, Moscow? What
did you say to your parents, friends and neighbors? What was announced on
public television? What was the atmosphere in general?

As of this summer, 20 years have passed since that week, when the
Socialist regime officially fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. The
attempt to preserve the monstrously dysfunctional system failed, and the
putsch delivered to it a deathblow, reorganizing the order of
nation-states and democracy in the geopolitical region of Eastern Europe.
Besides the change of political system, economic principles were even more
dramatically reshaped, from one extreme to another: from a state-operated
Socialist plan-economy to wild and heartless cowboy-capitalism. To name
this process, the term 'transitional economy' was used and 'privatization'
became one of its keywords. Privatization changed fundamentally the
relations between the state and its citizens, between the owners of the
means of production and the workers, between local and international
capital. With the reforms, previously held assumptions about valued and
legitimate ways of living, working and spending leisure time were
renovated, so to speak; reframed through the lens of Europe.

In the dominant historical-political discourse, the last decades are
perceived as a positive and progressive period, which, apart from the odd
difficulty, have improved the quality of life in all the nations in former
Eastern Europe. According to the understanding promoted in the mainstream,
we all became winners that very week in August 1991; “we” as a region of
democratic and independent nation-states, as well as "we" as private
individuals. It seems to me that the question of what we may have lost has
not been asked. And, after such a radical change in the surrounding
situation, are we still lost in the confusion introduced by these rapid
reforms?

The historical processes described above frame the subject of discussion
for "Lost in Transition", an international exhibition of contemporary art
that aims to collect and present a selection of critical perspectives on
the prevalent social realities and lifestyles generated and practiced in
former Eastern Europe 20 years after that fatal August day. Through this
assortment of works I wish to sketch out some characteristic developments
in the economic and social situation that have given rise to particular
sets of values and ways of living in the era of transition, both in
everyday life as well as in the art world. I see the medium of exhibition
not as a mere display of works for intellectual pleasure or exciting
leisure time, but as a proposition to discuss particular aspects of social
reality and power relations we face daily in this part of Europe.

"Lost in Transition" is a part of "Your Periphery Is My Centre", a series
of contemporary art presentations in various formats that examine
ambivalent aspects of the life in former Eastern Europe and its
neighboring regions.

The show is accompanied by publication: edited by Rael Artel, designed by
Jaan Evart, published by PP Publications, 64 pages, in Estonian and
English.

The exhibition is a part of official cultural program of Tallinn, European
Capital of Culture 2011.

The show takes place in the framework of the festival "Kultuuritolm 2011"
and as a part of the project "Your Periphery Is My Center".

Support: Eesti Kultuurkapital, Hungarian Embassy in Tallinn

More information:
Rael Artel
gsm: + 372 56 229 213
email: rael at publicpreparation.org
skype: raelartel