[spectre] in praise of enter6, Prague

[czegledy at interlog.com]

Dear Yasminers,

This a dispatch from Prague in praise of Enter6:Biopolus
with appreciation to the organizers from CIANT, who
despite current financial restraints brought together
such an illuminating cluster of presentations for the ArtistTalk
Symposium and the CATCH Forum2013 as well as curated a
highly stimulating exhibition.

To quote the http://festival-enter.cz/2013/ website:
"Enter 6: Biopolis presents theory and practice based projects
addressing uncertainty of the division between natural and
artificial, novel approaches in interaction between body and
data.Let us ask together questions about future of life, ethics
of scientific intrusion into exclusivity of the nature. Last but
not least we will examine entanglement of our bodies and
technology."

Both the ArtistTalk Symposium and the CATCH Forum2013
provided a wide range of presentations. The many details are beyond
the scope of this report, however specific details are available
on the Enter6 website. Suffice to say that from the artist/scientist
Achilleas Kentonis' http://achilleas-kentonis.net/works.html
installation to the often whimsical HotKarot performances by the
Cancel group http://cancel356.tumblr.com/ a broad variety
of projects were described at the ArtistTalk Symposium. Due to
my interest in education, I have especially valued the presentation of
Coletras by Daniel Schwarz http://www.takomat.com/ on
technology enhanced learning through specific participatory
games.

Andrej Boleslavsky, curator of the exhibition and co-organizer
of the festival, admitted (when I inquired about his curatorial
concept for the exhibition) that he is "fascinated by nature created
by man - or in other words, nature  modified by humans and effected
by technology." The theme of the human body & interaction  between
the body & disabilities, posed complex keywords for matching ideas
and works for the show. Selection of the artists/artworks was made
especially difficult with zero local funding, however instead of
cancelling the show, they managed to curate and present the
exhibition featuring in addition to international works many
Czech artists.  Boleslavsky finds Bulletproof Skin by Jalila
Essaidi http://jalilaessaidi.com/ and Pulse by Markus Kison
http://www.markuskison.de/  especially revealing.

Michal Misa -who considers himself producer/manager at CIANT
talked to me about the short preparation time, which makes the
project even more impressive. The exhibition/forum selection is based
partly on open call and partly by invitation  - with thought provoking
results.

CATCH Forum2013 offered such a diversity of presentations ranging
from the mechanics of the Verticalizer, to Imagineering by Richard
Kriesche, to An alive Art: the handicap by Louis Bec, to Dance and
handicap projects in the Czech Republic, to  Remote Life: Understanding
Users of Motion Picture Playing devices by Attila Nemes
-that I find it impossible to itemize these in great detail.

While the rich condensed program was a bit difficult to process,
- many thanks for the great events and special thanks to Pavel
Smetana,  Pavel Sedlak, Andrej Boleslavsky and Michal Masa and the
CIANT Team, who made all of this possible.

best regards

nina czegledy