° 366 Liberation Rituals, 17 November - 15 December 2010<br><br><br>Opening: 16 November, 7 pm<br><br>Project curators: Margarethe Makovec and Anton Lederer <br><br>Participating artist: <br><br>Igor Grubic<br><br><br>366
Liberation Rituals. Every day, and at least a whole year long. The day
over the 365 days of a normal year not only hints at the extraordinary
quality of the project but already indicates the direction: one year is
not enough, it cannot be enough to liberate oneself. To free oneself
from the dominant thought patterns of contemporary society. And to
break free towards new thinking, towards new readings of our everyday
surroundings. Using art. To leave the space of art, this protected
field, and to enter into a dialogue with a reality that is constantly
being redefined by our contemporaries. To try to intervene in reality
through an artistic language. The colour red. To focus on symbols and
texts of critical thinking. To keep down the costs of the individual
interventions while at the same time creating as much meaning as
possible. In a European country to establish references back to its
socialist past. To disobey 366 times.<br>
<br><br>Information on the artist:<br><br>Igor Grubic<br><br>Red fountain<br><br>On
the day of the official visit of the U.S. President George W. Bush to
Croatia, in front of the National Bank of Croatia at the Croatian
Nobles Square (where also the International Monetary Fund offices are
situated) I coloured the water in the fountain blood red, symbolically
alluding to the blood of the victims of Bush’s international policy as
well as protesting against the IMF policy. The action of colouring the
fountain was carried out as an illegal action, despite strong security
measures and a large number of police officers monitoring the square as
well as the circulation of citizens. The action also served as a direct
provocation to the atmosphere of an emergency-like state in the country
during Bush’s visit, as well as the regulation of public space and
citizens’ behaviour, ranging from subservient cleaning of parks to
welcome the American president, up to covering up and neutralizing any
attempt of expressing criticism and resistance.<br>
<br>Scarves and monuments<br><br>By placing scarves on monuments, I
aimed at reviving them and giving them an aura of active fighters in
our everyday life. Placing the scarves on monuments was often done at
the same time as “Little quotes lessons”. Both actions were carried out
with the aim of awakening and questioning (the impact of) our cultural
and political heritage. I placed the scarves on monuments to heroes of
the anti-fascist movement.<br>
<br>Bicycle and flag<br><br>“Under all those flags that fly... one day I accidently found a way... I am free...”. (from a song by Haustor)<br><br>I
wrapped the Croatian flag around its pole and around it I tied an
unmarked red cloth. With this act I wanted to symbolically strip the
state flag of its meaning. At the break of dawn I drove around the city
on a bicycle, as a ‘phantom of freedom’. I managed to bring a smile to
the faces of sleepy commuters on their way to work.<br>
<br><br>Christmas trees<br><br>Several days after New Year’s
celebration, I would walk around different city districts in the
morning, looking for Christmas trees that had been thrown out as
garbage. I walked around neighbourhoods representing different social
structures: middle-class, elite, as well as barracks where homeless
people live. I put red baubles and a red star on top of the trees that
I came across, suggesting a potential unity in a celebratory nostalgia
for the past times.<br>
<br><br><br>° Series of seminars and workshops by Gülsen Bal and Igor Grubic<br><br>„System Errors“...<br><br>Dates: 9 - 19 November<br><br>Location: Institut für Kunst und Gestaltung, TU Wien and Open Space<br><br>Language: English<br>
<br>Critical practice that builds upon the mapping of the creative
moment of thinking differently implies an awareness of the mechanisms
of methodology and the interaction of different planes of practice.
What different kinds of engagement and encounters can thus arise from
the possibilities and limitations of multi-directional models of
curating that situate themselves at the edge of spaces of production?
The hereby emerging new “models of production” call for an expanded
notion of what creative practice is or could be. Certainly, this is to
realise that one of the potentialities of art – understood as an
activity of creatively interacting with the world – lies in exploring
the complexities surrounding the “production of subject.” Furthermore,
as O’Sullivan points out, critical practice today faces the
fundamentally political question of “where are the dissenting/creative
subjects of today? And how are they being produced?”<br>
<br>To address potential “models of production” of contemporary
artistic practice in relation to these dynamics, the artist Igor Grubic
will run a three days workshop conceived in dialogue with his
installation work 366 liberation rituals at Open Space – Zentrum für
Kunstprojekte. This installation forms part of the project System
Errors, a series of micro-political actions and interventions performed
by the artist on an almost daily basis seeking to disturb or
rearticulate the cultural meanings of acts of power.<br>
<br>To underpin these concerns, the course will provide an introduction
by Gülsen Bal, the founding director of Open Space, to the current
discursive shifts occurring within contemporary creative practice and
future perspectives these new crossovers between art and politics may
produce.<br>
<br>This seminars and workshops will be held in English.<br><br>For more information see:<br><br><a href="http://www.openspace-zkp.org/2010/en/events.php?y=2010&p=40" target="_blank">http://www.openspace-zkp.org/2010/en/events.php?y=2010&p=40</a><br>
<a href="http://twoday.tuwien.ac.at/vcu/topics/8+System+Errors" target="_blank">http://twoday.tuwien.ac.at/vcu/topics/8+System+Errors</a><br><br><br>supported by:<br><br>BM:UKK <br>Stadt Wien - Kulturabteilung MA 7<br><br>
We
would like to thank our colleagues from Zagreb Ivana Bago and Antonia
Maja_a who have cooperated with us within the framework of the
long-term project Land of Human Rights and who have made possible the
366 Liberation Rituals by Igor Grubic on the part of the g-mk |
galerija miroslav kraljevic.<br>
<br><br>° About us:<br>Open Friday, Saturday 13.00 - 18.30 and open for the rest of the week days by appointment only. <br>Admission free <br><br>Open Space<br>Zentrum für Kunstprojekte<br>Lassingleithnerplatz 2<br>A- 1020 Vienna<br>
Austria<br><br>(+43) 699 115 286 32 <br><br>for more info: <a href="mailto:office@openspace-zkp.org" target="_blank">office@openspace-zkp.org</a> <br><br><a href="http://www.openspace-zkp.org/" target="_blank">http://www.openspace-zkp.org</a><br>
<br>Open
Space - Zentrum für Kunstprojekte aims to create the most vital
facilities for art concerned with contributing a model strategy for
cross-border and interregional projects on the basis of improving new
approach.