Workshop and exhibition moderated by the House of World Cultures, Berlin

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ON THE INTERNET PLATFORM EUROPE NOW/EUROPE NEXT : http://www.europe.culturebase.net

Starts: Feb 19, 2007 14:00

Ends: Feb 20, 2007 18:00

Within the framework of the 'Europe NOW/Europe NEXT' (a culturebase.net project conducted -- in cooperation -- by the Baltic Sea Culture Centre, the Danish Center for Culture and Development, the House of World Cultures, Intercult and Visiting Arts and developed with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union):

Europe NOW/Europe NEXT aims to provide a space in which a multi-lateral intercultural dialogue can take place that transcends national boundaries and national debates, and examines, acknowledges as well as celebrates the contribution of all of the diverse communities of Europe to the cultural heritage of Europe NOW.

Europe NEXT is concerned with how the shared European values of democracy, justice and human rights find expression in the practice of artists and the work of cultural institutions. It facilitates a dialogue between new EU states, prospective EU members, and the EU's neighbouring countries (such as Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia and the Middle East).
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Detailed description:
CULTURAL VERSUS NATIONAL BORDERS
ENCOUNTER, AS PART OF THE PROJECT EUROPE NOW | EUROPE NEXT
http://www.europe.culturebase.net

FEBRUARY 19-20, 2007
Organised by the House of World Cultures, Berlin
Location: Collegium Budapest, Szentháromság u. 2, 1014 Budapest
Free admission
Please register at the phone number: 2248 315 or via e-mail to tunde@colbud.hu.
Conference language: English

After years in which the status quo in post war Europe had remained rigidly frozen, dividing the continent into two halves, West and East, Europe has been in a state of constant motion for almost two decades. Like in a "continental drift", political systems have been changing, wars and conflicts have erupted, borders have shifted, and our notions of West and East, centre and periphery, inside and outside, have changed constantly. Just in these days we are facing another change of EU borders with the new member states Bulgaria and Romania.

These developments have led to new dialogues, especially in the centre of Europe. New and new old geographic-cultural alliances and identities have become a main issue. Multiple definitions of Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Eastern Europe, South Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, and the Balkans are circulating and will also be discussed in the future. Numerous projects have been staged in the cultural field that attempt to link the former West with the former East (e.g. exhibitions like Europa, Europa, Aspects/Positions, After the Wall, East Art Map and many others), sometimes being criticised for not taking into account the different histories of European countries and areas, as well as the different circumstances under which culture was produced before and after WWII.

In the encounter CULTURAL VERSUS NATIONAL BORDERS, organised by the HOUSE OF WORLD CULTURES as part of the project Europe NOW / Europe NEXT, artists, writers, and intellectuals from various disciplines will be taking part in a creative dialogue about the present and a future Europe. The aim of this encounter is to open up new perspectives and start new discussions while trying to avoid over-used buzzwords and focusing on artistic contributions by looking at European processes in unbiased, independent and provocative ways.

Topics that may be discussed during the encounter include:

SPACE
- BORDERS. How do artists deal with borders - in geography, language, politics, religion, economics, and in the freedom of artistic expression?
- SPACE. How has the notion of space (spatial turn) attained a new significance over the last two decades? How does it affect the work of artists, writers and intellectuals? Do they create alternative 'cultural' spaces, which differ from geographical spaces defined by national borders? How do they deal with language, identity, nationality, zones and borders?
- VIRTUAL SPACE. The new and seemingly borderless space of the virtual sphere opens up new possibilities for border crossing; online communities emerge, allowing new kinds of identification. How has this virtual reality changed our notion of borders and cultural practice, and how does it affect the work of artists?
- MENTAL SPACE. Do such trans-national spaces arise that are defined by a mental attitude in which humour, irony, self-mockery, but, for example, also frustration, play a vital role?
- LOST TERRITORIES. How do artists deal with the intellectual, psychic and physical remains of political entities that no longer exist, but once provided an identity (GDR, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia)?
- ACCESS. How does the process of the European unification grant artists access to the international art system, facilitate the freedom to work in different countries, and access to European support?

TIME
- PAST, PRESENCE, FUTURE. How do we deal with our various difficult pasts and with our MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS on them? 20 years ago, the idea of a European Union, including countries of the former Warsaw Pact, was a complete utopia. But what does it look like today? Is there a common vision of the future?
- UTOPIAS. Is the idea of a United States of Europe - with different languages, horizons, life styles and economic situations - still utopian? How do artists deal with the aspect of European Utopias today?
- GENERATIONS. How many generations will it take to create a European identity - and CAN it be created at all?
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IDENTITY
- Have new identities been shaped through the process of European Unification? Europeanism versus nationalism - or does Europeanism foster nationalism? Is there a desire for a European identity - and if so, what might be the essence of this identity?
- LANGUAGE. Should Europeans share a common language? What should this language be? Do languages manifest national borders?
- ETHNIC MINORITIES/MIGRANTS/RELIGIOUS GROUPS. Groups (like Sinti and Roma) exist across national borders: how does NEW Europe affect their identities and how do artists deal with this topic?

Sixteen European artists, writers, intellectuals and scholars will examine some of these topics in very different ways: by presenting an artwork or a performance, by giving a literary or a theoretical statement. Their statements will be posted on the online platform of Europe NOW / Europe NEXT as of 20 January 2007. An international call for participation will invite anyone interested to comment on these statements.
Some of these comments, as well as the original statements, will be presented by the authors at a live encounter in Budapest on 19-20 February 2007.
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Europe NOW / Europe NEXT will enable participants to meet one another and to question, debate and interact online as well as in live encounters. Latest web technologies will allow artists and managers to post their contributions on the online platform of Europe NOW / Europe NEXT under http://www.europe.culturebase.net and to follow up on the discussions initiated during the live encounters. The project aims to provide a space in which a multilateral intercultural dialogue can take place that examines, acknowledges and celebrates the contribution made by everyone to the diverse communities of Europe NOW and NEXT.
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Participants:

Eugenijus Alisanka, poet, LT
Łukasz Skąpski (Azorro), artist, PL
Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, art critic and curator, D
Maja Fowkes and Dr. Reuben Fowkes, art historians and curators, UK
Szabolcs KissPál, artist, HU
Gergely László, artist, HU
László Márton, author, HU
Miran Mohar (IRWIN), artist, Map, SL
Tanja Ostojic, artist, YUG
Péter Rákosi, artist, HU
Katarina Sevic, artist, HU
Péter Szabó, artist, RO/HU
Csaba Szentesi, artist, HU
Tamás St. Auby, artist, HU
Ales Steger, poet, SL
Lidia Varbanova, researcher, art manager, consultant, NL, BL, CAN

Moderation:
Barnabás Bencsik, curator, HU
Dessy Gavrilova, curator, director of the Red House Sofia, BL
Zsófia Lóránd, research fellow, HU

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Monday, February 19, 2007

15.00
Introduction:
Dr. Bernd Scherer, director, House of World Cultures, D
Eva Stein, editor Internet projects, House of World Cultures, D
Petra Stegmann, art historian and curator, D

SPACE
Moderation: Barnabás Bencsik
Miran Mohar (IRWIN): "East Art Map"
Yilmaz Dziewior: "Liminal Spaces"

17.00 Break

17.30
TIME
Moderation: Zsófia Lóránd
László Márton, lecture
Ales Steger, poetry reading
Eugenijus Alisanka, poetry reading


Tuesday, February 20, 2007

10.00
SPACE
Moderation: Barnabás Bencsik
Lidia Varbanova: European Cultural Cooperation online: Between the Demand and Supply factors
Tamás St. Auby, presentation of "NEWNEEFLUGREEZ"
Gergely László, Katarina Sevic: "Home Museum"
Csaba Szentesi, "Dutch-german imported clothes by weight"
Péter Szabó, "Solarom"

12.30 Lunch break

14.00
IDENTITY
Moderation: Dessy Gavrilova
Łukasz Skąpski (Azorro): "Pyxis systematis domestici quod video dicitur"
Gergely László, Péter Rákosi: "Group photographs of the Roma population in Lak, Hungary"

16.30
Tanja Ostojic: work presentation
Maja and Reuben Fowkes: "Art in the Age of Global Warming"
Szabolcs KissPál: "Rever" installations, video performance "Grey"

18.45
Final Discussion

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In cooperation with Collegium Budapest, Hungarian Lettre Internationale and signandsight.com.
Kindly supported by Goethe Institut Budapest and The Museum of Literature Petőfi.
The project Europe Now | Europe Next is supported by the European Union through the Culture 2000 fund.


Concept: Eva Stein, Petra Stegmann

Contact
House of World Cultures, Berlin
http://www.hkw.de
Eva Stein
stein@hkw.de

Collegium Budapest
Tünde Szabolcs
tunde@colbud.hu