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ITALIANO | 10 11 2015 November 6,7,8: Fight-Specific Isola - Isola Utopia in Medellin, Colombia |
27 10 2015 25.10.: Encounter with Kunsthaus Graz, Austria and the House of Architecture Graz |
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10 11 2015 November 6,7,8: Fight-Specific Isola - Isola Utopia in Medellin, Colombia MDE15 Local Stories / Global Practices Intersecciones entre arte + espacio público + trabajo comunitario + gentrificación + autogestión. November 6, 7 and 8: Opening of MDE15 in the ANTI-OQUIA museum, the Casa Tres Patios, the Anfiriones del Eventos space and in other parts of the city. In the context of the project MDE15, Bert Theis, artist in residence at the C3P during the month of November 2015 presents Fight-Specific Isola & Isola Utopia with Isola Art Center with Angelo Castucci, Emanuel Balbinot, Paola di Bello, Corrado Foffi, Edna Gee, Isabell Lorey, Nikolay Oleynikov, Dan Perjovschi, Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi, SerioCollective, Mariette Schiltz, Camilla Topuntoli, Nikola Uzunovski. ANTI-OQUIA Casa Tres Patios, Medellin, Colombia Opening 6 Novembre 2015 MDE15: International Art Encounter of Medellín October 2015–February 2016 www.museodeantioquia.co The MDE has been an important platform for exchange between Colombian and international art, organized by the Museo de Antioquia (Medellin, Colombia). It is an event that activates the city’s cultural life every four years and in 2015 arrives to its third edition, after MDE07 and MDE11. For the 2015 edition, the theme of Local Stories / Global Practices has been conceived to create a space of reflection and engagement with the recent transformation of Medellin since the turn of the millennium. Medellin—considered to be a progressive Latin American city that has implemented innovative programs to stimulate social and urban transformations is part of a larger picture. While change and transformation in the city is real and tangible, the dynamics generated by these changes are particularly complex from an ethical standpoint. We propose to focus on these processes of change through commissioned projects, works of artists and artist collectives as well as other socially oriented initiatives, in order to understand their implications. MDE15 inserts itself in the social fabric of the city while sharing stories, experiences and practices from elsewhere in the world. The stories that result from observations and from the direct experiences of people in communities often address the coping mechanisms that are required to survive and flourish amid those changes, which often occur at a pace that outstrips the citizens and society’s ability to assimilate them. Changes can illicit psychological, physical and social responses that range from issues of trust and security to economic well-being. It is in this context and in the context of an art world in which the definition of artistic practice is constantly being changed that the MDE15 unfolds. MDE15 makes visible artistic processes that range from the production of conventional or exhibition work, to the results of community based practices that may not normally be considered suitable for viewing in traditional exhibition venues. One challenge of this curatorial project is to validate both types of practices while recognizing their differences and potential. MDE15 opens a space for debate that aims at dealing with the unsaid and the less visible aspects of the everyday such as memory, the past and the persistence of structural problems. It also relies on the potential of art to harness the capacity of individual and collective imagination to re-signify complex situations. Curatorial team Artistic Director: Nydia Gutierrez, Chief Curator, Museo de Antioquia Curators: –Edi Muka, Curator of Public Art Agency, Sweden, former Director of Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art –Sharon Lerner, Curator of Contemporary Art, Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru –Fernando Escobar, independent artist and researcher, Bogota –Tony Evanko, Director of Casa Tres Patios, alternative art space, Medellin >>go to the event's page>
27 10 2015 25.10.: Encounter with Kunsthaus Graz, Austria and the House of Architecture Graz Kunsthaus Graz and HDA (Haus der Archtektur) Graz Sunday, October 25 Art & Architecture Program 10 clock: Isola Art Center, introduction by Bert Theis in the self-managed park Isola Pepe Verde. >>go to the event's page>
12 10 2015 16-18 ottobre 2015: Parabola Utopia. Isola Utopia in Casale Monferrato Parabola Utopia Isola Utopia in Casale Monferrato October 16-18, 2015Castello del Monferrato, Casale Monferrato Project presentation and public encounter The term “parabola” as taken from Greek and Latin means comparison, similarity, and a way to clarify a difficult idea by comparing it to a clearer one. Parabola Utopia is an unprecedented stage of Isola Utopia, project of artistic and theoretical research led by Isola Art Center since August 2014. Isola Art Center is a platform of contemporary art based in the neighborhood Isola in Milan. Isola Utopia explores the concept of Utopia in contemporary society - after the failure of so many utopias in the past or their transformations into dystopias – taking into account the co-existence of Marxist, feminist and ecologist utopias today. The project does not pretend develop a new "grand narrative" of utopia, but collects and presents fragments and moments created by various theorists and artists in the various stages of its delivery: in the small town San Mauro Cilento, Survival Kit-Utopian City in Riga, Latvia, during Utopian Pulse in the Vienna Secession, and in a more articulated way in the project of the self-organized community garden Isola Pepe Verde in Milan, as well as the occupied and self-managed factory Rimaflow in Milan. The project Isola Utopia involves artists, activists, and Italian and international researchers. At each stage new authors add reflections and productions. This way it gives form to a diverse collection of materials for new concrete utopias. In Casale Monferrato, among the other researches, we will dedicate special attention to the local architecture of the Paraboloid, so to the theme of utopian architecture and the utopia of flight in collaboration with the local flying club. Research and output of this experience, in the form of text and art produced by project participants, will be presented at the final public encounter on Sunday afternoon. We look forward to a productive exchange. Contributions by Alessandro Azzoni, Emanuel Balbinot, Daria Carmi, Antonio Cipriani, Angelo Castucci, Corrado Foffi, Edna Gee, Isabell Lorey, Giuliano Manselli, Tommaso Megale, Valentina Montisci, Isamit Morales, Nikolay Oleynikov, Edith Poirier, Gerald Raunig, Mariette Schiltz, Chiara Scolari, Mirko Smerdel, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, and others. ‘Only in us does this light still burn, and we are beginning a fantastic journey toward it, toward the implementation of the central concept of utopia. To find it, to find the right thing, for which it is worthy to live, to be organized, and to have time: that is why we go, why we cut new, metaphysically constitutive paths, summon what is not, build into the blue, and build ourselves into the blue, and there seek the true, the real, where the merely factual disappears – incipit vita nova.’ Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia Isola Art Center in collaboration with the City of Casale Monferrato >>go to the event's page>
18 09 2015 September 16: Book presentation at Grattacielo Pirelli September 16th, 2015 at 10.00 am SUL LIBRO (PER MILANO) (About the Book (for Milan) Interventions by: CARLO BERIZZI GIANNI BIONDILLO MARCO BIRAGHI PAOLO CAFFONI MARIA VITTORIA CAPITANUCCI EMANUELE GALESI e FILIPPO MINELLI introduced by Lorenzo Degli Esposti >>go to the facebook event's page> MILANO CAPITALE DEL MODERNO PADIGLIONE ARCHITETTURA EXPO 2015 BELLE ARTI BELVEDERE E. JANNACCI GRATTACIELO PIRELLI The meeting About the Book (for Milan) is moderated by Lorenzo Degli Esposti. The invited authors of recent publications about architecture in Milan will discuss the urban transformation of the recent years; Marco Biraghi participating co-author of the "Guida all’architettura di Milano 1954-2014" edited by Hoepli, Maria Vittoria Capitanucci author of "Milano Le nuove architetture" published by Skira, Carlo Berizzi author of "Milano Guida all’architettura" for DOM publishers, Emanuele Galesi and Filippo Minelli, authors of the 'Atlante dei Classici Padani" by Unità di Crisi, Paolo Caffoni coeditor of Archive Books and co-author of Fight-Specific Isola, Gianni Biondillo, architect and essayist from Milan, author of the novels featuring Inspector Ferraro set in Milan. >>Book presentation @Grattacielo Pirelli>
03 06 2015 June 12-14: Cultivating Utopia / Isola Pepe Verde – RiMaflow #2 Cultivating Utopia / Isola Pepe Verde – RiMaflow #2 12- 14 June 2015, from 10.00 RiMaflow Reclaimed Factory, Via Boccaccio 1, Trezzano sul Naviglio (Milan) On the occasion of the first festival of the metalworkers union FIOM-CGL, Milan, Isola Art Center presents the second appointment of the project Cultivating Utopia. The project is focused on the encounter and confrontation between two experiences of social reappropriation and construction of concrete utopias: the community garden Isola Pepe Verde and the reclaimed factory RiMaflow. Before and during the event, Italian and international artists, coordinated by Isola Art Center and along with the workers and activists of RiMaflow, will develop different projects specifically created for the factory space: Alessandro Azzoni (Milan), Piero Gilardi (Turin), Sara Marchesi (Milan), Nikolay Oleynikov (Moscow), Edith Poirier (Milan), Seriocollective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi, Milan) Nikola Uzunovski (Skopje-Bangkok). Cultivating Utopia is a project by Isola Art Center – Isola Utopia. >>>Cultivating Utopia 2
11 05 2015 Sunday, 17 May 2015, Cultivating Utopia / Isola Pepe Verde - RiMaflow Sunday, 17 May 2015, 11:00 – 20:00 Wednesday, 20 May 17: 00 – 20:30, with guided tours open to all. Community garden Isola Pepe Verde Via Pepe 10, Milan On the occasion of the Festival of Isola Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center in collaboration with NABA presents a project curated by Angelo Castucci, Sara Marchesi and Bert Theis With the particiation of: Alessandro Azzoni, Martina Brembati, Laura Burocco, Marina Viola Cavadini, Irene Coppola, Laura Corradi, Ruben De Sousa Pereira, Paola Di Bello, Edna Gee, Noy Jessica Laufer, Giulia Maiorano, Carlo Miele, Giulia Pellegrini, Francesco Pieraccini, Giovanna Repetto, Valentina Rigon, Seriocollective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi), Camilla Topuntoli, Marcella Toscani, Maria Cristina Zappa, Fabiola Zero. Special Guests: Dario Azzellini (Paris), Matteo Renzi (c/o Piero Gilardi, Turin), Nikolay Oleynikov (Moscow), Oliver Ressler (Vienna) Nikola Uzunovski (Skopje-Bangkok). One needs to distinguish the utopist from the utopians, or rather the abstract utopias from the concrete utopias (…) The utopist thought explores the impossible, while the utopian thought emanates the possible. Henri Lefebvre Isola Utopia presents two concrete utopias: the community garden Isola Pepe Verde and the self-managed factory RiMaflow! This year Isola Art Center is dedicating this double contribution to celebrate the birthday of the community garden Isola Pepe Verde, presenting “fight-specific” works and art projects created for these two contexts by Italian and international artists. The reclaimed factory RiMaflow is battling many difficulties in order to re-launch production with an ecological approach. Isola Pepe Verde is committed to render this green and self-organized social space in Via Pepe permanent. The space is still under threat as the terrain will remain a building area unless the Territorial Administration Plan is changed by the City Council. These two concrete utopias, already compared in an event at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan last December, share the conviction that utopia is not just a place of otherness, different from the now, but a process of re-inventing the present by questioning the pre-existing conditions, in order to build a real alternative. As Lewis Mumford wrote, “Two different kinds of utopias exist: utopias of escape and the utopias of reconstruction. The first leaves the external world the way it is; the second seeks to change it so that one may have intercourse with it on one's own terms”. Cultivating Utopia does not mean to merely affirm the fact that it is not found in an abstract future, nor is it to simply insist on the necessity to start a research and formulate a new theory of the possible. Instead it means to highlight how the seeds of utopia have already been cast, and how our task is to take care of the fruits that are already growing so that it can grow, spread and strengthen its roots. This is what unites the project of Isola Art Center, a different idea of the city, public space, and culture, and the fight of RiMaflow for a sustainable and horizontal production. Man has always walked with his feet firmly on the ground, but his head has always been in the clouds: the utopian present draws his strength from the imagination, an imagination so real that it will make us believe that we can even take flight. Isola Art Center in collaboration with NABA www.naba.it www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center
14 03 2015 19 March 2015: Beyond the Mirror at Piano Terra in Milan Beyond the Mirror Isola Art Center presents three short films and an open discussion. curated by Sara Marchesi with Chiara Balsamo, Seemab Gul, Mariette Schiltz, Duccio Scotini, Mike Watson. Thursday March 19, 2015 19.30-21.30 Off Topic / Piano Terra Via Confalonieri 3 Isola, Milan __________________ Il Presente Espanso / The Expanded Present, 2’44”, Italy, 2014, by Mariette Schiltz A City of the World (No Tav). 9'00", Italy 2013, by Chiara Balsamo and Duccio Scotini Towards a Militant Conceptualism 12'45", Great Britain, 2012, by Seemab Gul and Mike Watson Il Presente Espanso / The Expanded Present A Tiger’s Leap wrests shards shivers from the past, unfulfilled, failed and successful revolutionary practices, composes them in the present with new struggles, to invent case by case, constituent powers, new and better forms of conviviality. Isabell Lorey wrote the text “The Expanded Present” for Isola Utopia, in San Mauro Cilento, end of July 2014. Voiceover and translation: Steve Piccolo. Towards a Militant Conceptualism is a short film dealing with the political capacity of art in the contemporary world. The film explores personal experiences of protest, confronting agents of the State and questioning the origins of the law. It concludes with the proposal of art as a form of radical questioning which, in its mimesis of political processes can itself propose new social alternatives. A City of the World springs from a series of encounters which took place in Val di Susa (Italy) and reacts to the numerous arrests that affected the No Tav (No Speed Train) movement since 26 January 2012. Just as in the novel "The Cities of the World" by Elio Vittorini from which the text in the video is drawn - the city is understood an expression of a model of comunitarian living that lends itself to a political project.
23 02 2015 February 28 at 4 pm: Isola Utopia at the Rimaflow birhtday party Isola Utopia in the occupied and self-managed factory in the occasion of RiMaflow's second birthday party Saturday 28 February 2015, starting at 4 pm RiMaflow via Bocaccio 1 Trezzano sul Naviglio, Milan Artworks, video screening, silk-screen printing workshop, and more by Isola Art Center Collective, Dario Azzelini & Oliver Ressler, Emanuel Balbinot, Chiara Balsamo, Angelo Castucci, Orestis Mavroudis, Philippe Nathan, Dan Perjovschi, Mariette Schiltz, Duccio Scotini, Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi), Milena Steinmetzer, Camilla Topuntoli and others.
03 02 2015 04.02.2015: Corner College Fight-Specific Isola book launch with Paolo Caffoni 04.02.2015 18,00 Buchvernissage Fight-Specific Isola book launch Paolo Caffoni Corner College Kochstrasse 1 CH-8004 Zürich cornercollege@gmail.com Fight-Specific Isola traces the long history of the Isola area of Milan and the organic, spontaneous progress of the Isola Art Center over the past 12 years. Featuring texts and many images, the book tells the story of an artistic and urban transformation, led by artists, who often had to invent tools and concepts along the way. This publication serves as an example of how to act on the ground in today’s urban condition. Different narratives of history, artistic intervention and action allow the reader to trace the complex idea of collectivity, solidarity and fight-specificity. Testing new terms such as dirty cube and dispersed centre this book shows a possible way to respond to the constant pressure of neoliberal development and gentrification. Isola Art Center is an open, experimental platform for contemporary art based in Milan’s Isola neighborhood. It is powered by energy, enthusiasm and solidarity. Over the last decade Isola Art Center has confronted an urban situation marked by conflict and extensive transformations. Its projects continue to be ‘no-budget’, precarious, hyperlocal. Doing away with conventional hierarchical structures, Isola Art Center rhizomatically brings together Italian and international artists, critics and curators, artists’ collectives, activists, architects, researchers, students and neighborhood groups. Archive Books 144 pages 21.5 × 28 cm Format: Paperback Pages: 432 ISBN: 9783943620016 >>www.corner-college.com>
04 01 2015 December 19: Blind Date. Circolo Curiel, Luxembourg: RiMaflow doit vivre! Art, Occupation, Self-management, Production RiMaflow must live! Friday, December 19, 2014, from 18.00 Circolo Eugenio Curiel, 107 route d'Esch, Hollerich, Luxembourg. The factory "Maflow" with 300 workers is located in the periphery of Milan. They are building air conditioning systems for automobiles. In 2012 the factory is delocalized, the workers dismissed, the machines transported to Poland. A story like many others today in Europe. But this time it is different: The workers decide to occupy and self-manage the factory and to restart the production without their bosses. They also decide an ecological conversion of the production and focus on the recycling of products abandoned from the consumer society. They change the name of the factory in "RiMaflow." They bind to the territory by making the plant a "Citadel of alternative economy" with, among others, a recycling center, the sale of local equitable products, a music studio, an organic lemon liqueur factory. All in self-management. To begin a new phase of their project and their production, they urgently need an air compressor system for 15.000 euros. Isola Art Center wants to help them assemble rapidly the necessary amount for the project. To learn more about RiMaflow, we will screen the film in loop "Occupy Resist Produce RiMaflow" Dario and Oliver Ressler Azzelini (34'20 ", 2014, in Italian, subtitles in English) presented for the first time to the public by Isola Art Center in the Vienna Secession in September. An introduction to the film will be made by the art critic Karolina Markiewicz. In addition: at 20.00, video projection of the cycle "Isola Utopia"; "1968: Isola delle Rose" (4'22 ", 2014, eng / it), Philip Nathan and Milena Steinmetzer "Occupare Orizzonti (5'38", 2013, it) Camilla Topuntoli "Ape che vola" (45 ', 2014, it / eng) Roberto Baletti and the film "Formidable" (29 ", 2014, en / eng) Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron, a film about young refugees in Luxembourg selected for the Rencontres Internationales Paris / Gaité Lyrique. A project by Isola Art Center / Isola Utopia and RiMaflow coordinated by Rob Engel, Mariette Schiltz, Bert Theis, Karolina Markiewicz with Laurianne Bixhain, Maurizio Buongiovanni, Serge Ecker, Stina Fisch, Edna Gee, Piero Gilardi (Arte Povera) Philip Nathan, Nikolay Olenikov (group Chto Delat-What to do Russsie), Gilles Pegel, Pascal Piron, Claudia Passeri, Seriocollective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi), Milena Steinmetzer and many more ... >>go to the events page>
25 11 2014 December 3 at Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, with Claudio Zecchi 1-3 December 2014 Fabbrica del Vapore Via Procaccini 4, Milan Practices as an Intersection in a Fragile Environment curated by Claudio Zecchi is a three-day debate and reflection platform on the relation between art and activism through the analysis of the practices of artists, curators/critics, institutions up to intercept the role of the public and local communities in the process of construction of individual working dynamics. Three days of panel discussions with the parteciapation of: Fokus Grupa, Khaled Jarrar, gruppo a12, Francesca Guerisoli, Isola Art Center. “Isola Utopia: RiMaflow e Isola Pepe Verde, Utopie concrete” Isola Art Center (Bert Theis) will present a project entitled “Isola Utopia: RiMaflow e Isola Pepe Verde, Utopie concrete” as restitution of the path that began in July 2014 in San Mauro Cilento (Italy), producing a step in Riga at Survival Kit-Utopian City Festival and a development at the Secession in Vienna, Austria, with the title "Utopia Island, Fragments and Moments for new Utopias." Isola Utopia is a research project of the collective Isola Art Center opened with the presence of several local collaborators. Videos, songs, photographs, objects and texts presented in the different stages are some of the fragments produced or collected during the research process carried out so far. Isola Utopia: RiMaflow and Isola Pepe Verde, concrete Utopias A project by Isola Art Center Wednesday December 3, 2014 10.30 - 21.00 Fabbrica del Vapore Via Procaccini 4, Milan Program 10.30 - 17.00 - Isola Utopia Video (in loop) 1. Isola Utopia Revolution, 6’51’’, 2014, (it/eng), by Camilla Topuntoli 2. Isola Utopia Floating, 2’07’’, 2014, (it/eng), by Camilla Topuntoli 3. Isola Utopia Rising, 3’12’’, 2014, (it/eng), by Camilla Topuntoli 4. The Expanded Present, 2’44”, 2014 (it/eng), by Mariette Schiltz (text by Isabell Lorey, voiceover Steve Piccolo) 5. 1968: Isola delle Rose, 4'22", 2014, (eng/it), by Philippe Nathan & Milena Steinmetzer 6. Tentativo di tentativo di volo, 1’13’’ 2013, (it), by Angelo Castucci and Francesco Lomonaco 7. Isola Solar Cloud (by Nicola Uzunowski) 1’20’’, 2014, (it/eng), by Camilla Topuntoli 8. Attempt to fly, 5’00”, 2013, (it/eng), by Orestis Mavroudis 9. Ape che vola, 45’’, 2014, (it/eng), by Roberto Balletti 10.Culture don’t grow on trees, 5’39’’, 2014, (eng/it), by Emanuel Balbinot (with Angelo Castucci, Bert Theis, Flora Vannini, Wei-Ning Yang and Isola Art's Club Band 11. Isola Utopia Slides, 5'00", 2014, (it/eng), a photo selection by Edna Gee and Edith Poirier - Isola Utopia, interactive web-documentary Curated by Antonio Cipriani, Valentina Montisci, Antonio Brizioli and Kristina Borg. - Isola Utopia e Fight-Specific Isola, productions Books, texts, photos, screen prints and more. 17.00 From "Fight-Specific Isola" to "Isola Utopia" Meeting with open debate The concept of "Fight-Specific", Introduction by Antonio Brizioli. Interventions by Andris Brinkmanis, Giusy Chechola, Elvira Vannini and others With contributions about Isola Utopia by Isabell Lorey, Gerald Raunig, Gianfranco Marelli, Norbert Heinz Jocks. Moderator Claudio Zecchi. 18.30 Sounds from Utopia Sound performance by Steve Piccolo, Vincenzo Onida, and friends. 19.00 Concrete Utopias: RiMaflow and Isola Pepe Verde, two experiences of reconvertion and of self-management in comparison. Meeting and discussion with the workers of the reconverted factory Rimaflow, and the activists of the community garden Isola Pepe Verde. Moderator Antonio Cipriani. Film Occupy, Resist, Produce - Rimaflow" 34’ 20’’, 2014 (it/eng), by Oliver Ressler & Dario Azzellini (first screening in Milan) Video Occupare Orizzonti – Isola Art Center e Isola Pepe Verde, 5'38", 2013 (it), by Camilla Topuntoli. >>Go to the events page>
19 11 2014 28.11.-18.1.2015 Los Trabajadores de la Luna at Santiago de Chile with Etcetera LOS TRABAJADORES DE LA LUNA / The Moon Workers 28 November - 18 January 2015 Opening: Friday 28 November, 19:00h MAC, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Facultad de Artes Universidad de Chile Avenida Matucana 464 Quinta Normal, Santiago de Chile a project by Grupo Etcetera with the support of Akademie der Künste der Welt / Köln, Germany with: Araña Galponera (Argentina), Alice Creisher (Alemania), Andreas Siekmann (Alemania), Alejandra Prieto (Chile), Azul Blaseotto (Argentina), Bert Theis / Isola Art Center (Italia), Carlos Trilnick (Argentina), Chto Delat? (Rusia), Democracia (España), Eduardo Molinari (Argentina), En Medio (Chile), Francisco Papas Frita (Chile), Guillermo Núñez (Chile), Iconoclasistas (Buenos Aires), Jürgen Stollhans (Alemania), Javier Rodríguez (Chile), Khaled Jarrar (Palestina), Marcelo Brodsky (Argentina), Máximo Corvalán (Chile), Prabhakar Pachpute (India), Matthijs de Bruijne (Holanda), Rupali Patil (India), Taller de Serigrafía Instantánea (Chile), Víctor Hugo Codocedo (Chile), Víctor Hugo Bravo (Chile), Juan Carlos Romero (Argentina), Zanny Begg (Australia), Caja Negra (Chile), Carlos Osorio (Chile) Loreto Garín (Chile) y Federico Zukerfeld (Argentina). LOS TRABAJADORES DE LA LUNA / The Moon Workers a title that refers to the exiles and migratory waves that occurred in northern Chile in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The co-founders of the art collective Etcetera, Loreto Garín Guzmán (Valparaíso, 1977) and Federico Zukerfeld (Buenos Aires, 1979), present the fourth chapter of their research project MIRROS, an international collective exhibition, that uses, on this occasion, the exploitation of nitrate in Chile during the last century as a metaphor for contemporary processes of extraction and appropriation of natural resources. The exhibition includes works and installations of various materials, and involve about thirty artists from ten countries. >>Go to the events page>
03 10 2014 Saturday October 4, 2014: The Independent Day at MAXXI, Rome Fight-Specific Isola al MAXXI (in Italian only) The Independent Day Sabato 4 ottobre 2014, dalle 17.00 a mezzanotte ingresso libero fino a esaurimento posti Una giornata di musica, incontri, laboratori nell’ambito della mostra The Independent con i gruppi indipendenti CURA. e Isola Art Center. Il museo si trasforma in un hub in cui le voci indipendenti e il pubblico possono incontrarsi in maniera diretta, confermando la sua volontà di ascoltare e dare spazio alle voci contemporanee più innovative nell’ambito di differenti piani di ricerca. ore 17.00 Hall del MAXXI Workshop di Serigrafia di Seriocollective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi) Un laboratorio sulla serigrafia che mostra una selezione di opere realizzate per autofinanziare attuali collaborazioni artistiche e progetti futuri. ore 18.30 MAXXI B.A.S.E. Presentazione del libro “Fight-Specific Isola” La storia di una trasformazione urbana e artistica: Fight-Specific Isola ripercorre la lunga storia del quartiere Isola di Milano e il processo organico e spontaneo alla base dei dodici anni di lavoro di Isola Art Center. Presentazione del libro Fight-Specific Isola con Antonio Brizioli, Hou Hanru, Evelyne Jouanno, Steve Piccolo e Bert Theis ore 19.30 Hall del MAXXI Performance Theremin con Steve Piccolo Chiunque abbia uno smartphone, un tablet o un computer oggi può suonare un Theremin simulato online (http://femurdesign.com/theremin/). Steve Piccolo racconta l’incredibile vicenda di Lev Termin e il suo Theremin e coinvolge il pubblico con un’interazione musicale collettiva basata sui movimenti delle persone. Chi non è fornito di dispositivi digitali può usare scatole di cartone per contribuire alla parte percussiva della composizione/improvvisazione. CURA. CURA. ha presentato il progetto “Dreams That Money Can’t Buy”, una mostra corale, sulla moltiplicazione di immagini, esperienze, relazioni e forme e sulla costruzione di un immaginario visivo condiviso. ore 21.30 Hall del MAXXI High FIVE! Dj set by Palm Wine & Vipra >>Go to the events page>
11 09 2014 September 11 – November 2, 2014 IAC at Utopian Pulse, Vienna Secession UTOPIAN PULSE – FLARES IN THE DARKROOM A research project by Ines Doujak and Oliver Ressler In collaboration with a group of international artist-curators September 11 – November 2, 2014 September 24-30, 2014 Salon Orizzonti Occupati [Occupied Horizons] curatore: Bert Theis We understand "Utopia" as an always incomplete alternative, the invocation within the given world of something incompatible with, and hostile to, given conditions. It is a negation of the given and a recognition of "something missing," but also a necessarily imperfect assertion of that which is not—yet. The work follows utopian projections that serve the purposes of secession from and resistance to our particular present. The "negative" or "critical" version of the utopian "impulse" is not just a matter of satire, or listing what's wrong with the world as though listing it could change it. Utopia, rather, is the assertion of the unrealized in and against the real. The first public appearance of UTOPIAN PULSE – FLARES IN THE DARKROOM was SALON KLIMBIM, orchestrated by the artist-curator Fahim Amir and Ines Doujak on January 23, 2014 in correspondence with Oliver Ressler. Between February and September 2014 a series of 7 large-scale banners (3,4 x 9 meters) has been presented on the façade of the Secession. URGENT ALTERNATIVES: UTOPIAN MOMENTS related to the uprisings and social movements that have emerged in recent years. The artists were invited to focus on the utopian pulse in these actions and movements. All the artists have in common that they are directly involved in the protests they focus on in their banner, or talk from a clear, unequivocal position of solidarity with them. Banners have been commissioned by Katarzyna Winiecka (February 2014), Halil Altindere (March 2014), Wealth of Negations (April 2014), Nobodycorp. Internationale Unlimited (May 2014), Etcétera (June 2014), Oreet Ashery (July 2014) and Daniela Ortiz (August 2014). UTOPIAN PULSE – FLARES IN THE DARKROOM as an exhibition at the Secession is divided into seven salons. It seems urgent precisely when the potential imperfectly expressed in the salon is seen as neither a proto-public sphere—that is, one stage in an orderly evolution towards universal convivial conversation—nor pure "courtly" proprietorship, but rather as a partial breach of the prevailing order of class and gender, a disruption that cannot become the public norm because it prefigures total upheaval of what constitutes the "public" and is instead a place for the monstrous birth of new alliances. UTOPIAN PULSE – FLARES IN THE DARKROOM brings together international cultural producers who have substantial artistic and curatorial practices. Over two months, they will show and discuss works of other artists in the gallery of the Secession every week. The contributions of the individual artist-curators will not be shown sequentially, but will productively interact with one another. The salons will open in weekly intervals. The outcomes—whatever their form—will constitute a collective challenge to the constituent roles of social actors within the field of art in more complex ways than simply as "artists," "curators," and "viewers", in order to imagine new forms of exchange. The sequence of exhibitions at the Secession consists of Salon Public Happiness (curated by Christoph Schäfer, September 11 – 16, 2014), Salon-E-Girdbad [Salon of the Whirlwind] (curated by Mariam Ghani, September 17 – 23, 2014), Salon Orizzonti Occupati [Occupied Horizons] (curated by Bert Theis, September 24 – 30, 2014), Salon Fluchthilfe [Salon Escape Aid] (curated by Zanny Begg, October 01 – 07, 2014), Salon DADADA (AND AND AND with Ben Morea and friends, October 08 – 14, 2014), Cuartos de Utopía [Rooms of Utopia] (curated by Pedro G. Romero/Máquina P.H., October 15 – 21, 2014) and Salón de Belleza [Beauty Salon] (curated by Miguel A. López, October 22 – November 02, 2014). While the exhibitions are on view, large banners created by the artist-curators will be displayed on the Secession's façade, also in weekly alternation. Utopia is secession without instructions. http://utopian-pulse.org Façade Invited by the board of the Secession Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) AR 183-G21 The project will be continued in a new configuration at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart in 2015. PUBLICATION In February 2015 the volume on the exhibition project will be published: UTOPIAN PULSE – FLARES IN THE DARKROOM, Ines Doujak and Oliver Ressler (eds.). 288 p., London: Pluto Press, 2015 SALON PUBLIC HAPPINESS Curated by Christoph Schäfer September 11 – 16, 2014 SALON-E-GIRDBAD [SALON OF THE WHIRLWIND] Curated by Mariam Ghani September 17 – 23, 2014 SALON ORIZZONTI OCCUPATI [SALON OCCUPIED HORIZONS] Curated by Bert Theis September 24 – 30, 2014 SALON FLUCHTHILFE [SALON ESCAPE AID] Curated by Zanny Begg October 01 – 07, 2014 SALON DADADA AND AND AND with Ben Morea and friends October 08 – 14, 2014 CUARTOS DE UTOPÍA* [ROOMS OF UTOPIA] Curated by Pedro G. Romero and Máquina P.H. October 15 – 21, 2014 SALÓN DE BELLEZA [BEAUTY SALON] Curated by Miguel A. López October 22 – November 02, 2014 >>Go to the event>
23 08 2014 4th to the 27th September: Isola Utopia at Survival Kit 6 Utopian City, Riga, Latvia Survival Kit International Contemporary Art Festival UTOPIAN CITY 04. – 27. 09.2014 The "Survival Kit 6" Contemporary Art Exhibition The former 'Boļševička' Textile Factory at Ganību dambis 30, Riga Curator: Solvita Krese, co-curator of the Festival: Aneta Szylak, Director of the Alternativa Festival in Poland. The Festival this year forms part of the Rīga 2014 European Capital of Culture programme. Artists: Alicja Karska & Aleksandra Went (PL), Andreas Angelidakis (NO, GR), Anouk de Clercq (BE), Ēriks Božis (LV), Grzegorz Klaman (PL), Hiwa K (IQ), Inga Erdmane (LV), Isola Art Centre (IT), Julita Wojcik (PL), Jun Yang (CN), Katarina Lundgren (SE), Katrīna Neiburga & Andris Eglītis (LV), Kirils Panteļejevs (LV), Kristīne Alksne (LV), Laura Ķeniņš (LV), Łukasz Surowiec (PL), Mariam Natroshvili & Detu Jintcharadze (GE), Nir Evron (IL), Predmetiv (UA), Reinis Hofmanis (LV), Aglaia Konrad (BE), Toots Timo (EE), Vilnis Putrāms & Vladimirs Jakušonoks (LV) Tue – Fri 2 pm – 8 pm; Sat – Sun 12 – 7 pm SYMPOSIUM „Urban Utopia: Art and Culture as a Tool for Exploring and Researching a City” Two day symposium 12.09. 12.00 Vāgnera Hall 13.09. 12.00 Boļševička Participants: art historian Joseph Imorde (DE), artist Catalina Niculescu (RO), social designer Charles Bourrier (LV), art activist Airi Triisberg (EE), Stockholm’s chief city architect Karolina Keyzer (SE), art historian Iliana Veinberga (LV), artist Bert Theis (LU), researcher Jekaterina Lavrinec (LT), social anthropologist Joachim Otto Habeck (DE), curator Ania Szremski (EG), The Strelka Institute (RU) Co-curator Jonas Büchel (Urban Institute Riga) << Survival Kit International Contemporary Art Festival >>Go to the events page>
22 07 2014 5 August-7 September 2014 ISOLA UTOPIA at San Mauro Cilento Isola Utopia Fragments and moments for new utopias Exhibitions, flights, presentations, debates, performances and music, a project by Isola Art Center, presented by Creative Olive, supported by the Comune di San Mauro Cilento, Cooperativa Agricola Nuovo Cilento, Fornace Falcone 5-10 August, 20.00 – 24.00, San Mauro Cilento (Salerno) Opening 5 August, 20.00 Presentation of the project, 24.7.2014, “Utopia Urbis”, Corte Catalana di Palazzo Pinto, Mercanti street 63, Salerno Raffaele Aiello, Bad Museum, Zanny Begg, Emanuel Balbinot, Kristina Borg, Emanuele Braga, Sarah Giulia Braun, Antonio Brizioli, Paolo Caffoni, Angelo Castucci, Antonio Cipriani, Francesco Citro, Creative Olive Team, Maddalena Fragnito, Edna Gee, Grupo Etcétera, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Isabell Lorey, Francesco Lomonaco, Gianfranco Marelli, Valentina Montisci, Philippe Nathan, Denis C. Novello, Mark Uncle Band & Isola Art’s Club Band, Nikolay Oleynikov, Dan Perjovschi, Camilla Pin, Steve Piccolo, Gerald Raunig, Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi), Mariette Schiltz, Stefano Taccone, Claudio Tancetti, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, Nikola Uzunovski, Wei-Ning Yang, Jiang Zhi, Amor Vacui Studio, Laboratorio di Progettazione Ferrara, Ghelostudio Architettura, Project 2.0., the residents of San Mauro Cilento and others... "Only in us does this light still burn, and we are beginning a fantastic journey toward it, toward the implementation of the central concept of utopia. To find it, to find the right thing, for which it is worthy to live, to be organized, and to have time: that is why we go, why we cut new, metaphysically constitutive paths, summon what is not, build into the blue, and build ourselves into the blue, and there seek the true, the real, where the merely factual disappears - incipit vita nova." - Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia Utopia! We searched for her continuously, we never met her, but she has always been close to us. When we occupied a former factory in the Isola neighbourhood in Milan and, together with the gardens, we converted it into a new model for a centre for art, philosophy, music, and other activities and events of the district. When we stood up to unscrupulous real estate developers, cynical politicians, turncoat architects and servile journalists. When together with the children of Isola we sang "Il ragazzo di Via Gluck" ("The Boy of Gluck Street") in front of the politicians of the district council, who had listened to us ... without ever understanding. When one night, together with Christoph, we painted his mural Strategic Embellishment created for the news kiosk of Isola. When we threw the seed bombs over the wire fence of a space that was still closed to the neighbourhood ... a space we wanted to open with the name of Isola Pepe Verde. When together with Macao we vacated the Galfa Tower in Milan and there we hung the banner ... "One could even imagine flying". When we tried to raise horizons with Nikola's solar cloud. Until, while flying to San Mauro Cilento in an orange bee-car, we finally met Utopia in one of our daydreams, and she told us: "Devour the past utopias and your wishes will start to fly! It's true, all the old utopias have failed, or even worse, they have turned into dystopias. It's true; neoliberalism has imposed itself on a global level. It's true; the ‘gap’ between the rich and the poor has never been so wide as it is today. It's true that for many, nowadays, the only possible form of social and economic organisation seems to be the capitalist model, and they are totally reduced to trying to improve only little details, so as to lessen the possible harm. These fools believe that there is no alternative to a society based on the exploitation of nature, human beings and their creativity. They think art can only exist as a commoditised luxury set aside for the very rich. What a lack of fantasy, what a lack of logical thinking! For years the movements against specific, individual aspects of capitalism have become more and more widespread: against the closure of factories, companies and hospitals, against cultural and job insecurity, against the destruction of the welfare state, against austerity policies, against the privatization of the public sector, against financial policies favouring banks and multinational corporations, against urban planning that devastates urban and rural areas, against property speculation and against gentrification, against the progressive restriction of democratic rights and individual freedoms, against discrimination and violence against women, against war and injustice... To all this and more, you said 'No!', but it is now the time to get back to thinking about the 'Yes!'. The time of concrete utopias and fulfilling your desires has returned." This is what Utopia said. We looked at each other, and without hesitation we decided to dedicate our research project to Her. In fact, we have called it "Isola Utopia". A collective production which includes exhibitions and performances involving artists, students, residents, architects, curators, theorists, musicians, journalists and others, who will be all collecting and producing moments of thought and artworks for new, possible utopias. In San Mauro Cilento, from 5 to 10 August, we present, through an exhibition “on the road”, the first results of the workshops cross-initiated this summer. Every evening conferences, debates and presentations will take place outdoors, to further explore different aspects of the concept of utopia and some of its concrete achievements. The days will conclude with the musical workshop in the town square, featuring the Isola Arts Club Band. The project "Isola Utopia" started in San Mauro Cilento will be presented and developed at the Vienna Secession, Austria (24.9-30.9.2014), at the Survival Kit-Utopian City Festival in Riga, Latvia (4.9–28.9.2014), and in 2015 in Isola, the neighbourhood in Milan, as well as other places. www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 0039 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center >>Go to the events page
04 07 2014 From June 25 to October 12, 2014: The Independent at MAXXI in Rome THE INDEPENDENT special project dedicated to independent groups of contemporary experimentation CURA. and Isola Art Center June 26 – October 12, 2014 www.fondazionemaxxi.it Rome, June 25, 2014. Experimental workshops, publishing houses, exhibition spaces, online platforms and magazines, independent projects, nowadays contemporary culture often moves through unofficial channels that prove to be a valid alternative to traditional methods of “culture-making.” Starting on June 26 (until October 12, 2014) MAXXI opens up to all these realities with the first stage of the three-year project THE INDEPENDENT, initiated by Hou Hanru, with Giulia Ferracci and Elena Motisi and dedicated precisely to the promotion of independent groups present on both the national and international territory. The protagonists of this first appointment conceived for the museum are two Italian groups: CURA. a curatorial project based in Rome, and Isola Art Center, a “no-budget,” ultra-local project based in Milan. In a space arranged on the staircases of MAXXI, CURA. presents the project Dreams That Money Can’t Buy, a choral exhibition that concerns the multiplication of images, experiences, relationships and forms, and the construction of a visual, aesthetic and conceptual imaginary aimed at creating an encyclopedic iconographic atlas. cura. has invited a group of artists who have been asked to fuel with their own intervention the kaleidoscopic imagery of a shared dream in which illustrated works, objects, citations and real life are combined. A wall of collages with printed images and a series of screens that alternate for the three months’ duration of this event shows the video works of some international artists, synthesizing the tension between the eye and the viewer, between surface and collage, between the two-dimensionality of the support and the threedimensionality of the space, but also between image, value, object, presence-absence. The exhibition is completed with an area in which to consult books, sources and extracts from the magazine that refers to the ongoing project of an encyclopaedia of themes dealt with in the five years since the magazine was founded. Artists involved: Adrien Missika, Andrew Norman Wilson, Anna Franceschini, Daniel Gustav Cramer, David Douard, Francesco Arena, Gabriele De Santis, George Henry Longly, Haris Epaminonda, Ian Cheng, Ian Tweedy, Ingrid Olson, Invernomuto, Jack Lavender, Jimmy Limit, Luca Francesconi, Maria Loboda, Martin Soto Climent, N. Dash, Neil Beloufa, Nico Vascellari, Nicolas Deshayes, Parker Ito, Per-Oskar Leu, Raphael Zarka, Riccardo Benassi, Richard Sides, Salvatore Arancio, Sara Cwynar, Tilman Hornig, Timur Si-Qin, Tomaso De Luca. Presented on the cement wall of the museum hall is the project Isola Art Center FIGHT-SPECIFIC ISOLA which uses a never-before-seen installation to describe the group’s work and the context where it is hosted. A group portrait, a photograph taken by Paola Di Bello, dominates the space and portrays the residents of neighborhood and the artists of Isola Art Center during the first anniversary celebration of Isola Pepe Verde in May 2014. Isola Pepe Verde is an independent space conquered by the residents of the neighborhood after decades of fighting to defend public space against building speculation and gentrification. It is a garden that is shared and self-managed, created in a place that was once a site used to store building materials, and later abandoned, and temporarily handed over to the citizens by the City of Milan. The goal was that of turning it into a permanent green space. Also exhibited is the book Fight-Specific Isola. Arte, architettura, attivismo e il futuro della città, which tells the story of the thirteen years of Isola Art Center. The book also contains a Fotoromanzo, which, enlarged for the occasion, goes over several of the artists’ experiences, and critically reflects on the traumatic transformations recently undergone by the neighborhood. Added to this is Lab Fight-Specific Isola silk screen works and three videos: Isola, una storia neoliberale italiana, tracing the phases of the neighborhood’s struggle: the slide show entitled Isola e dintorni, which shows the urban changes of the neighborhood in aerial photos taken between 1986 and 2011; Lab Fight- Specific Isola, which documents the reproduction on one wall of the +MSUM of Ljubljana of a 1976 mural painting against building speculation in this neighborhood in Milan. This first appointment will also be the occasion to launch an open call to all the realities working in Italy aimed at realizing an Italian map and later European and international ones of all those independent realities operating in the contemporary culture sector, a cultural and social panorama of immense richness, and of great interest for the development of new models. The open call starts from 25 June until 30 September 2014 all the information on www.fondazionemaxxi.it At MAXXI, thanks to THE INDEPENDENT, these creative, autonomous groups find space to show their activities on themes that go from art, to architecture, to design, to dance, to music, eventually embracing larger areas such as publishing and urban studies. By interpreting the museum space with new and ever regenerated installation modalities ranging from talks, to perfomances, to lectures, the museum is transformed into a hub in which the independent voices and the public can meet directly, confirming the willingness to listen to and afford space to the most innovative contemporary voices in different research areas. CURA. Founded in 2009 by Ilaria Marotta and Andrea Baccin, CURA. is a moving and propulsive platform dedicated to the exchange and dialogue between critical voices, activities related to contemporary artistic production and to collaboration with institutions and independent bodies. The sections dedicated to curatorial approaches and the exploration of artistic practices are the many facets of a single, organic research project, conducted via the pages of the magazine and developed in other contexts as well. The curatorial activities characterized by the nomadism of the projects and alternated at exhibitions held in the basement of CURA. are presented as the concrete development of the contents elaborated in the field of publishing, as well as a broader vision which makes use of a plurality of media. The editorial and curatorial consulting carried out at an international level places CURA. at the heart of important research and exchange projects in collaboration with some of the major European institutions. Among these is PIANO, a curatorial exchange platform between Italy and France, promoted by d.c.a and L’Europe des Artistes, a project on a European scale promoted by Astrup Fearnley Museet of Oslo, Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Exhibitions curated recently include: The Time Machine (the Survivors), Frutta, Rome (2013); Sandy Island (AB project), Fondazione Nomas, Rome (2013); Commercial Road Project, London Metropolitan University, London (2010-2013). Forthcoming exhibitions include: Athletic Valentin, Galerie Valentin, Paris (October 2014), as well as an exchange program with international independent spaces, first among which with Lissabon Kunsthalle, Lisbon. ISOLA ART CENTER Isola Art Center is an open, experimental platform for contemporary art based in Milan’s Isola neighborhood, and powered by energy, enthusiasm and solidarity. Over more than a decade the project has had to face an urban situation characterized by conflict and global transformation, and it has thus remained precarious, ultra-local and without a budget. By abolishing any vertical rationale of work, the process of Isola Art Center rhizomatically involves artists, critics, curators from both Italy and abroad, artist’s groups, activists, architects, researchers, students, groups and neighborhood groups. For years the work carried out by Isola Art Center has been in harmony with the neighborhood associations: the residents take part in Isola Art Center’s activities at different levels, contributing to the realization of works (Tomas Saraceno’s Museo aero solar, or the shutters of the Permanent Green exhibition), hosting international artists, participating in actions, performances and workshops, and proposing new projects for the neighborhood spaces. The request for a “Centro per l’Arte e il Quartiere” was in fact originally formulated by the residents themselves. The publicity pack and images of the exhibition can be downloaded from the Reserved Area of the Fondazione MAXXI’s website at http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it/area-riservata/ by typing in the password areariservatamaxxi MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo www.fondazionemaxxi.it - info: 06.320.19.54; info@fondazionemaxxi.it opening hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fridaym, Sunday) 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. (Saturday) closed on Monday, May 1, and December 25 UFFICIO STAMPA MAXXI +39 06 322.51.78, press@fondazionemaxxi.it >>Go to the events page
26 05 2014 Sunday 1 June 2014, at 12.00: Unplugged in the Park: Graziella Kriminal 1st June 2014 at 12.00 Unplugged in the Park Graziella Kriminal Every Sunday at 12 am, in the garden of Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center presents 4 musical events. Free entrance. Sunday, 11 May 2014 TrioAcustico & P.O.P (Plain Old Pop) Sunday, 18 May 2014: On the occasion of the first birthday of Isola Pepe Verde: Isola Art's Club Band (extended) Sunday, 25 May 2014: Banda Rossi Sunday, 1 June 2014: Graziella Kriminal via Pepe, 10 Milan (MM Porta Garibaldi Station Exit via Pepe, towards via Borsieri).
26 05 2014 31 May - 1 June: The Collective Eye Symposium, CAFA Museum, Beijing, China The Collective Eye Symposium Group subjectivity and its aesthetics in the light of cultural differences 30. MAY – 01. JUNE 2014, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China The Symposium with international artists, collectives, theorists, thinkers, exhibition makers and philosophers will approach to the question of group subjectivity and its aesthetics in the light of cultural differences. As the most recent Documenta and Manifesta as well as diverse biennials demonstrate, in times of and under the conditions of globalisation the number of collectives increases, and alongside them the attention the art world devotes to them. The subject matter of the symposium “Collective Subjectivity and Its Aesthetics in Light of Cultural Differences” – initiated by “The Collective Eye” project – which will be held in Beijing on May 30th and 31st 2014 will be dedicated to different questions. Why is the collective practice, which prevails in other areas like theatre, cinema or music, becoming increasingly important? What can a collective achieve? What are the motivations and intentions of collective thinking and seeing, working and acting? How different are the aesthetics that are developed collectively to those of an individual artist? What occurs in the moment when different subjectivities converge, cooperate with each other and join forces in a collective, whether temporarily or over a longer period of time? Is there a significant difference in the creation of an aesthetic collectively or by an individual artist? How can artist collectives be politically, aesthetically, sociologically, historically and philosophically represented? Is the self-image of a collective different when it forms in a social system which understands itself as collective, such as communism (Russia, China, GDR) than in a society which advances the subject in the centre? At a time when the art world is becoming ever more internationalised and the country pavilions at the Venice Biennale are evermore disregarding the aspect of the national a mixing and decontextualisation of cultures is coming about. The question is, what consequences does the speed of globalisation have on aesthetic practice? That the symposium takes place in China also has to do with the fact that the concept of the collective plays a different role there with regards to historical materialism. Yet the question is also to what extent culture influences the intentions, subjects, practices, ideas and understanding of the strategy of collectives? To what extent do collectives react to the objective spirit of their culture in societies which consider themselves collective? How is this, to quote Jean-Paul Sartre, individuated? The symposium considers itself not only a place where lectures are given and discussions initiated but also an attempt to set in motion a theoretical discourse which is laid out rather phenomenologically, that is to say openly. In this way the most varied aspects will be treated in an exchange between theoreticians and collectives. In addition the symposium should have another character, namely that of a temporary association of collectives and theorists from any number of continents. Particpants of the Symposium are: THEORISTS: Heinz-Norbert Jocks (Düsseldorf), Frédéric Rambeau (Paris), Stephen Wright (Paris), Zandie Brockett (Beijing), Karen Smith (Beijing), Nataline Colonnello (Beijing), Ou Ning (Huangshan, Anhui), Wang Huangsheng (Beijing), Qiu Zhijie (Beijing), Bao Dong (Beijing), Philip Tinari (Beijing), Song Yi (Beijing), Jeff Leung Chin Fung (HongKong) ARTISTS: Bert Theis, Isola Art Center (Milan), Mariette Schiltz, Isola Art Center (Milan), Jorge Orta, Lucy+Jorge Orta (Paris), Alain Snyers (Paris), Carola Wagenplast, Jochen Schmith (Hamburg), Peter Hoppe, Jochen Schmith (Hamburg), Peter Steckroth, Jochen Schmith (Hamburg), Niels Betori Diehl, NBDBKP (Berlin), Barbara K. Prokop, NBDBKP (Berlin), Robin Kahn (New York), Sebastian Alonso (Montevideo) , Tatiana Arzamasova, AES+F (Moscow), Lev Evzovich, AES+F (Moscow), Tian Yibin (Beijing), Sunyuan & Pengyu (Beijing), Su Wei, Carol Lu & Liu Ding (Beijing)
26 05 2014 Sunday 25 May 2014, at 12.00, via Pepe, 10: Unplugged in the Park: Banda Rossi Unplugged in the Park Every Sunday at 12 am, in the garden of Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center presents 4 musical events. Free entrance. Sunday, 18 May 2014: Banda Rossi >>Go to the events page
16 05 2014 Sunday 18 May 2014, Unplugged in the Park 2: Isola Art's Club Band Unplugged in the Park Every Sunday at 12 am, in the garden of Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center presents 4 musical events. Free entrance. Sunday, 18 May 2014: On the occasion of the first birthday of Isola Pepe Verde: Isola Art's Club Band (extended) “Culture don't grow on trees”. Steve Piccolo, Naima Faraò, Igor Francia, Denis C. Novello, Walter Novello, Vincenzo Onida, Gak Sato, and Franz Pasquillo, Marco Pezzati, Fabio Bertolotti, Valentina Dellacqua. A band as bio-diverse as the garden of Isola Pepe Verde, a gathering of musicians that works as an open platform, always ready to find new ideas and collaborations. >>Go to the events page
16 05 2014 Sunday 18 May 2014, via Pepe, 10: Wild De-construction DE-COSTRUZIONE SELVAGGIA / WILD DE-CONSTRUCTION Sunday 18 May 2014 from 11:00 – 20:00 And Wednesday 21 May 2014 from 17.00 - 20.30, with guided tours open to everyone. Community Garden Isola Pepe Verde, Via Pepe 10, Milan For the birthday of Isola Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center, in collaboration with NABA, presents Wild De-construction, a project by Kristina Borg, Irene Coppola, Paola Di Bello, Giuseppe Fanizza, Roberta Garbagnati, Edna Gee, Anna Iacovino, Isola Art's Club Band (extended), Nikolay Oleynikov, Annika Pettini, Camilla Pin, Duccio Scotini, Mattia Solari, Bert Theis, Giulia Viana. Every step forward should be celebrated, especially when it is the result of a long and laborious struggle. Pepe Verde, the community garden, celebrates the renewal of its contract to use the space, a small green corner in heart of Isola, born out of the collaboration and hard work of the inhabitants of the neighborhood in search of a social space to take care of. To realize the dreams and desires of the neighborhood, a united movement that consists of the neighborhood association Isola Pepe Verde and the participation of numerous artists, across the years, helped to obtain a concession from the Municipality of Milan for the small piece of asphalt parallel to the neighboring train platforms. Today it is a lush garden that is the result of the work of many different people. On Sunday, May 18th, we celebrate, together with the neighborhood, the possibility to use the garden for another year, without forgetting that the struggle is still ahead. The area remains designated for construction; for it to become a permanent garden the Municipality of Milan will have to change the designated use in the local masterplan. The inhabitants of the neighborhood as well as artists, architects, philosophers, musicians and others collaborate, using their respective languages, to make this dream become a reality. Kristina Borg Installation “Fuori dalla finestra”, performance “When the Greens Meet”. The work consists of an analysis of the situation of the Casa Verde (Green House) that is trapped inside the Lombardy Region complex. It demonstrates how the arrogance of conventional urban planning can interfere with the intimate space of one’s own bed. On Sunday morning a symbolic sign will link the Casa Verde with Isola Pepe Verde; an action that took its form from the collaboration of the artist with the inhabitants of the house. Irene Coppola Installation “Eclissi_11”, “Eclissi_01070811”; performance “ContrAzione”. With an attentive look at the urban transformation of the neighborhood Isola, the artist translated the dynamics of exploitation and occupation of the urban space into form and action. It brings to light the traces of change that condition community life. Paola Di Bello A group photo as collective portrait of the people who frequent and defend the community garden of Isola Pepe Verde. It recalls the past, with the iconic big letters that form the word Isola in the center, held up by the people who are happily carrying on the struggle. The photo was proposed by Edna Gee. It will be used as communication of this project of the community garden in the media and art world. Giuseppe Fanizza and Andrea Kunkl “Ph.Elicitation”. This work originally exhibited in 2012 in the exhibition Fight-Specific Isola at Frigoriferi Milanesi is being presented in Isola for the first time. Ph.Elicitation is an investigation into the social memory. It is calculated by a comparison between diffused photographic memory and the actual state of progress of the process of transformation of the neighborhood Isola. Roberta Garbagnati “Perimetrale”. Starting form the process of gentrification that the neighborhood of Isola is subjected to, the artist has decided to concentrate on its perimeters. She uses warning tape and other adhesive tapes on photos of streets to trace the barriers. These montages of the streets of Isola serve as a physical urban study. Isola Art's Club Band (extended) “Culture don't grow on trees”. Steve Piccolo, Naima Faraò, Igor Francia, Denis C. Novello, Walter Novello, Vincenzo Onida, Gak Sato, and Franz Pasquillo, Marco Pezzati, Fabio Bertolotti, Valentina Dellacqua. A band as bio-diverse as the garden of Isola Pepe Verde, a gathering of musicians that works as an open platform, always ready to find new ideas and collaborations. Nikolay Oleynikov “Monument. International. Documentation”. The work of the Russian artist from the collective Chto Delat (To Do) is presented as a graphic revival of history in a universal sense and some individual histories that it encounters; an attempt to reunite different elements in the same work – for example the activism of the neighborhood Isola in Milan. It was shown for the first time in the exhibition Practicing Memory in a Time of All-Encompassing Present curated by Matteo Lucchetti at the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella. Mattia Solari “Ipotesi di barricata per Isola”. The project, in the form of a rendering, starts from the idea to build obstacles with desks to impede the flow of people and things around the new architecture in Isola. It creates a loop between the sites of work production and the barricades as an instrument of social protest that is spontaneously born in the street. Giulia Viana "Sogni". This is a video made in the Isola Pepe Verde garden in front of the collective painting of Isola Art Center that is seen as a magical forest. Two divine beings, Oberon and Titania, pass through the seasons of their love, from the fire of summer to the frailty of autumn, the freezing chill of winter, preparing for rebirth in spring. Meanwhile there are those, like Bottom, that can only enjoy one season: that in which the leaves redden and the couples slow their metabolism. Project curated by Annika Pettini and Anna Iacovino Graphic design by Anna Iacovino Coordination by Camilla Pin and Bert Theis Program: Sunday 18 Maggio 2014, from 11:00 to 20:00 10.00 Performance by Kristina Borg 12.00 Live music with Isola Art's Club Band 14.00 Photo – collective portrait curated by Edna Gee and Paola di Bello 16.00 Performance by Irene Coppola Project of Kristina Borg, Irene Coppola, Paola Di Bello, Giuseppe Fanizza, Roberta Garbagnati, Anna Iacovino, Isola Art Club’s Band, Nikolay Oleynikov, Annika Pettini, Camilla Pin, Duccio Scotini, Mattia Solari, Bert Theis, Giulia Viana. The exhibition is also open Wednesday May 21 with guided tours open to everyone. From 17:00 to 20:30. Isola Art Center and Isola Pepe Verde with the collaboration of Naba. www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center / facebook De-costruzione selvaggia >>Go to the events page
09 05 2014 Sunday 11 May, 12.00: Unplugged in the Park 1 at Isola Pepe Verde Unplugged in the Park 1 Every Sunday at 12 am, in the garden of Pepe Verde, Isola Art Center presents 4 musical events. Free entrance. Sunday, 11 May 2014 TrioAcustico & P.O.P (Plain Old Pop) Sunday, 18 May 2014: On the occasion of the first birthday of Isola Pepe Verde: Isola Art's Club Band (extended) Sunday, 25 May 2014: Banda Rossi Sunday, 1 June 2014: Graziella Kriminal via Pepe, 10 Milan (MM Porta Garibaldi Station Exit via Pepe, towards via Borsieri). On May 18, with a party in the garden, Isola Pepe Verde celebrates its first birthday and the renewal of the contract for another year. It is a great achievement but the situation remains precarious and the area is still available for construction. Thus it is important that more and more people attend the community garden and help to defend its future existence and to fight for its extension. The series of the four musical events is one of the contributions by Isola Art Center that intends to promote and defend the garden. In addition there is the design of the new entrance gate, the wall painting on the office and collective artistic events organized in the garden; the only breathing space for the neighborhood between the new towers of concrete, steel and glass. >>Go to the events page
18 03 2014 Fight-Specific Isola at the SPRINGFEST by Isola Pepe Verde Saturday 22 May 2014 from 10.30 until 20.00 in occasion of the SRINGFEST in the Isola Pepe Verde community garden Via Pepe, 10 - Isola - Milan Isola Art Center presents "Fight-Specific Isola" ISLAND ART CENTER presents a new design for the gate of the community garden by the Taiwanese artist Wei-Ning Yang and a review of “fight-specific” prints and serigraphs by Angelo Castucci, Dafne Boggeri, Emanuele Braga, Antonio Brizioli, Maddalena Fragnito, Fuori Dal Vaso, Edna Gee, Valeria Muledda, out, Edith Poirier, Rhaze, Daniele Rossi, Camilla Topuntoli. >>Go to the events page
06 03 2014 The bookTHE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION came out! THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION - DIE KUNST DES URBANEN HANDELNS came out, with a text by Antonio Brizioli about Isola Art Center and the Dispersed Centre. Which role can or should art play in the context of urban transformation, and which role does it want to play? Who are the protagonists? How do they appropriate the urban space? Which power-relations define and delimit their practices? This book takes a look at the strategies, ambivalences, and limits of emancipatory urban practices in 18 international contributions from the fields of art, activism, architecture, city planning, urban research and journalism. The contributing authors sketch out concrete examples of urban action between the poles of the discourse on topical issues such as participation, governmentality, gentrification, social movements, migration and empowerment. With contributions by: Luchezar Boyadjiev, Antonio Brizioli, Margit Czenki / Christoph Schäfer, Alexa Färber, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Sabine Hess, Zdena Koleckova / Michal Kolecek, Elke Krasny, Leo Kühberger, Judith Laister, Andreas Lang, Margarethe Makovec / Anton Lederer, Doina Petrescu / Constantin Petcou, Oda Projesi, Elke Rauth / Christoph Laimer, Simone Reis / Bertram Werle, Theater im Bahnhof, Vesna Vukovic, Thomas Wolkinger. Published by: Judith Laister, Margarethe Makovec, Anton Lederer < rotor > Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst Universität Graz / Institut für Volkskunde und Kulturanthropologie Löcker Verlag ISBN 978-3-85409-702-0 English/German 288 pages, 15,5 x 23,5 cm Euro 29,80. >>Go to the events page
15 01 2014 30.1.-2.3.2104: Ongoing Fight-Specific Isola, Sale Docks Venezia Opening Thursday, 30 January at 18:00 30 January - 2 March From Thursday to Sunday 14:00 - 19:00 S.a.L.E. Docks, Dorsoduro 265, Venice Curated by Valeria Mancinelli e Camilla Pin. With Emanuel Balbinot, Dafne Boggeri, Emanuele Braga, Antonio Brizioli, Tania Bruguera, Angelo Castucci, Walter Donaldson, Naima Faraò, Giuseppe Fanizza, Maddalena Fragnito, Igor Francia, Fuori Dal Vaso, Edna Gee, Isola Art’s Club Band, KINGS, Andrea Kunkl, Valeria Muledda, Denis C. Novello, Walter Novello, Vincenzo Onida, out, Maria Papadimitriou, Dan Perjovschi, Steve Piccolo, Edith Poirier, Rhaze, Daniele Rossi, Gak Sato, Christoph Schäfer, Mariette Schiltz, Mirko Smerdel, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, Stefano Topuntoli, Flora Vannini, Daniele Vitale (Archivio Politecnico), Wei-Ning Yang. S.a.L.E. Docks has been investigating the relationship established between art, activism, and forms of property speculation in cities such as Venice, where the investment in finding solider contemporary forms is becoming more massive- involving public and private subjects, foundations, and entrepreneurs that seek to make the lagoon city one of the principle contemporary European spots not only during the period of the Biennale. S.a.L.E. Docks recognises Isola Art Center’s role in establishing art that can work within an urban context with its ability to reveal and give form to a radically alternative political space. Isola Art Center is an open platform for experimentation in contemporary art that takes life in the neighbourhood of Isola in Milan. For more than ten years it has been confronting its urban context- one characterised by conflict and global transformations. The area has for many years been subject to processes of gentrification and policies of capitalistic territorialisation that undermines the existing characteristics and social context of the neighbourhood, making the shared and pluralistic spaces always more private. The projects of Isola Art Center remain no-budget, precarious, and local, and exclude the vertical logic of work; it collaborates in a rhizomatic way with artists, critics, Italian and international curators, artist collectives, activists, researchers, students, and neighbourhood associations. Isola Art Center has developed an artistic practice that intervenes in an urban reality along with those who live there; an art that uses different gestures to create an active community. The key aspect of the experience of Isola Art Center is the ability to fit into a context of conflict, introducing the concept “Fight-Specific”- redefining the concept Site-specific. ONGOING FIGHT-SPECIFIC ISOLA on the one hand shows an artistic research that offers a concrete response to the constant pressure exercised by neoliberal politics and the phenomena of gentrification. On the other side it wants to be a moment of reflection and comparison between two realities, territorially different, that manage to express a common modus operandi. The exhibition follows the complexity of Isola Art Centers trajectory and the urban conflict that defined the neighbourhood- an experimentation that since the seventies has been in continuous mutation and has found a way to renew itself and remain rooted in the territory. Through publications, drawings, and installations, two methods of working will be narrated: the projects against gentrification, and the imaginary creations realised by artists to sustain the struggle since the start of the twenty-first century to the present. An integral part of the exhibition will be the currently running project of Isola Pepe Verde that is working on a green, self-organised community space, organised from below. In view of the forthcoming Expo 2015, which will be in close collaboration with the corresponding edition of the Biennale, ONGOING FIGHT-SPECIFIC ISOLA would like to be a platform to denounce the massive transformations of the city through speculation on the territory that comes at the expense of a common and shared dimension of the inhabitants. The new work CULTURE DON’T GROW ON TREES will be presented on the day of the opening at 18:00. Video by Emanuel Balbinot, Angelo Castucci, Edith Poirier, Mariette Schiltz, Bert Theis, Flora Vannini, and Wei-Ning Yang. Music: Walter Donaldson - Lyrics: Steve Piccolo - Vocals: Naima Faraò, Steve Piccolo - Stilofono: Naima Faraò – Bass guitar: Igor Francia - guitar: Denis C. Novello - Percussions: Walter Novello - Bassoon: Vincenzo Onida - Ukulele: Steve Piccolo - Theremin: Gak Sato From 19:30 until 21:30 a silkscreen workshop will be held with prints by Maddalena Fragnito, Edna Gee, Dan Perjovschi, Camilla Pin, Edith Poirier, and Daniele Rossi. CONTACTS www.saledocks.org saledocks@gmail.com 3407273142 ONGOINGFIGHT-SPECIFIC ISOLA Opening Thursday, 30 January at 18:00 30 January - 2 March From Thursday to Sunday 14:00 - 19:00 S.a.L.E. Docks, Dorsoduro 265, Venice Emporiummagazzini del sale Dorsoduro Venezia www.docks.org saledocks@gmail.com www.isolartcenter.org info@isolartcenter.org 3478285748 >>Go to the events page
15 01 2014 January 23, Salon Klimbim, Wiener Secession, Vienna If you are in Vienna don't miss this on Thursday, January 23, 2014, 6:30 p.m. – 2 a.m: Bert Theis will take part for Isola Art Center in the event Utopian Pulse – Flares in the Darkroom SALON KLIMBIM Feeding vegetarian tigers – entertaining utopian sensibilities Wiener Secession, Association of Visual Artists in Vienna, Austria Secession, Vereinigung Bildender KünstlerInnen Wiener Secession Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Wien >>Go to the events page
04 12 2013 December 1, 2013: The Garden in the City, Massenoire, Esch/Alzette December 1, 2013 Apéro discussion to explore the roles that gardens can play in the city, their forms from past to present. With the participation of people who deal in different ways with gardens: Marianne Majerus, photographer Marc Ellen Schofield, garden historian Christine Muller, architect and urbanist Norry Schneider, initiative "Transition Minett" Bert Theis, artist Moderator: Christiane Kremer, journalist Projection of photographs by Marianne Majerus and Bert Theis. Massenoire, avenue du Rock'n'Roll, Esch / Alzette, Luxembourg >>Go to the events page
04 12 2013 Sunday 1 December: Intercity space struggles. Gezi Park Fiction Hambourg Intercity space struggles. rio | istanbul | st. pauli | milano / fight specific isola | Sunday 1.12.2013, Buttclub, Hafenstrasse 126 Hamburg 01_12_2013 19 uhr Park Fiction und buttclub: steps towards intercity connections of urban spatialized struggles- 4 short talks & a book presentation Antonio Brizioli parla di 'Fight-Specific Isola' con Christoph Schäfer, Margit Czenki e altri al Butt Club - Park Fiction ad Amburgo, domenica 1 dicembre 2013. Ausgerechnet Sportstätten wurden diesen Sommer zu Ausgangspunkten von Protesten – in Rio, St. Pauli und Besiktas. Parks, Plätze und Strassen – wurden besetzt und zu Orten, an denen sich das Gemeinsame neu konstituiert – und der öffentliche Raum neu erfindet. Vor kurzem schien es noch so zu sein, als habe der Neoliberalismus mit der postfordistischen Gesellschaft ein schlüpfriges Terrain gestaltet, auf dem Widerstände keinen Halt mehr finden. Kräftige soziale Bewegungen und Aufstände zeigen aber, dass in den Städten, die zum Maschinenraum der Wertschöpfung geworden sind, Widerstände genau dann eine Chance haben, wenn sie sich räumlich verankern, und wenn sie sich über gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Grenzen vernetzen. Aber wie lassen sich diese verräumlichten Widerstände miteinander verknüpfen? Park Fiction hat diesen Sommer Versuche in diese Richtung gemacht, wurde Gezi Park Fiction und Lampedusa Hamburg wohnt in der Kirche – Margit Czenki reflektiert. Christoph Twickel, Gentrifidingsbums Autor, Lateinamerika-Kenner und Recht auf Stadt Aktivist war in Rio. Christoph Schäfer besuchte Istanbul vor – und nach Gezi, zeichnete und unterhielt sich mit Teilnehmern von Foren und Protest-Picknicks. Und Antonio Brizioli berichtet aus Mailand – wo mit der Besetzung des Torre Galfa die einzig ernstzunehmende italienische occupy Bewegung begann. Eine Inspiration für die spektakuläre Besetzung waren auch die Kämpfe um Isola. Antonio präsentiert “Fight Specific Isola” – das brandneue Buch über die jahrelangen Auseinandersetzungen um zwei Parks und das Isola Art Center, und gegen Hypergentrifizierung, gegen Investor Hines und gegen seinen Architekturknecht Stefano Boeri (Multiplicity). Isola war in Person von Bert Theis und Mariette Schlitz bereits 2003 bei den legendären “Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space” Gast von Park Fiction. Seitdem ist viel passiert. Wir versuchen die vier Beiträge so ungefähr 15 Minuten kurz zu halten, damit danach noch Zeit ist, sich an der Bar zu unterhalten.Start: 19 Uhr Buttclub, Hafenstrasse 126, Eintritt frei Buttclub >>Gezi Park Fiction St. Pauli >>Go to the events page
02 10 2013 October 17th : Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova , Ljubljana, 1:1 STOPOVER 17 October 2013 – 12 January 2014 1:1 Exhibition curated by Zdenka Badovinac Opening: Thursday, October 17th, 20.00 Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (MSUM) Ljubljana, Slovenia THURSDAY, 17 OCT 2013 20.00 - 22.00: Lab Fight-Specific Isola Situation 1. by Isola Art Center, Milan: Screenprinting, sale of the prints, and wallpainting. FRIDAY, 18 OCT 2013 14.00- 16.00: Situation 2. by Isola Art Center, Milan: Occupying Horizons with the Isola Sun-Cloud, a solar balloon by Nikola Uzunowski. 18.00 Lab Fight-Specific Isola Situation 3. by Isola Art Center, Milan: presentation and discussion of the book "Fight-Specific Isola", published by Isola Art Center, edited by Archive Books, Berlin 2013 with Azra Akšamija, Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle, Jože Barši, Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto and Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Collection, the Museum and the History presented by Walter Benjamin, Domestic Research Society, Irwin, Isola Art Center, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Kontekst Collective, Trevor Paglen, Marko Peljhan, Tadej Pogačar, Marjetica Potrč, Marija Mojca Pungerčar, Raqs Media Collective, Marko Sančanin, Igor Štromajer, Apolonija Šušteršič, Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič, Miha Turšič. Lab Fight-Specific Isola For Stopover 1:1 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM) in Ljubljana, Isola Art Center presents Lab Fight-Specific Isola curated by Camilla Pin and Bert Theis with Antonio Brizioli, Tania Bruguera, Angelo Castucci, Edna Gee, Grupo Etcetera, Maddalena Fragnito, out-Office for Urban Transformation, Maria Papadimitriou, Dan Perjovschi, Steve Piccolo, Camilla Pin, Edith Poirier, Christoph Schäfer, Mariette Schiltz, Sašo Sedlaček, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, Nikola Uzunovski, Daniele Rossi, Wei-Ning Yang and others. “The rigid, isolated object (work, novel, book) is of no use whatsoever. It must be inserted into the context of living social relations. Walter Benjamin, The Artist as Producer (1) Isola Art Center is an open platform of experimentation for contemporary art that has developed in the Isola neighborhood in Milan, Italy. Grappling for over one decade with an urban situation crossed by conflicts and widespread transformations, the project remains “no-budget”, precarious and ultralocal. Abolishing any vertical logic of labor, the process of Isola Art Center engages Italian and international artists, critics and curators, art collectives, activists, architects, researchers, students and associations of neighborhood residents. The Isola neighborhood has been undergoing processes of gentrification for some time, with policies of capitalist territorialization that directly undermine the social character of the zone itself, which is being increasingly privatized and deprived of shared, collective spaces, threatening fundamental rights of urban existence. Isola Art Center operates with an instituent (2) practice that implements escape routes from the neo-liberal logic of financial and real estate speculation, working with art as a disruptive tool of revelation and exposure. Lab Fight-Specific Isola in Ljubljana is a workshop that operates with elements from the 13 years of history and the present praxis of Isola Art Center, which are presented in 1:1 format. The workshop is structured around three types of components: situations, publications and materializations. The situations we propose are collective works where artists and curators intervene in a horizontal way. A screen printing workshop, several wall paintings, moments of gathering, the flight of the Isola Sun-Cloud produced to create a new horizon against real estate speculation at Isola, and finally the presentation of the book “Fight-Specific Isola” which narrates the neighborhood struggle. The publications shown in the space, besides the Fight-Specific Isola book, include prototypes produced by different artists, while the materializations are fight-specific works created in the context of the Isola neighborhood. With the workshop at the MSUM of Ljubljana, Isola Art Center sets out to share the specific terminologies and concepts developed during years of struggle, in the conviction that they can be useful as weapons in other conflicts or urban mobilizations. In particular, the idea of operating in a dirty cube, rejecting the distorting “beautification” of the occupied building; the encoding of a fight-specific art, able to take concrete forms depending on local necessities; and the notion of the dispersed center, which makes it possible to think of the art center not as a physical space, but as an attitude of the mind and body. With Lab Fight-Specific Isola we want to trigger imaginaries of urban practices, calling forth another unconscious and the desire for other forms of relation. www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 0039 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center ____________________________ 1.Understanding Brecht, New Left Books, London 1973, p. 87. 2. Gerald Raunig sees the instituent practice not as an action against the institution, but as a flight from institutionalization and structuring. If the term institution suggests a static quality, the idea is to replace that static nature with the organization of a dynamic praxis. See Instituent Practices, No. 2. Institutional Critique, Constituent Power, and the Persistence of Instituting, January 2007, available at www.eipcp.net/transversal. __________________________ >>Go to the website of Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana MSUM >>Go to Lab Fight-Specific Isola in Lubljana
27 06 2013 Sunday 30 June, Isola Pepe Verde, at 19 pm: Book presentation Presentation of the book "Fight-Specific Island" in the community garden in Via Pepe 7 pm Isola Art Center, Isola Libri and Isola Pepe Verde present the book Fight-Specific Isola, together with the authors, editors, photographers, artists, activists and residents involved. After a first presentation at Sale Docks in Venice and Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo, the book that traces the long history of the Isola area of Milan and the organic, spontaneous progress of the Isola Art Center over the past 12 years, the book will be presented in the neighborhood. Fight-Specific Isola traces the long history of the Isola area of Milan and the organic, spontaneous progress of the Isola Art Center over the past 12 years. Featuring texts and many images, the book tells the story of an artistic and urban transformation, led by artists, who often had to invent tools and concepts along the way. This publication serves as an example of how to act on the ground in today’s urban condition. Different narratives of history, artistic intervention and action allow the reader to trace the complex idea of collectivity, solidarity and fight-specificity. Testing new terms such as dirty cube and dispersed centre this book shows a possible way to respond to the constant pressure of neoliberal development and gentrification.
26 06 2013 13 June - 28 July: Activum, group exhibition,Oslo, Norvegia ACTIVUM Group exhibition curated by Marianne Heier. 13. June – 28. July 2013 Kunstnervorbundet Oslo, Norvegia Artists: Ole John Aandal (Norge) Lara Almarcegui (Spania/ Nederland) Jesper Alvær/ Isabela Grosseova (Norge/ Tsjekkia) Gordon Matta Clark (USA) Unni Gjertsen (Norge) Bodil Furu (Norge) Eva Lange/ Kunstneraksjon ’74 (Norge) Lotte Konow Lund (Norge) KimSu Theiler (USA) OUT/ Bert Theis (Italia/ Luxembourg)(curated by Camilla Topuntoli). Common to all projects in the group exhibition ACTIVUM is a strong relationship with activist strategies. Several of the works are the result of collaborations with groups or individuals outside the art world, and it is often about getting acceptance for specific interests within a democratic decision-making system. At the same time all the works are also firmly placed within the art world and originates from the aesthetic and conceptual issues traditionally considered to be artistic. In these works there is nomore the activist practices on one side and the aesthetic practice on the other side without art thus loses its autonomy. Art Production stands with one foot in our society's dominant logic, the market economy, and with the other foot in something completely different. The artist lives and works in the same world as everyone else, but is also working out of a tradition that stands in partial contrast to the common interpretation and management model of the society. The artwork's value will never be measured satisfactorily only from the prices it obtains from being sold. It's something that cannot be captured, described or sold within the concepts that market economy has. The world contains a lot of untapped and unknown possibilities; it could be understood and organized according to very different criteria. An opportunity for change everywhere, and these changes are potentially limitless. Has the artist, with his two simultaneous approaches, perhaps the ability of a slightly different depth perception? Will any society's blind spots appear in the artist's way of looking at the world and what opportunities exist in these fields? We are not the world's boundaries, we can only describe our own conditions. >>Kunstnerforbundnet, Oslo >>Go to the exhibition page
26 05 2013 Friday May 31th: Fight-Specific Isola, book presentation at SALE Docks FIGHT SPECIFIC ISOLA BOOK PRESENTATION Friday 31 May h. 18:30 S.a.L.E. DOCKS Magazzini del Sale, Dorsoduro 265, vicino a Punta della Dogana, Venice. with Moderation: Marco Baravalle, Sale Docks, Venice Participating: Publishers: Chiara Figone & Paolo Caffoni, Archive Books, Berlin Authors and curators Charles Esche, director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Maddalena Fragnito & Angelo Castucci, Isola Art Center, Milan Steve Piccolo, Isola Art Center, Milan Camilla Pin, Isola Art Center, Milan Marco Scotini, independent curator, Milan Mariette Schiltz, Isola Art Center, Milan Bert Theis, Isola Art Center, Milan Special guests artists: Grupo Etcètera, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Nicola Uzunowski, Skopje, Macedonia Supporting institutions: Marie Claude Beaud, director Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, board of FfAI, Foundation for Artist's Initiatives, New York, Enrico Lunghi, director Mudam, Luxembourg, Julia Draganovic, curator La Rete, Modena Fight-Specific Isola traces the long history of the Isola area of Milan and the organic, spontaneous progress of the Isola Art Center over the past 12 years. Featuring texts and many images, the book tells the story of an artistic and urban transformation, led by artists, who often had to invent tools and concepts along the way. This publication serves as an example of how to act on the ground in today’s urban condition. Different narratives of history, artistic intervention and action allow the reader to trace the complex idea of collectivity, solidarity and fight-specificity. Testing new terms such as dirty cube and dispersed centre this book shows a possible way to respond to the constant pressure of neoliberal development and gentrification. Isola Art Center is an open, experimental platform for contemporary art based in Milan’s Isola neighborhood. It is powered by energy, enthusiasm and solidarity. Over the last decade Isola Art Center has confronted an urban situation marked by conflict and extensive transformations. Its projects continue to be “no-budget”, precarious, hyperlocal. Doing away with conventional hierarchical structures, Isola Art Center rhizomatically brings together Italian and international artists, critics and curators, artists’ collectives, activists, architects, researchers, students and neighborhood groups. >>S.a.L.E. Docks >>Vai alla pagina dell'evento
07 05 2013 Sunday May 12th 2013, 11.00-20.00, via Pepe, Milan:Occupying Horizons Occupare Orizzonti / Occupying Horizons curated by Camilla Pin and Bert Theis Sunday May 12th 2013, 11.00-20.00 In occasion of the Apriti Isola Pepe Verde party, Via Pepe, Milan Chiara De Angeli, Rita Rachele Di Marco, Edna Gee, Leah Messersmith, Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi, Bert Theis, Nikola Uzunovski, Fuori dal Vaso (Emanuele Braga, Angelo Castucci, Maddalena Fragnito), out, office for urban transformation (Angelo Castucci, Giulia Mengozzi, Carmelo Mutalipassi, Lorenzo Ronzoni, Mariette Schiltz, Bert Theis) Seedbombs 34 (Chiara Balsamo, Ruth Beraha, Lilia Di Bella, Claudia Castaneda, Marco Ceroni, Gaetano Cunsolo, Roberta Garieri, Claudia Antelli and Vittoria Pavesi, Marco Ornella, Barbara Presinska, Stefano Serretta, Jacopo Rinaldi, Camilla Topuntoli. Display Giulia Polenta, coordination Gaia Valentino) Let's take back the horizons of which our imaginaries have been deprived, arousing a different state of unconsciousness and the desire for other forms of relationships. On May 12, the Apriti Isola Pepe Verde party will be an opportunity for Isola Art Center to intervene with Occupying Horizons, a fight-specific project. For years, Isola Art Center has collaborated with Isola Pepe Verde to regain a green, social and cultural space, to keep alive the memory of the Via Confalonieri parks and the Stecca, privatized and eliminated in 2007 by the multinational Hines, joined by the former City Councils of Albertini and Moratti and their collaborators. The horizon occupied by Isola: May 12th will be the opportunity to give back to the citizens of the Isola Neighbourhood a sky that for years now has been overshadowed by skyscrapers and buildings that have replaced with steel, glass, and cement the sun and the clouds. The symbol of the party will be, for this reason, the installation of the Macedonian artist Nikola Uzunovski, invited by Isola Art Center to hold a workshop with the participation of citizens and artists on the 9th-10th-and 11th of May for the realization of the work. On the occasion will be presented the works of out (office for urban transformation) and Fuori dal Vaso that contributes actively for years in the fight of the neighbourhood for a community garden, and Seedbombs 34, a group consisting of artists, curators and faculty members of the MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts, Milan. The photographic works deal with different aspects of the urban transformation taking place in Isola and Porta Garibaldi, relating to processes of gentrification and urban renewal in other parts of the world: Emil Andersson (no alternatives), Stefano Serretta (gentrification), Marco Ornella (speculation and Manhattanism), Daniele Rossi (people of Isola), Camilla Topuntoli (poetic collective counter-information), Leah Messersmith (Belle Isle and Assategue Island, United States). The video work of Chiara Balsamo proposes an imaginary city of the future inspired by the plasticity of the model of Porta Nuova presented at the Catella Foundation. Lilia Di Bella and Giulia Polenta present the teaser of a research-project about forms of resistance against urban transformations in Berlin, Istanbul and Milan. Jacopo Rinaldi, through the lights of the new skyscrapers on the horizon of Milan, reflects on the relationship between public and private space. Roberta Garieri, Claudia Antelli and Victoria Pavesi develop a research on the phenomenon of the Vergini Giurate in Albania and work on the memory of the origins of the Albanian community in particular about the Kanun laws and the formation of the clans. The video is a multi-voice narration of people from Albania now living in Milan and in particular in the neighborhood of Isola. Chiara De Angeli, Rita Rachele Di Marco, Leah Messersmith, Edith Poirier, and Barbara Presinska realize a collective mural inspired by the painting of Leonardo da Vinci present in the Sala delle Asse in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. Edith Poirier (Montreal) offers a round room painted with elements from Isola and the old Milan. Barbara Presinska (Bratislava) proposes a painting about Isola. Ruth Beraha and Stefano Serretta install in the space of Isola Pepe Verde a possible alternative vision, a different gaze that proposes a vision in parts both dreamlike and apocalyptic of the horizon of Isola, its inhabitants, and its visitors. Lilia di Bello together with Stefano Serretta have created an artist book with material collected in the district. Gaetano Cunsolo will make an intervention in a phone booth in the Isola neighborhood. Edna Gee (Johannesburg) instructs how to create your own Unclaimed Grass, a backpack that becomes a picnic blanket. Marco Ceroni presents an audio-visual installation titled Ttratatatata. Claudia Castaneda builds an archive of objects found in Isola. Bert Theis will reinstall one of the benches of his Untitled / Untilted installation created in 2001 for the Via Confalonieri parks. www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center / facebook Seed Bombs34 >>Occupying Horizons
23 04 2013 22.4. - 1.9.2013 Disobedience Archive at Castello di Rivoli Disobedience Archive(The Republic) April 23–September 1, 2013 Curator: Marco Scotini After Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Nottingham Contemporary, Raven Row (London), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston) and Bildmuseet (Umeå), Disobedience Archive is presented at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea within a format especially planned for the Museum. The curatorial project dates from 2005, when Marco Scotini planned a travelling exhibition of videos, graphic materials and ephemera whilst in Berlin. The exhibition-archive explores the links between contemporary art practices, cinema, tactile media and political activism. Planned as a heterogeneous, evolving archive of video images, the project aims to be a ‘user’s guide’ to four decades of social disobedience seen through history and geography: from the revolt in Italy in 1977 to the global protests before and after Seattle and on to the current insurrections in the Middle East and Arab world. From the historic videotapes of Alberto Grifi to the films of Harun Farocki, from the performances of the American Critical Art Ensemble to those of the Russian collective Chto Delat?, and from the investigations of Hito Steyerl to those of Eyal Sivan, the Disobedience archive has over the years gathered hundreds of documentary elements. The exhibition, which will be hosted in the rooms of the third floor in the Castello di Rivoli, aims to offer a wide-ranging synthesis of the earlier editions. With the new title of Disobedience Archive (The Republic), the exhibition will include the production of a large Parliament-shaped structure and the publication of “La Costituzione” (The Constitution) as a concluding phase to the entire project. The archive takes place in The Parliament by Céline Condorelli (b. 1974), with a contribution by Martino Gamper (b. 1971), while the wall paintings accompanying it are by Mexican artist Erick Beltran (b. 1972). Aside from The Parliament, two rooms serve as thematic antechambers: the first, dedicated to the 1970s in Italy, amongst others, presents works by Joseph Beuys, Mario Merz, Gianfranco Baruchello, Laboratorio di Comunicazione Militante, Enzo Mari, Nanni Balestrini and Living Theatre beside documents by Carla Accardi, Carla Lonzi and Felix Guattari; the second, which considers the first decade of the 21st century, houses works by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Superflex, Chto Delat?, Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, Oliver Ressler, Arseniy Zhilyaev, Critical Art Ensemble, Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas, among others. Technical instruments, props and published materials produced by the antagonist culture of those years are also displayed in these two rooms. Disobedience Archive (The Republic) is a work in progress reflecting on the various events as they unfolded, in which form and content vary with each venue. In this sense, the exhibition constitutes a sort of atlas of the different contemporary antagonist tactics: from direct action to counter-information, from constituent practices to forms of bio-resistance, which emerged after the end of modernism, inaugurating new methods of being, saying and doing. The archive is divided into nine sections: “1977 The Italian Exit,” “Protesting Capitalist Globalization,” “Reclaim the Streets,” “Bioresistence and Society of Control,” “Argentina Fabrica Social,” “Disobedience East,” “Disobedience University,” “The Arab Dissent” and” Gender Politics,” which joins the other sections for the Castello di Rivoli exhibition. The archive includes materials by 16 beaver, Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée (AAA), Mitra Azar, Gianfranco Baruchello, Petra Bauer, Pauline Boudry, Brigitta Kuster and Renate Korenz, Bernadette Corporation, Black Audio Film Collective, Ursula Biemann, Collettivo femminista di cinema, Copenhagen Free University, Critical Art Ensemble, Dodo Brothers, Marcelo Expósito, Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica, Rene Gabri and Ayreen Anastas, Grupo de Arte Callejero, Etcétera, Alberto Grifi, Ashley Hunt, Kanal B, Khaled Jarrar, John Jordan and Isabelle Fremeaux, Laboratorio di Comunicazione Militante, Silvia Maglioni and Graeme Thomson, Angela Melitopoulos, Mosireen, Carlos Motta, Non Governamental Control Commission, Wael Noureddine, Margit Czencki/Park Fiction, R.E.P. Group, Oliver Ressler and Zanny Begg, Joanne Richardson, Roy Samaha, Eyal Sivan, Hito Steyerl, The Department of Space and Land Reclamation, Mariette Schiltz and Bert Theis, Ultra-red, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, Trampolin House (Morten Goll and Tone O. Nielsen), Dmitry Vilensky and Chto Delat?, James Wentzy. The exhibition has been realised thanks to the collaboration of Open Care Servizi per l’Arte, Milan and NABA Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan together with the Biennio di Arti Visive e Studi Curatoriali. Press Office – Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Silvano Bertalot – Manuela Vasco T +39 011 9565209 – 211 C +39 33 87865367 E press@castellodirivoli.org, s.bertalot@castellodirivoli.org >>Vai alla pagina dell'evento
20 03 2013 Friday 22 March: Fight-Specific Isola Aperitif at Tantrika Shop Friday 22nd March, 6.30 to 8.30 pm Isola Art Center c/o Tantrika Shop via Pollaiuolo 2, Isola, Milan Fight-Specific Isola aperitif with T-Shirts and bags with drawings of Maddalena Fragnito, Dan Perjovschi, Daniele Rossi, screen printed by Edna Gee, Edith Poirier and Daniele Rossi. The publication traces the long history of the Isola area of Milan and the organic, spontaneous progress of the Isola Art Center over the past 10 years and more. Featuring texts and many images, the book tells the story of an artistic and urban transformation, led by artists, who often had to invent tools and concepts along the way. Fight-Specific Isola serves as an example of how to act on the ground in today’s urban condition. Different narratives of history, artistic intervention and action allow the reader to trace the complex idea of collectivity, solidarity and “fight-specificity”. Testing new terms such as “dirty cube” and “dispersed center” this book shows a possible way to respond to the constant pressure of neoliberal development and gentrification. >>Go to the event
18 02 2013 20 February: Fight-Specific Isola goes Nottingham: ISOLA meets THE ISLAND Fight-Specific Isola goes Nottingham: ISOLA meets THE ISLAND Wednesday 20 February, 3pm. Wasteland Twining Nottingham: Isola Art Center presentation by Aria Spinelli at Sneinton Library Sneinton Boulevard, Sneinton, Nottingham, NG2 4FD WTN have invited Aria Spinelli to do a presentation at the Library, to share the story of Isola Art Center, their experiences of working with the local community to resist gentrification, and the notion of 'Fight-Specific Art'. presentation by Aria Spinelli
10 01 2013 From 6 January to 8 February: Funding for Isola on Kickstarter
10 01 2013 20.9. - 15.2.2013: Funding for Isola. Galleria Bianconi FUNDING FOR ISOLA Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration. Fourth stage Curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti – LaRete Art Projects 20.09.2012 – 15.02.2013 Galleria Bianconi, Via Lecco 20, Milan. The first artists who donated one of their works are: A Constructed World, Piero Almeoni, Alek O., Emanuela Ascari, Paololuca Barbieri, Fabrizio Bellomo, Stefano Boccalini, Ivo Bonacorsi, Pasquale Campanella (Wurmkos), Alessandro Ceresoli, Marco Colombaioni, Michelangelo Consani, Danilo Correale, De ABC (Sato, Piccolo, Pancrazi), Gabriele Di Matteo, Alberto Duman, Köken Ergun, Alberto Garutti, Giuseppe Fanizza, Barbara Fässler, Maddalena Fragnito, Gaia Fugazza, Kings, Andrea Kunkl, Marco Lodola, Valentina Maggi, Elena Mantoni e Naima Farao, Eva Marisaldi, Ferdinando Mazzitelli, Valeria Muledda, Maurizio Nannucci, Alessandro Nassiri, Osservatorio In opera, Nikolay Oleynikov, Adrian Paci, Pastorello, Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Dan Perjovschi, Edith Poirier, Luca Pozzi, Luigi Presicce, Oliver Ressler, Giuseppe Restano, Stefano Romano, Antonio Rovaldi, Matteo Rubbi, Angelo Sarleti, Mirko Smerdel, Bert Theis, Santo Tolone, Enzo Umbaca, Mauro Vignando, Fani Zguro, Italo Zuffi. “Are you here with a solution or you are part of the problem?”, asks the work created by Marco Colombaioni, together with Bert Theis, which has been chosen as the image for “Funding for Isola”, the fourth stage of “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration”, curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti, at Galleria Bianconi in Milan (20 September 2012 – 12 January 2013). “Funding for Isola” is a fundraising show designed to assist in the creation and distribution of a publishing project, which is currently under way, devoted to the visions and experience of the Isola Art Center in Milan. It will be accompanied by a program of performances, screenings and events and an international crowdfunding campaign using the Kickstarter platform. During the exhibition it will be possible to see and purchase works donated by Italian and international artists who have become personally involved in the project. More than 50 have joined to date and others will be able to sign up during the exhibition period. As an authentic ongoing project, the works will be shown on a rotating basis in the central area of the Gallery, in a number of different displays which will change over time. The other rooms will be devoted to a documentary “history” and a “storage” area, where all the works collected will be available for viewing. The question posed by Colombaioni’s work (Hakuna Matata Isola, 2007) says a lot about this project, which arose out of a meeting between the LaRete Art Projects curatorial collective and Isola Art Center and thanks to the involvement of Galleria Bianconi, which is putting ever greater effort into this experimental challenge. The project comes on the heels of the artistic and curatorial collaboration in the first three episodes of the first “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration” cycle curated by Julia Draganović and LaRete Art Projects, which came to an end in the spring of 2012. The question is one that concerns everyone: a not-for-profit association that investigates and creates art in relation to the town-planning, political and social needs of urban space, a curatorial collective involved in a constant search for new artistic strategies and forms of participation, a gallery that invests in the contemporary world as an experimental challenge and as a means of innovation, a vast group of artists who are not just donating their works but who are also making a creative contribution, and the public, who are called upon to assist actively in various ways to achieve a shared objective. The project starts out from the city of Milan, where the Isola experience took shape, helping to write an important chapter in its contemporary history, opening it up and experimenting with forms of participation and international involvement. The initiative complements the partnership between institutions supporting the publishing project. These include the Casino Luxembourg, the Foundation for Artists Initiatives in New York, Frigoriferi Milanesi, Mamco in Geneva, Mudam in Luxembourg and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven. Info: Galleria Bianconi, Via Lecco, 20 – Milan, Tel. +39 02 91767926 www.galleriabianconi.com Press Office: maddalena bonicelli, mb.press@galleriabianconi.com, Tel. + 39 335 6857707 >>Go to the Funding for Isola page
11 10 2012 12.10.2012: Funding for Isola. Performance by Cheryl Pope PERFORMANCE 12.10.2012, 7 pm Cheryl Pope, “Balancing Stacks” entrance € 5 minimum as a donation to support Funding for Isola, the fundraising show for Isola Art Center curated by Julia Draganovic and Federica Patti - LaRete Art Projects Galleria Bianconi, Via Lecco 20, Milano >>Go to the Funding for Isola page
30 09 2012 From October 2-14th, 2012: Fight-Specific Isola. Frigoriferi Milanesi From October 2-14th, 2012 Fight-Specific Isola An Isola Art Center project in collaboration with Frigoriferi Milanesi at Frigoriferi Milanesi, via Piranesi 10, Milano Libreria Isola Libri, via Pollaiuolo, 5, Milano Macao, via Molise, 68, Milano October 2nd 2012, from 19.00-23.00, Exhibition opening Attached invitation to present at the entrance, valid for 2 persons Fight-Specific Isola Frigoriferi Milanesi, via Piranesi 10, Milano Libreria Isola Libri, via Pollaiuolo, 5, Milano Macao, via Molise, 68, Milano An Isola Art Center project in collaboration with Frigoriferi Milanesi with AAA (Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée), Paola Di Bello, Stefano Boccalini, Dafne Boggeri,Danilo Borelli, Emanuele Braga, Antonio Brizioli, Daria Carmi, Angelo Castucci, Loris Cecchini,Marco Colombaioni, Gabriele Di Matteo, Grupo Etcetera, Giuseppe Fanizza and Andrea Kunkl, Maddalena Fragnito, Elena Mantoni and Naima Faraò, David Michel Fayek, Kings (Federica Perazzoli, Daniele Innamorato), Fuori Dal Vaso, Valentina Maggi, out-Office for Urban Transformation (Angelo Castucci, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Carmelo Mutalipassi, Lorenzo Ronzoni, and others),Luca Pancrazzi, Maria Papadimitriou, Park Fiction, Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Camilla Pin, Edith Poirier, Rha Ze (Maddalena Fragnito, Emanuele Braga), Andrea Sala, Mariette Schiltz, Marco Scotini,Mirko Smerdel, Bert Theis, Stefano Topuntoli, Elvira Vannini, Daniele Vitale (Polytechnic archive), Fani Zguro. The experience of Isola Art Center, told through a working-group exhibition that will occupy a plurality of spaces located between Frigoriferi Milanesi, the Isola neighborhood and Macao, developed on the relationship between artistic practice and activist actions, along with the neighborhood and its inhabitants. Considered as a laboratory, an art center, a community-based space that has developed an antagonistic approach to understanding the conditions of the political-economic changes within the city. Financial governance controls urban development, its transformations and its imbalances, in every aspect of work, time and life, resistance and dimensions of the common good. What role can art take in the urban context and how can it contribute to the creation of a radically alternative political situation? The exhibition, like the upcoming book, Fight-Specific Isola. Art, Architecture, Activism and the Future of the City intends to review this experiment of alliance between artistic production and conflict from a perspective of historical analysis, and will be structured through three different levels of investigation: The documentary materials from the Polytechnic archives of Daniele Vitale and Stefano Topuntoli's aerial photos that record the urban transformations and new architectural structures of the neighborhood since the early seventies; the more recent artistic and curatorial activities with a number of works created in the context of a “fighting-neighborhood”; and finally the latest developments focused on the effects of gentrification and the planning stages of a green space by Isola Pepe Verde and the community. Program: Opening reception at Frigoriferi Milanesi, via Piranesi 10 with a performance by Steve Piccolo and Gak Sato. Re-installation of the neon New Museum by Kings at Macao in via Molise 68. Wednesday October 3rd, at 19.00: Opening reception of diverse projects in Isola with Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Edith Poirier, David Michel Fayek, Maddalena Fragnito, Mirlo Smerdel. Meeting at the Isola Libri bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5. Aperitif by Isola Pepe Verde. Thursday October 4th, at 19.00: Frigoriferi Milanesi, Fight-Specific Isola. Art, Architecture, Activism and the Future of the City: discussion based on some of the themes related to the upcoming book with Chiara Figone (Archive Books), Andrea Scarabelli (Agenzia X) and some of the authors. Special guests: Grupo Etcetera (Argentina) and Gerald Raunig (Austria). Fight-Specific Isola From October 2nd to October 14th 2012, Monday-Friday: 16.00-19.00. Saturday: 16.00-21.00. Morning visits by appointment. Sunday: closed. Frigoriferi Milanesi, via Piranesi 10, Isola neighborhood and Isola Libri, via Pollaiuolo 5, Macao, via Molise 68, Milano www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center Ongoing event: FUNDING FOR ISOLA Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration. Fourth stage. Curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti – LaRete Art Projects. 20 September 2012 – 12 January 2013. GALLERIA BIANCONI, Via Lecco 20 Milano >>Go to the Fight-Specific Isola page
24 09 2012 September 25th 2012: Make it easy make it porn. Isola Libri bookshop tUESDAY, sEPTEMBER 25TH, H. 19 MAKE IT EASY MAKE IT PORN Kajsa Dahlberg, James Fotopoulos, Regina José Galindo, Thomas Hirschhorn, Steve Piccolo, Pipilotti Rist, Anri Sala, Artan Shabani, Santiago Sierra, Dafna Maimon, Nick Zedd & Richard Kern. Curator Fani Zguro Gallery On The Move in collaboration with Isola Art Center Opening September 25, 2012 h 19.00 until September 25, 2012 Isola Libri bookshop, Via Pollaiuolo 5, Milan (Isola District) Gallery On The Move presents the group exhibition “Make It Easy Make It Porn”, in collaboration with Isola Art Center, in the Isola Libri bookshop in Milan on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at h 19.00. The exhibition consists of video/sound presentations and will stay open for the public only for one night (the inauguration date). The purpose of this exhibition meets the warning of Debord that: “The spectacle is the opposite of the dialogue!" With “Make It Easy Make It Porn” starts the third event made by Gallery On The Move, and the first group exhibition of the program in Milan, that will continue with other four venues until June 2013. The second event of the program of Gallery On the Move was realized in collaboration with The Promenade Gallery in Vlora from December 2011 to September 2012, and hosted solo presentations of artists like Bert Theis, Anri Sala, Yael Bartana, Pipilotti Rist and others. The Gallery On The Move project is based in Tirana and is active since 2007. Supports by: Isola Art Center, Isola Libri bookshop and Studio Sala. Special thanks to: Petrit Hoxha, Astrit Cani, Anri Sala, Rebecca Cleman, Eriola Pira, Klodiana Aliaj, Mariette Schiltz, Sonila Begaj, Prometeo Gallery, Chantal Crousel, Manuela de Los Angeles, Nick Zedd, Alice Pintus, Bert Theis, Bruno Muzzolini, Eltjon Valle, Marco Scotini, Saimir Kolaneci, Lewin Quehl. Image: Sexy Sad I, Pipilotti Rist, 1987. Video (color, sound), 4:36 min. Gift of Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro, and Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis. © 2012 Pipilotti Rist. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York LIBRERIA ISOLA LIBRI Address: Libreria Isola Libri, Via Pollaiuolo 5, Milan (Italy) Tel: +30 2 6684380 E-mail: tiranartcenter@gmail.com Web: www.isolartcenter.org | www.galleryonthemove.net MAKE IT EASY MAKE IT PORN
06 09 2012 20.9. - 12.1.2013: Funding for Isola. Galleria Bianconi FUNDING FOR ISOLA Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration. Fourth stage Curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti – LaRete Art Projects 20.09.2012 – 12.01.2013 opening 20.09.2012, 6 – 9 pm during START Milano 21.09.2012, 10 am - 9 pm 22.09.2012, 10 am - 8 pm 23.09.2012, 12 - 7 pm Galleria Bianconi, Via Lecco 20, Milan. The first artists who donated one of their works are: A Constructed World, Piero Almeoni, Alek O., Emanuela Ascari, Paololuca Barbieri, Fabrizio Bellomo, Stefano Boccalini, Ivo Bonacorsi, Pasquale Campanella (Wurmkos), Alessandro Ceresoli, Marco Colombaioni, Michelangelo Consani, Danilo Correale, De ABC (Sato, Piccolo, Pancrazi), Gabriele Di Matteo, Alberto Duman, Köken Ergun, Alberto Garutti, Giuseppe Fanizza, Barbara Fässler, Maddalena Fragnito, Gaia Fugazza, Kings, Andrea Kunkl, Marco Lodola, Valentina Maggi, Elena Mantoni e Naima Farao, Eva Marisaldi, Ferdinando Mazzitelli, Valeria Muledda, Maurizio Nannucci, Alessandro Nassiri, Osservatorio In opera, Nikolay Oleynikov, Adrian Paci, Pastorello, Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Dan Perjovschi, Edith Poirier, Luca Pozzi, Luigi Presicce, Oliver Ressler, Giuseppe Restano, Stefano Romano, Antonio Rovaldi, Matteo Rubbi, Angelo Sarleti, Mirko Smerdel, Bert Theis, Santo Tolone, Enzo Umbaca, Mauro Vignando, Fani Zguro, Italo Zuffi. “Are you here with a solution or you are part of the problem?”, asks the work created by Marco Colombaioni, together with Bert Theis, which has been chosen as the image for “Funding for Isola”, the fourth stage of “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration”, curated by Julia Draganović and Federica Patti, at Galleria Bianconi in Milan (20 September 2012 – 12 January 2013). “Funding for Isola” is a fundraising show designed to assist in the creation and distribution of a publishing project, which is currently under way, devoted to the visions and experience of the Isola Art Center in Milan. It will be accompanied by a program of performances, screenings and events and an international crowdfunding campaign using the Kickstarter platform. During the exhibition it will be possible to see and purchase works donated by Italian and international artists who have become personally involved in the project. More than 50 have joined to date and others will be able to sign up during the exhibition period. As an authentic ongoing project, the works will be shown on a rotating basis in the central area of the Gallery, in a number of different displays which will change over time. The other rooms will be devoted to a documentary “history” and a “storage” area, where all the works collected will be available for viewing. The question posed by Colombaioni’s work (Hakuna Matata Isola, 2007) says a lot about this project, which arose out of a meeting between the LaRete Art Projects curatorial collective and Isola Art Center and thanks to the involvement of Galleria Bianconi, which is putting ever greater effort into this experimental challenge. The project comes on the heels of the artistic and curatorial collaboration in the first three episodes of the first “Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration” cycle curated by Julia Draganović and LaRete Art Projects, which came to an end in the spring of 2012. The question is one that concerns everyone: a not-for-profit association that investigates and creates art in relation to the town-planning, political and social needs of urban space, a curatorial collective involved in a constant search for new artistic strategies and forms of participation, a gallery that invests in the contemporary world as an experimental challenge and as a means of innovation, a vast group of artists who are not just donating their works but who are also making a creative contribution, and the public, who are called upon to assist actively in various ways to achieve a shared objective. The project starts out from the city of Milan, where the Isola experience took shape, helping to write an important chapter in its contemporary history, opening it up and experimenting with forms of participation and international involvement. The initiative complements the partnership between institutions supporting the publishing project. These include the Casino Luxembourg, the Foundation for Artists Initiatives in New York, Frigoriferi Milanesi, Mamco in Geneva, Mudam in Luxembourg and the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven. Info: Galleria Bianconi, Via Lecco, 20 – Milan, Tel. +39 02 91767926 www.galleriabianconi.com info@galleriabianconi.com Press Office: maddalena bonicelli, mb.press@galleriabianconi.com, Tel. + 39 335 6857707 www.galleriabianconi.com >>Go to the Funding for Isola page
12 07 2012 September 19th, 9 pm: Lecture with Dan Perjovschi C/O Medionauta September 19th, 9 pm Lecture with Dan Perjovschi "Present. 1988-2012" moderated by Daria Carmi and Maddalena Fragnito Drawing is the essential language we all know and some of us will lose. Art is a way of life not a job. Dan Perjovschi is an artist who draw. His drawing is a synthesis between cartoon, art brut and graffiti and has the role of a reportage. He is a time specific commentator of political and social life. His drawings migrate from the museum rooms to the protester camps and posters. From the white cube to the world wide web. The drawing is not a political tool. Simple, direct and with humour, Perjovschi drawings are temporary all over the world.. The lecture will show how this language was forged in the dictatorship and established in democracy. Perjovschi was born in the same year Berlin Wall was erected 1961 and how he puts it: he still stands. Isola Art Center c/o Medionauta via Confalonieri, 2 From September 20 until November 10, "Good News, Bad News, No News", a solo exhibition by Dan Perjovschi at the gallery Kaufmann Repetto, Via di Porta Tenaglia 7, 20121 Milan. LECTURE WITH DAN PERJOVSCHI "Present. 1988-2012"
26 06 2012 Ph.Elicitation #1 - ISOLA Ph.Elicitation #1 - ISOLA A collection of interviews about the photographic memory in the Isola district. Tell us how the district changed looking at your pictures. Here's how it works: 1. Browse your photos and choose one image of the old neighborhood. An image of 10, 20 or 30 years ago, when all these apartment buildings did not exist. 2. Bring the image to the library ISOLA LIBRI, Via Pollaiuolo 5, next to Frida, leaving your email or phone number, or send us an email to info@exposedproject.net. 3. We will contact you. And we will meet for an interview, right where the photo was taken, to talk about what has changed in the recent years. 4. Your photo and your interview will be part of an online archive for the project EXPOSED and will be displayed in an exhibition in collaboration with Isola Art Center. Please contact us for any questions or information. And thank you very much, your help will be invaluable ... Giuseppe Fanizza and Andrea Kunkl Progetto EXPOSED info@exposedproject.net 3209494362 (Giuseppe) 3357764758 (Andrea)
12 05 2012 Saturday 12th May 11-6pm: Isola Art Center in Macao Saturday 12th May 2012 Isola Art Center in Macao M^C^O, 10th floor 11.00-18.00: Slideshow "Isola, a neoliberal italian tale" 15.00 e 17.00: meeting with Isola Art Center, out and Fuori dal vaso: Marco Biraghi, Stefano Boccalini, Davide Caselli, Angelo Castucci, Carmelo Multalipassi, Steve Piccolo, Camilla Pin, Lorenzo Ronzoni, Mariette Schiltz, Bert Theis and others... Events/Conferences/Isola Art Center in Macao
08 05 2012 Sunday 6 May: Isola Pepe Verde party | In sui pràa R47 ROOM 47 PRESENTS In su i pràa interventi artistici sunday 6 may 2012 from 11.00 - 22.00 via Pepe / via Borsieri Milano IN SU I PRÂA and ISOLA PEPE VERDE PARTY
26 02 2012 Monday, 27 February: Art, Politics and Movements. with Oliver Ressler Isola Art Center c/o Medionauta, Via Confalonieri 2, Milano Monday February 27th, 2012, 21.00 ART, POLITICS AND MOVEMENTS Oliver Ressler Meets Isola and the Lavoratori dell’Arte Followed by a collective performance with Seed Bombs produced by Public Works, London Aperitif with 5 Bar Clips by Thomas Hirschhorn 17.00 -20.30 at Cantinetta, Piazzale Archinto 7 (in collaboration withd Tirana Art Center, with the contribution of Luciana Andreani) The evening event will start at 5 pm at the Cantinetta, 7 Piazzale Archinto, where a video projection entitled “5 Bar Clips: Robert Walser Video, Thanks You, La cuisine des mousquetiares, For Nelson Mandela (Biko), I Will Win” by Thomas Hirschton, and curated by Fani Zguro in collaboration with Tirana Art Center will be displayed. The videos, which will be shown until 8.30 pm, were conceived by the artist in 1995 and they were not intended to be exhibited in a space specifically dedicated to works of art, but rather in a bar. At 9 pm the location of the meeting will be transferred to 2 via Confalonieri at Medionauta, where Isola Art Center will be giving the actual opportunity to meet the artist, Oliver Ressler, and to discuss the ways in which the artistic language expresses itself within political fights. Isola Art Center and Oliver Ressler have been collaborating for a long time. Their relation started in 2006 on the occasion of The People’s choice exhibition curated by Marco Scotini, when the artist made two wallpapers for the Stecca degli artigiani. Later, on 1st May 2010, his film “Comuna under construction”, realized with Dario Azzelini, focused on the self-organisation of the Venezuelan workers, was shown in the Isola quarter. Being both an artist and a curator, Oliver Ressler often collaborates with other artists and activists on different issues such as capitalism, colonialism, racism, repression and suspension of democratic rights. As written by Marco Scotini: “The multidisciplinary practice of Ressler always brings back to an indescribable area between aesthetics and politics”. Through his work the artist does not only denounce the injustices and inequalities of modern society, but he also expresses his interest in movement fights to reach a real change, supporting the “project of the revolutionary transformation of society” by “a multitude of poor people”, as in Resist to Exist, carried out in Copenhagen in 2011. The presentation of some of Oliver Ressler’s works will be followed by an open debate on the ways in which artists express themselves within political movements and with regard to language experimentations. The debate, moderated by Daria Carmi, aims at publicly comparing these issues in relation to the current Milan context, particularly as regards the fight practice of the Isola quarter against the neo-liberal urban planning and the practical activities of the Lavoratori dell’Arte. The evening event will end with a collective action, namely the launch of Seed Bombs in Via Pepe area. The area is the object of a fight led by the Isola Pepe Verde organisation (the inhabitants of the quarter have been engaged in the planning and carrying out of a garden in the area for years) to give the citizens of the quarter a community green space back. The Pepe Seed Bombs have been expressively produced by the London collective group Public Works for the Isola quarter and they have already been displayed by Isola Art Center on the occasion of the Green Desire exhibition in October 2011. Oliver Ressler After the Crisis is Before the Crisis curator: Marco Scotini 28. 2. - 15.4. 2012 Galleria Artra via Burlamacchi, 1 Milano 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org facebook Isola Art Center www.tiranartcenter.net ART, POLITICS AND MOVIMENTS
03 02 2012 Monday, February 6, 2012: ART AT WORK. KINGS MAG/ZINE ART AT WORK Presentation of the magazine KINGS MAG/ZINE Issue #2 - Orange Monday February 6th, 2012, 19.00 Isola Libri Bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5, Milan With contributions from Nicole Belle, Jacopo Benassi, Nan Goldin, Kings, Raymond Pettibon, Vincent Van Gogh, Amedeo Modigliani, Barbara Meneghel, Carlo Mollino, Fulvio Ferrari, Fornasetti, Carola Merello, King Leonardo Da Vinci, Daniela Bertazzoni, Mariangela Bizzarri, Pompei, Jean Tinguely, Andrea Lissoni, Kathy Grayson, Riccardo Bagnoli, Fabio Paleari, Alessandra Toni, Guia Cortassa. During the evening the public can assist to graphic interventions in the Magazine by Fabbrizio Bellomo, Valerio Del Baglivo, Filippo Ballarin, Angelo Castucci, Maddalena Fragnito, Steve Piccolo, Camilla Pin, Luca Pozzi, Mirko Smerdel, Fernanda Uribe, and a sound performance by ISOLA ART'S CLUB BAND 2 consisting of Elena, Isacco and Vincenzo. The exhibition A Doll's House / Casa di bambola, is ending on Monday, January 6th.The show is curated by the artist Fani Zguro with videos by Rosa Barba, Regina José Galindo, Dora Garcia, Klara Lidén, Tracey Moffatt, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg, Brigitte Zieger at the Isola Libri bookshop. On this occasion, Isola Art Center will present the new edition of KINGS Mag/zine by the famous Milan collective Kings. The members of the collective are Federica Perazzoli and Daniele Innamorato, artists who realized the neon installation New Museum for Isola Art Center in 2006, a work of art on the roof of the Stecca degli Artigiani building. The new issue of the magazine is dedicated to LOVE: love, sex, eroticism. Each issue of the KINGS Mag/zine, conceived as an art multiple and printed in a limited edition – 1.000 copies - is made in black and white with the addition of a fluorescent color. Each issue foresees 100 special edition copies, including gadgets and drawings. Thus, each copy becomes a work of art of its own. The second issue contains a lot of new elements - one of them attached as a preview - to which artists and creatives have contributed and can contribute to the following issues through open call by sending their material to the editors: special projects, new works, works long abandoned, etc... All materials will be collected with love by KINGS - no strings detached! For more information about the magazine and the collective Kings: KINGS, Via Salomone 67/B - 20138 - Milano / www.kingsart.it / info@kingsart.com ______________________________________________________________________ A DOLL’S HOUSE / CASA DI BAMBOLA Rosa Barba, Regina José Galindo, Dora Garcia, Klara Lidén, Tracey Moffatt, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg, Brigitte Zieger curated by Fani Zguro c/o Isola Libri bookshop, Via Pollaiuolo 5, Milano From January 30 until February 6, 2012 From Monday - Saturday10.00-14.00, 16.00-20.00 Isola Art Center in collaboration with Satellite Project with the contribution of NABA ART AT WORK. KINGS MAG/ZINE
15 12 2011 January 30 until February 6, 2012: A Doll's House A DOLL’S HOUSE Rosa Barba, Regina José Galindo, Dora Garcia, Klara Lidén, Tracey Moffatt, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg, Brigitte Zieger Curator Fani Zguro Satellite Project in collaboration with Isola Art Center Opening January 30, 2012, h 19.00, Libreria Isola Libri, Via Pollaiuolo 5, Milan Until February 6, 2012 Everything in the play is a mini noir that keeps the storyline in tension, while the true purpose is to retell one more time that classical drama that was born since the beginning of mankind (although Morgan thinks that it developed later). Through this exhibition I am trying to bring back Ibsen’s concern, even though the difference is considerable. However, I do believe it will be worth it to try to illustrate Ibsen’s play through the works that I have selected (Fani Zguro). Satellite Project presents “A Doll’s House” in collaboration with Isola Art Center in Milan, a group show with the partecipation of Rosa Barba, Regina José Galindo, Dora Garcia, Klara Lidén, Tracey Moffatt, Pipilotti Rist, Mika Rottenberg and Brigitte Zieger. This is the first exhibition of Satellite Project, who consists in a platform based only on group exhibitions in collaboration with other institutions. Satellite Project is part of OFFICE (agency for contemporary art) founded in 2011. “A Doll’s House” will be presented at Libreria Isola Libri in Milan for the exhibitions program of Isola Art Center. Isola Art Center was officially inaugurated in 2005 by provincial government’s cultural delegate Daniela Benelli and has hosted various cultural and social projects, such as Love Difference, Osservatorio inOpera, Werkstatt, Stazione Isola, Millepiani, Undo.net, Forum Isola. A joint effort of these associations, with artists such as Tomas Saraceno, has given shape to the innovative project of a Center for art and community life within the neighborhood park. Today, Isola Art Center has held more than 30 exhibitions, 13 special projects and 28 conferences, bringing in Isola over 200 artists from all over the world and lodging them in the inhabitant’s homes. Throughout the years the Center has cooperated with academics and students from a wide range of universities; it is presently very well recognized on an international scale, and was recently invited to Geneva’s Mamco Museum, Istanbul Biennial and London’s Goldsmiths College. Rosa Barba was born in 1972 in Agrigento. Lives and works in Berlin. After graduate studies at Theatre and Filmscience Erlangen and Academy of Media Arts Cologne, she frequented Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam. She has also exhibited at Kunsthaus Zürich, Jeu de Paume Paris, TATE Modern Level 2 London, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid, Centre Pompidou Paris, Carlier | Gebauer Berlin, Galeria Gio Marconi Milan, Liverpool Biennale 2010, 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennale, Torino Triennale 2008, Sculpture Center New York, 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Center for Contemporary Art Melbourne, Museum of Fine Arts Taipei and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León. Regina José Galindo was born in 1974 in Guatemala. Lives and works in Gueatemala. In 2011 Galindo wins the the Principe Claus award and the Grand Prize Award at the 29th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts. In 2005 the Golden Lion Award for young artists in the 51 Venice Biennal. She has also exhibited at National Museum of Contemporay Art Bucharest, Kunsthalle Wien, Macro Rome, Migros Museum fur Gegenwartskunst Zurich, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Museum of Modern Art Intanbul, PS1 New York, 17th Biennale of Sydney, 10th Habana Biennale, Moscow Biennale 2007, 3rd Trennial, Valencia Biennale 2007, 3rd Biennale of Tirana and Venice Biennale in 2001, 2005, 2009. Dora Garcia was born in 1965 in Valladolid. Lives and works in Barcelona. After graduate studies Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca, she frequented Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam. Since 1999 she has created several works on the web (doragarcia.net). Garcia has represented Spain at the 54th Venice Biennale. She has also exhibited at Kunsthalle Bern, Galerie Michel Rein Paris, SMAK Gent, MUSAC Leon, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid, MACBA Barcelona, Jeu de Paume Paris, Sao Paulo Biennial 2010, Gwangju Biennale 2010, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 10e Biennale de Lyon, Artists Space New York, 1st Quadrennial for Contemporary Art Copenhagen, Kunsthalle Basel, Sydney Biennial 2008, MUDAM Luxembourg, TATE Modern London and Centre Pompidou Paris. Klara Lidén was born in 1979 in Stockholm. Lives and works in Berlin. She graduated at the Konstfack – University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Stockholm. In 2010 Lidén received the Blauorange Art Prize dhe in 2011 Special Mention Award of the 54th International Art Exhibition. She has also exhibited at Moderna Museet Stockholm, Serpentine Gallery London, Jeu de Paume Paris, Kunsthalle Fridericianum Kassel, Kunsthalle Zurich, KW – Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, Kunstverein Bonn, Museum of Modern Art New York, Fundació Antoni Tàpies Barcelona, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, The Fifth Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art Moss, New Museum New York, 16th Biennale of Sydney, Center for Contemporary Art Warschau, 2nd Moscow Bienniale and 4th Berlin Biennale. Tracey Moffatt was born in 1960 in Brisbane. Lives and works between Noosa and New York. She holds a degree in visual communications from the Queensland College of Art, graduating in 1982. The short film Night Cries was selected for official competion at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, Bedevil, was also selected for Cannes in 1993. Moffatt started Piss Bags series (1978), 18 years old. She has also exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Lothar Albrecht Frankfurt/Main, Singapore Biennale 2011, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien Berlin, 28th Biennial of Graphic Arts Ljubljana, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, Liverpool Biennial 2008, MUMOK Vienna, ZKM Karlsruhe, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 47th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale and MoMA PS1 New York. Pipilotti Rist was born in 1962 in Grabs. Lives and works between Zurich and Sommerset. After studying applied arts, illustration, photography and visual communication in Vienna and Basel, and founding the all-female rock band Les Reines Prochaines. Nominated for the Guggenheim’s Hugo Boss Prize NYC in 1998, in 2009 she won the Joan Miró Prize, organized by Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona. She has also exhibited at Hayward Gallery London, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Fundació Joan Miró Barcelona, KIASMA Helsinki, MOMA New York, Centre Pompidou Paris, Reina Sofía Madrid, Venice Biennale 2011, 1999, 2005, 1997, 1993, Biennale of Sydney 2008, 2000, Istanbul Biennial 2007, 1999, 1997, Moscow Biennale 2007, Shanghai Biennale 2002, Berlin Biennial 1998, Biennale de Lyon 1997 and São Paulo Biennial 1994. Mika Rottenberg was born in 1976 in Buenos Aires. Lives and works in New York. She graduated at Hamidrasha/Bait Berl College of Arts Israel, Bachelor of Fine Arts/School of Visual Arts New York and Master of Fine Arts at Columbia University New York. In 2006 Rottenberg received the Cartier Award in conjunction with the Frieze Art Fair. She has also exhibited at Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, Whitney Museum of American Art New York, Tate Modern London, Guggenheim Museum New York, PS1 New York, Moscow Biennial 2007, Busan Biennial 2006, De Appel Amsterdam, San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery New York, KW - Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, 54th Venice Biennale, Performa 11 New York, Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Guggenheim Bilbao and Serpentine Gallery, London. Brigitte Zieger was born in 1959 in Germany. Lives and works in Paris. Her work is based on familiar everyday images and objects chosen mostly on internet. Zieger frequented Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, AFAA New York and Institut Français Thessaloniki. She has also exhibited at Centre d'Art Contemporain Perpignan, CCA Kunsthalle d'Andratx Mallorca, Palais de Tokyo Paris, MUDAC Lausanne, Contemporary Art Center Bern, Museum of Contemporary Art Yokohama, Centre d'Art Contemporain Altkirch, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Basse Normandie, Swiss Institue Paris, Tate Gallery London, 3rd International Biennal of Contemporary Art Jerusalem, Musée d’Art Contemporain Lyon, Contemporary Art Center Rhizom Arhus, White Columns, New York, and Centre Pompidou Paris. LIBRERIA ISOLA LIBRI Address: Via Pollaiuolo 5, 20159, Milan (Italy) Tel: +39 02 6684380 E-mail: info@isolartcenter.org Web: www.isolartcenter.org | www.satelliteproject.net A DOLL'S HOUSE
24 10 2011 Tuesday 25th october: out at iselp, Brussels iselp - institut supérieur pour l’étude du langage plastique Boulevard de Waterloo, 31 B-1000 Bruxelles. Ciclo di incontri: l'arte e lo spazio pubblico Tuesday, October 25: Bert Theis & Angelo Castucci - OUT - Resistance and Alternatives. Bert Theis (artist) and Angelo Castucci (architect) will present the office OUT (Office for Urban Transformation) based in Milan in which are working architects, artists, intellectuals, designers and students. OUTs function is to create, in close contact with inhabitants, situations and visual material for struggling associations, in the logic of a self-organized urbanism. iselp - conferences-et-conversations/lartetlespacepublic www.iselp.be
16 10 2011 Tuesday 18th October 7.00 pm Guided Tour to the exhibition
16 10 2011 October 16th: Building a Ecobox - Open Workshop In the context of the exhibition DESIDERIO VERDE/GREEN DESIRE by Isola Art Center/Sassetti Cultura curated by Valeria Mancinelli, Elena Mantoni, Camilla Pin Sunday, October 16th, 11.00 am BUILDING A ECOBOX - Open Workshop What is an Ecobox? Ecobox is a model built of pallets to create an instant garden very easily. Isola Pepe Verde (Isola Green Pepper) proposes to use the system Ecobox developed by Atelier d'architecture autogérée (studio for self-managed architecture) in Paris to create a temporary garden waiting for the permanent one. The laboratory is a test for this project and will develop throughout the day on Sunday in Via Pepe (Pepper street). You are welcome. DESIDERIO VERDE / GREEN DESIRE ECOBOX by aaa atelier d'architecture augogérée, Paris / studio for self-managed architecture (aaa)
13 10 2011 SOCIAL ECOLOGY: NEW REPRESENTATIONS OF THE FUTURE Thursday October 13th, 7.00 pm SOCIAL ECOLOGY: NEW REPRESENTATIONS OF THE FUTURE. From The Three ecologies by Félix Guattari. A meeting with Tiziana Villani Tiziana Villani is a writer and essayist. She is editor in chief of Millepiani magazine and a researcher at the Université Paris XII, Department of Urban Phylosophy. She collaborates with several Italian and foreign magazines. DESIDERIO VERDE / GREEN DESIRE
22 09 2011 From October 12-20th, GREEN DESIRE/DESIDERIO VERDE GREEN DESIRE / DESIDERIO VERDE Isola Art Center and Associazione Sassetti Cultura are pleased to present the exhibition GREEN DESIRE, a project of Isola Art Center, curated by Valeria Mancinelli, Elena Mantoni, Camilla Pin. Opening: Wednesday Oct 12th 2011, 6.30 pm From Oct 12th to Oct 20th 2011 Opening Hours: Mon - Sun 10:30 am- 1.00 pm / 4:30 pm -8.00pm, Sassetti Cultura, Via Volturno 35 Milan Artists Emanuela Ascari (it) / Atelier d'architecture autogérée (fr) / Massimo Bartolini (it) / Stefano Boccalini (it) / Danilo Borelli (it) / Fuori dal Vaso (it) / out (it) / Pierfabrizio Paradiso (it) / Park Fiction (de) / Public Works (uk) / Mirko Smerdel (it) / Bert Theis (lu) PROGRAM Wednesday, October 12th, 6.30 pm OPENING - Buffet offered by Isola Pepe Verde Performance by Pierfabrizio Paradiso, The Sleeping Beauty, so long reclining in her dainty bad, had risen up with a devouring desire. Undisclosed location in via G. Pepe, 5.30 pm Thursday October 13th, 7.00 pm SOCIAL ECOLOGY: NEW REPRESENTATIONS OF THE FUTURE. From The Three ecologies by Félix Guattari. A meeting with Tiziana Villani Sunday, October 16th, 11.00 am BUILDING A ECOBOX - Open Workshop Action by Fuori dal Vaso, 2.00 pm Tuesday 18th October 7.00 pm GUIDED TOUR Coordinator Lucilla Trotta, for Sassetti Cultura Graphics by Daria Tommasi GREEN DESIRE / DESIDERIO VERDE is born with the intent of analyzing the urgency of environmental issues. Such issues have been debated, misunderstood and often manipulated by an empty productivism which has lost any purpose except that of mere profit and political power; the environment now seems to be the first among the concerns of our time. The so-called relationship between man and nature can no longer be conceived as a hierarchical dependency; furthermore the anthropocentric attitude has long shown its weaknesses. We are currently facing a real ecological emergency, a green emergency which has immediate repercussions in social life. The displacement of urban green space, which we witness daily by living in the city, is a direct result of economical speculation within the building market. Isola district in Milan has long been subjected to gentrification and to capitalist-placement policies that directly undermine the social character of this neighborhood (increasingly deprived of diverse and shared areas, like parks and gardens), and threaten the very foundations of the basic right of 'urban living'. The need to customize these themes to the specific urban environment of Milan leads us to reflect upon the relationship between environment/territory/society. Green areas become intermediaries between architecture and citizens, they lie in between buildings, breaking off their continuity, and they are, therefore, a growing necessity for the inhabitants of the city. Within this context, Italian and international artistic research poses new ways of reading the complexity of environmental issues in the city by raising public awareness and presenting ideas for collective participation. During the exhibition GREEN DESIRE / DESIDERIO VERDE one will be able to explore, through a variety of artistic experiences, concrete proposals to the needs of the community. In a time when capitalist system has transformed life and nature into economical goods, this exhibition presents non-speculative uses of public green. Far from the common conception of wilderness, this exhibition revolves around a more intimate idea of nature, a public nature for the public to use, share and always redefine. Artists and works in GREEN DESIRE / DESIDERIO VERDE thus become messengers of a new perspective to everyday reality, seeking a transformation which doesn't necessarily damage the environment (here intended as the set of relations which determines the process of 'becoming'), but rather embraces togetherness, an horizontal relationship between man, environment and space. If it is true that we define the environment in which we live, it is also true that we are defined by it, in turn. The project GREEN DESIRE / DESIDERIO VERDE aims to contribute, with ideas, proposals and practical initiatives to the collective effort of the inhabitants of Isola neighborhood in conquering again their public green. Isola Art Center tel. 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org http://www.isolartcenter.org/ DESIDERIO VERDE / GREEN DESIRE
30 05 2011 1 June - 1 July: I Miss My Enemies, collateral event of Venice Biennial I MISS MY ENEMIES Venice Biennale - 54th International Art Exhibition - 2011 1 June - 1 July 2011 Location: Sala del Camino, ex-monastery SS. Cosma e Damiano Giudecca, Venice, Palanca stop "I miss my enemies" is part of the Official Collateral Events Program of the Venice Biennale, presented by The Palaces of the Russian Museum Restoration Fund in partnership with Art Apart, and supported by Odessa Session, Artandspacegallery and by the fashion group Ter et Bantine. We also thank the City of Venice for the precious support of our project. Curator: Oxana Maleeva The show will include video and sound installations, paintings, prints, sculptures and performances by the artists: JOTA CASTRO MARC VINCENT KALINKA STEVE PICCOLO BABI BADALOV ADRIAN PACI BERT THEIS KIRILL CHELUSHKIN "I MISS MY ENEMIES", by Oxana Maleeva An era of emphasis on programmed friendship that guts the term of meaning. Pervasive social network language that lets you "like" but not "dislike", share but not conceal. A transient plane of contact where it is forbidden to have enemies. Terms lose meaning without opposites. Writers decree the downfall of ideological systems. But isn't an anti-ideological stance an ideology itself, sneakily posing as objectivity? The most striking Wikileaks revelation was that under the rhetoric of international amity operative modes of prejudice, political incorrectness, nationalism and ideology live on. Could open statement of enmity be a first step towards understanding? Could taking sides clarify crippling ambiguities of a society (and art world) whose claim to accomodate all expressions deprives them of force? Propaganda changes its approach, flaunting staged controversy to justify media servitude. Increased information/disinformation flow reveals the daunting complexity of the world, raising doubts about the identity of the forces involved. Who is really the enemy? Opinions vary, no clear analysis seems to be available in spite of great verbal expenditure. Hollywood romcoms endlessly reworked the fated love story fraught with misunderstandings and defensive posturing, teaching us a moral: opposites attract, debate makes energy. Take sides. During the Cold War we always had the suspicion that our enemies had to be really cool and interesting, if only because so many idiots seemed to hate them. But today the enemy is hidden, ambiguous, maybe even imagined. "We have met the enemy and he is us" said Pogo, via Walt Kelly, regarding our willful destruction of our planet. An awareness that sounds like maturity but can lead to paralysis. I miss my enemies… and maybe they miss me. Bert Theis presents the video "Isola, a neo-liberal Italian tale", realized in 2009 for the Tirana Biennial. www.culturaspettacolovenezia.it http://www.imissmyenemies.com
23 05 2011 Sunday May 27th: LOASI, different venues LOASI From May 27th until June 27th 2011 Different venues, from 4 to 8 pm Opening, Friday May 27th 2011, 18:00 "La Cantinetta" Piazzale Carlo Archinto ang. Via della Pergola. Are part of the temporary collective: Federica Annoni, Martina Antonioni, Zeynep Arinc, Valentina Brenna, Alessia Brizi, Naima Faraò, Jung Kyunghwa, Elena Mantoni, Maria Adele Molica, Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Martina Pelacchi, Camilla Pin, Claudia Sabbatini, Sara Saini, Daniela Silvestrin, Fernanda Uribe, Davide Zanutta. Loasi (i.e. the oasis, anagram of the name of the district Isola) is an artistic-curatorial project which is developing in the district of Isola in Milan. A group of artists and curators have developed distinct interventions in alternative locations which usually are not considered in the art circuit. The title encloses the process of mimesis, which is at the base of these projects. The neighbourhood of Isola therefore becomes an apparent oasis. Mimesis presents itself as a possibility by means of art, to go beyond; trying to find an oasis in an urban area that fills itself with more and more mirages. >>>
18 05 2011 Sunday, May 22nd: Isola Art Center and out at the Pepe Verde Party Fuori dal Vaso /Isola Art Center and out - Office for Urban Transformation will take part in Pepe Verde in Festa Sunday may 22nd, 11 am - 19 pm via Pepe / via Borsieri, Isola, Milan Fuori dal Vaso /Isola Art Center and out - Office for Urban Transformation with collettivo temporaneo wil participate at Pepe Verde in Festa, by presenting the results of the workshop G for Gentrification, by activating a collective planning workshop for the new park. Interventions by the Temporary Collective and other works and interventions by artists and curators wiil be on show. >>>
13 05 2011 Monday, May 16th - 7 pm: G for gentrification - # 1 Fuori Dal Vaso / Isola Art Center presents G for gentrification - # 1 - The transformation of the Isola Neighborhood Meeting and Workshop with inhabitants, artists and researchers G for gentrification intends to investigate the concept of gentrification and its ways of enhancement in the city of Milan. The term gentrification alludes to profound economic, social and cultural rights transformations produced by the renovation or construction of new buildings in a historic residential district. The most visible consequences of this process, such as the privatization of public space, the increase on rental fees and the transformation of the functions of a district, are often analyzed separately; while discussing the concept of gentrification these items are seen as being related to each other in order to analyze the situation as a whole. Starting from this observation, Fuori Dal Vaso (a interdisciplinary group created in collaboration with Isola Art Center) and Isola Art Center presents a series of lectures and workshops on the theme of gentrification, which will investigate the foundations of this process, and above all will seek to give an active and proactive response through art projects. Through G for gentrification, Fuori Dal Vaso wants to create a lexicon that can describe and analyze the multiple aspects of the city’s transformation. Isola Art Center embraces the project and is to seen here as a center of inquiry and as a meeting place for other critical realities in Milan. For several years the Isola district is undergoing a superimposed process of transformation that has radically changed the appearance of the area and revolutionized the inhabitants’ daily lives. In collaboration with Isola Art Center and Fuori Dal Vaso, Mara Ferreri, a researcher in urban and cultural geography, proposes a public discussion on gentrification by creating a conceptual map to identify the visible and invisible transformations of the Isola neighborhood. ------- Mara Ferreri PHD candidate in Urban and Cultural Geography at School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, UK Fuori Dal Vaso An interdisciplinary group of artists, curators and researchers, which collaborates with Isola Art Center and supports the internal struggles of the Isola neighborhood through a series of urban actions, events and exhibitions. Fuori Dal Vaso / Isola Art Center G for gentrification - # 1 - The transformation of the Isola Neighborhood Meeting and Workshop with inhabitants, artists and researchers Monday, May 16th - 7 pm C / O Medionauta Via Confalonieri 2 20159 Milano >>>
29 03 2011 March 30, 2011 From site-specificity to fight-specificity Von der site-specificity zur fight-specificity. From site-specificity to fight specificity. Künstlerische und politische Praxis in der Mailänder Isola Artistic and political practices in the Isola district in Milan. Mariette Schiltz, Bert Theis Wednesday 30 march 2010, from 19.00 - 21.00 The event is part of the lecture series aesthetics @ Subversion, in collaboration with the Master of Fine Arts Department of the Arts & Media of the Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK. Corner College Perla-Mode, Langstrasse 84 / Brauerstrasse 37, 8004 Zürich << www.corner-college.com
13 03 2011 March 21st:, 7 p.m.: Journey to the end of the city Isola Art Center / Libreria Puerto de Libros via Pollaiuolo 5, Milano Monday 21st March at 7 p.m. Leonardo Lippolis presents Journey to the end of the city The metropolis and the arts in the wake of postmodernity published in 2009 by Elèuthera In July 1972 the Pruitt-Igoe, a Le Corbusier-style residential complex built by Yamasaki between 1952 and 1955 at the outskirts of Saint-Louis, was demolished at the request of its inhabitants. Some thirty years from that emblematic event, on September 11, 2001, the collapse of another of Yamasaki's creation, the Twin Towers, was yet another moment of historical rupture. Was it chance, fate or maybe just an all-too fitting sign of the times? Journey to the end of the city investigates the crisis of the metropolis and the imaginary of an age whose inexorable decline can be gleaned through the transformation of its cities. Thus, Pruitt-Igoe and the Twin Towers symbolically trace the locus of the postmodern moment whose ever-changing fabric of the metropolis has shown the ailing symptoms of the tragic decline of the West. While intellectuals, philosophers, urban sociologists, novelists and film directors have described such catastrophic dystopia in the making, artists have striven to find a melancholic haven in urban heterotopias. It would seem as if such dialectical movement fatefully contains the destiny of our present age. Several pages of the book describe the activities in the Isola district. Leonardo Lippolis (Genoa 1974), teacher by trade, has been studying the articulations between art, architecture, politics and the city in a neo-situationist perspective. Isola Art Center tel. 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org Book presentation>>>
23 02 2011 March 11-12, 2011 in Graz: URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD CULTURES Isola Art Center is invited to participate at the conference URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD CULTURES Diversity, Participation, Spaces of Negotiation CONFERENCE in the frame of the long-term project Annenviertel! The Art of Urban Intervention Dates: Fri, March 11 (2 - 6:30 pm), and Sat, March 12, 2011 (10 am - 1 pm and 2 - 6:30 pm) Location: Theater im Bahnhof, Elisabethinergasse 27a, 8020 Graz With lectures by: Cornelia Ehmayer (Vienna), Alexa Färber (Berlin / Hamburg), Joachim Hainzl (Graz), Jeanne van Heeswijk (Rotterdam), Sabine Hess (Munich), Emil Jurcan (Pula), Monika Klengel (Graz), Andreas Lang (London), Monika Litscher (Luzern), Oda Projesi & Nadin Reschke (Istanbul / Berlin), Doina Petrescu & Constantin Petcou (Paris/ Sheffield), Christoph Schäfer (Hamburg), Monika Stromberger & Ulrich Tragatschnig (Graz), Bert Theis & Mariette Schiltz (Milan) Further participants at roundtables: Simone Hain, Manfred Kinzer, Ali Özbas, Angela Pilch-Ortega Hernández, Nana Pötsch, Simone Reis, Rainer Rosegger (all Graz), Michael Zinganel (Vienna) u.a. Concept and moderation: Elke Krasny (Vienna), Judith Laister, Margarethe Makovec & Anton Lederer (all Graz) Organized by: < rotor > association for contemporary art Institute of Urban and Architectural History of Graz University of Technology District Management Annenviertel Conference languages: German and English EXHIBITION Creative Communication and Artistic Intervention into Public Space. Four examples With: Christoph Schäfer (Hamburg), Jeanne van Heeswijk (Rotterdam), Oda Projesi & Nadin Reschke (Istanbul / Berlin), public works (London) Opening: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 8 pm Location: < rotor >, Volksgartenstraße 6a, 8020 Graz For two years the Now it is time to gather local and international players in the frame of a conference in order to discuss opportunities and risks, expectations and perspectives of artistic action in the public and social space of a city district. The conference “City District Cultures. Diversity, Participation, Spaces of Negotiation” will deal with up-to-date artistic forms of collaboration in a city district and ask for means, possibilities and limits of the participation of people living and/or working there and using it. Which role can /shall art play in an urban environment such as the Annenviertel? Or, which role does it want to play? Based on three site-specific themes (the Annenviertel as a whole, Volksgarten and Annenstraße) we will illustrate and negotiate international comparative examples in three conference units on a thematically connective level. These modules of the long-term project ANNENVIERTEL! are organized in coproduction with: the City of Graz – Building Authority, District Management Annenviertel, www.stadtentwicklung.graz.at, the Institute of Urban and Architectural History of Graz University of Technology, and with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union and are moreover supported by: Kulturamt der Stadt Graz, Kulturabteilung des Landes Steiermark, Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, BAN, Mit Loidl oder Co.Graz, mur.at ANNENVIERTEL! is a part of: THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION a project by < rotor > association for contemporary art/ Graz, University of J. E. Purkyne/ Usti nad Labem, [BLOK] – Local Base for cultural refreshment/ Zagreb (in collaboration with DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and Variables, Zagreb), The Blue House Foundation/ Amsterdam, Institute of Contemporary Art Sofia and NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts/ Milano < rotor > association for contemporary art Volksgartenstrasse 6a, 8020 Graz, Austria 0043 / 316 / 688306, rotor@mur.at www.rotor.mur.at URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD CULTURES Invito
22 01 2011 February 1st: Bert Theis: Building Philosophy, book presentation Tuesday, February 1st 2011, at 19.00 Museo Pecci Milano Ripa di Porta Ticinese 113, Milano In collaboration with Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art, Isola Art Center, NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano Presentation of the monograph Bert Theis Building Philosophy introduced by Julia Draganovic, Vincenzo Latronico, Stefano Pezzato, Steve Piccolo, Judith Quentel, Marco Scotini, Bert Theis, Elvira Vannini Bookpresentation and interview by ZEPstudio>>
21 12 2010 11 December 2010: A built situation for the new park in Isola A built situation for the new park in Isola Saturday 11th, December 2010 Cavalcavia Bussa from 15.00 until 19.30 instant project di Matteo Lucchetti e Bert Theis With interventions by Andia Afsar Keshmiri | Eva Frapiccini, Valentina Maggi | Katia Meneghini | PArtiColAzioni | Maria Pecchioli | Steve Piccolo | Mila Popdimitrova | Sašo Sedlaček | Mirko Smerdel | out-ufficio per la trasformazione urbana, e altri invitati a sorpresa... Isola Art Center participates in the design of the new public park in the Isola neighborhood in Milan, developed by Isola Pepe Verde, the latest in a long series (starting in the Seventies) of civic activism groups in the history of the neighbourhood. A phase of plural and shared planning and organization of Isola neighbourhood’s public space started on Saturday, December 11, with the New Garden Party. The public park is a public space that is missing in the neighbourhood since the closing of Via Confalonieri Park in 2007. A new site seems to have been found in the communal property of the Bussa overpass. The participatory planning and design path, curated by Bert Theis and Matteo Lucchetti, aims to show the potential and importance of urban intervention by art practices. more >>>
27 11 2010 From November 27, 2010, NO FORMULA ONE NO CRY Anri Sala NO FORMULA ONE NO CRY Anri Sala Curator Fani Zguro Isola Art Center, Milan From November 27, 2010 Permanent installation “No Formula One No Cry” explores the relationship between speed and space in the city. Presented in a city-centre taxi, “No Formula One No Cry” offers a multi-layered collage of images, sounds and emotions. The familiar, rhythmic cry of the Formula One car is interrupted by the unsettling sound of stray dogs barking. The ‘speed’ at which we perceive and experience the city becomes a central feature of the work; the imagined adrenaline rush of travelling in the racecar is frustrated by the sober reality of journeying in a taxi. The world suggested by the Formula One sounds is momentarily punctuated by images of a distinctly urban yet different economic reality – that of the political and geographical space inhabited by stray dogs. “No Formula One No Cry” is an ongoing project already hosted in Tirana, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Kitakyushu, Miami, Paris and Vienna as part of a wish to create a network of taxis around the world in which the audio work may be heard. The installation is available only by contacting the taxidriver, which name and phone number is on the business cards that will be distributed at the opening of the exhibition Under Construction... by Isola Art Center, curated by Valerio del Baglivo, Aria Spinelli and Elvira Vannini, November 27 and 29th, 2010. Anri Sala born 1977 in Tirana. Lives and works in Berlin. He has exhibited also at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Art - North Miami (MOCA), Miami, Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Mamco - Musée d´Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Tirana Art Center, Biennale di Venezia, Manifesta, Ljubljana, Berlin Biennale, Yokohama Triennale, Tirana Biennale, International Istanbul Biennial, Taipei Biennial, Biennale of Sydney, Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Bienal de Sao Paulo, etc. ISOLA ART CENTER info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org Anri Sala, No formula one no cry, 2009 special project: curated by Fani Zguro No formula one no cry explores the relationship between speed and space in the city. No formula one no cry is a collage of 'images, sounds and emotions. The work is presented in a taxi. Speed is a feature of the city experience and became a focal point of work; the adrenaline created by the imaginary journey is contrasted by a surreal reality inside the cab. The world suggested by the sound of Formula One is momentarily interrupted by the faint images of urbanity, which merges different economic realities – and different political and geographical spaces - "scratched" by the house of stray dogs. In Milan, No formula one no cry is a collected audio work which can be listened to in a cab. The public can approach the installation only by contacting the taxi driver, the name and number can be found on business cards, which will be distributed at the opening of the exhibition Under Construction (Architettare...) on November 27 and 29th, 2010 at Puerto de Libros Bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5, Milano, Isola district.
23 11 2010 Under Construction...November 27th to December 31st Architettando ... November 27th to December 31st 2010 A project by Isola Art Center, curated by Valerio Del Baglivo, Aria Spinelli and Elvira Vannini AUFO - Architectural & Urban Forum | Fabrizio Bellomo | Gianluca Brezza | Nebojsa Milikic | Ferhat Özgür | Peti Park (Fifth Park) | Stealth.unlimited | Marco Vaglieri - out | Anri Sala (special project curated by Fani Zguro) Bookshop Puerto de Libros, via Pollaiuolo 5 and Sound Metak, P.le Segrino 1 Opening hours Tuesday - Saturday, 16:30 to 19:30, and by appointment ______________________________________________________________________ Opening Saturday, November 27th at 6 pm video screening and two musical performances by Collodel Alberto, Davide Lorenzon, Ivan Pilat / Cristiano Calcagno, Xabier Iriondo at Sound Metak, P.le Segrino 1 Monday, November 29th , 2010: 7 pm– Bookshop Puerto de Libros, via Pollaiuolo 5 No-Spot City – the status of construction meeting with Lorenzo Degli Esposti (dir. creative AUFO) | Marco Biraghi | Ernesto D'Alfonso | Nicolò Privileggio 9 pm – Punto Rosso, via Pepe 14 How to build a perfect dinner recipes by Francesco Careri (Stalker) | Gianni Pettena | Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen (Stealth.unlimited) ______________________________________________________________________ The city’s right is much more than individual freedom of accessibility to urban resources: it is the right to change ourselves, in order to change the city. David Harvey Isola Art Center continues with its cultural events hosted by the residents of the neighborhood, enhancing Architettando..., curated by Valerio Del Baglivo, Aria Spinelli and Elvira Vannini, which will be held from November 27th to December 31st , 2010. The term is here understood in its linguistic duality. The Italian word "Architettando" means both the activity of construction - in its physical and unrealistic sense – but also alludes to planning a deception. The political mechanisms that control urban development and its imbalances, reflect a neoliberal economy, and have resulted, for some years now, for the Isola Neighborhood, as in a continuous fatal process of gentrification, which responds to the needs of an increasingly capitalized elite. The planners, property developers and politicians are plotting. The space that was once public is now privatized. The last agricultural and industrial architecture of the past left are now erased. Architects are planning, the cranes are dominating the skyline and new urban developments are visibly growing. They are almost all offices, shops or luxury homes, designed to radically change the nature of the mixed working class neighborhood. Mostly consisting in unavoidable antagonisms and political interests, the city is no longer an expression of the needs and demands of society, or of the neighborhood’s community. Lefebvre has already pointed out that the physical form of the city is a product of the accumulation of capital, but also that the legitimacy of the same socio-economic powers gives rise to a potential subversive: resistance to the use of urban spaces and aesthetic opposition to incessant construction. In its complexity, Architettando..., therefore wishes to reflect on art practitioners, architects and documentary filmmakers who have taken the urban and social transformation as the focus of their research. The exhibition will open on Saturday 27th with a video screening of works by Ferhat Özgür, Nebojsa Milikic, Fifth Park, which tell stories and recount events of other districts spatially distant from Milan, but very close to its conditions and forms of resistance. The documentary director Gianluca Brezza (La casa verde - una storia politica) depicts the story of a house and its inhabitants swallowed by the new skyscraper for the Lombardy Region offices, built on the park area of of Gioia. Finally, AUFO (Architectural and Urban Forum) Fabrizio Bellomo and Marco Vaglieri -out, reflect on the hoax of unfeasible construction plans and the administrative bureaucracy that congests the city. For the event on Monday 29th Lorenzo Degli Esposti (AUFO), Marco Biraghi, Ernesto d'Alfonso and Nicolò Privileggio will discuss the significance of the group activities AUFO, starting from the project No-spot City. A self-funding diner will follow, entitled How to Build a perfect dinner. Artists and curators from Isola will cook recipes of architects Gianni Pettena, Francesco Careri and Stealth.ultimited, requested for the occasion. Reservations are required. Please call 347 126 4847. Finally, the special project No Formula One No Cry by Anri Sala will be presented, a project curated by Fani Zguro already exhibited in many cities worldwide, and that will be visible only by booking a trip in a cab. The project will develop in a dense program during two days –November 27th and 29th- involving artists and curators in the implementation of various events with the aim of reflect on the concept of gentrification, a process still scarcely recognized in the Italian context, but that has already involved many urban areas of its territory. The show will instead extend for two months, until December 31. Info Isola Art Center 339 6057 111 || info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org valeriodelbaglivo@gmail.com aria.spinelli @ gmail.com elviravannini@gmail.com ______________________________________________________________________ Program . Saturday, 27/11 -6 pm Puerto de Libros Bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5 Exhibition opening with the works by: AUFO - Architectural & Urban Forum | Fabrizio Bellomo | Marco Vaglieri - out 6.30 pm at Soundmetak P.le Segrino 1 Video screening with works by: Gianluca Brezza | Nebojsa Milikic | Ferhat Özgür | Peti Park (Fifth Park ) | Stealth.unlimited at 7.30 pm there will be two musical performances by Collodel Alberto, Davide Lorenzon, Ivan Pilat / Cristiano Calcagno, Xabier Iriondo Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday 16:30 to 19:30 and by appointment . Monday 29/11 7.00 pm – Puerto de Libros bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5 No-Spot City – the status of construction meeting with Lorenzo Degli Esposti (creative director of AUFO) | Marco Biraghi | Ernesto d'Alfonso | Nicolò Privileggio 9.00 pm – Punto Rosso, via Pepe 14 How to Build a perfect dinner with recipes by Francesco Careri (Stalker) | Gianni Pettena | Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen (Stealth.unlimited) Reservations are required. Please call at 347 1264874 ______________________________________________________________________ Anri Sala, No formula one no cry, 2009 special project: curated by Fani Zguro No formula one no cry explores the relationship between speed and space in the city. No formula one no cry is a collage of 'images, sounds and emotions. The work is presented in a taxi. Speed is a feature of the city experience and became a focal point of work; the adrenaline created by the imaginary journey is contrasted by a surreal reality inside the cab. The world suggested by the sound of Formula One is momentarily interrupted by the faint images of urbanity, which merges different economic realities – and different political and geographical spaces - "scratched" by the house of stray dogs. No formula one no cry is a permanent installation, collected in audio work which can be listened to in a cab, in Milan. The public can approach the installation only by contacting the taxi driver, the name and number can be found on business cards, which will be distributed at the opening at Isola Art Center, November 27, 2010. No formula one no cry is a project already in progress, presented so far in Tirana, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Kitakyushu, Miami, Paris and Vienna, as part of a network of taxis around the world, in which everyone can hear the audio piece. AUFO - Architectural & Urban Forum, No-spot City, 2009 No-spot City, exhibited and presented at the Puerto de Libros bookshop, is a project by AUFO (Architectural and Urban Forum) of a building for a million inhabitants in the center of Milan. All official procedures for the construction have been done (presentation of the DIA, Home Activity Report), and the municipality of Milan has not opposed the request, despite the construction requires the demolition of part of the Castello Sforzesco. Gianluca Brezza, La casa verde -una storia politica, 2009 The documentary directed by Gianluca Brezza, La casa verde -una storia politica (2009, DVD, 22 ', Milan, Italy) recalls the absurdity of building construction, through the incredible story of a house and its inhabitants swallowed by the new skyscraper of the offices of the Lombardy Region, built on park area of Gioia, a former green area adjacent to the island district. Fabrizio Bellomo, Untitled, 2010 The work by Fabrizio Bellomo plays ironically on the weakness of the construction and its hoped fallibility. Through the construction of an unfinished three-dimensional puzzle that depicts the building of the Lombardy Region, the artist suggests the possibility of creating a vacuum in the power relations, a utopian reading of a real situation. How to build a perfect dinner, 2010 For this edition Architettando... we asked three architects to signal a culinary recipe, in order to cook a self-financing three-course dinner. Francesco Careri member of Stalker from Rome, radical architect Gianni Pettena, Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen (Stealth.unlimited). The proceeds from the dinner will serve as a source of funding for Isola Art Center and Punto Rosso. Fifth Park, The Struggle for Peti Park, 2009 The Struggle for Peti Park, is a slide show the collective Fifth Park (Branko BELACEVIC, Marko Miletic, Dubravka Sekulic, Jelena Stefanovic). This slide show tells the story of Peti Park (Serbian for "Fifth Park") - a small green area in a district in 1960 in Belgrade. In mid 2005, the City Council has enacted its own deforestation, with the aim of building a shopping complex. The local population protested trying to keep the area green, while the city council said the area was already reserved for the construction in 1980 and that the small park was only a temporary solution. Although at one point the police were involved to make the construction possible, the local population has gained popular support amongst Belgrade and its celebrities for their cause. In January 2008 the municipality of Zvezdara replanted thirty-one trees in a circular pattern, in an effort to maintain the park. Nebojsa Milikic Our Building, 2003 Our Building tells of a series radio broadcasts, aired weekly on Radio B92 in Belgrade from August 2001 to January 2003, reaching an audience of about 100,000 people. For Sixty-seven episodes the boundaries of documentary, reality-show radio and radio drama were mixed. The author started to do the radio show after the association of tenants in the building where he lived, rejected his candidacy for president. The materials were produced together with the tenants in everyday situations, tackling the problems of community life in a typical building in Belgrade. The material has been modified so that the content may refer to any residential building in Belgrade. Therefore, the impact was felt simultaneously in two parallel levels: between the tenants of the building where it was recorded show (narrowcasting), and the general population, for example people who live in Belgrade or elsewhere in Serbia (broadcasting). With the idea of joint ownership, of a social policy of "housing for all" these communities were guided in the context of political and economic change in course - because of privatization of the houses, the new orientation of the economy, to be managed by the State moves to race to the free market, the legacy of the wars in former Yugoslavia, etc. Fehrat Özgür, Halleluja (DVD, 7 ', 2009, Ankara, Turkey) The video Halleluja by Fehrat Özgür, presented at the 2010 Berlin Biennale, focuses on a woman from Anatolia, who sings the bitter and provocative version in playback of the original song 'Hallelujah' to Leonard Cohen. In the background you see the new buildings of concrete, metal and glass, that advance. Built on the grounds of "abusive" housing, the gececondu are demolishing and marginalizing the traditional minarets of mosques. The artist tells us about the loss of identity typical of illegal construction, through the use of music and images. Marco Vaglieri - out, Brain-City, drawing on paper, 2010 The title of the draft Marco Vaglieri "Brain-City" alludes to the role of so-called Creative Class in urban redevelopment and gentrification processes of popular neighborhoods. The Isola warns rampant this process with the arrival of new architecture, design, and art. Download the programm Architettando...more info ______________________________________________________________________
21 10 2010 Practicing Memory - exhibition prolonged until November 7th Practicing Memory In a time of an all-encompassing present Curated by Matteo Lucchetti Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto via Serralunga 27, Biella from 25/06/2010 to 30/09/2010 Hosted by Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, the exhibit Practicing Memory in a time of an all-encompassing present reflects upon the theme of memory as a practice of organizing thought through the production of images and therefore also through writing history, at least up until its democratization. In a scenario where national narrations and their being anchored to the present have been substituted by global constructions of memory made of mediatised events and collective emotional strain, which is the value today of artistic interventions on the dynamics that take place between oblivion and memory? Is it possible to create short circuits in historiographic flows aimed at a non-compromised interpretation of the present? Practicing Memory tries to answer with that artistic practice that departs from the idea of nostalgic memory and takes part in the social process of preservation of memory. The exhibition features works by Francesco Arena, Rossella Biscotti, Beatrice Catanzaro, Chto Delat? / What is to be done?, Michelangelo Consani, Danilo Correale, Dora Garcia, André Guedes, Shilpa Gupta, Rabih Mroué, Wendelin Van Oldenborgh, Mirko Smerdel, Société Réaliste, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Vangelis Vlahos. - - - - visible “where art leaves its own field and becomes visible as part of something else” Angelika Burtscher, Judith Wielander (Eds.) Sternberg Press Visible is a research project in contemporary art that has been undertaken by Cittadellarte–Fondazione Pistoletto in collaboration with Fondazione Zegna. Visible reveals and invigorates artistic practices which have a real capacity for creating and experimenting with visions that can impact the social and cultural imagination of our contemporary world. The first outcome of visible is a publishing project which has been developed in collaboration with nine curators to showcase 41 ways of making art. Ways that not only address topical contemporary issues, but also intervene directly to spark processes of change. The visible editorial project focuses on artists who stand out for their capacity to deal proactively with the need to develop new economic models and to ensure the distribution of resources, the accessibility of information, the urgent need to rethink ecology and landscape issues, the potential of diversity, and the development and experimentation of participatory and democratic political models. Artists: Alterazioni Video, Maria Thereza Alves, Aspra.mente, Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin, Anna Best, Francisco Camacho, CAMP, Santiago Cirugeda (Recetas Urbanas), Teddy Cruz, Neil Cummings & Marysia Lewandowska, Fadaiat, Cao Fei, Frente 3 de Fevereiro, Sou Fujimoto Architects, Goldin+Senneby, Gugulective, Zheng Guogu, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Alon Levin, Goddy Leye, Jill Magid, Darius Miksys, Nástio Mosquito, Ciprian Muresan, Jesús Bubu Negrón, Offer and exchange, Progetto Diogene, Publink, Wanda Raimundi-Ortíz, Pedro Reyes, Anna Scalfi, Jonas Staal, Xu Tan, Javier Téllez, Tercerunquinto, Bert Theis, Ana Laura López de la Torre, Judi Werthein, Ming Wong, and Mlu Zondi. With a contribution by Emiliano Gandolfi about Isola Art Center and out Office for Urban Transformation - - - - a link to see the tribute to Isola by Nikolay Oleynikova done in the context of the work Monument.International. Documentation., with which Oleynikova wanted to give a personal contribution in the show, beyond the work of Chto Delat?
06 09 2010 13th-23rd October: Club 21-Remaking the Scene CLUB 21 – REMAKING THE SCENE at One Marylebone, London 13th – 23rd October 2010 CLUB 21 - remaking the scene In partnership with MUDAM, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg and VICTORIA - the Art of being Contemporary Foundation and Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich Curated by Art Apart Curating Agency, Zurich Curator: Oxana Maleeva Sound and performance curator: Steve Piccolo “Everyone was a damn VIP at that club… not because they were famous (though many of them were), but because just being there made you SOMEBODY, at least for a few hours.” (Steve Piccolo) Artists: Jota Castro | Bert Theis | Mariette Schiltz | Steve Piccolo | Roberto Cuoghi | A Constructed World | Ramuntcho Matta Adrian Paci | Marc Vincent Kalinka | Dmitry Kawarga | Alexander Ponomarev | Edo Bertoglio | James Nares | Piotr Belyi | Nathalie du Pasquier | Evgeny Yufit | Stephen Torton | Giancarlo Norese | Amos Poe | Stina Fisch and Steve C. Harvey | Klara Palotai | Luca Pancrazzi Sound artists: Phoebe Legere, Elliott Sharp, Charlie Morrow, Gak Sato, Steve Piccolo, Letizia Renzini, Jacob Kirkegaard, Zimoun + Helena Gough, Ken Ikeda, Gary Chang, Peter Zummo Mariuccia Casadio on the subject of clubs: They were the sanctuaries of a generation that worshipped images, devotees of experimentation and innovation. Who broke down the barriers between professional and amateur, life and art. Freeing creativity, transforming it into a tool of expression and communication. Generating images and sounds that permanently inspired and changed the times. (to be continued…) OXANA MALEEVA intro Club 21 There is a great deal of interest today in fertile art scenes that flourished before the personal computing/Internet revolution. They usually gravitated around clubs, gathering places for artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, dealers, patrons, muses, players. One of the most positive things about the New York scene in the 1980s, the scene in Perestroika-era Russia, the English and California punk scenes, just to name a few, was the mixture of art, music, cinema, performance, literature, often all being done by the same people or groups of people. The genealogy starts with the cabarets of Montmartre in the 1800s and seems to stop, in a way, with the spread of the Internet. The Internet has made this kind of ongoing social contact obsolete... or has it? There is widespread nostalgia today for the lost scene, and a greater need than ever perhaps for locations of physical, face-to-face interaction and discussion among artists of different disciplines and levels, and between art and its audience. But what could the art/club scene of the 21st century be like? ______________________________________________________________________ Artists who presented their work at Isola Art Center: Bert Theis | Mariette Schiltz | Steve Piccolo | A Constructed World | Adrian Paci | Stina Fisch | Luca Pancrazzi Bert Theis presents: Isola Art Centers, Some Hypotheses, (2008-2010) Mariette Schiltz presents Isola nostra, (DVD 59’, music: Steve Piccolo) A page for sound art in progress curated by Steve Piccolo _____________________________________________________________________ Dates: 13 – 23 October 2010 Hours: 13,14,15 October (see website for opening hours) 16-23 October: 11.00-19.00; late night opening 20.00 16 October e-mail: info@projectclub21.com A catalogue will be available at One Marylebone. www.projectclub21 A special page about Club 21 at undo/pressrelease
17 06 2010 Saturday, June 5: The Beggar Robot at Isola Public School The Beggar Robot at Isola public school Isola Art Center and the Art Laboratory of the Isola Comprehensive school "Rosa Govone" presents THE BEGGAR ROBOT | a project by Saso Sedlacek Saturday, June 5 from 9.30 to 12.30 at the Rosa Govone School party, Via Pepe, Milan The school, recently renovated, now has several laboratories to be equipped but the school coffers are empty, therefore the kids of the 'afternoon school' at Rosa Govone together with Isola Art Center has built a " beggar robot"to raise funds for equipment of the laboratories. The little robot was built with computer scraps, electronic junk and cheap pieces. The idea came in 2009 when Isola Art Center has presented the "Beggar Robot 1.0, created by Slovenian artist Saso Sedlacek, to the pupils and teachers of the secondary school. They liked the robot so much that they decided, with the collaboration of the teachers, to build one with the help of Isola Art Center. The project was realized with the help of the Rosa Govone’s parents Association, Sottobosco and Soundmetak. Special Projects/The Beggar Robot/
18 05 2010 May25th - June 29th 2010: ODDS AND ENDS, opening May25th Isola Art Center and NABA in collaboration with Millepiani and Punto Rosso present ODDS AND ENDS May25th - June 29th 2010 Puerto de Libros bookshop, via Pollaiuolo 5 / Punto Rosso, via Pepe 14, Milano Opening: Tuesday, May25th, 18h:00 Odds and Ends, hosted by Puerto de Libros bookshop is a special project by artists and curators of the Master’s Degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA Milan: it brings together sixteen prototypes of publications by: Anna Caterina Bleuler | Enrica Casalicchio | Massimiliano M. Cucciniello | Bercin Damgaci | Sara Errico | Rosie Eisor | Dario Leone | Serena Marconi | Giorgio Massoni | Daniella Andrea | Isamit Morales | Alessandro Pezzati | Sara Porcari | Linda Turri | Claudia Ventola | Gianmaria Zanda supervised by Andrea Sala and Bert Theis. During the evening will be presented the second issue of Millepiani Urban, the magazine made by the cultural association Millepiani, with essays by Leonie Sandercock, Mike Davis, Tiziana Villani, Ubaldo Fadini and others. Introduction by Tiziana Villani, Sabine Reiff, Nomeda and Gedeminas Urbonas from Pro-testLab in Vilnius. On that occasion, Punto Rosso, Via Pepe 14, will show Isola Rosta Project 4: three projects on shutters made by Pasquale Campanella, Francesco Cerini and Rosetta White, professors of Caravaggio Art School in Milan together with the students Alice Boffa, Valentina Santinoli (2A); Margherita Canevari (2B); Niccolò Polimeno, Anita Rossi, Lucia Rho, Giulio Ferraro, Gaia Ciarla, Chiara Di Gennaro (3C); Susanna Castelli, Riccardo Sossella (5B), Daniele Rossi (1E). Take part also the Laboratorio Artistico with the students Giammarco Coato, Denise Mitidieri, Leo Valentini, Amanda Maffei, Alessandro Turchet, coordinated by Filippo Ballarin, Adele Bressa and Stefania Catanoso. The unrealized projects will also be shown. At 20:30 Punto Rosso will host the screening of the film “From no man's land” about the transformation of the Bovisa district by director Elvio Annese (2009, 53 '). Since 1976, for more than thirty years, the filmmaker has documented the transition from industrial district to the University area, always working alone, and narrating the lives of people who have undergone the radical changes of the urban transformation. Finally remind that at Puerto de Libros bookshop (via Pollaiuolo 5) and Tantrika Shop (via Pollaiuolo 2) continues until June 29 (Tuesday to Saturday 16.30 - 19.30) Horror Vacui - Occupying the Present, curated by Aria Spinelli and Valerio Del Baglivo. Artists Fabrizio Bellomo, Valentina Maggi, Maria Pecchioli and Mirko Smerdel confront themselves with the void offering new imaginaries for the Isola district. Isola Art Center 339 6057 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org
13 05 2010 From May 8 - June 26 2010 out&Theis: Galleria Contemporaneo Mestre out&Theis office for urban transformation&Bert Theis 8 May - 26 June 2010 Opening Saturday, May 8th - h 18.00 In collaboration with Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art – Milano, Lecco Bert Theis is perhaps one of the most consistent supporters of the art as a moment of relationship, never giving up the quality of the artworks he creates. He focuses on a sort of reinterpretation of the topical moments of modernism: one only needs to think about the “Suprematist platform”, shown in Tirana in 2008, or about the recent structures shown at Museo Pecci in Prato and obtained from Walter Gropius’ projects for a philosophy institute (“Building Philosophy”). These projects grow out of the modernist language, but they are always careful to encourage a free use by the people. They are structures designed to receive, making possible to have a break, to seat down, to lie down, to look at, etc. Bert Theis’ proposals (only utopian?) about bringing back the urban space to a state of nature are well known: his projects let a few buildings, which identify cities, emerge from thick greenery. During the last few years, his artistic research and production have been more and more interlaced with his activity as a curator and a promoter of public projects able to involve people in protecting and qualifying the urban environment in a grassroots way, and also in supporting a new idea of community and conviviality. In 2002 Theis and few friends of him created an open platform a sort of operating at the Isola District, near Garibaldi railway station in Milan, which is supporting situations, events, conferences, exhibitions, meetings and is working with the neighborhood associations. Its name is out, an English acronym that indicates a self-organized office dedicated to urban transformations, and is one of the groups of Isola Art Center. Considering the transformations currently related to Venetian terra firma, Galleria Contemporaneo hosts a new exhibition project personally curated by the artist, who, besides showing his work, has included works of other members of out (office for urban transformation) in the exhibition: Marco Vaglieri, Alice Pintus, Mariette Schiltz, Alberto Pesavento, Mara Ferreri and Kings. Bert Theis (born in 1952, in Luxembourg, he lives and works in Milan and Luxembourg) In 2002 he created the office out (office for urban transformation), located in Milan and Mexico DF. He has participated in several international artistic events, such as the Venice Biennial in 1995, Sculpture. Projects in Münster in 1997, Arte all’Arte in 1998, Manifesta 2 in 1998, Gwangju Biennial 2002, Tirana Biennial 2003, Busan Biennial 2006, Taipei Biennial 2008. GALLERIA CONTEMPORANEO Tue-Sat 15.30-19.30 closed on Sunday and Mondays P.tta Olivotti 2 – 30171 Mestre-Venezia, Italy http://www.galleriacontemporaneo.it/
16 04 2010 Tuesday, 27 April to 29 June 2010: Horror Vacui - Occupying the Present Horror Vacui Occupying the Present April 27th to June 29th , 2010 A project by Isola Art Center curated by Valerio Del Baglivo and Aria Spinelli Opening Tuesday, April 27th , 19:00 Fabrizio Bellomo | Valentina Maggi | Maria Pecchioli | Mirko Smerdel Bookshop Puerto de Libros, via Pollaiuolo 5 and Tantrika Shop, via Pollaiuolo 2 Tuesday – Saturday, 4.30 – 7.30 pm and by appointment ______________________________________________________________________ meetings and events, April 28th to May 4th 2010, 19:00 Köken Ergun | Granaio | Gerald Raunig | Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini | Sottobosco | Total Recall Soundmetak, P.le Segrino 1 and Punto Rosso Via Pepe 14 ______________________________________________________________________ Horror Vacui - Occupying the Present is a project that involves artists, curators and inhabitants in the implementation of various events with the intent to meet the aggressive speculation involving the Isola neighborhood. The massive construction projects by desiring to fill each piece of free urban space seem to fail to coincide with the need to preserve neighborhood’s identity and to ensure effective livability of the concerned urban area. On a closer look, these physical modeling processes intervene radically and thoroughly on the area, and seem to be organized around an impulsive feeling of horror vacui (abhors a vacuum), rather than governed by a sensible urban planning. If the action of constant construction on one part is directed to fill the urban area, on the other produces a process of gentrification consequently creating fractures that in time become more difficult to assess. There is another kind of emptiness that can be found between Isola neighborhood’s residents that has to do with the difficulty to relate with an ever-changing territory and hence the impossibility of recognizing the place where one lives. To address this absence Horror Vacui – Occupying the present proposes a two-way gaze on the one hand that traces a historical line, on the other that activates a temporary platform for creation, discussion and confrontation between different realities. Artists Fabrizio Bellomo, Valentina Maggi, Maria Pecchioli, Mirko Smerdel, in order to confront the empty spaces, insinuate themselves in the interstices proposing a new imaginary. The philosopher and theorist Gerald Raunig will present Art and Revolution, Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century and his new book A Concise Philosophy of the Machine as Social Movement, both published by MIT Press. The new video by Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini entitled Comuna en construccion will be projected. The Venetian art platform Sottobosco presents Showdesk, a two-day event that gives young emerging artists the chance to present their work in public. The collective from Milan Bouganville promotes their well-known project Granaio, a brunch during which artists’ projects are voted by the participants and awarded with the meals’ profits. The young Turkish artist Köken Ergun presents a video archive project in collaboration with B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. On the final day a neighborhood walk entitled Total Recall will take place, inviting all the artists who collaborated with the Isola Art Center over the years, to participate in a public ceremony with the inhabitants of the Isola district in order to rename the places most affected by processes of gentrification. Horror Vacui – Occupying the Present has the ambition to invade the void and temporarily revitalize a neighborhood characterized by strong social dispersion and subdued to the evident signs of a crisis of identity, in order to contrast the aggressive building construction speculation. The project involves artists and curators in the implementation of various events for a week to trace the recent history and to critically rethink a future. The show will open until the 29th of June. Info Isola Art Center 339 6057 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org Valerio Del Baglivo valeriodelbaglivo@gmail.com Aria Spinelli aria.spinelli@gmail.com PROGRAM .Tuesday 27 April,pm Exhibition Opening: Maria Pecchioli and Mirko Smerdel - Bookshop Puerto de Libros on via Pollaiuolo 5 Fabrizio Bellomo and Valentina Maggi - Tantrika Shop on via Pollaiuolo 2 . Wednesday 28 April, 3-6 pm Punto Rosso on via Pepe 14 The Art Platform Sottobosco was born in 2009 to promote young artists and develop artistic projects. Since March 2010 their Archive has been permanently located at the Galleria Contemporaneo in Mestre. For their event entitled Showdesk, Sottobosco installs a desk, a projector and a PC in a room where artists have the opportunity to present their work, to meet diverse audiences and to leave their portfolios for the archive. During Horror Vacui, Sottobosco promotes Showdesk at Punto Rosso on two different occasions. Artists invited: gruppo di ricerca artistica Trama21 | Andrea Kunkl and Giuseppe Fanizza | Katia Meneghini | Alessandro Nassiri | Thanos Zakopoulos .Thursday 29 April, 7 pm Bookshop Puerto de Libros on via Pollaiuolo 5 The philosopher and theorist Gerald Raunig will present his book entitled «Art and Revolution, Art and Transversal Activism long the Twentieth Century», which examines the links between art and activism. He will also introduce his new publication «A Thousand Machines. A Concise Philosophy of the Machine as Social Movement». Introduction by Marco Scotini and Bert Theis. .Friday 30 April, 3-5 pm Punto Rosso on via Pepe 14. Showdesk by Sottobosco. .Saturday 1 May, 7 pm Punto Rosso on via Pepe 14 After the May Day parade, the new video work by Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini will be projected. Called Comuna en construccion, the video is on self-organizations at one of the most problematic districts of Caracas. For the first time in Italy, the video will be shown in the original audio with Italian translation - courtesy Artra Gallery, Milan. Introduction by Nadia Riolo. .Sunday 2 May, 12-5 pm Punto Rosso on via Pepe14. Since this past winter, the collective Bouganville organizes a very special Sunday bruncho once a month. During the meal the total from the profits of revenue minus the cost of expenditure is used to finance artist’s projects, voted democratically by a majority of diners. The cost of each brunch is 10 euros per person and the project is called the Granaio. For Horror Vacui, Bouganville organize a Granaio at Punto Rosso. .Monday 3 May, 7.30 pm SoundMetak on P.le Segrino 1. The Turkish artist Köken Ergun is invited to present his video archive project in collaboration with B’Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories followed by a discussion with Alterazioni Video, Aria Spinelli and other guests. .Tuesday 4 May, 7.30 pm Total Recall starting point at Punto Rosso (red wine will be distributed) At the end of the week, Total Recall invites artists and inhabitants for a walk to those places most affected by the gentrification, and asks them to rename these sites through small public ceremonies. Many artists, who in recent years, have collaborated with Isola Art Center, will attend the event. more about the event: dettagli dell'evento: Horror Vacui >> and undo.net/enventinvideo
21 03 2010 1 May, 2010, 7 pm: Film-screening: Comuna Under Construction Comuna Under Construction | Comuna en construcción A Film by | Una película de Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler 94 min., 2010 Original Spanish version with German and English subtitles. (for Spanish please scroll down) Current screenings: - “Activist Club”, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (NL), 18 March, 2010, 6 pm (http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl) (O. Ressler in conversation with Galit Eilat) - Lichtblick-Kino, Berlin (D), 20.03., 21.03., 29.03., 30.03., 31.03.2010 (www.lichtblick-kino.org) - Brooklyn College Graduate Center For Worker Education & Working USA: Journal of Labor & Society, 25 Broadway, 7th Fl., New York (USA), 22 March, 2010 (with D. Azzellini) - Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs @ Domy Books, Houston (USA), 15 April, 2010 at 7:30 pm (http://www.theskydive.org) - Isola Art Center / Associazione Punto Rosso, Milan (I), 1 May, 2010, 7 pm (http://www.isolartcenter.org) - “Uneven Geographies: Art and Globalization”, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (GB) 8 May – 4 July, 2010 (http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org) COMUNA UNDER CONSTRUCTION A film by Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler 94 min., 2010 “We have to decide for ourselves what we want. We are the ones who know about our needs and what is happening in our community”, Omayra Peréz explains confidently. She wants to convince her community, located on the hillside of the poor districts of Caracas, to found a Consejo Comunal (community council). In more than 30.000 Consejos Comunales the Venezuelan inhabitants decide on their concerns collectively via assemblies. Omayra is supported by the activists of the nearby shantytown “Emiliano Hernández”, which has had a Consejo Comunal for three years already. The inhabitants there managed to get a doctor from the governmental program “Barrio Adentro”, who treats everyone free of charge. They also got money to renovate their houses and replaced over a dozen of sheet iron huts by new houses. All of these activities and a lot more have been organized via the Consejo Comunal. By local self-organization from below several working groups have been established on self-decided topics and decisions are made in assemblies. Several Consejos Comunales can form a Comuna and finally a communal town. The film “Comuna Under Construction” follows these developments throughout the hillside of the shantytowns of Caracas and the vast and wet plains of Barinas in the countryside. The councils are built from below and alongside the existing institutions and are supposed to overcome the existing state through self-government. In an assembly for the construction of the communal town “Antonio José de Sucre” Ramon Virigay from the independent peasant’s organization Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora (FNCEZ) reminds the delegates of the participating Consejos Comunales: “Even if we definitely need the government agencies at the moment, we have to be independent tomorrow due to our development. We cannot depend solely on the state forever.” For this reason the councils are to establish own structures of production and distribution in order to achieve autonomy. The assemblies are a central element of the film “Comuna Under Construction”. The film starts off in the well organized Consejo Comunal Emiliano Hernández located in one of the shantytowns of Caracas. It then shows the intentions of forming Comunas and a communal town in rural Barinas and ends in Petare, a gigantic shantytown of the agglomeration of Caracas where there are 29 Consejos Comunales intending to build the Comuna of Maca. Is it even possible to bring together state and autonomy? Every one of the Consejos Comunales spokes-persons has positive as well as negative experiences with the institutions in store to talk about. In an assembly in Petare the grass-roots activist Yusmeli Patiño blames a high government representative: “We are losing our credibility because of the incompetence of the state institutions”. But there are also members of the institutions who make a big effort to accompany the basis in making its own decisions. The relation between the basis and the institutions is marked by cooperation as well as conflict. But the Consejos Comunales also have internal difficulties; participation has to be learned. Progresses as well as setbacks mark the difficult process of people actually taking the power of deciding on their own lives and environment by themselves. Concept, film editing, production: Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler Camera: Volkmar Geiblinger, Oliver Ressler Sound, sound editing, supervisory editor: Rudi Gottsberger Production assistant: Adriana Rivas Image editing: Markus Koessl, David Grohe Grants: Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur; Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien; Stiftung Umverteilen; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung; Solifond der Hans Böckler Stiftung; Fraktion die Linke im EU-Parlament; Bundestagsfraktion die Linke; Netzwerk e.V. Check out the film online at http://www.ressler.at/comuna_under_construction/ ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// COMUNA EN CONSTRUCCIÓN Una película de Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler 94 min., 2010 “Vamos a decidir nosotros qué es lo que queremos. Nosotros somos los que sabemos las necesidades, qué es lo que pasa en nuestra comunidad”, explica Omayra Peréz con firmeza. En los barrios de los montes de Caracas, ella quiere convencer a su comunidad para que, juntos, formen un consejo comunal. Las y los habitantes de Venezuela deciden, de manera colectiva, en las asambleas de los más de 30.000 consejos comunales, sobre muchos asuntos de su comunidad. Omayra tiene el apoyo de las y los activistas de una comunidad cercana, la “Emiliano Hernández”, que desde hace ya tres años se auto-organiza en un consejo comunal. Hay un sinnúmero de iniciativas que tienen su origen en esta organización: así, lograron que viniera un médico del programa gubernamental “Barrio Adentro” para que, en adelante, le preste asistencia gratuita a la gente de esa comunidad; también consiguieron financiamiento para arreglar sus casas y reemplazar una docena de ranchos de lámina y cartón por casas nuevas. Desde abajo, la comunidad se ha autoorganizado en variadas comisiones de trabajo, con temáticas que ella misma define y tomando sus decisiones en asambleas. Varios consejos comunales pueden unirse y construir una comuna –y varias comunas pueden formar una ciudad comunal. „Comuna en construcción“ nos lleva a conocer esos procesos –de Caracas y sus barrios extendiéndose sobre sus montañas, al campo, a los llanos de Barinas, surcados por rios–. Los consejos se construyen desde abajo, paralelamente a las instituciones existentes, y buscan superar la actual forma de organización estatal a través del autogobierno. En una asamblea para la construcción de la ciudad comunal “Antonio José de Sucre” Ramon Virigay, miembro de la organización indepentiente Frente Nacional Campesino Ezequiel Zamora (FNCEZ), recuerda a los delegados de los consejos comunales allí presentes: “Si bien es cierto que en este momento necesitamos de los organismos oficiales, mañana, debido al desarrollo que vamos alcanzando, nosotros tenemos que ser autosuficientes. No podemos seguir dependiendo exclusivamente del Estado.” Por eso, para alcanzar su autonomía, los consejos comunales construyen sus propias estructuras de producción y distribución. El elemento central de la película “Comuna en construcción”, son las asambleas. El inicio nos presenta un consejo comunal bien organizado: el “Emiliano Hernández”, de los Magallanes de Catia, en los barrios de Caracas. Luego, los documentalistas nos llevan a la zona rural de Barinas, para conocer los intentos de construcción de comunas y de una "ciudad comunal". El final nos lleva nuevamente a la Gran Caracas, a Petare, extenso barrio en el que 29 consejos comunales tratan de construir la comuna de Maca. ¿Será posible unir Estado y autonomía? Con relación a las instituciones estatales, cada vocera y vocero de los consejos comunales tiene experiencias positivas como también negativas que contar. Durante una asamblea de base en Petare, la activista comunitaria Yusmeli Patiño acusa a un alto representante gubernamental: “Nosotros perdemos la credibilidad gracias a la incompetencia de la instituciones del Estado”. Aún así, en las instituciones estatales también hay empleados que hacen grandes esfuerzos por acompañar a las comunidades autoorganizadas en sus propias instituciones. La relación entre la base y las instituciones está atravesada tanto por la cooperación como por el conflicto. Y los consejos comunales también tienen problemas internos. –La participación, hay que aprenderla. Avances y retrocesos marcan el difícil proceso del pueblo tomando el poder de decidicir sobre su propia vida y su mundo. Versión original en castellano y con subtítulos en aleman o en inglés. Guión y dirección, edición y realización: Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler Cámara: Volkmar Geiblinger, Oliver Ressler Sonido, mezcla de sonido y supervisión de edición: Rudi Gottsberger Asistente de producción: Adriana Rivas Corrección de imágenes: Markus Koessl, David Grohe Apoyo: Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur; Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien; Stiftung Umverteilen; Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung; Solifond der Hans Böckler Stiftung; Fraktion die Linke im EU-Parlament; Bundestagsfraktion die Linke; Netzwerk e.V. Información & contacto:www.azzellini.net www.ressler.at
30 01 2010 Charles Esche presents Art and Social Change, Afterall, One Work Wednesday 3 February 2010 at 19.30 ISOLA Art Center – Libreria Puerto de Libros Via Pollaiuolo 5, Milano Charles Esche, director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL, presents the publications Art and Social Change, Afterall, One Work. introduced by Marco Scotini and Bert Theis Art and Social Change The desire to change the world has often led artists to align themselves with wider social movements and to break with established institutions of art. This reader gathers together an international selection of artists’ proposals, manifestos, theoretical texts and public declarations that focus on the question of political engagement and the possibility of social change. The approaches represented are many and diverse, from Gustav Courbet’s involvement in the Paris Commune and the socialist art theory of William Morris to the hybrid activist practice associated with the twenty-first century “movement of movements”; from the political commitments of the Modernist avant-gardes to the rejections of Modernism in favour of protest, critique, utopian social experiment or revolutionary propaganda. Six specially commissioned essays – by Geeta Kapur, Lucy Lippard, John Milner, Gerald Raunig, Marina Vishmidt and Tirdad Zolghadr – further explore both the historical context and the contemporary situation. Published in association with Afterall Afterall is a research and publishing organization based in London. Founded in 1998 by Charles Esche and Mark Lewis at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, Afterall focuses on contemporary art and its relation to a wider artistic, theoretical and social context. In 1999 Afterall, a journal of art, context and enquiry, was launched. Afterall offers in-depth analysis of artists’ work, along with essays that broaden the context in which to understand it. http://www.afterall.org/ One Work is a library of small books, each title focusing on one important work of contemporary art through a single text. http://www.afterall.org/books/one.work/
24 01 2010 Tuesday 26 January 21.00: Libreria Puerto de Libros & IAC Tuesday 26 January, 21.00h: Isola Art Center and Libreria Puerto de Libros: Exhibition and presentation of the reader "Territoria 4. Il grande balzo / The great Leap". Libreria Puerto de Libros via Pollaiuolo, 5, Milano - Exhibition: Paola di Bello and Wolfgang Träger present the fotos realized for Territoria 4. Projection of the video-documentation Territoria4. - Aperitif and sale of the Reader "Territoria 4. Il grande balzo/The great Leap", ed. Pacini Editore, (it/eng)
24 01 2010 Tuesday 26 January 18.30: Careof & IAC, Territoria 4. The great Leap "Territoria 4. Il grande balzo / The great Leap" curated by Bert Theis and Stefano Pezzato Presentation of the Reader and projection of the video documentation "Territoria 4. Il grande balzo / The great Leap". with Andrea Abati, Marco Bazzini, Marco Colombaioni, Paola Di Bello, Kings, gruppo museo aero solar, Stefano Pezzato, Mirko Smerdel, Sonia Soldani, Bert Theis Tuesday 26 January 2010, 18.30h DOCVA, Fabbrica del Vapore, via Procaccini 4, Milano DOCVA presents the reader "Territoria 4. Il grande balzo/The big Leap", co-produced by Pacini Editore and Regione Toscana (2009). Program: Careof 18.30 - projection of territoria 4, video documentation by Mariette Schiltz, 17’ - discussion with Marco Bazzini, director of Centro per l'arte contemporanaea L. Pecci, Prato, Stefano Pezzato, curator at Centro per l'arte contemporanaea L. Pecci, Prato, Sonia Soldani, cultural director of the Province of Prato, Bert Theis, curator of Territoria 4, Paola Di Bello, artist, Marco Colombaioni, artist, Kings, artist group, Mirko Smerdel, artist, gruppo museo aero solar. Libreria Puerto de libros 21.00 - Exhibition: Paola di Bello and Wolfgang Träger. Presentation of the fotos realized for territoria 4. - Aperitif and sale of the Reader Territoria 4. Il grande balzo/The great Leap, Pacini Editore, (it/eng)
24 01 2010 January 22nd at 15.00: New models of organization at Brera Accademy New models of organization - Workshop Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera - Milan Friday, January 22 2010 15.00, Aula 44 with: Wurmkos Isola Art Center / isolartcenter.org Brown Project Space / brownmagazine.it The meeting is organized by Marcella Anglani (professor of "Recent trends in the visual arts"). Assistant: Matteo Mascheroni
29 11 2009 3 –19.12.2009: ISOLA RANDAGIA – WANDERING ISLAND ISOLA RANDAGIA – WANDERING ISLAND 3 december –19 december 2009 inauguration: Thursday 3rd Dicember 2009, 18.00h Liceo Artistico Caravaggio,(Art school “Caravaggio”) via Prinetti, 47 – Milano monday-friday 9.30/14.30 A project by OsservatorioinOpera (Piero Almeoni, Paola Sabatti Bassini), Carmelo Mutalipassi, Valentina Maggi, Mila Popdimitrova, Kings (Federica Perazzoli, Daniele Innamorato), Barbara Frappi After the events that ended up with the demolition of the Stecca degli Artigiani, of the Gardens and after the beginning of the works that are upsetting the deep nature of the Isola neighbourhood, almost wandering on its own territory (the places of meeting and civil sharing have been wiped out), Isola Art Center, together with the inhabitants is organizing itself in a new form to assert the rights of deciding their own quality of life, against the economic and political power of the multinational companies. With the installation at the Art School “Caravaggio” of Milan, Isola Art Center presents its new condition that marks the territory by reproducing one of the most important current and permanent actions that the artists realized on the shop shutters of the neighbourhood. Isola Art Center lives in the neighbourhood, so making its critical action visible through the different events that in this way define a path of information and reflection about the present state of things. To be wandering metaphorically means therefore to live in a new wandering, roving condition, out of the gang. Isola Rosta Project Rosta was the name of the soviet telegraphy agency that from 1919 used its windows to display posters created ad hoc by several artists including Vladimir Majakowski. Isola Rosta Project presents large format images by Italian and international artists painted on the shutters of the Isola district. This ongoing project is carried out with the help of professionals and international institutions as well as with the aid of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Thanks to this permanent show on the shutters, Isola Art Center has a continuous presence in the streets of the district. Between 2003 and 2007 the centre had worked in the former industrial building called Stecca degli Artigiani and in the nearby parks. There it started to create a Center for Art and the Neighborhood together with the inhabitants, before being drummed out of the building, together with the craftspeople, by the City of Milan and the American multinational Hines. Since then the centre has continued its construction hosted by local spaces, associations, shops and restaurants in solidarity with the opposition to the pharaonical real estate development plans, to speculation and to the gentrification of the district. Bert Theis 2009 translated by Mara Ferreri
16 11 2009 November 19th 2009: rotor - Graz, Austria: What is going on in Milan? Participating in what is going on and what is changing in the Annenviertel. Learning about what moves other people Isola Art Center Discussion and presentation with Bert Theis and Mariette Schiltz. Moderator: Oliver Ressler November 19th 2009, 20.00h < rotor >, Volksgartenstrasse 6a, Annenviertel, Graz Association for contemporary art www.rotor.mur.at www.steirischerherbst.at The Isola Art Center is an outstanding art initiative dealing with urban development and city district field work. Founded in 2001, the center operates in the Milan district of the same name – Isola. In 2003 a former factory building at the heart of the district was occupied and subsequently put to intensive cultural use. In 2007 the building was cleared falling prey to the intentions of the Milan city government and a Texan real estate development agency. Yet the activists didn’t bury their heads in the sand but decided to continue their work. Since then a number of projercts have been developed in cooperation with initiatives from the Isola district and beyond. ANNENVIERTEL! is supported by: Stadt Graz Kulturamt der Stadt Graz Kulturabteilung des Landes Steiermark BMUKK mur.at Culture Programme of the European Union steirischer herbst ANNENVIERTEL! is part of: THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION a project by < rotor > association for contemporary art/ Graz, University of J. E. Purkyne/ Usti nad Labem, [BLOK] – Local Base for cultural refreshment/ Zagreb (in collaboration with DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and Variables, Zagreb), The Blue House Foundation/ Amsterdam, Institute of Contemporary Art Sofia and NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts/ Milano. www.rotor.mur.at
05 11 2009 We Do It. From November 11th - Dicember 20th WE DO IT The Isola neighborhood in two inadequate descriptive systems with Adrian Paci Andrea Sala Bert Theis Christoph Schäfer Danilo Correale Enzo Umbaca Yang Jiechang Maria Papadimitriou Mariette Schiltz Millepiani magazine Museo aero solar (Tomas Saraceno) OUT (Office for Urban Transformation) Paola Di Bello Stefano Boccalini Undo.net Wurmkos curated by Marco Scotini assistant curator Matteo Lucchetti Kunstraum Lakeside Lakeside Science & Technology Park Lakeside B02 9020 Klagenfurt Austria WE DO IT. The Isola neighbourhood in two inadequate descriptive systems. The city is the privileged field for the exertion of power. Subjugation procedures are deployed everywhere (on bodies, on language, on places).But nothing is in itself political for the mere fact of hosting the exercise of power relationships, and yet anything, upon the right occasion, can become so. Over the last seven years, the Isola neighbourhood - both in itself and within the city of Milan - has become a “political” space. It has become a field of forces, tensions, resistance, desires and aspirations. Maybe as a heritage of its local past, the Isola has ended up representing a disturbing element for modern urban narratives: speculative projects, spatial police projects, gentrification. Starting from 2000 the Isola neighbourhood, an isolated workers dwelling area in the heart of Milan, has been subject of a gentrification intervention through the realization of an urban plan committed to Hines, a Texan corporation. From that moment, the pivot of the antagonistic movement against the top-down plan of the municipality, has been an abandoned factory, leftover of the Milan industrial past, and occupied by several associations, that merged into the artistic project of constitution of an art and community center, Isola Art Center Faced with the wicked conscience of planners accusing the neighbourhood's antagonist action of “stalemating”, Isola had nothing to show but a transforming reality, a new, multi-cultural social morphology, stories of progressive contextual adaptations, a collective and projectual intentionality based on self-organization. When accused of boasting for its community an originary ideological purity, Isola can and has to answer claiming the right to the city as a democratic, “radical” need, re-asserting the necessity - for both groups and individuals - of an active control and projectual freedom over their life. Isola Art Center was born in those years with the aim of catalyzing the neighborhood’s actions and forces. It is an open and indeterminate artistic platform, ready to host within itself a progressive investment of different subjects: neighborhood committees, volunteers, urban designers, philosophers, art critics, curators, besides - obviously - artists. Isola Art Center thinks of a center for and community life as an urban device: as an urban-scaled collective service actively supporting self-empowerment occasions. Isola Art Center, quoting Rancière, believes that “the logics of demonstrations [has always], inevitably involved an aesthetics of manifestations". We Do It wants to present again a rearticulation, through a series of documents, of the protest lead by the antagonist movement. The project intend to illustrate at the same time, both the municipality plan (in the making), both the one by a parallel city planning the has been object of the opposition. www.lakeside-kunstraum.at Undo.net: Isola space
25 10 2009 L'INDIANO IN GIARDINO Opening 29th October, 7pm L'INDIANO IN GIARDINO project by Alek O. and Santo Tolone in collaboration with Isola Art Center Opening 29th October, 2009, 7pm October 29th – November 1st, 2009 Starting point Bar La Cantinetta, P.le Archinto, Milan with Pedro Barateiro, Dafne Boggeri, Marco Colombaioni, Camilla Candida Donzella, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Lucie Fontaine, Francesco Fossati, Matteo Rubbi, Manuel Scano, Mauro Vignando and Zhou Tao A redskin indian is in a black-lined limousine. He’s naked, and the touch of leather on his body makes him shiver; a cloud of breath rising from his mouth mists the car windows. The indian pops out of the sun-roof and escapes. He next appears in a small courtyard clogged with abandoned neon signs. The indian slowly turns around, looks up and a geometric patch of sky shines over his head. He climbs the narrow walls around him, clinging with his hands and pushing with his feet, and goes away. Idly descending the stairs of a mezzanine workshop the indian appears once again: he’s blocking the entrance to the adjacent room. He smiles, his arms crossed: he’s forcing bystanders to coexist in a very small space, a single flight of stairs. At the crack of dawn, in a square surrounded by silent buildings, a bar with a bunch of red tables scattered on the sidewalk becomes the playroom we fell short of not having. The indian awaits, sitting, skimming the game’s wooden tokens. He leans on the wall his plume-clad nape and looks straight in the eyes of his playmate. Then, shaking his head, he rubs his legs to get rid of the cold. He gets up and runs away, stopping only in front of the window of a luxury car dealer, full of stretched-out silhouettes. Its gates are open, and reveal a whole carpet of cars, tightly cramped side by side. A redskin indian is in a black-lined limousine. The indian is the subject of an innocent yet reckless fantasy abruptly entering our everyday; the spaces he appears in are anything but random. The places’ disposition, however, appears unforeseeable: they could well be the displaced rooms of a blown-up museum. They concentrate around a bunch of streets, scattered in the Isola neighborhood, which the show’s two promoters – alongside other artists, some involved in this project – have already worked with. The explosion of a hypothetical museum could also be the best metaphor to describe the new approach chosen for L’indiano in giardino. After disposing of the curator’s role, all that’s left is the organizational strength and the works of the eleven artists involved, some of which have never before worked together. Manuela Ravasio Opening hours 5 pm – 8 pm Various seats, Isola, Milan Piazza Minniti – newspaper kiosk Via dal Verme, 2 – courtyard Piazzale Archinto – bar Via Pollaiuolo, 8 – garage Via Lambertenghi, 25 – studio Special thanks to Autoservizi Mariani, Bar La Cantinetta, Edicola Ambrosini, Falegnameria Clerici and Insegne Longoni. Download the map
23 09 2009 26.09.09: Paola di Bello with "Framing the Community" in Graz, Austria "ANNENVIERTEL! THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION" Exhibitions – Discussions – Workshops – Guided Tours – Neigbourhood Radio –Annenpost When? Saturday, September 26, 6 pm in the frame of steirischen herbst 2009 Where? < rotor >, Volksgartenstraße 6a, 8020 Graz • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Paola Di Bello, "Framing the Community" Participating in what is going on and what is changing in the Annenviertel. Learning about what moves other people On September 26th we really get started in the ANNENVIERTEL! The launch of an intensive discussion of this neighbourhood of Graz around the Annenstraße linking the Lend and Gries districts is scheduled for this date. Residents and tradespeople, artists and scientists, activists and experts will explore one of the most exciting areas of Graz and discuss ongoing processes and changes. < rotor >, association for contemporary art based in the Volksgartenstraße 6a will provide the headquarters for this two-year project. Here is where you find exhibitions related to the subject, interesting evening events, an archive on art forms in public and social space, workshops – and, of course, all information on the project progression, the many satellite stations and all events organized in the ANNENVIERTEL! All information on the programme: Send an email to rotor@mur.at to subscribe the Email newsletter. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Till September 12 this exhibition can be seen at < rotor >: SELECTED: 10 YEARS OF < ROTOR > With more than 30 artists and a selection of works presented in these ten years which played a key role in the development of the programming. Many of these works of art could be produced in the frame of < rotor > projects – exhibitions here in Graz and abroad, in public space and in the frame of residency programs. Opening hours: MON – SAT, 10 am – 6 pm • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The ANNENVIERTEL! kick-off is organized in cooperation with the steirischer herbst festival and with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union ANNENVIERTEL! is supported by: Stadt Graz Kulturamt der Stadt Graz Kulturabteilung des Landes Steiermark BMUKK mur.at Culture Programme of the European Union steirischer herbst ANNENVIERTEL! is part of: THE ART OF URBAN INTERVENTION a project by < rotor > association for contemporary art/ Graz, University of J. E. Purkyne/ Usti nad Labem, [BLOK] – Local Base for cultural refreshment/ Zagreb (in collaboration with DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and Variables, Zagreb), The Blue House Foundation/ Amsterdam, Institute of Contemporary Art Sofia and NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts/ Milano. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • < rotor > association for contemporary art Volksgartenstrasse 6a, 8020 Graz, Austria 0043 / 316 / 688306, rotor@mur.at www.rotor.mur.at "Framing the Community
23 09 2009 IAC and out at Tirana Art Biannual from Sept 25th until October 22nd The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame T.I.C.A.B – Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual EPISODE 2 Opening 25 September, City Walks 1 and 3 October, Tirana Dialogues from 3 ? 6 October Curated by: STEALTH.unlimited (Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen) Of all the cities in the Balkans region, Tirana's recent development is maybe the most perplexing. In the last two decades, following the long period of Albania's self?isolation, this city grew from 250.000 to about 700.000 inhabitants and more than tripled in size ? a majority of which is built informally and without (much) plan. In an attempt to critically respond to the current development of Tirana ? through ‘wild’ urbanization, fast capital investment and set within the horizon of a neoliberal context – T.I.C.A.B – Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual – this year expands beyond the field of visual arts, into the domain of architecture and processes of urbanization. By involving architects, artists, cultural workers, activists and journalists from the Western Balkans region and the wider global context, EPISODE 2 examines the deficiencies resulting from the highly individual and profit driven development of contemporary cities ? and points at alternatives that emerge from these cracks, opening the horizon to different contributions and involvement of citizen’s to what the future of our cities could be. EPISODE 2 manifests itself in four parts ? through an exhibition positioning key issues, practices and alternative approaches to the contemporary developments in the city; the Cities Log (chronology) of spatially important events, decisions and discussions in the cities of former Yugoslavia and Albania – which in turn serves as a backdrop for a set of public discussions ? Tirana Dialogues ? bringing practitioners from this region and a broad international context. And finally the production of the Tirana Guide to Parallel Urban Realities, made by local and international participants. For who comes to Tirana, one of the most exiting parts of the program might be the Tirana Dialogues ? from 3rd to 6th of October ? co?organised with Emiliano Gandolfi. Each of these discussions brings in dialogue two regional or globally active and socially engaged practitioners. The topics covered will range from a/o social and spatial neighbourhood interventions, architecture biennials as a tool for change, new and upcoming architecture and planning institutions, to new models of belonging. (See below for detailed information and list of participants.) The Biannual under the title "Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame" opens in three episodes, each one week after the other. Episode 1 is curated by Edi Muka and Joa Ljungberg (and opened 18th of September), while the Episode 2 has been conceived by STEALTH, Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen (25th of September) and the last, Episode 3 by Corinne Diserens (2nd of October – the overall inauguration of the Biannual). The title refers to a passage in Slavoj Zizek's book "The Parallax View" where he describes how reality through the act of enframing turns into its own appearance. What possible "frames" can we use to enable a more multilayered reading of reality? How are we to read our overall current condition, recent past ? or our possible futures? T.I.C.A.B is organized by the Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art (T.I.C.A.) and will last until 22nd of October 2009. For a thorough list of participating artists, the Tirana Dialogues schedule, city walks, satellite events and other information, please check the Biennial's website: http://tica?albania.org/TICAB/ Exhibition contributors Alterazioni Video / Laurence Bonvin / Co?plan / Deadmalls.com / Detroit Unreal Estate Agency / Elemental / El Puente_Lab and Jenny Giraldo / Estudio Teddy Cruz / Bojan Fajfri? / Louize Ganz and Ines Linke / Interboro / Isola Art Centre and The Office for Urban Transformation / Kartun Development Group / MAP Office / Nebojša Milikic / Ou Ning / Leonard Qylafi / Streetfilms Tirana Dialogues public discussion series at Hotel Dajti ? 3rd to 6th of October co?organised with Emiliano Gandolfi. Saturday 3/10 [19.00h] Hands Over the City ? civil groups and investigative journalism for urban justice Teodor Celakoski (Right to the City, Zagreb) / Brankica Stankovi? & Miodrag ?vorovi? (Insider, RTV B92, Belgrade) Sunday 04/10 [17.30h] Activating the Local ? neighbourhood interventions for social engagement Nebojša Miliki? (cultural activist, Belgrade) / Doina Petrescu (Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée, Paris) [20.00h] Exposing the City of Tomorrow ? architecture biannuals as a tool for change Emiliano Gandolfi (11th Architecture Biennale Venice, 3rd Architecture Biennale Rotterdam) / Ou Ning (Shenzhen & Hong Kong Architecture Biennale) Monday 05/10 [17.30h] Urban Commons ? policies and public involvement for the inclusive city Emil Jurcan (Pulska grupa, Pula) / Aleksandra Kapetanovi? (Expeditio, Kotor) [20.00h] Printed Matters ? architecture magazines: media strategies and societal ambitions Fabrizio Gallanti (Abitare magazine, Milan) / Maroje Mrduljaš (Oris magazine, Zagreb) Tuesday 06/10 [17.30h] Shifting the Field of Action ? a new role for architecture and planning institutes Marko San?anin (Platforma 9.81, Zagreb) / Dritan Shutina (Co?Plan, Tirana) [20.00h] Building Participation ? making places for local empowerment Teddy Cruz (Estudio Teddy Cruz, San Diego) / Francisco Sanin (Syracuse University, New York ?Medellin, Colombia) Cities log with contributions from Belgrade, Kotor, Novi Sad, Podgorica, Prishtina, Pula, Skopje, Tirana and Zagreb, by: Besnik Aliaj / Branko Bela?evi?, Marko Mileti?, Dubravka Sekuli?, Jelena Stefanovi? / Dafne Berc / Teodor Celakoski / Valon Germizaj / Žakilina Gligorijevi? / Adelina Greca / Astrit Hajrullahu / Florina Jerliu / Aleksandra Kapetanovi? / Ivan Kucina / Ilir Murseli / Oliver Musovik / Divna Pen?i? / Petrit Selimi / Pulska grupa / Aneta Spaseska / Borislav Vuki?evi? and others ? designed with Ajdin Baši?. The Cities Log includes works by and documentation from Lorenz Aggermann, Eduard Freudmann, Can Gülcü / Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber / Luise Donschen and Archis Interventions Prishtina / Fifth Park / First Archi Brigade / Insider B92 / Vladan Jeremi? and Rena Rädle / Civil Initiative Muzil / Right to the City, Zagreb. Tirana Guide to Parallel Urban Realities co?organised with Polis University Tirana, with: Ivan Kucina (Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade) / Endrit Marku (Polis University) / Gezim Qendro (Polis University) / Miguel Robles?Duran (Cohabitation Strategies, Rotterdam) / Piet Vollaard (ArchiNed, Rotterdam) / Aleksandar Zograf (cartoonist, Pancevo) and students Polis University, and Tirana City Walks 1st and 3rd of October with Marc Armengaud (AWP, Paris). TICA Tirana Institute of Contemporary Art
08 06 2009 15.06.09 - 28.02.10: Bert Theis. Building Philosophy. Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci - Prato Bert Theis. Building Philosophy Special project curated by Stefano Pezzato and Marco Scotini Promoted by the Regione Toscana and the Commune of Prato With the support of the Province of Prato Part of the Territoria #4 project Lounge / Project Room, Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art – Prato Inauguration: Monday 15 June 2009, 6 p.m. Open daily until 28 February 2010, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Closed on Tuesdays Admittance free The Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art is presenting the first solo exhibition of the work of Bert Theis in any Italian museum. It is linked to an extensive nation-wide exhibition curated by the artist himself. Bert Theis. Building Philosophy The works of Bert Theis are conceived as symbolic, philosophical or utopian projects distributed in spaces in which art can take part in individual or communal life as a place for reflection, a usable form or situation of social discourse. Marquees, benches, daises, stages, kiosks, containers, suggested as much by minimalism as by impromptu architecture, are offered as open mechanisms whose interpretation and eventual use is left up to the public: works which induce rest and relaxation, which prompt one to political and cultural activism, or else, to put it in the artist’s own words, “audience specific” works “in which uncertainty becomes synonymous with democratic practice”. (Marco Scotini) A comparable ambiguity is to be found in Building Philosophy, a concept adapted from Guy Debord’s Réalisation de la philosophie, which Theis introduced into his show at the Federico Bianchi Contemporary Art exhibition at Lecco in 2008, and is now presented again in his new project in Prato. The title may be construed either as “building philosophy” – something essential, given the lack of any theory that can match up to the present crisis in culture – or else as “a philosophy of building”, the creation of “platforms” and other structures such as the art and cultural experimental “laboratory” Isola Art Center and the out office for urban transformation, promoted and coordinated by the artist since 2001. The artist’s one man show is displayed on the ground floor of the museum, starting with the series Gropius Drifters (2008), eight workable wooden models based, though on smaller scale, on the plan devised in 1924 by Walter Gropius for a group of buildings that was never constructed, the International Academy of Philosophy at Erlangen in Germany, and will be so located as to create a dialogue with the permanently installed work of Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #736. Rectangles of Colour. On the other hand the series of five Mudam Drifters (2006), also based on models from modernist architecture, will be located in the Lounge and the Project Room, along with the photomontage Le troisième système (2006), which reflects Le Corbusier’s plan for a great conurbation for three million inhabitants with cruciform towers, and the video installation Fuad Labord (2003), a metaphorical mirror-image of the urban jungle which has grown up in areas destined for building in the Isola quarter of Milan, viewed from below, and the treeless, built-over space of this same zone viewed from a skyscraper. In addition we have the up-dated 2008-09 Isolartcenters series of photographs and photomontages intended by the artist to be ideal spaces for the collective projects of the Isola Art Center and out, also set up in the Isola quarter of Milan. “A center for art and for a neighborhood is not a building but an idea, a programme. Whoever thought they were destroying the Isola Art Center by destroying the building in which we worked from 2003 to 2007 made a mistake. The center went up in smoke but is still alive. Its showplaces and meeting places are dispersed all over the Isola neighborhood, the guests of associations, shops, a restaurant, the piazzas, the shop shutters… That destruction has set free the imagination and dreams.” (Bert Theis) The idea thus expressed by the artist is represented in the show by the installation called Senza titolo (2008), a tent-structure reminiscent in form of the “Stecca degli artigiani”, the original headquarters of the Isola Art Center in Milan, which will be located in the piazza directly opposite the Lounge and the museum bar, as an environment in which to welcome the public, but also a place for communication, for cultural encounters and social sharing. Theis’s project for Territoria #4 In parallel with his exhibition project at the Pecci Centre, Bert Theis has been invited to curate the latest edition of Territoria, the art event throughout the province (Prato, Montemurlo, Carmignano and Cantagallo) scheduled for the months of October and November 2009. Theis has therefore planned a “work in progress” to be directed at focusing on certain key features of the territory and involving Italian and foreign artists, architects, philosophers, writers and sections of the population who as a rule have no contact with contemporary art. Especially for the occasion he has coined a number of slogans which sum up the themes on which the researches and artistic results of Territoria #4 will be based: “Understanding the territory”. Dreaming the territory. Marking the territory”. Biographical notes on the artist Bert Theis was born in Luxembourg in 1952. For more than fifteen years he has been working in Luxembourg and in Milan. In the early 1990s, with other artists of his generation, he came to the fore by developing operative strategies within urban contexts having to do with relational conditions. He thereafter took part in major international art events such as the Venice Biennale (1995), the Skulptur Projekte at Münster (1997), Arte all’Arte at Volterra and Manifest 2 in Luxembourg (1998) the Melbourne International Biennial (1999), the Biennia at Gwangju in South Korea (2002), the Tirana Biennial (2003), the Shenzhen International Public Art Exhibition in China (2004), the Emergency Biennale in Chechnya (2005), the Biennale of Busan in South Korea (2006), the Biennale at Istanbul (2007) and the Taipei Biennale in Taiwan (2008). Publications Now in the press is a new monograph on Bert Theis in a tri-lingual edition (French, English, Italian) co-ordinated by Judith Quentel – art director of the Domaine Départmental de Chamarande (France), containing articles by Christian Bernard, Hou Hanru and Marco Scotini, and a conversation with the artist by Vasif Kortun. The volume will be the outcome of a European collaboration between the Domaine Départemental de Chamarande, Mamco of Ginevra, Mudam of Lussemburgo and the Luigi Pecci Centre in Prato. Info: www.centropecci.it www.isolartcenter.org Communication: Dr. Silvia Bacci Mob. 338 6660784 silviabaccistampa@tiscali.it download the invitation Territoria 4 online Download the flyer of Territoria 4
18 05 2009 May 22,23,24,25 - August 31: Public Turbulence. Art, events and discussions in the Isola neighborhood Isola Art Center in collaboration with Naba organized for inContemporanea, promoted by the Province of Milan, presents Public Turbulence/Disordine in pubblico Art, events and meetings in the Isola neighborhood, Milan curated by Alberto Pesavento e Bert Theis 22, 23, 24, 25 May – 31 August 2009 Opening: Friday 22 May, 18h – 24h Saturday 12h – 20h Sunday 16h – 24h Monday 25 May, 18.30h Agenzia X, Stefano Boccalini, Park Fiction, Stina Fisch, Gaia Fugazza, Angelo Sarleti, Sašo Sedla?ek, HR Stamenov, Urbonas, Fani Zguro, Isola Art’s Club Band and many more. Special project by artists and curators of the Master’s Degree in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA Milan: Valentina Angeleri, Paolo Caffoni, Arianna Carcano (with Igor Muroni), Michele D’Aurizio, Anita Gazzani (with Luca Puglia), Matteo Lucchetti (with the Milan complaints choir), Valentina Maggi (with Sofia Scarano), Giulia Paciello, Mila Popdimitrova, Beto Shwafaty, Lorenzo Tamai. In the context of a finally sequestered construction site and ecologically un-sustainable urban projects, the people, artists and activists of the Isola neighborhood carry on their struggle against authoritarian projects and dangerous creative gentrification processes. They propose a critical perspective and an inappropriate use of urban spaces through the activities of Isola Art Center, a center for art and community life under permanent construction. From May 22nd to May 25th (and up to August 31st), an array of artistic interventions, meeting and performances will take place, conceived both for visibility and for harboring critical discussions, based on the conviction that public discourse shouldn’t leave its spectators silently, powerlessly facing everyday decisions. A beggar robot roams the Isola, stopping to talk and panhandle, while a train mysteriously deviates from its track to appear between the buildings. A neighborhood street becomes a guide for an unconventional use of city spaces: bookshops become libraries, shops become places where you’re free not to buy anything; it offers examples of protests and defences against the privatization of public spaces, which could very well include a choir singing its complaints or a bench to be carried around to sit down and listen to a Club’s band ultimately identified as a simple inn. A logic of common disorder, a slight shift in usual meanings and social conventions. Isola Art Center is a laboratory and open platform combining the activities and desires of the people of the Isola neighborhood with contemporary artistic research. Evicted in 2007 from the Stecca degli Artigiani, it is the result of a decade-long struggle, engaged by dwellers, artists, researchers and activists in defense of their neighborhood. A set of people sharing the assumption that the destruction of public spaces and their conversion into areas of consumption or real estate speculation can be stopped or limited, also by the use of unconventional tactics. Today Isola Art Center is hosted by Soundmetak, Piazzale Segrino 1,Tantrika Shop, Via Pollaiuolo 2, Puerto de Libros, Via Pollaiuolo 5, Osterialnove, Via Thaon de Revel 9, Punto Rosso, Via Pepe 14, by the streets and squares in Isola and by Naba, via Darwin 20. _____________________________________________________________________ info: 346 39 98 571 / 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org master@naba.it www.naba.it download the program of Public Turbulence
08 05 2009 May 8,9,10th: Triennale of Milan: inContemporanea Nr 3: Isola Multipla 8 th /9 th /10 th of may 2009 NOI SIAMO QUI inCONTEMPORANEA '09 - Numero TRE Triennale of Milano Viale Alemagna 6 10.30/20.30 Isola Multipla Isola Multipla is a sequence of videos presented simultaneously: voices, gazes and reflections of people who have lived or known the artistic, social and political facts of the Isola neighbourhood from within or from outside. The conflict between dwellers, real estate companies and political powers is still ongoing, as the politics of destruction and speculation against the neighbourhood has not been accepted. Isola Art Center has been working since 2001 side to side with the neighbourhood dwellers defending their public space and opposing gentrification, because art in the city can be something else than urban marketing. Isola Art Center is a local experience attracting much attention also from abroad, that needs to be documented and discussed in order to obtain a deeper knowledge of what has been happening. Contemporary art, in fact, can choose not to be a tool of decoration and persuasion of public opinion, used to change the social composition of neighbourhoods towards a reality of luxury residences and cool creative class. Isola Multipla, in order to generate a “collective feedback”, presents simultaneously a large amount of video interviews with dwellers, artists, international curators and relevant figures of Milano’s cultural scene. We have asked everybody to tell their story and reflection regarding their personal experience with the Isola neighbourhood. These multiple voices create an important archive on the recent history of the neighbourhood and the city. The videos of the interviewed people also show images and scenes regarding the activities conducted in the neighbourhood during these last years. The interviews will be divided in groups and loop-screened on a series of monitors. Apart from the exhibiting event of inCONTEMPORANEA number 3, the project will also be presented on the weekend of the 23/24 may within the Isola neighbourhood, in order to reach the local dwellers who are not used to attend artistic events. The whole work of video recording and production will be collectively made by artists, researchers and dwellers of Isola neighbourhood and Isola Art Center. UPCOMING EVENTS: Public Turbulence Art, events and public talks, curated by Alberto Pesavento and Bert Theis 22th /23th /24th of may 2009, Isola district, Milan with Agenzia X, Stefano Boccalini, Park Fiction, Stina Fisch, Gaia Fugazza, Angelo Sarleti, Sašo Sedla?ek, HR Stamenov, Urbonas, Fani Zguro, Isola Art’s Club Band and many others, special project by Naba artists and curators: Valentina Angeleri, Paolo Caffoni, Arianna Carcano, Michele D’Aurizio, Anita Gazzani, Matteo Lucchetti, Valentina Maggi, Giulia Paciello, Mila Popdimitrova, Beto Shwafaty, Lorenzo Tamai. Monday 25 th of May, 18.30: “ Attica Project – “Tactics of the liberation of space” #1, Naba via Darwin 20 Public talk between Park Fiction (Amburgo), Nomeda e Gediminas Urbonas ( Vilnius ) and Isola Art Center (Milano) moderated by Marco Scotini (Milano). Supported by: EU Culture Programme 2007-2013, Education and Culture DG
05 05 2009 April 24th: Fuorisalone 09: Open Care, Open Day. Works from the Isola Art Center collection Fuorisalone 2009: Friday 24th April 2009 Open doors at Open Care – Art Services via Piranesi 10, Milan Open Care is currently hosting an exhibition by Isola Art Center to present artworks from the centre’s collection rescued from the Stecca degli Artigiani. Showing works by Gabriele di Matteo, Alessandro di Giampietro, Bert Theis, Luca Pancrazzi, Loris Cecchini, Dan Perjovschi, King’s, Alek O., Paola Di Bello, Alice Pintus, out-Office for Urban Transformation, Guy Debord / Mara Ferreri, Enzo De Cotiis. Isola Art Center is a centre for art and neighbourhood activities created in 2003 in the Isola district by artists, curators, researchers and inhabitants. In 2007 the centre was forcefully cleared from the Stecca building and has since carried out its activities in other spaces within the neighbourhood, both public and private, such as associations, shops and restaurants. The centre has also been using of their shutters as exhibition space for projects commissioned to Italian and international artists. During the clearing out of Isola Art Center and the subsequent demolition of the building, a number of artworks were destroyed or damaged, and only a few were rescued. The responsibility and future repayment of the damages suffered is still being discussed. Open Care has promptly committed to rescue the artworks, some of which, art interventions on the building’s structure, have been detached through the strappo technique and restored. These works are now stored at Open Care, together with other pieces awaiting restoration. The “open doors” on the 24th of April is an opportunity to exhibit these works inside Open Care restoration laboratory. The exhibition is completed by a series of photographs of the building and spaces of the Stecca, where the pieces were originally located as part of the collective dream of a neighbourhood to create a centre for art and the local inhabitants.
16 03 2009 Saturday 21 march, 2009: Stiftelsen 3,14 Gallery, Bergen, Norvegia: out & Isola Art Center S O F T M A N I P U L AT I O N WHO IS AFRAID OF THE NEW NOW? 20.03. – 03.05.09 with ALEXANDRA CROITORU & ST / KÖKEN ERGUN / SAGI GRONER / PER HASSELBERG / SASKIA HOLMKVIST / ANDREJA KULUN?I? / JULIA MELTZER & DAVID THORNE / CARLOS MOTTA / RABIH MROUÉ / AN-MY LÊ / FERHAT ÖZGÜR / JENNY PERLIN / LISI RASKIN / BERT THEIS / MÅNS WRANGE / CAREY YOUNG / KATARINA ZDJELAR / ARTUR ŽMIJEWSKI GREGORY WHITEHEAD "PROJECT JERICHO" in collaboration with Lydgalleriet Opening Friday March 20, 18.00 Saturday March 21, 15:00: - Discussion with the curators Enrico Lunghi & Zoran Eric - Presentation of Isola Art Center, Milan, with Bert Theis & Marco Vaglieri "Soft Manipulation: Who is afraid of the new now?" exhibition curated by Maria Lind, Enrico Lunghi, Zoran Eric. In collaboration with Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'Art Contemporain.
17 02 2009 Sunday 22nd febbruary: Casino Luxembourg: Isola Art’s Club Band and Vincenzo Latronico Sunday 22 February 2009, 11:00 am: Isola Art's Club Band (Xabier Iriondo, Steve Piccolo, Gak Sato) (electroacoustic performance) and Vincenzo Latronico. Casino Luxembourg, Forum d'art contemporain within the show Soft Manipulation. Who is Afraid of the New Now?, curated by Zoran Eric, Maria Lind, Enrico Lunghi. Isola Art’s Club Band Xabier Iriondo – table guitar, inventions, kalimba, electronics Steve Piccolo – voice, bass, oddities Gak Sato – theremin, percussion, electronics Your classic cover band from the deepest back room of some experimentally bent roadhouse forgotten by time, mass media, record execs, tax collectors and – unless something really weird happens – cops and robbers alike. Drinks are cheap, the girls are friendly and the food can occasionally be consumed (at your own risk). Somewhere out in the provinces the tradition of buzzing jacks and bare wires, distorting microphones, feedback and sharp-tongued waitresses has never died. Steve Piccolo sings tunes everyone knows and never gets sick of, to the accompaniment of all kinds of noises including, now and then, musical notes. With something from the timeless Sgt. Pepper’s album and an open-mike session. Sing-alongs are encouraged.
18 11 2008 22 November 2008 - 28 February 2009: Taipei-Beirut-Madrid-Berlin-Isola Video screening TAIPEI–BEIRUT–MADRID-BERLIN-ISOLA videos by Kuang-Yu Tsui, Ziad Antar, Democracia, Nevin Aladag, Manuel Scano, Matteo Rubbi Opening Saturday 22 November 22 from 6pm Tantrika Shop, Via Pollaiuolo 2 Soundmetak, Piazzale Segrino 1 25 November 2008– 28 February 2009 Tuesday – Saturday 3.30 – 7.30pm Screening-round table-dinner Sunday 23 November 23, 6-11pm, Osterialnove, via Thaon de Revel 9 with Anna Daneri, Mario Gorni, Marco Scotini, UnDo.Net, Tiziana Villani After the “Stecca degli Artigiani” in Milan has been privatized in April, 2007, Isola Art Center has not died. The Center still pursues its project of a Center for Art and Community alongside other Isola associations, within various public and private venues in the neighbourhood. After Tantrika Shop and Soundmetak, which have followed Punto Rosso in hosting Isola Art Center projects, a new address is now added to the list: Osterialnove will host the single screening of a film selection and a public discussion of it. TAIPEI–BEIRUT–MADRID-BERLIN-ISOLA is a selection of films, most of which have been screened within the Taipei Biennial 2008 curated by Vasif Kortun and Manray Hsu. All participating artists experience new ways to come to terms with urban life, oftentimes reserving a special eye to musical and sound elements. TAIPEI: Taiwanese artist Kuang-Yu Tsui's self-ironical videos, featured in Italy already at the 2005 Venice Biennial, portray him as a sort of present-day Buster Keaton, facing contemporary urban objects and landscapes. Often his works' titles and concepts are linked to the Taiwanese tradition. In Taiparis York, 2008, instead, the artist surprisingly deals with some occidental cultural symbols somehow grafted within his own country's public space, as the statue of liberty, the Eiffel Tower or the Paris Arc de Triomphe. BEIRUT: Lebanese artist Ziad Antar's two videos, Wa and Tambourro, intimately deal with life as it can be within family walls. Their protagonists – two kids in the first, a showering man in the second – use rhythm and music instead of words to convey us their feelings. MADRID: A wholly different story for the Welfare State/Smashing the Ghetto video, by the Democracia group (Pablo Espana and Iván Lopez), portraying the destruction of a Roma encampment just outside Madrid as if it were a show or a demolition party. BERLIN: Turkish artist Nevin Aladag goes looking for Turkish squatters and has them spend the night singing their native countries' songs. Or drives through a suburb letting the wind play a harmonica. Or has model cars dance to the frenzied rhythm of Arabian music. ISOLA: Italian artists Matteo Rubbi and Manuel Scano have lived in the neighborhood and worked with Isola Art Center for years now. The former's video attentively studies the American ambassador in Tirana's driver, while the latter offers us two of his video-performances, with their almost neo-dada liberating poetical drive, one of which is titled Festa in città (urban party). A public round table will be held at Osterialnove on the evening of Sunday, November 23rd, with Antonio Ratti Foundation critic and curator Anna Daneri, video archive C/O curator Mario Gorni, critic and curator Marco Scotini, contemporary art network UnDo.Net directors Vincenzo Chiarandà and Anna Stuart, and philosopher Tiziana Villani. info: 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org
13 10 2008 Sunday 26th October 2008: Isola Nostra at This Is Not A Gateway Festival, London Isola Nostra A documentary about the self-organised collective Isola Art Centre in Milan, charting their battle to save a unique neighbourhood under threat by developers. Followed by Q&A with Mara Ferreri, Isola Art Centre member Sunday 26/ Space 1 15:00-17:00 This Is Not A Gateway Festival is a free three-day event in Dalston, London that is forging new ways of investigating cities and the changing global urban condition. Emerging European practitioners from the fields of film, photography, literature, critical theory, performance, geography, architecture and planning come together to reveal knowledge about cities 'from the ground up'. The festival comprises over 40 separate events including discussions, film screenings, workshops, symposiums, exhibitions and walks. The programme includes work from over 100 compelling emerging urbanists from across Europe. Events take place in Dalston's cafes, architectural studios, streets, pubic squares and shop fronts. All events are free and open to the public. www.thisisnotagateway.net 24-26 October 2008 . . . Deepa Naik and Trenton Oldfield This Is Not A Gateway (TINAG) phone: + 44 (0)7 932 558 515 email: deepa@thisisnotagateway.net / trenton@thisisnotagateway.net web: www.thisisnotagateway.net
06 10 2008 October 4th-14th: Museo aero solar at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Museo aero solar started in the United Arabs Emirates, in occasion of the 8th Sharjah Biennal ( 2007 ). After that, the first place where it displayed all its potential was the Isola neighborhood, in Milano, with Isola Art Center people involved.Museo aero solar group, often accompanied by Isola Art Center’s staff, is still carrying on its construction and making it fly, with the help and the ingeniousness of local inhabitants… Hello everybody! This is the first time we send a message from museo aero solar to everybody we have met and to those we haven't found a way to meet again in these past 2 years: we would like to thank you. After working and traveling with all of you in Sharjah, Milano, Medellin, Lyon, Rapperswil, Tirana, Ein Hawd, and now in Minneapolis, we have decided to start a blog to give everybody the possibility to follow on what we are doing, join us again, send us suggestions, proposals, pictures or take on the initiative to start their own museo aero solar somewhere else. The blog address is: www.museoaerosolar.org A technological hoax... Now we are in Minneapolis for the next 2 weeks. If you are here, let's meet soon if you want to try to do something with us: we don't want an audience. Invention: something obscure and born in the mind of an individual genius? We think there's more inventive potential among a group of people gathered in a circle than in any governmental research agency 24/7. The spread of an invention is more decisive than the invention itself. We all know what we would do but nobody knows how to do it. If you think about the Chinese Wall, it wasn't built starting from the beginning to the end… We use the waste par excellence of capitalism, the plastic bag. An object that is used on the average for 9 minutes, a useless object, we don't recycle it, we use the bags as we use art, to move from one place to another. We use solar energy and some adhesive tape. Now we would like to learn how to use the wind, too. In hard times humanity looked at the sky to fly off, to not look further down. Museo aero solar is a shuttlecock to come back to the earth. In the last centuries the sky was the center of the imaginary: the (failed) conquest of the space, the air war, the first flying machines, all together amount to a kind of obsession to posses the sky, to dominate and control the planet. We want to create a real hoax, something that could change the perception and the use of the sky. Specialization, industrial exploitation, patents and high cost technologies characterize the present research in every field. People are more and more uninvolved in invention. We may be behind compared to new technologies but this endeavor will allow us to be ahead of time when the requirements change. We are in search of something unsustainable: all that exceed the order of forms provokes something at the level of thought. Next week we'll be working with members of the Aerospace Engeneering and Mechanics Department at the University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center (who invited us), and at an empty storefront place we kindly have for free on 1250 Hennepin Avenue (near the Minneapolis Community and Technical College). For those of you in Minneapolis/St. Paul area, we invite you to join us on the following dates: Saturday, October 4, 10 AM - 3 PM Free First Saturday at the Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Avenue Monday, October 6 (everyday until Thursday), starting at 10 AM 1250 Hennepin Avenue Wednesday, October 8, 1 PM Conversation at the MCAD, 2501 Stevens Avenue South Friday, October 10, 10 AM Blake School, 511 Kenwood Parkway (Gym) Saturday, October 11, early morning Display of museo aero solar outside the Walker Art Center Sunday, October 12, early morning We'll try to fly the museo, early in the morning, somewhere in Minnesota (depending on the weather) Tuesday, October 14, 5.30 PM Conversation Cafe Scientifique: Art and Aeronautics Nomad World Pub, 501 Cedar Avenue South Don't try this at home. Try it open air, with good weather and some experience. Do it with your comrades and away from electricity lines! Museo aero solar Alberto Pesavento »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« »« Museo aero solar is a flying museum, a collective artwork initiated by Tomás Saraceno and conceived in the course of a dialogue and cooperation with Isola Art Center,Milan. Museo aero solar is a solar-energy air balloon, completely made up of reused plastic bags, with new sections being added each time it travels the world, thus changing techniques, drawings and shapes, and growing in size every time it sets sail in the air. Museo aero solar stands for a different conception of space and energy, both anomalous and forceful at the same time. The core of the museo resides in the inventiveness of local inhabitants, not in its image: among spontaneous networking action and art, do-it-yourself technology and dreaming, it is a voyage back/forward in time. Museo aero solar has already traveled to Sharjah (United Arabs Emirates), Isola neighborhood in Milano (Italy), Medellin(Colombia, Lyon (France), Rapperswil (Switzerland), Tirana (Albania) and Ein Hawd (first recognized Arab village in Israel). From October 1-12, 2008 it will be in Minneapolis, MN, U.S. http://www.museoaerosolar.org www.youtube.com/aerosolar aerosolar@gmail.com
15 07 2008 July 4th: out at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Out & Isola at Museo Guggenheim Bilbao in the context of the installation “Untitled (he promised) by Rirkrit Tiravanija 12:00: Presentation of the Schindler House and the work of out – Office for Urban Transformation 12:30: IN/OUT (official urbanism/marginal urbanism. Public discussion: Renaud Codron, Lorenzo Rocha, Fabrice Mafolo, Pascal Lecailletel 13:30: ISOLA NOSTRA video by Mariette Schiltz and Bert Theis produced by out for Istanbul Biennial 2007 target="_blank">http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=FC7mVOwiKAQ
15 07 2008 12-14 July 2008: Art, Society and Urban Space: International Guerrilla Festival in Milan Milan 12-14 July 2008 Art, Society and Urban Space: The Second Edition of the IGVFest comes to Milan The mobile festival of video art travels to the zones of Corso Como, Chinatown and Isola. The videos of artists artists active in the area and international artists will be projected on the walls, streets, and squares transforming the city into a living screen. The International Guerrilla Video Festival (IGVFest) is a migratory festival that integrates video art with the urban and social environment. The initiative was founded by the curator Jason Waite and had its first edition in Florence in 2006. One of the aims of the festival is to create a continuous dialogue from the videos into the community, focusing on lapses in the current framework such as an absence of communication or invisible components of the area. Open to local and international artists, the festival widens the panorama of the discourse to include the perspective of communities elsewhere that have parallel circumstances. The 2008 edition in Milan will be located in three different zones of the city over three evenings, starting at 9:30 pm. The festival begins July 12th in Corso Como, then transfers to Chinatown (via Paolo Sarpi) on July 13th and concludes on July 14th in Isola. The International Guerrilla Video Festival (IGVFest) is a mobile festival integrating video art with the urban and social environment. The festival removes the technologically complex medium of video out of the institutional situation re-positioning it as open and reflexive in the public domain. The artworks have sitespecific thematic relations to the space where they are shown, engaging and reflecting upon the unique architectural, historical and interpersonal context of each area where the festival travels. Artists: 3P=3Players, 21bis, Alterazione Video, Anti-Advertising Agency & Graffiti Research Lab, Zhao Bandi, Raphael Copper & Li Qiu Qiu, Wu Ershan, Shu Haolun, Qiu Jun, Labratorio Mobile, Zhenchen Liu, Francesca Montà & Marthe van Dessel, Plaza Real Foundation, Mariette Schiltz & Bert Theis, Nadja Schrade, Jonathan Trayner, Marco Villani, Fiona Whitty, Chen Zhong. A self-contained, transportable GPU (Guerrilla Projector Unit) facilitates the incursions into the public realm. Transforming public space into a fertile ground for experimentation toward new possibilities in the relationship between art and society. Festival Locations: The map with all of the festival sites and times can be downloaded from www.igvfest.com. In the neighborhoods of Chinatown and Isola the festival will be accompanied by the trip-hop group ilmionomenonhaimportanza. The acoustic mobile set will intervene at the different sites with contributions by musicians based in the area. The IGVFest is organized with collaboration from Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Unidee-University of Ideas, Isola Art Center, La Pergola Social Center, Intelligent Alternative (Beijing) Info: +39 333 7658678: e-mail: igvfest@gmail.com: website: www.igvfest.com
29 04 2008 23rd, 24th, 25th of May 2008: inContemporanea. Triennale di Milano 23rd, 24th, 25th of May 2008 inContemporanea, the art network Triennale of Milano Viale Alemagna 6 10.30/23.00 New Museum a project by KINGS curated by Alessandra Poggianti Isola Art Center, on the occasion of inContemporanea, the art event promoted by the Province of Milano, presents New Museum, a project by KINGS curated by Alessandra Poggianti. New Museum is a 10 meters long writing made of neon, realized in 2006 in order to be put on the roof of the “Stecca degli Artigiani”, the place where Isola Art Center used to carry on its activities. The project is based on what Henri Lefebvre has once called “the logic of visualization”: besides communicating to the neighborhood the existence of an art center, thus legitimating its clandestine presence, the writing aims to make visible to the public the specific precarity of the place, overwhelmed by the arrogant dynamics of banalization and omologation of public space. Some months after having placed the neon writing on its roof, in fact, that precarious space (the “Stecca degli Artigiani”) has been destroyed and the New Museum piece had to start an ongoing period of “poaching”. Today, as a guest of inContemporanea, it is thus carrying out a new function: instead of indicating the existence of a place, it marks its period of transition, that is a special moment during which Isola Art Center is re-thinking its own tactics and strategies. Having lost its originary and representative place, now its activities are forced to move around the urban tissue of the Isola neighborhood. As a guest of other associations, shops and public spaces, Isola Art Center has ended up creating a solidarity network through which it tries to re-invent the relations between the individual and the social body, as much as re-conceptualizing the public space as a space of action, in order to start a process that can change the social structure into a generator of creativity. Presentation of a flyer created for inContemporanea 2. Curated by Mariette Schiltz. Graphic design: Tommaso Garner. Text: Alberto Pesavento, Marco Scotini, Bert Theis, Vincenzo Latronico, Luis Miguel Selvelli, Alessandra Poggianti. Translation: Vincenzo Latronico, Luis Miguel Selvelli. Photo: Simona Barbagallo, Stefano Boccalini, Kings, out, Alberto Pesavento, Tomas Saraceno, Fabrizio Stipari, Bert Theis. Photo poster image: Maria Vittoria Trovato and Urban Blooz Project, “Interferences”, "subvertisement" act carried out for the Situazionisola exhibition, Isola Art Center, Milano, 2007. Sunday 25th of May 2008 Picnic, Art and Music in a one-day garden since 11am – Minniti Square, Milano The Isola Forum in collaboration with Isola Art Center organizes a day-long event dedicated to the collective creation of a temporary garden, in order to celebrate there a pleasant picnic. During the day there will be the opening of an exhibition by the young artists of NABA at the Tantrika exhibiting space of via Pollaiuolo 2, and a guided tour of the Verde Permanente / Permanent Green exhibition. Moreover, a surprise music event!
06 04 2008 April 13th – July 31st, 2008: VERDE PERMANENTE / PERMANENT GREEN Isola Art Center e Forum Isola present VERDE PERMANENTE/PERMANENT GREEN April 10th and 13th – July 31st, 2008 Art around the streets of Isola supporting the neighbourhood parks Works on shop shutters, videos, open-air performances. curated by Bert Theis "Verde Permanente/Permanent Green" is an exhibition conceived in various friendly venues that, after the gallery’s original space was torn down alongside the Stecca degli Artigiani, have agreed to host the Center through a network of mutual support. "Verde Permanente /Permanent Green" thus hits the road, using over twenty shop shutters to display art projects, in cooperation with other international art centers. This series of interventions starts shaping a project whose title evokes the neighborhood’s only public green, a necessary breathing lung that was recently privatized. The exhibition collects a wide variety of artistic experiences each in its own way taking a stand with respect to the environmental issues recently raised by the reckless urge to build. Such an issue deeply concerns both the whole of Milan and the inhabitants of the Isola neighborhood, still fighting for the “Parco Possibile”, an alternative development project allowing to save the park and create a Center for art and community life. Our struggle’s first positive results have been obtained in the neighborhood council, in the Regional Administrative Court and in the Italian Supreme Court. The “Temporary green”, as the city council once referred to our park, must become a “Permanent green”. Video Fikret Atay, Kurdistan/Turchia: “Tinica”, video 7’32”, 2004 Minouk Lim, Corea: “New Town Ghost”, video 10'28", 2005 Sound Metak, Piazzale Segrino 1 tuesday-friday, 3.30-7.30 Opening: Thursday, April 10th, 2008, from 6.30 pm Both videos have been premiered at the 10th Istanbul Biennial, in 2007, and try to capture a frantic urban growth that leaves no room for the individual inhabitants’ lives and desires. This is true of Batman, Turkey, of Seoul, Korea and of Milan, Italy: skyscrapers and concrete invade all green spaces. Shutters Alek O., Kristine Alksne, Stefano Arienti, John Armleder, Dafne Boggeri, Michelangelo Consani, Stina Fisch, Gaia Fugazza, Kings, Peter Kogler, Maija Kurseva, Gabriele di Matteo, Osservatorio inOpera, Adrian Paci, Luca Pozzi, Matteo Rubbi, Marco Vaglieri - out, Werkstatt, Fani Zguro Via Thaon Di Revel / Via Lambertenghi / Via Pollaiuolo / Via della Pergola / Piazza Minniti /Via Pastrengo / Via Pepe / Via Borsieri / Via Sebenico. Opening: Spazio Espositivo Tantrika, via Pollaiuolo 2, Sunday, April 13th, from 11 am. Isola Rosta Project’s second edition is an event taking place in various streets of the Isola neighborhood. Both Italian and international artists have conceived big format drawings on the shutters of over twenty shops and cultural associations. The project has been possible thanks to the help of professionals and international institutions as well as the neighborhood inhabitants. Special Project Con-senso by Luciana Andreani curated by Giacomo Bazzani Sunday, April 13th, 1 pm in Piazza Minniti An artistic event seeking to involve the Isola neighborhood inhabitants in the public discussion of contemporary ways of consumption and their impact on urban design choices. Access to the Isola neighborhood park has been barred and the Stecca degli Artigiani was torn down. The neighborhood lacks room for the inhabitants to aggregate, thus forcing them to meet and develop their relationships on the streets. Acknowledgements: Latvian Center for Contemporary Art, Riga / Mamco, Ginevra / Casino Forum d’art contemporain, Lussemburgo / Galleria Chantal Crousel, Parigi / NABA, Milano /Vasif Kortun, Istanbul / Manu Park, Gwangju. supported by the Province of Milan __________________________________________________________________ info: 339 60 57 111 info@isolartcenter.org www.isolartcenter.org
06 04 2008 Thursday, April 10th, from 6.30 pm, Video at Sound Metak, Piazzale Segrino 1 ISOLA ART CENTER and FORUM ISOLA present April 13th – July 31st, 2008 VERDE PERMANENTE / PERMANENT GREEN Art around the streets of Isola supporting the neighbourhood parks Works on shop shutters, videos, open-air performances. curated by Bert Theis VIDEO Fikret Atay, Minouk Lim Sound Metak, Piazza Segrino 2 Tuesday - Friday 15.30-19.30 Opening on Thursday, April 10th, from 6.30 pm Fikret Atay Tinica 2004 In Tinica (2004), a young man stands on a hill overlooking Batman. He prepares with utmost care a makeshift drum set from used cans, plastic bottles, and container covers. He gives a bravura performance to an indifferent and distant city-scape. Upon finishing, he kicks the drum set down the hill in total detachment. The cans and bottles roll down the slope in the direction of the town and finally come to rest among the rubbish at the bottom. The drumsticks are thrown not to the competing hands of fans, but with disdain towards the town which is deaf to him. New Town Ghost 10'28" 2005 In the video, we see a young woman as a slammer and a drummer who performs on top of a truck. Her short hair and wild eyes convey her aggressive demeanour. She is hanging around the streets of Yeongdeungpo in Seoul. For more than a century that part of the city has been an important industrial area, and recently it has been decided to transform as one of the 'new towns' of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's New Town Project. Yeongdeungpo is a symbol not only for Minouk Lim but also for other Koreans of the same generation. Lim transforms the perception of space into a dystopian form of hope, a retrospectively sarcastic belief for a better future and a sort of resistance to change. During her trip, she uses a megaphone to read a text that talks about the new mall, the housing complex and the economy of the 'new ghost town'. New ghosts and new hosts for those ghosts… Adnan Yildiz ( part of text from exhibition 'An Atlas of Event' 2007 at Lisbon) http://www.soundmetak.com
14 03 2008 Wednesday, March 19 2008: Isola Art Center presents 3 works by Paola Di Bello Isola Art Center presents 3 works by Paola Di Bello Tantrika Shop Spazio Espositivo Via Pollaiuolo 2, Milano, MM Garibaldi Wednesday, March 19 2008 18.00 – 21.00 2006, Framing the Community 2007, Strip, via de Castillia and via Confalonieri 2007, L'Isola-Che-Non-C'è Tantrika Shop, in via Pollaiuolo 2, hosts for one night three recent works of Paola Di Bello’s, created within the neighborhood’s situation of conflict. Framing the Community displays about fifty pictures of local families, taken within the “Stecca degli Artigiani” – nowadays torn down; Strip is a take at reporting the situation in the park and the “Stecca” itself as of one year ago; L’Isola-Che-Non-C’è is a project advocating free access for children and families to the via Confalonieri park, oftentimes obstructed by cars. Paola Di Bello’s photographic project can be seen as an eclectic taxonomy of contemporary areas of urban disquiet: from Italian working class neighbourhoods, to favelas in Sao Paulo; from Romani’s suburban nomad camps, to squatters in Tokio. It is difficult to isolate one representative image, not because they have a serial character, but because each time they are determined by specific social and spatial relations. These work as an organising grid, coherent yet fragmented in variables, in different territorial sections, in images that can be composed and recomposed as in a Perec puzzle or a Borges map. Paola Di Bello’s work could thus be characterised as a geo-photography of the global city. For years Isola Art Center has been cooperating with Forum Isola to convert former industrial building “Stecca degli artigiani” in a Center for art and community life. Isola Art Center remains a laboratory offering an experimental platform to contemporary art, acting with interdisciplinary methods, international yet firmly rooted in the local social fabric, with the long-term aim of opposing political decisions and urban design projects that will have a negative impact on the neighborhood. In April 2007 the city government and real estate multinational Hines have cleared the Stecca, evicting Isola Art Center and the artisans and associations, subsequently proceeding to the demolition of the building, destroying or damaging of many works of art. The operation was aimed at delivering the Stecca and park to the corporation, so as to develop new buildings summing up to over 90.000 m3. Such project has been opposed by many legal actions and by the alternative project “Il Parco Possibile„ , recently approved by the local council. Isola Art Center’s firm local rooting has allowed it to survive the eviction and carry on its activities hosted by other venues in the neighborhood, such as cultural association Punto Rosso, Sound Metak, and Tantrika Shop. We are thankful to Federico Bianchi Arte Contemporanea and Marco Scotini.
10 03 2008 15.2. - 5.4.08: OUT (Office for urban Transformation) at Galerie Erna Hecey, Brussels. BERT THEIS Platforms and Aggregations 15 February 2008 - 5 April 2008 Tuesday to Saturday from 2 to 7 pm and by appointment Erna Hecey Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Platforms and Aggregations by Luxembourg artist Bert Theis (°1952; lives and works in Milan and Luxembourg). Bert Theis constructed his system of artistic thoughts and actions entirely on the enquiry of the relationship between art and public space, between the “art object” as a personal proposal to the public space and the intervention of the public through their active participation in the making of the final sense of the work. In the meantime, Bert Theis’ proposal has always been specific – site specific and, in his words: “audience specific”, while a big picture of the position of public art in urban space has developed. While urban spaces are gradually privatised due to the introduction of both global capital and new technology, Bert Theis seeks to propose alternatives to balance out such a tendency and hence revitalise urban life itself. The exhibition Platforms and Aggregations will present an assembly of models, photographs and video of Bert Theis’ interventions, often adapting the form of platforms, in various public spaces and art institutions throughout the world. These platforms are painted white, expanding into public spaces, embracing the interventions of the public. They are tangible and physical, results of deliberately planned occupations of urban territories with strategies of minimalist and even immaterial transformations of the given conditions. They are discrete, firmly anti-spectacular. They provide, in turn, the best spaces for spectacular events ranging from meditation, games, dances, concerts to all kinds of everyday activities. However, these activities have never been planned and organised by the artist. Instead, they are improvised and realised by the public with passion and spontaneous inspirations. This is particularly remarkable because it incarnates perfectly the logic of self-organisation and self-governance: the most decisive element in the creation of sustainable urban societies which is at the very centre of Bert Theis’ artistic concept. Besides he likes to call his work philosophic. They are systematically informed by philosophic works and guide the audience to reflect “philosophically” on life. In addition Bert Theis presents his photomontages of the city, a place that is our essential Umwelt, but at the same time completely denaturalised. A different city is nevertheless possible. In these photomontages Bert Theis operates an ecologic deconstruction of metropolises like Paris, Milan and Münster. These cities are completely invaded by dense vegetation, except for skyscrapers, church steeples, monuments, etc. As such it seems that Bert Theis converts the modern metaphor of the urban jungle. Also included in this exhibition is the research institution OUT - Office for Urban Transformation, created by Bert Theis and his colleagues of the Isola (Art) Project Milan. The aim is to look for solutions of “sustainable urbanism”. They have come up with the notion of “Telecity” intending to substitute the conventional image of the city as a “concrete jungle” with an innovative and humane “digital jungle”. More significantly they put forward, alongside with new technologies and ecology, new administrational forms - new communities along with self-governance - in order to make the new urban life really relevant and hence sustainable. This is Bert Theis’ third solo exhibition at Erna Hecey Gallery. Bert Theis has realised some remarkable projects at the Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy (1995); Skulptur Projekte, Münster, Germany (1997); Manifesta 2, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (1998); the Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, Korea (2002); the 5th Shenzhen Public Art Exhibition, Shenzhen, China (2003); the 2nd Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania (2003); BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium (2005); MUDAM, Fondation Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg (2006); Busan Biennial, Busan, Korea (2006); Domaine départemental de Chamarande, France (2006/2007), the 10th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2007) and MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2007). For more information on Isola (Art) Project and OUT – Office for Urban Transformation, check www.isolartcenter.org Per informazione:http://www.ernahecey.com/
29 01 2008 Friday, February 1st, 2008: Street by street Isola Art Center www.isolartcenter.org info@isolartcenter.org info: 339.6057111 hosted by Associazione culturale Punto Rosso Via Pepe 14, Milano, MM Garibaldi Friday February 1st, 2008, hours 19.00 – 22.00 STREET BY STREET After years operating within Milan’s Isola neighborhood, amidst a lasting urban conflict between inhabitants, politicians and private realtors which eventually resulted in its spaced being erased, Isola Art Center keeps offering attention and visibility to artistic and theoretical research projects aimed at discovering crisis patterns and new possibilities of urban living, seeking a new beginning on the streets themselves. Street spaces, subject as they are to control, are paradoxically the first to offer opportunities for innovative forms of action. To open the 2008 season, Isola Art Center proposes a special event: - a meeting with Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa - the presentation of the new issue of philosophical journal millepiani - the screening of Fani Zguro’s video “Street by Street” - an extension of Isola Rosta Project 1 on Punto Rosso’s shutters, until March 1st, 2008. > Carlos Garaicoa The meeting with Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa will be attended by curators Roberto Pinto and Marco Scotini. Thanks to NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts, Milan. “A place’s history is engraved in its streets. You don’t have to read books to know what’s been happening. The main question I ask myself then is: how do you discover a city?” Carlos Garaicoa was born in Havana, in 1967, where he still lives and works. His research has been centered since its start on architectures and cities. He’s been known on the international scene after he took part in the Havana Biennial, Cuba (V, VI and VII), São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (XXIV and XXVI) and Documenta XI (Kassel 1997). Since the early Nineties his work has been presented to the public in a vast amount of solo and groups shows in important institutions: Centro Wilfredo Lam and Fundación Ludwig de Cuba, L’Avana; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid e Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada. In Italy his work has been shown at Castello di Rivoli, Turin, at Galleria Continua, San Gimigniano, in 2005’s Venice Biennial as well as in Isola Art Center, Milan. > millepiani 33 For a political ecology, against all economy of value. Presentation of millepiani 33 dedicated to André Gorz with Tiziana Villani and Alessandro Rudelli. The crisis in the sphere of contemporary subjectivity has brought before us an undeferrable task: the need to consider in all their breadth the conditions of impoverishment and debasement to which existences are now subsumed. The hegemony of an ideology that takes man to be but a means to produce wealth, the deceitful insistence of those who keep eulogizing the primacy of business-mankind, whose “self-valuation” ability would be spendable only within the prodution-goods-consommation circuit, unambiguously explain the sadness, vulgarity and violence unmistakably marking our present time. Technological, social and economical transformations are – as we have seen over many issues of millepiani – “meaning transformations”, requiring not only a critical analysis, but also new modes and practices of interpretation. millepiani 33 has texts by André Gorz and contributions by Christian Bernard, Giacomo Bazzani, Davide Calenda, Saverio Caponi, Ubaldo Fadini, Luca Greco, Roberto Marchesini, Patrizia Mello, Luca Mori, Daniela Piana, Stefano Righetti, Felix Stadler, Simone Vertucci, Tiziana Villani. The cover picture is by Bert Theis. > Fani Zguro, “Street by Street”, video 9 min, 2007 The video, on Italian premiere, has been shot on the streets of Tirana. With this work, Albanian artist Fani Zguro has won Onufri Prize’s fourteenth edition, held by the Tirana National Gallery in 2007 and curated by Ervin Hatibi and Rubens Shima. “What strikes me the most when I come back to Tirana is how much my city is different from the places I arrive in. The first thing that gets you is the sunlight’s incredible strength. Each movement in Tirana is made possible by everyone’s reflexes; when a muezzin is singing the belfry also gives its best… when stray dogs are scratching non-stop, the tourist can find a good meal…” Fani Zguro lives and works in Tirana and Milan. In 2007 his work has been shown in Milan (MiArt, Galleria Unorossodue), Modena (“Lo Schermo Ansioso”, curated by Matteo Chini and Bruno Muzzolini), Tirana (National Gallery of Arts, Tirana Institute for Contemporary Art, 5th Tirana International Film Festival) and Pristina (Mulliqi International Prize, Kosovo). On the same year he has also taken part in “Absolute Beginners” (Isola Art Center), a group show featuring also Jakup Ferri’s, Armand Lulaj’s and Anri Sala’s earliest works. He is the director of Tirana Art Center, which on February 18th 2008 will be hosting “museo aero solar”, a solar energy hot-air balloon created and designed by the inhabitants with Tomas Saraceno, originally realized by Isola Art Center in the district of Milan. > Isola Rosta Project 1 extended until March 1 Marco Colombaioni, Dan Perjovschi, Andreas Siekmann, Marco Vaglieri Rosta was the name of the Russian telegraphy agency which, from 1919 on, had been using its window displays to show posters created ad hoc by artists such as Vladimir Majakowski. Isola Rosta Project 1 displayed big format drawings on the shutters of the Punto Rosso cultural association. The works were centered on the risks the Isola neighborhood has been facing, owing to the urban design projects Saskia Sassen has recently summarized with: “Too much displacement, too much power casting the weaker away”. ...and Isola goes Tuscany Strong end weak end nella città che sale curated by Pierluigi Tazzi. Dryphoto arte contemporanea, via Pugliesi 23, Prato, January 19th – March 14th 2008. After partaking – with contributions by Luciana Andreani, Alberto Pesavento e Rafaela Trevisan – to the round table held in Florence on January 18th at Gecekondu Networking event 2006-2007, Isola Art Center will be presenting its work in DRYPHOTO Arte Contemporanea, Prato. Some of our video works will be shown: Mariette Schiltz’s Isola Nostra, 2007, premiered in the 2007 Istanbul Biennial, and the video documentation of two projects by Italian artist Stefano Boccalini: Stone Island, 2007 and Wild Island – Archivi 2.0.2002. There will also be a presentation of the Center’s website www.isolartcenter.org.
23 10 2007 Monday, October 29th 2007, 6.30-10.00 pm at Associazione Culturale Punto Rosso:Isola Rosta Project 1 Isola Art Center www.isolartcenter.org info@isolartcenter.org info: 339.6057111 Monday, October 29th 2007, 6.30-10.00 pm, Associazione Culturale Punto Rosso Via Pepe 14, opposite Via Carmagnola Garibaldi MM2 Subway After having lost its spaces at the second floor of La Stecca, where artists, curators, philosophers and neighborhood associations have been working for 4 years, Isola Art Center moves out, and considers the whole Isola district as its working field and exhibition space. This season’s first event will be hosted by the cultural association Punto Rosso, which has agreed to offer its shutters to Isola Art Center as a public exhibition space, and its conference hall as video projection room for the italian premiere of “Isola Nostra”, a documentary outlining a sketch of recent history some people would happily ignore. Isola Rosta project 1 will be opening on closed shutters, both as a form of protest against a policy aimed at effacing places and in the attempt at concealing a social and artistic project of international scope. Isola Art Center and Forum Isola present: Isola Nostra A film by Mariette Schiltz, 2007, 60’ An italian premiere will be held for the video on the Isola neighborhood shown at the Istanbul Biennale 2007. The film narrates six years of Isola’s history, and is divided into six chapters: The district, its public space with the parks and the former factory, the urban transformation projects, the neighborhood associations’ reactions, the role of contemporary art in this process, the conflict between the Milan city hall, the real estate companies and the inhabitants of Isola, and last summer’s final events. The film makes a clear stand in favour of the district’s demands and collates for the first time a lot of unpublished documentary footage. Starting from Tuesday, October 30, the video will be visible online at the following address: http://undo.net/eventinvideo/63 Isola Rosta Project 1 Marco Colombaioni, Dan Perjovschi, Andreas Siekmann, Marco Vaglieri (out) Rosta was the name of the Russian telegraphy agency which, from 1919 on, had been using its window displays to show posters created ad hoc by artists such as Vladimir Majakowski. Isola Rosta Project 1 will show big format drawings by Italian and international artists on the shutters of the Punto Rosso cultural association. Marco Colombaioni’s prophetic drawing representing La Stecca’s demolition had been on public display for the first time in march 2005 in the out–office. Marco Vaglieri, too, in a 2005 drawing made for out, anticipated an outcome reached only in 2007, when a project has been set forth for two high rise buildings on the Isola parks. In 2005 Adrian Paci, as curator of the “Revolution is on hold” show, transferred on the walls of Isola Art Center’s cafeteria a series of drawings by Bucarest artist Dan Perjovschi. Those drawings and several other art works have been destroyed when the construction firm hired by real estate company Hines demolished La Stecca’s inner walls. Isola Rosta Project 1 will feature new drawings by Dan Perjovschi, who’s been among the artists invited for this year’s Venice Biennale and has held a solo show at the NY MoMA. The project will also include two graphic design projects by Andreas Siekmann, the only artist featured, last summer, in both Documenta 12 and Sculptur.Projects Münster. His works will tackle the gentrification undergone by working-class neighborhoods to turn them into highbrow communities: such is the risk posed to the Isola district by the urban design projects Saskia Sassen has thus summarized: “Too much displacement, too much power casting the weak out”.
04 09 2007 The Lombardy Court Appeals has ruled in favour of the action of the citizens The Lombardy Court Appeals has ruled in favor action of the citizens of the Isola neighborhood, revoking the permit to build a commercial development in the parks on Via Confalonieri.
03 09 2007 Made In Isola Art Center hosted by AssabOne via Assab, 1 20132 Milano “Made In” New Works, Plamen Dejanoff in collaboration with Hubmann&Vass architects Vienna Body-Without-Organs, Daniela Kostova in collaboration with Dj Joro Boro Curated by Katia Anguelova Opening– Monday, 28th May 2007, 7pm 29th May– 28 June 2007 Assab One (piano terra) Via Assab, 1 20132 Milano (from Tuesday-Fryday -3pm-7pm) Isola Art Center runs the risk of losing the spaces in which it has operated since 2003, and no suitable alternative space in which to continue its activity has been proposed. Temporary Isola Art Center is hosted by AssabOne, an exhibition space founded by Elena Quarestani that produces and promotes cultural and art projects. Isola Art Center has worked with 1500 square meters of exhibition space on the second floor of the industrial building known as the "Stecca degli Artigiani", owned by the city. The space contains a permanent collection of artworks inserted in the architecture of the building by international artists like Marjetica Potrc, Tania Brughiera, Seamus Farrell and Italian artists like Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stefano Arienti, Luca Pancrazzi, Massimo Bartolini, Gabriele Di Matteo, Vedovamazzei, Loris Cecchini and Bernardo Giorgi. For this event Katia Anguelova has invited Daniela Kostova and Plamen Dejanoff –residents of NY, USA and Vienna, Austria respectively. The two artists share a common Bulgarian origin that also acts as a starting point for their projects. Plamen Dejanoff’s project originates from the relationships between art, culture and economy, issues that the artist has been investigating for some years now. In Planets of Comparison Dejanoff explores the relations between the systems of art and of economy. Here he acts simultaneously as artist, manager and collector. In the nineties Dejanoff bought seven houses in Veliko Tarnovo (a city in the centre of Bulgaria) to be restructured by Plamen Dejanoff in collaboration with a number of architecture studies (Kühn/Malvezzi, Vienna, Berlin, Grüntuch & Ernst Berlin, Gruppo A12 Milano, Cocktail Lyon) and afterwards used by institutions, galleries and museums for cultures activities. The project started with MUMOK, the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna, where a bronze statue representing a part of the first realised house was exhibited in the spring of 2006 (the project was realised by Plamen Dejanoff with the Austian architects Wiederin/Konzett and Hubmann &Vass). The project will then move to Veliko Tarnovo where MUMOK will be establishing a space in the Balkans for the next years. Plamen combines strategies of art and business in a similar way to how Andy Warhol combined Pop and Conceptual Art. For this exhibition Plamen Dejanoff presents a new phases of the project on MUMOK house in Veliko Tarnovo, designed together with architects Erich Hubmann & Andreas Vass from Vienna, featuring drawings, maquettes, and a new objects branded ‘dejanoff’ that are actually realised in collaboration with bulgarian craftmens and “made in Bulgaria”. This project, playful and economically rewarding at the same time, transforms the existential experience into a sort of joint venture which is typical in the real economy, thus continuing his investigation into art and economy. Daniela Kostova uses her documentary video, Body-Without-Organs, as raw material for an installation, especially designed originally for Isola Art Centre, composed of a series of ‘social environments’. The passage through the installation invites viewers to reflect on the issues of emigration, travelling and music as a point of integration. The title of the work borrows the concept of “body-without-organs” from Gilles Deleuze. The expression “le corps sans organs” may seem obscure, but its definition is quite clear. It means conceptualizing the body without reducing it to an organic form, not a body deprived of the organs, instead a body on its way to differentiation. The body without organs is therefore in-organic life and, as such, a power of individualization not yet turned into an organism. The exhibition becomes a means for cultural dialogue and confrontation between geographical places that are different yet near. Inspired by the New York music scene of ethno-mesh and gypsy-punk the installation describes the Bulgarian Bar ironically named the Bulgarian Cultural Centre in New York City seen through the eyes of those recently emigrated there. Bulgarian Bar is not a “cultural center” but rather a cultural imaginary and an area of converging opposite tendencies: on one hand the institutional representation of the National Cultural Center and on the other the essence of the nomad spirit expressed through the gypsy-punk music. Dancing in the Bulgarian Bar transcends the usual bodily function, overiding it with new possible meanings provided by the orgasmic fusion with music. The experience in the Bulgarian Bar becomes an anthropological metaphor that shows plurality of culture. The work of Daniela Kostova becomes the search of one’s self in the human community, where spiritual values are the consequence of collective adventures. It is not by chance that DJ Boro says of gypsy music – “the gypsy idea works very well, because they don’t have a state. They are continuously nomadic”. In short, the party depends on the people’s possibilities and on their capacity to forget their own identities. For further information please contact the curator of the exhibition, Katia Anguelova, zebonski@fastwebnet.it For image material please contact info@isolartcenter.org Thanks to Elena Quarestani and Supporting body: European Cultural Foundation the project is supported by: Province of Milan _____________________________________________________________________ Save Isola Art Center! - Non chiudete Isola Art Center! - Save Isola Art Center!
09 08 2007 Laws of Relativity Laws of relativity Curated by Anna Colin and Elena Sorokina. Alterazioni Video | Anamaria Bresciani | Paolo Chiasera | Claire Fontaine | Formazero | Norma Jeane | Elena Nemkova | Anapaula Pasarini | Andrea Salvino | Shoggoth (Paolo Pennuti in collaboration with Lorenzo Pazzi and Gianluca Stazi) | Mario Spada | Lupo&Burtscher | Eugenio Tibaldi | Italo Zuffi | and more artists to be confirmed Laws of relativity brings together artistic work that reflects on the tensions between legal and illegal in Italy and abroad. The project sheds light on practices which query the way constitutional laws as well as unwritten rules function, their stability and rightfulness both on the short- and long-term. The relativity – ensuing from cultural, historical, economical, political and geographical difference – of the very notions of legality and legitimacy are being put forward for thought and comment in this exhibition. The works and projects presented provide different takes and strategies to address this topic and to navigate the spaces in between legal and illegal. Several research-oriented projects point to concrete cases in the recent past, when the legality of the State's actions became questionable and strong opposition arose. Using film, documentary, audio recording, photography, drawing or installation, some artists adopt a sociological or journalistic approach (Elena Nemkova, Mario Spada and Eugenio Tibaldi) – sometimes one that reinterprets the subject under scrutiny (Shoggoth). While, a few artists make use of metaphorical modes of address (Paolo Chiasera) or represent events according to the modern tradition of societal portrayal (Andrea Salvino), others opt for more direct means of action such as provocation (Italo Zuffi), the realisation of an illegal act (Claire Fontaine) or the denunciation of arbitrary governmental decisions (Formazero). In the latter case, this can be done through providing structural support to the group of people affected by these decisions, or, in the case of Alterazioni Video, through giving legal support. Here, what is known as legal action – respectively evicting sans-papiers squatters from a building and suing demonstrators for the physical damage they’ve caused during their opposition – is presented as defendable (or is defended) by the artists who dispute the verdict. If in many cases the artists choose to treat or refer to a specific context – illegal buildings in Naples or the power structures of the art world, for instance – the works’ main reading is often a commentary on the relevance and meaning of such topics on a global level and within other realities. Laws of relativity will be designed by Studio Lupo&Burtscher, which will also devise a design solution for the archive compiled by the curators together with Jimena Acosta during their research throughout Italy this Spring. Composed of audiovidual material and publications including catalogues and artists' books, the archive’s content relfects upon the issues treated in both exhibitions, while opening it up to wider possibilities.
07 04 2007 Monday, April 16th 2007: situazionIsola. A new Urbanism situazionIsola A New Urbanism curators Marco Biraghi, Maurizio Bortolotti, Bert Theis with the support of NABA and Forum Isola and the official support of the Province of Milan Special Event Saturday 14 April 2007, 11.00-18.00, Giardini di via Confalonieri, Isola Tomas Saraceno: Think global, act local! (project curator Maurizio Bortolotti), for the creation of the first flying museum: Museo Aerosolar. Construction of a solar energy hot-air balloon with the inhabitants of the Isola neighborhood, and flight test. The Argentine artist and architect Tomas Saraceno has developed this project during a long residency, in close contact with local residents and the young artists of Isola Art Center. Hundreds of people have collected thousands of plastic shopping bags to create this group work. The project is being developed on a global scale with the collaboration of other institutions. The collection of plastic bags has also been done at: Sharjah Biennial 8, UAE United Arab Emirates, La casa del encuentro cerca a el museo de Antioquia- Medellín, Colombia, Flugzeug Hanger, Flugplatz am Burghof 55 Bonamese/Kalbach- Germany. Collettivo 3.2.1.: Workshop on the construction of paper balloons, for children of the Isola neighborhood. This is the second appointment after the success of the event held on 24 March. The project of Collettivo 3.2.1. is connected to that of Tomas Saraceno and has also made it possible to get local children involved, a fundamental factor for the construction of the Center for Art and the Quarter in the parks of the neighborhood, Isola-Q’ART, the workshop activated by Forum Isola. Exhibition opening Monday 16 April 2007, 18.00-21.00, Isola Art Center 16 April – 15 May 2007 Thursday and Saturday, 16.00-19.00 and by appointment Tomas Saraceno, Argentina, FlyingCity, Korea (project curated by Marco Scotini), Paola Di Bello, King’s (Daniele Inamorato and Federica Perazzoli), Marco Colombaioni and Bert Theis, Steve Piccolo with Xabier Iriondo, Donata Clovis and Manuel Scano, Luciana Andreani, Christophe Bouvet, Brice Della strada e Giovanni Giaretta, Mara Ferreri, Alek O., Alice Pintus, Luca Pozzi, Anja Puntari, Collettivo 3.2.1, Love Difference, Osservatorio inOpera, ufficio out, Forum Isola, Design Course of the Nuova Accademia di Belli Arti (NABA) in collaboration with the Parents’ Association F. Confalonieri (“Piedibus”) The exhibition tries to explore the cultural and social value of an experience like that of the Isola Art Center, in the Isola neighborhood in Milan, as well as the desire and interest of the local residents and a number of artists to produce a gathering place inside a neighborhood with a relatively unified social fabric. The show reinterprets the Isola Art Center phenomenon in relation to the ideas of the Situationist International in the 1960s, a movement that had a particularly active section in Milan. The question taken as a starting point was “which Situationist ideas still survive today, and how many of these ideas still respond to the needs of contemporary life?” In this perspective, “to what extent does an experience like that of Isola Art Center now represent a form of ‘new urbanism’, based on a different way of thinking about urban space and the social ties that form inside it?”. To develop the Isola Art Center project in the light of Situationist ideas, situazionIsola has three closely interconnected parts. - A historical part on Situationist ideas and materials, especially writings, presented in a different way to indicate action-concepts. - A part on the projects completed by Isola Art Center together with local institutions and residents, projects that in some ways reflect the modes of implementation and experimentation of the Situationist legacy. - A part on contemporary artists, with the participation of Flying City and the special project “Think global, act local” by the Argentine artist and architect Tomas Saraceno, produced in collaboration with the inhabitants of the neighborhood and the young artists of Isola Art Center. To underline the timely pertinence of the Situationist movement, the exhibition attempts to evaluate how many of its ideas have become part of the behaviors and modes with which people experience the city today. The possibility of connecting parts of the city neglected by the everyday functions active inside them becomes an interesting point for identification of forms of spontaneous aggregation, offering a different interpretation of urban space. The projects will be placed inside the Isola Art Center and in the nearby parks, or precisely in public spaces that are threatened with demolition due to the city’s plans for the transformation of the area. Curators: Marco Biraghi teaches contemporary architectural history at the Milan Polytechnic. He works with a number of architecture magazines, and is part of the editorial staff of "Casabella". He has written and edited many books on 20th-century architectural culture and criticism. He has lectured at Columbia University and Cooper Union in New York, the Faculty of Fine Arts of Toronto and the Berlage Institute of Rotterdam. Maurizio Bortolotti is an art critic and curator. He contributes to Domus magazine and the online magazine of the University of Leeds, “Seconds”. Curator of Art Experience for Domus Academy. He has recently been curator of the following projects: "No Vitrines, No Artists, No Museums: Just a Lot of People", with Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno (2004); "Modelmania", with Olafur Eliasson (2005), Venice; with Marco Scotini "The Utopian Display Platform" 2003-2006, Milan; "Yona Friedman. A Project for MART", 2006, Mart, Rovereto. He is now working on projects for Istanbul, Venice, Luxembourg and Birmingham. Bert Theis. Born in Luxembourg, resident in Milan since 1992. He has worked on contemporary art projects at the Isola since 2001, as an artist and subcurator. In 2002 he created OUT (Office for Urban Transformation), with offices in Milan and Mexico DF. He has taken part in international art events like the Venice Biennale 1995, Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997, Arte all’Arte 1998, Manifesta 1998, Biennial of Gwangju 2002, Biennial of Tirana 2003, Biennial of Busan 2006. __________________________________________________________________________ Save Isola Art Center! - Non chiudete Isola Art Center! - Save Isola Art Center!
20 03 2007 Saturday, 24th march 2007: Collettivo 3.2.1. On saturday 24th of march, from 11am to 5pm in the Confalonieri gardens, Forum Isola presents: Collettivo 3.2.1: First meeting of the workshop for the construction of flying baloons with the children of Isola Neighborhood, under the direction of Alice Rosa, Francesca Riva, Laura Piazzola. The workshop is linked to the project of the argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno "Think global act local", who wants to produce a huge flying baloon powered only by solar energy with the inhabitants of Isola neighborhood. After having shown the videos of similar baloons previously realized in Brazil, the project will be presented at mid April from Isola Art Center and Forum Isola.
20 03 2007 Thursday, March 22nd 2007: Conference Although its difficult situation, Isola Art Center goes on with its artistic calendar: The exposition "Absolute Beginners", showing the works of the albanian artists Jakub Ferri, Armand Lulaj, Anri Sala and Fani Zguro, will be on show until the 5th of April. Opening times: thursdays and saturdays from 4pm to 7 pm, or in case of further special requests. On thursday 22nd of march, panel conference on "Ten years of contemporary art in Albania" with the contribution of Edi Muka, curator and founder ot the Tirana Biennale Roberto Pinto, co-curator of 3rd Tirana Biennale Stefano Romano, artist and founder of the "Insurgent spaces" project in Tirana,previously professor at Fine Arts Academy of Tirana Bert Theis, artist, participant of 2nd Tirana Biennale
17 03 2007 Una Stecca diversa e necessaria Una Stecca diversa e necessaria 1. Diciamo no allo sgombero di artigiani, associazioni e del centro per l’arte presenti all’interno della Stecca degli artigiani. Chiediamo l’allontanamento degli elementi criminosi con interventi delle Forze dell’Ordine che non mettano in pericolo gli abitanti dell’Isola. Chiediamo la chiusura temporanea degli spazi non utilizzati da associazioni qualificanti e di pubblica utilità o da artigiani. 2. Chiediamo che l’area dei due giardini e della Stecca, di proprietà del Comune di Milano, rimanga pubblica, e che i progetti edilizi degli operatori privati siano realizzati dove insistono i loro diritti di volumetria o verso il Garibaldi-Repubblica, senza effettuare lo scambio di aree tra proprietà pubblica e privata. 3. Ci proponiamo di realizzare un Laboratorio per l’Arte e per il Quartiere in una Stecca diversa, ristrutturata e sicura, e nei giardini di via Confalonieri bonificati: Q’ART sarà un luogo di quartiere e d’arte, un luogo da vivere e non solo da visitare, un progetto già in fase di realizzazione con le attività di Isola Art Center e del Forum Isola. Un innovativo uso dello spazio pubblico che prevede la compresenza di più attività, dalla ricerca artistica allo sport, e una inedita formula di aggregazione di tutte le componenti sociali del quartiere, dagli adolescenti fino agli anziani. 4. Il Comune non è il solo e unico proprietario della Stecca. Uno degli artigiani, che dal 1984 dispone come proprio di tutto il secondo piano in modo pacifico e mai contestato dal Comune, ha citato in giudizio quest’ultimo affinchè gli venga riconosciuto il diritto di proprietà da lui usucapito in ragione dei 23 anni passati da quando iniziò ad occupare quei locali. Forum Isola Comitato I Mille Associazione Genitori F. Confalonieri Associazione Isola dell’Arte
03 05 2007 Thursday, March 15th 2007: Absolute Beginners Opening: Thursday 15 March 15th, h 7pm ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS Four artists from Albania and Kosovo curated by Fani Zguro Participating artists: Jakup Ferri | Armando Lulaj | Anri Sala | Fani Zguro Works: Don’t tell anybody (2003): video Walking free in harmony (1999): video-performance Avec Marubi (1996): video-animation Fotogramma (2004): video-loop ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS features four videos by Albanian artists Jakup Ferri, Armando Lulaj, Anri Sala and Fani Zguro. The exhibition’s paradoxical title, ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS, is essentially tied to the participant artists’ condition at the time of the work’s production, evoked as evidence of the indefinable, uncertain moment always catalyzed by beginnings. The ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS project set up in ISOLA ART CENTER aims to explore the first steps of artists now operating on an international scale; the exhibition thus offers an unprecedented configuration of research, doubts, transformations, ways sought and found, investigating the possibilities of artistic survival on the contemporary scene, as well as the ambiguous relationship between up-and-coming artists and established figures in the art system. Jakup Ferri/Don’t tell anybody. Young Kosovan artist Jakup Ferri’s video – “Don’t tell anybody” – is one of his first works, selected from a video cycle made between 2002 and 2005. His works explore the artist’s condition between humor and self-irony, exploiting his image as if it were a depiction of his own research’s first stage. In “Three virgins” the artists takes part with his own voice in a Lennon & Ono duet; in “An artist who speaks no English is no artist”, he ironizes on his own work in terrible English, whilst re-using a title already chosen by Croatian artist Mladen Stilinoviç; the work picked for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS belongs to this early period: “Don’t tell anybody” displays the artist counting, one by one, a huge heap of rice grains, splitting them into small groups, in search of the exact amount contained in a kilo of rice. Armando Lulaj/ Walking free in harmony. Armando Lulaj’s work has, from the outset, found expression in performances. “Walking free in harmony” is one of his first actions, performed while he still was a student at the Florence Fine Arts Academy; in it, Armando Lulaj sought and developed a relationship with the academy’s environment by impersonating Christ’s last open-armed pose on the academy’s dome – the one sheltering Michelangelo’s David. Following this performance, Armando Lulaj was expelled from the Academy and has carried on with his independent performing, taking part in many international events such as the 2003 Prague Biennale and the 2005 Tirana Biennale. Anri Sala/Avec Marubi. Internationally renowned artist Anri Sala has been showing work for years in the most prominent venues and events of the contemporary art scene, such as the Venice Biennale, Manifesta, Hugo Boss Prize, etc. The work here is perhaps his very first film: “Avec Marubi” is a video-animation based on what is now a cult picture by Albanian photographer Marubi, taken in the early 1900s; two northern Albanian women, traditionally dressed, are working on a sewing machine to make a depiction of Manet’s famous masterpiece, “Le dejeuner sur l’herbe”. By the end, Manet’s naked woman is wearing the same traditional outfit as the two seamstresses in Marubi’s picture. Fani Zguro/Fotogramma. Fani Zguro’s work began in 2004, with “Fotogramma”, shot in Tirana. “Fotogramma” is a short film depicting an alley on a rainy night. The film’s initially short footage has been dilated to almost a minute; the audio has been eliminated. “Fotogramma” is the first part of Fani Zguro’s “Night Project”. Isola Art Center events: Thursday 22 March at 19.00: Discussion: “Albania, 10 years of contemporary art”. Monday 16 April – Tuesday 15 May: “SituazionIsola – a New Urbanism“ curated by Maurizio Bortolotti, Marco Biraghi, Bert Theis
03 12 2006 Saturday, December 16th 2006, “Caosmos” Presentation of Millepiani review The sociologist David Lyon in "The Information Society" gives us a critical analysis of information in the age of new capitalism, introducing a new concept which will be crucial in the developing of his following works: the power of surveillance. According to Lyon "to know is to have power" is a misleading claim in the age of information: "Knowledge is for sure an important issue in the management of power, but who owns this resource does not necessarily detains power as well (...) information means to have power in a different realm, the one of surveillance and control". To these arguments is dedicated the last issue of "Millepiani": G. Simondon - D. Lyon Caosmos Philosophy and technic in the control society For commenting them, we will then gather with some of its authors, as well as some researchers from Uninomade and Out, at Isola Art Center (Stecca degli Artigiani) Via Confalonieri 10, Milano On saturday 16th of december 2006, 5pm
28 11 2006 Friday, December 8th 2006: Collegare & New Museum New Museum by Daniele Innamorato and Federica Perazzoli curated by Alessandra Poggianti Collegare group show curated by Gianni Romano René Arbeithuber, Daniel Lange/Malun, Benjamin Wittner, Sascha Thoma/CASTO, Julie Djohan, Nino Maljevic, Marco Villaseñor, Davide Farabegoli, Linda Hörnquist, Philippe Werhahn New Museum is the ten-meter long neon sign hung on the Isola Art Centre terrace, so as to become its signpost. Such an imposing light sign, readable from afar, signals, self-legitimates and claims both the presence and the existence of a Centre for the Arts. Neon lights are often used in Daniele Innamorato and Federica Perazzoli’s works, aiming, alongside LPs, record covers, sketches and rare rep files, at offering “an anarcho-punk aesthetics typical of dirty boys” (Marco Scotini, exhibition text for “R’n’R”, Artra Gallery, Milan, 2005). On this occasion, the sign atop the Stecca building denies its precariousness, underlining its active presence. Within this “new museum” the two artists have set up a photographical work – linked to the outward stance – activating a musealization process, driven towards a New Museum imagined as “an area viable for anyone… new room for movement, exchange, silence, music…” (Daniele Innamorato and Francesca Perazzoli). “Collegare” represents the result of ten young artists’ cooperation revolving upon the theme of “connection”. This term gathers today many different meanings, reaching far beyond mere “getting connected” or establishing connections between different objects. Such an explosive project is aimed at investigating its various meanings, its hidden faces, letting every artist independently interpret the theme. Valuing very disparate backgrounds, “Collegare” group sports an interesting combination of works, ranging from illustration, fashion design, film, photography, graphics]…], graffitis, interior design, animation… Each different mode of expression corresponds to a distinct cultural context, each work gathering layers of meaning in its relation to each other, resulting in a whole with markedly choral aspects. Interventions by: René Arbeithuber and Daniel Lange/Malun, two young German artists forming together the DFM group. Also from Germany Benjamin Wittner,photographer, Sascha Thoma/CASTO, writer, and artist- designer Julie Djohan. From Serbia video-animations by Nino Maljevic, from Mexico-City filmmaker Marco Villaseñor and from Italy Davide Farabegoli, photographer. Concluding the “connection” the two stylists Linda Hörnquist (Sweden) and Philippe Werhahn (Germany). Program 10 december: “Fashion happen(-ing)”: Linda Hörnquist & Philippe Werhahn offer the public a chance to have their used garments re-fitted into new clothing. Bring your clothes before 15.00 pm. 17 december: fashion-sale auction 18 december: end of the exhibition with conclusive artwork auction Meeting Saturday 16 december, 17.00 pm Presentation of the new issue of Millepiani’s review: “Caosmos”.Philosophy and technics in the control society, by G. SIMONDON-D. LYON.
12 10 2006 Thursday, October 19th 2006: Women shi gaibian. The revolution is us “Women shi gaibian” (The revolution is us ) Artists from Canton, China curated by Martina Köppel-Yang Xu Tan, Jiang Zhi, Zhou Tao, Liang Juhui, Duan Jianyu, Lin Yilin, Yang Jiechang, Huang Xiaopeng, Yang Yong e santomatteo and Libreria Borges In an era when the colour of a cat is not important but only the fact that it catches mice, bringing back the idea of a colour, is crucial. Who could fulfil this task better than artists? Culture and art have the capacity to provide this kind of not primarily pragmatically motivated thoughts, like for example utopian ideas. Surplus value, of course, makes reference on the fact that art in China today, where the creation of a cultural industry is enhanced by the government, is considered an indicator and an important factor of social and economical productivity. Adorno wrote in the early 1950s: “Happiness is obsolete: uneconomic”. For art in China today it is just the other way round: “Art is certainly not obsolete: economic.” This is even more true as there is more to art than just a measurable economic value. It is this surplus value that makes art attractive and provides it with a great potential, a potential to engender and promulgate ideas, a capacity to preserve values, cultural and social. One basic question still is that of the value of the individual. Is happiness obsolete, uneconomic? In the exhibition "Accumulation- Canton Express, the Next Stop" (July-September 2006, Beijing) accumulation means the accumulation of “human capital” ,which is represented through artists from Canton. Most of them first exhibited together as “Canton Express” in 2002. Canton, a region far away from the political and economical centre but with a long colonial tradition, has been the craddle of China's utopian and revolutionnary throughts and concepts.Sun Yatsen, and Kang Youwei are both of Cantonese origin. Today in the field of contemporary art, new impulses and trends come from this region. An individual art scene has emerged that first manifested itself at the Gwangju Biennial in 2002 as “Canton Express” in 2002, an art scene that still is less touched by the international art market than those of other regions in China. “Women shi gaiban (The revolution is us) - Artists from Canton" presents works of members of Canton Express. Milano-based artists santomatteo who spent six weeks in Canton and China will participate in the show as new members of Canton Express. They also take part in "Accumulation" in Beijing. Martina Köppel-Yang is a Paris based curator and art historian. She has curated two recent shows in Bejing, China: "Surplus Value" (2006) and "Accumulation: Canton Express - the Next Stop" (2006). Thanks to Tang Contemporary Art Center, Beijing and Provincia di Milano
12 10 2006 Tuesday, October 10th 2006: Book presentation with Paola Nicolin Isola Art Center Via Confalonieri 10, Milano Tuesday 10th october 2006, 6.30pm Isola Art Center and Forum Isola are glad to invite you at the presentation of the book: Palais de Tokyo, place of contemporary creation by Paola Nicolin Followed by the debate The discorse of others: Paris, Frankfurt, Mexico City… Milano With Paola Nicolin, Bert Theis, Katia Anguelova, Alessandra Poggianti, Marco Scotini., Stefano Boeri (architect), Pippo Ciorra (architect), Francesco Garutti (curator/architect), Cloe Piccoli (art critician), Gianni Romano (curator/publisher), Gabi Scardi (art critician/curator), Francesca di Nardo (art critician/curator) The case of Palais de Tokyo, opened in 2002 in the left wing of a 1937 building, can be considered a truly experimental case in the context of the Paris contemporary art scene. The analisys of such a case and the interpretation of some of the artworks that it has been producine is the content of Paola Nicolin’s book, which presents the center as a perfect example for the mingling of “art and life”. After having considered these issues, the debite “The Discorse of others” will start, introduced by Bert Theis who will speak about the specific case of Isola Art and Community Center of Milano and from what has to be learnt from the events of Portikus in Frankfurt. Then will follow the analysis of other international art centers by Katia Anguelova (Le plateau, Paris), Alessandra Poggianti (El faro d’Oriente, Mexico City) and Marco Scotini (Beaubourg, Paris). What all these cases have in common is the fact of having challenged and solved, in different ways, the same kind of issue: how to be dealing with both the Art and the Community. At this point the open discussion will start, animated by the interventions of Stefano Boeri and Pippo Corra, Francesco Garutti, Cloe Piccoli, Gabi Scardi, Francesca di Nardo, Gianni Romano… and of corse from whoever will like to join from the public. During and after the event, at the new cafeteria “Ginoteca” of Isola Art Center will be on sale the Isola Art Beer, an organic beer produced to support the struggle and the projects of Isola neighborhood.
24 06 2006 12 Proposte per un'Isola migliore Il Forum Isola è stato voluto e creato dall’Associazione Genitori F. Confalonieri, dal Comitato I Mille e dall’Associazione Isola dell’Arte al fine di far emergere i bisogni del quartiere, proporre delle soluzioni progettuali condivise e portarle a realizzazione. Questo documento rivolto agli operatori pubblici e privati, e a tutta la città, ha lo scopo di soddisfare le principali esigenze sociali e culturali degli abitanti del quartiere per l’area dei giardini di Via Confalonieri e della “Stecca”. Il Forum si fa portavoce dei problemi fondamentali dello spazio pubblico del quartiere con proposte concrete, mentre non intende occuparsi di un progetto di urbanistica partecipata ritenendo l’architettura un compito dei progettisti. La caratteristica principale dell’ Isola è il suo isolamento dalle grandi arterie di traffico che attraversano la città di Milano. Questa calma relativa insieme alla presenza di una popolazione variegata e molto vitale dal punto di vista sociale hanno fatto finora dell’Isola un quartiere a misura d’uomo. L’Isola è un modello urbanistico che il Forum Isola s’impegna a mantenere, difendere e a promuovere. Preservare la qualità dello spazio pubblico dell’Isola significa in primo luogo evitare una viabilità che tagli il quartiere in due, e riservare l’accesso ai giardini a pedoni e ciclisti. Un’altra qualità importante dello spazio pubblico dell’Isola è la conformazione abbastanza aperta del panorama urbano in Via Confalonieri e in Via De Castillia che permette di non sentirsi soffocati dalla densità delle costruzioni. L’ ”area di respiro” attuale dovrebbe essere preservata trovando delle alternative per la localizzazione delle costruzioni previste sui giardini. Riteniamo che i due giardini pubblici attualmente esistenti siano lo spazio appena necessario e appena sufficiente per rispondere alle esigenze del quartiere. L’edificio della Stecca degli Artigiani ha la volumetria necessaria per rispondere alle esigenze aggregative e culturali della comunità. Riteniamo inoltre fondamentale che nella risistemazione dell’edificio sia mantenuta la sua funzione pubblica. Proponiamo una “Stecca” che diventi parte integrante del verde pubblico di quartiere e perciò passaggio naturale da un giardino all’altro, ponte tra passato del quartiere e suo futuro, luogo denso di significato, che dovrebbe essere vissuto pienamente in tutta sicurezza in ogni momento della giornata. I giardini una volta bonificati e ripensati in modo da aumentare la loro qualità e fruibilità per il quartiere e i cittadini in generale, dovranno essere direttamente collegati ai giardini previsti nell’area Garibaldi-Repubblica. Forum Isola Milano, Guigno 2006 Indice delle proposte: A. Verde di prossimità 1. Integrazione reciproca tra verde e struttura 2. Area gioco per i bambini in zona ombreggiata 3. Campo sportivo multifunzionale recintato 4. Area ricreativa con tavoli per anziani in zona ombreggiata e area ludica per adulti 5. Fontanelle d’acqua 6. Area cani con ingresso autonomo 7. Messa a dimora di alberi ad alto fusto 8. Interventi artistici sullo spazio verde B. Centro per l’arte e per il quartiere (La “Stecca” futura): 9. Attività di quartiere 10. Centro per l’Arte contemporanea 11. Artigianato: spazio per botteghe artigiane di qualità 12. Associazioni: spazi per associazioni di utilità pubblica Isola Art & Community Center A. Verde di prossimità 1. Integrazione reciproca tra verde e struttura. È importante prevedere l’integrazione reciproca tra verde e struttura che unisca tutta la superficie verde attualmente divisa. 2. Area gioco per i bambini in zona ombreggiata con ingresso separato. La piccola area gioco esistente al centro del giardino ovest è esposta al sole per tutta la giornata. Nella bella stagione la possibilità di uso è molto ridotta per questo motivo. L’area è aperta a tutti e i bambini non sono protetti neanche dai cani che entrano nell’area a loro adibita. Gli attrezzi dell’area gioco sono dei prefabbricati industriali per niente originali. Stiamo elaborando delle soluzioni creative per quest’area con famiglie e professionisti. 3. Campo sportivo multifunzionale sport recintato. Così come i bambini hanno bisogno di uno spazio ludico all’aperto, anche gli adolescenti necessitano di soddisfare i loro bisogni di movimento e sport all’aperto. Nel quartiere sono presenti poche associazioni sportive. La scuola stessa non possiede un’associazione sportiva in particolare. Sino ad oggi alcune aule e la palestra sono state concesse per attività che andranno ad annullarsi nel momento in cui la scuola media di zona si trasferirà nei locali attualmente occupati dalla scuola elementare. Non esiste nessun’alternativa all’Isola. Non c’e’ la necessita di strutture altamente e lussuosamente attrezzate, sarebbero sufficienti spazi multifunzionali chiusi dove poter trasferire queste attività sportive già avviate da anni affinché non vengano interrotte; inoltre, potendo disporre di spazi esterni, si potrebbe pensare di dedicarli ad altri sport quali calcio, basket, pallavolo. 4. Area ricreativa con tavoli per anziani in zona ombreggiata, e area ludica per adulti. Molti anziani dell’Isola si ritrovano ogni giorno nei giardini perché è l’unico verde di prossimità a disposizione, dove si respira un po’. Per la loro qualità di vita questo è essenziale perché non possono spostarsi molto per stare all’aperto. Fare una piccola passeggiata e fermarsi nei giardini è per molti di loro l’unica possibilità di uscire delle abitazioni ed avere una vita sociale. Per loro serve un posto all’ombra dove fermarsi, incontrare altre persone, fare due chiacchiere, giocare a carte… Finora il Comune di Milano non ha attrezzato i giardini considerandoli “verde provvisorio”. Un minimo di attrezzature servirebbe anche per gli adulti, senza riempire tutto il verde di infrastrutture. Si tratta di trovare un equilibrio che non distrugga il respiro di uno spazio aperto e che permetta anche in futuro delle iniziative aggregative per gli abitanti del quartiere. 5. Fontanelle d’acqua. Nella situazione attuale ogni anno un certo numero di piante muoiono nei giardini per mancanza d’acqua. Per un giardino è fondamentale la presenza di una fonte d’acqua, non soltanto per irrigare le piante. Bisogna potersi lavare le mani e rinfrescarsi nei mesi caldi. 6. Area cani con ingresso autonomo. Uno dei problemi igienici attuali è la presenza di escrementi animali dovunque nei giardini. Questo fatto riduce molto la loro fruibilità, soprattutto per i bambini. L’ accesso dell’area cani dovrebbe essere autonomo e diretto da Via Confalonieri e da Via De Castillia. 7. Messa a dimora di alberi ad alto fusto. Vista la tipologia del terreno una volta bonificato viene suggerita la messa a dimora di alberi ad alto fusto. 8. Interventi di artisti sullo spazio verde. 8.a. Puntiamo soprattutto su interventi ed eventi artistici nel parco, tenendo conto della discussione e della ricerca internazionale in questo campo. Ci offriamo di dare un contributo innovativo di alto livello anche nel campo della Public Art, coinvolgendo artisti ed altri creativi nella progettazione delle attrezzature e degli oggetti da creare per il parco. Il modello del “Giardino di sculture“, che consiste nel posizionare in modo permanente delle sculture o delle installazioni in un parco o nello spazio pubblico è ormai superato. Oggi mostre e progetti artistici a lungo termine stanno sperimentando nuove forme di arte pubblica anche in altre città italiane. B. Il Centro per l’Arte e per il Quartiere, la “Stecca” Il progetto di Isola Art & Community Center si basa su un concetto inedito che combina gli spazi di aggregazione per il quartiere con le attività di un Centro per l’Arte sperimentale. Il titolo in inglese sottolinea l’intenzione del Forum Isola di creare un modello a scala internazionale, che abbia anche un ruolo identitario collegandosi e creando scambi con altri Centri esistenti nel mondo, contribuendo così alla rinascita culturale della Città di Milano. L'importanza di un Centro d'Arte non è innanzitutto una questione di volumetrie, ma di intelligenza e originalità della programmazione e delle proposte (cfr. l’esempio del “Portikus” a Francoforte). Il progetto del Centro si basa sull’esperienza fatta in cinque anni di progetti d’arte contemporanea all’Isola, e per tre anni da Isola Art Center, su anni di iniziative per bambini e famiglie dell’Associazione Genitori F. Confalonieri, sul lavoro di aggregazione degli abitanti svolto dal Comitato I Mille. Stiamo sviluppando i punti di forza di quest’esperienza seguendo una logica “glocal”, globale e locale, lavorando con curatori ed artisti internazionali, e allo stesso tempo legandoci fortemente al quartiere e alla città. Questo lavoro e questo concetto inedito permetteranno a Isola Art & Community Center di diventare lo spazio innovativo d’arte contemporanea e di ricerca che manca oggi nella città di Milano. A questo scopo si sta creando un comitato scientifico/advisory board composto da direttori d’istituzioni d’arte internazionali. Siamo in contatto con Charles Esche, Eindhoven, Hu Hanru, Parigi e San Francisco, Daniel Birnbaum, Francoforte, Victor Misiano, Mosca, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Biella, ed altri.) L’obiettivo così definito del Centro richiede la creazione di una struttura di direzione e di gestione professionale di alto livello, integrando come consulenti esponenti del quartiere e il gruppo di professionisti (curatori, critici, artisti…) che attualmente sta lavorando direttamente sul territorio e per la definizione del Centro per l’arte. Questo gruppo di lavoro si propone strutturato con un dipartimento curatoriale e di ricerca interno al Centro e come punto di riferimento del quartiere. Abbiamo cominciato ad elaborare un piano di finanziamento insieme a partner pubblici e privati. 9. Attività di quartiere. 9.a. Nel quartiere Isola scarseggiano gli spazi di aggregazione e attività per i bisogni delle famiglie, adolescenti, bambini, anziani e adulti. Per le attività sociali le associazioni e i cittadini devono rivolgersi alla scuola e alla parrocchia, chiedendo l’utilizzo di spazi che non sono sempre adatti alle necessità. 9.b. Per un’economia e un utilizzo razionale degli spazi, la loro maggiore qualità deve essere quella di essere funzionali ad attività diverse fra di loro. Così una sala cinema può anche essere una sala teatro, una sala di conferenze e di riunioni. Una sala per attività sportive deve essere concepita in modo da permettere la pratica di diversi sport durante l’inverno, ma anche lezioni di ballo o giochi per bambini. Per facilitare l’accesso a bambini e anziani, e permettere un uso dello spazio dei giardini nella bella stagione, questi spazi sono da prevedere al pianterreno. 9.c. La programmazione di questi spazi sarà ricca e variegata: nello spazio cinema si vedranno video d’artista nel contesto delle mostre, cineforum per i giovani, rassegne di film d’autore, rassegne di film popolari per anziani e bambini… 9.d. Pensiamo come minimo a una tipologia di tre spazi diversi: - uno spazio aggregativo polifunzionale, grande, per feste, assemblee, conferenze e altro - uno spazio di medie dimensioni multiuso legato ad attività ricreative con cucina adiacente - una sala riunioni piccola per le associazioni del quartiere - una palestra 10. Arte contemporanea. 10.a. Per l’arte contemporanea servono spazi autonomi ma intimamente collegati agli spazi per il quartiere, con un ruolo espositivo, progettuale, sperimentale e didattico. Parte del concetto è la “contaminazione” tra arte e vita quotidiana. 10.b. I progetti d’arte contemporanea iniziano all’Isola nel 2001 con Isola Art Project. Le prime mostre nell’edificio della Stecca si svolgono nel 2003 con la nascita di Isola dell’Arte. Nel 2005 Isola Art Center viene inaugurato dall’assessore alla cultura della Provincia di Milano, Daniela Benelli. Dopo una fase di preparazione dal 2003 al 2006 entriamo ora in un nuovo periodo di transizione. La fase di costituzione vera e propria di Isola Art & Community Center seguirà in tempi ancora da definire. Questo momento di passaggio sarà già caratterizzata da un approfondimento delle collaborazioni avvenute (con “millepiani”, Milano, “Città dell’Arte – Fondazione Pistoletto”, Biella, “American Center Foundation”, New York, Istituto Culturale Svizzero, Milano, Provincia di Milano, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain Mamco di Ginevra…), da una maggiore professionalità nell’organizzazione e nella comunicazione degli eventi artistici e da un radicamento ancora più forte del progetto nel quartiere. Continuerà il lavoro della rete dei laboratori e gruppi presenti nel Centro: out, Love Difference, Osservatorio in Opera, Stazione Isola, Sugoe e Undo.net 10.c. Il campo di intervento del Centro non si limita allo spazio interno dell’edificio, ma si estende nello spazio pubblico e nel tessuto del quartiere. Il Centro non vuol essere un museo con una collezione consistente, ma uno spazio espositivo e di ricerca per l’arte e la cultura contemporanea. Questo non esclude la presenza di opere permanenti e semi-permanenti. Il progetto del Centro non prevede studi permanenti per artisti, ma la possibilità di realizzare lavori in situ per gli artisti invitati. Eventuali studi di artisti presenti nella Stecca sono da trattare in un modo simile alle botteghe artigiane. L’immagine del Centro non deve essere quella di un “museo di quartiere”, ma quella di un luogo dove si stratificano le esperienze, dove resta traccia delle sperimentazioni e della collaborazione con artisti e curatori stranieri e italiani di livello. 10.d. Isola Art Center ha finora collaborato nel campo dell’educazione artistica con l’Accademia di Brera di Milano, con L’Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, con la Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti di Milano, NABA e con il Politecnico di Milano. È in corso una presa di contatto con altre accademie e università italiane ed europee. Uno dei nostri concetti di base è quello di legare lo spazio espositivo alla ricerca garantendone l’indipendenza. La collaborazione più fruttuosa è finora avvenuta tra Isola Art Center e la NABA. Si è deciso insieme di approfondire strutturalmente questa partnership, senza che il centro diventi “la galleria dell’accademia”, e senza che questo escluda la collaborazione con altre istituzioni. I primi progetti in jointventure tra Isola Art Center, Forum Isola e la NABA partono in autunno 2006. 10.e. Il ruolo didattico del Centro non si limita al livello accademico ma mira ad una diffusione più ampia dell’arte e della cultura contemporanea nel quartiere Isola e nella Città di Milano organizzando incontri, conferenze, workshop e laboratori aperti al quartiere. Oltre ai progetti artistici già avviati insieme all’associazione genitori si intende creare una collaborazione con le scuole elementari e medie del quartiere. 10.f. I 1.500 metri quadri del secondo piano della Stecca, caratterizzati da grandi spazi aperti, sono il minimo che serve ad una programmazione espositiva credibile. Dovrebbero ospitare spazi espositivi, ma anche un’officina tecnica, un deposito, una caffetteria e una libreria. Spazi per l’amministrazione, spazi per laboratori didattici e workshop e spazi per conferenze e incontri possono essere previsti ad un altro piano. Questa soluzione potrebbe facilitare la concezione del Centro non come un luogo pre-definito, ma come spazio elastico e in continua trasformazione che consenta una totale libertà di progettazione. Lo spazio espositivo attuale ha molte qualità, ma ha almeno due difetti: Il soffitto troppo basso delle stanze e la presenza di colonne ogni quattro metri in tutti gli spazi. Per poter installare alcune opere d’arte, si dovrebbe alzare almeno una parte dello spazio e togliere una serie di colonne. Questo può essere risolto senza troppi problemi tecnici al secondo piano. 10.g. Il Centro non si pensa come un edificio isolato ma integrato in una struttura con altre funzioni, come adesso nella Stecca, o come nel progetto del Centro della Triennale di Canton in Cina disegnato da Rem Koolhaas e Alain Foureaux. 11. Artigianato: spazio per botteghe artigiane di qualità. Il Forum Isola ritiene indispensabile la presenza degli artigiani nella “Stecca” favorendo quegli artigiani che possono svolgere anche il ruolo di “scuola di mestieri”. Con il coinvolgendo delle associazioni artigianali e dell’amministrazione è possibile realizzare un programma di rientro in città dell’artigianato. Questo programma dovrebbe distribuire agli artigiani gli spazi demaniali esistenti nei pressi della “Stecca” e nel quartiere. Così il quartiere riprenderebbe ad essere polo economico attrattivo per l’artigianato, manterrebbe la sua caratteristica destinazione “mista” e vedrebbe ancor più presidiato il suo territorio in termini di sicurezza. Le botteghe artigiane essendo delle attività commerciali, continueranno ad avere una loro forma di gestione autonoma. Il Centro per l’Arte e il Quartiere, per le sue caratteristiche, sarà in grado di coinvolgere gli artigiani di eccellenza in progetti comuni. 12. Associazioni: spazi per associazioni di utilità pubblica. Il nostro obiettivo è che la “Stecca” diventi uno spazio di utilità pubblica al cui interno operino anche delle associazioni sociali e culturali che hanno a cuore le esigenze del quartiere. Dovrebbero avere esperienza e qualità tali da rispondere ai bisogni degli abitanti, soprattutto focalizzando l’attenzione sugli adolescenti e gli anziani. Le associazioni sociali e culturali di dimostrata utilità pubblica dovranno avere garantita una loro forma di gestione autonoma. Il Forum stabilirà delle collaborazioni con le associazioni che condividono i suoi obiettivi e che corrispondono alle sue esigenze di qualità. Forum Isola Milano, Giugno 2006 www.isolartcenter.org forumisola@isolartcenter.org download.pdf >
08 06 2006 June, 10th 2006:Forum Isola Party Forum Isola Party The aim of the party is to support and defend these Confalonieri gardens, that risk to disappear, swallowed by the urban projects promoted by the Milano municipalità. The party is the first event on the way to the creation of a Center for both the art and the community: “Isola Art and Community Center”, promoted by Forum Isola, a collective project on te behalf of the Confalonieri gardens and the Stecca degli Artigiani. Forum Isola has recently been created by the Confalonieri Parents Association, the Isola dell’Arte association and the “I Mille” comitee. The promoted artistic intervention will be concerning children games, initiatives for the elders, caribbean dances, Tai Chi Chuan and watermelon for everybody. -AlekO.: “Summer Karaoke” (video performance) -Gruppo Ma!? (Anja Puntari, Mara Maglione): “Figurati!” (interactive performance for the children) -Jakattak (Steve Piccolo, Xabier Iriondo and others): 7.30pm musical performance: the Jakattak group will be performing environmental specific sounds, in search of a dialogue between the performance and the context. On the occasion, some young artists from Naba will present tha audio guides they created for the exhibition “The people’s choice”, recording sounds and voices in the Isola neighborhoodd. -LoveDifference: “A wood of people, a wood of ideas”, a workshop on the body, on playing to be a tree, on the stoppino time, on our moving times and the times of Isola. Considering the body to reflect on Isola time, both the individual and the collective one. -OsservatorioinOpera: “Questi se la sognano!”, gathering of thoughts, dreams and desires. A workshop that invites you to come and tell what you wish, what you are missing and what sshouldd never be missino in the public space of Isola. OsservatorioinOpera is Piero Almeoni, Paola Sabatti Bassini, Roberta Sisti. For the occasion, Isola Art Center will be opening the exhibition by Wolfgang Trager, “The Art Community/La comunità dell’arte”.
17 05 2006 Wednesday, May 17th 2006: Wolfgang Träger: The Art Community Wolfgang Träger - The Art Community portraits of 500 international artists at Isola Art Center Isola Art Center is the second stop of this encyclopedic exhibition, following the debut at “Tranzit Art Center” of Bratislava, in the Slovak Republic. Over the last 15 years the German photographer Wolfgang Träger has covered - for the most important German art magazine, “Kunstforum” - all the Venice Biennials and editions of Documenta, Manifesta and other major art events. Italian and international artists (and a few curators) are seen during the installation of the various exhibitions. In this show Isola Art Center does not present artworks, but the creators of the artworks themselves, from Mario Merz to Ilya Kabakov and Marjetica Potrc, from Chen Zen to John Armleder, Tobias Rehberger, Jorge Pardo and Olafur Eliasson. A cycle of about 50 b+w photos features portraits of artists from the Fluxus movement, approached by Wolfgang Träger not only as a photographer, but also as a good friend. Special projects: The event also includes three special projects created by young artists from NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan), coordinated by Stefano Boccalini, Steve Piccolo and Bert Theis.
28 04 2006 Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006: Isola Forum Giardini e Stecca, le scelte del quartiere Isola forum ospitato nella sala parrocchiale, Via Sebenico 31 mercoledì 3 maggio, ore 21.00 promosso da Associazione Genitori “F. Confalonieri”, Associazione “Isola dell’arte”, Comitato “I Mille” È stato approvato, con un emendamento, il progetto del Comune “Isola-De Castillia”, che prevede l’edificazione di 90.000 metri cubi nell’area dei due giardini di Via Confalonieri e della Stecca degli Artigiani. Perciò ci stiamo preparando per un eventuale ricorso, che come per gli altri ricorsi già presentati, vuole impedire interventi "ingiusti". Ma soprattutto vuole portare l'amministrazione e gli operatori ad un tavolo di confronto reale con il quartiere e fare recepire le esigenze di chi abita l'Isola. Il progetto approvato non è definitivo. Allora noi dobbiamo essere molto precisi e decisi su quello che vogliamo: per questo motivo è stato pensato ed organizzato questo forum in modo che gli abitanti del quartiere possano esprimere i propri desideri, bisogni, sogni... Che cosa vorremmo realizzare in uno spazio come quello della Stecca, ripulita e riqualificata? Come rendere ancora più belli e utili i nostri giardini? Mercoledì 3 maggio venite al forum, perché sarà la più importante occasione per: - informarsi sulle ultime decisioni amministrative e sulle nostre possibilità di azione; - far sentire la propria voce e partecipare alla preparazione di un documento che esprima le reali richieste del quartiere; - ascoltare e discutere le proposte di coloro che si stanno già impegnando nella salvaguardia e nel miglioramento del quartiere Isola (abitanti, giovani, anziani, genitori, artisti ...) - costruire insieme i prossimi eventi ed iniziative per realizzare le nostre idee.
06 04 2006 Sunday, April 9th, 2006: Tiziana Villani's new book presentation Tre incontri In occasione della mostra “La Scelta della Gente/The Peoples’ Choice” curata da Marco Scotini, (27 marzo – 7 maggio 2006 martedì, giovedì, domenica, 17.00 – 20.00) Isola Art Center invita a tre incontri: Domenica 9 aprile, ore 18.00 ufficio out: Presentazione del libro di Tiziana Villani “Il tempo della trasformazione” Corpi territori e tecnologie (Edizioni Manifestolibri) Il tempo della trasformazione è il tempo della città totale. I corpi, al pari degli ambienti in cui viviamo, sono potenziati e modificati da protesi tecnologiche sempre più sofisticate. Il mondo odierno appare come una cartografia variegata che attraversa un momento di profondo cambiamento: quello dell’accelerazione tecnologica. La nostra epoca conosce in questo modo il dispiegarsi di una serie incredibile di rivoluzioni che spesso si trovano in conflitto tra loro. Le biotecnologie, la rivoluzione cibernetica, l’impatto sempre più forte dei nuovi sistemi di comunicazione incidono sulle nostre vite aprendo grandi possibilità e nuove emarginazioni. Corpi levigati, videomostrati nell’immaginario odierno si alternano ai corpi clandestini e ignorati delle nuove patologie di massa. In questo volume si prendono in considerazione i corpi, le esistenze e i territori urbani analizzando scenari materiali e virtuali, prossimi alla Science fiction divenuta ormai il nostro orizzonte quotidiano. Prosegue il laboratorio filosofico interdisciplinare divenire urbano presentato da Tiziana Villani (Millepiani), Bert Theis (out) e Marco Scotini (info: Tiziana Villani: 349 074 53 20): Martedì 11 aprile, ore 18, uffico out La trasformazione delle identità Dalla biopolitica alle società di controllo introduzione Silvano Cacciari e Ubaldo Fadini Martedì 18 aprile, ore 18, ufficio out Territori a venire Dalla catastrofe all’immaginario introduzione Stefano Righetti e Andrea Sartin
28 03 2006 Thursday, March 30th, 2006: Art for the Isola! Art for the Isola! Auction sale for fundraising Thursday 30th of march at 9pm NABA New Academy of Fine Arts via Darwin 20, Milano Isola Art Center together with Naba Futurarium present the second edition of "Art for the Isola!", the sale exhibition of art works. After the one held in december 2004, curated by Giacinto di Pietrantonio and Lino Baldini in Isola Art Center itself, this second edition will be adopting a different format. Held during the time of MiArt, this year's "Art for the Isola! will be hosted by NABA and will be a proper auction sale. The exhibition project will be designed by Isola Dell'Arte association, with the contribution of art critics and curators. All art works on show will be put on sale during the auction, in order to raise as much funds as possible to help with the legal struggle in defense of Stecca degli Artigiani and Confalonieri gardens, brought on by the Isola neighborhood associations. Artworks will be from: Olaf Nicolai, Francesco Vezzoli, gruppo A12, Marcello Maloberti, Massimo Bartolini, vedovamazzei, Maurizio Nannucci, Bert Theis, Stefano Boccalini, Enzo Umbaca, A Constructed World, Adrian Paci, Paola Di Bello, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Gabriele Di Matteo, Alessandro Ceresoli, Luca Pancrazzi, Italo Zuffi, Mario Airò, Andrea Sala, Marco Vaglieri, Luca Vitone, Michelangelo Consani, Patrick Tuttofuoco, Piero Gatto, Eva Marisaldi, Alex Pinna, Pastorello, Paola Sabatti Bassini, Giuseppe Restano, Ciboh, Antonio Rovaldi, Lodola, Gianni Cella, Piero Almeoni, Seamus Farrell, Paololuca Barbieri, Flavio Bonetti. We'd like to thank: Ciocca Arte Contemporanea (Milano), NABA Nuova Accademia (Milano), NO Gallery (Milano), Sonia Campagnola, Studio Guenzani (Milano), White Project (Pescara) and all the artists. RELATED EVENTS: 30th of march at 6pm The Utopian Display Platform: Roundtable "Independent Spaces and Models of Curatorship?" curated by Maurizio Bortolotti and Marco Scotini. With Peter Lewis, Raimundas Malasauskas, Maria Lind. MiArt, fieramilanocity, Milano Until 7th of may: La scelta della gente/The people's choice curated by Marco Scotini, at Isola Art Center, Stecca degli Artigiani, via Confalonieri 10, Milano. Open on tuesdays, wednesdays and sundays from 5pm to 8pm, or on special request.
26 03 2006
Monday, March 27th, 2006: The people's choice Isola Art Center Via Confalonieri 10 (II floor) Milano Info: Alessandra Poggianti 0039 349.8051697; ida@undo.net Opening Monday 27 March 18.00 27 March 2006 - 7 May 2006 Opening hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday 17h – 20h The People’s Choice / La scelta della gente Tools for an Art and Community Center curated by Marco Scotini Conceived more as a kit for use than as an itinerary to look at, the exhibition The People’s Choice, brings together proposals, projects and practical experiences that attempt to define a potential model for a contemporary art space as an integrated part of a neighbourhood. The challenge facing this project is to imagine an arts centre under permanent construction within a community that, day by day, negotiates its own parameters regarding its representation and relation to and in the urban space. Over 40 international artists will compare notes on the proposals of as many curators, economists, politicians and neighbourhood associations. Since the notion of a separate space and a specific function - of an ‘heterotopia’ in the Foucaultian sense - is no longer viable, The People’s Choice contemplates not only an open, flexible space, but one that literally involves the ordinary life of the people. A series of sections (financial, architectural, curatorial etc.) will divide the show into more than one area and into different expositional and functional regimes, each of which will house processes and materials of the most diverse kinds. The project has developed as a mature, advanced phase of the Isola di Milano neighbourhood’s opposition to the Garibaldi-Repubblica building project. Over the course of years of struggle, the neighbourhood’s collective response has validated the maintenance of a public green belt between via Confalonieri and via De Castilla, including the ex-industrial building that crosses it. After Isola Art Centre’s installation inside this building last year, The People’s Choice seeks to define the possible form a contemporary art space should take - a space, moreover, that Milan lacks - through a democratic planning and transformation process. The actual name ‘The People’s Choice’ comes from Group Material’s famous exhibition held in 1980 at the group’s premises in New York’s East End, where the people from the neighbourhood were asked to bring to the gallery objects that meant something to them, their families or their friends. Gruppo A12, Doug Ashford (Group Material), Stefano Boccalini, Gea Casolaro, Josef Dabernig, José Davila, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Paola Di Bello, Etcétera, Alberto Garutti, Bernardo Giorgi, Isabella Inti, Rem Koolhaas and Alain Fouraux, Armando Lulaj, Marcello Maloberti, Alessandro Nassiri Tabibzadeh, Network Nomadic Architecture, OUT, Adrian Paci, Maria Papadimitriou, Steve Piccolo, Cesare Pietroiusti, Post-Programmed City-Territory, Marietjca Potrc, Oda Projesi, Radek Community, Renshi.org, Oliver Ressler, Pedro Reyes, Mariette Schiltz, Chemi Rosado Seijo, Stalker, Bert Theis, Tercerunquinto, Ian Tweedy, Enzo Umbaca, Luca Vitone, What is to be done?.... Events: Forum “The People’s Choice, la scelta della gente” 10 April 2006, 21h Rectory “Sacro Volto”Via Sebenico, Milano Organized by “Isola dell’Arte”, committee “I Mille” and the parents committee of Isola Interdisciplinary Philosophical Lab “Divenire Urbano” Tuesday 7 March, 14 March, 11 April, 18 April,at 18.00 Office out, Via Confalonieri 10 second floor, Milano Presented by Tiziana Villani (Millepiani), Bert Theis (OUT) and Marco Scotini Info: Tiziana Villani 0039 349.074 53 20 Book presentation Sunday 9 April at 18.00 “Il tempo della trasformazione” by Tiziana Villani (manifestolibri) Office out, via Confalonieri 10, second floor, Milano The Peoples Choise / La scelta della gente... |
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