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Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk

Documenta as a Fiction Workshop
August 2-4, 2007

Wyspa Institute of Art in Gdansk
1 Doki Street, building #145B
80-958 Gdansk, Poland
Tel./fax: +48 58 320 44 46

http://www.wyspa.art.pl
http://documentaasafiction.blogspot.com

Fiction touches on invented stories, fantasies and literary conventions. It sits on the side of creativity, arbitrariness and doubt. Its power belongs to the speaking subject… but also to the listening one, flickering in the instantaneous and capricious relation between the two (or more) of them. In this framework, Documenta as a Fiction is foreseen as both an event and a theoretical figure based on an actual story. Resonating the ontological dissonance between the traditional notions of document and fiction, the workshop seeks for the plots and narratives of contemporary art as well as its institutional visions, giving a space for the performative encounters of individuals.

The participants will investigate the stories and their tellers with reference to the set of narratives grown over Documenta as a discursive engine. Especially over the current Documenta that outsources a part of its intellectual power to the network of art magazines and amplifies interconnections within the institutionalised art world, opening up a broad field of criticality over the predominant language in which art is being conveyed to the public. What is story? What is narrative? What is document and what is fiction? Whose is credibility? Which languages relate to or mediate reality — those of theory or of practice? How does vision turn into visibility? How does artistic action turn into actuality?

Students of art, art history and philosophy from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Gdansk University, the Royal College of Art in London and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, none of whom has yet visited this year’s Documenta in Kassel, will analyse public and personal representations of this event. They will examine the languages in which art is being communicated, observe intellectual and institutional frames and create their own narratives through drawings, confessions, interviews, video, photo and textual documentations that will be frequently posted on the web at http://documentaasafiction.blospot.com. Grounded in the performativity of the group, Documenta as a Fiction is aimed at the collaborative process without conclusion. The group will reunite in Kassel on September 18-22 to confront the real and the fictions.

Participants: Maks Bochenek, Igor Duszynski, Ola Grzonkowska, Anne Hoffmann, Hiwa K., Kordian Lewandowski, Zuzanna Malicka, Ulrich Mauer, Mathias Pelda, Roma Piotrowska, Konrad Pustola.
Workshop moderators: Aneta Szylak and Magda Pustola.
Special guest: Artur Zmijewski.
Special project "Ungeklappte Arbeiten" by Hiwa K.

Conceived by Wyspa Institute of Art as a part of the workshops organised by the Brussels-based A Prior Magazine http://www.aprior.org participating in the Documenta 12 Magazine Platform, Documenta as a Fiction is being additionally supported by the Schwerpunkt Polen at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Kunsthochschule Kassel and 3City.pl. Documenta as a Fiction logo was designed by LOWBUDGET http://www.lowbudget.pl

For more information go to: http://www.wyspa.art.pl

Victor Alimpiev Summer Lightnings, 2004 Video projection, 2′30′’ Courtesy the artist and Regina Gallery, Moscow Photo credit:Fanis Vlastaras & Rebecca Constantopoulou

Her(his)story 5th June-29th September, 2007
The Museum of Cycladic art is delighted to announce Her(his)tory, the first ever video exhibition in its premises, examining the notion of the subjective development of the ‘historical condition’. It is presented in a stunning installation which extends both in Stathatos Megaron, a neoclassical mansion, designed by the 19th century architect Ernst Ziller, as well the newer wing of the museum situated at 4 Neofytou Douka Street. Commissioned from the Museum of Cycladic Art to the independent curator and art critic Marina Fokidis, the exhibition is sponsored by the National Bank of Greece and Bombay Sapphire.
Concentrating on themes drawn from personal stories of today’s human beings, the show will feature the video works of leading international artists including Bruce Nauman, Garry Hill, Rodney Graham, Doug Aitken, Aernout Mik, Douglas Gordon, The Atlas Group, Anri Sala, Tony Oursler and others, as well as of younger members of the contemporary art scene such as Zineb Sedira, Adel Abdessemed, Seth Price, Cory Arcangel, Paul Chan and others
Her(his)tory addresses the major issues faced by society in the contemporary world. It will comprise of artworks which comment - with a poetic and in cases humoristic view - on questions such as the profile of contemporary woman and man, as well as the vast geopolitical contemporary arena today. The idea is to present works that will intrigue the interest around human culture and will promote the diversity found in the synthesis of various personal stories, the intersection of ‘private’ and ‘public’, and the comprehension of the ‘historical truth’ through everyday life experiences.

Through the coexistence of contemporary art video-works along with ancient objects from the permanent collections housed in the Museum of Cycladic Art, new questions are anticipated to arise in what concerns the provenance of human culture and its contemporary evolution. In particular, with relation to human representations (figurines) of the Early Cycladic culture, these elegant witnesses of the 3rd millennium BC which, though silent, reflect the anthropocentric spirit of an important prehistoric insular culture that flourished in the Aegean.

Gergiev Festival 2007

Gergiev Festival 2007 brings pioneering opera production to the Netherlands

The theme of the Gergiev Festival’s twelfth edition is Liebesnacht. From 5 to 15 September, 2007, the eleven-day festival presents symphonic music, chamber music, films, children’s performances, a masterclass and a late-night programme. At the heart of the festival are three performances of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, in a production featuring video art by Bill Viola. ‘It could well be a very long time before something this great comes our way again,’ was the enthusiastic response in the Los Angeles Times. Following its success in Los Angeles, Paris and New York, the Gergiev Festival is bringing this pioneering production to the Netherlands.

Celebrating Valery Gergiev’s 20-year association with the Netherlands
Twenty years after Valery Gergiev made his Dutch debut, this twelfth edition of the Gergiev Festival highlights his greatest passions: opera, symphonic music and the coaching of young talent. Maestro Gergiev will coach three young conductors in a masterclass. He will conduct three symphonic concerts: two with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and one with the celebrated World Orchestra for Peace, which is performing in the Netherlands for the first time. Gergiev also conducts Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in a production with video art by Bill Viola.

Bill Viola’s Tristan und Isolde: ‘dazed bliss’
Video artist Bill Viola created projections for a production of Tristan und Isolde that was to be staged exclusively in Los Angeles, Paris and New York. The result was stunning. ‘I saw the last performance of the Paris run and came away in something like the state of dazed bliss that Baudelaire described,’ was the awe-inspired response of The New Yorker’s music critic. Valery Gergiev, conductor of that Paris staging, was also profoundly impressed by Viola’s imagery. It was swiftly decided that this pioneering production should not only be seen in Los Angeles, Paris and New York, but that it would also be brought to Rotterdam for three special performances during the Gergiev Festival.

World Orchestra for Peace: in the Netherlands for the first time
Music transcends boundaries. That was why the World Orchestra for Peace, which brings together the finest musicians from ensembles around the world, was founded in 1995, marking the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Performances by this unique orchestra are rare: the musicians only come together for very special occasions. On Saturday 8 September, during the 2007 Gergiev Festival, the World Orchestra for Peace will perform in the Netherlands for the very first time. The programme includes music by Berlioz and Prokofiev that explores the theme of Romeo and Juliet — a tale of love that transcends boundaries.

A festival programme at eleven venues
The festival takes place at eleven different venues. The hub of activities is ‘de Doelen’ concert hall complex, where the opera, the symphonic concerts, the masterclass, the children’s performances and the chamber music recitals (with stars such as Leonidas Kavakos and Ralph van Raat) is being presented. A festival with the theme Liebesnacht would not be complete without a late-night programme. In Carte Noire, five musical heavyweights join with boundary-defying ensembles (from Ramsey Nasr, poet, to the ZAPP String Quartet), enjoying a totally free hand as they seize the nocturnal moment in a one-off late-night concert.

Liebesnacht
the twelfth edition of the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
5 to 15 September 2007
Information and ticket sales via http://www.gergievfestival.nl

Note to Editors:

For further information please contact Claire Beke — Communicatie in Cultuur,
tel. +31 10 4250344, or e-mail beke@euronet.nl

or the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra:
Nancy Tulner, tel. +31 10 217 17 87 or e-mail nancytulner@rpho.nl

For more information go to: http://www.gergievfestival.nl