Syndicate: Fwd: Gallery Marino Cettina- UMAG CROATIA: exhibition ZERO, ABSOLUTE THE REAL, opening 2. june

[Chris Byrne <chris@cryptic.demon.co.uk>]

From: "Marina Grzinic" <margrz@zrc-sazu.si>
Subject: Gallery Marino Cettina- UMAG CROATIA: exhibition ZERO, ABSOLUTE
THE REAL, opening 2. june
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:04:59 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3

Dear Chris, please fwd last announcement in this week to Syndicate list.
Thank you so much!!!! for the help, Marina Grzinic

 

GALERIJA MARINO CETTINA, umag, croatia

Dante Alighieri 20, tel/fax: 00 385 52 752 917, e-mail:
<mailto:dcettina@inet.hr>dcettina@inet.hr: www.galerija-cettina.hr

 

June 2 &ndas;: July 10, 2001

Opening SATURDAY, June 2, 2001 at 8. P.M.

ZERO_ABSOLUTE_THE REAL

International exhibition of photography, performance, Internet

0100101110101101.ORG (Italy); Huseyin Bahri Alptekin (Turkey); association
Apsolutno (Serbia); Luka Dekleva (Slovenia); Uros Djuric (Serbia); ECLIPSE
(Slovenia); Ivana Keser (Croatia); Jane Stravs (Slovenia)

CURATOR: MARINA GRZINIC

ZERO_ABSOLUTE_THE REAL

Texts by Marina Grzinic, Erden Kosova and the artists; collaborator in the
project Adele Eisenstein, C3, Hungary.

0100101110101101.ORG

life_sharing

http://www. 0100101110101101.org

0100101110101101.org&rsqu;:s life_sharing is a Walker Art Center (USA)
-commissioned Internet artwork -- or perhaps, if you prefer, a web-based
project that presents a bizarre shift, a reversal. Rather than moving from
the dull, drabness of real life into the ecstasy of Internet art,
life_sharing takes a radical detour from the thousands of exciting
formalistic possibilities of web design (the innovative interfaces that are
always trying to amuse us), and returns to dull, drab existence itself: the
disgusting impotence of everyday bureaucracy, the exchange of mail, the
negotiation for new projects. There are subdirectories and maps, as well as
dozens of different documents that include e-mail correspondence, drafts
from ongoing projects by 0100101110101101.org, to archives of texts by
other authors with 0100101110101101.org&rsqu;:s comments, pages of e-mails,
half-completed documents and personal annotations mixed with samples of
critical texts &ndas;: a whole bank of virtual papers. Such a gesture
allows us to enter the space of a private life. If you have time to take a
ride, and browse through papers, documents, paths, and texts &ndas;: who
knows how long it might take and where we might land. 0100101110101101.org
is creating a hole in the brain of the machine as a kind of alien
situation, a debugging of the system of the computer and of the content of
so-called everyday life. It is as if we suddenly have access to the
constantly microscopically zoomed informational content of an individual,
in all the dirtiness and business of his/her life. It is as if s/he gives
us the possibility to see everything under his/her skin &ndas;: the
intestines of the body, so to speak, and of the computer as well. There is
something disgusting and repulsive in this action, but powerful at the same
time. (M.Grzinic)

H?SEYIN BAHRI ALPTEKIN

LOVELACE, outdoor billboard installation, 1999, 2x3m

"Your Revolution Will Not Be Between These Thighs"

Dj Vadim & Sarah Jones

By Erden Kosova

Just before the Revolution, libertine circles within the French aristocracy
appealed to the culture that was living outside of Paris. Remnants of a
pagan culture that had prevailed in the French countryside were seen as a
means of confronting the orthodoxies produced by the increasing power of a
central monarchy. Yet paradoxically, during the same period, those rural
populations were internalising the moral codification of a higher order,
namely the laws of the Church. You may say, there is no need for referring
to a historical context since contemporary examples of cultural barter
between different social segments are all around us: the guts of the
megalopolis are certainly supreme sources of an innovation-thirsty high
design industry. Yet, just after appearing on the streets of posh
neighbourhoods or in the pages of fancy magazines, the products of fashion
designers or spin doctors in the advertising machine reveal their fragility
to be re-appropriated by their original source. Fake copies of designer
clothes, circulation of non-registered excess stocks &ndas;y an anti-legal
capitalism in short &ndas;y summons back the use of the masses. This mutual
process of give and take between kitsch and glamour also informs the
material H?seyin Alptekin uses in his recent projects. First used by drag
queens and belly-dancers, the sequined ornamentation, paillette, was later
transferred onto the high street billboards and the showcases of DKNY or
Esprit, and is now stuffing the stalls of cheap markets and jumble shops.

Cyclical modes of consumption, however, are not the primal concern of
Alptekin's paillette panels. Utilisation of kitsch and glamour in the
series starting with the inscription Love Lace is rather a means to proceed
into a gaiety on the visual surface: a cheering which renders the
sociological invisible; which allows his projects to remain on the level of
mere illustrations of theory. This tendency towards the superficial, the
indifferent and the celebratory, has two personal justifications. The first
is to be explained on a political basis: tired of the expectations, role
assignments and dictations of the Western art discourse, Alptekin questions
the possibility to represent an Other and his own situatedness in relation
to this pigeonholed Other. Denying the imposed mission of translating a
particular identity, Alptekin attempts to interrupt the codification of
Western thinking in the guise of tolerance, pity and repentance.

The second explanation for the ongoing process of introducing a lighter,
smoother surface is rather psychological: after his previous series, Artist
in Depression, H?seyin Alptekin titled his solo exhibition in 1999 as Kriz:
Viva Vaia (Crisis: Long Live Mockery), so as to hint at a way out from the
distress &ndas;y social, as well as personal. Later, he picked up one
detail he had used in that exhibition, transformed it into a single piece
and elaborated it in a new visuality: the word lovelace. Its first
appearance was in an erotic and organic handwriting stitched on an
embroidery canvas. Transferred onto the paillette billboard, the
inscription takes a strictly geometrical ordering; the feminine
implications remain there, albeit in a different reading. Herein appears
the tension between the two main references: the obsessive nature in the
first piece may be associated with Linda Lovelace, the main figure of the
famous porn film from the 70's, Deep Throat. The second project, with its
square modules, digital divisions and well-defined fonts, easily recalls
Ada Byron Lovelace, a 19th century mathematician who pioneered the computer
programmes we are using today. A recent work about Ada Lovelace's amazing
life story has served as the base for Sadie Plant's book of Zeros+Ones, a
livre de chevet of cyberfeminism, which rewrites the story of
industrialisation, technology and digitalisation through the agency of
women. A coincidental similarity between the low-relief circles pressed on
the metal-coloured cover of Plant's book and H?seyin Alptekin's paillettes
may be worth mentioning here.

Nevertheless, the references mentioned above are not suggested by the work.
They are rather fished out by the hermeneutic potentials of the word.
Alptekin is keen on keeping the material he uses in minimal terms.
Paradoxically, the simplification that he aims to obtain opens the artwork
to a matrix of collective signification and symbolism which is richer and
far more vibrating than any theoretical reasoning. Retaining the same
visual structure, Alptekin employs word-pairs such as Love Face and Fuck
Face (maybe Love Gaze or Love Case in the future, as the artist informs us)
with minute differentiation from the original. These are some
non-grammatical expressions Alptekin has extracted from movies, yet they
are still awaiting the audience's assistance in uncovering their own hidden
connotations.

Erden Kosova is a PhD candidate at Goldsmiths College London and a
co-editor of the magazine art-ist Istanbul.

association APSOLUTNO

Le Quattro Stagioni, 1997

Le Quattro Stagioni is the result of a one-year action, which took place
during the four seasons of 1996. During each season, one member of the
association was photographed in 19th century costume. All four photos were
taken in a memorial cemetery where Soviet soldiers were buried, situated on
the ground belonging to an Orthodox chapel. The communist memorial and the
orthodox chapel stand next to each other. Thus, on this site, two
contrasting and co-existent symbols, the red star and the orthodox cross,
are reconciled. The members of APSOLUTNO are photographed as 19th century
figures, looking forward to the future, with great expectations. Their
impatience to move into the next century is symbolized in the bicycles they
all have. In order to travel faster, they use a device which is well-known
locally: a corncob put into the bicycle wheel. The photos were used as
illustrations for the 'calendar' Le Quattro Stagioni, in which the dates
are marked by numbers indicating how many days remain until the end of the
century and of the millennium. (aA: association Apsolutno)

 

The Absolute Sale, 1995 : 2000

<http://www.absolute-sale.com/>http://www.absolute-sale.com

The Absolute Sale is a net project based on an ironic view on the position
of the Eastern European artist in relation to the Western art market. The
Absolute Sale simulates an auction, in which users play the role of
prospective buyers. They are presented with detailed information on the
process of buying at this auction, as well as on the lots offered for sale.
At this auction of Eastern European art, the lots on offer are artists from
the Eastern European region who are yet to be born (i.e., in 1995, when the
project was initiated), on 1 January 2001. The prospective buyers can,
therefore, only make reservations for the artist(s) they are interested in.
Although the destiny of these Eastern European artists is already
determined and stated in the database, buying at this auction is
nevertheless a risky business, and the prospective buyer is constantly
reminded of this fact. Any of the lots can be withdrawn at any moment
without notice, and, what is more, the buyer is informed that the
information in the database is not to be relied upon. The organizers of the
sale insist that they do not take any responsibility for the transactions.
(aA: association Apsolutno)

EXAMPLE:

INDEX

Name: Hebib Byutyqi

Sex: M

Date and place of birth: 1 January 2001; Durr?s, Albania

Nationality: Albanian

Religion: Muslim

Languages spoken: Albanian, Italian

Other interests: diving

HIV: -

Temperament: choleric

Legal problems: He will try to immigrate illegally into Italy 7 times.

Military service: done

Note:

.........................................................

Available from: 2021

.........................................................

Type of art: music (piano and zurla player)

LUKA DEKLEVA

Trace on the pillow, color photograph, 2001

Dekleva pushes the subtle process of self-observation developed in his
previous photographic works further, to an intrinsic game of observation
and construction. He is lurking, in search of intimate paths, figures and
relations that are all part of his internalized feelings of a devoted
observer. We are faced with a report, but this is an insider photographic
report. One day he saw the trace of sweat or a trace of a damp body on the
pillow in the seaside atmosphere. Just before the trace was ready to
disappear, &ldqu;Nswallowed&rdqu;N by the sun, he took the photograph.
Within just hours, it would be impossible to find any material evidence.
Again, aware of the ostensible intelligence of the camera lens, he triggers
the camera. The camera is the perfect witness, recalling evidence that will
be erased completely by time. (M. Grzinic)

UROS DJURIC

POPULIST PROJECT - HOMETOWN BOYS

The referential idea in the creation of the POPULIST PROJECT is based on
the thesis that Populism has these days become the supreme ideology,
replacing the well-known Social Utopias of the former times. As we all
know, Communism, Socialism and Anarchism have lost their battle for the
leadership in representation of the social statements and fights of the
so-called Lower Classes. A strange social/political/ideological amalgam is
today fighting for A Better World. This amalgam has created the term New
World Order, which is an ideological mutant of the older Labor movement
that fought for social and human rights, mixed with right-wing Liberal
economic standards. Populism is becoming, in these new circumstances, the
transparent territory for the promotion of the New Values. POPULIST PROJECT
tries to explore these territories.

POPULIST PROJECT contains 3 different segments: GOD LOVES THE DREAMS OF
SERBIAN ARTISTS, CELEBRITIES and HOMETOWN BOYS. HOMETOWN BOYS is the First
Serbian Porn, Art & Society magazine, simulacrum of intentions to produce a
lifestyle magazine which presents a melting pot &ndas;N covering the scope
from Sociology, through Art & Theory, to hardcore Pornography. (Uros DJuric)

 

 

 

ECLIPSE

Blood is sweeter than honey / Inspired by the ancients

object with photographs, framed by a climbing plant in earthen pot, 2001

The pair of photographs from the series PORNORAMA 2001 by Eclipse is based
on the idea of the history of erotic scenes and a re-articulation of the
mythology of the ancient heroes. Renaissance icons and nature are displayed
through body panoramas perceived as a territory and a living circulatory
instrument. The object, with a pair of digitally produced photographs, is
decorated: framed by a climbing plant, growing from an earthen pot. During
the course of the exhibition, the soil must be watered.

The photographs question the representational system of naked bodies, with
reference to mythology and to mass media computerized imagery. The whole
structure of displaying the object is additionally questioned by a dual
reference to a dead object and to the growing living plant. Digitized
pornorama bodies open a relationship between those who need to live and who
and how s/he is framed within life and history. (M. Grzinic)

IVANA KESER

Genealogy, 1993

Genealogy is a handmade booklet, published in an edition of 100; 50 copies
have already been given away.

The format of the booklet is 15 x 21 cm, each with 6 pages. On the 6 pages
the same sentence is published, but always in a different language
(English, French, Italian, Spanish, Croatian and German), and illustrated
with a map that reflects the deep ideological and circular transposition of
meaning and stereotypes:

&ldqu;NL&rsqu;NItalie est un berceau de la culture entour? de
Barbares.&rdqu;N / framed within a map of Greece

JANE STRAVS

Lisca, color photograph, 100 x 70 cm, 2000

Stravs&rsqu;N work is directed towards analyzing and reflecting the act of
looking at photographs, taking into consideration the viewer&rsqu;Ns gender
and/or his/her mind operations, and towards perceiving photography as a
complex act of projections, voyeurism, imagination or desires that mold the
spectator&rsqu;Ns gaze. Once we become aware of this concept of activity
within the medium, we cannot but refuse the early and
&ldqu;Ninnocent&rdqu;N belief that the camera merely presents us with
visual facts that were simply &ldqu;Nout there,&rdqu;N and which are now
objectively observed and recorded. Stravs&rsqu;N fashion photographs change
bodies into subliminal corps, make them addict relics or drowned artifacts.
The fashion bodies are submerged into water, mixed with garbage and
situated in refugee camps. (M. Grzinic)

 






--------------------------------------------------------
Chris Byrne                          chris@mediascot.org
--------------------------------------------------------
New Media Scotland                 Tel. +44 141 564 3010
P.O. Box 25065, Glasgow G1 5YP     Fax. +44 141 564 3011
Scotland, UK                    http://www.mediascot.org
--------------------------------------------------------


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