When you go to the website for Berlin’s 7th Biennale, you encounter a stream of changing photographs from occupy and protest movements from around the world — Venezia, Toronto, Florence, Malacky, Athens and on and on. It is emblematic of curator Artur Zmijewski’s approach the largest art exhibition in Germany, which opened on April 27.
In the forward to Forget Fear, the accompanying publication of the Berlin’s 7th Biennale, Zmijewski explains that “Art needs to be reinvented, but not as some crafty option to aesthecize human problems of the impoverished majority. What we need is more art that offers its tools, time and resources to solve the economic problems of the impoverished majority. For the actual limit to the possibilities of left-meaning art is effective engagement with material issues: unemployment, impoverishment, poverty.”
Zmijewski wants to transform the art of impotence and individualist survival, which is how he describes contemporary art markets and the institutionalized art world of galleries and curatorial careers, into art that is “genuinely transformative and formative”, art that “practices politics”, and art that is “real action in the real world and [that bids] a final farewell to the illusion of artistic immunity”.
Over the coming weeks, Art Threat will be profiling some of the artists and their contributions to the 7th Berlin Biennale (which runs until July 1), and some of the events that will be happening in Berlin in the coming months. In today’s report, quick look at two upcoming events: a workshop for using art in political protest, and a performance installation that features interviews with 16 economists, historians, thinkers from around the world speaking on viable economic alternatives to capitalism.
Twelve women. Twelve stories of political courage. Twelve portraits. The Roots to Resistance project is spreading word about the groundbreaking work of twelve women who have dedicated their lives to fighting for social justice.
Denise Beaudet is the artist behind the portraits. Postcards of these images and small posters are available free for the asking and are being sent around the world. The goal of the project is to inspire by sharing these women’s heroic struggles against corruption, exploitation and oppression.
Al Jazeera’s Artscape presents a wonderful short documentary on Abeer Soliman, an Egyptian storyteller and performance artist whose work changed after the uprising.
Bryan Newson is the Manager of the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program. He and his staff have been responsible for bringing you everything from Ken Lum’s Monument for East Vancouver to Rodney Graham’s Aerodynamic Forms in Space, and hundreds more. I met with Bryan a few weeks ago to discuss how he got involved in the creation of the program, what it does, and where it’s headed in the face of budget cutbacks.
Artist Ai Wei Wei has installed live webcams in his home so that authorities – and worried supporters – can keep track of his day-to-day whereabouts and welfare. Feeling hemmed in by increasingly invasive state surveillance – being followed day-to-day, round-the-clock surveillance on his home, searches of his studio, phone taps, opening his mail — Wei Wei decided to go the extra step and demonstrate that he has no secrets, despite the Chinese government’s persistent paranoia.
Wei Wei was detained last April for 81 days amid Chinese fears of political dissidence in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings. He was charged with tax evasion, a charge supporters say was politically motivated. His fines were paid by friends and supporters. Perhaps most controversially, he questioned the government’s role in poor construction standards after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake killed more than 5,000 schoolchildren because buildings collapsed. In November last year, officials demolished his studio in Shanghai.
Nairobi graffiti by artists Uhuru B, Swift, Smokilah and Bankslave
Kenyan graffiti artists are painting the walls of Nairobi with reminders of government corruption. Executions are up in the Middle East – in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Yemen – as governments there continue their efforts to quell political turmoil. Malaysia is introducing a minimum wage for the first time, and experts warn that the fight against antibiotic resistant strains of tuberculosis has been lost.
Thousands of indigenous farmers marched in Guatemala City demanding land reform. Cambodian filmmaker Thet Sambath is being harassed and intimidated for claims made in his latest documentary that the Killing Fields were a result of Khmer Rouge party infighting. The Spanish Government has announced large-scale oil drilling near the Canary Islands. The costs of the London 2012 Olympics are now estimated at 450% higher than when the bid was won (including security costs to exceed $1 billion). Click to continue »
Over the last month and a half, students across Québec have been mobilising against the dramatic tuition hikes being imposed by the Charest government and education minister Line Beauchamp. Emerging out of the 2005 student movement that successfully (if controversially) challenged the Liberal government’s proposed cuts to the loans and bursaries program, an estimated 270,000 students are currently on strike, performing creative direct actions, organising mass rallies and protests, holding community teach-ins, and occupying physical and media space. The iconic red square is visible everywhere in Montreal, appearing on the backpacks and lapels of students and their many supporters, adorning public monuments, and now thanks to a creative solidarity initative by Artung, in over 300 advertising columns across Montréal (facebook gallery here).
Québec artist-run centres have also rallied around the student struggle, recognising the links between the commodification and privatisation of education and that of art and culture. Artist run-centres occupy a unique space within Canadian culture, existing parallel to the larger public institutions and commercial galleries, they provide artists (often emerging artists) with an alternative and independent framework within which to conduct their research and present their work. Stephen Harper’s infamous “ordinary people don’t care about arts funding” election statement has resulted in severe cuts to the funding bodies for these organisations, and created pressure to commercialise their practices, seriously threatening their long-term viability as alternative spaces.
For those who haven’t seen it, Big Bang Big Boom (2010) is yet another fabulous animated graffiti parable from the Blu art collective. Their work is endlessly fascinating — animated creatures sliding seamlessly from walls, through sand, along pipes and under bridges into stop-motion interaction with beach garbage and industrial debris. A mesmerizing allegory for the stupidity of creatures risen from the mud and muck of earth unable to resist the temptation to destroy each other and the whole planet. It is beautiful, creepy, and dizzyingly inventive. Enjoy.
Tune in, turn on and give a few bucks to one the most fabulous radio stations anywhere. WWOZ New Orleans community radio is having their annual membership fundraising drive, and now is the time to support this treasure in the midst of New Orlean’s cultural renaissance.
WWOZ is home to the New Orleans sound, old and new, including New Orleans jazz, Second Lines, Mardis Gras Indians, Pleasure Clubs, brass bands, gospel, dixieland, blues, calliope and more more more. All from the humble efforts of community volunteers, local musicians and donations from listeners.
WWOZ is a bright light in this beleaguered city, and the sounds they share warm hearts and souls all over the world.
Check it out (you can stream live here), and if you like what you hear, support local independent radio.
Montreal artists are invited to join the growing collaboration of the Occupy Arts Committee, a gathering of artists from all disciplines who want to support Occupy Montreal with creative practice.
According to organizers, this meeting will be a creation workshop to start imagining, painting & drawing … Artists are encouraged to bring material, art supplies, paint & brushes, etc…. and to think YELLOW.
March 17, 2012 Café l’Artère, 7000 ave. Du Parc (métro Parc). 14h / 2pm
Contributors
Stefan Christoff, Colin Horgan, Julia Pyper
Michelle Siobhan Reid, Valerie Cardinal, Race Capet
Laurence Miall, Terry Fairman, Tyler Morgenstern
