29 Sep 2010

Conference Erased Walls in Bratislava

International conference Erased Walls focuses on the continuous mapping of the state of contemporary visual art 20 years after the Fall of the Berlin wall. Its aim is to define the influence of these political changes on the work of visual artists and it tries to determine its possible evolution in the following years as well.

Which political and which social issues are nowadays relevant for contemporary art? To what extent does art have a right and to what extend is it obliged to reflect the social events? Is it possible to create an artwork that is absolutely independent on the circumstances? What is an asset of open borders and where are the limits of freedom of movement, encounter and thinking in comparison with the previous period? How can we control the space in which we operate and adapt it to our goals and needs? To what extent do we depend on financial resource indispensable for contemporary production?

Conference schedule

11.00 a.m. Opening of the Conference – Juraj Čarný

11.15 a.m.-12.00 p.m. Michal Koleček/ CZ
12.00-12.45 p.m. Iara Boubnová /RUS
12.45-1.30 p.m. Radek V�a /CZ

1.30-2.30 p.m. lunch break

2.30-3.00 p.m. Tomas Wendland /PL
3.00-3.30 p.m. Matthias Reichelt /D
3.30-4.00 p.m. Slawek Sobcsak /PL

4.00-4.30 p.m. cofee break

4.30-5.00 p.m. Marianne Wagner /D
5.00-5.30 p.m. Nika Kukhtina /RUS
5.30-6.00 p.m. Juraj Čarný /SK

The conference will be held in English.


ERASED WALLS

Erased Walls project is a part of the Mediations Biennale in Poznan which consists of exhibitions in Poznan (Zamek Culture Centre, 12th September – 30th October 2010), subsequently in Berlin (Freises Museum and Concentart, 7th-10th October 2010) and in Bratislava (SPACE, 4th Novembre – 3th Decembre 2010) accompanied by conferences in Poznan (Zamek Culture Centre, 12th September 2010) and Bratislava (SPACE, 1st October 2010).

Curators: Georgi Begun /RUS/, Noam Braslavsky /D/, Juraj Čarný /SK/, Nika Kukhtina /RUS/, Matthias Reichelt /D/, Sławomir Sobczak /PL/, Raman Tratsiuk & Volha Maslouskaya /RUS/, Marianne Wagner-Simon /D/, Tomasz Wendland /PL/

„Erased Walls', as Tomasz Wendland writes in the foreword to the catalogue, narrows its reflective focus to the creative work after 2000, with an emphasis on the latest art, yet without geopolitical constraints. Erasing of the frontiers does not apply exclusively to ourregion anymore. All over the world, the walls that were physically erased, have been replaced by invisible ones – all the more efficacious and poignant because of their imperceptibility.

Political divisions are now being exchanged for new ones, those associated with the dominance of the capital, social supremacy, poverty, media manipulation, the feeling of solitariness and exclusion. The artists, by constructing an image, arrive at reflections otherwise unattainable, which cannot be devised by means of language or document. An image is frequently a close-up quotation from reality, which, having been extracted from the mundanity and then presented in a different light shed by art, becomes surprisingly distinct. Erased Walls is an ironic question: have the last walls really fallen?'

organizers: SPACE, Zamek culture centre
partners: ConcentArt, Freiese Museum, AICA
financed by: EACEA Culture Programme, Ministry of Culture and Cultural Heritage of Poland, Urzad Marsalowksi wojewodztwa Wielkopolsiego, City of Poznan
media partner: Flash Art CZ/SK


'This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.'