LIMINAL SPACES/ grenzraeume
GfZK Leipzig, 28 October 2006 - 21 January 2007
Exhibition opening: 27 October, from 19.00 pm
Gallery Open: Tue-Sat 14.00 - 19.00 pm/ Sunday 12.00 - 19.00 pm
Participating artists: Jumana Emil Abboud, Sameh Abboushi, Azra Aksamija, Ayreen Anastas und Rene Gabri, Yochai Avrahami, Yael Bartana, Peter Friedl, Hagar Goren, Inass Hamad, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, Khalid Horani, Sabine Horlitz and Oliver Clemens, Ligna, Suleiman Mansour, Oren Sagiv, Sala-Manca Group, Miri Segal, Sean Snyder, Superflex, Simon Wachsmuth
Curatorial Advisors: Khalid Horani, Andreja Hribernik, Barbara Steiner, in cooperation with Interdisziplinares Projekt-Forum (Wolfgang Knapp) of the University of the Arts Berlin/ Institute for Art and Context
Curated by: Eyal Danon, Galit Eilat, Reem Fadda, Philipp Misselwitz
LIMINAL SPACES/ grenzraeume originated from an initiative of individual Palestinian and Israeli artists united in their opposition to the destructive dynamics and ever growing hardship and deprivation of basic civil and political rights endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation. An unprecedented network of artists, curators and cultural producers emerged, meeting often under difficult circumstances, despite the harsh context of ever increasing violence and the complete collapse of the political peace process. LIMINAL SPACES/ grenzraeume, a project by the Palestinian Association of Contemporary Arts (PACA), Ramallah, The Israeli Centre for Digital Art, Holon and the University of the Arts, Berlin wishes to support and strengthen this informal network and its stance. In March 2006, the project invited Palestinian, European and Israeli artists, architects, academics and film makers to examine the condition of everyday space, borders, physical segregation, cultural territories within a reality of occupation and challenge the possibilities of art as a catalyst for political and social change. The focus of the project is the radically divided and fragmented urban region of Jerusalem/ Ramallah, which has become a laboratory for an urbanism of radical ethnic segregation. Curators, cultural figures and artists developed this project through a series of meetings and discussions that sought to generate a more active political engagement of the art sector. Additionally, it is hoped that through participation in the project, new possibilities of contact and exchange will emerge on an individual basis and beyond.
The project was launched with a conference in March, 2006, in the area of the Qalandiya checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, followed by individual residencies which gave artists the opportunity to research tactics and artistic strategies for addressing the physiognomy of specific sites and their everyday operations and adhering to exposing spatial and contextual politics of the Israeli occupation. The perception of the frontiers were investigated, and their accessibility, permeability and potential as contact and communication zones challenged. Artists employed new forms of creative practice adopting and subverting contemporary technology and systems of media communication, underlining the central role played by technology in the shaping of the physical borders.
The process resulted in over 20 new works, which are now being shown to the public for the very first time. The future library spaces of the Gallery for Contemporary Arts Leipzig (GfZK), including the already acquired shelves of Vito Acconci’s library installation at Documenta 10, provide an unusual exhibition context and generate mutual resonances between LIMINAL SPACES/ grenzraeume as an evolving archive of research and production in the Middle East and the GfZK’s declared ambition to build up a public library.
International Workshop (28.10 - 29.10)
The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by an international workshop, which will explore political and social responsibilities of art production, discussing current trends that are changing the role of institutions, artists, curators and activists. The conference will explore the notion of 'responsibility' in the context of the Middle East - characterised by the escalation of violence and violations of human and civil rights, the continuation of the military occupation, the building of an apartheid wall and complete breakdown of the peace process - as well as in the context of Post-Fordist Central Europe where the erosion of social democratic principles challenges artists and institutions to survive in a harsher social climate and fight for the acceptance and the engagement of a wider public.
In Hebrew, the word responsibility (acherayut) contains within it the word acher, which means ‘other’ or ‘different.’ It also contains the word achrey, which means ‘after’ or ‘following an event or act.’ In English, the word ‘responsibility’ contains within it the word ‘response’ (originating from the old French responsun meaning ‘something offered in return’). There is a delicacy in the English language through prepositions following the word ‘responsibility’ as one can be responsible for something or responsible to someone. In Arabic, the word mas’uliyah contains within it the verb su’ila, which literally means to require a response. In all three languages, we find a unified stance which states that responsibility is linked to responding or answering an external other. How may we respond or answer the contemporary demand for a responsibility to another or a different worldview? How may we take responsibility or act differently as cultural producers and/or cultural consumers? Participants will include the artists of the project LIMINAL SPACES/ grenzraeume as well as international guests.
DAY 1 (Saturday, 28 October 2006)
Forum 1: Reflections on the LIMINAL SPACES project
Moderator: Francis McKee
11.00 am Short presentations by artists participating in the LIMINAL SPACES project
13:30 pm Lunch Break (for invited participants only)
15.00 pmProject presentation by the curators: Reem Fadda, Philipp Misselwitz, Eyal Danon and Galit Eilat.
16.00 pmOpen session
17.00 pmCoffee Break
17.30 pm Panel discussion - Cultural Territories: Wolfgang Knapp,
Salwa Mikdadi, Nina Montmann, Erzen Shkololli, Hito Steyerl
18:30 pm Conclusion
19:00 pm Joint dinner (for invited participants only) followed by party
*****
DAY 2(Sunday, 29 October 2006)
Forum 2: Crisis and Potentials of Institutions
(The Middle East, Near East and Europe)
Moderator: Francis McKee
11.00 amNina Montmann: Art and its Institutions - Current Conflict, Critique and Collaborations
11.30 amCase study 1: Jumana Emil Abboud: Al Mamal Foundation, East Jerusalem. The establishment of The Museum of Contemporary Art - Palestine (CAMP)
12.00 amCase study 2: Eyal Danon: Jaffa - An Autobiography of a City. Untold stories of different national, ethnic, religious and gender groups within Israel
12.30 am Case study 3: Boris Buden: EIPCP - European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies
13.00 pm Case study 4: Salwa Mikdadi: Institutionalization of Art Practice under Occupation/Palestinian Artists Working Under Siege (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza)
13.30 pmCase study 5: Erzen Shkololli: Exit Institute for Contemporary Art in Peja, Kosovo - the dramatic transformation of the region, connected in particular with the disintegration of the local totalitarian regimes during the 1990s
14:00 pm Lunch Break (for invited participants only)
15.30 pmOpen session
16.30 pmConclusion
