Open Borders: Tourists or Explorers?
A recording of the 6 May 2015 program of Venice Agendas held during the opening week of the Biennale. The proposed theme was: do artists belong to one culture through their nationality, or are they citizens of the world?
Surprisingly, a discussion of technology takes over the agenda. Does modern communication make us all nomads? Then language and identity takes the focus. The value of curiosity about seeing and knowing other places. Are we tourists or explorers?
With moderators JW Stella (Korean contemporary art curator, London) and Mark Waugh (curator/writer with recent projects in Seoul and Gwangju) and participants Marita Isobel Solberg (Norwegian musician, visual artist, poet, and nomad of the world), Richard Demarco (born 1930, Italo-Celtic curator of cross-cultural links, worked with Joseph Beuys and Marina Abramovic), Tony Heaton (artist, Chief Executive SHAPE, a disability-led arts organization based in London), Gaynor O’Flynnn (artist and pioneer in interactive, inter disciplinary art), and Ala Younis (artist and curator born in Kuwait, based in Jordan).
Note: some of the speakers are off mic and hard to hear but hang in there. The speakers, specially the cranky, wonderful Demarco, are worth the wait.
Venice Agendas 2015 is a program of breakfast events and performances, curated by London-based workinprogress, during the preview week of the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The theme for this edition is Crossing Boundaries; an open brief, which considers the many ways art not only trespasses geographical territories but how it crosses cultural, political and artistic boundaries.
The first edition of Agendas held at the Venice Biennale was in 1999, created by the sound artist Bill Furlong and the writer Mel Gooding, Since 2011 workinprogress, Clare Fitzpatrick and Terry Smith, have continued the project working closely with Vittorio Urbani, director of Nuova Icona who has supportedVenice Agendas since 1999.
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Round table discussions to interviews to DJ sets to virtual pavilions rendered in music and sound. With Kara Walker, Carolee Shneeman, Joan Jonas, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and more.
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RADIO SERIES
This series is our online radio collaboration with workinprogress a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting experimental working practices. workinprogress supports innovative projects, from educational programs, art exhibitions and performances to events. Part of this organization is the Experimental Art School, an independent university of learning that looks at all of the art disciplines. Created by UK artist Terry Smith and curator Clare Fitzpatrick, workinprogress commissions artists to produce work which it then administrates and realizes, including through fund-raising and budget oversight. Some of their events include DRAWN CUT TORN and FILM/VIDEO/PERFORMANCE. workinprogress organized the 2013 Venice Agendas: Speed Dating, Live Art, and The Alternative Scene, as well as the up coming 2017 Venice Agendas: The Contract
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