X-OPi kultuuripoliitika grupp Tallinnas
(for English version, please scroll down!)
Helsingis asuv Taidekolu MAA esitleb sel teisipäeval, 16. augustil MÄRZ projektiruumis X-OPi (Soome) kultuuripoliitika uurimise grupi saaduseid. Mitmed küsimused, mida puudutatakse, on aktuaalsed praegu ka Eestis: kunstnike võimalused kaasa rääkida kultuuripoliitika kujundamisel, iseorganiseerumine laiema ühiskondliku kõlapinna saavutamiseks, poliitikas ja majanduses domineerivad neo-liberaalsed hoiakud jpm.
Üritus toimus esimest korda mais 2011 uue meedia keskuses Kiblas, Mariboris. Põhjalikum kataloog on allalaetav siit: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12294508/maribor_taitto_small-1.pdf
16. augusti ajakava MÄRZis:
16.00 – 18.00 presentatsioonid (vt lähemalt allpool)
18.00 – 19.00 avatud arutelu kultuuripoliitika tendentsidest Eestis ja Soomes, koostöö võimalused
19.00 – näituse avamine
NB! Näitus jääb MÄRZi vaatamiseks kuni reedeni, 19. augustini! Iga päev kell 14.00-18.00!
X-OP on pidevalt kasvav kunstnike, uurijate, koordinaatorite ja organisatsioonide võrgustik, mille eesmärgiks on luua üle-euroopaline platvorm, mis tugevdaks koostööd, interdistsiplinaarset lähenemist kunstile ja võimaldaks Euroopa-sisest ühistegevust.
X-OPi kultuuripoliitika grupp sündis MAA kunstikooli direktori Bo Karsteni ja X-OPi projekti koordinaatori Johanna Fredrikssoni initsiatiivil suvel 2010. Algne eesmärk oli kutsuda erinevaid kunstnikke looma teoseid novembris 2010 toimunud X-OPi festivalile, mis ümbritses võrgustiku järjekordset kohtumist Helsingis. Kiiresti sai aga selgeks, et palju olulisem kui konkreetsete kunstiprojektide tootmine festivali jaoks, oleks algatada arutelu kultuuripoliitika üldiste tendentside üle Soomes.
Arutelu vajalikkuse tingisid mitmed aktuaalsed protsessid ja suundumused, mis mõjutavad Soome kultuuripoliitikat väga pika aja jooksul. Soome Haridus- ja kultuuriministeeriumil valmis 2010 uus kultuuripoliitika plaan järgnevaks 35 aastaks. Valitsusel on juba pikemat aega olnud plaanis täielikult ümberstruktureerida Soome Kunsti Nõukogu (Taiteen keskustoimikunta), mis ei ole aga tänu kunstnike ühenduste tugeva vastuseisu tõttu veel juhtunud. Soome kultuuris (nagu ka Eestis) on viimastel aastatel tugevnenud neo-liberaalsed tendentsid, mille osa on näiteks suuremastaabilised koostööprojektid valitsuse, linnade ja erasektori vahel, mille puhul kunst on pelgalt nö instrumendi ja hea avaliku maine looja rollis. Institutsionaalsel tasandil eelistatakse järjest rohkem müügile orienteeritud algatusi nagu kunstimessid, eragaleriid ja konsultatsioonifirmad, selle asemel, et toetada teadmiste loomist näiteks muuseumites ja uurimiskeskustes.
X-OPi kultuuripoliitika grupis osalevad kunstnikud Tatu Engeström, Kalle Hamm, Ritva Harle, Minna Henriksson, Mikko Lipiäinen, Antti Majava ja Tero Nauha. Kõigi nende jaoks on kunst laiemates ühiskondlikes debattides osalemise tööriist, mitte lihtsalt isikliku eneseväljenduse kanal ning seega on töödes tähelepanu aktuaalsetel kohalikel ja poliitilistel küsimustel. Siiski ei ole see grupp kunstnikke ühtne sõpruskond või rühmitus, vaid pigem hajus seltskond, keda osaliselt defineerib ühine asumine Soomes. Nii nende teemadevalik kui ka meediumid erinevad üksteisest suurel määral. Samuti ei jaga nad ühist arvamust, mis sellest kultuuripoliitika grupist edasi peaks saama.
Sügisel 2010 osustas grupp kirjutada manifesti, mida saata kõigile suurematale ajalehtedele Soomes. Manifesti ei saadetud, kuna grupp ei suutnud jõuda kokkuleppele, mis on need kesksed küsimused, mille eest võideldakse. Ühe jaoks oli peamine probleemkoht kunstniku vabaduse piiramine, teise jaoks küsimused kunstniku vastutusest jne. Ühine oli siiski vastuseis kunsti ja kunstnike instrumentaliseerimisele neoliberaalsete huvides. Mis võiks sellest omaalgatuslikust kultuuripoliitika uurimisest edasi saada, kuidas kunstnikud saavad kaasa rääkida jpm püütakse arutada ka Tallinna üritusel.
Presentatsioonid MÄRZis:
Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger: Pizzeria Babylon – Cultural Encounters
Ritva Harle: Community Art as a Gift or a Radical Ligature – Sketch Ideas of Thoughts. Case: the Community Art Project Aarnivalkea
Minna Henriksson: Studies of Helsinki Art Scene
Näitus MÄRZis:
Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger:
Afaryan Monolog
DVD PAL 4:3 2007 2:48 min
Afaryan Memories
DVD PAL 4:3 2007 19:25 min
Afaryan is Kalle Hamm’s and Dzamil Kamanger’s art project where they explore memories of the former villagers of Upper Afaryan, an abandoned Kurd village in Iran. The most important feature here is not historical facts but the personal experiences of individual people.
Material based on memories is not always considered a reliable source: the memory can be mistaken and the senses deceptive. However, matters are not always so simple. Most written sources are ultimately based on oral information, for example newspaper interviews and eye witness statements.
It is a generally acknowledged fact that history is written by the victors. The memories of individual people can therefore provide different perspectives to those of mainstream documented history. In some cases they can provide the only source for gaining insight into a collective experience. We all have a right to our own history.
Ritva Harle: Handmade curtain with laminated photos from Aarnivalkea Project.
Minna Henriksson: Studies of Helsinki Art Scene nr 1
Video 2011 5:00 min
*****
X-OP (exchange of operators ehk „asjaosaliste” vahetus) loodi 2008. aastal ning toimib Euroopa kultuuriprogrammide rahastamisel kolme aasta vältel – august 2011 ongi projekti lõpudaatumiks. Võrgustik koondab üheksat väga eriilmelise profiiliga organisatsiooni-algatust üle Euroopa: väike alernatiivne kunstikool MAA Helsingist, videokunsti ja -produktsiooni platvorm Media in Motion Berliinist, kunsti- ja sotsiaalpraktikate keskus Moks Eestist, artistruninitiative’id Apartement Project İstanbulist ja Egon Marchi instituut Sloveeniast, kunsti ja tehnoloogia platvorm CIANT Prahast, digitaalse kultuuri loenguid koondav Transforming Freedom Viinist, Rieka kaasaegse kunsti muuseum Zagrebist, Tomari Polütehniline Instituut ning multimeediakeskus Kibla Mariborist. Vaata rohkem: www.x-op.eu
Maarin Mürgi artikkel X-OPist Sirbis: http://www.sirp.ee/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10098:vorgutaja-x-op&catid=6:kunst&Itemid=10&issue=3284
Kohtumiseni MÄRZis!
X-OP PlATFORM TALLINN
Art school MAA, which is located in Helsinki, will present outputs of X-OP Cultural Policy Group on this Tuesday, 16th of August in MÄRZ project space in Tallinn. Many questions under the discussion are also very relevant in Estonia – what are opportunities for artists to speak along with developments of cultural policy, how to self-organize in order to gain more „voice“ in society, neo-liberal tendencies that dominate in politics and economics etc.
X-OP Cultural Policy Group presented its discussions in May 2011 in multimedia center Kibla, in Maribor and catalogue of this event is downloadable here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12294508/maribor_taitto_small-1.pdf
Schedule for 16th of March in MÄRZ:
16.00 – 18.00 presentations (see moe below)
18.00 – 19.00 open discussion about cultural policy tendencies in Estonia and in Finland, what there is to be done?
19.00 – opening of exhibition, which will remain opened until Friday, 19th of August, daily 2-6pm!
The X-OP Cultural Policy Group was formed in the early summer 2010 when Bo Karsten, director of Art School Maa, and Johanna Fredriksson, producer working in the Helsinki-leg of X-OP network invited some artists for meetings in Maa-Tila project space. According to the initial plan the purpose of the meetings was to come up with an artistic program for the then forthcoming X-OP Festival, which was organized to coincide with the X-OP meeting in Helsinki. In the meetings more urgent, than to propose individual artworks to the festival, seemed to be discussing the trends in the cultural policy of Finland. At the time acute issues were the plans to completely restructure the Finnish Arts Council (but partly due to strong opposition by artist unions it did not happen), and the new cultural policy plan of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was being prepared with a long-term span of the next 35 years (the plan got published last winter). Also strong concerns were directed toward the overall shift in the cultural discourse and atmosphere in Finland toward neo-liberalism. Parts of this are high profile projects by the government, the cities and the private sector, where art is merely a branding tool of neighbourhoods, cities and the country. Also characteristic to neo-liberalism are preferences on an institutional level toward commercially oriented activities such as art fairs, private galleries and consulting agencies rather than supporting of knowledge production in museums and research centres.
Artists participating in the X-OP Cultural Policy Group are Tatu Engeström, Kalle Hamm, Ritva Harle, Minna Henriksson, Mikko Lipiäinen, Antti Majava and Tero Nauha. What is common with all of these artists is that for them art is a tool for participating in debate and discussion in the society, rather than a channel for autonomous and personal self-expression, and therefore in their work they are dealing with actual local social and political issues.
But nevertheless this group of artists is not a homogenous group of friends, or a collective, but a loose group partly defined with the current geographic location of its members. Their subject matter as well as visual language and artistic media vary greatly. Neither do they completely share the opinion of what is to be done within the group. Last autumn the group decided to write a manifesto, which was to be sent to different newspapers in Finland. But the manifesto was never sent to papers as the group failed to define and articulate the common issues.
For one there was not a consensus within the group on what is the main issue to fight against and resist in the recent developments in cultural policy in Finland, and what should be fought for. For some the main issue was about limiting artistic freedom, and there were concerns of diminishing freedom of speech. For others it was a question of artistic responsibility, and instead of crying after liberties, each artist should engage more in addressing social issues, which need urgent attention. But in both cases, what was a common concern was the resistance toward instrumentalization of art and artists for the economic benefits.
Presentations in MÄRZ:
Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger:
Pizzeria Babylon – Cultural Encounters
Ritva Harle: Community Art as a Gift or a Radical Ligature – Sketch Ideas of Thoughts. Case: the Community Art Project Aarnivalkea
Minna Henriksson: Studies of Helsinki Art Scene
Art works for small exhibition in MÄRZ:
Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger:
Afaryan Monolog
DVD PAL 4:3 2007 2:48 min
Afaryan Memories
DVD PAL 4:3 2007 19:25 min
Afaryan is Kalle Hamm’s and Dzamil Kamanger’s art project where they explore memories of the former villagers of Upper Afaryan, an abandoned Kurd village in Iran. The most important feature here is not historical facts but the personal experiences of individual people.
Material based on memories is not always considered a reliable source: the memory can be mistaken and the senses deceptive. However, matters are not always so simple. Most written sources are ultimately based on oral information, for example newspaper interviews and eye witness statements.
It is a generally acknowledged fact that history is written by the victors. The memories of individual people can therefore provide different perspectives to those of mainstream documented history. In some cases they can provide the only source for gaining insight into a collective experience. We all have a right to our own history.
Ritva Harle:
Handmade curtain with laminated photos from Aarnivalkea Project.
Minna Henriksson
Studies of Helsinki Art Scene nr 1
Video 2011 5:00 min
X-OP – eXchange of art operators and producers is a gradually growing network of artists, researchers, operators, producers and centres with the aim to establish European platform for creation of art and exchange. www.x-op.eu
See you at MÄRZ,
marzprojekt.wordpress.com
