Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Workshop, Middelburg,South Africa.

I am currently leading a workshop in Mlhuzi, the township attached to Middelburg (Mpumalanga) the town I grew up in. I worked with a new NGO Uprising Youth MovementThese young guys from Mhluzi started this to empower the youth there. 



I have to confess that it is my first time in Mhluzi (and a township) even though I grew up right here in Middelburg. I realized I still had a ton of misconceptions about this township and it was good to have them all shattered.

Uprising Youth Movement are great hosts and the guys in the workshop are really making it so much fun for me. The participants of the workshop are between 19 and 22. They all came based on their interest in artistic fields. They are really a wide group; aspiring poets, dancers, actors and visual artists. 

I introduced them to some of my work and mainly to the things we do at Isola Art Center; introducing the ideas of collective work, Fight-specific art, using your art within your neighborhood and working with small or no-budgets.  



I have to say the outcome of the workshop surpassed my expectations.My original plan was to create a fictional newspaper with them that interpreted their battles in their town  into illustrated stories but it has developed based on the interests of these participants into a theater piece that they now wish to carry on and develop even after this one week workshop.

The starting point of the workshop to talk about their local fights in the community. They mentioned a few things, also mentioning the struggle of learning and developing as artists when they are isolated from main art scenes and do not have access to formal educations. I am wondering how one can introduce support into small towns so that these youths can have more access and contact?

The one issue that came out as their biggest fight was the fight against the drug Nyaope which has led to the death of many of their peers, but is also a large source of violence and crime in the neighborhood. It also seems that there is a lot corruption and under the table deals between authorities and drug dealers.The guys decided to take on this for their project and is now writing script and thinking about how to perform it. They also told me that they hope to continue doing projects with each other after the workshop which is I think the best outcome one can hope for. 

Thank you to all the guys participating, Uprising Youth Movement and the church that gave us the venue to work in.  More pics to come at the end of the week.  Most of the pics below were taken by the participants themselves using my canon 350 D. 















Tuesday, August 5, 2014

More fragments of Utopia



The exhibition Isola Utopia in San Mauro Cilento opens tonight at 20:00. 


Map by Valentina Carracino and Daniele Rossi


Flag by Angelo Castucci

Isola solar cloud by Nikola Uzonovski

My diary of Utopia

Screenprinting by Seriocollective

On the bus to Salerno, lots of turns...Goodbye San Mauro. 

Last question: Can one leave Utopia?



Friday, August 1, 2014

Isola Utopia




Isola Utopia

Isola Utopia 
Fragments and moments for new utopias 

Exhibitions, flights, presentations, debates, performances and music, 
a project by Isola Art Center, 
presented by Creative Olive, 
supported by the Comune di San Mauro Cilento, Cooperativa Agricola Nuovo Cilento, Fornace Falcone 

5-10 August, 20.00 – 24.00, San Mauro Cilento (Salerno) 
Opening 5 August, 20.00 

Presentation of the project, 24.7.2014, “Utopia Urbis”, Corte Catalana di Palazzo Pinto, Mercanti street 63, Salerno 

Bad Museum, Zanny Begg, Emanuel Balbinot, Kristina Borg, Sarah Giulia Braun, Antonio Brizioli, Paolo Caffoni, Angelo Castucci, Antonio Cipriani, Francesco Citro, Creative Olive Team, Maddalena Fragnito, Edna Gee, Grupo Etcétera, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Isabell Lorey, Francesco Lomonaco, Gianfranco Marelli, Valentina Montisci, Philippe Nathan, Denis C. Novello & Isola Art’s Club Band, Nikolay Oleynikov, Camilla Pin, Steve Piccolo, Gerald Raunig, Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi), Mariette Schiltz, Stefano Taccone, Claudio Tancetti, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, Nikola Uzunovski, Wei-Ning Yang, Jiang Zhi, Amor Vacui Studio, Laboratorio di Progettazione Ferrara, Ghelostudio Architettura, Project 2.0., the residents of San Mauro Cilento and others... 

Press release Program from 5 to 10 August 2014 CreativeOlive 2014 

"Only in us does this light still burn, and we are beginning a fantastic journey toward it, toward the implementation of the central concept of utopia. To find it, to find the right thing, for which it is worthy to live, to be organized, and to have time: that is why we go, why we cut new, metaphysically constitutive paths, summon what is not, build into the blue, and build ourselves into the blue, and there seek the true, the real, where the merely factual disappears - incipit vita nova." - Ernst Bloch, The Spirit of Utopia

Utopia! We searched for her continuously, we never met her, but she has always been close to us. When we occupied a former factory in the Isola neighbourhood in Milan and, together with the gardens, we converted it into a new model for a centre for art, philosophy, music, and other activities and events of the district. When we stood up to unscrupulous real estate developers, cynical politicians, turncoat architects and servile journalists. When together with the children of Isola we sang "Il ragazzo di Via Gluck" ("The Boy of Gluck Street") in front of the politicians of the district council, who had listened to us ... without ever understanding. When one night, together with Christoph, we painted his mural Strategic Embellishment created for the news kiosk of Isola. When we threw the seed bombs over the wire fence of a space that was still closed to the neighbourhood ... a space we wanted to open with the name of Isola Pepe Verde. When together with Macao we vacated the Galfa Tower in Milan and there we hung the banner ... "One could even imagine flying". When we tried to raise horizons with Nikola's solar cloud. Until, while flying to San Mauro Cilento in an orange bee-car, we finally met Utopia in one of our daydreams, and she told us: 

"Devour the past utopias and your wishes will start to fly! It's true, all the old utopias have failed, or even worse, they have turned into dystopias. It's true; neoliberalism has imposed itself on a global level. It's true; the ‘gap’ between the rich and the poor has never been so wide as it is today. It's true that for many, nowadays, the only possible form of social and economic organisation seems to be the capitalist model, and they are totally reduced to trying to improve only little details, so as to lessen the possible harm. These fools believe that there is no alternative to a society based on the exploitation of nature, human beings and their creativity. They think art can only exist as a commoditised luxury set aside for the very rich. 
What a lack of fantasy, what a lack of logical thinking! 
For years the movements against specific, individual aspects of capitalism have become more and more widespread: against the closure of factories, companies and hospitals, against cultural and job insecurity, against the destruction of the welfare state, against austerity policies, against the privatization of the public sector, against financial policies favouring banks and multinational corporations, against urban planning that devastates urban and rural areas, against property speculation and against gentrification, against the progressive restriction of democratic rights and individual freedoms, against discrimination and violence against women, against war and injustice... To all this and more, you said 'No!', but it is now the time to get back to thinking about the 'Yes!'. The time of concrete utopias and fulfilling your desires has returned." 
This is what Utopia said. 

We looked at each other, and without hesitation we decided to dedicate our research project to Her. In fact, we have called it "Isola Utopia". A collective production which includes exhibitions and performances involving artists, students, residents, architects, curators, theorists, musicians, journalists and others, who will be all collecting and producing moments of thought and artworks for new, possible utopias. 

In San Mauro Cilento, from 5 to 10 August, we present, through an exhibition “on the road”, the first results of the workshops cross-initiated this summer. Every evening conferences, debates and presentations will take place outdoors, to further explore different aspects of the concept of utopia and some of its concrete achievements. The days will conclude with the musical workshop in the town square, featuring the Isola Arts Club Band. 

The project "Isola Utopia" started in San Mauro Cilento will be presented and developed at the Vienna Secession, Austria (24.9-30.9.2014), at the Survival Kit-Utopian City Festival in Riga, Latvia (4.9–28.9.2014), and in 2015 in Isola, the neighbourhood in Milan, as well as other places. 

www.isolartcenter.org / tel: 0039 339 6057 111 / facebook Isola Art Center 

----------------- 

Isola Utopia 

Program 5–10 August 2014 

Tuesday 5 August: Isola Utopia 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00-24.00 Opening of the exhibition 
20.00, 21.00, 22.00 Guided tours departing from the school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
21.00 Printing 4 Utopia, Screen printing workshop with Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi) 
22.30 Musical workshop with Isola Art’s Club Band and local musicians, Piazza Europa 

Wednesday 6 August: Desperately seeking Utopia 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00-24.00 The exhibition is open to the public 
20.00 Guided tours departing from school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
21.30 Desperately seeking Utopia, Piazza Europa 
Open debate with Emanuele Braga (choreographer and activist, Milan), Angelo Castucci (architect and artivist, Milan), Antonio Cipriani (journalist Globalist, Milan), Heinz-Norbert Jocks (art critic Kunstforum, Düsseldorf) Philippe Nathan (architect and curator, Luxembourg), Camilla Pin (activist and curator, Milan) Mariette Schiltz (artivist, Milan), Bert Theis (artivist, Milan). Live sketches by Maddalena Fragnito (artivist, Milan) and contributions by: Edna Gee (artivist, Johannesbourg), Isabell Lorey (political theorist, Berlin), Gerald Raunig (philosopher, Vienna) 
23.00 Musical workshop with Isola Art’s Club Band and local musicians, Piazza Europa 


Thursday 7 August: Isola is not a utopia, and utopia is not an island 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00-24.00 The exhibition is open to the public 
20.00 Guided tours departing from school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
21.30 Book presentation Fight Specific Isola, Piazza Europa 
With the authors Antonio Brizioli, Paolo Caffoni, Steve Piccolo. Presentation of the film Damnatio Memoriae (about gentrification process in Milano and Oslo) by Camilla Topuntoli and of the videoclip Culture don’t grow on trees with Emanuel Balbinot 
23.00 Musical workshop with Isola Art’s Club Band and local musicians, Piazza Europa 

Friday 8 August: Building into the blue 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00-24.00 The exhibition is open to the public 
20.00 Guided tours departing from school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
20.00 Printing 4 Utopia, Screen printing workshop with Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi) 
21.30 Building into the blue – Utopias of flying, Piazza Europa. Meeting with Bert Theis and Nikola Uzunovski, with the contribution of Engineer Claudio Tancetti, inventor of the flying Ape (small Italian three-wheel delivery car) 
23.00 Musical workshop with Isola Art’s Club Band and local musicians, Piazza Europa 

Saturday 9 August: Going beyond the Situationism 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00-24.00 The exhibition is open to the public 
20.00 Guided tours departing from school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
20.00 Printing 4 Utopia, Screen printing workshop with Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi) 
21.30 Ben oltre l’amara vittoria del situazionismo, che fare? - Vicolo 30, via Cappella 30. Debate with Gianfranco Marelli, Stefano Taccone, Bert Theis and the public 
23.00 Concert with the Isola Art’s Club Band workshop and local musicians, Piazza Europa 

Sunday 10 August: Concrete Utopias 

11.00-13.00 Flight of the Isola Sun Cloud at Piazza Notar Petillo 
19.00 Guided tours departing from school, via Provinciale 14, Casalsottano 
20.00-24.00 The exhibition is open to the public 
20.00 Printing 4 Utopia, Screen printing workshop with Serio Collective (Edith Poirier, Daniele Rossi) 
21.30 Concrete Utopias – Architecture and Utopia, Piazza Europa. Meeting with Kristina Borg (artivist, Malta), Valentina Montisci (journalist Globalist, Milan), Philippe Nathan (architect and curator, Luxembourg), Amor Vacui Studio, Ghelostudio Architettura, Project 2.0. (Salerno), Lorenzo degli Esposti (AUFO, Milan) 
23.00 Music with Isola Art’s Club Band and local musicians, Piazza Europa