Lab Fight-Specific Isola for Stopover 1:1 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova

Lab Fight-Specific Isola

“The rigid, isolated object (work, novel, book) is of no use whatsoever. It must be inserted into the context of

  living social relations.”

  Walter Benjamin, The Artist as Producer[1]

For Stopover 1:1 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM) in Ljubljana, Isola Art Center presents Lab Fight-Specific Isola curated by Camilla Pin and Bert Theis

with Antonio Brizioli, Tania Bruguera, Angelo Castucci, Edna Gee, Grupo Etcetera, Maddalena Fragnito, out-Office for Urban Transformation, Maria Papadimitriou, Dan Perjovschi, Steve Piccolo, Camilla Pin, Edith Poirier, Christoph Schäfer, Mariette Schiltz, Sašo Sedlaček, Bert Theis, Camilla Topuntoli, Nikola Uzunovski, Daniele Rossi, Wei-Ning Yang and others.

Isola Art Center is an open platform of experimentation for contemporary art that has developed in the Isola neighborhood in Milan, Italy. Grappling for over one decade with an urban situation crossed by conflicts and widespread transformations, the project remains “no-budget”, precarious and ultralocal. Abolishing any vertical logic of labor, the process of Isola Art Center engages Italian and international artists, critics and curators, art collectives, activists, architects, researchers, students and associations of neighborhood residents. The Isola neighborhood has been undergoing processes of gentrification for some time, with policies of capitalist territorialization that directly undermine the social character of the zone itself, which is being increasingly privatized and deprived of shared, collective spaces, threatening fundamental rights of urban existence.

Isola Art Center operates with an instituent[2] practice that implements escape routes from the neo-liberal logic of financial and real estate speculation, working with art as a disruptive tool of revelation and exposure.

Lab Fight-Specific Isola in Ljubljana is a workshop that operates with elements from the 13 years of history and the present praxis of Isola Art Center, which are presented in 1:1 format. The workshop is structured around three types of components: situations, publications and materializations.

The situations we propose are collective works where artists and curators intervene in a horizontal way. A screen printing workshop, several wall paintings, moments of gathering, the flight of the Isola Sun-Cloud produced to create a new horizon against real estate speculation at Isola, and finally the presentation of the book “Fight-Specific Isola” which narrates the neighborhood struggle.

The publications shown in the space, besides the Fight-Specific Isola book, include prototypes produced by different artists, while the materializations are fight-specific works created in the context of the Isola neighborhood.

With the workshop at the MSUM of Ljubljana, Isola Art Center sets out to share the specific terminologies and concepts developed during years of struggle, in the conviction that they can be useful as weapons in other conflicts or urban mobilizations. In particular, the idea of operating in a dirty cube, rejecting the distorting “beautification” of the occupied building; the encoding of a fight-specific art, able to take concrete forms depending on local necessities; and the notion of the dispersed center, which makes it possible to think of the art center not as a physical space, but as an attitude of the mind and body.

With Lab Fight-Specific Isola we want to trigger imaginaries of urban practices, calling forth another unconscious and the desire for other forms of relation.

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

---

[1]Understanding Brecht, New Left Books, London 1973 , p. 87.

[2] Gerald Raunig sees the instituent practice not as an action against the institution, but as a flight from institutionalization and structuring. If the term institution suggests a static quality, the idea is to replace that static nature with the organization of a dynamic praxis.

See Instituent Practices, No. 2 Institutional Critique, Constituent Power, and the Persistence of Instituting, January 2007, available at www.eipcp.net/transversal

Horizontal Newspaper in Sibiu, Romania

The artist Dan Perjovschi has created this ongoing project, the Horizontal Newspaper, which is a public wall that documents actual news and events, both in Romania, but also in the world. Along with his own politically sharp drawings, he invites others to prepare stencils and contribute to the content. He has invited Isola Art Centre as well, it  falls under the section Capital ISM critique. Among the stencils also one of my city pigeons in collaboration with Bert Theis, who provided the slogan. I will reveal more about my pigeons in the future, but for now just some of the photos of the  stencils on the Horizontal Newspaper in Sibiu.  Some of the other stencils by Maddalena Fragnito and Edith Poirier. All photographs by Dan Perjovschi.

I Cani Abbaiano - journal

 Our class created a journal for our one class called Economy of arts under the guidance of journalist Manuela Gandini who regularly contributes to Alfabeta 2 a critical Italian journal focussed on arts,culture and society.The title of the journal translates as The dogs are barking. You can get the actual journal here in pdf but it is in Italian. 

Open publication - Free publishing

 Here is the editorial that I wrote. 

“An old west African proverb compares the artist to a dog. Positioned at the interface of the

human and the natural worlds, the dog in most ancient African societies enjoyed slippery and

highly ambiguous cultural status.

Neither a human being, nor a wild animal, it was nevertheless admitted in the domestic

sphere where it was recognised as man's best friend.

Loyal to a fault, it was committed to its master to the point of helping him hunt wild animals.

This is why it enjoyed special rights.

Because a dog was never happier than when its nose was up another's rear end- the anus,

that sensory button of the world - it also symbolised debasement and degradation.

Just like the dog, the artist also enjoyed special rights, including the right to conduct

forbidden experiments. His task was to translate society to itself”. – Achille Mbembe, Cape

Times, June 5 2012

The economic crisis has stimulated a range of conversations against the capital and consumer driven

system that the Western world have been comfortably nesting in for years. It has illuminated the

flaws of a system that has dominated and affected the core values of Western society the 21 st

century. It has in fact illuminated us to see that change is necessary, that is also a change in the

values that informs our decisions.

It is from here that we can see why it is necessary to create an enquiry also from the perspective of

the arts. The most obvious reason is that economic crisis’s or government financial policies affect

also the cultural sector. Producers of culture needs financial support and space in order to live, and

produce work.

When analysing the current situation crashing financial markets, greed driven corporations and

speculation are terms that superficially touch on the causes of this crisis. It easy to lay out the

blame on investment bankers, CEO’s and governments, but it did not come over night with a few

evil personas. It is a system of values - a culture - that has been the basis of the production and

consumption that we live in. We are not innocent bystanders or just simply victims of this system;

we were also participants in it. This includes the cultural sector; us as artists, curators and writers.

Thus as cultural workers we need to understand how we fit in to this economy, what systems of

production we use and what we do to change or uphold it.

Starting with a historical analysis allows us to see how we got here. Understanding how the arts

came to reflect the financial system of speculation, understanding the invention of the art market.

This also reflects on systems of power and how it came to be in the hands of a select few. We

look to the economic crisis of the past, the great depression, reflecting how it was dealt with even

sometimes in bazaar ways.

If one can understand the past we can reflect on the current situation. How is art valued today, what

is its role in society and how does political policies and the financing of it affect it. In the globalised

world we can learn from each other and trace similarities. An analysis of different concepts of

financing and public perception in different geographical areas starting from the sophisticated

funding system of Northern Europe to the complications of funding in a developing country; South

Africa. Another analysis shows the political complications affect art in Columbia and the review of

public art policies in Taiwan. We understand that we are not isolated.

A final part looks at how it has come to this, how the world has been perceived theoretically and

philosophically and how artist imagine and approach the situations. One might argue against or an

autonomous group of artists occupying and appropriating corporate buildings and urban spaces, or

Utopic imagined spaces as unrealistic, but it serves as mirrors held up to imagine what can be, or

what should not be.

One might ask why it is important that we as cultural workers publish a volume of articles on art

and the economy. The answer is this, we are the dogs, we need to dig up the old bones, we need to

start barking at the gates to warn of the thieves that enter to prevent them from stealing the good

ideals of society. We are not wild animals outside of the house; we are part of it and will contribute

to improving it.

I Cani Abbaiano.pdf

Caro Giacomo 2012

The week in Perdaxius flew by so quickly. It turned out to be a wonderful experience for me, getting to know artists, making friends and eating well in the country side. I also had a chance to experience the creativity and enthusiasm of children, hear a launeddas and paint for the sheer joy of it. It turned out to be an improvisational woodwork workshop. Thanks to Cherimus and the artists Yassine Balbzioui, Derek Maria Francesco Di Fabio, Michele Gabriele, Andrea Rossi  and Matteo Rubbi.Also Carlo Spiga and  Beatrice Bailet who joined us later in the week. See some videos here. Read more on Cherimus site. Here are a few photos and below a video I made for the party we made the last Sunday.

IN SU I PRÀA at Isola Pepe Verde Festival.

On Sunday 6 May, finally arrived the day where we had the event that we have been preparing for. Our group Room 47’s artistic interventions ran parallel with the festival of Isola Pepe Verde. And while a week of rain before threatened to destroy the day, came Sunday it was for the most part sunny and remained basically rain free until five o’clock the afternoon, when the rain finally arrived it was time move inside for the video projections anyway.

I really enjoyed the whole project and also the event. The event was well attended by the community, and I really felt such warmth from the inhabitants of this neighbourhood. It reminded me a bit of church bazaars from my childhood where everyone from the community chipped in to make something happen. It is something one can easily lose living so anonymously in a big city.

The project itself was a good exercise of making an exhibition in an open public space, proved once again to challenging in terms of working with many others and also gave a chance for each one of us to pursue something personal, using our own strengths and mediums.  It proved also how art if kept in relationship with where it is can be of more value than just a commodity object. So far it is my favourite project we have done.

So the the interventions was divided in 4 categories. Suolo (Floor), Muro (Walls), Ignoto (Random) and AUDIO VIDEO.  The first three caterogies took place during the day outside while the Audio Videos  were projected inside after the rain came. Here are a few pictures from the project.

Nicoletta Dalfino - "Enciclopedia Vegetale"

One of my picnic spots

Jessica Rucinque - "Guaca"

Michella Grillo, Luigi Mazzioti,Diletta Pellegrini - Eden Box

Leah Corra Messersmith- 'Totem'

Danielle Marzorati

 Laura Paveglio

Chiara Paleari - Tute Blu

Green per capita = Workshop for children

The murales by David M Fayek left and Edith Porier on the right.

Video Still from the video by  Wei-Ning Yang.

IN SU I PRÀA - Press Release.

IN SU I PRÀA  is an event that brings works made by the young artists of the collective Room 47 in the public space of the city, the neighbourhood Isola in Milan. These works will be set up and exhibited only for one day, Sunday 6 May 2012, running along with the annual neighbourhood festival organised by the association Isola Pepe Verde.


IN SU I PRÀA is an invite to the inhabitants of Isola and to everyone who wishes to participate, to reclaim the public space from its current state of uselessness and anonymity.

Room 47 is a group of  participants in the world of arts that shares the experience of the masters in Visual Arts and Curatorial studies at N A B A  -  Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano.

IN SU I PRÀA /R47  with the contribution of Bert Theis

Event coordinators and press office:  Claudia Caldara, Martina Valla

Text  :  Curatorial Team

Graphics :  Federica Clerici

To view more information go to Room 47 or like our Facebook page. Click here to view the location on google maps.

'Monument'

 by Edna Gee, Leah Corra Messersmith and Edith Poirier.

So finally after a few months of trying to find dates to work and so forth we have managed to finish this work.

This idea came out of workshop done with Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas at NABA where we were asked to work within the neighbourhood Ticinese in Milano. We were confronted with the idea of public sculptures which relates to collective memories of neighbourhoods. Ticinese today however is more of a passersby street then a socially interactive neighbourhood, or at least that is how we as foreign students relate to it. We all live around this area which connects us with the centre.  One of the things one sees  when passing through this neighbourhood is not a strong political inclination, but trendy people and street vendors selling these colourful sunglasses.  A lot of people here wear sunglasses, even inside.

These sunglasses are more or less 3 x 2 metres (slightly smaller) and are made out of plastic, cardboard, scotch tape and some wooden sticks to reinforce the structure. The cardboard we got from the local supermarket for which we did not pay a cent. Our biggest expenditure was the scotch tape. So here we have it a new monument for the neighbourhood, one which is held together by scotch tape. Come to think of it a lot of things here in Milano seem to be held together by scotch tape maybe that is why scotch tape is so expensive ;)

The process of us carrying the structure from NABA towards Piazza 24 Maggio, was almost for me the most wonderful part of the artwork. It turned out 2 people carrying one arm, the other arm by another 2, and 3 people carrying the big frame. We had to walk from Via Darwin all the way through Corso San Gottardo (which is quite a busy street) all the way to the piazza. So people saw first these two curious long arms coming by followed by the big frames – a kind of "what is this? Aha!" moment.

So the whole process was a little haphazard and sometimes difficult with us not having a space to work or money to buy materials (or a natural feel for structural complications) but I am quite happy with the result and the fleetingness of the end.

Thanks to Carlo Spiga, Jessica Rucinque, ZackWood and Mitch Wood for helping us carrying it and assembling it in the piazza.  And thanks to Edith and Leah for the collaboration, I would definitely do it again.

For more image click here.