WHERE IS EVERYONE?

Saturday, 16 March 2013, 19:00 hrs.

(the exhibition will be open only that evening until 22 hrs)

Location: Skopje Tourism Board, Dame Gruev st, block 3, #5 (mezzanine), Skopje

Participants: Dijana Tomić-Radevska, Mirna Arsovska, Hristina Ivanoska, Ivana Dragšić, Aleksandar Spasoski, Oliver Musović, Igor Sekovski, Boris Šemov, Simon Uzunovski, Nikola Uzunovski, Igor Toševski, Gjorgje Jovanović, OPA, Filip Jovanovski, Vladimir Jančevski.

and

Art and/or politics: Double coding as challenge or paradox?

Public discussion, which will be held at the same location, on Sunday, 17 March 2013, beginning at 12.00 hrs.

Participants:

Prof. Dr. Nebojša Vilić, arts historian

Safet Ahmeti, MA, arts historian

Harald Schenker, MA, analyst

Moderator: Vladimir Jančevski

In times of dramatic social and political turmoil the dilemma always emerges, whether questions need to be asked or whether it is high time to present answers. In this very situation of global “emergency”, the question arises of the role of art and its critical relation to the questions, which are of relevance to the entire social system. Questioning it with the aim of defining new values inevitably leads to questioning not only the internal autonomy of art (as a project of modernity), but the autonomy of the artist to act as an artist, according to his/her own conviction, and ready to face the consequences. Regardless of the high specialization of its own discourse, the world of art continues to be a battlefield with strongly expressed antagonisms, which often are the result of conflicting discourses. What has long been elaborated in theory becomes increasingly clear and impacts on artistic practice more and more: art, whether or not it treats political relations, is politics, implicitly or explicitly. Awareness of this situation directs the work of the artist towards the political and enables him/her to make use of this means of emancipation and resistance against the submission imposed by the omnipresent social spectacle.

In our local context, contemporary art is in a constant state of marginality, and the artist is forced to find a way to overcome the antagonisms in his/her own domain, while trying to locate, understand and try to provide answers to the contradictions in the wider social context. “Where is everyone?” Is a question aimed at the possibilities of defining the role of the artistic act as a critical step towards the deconstruction of power systems, but also as an attempt to create parallel, alternative spaces for activity. Given that there are no more illusions that art can be understood as entirely separated from life, “Where is everyone?” is trying to talk about the specific conditions in which the artist attempts to define and problematize the artistic within the framework of political discourse. This inevitably confirms the importance of the dialogue between artist and audience through the arts work, taking into account all the possible constraints within an extremely politicized world of confrontation and division. In a metaphorical sense artists always transformed their private space into a public one by the act of sharing. But today, when public space, both globally and locally is under attack by corporate marketing and political propaganda, artists are forced to do so literally, converting all available private spaces into public ones, into some kind of common arenas where individual attitudes and values can be debated through intensified communication.

Dame Gruev st, block 3, #5 (mezzanine), Skopje

Kooperacija would like to thank Bojana Janeva Šemova and the Skopje Tourism Board for putting the space at our disposal.