http://umelec.org Umělec online, latest articles in english. en2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/images/site/umelec_logo_small.gif http://umelec.org 100 29 Umělec online http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1535 2/2009 (art market) In Ukraine, water does not flow, and colors—if there ever were any—have long faded away. People do not take their hats off when they are inside, they do not greet each other, and they are often ill. Austria cares a �great deal about neatness. Perhaps it’s thanks to the abundance of corpses? Dead stuffing, dead relationships, population growing old. People are closer to buffers than to... Magdaléna Bažantová 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1534 2/2009 (new face) I’m hesitating how best to introduce Jana Kochánková born 1979 . I �want to touch on, but not slavishly recite, everything surprising and fun about her work. So, by way of a �very short, cursory introduction: Jana Kochánková, AKA Koko, American sculptress, graduated in 2006 from Vladimír Skrepl and Jiří Kovanda’s studio at the Academy of Creative Arts AVU in Prague. This article is... Katarína Uhlířová 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1533 2/2009 Chapter 1 Tossing Records at Evil At the start of the new millennium, I �am sitting in my favorite club, Rhiz, famed as one of the testing grounds for experimental electronic music in the 1990s. On stage: a �giant angularly formed skull made of Styrofoam hangs from above, its horns point evilly upward. At the front of the stage: a �white guy dressed in a �tunic like garment and a �black... Karl Kilian 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1532 2/2009 (comics) “Children’s books... bound children’s books?” the customs officer on the Czech Austrian border asks Nicolas Mahler and Heinz Wolf. The two independent publishers of Edition Brunft, which they’ve produced in Czech, are trying to check 2000 copies through customs. “Actually, they’re comics,” says Wolf. “Comics,” the official repeats while taking a �quick look through the book.... Karin Kirchmayr 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1531 2/2009 (cultural policy) The past doesn’t determine the blossoming of international cultural contacts: Nikola Tesla 1856 1943 in the tradition famous US inventors, broke off his technical studies in Graz because of nationalistic trash talk. The German nationalist dominated student community was less than pleased with that talented Serb from Gospić. Hollywood director Otto Preminger 1906 1986 carried with him bad... Herwig G. Höller 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1530 2/2009 (time) Jacques Tati, as this piece will explore, is an early participant of the proto postfordist avant garde in the middle of the 20th century. Film critics often misunderstand Tati’s work as a �criticism of civilization and a denunciation of the unreasonable demand of modernism. They especially misinterpreted Tati’s first feature film, Jour de Fête, in this way, due to its idyllic framework and,... Gerald Raunig 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1529 2/2009 (reproduction) Ever since the late 90’s, Céline Duval has been collecting photos: amateur snapshots, postcards, photos cut out from magazines, as well as her own pictures. Out of this collection, which the artist calls documentation céline duval without any capital letters she has edited a series of publications: prints, books, as well as a magazine, mailed directly to her subscribers: “La revue en 4... Fran� ois Coadou 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1527 2/2009 (public space ) Vienna is known for its stable administration, which provides a consistent political climate. The Austrian Social Democratic Party SPÖ has held the position of mayor of Vienna since 1945. In the last decade, however, there has been a restructuring that featured the privatization of structures previously been under public control—at least the Austrian private companies GmbHs with close... Elisabeth Mayerhofer 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1526 2/2009 (editorial) It was chance that led me to the editorship of this journal; and then, the fact that I �had grown up in one particular small town in Austria, one that before many years was known only for its high church tower and later for one Herr Schicklgruber, somehow fitted into the liking of oblique facts which is characteristic for Umelec. And so the publisher forced me to work on the task of an Austrian... Milena Dimitrova 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1525 2/2009 (essay) Erwin Wagenhofer’s Let’s Make Money is a �film about the financial crisis that takes a �look at the conduct and consequences of worldwide financial transactions. The film came out in September, a �successor to his previous documentary We Feed the World, which focused on the globalization of food production. After three years of research around the globe, Wagenhofer returns to reveal... Clemens Foschi 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1524 1/2009 (war) Yael Bartana Videos PS1, New York Decolonizing Architecture: Scenarios for the transformation of Israeli Settlements Bozar NBKV gallery, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin. From playing suburbia to playing war When I was five, living in the finest town in New Jersey, I shared a kindergarten class drama with a friend I remember as Jerome; he was the lead actor in a role, wondering, “What... William Hollister 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1523 1/2009 (urbanism) The SpaceStrategies study concept has evolved very quickly into an interdisciplinary, intercultural group that has succeeded in creating a �media opportunity for itself through strategic interventions in �Berlin’s urban spaces. The artists within this group – all of them women – have very different backgrounds, interests and attitudes towards the idea of spatial strategies. Take Maria... Janin Walter 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1522 1/2009 (urbanism) Writing about cities �is �indeed a modern phenomenon. It has been that way ever since the 21st century was declared the “century of urbanism,” ever since it was confirmed that every second person lives in an urban agglomeration and that soon more than half of humanity will be city dwellers. But also, ever since the framework for thinking about globalization was shifted by Saskia Sassen to the... Elisa T. Bertuzzo, Günter Nest 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1521 1/2009 (dystopia) In the past two years we had the opportunity to watch two excellent British science fiction films depicting the near or perhaps distant future of the island we know as Great Britain. The first of the two movies, Children of Men Alfonso Cuarón, 2006 , tells of London in the year 2027. Due to global destruction and ecological catastrophe no human child has been born for 18 years and human... Srećko Horvat 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1520 1/2009 (still life) What the English and Germans call Still Life and Stilleben, the French and Spanish know as Nature Morte and Naturaleza Muerta. Such cultural differences regarding a �venerable art form suggest important questions about the artistic depiction of nature: Is it a �mortification, a �kind of embalming; or is it a �vehicle for some more profound vital process—does art ‘give back’ to nature? Maybe... Robin Mackay 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1519 1/2009 (essay) There is perhaps no term more problematic than newness. Despite its ambiguity, this word is surrounded by other generally unexpressed words. First and foremost, “new” always implies the possibility of change. It brings with it hope, and the suggestion of something different, something previously unknown and potentially better than what has existed before. New also means unexplored, uncertain,... Paľo Fabuš 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1518 1/2009 (review) Contemporary art that engages with Eastern Europe �tends to be �viewed from a �purely Western perspective. Bulgarian artist Kamen Stoyanov, an artist �as an observer, makes no attempt to evade this question. Vienna’s �MUMOK in Vienna played host last year to the exhibition “at arms length” by �Stoyanov, in connection with the awards ceremony of the Viennafair. This exhibit took as its theme... Milena Dimitrova 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1517 1/2009 (review) The impulse for this article was provided by the magazine’s publisher as we were discussing the books I'd been reading, in search of a �general overview of modern art and the modernist avant gardes of central and Eastern Europe. My search ended in failure: these books caused only confusion. They did not provide orientation. For one, many countries in southeastern Europe were hardly discussed... Milena Dimitrova 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1516 1/2009 (interview) ABOVE is a �native from California of unknown age and identity. He travels almost without a �break around the world, like a �postmodern beatnik who boasts about having almost anything, and whose work tries to reach everybody with such a �kind of undefined art, that we are unable to name it. He’s not a �graffiti artist and he never calls himself an artist nor a �designer, but we can say that... Marisol Rodríguez 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1515 1/2009 (review) The precarious relationship between art and history is a �topic explored by French philosopher and art historian Georges Didi Huberman. In his Bilder Trotz Allem Pictures in Spite of Everything , he sets forth an argument against the prohibition of displaying the radical inhumanity of the Shoah through visual media; against the formulation of the “unrepresentable” and against the scepticism... Karin Rolle 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1514 1/2009 (review) The image of the free and rebellious artist who criticizes and reshapes society has lost much of its credibility. Yet the French philosopher Jacques Rancière still believes art to have political significance; he discusses the potential for resistance in contemporary art, presenting a �theory in which the resistance of art is a �relationship of tension between two different resistances. Scant,... Karin Rolle 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1513 1/2009 (museology) When a museum, especially a fine arts museum, purports to contribute to the cultural values and identity of a society, the works of art become associated with social processes. Indeed, the social relations are what generates value and construct identities. Any single artwork can be approached in terms of either formal qualities or the social climate that compelled the artist to create the work.... Franklin Moreno 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1512 1/2009 (war) Letter: January 6, 2009 To my friends, I can hear you. I have been laying beside Daniel, hour after hour and day after day, watching the sights and listening closely to the endless horror of war. I am devastated. I seem to think, ironically, that if I watch constantly than we, Danny and I, shall hold the war back even if only slightly . I want to do more. You know my work, somehow always... Adina Bar On 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1511 1/2009 (art project) I �first wanted to post the sign, IZRAHELL, at the Eastern Alliance exhibit in Berlin in 2004. Ultimately I �wrote KILL THEM ALL on the tall building and it was removed by the gallery after only one day following pressure from US companies. For a �long time I �had the feeling that I �had no right to write such a �thing. I �was uncertain and I �was a �little scared. This feeling vanished, however,... Ivan Vosecký 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1510 1/2009 (correspondence) The current moment is rife with “posts”: Post Cold War, post Communist, post 9 11, post modern, post colonial, post national… Blogs embody decentralized communities of “post ers” who together determine everything from what’s hip to the next revolution, offering a faux reality of democratic access and collectivist practice. Even waste is “post consumer content” in green marketed... Elizabeth Grady 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1509 1/2009 (reaction) Something changed. Several months after the early 2008 discussion on Yahoo’s Grundrisse group—an event transpired that continues to reverberate throughout the art world. Whereas the 2007 Kandinsky Award was given to “Grundrisse” participant and activist Osmolovsky, this past year it was awarded to a very different sort of artist: Alexei Belyaev Gintovt. Grundrisse contributor David Riff... David Riff 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1508 1/2009 (kosovo) In the documentary, “Peace Kicking Mission”, five Austrian journalists attempt to diffuse the remnant antagonisms of the bloody Kosovo conflict on a slightly more civil stage: the soccer field. The film captures this unusual peace mission in the crisis shaken region through evocative images of Albanians and Serbs playing with and against one another, forming the fledgling foundations of... Christoph Witoszynskyj, Clemens Forschi 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1507 1/2009 (photo essay) Dear Charity, We came to Eisenhuttenstadt by way of Dresden, Goerlitz and the small towns that straddle the landstrasse of the Western East. But really we came by way of you. From the time you first told me about Eisenhuttenstadt I was keen to see it and helping Julia move her sister to Dresden provided the perfect excuse to take a DDRoad trip. Now I can better respond to your thrown... Benjamin Tallis 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1506 1/2009 (war) Art can be introduced through different genres and mediums. In exploration of what is understood under such specific terminology as “the art of war,” here are some modest varieties. FILM: THE GOOD AND THE BAD In Moscow you can purchase DVDs about the Chechnya conflict along almost every street. They are an art form in their own right, utilizing the universal instruments of... Alena Boika 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1505 1/2009 (war) When my plane landed in Prague on August 8, 2008, friends from all over started calling and asking where I was. I had returned from Georgia on the very same day the war began there. That five day war has been added to the list of “the shortest military conflicts in history” or “the Blitzkriegs of the 21st century”—the definition depending on whether or not a difference can be found... Alena Boika 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1504 2/2009 (public space ) he first Time Out—a �printed guide providing up to date cultural events in London—was published in 1968. Today, Time Out appears in over 30 cities around the world from Abu Dhabi to Zagreb, and defines itself on its web page as a �“company…providing the latest, most reliable and informed information on what’s happening anywhere in the world” This expansion isn’t merely due to the... Andreas Spiegl 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1503 1/2009 (home) Polina Raiko lived all her life 1928 – 2004 in the Ukrainian town of Tsyuryupinsk. Shortly before her death, she was found by Totem Group activists, who preserved her house and published a catalogue of her works to let the world know her story. Pelageya Polina Andreevna Raiko born Soldatova was born in Tsyuryupinsk in 1928. At the age of 22, she married Nikolai Alexeevich Raiko. The... Elena Afanasieva 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1502 1/2009 (home) Once on my birthday a sweet girl named Anyuta brought me a gift—a book entitled “We are Tiny Letters” 2001 with Herman Lukomnikov’s poems and Asya Flitman’s illustrations. The book was really small, but so compact with pictures and words that there was simply no room left over for any emptiness or double meaning. It looked so strange for the local Minsk habitat that I couldn’t help... Alena Boika 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1501 1/2009 (discussion) Oh ye, the ones who were expected The ones who never came, oh ye Alexander Gutov This text has a long story. About a year ago, at the Venice Biennale, I met my friend Dmitry Gutov and his pals David Riff and Lesha Penzin. We dined at a good seafood restaurant and Gutov was especially enjoying the vintage wine, as he emphasized the difference from bad wine both in price and quality.... Alena Boika 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1500 1/2009 (editorial) 1. This text was written on the way to Luxembourg, in the four consecutive trains required to get from Prague to Colophon, the International Magazine Symposium. This event had looked extremely attractive to me till the very last moment. However, on the evening before departure I was amazed to learn that a “flash pass,” giving the participants the right to be just that, would cost 100 euros.... Alena Boika 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1499 2/2008 (urban design) The problem of rationalization and typification is only a secondary problem. Rationalization and typification are only the means, and can never be the end. The problem of the new residence is, in essence, a spiritual problem, and the disputation surrounding the new residence only a part of the great struggle towards a new form of life. Mies van der Rohe Introduction to the exhibition catalogue... Tomas Ullman 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1498 2/2008 (out drama) A heuristic salon farce in Four acts THE MEDIOCRITY GENIUS – Geniadij Mediokritov pastor, bourgeois, Negro coffee salesman, musketeer FEMINA MASKULINOVNA – his wife THE PARAMOUNT GENIUSES – Dr. Kafka, composer Wolfgang THE GRUBINESS GENIUSES – Ed Entertainment, Paulie Porno Budgie Cockatiel Scarlet Macaw Monster Act 1.: PRELIMINARY Home salon of MEDIOCRITY GENIUS with a French style... S.d.Ch 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1497 2/2008 (visions) Or The Secret Journey of K. H. Mácha and V. Hanka A forest, a lake in the distance, a stag stands very close, giant mussels, corals, and pine cones lay scattered on the ground. Dawn. He enters the stage in the middle of a creative monologue… K. H. MÁCHA: …the voice of a turtle dove invited to love …no … to love the voice of turtle dove’s invited – yes those are the words This... S. dCh 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1496 2/2008 (visions) dedicated to unknown perpetrators If my theory contradicts the facts, all the worse for the facts. Hegel 1. A motley crew has gathered at At the Painters', a wine bar in Prague’s Malostanská district. “In a few years’ time, the art scene is most likely going to look like this,” pronounces Egon Bondy to members of the Tvrdohlaví Stubborn Ones artist group and others attending the... Milan Kozelka 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100 http://divus.cz/umelec/article_page.php?item=1495 2/2008 (visions) Dear readers, That which takes place on the following pages, can easily be re enacted on the stages of many proving grounds that remain after complete loss of identity, to imitate the dances of their mammoth neighbors in vain attempts at an original gesture. These include, say, the happenchance enrichment of Slovenia, the unjust impoverishment of Moldavia and the complete incomprehension of... Ivan Mečl 2010-03-09t23:08:27+0100