Finissage
Venice, 12. October 2007
from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm

in the Monastic Headquarters of the Mekhitarian Order
Island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Lido di Venezia

(vaporetto 20. 3:10 pm from San Zaccaria)

Curators Talk: Paradise: Lost or Under Construction?
Excerpts of the Curator Talk and short interviews with the participants under:

http://undo.net/eventinvideo/59/

Venice, 17. September 2007

Interpreted respectively as expressions of a ‘transnational community’ and of an ‘historical globalized nation’, the Roma Pavilion and the Armenian Transnation exhibition – presented for the first time ever at the current Venice Biennale – have inspired the terms for a discussion on transnationalism in art and society.

By speaking of mixed feelings of belonging, of temporary rootedness, and using a plurality of cultural references (social, geographical, political and linguistic), the artworks in “Paradise Lost” (Roma Pavilion) and “Under Construction” (Armenian Exhibition) suggest models of community representation and identity processes unbound to traditional concepts of national boundaries, homogeneous cultural core and mono-linguistic competence, which are commonly used to determine the political visibility and representation of a modern nation state and its community. Instead they embody a very inspiring idea of identity as something that is intimately constituted by hybrid processes and that is not given but built and expressed in each new circumstance, according to personal choices, specific contexts of action and concrete possibilities of expression. In a broader European political context, characterized by the crisis of nation-state models, increased mobility and new forms of community dynamics and spatial affiliation, these above-mentioned characteristics make the Roma and Armenian examples particularly relevant to the current discourse about national identity and community representation.

By bringing together practitioners from Roma and Armenian communities and from more traditional state-models (exemplified by the Dutch and Italian contexts), this public event seeks to reflect on issues of growing identity at the political level as well as in the artistic field, and to offer an opportunity to challenge ideas of ‘nation’ and ‘identity’.

What useful and inspiring insights can the history of cultural blending, adaptability and the continuous process of identity-testing of the Armenian and Roma communities provide? Can the challenge of framing Armenian and Roma artistic production within the context of an event like the Venice Biennale offer some clues and critical points that could be of operational value in trying to accommodate transnational dynamics within the still-prevailing context of national representation? Can we combine the conventional comfort of community belonging (as in the Italian and the Dutch context) with traumatic/adventurous movement in a way that transcends a modern vision of geographic and social space? And how can artists help in imagining different ways of community representation, which resolutely resist national affiliation?

Discussing these questions are: Katia Anguelova (independent curator), Daniel Baker (artist featured in the Roma Pavilion), Silvina Der-Meguerditchian (curator of “Under Construction”), Annie Fletcher (curator of “Becoming Dutch”, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven), Timea Junghaus (curator of “Paradise Lost”), Guido Tintori (resident researcher at FIERI International and European Forum on Migration Research) and Angela Serino (moderator).

Admission is free but space is limited. Please register by email: press.romapavilion@osi.hu

Scroll down to see the bios of the round table participants

PROGRAMME:

Date: September 17, 2007, 3-7pm.
Palazzo Pisani S.Marina (Piano Nobile), Cannaregio 6103, Calle delle Erbe, Venezia. Tel: +36 302006031
3pm: Doors open
3.30: Welcoming by Gottfried Wagner, ECF DirectoR
3.40: Introductory dialogue
Timea Junghaus, curator of “Paradise Lost”
and
Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, curator of “Under Construction”

Two curators will contextualize and locate the issue of trans-national identity inside their curatorial practice, especially in relation to the Roma and Armenian exhibitions featured in the Venice Biennale.
4.15- 4.30 coffee-break
4.30: Individual statements by participants - response to the opening dialogue
Annie Fletcher (Netherlands/Ireland), curator of Becoming Dutch, Van Abbe Museum. Daniel Baker (GB), one of the artists presented in the Roma Pavilion,
Katia Anguelova (Bulgaria/Italy), an independent curator based in Milan (Isola Art Center in Milan) Guido Tintori (Italy), a resident researcher at Turin's FIERI (International and European Forum on Migration Research)
5:30: General discussion involving the public (90 min)

7 pm: Informal reception inside the space of the Roma Pavilion.

About the participants:

Katia Anguelova

Katia Anguelova is an independent curator based in Milan. Born in Bulgaria, Anguelova graduated in History and Theory of Culture at the University of Sofia and afterwards moved to Paris, where she attended DEA and the first part of a PhD at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. In 2003-2004, she attended the Curatorial Training Programme at Magasin-CRAC, Grenoble, France. Her recent projects as independent curator include: “Con altri occhi” (with Roberto Pinto), Milan; Migre (2006, with Alessandra Poggianti), in Grenoble (F) and Milan (It); “Stazione Livorno” (with Stefano Boccalini and A. Poggianti); “Artética. Descrivere il resto” (with A.Poggianti) in Lecce. Anguelova also works as associate curator for Isola Art Centre in Milan, for which she has recently curated “Made in”, a project in which New York-based artist Daniela Kostova and Vienna-based artist Plamen Dejanoff were invited to rethink their common Bulgarian origin. Isola Art Centre is a project founded in Milan in 2002 by a group of international and national critics, curators and artists, with the objective of working with the neighborhood associations for the defence of public spaces and the creation of an art centre. By organizing challenging art projects and hosting site-specific artworks by international and Italian artists (such as Marjetica Potrc, Tania Brughera, Seamus Farrell, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stefano Arienti, Luca Pancrazzi, Massimo Bartolini), Isola Art has now gained official recognition as an Art and Community Centre. As such, it is involved in the current X Istanbul Biennale curated by Hou Hanru.
www.isolartcenter.org

Daniel Baker

Daniel was born in St Mary Cray in Kent in 1961, the youngest son of a family of Romanichal Gypsies, which has existed in the area for many generations and represents the largest concentration of Gypsies in England. Daniel studied painting at Ravensbourne School of Art from age 17 to 21. His art practice has become increasingly contextualised by an ongoing exploration of his cultural positioning. Having completed a Sociology MA specialising in Romani Studies, Daniel began his Doctoral Research at the Royal College of Art in 2006. He is currently serving as Chair of the Gypsy Council and editor of The HUB, the newsletter of the Gypsy Council. He exhibits widely both in the UK and abroad. He lives and works in London. Baker states: “My current work explores the imagined space occupied by the Gypsy, offering a window onto the marginal area allocated to Gypsies - outside of, yet surrounded by, connected, yet dislocated from a society that they have existed within for hundreds of years. The imagined space here refers both to the symbolic space of myth and misconception held in the popular imagination, as well as the absence or disappearance of geographical space for Gypsy habitation in the light of recent legislation. These works use painted, etched and gilded glass to produce illuminated mirrored surfaces, or looking glasses. These looking glasses seek to highlight an ambiguity and confusion in the way that Gypsies are seen – a state of obscured likeness and masked visibility that has been internalized by the Gypsy over time, making it difficult for Gypsies to fully see themselves in the world.”

Silvina Der-Meguerditchian

Silvina Der-Meguerditchian is the granddaughter of Armenian immigrants to Argentina and was born in Buenos Aires in 1967. She grew up in Argentina and since 1988 lives in Berlin. She is visual artists and runs since 2005 a virtual dialogue platform for armenian contemporary artists. This platform presents a forum for frank dialogue on questions relating to identity, the potential for an Armenian identity beyond defined borders and notions passed on for generations, such as nationality, tradition and language.
A recurrent theme of her artistic work is the remembrance of the ethnic dislocation of the Armenian people and the genocide they suffered. Silvina Der-Meguerditchian ties a net. She connects the disparate, builds bridges between separate worlds and seeks a dialogue with the unknown. Her main focus is always on the actual process of joining and dissolving, constructing and deconstructing identity. Silvina Der-Meguerditchian' s work represents a type of mnemonics, namely the individual and collective art of commemoration. She is the curator of "Under Construction" Talking about identities in the Armenian Transnation, the first Armenian Diaspora representation at the current Venice Biennial.

Annie Fletcher

Annie Fletcher is an independent critic and curator who lives and works in Amsterdam. She is interested in investigating the potential of curatorial practice (what it means to show and mediate art) and believes in the potential of dialogues and knowledge production and examining how any space marked for art (a museum, art school, a kunsthalle or residency programme) sets up such a dynamic. Her current and recent projects include co-curating with Charles Esche the project "Be(com)ing Dutch in the Age of Global Democracy" at Van Abbemusuem (2006-2008), co-curating with Frederique Bergholtz "If I Can't Dance - I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution" at various locations from 2005 to 2008 (www.ificantdance,org), 'Cork Caucus' with Charles Esche, Tara Byrne & Sean Kelly (NSF) and Art/Not Art in Cork, Ireland 2005 (www.corkcaucus.org). Be[com]ing Dutch is a two-year project, developed both inside and outside the Van Abbemuseum, which consists of debates, reading groups, artists' projects, exhibitions, residencies, and forms of collective participation and production. Be[com]ing Dutch asks whether art might offer alternative examples of thinking about how we might live together today. It seeks to put our ideas of cultural identity under pressure and examine the processes of inclusion and exclusion in the world today. Be[com]ing Dutch is developed by Charles Esche and Annie Fletcher and others in- and outside the Van Abbemuseum. Institutional partnerships: BAK [Utrecht], New Museum of Contemporary Art [New York], Goldsmiths College [London], Kosmose [Eindhoven] and Stichting Interart [Arnhem]. The project Be[com]ing Dutch by the Van Abbemuseum has been awarded the Development Award for Cultural Diversity 2006 by the Mondriaan Foundation.

www.becomingdutch.com

Timea Junghaus

Timea Junghaus is an art historian and cultural activist. As the first Roma art historian in Hungary and an acknowledged advocate of the cultural rights of minorities, she plays an active role in defining inclusive cultural strategies. In 2002 she founded the János Balázs Gallery, which is located in the 8th district of Budapest, Hungary (an area known for its large Roma population), and she curated several exhibitions that raised public awareness of the cultural oppression of Roma people. In March 2004 she was co-curator of the exhibition “Hidden Holocaust”, through which, for the first time, Roma artists entered the official art scene and exhibited in Budapest's Kunsthalle (Contemporary Art Museum). She generated interest, exhibitions and conferences on Roma culture internationally: “We are what we are - Aspects of Roma Life in Contemporary Art” (exhibition, Minoriten Galerie, Graz, Austria, October 2004); “North and South LAB, Culture and Colonization” (conference, Tanzquartier, Vienna, Austria, March 2005); “Common Space, Exhibition about the Hungarian minority representation” (exhibition, Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 2006); “About the Absence of the Camp” (exhibition, Kunsthaus Dresden, Germany, 2006). She is author and co-editor of the first comprehensive publication on European Roma visual art, “Meet Your Neighbours - Contemporary Roma Art from Europe” (OSI Publication, 2006). Since 2005 Junghaus has been affiliated with the Open Society Institute, where she is the Program Officer of the Roma Cultural Participation Project. RCPP as a component of the Open Society Institute's Arts and Culture Network Program emphasizes the cultural inclusiveness and empowerment of Roma as well as changes in the majority societies' attitudes.

She is the curator of “Paradise Lost”, the first Roma Pavilion at the current Venice Biennale.

www.romapavilion.org

Angela Serino

Angela Serino is an independent curator based in Amsterdam. She is interested in curating as an exploratory mode of dealing with reality, and sees art as a discipline connected to other fields of knowledge. After graduating with honours in Mass Communication at the University of Siena (Italy) in 2003, she worked on different exhibitions and public programmes as a member of Synapser, a collective of young Italian curators, and independently. She moved to Amsterdam to attend de Appel Curatorial Training Programme in 2005/06, which completed with the collaborative exhibition Mercury in Retrograde. She has been pursuing a research approach in curating through the following projects: Catalyst (exhibition, publication and artist-in-residence programme), with graduate students from Rietveld Academy and St.Lucas Academy - co-curated with Tessa Giblin at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (2006); Beauty Unrealized: personal universe seeking a form, (exhibition, performances, screenings, lectures) as guest curator, PSWAR (artist-run space), Amsterdam (2006-2007); and the solo show of Ursula Mayer, a collaboration between Impakt Festival and Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2007). More recently, she developed Contemporary Passages: temporary roots and interweaving paths (exhibition, public talk and film screening on issues of mobility and temporary residency), as guest curator at TENT., Rotterdam. She has collaborated with various Italian art magazines (e.g. Arte e critica, Neural) and has organized various video and film programmes in Italy (Villa Serena Bologna, Visionaria Festival in Siena) and in the Netherlands (Impakt Festival Utrecht).

Guido Tintori

Guido Tintori is resident researcher at Turin's FIERI (International and European Forum on Migration Research), and external contract advisor to the Office for the Social Cohesion at the Presidency of the Italian Republic. He has a Ph.D. in the History of European Society. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Network of Excellence IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe), funded by the European Commission. He has worked extensively on Italian nationality laws in a comparative framework, and on the historical and legal aspects of migrants' transnational political activities. His publications includee: "Cittadinanza e politiche di emigrazione nell'Italia liberale e fascista" [Citizenship and Emigration Policies in Liberal and Fascist Italy] and "Come si diventa cittadini italiani" [Access to Italian Citizenship] in G. Zincone (ed.), Familismo legale. Come (non) diventare cittadini italiani, Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2006.

Berlin, 29. August 2007
Conference of Archi Galentz, in the Udk, Universität der Künste,
BERLIN
"Haik in Sight, looking for a transcultural home beyond geographical borders" Sommer-Uni
29.08.07, 2 p.m - 4 p.m
Bundesalle 1-12 - 10719 Berlin