New Year's Eve with the Dead

[For some Americans, NYE Dead Concerts rivaled Dick Clark and the ball dropping in New York's Times Square. NB: audio of hundreds of hours of Dead shows are available at archive.org. Wishing one and all a brilliant 2010!]

Hey Patti Smith

[Below, a vintage performance by the brilliant, irrepressible Patti Smith on the occasion of her sixty-fourth birthday. Rock on Patti!]



[Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Happy New Year | Happy Endings

[a nod to the end of a momentous year, wishing all a brilliant 2010]

le cinema a 114 ans

The first public film screening was held on December 28, 1895, at the Salon Indien du Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris by The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean . This history-making presentation featured ten short films. Each film is 17 meters long, which, when hand cranked through a projector, runs approximately 50 seconds.

[Text from Wikipedia. Still from "L'arroseur arrosé," one of the films included in the program. Many happy returns to SC in Newcastle, and heartfelt appreciations to DLP.]

My Parents Were Awesome

My Parents Were Awesome

[Photo from My Parents Were Awesome website. Thanks to ASP in Berkeley for the tip. Caption: "'Flo and Brunov.' Submitted by Adrienne."]

Larry Sultan

American photographer Larry Sultan died earlier this month at the age of 63. Below is a link to a 1989 interview on NPR's [National Public Radio] Fresh Air. The interview with host Terry Gross explores "Pictures from Home," his decade-long project chronicling his father's job loss and the effects it had on the family.

Listen

[Information and graphic from Fresh Air website. Caption: "Dad Looking into Pool," from "Pictures from Home"']

Removed from the Crowd

Skuc Gallery
Stari trg 21
SI - 1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
ph: + 386 1 251 65 40

23 December - 15 January 2010
Removed from the Crowd:
The Fate of Outer Planets

Concept: Ivana Bago and Antonia Majaca
(Institute for Duration, Location and Variables – DeLVe)

"Removed from the Crowd / The Fate of Outer Planets is a curatorial/art-historical piece based developed through an ongoing research that considers the phenomenon of the New Artistic Practice in the Socialist Republic of Croatia during the 1960s and 1970s outside the context of the analysis of the actual artistic production of that time, involving new elements and fragments with each new presentation.

The first phase of the long-term project was the publication Issue-ing the Revolution published as the 83rd issue of the Life of Art Magazine/Zivot umjetnosti with contributions by Jens Kastner, Waler Seidl, Marco Scotini, Maroje Mrduljaš & Srećko Horvat, Jelena Vesic & Dušan Grlja, Sezgin Boynik, Artur Zmijewski, Maja & Reuben Fowkes, Hedvig Turai and the editors Ivana Bago & Antonia Majaca (hart.hr/izdanja/zivot-umjetnosti), while the second phase eveloved as the educational program Kustoska platforma comprised of 10 monthly seminars with the students of art history in Zagreb initiated in Spring 2008 and focusing on the history of curatorial and exhibition practices Croatia.

The first 'staging' of the project, presented earlier this year in Belgrade in the framework of the exhibition Political Practices of (Post) Yugoslav Art focused on the modes of collaborative work of artists and the forms of self-organisation while the second one, at ŠKUC Gallery, includes a new chapter focusing on progressive curatorial strategies and innovative exhibition models during 1960s and 1970s.

Fragment 1: New Collective Practices - Artists' Association Beyond Manifesto and Program stems from a consideration of the three-year activity of the Podroom Working Community of Artists. Podroom, an artists-led space initiated by Sanja Ivekovic and Dalibor Martinis, was a working and exhibition space that between 1978 and 1981 brought together the key figures of the New Artistic Practice. A transcript of a conversation (a working meeting) held in Podroom and published in the 'catalogue-journal' First Issue (1980) serves as a point of departure for the rendering of narrative about self-organised artistic initiatives and the history of associations from Gorgona Group at the beginning of the 1960s to the establishment of the artist –run PM Gallery in Zagreb in 1981. What is common to all the initiatives, irrespective of their duration, is the specific, non-programmatic and organic manner in which they group together around an only adumbrated common goal. The fragment focuses on temporary manifestations of collectiveness, on models of 'being singular plural' or more exactly, on being-with as a search for a different understanding of the relation between individual and collective, but also for the point of a collective itself and the possibility of a joint programme.

Fragment 2: New Curatorial and Exhibition Practices brings the focus to innovative curatorial and institutional practices with the special attention given to the projects initiated and curated in the 1970s by Ida Biard in Zagreb and Paris. Selected curatorial projects, as well as institutions and informal spaces in which they took place, are here not seen merely in the role of mediators who present artistic products to the audience, but as the active protagonists and initiators of innovative approaches to contemporary art, whether these concern the New Tendencies movement, early conceptual art of the 60s or the New Artistic Practice of the 70s.

The title Removed from the Crowd (taken from the title of a piece by Mladen Stilinović from 1979) thus becomes a signifier not only of the differentiation of the 'associated individuals' as against the ideologically propagated collectivity but also a signifier of the actual methodology.

Accordingly, the intention of the project is not the creation of a 'convincing' and scientifically well-grounded historical or art-historical narrative - it aims rather to indicate an associative cartography functioning as memory script, a map that selects the facts about processes, methodologies and situations considered to be relevant for us today as well as from a series of speculations derived from the enlargement of details, deliberate omissions, arbitrary connections, all in the aid of articulating a different viewpoint, a temporary and unstable truth through a different 'performance' of the writing of the history of contemporary art.

Skuk

[Text from e-art now. Graphic from Skuk website. Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

spaza-de-move-on

dala
Durban, South Africa
ongoing project: spaza-de-move-on

In the early 60s ‘café-de-move-ons’ could be seen wherever there were substantial numbers of African workers or passers by in need of refreshment. Vendors were frequently arrested in police raids and fined or imprisoned.

Since apartheid, South Africa witnessed the phenomenon of urbanization. Thousands of workers move daily from the township’s into the cities for their livelihood. This has given rise to the re-birth of the trade in refreshments, loose cigarettes, sweets and chips along pedestrian routes. Similarly these vendors too face victimisation by the powers that be.

The spaza-de-move-on is a design response to the need for an efficient, easily transportable solution for these vendors. Its evolution, involved bottom-up collaboration with Moses Gwiba – a street vendor – who Doung has formed a relationship over a number of years of walking in the city of Durban. His hail “when you make something for me?” sparked the inspiration for this South African solution.

==

dala is an interdisciplinary creative collective that believes in the transformative role of creativity in building safer and more liveable cities. dala emerged as a response to the growing need for a sustainable space for creative practitioners actively engaging in the production of art / architecture for social change in eThekwini. dala believes that sustainable change can only happen through democratic participation and collaboration. dala therefore facilitates creative initiatives between creative practitioners from a variety of backgrounds (artists, architects, researchers, performers, urban planners, designers), the municipality and most importantly the people and organisations that live and work within and around the city. dala’s initiatives all revolve around re-imagining the use and expression in and of public space.

Founders, Doung Jahangeer, Rike Sitas and Nontobeko Ntombela have been working on similar initiatives individually and collectively for close to ten years. The strength of dala lies in the interdisciplinary skills the founders bring to the organisation – Doung (architect), Rike (social scientist), Nonto (curator). All three are practicing artists and educators who have been involved in a number of local and international projects and exhibitions.

[Text and graphic from dala website. Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Artists on Their Bicycles

Artists on Their Bicycles New York: 2010 Calendar

Forty years after Joe Goode's legendary calendar LA Artists in Their Cars (1969), the East Coast strikes back. Artists on Their Bicycles New York establishes a new connection between artists and mobility, portraying them with their eco-friendly vehicles. Swiss photographer Lukas Wassmann, commissioned by Emma Reeves and Gianni Jetzer for the Swiss Institute, captures vibrant everyday scenes. Some artists navigate the Manhattan grid as urban flaneurs, while others take advantage of biking as an effective means of transportation. This limited edition project harnesses the artistic will to operate outside the lanes of constraint.

[Text and image from Art Agenda electronic mailing. Thanks to ETN in NYC for the tip.]

Climate Debt No Joke

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; Climate Debt No Joke
African, Danish and Canadian youth join the Yes Men to demand climate justice and skewer Canadian climate policy

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - "Canada is 'red-faced'!" (Globe and Mail) "Copenhagen spoof shames Canada!" (Guardian) "Hoax slices through Canadian spin on warming!" (The Toronto Star) "A childish prank!" (Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada)

What at first looked like the flip-flop of the century has been revealed as a sophisticated ruse by a coalition of African, North American, and European activists. The purpose: to highlight the most powerful nations' obstruction of meaningful progress in Copenhagen, to push for just climate debt reparations, and to call out Canada in particular for its terrible climate policy.

The elaborate intercontinental operation was spearheaded by a group of concerned Canadian citizens, the "Climate Debt Agents" from ActionAid, and The Yes Men. It involved the creation of a best-case scenario in which Canadian government representatives unleashed a bold new initiative to curb emissions and spearhead a "Climate Debt Mechanism" for the developing world.

The ruse started at 2:00 PM Monday, when journalists around the world were surprised to receive a press release from "Environment Canada" (enviro-canada.com, a copy of ec.gc.ca) that claimed Canada was reversing its position on climate change.

In the release, Canada's Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, waxed lyrical. "Canada is taking the long view on the world economy," said Prentice. "Nobody benefits from a world in peril. Contributing to the development of other nations and taking full responsibilities for our emissions is simple Canadian good sense."

Thirty minutes later, the same "Environment Canada" sent out another press release, congratulating itself on Uganda's excited response to the earlier fake announcement. A video featuring an impassioned response by "Margaret Matembe," supposedly a COP15 delegate from Uganda, was embedded in a fake COP15 website. "Canada, until now you have blocked climate negotiations and refused to reduce emissions," said "Matembe." "Of course, you do sit on the world's second-largest oil reserve. But for us it isn't a mere economic issue - it's about drought, famine, and disease."

(The video was shot in a replica of the Bella Center's briefing room, at Frederiksholms Kanal 4, in the center of Copenhagen. Matembe was actually Kodili Chandia, a "Climate Debt Agent" from ActionAid, a collective of activists that push for rich countries to help those most affected by climate change for adaptation and mitigation projects. The "Climate Debt Agents," with their signature bright red suits, have been a ubiquitous presence in Copenhagen during the climate summit.)

Then it was time for Canada to react. One hour later, another "Environment Canada" (this one at ec-gc.ca) released a bombastic response to the original release. This one quot ed Jim Prentice, Canada's Minister for the Environment, decrying the original announcement: "It is the height of cruelty, hypocrisy, and immorality to infuse with false hopes the spirit of people who are already, and will additionally, bear the brunt of climate change's terrible human effects. Canada deplores this moral misfire."

Because almost none of the resulting news coverage even mentioned Uganda or "Matembe's" response, a fourth release was sent from the second website (ec-gc.ca).

Meanwhile, in the real world

The real Canadian government's reactions were almost as strange as the fake ones in the release. Dimitri Soudas, a spokesperson for the Canadian Prime Minister, emailed reporters and blamed Steven Guilbeault, cofounder of Quebec-based Equiterre. "More time should be dedicated to playing a constructive role instead of childish pranks," said Soudas in a first email, while misspelling Guilbeault's name.

Guilbeault demanded an apology. "A better way to use his time would probably be to advise the Canadian government to change its deeply flawed position on climate," said Guilbeault.

Soudas and Guilbeault were seen exchanging angry words in the hallway outside of Canada's 3:30pm press conference, which did not start until 4:30pm, and at which the Canadians refused to answer any questions about the flurry of false releases.

More raised voices were heard when Stephen Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, refused to pose for a photo with his Canadian counterpart, Jim Prentice. After Steve Kelly, Prentice's chief of staff, begged for 10 minutes, the US guy finally asked why a photo was so important. Kelly replied that "we were carpetbagged this morning by [environmental non-governmental organizations] with a false press release. I gotta change the story."

Why Blame Canada?

The only country in the world to have abandoned the Kyoto Protocol's emissions and climate debt targets, Canada also has the most energy-intensive, destructive and polluting oil reserves in the world. The Alberta tar sands, according to The Economist, are in fact the world's biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions.

"By not agreeing to emissions reductions, Canada is holding a loaded gun to our heads, and seems ready to pull the trigger on millions of us around the globe, " said Margaret Matembe aka Kodili Chandia of the "Climate Debt Agents." "They leave us no choice but to see them as criminal."

At last year's climate summit in Poznan, Poland, over 400 civil society organizations voted Canada worst of all nations in blocking progress towards a binding climate treaty. Will Canada take the dubious prize again this year in Copenhagen?

"The Canadian government is not listening to its citizens," says Sarah Ramsey, a resident of Alberta who has seen the destruction of the tar sands firsthand. Ramsey traveled to Copenhagen to give voice to a generation of young Canadians. "We are discouraged and demoralized by our government's position on climate change. We decided to lend our government a hand, and show them what good leadership looks like."

In solidarity with the delegates from the G77 Bloc of nations, today's intervention was also meant to highlight an issue at the heart of the ongoing talks—the issue of climate justice, and the climate debt that the developed world owes the developing world. Seventy-five percent of the historical emissions that created the climate crisis came from 20% of the world's population in developed countries, according to the UN, yet up to 80% of the impacts of the climate crisis are experienced in the developing world, according to the World Bank.

"I meant every word I said," says Kodili Chandia, a spokesperson for the Climate Debt Agents, who spoke out as a member of the Ugandan delegation. "This debate isn't just about facts and figures and abstract concepts of fairness—the drought we are seeing right now in East Africa is directly threatening the lives of millions of people, including farmers in my own family. We have not created this problem but we are living with the consequences. That's why I still say: It's time for rich countries to pay their climate debt."

- 30 -

More dream announcements coming soon! Come make your own or stay tuned at good-cop15.org.

[Text from Yes Men press release, reprinted in its entirety. Screen grab from YouTube video. Caption: "Angry Canadian delegate at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen responds to the fake announcement that Canada would reduce emissions by 80 percent and pay the climate debt of developing nations. He doesn't think its funny! Watch him spit teeth!" Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Rosetta Stone's Return to Egypt?

[Article reprinted in full from artdaily.org]


Egypt's Zahi Hawass to Ask British Museum for Rosetta Stone

LONDON (REUTERS).- The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said he plans to ask the British Museum to hand the Rosetta Stone over to his country.

The ancient stone was the key to deciphering hieroglyphs on the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and is one of six ancient relics that Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said his country wants to recover from museums around the world.

"I did not write yet to the British Museum but I will. I will tell them that we need the Rosetta Stone to come back to Egypt for good," Hawass told Reuters this weekend.

"The British Museum has hundreds of thousands of artifacts in the basement and as exhibits. I am only needing one piece to come back, the Rosetta Stone. It is an icon of our Egyptian identity and its homeland should be Egypt."

The 3-1/2 foot high Rosetta Stone was unearthed by Napoleon's army in 1799 and dates back to 196 BC. It became British property after Napoleon's defeat under the 1801 Treaty of Alexandria.

Hawass, whose flamboyant style and trademark hat have led some to liken him to film character Indiana Jones, has in the past said he wanted to acquire the stone for Egypt and now wants to go about it through official channels.

His wish list for relics also includes the bust of Nefertiti from Berlin's Neues Museum, a statue of Great Pyramid architect Hemiunu from the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, the Dendera Temple Zodiac from the Louvre in Paris, Ankhaf's bust from Boston's Museum of Fine Art and a statue of Rameses II from the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.

The Rosetta Stone, which has inscriptions in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek, has been housed at the British Museum since 1802 and forms the centerpiece of the museum's Egyptian collection, attracting millions of visitors each year.

Hawass had previously asked to borrow the stone for the opening of a new museum in Giza, near Cairo in 2012, but said he would no longer settle for just a loan.

The British Museum said in a statement that its collection should remain as a whole to fulfill the museum's purpose, and it would consider the request for a loan to Egypt in due course.

David Gill, reader in Mediterranean archaeology at Swansea University, said the British Museum would be cautious about handling the request as it could lead to increased pressure over other items in its collection, such as the Parthenon marbles.

"The whole issue for the British Museum is if they say we're going to give you back the Rosetta Stone, it sets a precedent," he said. "They're worried that countries like Italy, Greece and Turkey are going to demand large numbers of objects back."

Masako Muro, a 34-year-old tourist in London from Japan, said she felt that the Rosetta Stone should remain in London, at least for the benefit of visitors.

"It is easy to travel here especially for tourists compared to traveling to Egypt. And that makes it open to everybody," she said.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

[Text and graphic from artdaily.org. Caption: "The 3-1/2 foot high Rosetta Stone was unearthed by Napoleon's army in 1799 and dates back to 196 BC. Photo: EFE/Trustees of the British Museum." Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Art + Infrastructure

Nevada Museum of Art
160 West Liberty Street
Reno

Center for Art + Environment
Art and Infrastructure: Patricia Johanson and the Petaluma Wetlands Park

"Art, ecology, landscaping and functional infrastructure meet in Patricia Johanson’s collaborative project – Petaluma Wetlands Park. Using constructed and natural wetlands Johanson created a multi-purpose public landscape providing three miles of recreational use, educational programs and nature study alongside a facility that simultaneously processes human sewage, while also generating crops and creating wildlife habitats."

through January 10, 2010

[text and graphic from NMA website. Caption: Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, Petaluma, CA, April 2008. Image courtesy the City of Petaluma, California." Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Babel

Blank Projects
113-115 Sir Lowry Road
Woodstock
Cape Town 8001
South Africa

Candice Breitz
Babel Series

"The Babel Series consists of seven constantly stuttering DVD loops. Each steals a fragment of footage from the history of music video. The content of each video is relentlessly simple and literally monosyllabic: the seven different moments are appropriated from various pop performances (the line-up ranges from Madonna, Wham and Grace Jones to Queen, Prince, Abba and the Police). Each of the seven moments is then trapped in repetition as it is looped endlessly and noisily before the viewer on a series of television monitors. The seven loops play simultaneously in the space of the installation, creating a cacophonous babble that allegorically echoes the biblical story from which the work takes its title. What the seven videos have in common - beyond their reflection on narcissism and their deliberate choice of ambiguously-gendered stars - is that each evokes the primary building blocks of language. Together, the videos bang a millennial baby talk out of a series of dissonant beats,a baby talk that approaches sheer pandemonium."

The installation, on view through January 8, 2010 at Blank Projects is part of Dada South? an exhibition curated by Roger van Wyk & Kathryn Smith at the South African National Gallery.

Dada South? draws together a range of works by South African artists dating from the 1960s to the present, representing a range of avant-garde positions in the aftermath of Dada. South African art production is understood not simply as by-products of western avant-garde practices, but as drawing selectively and even randomly on these practices to articulate specific, local conditions. Through an eclectic collection of material, imaginary and intellectual work of our recent history, the exhibition proposes a review of the ambivalent relationship between cultural creation and political resistance."

[Text and graphic from Blank Projects website. Caption: "Candice Breitz, Babel Series, 1999, DVD Installation: 7 Looping DVDs, Installation view: O.K Center for Contemporary art, Linz. Photograph: Jason Mandella." Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]

Hommage à Boris Vian

Hospice Saint-Charles
30 rue Nationale
78710 Rosny-sur-Seine
Tél. : 01 30 42 91 55


Les Hivernales - Hommage à Boris Vian

"Figure mythique du Paris d'après-guerre, Boris Vian a marqué la vie intellectuelle et artistique française d'une empreinte singulière. Écrivain, auteur, chanteur et musicien, il laisse derrière lui une œuvre moderne et insolite.

La première édition des Hivernales lui rendra hommage, à l’occasion de la commémoration de sa disparition en 1959. Proposées dorénavant chaque fin d’année pendant un mois à l’Hospice Saint-Charles, les Hivernales se déclineront autour de la célébration d’un anniversaire, d’un événement ou de la mise en valeur d’un personnage. Elles réuniront tous les acteurs culturels du territoire de Mantes en Yvelines qui le souhaitent et inviteront à la création, à la diffusion dans les domaines de la musique, du théâtre, de la danse, de la lecture publique et des arts plastiques."

Entrée libre et gratuite – Tous les jours.

Earlier post on the fiftieth anniversary of Boris Vian's death

le programme complet

[Text and graphic from Hivernales website. Thanks to borisvian.org for the tip.]

The Dixie Chicks @ 20

Formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas, The Dixie Chicks.

From Wikipedia: "During a London concert ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas" (the Dixie Chicks' home state). The statement offended people who thought it rude and unpatriotic, and the ensuing controversy cost the group half of their concert audience attendance in the United States and led to accusations of the three women being un-American, as well as hate mail, a death threat, and the destruction of their albums in protest."

Click here to view a video of their 2006 song "Not Ready to Make Nice," co-written with Dan Wilson.

World AIDS Day

"The World AIDS Campaign has been established to strengthen and connect the advocacy and campaigning activities of civil society that target governments and other stakeholders to deliver on their promises and commitments on HIV and AIDS. Whether that is with politicians, policy makers, the donor community or those countries most affected by HIV or indeed a multilateral agency or civil society, the aim is to create a unified voice on the need to take the action necessary to scale up the response to HIV.

Our Objectives are:

1. To catalyse and strengthen national, inclusive campaigns for accountability on universal access;
2. To increase involvement in campaigning for accountability on universal access within and across international constituency-based networks; and
3. To increase access to resources and information to support more effective, campaigning for accountability on universal access.

The World AIDS Campaign is a global coalition of national, regional and international civil society groups united by the call for governments to honour their AIDS commitments under the slogan “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” The campaign is governed by a steering committee of global constituency-based networks and supported by a team of support staff based primarily in Cape Town, South Africa and partially in Amsterdam, The Netherlands."

[Text and graphic from Campaign website and Facebook page. Cross-posted to Signal Fire.]