Here As The Centre
Of The World
A transnational artistic research project
Initiated by the Dutch Art Institute
Of The World
A transnational artistic research project
Initiated by the Dutch Art Institute
PROJECTCONCEPT
Here as the Centre of the World was a transnational artistic research project that took place in Damascus, Taipei, Diyarbakir, Khartoum, Beirut and Enschede in 2006 and 2007. The project consisted primarily of a series of ten-day workshops in each city, in which one street became the site and subject of research. Artists from each of the six locations worked collaboratively in small groups, carrying out an open-ended process of visual research and creating sitespecific projects and short interventions in public space. This research process was supported by a series of lectures, debates, artists' talks and round-table discussions in each city that opened up local artistic, cultural and socio-political debates. Each artist participated in workshops in their country of residence as well as at least one of the other five locations, creating a situation in which the relational nature of difference could be experienced. The workshops were an invitation for artists to 'de-centre' their practices - both to engage with a new 'centre' and to look differently at their usual artistic context. They were invited to consider how one's perception and conception of art is culturally and socially informed and to reflect on the real conditions in which cultural differences are articulated in the day-to-day activities of artists and art workers. Operating in the contact zone between cultures, the project raised issues surrounding the translatability of art. By making space for competing artistic paradigms, it problematized the notion that contemporary art has an international language shared by artists worldwide.
Curators: Lucy Cotter, Gabriëlle Schleijpen and Alite Tijsen.
Here as the Centre of the World was a transnational artistic research project that took place in Damascus, Taipei, Diyarbakir, Khartoum, Beirut and Enschede in 2006 and 2007. The project consisted primarily of a series of ten-day workshops in each city, in which one street became the site and subject of research. Artists from each of the six locations worked collaboratively in small groups, carrying out an open-ended process of visual research and creating sitespecific projects and short interventions in public space. This research process was supported by a series of lectures, debates, artists' talks and round-table discussions in each city that opened up local artistic, cultural and socio-political debates. Each artist participated in workshops in their country of residence as well as at least one of the other five locations, creating a situation in which the relational nature of difference could be experienced. The workshops were an invitation for artists to 'de-centre' their practices - both to engage with a new 'centre' and to look differently at their usual artistic context. They were invited to consider how one's perception and conception of art is culturally and socially informed and to reflect on the real conditions in which cultural differences are articulated in the day-to-day activities of artists and art workers. Operating in the contact zone between cultures, the project raised issues surrounding the translatability of art. By making space for competing artistic paradigms, it problematized the notion that contemporary art has an international language shared by artists worldwide.
Curators: Lucy Cotter, Gabriëlle Schleijpen and Alite Tijsen.