[artinfo] attraction and solidarity

[Attila Tordai]

IDEA arts + society magazine from Cluj and K&S Gallery from Berlin 
cordially invites you to the presentation of the project

ATTRACTION AND SOLIDARITY

The project is the second part of the cultural exchange program entitled 
"Her und Hin" and was conceived as an artistic intervention in the above 
mentioned magazine.

Invited artist: Mircea Cantor & Ciprian Muresan, Barbara Friess, Ioan 
Godeanu/The Institute, Big Hope (Miklos Erhardt, Dominic Hislop), Elke 
Marhoefer, Joel Verwimp

The presentation starts at: 28 November 2003, 6 p.m.
Romanian National Museum
Cluj, Piata Unirii 30

As part of the project a workshop with the same title will be held in the 
periode of 28-29 November, 2003 organized by Idea Foundation (Cluj), K&S 
Gallery (Berlin), Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart), Kuenstlerhaus 
Bethanien (Berlin), New Europe College (Bucharest), Goethe Institute 
Internationes (Bucharest)

Participants: Camelia Beciu, Miriam Bers, Aurel Codoban, Cosmin Costinas, 
Marius Lazar, Elke Marhofer, Ciprian Mihali, Denes Miklosi, Al. Polgar, 
Adrian T. Sirbu, Diana Stanciu, Bogdan Stefanescu, Attila Tordai-S.

The project is curated by: Attila Tordai-S.

Attraction and Sollidarity

The various cooperation projects take a more and more important place on 
the visual arts scene. Foundations, organizations, cultural and educational 
institutions founded since 1989 in the post-communist countries, just like 
independent intellectuals, participate on a regular basis in the most 
diverse cultural exchange programs. Along with the debate around EU 
integration of these countries came a new political turn in the interest 
for the East-European "culture": the cultural cooperation programs are 
developed especially under the idea of "adoption of western standards by 
eastern countries". Having this objective in view, after the enthusiasm so 
characteristic of the beginning of the nineties has somewhat declined, 
those in charge have developed a pragmatic approach to cultural exchange 
programmes. One can note that the intercultural projects are becoming 
somewhat "mechanical", as the context they apply to seems less and less 
important. Maybe this is one of the reasons for artists participating in 
such projects to feel less and less attracted by the proposed idea or 
theme. The issue of what kind of collaborations can be established thus 
arises. Are they still characterized by the solidarity specific to any 
co-work? More than that: how does technical organization of events 
influence their final product? What is the effect of "cultural exchange" 
mechanics on the artistic practice? And how does "cultural exchange" 
influence the social relations in the countries involved in the programs?

The development of the project follows three main objectives:
1) to offer an image about how the participant artists see the issue of 
social solidarity, starting from their various experiences in this area;

2) to invent a platform that makes possible for the artists' presentations 
to avoid the usual art circuit in which the works are first presented in a 
gallery and they reach only afterwards, as reproductions in a magazine for 
instance, a wider public.

3) to continue the discussion of the theme in the framework of an 
interdisciplinary workshop. The critical assessment of the project would 
have the representatives of various social sciences reflect relating to 
this specific case, upon cultural and organization problems characteristic 
of our days.