[artinfo] Self-organisation as method of art production

[Sparwasser HQ]

Sparwasser HQ presents:

Friday, July 6. 2007, 8pm
Chto Delat
Self-organisation as method of art production, an 
open discussion with Dmitry Vilensky (workgroup 
"Chto Delat? /Was tun?" St.Petersburg), Zanny 
Begg (Sydney) and Johannes Raether (Meine 
Akademie, Berlin)
Moderator: Dmitry Vilensky
 
Self-organisation as method of art production
The open discussion with Dmitry Vilensky 
(workgroup "Chto Delat? /Was tun?" 
St.Petersburg), Zanny Begg (Sydney) and Johannes 
Raether (Meine Akademie, Berlin).
The main idea of self-organised structures is to 
keep under their control the full tasks of the 
creation, production and distribution of the art. 
It realises its activity in a form of creation of 
"Art Soviets" that are able to politicize 
cultural production through a process of 
collective subjectification. The main goal of 
this structure is to cultivate political 
instincts, and provoke a democratic, emancipatory 
activity in the spheres of labor, politics and 
aethetics.
It'll be discussed about anti-capitalist 
practices, Russian situation, collective 
emancipation, the public as co-creator, radical 
poverty, inner temporality, a quarrel concerning 
the common, how not to choose beteween entrism 
and exodus, non-alienated relations, social 
impact of micro-political interventions, heated 
editorial process, local optic, experienced-base 
for solidarity, and how art not simply reflects 
the world, but takes risk to change itŠ
everyone is welcomed to think, to argue and hopefully to act togetherŠ
 
Chto delat? /// What is to be done? (http://www.chtodelat.org)
a platform for engaged culture
Founded in early 2003 in Petersburg, the platform 
"Chto delat?/What is to be done?" opens a space 
between theory, art, and activism. The platform's 
work is coordinated by a workgroup of the same 
name: its members include artists, critics, 
philosophers, and writers from Petersburg, 
Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod (see full list of 
participants on the web site).
It is a project that is aimed at creation and 
developing a dialogue of different positions 
about politicization of knowledge production and 
about the place of art and poetics in this 
process. The platform's activity aims at 
triggering a collective initiatives in a form of 
"temporary art soviets". The creation of 
"Temporary Art Soviets", which are involved in 
the making of the different cultural projects 
from its earliest phases onward. It is the 
"Temporary Artistic Soviets" that could serve as 
a prototypical social model, capable of 
formulating and realizing its goals 
independently, taking on the function of an 
alternative power, an open system for interaction 
with society at large.
The participants of platform engages in a variety 
of art projects, including videoworks, 
installations, public actions, radio programs, 
and artistic examinations of urban space. Its 
most recent exhibitions and research project is 
"Drift - Narvskaya Zastava" (2004-2005), a 
community-examination of a 
constructivist-proletarian neighborhood in 
Petersburg and "Self-Education" (September 2006) 
- international exhibition and seminars program 
dedicated to spreading and producing alternative 
forms of knowledge that continue and further 
develop the emancipatory traditions of a variety 
of practices.
This workgroup as an editorial committee 
publishes English-Russian newspaper, with a 
special focus on the Russian 
artistic-intellectual situation. In our editorial 
approach we do not only want to engage in a 
confrontational re-reading of various theoretical 
and practical approaches from the Left, but also 
to focus on actualization of the potential of 
Soviet past repressed in the course of Soviet 
history and how it develops in current situation 
of neo-capitalism in post-Soviet time.
Each issue of the newspaper is a process that 
draws artists, critics, activists and 
philosophers into a heated editorial process, 
which results in theoretical essays, art 
projects, open-source translations, 
questionnaires, dialogues, and comic-strips.
This take away publication is usually made in 
connection with specific events and is 
distributed for free at congresses or 
exhibitions, social forums and rallies where it 
reaches a broader cultural public.
David Riff and Dmitry Vilensky, editors of the newspaper "Chto delat?"