[artinfo] Break 2.4 international contemporary art festival

[Nina Leban]

Break 2.4: Potemkin village, international festival of contemporary  
art, 9th edition; from 5th to 18th November 2007 in the city of  
Ljubljana, Slovenia.


BREAK 2.4 FESTIVAL: POTEMKIN VILLAGE

Break is a biennial presentation of Zavod K6/4. This international  
festival of contemporary art mostly focuses on urban and technological  
art practices. Break festival has become one of the most important  
contemporary art festivals in Slovenia and gained a worldwide  
reputation. Break 2.4, the ninth edition of the festival, will  
investigate the phenomenon of Potemkin village. This fictional village  
was allegedly built by prince Grigorij Aleksandrovič Potemkin to  
prevent the empress Catherine the Great from seeing poverty and misery  
of the regions he governed.
Turned into a commonplace that designates all sorts of manipulated  
social and political situations, Potemkin village has had a fruitful  
career, investing each realm of life, from pasteboard decorum to media  
agency, from staging of political regimes to tourism-oriented urban  
planning, from TV ‘reality shows’ to historical museums – a successful  
“architecture”, probably unique in transcending so many epochs,  
frontiers, genres or ideologies and an ad hoc setup that clearly poses  
the question of participation and collaboration. Initiators, actors  
and spectators are all involved. If an unfortunate gesture was to  
disrupt the play, it would pass unnoticed, for the Potemkin village is  
anchored in credulity, compliance and deliberate blindness. This is  
why it proves such a paradoxical device. As much as it hides in a  
situation, it also reveals, in the crudest light, perceptions and  
phantasms that would otherwise remain unknown. By showing worldwide  
examples of Potemkin villages, the festival seeks to investigate forms  
of mediation and mechanisms of representation in the political, social  
and artistic realms. The festival wants to show the role of art in  
both the construction and demystification of illusion. More than a  
mere presentation of artworks and projects, it demonstrates the  
limitations, compromises and counterstrategies that shape the  
visibility of art in the public sphere of a city. It presents a choice  
between deliberate blindness and taking up the responsibility to say  
that  “the king is naked.”

Break 2.4 will take place from 5th to 18th November 2007 at different  
locations in the city centre, that relate either to historical events  
or to most recent urban development of Ljubljana.


LOCATIONS :
Potemkin Palace (Bohoričeva st. 5, Ljubljana), City museum Ljubljana,  
Alkatraz Gallery, Club K4, Cyberpipe, Metropol Coffeshop, (A)  
Infoshop, JSKD, Dance theatre Ljubljana, Rog Factory, Railway station  
Ljubljana, Faculty of social sciences Ljubljana.


PARTICIPANTS :

Fabrizio Ajello, Gabrielle Ajello, Italy, Redas Diržys, Lithuania,  
Enrique Ježik, Mexico, Franck Houndégla, France, Martin Zet, Czech  
Republic,  Michael Laird & Carina Gosselé, Belgium,  Milica Miličević&  
Milan Bosnić, Serbia, Don Parker, GB, Takuji Kogo, Japan, Oleg Kireev,  
Russia, Jochen Roller, Germany,  Marija Gajicki, Serbia, Adina Bar-On,  
Israel, Francisca Caporali, Brasil/USA, Sonja Soldo, Croatia,  
Alexandru Solomon, Romania, Mirjana Preis & Studio-Contemporary Dance  
Zagreb, Croatia,  Emina Višnić, Croatia, Ryuzo Fukuhara & Martina  
Štirn, Japan/Slovenija,  Corrado Guzzanti, Italy,  Hamdi Attia, Egipt,  
Rotem Balva, Israel, Salamanca, Israel, Ioannis Belimpasakis, Greece,  
Delphine de Blic, France, EIA, Germany/Belgium, Young hae-Chang, South  
Korea, Charlie Citron,USA/Holland, Omer Fast, Germany/USA, Harrell  
Fletcher, USA, Robert Franciszty, Croatia, Dejan Kljun, Croatia, Rafal  
Jakubowicz, Poland, Tadeusz Kantor, Poland, Neven Korda, Slovenija,  
Marko Kovačič, Slovenija, La Générale Collective, France, Zhenchen  
Liu, China/France, Christina McPhee, USA, Erbossyn Meldibekov,  
Kazahstan, Monochrom Collective, Austria, Not an Alternative  
Collective, USA, OPA Collective, FYR Macedonia, Jesus Palomino, Spain,  
Arjan Pregl, Slovenija, Irena Tomažin, Slovenija, Jože Spacal,  
Slovenija, Tjebbe van Tijen, Holland, Eugeny Umansky, Kaliningrad,  
Russia, Staš Kleindienst, Slovenija, Sebastjan Leban, Slovenija,  
Marina Gržinič, Slovenija, Constantin Borokhov, Russia, Francois A.  
Micheux, France, Helma Pollock, USA, Jaša H. Jenul, Slovenija Jiři  
Jílek, Czech Republic, Pulska Grupa, Croatia,  Amir Muhammad,  
Malaysia, Marcos Martinez, Argentina, Federico León, Argentina,  
Phillipe Dutilleul, Belgium, Benda Hofmeyr, South Africa

RUN FOR ART: Saturday, 3rd November 2007 at 12:00; Ministry of  
Culture, 5 Maistrova Street, Lju






-- 
Nina Leban
Break 2.4 festival PR
gsm:+386(0)41 462 236
nina.leban at break-festival.org

Zavod K6/4
Kersnikova 4
1000 Ljubljana
www.break-festival.org