[artinfo] Fwd: [spectre] Fwd: "Lost in Transition" opens soon in Tallinn, Estonia

[St.Auby Tamas]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Eric Kluitenberg <epk at xs4all.nl>
> Date: July 19, 2011 1:32:27 AM GMT+02:00
> To: “Spectre“ <spectre at mikrolisten.de>
> Subject: [spectre] Fwd: "Lost in Transition" opens soon in Tallinn, Estonia
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "Rael Artel" <rael at publicpreparation.org>
> Date: July 18, 2011 23:05:48 GMT+02:00
> To: pp at publicpreparation.org
> Subject: "Lost in Transition" opens soon in Tallinn, Estonia
> Reply-To: rael at publicpreparation.org
> 
> 
> PRESS RELEASE 18.07.2011
> 
> Exhibition title: Lost in Transition
> Framework: Your Periphery Is My Centre
> Venue: CAME, Põhja 35, Tallinn, Estonia
> Dates: Jul 22–Aug 28, 2011
> 
> Artists: Arnis Balcus (Riga), Alexei Gordin (Tallinn), Wojtek Doroszuk
> (Krakow/Rouen), Ivan Jurica (Bratislava/Vienna), Flo Kasearu (Tallinn),
> Gergely Laszlo & Katarina Ševic (Budapest), Zampa di Leone (according to
> artist's words, from "the Arse of the Balkan"), Anna-Stina Treumund
> (Tallinn), Katarina Zdjelar (Belgrad/Rotterdam)
> 
> Curator: Rael Artel (Pärnu)
> 
> 
> Do you remember the Summer of 1991? Can you recall the weather? What did
> you do on August 19th? How did you spend your evening? Where were you and
> with whom, when you heard about the coup d'état in Kremlin, Moscow? What
> did you say to your parents, friends and neighbors? What was announced on
> public television? What was the atmosphere in general?
> 
> As of this summer, 20 years have passed since that week, when the
> Socialist regime officially fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. The
> attempt to preserve the monstrously dysfunctional system failed, and the
> putsch delivered to it a deathblow, reorganizing the order of
> nation-states and democracy in the geopolitical region of Eastern Europe.
> Besides the change of political system, economic principles were even more
> dramatically reshaped, from one extreme to another: from a state-operated
> Socialist plan-economy to wild and heartless cowboy-capitalism. To name
> this process, the term 'transitional economy' was used and 'privatization'
> became one of its keywords. Privatization changed fundamentally the
> relations between the state and its citizens, between the owners of the
> means of production and the workers, between local and international
> capital. With the reforms, previously held assumptions about valued and
> legitimate ways of living, working and spending leisure time were
> renovated, so to speak; reframed through the lens of Europe.
> 
> In the dominant historical-political discourse, the last decades are
> perceived as a positive and progressive period, which, apart from the odd
> difficulty, have improved the quality of life in all the nations in former
> Eastern Europe. According to the understanding promoted in the mainstream,
> we all became winners that very week in August 1991; “we” as a region of
> democratic and independent nation-states, as well as "we" as private
> individuals. It seems to me that the question of what we may have lost has
> not been asked. And, after such a radical change in the surrounding
> situation, are we still lost in the confusion introduced by these rapid
> reforms?
> 
> The historical processes described above frame the subject of discussion
> for "Lost in Transition", an international exhibition of contemporary art
> that aims to collect and present a selection of critical perspectives on
> the prevalent social realities and lifestyles generated and practiced in
> former Eastern Europe 20 years after that fatal August day. Through this
> assortment of works I wish to sketch out some characteristic developments
> in the economic and social situation that have given rise to particular
> sets of values and ways of living in the era of transition, both in
> everyday life as well as in the art world. I see the medium of exhibition
> not as a mere display of works for intellectual pleasure or exciting
> leisure time, but as a proposition to discuss particular aspects of social
> reality and power relations we face daily in this part of Europe.
> 
> "Lost in Transition" is a part of "Your Periphery Is My Centre", a series
> of contemporary art presentations in various formats that examine
> ambivalent aspects of the life in former Eastern Europe and its
> neighboring regions.
> 
> The show is accompanied by publication: edited by Rael Artel, designed by
> Jaan Evart, published by PP Publications, 64 pages, in Estonian and
> English.
> 
> The exhibition is a part of official cultural program of Tallinn, European
> Capital of Culture 2011.
> 
> The show takes place in the framework of the festival "Kultuuritolm 2011"
> and as a part of the project "Your Periphery Is My Center".
> 
> Support: Eesti Kultuurkapital, Hungarian Embassy in Tallinn
> 
> More information:
> Rael Artel
> gsm: + 372 56 229 213
> email: rael at publicpreparation.org
> skype: raelartel
> 
> 
> 
> 
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