[artinfo] Practicing civic duties through social and visual media, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Announcing the list of participants for the project:
Reimagining the New Man / Practicing civic duties 
through social and visual media

Organizer/Location: Dushanbe Art Ground, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Theoretical section (seminars, lectures, screenings): 14-16 of March, 2014
Practical section (Film Workshop): 17 - 30 March, 2014

The list of participants:

Surayyo Tuychieva, - visual artist/, Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
Murodzhon Sharipov, - visual artist/ designer, Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
Khurshed  Rasulzoda - visual artist, Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
Rumeantzev Alla&Rumeantzev Älexei - visual artists, Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
Sulaymon Sharifi - visual artist, Dushanbe, Tajikistan,
Alexandr Nicolaev - visual artist, Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
Syrlybek Bekbotayev - visual artist, Almaty, Kazakhstan,
Aytegin Muratbek uulu - visual artist/sound artist, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Selected participants are expected to take part 
in both sections: theoretical and practical.

The project was designed to investigate 
post-socialist context and the condition of Tajik 
society, which was formed during the soviet 
period and shifted after the collapse of Soviet 
Union to open market realities and capitalist 
principles. In these circumstances the project 
aims at understanding, analysing and questioning 
civic engagement, participatory practices in 
community development and transfer of knowledge 
by means of social and visual media in 
contemporary Tajikistan.

Theoretical section (seminars, lectures, screenings):
- will explore theoretical discourses of 
relations between individual and collective, 
private and public. Its main purpose is to 
identify the key issues that arise between these 
domains. Theoretical section of the project will 
be organized as interactive lectures/seminars 
within which the participants will read/watch and 
discuss texts and videos. The participants will 
also write their own essays, elaborate film 
scenarios and blog posts to feedback on 
theoretical material discussed within the project.

Practical section (Film Workshop):
- will explore/re-use/re-contextualising existing 
visual material and commenting upon the 
gaps/ruptures/continuities between the 
dismantling of socialism and currently 
established neo-liberal system, 
questioning/defining the role of citizen/civic 
duties in the society and in urban context.
Guest tutors of the film workshop:
- John Davis (San Francisco, USA) is a media 
artist exploring the intersections of film, 
video, photography, experimental sound and social 
practices.
- Mark Boswell (New York, USA), the founder and 
leading theorist of the NOVA-KINO experimental 
film movement. Born 1960 in Asheville, N.C., 
Boswell studied film, film theory and art history 
in Switzerland, France, Germany and the Florida 
Space Coast from 1984-1992.

Project partners:
Dom KINO/Dushanbe, Center for Arts and Education 
Programs "Soghd"/Khujand, The University of Art 
and Design/Dushanbe, The Union of Artists of 
Tajikistan, Tojikkinoprokat/Dushanbe, Angor 
studio/Dushanbe, ArtAREA /Dushanbe.

This project is supported by U.S. Embassy in 
Tajikistan and U.S.  Democracy Commission Small 
Grants Program;
Technical support: Bactria- Cultural 
Center/Dushanbe, Angor studio/Dushanbe, ArtArea 
studio/Dushanbe.

Project curator - Stefan Rusu

Address:
Dushanbe Art Ground,
Rahsh trade center, (Second Floor)
Ismoili Somoni street 20, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, index 734 00

Dushanbe Art Ground - is a non-profit 
organization registered in 2012 in Dushanbe. DAG 
mission is to advocate for the development of 
contemporary art practices in Tajikistan, to 
redefine the role of the artist in contemporary 
society and shift the function of the artist from 
mere producer to engaged researcher and critic. 
DAG strategy is to achieve long-term sustainable 
development for new media arts and new platforms 
where creative and civic communities could 
collaboratively invent alternative avenues for 
social development and change.

************************************************************************************
Stefan Rusu - curator

Dushanbe Art Ground
tel: + 992 935036903
email: <http://compose/?mailto=mailto%3asuhebator@gmail.com>suhebator at gmail.com
skype: suhebator1