< Back Bishkek – Addis Ababa, notes from the journey through space and time Addis Ababa 28 May 2020 Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev Our trip to Ethiopia for a partner institutions meeting happened at the beginning of February 2020, at the time when coronavirus began to spread globally. It added some extreme flavour to our trip, but we did not expect that a real extreme for us would begin upon arrival to Addis Ababa airport when the border guards refused to grant us a tourist visa. After a long negotiation with officers, we realized that it was our fault. We were not careful in our research of internet sources, which were pointing out that citizens of Post Soviet countries are granted tourist visas upon arrival at the airport. Actually, we’ve missed important information: only Russians are allowed to obtain a visa upon arrival, and the rest of all Post Soviet countries were excluded from this list, for unknown reasons. Finally, we were recommended to apply for an online visa despite official information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia that the visa takes three days to be made. But we were so exhausted by the 24 hours trip and endless negotiations that we were ready to be stuck in the airport to wait for our visas, just like Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), the protagonist in The Terminal movie. Having had a hard time finding Internet access in the lounge, we applied for an online visa at night, taking urgent photos of each other and passport copies on our smartphones and fell asleep immediately in the lounge… We were awakened by a crowd of tourists arriving with early morning flights. Hopeless, we decided to check the status of our online visa applications, and, thank God – found the visa approval notice! The operation took just several hours! We passed passport control in a half an hour without any problems and were at the hotel by 9 in the morning, where we happily met Biljana Ciric, curator of the project As you go… This case made us think about how despite globalization and multiple similarities of contexts, cultural ties between Africa and Central Asia are almost invisible today. Our knowledge about Ethiopia, fragmented and partly based on African diary written by Russian poet Nikolay Gumilev in 1913, and our memory of 1970-80s when African military pilots, and Ethiopians amongst them, walked down the streets of Frunze [1] . We knew they were from a pilot school in a suburb of the Capital of Kyrgyz Republic. News on Soviet TV usually began with a story about official delegations from different countries, and it was often about the visits of African leaders. The words “friendship and collaboration”, “countries of non- alignment movement” [2] , “dear comrade Mengistu Haile Mariam” [3] , “brotherly support”, were part of a routine discourse on the three Soviet TV channels. Later, during our study in Soviet art academies in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, we met African students and gained some knowledge about the real situation in Ethiopia at that time. The collapse of Socialist Bloc [4] dramatically affected our histories, breaking already thin connections between our realities. The term “The Third World” became our commonality in one day. This somehow explains the absence of visible connections between Africa and Central Asia today: South-South traces are no more relevant in capitalism. Limited intersections between these parts of the World raised a certain amount of ignorance and clichés. During our preliminary online research on Ethiopia in particular, there were many recommendations on the health situation there. These included the requirement of quite expensive yellow fever vaccination, strict hygiene on arrival and use of purchased drinking water only. The justification of this kind of “Western” attitude towards the local context is a common occurrence in our economics and culture. Our visit to the National Museum of Ethiopia raised controversial emotions of awareness of a unique place, and example of modernist architecture. At the same time, it made us dive into dark thoughts about the similarities of poor conditions of museums in both of our countries. Neither the famous Luci [5] , the proof of cradle of mankind in Africa in the collection of the museum in Addis Ababa, nor Golden Collection in State Historical Museum in Bishkek [6] , the former Museum of Lenin, recently renovated but constantly postponed to open due to corruption scandals, could not hide a real sad situation with the official cultural policy in Ethiopia and Kyrgyzstan. National Museum of Ethiopia “Luci” Mifte Zeleke, who is in charge, as a director and curator, of Guramayne Art Centre, became a guide during our four days in Addis. Guramayne is a typical space familiar to our art scene. There are several institutions of this type in Bishkek and one of them is our organization, ArtEast. It is grass rooted, low budget, co-working, exhibition space and art studios. Guramayne is located in a two-floor house made of volcanic stones and a mixture of mud and straw – our favourite ancient construction technology spread over huge territories of Africa and Asia. Our group, together with Biljana Ciric, initiator of the partner institution meeting in Addis Ababa, and Zdenka Badovinac, director of the Moderna galerija in Ljubljana, was introduced to artists in an art residency at Guramayne Art Centre. We were completely impressed by the art that we have seen there, especially by the work of Tamrat Gezahegne. Guramayne Art Centre Studio of Tamrat Gezahegne The Guramayne Centre became our space for discussions about visions of the project As you go… , about contexts of Balkans, Ethiopia, Central Asia and China. During the meeting, participants defined our main commonalities like the socialist legacy, non-alignment movement, new geopolitical settings, agents of our own culture. Days were busy with doing interviews, screenings of videos and partner’s presentations. As you go… roads under your feet, towards the new future project and partner presentation, Guramayne Art Centre Performance by remarkable Ethiopian artist Robel Temesgen. There was some time to visit an exhibition of contemporary art in Modern Art Museum of Gebre Kristos Desta Center [7] named after Ethiopian modernist artist educated in Germany and University in the former Palace of Haile Selassie [8] . Top: Modern Art Museum Bottom: Guenete Leul Palace Visiting the Art Academy in Addis Ababa reminded us of official art education in Kyrgyzstan, based on a mixture of western modernist style and “socialist realism” remained since Soviet time. This kind of education is typical for most Post-Soviet territory, except Baltic countries. During the last 30 years, art education in Kyrgyzstan still does not accept contemporary art and western post-war version of art history. Addis Ababa Art Academy On the way to the next meeting, we managed to find a time to visit a local bazaar, taste the national dish “injera” [9] and, of course, famous Ethiopian coffee! Local Bazaar In the late evening, we visited Fendika Cultural Center [10] . It is a combination of a jazz club, exhibition space and a pub, with the high quality of music and visual art. We went there twice: the first time with our group, to listen to jazz, and the second time with Mifte Zeleke, just to look at the process of exhibition installation. We had a chance to be at the preview of Surafel Amare panting solo show. The entrance of Fendika Cultural Center Exhibition settings During our conversation with Mifte, he mentioned that Guramayne Art Centre will most probably be demolished, due to its positioning on the riverside, one of the areas that are a part of the new controversial plan initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed [11] . Officially called Beautifying Sheger [12] , the project runs along the rivers Entoto and Akaki, developing 56km of green spaces. The project aims to clean up these rivers, make the city a model of green development in the process, construct concrete walls, bridges and plant regular parks with a new infrastructure. But it is still far from the real sustainable development of the city infrastructure, due to many reasons. One of them is a critical situation with the pollution of the river and seasonal difference of the flow. Another big concern is ignorance of the voice of inhabitants of the riverside. Riverside development area next to the Guramayne Art Centre Our group saw the construction of the riverside during the long walk from the National Museum with Helen Zeru, an impressive young performance artist. An endless green iron fence along the road interrupted by the standard white plate of China Aid [13] . 12km section of the 56km project, as the first phase of the project, will be built by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) [14] with a grant secured from the Chinese Government. Riverside construction area Other ambitious plans to erect the highest skyscraper in Africa, invested and developed by China Jiangxi Corporation [15] for International Economic and Technical Cooperation [16] . This situation is now typical for Kyrgyzstan too. The building of the roads in our country is also mainly invested in, and implemented by Chinese companies. This often does not follow basic ecological terms. For instance, Bishkek city administration has cut down thousands of trees just to enlarge city roads, without notification or discussion with the public. Ironically, by the warning of urban activists, it would not solve the problem of traffic jams. By statistics, enlarging roads would only increase the number of cars in the city. Besides, trees that have been planted in the city over the last century solved the problems of semi-desert climate and protected against city pollution. This movement of planting trees in Bishkek began at the end of the 19th century, during the colonization of Central Asia by the Russian empire. It was obligatory for every citizen of the town to plant and take care of 25 trees nearby its house. Regular planning of the county town, including parks and the irrigation system, was established in the late 19th and early 20th century. This process continued in Soviet time by building new parks and botanical gardens. The more careful and thoughtful case of development of the riverside is the project of Zoma museum. It is a private project and it looks like a very well organized oasis in a quite chaotic life and landscape of Addis Ababa. Zoma Museum The owners of the museum, curator Meskerem Asseguedand artist Elias Sime completely changed the landscape of polluted riverside: they took out tons of waste from the ground and brought new soil to plant a garden. They followed principles of permaculture [17] , our favourite philosophy of working with nature. Thoughtfully organized irrigation canals, planted bushes, herbs, vegetables and fruits trees, buildings including a gallery, café, library, museum shop, a school for children, amphitheatre and cowshed are parts of the ecosystem. The style of the buildings is based on vernacular architecture, the surface made of mud and straw in a very capricious manner. Together with landscape design, all have some special charm. Zoma Museum Partners meeting in Zoma Museum library with Sarah Bushra and Sinkneh Eshetu We had our last group meeting in a cosy library with Sinkneh Eshetu, the remarkable Ethiopian writer and Sarah Bushra, a multi-disciplinary artist and writer. Having had lunch in the Museum’s cafe, it was possible to order tee with fresh Lemon Verbena directly cut from the garden – a combination of tropical and mountainous climate in Addis Ababa allowed growing multip plants almost all year round. Our last days were surprisingly spiced up with Bekele Mekonnen and Eshetu Tiruneh Feleke, two Ethiopian peers from Surikov art academy [18] in the 1980s. Both of them succeeded in art but in different directions. One of them is a successful sculptor and performance artist; another one is a former employee of the Ministry of Culture and currently dedicated director of Enlightenment Art Academy. The meeting was emotional, nostalgic and thoughtful. It was like a real journey through space and time. Interviews with Bekele and Eshetu allowed us to learn more about the post-socialist history of Ethiopia, about their challenges and desires. In Bekele Mekonnen studio Visiting Eshetu Tiruneh Feleke Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev are artists and curators from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. [1] Frunze is a former name of Bishkek during the Soviet period and the capital of Kyrgyz Republic. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengistu_Haile_Mariam [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus) [6] https://24.kg/english/80929_Opening_of_Historical_Museum_in_Bishkek_repeatedly_postponed_/ [7] http://www.gebrekristosdestacenter.org/ [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_(Ethiopia) [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injera [10] https://fendika.org/about [11] https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/03/12/addis-ababa-riverside-project-gives-priority-development-resident [12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautifying_Sheger [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Aid [14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Communications_Construction [15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangxi_International [16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Shandong_International_Economic_%26_Technical_Cooperation_Group [17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture [18] http://www.china.org.cn/top10/2014-02/07/content_31394806_3.htm Previous Next

< Back SEEING THE INVISIBLE 5 Nov 2021 Alexey Ulko Alexey Ulko film – SEEING THE INVISIBLE Alexey Ulko , born in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in 1969. Previous Next

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Lecture by Matt Packer / EVA International Saša Tkačenko, Flag from the WCSCD series, 2018. Photo by Ivan Zupanc THE CURATORIAL COURSE WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A PUBLIC TALK BY: MATT PACKER EVA International MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART BELGRADE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27 2018 AT 6 PM In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, the lecture within the series of public programs organized by WCSCD will be presented by Matt Packer — the Director of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art. The series is designed to offer new and different perspectives on the theories and practices of exhibition-making. The presentation by Matt Packer will evolve around EVA – Ireland’s longest running organisation of contemporary visual art. First established in 1977 to stimulate visual arts in the mid West region of Ireland, it since developed a model of inviting international guest curators to adjudicate (and in more recent editions curate) exhibitions of work by Irish and International artists. EVA adopted a biennial model in 2012 which continues today; the most recent edition, the untitled 38th EVA International, was curated by Inti Guerrero and took place across six venues in Limerick / Dublin in Spring-Summer 2018. Drawing on a number of specific episodes in EVA’s 40 year history, the recently appointed Director of EVA International will present examples of how EVA has coincided and responded to broader cultural and political changes, both within Ireland and internationally. These examples include EVA’s presentation of The Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the 8th Amendment during the 2018 referendum campaign to overrule restrictive abortion legislation in Ireland, and the recurring address of partition between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. ABOUT THE LECTURER: Matt Packer is the Director of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art. Previous roles include Director, CCA Centre For Contemporary Art Derry ~ Londonderry (2014 – 2017); Associate Director, Treignac Projet (2013-2016); Curator of Exhibitions & Projects, Lewis Glucksman Gallery (2008 – 2013). As an independent curator, he has curated numerous exhibitions in Ireland and internationally, including They Call Us The Screamers, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2017), Disappearing Acts, Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway (2015) (with Arne Skaug Olsen); When Flanders Failed, RHA, Dublin (2011) (with Stephen Brandes); and Ice Trade, Chelsea Space, London (2007) (with Kim Dhillon). He was part of the selection committee for the British representation at the Venice Biennale 2017. He has written for numerous magazines, journals including Frieze, Kaleidoscope, and Concreta. The WCSCD curatorial course and series of public lectures are initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric together with Supervizuelna. The lecture by Niels Van Tomme is made possible with the help of MoCAB and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the additional support of Zepter Museum and Zepter Hotel. Project partners: The Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade; GRAD—European Center for Culture and Debate; EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, ’Novi Sad 2021 – European Capital of Culture’ Foundation and Zepter Museum. The project is supported by: the Goethe Institute in Belgrade; Istituto Italiano di Cultura Belgrado; the Embassy of Sweden; the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the Embassy of Ireland in Greece; the Embassy of Indonesia; the EU Info Centre; Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council; and galleries Eugster || Belgrade, HESTIA Art Residency & Exhibitions Bureau, and Zepter Hotel, Royal Inn Hotel and CAR:GO. Media partners: EUNIC Serbia, RTS3. < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

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< Back Belgrade Calling 2 15 July 2020 Katarina Kostandinović Birdhead, April protests in Belgrade, 2017 When thinking about the title of this text, I thought of “Is Belgrade Burning?”, referring to “Is Paris Burning?” – the question Hitler is said to have asked on receiving the news of its fall. But I changed my mind; I did not want to dramatize the situation in Belgrade, which has, in the last week, escalated into several days of protests, police brutality and general dissatisfaction that threatens to be annulled by the authorities and the regime media. In a previous article that I wrote for this journal, through the form of diary entries, I dealt with the situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This text is a reaction to the current situation caused by unprofessional management of the coronavirus crisis, by the state representatives and the Crisis Staff. I’d like to clarify the position I am taking in writing the following text. I am an academic citizen and cultural worker employed in one of the public institutions of the city of Belgrade. In addition to supporting my generation in protests and expressing our dissatisfaction and recoil in fear, I want to condemn the rhetoric of violence, to rebel against corrupt officials, to condemn sexual predators and take the side of their victims. I want to allow myself to tell for the first time what kind of future I want and where I (don’t) want to live. To get out of the media darkness that has been overshadowing us all for some time, to support my colleagues and professors in the fight against plagiarized diplomas, I want nepotism to stop and positions in institutions to be filled on the basis of competency and knowledge. I want to support the fight for human rights, the rule of law and justice! DOUBLE STANDARDS and SOCIAL MEDIA AS AN EMERGING PUBLIC COUNTER SPHERE On June 21, the citizens of Serbia voted in the first parliamentary elections in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic, and part of the opposition decided to boycott the elections. A little more than a month before the elections, the state of emergency was lifted and people were encouraged to return to “normal”. That meant the possibility of holding sports matches and celebrations again, re-opening clubs and conducting an election campaign, as well as the elections. The new COVID-regime was meant to set the conditions for the upcoming parliamentary elections and voting procedures. While president Vučić was preparing, the cracks in the healthcare system and state’s neglect of health infrastructure became even more obvious than before [1] . Although the fact that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party won convincingly was not a surprise, there were discrepancies in real and reported numbers. Shortly after, the number of infected people started to rise and this time the numbers of infected and deceased people from some cities did not match the official data coming from the Crisis Staff and the state representatives. New precautions had to be introduced; among other things, the president decides to evict students from dorms in the middle of the exam period, identifying them as a dangerous factor in spreading the infection. After the report on the president’s decision on the same day, July 3, students from Belgrade gathered in front of the National Assembly to protest – the reaction was spontaneous and urgent. On Tuesday, July 7, after President Vučić announced that a curfew should be introduced in Belgrade, due to the rapid spread of the virus, thousands of citizens took to the streets of the capital to express their dissatisfaction. It was the first of seven protests held so far, which turned into a brutal showdown between police and protesters for almost three nights in a row. The protest turned into riots and people were throwing rocks and garbage cans, containers were set on fire, as well as police vehicles. On the first day of the protest, according to the information by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, four vehicles were set on fire, while one was damaged. Shortly after the arson, a story erupted on social networks that members of the police a.k.a. trained hooligans controlled by the state were behind such deeds. Most social network users are convinced that the Ministry of the Interior burned their vehicles on their own, old and unusable ones, which they are trying to prove with photos. On the other hand, the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs deny it. Social media, these days, is a serious channel through which information travels, people who protest from the streets report, and people who are not able to get to the streets share the content with incredible speed. Messages are of various content – from warnings about the movement of the police, mapping of suspicious persons at protests to articles of the law on protection of citizens and rights during arrests or police duties when using weapons, etc. Such mobilization through social networks was encouraged partly by footages of independent journalists who were the few to report on the protest, and largely by footages of protesters noticing police brutality and false statements by government officials denying the brutality in the media. Mass civil protests are a burning topic on social media and the public sphere. Numerous people have been discussing violence they have been witnessing. Thus, there is also fake news (both on social and TV networks) and corrupted media are now attracting even more attention – it is a matter of different content, and I will mention one. Reporting by a pre-written text, while people were sitting at the protest third day in a row, B92 TV news anchor states in the news at 11 pm that “the protest turned into violent demonstrations and clashes with the police”, although that was not true. The same reporter later joined the program live, saying that “there were no major incidents”. The fact that the “script” which anchor read in the studio was written in advance is evidenced by photos and recordings from the protest on Thursday, which, apart from a few minor clashes between the protesters, took place in peace and without clashes with the police. The mobilization on social networks gives the impression that the news from Belgrade is being transmitted outside the borders of Serbia. However, again, there are notable examples of biasing and altering news. Photo by Katarina Kostandinović WHO IS WHO and WHOM ARE YOU PROTECTING? For several days now, I have been witnessing a similar choreography of police and “hooligans” who are believed to be there to provoke incidents so that the government, supposedly, can blame the “organizers” of the protest for the violence and take violent steps to suppress the protest. People gather in front of the Assembly, the loudest and right-wing ones are in front of the entrance to the building, most of the other protesters surround them. Derogatory words are being shouted, the government is called out, Kosovo is mentioned, and specific demands are heard in some places. Some of the demands that can be heard are the following: the resignation of President Vučić; resignation of members of the Crisis Staff; overthrowing parliamentary elections; that the formation of Assembly and the Government should not be allowed on the basis of illegal and fraudulent elections, a law prohibiting party affiliation to employees in the judiciary, inspection, education, health, police and military; return open calls for employment in the public sector, without party employment; etc. Tension and dissatisfaction grow and after a while rocks are fired. The police came out of the Assembly and moved to the crowd in front of the building. Torches were lit, they flew towards the police, and at that moment, tear gas was flying from the other side towards the protesters who were fleeing from the police cordon that separated the group and continued to suppress it in the side streets and parks. It was the first time that my friends and I felt tear gas and its consequences. Later that night I saw the footage of the N1 television (one of the few that was on the scene that night).It showed the brutal beating of young men who were sitting in the park next to the Assembly. In the following evenings, from the terraces of apartments in the city centre, people recorded various cases of police brutality, and the number of arrested and beaten people on the streets grew from night to the night. It is undeniable that some police officers were hurt too, but the number of hurt unarmed civilians was much larger than reported. Revolted by the reaction of state representatives, whose speeches and announcements often confuse the Serbian public, regarding the protests and their violent suppression and final disintegration, people continue to gather next day at the same time in front of the Assembly. The next day, reactions to the police violence that happened the previous evening could be heard from the crowd. Then, after a couple of hours of protest, the situation escalated again into chaos and fleeing from tear gas and, now, better-equipped police forces, cordons, cavalry, and special anti-terrorist units in armoured vehicles. The violence on the streets of Belgrade which we witnessed opened the question of who are these people attacking police and whether there are those who are there to quell the protests from within “inserted” among us. This time, the aggression increased on both sides and the collision with the police continued. A huge amount of tear gas was fired, which was now coming to the apartments in the streets where people were fleeing and hiding. The denial of the fact that the police fired tear gas at all, by the prime minister herself, led the protesters to take the streets peacefully the next day, to show disgust with the police brutality while sitting in front of the Assembly. After two days of brutal clashes with the police, the protesters gathered under the slogan “Sit down – Don’t be manipulated”. Authorities withdrew the police and seemingly acknowledged the peaceful protests, which escalated with the president’s next public announcements. As usual, his aggressive rhetoric when addressing citizens and journalists, which oscillates between the role of a worried father and a frightening tyrant, encouraged protesters to take to the streets for the fourth night in a row. And the now well-known choreography is repeated with even stronger police forces, which this time arrest everyone who is on their way and take them to, as it is stated, the Assembly, where they interrogate the detainees, beat them, take away their phones and write reports. The media have been reporting that after the conflict in front of the Assembly, the police fired a large amount of tear gas into the mass of peaceful demonstrators, some of whom are 30 years old. The cartridges that were scattered on the streets near the Assembly of Serbia clearly show that the year of production is 1990. The current debate in media discusses the effects of old tear gas, which, apparently, after five years changes its chemical composition and the substance becomes stronger. This can imply that the convention on the use of chemical weapons was violated and human health was directly endangered. State officials and Ministry of the Interior denied these reports, stating that the inevitable was done in order to quell the violent protest and prevent greater damage. People are more and more scared and, consequently, there are obviously fewer people gathering, unlike the first two days of the protest. During the weekend the number of protesters almost halved, and this Monday (July 13) was immeasurably lower than the first few days. This is partly a consequence of the increase in police patrols, which have been on the streets of Belgrade, searching for people who get in their way, especially those with protest banners.Several arrests have been reported. On the other hand, reported cases of cell phone hackings and deleting of the protest recordings brought unrest and additional fear due to privacy violation. The police have arrested non-violent protesters, among them leftist activists. This prompted the protest movement from the Assembly to the Central Prison in Belgrade, where protesters are demanding the release of “political prisoners” [2] . Yesterday and today, July 14, people are protesting because of numerous arrested activists and students who were not violent during the protest –some were just passers-by interrogated by police whose statements were falsified. They were then sentenced to 30 days in prison, without the possibility to contact a lawyer and defend themselves in court. We are scared and disoriented, it seems that the expressed rebellion and anger did not get any political articulation and does not turn into a strategy in the fight against the current government or a strategy of clearly defined demands that would pressure the government to meet those demands. The role of the opposition, which has been left without the organizational capacity and credibility to address the citizens at this political moment, seems unwelcomed. How to articulate a rebellion against impotent representatives of the people, who confuse, deceive and criminalize their citizens? How to express dissatisfaction with public information and corrupt media? How to invite colleagues, professors, friends to join and not be afraid to withdraw from obedience to the perennial fear government? In the previous few days, perhaps the most serious protests were held during the rule of Aleksandar Vučić, who already after the first evening fulfilled the first and so far the only request of the demonstrators – a change in the decision to reintroduce the curfew. Some would say that no matter how these protests end, it is a big and serious thing, especially since the public, after the “One in Five Million” protest ended, speculated whether and when energy would be accumulated for new protests. It turned out, on Tuesday night, July 7, that only one spontaneous gathering of angry citizens, due to the announcement of a new curfew, was more fruitful than about a year of protests led by the opposition. The protest became a place where politically, ideologically diverse people gather, and how the day will look like depends on the current dominance in the number of some of them. The only thing that is constant and common to everyone in front of the Assembly of Serbia is dissatisfaction with the regime and the current situation in the country. For the first time since the April protests in 2017, when Vučić was elected for president, we see young people on the streets, mostly those aged 18 to 30-40. There were also sympathizers and activists from the oppositional Alliance for Serbia, Don’t Let Belgrade Drown, activists from the Roof (anti eviction organization), the New Social Democratic Union, artists and cultural workers, but also alt-right groups such as People’s patrols, Levijatan, as well as workers from the Private Security Agency Protector. Public institutions are still in the dark, no one has stepped forward, unions are silent too, and people are scared to join because they see no defined prospect. It is showed that those who stood against the current rule were criminalized and overshadowed, even silenced. I am afraid that any civil protest that will take place in the future in this way will be compromised. It seems to me that the public is confused by the number of young people on the streets. They are not seen at rallies of the opposition or the ruling party, the public is confused by the so-called orientation of people, which again, cannot be reduced to those political and ideological phrases that existed at the time of October 5th 2000, when the people rebelled against Milošević’s rule and finally overthrew him. This is a generational thing, there are young people left and right oriented, civic oriented and patriotic oriented, but the regime media impose their ideological phrases and criminalize what they do not understand. The notion of left and right is not valid at this political moment, we also have to rethink the terminology and its historical and/or current state. We wonder whether the right-wingers are the people who are advocating for Kosovo at the protest and its preservation in the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Serbia, advocating for physical security and the right to property and the rule of law, both for Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Is it a right-wing or liberal vocabulary? Is a leftist someone who stands for ethnically clean territories – for the policy of demarcation and, thus, follows the policy of the West? How broad is the political spectrum that we know, and how much do we know? Now, only a thin layer of educated young people from larger cities are on the streets (Niš, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, etc.). Those who still have a lot of strength and a lot of life ahead of them. But we fail to turn indignation into political demands, because the opposition is incapable of helping us, among other things. Our parents have been exhausted for a long time and are not ready to stand up, those who fought for the democratization of society in 2000, gave up. We live in Belgrade, in a bubble, without contact with people who vote for the ruling party and whose world and worries we do not understand. They are trapped in an authoritarian system that their children, WE, want to blow up. I don’t want to be pessimistic, but even this time it doesn’t seem that the uprising will be successful, the spontaneous civic protest is facing the question of “and then what”. It seems that our opposition, as it is today, is not ready and is lacking strong support of the people. We need an organic opposition that will be formed at the protests. We have to think long-term and offer ideas and policies, talk about solutions because it will be difficult to defeat the tyrant in his field of violence. Photo by Katarina Kostandinović ENDING NOTE It seems that the fight against the coronavirus will not end so quickly. It seems that the members of the Crisis Staff found themselves unprepared again in the fight against the epidemic. While the authorities have the responsibility to ensure public order and to respond to individual violent incidents, the disproportionate use of force against entire demonstrations is not justified. Heavy-handed measures of the kind we have seen over the past few days infringe the rights of those protesting peacefully and will only increase tension and provoke hostility, leading to an escalation of the situation. It is a matter of time before a state of emergency is introduced again, which in a way blurs some priorities and raises alarms about how human rights are being balanced against the risks posed by COVID-19. The last time Serbia was in the State of Emergency was in 2003 following the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić; on which occasion the government derogated numerous human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to freedom of movement, the right to freedom of expression and the freedom of media. P.S. THE LEGACY OF THE OCTOBER 5 This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the great demonstrations in Belgrade that ended Slobodan Milošević’s rule on October 5, 2000 [3] . The Democratic Opposition of Serbia called on the citizens to gather in front of the National Assembly on October 5 in order to oppose the great election theft that the Federal Election Commission carried out on the order of Milošević. The opposition ultimately demanded that Slobodan Milošević recognizes the electoral will of the citizens expressed in the federal, presidential and local elections held on September 24, by 3 pm on Thursday, October 5, 2000. It was also demanded that all those arrested be released, as well as that the arrest warrants and criminal charges filed against those who protested for respecting the electoral will of the citizens of Serbia be withdrawn. Currently, the then participants in Slobodan Milošević’s government are once again occupying the most important positions in the country. Katarina Kostandinović is an art historian and curator based in Belgrade, Serbia. [1] https://dversia.net/6026/serbia-mass-protest-vucic/?fbclid=IwAR2LDkBeUtiKHIfbMQxTnSo807MkULpu5VF3qKwjj7EUOURSJgHMd08mKQc [2] https://www.masina.rs/eng/beating-and-jailing-of-non-violent-activists-followed-by-protest-in-front-of-belgrade-central-prison/?fbclid=IwAR20g4iHhvUn5jA3mvNUfu91-5scgs_KODi3-rIZaOeMDZhgrOH5TZKIqds [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overthrow_of_Slobodan_Milo%C5%A1evi%C4%87 ; (See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/05/continuous/yugoslav-protesters-set-parliament-on-fire.html , https://balkaninsight.com/2010/10/05/timeline-the-bulldozer-revolution/ ) Previous Next

This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. < Back This is a Title 03 This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Previous Next

< Back School-In-Isolation Isolated in Bishkek 18 Apr 2020 Bermet Borubaeva Kyrgyzstan is a small country of the post-soviet bloc, impacted by corruption, where one third of the population lives at or below the poverty line. Many people live day-to-day without savings, on as little as $30-$50 USD per month, and there is no governmental support for low-income families. One third of the GDP derives from the wages of workers who have migrated to Russia to earn money to send home to their families in Kyrgyzstan. Intellectual workers, freelancers and artists face similar issues as other vulnerable workers as their employment is often precarious and irregular, with income often dependent on foreign grants and international projects. Kyrgyzstan went into isolation mode after confirmation that three pilgrims who came back from Saudi Arabia on 12 March 2020 tested positive for COVID-19. Very soon all schools, universities, and private companies (except for enterprises of strategic supply, shops, pharmacies) were closed and transformed for distant work. The government declared a State of Emergency and closed the borders. People were only allowed to go to shops and pharmacies during the day, with a night-time curfew from 8pm to 7am until 14 April, however this has now been extended until the end of April. Visiting the park for some exercise. The sports parks in Bishkek are almost empty. 4.4.2020 In the beginning there was some kind of euphoria, people were not used to sitting at home and not going to work and school – usually this is only possible during New Year vacations when, for one week, we stay at home most of the time, meet with friends, eat and drink. But this is not Happy New Year and Christmas time. Most of the time, workers are busy at work and don’t have the opportunity to stay home with their families and dedicate time to reading books, hobbies or cleaning. I think it would be nice if people had access to a universal basic income for this period and could just use the time to reboot. The parking spaces near my apartment are full. Everyone sits at home. 24.3.2020 I had been very busy for the past six months, including exhibitions, many street rallies, protests and rights protection activities. And in one moment it all stopped. It was as though almost everything I was working for as an arts professional or activist became useless somehow. I had no idea how to behave, what to do, and how I could help. Initially, I was just travelling along the tracks as I had before, working on current projects as if nothing had changed, even though I knew this route had already been disconnected. I find it difficult to be optimistic about the current situation – without a universal basic income and with the corruption of the government, I feel it is impossible to solve this situation adequately to avoid a deep human crisis. For the past 7 years I lived in Moscow but returned to Bishkek for the exhibition “ Death. Yearning. Love ” by Laboratory CI that opened in November 2019. During my stay in Bishkek, I attended the Conference of Green Mobility, where I learned that Bishkek had the highest air pollution rating in the world, which lead to my decision to move back to Bishkek and join the Green Party and run in the parliamentary elections in October. I was also aware that there was no plan for a new group of students in the ArtEast School of Contemporary Art, so I decided to take on the role of coordinator to ensure that the school would continue. The view from my apartment window. 10.4.2020 ArtEast was founded in 2002 by Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev founded, with the aim of developing the contemporary art scene in Central Asia in various ways, including through the curation of international exhibitions and arts festivals, creating artworks, and conducting educational projects. ArtEast’s School of Contemporary Art launched in 2009 and I was part of the first group of students to attend. The school was non-formal, with the aim of providing an introduction to art history and expanding the worldview of students. After graduating, we did many projects together, with some of the students moving into filmmaking, design etc, and some founding their own institutions. My desire to keep the school going was inspired by research that took place during the What Could Should Curating Do? curatorial program in Belgrade last year, when I was a participant of the program. The research focused on the informal education program “School of History and Theory of Images” that was initiated 20 years ago in Belgrade by curators and theoreticians and made a huge impact on the art scene. Thinking about this school, I realised how important it is to keep art schools and programs running. This year, the school evolved to include a curatorial team consisting of the founders and a number of graduates and their own platforms – Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev (founders), Alima Tokmergenova and Oksana Kapishnikova (ArtBus), Kanaiym Kydyralieva, Ravshan Ta Djing, Diana Ukhina ( Laboratoria CI ), Nellya Djamanbaeva ( Capacity Building Foundation ) and Bermet Borubaeva ( Cooperative PreobraZHenskiy ). We even had three spaces to conduct classes in – the underground space of Laboratory CI, the ArtEast Studio, and our partners Ololohouse. We had lessons every Sunday, lasting between 3-5 hours, with sandwiches, fruits and sweets, and, several times, someone cooking for the group. It is an ArtEast school tradition to gather and celebrate holidays together. We had planned to organise an informal party in the style of Dada but were not able to do so before the quarantine began. As we do not have any governmental or non-governmental educational institutions in the sphere of contemporary art and culture the school is very important for the region. We do not receive any state funding, asking students to pay a small fee (approx. $70USD for the whole 5-month program) to cover basic expenditures, which gives us the opportunity to keep the school autonomous and to continue without any grants. This year’s group of students were excited to be learning about contemporary art. Some of our students had a background in art, while others did not, but we saw this as a good thing as we wanted to have a multidisciplinary program. Among the students we have musicians, an IT specialist, architects, designers, a Yoga trainer, criminalist, feminists and urban activists, anthropologist, teacher, philosopher and even medical worker. We had a really nice atmosphere every time we met, with students involved in a number of projects before the quarantine began, such as the exhibition-protest #BishkekSmog 20.02.2020 against air pollution, in front of Parliament House. Some of the students were involved in working on an exhibition to take place inside a bus, called “Kiyinky Aiyaldama” (“Next Station” in Kyrgyz language), curated by student Rada Valentina Kyzy and two curators of the course – myself and Oksana Kapishnikova. We had permission from the city Mairie, had selected works through an open-call, and had the opening planned for March 29. The exhibition has been postponed, rather than being moved online. For the ArtEast School it was tradition to make informal parties together, celebrating New Year or other events and we, with the students, had planned to make a party in the style of Warhol’s Factory or Surrealist’s dreams, but has not been able to happen yet. For the School, we made the decision to shift to an online format even before isolation officially started, after the students requested this, and in order to provide security for everyone. The first online session of the school was extremely complicated as nobody was used to such a format – the noises, the order for people to speak, lack of eye-contact and direct attention for speakers, microphones switched off, people out of visibility of their cameras, and so on. However, one of the positives to come out of this new format is the possibility of inviting guests from other countries to participate in the school and conduct lectures and discussions. Knowing this, we added a fourth topic to the program. In addition to Modern Art, Contemporary Art and Contemporary Art in Central Asia, we have added Meetings with International Curators and Theoreticians. In this way, we have been able to move beyond the borders, even when the borders are closed. School activities before the quarantine began – discussing the “Next Station” exhibition that has now had to be postponed. 9.2.2020 Lessons have now moved online, which has taken time for everyone to adjust to. 1.4.2020 The question of one of our students – what is the final result of our school now? – is very poignant. We have very little understanding of how things will be after all of this ends – what the role of artists will be, how they will be able to impact society etc. But for the moment, all we can do is develop our imagination and use a critical approach. We had planned, as the final stage of the achool program, for students to participate in our Festival of Public Art, “TRASH III”, dedicated to environmental pollution, and held in the ‘Straw-bricks Belt’ of Bishkek’s Novostroikas, where there is no infrastructure or arts events. As part of this, we planned to hold a workshop-laboratory event called “Art of Co-participation”, conducted by Anton Valkovsky (a curator from Volgograd/Berlin). He has said that it’s better to conduct this workshop offline, rather than trying to change it for an online platform, and so we have postponed the workshop and the festival for an indefinite period. Online Zoom Lesson: Moscow Conceptualism. 29.3.2020 Online Zoom Lesson: From Sculpture to Installation. Muratbek Djumaliev showing Festival of Public art Art Prospect. 5.4.2020 Another ArtEast project is the construction of an energy-efficient Residency building at the famous lake Issyk-kul, working with local community. It is important for our ArtEast community to decentralize art practices and run projects outside the capital. Spring is the time to plant trees, to work with the earth, to mobilize the community and collaborate in these ways. We had also discussed plans to organise students to hold some workshops or a festival at the lake. But now the road to the Issyk-kul region is closed and there is no possibility to work in that part of the country. The salary from the TRASH III festival was to be my main source of income, so now I find myself with no income for the foreseeable future. I live with my family – my mom and grandmother – and my mother, a hairdresser, has almost finished working as hair salons are not allowed now. We have only pensions, which are very small in Kyrgyzstan, but we are very privileged because we have our flat that we live in. If not, it would be extremely tough now. My brother just went to Moscow to work in a taxi service to send money back, but the percentage of the promised salary is extremely low now and he has to work for Yandex.taxi (like Uber), with his earnings only covering food expenses. There are millions of migrant workers in Russia who send money back to families in the Central Asian regions and I am very sad because it is now the only income for many Kyrgyz families and these workers will be exposed to even more exploitation than before as they try to find any job in any conditions. There are some discussions among art practitioners in Kyrgyzstan about how isolation can affect the country in general and us. Our museums and art institutions have started to open their archives and make e-shows. Meder Akhmetov from ‘Studio Museum’ suggested to open an e-gallery to support artists. Many art practitioners are just staying calm and working on their projects waiting for when the current situation ends. Some said that in such situations they think it is better to live in a country other that Kyrgyzstan – if you catch the virus here, you are almost incurable, you’re on your own and, even if you do the right thing and stay inside, there are no social guarantees or support from the State. Actually, so many people have already migrated and those who stayed were mostly those who wanted to work on developing culture, however given the current situation, maybe they will change their minds and decide to migrate too. I cannot image that it is possible for such a large-scale pandemic to disappear in the next few months. I believe that after the quarantine period ends, people will still be afraid to go out and will remain at home if possible, so many online activities will continue. Even now, activity in Bishkek has not completely stopped – someone has started online art challenge and online art schools, such as the School of Artistic Gesture in Kazakhstan. We have even had our first experience of an online exhibition – our annual event, 1st April Art Competition – where works were exhibited online and the jury even published a play-discussion of the selection process in a Whatsapp chat group. As for me, my life has not really changed a lot except that I am not going out. Work is progressing, there is still a schedule of meetings (albeit e-meetings) and the same deadlines, and so I just keep going. I will continue to work on my art ideas and now just have more time to write the concept and programs, apply for financing and find partners. I believe more now in what I am doing in art and my other activities in relation to drawing attention to global risks of environment pollution. I would like to experience more live practices in art like gardening or cooking, cooperating, saving. The dream is to create space as a prototype for an alternative way of living, and perhaps now, for the next half a year at least, we can start to build this platform. Class preparation involves a special guest now. 29.3.2020 I have also started home improvements, which are going very slowly. 6.4.2020 Bermet Borubaeva is an artist and activist from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Previous Next

< Back AS YOU GO… ROADS UNDER YOUR FEET, TOWARDS THE NEW FUTURE | FILM PROGRAM 8 Apr 2021 As you go… roads under your feet, towards the new future International symposium / live stream Symposium presenters: What Could Should Curating Do and Moderna galerija , Ljubljana, Slovenia Duration: 22 – 31 March 2021, Link to live-stream Special screening as part of the As you go..roads under your feet, towards the new future presenting works by artists, researchers and curators part of the project. Jasphy Zheng, Stories from the Room As a response to the state of isolation and the collective pause we shared globally due to the outbreak of the pandemic, I initiated Stories from the Room, my on-going art project since early 2020 to collect personal writings from across the world. While receiving writings in different languages, I am building a growing archive and housing it in various countries, thus outputting and storing memories in private or public places. By connecting on and offline worlds, I am imagining a new territory that redefines the notion of physicality, distance, and connection at this time. Are we, perhaps for the first time, experiencing something together as a globe, or is “universality” still a romantic illusion? Is it still possible to expand empathy even when the sentiments of ”we are in this together” fails? Living between the US and China, Jasphy Zheng is an artist whose art practice explores the idea of imagined collectiveness and the inevitable failure of communication. Salem Mekuria, Amba’s E(u)topia About Awra Amba’s E(u)topia – About seventy years ago, Zumra Nuru was born into a traditional agrarian Muslim family in a remote village in Northern Ethiopia, near Awra Amba. He never went to school. As a child he started questioning why things were as unequal and unjust as he observed life in his village to be. He dreamt of a society where people could live in peace and full equality regardless of who they were. Fifty years ago, that dream materialized into what is now known as Awra Amba, a community based on true equality in all aspects of life and where religion is a private affair. This story introduces a revolutionary society thriving in the heart of a very conservative Ethiopia. With interviews and compelling scenes of the village and its people, Awra Amba’s (E)utopia will give us a glimpse into their unique lifestyle. Salem Mekuria, Square Stories Trilogy For the last twenty years, I have been exploring innovative ways to visually represent the lingering, yet unexamined, legacy of the tragic events of Ethiopia’s military regime. I started experimenting with multi-screen format as a tool for complicating the linearity of documentary style film, and for telling visual stories without the need for verbal narration. In utilising the triptych form, I reference traditional Ethiopian Orthodox religious art history and its ubiquity in the lives of my primary audience. By expanding on this cultural motif and emptying it of its traditional content, I juxtapose images, events, stories, and ideas to offer multiple ways of understanding Ethiopian history, and to engage audiences by inviting them to actively participate in the unfolding of these narratives. The Square Stories Trilogy is the latest in such experimentation. In it, I examine visual memory and the process of its erasure – how the spaces in Maskal Square defy efforts to suppress or erase traces of the traumatic events presented in Deluge. I follow the Square’s physical evolution from its beginnings as a space for the annual celebration of Maskal (the Finding of the true Cross), to becoming the primary site for political protests as well as the display of spectacles of power by succeeding regimes. Ethiopia’s desire for modernity is also played out in the ongoing transformation of the square, which has watched Ethiopian history be made and remade time and again. Salem Mekuria, an Ethiopian-American, is an award-winning writer, director, videographer and producer of independent films and video art installations. Aigerim Kapar, Artcom Platform The many secret scapes of Balkhash Lake: a travelogue of the crossboundary contexts, communities and ecosystems. The lake is one of the biggest endorheic water bodies in the world and has a millenia-long history of socio-cultural life, ecological traditions, and semi-nomadic management methods, responsive to the climatic features of the arid zone. Today modern industrialization and militarization during the colonial Soviet period continues to prevail in its cultural landscape and imagination. Scientific research of the lake and its region mainly carries out a capitalist design, and the socio-cultural studies are practically absent. An important and pressing task is to decolonize the concept/memory/knowledge of Balkhash. It is necessary to understand what it was like before the Soviet period, what role Balkhash played in the cultural landscape of the local people, and how current sources impact the attitudes and practice towards Balkhash ecosystem – how old/current/new sources can be reflected through decolonial optics and emerge as an important factor in its sustainable future. The secrets of Lake Balkhash is a transdisciplinary collaborative mixed methods research effort including contributions from ethnography, cultural mapping, interviews, observations, expedition reports. The research is part of Artcom Platform’s Care for Balkhash initiative and is supported by the As you go…the roads under your feet into the new futur e long term research inquiry. Aigerim Kapar is a curator and Founder of Artcom Hu Yun, Untitled audio and video diary letters from Bor, 2021 BOR – The early stage of my research in Bor is composed of an ongoing conversation with the city’s only Chinese restaurant owner, Chef Qiu. On 18th December 2018, Chinese Mining company, Zijin Mining Group, formally took over RTB Bor Group under the new name “Serbia Zijin Bor Copper”. During the past two years, Chinese engineers and workers have been relocated to Bor by Zijin Group and its supporting companies from China. Due to the pandemic, the relocation process has slowed down, though has not come to a stop. According to Zijin’s development planning, more workers will be needed in the coming years. As a newcomer, just like all the Chinese workers working for Zijin Group, Chef Qiu arrived at Bor without any knowledge of the local context, and he only speaks Mandarin and Hokkien (Fujian Province, Southern China dialect). The outcome of this first stage of research will be several short video essays based on a series of interviews done with Chef Qiu and video footage taken during a research trip in early 2020, together with footage from Chef Qiu taken throughout 2020 as his own visual memory of his first year in Bor. Hu Yun is an artist based in Melbourne Previous Next

Giulia Menegale < Back After The Covid-19: Speculations Over The Verb ‘To Re-Start Giulia Menegale One week ago, I left my room in London with mixed feelings: I took this decision based on the impossibility to formulate any previsions about the future. I travelled from London- Heathrow to Roma-Fiumicino by plane and then, from Roma-Fiumicino to Venice by car. Being born in neoliberal and globalized times, I am not used to making decisions which are beyond the possibility of choosing among several diversified options: in the current situation, we have lost our apparently unlimited freedom to travel, to produce and to consume. Only one flight company operates this trip. The Italian government ensures the opportunity to come back to their home country only for its own citizens who are currently living in the UK, whilst the borders are officially closed for the rest of the population. Once arrived in Venice, I had to self-isolate for 14 days meaning that I could not leave home neither for doing shopping or taking the trash out. These are the only two activities for which Italians who reside in the red areas – zones highly affected by the COVID-19 – are now allowed to leave their houses. Being at home with my family implies to join again the quotidian rituals happening among its warm walls, after months. One of these consists in watching the news together on the television, while having meals. Since my return, I thus heard several times journalists announcing that ‘We will be ready to restart our activities soon, though we need to act carefully and gradually’. When this happens, the members of my family stop eating and impose absolute silence on each other in the hope that possible dates for the ‘re-opening’ of the activities will be officially announced. Recently, the Italian government has indeed made public a provisional calendar for the next months: ‘on the 3rd May…’; ‘in July 2020…’; ‘in October 2020…’; ‘next year…’ I am the only member of my family who keeps eating her meals regardless of these announcements and does not make comments on them. I understand the shared need and will to ‘restart’ after more than one month of lockdown: ‘The Italian economy is suffering’ an Italian politician says, ‘The lockdown for the COVID-19 costs each Italian citizen 788 euros per month’ someone else adds, ‘and Italy risks to lose up to the 20% of its total GDP by the end of the year’. Nonetheless, when I hear the television or my familiars pronouncing the term ‘restart’, I cannot avoid asking myself whether me and the governments, me and thousands of other Italian families, are waiting for the same systems, activities and lifestyles to ‘restart’. By using the term ‘restarting’, do we even refer to the same phenomenon? Once, the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari said that the fundamental problem of political philosophy ‘is still precisely the one that Spinoza saw so clearly (and that Wilhelm Reich rediscovered): why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?’ (2004: 31). Through this sentence, they emphasize the fact that the neoliberal and consumeristic societies we live in, produce the same conditions that make us “to want” and “to need” this exploitative economic system ruling us. Since the lockdown began, we all have experienced the ambiguous feeling caused by being trapped between the desire of “carry on as if a health crisis has never happened” and the pleasure of “escaping from any imposed duty”. This pandemic has been efficacious in showing us, through empirical experimentation, that the “ought to consume”, as well as, the “ought to produce” are not urgencies tied to our bodies or our souls. Why should we desire to come back to a system, a lifestyle, a world whose survival relies on the application of mechanisms of massive subordinations? In these weeks, several intellectuals have speculated about possible futures after the COVID-19, over online journals. The sociologist Bruno Latour suggests ‘do not repeat the exact thing we were doing before’ this unexpected ‘stopping of the world’(2020: 2). If we want to become ‘efficient globalization interrupters ’, we should strongly refuse the same modes of overproduction which lead us to periodical crises and to the accentuation of inequalities between winner nations and defeated ones. In light of Latour’s suggestions, the verb ‘to restart’ acquires thus meanings which differ from the ones evoked by worldwide governments: it means, not only to seriously deal with the heath crisis we are passing through now, but also with the climatic and planetary emergencies which we are witnessing since many years. The current heath crisis encounters the environmental emergency in the image of a man carrying in his hands a branch with several hanging face masks which has been shared by the association Ocean Asia. The picture was taken during some marine operations around the Soko Islands, a small archipelago in Hong Kong, where associated researchers had found dozens of these protection devices along the coasts. According to some figures announced by an Italian newspaper a few days ago, Cina produces nearly 200 million of face masks per day while the U.S. will need to supply 3,5 billion in order to protect medical workers in a severe pandemic. By the end of each month, Italy will have consumed and thrown away 130 million of face masks. The photo I have referred to thus summarize the paradox with which we will soon be confronting, if we do not consider the environment as a priority in this generalized call ‘to re-start’. An important number of single-use face masks and plastic gloves – all surgical devices which are certainly saving human lives now! – will be added to the 6 millions of tons of synthetic fibers produced per year – materials which are certainly dangerous for the environment due to their dispersion in the form of microplastics! – to get rid off. In the scenario described, it seems to me that we are living in times where the pages of our daily agendas are full of exclamation marks and red underscores: priorities get accumulated under long ‘to-do lists’ (or to-change lists?!) that requires equally energetic and prompt responses. Formulating the question in Spinozian words again, have we reached the full capacity in confront of the challenges that our bodies, our planet, the pandemic can take on? When the health and social crises encounter the environmental one, establishing a political agenda means to set priories among urgencies that cannot longer be postponed. When I hear the word ‘re-start’ on the television or other mouths, I take time to imagine that, meanwhile, we are meeting over the web to agree on possible actions to be undertaken on the small and bigger scales. In this period of lockdown, my hope is that we have begun working consistently toward the construction of the infrastructures which will allow us to respond to these multilayered crises, both on the micropolitical and macropolitical levels. Has the ambiguity generated by the use of the verb ‘to restart’ suggested any strategies regarding how to actuate such systematic changes, yet? Giulia Menegale (1995) is an Italian-based curator, writer and researcher. SOURCES [1] Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Felix. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia , London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, 1984. [2] Latour, Bruno. What protective measures can you think of so we don’t go back to the pre-crisis production model? , translated by Stephen Muecke, ACO media, 29th March, 2020: https://aoc.media/opinion/2020/03/29/imaginer-les-gestes-barrieres-contre-le-retour-a-la-production-davant-crise/ (last visit: 23/04/2020.) [3] Zanini, Luca. “Coronavirus, allarme ambientale: «Miliardi di mascherine finiranno nei mari»”. In Il Corriere della Sera , Milan, 8th April 2020: https://www.corriere.it/cronache/20_aprile_08/coronavirus-allarme-ambientale-miliardi-mascherine-finiranno-mari-7e05af60-781c-11ea-98b9-85d4a42f03ea.shtml [4] Article from Ocean Asia: http://oceansasia.org/beach-mask-coronavirus/ Previous Next

< Back The stories behind the lockdown: Kazakhstan against Corona 28 July 2020 Anvar Musrepov During the quarantine, Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to return to a full lockdown in a post-Soviet authoritarian manner. On March 19, lagging two weeks behind the actions of EU countries, quarantine was announced in Kazakhstan. Schools, universities, and shopping centers were closed. Armored soldiers with military equipment and machine guns were placed in front of city entrances, as police checked all passerby’s, asking each person about their purpose for simply walking. Considering the low number of coronavirus cases at the time, many people agreed that the government reacted with unreasonably strict protocols. There were few infected patients, yet the military marked those territories, cordoned off neighborhoods at the foci of infection, and in some cases even sealed entrance doors to apartment complexes containing dozens of residents. Kazakhstani citizens didn’t have the opportunity to go outside, exercise or even go for a walk. Quarantine adopted an extremely totalitarian style, and for many, it seemed that the Coronavirus was merely an allowance for the performance of an authoritarian power. The special local consciousness of people, based on the mythological perception of reality, gave rise to a large stream of fake news: from disinfection through a pagan shamanic ritual of fumigating the space with sacred grass, to conspiracy theories denying the existence of Coronavirus, and connecting the quarantine with the prolonged transition of power in the country. Back in the Soviet period, political mythology was a part of the folk art. The Kazakh state system of making decisions behind closed doors lead to a conspiracy vision of the world among many of its citizens. One of these myths, for example, tells of secret meetings in the underground halls of the President’s palace, where Nazarbayev conducts mystical rituals with the cabinet of ministers, before levitating at the moment of worship. The mythologization of power and undermined trust also impacted the effectiveness of the information campaign of COVID-19, leading many people to simply deny the existence of the virus, linking the quarantine to political manipulation. For a local economy built on the sale of crude oil, the beginning of the quarantine also marked the beginning of an economic crisis, caused by negotiations between Russia and the OPEC+ countries to limit oil production. The lack of work due to quarantine was accompanied by a sharp fall of the national currency, and an increase in the prices of goods and services. Under these conditions, the art community of Central Asia consolidated and created an alternative art market within a Facebook group. Initiated by Kyrgyz artist, Meder Akhmetov, Art Bazaar was inspired by the Russian community, Ball and Cross ( Шар и Крест ), but with a focus on artists from the Central Asian region. The principle of this self-organized art market resembles the schemes of financial pyramids common in the 1990s. When selling a certain number of works, a requirement is to purchase other art from the online bazaar, as well as transfer several works to the fund. In this way, artists bought and sold works from each other, creating a self-organized environment of collective care, while effectively excluding galleries and art market middlemen. It is fair to say that as such, the art market, as well as the institutional environment within the Central Asian region, is still in the process of formation.So-called underground art in Soviet times emerged from cramped apartment exhibitions with the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 90s. The state, inheriting the Soviet mentality, has never represented culture by itself, and thought of art only in connection with the goals of biased propaganda. Artistic ideas that do not respond to the cultivation of sports or strengthening patriotism, won’t find their place among the bureaucratic “argumentation” of projects. The legacy of the Soviet art education which focused on socialist realism continues to present a major issue in academies and art schools. For a long time in these conditions, the community of artists developing an alternative to conservative art, in which the driving force were not institutions or the art market, but the enthusiasm of the community itself, remained in the margins. Art Bazaar But Art Bazaar was not the only reaction of the art community to the new reality of the pandemic. The curator of the Artcom platform, Aigerim Kapar, organized open workshops with a Georgian artist, Wato Tsereteli. Participants practiced collective drawing, which later resulted in a virtual exhibition organized by the participants themselves, presenting a webpage with the results. Kyrgyz curator, Aida Sulova, conducted an educational program with children. The final works were accompanied by audio messages from authors, and were also presented in the virtual halls of the Artstep platform. I also decided to invest my part in the #stayhome movement and created an exhibition on the iada-art.org website; my idea was that an online exhibition should not mimic a real space, but could well remain in the webpage format, at the same time using the logic of an exposition construction. The name of the exhibition, Cybernomadism , reflected its main theme of examining the future from a decolonial perspective through the nomadic Kazakh culture. On the animated deforming grid background as a basic form of a space markup, works of 8 artists respond to the idea of technological utopia in the Kazakhstani context. Cybernomadism A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts , which before the quarantine was a fairly conservative institution, has also gone through a transformation associated with the need to continue working online. The main exposition of the museum consists of Socialist realism paintings, and exhibitions of contemporary art were rarely held, unless in conjunction with other institutions. The need for a presence in the media prompted the museum staff to create exhibitions and record video tours. Realizing quickly that traditional art did not attract a new audience on the internet, museum curators quickly changed their strategy and began to focus on contemporary art. One such exhibition, dedicated to Rustam Khalfin, an artist who is often described as one of Central Asia’s contemporary art pioneers, was the first in the last 20 years. Isolation and a complete transition to online platforms have made many processes more transparent. This undoubtedly also influenced culture, as state museums moved away from the representation of the discourse of power and turned to the audience. While the media space repeated like a mantra that “the world will never be the same”, by the end of April people were allowed to go for a walk, and by the end of May, cafes and shopping centers had begun to open. Simultaneously, repatriation flights were organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kazakh embassies in different countries. Because of the bureaucracy and the general situation, many had to wait for two months to return. After arriving home, people were signed to a 14 day self-isolation, but no appropriate supervision was conducted and the arrival of citizens took place before getting out of hand. Towards the end of June, the situation changed dramatically and got out of control. The dissidents’ opinion changed, and arguments such as, “show at least one patient,” ceased to flash on social networks. Instead, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all other social media platforms became filled with requests for help; people looked for medicine, advice, or tried to call for ambulances. Subsequently, the Coronavirus hotline and paramedical services were left immobile due to overload. Hospitals stopped accepting patients, and even the simplest antipyretic drugs were in short supply. Pharmaceutical humanitarian aid from different countries were sold through corrupt channels at inflated prices. No more advertising was needed. The virus had touched every family in the country, and even Nazarbayev himself became ill. The media space became filled with obituaries of deceased celebrities, politicians, and relatives. Huge queues of people spilled out of employment centers and morgues, despite the danger of infection. On July 5, Kassym – Jomart Tokayev, the new president, conducted an online conference wearing a mask, in order to announce a second lockdown. Later it was revealed that the shortage of drugs and overpricing were associated with corruption within the Ministry of Health, and several high-ranking officials were removed from their positions. After almost a month, the situation with drug supplies stabilized, and several new field hospitals have been opened. Statistics of deaths from pneumonia, after a long period of denial, nevertheless, were combined with the statistics of deaths from coronavirus. Now, people are used to wearing masks, and they are much less likely to sabotage quarantine rules, but many still hold secret weddings and funerals, despite the strict measures (which includes imprisonment for 10 years). Kazakhstan was the first country in the world to return to a full lockdown. When the private becomes public, and health issues are no longer too personal a topic for discussion, the local becomes global and the deadly second wave in Kazakhstan is, in essence, a threatening warning to the entire world. Anvar Musrepov is an artist and curator from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Previous Next