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European Souvenirs

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Five young European media-makers have now started work on European Souvenirs, a unique international remix project. It is commissioned by ECF, in the framework of Doc Next Network.

European Souvenirs artists Karol Rakowski, Barış Gürsel, Farah Rahman, Malaventura and Noriko Okaku © Ricardo Barquín Molero

European Souvenirs artists Karol Rakowski, Barış Gürsel, Farah Rahman, Malaventura and Noriko Okaku © Ricardo Barquín Molero

During the next few months, the artists will be taking up residencies in Seville, Istanbul, Warsaw and Amsterdam, where they will work with audiovisual materials from different European archives, looking into a more inclusive and complete idea of Europe. By re-mixing this media, they will review, re-investigate and re-consider prevailing imagery of (im)migrants in European societies and re-map Europe visually, geographically and mentally.

The artists work with audiovisual material from leading European institutions who have opened up their archives for this project: Eye Film Institute (Amsterdam), OVNI Archives and Filmoteca de Andalucía (Seville), Digital National Archive (Warsaw), SALT (Istanbul) and the British Film Institute (London).

The first residency took place from 17 to 22 April in Seville, with Spanish artist Fernando Malaventura coordinating the process. European Souvenirs will come together in a unique live cinema performance, premiering at ECF’s Imagining Europe event in Amsterdam in October 2012.

To check out what the five artists are doing, go to europeansouvenirs.eu to see their progress and results!

Trailer European Souvenirs - click to view

This work programme has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past

ZEMOS98 Festival: Copylove

April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

From 11 to 15, April, the 14th edition of ZEMOS98 Festival will be celebrated in Seville. This year’s leitmotif is COPYLOVE which seeks to bring the focus on those communities where the economy of care, reciprocity and trust are essential elements for the management of the commons. The 14th annual ZEMOS98 Festival titles “Copylove: Commons, Love and Remix” has been built collectively through some encounters in which different cultural agents discussed ideas about place of the commons and love within the community, a place in which to deepen, crystallize and put into action the close relationship of both terms. This has created a local team composed of different communities and diverse people with whom to define and articulate the concept of COPYLOVE.

“COPYLOVE: commons, love and remix” is intended to be an open and collective journey in which to propose reflections on the role of taking affects and management of common resources within communities.

All the programme is available in Spanish here.

Some activities will be available online via streaming.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past

Beyond remixing the contraries

March 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As a result of the Political Remix Video call that both EMBED and Doc Next Network started last December, the following selection of remixing works will be screened during the next ZEMOS98 Festival (14th April):

- “Glued” by Benoit Detalle (Belgium) – 5’42″
- “Rock the Caucuses” by Smearballs (Canada) – 3’22″
- “Now, Listen!” by Dominik Dušek (Czech Republic) – 3’
- “Subasta II” by Smalouli (Marrocco) – 2’51″
- “The Manufacture Of Consent” by Enrico Argento (Portugal) – 2’22″
- “WakeUpArtists! (Dedicated to Malish)” by SpriteHat (Italy) – 4’
- “Mutantes” by Duplex Corporeition (Spain) – 4’24″
- “A mi tío” by Lacasinegra (Spain) – 1’33″
- “Our Dangerous Demands” by Malaventura (Spain) – 2’
- “Live Free or Die Hard (Project 12, 8/12)” by Diran Lyons (USA) – 1’12″
- “Abra la boca (Open Your Mouth)” by Montserrat Santalla Gasco (Spain) – 3’31″
- “Rap News X: #Occupy2012 (feat. Noam Chomsky & Anonymous)” by Hugo Farrant and Giordano Nanni (Australia) – 7’48″

Apart from this programme, two works produced by ZEMOS98 in the framework of Doc Next Network remix workshops will be premiered the same day:

- “Cuentos ilustrados” by Pablo Domínguez (Spain) – 12’07″

- “Esperanza Umbridge y la Marea Verde” by El Ejército de Dumbledore (Spain)- 2’48″

This Political Remix Video international call has received 124 audiovisual works in a month time. The selection committee has been formed by Felipe G. Gil and Pedro Jiménez de ZEMOS98, Joan Carles Martorell (Yerblues.net) y Alberto Tognazzi (Movil Film Fest).

This committee highlights the fact that all these works go beyond the simple technique of «remixing the contraries». They (together with Jonathan McIntosh at PoliticalRemixVideo.com) understand political remix videos as an audiovisual genre which puts into practice the «situationist detournement», using the media to criticize power structures, to deconstruct social myths and defy the mass-media via «re-cutting» and «re-framing». This remix is done from media fragments mixed with pop culture. Could this way of understanding audiovisual remix be a new kind of documentary? How are we going to access the collective memory if it’s already remixed? Aren’t the media using remix techniques as a sort of aesthetic of social reality? Let’s carry on researching into this path and learn from our community.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, The Present Past Tagged With: , ,

It’s the Political Economy, Stupid!

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Dread SCOTT, Still from Money to Burn (2010) Courtesy of the artist

This looks like a really interesting exhibition with some provocative ideas – I wish I was in New York for it! Definitely an interesting organisation to watch though…

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present a new group exhibition titled It’s the Political Economy, Stupid. The show, which was curated by the Austrian-American team of Oliver Ressler and Gregory Sholette, derives its name from the slogan which in the early 1990s came to define then presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s campaign, “It’s the economy, stupid”.

The economic crisis that we face today has also become a major crisis for representative democracy. The very idea of the modern nation state is in jeopardy as the deterritorialized flow of finance capital melts down all that was once solid into raw material for market speculation. It is the social order itself, and the very notion of governance with its archaic promise of security and happiness that has become another kind of modern ruin.

It’s the Political Economy, Stupid brings together an international group of artists who focus on the current crisis in a sustained and critical manner. Rather than acquiesce to the current calamity, this exhibition asks if it is not time to push back against the disciplinary dictates of the capitalist logic and, by use of artistic means, launch a rescue of the very notion of the social itself.

The exhibition includes documentarian approaches, such as works by Julia Christensen, who explores the transformation of defunct Big Box stores throughout the U.S. as an example of the resilience and resourcefulness of those affected most by the crisis. A piece by Yevgeniy Fiks, Olga Kopenkina, and Alexandra Lerman, documents those who have the experience of working in the corporate environment, the field of finance, as well as several professors of economics as they participate in a discussion about Vladimir Lenin and his ideas about finance capitalism. Films by Jan Peter Hammer and Melanie Gilligan reflect the artists’ fictionalized takes on the crisis, by drawing historical paralells and showing the microcosmic point of view of those directly involved, respectively.

Quite a few artists and collectives took a performative and decidedly actionistic path, all of which represent artistic precursors to the Occupy Wall Street movement: Performance artist Dread Scott literally burned money on Wall Street, until he was stopped by the police. The flo6x8 group staged flamenco-dancing flashmobs in Spanish banks to protest against the financial system, while Alicia Herrero staged public fora at the National Bank of Argentina, in which experts, artists, and activists discussed theoretical models and ideas for economic and political change. The collective known as the Institute for Wishful Thinking (IWS) tackles the eternal recurrence of the capitalist crisis with a series of site-specific visual commentary on the infamous 1975 New York Daily News headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead”.

Austrian artist Isa Rosenberger‘s piece, Espiral – A Dance of Death in 6 Scenes, takes a 1930s Weimar-era political ballet, and transposes it to reflect the present-day crisis. Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler employ the medium of animation to explore how governments in the United States, and other places in Europe such as Ireland, managed to turn a banking crisis into a budgetary crisis.

As a tangible complement to these video works, Austrian artist Linda Bilda was commissioned to produce a wall mural for the exhibition. Her graphic series The Golden World is a point of departure, as it explores themes such as greed and competition in the monetary world.

The opening reception for It’s the Political Economy, Stupid will take place on Monday, January 23, 2012, from 6PM to 8PM. Barbara Prammer, the President of the National Council of Austria, will be present to support and officially open the show. The opening will be preceded by an artist talk featuring participating artists Linda Bilda, Melanie Gilligan, Alicia Herrero, Olga Kopenkina, Alexandra Lerman, Dread Scott, and the curators Oliver Ressler and Gregory Sholette. The talk will take place in the auditorium of the Austrian Cultural Forum from 5PM to 6PM (Free admission. Due to limited seating, rsvp is req’d for the talk. For tickets, please visit acfny.org/event/726).

About the Austrian Cultural Forum New York
With its architectural landmark building in Midtown Manhattan the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is the cultural embassy of Austria in the United States. It hosts more than 200 free events annually and showcases cutting-edge Austrian contemporary art, music, literature, and academic thought in New York. The Austrian Cultural Forum houses around 10,000 volumes in its state-of-the-art library, and enjoys long-standing and flourishing partnerships with many venerable cultural and academic institutions throughout New York and the United States.

Visit acfny.org for more information.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, The Present Past, Uncategorized

DNN screening at Seville European Film Fest

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Esta tarde a las 19h en el I+CAS proyectamos una selección de vídeos pertenecientes a la media collection de la red Doc Next.

Los vídeos que se proyectarán en el Seville European Film Fest son los siguientes:

A Way by Sergey Kirasyan (Armenia)
Biżuteria Publiczna by Iwo Kondefer (Poland)
Bracia by Emi Mazurkiewicz (Poland)
Ece’esque by Bahar Demirkan, Okyar Igli, Hayati Kose and Morteza Moghaddam (Turkey)
Grown up at age of 11in Macedonia by Vladimir Tevcev (Macedonia)
Guilty until Proven Innocent by Danyal Laskar (UK)
Launderette by Bertie Telezynski and Alex Nevill (UK)
Lost in Translation by Akile Nazli Kaya (Turkey)
Sex Sense by José Manuel Borrego, José Manuel Expósito, Pedro Fernández, Rosario Fernández, Noelia Fernández, Belén Márquez, José Antonio Márquez, Iván Ruiz Vergara and Pablo Domínguez (Spain)
The last communist in Berlin by Robin Meurer (Germany)
TRON by Felipe G. Gil (Spain)
Zero Point by Gjorgje Jovanovic (Macedonia)

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past

Recordar.TV, listening to our elders

November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Within DNN media collection, there are 5 categories or themes. One of these categories is the present past, described as «how the past affects the stories and experiences of different generations».
Well, here we have a project that absolutely deal with this topic: Recordar TV (Remember TV).

Recordar TV (Remember TV) is an internet television built up from the perspective of the elderly. It aims to encourage digital literacy among this collective, promote their stories, which do not often take part on the net, and also help with the local issues that could be of public interest on the internet. This is an internet television project, therefore we will not only publish videos, we will take advantage as well of the multimedia languages that are possible on the web.

You can find an English version of the project’s dossier here

The elderly of our society have many things to tell us and Recordar TV has a vocation for listening to them. We would like to encourage those stories which are not usually present on the web and look after local worries subject to public interest and also being creative at the same time. And we would like to do it through an internet television. But not just any television on the internet, but one which is made from the perspective of the elderly. For and by them. And, in that way, help out with the digital literacy of this wide social group, which is highly relevant nowadays in the current paradigm in which life expectancy keeps increasing.

The lack of communication of a society with their elders usually is not an issue of age difference, neither it is due to diverse generations not understanding one another. Sometimes it happens that the tools we use to do it are just different. Because growing older not necessarily means stop being young. That is the reason why we want to share the tools that exist nowadays with people that did not have, for whatever reason, the chance to get to know or handle them with ease to make them part of their everyday life.

We are going to explore the lands where languages get mixed up, where prejudices vanish away, where lives cross one another. We are going to play again.

Because it is never too late to learn. And it does not matter how much you know, but how willing you are to keep learning.

Filed Under: Heroes & Icons, The Present Past

DNN@European Culture Congress

September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Next Doc Network presented its activities to the public in Poland for the first time. The opportunity to meet and people and talk about the DNN was one of a kind: the European Culture Congress saw over 200 thousand participants over 4 days. The program was filled with  over 100 interdisciplinary projects prepared by 550 artists and curators.

 

Among them the Doc Next Network screenings of films made by young artists from across Europe and a purpose built container, where films were were watched at all times (including on special projections during night time), information was obtained and many interesting conversations were held. We issued special publications in Polish and English, and produced a video to promote our activities.

 

Visitors at the Doc Next Network container watched films and talked to hubs representatives, acquired DVDs with the special Congress pick of 11 films from the DNN collection, our t-shirts and bags (which proved hugely popular among the Congress audience).  Our guests had their photos taken with a polaroid camera and kept a DNN branded portrait. If you didn’t get a chance to visit or follow the (almost) real time commentary on Association’s “ę” facebook page.

 

The Congress was also an opportunity to meet the network’s partners. We exchanged experiences gained while working on our projects. We looked for similarities and further opportunities for exchange and cooperation. We examined how we differ from each other and how this diversity can provide inspiration for further work. Hubs tirelessly debated the events of the IDFA 2011 – the next meeting of the network in November. See you in Amsterdam!

Further reading: the DNN materials at the European Culture Congress.

Association of Creative Initiatives “ę” is the Polish partner the Doc Next Network.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past Tagged With: , , ,

DNN in Wroclaw, Poland

August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Doc Next Network will be present at the  European Culture Congress in Poland in September 2011. In Poland Doc Next Network will have hour-long screenings of selected films from the media collection on 8 + 11 September in the Festival Club. At the congres Doc Next Network has its own space in a container, designed by young Polish architects and graphic designers from Super Super and video artist Karol Rakowski.

This trailer was made especially for the European Culture Congress by our Polish hub partner Towarzystwo Inicjatyw Twórczych „ę”.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past

We are nominated!!!

August 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Doc Next Network is nominated for the Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2011!

The Erasmus EuroMedia Award is an annual prize, launched in 1995, to outstanding media productions contributing to the development of a European society. Doc Next has been nominated for its media collection and the entire network that is providing content to this media collection.

The award ceremony will take place on 14 October 2011 in Vienna.  The ceremony is a meeting point for international media professionals. The afternoon presentation of the winners and the festive evening reception provide the ideal ambiences to socialise and exchange ideas. Covered by news media from all over Europe, the EuroMedia Awards attract attention to our work.

The EuroMedia Awards honour media productions that:

  • enhance the media discourse on Europe
  • provide a qualitative discussion of objectives, perspectives and challenges for the development of European Societies
  • relate to European topics like cohesion, social values, migration, identity, solidarity …
  • show an educational ambition
  • invest ideas and ambition in an European Public Sphere
Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Heroes & Icons, New Nature, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past

New Narratives for Europe

July 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Amanda Vähämäki: White nights

We are not necessarily united by a song contest, a single market or a parliament. We do all share a war-torn history and a − resistible − rise in populism. The European Cultural Foundation launched an online space is for the stories − imaginative and confrontational − that make Europe move forward. The site includes insights, reflections and commentaries, keeping you up-dated on all narrative-related activities. The discoveries will also be showcased during an event in the autumn of 2012, in Amsterdam.

Filed Under: Dreams & Reflections, Spaces & Borders, The Present Past Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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