Strategies of Visualization
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read re la tions Strategies of no.3 Visualization In Brussels, eyes are closed to the West Balkans, have made the decision not to discuss with ACADEMY REMIX while in the Balkans, eyes are closed to their own artists themes like the mafia, the trafficking Städelschule, Frankfurt meets Missing Identity, of women or war, and prefer instead to con- Prishtina. Confrontation, cooperation: past. Are Europeans thus blind to Europe? Or are centrate on the possible artistic and cultural Two art academies discover unknown territory. we just settling comfortably into a recurring circular- trends, and, hence, developments in civil so- Pages 3-5 ciety. In other words: we avoid the “victim” ity of perception? “relations” talks to Gerald Knaus, discourse by focusing on a thematic ap- WILD CAPITAL / WILDES head of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), about proach. For us, the artists with whom we co- operate are experts from whom we can learn KAPITAL, Dresden myths, art, empiricism, and the necessary work of and with whom we can discuss. Look, it’s capitalism! In some places it fits quite raising awareness. nicely into the city landscape, in other places it Working with experts locally is also fundamen- is unbound and wild. Post-socialist transforma- tal for the ESI. In Kosovo, for example, we are tions in focus. Gerald Knaus, if you had to draw a map of thing aside. If the European institutions were working with a group of young social scientists Pages 6-9 Europe, what would you color red? to examine the situation, it would soon become researching the relevance of Prishtina’s urban plainly obvious that most of the produce on of- history for the city’s development. This is of im- ALTE ARTE, Moldova Gerald Knaus: If you go to the EU Commission fer at local markets comes from Greece or Hun- mense importance because most tertiary insti- No one could have imagined it, now it’s hard website you’ll find maps of the current EU can- gary, where the farmers are subsidized. The tutions in the region have no empirical social to imagine life without it: Art TV in Moldova. didates and Member States in different colors: question is then of course: what is to be done? research: they are in a deplorable state in the Pages 10-11 sometimes blue, sometimes in different shades However, if this information is fading away, then West Balkans. Students are forced to work with of red to indicate unemployment levels, some- very different questions emerge. For instance, it texts from the 1970s, and they have to buy them times green tones for the divergences in per is claimed that underdevelopment is one of the from the academics teaching them, who earn displaced, Berlin capita income. And then there are the white results of organized crime, which also, in turn, their money in this way. It is, therefore, neces- Who decides what we should remember? spots – areas which are neither a member nor prevents foreign investment. The solution is sary to help people get going. We are trying to Where are decisions made? What can be have EU candidate status, and which, from the thus – how practical – to do what we are al- do this by setting up local think tanks. In my ignored? Interventions on repression, visuali– perspective of the decision-makers, are still not ready doing, namely sending soldiers and po- opinion, too little is being invested in what zation, and transitoriness in public space. regarded as part of this Europe. No data is lice to Kosovo and tightening border controls. “relations” is also trying to do in the arts and Pages 14-16 complied on them. The current maps of Europe And this view of the Balkans, criminalizing culture: to establish long-term working rela- show a large white spot in the middle of Eu- problems that are issues of development policy, tions with new institutions and the media on a Mind the Map! – History rope, and that is the West Balkans. Then there is reinforced every time a conference on the local level and researching the recent past. are the white spots on the edges: the Ukraine “trafficking of women,” “organized crime,” and Is Not Given, Leipzig and Moldova. At the ESI we are attempting, so “smuggling of drugs” is financed. The more in- Debates and arguments focusing on history History is being made. Best to take a part in it. to say, to color these spots red: through applied ternational police we send there, the greater the and memory are very present in the “rela- Urgent moves to (re-)construct European art empirical research undertaken on location we number of reports they write, and, of course, tions” projects. Over and over again we have history. are trying to pick up those themes we believe to they believe that these really are the gravest observed that voices in the intellectual dis- Pages 17-19 be important to the pan-European discussion, problems, simply because they are there to course are refusing to allow the 40 years of and present them in such a way that they be- solve them. This leads to circularity of percep- communism or socialism to be simply erased Zagreb – Cultural Kapital come visible for the public. At the same time, tion. In such situations, it is crucial to ask rigor- from memory, but are posing the provocative our research concentrates on influencing those ous empirical questions. question: which experiences from this time of Europe 3000 persons directly responsible for making decisions, can be made productive today? For example, Things are really happening! What city locally as well as in Brussels or Washington. As a rule, analysis based on the social sci- does the collective experience under the aus- politics has learned from the free art scene. ences seeks to delineate problems and identify pices of socialism have the potential to coun- Pages 20-21 Are these areas and their respective situa- their causes. In contrast, “relations” seeks to ter neo-liberalism? A key concern for many tions really going unnoticed? Or is it not so promote discussion. We try to understand of the “relations” projects is to rupture and Overview that they are being consciously ignored, or and convey how specific problems in specific disrupt the sometimes very selective way of A short description of the “relations”’ projects. fading out of the picture – because any offi- places are being discussed. What visions of dealing with recent history and to develop a Pages 22-23 cial recognition would bring with it changes the future are artists and intellectuals devel- language that enables alternative systems to to European policy, changes the political oping there? What vocabulary is being used, be discussed politically. decision-makers wish to avoid? what kind of artistic language and praxis? Agenda We cooperate with intellectuals and artists And that is exactly the region’s greatest prob- “relations” locally. They reinforce one another. Let’s take Kosovo as who tackle explosive themes and want to lem: the political, but also the social and eco- Page 24 an example. Forty percent of the working popu- make a difference. The goal is to develop vi- nomic developments have not been researched lation is employed in agriculture, but this sector sions, to initiate discussions in the local con- and discussed over the last 30 years. And while is still trapped on the level of nineteenth-century text and make them comprehensible to an there has been abstract talk about a “third way,” farming: tiny subsistence farms, without any outside public. If anywhere, then the provoc- there has been no concrete discussion about capital at all, without any chance of putting any- ative impetus of our work resides in how we what has happened. Let me give you one exam- read relations no. 3 08/2005 /24 ple: Bosnia’s industrialization. The key to in- ed to cover all other areas of society, so that Dear Readers! dustrialization in Bosnia was the Yugoslav ar- students can study at all European universities maments industry. To manufacture arms and because their diplomas are recognized every- sell them to Third World countries or exchange where, so that farmers can sell their produce Confrontation, communication, cooperation, continuous disputes them for raw materials – this was the core of throughout Europe, and so on. There is not one the “third way.” Bosnia was Tito’s fortress. European model. There are thirty. For this rea- – these terms outline those activities that have determined our There was a military factory in Vitez, munitions son alone we need to share our ideas and expe- work in the last few months. And encounters and exchange were were manufactured in Bugojno, artillery in riences. This model, cohesion in its broadest Sarajevo, and fighter aircraft in Mostar. But no- sense, says: we don’t want any of those white always at the heart of these activities – as well as the firm intent body reflects on what this means for launching spots on the map of Europe, and we have a re- to structure international cultural exchange differently from the economic reform in Bosnia today. Things are sponsibility to actively redress the situation. talked about general terms like “capitalism” usual routine. and the “Western model” and discussed in an Do those circles involved in practical policy, unbelievably ahistorical way. Foreign consult- where you are active, believe that art and ants are no better; they simply say, “Create a culture projects have the power to initiate After initiating and assisting the launching of art and culture good business climate and the investors will change? projects in eastern Europe, as reported in the first two editions of eventually come.” I recently attended a meeting of former state our newspaper, “relations” has in the meantime long entered its But isn’t the refusal of the decision-makers and government leaders, all members of an in- second phase.