OVNI 2005 RESISTANCES 25th to 30th January Observatory Archives Research: Translators: A project by OVNI Dee Dee Halleck Nuria Rodríguez [Observatori de Video No Identificat] Serene Hulelei Denise Cord'home UFO [Unknown Frame Observatory] Xavi Hurtado Eduard Escoffet Joan Leandre Mariano Martino Welcome: With the collaboration of: Oriana González Ada, Mauro Centre de Cultura Contemporània Toni Serra de Barcelona. Rabia Williams Programming: Press: Joan Leandre Irene Ruiz Toni Serra Regidor: Production: Mariano Martino Rosa Llop Graphic Design: Technical Production: Jordi Calvet Simona Marchesi Ovni 2005 Image: Production Assistants: « Ocean Life » Alain Kugel Roberta Tranchida Massimo Pietrobon WEB: Judith Nadal Robert Blank Mikel Llop Marc Peris Subtitles: Liz Peñuela VIDEOLAB OVNI 2005 Observatory Archives Resistances www.desorg.org Observatory Archives The Observatory Archives are structured around particular themes and have a Opening night, January, 25th clear purpose: to encourage a critique of contemporary culture, using different Special program, strategies: video art, independent documentary, and mass media arch a e o l o g y, . from 20.30 pm to 23.00 pm The Archives cover a huge range of works that are very different from one ano- Program of screenings: ther, but share a commitment to freedom of expression and reflect on our indi- Thematical screenings of new tapes vidual and collective fears and pleasures. Together, they offer a multifaceted added to the archives. view, thousands of tiny eyes that probe and explore our world and announce From the 26th to the 30th of January: other possible worlds. It is a discourse that above all values heterogeneity, plu- parallel screenings in the Auditorium and rality, contradiction and subjectivity, an antidote to the cloning and repetition the Hall, from 17 pm to midnight of corporate mass media. Sala B, from 19 pm to 23 pm. Subtitles spanish. Given that the call for entries organized by OVNI every 18 months is theme- based, the works selected over the years offer a reading, a kind of rec o r d of some Presentations and performances: of the dreams and nightmares of our times. We have seen the range of issues Globale, Rogelio López Cuenca, Gemma and preoccupations become more focused over time, from works with very diver- Ma r tín Muñoz, Cryptome, Cheb Balowsky. se themes in OVNI 1993 to 1996 (extending and exploring the video medium, regaining the formal and specially the thematic freedom of its early years), to Consultation of the Observatory pro g r essively narrow down to increasingly specific themes: identity versus media Archives: (1997-1998), community (2000), globalisation (2002), Post Sept. 11th (2003). Free access to the entire Observatory Archives collection. From 12 pm to 23 pm In the 12 years since it began, OVNI has acquired more than 1000 documents in the Hall. and works for the Observatory Archives.(dvd, Spanish subtitles). OVNI 2005 RESISTANCES What seems certain is that the Western imaginary needed to construct itself in opposition to another even larger and less exact invention: the Orient. The idea of “the Orient” was born as a result of the expansion of The word resistance is starting to gain currency in places and cultures all the “colonial powers”, and applied equally to the entire area ranging from over the world, joining those that have never stopped practicing it. the Maghreb to the Far East. As a new object of desire, it joined other pre- Resistance implies negation, the blocking of a process or power, but it viously conquered “uncivilized” territories, “indigenous peoples”, or the also contains an affirmation: that there are other elusive “el Dorado”, etc... ways of doing, thinking, living. Minorities and majorities marginalized in their own land practice It’s important to recognise that the idea of the it in various active and passive ways. Today, this West itself was also constructed through the nega- practice is bringing together very diverse cultu- tion of its own diversity and heterodoxy, the violent res and peoples, some totally unconnected, that negation of its own history(ies), and required the a re starting to become aware of each other, to invention of an imaginary and exclusive genealogy talk of each other amongst themselves in this in which one period succeeded the next, unoppo- struggle. sed: classical antiquity, the Roman empire , Christianity, rationalism, the enlightenment, positi- These resistances with their different origins and vism, capitalism...all of them reinterpreted as gen- languages are being exercised against the expan- tle stereotypes with no violence or edge, ready for sion of a hegemonic “single thought”, a single way identity consumption. And so the “classical” was of understanding history and progress. This is redefined as aristocratic origins already domina- often called “the West”, ...an amorphous, symbolic concept that initially ting the proto Orient or the “Persian enemy”, the Roman empire as a cruel referred to Europe, in particular the old European powers called the “wes- but unifying force, Christianity as a sometimes fanatical and hypocritical tern powers”, and then as the economic system expanded, to the United but in the end civilising force, the Enlightenment as liberating and huma- States of North America and even its allies in the Far and Middle East. nist in spite of its despotism and colonising approach to knowledge. And Now the West seems to refer to an economic system and the culture it to top it off: the idea of never-ending, linear, acritical progress; and of produces rather than the geographic sense. capitalism as the ultimate guarantee of freedom ... The gradual technolo- gical hegemony is added to the succession and has arrived to test its rai- bal processed products is increasing on the free(?) market. The concept son d’etre and its power. of intensive and industrialised agriculture is literally being imposed, an idea in which all processes: genetically modified seeds, fertilisers, pesti- This genealogical construction rests on the global society of consump- cides, etc...form a single package... The planet’s natural resources are tion, and its hard core that has concentrated in the web of interests of the coming under the prism of private property and exploitation, not just raw giant oil, pharmaceutical and military industry companies, which project materials and fuels but also water, on which speculating investments are a spectacular world through the mass media. A starting to converge. Public and private medicine way of colonising desire and fears through images is infiltrated by the interests of the pharmaceutical and slogans, but above all a mechanism for rever- giants, not only in the virtually undisputed empire sibility, in which not only success and triumph but of chemical medicine, but also in the concept of also tragedy and disaster, even our own, are instantly what public health implies, fighting, discrediting or tu r ned to profit through the spectacle of consump- ignoring preventative practices and their inesca- ti o n . In this process, the idea of a single economy pable link with education. In fact, the education based on permanent and aggressive growth and system’s most utopian end seems to be ergono- the dogma of technological euphoria play key mic adjustment to the needs of “the market”. To roles. Even moderate voices calling for sustaina- introduce content or practices that are not neces- ble models don’t try to depart from this radical sarily even critical, just foreign to these needs, is economic model, they may modulate the degree perceived as noise, an obstacle. of aggressiveness, but not growth itself. The global society of consumption is so because it consumes to the point of extinc- The mass media is mainly fed by ready-made news from the few major tion not just products but also natural res o u r ces, people and communities. news agencies. As a group, their effect is a constant resetting of events, which are presented as a series absurdities. They propagate the idea of This expansive economy is generating a state of permanent conflict with a hyper-privileged West in contrast to an “underdeveloped” and always many fronts: obviously military interventions, repression, occupation. But suffering world, that could only possibly be of interest as a tourist desti- also in the field of food: local products are increasingly playing a minority nation (and, in fact, “tourists get to the places where armies don’t”). In role (whether marginal or elitist) and the presence and accessibility of glo- this way, day by day, they create a single perception of poverty and wealth. The third-world media image of a boy soldier participating in ting our knowledge and practical diversity and for self-criticism in relation incomprehensible wars, that touches the consciences of so many, never to the totalitarian, exclusive aspects that exist in almost every culture. In finds its parallel in the increasingly common image of a western child this respect Europe and by extension the West, in spite of the majestic devoting hours to violent videogames, with some of the best-selling role it has assigned itself in the history of humanity and the construction games being versions of military training prog r a m s . of freedom and human rights, can hardly claim to have a model rec o r d in te r ms of racial, religious or national tolerance, even But in these areas too, resistance persists and is c o m p a red to neighbouring culture s . growing, not always ideologically or consciously, Paradoxically, even some parts of current critical and in ways that are different because they res- thought and activism too easily reproduce and pond to specific contexts, cultures and traditions extend ethnocentric criteria. that vary widely from each other. We should then speak about resistances. Some of these arise OVNI 2005 Resistances will program and then from western critical thought, the remains of ship- include in the Observatory Archives a series of wrecked liberating ideologies, alternative practi- audiovisual works (155), mostly independent ces, new foundations and connections..