WHW promo booklet, 2002.

7/30/2019 WHW promo booklet, 2002.

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02 Background information.......................... 03

What, how & for whom - Zagreb .............. 09

What, how & for whom - Vienna ............. 15

Project: Broadcasting ............................. 23

Project proposal Getting Together ...... 40

contents:


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The sense of time has been rather disturbedin Croatia during the last decade. On the one hand,it was a long decade that started in the processesdeeply rooted in the Eighties. But on the otherhand, the war and intellectual repression that hadbeen following it had shortened the decade to shortperiods of nightmarish awakenings from theautistic and mute dream of fulfillment of 1000years of nations longings.

Sure enough, the lines when things had startedand ended are especially hard to draw when one isdealing with a war that was never officiallyannounced or proclaimed over.

The lack of any intellectual contextualizationhas disabled the reflection on things that have beenhappening to us, therefore hitting us likesleepwalkers. Short acts of awakenings had barelyleft traces in the self-assured, non-communi-cative dream that the nation had been dreamingout with brutal energy. Those performing thesocial function of intellectuals have mobilizedextreme right-wing ideologies that were tostrengthen the big sleep from which historyalways starts anew with sick optimism.

It is the decade in which the Croatian versionof the democratic revolution (or better to say,contra-revolution) has been finalized with thetriumph of the capital and rediscovery of marketeconomy as the tool of resource distribution.

The pathos of the human rights revolutionreached broader society through the filter ofnationalistic ideologies, maybe because therevolution in the Yugoslav version was verypolitically correct and decently enlightening. Thelack of revolutionary pathos on which enjoyment-in-the-process is based, enjoyment in the wastingof revolutionary activity that necessarily by faroutreaches its instrumentality and purpose1, has beencompensated by encompassing passionatenationalism. The struggle for uniqueness ofnational culture fought by right-wing intellectualshas been realized as the struggle against leftcultural hegemony, interpreted as the foreign,external element that threatens the purity ofnational culture/national identity.

An important part of the project of cleaning thenational culture has been removing the importantpart of the history and producing silent collectiveamnesia.

Background information

1] Slavoj iek,

Znak/oznaitelj/pismo (prilog

materijalistikoj

teoriji oznaiteljske

prakse, NIPmladost, Beograd,1976.


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ljiljana bunjevac,


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What, How and for Whomon the occasion of 150th anniversary ofCommunist Manifesto

If it were a single, it would be SatisfactionMark SIMPSON, Independent on Sunday

Constant revolutionizing of productions, uninterrupted

disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and

agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All

fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and

venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-

formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is

solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last

compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life,

and his relations with his kind

Karl Marx & Frederick Engels

The Communist Manifesto - A Modern Edition

verso 1998, page 38-39.

Croatian Television Prime News, 16/06/2000


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The Communist Manifesto is still alive,

perhaps more than ever, since the

predicament it describes is heightened

today to a new level of unbearable tension.[Slavoj IEK, Spectre is Still Roaming Around]

w06


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Many years ago, in some other times, Communist

Manifesto used to be a very dangerous book. The world was

at that time divided into those who trusted the words of this

book and followed its revolutionary spirit, and those who,

equally fascinated by the book, hated it and feared itsrebellious cry. But nobody dared to ignore the significance of

the Communist Manifesto. Its historical impact was obvious

and its practical political effects were changing the world. It

seemed for the moment that this book could even decide the

destiny of the mankind. These were the times when the world

was still young and has not only its history going on but also

an open future.

Everything has changed since than. Today is the

Manifesto nothing but a small booklet among other books of

the worlds cultural heritage, which provokes no political

action and of which nobody is afraid any more. Once a wild

political pamphlet, theManifesto seems to be finally

domesticated and turned into a harmless cultural artifact.

Not a revolutionary politics, but culture is today the only

message of this medium. /.../

Boris BUDENIt is about the society that mistook culture for politics, catalogue

of the exhibition, forthcoming


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The difference between capitalism andCommunism is that Communism was

perceived as an Idea that then failed in its

realization, while capitalism functionedspontaneously. There is no Capitalist

Manifesto.Slavoj IEK

[Spectre is Still Roaming Around- An introduction to the 150th anniversary edition

of the Communist Manifesto, arkzin, Zagreb, 1998.]

The difference between capitalism andCommunism is that Communism was

perceived as an Idea that then failed in its

realization, while capitalism functionedspontaneously. There is no Capitalist

Manifesto.Slavoj IEK

[Spectre is Still Roaming Around- An introduction to the 150th anniversary edition

of the Communist Manifesto, arkzin, Zagreb, 1998.]

08


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What, How and for Whom is non-governmental organization for visual arts, whoseprimarily goals are to promote and support rea-lization of innovative contemporary art projects,

to encourage and protect the freedom of artisticexpression, to foster international theoretical andpractical collaboration in the field of visual culture,to collaborate with other artistic, civil and culturalgroups in Croatia and abroad, and to promoteinnovative collaborative methods of realization ofmore demanding artistic projects.

WHWwas initiated in Zagreb in late 90s asthe informal network between activist organiza-tion/publishing house Arkzin, net.cultural clubMamaand the team of independent curators [AnaDevi, Nataa Ili, Sabina Sabolovi] that startedto work on the international exhibition on theoccasion of 150th anniversary ofCommunist Mani-

festo. Since this model of collaboration betweencultural organizations of different backgroundsand know-how proved very successful, at thebeginning of 2001 we became a legal subject,registering as non-for-profit non-governmentalinstitution, which is presently the only availablelegislative model in Croatia that enables us tointervene in cultural scene the way we do.


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The three basic questions of every economicorganization - what, howandfor whom- areoperative in almost all segments of life. What, theproblem how many of every possible goods andservices will be produced with limited resourcesand social input, how, the choice of certaintechnology according to which each good, chosenby answering the question what, will be produced,

and question for whom , that concernsdistribution of goods among members of thesociety - these are the questions that also concern

the planning, concept and realization of theexhibition, as well as the production anddistribution of artworks or artists position at thelabor market. The circumstances surroundingdevelopment of What, How and for Whom


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project, which has been developing since 1998when the republishing of Marxs CommunistManifestoon the occasion of books 150th anni-versary served as the impetus, have beenimposing the concept whose logic developedtogether with increased ambitions and wishes ofthe organizers. The answer to the question how todeal with anniversary of the book of such powerful

ideological and political potential in the societythat has imposed collective mystification andoblivion to the archive of politics, economy andstyle of the failed project of socialist society, tookits shape in the area in which the considerationsabout possibilities of political and artisticengagement were interlocked with issues oflocal daily politics.


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Economy studies how soci-eties utilize scarce resources in

order to produce valuable com-modities and distribute them

among people. Therefore, scar-

city lies within the very essenceof the economy. Scarcity lawsays: resorces and goods arelimited, while wishes seem to be

unlimited. Economizing as theleading motto of contemporary

life implicates optimization asthe way of doing business - how

with smallest input the greatesteconomic results are achieved.

As What, How & for Whomproject has been planned within

extremely limited production

resources, optimization prin-ciple has become the leit-motiveof exhibition concept andmethod. In other words, thebasic what and how of theproject were getting closer and

closer to each other and finallyhave overlapped.

artists who have been forming the

strong current of socially engagedart since the late 60s, the exhi-bition had attempted to inter-

vene in contemporary art scenestressing continuity ratherthan breaks. On the other hand,the exhibition established in-ternational context for local artproduction, greatly missing dur-ing the last decade. It is important

to stress that Communist Manifestoas exhibitions starting point does

not operate as a visual leit-motiveof the exhibition, but as the referential point in

which different approaches, opinions and visua-lizations are intersecting. The exhibition does not

aspire to shape the complete image on the subject

of communism as ideology, political regime orutopian endeavor. Rather, by encouraging indi-

vidual approaches and personal points of view, theexhibition has been attempting to break down

monolith, unified perception ofart scenes, so-cialist praxis or present transitional situa-tion.

Instrumentality of social

capital in constituting the socialpost-socialist reality becomes a

scheme, a matrix for the exhibi-

tion development and its inter-nal and external operations.

By facing the recent produc-

tion of artists who emerged onthe Croatian art scene in the late

80s, at the time of rapid deterio-ration of socialist regime, with


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TheManifesto has lost its political meaning asa consequence of so-called democratic revolutionsof 1989. It felt down together with the fall ofCommunism in the Eastern Europe that has beencelebrated as the final victory of the moderndemocracy over its totalitarian enemies.

Ac co rd ing to the unders tandin g of th ecommunist totalitarianism that has becomedominant within the political mind of theliberal democratic West, the communistpolitical movement was first of all a conservativereaction against modernity, particularly againstthe modern Western culture as culture of humanrights and freedoms, i.e., an intrinsically anti-modern political phenomenon. In that respect, thepolitical process of transition from communismto democracy, which has started after 1989 in theEast European post-communist countries, isnothing but some sort of a cultural reconquista, there-westernization of Eastern Europe. That is thereason why culture and civil society are soclosely allied in the strategies of transition intodays Eastern Europe, or in the ongoingprocess of the so called enlargement of theEuropean Union. It is mainly culture, as the truecontent of civil society - and not politics! - that


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content in his hands. The Manifesto today is thecultural Other of the West.

Vienna project What, How and for Whom,dedicated to 153rd anniversary of Communist

Manifesto opposes the view that equals EasternEurope with communism or identifies culturalwith political identity. Today, the Manifesto is notan issue more on the East, than it is on the West,and its message is global, just as the functioningof the capital, as described byMarx, is global.

has to do the job of democratization.Becoming ultimately a cultural artifact,

Communist Manifesto had been deprived of its lastcritical capacity and of all its political meaning andimportance. Once an expression of the deepest

historical contradictions of the Western industrialsociety, the book has finally become a culturalsymbol of the East. Anyone who still tries to graspits political meaning will find nothing but anobscure, intrinsically non-European cultural


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Focus on economy, capital andcapitalism seeks to return to theWest its own mess age /ontransition from so called tota-litarism to so clled democracy/

in its reversed, i.e. true meaning- as the return into the realcapitalism.

***

In its heroic period of 1970sand 1980s, the alternative

cultural movements in Yugo-slavia acted against officialinstitutions or at least apart fromthem. Self-organizing and acti-vism were politically engaged,but not as battle against thedarkness of Communist tota-litarianism, but, paradoxically

for the state whose official ide-ology was self-management,as the fight for complete self-realization of individuals andculture, against real bureaucratic


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limitations. Alternative cultural movement wasindeed taking socialist ideology more seriouslythan the cynical political lite in power did.Paradoxically, deeply politicized, alternative, sub-cultural movements of 1970s and 1980s in the Eastactually disintegrated at the moment of theirsupposed triumph - with the introduction ofparliamentary democracy and the return ofcapitalism.

***

In regard to cultural production, the termalternative is usually linked to notions such asanti-art, avant-garde, neo-avant-garde,contra-culture, to that which is different in formand content, progressive, radical, that which getsout of the mainstream and opposes establishment,traditional high culture that is generally bourgeois.But in todays circumstances of culturalization ofeverything, in situation when every avant-gardeor subversive act is immediately absorbed as afashion, exclusively cultural and temporary alter-native, there is no alternative culture.Alternativeculture existed when there still werealternative ideas about order of society, ideas

Ola Pehrson, Marxist suit, 1997


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of alternative politics. Or better to say, thealternative culture is to be articulated only if thereis a politics that articulates the alternative toreally existent capitalism. Cultural and artisticproduction in current situation can still bealternative not by virtues of its new, different,unusual form or way of expression, but exclusivelyin a political sense.

***

2] Projects likeAnti-warCampaign Croatia,pop-politicalmagazineArkzin,Zagreb Anarchisticmovement,AutonomousCultural Factory -Attack, festival ofalternative streettheater FAKI, andmany otherfeminist,ecological, anti-war, anarchisticorganizations,groups, initiativesand movements.

Within independent Cro-atian civil scene in the 90s,

often called the alternativescene2, the notion of alternativewas used differently in two broadperiods.

The first one, in accordanceto general regression, ascharacteristic of the period ofCroatian Democratic Commu-

nity partys rule, is actually acontinuation of 70s ideologythat perceives alternative cultureas the low opposition to high,lite, institutional culture. That


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scene, roughly identified with eco/punk/hardcore/anarcho groups and movements, really wasmarginal and marginalized, completely out offunding system, which it had slowly entered onlyafter the establishment of the Open SocietyInstitute [Soros] in Croatia in 1994.

In that second period, the alternative ceasedto be synonymous with the marginal and the sub-cultural and it developed specific politicalmeanings, regularly strongly based in ethicaldemands for non-violence, equality, multi-ethnicity, non-hierarchical structures etc. Thealternative in the culture was perceived as a system

of parallel institutions that were not nationalisticor statehood-oriented, but their activities werelimited to fill in the gaps left open by state and itsconservative institutions. As a result, the realinstitutions of alternative and sub/cultural scene,that should guarantee its continuity anddevelopment, had been formed only in the late90s3. But in the new democratic situation that

followed the last elections at the beginning of 2000- that resulted in withdrawal and downsizing offoreign funds - their future is very insecureindeed. There is a dominant tendency tocommercial, market-oriented culture, state

3] AutonomousCultural FactoryAttack, Zagreb;Arkzin DTP & Pre-press studio,

Zagreb; Movaraclub, Zagreb;net.cultural klubMAMA, Zagreb; ArtWorkshop Lazareti,Dubrovnik

funding is still insufficient and often dependenton personal whims, conditions for culturalprojects funding have not been set (legislation oftaxes), nor the space open for non-commercialculture and media production.


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Tomislav GOTOVAC, Rocks in my bed,performance at the opening, 20/06/01


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According to the old slogan, art is not a mirror,art is a hammer! Present situation should not bemerely mirrored or represented. The aim is tocreate new conditions, not to act within therealm of possible, but to actually change that whatis possible. It is a significant shift of the status of

the intellectuals. It is no longer enough to becritical intellectual [as were old communist

dissidents or intellectual emigres duringnationalist rule] now the most important arecreative intellectuals, that would in the sametime keep critical mind and be activelly engaged

in change of existing situation.

Everybody is an intellectual,

but not all people in societyperform the social function ofthe intellectual

Antonio GRAMSCI


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PROJECT: BROADCASTING[dedicated to Nikola Tesla]


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BROADCASTING PROJECT, dedicated to

Nikola Tesla is organized in cooperation ofvisual arts NGO What, How and for Whom,publishing houseArkzin, net-cultural clubMAMAand Technical Museum in Zagreb. It isconceived as the series of cultural events thatquestion the social and artistic implications ofbroadcast media in relation to the concept ofpolitics and specific political developmentsin Croatia, issues of information andtechnology accessibility as well as concepts ofintellectual property and copyrights.

The project started as series of lectures by

curators and art and cultural theorists in June2001 and developed as internationalcontemporary exhibition in the Technicalmuseum in Zagreb, scheduled for January/February 2002. After the exhibition, the project

will continue throughout the 2002 indifferent formats of contemporary artpublishing edition, art interventions,

situations and researches, publications,radio, TV and internet interventions andbroadcasts, public lectures, screenings,forums etc.


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participants:

Marina ABRAMOVI

Robert ADRIAN X & Norbert MATH

Joe BARI & Apolonija UTERI

Marianne BRAMSENDiedrich DIEDERICHSEN

Braco DIMITRIJEVI

Branislav DIMITRIJEVI

Tomislav GOTOVAC

Brian HOLMES

Aleksandar Battista ILI

Sanja IVEKOVIIvana KESER

Yuri LEIDERMAN

Dalibor MARTINIS

Viktor MISIANO

Hans ULRICH OBRIST

Marko PELJHAN

Bojana PEJI

Tomo SAVI-GECANSCANNER

Keiko SEI

STATION ROSE

Mladen STILINOVI

SUPERFLEXfeaturing:

Marijan CRTALIAndreja KULUNI

Ivan MARUI KLIF, Magdalena PEDERIN &

Lala RAI

Kristina LEKO

David TOOP

Stephen WRIGHT

Igor ZABELZVUK BRODA

The project deals with issues of broadcasting in reference to

Nikola Teslas biography and inventions. The basic concept is

close to Brechts writing on radio as two-sided apparatus ofcommunication and the whole project has strong educationalemphasis.


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10/06/01 Brian HOLMES lecture

12/06/01 Hans ULRICH OBRISTlecture

5/07/01 first supplement

dedicated to

Broadcasting Project inthe cultural magazine

Zarez

28/09/01 ing. Renato FILIPINdemonstration of Teslas

experiments

Keiko SEI lecture

05/10/01 Bojana PEJI lecture

11/11/01 live streaming dinner/discussion go_home

Zagreb: Nada Bero, eljko Blae,Ljiljana Filipovi, BrankoFranceshi, Sanja Ivekovi, KatarinaPeovi, Joanne Richardson, MladenStilinovi, Ana Devi, Nataa Ili,Sabina Sabolovi, Tea koki

New York: Ammiel Alcalay,

Katherine Carl, Elizabeth Cohen,Danica Daki, Slavko Kaunko, BekaNani, Atsushi Ogata, Shelly Silver,Sandra Sterle, George Yudice,Martha Wilson

timeline: 27/11/01 Viktor MISIANO lecture

04/12/01 Igor ZABEL lecture

06/12/01 second supplement in the

cultural magazine Zarez

13/12/01 Diedrich DIEDERICHSENlecture

04/01/02 first radio show

dedicated to

Broadcasting project at

the 3 program of

Croatian National Radio

13:00 CET, following

broadcasts: 18/01., 01/

02,15/02, 01/03, 15/03,

29/03, 12/04, 26/04, 03/

05, 17/05, 31/05

26/01/02 opening of the exhibition

in the Technical Museum

perfomances: TomislavGOTOVAC, MarkoPELJHAN

27/01/02 David TOOP lecture;live broadcast of NorbertMATH & Robert ADRIANsinstallation at

Kunstradio Vienna 23:00

CET

28/01 - 01/02, daily radio shows by

Joe BARI andApolonija UTERI atRadio Student, 13:00

CET, following

broadcasts 04/02 - 08/

02, 11/02 - 15/02

28/01-28/02/02 series of

broadcasts by MarianneBRAMSEN at RadioStudent

07/02/02 Branislav DIMITRIJEVIlecture

14/02/02 STATION ROSE webcast-broadcast, ZVUK BRODAlive performance, KSET

club

21/02/02 Stephen WRIGHT lecture

28/02/02 closing of the exhibition,

Marko PELJHAN lecture

Februray - June 2002, books by

Hans ULRICH OBRIST,Brian HOLMES, DiedrichDIEDERICHSEN

further supplements in Zarez...


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The traditionally strong role of artists has beenin discovering new ways to use media, inventingnew and contradictory meanings for existingorganizations and systems, and in subverting self-serving power-structures. Due to the specific

political and economic context (such as stateownership of the still only one national TV) andruling structures inertia, the access of Croatianartists to media has been extremely limited.Croatian public discourse is ignorant of potentialsof electronic media as two-way communicationtools that are not necessarily just distributed andbased exclusively on commercial and ideological

grounds. The new digital technologies havefundamentally changed methodologies andstrategies of documenting, producing anddisplaying contemporary art, as well as socialcircumstances of its creation and accessibility. Atthe same time, educational institutions in Croatia(Art History Studies, Philosophy Studies, Schoolof Fine Arts) almost completely failed in following

current international developments. Museumsstay noticeably unvisited, with virtually nooutreach aimed at increasing audiences. Thisproblem is perpetuated by the fact that in Croatia,there is no formal or informal education in

Radio is one-sided when it should betwo-. It is purely an apparatus fordistribution, for mere sharing out. So here is

a positive suggestion: change thisapparatus over from distribution tocommunication. The radio would be the

finest possible communication apparatusin public life, a vast network of pipes. Thatis to say, it would be if it knew how to

receive as well as transmit, how to let thelistener speak as well as hear, how to bringhim into a relationship instead of isolatinghim.

Bertolt BRECHT

The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication, 1932


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curatorial practice. Additionally, one of the side-effects of the transition period in the field of visualarts is ten years long hiatus in publishing ofcontemporary art theory.

***

BROADCASTING PROJECTmoves in oppo-sition to the oppression of monologue andcentralized patriarchal infotainment. Crucialquestions are communication and mediation.Success of mediated communication dependson the conditions under which the exchange

takes place - those conditions are not primarytechnological but also social, economical,cultural, political...

***

The project aims to continue discussionstarted with What, How and For Whom

exhibition project about arts and economy, that is,to explore issues of economical/political intereststhat prevent full realization of the democraticpotentials of new technologies. Every advent ofnew technology has been marked with great

enthusiasm about new democratic potentials ofnew medium that will allow everybody tocommunicate, be informed, creative andparticipate in social dialogue or decision making,and yet those potentials are always repressed for

the purely commercial form and content just as forthe creation of new passive audience.

It is a pertinent for cultural activists/artists/theoreticians to consider how new technologiesmay significantly change what is meant byperformance, art, live, broadcasting,wide/mass public... Yet, we believe that thequestion of new and still developing digital media

replays narrative strain of anxiety very familiar tothe historic avant-garde (innovation, potentialrevolution, incorporation, recuperation,commodification). But the question is still open,not predetermined or decided in advance, but verymuch depends on our own action, work onpractical, artistic, media and theoretical work.


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Brechts reflection on the radio comes home today with

not one but two jolts of recognition. The first has to do with the

prescient glimpse it seems to offer of the Internet, that

inconceivably vast network of pipes which permits two-way

communication, which receives just as well as it transmits. But

the second jolt comes from the realization that radio in the

1930s, particularly if used in combination with the telephone,

could easily have functioned in the two-way channels that

Brecht describesif the social and political will had not been

lacking. The implication for today is that the Internet,

despite its evident technical advantages, could easily

cease functioning in a communicational mode, that it

could rapidly give way or regress to new forms ofcentral-broadcast content (masked by the push-button

charms of interactivity). /.../

If radio became predominantly a vehicle for state

propaganda during the age of total mobilization from the First

to the Second World War, if television in its turn became the

indispensable device for training in the reflexes of mass

consumerism, what then will the emblematic medium of

globalization become? What will be its dominant uses, andabove all, what kind of society will they articulate?

Brian HOLMES

Kosov@: Futures of the Transatlantic Carnival


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The project aims to negotiate the intersection between therealm of broadcast as a medium that disseminates viatelecommunications, and the metaphorical surplusesspreading from visions of universal energytransmission, left over when broadcast is translated

into Croatian. Nikola Tesla [1856 - 1943] is a Serbfrom Croatia who died as American citizen, eccentric,ascetic with visions, claimed and disowned byCroats, Serbs, Yugoslavs and Americans; whoinvented more than 800 patents and laid theoreticalground for development ofradio, radar, satellites,electronic microscope, microwave, fluorescenttube etc. Today, the cultural image ofNikola Tesla,

the Man Who Invented Future, is permeated withstories ranging from conspiracy theory involvingFBI and American government to mysticalworshipping of his exploration of energy and originof life. Exploration of his life and inventions leads intobroader questioning of issues of broadcasting media,copyrights, intellectual property, science and art funding,distribution and utilization, politics of science and

descriptions of artistic and scientific working process andoutcomes. At the same time, Teslas explorations in the realmof telecommunications and defense systems seem ever morerelevant in relation to recent reactivation of Cold War discourse bynew American administration.


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... The world system makes possible not only theinstantaneous and precise wireless transmission of any kind ofsignals, messages or characters, to all parts of the world, but alsothe inter- connection of the existing telegraph, telephone, and othersignal stations without any change in their present equipment.

31


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By its means, for instance, a telephonesubscriber here may call up and talk to any othersubscriber on the Earth. An inexpensivereceiver, not bigger than a watch, will enablehim to listen anywhere, on land or sea, to a

speech delivered or music played in someother place, however distant. Theseexamples are cited merely to give an idea ofthe possibilities of this great scientific advance,which annihilates distance and makes that perfectnatural conductor, the Earth, available for all theinnumerable purposes which human ingenuityhas found for a line-wire. One far-reaching

result of this is that any device capable of beingoperated through one or more wires (at adistance obviously restricted) can likewise beactuated, without artificial conductors andwith the same facility and accuracy, atdistances to which there are no limits otherthan those imposed by the physicaldimensions of the earth. Thus, not only

will entirely new fields for commercialexploitation be opened up by this idealmethod of transmission, but the oldones vastly extended. The World Systemis based on the application of the

following import and inventions anddiscoveries:

1] The Tesla Transformer: This apparatusis in the production of electrical vibrationsas revolutionary as gunpowder was in

warfare. Currents many times strongerthan any ever generated in the usual ways

and sparks over one hundred feet long, havebeen produced by the inventor with aninstrument of this kind.

2] The Magnifying Transmitter: This is Teslasbest invention, a peculiar transformerspecially adapted to excite the earth, which is

in the transmission of electrical energy whenthe telescope is in astronomical observation.By the use of this marvellous device, he hasalready set up electrical movements ofgreater intensity than those of lighteningand passed a current, sufficient to lightmore than two hundred incandescentlamps, around the Earth.

3] The Tesla Wireless System: Thissystem comprises a number ofimprovements and is the only meansknown for transmitting economicallyelectrical energy to a distance without


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wires. Careful tests and measurements inconnection with an experimental station ofgreat activity, erected by the inventor inColorado, have demonstrated that power inany desired amount can be conveyed, clear

across the Globe if necessary, with a loss notexceeding a few per cent.

4] The Art of Individualisation: This inventionof Tesla is to primitive Tuning, what refinedlanguage is to unarticulated expression. Itmakes possible the transmission of signals ormessages absolutely secret and exclusive bothin the active and passive aspect, that is, non-

interfering as well as non-interferable. Eachsignal is like an individual of unmistakableidentity and there is virtually no limit to thenumber of stations or instruments which canbe simultaneously operated without theslightest mutual disturbance.

5] The Terrestrial Stationary Waves: Thiswonderful discovery, popularly explained,

means that the Earth is responsive to electricalvibrations of definite pitch, just as a tuningfork to certain waves of sound. Theseparticular electrical vibrations, capable ofpowerfully exciting the Globe, lend themselves

to innumerable uses of great importancecommercially and in many other respects. Thefirst World System power plant can be putin operation in nine months. With this powerplant, it will be practicable to attain electrical

activities up to ten million horse-power and itis designed to serve for as many technicalachievements as are possible without dueexpense. Among these are the following:

6] The inter-connection of existing telegraphexchanges or offices all over the world;

7] The establishment of a secret and non-interferable government telegraph service;

8] The inter-connection of all present telephoneexchanges or offices around the Globe;

9] The universal distribution of general news bytelegraph or telephone, in conjunction withthe Press;

10] The establishment of such a World Systemof intelligence transmission for exclusiveprivate use;

11] The inter-connection and operation of all stocktickers of the world;

12] The establishment of a World system ofmusical distribution, etc.;

13] The universal registration of time by cheap


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clocks indicating the hour with astronomicalprecision and requiring no attentionwhatever;

14] The world transmission of typed or hand-written characters, letters, checks, etc.;

15] The establishment of a universal marineservice enabling the navigators of all ships tosteer perfectly without compass, to determine

the exact location, hour and speak; to preventcollisions and disasters, etc.;

16] The inauguration of a system of world printingon land and sea;

17) The world reproduction of photographic

pictures and all kinds of drawings orrecords...

NIKOLA TESLA,Autobiography, 1919


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Brian HOLMES

Hans Ulrich OBRIST

36


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Scanner

Diedrich DIEDERICHSEN


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Viktor MISIANO


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Technical Museumis located in thebuilding that is one of the most beautiful examplesof Croatian 1950s modernism and human-facesocialism. The major part of the exhibition will beheld in the separate space in the Technical

museum [black box], but there will also be anumber of works incorporated into the museumspermanent collection.

In todays context, evokingTeslas work offersnumerous interpretations, parallels and wondrousparadoxes of meaning. Our intention is not tomake closed illustrative museum exhibition or tofocus exclusively on biographical references of this

charismatic legend. Instead, our goal is to open thespace for interaction and exchange of information,and encourage artists to utilize in-situ installationsand projects with space-visual-audio elements inexploring and emphasizing important elements ofexperience, movement and continuance in re-defined conditions of contemporary technologic,post-information time.


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January 3, 2001

Dear Ms. Jaulin,Following please find the project proposal for Getting

Together.

The project Getting Together is based on the utopian

idea of togetherness and it treats the subject of

phenomenon of artists groups and its relations to

other contemporary forms of social groups with the

method equaled to its subject. The project consists of

two layers that overlap temporally and spatially. The

first one puts emphasis on the researches whose

outcome should establish models of collaborationbetween different artists and social groups, while the

second combines further researches with series of

presentations in numerous permutations of different

formats of magazines, projects in public spaces and

exhibitions in alternative, non-gallery spaces.

The project operates at the intersections between the

model of artists group and the model of variousgroups developed within, for example, anti-

globalization movements, thus also intersections

between artistic work and social movements in a

broader sense. The project will include different

artistic groups but also different cultural groups that

work with the procedures similar to artistic models

and it will provide a platform for various groups to

redefine its positions. Our starting position is that anartistic group is a result of certain social conflict that

a group is trying to solve, and that is a location of a

very direct political relevancy of a collective work. On

the other hand, we would like to explore the moment

of enjoyment that often binds a group together.

There is always a possibility of a sudden break of

initiated chain of reactions and this project istherefore open to tests and shifts in the limits

imposed on mutual influences, communication,

engagements and creativity.

Please feel free to contact us should you require any

additional information. Thank you for your

consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Ana Devi, Nataa Ili, Sabina Saboloviwhw

WHW

[What, How

& for Whom]

c/o Arkzin

Ilica 176

10000 ZagrebCroatia

phone: +385 1

370 5374

3777 866

e-mail:

[email protected]

for whom:

Germana Jaulinfondation

Evens

14, rue Lincoln

75008 Paris

France


41/54

GETTING TOGETHER


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42

From the moment that artists started to sign

their works, the artworks had been granted

authorship and emerged out of collective

anonymity. Since then they have been treated as

unrepeatable individual creations.

Man is a social creature and in certain way

every work is a collective work, made possible by

the work of others, those that worked before, those

who formed frameworks of communication and

meanings, those who invest their work in our work

by interpreting it... But the ideology of modernity

insists on individual, artist genius, and

exceptional authorial personalities. Of course,today we understand that it is not about some

essence of art, some essential category that defines

artistic practice, but about needs of capital and

markets demands.

Phenomenon of artists group occurred in the

second half of 19th century, coinciding with new

styles and movements in visual arts. The beginning

of 20th century has been marked with intensive

activities of artists collectives linked to avant-

garde movements and schools, starting from

Futurists, Dadaists and Surrealists to various


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43

artistic movements including conceptual and

post-conceptual art. Mass media and technological

progress had enabled mechanic reproduction and

initiated the lost of aura [w. benjamin], which

indirectly influenced increased number of artists

groups during the 20 th century. The work ofdifferent historical artists groups and movements

was often based on the idea of achieving total art-

work, perceived as multi-disciplinary unit whose

realization should directly influence the society by

improving the quality of life and initiating a kind

of social revolution. The idea that art could

influence and change complex social relations hadpersistently proved untenable, especially in the

periods when these claims culminated - during

1920s and 1930s, in the post-war 1950s and

especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Nevertheless, continual efforts of different artists

groups prove relevancy of this basically utopian

wish.

In that context it is interesting to note that

numerous artists groups of the second half of the

20th century questioned the very essence of artistic

production, negating it or shifting it closer to other

fields, such as architecture, design, theater or

science, in order to multi-disciplinary enlarge its

own field of activity.

The phenomenon of artists group is

paradoxical and dynamic. On the one side it is the

ver y negatio n of romantic idea of individ ualgenius, but on the other side the concept of the art

group is not based exclusively on the summation

of individuals, but draws its character from

multidirectional creative possibilities of different

interactions and synergic actions.

First of all, the phenomenon of artists group

indicates toward certain more or less prominentsocial conflict realized as the reaction of minority

of isolated individuals organized in a collective that

explores alternative models of powerredistribution. This social conflict is a prioripolitical gesture based on the oppositions that

reflect inability of an individual to confront the

system of restrictions and act within it.

Collective is a micro-system, bothsmall society and parallel society. Since the

possibility to act socially also means to partly fit

into the system, dynamics of artistic groups is

d ll b d b l h ll l bl h d d l k


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44

paradoxically based on balancing these parallel

identities. As a system the group is always fragile,

from one side threatened by ossification and

complete integration into the system, from the

other by its own disintegration. Balancing these

unstable factors and tensions functions as the veryvitality of artists group.

Creating the sense of closeness and making

some kind of a barrier, a membrane against

outside world, a group might be compared to a

family and thus indirectly points toward total crisis

of a family concept.

is inevitable that individuals working in a group

give up part of their identity and acquire certain

exclusive collective identity. Therefore, tobelong to a group inevitably expresses artisticand political attitude.

There is a constant fear of Western man oftotalitarian loss of freedom and accordingly the

need to express identity, autonomy and rights of

the subject, including hypertrophied forms of

political correctness, culture of complaints andharassment. Its flip side is hysteric search for

rules, subjection to various disciplinarian rituals

ranging from cults and masochism toBody radicals,subjection of free will, depersonalization,drowning in anonymous crowd and/or collective...

When is collective work truly productive and when

is it just a promotional tool or a mask for personal

weaknesses?

After sixties and seven ties personal ispolitical and eightiesyuppie individualism,in the nineties mass usage of digital commu-

nications networks and ideology of multi-culturalism shifted the focus toward virtua-lization of the body, fragmentary and fluid subject

Are couples a group?There are numerous models of constitutionsof artists groups. Dialogue and work distribution

are always parts of the model /even when the

opposite is claimed/. The sense of a shared secret

/even when the opposite is claimed/.

***

A group is creative laboratory, voluntary and

temporary think-tank isolation that enables

results of interactions to become socially active. It

d id h f l h d lid it b fli t


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45

and idea that everyone can freely choose and

change identity and social role. Behind this

permissiveness there is obsessive search for the

rules of behavior that would norm and order

unstable and fragile social life and alsopassionate

attachments to different types of fundamentalism.Parallel to it, especially in the Eastern Europe,

weve witnessed the collapse of state andnational identities, political systems and socialchanges brought about by so called transition- privatization, bankruptcy cases, unemployment,

loss of social stability, armed conflicts, wars and

destruction of whole cities. In the transitionprocess, the state lost its status as the political-

administrative representative of solidaritybased on work, and the new civil-social formof power based on private propertyhad beenestablished. In this new context, the state acquired

the function to regulate the conflicts resulting

from unsolvable contradictions of the new system,

which be comes repressive whenever these

conflicts can not be funneled by procedures of

parliamentary democracy or some negotiable

solution. Sociability is no longer based on

solidarity, but on conflicts.In this situation the question of the subject and

its relations to collective are necessarily raised.

What is it today to be subject and what is the

relation of the subject toward community? What

are his/her responsibilities to broader communityand how is a collective, community responsible to

individual? How is it possible to work together?

***

In many Eastern European countries there is

rich history of artists groups, whose work had beenalmost always performed at the social margins. In

Croatia, where this tradition dates from 1950s,

exactly those marginal artists groups changed

conservative visual language and offered strong

counterpoint to the production supported by

institutions of dominant cultural politics. In the

wider local context of ex-Yugoslavia, it is possible

to trace continual activities of artistic groups that

shared utopian ideas of out-of-system, critical

political activities in the public, redefined notion

and context of artwork, affirmation of category of

What is it

today to be

subject and

what is the

relation of the

subject

toward

community?

What are his/

herresponsibilities

to broader

community

and how is a

collective,

community

responsible to

individual?

h d h d t i li ti f t t d h tti i t bli dTh


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46

ephemera and chance, dematerialization of art

work and inclination to alternative spaces and

formats. The activities of groups like EXAT 51[1951 - 1956, Zagreb] Gorgona [1959 - 1966,Zagreb], Crveni Peristil [1968/69, Split], OHO[1966 - 1971, Ljubljana], Bosh + Bosh, [Subotica],Penzioner Tihomir Simi [1969, Zagreb], TheGroup of Six Artists [1975 - 1984, Zagreb] lefttraces whose echoes and modifications we can

discern in the activities of contemporary groups

like IRWIN, Ljubljana, Weekend Art Projekt,Zagreb, Crni Peristil, Zagreb, Ego East, Zagreb,

kart, Beograd...The ideas of group work culminated in latesixties and during the seventies, and 1968 idea of

collectivism initiated interaction with the public

and art getting out of galleries to public spaces of

squares and streets, universities, factories,

apartments, nature... For the Eastern European

groups it was often the only possible model of

working and essential feeling of belonging to the

group formed resistance to power structures and

flee from them. How general are these general

characteristics? What is the role of the group work

today when getting into public space and

interaction with the public are common means of

artistic expression? If in that context one can still

talk of critical art and its impact on the public, how

is it realized? What are the restrictions and

repression of recent global or transitionalsociety? Do we still perceive the public ascritical mass or as uninterested crowd? Theseare just some of the few questions that arisesfrom analysis of collective artistic work.

***

The experience of collective work within the

WHWmotivated the planed research that aims toexplore the issues and models of artistic

collaboration and groups in the light of broader

context of networks and groups that operate on

shifting grounds of life-styles and politics.

Invitation to collaboration to different artists

and cultural groups and simulations of collectiveshould result in temporary networks and

applications in formats characteristic for late

sixties and seventies artistic collectives:

The

experience

of collective

work within

the WHW

motivated

the planed

research

that aims to

explore theissues and

models of

artistic

collaboration

and groups

magazines project in public spaces and Disregarding the model of group activities and h


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47

magazines, project in public spaces and

exhibitions in alternative, non-gallery spaces.

Apart from classic model of artists groupsas closed unity, today there are many differentmodels of collective work. Possibilities opened

by new technologies and fast informationexchange enabled different networks andcollective work based on the network modelsis no longer dependant on the context of realtime and space. While classic group organizationwas based on the belonging, networks enableformation of temporary groups and possibility of

simultaneous participation in many differentgroups. Also, groups today very often appropriate

or simulate certain social forms or templates

present in the society. So a group canappropriate the form or identity of differentinstitutions: commercial companies, culturalinstitutions like museum or researchlaboratory. Often behind these appropriations of

forms there is and individual that by appropriatingframework or a form creates contra-culture and

actualizes own existence within the present system

or at its margins.

Disregarding the model of group activities and

their common goals, contemporary artists groups

and collectives are still characterized by enjoyment

of togetherness and more than ever are the groups

interested in the possibilities of communication

and limitations imposed on it in the broadest socialcontext.

***

The art object is no longer the most important

- exhibition as social event and relations it enables

or art projects as social projects are in the focus ofcontemporary art. This dematerialization of art

coincides with domination of financial capitalthat does not produce new values primarily in the

field ofmaterial production, but in the field offinancial speculations and stock-exchange games.

This, of course, enhances the role of a curator

who is no longer the one who just selects from the

catalogue of artworks, but who creates values andcontext. And the question is nowadays how toovercome this dominant but also almostexhausted paradigm of collective/group show

...the

question is

nowadays

how to

overcome

this

dominant

but also

almost

exhaustedparadigm of

collective/

group show

that simply gathers under common denominator The form of /anti/magazine as alternative way


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48

that simply gathers under common denominator

work s by di fferent artists, how to ac hi eve

cooperation, collaboration, truly collective work.

There are three levels - material level of

production of the object, the very process of work

production and its documentation, and socialrelation between artist and viewer/consumer,

including media and market mediation and

commentaries on that mediation. In all the periods

some of this aspects was central to the art

production. The question is now how to connect

them, how to bring back into artistic production

the very process of material production while notlosing sight of symbolic production and its special

aspects.

***

Actualization of the project would be preceded

by exchange of information, ideas and proposals

in the form of mail forum and work on themagazine. The process of communication is

equally important element as the very realization

of the project.

The form of /anti/magazine as alternative way

to distribute ideas and realize works has a long

tradition in the local and international context /

Gorgona, Maj 75.../.It would be a certain form of mail art that

gathers different material, documentation,programs, projects, artworks, manifestos,questionnaires...

By its very nature media are collective - theyappear due to the minimal feeling of connection

between creator/sender and receiver/consumer

and this relation is further strengthened by

participation in certain lifestyle. While the mediawere huge, dinosaurs, slaw, heavy, immobile and

centralized and thus unable to react fast enough to

the signals sent by body so huge, due to their

financial sustainability they were dependant on

mass audience. But these relations are nowadays

changed. Against broadcasting evennarrowcasting becomes possible, interestingand even financially lucrative. This also bring upthe issue of collectivity - of creative collective of

media creators, but also of possible models of

collective created by media - new tribes no longer

connected to space proximity and immediate framework ofthe projects developedby individual replacing


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connected to space proximity and immediate

contacts but drawn together by common interests,

communication codes and information

exchange...

***

The project Getting Together does notoffer participants strict spatial and temporal form

of the group show. Project is conceived as a series

of consequential and coordinated parallel actions

that should take place at different locations within

the city of Zagreb, but also in other cities in Croatiaand abroad. Abandoning the idea of the exhibition

as more or less monolith unit, in Zagreb we would

like to utilize vacant ex-socialist youth cultural

center at the very outskirts of the city, offered by

the City of Zagreb to the curators collectiveWHW.

It should be mostly used as the archive and working

space where documentation on the events initiated

in other cities would be displayed. Artists invitedto work in Zagreb could realize their projects at the

same location or at other public urban structures.

At the same time it would be presentational

framework of the projects developed by individual

artists who appropriate/simulate collective

framework of presentational models of museum,

company, institute etc /PARASITE, Slovenia,

Museo de Telenovella, Mexico/US, Rambutan

Society, Thailand, Salon des Fleures, USA/Yugoslavia, Museo della Calle, Columbia.../

Within this context we wou ld also like to

explore the possibilities of collaborating with the

artists collectives also nominated for evens award,

replacing exclusiveness of competitive concept by

explorations of cooperation within the broader

framework.The project of actions in the public space

initiates collaboration between artists collectives

that deal with related issues and with groups of

different cultural backgrounds. Interventions and

situations in public spaces might range from

palpable impact, redistribution of knowledge-

power or resources all to the subtle realizations of

utopian ideas and functions in the space that couldbe quite ephemeral, at the very limit of attention,

but at the same time could initiate some new

quality or indirectly function as temporary

...replacing

exclusiveness

of

competitive

concept by

explorations

of

cooperation

within the

broaderframework

subversion within the routine going on. It should area. During the acute conflict in ex-Yugoslavia,The project


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50

subversion within the routine going on. It should

be affirmation of the idea of possible network

collaboration of different collectives, subgroups,

and parallel networks /IRWIN, Superflex, Marko

Peljhans projects, Andr eja Kuluni s

Distributive Justice project.../

***

The project will explore not only the

relationships in and among artists groups and

collectives, but also the concept of a group as such.

The last decade in Balkans, that had becameterrifying European Other that embodies all that

is wrong in the eyes of Brussels bureaucracys

dream of the smooth functioning, has been

characterized by an inflation of groups and

associations, from dozens of almost daily emerging

new political parties, humanitarian organizations,

non-profits and citizens associations, to scary but

ever more present mafia groups. The aim of theproject is to explore these new groups that have

replaced our old solidarity and one for all, all

for one concepts that prevailed at this geographic

area. During the acute conflict in ex Yugoslavia,

the huge number of humanitarian and human-

rights organizations emerged, dealing with issues

from providing help in crisis, trauma prevention

and recovery, peace building, reconciliation, and

reconstruction to sophisticated media andmanagement training. In the early nineties, the so

called NGO scene, non-governmental scene,

acquired a certain pop quality of the freedom

fighters and trouble makers. However, in a short

time period of few years, the whole scene became

completely professionalized and dependent on

large influx of foreign donations and programpriorities, at times even adopting an almost cynical

approach to its work.

Although they still remained burning issues of

our societies, questions like return of refugee

populations to their homes, including their

peaceful reintegration to old communities,

building the relationships with neighboring

countries, suppressing xenophobia and includingnational minorities into society processes and

structures have somehow drifted away from our

collective consciousness. The conflict is over and

The project

will explore

not only the

relationships

in and

among

artists

groups and

collectives,

but also theconcept of a

group as

such

things are better swept under the carpet. Instead Utopias possess a


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51

g p p

of switching their priorities along with media and

donor attention, some of the organizations have

nonetheless continued to work on difficult issues.

The project would like to investigate the possi-

bilities of communication and structured dialogueamong artists collectives and these collectives on

reevaluating the content and context of our peace.

These cross-border collaborations would be

initiated through our already established network

with organizations from Belgrade, Sarajevo and

Ljubljana.

Utopias possess akind of modestywhich repels people.

Elias CANETTI

WHAT, HOW AND FOR WHOM The projects organized by WHWwere realized


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on the occasion of 152nd anniversary

of the Communist Manifesto

Zagreb, 16/06 - 28/07/2000

budget 23,255

WHAT, HOW AND FOR WHOMon the occasion of 153rd anniversary

of the Communist Manifesto

Vienna, 21/06-28/07/2001

budget 20,451

PROJECT: BROADCASTINGdedicated to Nikola Tesla

Zagreb, June 2001 - ....

budget 46,016

p j g y

with minimal financial means and with the support of

various national and international agencies. We

repeatedly received grants from the Ministry of

Culture of Republic Croatia, The City of Zagreb

Cultural department, European Cultural Fondation,KulturKontakt Austria, Open Society Arts and

Culture Network, OSI Cultural Link Program, Pro

Helvetia... In all the project we also collaborated with

the national agencies which support the participation

of their local artists in international programs: The

British Council, The Flemish Institute, The Swedish

Institute, Danish Contemporary Art Institute,Goethe Institute, Austrian cultural institute, Institut

Franaise...

We are especially glad that all WHW projects

received a number of small sponsorships from local

firms and private offices. Although the Croatian

legislation does not grant benefits for culture

sponsoring, WHWtries to develop models of

collaboration between non-profit sector and

economically powerful companies.

This is indeed the very meaning of the commodityThis is indeed the very meaning of the commodity


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53

This is indeed the very meaning of the commodityas a form, to obliterate the signs of work onthe product in order to make it easier for us to forget

the class structure which its organizationalframework. It would indeed be surprising if such anoccultation of workdid not leave its mark uponartistic production as well, both in the form andin the content...

[Fredric JAMESON]

This is indeed the very meaning of the commodityas a form, to obliterate the signs of work on

the product in order to make it easier for us to forget

the class structure which its organizationalframework. It would indeed be surprising if such anoccultation of workdid not leave its mark uponartistic production as well, both in the form andin the content...

[Fredric JAMESON]


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54 WHAT, HOW AND FOR WHOM

curators:Ana DEVI, Nataa ILI, Sabina SABOLOVI

consultant:Ivet URLIN

design:Dejan Kri & Rutta [arkzin]

fonts: Filosofia [emigre]

Eunuverse [Barry Deck]

Bliss [Jeremy Tankard]digital print:PagiGraf

Zagreb 2002

WHW promo booklet, 2002.

Documents

Transcript of WHW promo booklet, 2002.