Call for proposals for Inter-format Symposium [ON HOSTING AND DISPLACING] on Critical tourism, site-specificity and post-romantic condition until 1st of March
- Published on Tuesday, 19 February 2013 15:29
In a time where heritage, sustainability and ecology increasingly cross the path of tourism, artists working in remote contexts and tourists often share the observation of similar cultural objects: iconic landscape sites, vernacular culture and authentic artefacts, invented traditions and nostalgia.
One effect of this condition, as Miwon Kwon highlights in the essay “The Wrong Place”, is that the increasing mobility of the art system, involving both centres and remote situations, has led to romanticising the image of the cultural worker. The symposium aims at bringing into question correspondences between artistic practices and critical tourism in a trans-disciplinary context. In contemporary artistic practices, do displacements take the form of a romantic expedition or are they based on hospitality and exchange? And what happens in the stay? What kind of connection/network of competence can be developed in a situation of post-romantic retreat? How to avoid and/or critically read the exoticism potential arisen by these sites? How to deal with these two new genres of colonies – artistic and touristic ones – that are both conceptually and physically re-shaping the landscape?
NIDA ART COLONY, May 16-19, 2013
Deadline 1st of March, 2013
Key-words and key-questions:
· The artist as tourist
· Artistic and curatorial practices in remote contexts as hospitality
· Critical tourism and re-mapping culturescapes
· Museification of landscape and local histories
· Touristic gaze and the construction of places
· Sightseeing as artistic research
· Nostalgia tourism in post-colonial contexts
· Landscape and contemporary forms of exoticism
· Identity landscape and site-specific artistic interventions
· Localism vs. standardized identities
· Critical artistic actions in alpine and seaside contexts
· Site-specific materials in Nida and Sierre (snow, dam, amber, sand, vernacular culture)
· Staged authenticity and interpreting tradition
· Post-romantic experiences of the picturesque
· Dis-placing artistic practices in rural / alpine artistic colonies and residencies
· Networked retreat for cultural production
The symposium is a 4-day-long event (May 16-19 2013) and is a part of the project On Hosting and Displacing co-organised by Nida Art Colony (LT) and Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais/Sierre (CH). The participants will share their experiences working and living in remotely located art and residency centers as directors and cultural managers, and as practicing artists.
The format: The format is open; proposals can vary from lectures and workshops to performances and site-specific artworks. We are able to provide accommodation and catering to a limited number of participants. Travel expenses are subject to availability.
Deadline: Please send a short proposal (up to 500 words and/or visual material if needed) by March 1, 2013 to: Vytautas Michelkevicius (
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) and Federica Martini (
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) with subject line “proposal for symposium”. Swiss and Lithuanian participants are very encouraged to apply.
Interested individuals who would prefer to take part as audience members may apply as “passive” participants by submitting a request with a short motivation letter. Unfortunately, we will be unable to cover your participation costs.
We are thankful for our partners who provided grants for the most of curators and artists. Project is supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Ministry of Culture of Lithuanian Republic, Nordic-Baltic mobility programme for culture.
«A cooperation project1 in the framework of the exchange programme with Central and Eastern Europe, initiated by the liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in
Warsaw.» www.prohelvetia.pl
