[Nettime-bold] Art and the State: «Miss Croatia and Miss Brazil Read Zizek and Chomsky»

[geert lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: dogmatik@EUnet.yu



Dear Friends,

We feel that it is very important that we inform you about the unpleasant
incident which is happening even as we write on the relation Sanja
Ivekovic - state policy. A state selector has invited Sanja Ivekovic to
represent the state on the Sao Paolo Biennal. But when Sanja Ivekovic
submitted the project "Miss Croatia & Miss Brasil Read Zizek & Chomsky" the
state selector has, using laughable and confused arguments, more exactly the
totally unprovoked "doubt that of this project will be realized in full and
on time", refused any possibility that this project could represent the
state on the Sao Paolo Biennal. There is no further need to explain, if you
only took a casual look at the project, what  the misunderstanding between
the artist and the state is. What we would particularly like to underscore
here is that it is quite unfortunate, for both sides, when state "has" an
artist wiser than itself.


Kindest regards,


Branimir Stojanovic & Milica Tomic

Beograd, 8. 1. 2002


--



Original proposal:



To:Noam Chomsky, philosopher

     Slavoj Zizek, philosopher

Re: art project by Sanja Ivekovic

«Miss Croatia and Miss Brazil Read Zizek and Chomsky»

to be presented at

25th Sao Paolo Biennial (March 23 - June 2, 2002)



CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT

At the forthcoming Sao Paolo Biennal of Contemporary Art  that is happening
this year under the theme «Metropolitan Iconographies» and among the artists
that are selected by national curators  I will be representing Croatia. For
this purpose  I would kindly ask  you for your collaboration.. Namely,
regarding the main theme of the Biennal, I conceived the video-installation
entitled "Miss Croatia and Miss Brasil Read Zizek and Chomsky".The project
has been enthusiastically supported by Alfons Hug, the chief curator of Sao
Paolo Biennal.



ABOUT THE ARTIST

I am a visual artist, born in Zagreb, Croatia where I teach  at The Women's
Studies in Zagreb. I have been involved in the Anti-war Campain in Croatia
(Arkzin) and was a founding memeber of several local NGOs. Her art
production has spanned a range of media such as video, performance,
photography and installations. In my artistic practice I always address
different aspects of  social reality, with a special concern as  to the
impact of the mass-media in the process of construction of public opinion. I
do not consider the area of art as autonomous and neutral, but indeed as a
social practice which constructs our idea of reality. In that sense, all of
my works are explicitly  (gender)sensitive, as well as critical towards
various social phenomena.



ABOUT THE PROJECT

Conceiving her Sao Paolo project I was fully aware of the fact that to
exhibit at a big and important international exhibition such as the Biennal,
means to appear in the function of  national representation, where the
organizing principle can be compared to other kinds of national
representation, for example to the Miss World selection.

 On the other side, in recent times such exhibitions attract remarcable
attention from the media and they  basically function  in much the same way
as show-business.



Aiming to address and to question stereotypes such as femininity, spectacle,
national representation, as well as to stress the fact that contemporary
visual culture (including art) cannot avoid the rules of consumer society
and global power structure,  I decided to produce two video tapes of Miss
Croatia and Miss Brasil reading texts written by two contemporary
philosophers which she admire greatly. Her decision to select these two
philosophers is based not only on their world fame but also on the fact that
both philosophers are well known for their analitical and highly critical
writings on contemporary consumerism, i.e. on the notion of spectacle
characteristic to consumer society.For example, after the attack on WTC,
Zizek and Chomsky immediately published a brilliant analysis of its causes
and possible consequences.



For the purpose of presenting the original art work for Sao Paolo Biennal
( to be shown as a video-installation consisting of two simultaneous video
projections) I would  kindly ask you to produce a short text  which would be
written for this purpose. We would especiallybe  interested in working with
texts that deal with subjects such as the culture of resistance,
globalization, i.e. politics and present everyday life.



THE PRODUCTION & SCHEDULE

I am  fully aware that this is a terribly late call. We would be very
grateful to receive the texts in about a week or so.

I would like to infom you that , miss Rajna Raguz and miss Sandisleia
Guiterrez have both already accepted the proposal to take part in this
project.According to my concept  the shooting of the videos will take place
on several locations in Zagreb and Sao Paolo where they will be reading the
texts addressing  the camera directly. Miss Croatia and miss Brazil will be
reading in their native language Croatian and Portuguese and in English.The
duration of each video (edited) will be around 15 min.The schedule for the
shooting of the videos is planned for the 11, 12, 13. of January (Zagreb)
and the 16, 17, 18. of February (Sao Paolo).



I am are very much looking forward to your collaboration in this project.

 Aagain, we would like to apologize for  this haste.



Thank you in advance,

Sincerely



Sanja Ivekovic, artist





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