I returned a week ago from Venice after spending 10 days following the powers. I went to Rostock to participate in the anti g8 demonstrations, them flew to Venice to the see the 52nd art biennale. From Venice we joined activists from the area whom squatted a train that took us to Rome and participated at a big demonstration against George Bush who was visiting the Italian capital.
I was planning on writing many things about our adventures. I wanted to talk about the dissonance I felt in Venice coming straight from the anti g8 camp. i came from wonderful experience, from a great feeling of solidarity, demanding together with people from around the world a more equal world with less poverty and oppression. Then, arriving in at the Venice biennale that displayed art work with similar themes, but even more it displayed overwhelming wealth and the differences between those who have and those who have not.
But I came back exhausted and confused and realized that I need more time to get my thoughts an ideas straight. I left home with the idea that just like the g8 summit is the gathering of the political elite opened only to the wealthiest countries, in a similar way the Venice biennale is the g8 of the cultural elite witch in most cases come from the same countries as those who met in Heiligendamm. I still hold this idea, but of course the reality is more complex and it’s important to recognize and explore this idea deeper.
So hopefully in the near future I will expand more on these themes and my feelings that arose in Venice and at the demonstrations. I would also like to explore deeper the relationship between art, esthetics and creative resistance that was very present at the anti g8 demonstrations. i would also like to expand on the presence of street art and street artist at the bienalle, but this will have to wait a couple weeks when I have more time.
Meanwhile enjoy my flicker photo set from my travels. As always, remarks are most welcome.
This entry was posted by ronen on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 12:25 am.
It is filed under Anarchism, art, demostarations, radical struggle.
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June 20th, 2007 at 7:51 am
(UPDATE)Dear Ronen,
Thank u r inviting me to ur MEDINAT WEIMAR blog, most impressive!
I’m not sure of the concept, u define yourself as a anarchist, anti occupation and anti capitalist direct action person. It seems that u r attracted and ‘blinded’ by those powers. Spending 10 days at the Venice biennale, Kassel Documenta, Rostock, Tel Aviv Maarav, Jerusalem, studying MFA program for Public Art at the Bauhaus university in Weimar, Germany, anti G8 riots worldwide its quite global capitalistic resource consuming project! I believe the sum of money for such cosmopolitan enterprise is far behind the reach of the exploited children in far & middle east who manufactured the white T-shirts of ur “I WON’T CHANGE THE WORLD” piece, the clips, the rope, the brand name shoes, jacket etc. same is with the hats u ‘enjoys wearing many kinds’ . All of this r the ‘Fordism’ mass production items, made by the g8 exploitation, u r so eager to fight, but can’t live without it! Dear Ronen prior to ur anarchistic direct action pls get rid of those suppression symbols u possess. Words r not enough.
And now to the serious staff, Ronen u don’t have to visit the traditional power bases like the Venice biennale, Documenta etc. it’s obviously governed by the traditional establishment u r trying to fight. (U can read about it in my Master thesis ‘Art Internet Interactions’ (1999) the Architecture Faculty Technion IIT) The established art there is biased by definition, it’s not in the artists hands! As an anarchist u must adopt a new modus operandi, the traditional blitz krig or Neo Ludism r not the intelligent way! SIMPLLY BECAUSE UR MASS IS TOO LOW (E=MC2). Ronen u must free the art from the establishment pole, make it omnipresent, non material and online, use the internet, in this way ur ‘small’ mass is powered by square ‘C’- the speed of light, hence gains a critical energy and impact upon the receiver (g8 et al.). If the art and the data r @ high speed, in superposition (Omni present) , accessible & cost no money, it will spread equally & globally, redundant the traditional power system, as a side effect.
Ronen for max. effect invest ur money time & energy in cyber-activity start-up. - http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3334195,00.html
For theoretical aspects of this project pls read the following texts:
The Ultimate Cathedral: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=568
Art at the Event Horizon: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=505
The Return of the Author: http://newmediafix.net/daily/?p=557
Good luck with ur project,
Avi Rosen,
New Media Artist.
http://siglab.technion.ac.il/~avi/cv.html
June 27th, 2007 at 9:55 am
Great photo to illustrate the dychotomy between art and act. I look forward to read your comperative analysis after you have made the complete >Grand Tour