josefine wikstrom

LECTURE SERIES: Publishing and other activities

2009-10-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Publishing and other activities
– possibilities and strategies for critical activity

During 2009 - 2010 choreographer Malin Elgán and freelance writer Josefine Wikström curate a series of lectures at Weld, that puts publications in relation to artistic production. The lectures are held by international guests from various disciplines and fields.

Tonight’s lectures are held by Prelom Kolektiv and Walking Theory from Belgrade, two independent organizations and journals that are working with alternative forms of cultural production. Prelom and Walking Theory contribute with other ways of presenting and thinking about art, actualizing the relationship between art work and viewer, reader and producer. By providing space for the unexpected, they generate movement in the artistic discourse as well as in its practice.

Malin Elgán and Josefine Wikström, whom usually operate within dance, intends through the series of lectures, to place a focus on the possibilities of publications to broaden the aesthetic discourse of choreography. A new collection of texts will also be presented at each lecture gathering.

The lectures series are produced by Weld in cooperation with Inpex, International Dance Programme at Arts Grants Committee, Mychoreography at University College of Dance and Re Act.

The international guests will also give workshops in connection with the lectures (more info at
http://www.weld.se/).

Co-workers: Tove Salmgren and Sara Ludvigsson

Prelom Journal was established in 2001 as a publication of the Belgrade Center for Contemporary Art, with an editorial board that took the journal beyond the usual “arty” topics. In the contemporary post- Yugoslav context, Prelom has created a space for critical examination of the political constellations between art, film and social theory. Prelom engage individuals as well as groups from both the ex- Yugoslav countries and internationally. Through collective initiative Prelom problematize, theorize and counteract, as they themselves express it, the contemporary neo-liberal capitalist hegemony and its heterogeneous and paradoxical forms. In 2004 Prelom transformed into the independent organization Prelom Kolektiv which also includes a publishing house. In addition to Prelom Journal, the organization has developed other activities such as curating exhibitions, arranging conferences, discussions and activism. Prelom recently participated in the Istanbul Art Biennial.
http://www.prelomkolektiv.org/

TKH (Teorija koja Hoda) or Walking Theory was founded in 2000 as an artistic and theoretical
research group within the Center for New Theatre and Dance in Belgrade. Since 2002, Walking Theory is an independent organization for performing arts theory and practice. Walking Theory wants to encourage the development and improvement of contemporary performing arts practice and especially its critical discourse, both in local, regional and international contexts. They publish the theoretical journal TKH Performing Arts Journal, organize training courses, arrange and participate in artistic and theoretical events, and produce interdisciplinary performances in and outside of Serbia. Walking Theory is also engaged in cultural policy and works to strengthen the independent artistic scene. They often collaborate with self-organized initiatives such as the Other Scene in Belgrade and PAF (Performing Arts Forum) outside Paris.
Walking theory was founded by Bojana Cvejić, Bojan Đorđev, Siniša Ilić, Jelena Novak, Ksenija
Stevanovic, Misko Šuvaković, Jasna Veličković and Ana Vujanovic.

2009-10-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

INVITATION TO WORKSHOP OCTOBER & DECEMBER 2009
During 2009 - 2010 choreographer Malin Elgán and freelance writer Josefine
Wikström curate a series of workshops and lectures in cooperation with Weld,
MyChoreography and the International Dance Programme at the Arts Grants
Committee.

The workshops are held in connection with international guests visiting Stockholm
attending a lecture series at Weld, dealing with publications in relation to artistic
production.

The workshops are independent from the lectures, and are formulated out of each
guest's specific topic. Welcome to participate are theoreticians, choreographers and
dancers as well as artists from other fields.

Registration at info@weld.se Thursday the 22nd as latest
Please give your name, a short description of who you are and write in the subject
line in which one or ones of the workshops you want to participate.
The language is English and numbers of places limited. The workhops are held at
daytime. No fee.

26 – 27 October
Dance and politics or Dance as politics
Workshop with Ana Vujanovic and Marta Popivida (Walking theory, Belgrade)

The workshop deals with the relationship between politics and contemporary
performing arts, with particular emphasis on dance. Politics means here the
communication of an artistic practice; how it operates in the public and the discursive
space and how it redistributes or challenges its existing forms.
Arts political aspect can be understood and analyzed, not only on the basis of
subject and theme - which is the conventional approach - but also from media
discourse and form, and its production conditions and working practices. Through
short lectures and with examples from the contemporary international performing arts
scene, these different approaches and reasoning are discussed and developed with
the participants.

The idea is to make aware how a public performance, because it takes place in a
cultural, social and economic context, is never an objective or neutral media, but
instead it always has a political dimension. The workshop provides a theoretical
overview of the political aspects of artistic practice and provides methods to look at
individual works of art from such a perspective. It is not just a method to interpret the
works, but the workshop also provides tools for artists to produce, articulate and
pursue its own artistic practice in a contemporary and performing arts context.

28 – 29 October
Art of critique
Workshop with Dusan Grlja and Jelena Vesic (Prelom Kolektiv, Belgrade)

The workshop deals with Prelom Kolektiv’s collaborations with artists, theorists and
other cultural workers focused on the possibilities of the "art of critique". Based on
their own projects and exhibitions such as Political Practices of Post-Yugoslav Art or
the Prelom - journal for images and politics, Prelom Kolektiv discuss how art
movements and practices are ”read” today and through history. They are also
addressing the contemporary theoretical scene in ex-Yugoslavia as well as political
issues and re-writings of the history of socialist Yugoslavia. In a broader sense, it is
about how the ex-Yugoslav context "fits into" and work in a wider art context and the
European cultural production, especially in view of how contemporary art from the
West Balkans are usually presented and how historical representations of East
European art looks.

Prelom Kolektiv discuss the traps of criticism, of appropriation of critique or of how it
becomes merely decorative in the Western European art institutions, bigger art
shows and projects.

5 – 6 December
How are ”many” on the move?
– On embodiment and collaboration
Workshop with Bojana Kunst (Ljubljana)

There are many disillusions about the political movements and artistic communities in
the 20th century, however in the present cultural and political situation, there is also a
strong need to rethink the notion of plurality as a specific force of change. In the
workshop we will approach this need from the perspective of the body and processes
of embodiment, which are deeply intertwined with the ways how do we reflect and
think about collaboration and movement of the group. We will analyse and discuss
significant examples from the history of performance (particularly from the second
half of 20th century), especially the ways in which the processes of embodiment are
tightly intertwined with the formal and aesthetical approaches to community. The
potential for change, sensorial togetherness, belonging, counting, community,
immunity, all those issues are connected with specific understanding of the body and
are strongly influencing the aesthetic and formal procedures of performance in the
last decades. Today the notion of embodiment and collaboration touches new fields,
where bodies are part of augmented space, moving as swarms, multitudes,
deterritorialized communities. What can be then the body of a group? How to think
about the body of a group after deep disappointments with collective body? How are
“many” on the move today?
Bojana Kunst

For further information on the international guests see www.weld.se

DEEP INSIDE with Jessyka Watson-Galbraith

2009-09-23T02:27:00.000-07:00

The first Deep Inside will take place inside the Margaret Lawrence Gallery in Melbourne with the Australian choreographer Jessyka Watson-Galbraith with the choreography Telephone Dance.

Telephone Dance is a choreography transferred over the phone. The phone numbers of four choreographers have been put on the wall of the Margaret Lawrence Gallery in Melbourne. Viewers are invited to sms one of the numbers. In turn a choreographer will call them back and during a two minute phone call lead them through a choreography.

Telephone Dance is the suggestion of a choreography passed via telephone. It plays with people's imaginations... What could it be? Could I do that myself? It challenges the idea of what choreography is.It is an intimate experience that may or may not like a recognisable dance. The work is addressing the transferring of choreography with minimum emphasis on what the dance looks like. The work is an opportunity for people to be together differently in the gallery space.

http://www.telephonedance.blogspot.com/

DEEP INSIDE

2009-07-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

DEEP INSIDE
Deep Inside is a project celebrating the marriage of the institution and art. With a two-day open access period into any offered space at an art institution, each artist is given the opportunity to exhibit a solo show. The space offered by the institution can range from the largest exhibition space to a narrow corridor by the toilets, or perhaps a desk in the administration office. By selecting artists who explore and work directly with the process and the production of meaning in art– how it is constructed here and now – and levels of performativity, each solo show delves deep inside and into the heart of institutional structures.

A greater part of the solo-shows will take place in Stockholm and within Swedish institutions as well as infiltrating international institutions in cities such as Zagreb, Kiev and London. Artists from all over the world as for will be invited to participate in this project.

DEEP INSIDE is curated by USERNAME
www.user-name.se

USERNAME

2009-07-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

As an independent curatorial collective USERNAME works with organisational structures in art production and distribution, with the focus on discussing how we as art practitioners can engage together effectively and more differently. USERNAME is concerned with the questions of public space, institutional operations, circulation of value, modes of distribution, political strategies within art, open-source tools and immaterial labour. As a self-organised collective group we work as a vehicle for the production of exhibitions, publications and activism.