Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art
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| Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, will take place in the Region of Murcia (Spain) in dialogue with northern Africa, from October 9, 2010 until January 9, 2011.
Preview days: October 7 and 8 |
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| In the framework of Manifesta 8, a trio of independent projects is being initiated by the three curatorial collectives responsible for the artistic content of Manifesta 8, in order to further investigate the potential for establishing a closer dialogue with northern Africa.
Alexandria Contemporary Art Forum (Egypt) has already initiated a series of discussions aiming to research the potential for the creation of a new pan-African roaming biennial, tranzit.org (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) will develop an in-depth publication to examine the various links, narratives and discrepancies between Post-colonial and Post-communist communities, while Chamber of Public Secrets (Scandinavian Countries, Italy, Lebanon and U.K.) will set up a collaboration with the popular Arab language talk-show Heewar Maftouh (Open Dialogue), broadcast on the Al Jazeera network. Bringing you the answers before we know the question: four positions regarding the idea of a pan-African roaming biennial The project aims to facilitate the articulation of critical positions regarding the notion of a pan-African, roaming art biennial. The Incubator will avoid assumptions or simple assessments of what a biennial looks like, what is its context, what effect it has, and whether it can even be done. The Incubator will identify and bring together perspectives from curators, artists, cultural producers and active sponsors, whose current activities reveal the desire to find room for autonomy and progressive experimentation within their respective contexts. Articulating this research should bring together a set of historically and politically informed viewpoints, while paying attention to infrastructure and pragmatic issues. These will happen through several means: the symposium taking place during the opening of Manifesta 8; a website; a workshop which will take place in an African city in April 2011; the appointment of key voices as planners; the production of a publication in September 2011. The Incubator and its platforms should register these positions as an (uneven) landscape upon which others may imagine a new biennial, a roaming biennial, an alternative structure or a model responding to a different set of priorities entirely. Post-colonial / Post-communist Reader For their project, tranzit.org decided to establish a critical counter-check and revision of the so-called post-colonial, the de-colonised and the post-communist conditions of transformation. This will be the subject of a Reader published by the Manifesta Foundation in collaboration with tranzit.org and Erste Stiftung after the closure of Manifesta 8. The aim of the book is to facilitate the transfer of critique, research and thinking between specific notions and concepts of post-colonial thought, and to provide post-communist and transformational inquiries. One of the major challenges of the publication is to establish an exchange of some of those imaginary utopias, disappeared since the end of the Cold War. ¿The Rest is History? Chamber of Public Secrets’ (Alfredo Cramerotti and Khaled Ramadan) choice to work intensely with the media, as both a constructive and divisive agent, addresses the concept that reality is not a fact to be understood, but rather an effect to be produced. In keeping with this engagement, CPS is collaborating with Ghassan Ben Jeddou, a prominent journalist and host of the talk show Hiwar Maftouh (Open Dialogue), regularly broadcast on the Arabic Al Jazeera network. Over the past 10 years, through its perceptive programming, this international news network has taken an intensive role in recording and re-writing Arab history. Accordingly, during Manifesta 8, Ben Jeddou will produce two broadcasts focusing on some of those narratives shared between Spain, northern Africa and the Arab world. These will address the complex nature of this transnational dialogue which, despite giving birth to a project of great potential for multiple perspectives, also reveals itself as negotiating history in parallel terms of honour and denial. For more information: |
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Manifesta 8 – In Dialogue with Northern Africa VAGA Tour 6-8 October 2010
VAGA Visual Arts and Galleries Association Newsletter
13 August 2010
Manifesta 8 takes place in the Spanish cities of Murcia and Cartagena. It is being curated by Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Chamber of Public Secrets and Tranzit.org and explores the idea of Europe in the 21st century, focussing on the
boundaries of the continent and engaging with Europe’s present-day frontiers and its interrelation with the Maghreb region. The South of Spain, specifically Al-Andalus, has been a historical blend of Islamic, Judaic and Christian cultural influences co-existing together.
Wednesday 6th October 2010
MURCIA
6.00pm
Introductory Talk with Alfredo Cramerotti, Co-Curator of Manifesta 8, part of the
Chamber of Public Secrets curatorial collective and Curator at QUAD in Derby.
Media Lounge Espacio Molinos del Rio-Caballerizas C/Molinos 1
MANIFESTA 8 | Collective Curating: Means in Common at Art Basel 41
ART BASEL 41 | Art Salon Program
Friday June 18, 2010
Participants:
Alfredo Cramerotti, Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS), Denmark, Italy, Lebanon, Member of the M8 Curatorial Collective
Esther Regueira, General Coordinator, Manifesta 8, Murcia
Georg Schöllhammer, Member of the collective tranzit.org, Central Europe.
MANIFESTA 8 | DESAYUNO DE PRENSA Madrid
09 DE SEPTIEMBRE 10,45H
Restaurante Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS)
Acceso por la Plaza Del Museo

Hedwig Fijen directora de la Fundacion Manifiesta, Esther Regueira Coordinadora general de Manifesta 8 y representantes de los equipos curatoriales Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Bassam el Baroni) y Chamber of Public Secrets Forum (Alfredo Cramerotti) presentarán en Madrid los avances de la preparación de Manifesta 8.
Se entregará dossier de prensa con información general, descripción detallada de proyecto, listado de artistas e imágenes para publicar.
Una de las innovaciones de esta edición es la introducción de un equipo curatorial compuesto por tres colectivos – Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Egipto), Chamber of Public Secrets (Escandinavia y el Medio Oriente) y tranzit.org (Europa Central) – responsables tanto del enfoque temático como de la selección de artistas. Como la muestra dinámica que es, Manifesta 8 se sitúa en una intersección, en un lugar en el que los tres colectivos curatoriales ofrecerán respuestas a los desafíos planteados por las nociones del diálogo transregional y transcontinental a través de diversos formatos. http://www.manifesta8.com
IMAGES FESTIVAL Toronto: Alfredo Cramerotti on Chamber of Public Secrets
29 Mar 2010
CPS Chamber of Public Secrets, Co-curated by Khaled Ramadan and Alfredo Cramerotti
Chamber of Public Secrets works as a network of artists, curators and thinkers who have been collaborating since 2004 on the organization, production and circulation of film and video festivals, exhibitions, TV and radio programs, political fictions and documentaries. CPS members have also established forums for debate and published books and articles on issues like media representation, migration, mobility, colonialism, gender and difference. CPS helps to debate the position of artistic and media narratives and the function and responsibility of both in relation to society.
The CPS Archive was established in Copenhagen 2007 as an independent, non-profit art project focusing on the latest developments in visual art culture. The archive collects, preserves, and provides photographs, video films and documentaries about a variety of issues, thereby exploring, exposing and exemplifying the way contemporary art interacts with society through the use of new media.
The archive functions as an information and research centre and is open to the public. It consists of an electronic image, video and film database, which forms the basis for exhibitions, debates, symposiums, artist presentations, performances and screenings. The CPS Archive is open for cooperation with individuals and institutions that share the interest in exploring, examining and informing the contemporary artistic usage of visual elements – with the aim of enhancing communication between people of different societies.
For this screening, Alfredo Cramerotti will be presenting recent works from the archive by artists including Mounira Al Solh, Dalia Alkoury and Raed Yaseen that will serve as an introduction to a curatorial project he and Khaled Ramadan have worked on for Manifesta 8 called The Rest Is History?
Through operating as a roving Biennial, Manifesta must each time address and negotiate a different context with specific geographical, historical, aesthetical and political structures. In this way, its curators are offered the opportunity, and the challenge, to engage with local, global and networked communities using a variety of platforms and methodologies.
In the vision of CPS, Manifesta 8 is a series of ‘transmissions’ that critically use artistic, relational and media(ted) strategies to explore ideas of what Spain / Europe is today and focus on its boundaries and relationship with Northern Africa, encouraging viewers to ask questions.
CPS’s approach to curating encompasses (mass) media platforms such as television, internet, radio and newspapers, alongside other exhibition formats. Broadcast airtime, online streaming, printed matter, human relations and physical venues are all ‘channels’ in which we present different types of constructions. These media(ted) channels are an extremely interesting place to situate a series of projects for Manifesta 8. By challenging artists and contributors to explore new terrains beyond their usual practice, we question what is the media’s relationship to the construction of a local reality, how does it relate to ideas of truth, fact and history, and what are its possibilities for engaging with new audiences? And why do we need to expand the existing boundaries of art by introducing the notion of media?”
Khaled Ramadan is an artist and curator currently based in Helsinki. His fields of specialty include the culture and history of broadcast aesthetics, with interests in the fields of aesthetic journalism and documentary film research. He has produced several documentary films, theoretical texts and books on broadcast aesthetics, journalism and documentary filmmaking. Ramadan also has extensive experience curating video exhibitions and film festivals. He is the founder of the MidEast Cut festival, the Made in Video festival, the Coding-Decoding documentary festival, the video festival Not on Satellite, and the Video File. He is member of the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art, IKT and is currently co-curator of Manifesta 8.
Alfredo Cramerotti is a writer, curator and artist. His work explores the relationship between reality and representation across a variety of media. He is co-curator of the forthcoming Manifesta 8, a European biennial of contemporary art in Murcia and Cartagena, Spain, and curator of QUAD, an art, film and media centre in Derby, UK. He co-runs the collective art and media projects Annual General Meeting and Chamber of Public Secrets. Recent publications include Aesthetic Journalism: How to Inform without Informing (2009).
Manifesta Coffee Break 2009
Manifesta Coffee Break is a recurring public meeting, serving as an active tool to discuss the concept of Manifesta within a larger critical context. The fifth Coffee Break takes place on 12 and 13 December 2009 in Murcia, Spain, in preparation for Manifesta 8, and in direct relation to the context of the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which will take place in 2010. Titled Towards Manifesta 8, this Manifesta Coffee Break brings together both local and international artists, curators, theorists, writers and other art professionals to reflect on Manifesta’s logic in direct relation to Murcia-Cartagena and its links with northern Africa. It is open for all who are interested, and consists of sessions by the three curatorial teams of Manifesta 8 together with invited speakers and guests.

Chamber of Public Secrets (CPS)
“Unfaithful Relations: Art, Engagement and Audience within the Biennial Model”
December 12, 10.00-13.30
with contributions by: Sara Black, Alfredo Cramerotti, Christine Eyene, Rian Lozano, Fay Nicolson and Khaled Ramadan
Through presentations and work groups at the Manifesta Coffee Break, CPS will start a dialogue about the role and involvement of the audience in the region of Murcia: visitors, artists, students and media presence. How can the local art scene, cultural producers and activists make a sustainable use of a biennial, in terms of time, space and continuity? What possibilities are there for audience development? And how to avoid or respond to the common skepticism of the local (art) scene towards a biennial which can be viewed as welcome/unwelcome or invited/invasive? The presentations by Sara Black (Great Britain) and Christine Eyene (France/Cameroon) do not attempt to answer these questions, but discuss potential approaches towards audience inclusion.
Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF)
“The Aesthetic Compass: Human Geography and its Reverberations in Art”
December 12, 16.00-19.30
with contributions by: Jeremy Beaudry, Sherif El Azma, Bassam El Baroni, Nida Ghouse and Yaiza Hernández Velázquez
tranzit.org
“Post-Communist as well as Post-Colonial”
December 13, 10.00-13.30
with contributions by: Zbyněk Baladrán, Erick Beltrán, Vít Havránek, Dóra Hegyi, Richard Kostelanetz, Boris
Ondreička and Georg Schöllhammer
For a video excerpt of MCB:

















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