whw

--- PRELIMINARY TOPICS ---

This is the inital statement for the process of developing WHAT, WHY & FOR WHOM project through the dialogue and discussion. It is also an invitation to everyone interested to respond to it in any way. A selection of these responses will be published in a TRANSFER magazine which will be a part of the WHAT, HOW & FOR WHOM project. We believe that actual event in Zagreb will be real start and not the end of the discussion.
Here are some of the preliminary (but not limited to) topics.

1. MANIFESTOS

role of political/artistic manifest/os
manifesto/s as performative
manifesto/s as "nodal point"
manifesto/s as interpellation
manifesto/s as meme spreading device
manifesto/s as artwork
utopian concepts in arts & politics/connection of social (revolutionary) and aesthetic movements today?
theory as working basis of artistic practice

2. COMMUNISM

actuality of the The Communist Manifesto today
ruling ideas are/are not ideas of the ruling class?
utopia as a symptom, critique of really existing social/artistic order
"transition" as a weapon within ideological, that is, hegemonic struggle
virtual and the return of the repressed utopia?
cybercommunism?

3. UTOPIA vs ECONOMY

notion of economy in the arts
creation of value on art-market [Saatchi & Saatchi, big international exhibitions...]
art/s/artistic practice as a cultural machinery, as cultural factory, as Ideological state apparatus
artist as a proletarian, part of alienated society/mass created by capitalist order
(ideology of) "art/s for all" (available? mass produced? understandable?)
social responsibility of artists/designers/media workers
art/istic practice against capitalist ideology of consumption/exploatation vs. art/istic practice as a part of exploatation/colonisation
free media? /free of what, free for whom, free for what?
open source /free as free beer or free as free speech?
art in opposition between dictate of art market and will/wish for free/spontaneous development, between tendency towards inertia and creation of relevant /political/cultural messages
public acces, but who is/constitutes public?
new (digital) media - colonising us globally, empowering us locally - "wound can be healed only by the spear that smoote you"?

4. RE-POLITIZATION

politization of culture vs. culturalisation of politics
art as model/experiment/test lab for new political/social practices
question/possiblity of avantguarde in post post modern/late capitalism
possibilities of radical (leftist, critical) art/culture/cultural action/art and media practice in late capitalist society
horizons of capital, possibility of subversion
possiblity/place/strategy of disruptive gesture
is body radicalism only masking avoidance of radical political issues in contemporary art? Are we allowed to be radical with our bodies/identities just to keep the body of the capital intact?
interpassivity and political question: how to affect/influence others with art/work, and not /work/for/instead of somebody else ["passive" audience]
role of the media
what are independent media worth for? Professional vs. partisan media?
myth of pure art and myth of objective information

5. REAL/ITIES OF [EASTERN] EUROPE

re/turn from real socialism to real capitalism
mutual dissapointment of East (in new capitalism) and West (reality of new states)
eastern artists - western market
european cultural coperation - beyond market??????
role of contemporary (East) European art/art practice/creative work/new media in regional integration, post-war reconciliation, promotion of democracy, across national boundaries and ethnic, religious and other divides
how to keep non-profit/not-for-profit work/media/institutions going
foreign fondations vs. state funding vs. sponsorship
networking? Is it working?
selfmanagement and sustainability of cultural institutions/networks