[Oberlist] RS* CfA: Sex in Transition, Art Intervention, Kucevo/Serbia, 15-31.8.2008

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [balkans] CfA: Sex in Transition, Art Intervention,
Kucevo/Serbia, 15-31.8.2008
From:    "Noa Treister" <noa.treister la gmail.com>
Date:    Mon, June 16, 2008 15:31
To:      balkans la yahoogroups.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Art Interventions

*Sex in Transition *

15-31.8.2008



*Location: *Kucevo, Eastern Serbia**

* *

*Media: *all media



*Organizers:* KUD "Art Klub", Kucevo

*Partners: *Serbian Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Kucevo, The
Kattenbak Collective, Amsterdam, Citizens of Europe, Berlin,

* *

*Colloquium description:*

The subject of the colloquium is returning guest workers from Europe to
Eastern Serbia and their influence on the local economy, politics, culture
and environment.

It will consist of:

   - 3-week field research by students of the anthropology department of the
   Philosophical faculty of Belgrade University
   - a week long seminar that will include lecture on the history of the
   area and its current situation, on the subject of returning economical
   immigration and on engaged art and art in public space
   - a 2-week artist's workshop in which will participate 20 artists, 10
   Serb and 10 international,
   - 3- week exhibition  in Kucevo
   - Seminar and presentation in Belgrade

The artists will work and exhibit in public spaces in order to allow maximum
communication with the returning immigrants and the population that stayed
behind. The documentation of interviews with returning immigrants and
decision makers done as part of the pre-colloquia research, students'
research, the lectures given in the seminars and the artists work will be
collected in catalogues and presented in Belgrade to create a reaction on a
national level.



*Concept:*

When we speak about communities or countries in transition, we usually refer
to economical transition in this we underestimate the abyss that lays before
the sides facing each other. The difference rests within the basic concepts
(such as truth, time, security, privacy, intimacy, communication, etc.) on
which each person builds his/her life. The main discrepancy lies in the
grasp of a person as an individual, which is a modern concept, from which
grow notions of love, happiness, accomplishment, freedom, etc. From this
viewpoint, a community is an assemblage of individuals and individuals are
free to belong to a number of different communities without hurting their
loyalty to each one. In traditional communities, what is important is the
survival and continuation of the collective, the person and his/her desires
do not play a role this structure, he/she is only fulfilling a function and
therefore the community organizes one's life to the smallest details i.e.
the concept of privacy does not exist. Respect and authority are measured
not by one's ability to fulfill one's vision or desires but by one's loyalty
to the norm and customs of the community. In this way, the community as an
institution provides one with almost absolute security in life in exchange
for the erasure of desire or will i.e. individualism.

These traditional communities have in one way or another always have
maintained a connection with western development of thought and production
especially today with the advanced technology and media (including: films,
pop music, internet etc.) so they are aware of the differences but that does
not necessarily mean they regard them as progress. Furthermore, they do not
see the connection between the transformation of these concepts and the
economical development they seek. Even if they see the need for change, the
diversity given within western thought is confusing and the change is hard
to put into practice on a personal and community level. The result is that
they live in modern technology with traditional concepts.

Marriage, in this community structure, is one of the institutions that
insure its continuum in the same way. Both men and women fill preconditioned
roles before and during their married life and in that pay their dues to the
community and are held in check by the rumor economy and the threat of
excommunication that would penetrate even their basic means of existence.
What happens inside the marriage (form love to neglect or violence) is
irrelevant to the surrounding as long as the institution is maintained and
therefore is accepted by the partners themselves. As was perceived by one of
the community members:



"When you ask men what they think about it, most of the would answer that
about intimacy that have never heard but sexually they are very active,
great lovers (a legend close to Greek mythology J) and that they can seduce
any women. On the other hand, most women would say, with allusive irony,
that of intimacy they have long forgotten and that sex they accept as a
duty, something they have to "execute" with their man, like preparing lunch,
housekeeping or similar things.

[
] in a small town, in which are still performed many old, even pagan
customs, in which there is still fear of occultism (Vlah magic) and in which
people are still closely (and shallowly) connected with their families,
land, past, life revolves around "practicalities". Most people think: "if I
sow the land, it will give birth, if I sow a woman she also will give birth
J" and everything will function well on a superficial level because I am a
monkey and not a man! If I stough intimacy, it will touch me, which can be
extremely fuck up, and I don't wish to have a fucked up life!" (Davor
Radulj)



In this situation sex is just another physical need fulfilled (usually in
the most unimaginative way) or denied and as such a tool for manipulation.
Marriage, especially in poor communities where the hardships of life are so
demanding, is a parallel existence of two humans in order to meet elementary
"practicalities" of life. All in the name of security, comfort and insuring
the continuum of the line, usually reproducing the same situation in a
circular notion of time, like the seasons of the year.

But what is it in the notions of individuality and intimacy that in every
community, in every generation people are willing to risk their security, at
times, even their lives to experience? Where does this courage come from?
What is this wish to be wanted for who you are, who you can be for the other
and whom the other makes of you rather then, for what you can perform? What
is the difference between fucking and making love?

The answers are as many as the relationships but what is visible is that
relationships that aim to include intimacy are dynamic ones that require
reciprocal attention, sensitivity and communication throughout their
duration rather the static self-evidence of the traditional marriage i.e. it
require the individual commitment that is made every moment rather then the
loyalty to the collective and the institution that is taken once and for
all. It consists of the fragility and vulnerability of exposure to another
human being, complex and unpredictable just as one is, with the capability
to give and receive kindness, compassion, and creativity rather then the
programmed set of emotions and demands given in the course of socialization.


In this setting sex is an expression of individuality, a process of
becoming, sharing, an encounter, rather than a need, a procedure for the
production of pleasure or for the reproduction of a next generation. This
process is one that fulfills a desire of a particular person rather then a
need of the species.

Intimacy is a unique concept in the modern world since it is the one thing
that one cannot be/have/do alone. In this world, where one can almost do
everything by oneself or pay for it to be done, including having children,
intimacy is the one place where the other is actually encountered. The pain
of its lack has given rise to many works of art in different media
literature, visual arts, music, etc. The pain of its lack has given rise to
many works of art in different media literature, visual arts, music, etc.
But that does not automatically imply that these same people, who suffer
from the lack of intimacy, have the courage to leave the secure zone of the
known and step into the uncharted and maybe unknowable space of relations.
However, this response-ability is the essence of every living human Being or
the Being of a living community. Otherwise, we are surrounded by traces
alone that we can document and archive but not inhabit.

No person or community is located in one end of this scale or another, we
are all somewhere in the middle with our fears of losing our economical and
emotional security, our standing in society, or our future continuity on the
one hand and a wish to become and be loyal to the event of love on the other
hand.

It is this diversity that our project aims to map and about which we wish to
create a public debate.





*Conditions: *The artists will be provided accommodations and food and use
local materials. An additional sum of up to 75 Euro will be provided for
materials.

* *

*For further details and registration, please contact:*
noa.treister la gmail.com


-- 
Noa Treister
Council Member
Citizens of Europe
Mobile: + 381 64 316 2558

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