.
Founders of „STUND-UP Art in Human Rights” project: Marta
Głaczynska (PL), Marta Stetsula (UA), Sophie Wintzer (FR),
curator of the STAND-UP exhibition: Agnieszka Pokrywka (PL)
and participating in this initiative artists: Agnieszka Prygiel (PL),
democracia (ESP), FONTANA - FAVE - AELTERS (fr), Heath Bunting (UK),
Karolina Gumienna (Pl), Lucilla Kossowska (PL), Manu Luksch (GB)
Natasha Vita-More (US), Sarawut Chutiwongpeti (TH) and Shahriar AZ
(NZ)
invite
for a double-opening of the STAND-UP exhibition in the frame of
.
“STAND-UP Art about Human Rights” project
2nd of March 2009
4 pm - Center of Women Personal Development and Babilad
(Poland, Poznan, Bukowska 31/ 6 Street)
8 pm - ZAK Gallery and ARS cinema
(Poland, Poznan, Szyperska 2 Street)
Exhibition and other STAND-UP activities as concert, lecture,
workshops, movies projection will take place between 3rd and 6th of
March
“STAND-UP”
STAND-UP literally we can understand as ‘to fight’, ‘to rise’, ‘to move
up’.
STAND-UP means also direct, short commentary of TV reporter who is
describing, by his own words, in very subjective and spontaneous way,
the most important present incidents and problems. Life stand-up is
often a conversation in geographical distance between journalist and
people in TV studio.
“STAND-UP . Art about Human Rights”
STAND-UP is focused on human rights issue by using art as a medium.
This project responds to the growing needs for acceptance and respect
to diversity, dialog and social reflection. Artists and activists in such
unusual “stand-up” express their experiences and subjective opinions in
the field of human rights.
STAND-UP mobilizes to conscious about rights of every human. This
conscious is essential for claiming and respecting for human rights,
even by whispering because sum of such whispers can become to be loud
cry.
STAND-UP is sum of subjective opinions about human rights. Such
opinions can give wider picture of present condition of human rights.
More information on: http://hrart.wordpress.com
|| Agnieszka Prygiel (PL) || “The power of make up”, video (2'21'',
2007) http://dontaskaboutpoland.wordpress.com/
Aga Prygiel was born in 1983, she has graduated from Fine Arts
Academy in Poznan, a double prizewinner of a national animation
contest “Flesztival” in Warsaw. She worked as a comics illustrator and
an exhibition curator. She was on a scholarship in England for half of
a year. She now does her internship in a beautiful gallery in Poland.
She is a great fan of Michael Jackson, spiritual inspiration is very
important for her life and art. She is blond.
“The power of make up” shows Aga Prygiel face with and without a make-
up after being mugged by 15 year-old girl on a tram 2 years ago.
“I couldn’t go to the university for 2 weeks without a make up. It was
taking me 2 hours every day to put it on. […] I had to be more
preoccupied with my looks than my education. I was ashamed of telling
anyone of what has happened, of showing my face. On another hand I
wanted people to know in how much pain I was. It was very difficult for
me as a female. […] All this situation made me feel really skeptical
about life in general. What do I do art for if there are those primitive,
ignorant people around me who know only how to hurt others? What
have I done to this girl? Why does she go around the city messing
around? [...]”
|| democracia (ESP) || “ Welfare State / Smashing the Ghetto “ ( video
8’ 10”, 2008)
www.democracia.com.es
democracia is a Work team formed in Madrid (Spain). The decision to
work as a group springs from the intention of engaging in an artistic
practice centered on discussion and the clash of ideas and forms of
action. The fact of working in a group in itself establishes an interest in
intervening in the social sphere, by means of ideas of commitment to the
real.
Also Democracia works in publishing (they are directors of Nolens
Volens magazine) and curatorial projects (No Futuro, Madrid Abierto
2008, Creador de Dueños). Its members (Pablo España and Iván López)
were founders and part of El Perro group (founded in 1989) until it
dissolved in May 2006.
The “Welfare State” project has its origin in El Salobral, one of
Europe’s largest shanty towns located on the southern outskirts of
Madrid. In March 2007, the Madrid City Council and the Regional
Government decided that the slum should be demolished and its
inhabitants rehoused.
“Smashing the ghetto” is a single channel video installation displaying
the demolition of these slum properties as if it were a sports event. The
public watches the process from its seats on the stands and cheers on
the bulldozers in a hooliganish style. The project turns the
destruction of the neighbourhood into a show for the members of civil
society. Unconcerned by considerations like the disappearance of a
specific way of life, civil society celebrates the end of the ghetto as if
it were a media spectacle.
|| FONTANA - FAVE - AELTERS (fr) || “grenze” (video performance,
2006)
FONTANA - FAVE - AELTERS work together since the video-performance
GRENZE.
One of the meanings of the German word « Grenze » is the limit as a
border separating two areas, which by defi - nition can be crossed.
GRENZE is a series of visual readings based on Capital by Karl Marx
(part 1).
Grenze opens up a series of refl ections around capital as Marx
analysed it, in an attempt to better understand it in its present form.
GRENZE is a vision of the metamorphoses of the capitalist system. It is a
visual translation of «Capital». It progressively unfolds a chain of
metamorphic movements. Faced with the construction of an infernal and
destructive mechanism, we respond with our look, our waiting, time.
GRENZE consists of sequences called ARTIFICIAL UNITS OF
DEVELOPMENT (AUD) that correspond to drawn notes made during
readings of Capital.
|| Heath Bunting (UK) || „Map of terrorism” (presentation of the
project, 2008) ||
http://irational.org/heath/
Heath Bunting was born a Buddhist in Wood Green,London, UK and is
able to make himself laugh. He is a co-founder of both net.art and
sport-art movements and is banned for life from entering the USA for
his anti GM work. His self taught and authentically independent work is
direct and uncomplicated and has never been awarded a prize or been
bought or sold. He is both Britain's most important practising artist
and The World's most famous computer artist. He aspires to be a
skillful member of the public and is producing an expert system for
identity mutation.
Heath Bunting explains the concept of „Map of terrorism” in such way:
„It is unclear to many people exactly what terrorism is and which
activities are now unsafe in the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of getting
into trouble with the police.
Making a map is often a prelude to colonisation and control. I have
recently been under investigation and detention by the UK police for
terrorism related offences. This case was fabricated by the Sussex
police force, probably an attempt to frighten and probe me. My
response to this, instead of seeking public sympathy and support, was
to consolidate my existing links with national cultural institutions. […]
My intention for this map was to find the borderline between 'the
everyday', embodied by 'the high street' and the global terror fantastic.
[...]”.
|| Karolina Gumienna (Pl) || “Made in China” (objects, 2008/2009)
she is a graphic student of poznan academy of fine arts. Nowadays she
is working on her diplomas (poster studio of prof. Eugeniusz Skorwider
and publishing studio of prof. Mirosław Pawłowski). She is an active
member of Independent Students' Association and Poznan Academy of
Fine Arts Student Society.
Her „made in china” is about breaking human rights of labourers in
china. By using pieces of clothing industry bags She created packages
with fragments of Universal Declaration of Human Rights on them.
Simply She wants to rise consumers awareness about products which
they buy.
||Manu Luksch (GB) || „Faceless” ( movie 50'00'', 2007)
http://www.ambienttv.net|| www.ManuLuksch.com
Manu Luksch, founder of Ambient Information Systems, is filmmaker who
works outside the frame. The moving image, and in particular the
evolution of film in the digital or networked age, has been a core theme
of her works. Expanding the idea of the viewing environment is also of
importance; recent works have been shown on electronic billboards in
public urban spaces and open air cinemas in remote rural places.
Projects are shown at venues and festivals internationally, including
"Hors Pistes" (Centre Pompidou, Paris 2008), "Goodbye Privacy" (Ars
Electronica, Linz 2007), "Connecting Worlds" (NTT ICC, Tokyo 2006),
"Satellite of Love" (Witte de With, Rotterdam 2006).
FACELESS is a CCTV sci-fi fairy-tale. „In a society under the reformed
'Real-Time' Calendar, without history nor future, everybody is faceless.
A woman panics when she wakes up one day with a face. With the help of
the Spectral Children she slowly finds out more about the lost power
and history of the human face and begins the search for its future.
FACELESS was produced under the rules of the 'Manifesto for CCTV
Filmmakers'. The manifesto states, amongst other things, that additional
cameras are not permitted at filming locations, as the omnipresent
existing video surveillance (CCTV) is already in operation.”
|| Natasha Vita-More (US) ||“Morphological Freedom” (4 photographs,
2008)
www.natasha.cc
Natasha Vita-More, media artist (BFA, MSc, MPhil) is a PhD Candidate,
Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth.
Natasha's research investigates the transformative human and radical
life extension, with a focus on social change and the potential of
emerging influencers—nanotechnology, biotechnology, information
technology and cognitive science (NBIC). She lectures on human/machine
interfaces, and on philosophical outlooks concerning human rights and
ethical means for human augmentation.
„ Emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology,
information technology and cognitive and neuro sciences (NBIC) are
augmenting, extending and enhancing human biological, and
consequently human cognition. The body and the mind/brain are at the
crux of this issue. Two issues concerning human rights are on the table:
How will we protect the rights of people who want to be enhanced? f
equal importance is how will be protect the rights of people who do not
want to be enhanced?
This practice based work titled “Morphological Freedom” is expressed
in visual narrative which illustrates the human body and the human
rights to enhance one’s body and personal identity and the right not to
be coerced to enhance one’s body and personal identity.”
|| Lucilla Kossowska (PL) || “„Made in China” (video 6’33” and series
of 3 mixed technique paintings in the size 100x70, 2008)
www.lucillakossowska.art.pl
Lucilla Kossowska is a polish painter, art performer and educator. She
graduated from Radom Polytechnic University, completed Extension
Education courses at the Art Institute of San Francisco, USA and
postgraduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland.
Since year 2000 her artworks have been exhibited in 30 solo and group
exhibitions in galleries and museums in Poland and abroad .
Inspiration for her work was bloody pacification of uprising in Tibet
(2008) by Chinese forces. She is criticizing hypocrisy of present society
which, because of economic correlations and connections, consents to
human rights breaking.
|| Sarawut Chutiwongpeti (TH) || “24 hours” (net art project)
http://www.chutiwongpeti.info
Sarawut Chutiwongpeti was born in Thailand. He graduated from the
Department of Fine and Applied Arts at Chulalongkorn University in
1996. Since graduation, he has been working as a media artist with
Cyber Lab at the Center of Academic Resources, Chulalongkorn
University. He works in the realm of contemporary art and is interested
in revealing the unexplored facets of experience. In 1998-2009, he
secured funding and traveled as a visiting artist/researcher to several
countries such as: Canada, the United States of America, Denmark,
Finland, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Austria,
Italy, Germany, Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea and Japan.
“ALL AROUND US ARE RACIAL AND TRIBAL, WAR, BORDER,
PHENOMENON,TRAGEDY, VICTIM, CONFUSE AND CONFLICT. HOW ARE
WE TO INTERPRET THESE -- SIGNS OF THE TIMES -- IN THEIR PROPER
CONTEXT?
The goal of this work is to investigate the expressive possibilities of
conceptual visual language and to develop Collaborative New Art as
part of both Contemporary Art/Contemporary Global Structure and the
Technological Civilization in which we live today. [...]”
|| Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh (NZ) || “World Art Collective;
Persecution of Bahai’s in Iran” (Video 25'19'', Photography, 2008)
www.worldartcollective.org
Shahriar Asdollah-zadeh is a contemporary artist residing in New
Zealand and University Student at the Elam School of Contemporary
Art, University of Auckland. In 2008 he focused on a year long project
about Human Rights. That year also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of
the Declaration of Human Rights. He created a website called
www.worldartcollective.org which has, for me, become a vehicle for
raising awareness of Human Rights violations, injustices and
persecution.
“I created a website http://www.worldartcollective.org. This is my
platform where I created awareness about the issue of human rights
violations, injustice and persecution. [...] I directed my artwork to a
specific minority group. The group is the Bahá’í community which is being
oppressed and persecuted by the fanatical regime governing Iran.
I have used the power of the internet and e-mail to create a global
network of the world’s people—a demographically diverse group have
thereby come together to participate in this world wide artists’
collective. I left it open for anyone who was on Facebook to join my
world wide collective and participate in this project in collaboration
with me. To date more than 1750 people have joined the group and I
have received photographs and text messages from around the world
from people who are concerned about the injustice and human rights
violations directed at the Persian Bahá’í community in Iran. “