utopia project 2010: The Nauru Project

UTOPIA & NATURE
Based on H.D. Thoreau's “Walden

EXPERIMENTATION AND RESEARCH IN CONTEMPORARY
ARTISTIC PRACTICES

Utopia as an expression of unlimited imagination and desire is a concept that has always fascinated artists. Art can see in utopia a means to lift the restrictions of reality and accomplish the free expression of its visions. Starting from this connection and its various instantiations in the history of art, this workshop deals with the multiple significations, implications and dimensions of utopia. In everyday discourse the term ‘utopia’ is usually connected with an ideal future, with what seems impossible within the confines of reality, and is thus bound to create margins for many and often contradictory interpretations. Utopias are the places of dreams and hopes for a better life, which provide an escape from an always incomplete and constraining status quo. Sometimes they involve grandiose metaphysical schemata, other times they take the form of ephemeral shelters distanced from detailed sociopolitical reflection. Always, however, their creation is based on the criticism of established (political and aesthetical) institutions and social structures. Inspiring antithetical political and artistic practices, praised but also criticized, utopia has been a focus of debate for many disciplines and approaches. By blending theoretical discussion, aesthetic reflection and the artistic work of the participants, this workshop aims at critically exploring the various interconnections between theory and praxis, vision and reality, desire and finitude, utopia and dystopia.
In this workshop we will research methods and tactics and we will ask from the students to collect material or to archive material that they already have and reconsider it, to think alternative ways of presentation of materials, ways of incorporation of them in their pictorial language. The aim of the workshop is to exhibit the results of this research, the ideas or the work that will come out of it.

This year’s workshop investigates the relationship between contemporary artistic practices and the natural environment. Art is often seen and spoken in terms of being environmental, critical and subversive. For the past decades, the natural environment has seen radical changes and has been at the forefront of many contemporary art projects. What is the relationship between art and nature? During the workshop, we will consider different ideas in contemporary art making and theory to examine from varying perspectives the question of art and nature.

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ASFA (Athens School of Fine Arts)

Organizers-Facilitators: Vassilis Vlastaras, artist, Lecturer, Athens School of Fine Arts and Maria Glyka, visual artist, teacher BA & MA Vakalo college of Art and Design.

ASFA annex
Evligia Hill, Rethymno

Basic timetable:
4 July: arrivals
5 July – 7 July: artists presentations
8 - 20 July: preparation of the work
21-23 July: show and presentations of final works
24 July: end of show – departures

Number of participants: 11

In collaboration with:
Mr. Gary Woodley, artist and lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
Mr. Klaas Hoek, artist, head of the postgraduate department of University of Utrecht and head of the printmaking of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.

Guests Professors and artists:

Mrs Caroline de Lannoy , artist and lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art, Byam Shaw School of Art, Central St Martins College of Art - University of the Arts London, and West Dean College.
Mr. Jim Hobs, visual artist.
Dr.Yannis Stavrakakis, associate Professor of Political Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessalonica,
Dr. Fay Zika, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Art Department of Theory and History of Art The Athens School of Fine Arts
Mrs. Katerina Gouziouli, art theorist.

Friday, July 9, 2010

The Nauru Project

The Nauru Project is an ongoing artists' collaboration based around gathering information on the South Pacific island of Nauru, the world's smallest island nation. The project was initiated in 2007 by Maria Georgoula and has since involved exchanging various findings and commissioning work within the group of invited artists and writers.

COLLABORATING ARTISTS:
Caroline Bird, Dan Coopey, Maria Georgoula, Lo Hillarp-Sjöström, Christopher Robbins, Iorwerth Wallace, Ian Whitfield

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FAY ZIKA

Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Theory of Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She holds a BHon in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (University of Oxford, 1981), an MA and PhD in Philosophy (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1988/91). Organiser of the interdisciplinary symposium for the European project Light | Image | Illusion – The Aegina Academy 2005. Co-editor of Greek philosophy magazine Cogito, with two permanent columns on “De coloribus” and “Gardens”. Research and publications related to: colour theory; the senses in aesthetics; nature and gardens; identity issues; new media and arts; the relation between philosophy, science and art; the relation between aesthetics and ethics.

CAROLINE DE LANNOY

Caroline de Lannoy studied at Athens School of Fine Arts, the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, Central St Martins College of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. She lectures at the Slade School of Fine Art, Byam Shaw School of Art, Central St Martins College of Art - University of the Arts London, and West Dean College. Caroline de Lannoy is predominantly engaged with the properties of colour, light, space and time. She works across a range of media including painting, drawing, text, sound, video and large-scale installations, often in public and site-specific locations, exploring location and site specificity, forcing a re-examination of space. Her current research activities include work that extends the language of painting, placing painting within an expanded field. She is particularly concerned with issues such as place and translation, investigating the perception of space to other dimensions whether real, virtual or imagined. She has taken part in many exhibition projects worldwide, museums, festivals and private galleries. Her works is in public and private collections in the UK and abroad.

JIM HOBBS

Jim Hobbs (1975, Akron OH) is an artist living and working in London, England where he received an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2006. His work utilizes a variety of media including 16mm film, video, installation, site-specific work, drawing, sculpture, sound and photography. Currently his work investigates the personal and social implications of loss, oblivion, history, memory and the subsequent acts of remembrance/memorialization. His work is exhibited internationally and he has been a recipient of various awards, grants, and residencies - most recently the British Council Grant for Individual Artists. His most current project involves a residency at Jack Straw Productions in Seattle, Washington, where he is creating a new double-screen 16mm film and sound installation in collaboration with the band Kinski. He currently lectures at the University of Greenwich and for the Slade School of Fine Art (Summer School and Short Courses).

YANNIS STAVRAKAKIS

Yannis Stavrakakis is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is the author of Lacan and the Political (London: Routledge, 1999), chapter 4 of which is devoted to a critique of utopian discourse, and The Lacanian Left (Edinburgh and New York: Edinburgh University Press and SUNY Press, 2007). He is also co-editor of Discourse Theory and Political Analysis (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), Lacan & Science (London: Karnac, 2002), Aspects of Censorship in Greece (Athens: Nefeli, 2008 – in Greek) and The Political in Contemporary Art (Athens: Ekkremes, 2008 – in Greek).

VASSILIS VLASTARAS

Vassilis Vlastaras is a visual artist and lecturer at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Born in Argos, Greece. Lives and works in Athens, Greece. He started his studies in Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and photography in AKTO Athens. Then he studied graphic design and animation in T.E.I. of Athens, Film direction in the faculty of cinema E. Chatzikos of Athens and painting in Athens School of Fine Arts. Continued his studies acquiring M.Sc. Interactive Multimedia in the University of Westminster of London and mfa in the architectural faculty of Athens titled: Planning-Space-Culture. He creates large-scale site-specific installations and he experiments with various media in painting, drawing, photography, video, real time video and sound performances and computer interactive installations. He has been a member of Platformes since 2002, a collective of art professionals ranking from visual artists to musicians and film makers in Athens. He has taken part in many exhibition projects, solo and group shows in Greece and abro

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Friday, July 9, 2010

The Nauru Project

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