[Nettime-bold] Re: finisage pending

["Luchezar Boyadjiev" <luchezb@cblink.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>
To: "Luchezar Boyadjiev" <luchezb@cblink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 3:01 AM
Subject: Re: finisage pending


> hi lucho, would you also like to send it to nettime-l@bbs.thing.net?
> best from sydney, geert (in between tokyo and san francisco)
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
From: "Zoran Petrovski" <zpet@sonet.com.mk>
Subject: Info:Small Talk
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 08:12:31 +0200

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART - SKOPJE

Announces the closing of the exhibition

SMALL TALK://  \\:LAF-MUHABET

Curated by: Luchezar Boyadjiev and Zoran Petrovski

Museum of Contemporary Art-Skopje, 20. 04. - 20. 05. 2001

The Turkish expression "laf-muhabet" (small-talk) is in common use in some
parts of the Balkans, which were under the centuries long Ottoman ruling,
and describing the typical oriental culture of a friendly chat about serious
or ordinary things and relations. In times when people in the Balkans keep
claiming their ethnical, religious, national, traditional and whatever
differences, Laf-Muhabet is an exhibition that is on the other side of the
divisions, it's an exhibition about common and everyday relations that
connect people and make them understand each other.

As an exhibition project, "Small Talk" is about artists, who have worked
together "here" and/or "there", and who, for instance, while working on
their installations, have been "small talking" to each other while waiting
for a bucket of paint, or a bunch of nails, or a customs official to release
the works, or . etc. This is the time artists share things that don't seem
to bare any significance on the Big Score but illuminate the lives they
have, things that one tends to forget overnight, but which are so
persistent - in various guises they are with us every day and every second.
Small talk starts the moment you meet a friend and say: "Hi, haven't seen
you for a while? How's life, how have you been? How are you doin'?". And
then - a bit of complaining, a bit of bragging, a bit of gossip, a bit of
fact, a bit of this and that. Then all of a sudden there is the full picture
of life right between two (or more) people.

The exhibition "Small Talk" would be about people (artists) and their
regular daily lives turned into "an issue based" art. It's about the moment
when divisions fall apart and identities become tangible. It is about what
happens to you in the period of time between the "Great Idea" and the "Great
Opening", about immediate physical surroundings and/or immediate life
environments shared with the public.

>>> List of artists:

Oliver Musovik, Skopje/Roza El-Hassan, Budapest/Anri Sala,
Tirana-Lille/Vadim Fishkin, Ljubljana/Yuri Leiderman, Moscow/Milica Tomic,
Belgrade/Hale Tenger, Istanbul/Slavica Janeshlieva, Skopje/Luchezar
Boyadjiev, Sofia/Dan Perjovschi, Bucharest/Lea Perjovschi, Bucharest/Sophie
Lecomte, Paris/Stephane Cevran, Paris/Yane Calovski, Philadelphia-Skopje

>>>
Program for the Gallery Talks in the Cultural Location "The Site", beginning
at 20.00

Wednesday, 18. 04. - Sophie Lecomt/ Stephane Cevran
Thursday, 19. 04. - Vadim Fishkin/ Yuri Leiderman
Saturday, 21. 04. - Roza El Hassan/ Luchezar Boyadjiev/ Yane Calovski
Sunday, 22. 04. - Dan&Lea Perjovschi/ Slavica Janeslieva

>>>
Information>>>Museum of Contemporary Art-Skopje
Box 482, MKD-1000 Skopje,
+389 2 117-734; 117-735, fax +389 2 110-123
moca@sonet.com.mk / zpet@sonet.com.mk


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
SMALL TALK  -  Concept text
International group show in Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia
Dates: April 20 – May 20, 2001
Concept: Luchezar Boyadjiev (Sofia), in communication with Roza El-Hassan
(Budapest)
Curator for MCA-Skopje: Zoran Petrovski
Sponsoring Institutions: Ministry of Culture-Macedonia; Pro Helvetia-Skopje;
KulturKontakt-Vienna; French Institute-Skopje; US Embassy-Skopje;
OSI-Cultural Link Program-Budapest/Skopje; Kometal-Skopje; CAC-Skopje; etc.

“Small Talk” is the definition we give to things we say to each other in the
time between periods when we are busy with the really important, universal
stuff. Small talk doesn’t change the world but rather illuminates what we
live with on a daily basis - a small idea or a small problem, a small joy or
a small disorder, a small defeat or a small victory…

We actually do the “small talk” all the time. With friends and colleagues,
family members and people we know well but only meet on the streets of the
city we live in every ones in a “blue moon”… The only kind of people we do
not “small talk” to are our individual “enemies”… Well, if the “enemy” is
not so deadly, maybe some people even do “small talk” occasionally with the
“enemy” in the name of “proper social behavior”…

Does anyone ever admit to spending a lot of his/her time/life on “small
 talk”? Does anyone ever put too much effort on making “intelligent” small
talk? Small talk is usually about things which are important but not
terribly universal… It’s not about the tremendous Time and Space issues,
neither is it about the Big Brother nor the Big Other, the big Why nor the
big Change, big Battles nor big… Well, the list of the “BIG” issues in art
and culture has been sufficiently covered and explored in numberless
exhibitions all over the world… The time has come to do something about the
“small talk” and “small” issues.

I think it was John Lenon who once “remarked” that “Life is what happens
while we are busy doing other things”. Maybe “talking small” means telling
each other about all these countless small things we do each day that don’t
seem to count when it comes down to “Life”. On the other hand, what’s “life”
in terms of “small talk”? Isn’t life actually all these “webs” of small talk
that people weave daily? For instance, is the time (30 min) I spend on the
bus, going from my home to the place my son lives in with his mother, an
important part of my life or not? I see/think so many things then… Or, let’s
say, the time between the moment I have this great idea for an art work and
the moment of the extremely successful opening of this show in the Big
Museum where the work is exhibited? Provided of course, these are the “truly
glorious” moments of my career…

“Small Talk” - if we were to stretch the metaphor a bit, maybe we can say
that “small talk” is the fabric of life, or actually the raw material out of
which Big Action and Big Art (?) is born… In a way - “Art is what happens to
you while you are busy doing other shows…”.

As an exhibition project, “Small Talk” is about artists, who have worked
together “here” and/or “there”, and who, for instance, while working on
their installations, have been “small talking” to each other while waiting
for a bucket of paint, or a bunch of nails, or a customs official to release
the works, or … etc. This is the time artists share things that don’t seem
to bare any significance on the Big Score but illuminate the lives they
have, things that one tends to forget overnight, but which are so
persistent - in various guises they are with us every day and every second.
Small Talk starts the moment you meet a friend and say: “Hi, haven’t seen
you for a while? How’s life, how have you been? How are you doin’?”. And
then - a bit of complaining, a bit of bragging, a bit of gossip, a bit of
fact, a bit of this and that… Then all of a sudden there is the full picture
of life right between two (or more) people.

The exhibition “Small Talk” would be about people (artists) and their
regular daily lives turned into “an issue based” art. It’s about the moment
when divisions fall apart and identities become tangible. It is about what
happens to you in the period of time between the “Great Idea” and the “Great
Opening”, about immediate physical surroundings and/or immediate life
environments shared with the public.

It is presumed that “Small Talk” would consist of “small” works which are
easy to carry around, installations which could be realized “on site” - “low
budget” works to fit the “small talk” environment that could possibly
develop into a “small extravaganza” of a show… In terms of media - the
diversity of approaches, from objects and physical installations, to video
(monitors and video beams), photography and Internet projects, the “Small
Talk” project is expected to cover a wide spectrum of expressive means
within contemporary art. However, the main requirement would be that works
are “low budget” and flexible in terms of execution, transport, customs
regulations, etc. The list of artists, although provisional at this stage,
includes people who have at one point or another met/worked, etc. with each
other and have had “small talk” experiences with each other. Their presence
at the exhibition is required not only for installation purposes but also
for “small talks” and presentations with their colleagues, as well as, and
more importantly, with the audience in the city of Skopje.






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