[-empyre-] Fwd: Call for e-action | Venice Biennale |Manifesto

Timothy Murray tcm1 at cornell.edu
Sun Jun 12 00:27:49 EST 2011


>Kristine,

I understand your impatience but I'm wondering 
whether me might be able to appreciate  this 
intervention to be in line and solidarity with 
the kind of thinking about immigration, mobility, 
and extrastatecraft posited, say, by Keller 
Easterling in her work on infrastructure or by 
Arjun Appadurai on stateless migrants and 
aspiration.   Perhaps we could understand this 
manifesto to "inhabit" or "squat" in the 
spectacle it condemns precisely to foreground 
rhetorically (and isn't rhetoric a formal and 
performative condition of art?)  the conditions 
that Johannes articulates.

Best,

Tim


>I concur with Johannes. I find nothing interesting in the manifesto's
>hubris, self-importance, and sophomoric lack of empathy and curiosity 
>(to say nothing of understanding) of those it critiques. Finally, the 
>manifesto exemplifies the spectacle it condemns.
>
>Kristine
>
>On Jun 10, 2011, at 9:32 AM, Johannes Birringer wrote:
>
>>
>>  Not sure what there is,  so lovable,
>>  about the rhetorical manifesto (Stateless1 Pavillion Biennale.jpg) 
>>  of futile gestures,
>>  and the proposal to squat between the fascist monuments (german and 
>>  italian
>>  pavilions) in the Giardini, if one were to travel to Italy,
>>  that would require a passport, no?  and a Biennale ticket?
>>  when I became a stateless citizen of the State in Time (NSK
>>  issued the virtual passports in the mid 90s), i tried to enter
>>  the U.S. with it but no such luck.
>>  anyway, to those on the ground there, the pirates,
>>  my best wishes
>>
>>  regards
>>  Johannes
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>
>>  I absolutely love this!
>>  xl
>>
>>
>>
>>  On Jun 8, 2011, at 8:37 AM, Ricardo Dominguez wrote:
>>
>>  I will let the group that developed this gesture speak for itself 
>>  (also a short manifesto as .jpg attached):
>>
>>  On 5/27/11 3:35 AM, 
>>statelessimmigrantspavilion at riseup.net<mailto:statelessimmigrantspavilion at riseup.net
>>  > wrote:
>>
>>  We, the Anonymous Stateless Immigrants, will construct a "Stateless
>>  Immigrant's Pavilion" by occupying the Giardini during the Venice
>>  Biennale (June 5-15), pirate style, and we need your help!
>>
>>  This is a call for participation to claim space for stateless
>>  immigrants in between the erected pavilions of all the nations for a
>>  sit-in with tents, bbq, music, dancing, etc. In solidarity with the
>>  Spanish Revolution and other emancipatory movements, our actions are
>>  closely aligned with our brothers and sisters all over the world who
>>  are struggling against the suffocating encroachment of capitalism in
>>  all its manifestations and forms. Advocating nomad-ism, autonomy and
>>  anonymity as alternatives to the representational border politics
>>  inherent within the structure of the biennale itself, this is a call
>>  for artists, activists and local people of Venice to join us!
>>
>>  You could do so by replying to this email for further organizational
>>  support or forward it to relevant people in your network. More
>>  information about our statement can be found attached, but please do
>>  not hesitate to contact us directly for more info etc!
>>
>>  statelessimmigrantspavilion[at]riseup.net
>>
>>  Ps: This is not a mass email! our and your anonymity is important 
>>  for us!
>>
>>  I did not attend VB and have only considered the event via this 
>>  gesture
>>  and this union strike:
>>
>>  "Italian unions certainly know how to get a point across. At the 
>>  last Venice Bienale, in 2009, workers at the international 
>>  exhibition went on 
>>strike<http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/moma-preview9-29-09.asp
>>  >, protesting the degeneration of working conditions and picketing 
>>  the Giardini in August. This time around it was the vaporetto 
>>  operators who called the "manifestazione," meaning that service on 
>>  the affordable water buses had been shut down for 24 hours in 
>>  protest of labor conditions. This being Venice, where private water 
>>  taxis run a cool ¤60, and where the only other alternative to 
>>  vaporetti is walking miles of twisty, staircase-ridden calli (narrow 
>  > streets), there were a lot of blisters and missed art at the 
>>  Biennale today. Chalk one up for the vaporetto union. (Some of the 
>>  tonier exhibitions fought back, however - the Prada Foundation and 
>>  François Pinault both supplied water transport to ferry press and 
>>  VIPs to their shows.)?
>>
>>  But I do think the questions you asking about the performative 
>>  matrix playing out at VB in terms of routing around
>>  the question of the "Global Citizen" and transborder_bodies in terms 
>>  of presence - even as a frame of a question is
>>  definitely out of the question for the state-driven definition of 
>>  art that state's internal crisis (as in the case of the tactic
>>  that you mention for Mexico etc.,) - but perhaps this has always 
>>  been the case for VB specifically (since Hitler came by and
>>  probably before) and the problem for most most Biennales in general.
>>
>>  But to be clear this is all from a distance.
>>
>>  Best,
>>  Ricardo
>>
>>  On 6/8/11 7:58 AM, Timothy Murray wrote:
>>
>>  Thanks, Ricardo, for letting us know about this action.
>>
>>
>>  I'm wondering if you would mind saying a bit
>>  more about the context of the action : "In order
>>  to maximize impact and attempt to gain
>>  visibility for
>>  nameless, anonymous, stateless, non-represented
>>  global citizens at theVenice Biennal."  In
>>  thinking about this month's discussion topic,
>>  Renate and I were hoping that the list would
>>  address precisely this kind of disparity between
>>  the (non)-representation of "global citizens" at
>>  the Venice Biennale and those endorsed by
>>  state-sponsored representation.  It's also
>>  interesting to note that some national pavilions
>>  seem this year to be engaging in an end run
>>  around this thorny issue (i.e. Mexico) by
>>  featuring non-national artists in national
>>  pavilions.
>>
>>
>>  Best,
>>
>>  Tim
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  <Stateless1.jpg>
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-- 
Timothy Murray
Director, Society for the Humanities
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
A. D. White House
27 East Avenue
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853


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