FLUID GROUND is part of the ATLANTIS network. This initiative fosters cross border cultural exchange between art professionals through collaborative exhibition projects, residencies for artists and curators, panel discussions, workshops and conferences.
The symposium across the Black Sea was based on the idea of inter-disciplinary collaboration, cross-linking artistic practice, knowledge production, research and reflection in this remote and mobile location. The freighter was temporarily transformed into a think-tank, confronting relevant cultural, artistic, economic, social and political discourses and practices, and blended them together. Thus a journey across the Black Sea offered an adequate platform to examine questions pertaining to Europe’s identity and integrity.
Nini Palavandishvili from GeoAir Tbilisi commented the trip as following:
“Organizing the symposium on the Ferry Boat from Varna to Batumi turned out to be a very successful idea. First of all the multidisciplinary choice (curators, theoreticians, artist, journalists) and number of participants was felicitous, and the situation to be ‘trapped’ on a boat, surrounded by sea, led to very constructive and intense discussion sessions. Encounter with colleagues presenting their institutions, projects, working methodologies in variation with discussions on cultural diversification of the Black Sea Region, migration issues and Border issues, Post-Soviet Colonial studies resulted in very vital discussion sessions. Personal/familiar conversation exchange between symposium participants and the ferry boat crew let to mutual understanding of each others engagement and very interesting points of discussion and knowledge production.”
20.07.2011
- Arrival in Varna
- Presentation of the project in the Graffit Gallery: Petra Dimitrova (Graffit Gallery, Varna), Inka Thunecke, Jakob Racek
21.07.2011
- Ride to the port of Beloslav, customs formalities
- Check in on the ship "Geroite na Sevastopol" of the Bulgarian shipping company Navibul
- Introduction by the ship's crew, Introductions to the group
22.07.2011
- Inka Thunecke: "Heritage, Identity and Communication in European Contemporary Art Practices"
- Karoline Weber: “Lost at Sea. The Oceanic Nature of Uncertainty”
- Anastasia Zhivkova: "The Black Sea in the Ukranian context"
- Anna Soucek: "Pirate Radio"
- Ulrike Grelck: "Rohkunstbau: Power - Presentation of the exhibition!
23.07.2011
- Jakob Racek: "Re-territorialization of the smooth space. The Frontex Agency"
- Livia Pancu: "Almost Institutions"
- Susanna Gyulamiryan: "Investing Transcaucasia"
24.07.2011
- Nadja Abt: "Notations on a Ship" (Art project)
- Simonetta Ferfoglia und Heinrich Pichler: "Intermodale Korridore" (art project)
25.07.2011
- Arrival in Batumi, ride to Tbilisi
26.07.2011
- Visit of the artists residence GeoAIR with Nini Palavandishvili, Conclusion of the symposium
Participants:
Anastasia Zhivkova, curator, Kiev, Ukraine
Anna Soucek, journalist, Kulturradio Ö1, Vienna, Austria
Inka Thunecke, director, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brandenburg, Potsdam, Germany
Jakob Racek, curator, Art Today Association - Centre for Contemporary Art,
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Karoline Weber, media scientist, international academy Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart,
Germany
Livia Pancu, curator, Vector Association, Iasi, Romania
Nadja Abt, artist, Berlin, Germany
Nini Palavandishvili, curator, GEOair, Tbilisi, Georgia
Sebastian Bodirsky, filmmaker, Berlin, Germany
Simonetta Ferfoglia & Heinrich Pichler, artist collective “gangart”, artists, Vienna, Austria
Susanna Gyulamiryan, curator, Arts and Cultural Studies Laboratory, Erivan, Armenia
Ulrike Grelck, art historian, Rohkunstbau e.V., Berlin, Germany
