CONVOCATORIA WORKSHOP RELOADING IMAGES

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Complexity, collaboration, research, reflection,
mind mapping, work in progress

www.reloadingimages.org

3 SEMANAS DE OCTUBRE 2008 EN DAMASCO

puedes presentarte hasta el 14 de febrero

descárgate la inscripción aquí

- RELOADING IMAGES Damascus does not have one single theme. Instead, it aims to reflect on the complexity of the circumstances and interrelations in which the project is located: the cultural, social, and economical aspects – as well as the location of the individual – within these structures. The following questions are a starting point for discussion:

(1) Art and social relevance: under which circumstances is art an option? In what forms can art initiate and participate in social discourses?
(2) Image and representation: how can concepts of visual culture be re-thought – through images?
(3) Urban space as a subconscious system: how do the historical layers, the narrative traditions, and the social affiliations of daily life interact and create a sense of cultural identity?
(4) Beyond exoticism and xenophobia: in what ways does a system based on categorisation lead to (potentially unnatural) polarizations – for example, east/west, inclusion/exclusion, centre/periphery? Where are the subtler points of transition in between?

- Starting in March 2008 the Syrian participants meet and exchange ideas, personal interests, experiences and interpretations based on these questions. Through an online community website, they engage in a continuous discourse with the participants from abroad.

- Throughout the course of the project, the participants form working groups in which they research and collaborate on self-initiated, specific themes, hoping to find a means of expression that goes beyond the gallery context, while exploring alternative, sustainable forms and approaches to contemporary art practices. Collective creative techniques like mind mapping and open space are an essential part of communicating and working together. The working process is documented and visualised on the community website and in a publication.

- In October 2008 the participants meet for a three week workshop which takes place in a temporary art space in Damascus, situated in between private and public space, providing a working and living space for all participants. It is meeting place, a studio, and an experimental platform that offers a flexible infrastructure to organise project-related events, lectures and artists’ presentations. During the workshop, the working groups present their intermediate results in artistic or theoretical presentations to each other and at times, to the public. A final publication concludes the project.

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