2012 IS THE SEASON FOR TREASON Team has tripped out to Kassel

“Biennalisierung politischer Kunst / Biennalisation of political Art”

Präsentation, Vortrag + Diskussion / Presentation, Talk + Discussion (dt./en.)

Fr., 20.07.2012 20:00
POT
Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 27
34117 Kassel
Germany
http://g.co/maps/jzxmp

The Organ Kritischer Kunst (OKK) Team has researched the new waves of the Art Establishment in the “probably most creative city in the world (at least in the continental part of Europe)” as manifested by the Berlin Biennale 7 (BB7; 27.04-01.07). OKK hosted the event entitled “2012 IS THE SEASON FOR TREASON” parallel to the BB7 (27.04-13.05) in order to expose the outcomes of their research into the Biennale, but also to provide the space for discussion about the crypto-fascist ideology and tactics in the broader social context.

On Friday 20th July, OKK presentation “Biennialization of political art” at the POT will draw on their “2012 IS THE SEASON FOR TREASON” and specify its relationship to the dOCUMENTA (13), which is currently occupying the city of Kassel.

The presentation/discussion starts at 20:00.

This will be followed by a screening of “2012 IS THE SEASON FOR TREASON” video material and music.

***

The Global Societies’s situation is contradictory. On the one side cities and their institutions are extended to create “Incubators” and Start-ups are payed court to respectively pay court to each other. On the other side critical art tries to establish itself as art. How can that be reconciled and how does the ruling class, how do castes and cartels use this aesthetical doing with all its opposed forms of self-exploitation and the subsidisation? How does ‘the’ or ‘a’ Biennalisation of political Art work and why are universitarians are interested in the critique of the spectacle?

Die Situation der globalisierten Gesellschaft ist eine widersprüchliche. Einerseits werden Städte und ihre Institutionen zu “Inkubatoren” <Brütern> ausgebaut und Start-Ups werden hofiert bzw. hofieren sich gegenseitig, andererseits versucht eine kritische Kunst sich als Kunst zu etablieren. Wie geht das zusammen und wie nutzt die herrschende Klasse, wie nutzen die Kasten und Kartelle das ästhetische ‘Machen’ mit allen gegenläufigen Formen der Selbstausbeutung und der Subventionierung? Wie funktioniert ‘die’ oder ‘eine’ Biennalisierung politischer Kunst und warum sind ausgerechnet Universitäre an der Kritik des Spektakels interessiert?

***

Plus + – Minus
Das ästhetische Mehr oder Weniger von Produktionsweisen in Ökonomien der Krise
Eine Veranstaltungsreihe des top e.V., Berlin/Kassel in Kooperation mit der Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung HessenWir fragen nach den aktuellen und historischen Zusammenhängen von Erkenntnismöglichkeiten und demokratischer Debatte sozio-ästhetischer Art – mitten im “Auge des Hurrikans” neo-imperialistischer Politik – und welche Praxen vor uns liegen.
http://pot.top-ev.de/plus-minus

***

MORE INFOS: http://pot.top-ev.de/

Paulista “picha” curador da Bienal de Berlim

See full article here: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/1104025-paulista-picha-curador-da-bienal-de-berlim.shtml

(If anyone has more information in German / English, please do let us know: 2012istheseasonfortreason@googlemail.com or as the comment below)

“Revolutionary” curator calls police to protect him from cultural workers…

Nachdem die Pixadores ihr Gangzeichen O+F gemalt hatten und die Aktion beendet hatten warf der Kurator Zmijewski einen Eimer Wasser nach den Brasilianern, die gerade im Gespräch mit der Kuratorin Joanna Warsza waren. Darauf hin wurde er erst mit gelber Farbe angegegriffen und erst dann eskalierte die Situation und Zmiji ruft die Polizei an.

Yellow seems to be the most adequate colour to expose chauvinist nationalist liberals like Zmijewski. Well done!

See full article here: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/1104025-paulista-picha-curador-da-bienal-de-berlim.shtml

Berlin Textures: berlinherosurbanskin

“Work in progress – experimental documentation of public intervention on street signs in berlin – the names of celebrated colononisers were replaced with names of afro-german artists/activist who lived between the 1930-70s. I edited this video 2 hours before the presentation- my intentions where to somehow raise the ‘ghosts’ of afro-german heroswho remain hidden under the layers of berlins urban skin (find out more about these heros http://decolonizeberlin.blogspot.de/).” - jamika ajalon

voices: philipp khabo koepsell & jamika ajalon

Contradictions? National Anarchism, Autonomous Nationalism, National Bolshevism (Nazbol), Querfront, Third Position, Anarchist Integralism.

“The generosity of the curators for the activists is an expression of a profound indignation to seriously deal with the political and social function of their own event, and reflects that international movements, if at all, can only be brought in relation to Berlin-based artistic and political groups via casting. But this inability has a bad reason, says Žmijewski, because the artist in “post-political” Berlin had forgotten, “that only work for the own community makes sense, without them any sense is lost.” This concept of community at Berlin Biennale is determined explicitly ethnic, religious, and above all nationally. In their appeal, the Biennale, reproduces the usual appeals to God, nation and state as safe factors of collectivisation and recalls reactionary stereotypes of repressive mass art, which seeks to ensure a community cohesion of their audience by emotional overwhelming: “I,” said Žmijewski, “have asked myself whether the language of art can enable people in an ideological or religious state of excitement. Could artists acquire the same manipulative skills as a politicians? (…)”

We’ve just quoted Rosa Perutz collective and their article “TRUST YOUR ANGST”, published in both English and German at http://perutz.copyriot.com/. The quoted review of the mentioned gentrification festival appears to be sporting an incredible depth of research, and it is a must for everyone trying to grasp the fascist conception and modus operandi of the BB7, especially for the journalists.

The fetishized “most radical Russian art group today” VOINA is deep in the same dung (one view of the official VOINA website http://free-voina.org/ leaves the impression that their best friends are Nazbol – no wonder why they are “curating” the 2012 biennale alongside aggressively autistic Zmiy). According to VOINA “main ideologist” Vorotnikov, apparently VOINA won Zmiy over by their “irascible condemnations in Russia of foreign wealth”. In the style of BB7, VOINA is exposing themselves: “Kazimir Malevich, after the revolution in Petrograd, armed with a pistol, [he] passed through artists’ studios asking who was still painting birches and demanded real art. Armed with a weapon. That is real art.” The anti-communists Krytyka Polityczna, on their behalf, support the rush to unite post-soviet “nations”.

While Kavecs Projects would suggest a comparative look between the present and the times of Weimar Republic if one is to get a grasp the social processes taking place globally today, some of our team suggest that the seeming inner contradiction of even the terms themselves such as “National Anarchism”, “National Bolshevism” or “Autonomous Nationalism” might be strongly related to broader social categories / cultures / traditions of thought.

For polemic purposes we want to direct you towards the (out of print pamphlet) Anarchist Integralism. Its authorship claimed by Luther Blisset, the text was first published in 1997 in London by the Sabotage Editions. Publication information alongside the snippet from a back cover with links to the main body of text are below:

*

ANARCHIST INTEGRALISM: AESTHETICS, POLITICS & THE APRES-GARDE BY LUTHER BLISSETT. ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DETAILS.

Main text

Politcal Theory / Cultural Critique

ISBN 0 9514417 7 9

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Published in 1997 by
Sabotage Editions
BM Senior
London, UK
WC1N 3XX

A5 purple cover price £3. Currently out of print.

No copyright within the human community
NB commercial enterprises do not constitute a part of the human community.

The emblem on the front cover shows a representation of proletarian purity being threatened with corruption from environmentalists and anarchists.

From the back cover:

ANARCHISM EXPOSED!

“We are going to see an increase in militancy… The unabomber, the ALF, Justice Department and ARM, the Oklahoma bombers and Japanese AUM cult all show the direction it is going in. Outside of Middle-Eastern terrorism, events like the Oklahoma bomb would have been unthinkable 15 years ago. Such developments are inspirational and open up wide ranges of new possibilites.”
Stephen Booth Into The 1990′s With Green Anarchist
(Green Anarchist Books, Camberley 1996, pages 153-4)

Green Anarchist’s support for neo-Nazi bomb attacks such as the Oklahoma massacre in which 168 people were indicriminately murdered, might be seen by some as aberrant. This pamphlet demonstrates such an assessment is mistaken. Green Anarchist are part of a right-wing cabal which permeates the Primitivist Network and the ‘academic’ journal Anarchist Studies, amongst others. The dogmas propogated by contemporary ‘libertarian’ militants are traced back to nineteenth-century anarchists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, a vcious anti-semite who dreamt of the final solution nearly a hundred years before the Nazi holocaust. In this text, Luther Blissett tears the mask off anarchism to reveal the shocking truth that lies beneath its fraudulent ‘left-wing’ image. The Nazis did not invent the deranged anti-semetic conspiracy theories that led to the horrors of the gas chambers. The despicable lie that Marx and Rothschild were working together to stage an internation coup was first ventilated by the founding fathers of modern anarchism…

Main text

Kostis Stafylakis’ “Third Positionism and the politics of Greek indignados” & Occupy Berlin Biennale 7 manipulation

Berlin Biennale 7, Occupy Berlin Biennale 7 and Occupy Occupy Berlin Biennale 7 are similar in many ways, unfortunately one of their common traits is simulation, the other one we must point out is strategic ignorance and even refusal of critique. While 2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON came to an end with an engaged discussion of neo-fascism in broader social context (specifically its involvement with neofolk and martial industrial music scene, as well as its influence on both the youth subculture and official “mainstream” politics in Greece), subsequent Kavecs Projects presentation in KW Institute For Contemporary Art was simulated into non-existence. Kavecs Projects clearly fell out of the Occupy line – was that a reason for the unannounced re-scheduling of the talk on the night before it took place in KW?

Strangely, there was no notice over FB, Twitter or the official Occupy BB7 website about the change of the time for event entitled “Kostis Stafylakis: Third Positionism and the politics of Greek indignados/ Image Wars: an introduction by Sotirios Bahtsetzis”. An ad for the talks as taking place at 20:00 on Monday 14 May remained on the official OccupyBB7 website till late into the night of Sunday 13 May (it might still be available here). Only then was the allocated times were changed into 14:00 – 16:00. Due to the fact that even general assemblies of OccupyBB7 fail to gather a significant number of people, leave alone the fact that all documentation of the “occupied” KW leave a depressing image of “social activism”, the sudden and unannounced change of the scheduled times for Kostis’ and Sotiros’ presentation could only reduce the number of people attending, and certainly not increase it.

So far OccupyBB7 issued no critique of the BB7 itself, which received numerous serious comments, even from the “mainstream” press, which targeted the persisting nationalism, racism and ethnic separatism of the BB7. Neither OccupyBB7 nor Occupy OccupyBB7 issued any commentary about the named issues. This is not a case of only disrupting someone’s career (although we admit it would be a significant progress in the anti-racist project), it is a case of the clear (and not only political) positioning. The depressing OccupyBB7 silence about the “cultural” problems of their leaders (BB7 curators) end up affirming the source of social injustice they initially claim to oppose.  ”Financial Capitalism” is not the only problem to be solved. Eurocentric “Serious” Bourgeois Culture of which art is part and parcel is at the core of reinventing the capitalist project, and Berlin Biennale 7 is so stupid it doesn’t take much effort to realize this.

*

Once again, we present you with Kavecs Project, who took part in our program 2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON:

The artists, and their collaborators, put to the test several forms of artistic interventionism in order to reprocess public discourse and its hegemonic “nodal points.” They impersonated authorities and misused positions of power. The artistic practice employed by Kavecsprojects is inspired by practices of “overidentification”, but tries to further blur the boundaries between incarnating a hegemonic identity and subverting it. By trying to avoid overt mockery and offer bemusing, persuasive and elaborate situations-speeches-impersonations, the kavecs artists try to test the viewer’s identifications and enhance a detailed reflection on cultural and social dogmas.

“The Black Circle: An answer to a misguided comrade.”
Action at Outlet Space (2011)
Video Installation (23 min).

The Black Circle project was conceived by Kostis Stafylakis and Vana Kostayola as a response to a series of events that took place in the aftermath of the Greek December 2008. The uprisings of December 2008 were triggered by the murder of a youngster by a police officer and soon became a massive protest against the conservative government of Kostas Karamanlis. During street fights a large number of buildings in the Athenian center were burned. The generalized uprising enhanced the rapid radicalization-politicization of parts of the Greek youth. Among the existing leftist, autonomist and anarchist groups, concentrated in the Athenian area of Exarcheia, some rather newborn, albeit preexisting, groups emerged in public space. Namely, two youth groups that belong to the ambiguous current of Autonomous Nationalism and/or National Anarchism: a “third position” synthesis of nationalism, anti-capitalism and anarchism that is now revived in different countries across Europe. One of these groups appears in public wearing white Guy Fawkes (V for Vendetta) masks. The “Black Circle” started as a simulation of an existing National Anarchist group. This strategy involved an appropriation of the aesthetic and discursive practices of these groups. The video documents a “Black Circle” speech at Outlet space (Athens).

“Threnodies: Reflections on the merchant, the geographer and the snake in Antoine de Saint Exupery´s “Little Prince.””
Video installation (11 min.)

(The rest of the video is available to everyone after contacting the artists.)

A threnody is a weeping poem-song. The Threnodies project is a critical reflection on the public discourse of the greek version of the indignados movement. The narration employs the leitmotiv of Antoine’s de Saint Exupery’s “Little Prince” and examines three figures of this famous storyline. Along with the hegemony of despair and miserabilism, a peculiar form of ethnopopulism with anti-Semitic edges prevailed. The performances include references to the nationalist discourse of the famous composer Mikis Theodorakis, references to W. Benjamin’s Critique of Violence and references to the slogan of “direct democracy”

Visit Kavecs Projects @ http://kavecsprojects.com/

PAKI.TV, Michelle Wallace, 1970, Biennialisation versus Unionisation…

A comment from comrade PAKI.TV:

The situation of 1970 was described by Michelle Wallace, who was articulate about a possibility to mount a concerted attack againt biennialisation through unionisation:

But I was first struck by the true dimensions of that problem in 1970, when Faith and I attened a guerilla art action protest against Art Strike, which was itself a protest against ‘racism, war and repression’. A group of famous white male artists led by Robert Morris decided to withdraw their work from the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international exhibition, in order to protest US bombing of Cambodia and the murder of college students at Kent, Jackson and and Augusta. Although the protest was supposed to be against ‘Racism, War, and Repression’ (sexism was not yet on their agenda), Art Strike then expected to mount a counter-Biennale in New York without altering the all-white male composition of the show. This seems to be the key to understanding the intrinsic limits of Western cultural avant-gardism: while it can no longer deny its own white male supremacist presuppositions it canot be rid of them either.

In the first years of our feminism, working through an organization that we founded called Women Students and Artists for Black Art Liberation (WSABAL), Faith and others succeeded in opening this exhibition to women and people of color. WSABAL was also influential in the subsequent development of Ad Hoc Women Artists, led by Lucy Lippard. This group repeated WSABAL’s 50 per cent women demand in their protest against the Whitney Biennial, which was in the habit of including white male artists almost exclusively. Specifically because of Faith’s research and support of Ad Hoc, black women artists Barbara Chase Riboud and Bettye Saar were included in the next Whitney Biennial.

Taken from: http://ringgoldinthe1960s.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/excerpt-from-invisibility-blues-reading.html

*

More from PAKI.TV: http://antisystemic.org/

Datacide. From Subculture to Hegemony: Transversal Strategies of the New Right in Neofolk and Martial Industrial *republished from datacide.c8.com

2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON has researched the shadowy connections and factual ideology of the establishment gentrification event “Berlin Biennale 7″. Unfortunately, some ignorant journalists took liberty to mis-title our exhibition and related events “antibiennale by Organ Kritischer Kunst” (http://www.polit.ru/article/2012/05/05/dm040512/). On the contrary, 2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON has involved 8 international collectives, who presented their practice, which even unintentionally challenge the aggressively stupid conception of the biennial. This fact has been completely overlooked by the authors of the BB7 review on polit.ru portal who chose to fetishize biennale and concentrate on the bollocks surrounding the event. Needless to say, 2012 team has a different analysis of the mentioned event. Additionally, 2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON showed support to such campaigns as FREE PUSSY RIOT and BERLIN MAY 9-11, ignored by the BB7. Happily, the Pussy Riot case has been took up by both activists and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, but unfortunately the personalist approaches to the mentioned campaign seem to be closer to the demands for (artistic) “freedom of expression”. The situation is much more sad if one is to look at Berlin 9-11 campaign, held in order to scandalize the worsening deportation policies which directly affect the lives of millions.

Nevertheless, as another repeating example of our attempt to present very distinct practices of our comrades, and as just another proof of 2012ISTHESEASONFORTREASON attempt to further contextualize the Querfront/Third Position political ideology embraced/supported by both Berlin Biennale 7 and VOINA, we are republishing a Datacide article “From Subculture to Hegemony: Transversal Strategies of the New Right in Neofolk and Martial Industrial”, which has been discussed parallel to Kavecs Projects’ ”Third Positionism and the politics of Greek indignados”. Those who missed the talks in OKK/Raum29 have a chance to catch up with Kavecs Projects presentation in KW Institute for Contemporary Art on Monday, May 14, 2012 – 20:00.

The following article written by Datacide author Christoph Fringeli is a detailed research of the involvement of some of the main characters of Querfront/Third Position/National Anarchist ideologies in the subcultures of Neofolk and Martial Industrial. Brilliantly researched and engaging article is suggested to everyone who wants to find out more about the “not so phenomenal” political obscurity of the artistic individuals and bands associated with this particular brand of neo-fascism.

***

From Subculture to Hegemony: Transversal Strategies of the New Right in Neofolk and Martial Industrial

Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial are two sub-categories of Industrial Music, which developed in the 1980’s. Industrial as such was a direction that – parallel to Punk Rock – worked with the latest electronics in order to create an aesthetic of futuristic noise machines of the late 20th century and research extreme zones of contemporary society and history. Throbbing Gristle already thematized concentration camps, serial killers, Aleister Crowley etc by using cut-up techniques of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin and thus with strategies of liberation from brain washing. Similarly, Cabaret Voltaire were said to wage a “propaganda war against the propaganda war” (Industrial Culture Handbook). With SPK this was combined with a critique of Psychiatry and a presentation of extremes of the body and death. In the 80’s there were agitational and critical bands such as Test Dept., Nocturnal Emissions and Bourbonese Qualk which were often associated with the ever broadening spectrum of “Industrial”. However, with Laibach the critique of totalitarianism became more ambivalent. This ambivalence was at first seemingly shared by Death In June, the band that in many ways was at the origin of what is now considered Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial.