URGENCY Vs LEISURE
March 24th-27th, 2011
"That is all very senseless, but this senselessness has a pretty mouth, and it smiles"
"With all my ideas and follies I could one day found a corporate company
for the propagation of beautiful but unreliable imagining"
"Exceptional estimable, good, nice, dear people they all were but they all, unluckily,
kept asking me about the new novel, and that was excruciating"
Robert Walser
Are you fed up with your job and you feel you deserve a vacation? Do you suspect that in moments of relaxed leisure/pleasure you are more creative and your brain performs better than when you strain it for your work? If your answer is positive, join us in Belgrade, where we will gather our neurons for an intellectual party in the true fashion of every Ouunpo meeting!
Our gathering will take place this time in Belgrade, capital of the former Yugoslavia, a fun city not far from the leisurely coast of the Adriatic sea. The topic ”Urgency Vs Leisure” will of course resonate in relation to the local context, the geo-political history of the Balcans and to the actual revolutions and emerging crises of democracy in Europe and in the word.
But our gathering will be also an occasion to reflect on the nature of our nomadic artistic community. Perhaps the trajectory of Ouunpo has reached a point where we together need to stop and reflect on its democratic/anarchic nature in order to develop our shared future directions without necessarily fixating them. What did we achieve during our past meetings and which path we are now pursuing? What can still be shared between us and in which form?
Can we still find, in the rush of cultural production, the space/time to think freely, to make complex work of art, to engage in human relationships and to deeply commit to a personal or common project?
The activities of Ouunpo have often focused on performance; in Amsterdam and Nijmegen, this has come to the forefront, this is why we will also theoretically reflect on performing art, both intended as a liberating and revolutionary experience and as a form of immaterial labor that reveals itself to be particularly productive in the context of neo-liberalism.
Theses and other subjects will be developed in dialogue with the curatorial collective TkH (Walking theory) who will present their theoretical magazine on performance and their projet ”Deschooling classroom” inspired by the critical ideas on education of Ivan Illich, and during meetings with various Belgrade-based curators and artists. We will work and reflect about the upcoming Ouunpo Report and we will also enjoy performances and happenings taking place in museums and other public and private spaces in town.
Please follow the developments here. We look very much forward to seeing you very soon!
Program
March 24:
Day of arrival. Getting to the Hotel Prag and visit the city.
10 am : Symposium on political performance at European center for culture and debate GRAD. Address : Braće Krsmanović 4, 11000 Belgrade.
Joint dinner.
March 25:
10 am : Visit to the Museum of Yugoslav history (25th May Museum) and Elena Nemkova’s performance.
2.30 to 4 pm: Visit to the Cultural center Rex and meet Nebojsha Milikic with presentation of invited guests Ana Nikitovic, Ivan Grubanov, Marko Stamenkovic, Isidora Ficovic, Ivan Zulic.
4.30 to 6 pm: Visit to the Museum of Nikola Tesla and performance by Fatos Ustek and Per Huttner.
8 pm: Joint dinner at Dačo Restaurant. Address : Patrisa Lumumbe 49, 11000 Belgrade.
March 26:
10 am : meeting with TkH (Walking theory) and presentation of their projects. Working on the OuUnPo Report.
3 to 5 pm : Visit of the Ethnographic museum and performance by Jacopo Miliani.
6 pm : Meditation class by Stephen Whitmarsh.
7 pm : Party at Maja Ciric’s house and sound performance by Samon Takahashi.
March 27:
departure
The Project is supported by Linköpings Universitet and The Swedish Institute in Stockholm.
