Posts with tag Add new tag

It is inspiring to come together with colleagues in the same area to discuss pedagogical ideas, workshop outlines, content in art management and cultural entrepreneurship. Exchanging ideas is a great way of sharing knowledge and get inspiration to new ideas. This combined with interesting art exhibitions, like St Ive’s own sculptor Barbara Hepworth and a visit to Tate and walk through the balloons of Martin Creed‘s Work no. 210 Half the air in a given space are unbeatable.

The Think Tank in St Ives (UK) with colleagues Gesa Birnkraut (Germany), Karin Wolf (Austria), Mattias Kress (Germany) and Sue Kay (UK) that just took place was one of those moments where new thoughts were created.

We get to see a beautiful piece by choreographer Matthew Ondiege and his four dancers, a dance shifting in pace from fast to slow, from harmony to stress and internal conflicts. He is also working with the group Uwezo Mix Dance Theatre that bring together disabled dancers with other dancers to form contemporary dance pieces.

Visual Artist Mary Ogembo tells us an amazing story of how Art can be sold. A chinese person came across her paintings over Internet, I think it was, and contacted Mary to see if she could buy some. But since Mary is in Kenya, and the buyer was across oceans and countries, this was a bit difficult. And how should Mary verify that she was Mary? So she contacted different trustworthy people running organizations, Art exhibition halls and so forth so that the buyer could get references. An embassy official came to visit her in her studio to see if she existed. And after this process the buyer bought eight paintings, Mary got the money and rolled the eight paintings in packages and sent them across the sea.

Visual Artist Salah Ammar was one of the Artists part of the newly opened exhibition at the Ramoma, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Nairobi. Salah Ammar shows his work, pieces showing that his Artistic career has gone through many different styles. He shows his work with soft and careful hands, and with lots of respect for his viewer. When speaking of his Art his eyes get a spark, you can see that he loves it. He has so much inside, so many colors and ideas that still wants come out, he tells me.

Visual Artist Caro Mbirua shares studio with Salah Ammar and shows a different style of work. She carefully brings out painting after painting with motives hidden in mist, a sort of secrecy surrounding the women in her work. When she describes them, she says ”I do beautiful Art”, and we say ”you need to be more specific”. But it is really a good word for her work. Beautiful.

And on my bedside table, I have writer Doreen Baingana‘s book ”Tropical Fish”. An Ugandan writer, twice nominated for the Caine Prize in African Writing now living in Kenya. She wants to start a literary group with writers that can meet on regular basis, discuss literature and support each other in finding new possibilities to live on their writing.

These are just a few of the very talented Kenyan Artists taking part in the workshop ”The Art of living on Art” in Nairobi on Sept 7-8, 2009.

”Meeting can sometimes be more dramatic than showing a Bergman-movie.”

We are at the Swedish Embassy in Georgia, Tbilisi, talking about the project Exchange of Knowledge and Experience (EKAE) 2009 just starting in Tbilisi. Johan Öberg, from Faculty of Art at Göteborg University, describes the importance of combining working with events with meetings, working with processes is a working method for the project EKAE 2009. Today, Saturday, four intense working days start where a delegation of thirteen people from literature, Art, Art faculty at the Göteborg University, publishing houses, and film in Sweden has travelled to Tbilisi to meet colleagues within these areas to discuss future exchange and a possible event in Sweden 2009–2010.

A pilot group travelled to Tbilisi to prepare and met with visual Artists, textile Artists, Theatre and Film Instute at the Tbilisi University, publishing houses. Beyond the geopolitical situation and the internal wrestling in Georgia, cultural practitioners meet and continue their work over boarders. We listen to the textile Artist, Nino Kipshidze, working with the new flow of immigrants from South Ossetia in Gori, visual Artist Anna Riaboshenko from the network Tram, planning projects with the neoghbouring countries and North Caucasus to raise the status of Artists, and Levan Khetaguri at the Film and Theatre Institute on educating young filmers.

The project is run by Nätverkstan and financed by the Swedish Institute. More posts will be put up on this blog as the project continues. The project is a continuation of EKAE 2004, read more here.

Göran Dahlberg, editor of the cultural journal Glänta, gives his perspective on topics widely discussed in Europe today. How do you keep high quality in your work in long-term perspectives? How do creative industries and artistic practice combine – or do they at all?

What inspires you?

The possibility of putting things together in other ways than they usually are. Encouraging writers and artists to work with issues that inspires them. Inspiring inspiration. And in that way produce momentarily new connections between issues and between people.

What do Glänta do to keep high quality and creativity over the fifteen years it has existed?

We are continuously working with different kinds of journal concepts: focus based, conceptually generated, and plain mixes. So we change the way we work and think continuosly, not only by changing the approach to different issues of the journal, but also by arranging seminars and  parties, publishing books and works that mould public opinion. Everyone involved in all these activities is also working with other things at the same time. And we all enjoy each others company.

In what ways do the talks of creative industries affect artistic practice in positive and negative ways?

I do not think that creative industries is a relevant term. Which are the creative and the non-creative industries? Are we talking about industries as such, or the people involved? By calling your organization a creative industry you are probably trying to convince someone that what you are doing is good for society, that you are creating something. I suppose all industries are trying to be creative in order to invent new products and make profit. Those who succeed are apparently creative, like for instance the arms industry.
The postive aspects of introducing this term, creative industries, is that it widens the perspective (even though it, as mentioned earlier, might be too wide) and makes the too respectful use of the term ”Culture” less frequent.

How do artistic integrity and entrepreneurship combine, do you think?

Calling yourself and your fellow cultural workers entrepreneurs is another way of trying to get respect for what you are doing from the more powerful sectors of society. And it might work, and might not. I am sceptical. In any case the risks are high that the economical, numerical, measurements will be the only ones left.
Earlier contributions on this website of Glänta is”Humoristic Glänta” and ”Culture sponsor businesses”.