Revisiting State Socialism (I)
A new series of conferences at tranzit.ro/Cluj partnered by Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj under the PNRR project Philosophy in Late Socialist Europe: Theoretical Practices in the Face of Polycrisis.
Thursday, October 26th, 2023, 6 p.m
Address: tranzit.ro/Cluj
Street.Napoca no 16, 1st floor, Cluj-Napoca
Jan Mervart, "Genealogy of Czechoslovak Stalinism"
Czechoslovak Stalinism represents a unique case within the countries of East Central Europe, because of its long duration based on the continuous legality of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. The author's focus is primarily on capturing the genealogy of Stalinism as a Gesamtkunstwerk based on the interconnectedness of individual conceptualizations, representations, and modes of communication. In doing so, he considers the central logos of Stalinism to be the dynamic that emerged from the tension between the constant fluidity of Stalinist policy and strategy, and the desire to formulate a unity of basic premises and binding rules.
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What fits into the Infinite Jest?
Conversation with Lili Kemény, writer, one of the translators of The Infinite Jest /
Moderated by Zsuzsa Selyem, writer, Associate Professor at UBB Cluj, Faculty of Letters.
Wednesday, 25.10.2023, 7 p.m.
Address: tranzit.ro/Cluj,
Napoca str, no 16, 1st floor, Cluj-Napoca
Even if it was written long time ago, David Foster Wallace's cult novel is about the now: the spectacle of politics, the destructive effects of competition, addictions, deadly entertainment, and everything that distracts us from reality. Radical realism is what the après-garde filmmaker of the roman calls a style with no silent extras: everyone's voice is heard.
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GRID / Andrei Nacu
Curator: Adrian Bojenoiu
Exhibition: 24th of October - 7th of November
tranzit.ro/ Iasi,
Address: GreenHouse, Str. Sf. Atanasie nr. 25, Iași
GRID is an incursion into the digital culture of image and representation that is based on a collaborative research by the artist Andrei Nacu in partnership with the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) in London and the Multidisciplinary Research Institute in Art (ICMA) within UNAGE Iași, realized in two exhibitions hosted by RAI London and Tranzit/Iasi and produced by Galeria ElectroPutere.
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Eastern European artists to participate in the main exhibition of Biennale Jogja 17 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
6th of October - 25th of November
Tranzit.ro/Bucharest in partnership with Jogja Biennale Foundation invites 12 participants and initiatives from Romania, Serbia, to Ukraine and Slovakia in the main exhibition of Jogja Biennale 17 under the project “Reclaiming Sociality around Land and the Rural” co-financed by The Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Programme. The biennial runs between 6 October and 25 November 2023 in various venues across Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Invited participants: Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan, Anca Bucur, Dan Vezentan, Eduard Constantin, Ilona Németh, Jelica Jovanović, Nikita Kadan, Ovidiu Țichindeleanu, Raluca Voinea, Raluca Popa, The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life. Curated by Adelina Luft.
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The “Telephone: Communication Technology & Communicating Technology” podcast series
The “Telephone: Communication Technology & Communicating Technology” summer school organised by tranzit.ro/Cluj took place between the 14th and 20th of September of this year in Câmpu Cetații. It was a fruitful place for dialogue between participants, guest speakers and curators. The concepts about technology and society that acted as the project's foundation were developed and refined, leading to new connections between the speakers’ topics of interest, some of which were very unexpected.
As part of the “Telephone” project, we will be releasing a podcast series, featuring the guest speakers discussing their topics with each other. The whole 6-episode series will be available by the middle of November, and the first 4 episodes are already available on the project’s Facebook page. or here.
In the 1st episode, Alin Răuțoiu interviews Irina Dumitru and Alexandru Evanghelidis, the summer school’s curators, about the project’s objectives, what the stakes of the interdisciplinary study of technology are, and what’s next for the project. The episode also takes a quick look at the topics covered by the rest of the series.
The 2nd episode features Alin Răuțoiu, Marina Oprea, and Beti Toma discussing how we read the internet, who teaches us to read it, and what internet literacy even means.
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NON-WESTERN TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Freestanding Course at the Experimental Station For Research on Art and Life,
Siliștea Snagovului, Romania, 2023-2024.
Course leader: Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (retoolingclass@gmail.com)
* Wood Ladder, ~5.2m, dated 400-180 BC, Salt Mine Băile Figa
PREMISE
In 1973, based on collective research developed at CIDOC in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on the monopoly of the industrial mode of production, Ivan Illich argued that “two thirds of mankind still can avoid passing through the industrial age”; he also proposed the concept of a “multidimensional balance of human life” as the framework for rethinking technology and re-evaluating one’s relation to tools. Illich showed that it is possible to identify a balanced scale to the growth of anything, and raised the challenge of doing the work at identifying such scales and convivial tools. Such work would enable communities and societies to exit the trap of the paradigm of infinite accumulation, to develop self-sufficiency outside globalization, and to regain an ethical life outside extractivism, exploitation and impoverishment.
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Thoughts on the Political Economy of ULUS
Milan Đorđević, Vahida Ramujkić, Noa Treister
17.09. - 5.10.2023
Adress: GreenHouse, Str. Sf. Atanasie nr. 25, Iași
This exhibition presents the current thinking among members of ULUS (the Association of Fine Artists in Serbia) about the political economy of the organisation and its members. The two exhibitions presented - Susreti (Encounters) and Kraj kapitalizma (The End of Capitalism) - in the eyes of the organisers and many of ULUS’s members seemingly present opposite directions of politico-economic development. While Susreti gathered galleries from all around Serbia to present their artists, most of which are members of ULUS; Kraj kapitalizma invited artists and non-artists to develop models that enable a dignified life and active public action.
Following the exhibitions, two discussions were held reflecting on the concept and the practice of the exhibitions as precursors to the political economy that ULUS should practice. The questions that were put for the discussion of Susreti were: if, how much and in which way should ULUS participate in the art market? In the context of the very weak art market in Serbia, what is the difference between the artist being represented by a gallery and in an association? And with which actors in the sector of contemporary art and in which way should ULUS cooperate?
For the discussion of the exhibition Kraj kapitalizm the questions were: Would you define this exhibition as a political exhibition, and in what way? Who were the presenters and who were the visitors, i.e. who did the exhibition address? How did the setting of this exhibition - the official/traditional Spring exhibition of the representative professional association of fine artists of Serbia in its traditional pavilion - contribute to its concept? How was the funding by the capitalist state addressed by the exhibition? What political-economy should ULUS follow as a result of the exhibition? How exhibitions generally affect what the association is, how do they strengthen the community and collective of members i.e. what brings artists together?
In Iasi, documentary photographs of both exhibitions will be presented, as well as the discussions. On the 18th of September a new discussion was held in Iasi to continue the reflection arround the ways of organization of artists and how the questions above function in their own practices in the contexts of Iași and Chisinau, RM, basis for other artists present in this meeting.
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“Cordless Telephone: Communication Technology & Communicating Technology” – Summer School at Câmpu Cetăţii
14 - 20 September 2023
Câmpu Cetăţii, Mureş County
Cordless Telephone Summer School is organized at Câmpu Cetăţii, Mureş County by tranzit.ro/Cluj in partnership with the National Institute for Research and Development in Materials Physics and Dezarticulat.
It is intended for a mixed group of students from both STEM fields and the humanities who share an interest in the critical study of technology and in understanding how technology works. Our goal is to bring together different perspectives from these two spheres of intellectual life, usually separated by an artificial divide, viewing the technology through a philosophical, social, and cultural lens while maintaining a rigorous understanding of its workings.
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Oberliht Association & Druzhba Collective at tranzit.ro/ Iasi
Vladimir Us, Ghenadie Popescu and Maxim Polyakov with special participation of Veaceslav Fisticanu, Angela Candu, Ionuț Ion Savin, Inga Spravedlivaia, Dumitru Musteață, Adrian Moraru,
OPENING: 2nd of September 2023, 6.00 p.m. @tranzit.ro/ Iasi
ADRESS: GreenHouse, Str. Sf. Atanasie nr. 25, Iași
tranzit.ro/ Iași is pleased to present a conclusive group exhibition that pivots around the critical premise of organisational structures and how artistic scrutiny spreads and permeates the formal construct.
OBERLIHT ASSOCIATION is one of the leading non-government entities working and evolving in the field of culture in the Republic of Moldova. It was founded by an active group of people in the first decade of the 21st century as a specific situational response to the city of Chisinau.
THE EXHIBITION is an attempt to widen the context by gauging our own unique position and how the concept of “the civil society” was deployed during the post-socialist transformation of our societies. The objective to investigate the genesis of the “civil society” and identify the seeds and the fruits of this contested conceptual construct is in itself a labyrinth chore. By juxtaposing OBERLIHT’s inceptive activity with the current activities of the Druzhba (translated as “Friendship”) Collective, we have added more layers of complexity to the task. The artistic practice of the Druzhba Collective is an attempt to escape the formal dictums that segregate and control the categories of art and life. The two initiatives are cohesively sharing the The House of Zemstvo (Clădirea Cârmuirii Zemstvei Guberniale a Basarabiei) space amidst the other large groups of cultural, political and social organizations.
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Greywaters Phytoremediation
Eco-prototype design: atelier d'architecture autogérée
Participatory workshop within the project Architecture, Biodiversity, Culture [ABC]
Saturday, 26 August 2023, 10 am – 6 pm
The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life, Siliștea Snagovului
GPS Coordinates
Phytoremediation is a term that groups different technical processes of removal or toxicity reduction of pollutants in the environment, based on the plants use. Among these techniques are the phyto-filtering of grey waters (used waters from the kitchen and shower), which involve installing natural filters, where botanic species called macrophytes are planted, which favour the activity of pollutant-eating bacteria, thus ensuring the cleansing of the water. Following this process, the water can be dispersed into the soil and used for irrigation.
Within the project Architecture, Biodiversity, Culture [ABC], funded by the European Union, tranzit.ro Association and its partners, atelier d'architecture autogérée, Drenart and Nedeea Vâlceană Association are realising a series of architectural and infrastructural eco-prototypes, appropriate to be used by cultural institutions. The phyto-filtering of greywaters is such an eco-prototype, already put into practice by atelier d'architecture autogéré (aaa) in the projects they developed in the region of Paris, as well as at TERRRA Brezoi, one of the sites where ABC project operates.
Alongisde the actual greywaters remediation, the eco-prototype conceived for the Experimental Station will help water the Cosmos Garden, a biodiversity garden initiation at the Station in Autumn 2022.
We invite you on Saturday, 26 August, to participate in a practical workshop of the construction of the phyto-filtering system. The workshop comprises a technical briefing, the practical part of installing the system and a collective lunch. Participation is free, for additional information you can write to raluca.voinea@tranzit.org.
Access: by car via DN1 or A3; by bus no. 446, departure from Piața Presei Libere, get off at Pescari stop, Siliștea Snagovului village.
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Ecologies of Emancipation 3rd edition: Bread, Land, Peace in Polycrisis
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
24–30.08.2023
Câmpu Cetăţii, Mureş County
Application Deadline: 23.07.2023
The third edition of the annual summer school Ecologies of Emancipation, organized by tranzit.ro/Cluj in Câmpu Cetății, Mures county, will take place between August 25 and 31 and will focus on basic human needs in the contemporary socio-political context and in the early 20th century.
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ART WORK READING GROUP
23-25 august 2023
10 am - 2 pm, daily
”Ways of Organisation” project is continuing with a three day reading group with students from the Mural Arts Department, Visual Art and Design Faculty, “George Enescu” National Art University, Iasi. Trying to identify together in which way artists are not any different than any other professional groups in the participation to the dynamics of economical and social relations, we embarked on a different kind of attempt within the reading group practices and decided to research the ways artists decide to organize economically. We will be reading several articles from Art Work: A National Conversation About Art, Labor, & Economics, a magazine compiled by Temporary Services in 2009. Temporary Services made this newspaper in 2009 as a direct response to the financial collapse of 2008 and the devastating impact it had on the arts, artists, art museums, exhibitions spaces, curators and others working within the field of fine, community, or contemporary art. The magazine combines more theoretical texts and texts coming from a particular experience. You can download the newspaper here: https://halfletterpress.com/art-work-a-national-conversation-about-art-labor-economics-pdf/
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ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit:
