The latest edition of the project, CODE:RED Skopje, Lesson 1, researches a region that represents one of the critical hot spots in human trafficking. Macedonia is a significant geographic and strategic crossroad of the East–West and North–South trade, both in illegal international human trafficking and in forced prostitution. A problem that has recently been acknowledged in Macedonian politics is the phenomenon of internal forced migration, which places Macedonia among those countries that serve as both the source and the final destination for human trafficking. In the framework of the project five high school students will use the gallery walls as a school board. Namely, they will repeat writing the sentence: “Sex-workers' rights are human rights. Тus the artist emphasis the importance of the education for breaking the chain of different constitutive elements that enable the societal tolerance towards human rights violations of sex workers.
The participants of the project are disciples of the Building Construction High School “Zdravko Cvetkovski”: Marija D., Laze L., Simona L., Elizabeta S. and Marija S. under the leadership of their professor of fine art Ratka Ilievska – Lale.
The artist expresses special thanks to Zarko Trajanoski, M.A. in human rights, Nora Stojanovik, activist and artist, Marija Toseva and Marija Todorovska, representatives of “H.O.P.S.” (Health Options Project Skopje), Marija Nikolovska from the International Organization for Migration – Macedonia, NGO “Open Gate – La Strada,” a woman's lobby and action against violence and trafficking in women and particularly to the Cultural Centre Tocka where the first meeting of the artist with the experts and organizations that work on these issues took place on 26 April 2006.
About CODE:RED
Conceived as a collaborative project, CODE:RED (1999/2000 - ….) examines models of informal economies and self-organization within the context of sex work and human trafficking. On every continent, the sex work industry provides a vital source of income for numerous segments of the population who are excluded from the dominant economy. People forced into prostitution come from underprivileged social groups living on or outside the boundaries of society, who are stigmatized and deprived of basic human rights. CODE:RED researches modes of self-organization in marginal groups and communities, which develop outside the dominant social, economic, and political frameworks. The project involves various forms of collaboration: from research, activism, and self-help, to public actions, exhibitions, and presentations.
About the artist:
Tadej Pogačar (1960) is an artist, curator and artistic director of the P74 Center and Gallery, based in Ljubljana. He graduated from the Ethnology and History of Art at the University in Ljubljana. He is a founder and director of the P. A. R. A. S. I. T. E. Museum of Contemporary Art, a virtual critical formation established in 1993. He exhibited widly, at the 10. Istanbul Biennial; San Francisco Art Institute; 49th Sao Paulo Biennial; NGBK, Berlin; 3rd Tirana Biennial; Manifesta 1, Rotterdam; ZKM Karlsruhe; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museo de Arte Carillo Gil, Mexico City; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; 50th Venice Biennial, etc.
press to exit project space
gallery: Maksim Gorki 19 (Embassy of Switzerland), MK-1000 Skopje, T: +389 2 3103 374
office: Vasil Gjorgov 28/4, MK-1000 Skopje, T: +389 2 3228 594
presstoexit@on.net.mk ; www.presstoexit.org.mk |
