press to exit project space

absence/presence #001 

[meeting]
09.11.2006, 19:00 h., Press to exit- project space, Skopje
http://users.mur.at/toni/upgrade/

organisation: Line - initiative + movement
partners: Press to exit - project space
moderator: Cveta Spasova

participants:  Antonio Dimitrov (sound artist; graphic designer, Line I+M)
Boris Petrovski (artist)
Elena Veljanovska (curator, Line I+M)
Igor Stojanovski (philosopher, journalist)
Jane Calovski (artist, artistic director, Press to exit- project space)
Hristina Ivanoska (artist, coordinator of Swiss Cultural Program, Macedonia)
Nebojsa Vilic (curator, professor, FDU, FLU, Skopje)
Nora Stojanovic (artist; organiser, NGO Gluva Soba, Skopje)

The series of meetings absence/presence #001 will start examining one of the problems that endanger the Macedonian artistic/music scene. Initiated by the long-lasting fight with the latent and indolent artists, the problem is proposed in a form of a question: Why does the young artist show a lack of ambition to promote themselves and their art?
Generally, this problem is addressed to several aspects: Why they don’t want or doesn’t know how to promote themselves?
Why they don’t want to perform / exhibit?
What are the reasons for their insecurity, and how can we rise above these questions, find a solution and change this unfavourable condition?
This particular problem, and other problems that we face (expressed in a form of questions) will be analyzed by artists, curators, theoreticians and other individuals involved in the whole process.
Absence/presence are a series of meetings conducted in order to research and point out the problems that the world, as well as the local art scene, is facing nowadays. The problematic conditions of the contemporary art scene are not avoiding, but are currently found to be even more intensified in this teritory. According to the whole transition vacuum period that this country has been undergoing in the past decade, and the transition era, this is still experienced and can be felt mostly in the art/music and cultural wealth. The variety of problems that the art practice and the artists are facing is vast; from very common problems - such as the term scene itself being nebulous, to actual problems - including technical, financial, infrastructural, organizational (problems that the world scene is facing by default). Furthermore, problems of more subjective nature can be identified: insufficient education, closed-mideness of the audience, inexpirienced artist, unreal criticism… which local scene is confronting in the curent state of issuficient devlopment.
These discusions should outline the problem as such and help us, as locators of the problem, in developing potential alternative strategies. This would be the first step from the proposed process in finding solution that would follow the sequence: problem > problem recognition > problem location > problem solution > implementation. We believe that such an approach will enable us to most successfully avoid potential obstacles that we face with in direction to overcome and repair the current situation of the art scene, which we finally bear as our own task and obligation.

These meetings are part of underline (art theory and technology) platform for communiaction between artist, theoreticians, philosophers and curators, focused on cultural and art sphere. The aim of this program is to create fussion between theory and art practical realisation, fiction and concrete results.
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Upgrade! Skopje is monthly gathering of new media artists and curators. Upgrade! Skopje will organize presentations, exhibitions, workshops, discussions, sound performances, dj and/or vj gigs, video presentations… with general aim for promotion and development of new media art practices, through various kind of exhibiting and performing. Meetings can take place on various locations in Skopje like: clubs, cafes, galleries or studios. We think that is very important to find different space, appropriate to each kind of events, building different type of audience for each of them, establishing collaboration with various scenes, building stronger scene, community and networking.
Upgrade! Skopje is opened for every artist that is travelling this way to present his work here, get promoted and become introduced with the local scene with aim to develop collaboration/communication.
Upgrade! Skopje is organized by Line – initiative and movement.

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Upgrade! is an international, emerging network of autonomous nodes united by art, technology, and a commitment to bridging cultural divides. Its decentralized, non-hierarchical structure ensures that Upgrade! (i) operates according to local interests and their available resources; and (ii) reflects current creative engagement with cutting edge technologies. While individual nodes present new media projects, engage in informal critique, and foster dialogue and collaboration between individual artists, Upgrade! International functions as an online, global network that gathers annually in different cities to meet one another, showcase local art, and work on the agenda for the following year.
Current Nodes: Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro), Boston (United States), Caracas (Venezuela), Chicago (United States), Lisbon (Portugal), Johannesburg (South Africa), Istanbul (Turkey), Montreal (Canada), Munich (Germany), New York (United States), Oklahoma City (United States), Salvador (Brazil), Scotland, Seattle (United States), Seoul (South Korea), Skopje (Macedonia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Jerusalem-Tel Aviv (Israel), Vancouver (Canada), Wellington (New Zealand), Berlin (Germany), Belgrade (Serbia)
Future Nodes: Athens (Greece), Liverpool (United Kingdom), Paris (France), Vienna (Austria), will launch in the near future.
Organizations: Eyebeam, Turbulence.org, New Media Scotland, Art Centre Nabi, The Western Front, The Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), InterSpace, i-camp, DCA, CCA, No-Org.net, Art Interactive, NOMAD/santralistanbul, program angels/lothringer13, Open-Node.com, t-u-b-e, C-M.TV, Lisboa 20, AT. joburg, and the University of the Witwatersrand.
Upgrade! Background: Since April 1999, a group of new media artists and curators have gathered in New York City. The first meeting took place at a bar in the east village with Tim Whidden & Mark River [MTAA], Mark Napier and founder Yael Kanarek. Upgrade! New York partnered with Eyebeam in March 2000.

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www.theupgrade.net