Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

20th edition of the WEEK OF CONTEMPORARY ART 2014

DISCONSENT

Curator: Iara Boubnova

Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath
179, 6-ti septemvri Blvd.

Opening: September 5th 2014, 6pm
The exhibition will be hold until October 3rd 2014

Iara Boubnova

The title of the project refers to a legal notion with multiple meanings that often separates the criminal from the none-criminal act. To do something “by mutual consent”, to have mutual consent is generally OK; if something happens between two or more people without consent (in disagreement, which is synonymous to disconsent) that is not OK, often goes beyond the boundaries of the legally acceptable and most of the time is considered to be outside of the human norm for harmonious life in a community of people.

And yet, even when there is severe disagreement between two people, or two peoples, communities, countries, parties or any other two opposing forces they are often bound to live together no matter what. The law has ways to settle disputes as to the legally (not necessarily humanly) acceptable levels of “disagreement”… But the fact is that often people disagree and yet have to accept the necessity to live together.

The idea for thus project is rooted in the general state of Bulgarian society at present. Though the situation in Bulgaria in the last year has its specific features it is in general not so different from situations in a number of other countries and societies around the world – think of Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, USA, Brazil, Spain, Thailand and so on and on. In one way or another, for various reasons and with great variety of explanations in many countries the last few years have seen waves of protests and massive expressions of disagreements between people as to the way their countries and lives are run now. The information about such popular movements questioning the status quo, the establishment, the way societies are set up is like a wide flowing river that comes to us via the media, the social networks and sometimes participating people. The events in other countries, not only your own, have become now part of everybody’s everyday life.

A situation of disconsent seems to have settled all around us. Disconsent between people and the state, between various groups of people, between people and governments, corporations, political parties, and so on. It seems it is here to stay; it has become part of life; the discontent-disconsent scenario of protests is very likely becoming a permanent feature of societal life in the countries of the so called democracies though these have different shapes indeed. In the past before 1989 when the world was split between the two opposing “camps” of the bipolar model we were talking about “peaceful co-existence” between the two hostile systems – socialism and capitalism. For a long time it looked like one of the systems has won. Now it would appear that the system of capitalist free market economy and parliamentary democracy is undergoing a process of redefinition. And although the global financial crisis from 2008 might be in the past (with no questions asked about who paid the price for its resolution) it is far from certain that the model of the representative democracy has found its new “footing”. On the contrary, it is under attack along the lines of “representative” though not necessarily along the lines of “democracy”. The discontent with the low level of citizens’ participation in the decision making process seems to be the underlying current shared between all protest movements of the last 2-3 years. What is more – at least in Bulgaria, there is also the issue of citizens not agreeing with each other as to what should be done. And yet all citizens in a society must live together even at a time of extreme turmoil.

It is this state of disconsent, of life without agreement is what we would like to address with this exhibition project. The notion of consensus in a society might be a desired aim. However, it is not a reality. It is much more important to explore how it would be possible to live without consent, or “by mutual disconsent”, in other words.

The exhibition will explore the state of disconsent in various spheres and forms:
- coexistence of political apathy and activity – both are predicated on mistrust in power and leadership in all its forms;
- disapproval with economical models – disconsent about the distribution of the public wealth, lack of social awareness and inequality, shifting centers of production and marginalization of old centers, people of whole layers of society;
- restoration of retrograde and ultra conservative values concerning gender issues, religious freedoms and tolerance, loss of secular state emancipation and influence of religion in secular matters;
- dissatisfaction with systems of education, lack of access to education and suspicion about the values it promotes;
- disagreement with governance in general, with value system of society, with rules and laws privileging the few over the many; with lack of ethics in societal life and politics;
- disconsent bordering on contempt for the different and the other.

In one way or another, using variety of media, across borders of state, religion, gender or ethnicity artists are working and dealing with these issues of our world today. They often express different views and ideas and always question the system they happen to find themselves in. In the general confusion of today when art is looking for its new “vocation” and place in society artists are offering new viewpoints, languages of expression and visual tools. Artists are asking questions once again.

Artists:

Hito Staerl /Germany/
Pipiloti Rist /Switzerland/
Christian Jankowski /Germany/
Chto Delat? /Russia/
Nedko Solakov /Bulgaria/
Dimitar Solakov /Bulgaria/
Luchezar Boyadjiev /Bulgaria/
Krassimir Terziev /Bulgaria/
Kiril Kouzmanov /Bulgaria/
Miriyana Todorova /Bulgaria,USA/
Kiril Prashkov /Bulgaria/
Emil Mirazchiev /Bulgaria/
Vadim Fishkin /Russia, Slovenia/
Iskra Blagoeva /Bulgaria/
Lada Nakonechna /Ukraine/


“Week of Contemporary Art” is a project by Art Today Association in partnership with Minicipality of Plovdiv and Goethe-Institut Bulgaria.

The exhibition has been supported by: Gaudenz B. Ruf Award For New Bulgarian Art.

Media partners: BNT2, Radio Katra FM, Darik Radio, Darik News and Mediacafe.

PLOVDIV – EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019

WORKING HOURS
Tue - Sun
10.30 – 18.00
Entrance fee: 2 lv. / 1 lv. for students and pensioners/
Thursday -Entrance free

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

BLACK SEA CALLING – ON TOUR

Opening of the exhibition
on Friday, 11th of July 2014, 6 pm
at Center for Contemporary Art - The Ancient Bath,
Art Today Association,
Plovdiv / Bulgaria

Illustration by Kurt Rudolf, 2010 and photo by Alexandru Raevschi,
"Friendly fire, which we won", 2010.


With works by:
Dan Acostioaei, Ye?im A?ao?lu, Ilgen Arzik, Michael Aschauer, Mher Azatyan, Catrin Bolt, Gabriele Edlbauer, Markus Hahn, Michael Hieslmair / Michael Zinganel, Karl Karner / Linda Samaraweerov?, Konstantine Kitiashvili / Group Bouillon, Katharina Lackner, Paran Pour, Alexandru Raevschi, Christoph Schwarz, Vasili Subbotin, Veronika Tzekova, Gamlet Zinkovsky

BLACK SEA CALLING is an artist-in-residence exchange programme between Austria and 9 countries of the Black Sea region. All in all 18 artists were hosted in 2012/2013 in Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijn, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova,
Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The exhibition presents these artists with works reflecting the different cultural contexts of the countries involved.

Saturday, July 12
Opening Hours: 10 am–6 pm
Artists' Talk with Michael Aschauer: 4 pm

Sunday, July 13
Opening Hours: 10 am–6 pm
Curators' Talk with Margarethe Makovec & Eva Meran,
in conversation with Emil Mirazchiev: 4 pm

BLACK SEA CALLING is a project by
< rotor > center for contemporary art Graz

In cooperation with:
International Cultural Policy department at the Federal Ministry
for European and International Affairs

AIR Krems, Art Today Association Plovdiv, Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz,
Centre for Contemporary Art Chisinau, Centre for Visual Introspection Bucharest, Cultural City Network Graz, CSM/ Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art Kyiv, GeoAIR Tbilisi, Krasnodar Institute of Contemporary Art, Kunsthalle Exnergasse Vienna, K?nstlerhaus B?chsenhausen Innsbruck, NOMAD & CAMP Istanbul, Suburb Cultural Center Yerevan, United Artists Club (BRK) Baku

Supported by:
Art Today Association
Austrian Federal Chancellery | Arts
Austrian Embassy Sofia

BLACK SEA CALLING was awarded with Bank Austria Art Prize 2011
in the category International.
http://www.blackseacalling.eu/

PLOVDIV – CANDIDATE CITY FOR EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE 2019

Art Today Association
Center for Contemporary Art - Plovdiv
The Ancient Bath

Troubled Ground

exhibition by Antonia Gurkovska

April 5-30th, 2014
Center for Contemporary Art – Bania Starinna, Plovdiv
Working hours: 11:00-18:00h (except Mondays).