Disdisdis by luisa ungar

#1, 2013

On Vampires and Other Forms of Conviviality came about due to the conversations held between us (Carolina Rito and Luisa Ungar) over the course of our residencies (RESO and UNIDEE) in Cittadellarte (Fondazione Pistoletto), in 2013. Exposed to the fact that both residencies were looking at practices that operate in a particular context claiming an impact in the social and political sphere, we initiated discussions around the use of terms such as socially-engaged, context, responsible transformation, participation and community—terms commonly used to refer to practices operating outside an exhibition space and in some way involving a group of people in the making of the work.

Regarding language, Frances Loeffler’s contribution to this publication draws upon the disputed International Art English article, by Alix Rule and David Levine. The latter states that the word “reality occurs four times more frequently in the e-flux corpus than in the British National Corpus (BNC), which represents British English usage in the second half of the twentieth century.” Is it the real something that can be extricated from something else? What do we mean when we use the term “engaged” in relation to the real? Do we mean that something is political, or is it being political already within the set of relations when one defines certain gestures as political?

Agarrando Pueblo, a film set in Cali, Colombia, in 1977, and directed by Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina, became a crucial nodal point of our discussions, from which we begun to pick out threads that touched upon our individual interests, including, modes of representation or translation, counternarratives, and each practitioners’ own position. Additionally, these conversations built up a common lexicon and a set of emerging questions that we tried to address in a lecture-performance on the 20th of July 2013, held after the screening of Agarrando Pueblo at Cittadellarte (see the script On Vampires and Other Forms of Conviviality on p.4).

Despite addressing these issues, the publication does not intend to present an explanation for them. Rather, it aims to delve into mechanisms of representation and language as materiality, through visual and text-based interventions that unsettle a monolithic statement. What is more, it aims to provide a fragmented and ambiguous understanding that allows and encourages further discussions and readings.

The publication looks at mechanisms of representation, questioning the clear-cut distinction between representation and presentation, as well as the language used to convey what is claimed as reality.

DIS DIS DIS On Vampires and Other Forms of Conviviality is the first issue of the research project DIS DIS DIS. The project continues to foster an ongoing conversation about language as materiality as well as ways of doing that blur the boundaries between theory and practice. This project will be realized in a range of formats such as publications, lecture-performances, workshops, and eventually exhibitions.

EDITORIAL

On Vampires and Other Forms of Conviviality by Carolina Rito and Luisa Ungar

p. 4

Preliminary Theses on Vampirism by Manuel Ángel

p. 14

The Diaspora Courgette by Leone Contini

p. 18

Salaam Cinema, entering the space of the unknown by Fereshte Moosavi

p. 34

Summer in Rosazza Directed by Richard Soriano Legaspi, with Rabindra Patra, Ana Garun and Lina Tori

p. 40

The ‘un-productivity’ of a productive model: the residency by Francesco Scasciamacchia

p. 46

Exquisite E-flux Corpse—Press Release by Frances Loeffler

p. 54

Notes on the Margins of an Open Call by Olga Jitlina

p. 58

The Circus: No regrets for illusion Fragments of audiovisual material from the performance by Luisa Ungar

pp. 2-3, 12-13, 16-17, 32-33, 38-39, 44-45, 50-53, 56-57, 62-63

Welcome to the New Narrative! A Socially-Engaged Artist Guide by Olga Jitlina

off-format enclosed

INDEX

does not pretend to redeem spectators 4

Luisa:

ACT I SCENE I

ON VAMPIRES AND OTHER FORMS OF CONVIVIALITY by Carolina Rito and Luisa Ungar

Dramatis personæ: Luisa Ungar is a visual artist from Colombia Carolina Rito is a European curator. Scene: On stage in the theatre at cittadellarte Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy.*

* First performed on the 20th of July 2013 in Cittadellarte, Biella, Italy.

PROLOGUE The conversation between Luisa Ungar and Carolina Rito takes place in the Theatre of Cittadellarte, where formerly the workers of the now deactivated textile factory could watch plays in their free time. The talk is set up after the screening of Agarrando Pueblo/Vampires of Poverty directed by Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina, in Cali, Colombia, in 1977. The film seems to be the starting point for the discussion. Projected onto the backdrop is an image where details about the talk are also displayed—including location, day and title—as well as a still of the film Agarrando Pueblo.

A stage is laid out with two sofas and a coffee table between them. On the table are a jug of water, two glasses with water, the script and two pens—one for each speaker. Each protagonist holds a microphone. The audience is sitting opposite the stage facing it. There are around twenty people. Carolina is the interviewer and Luisa is the interviewee. These two roles are challenged during the whole performance.

Carolina:

Thank you so much for coming. It is a pleasure having all of you here, especially considering that some people came of their own interest. Since Luisa knows about this context, it would be good to take the opportunity and pose some questions regarding her understanding about the historical background and the amazing documentary film.[ Carolina looks at Luisa and poses the first question. ] Considering that you come from Colombia and that you are also originally from Cali, what is your understanding about the relationship between the historical background of Cali and the figure of the vampire?

I would like to say first that today is Colombia national day, our independence day, the 20th of July. Carolina:

1810, right? Luisa:

It is very interesting the question about Colombian History and vampires, though. Carolina starts giggling while Luisa is speaking… it creates a bit of an embarrassment for both. Luisa proceeds.

Luisa:

I am sorry for this, but Carolina is a curator and she finds some serious issues funny… [ looking at Carolina ] but this is a very serious one! [ Facing the audience, she continues ] Cali is the third biggest city in Colombia. The first is Bogota and the second is Medellin. Cali is located near the Pacific Ocean in a valley, called Valle del Cauca, and is very close to a mountain called Farallones. Carolina:

But is there something particular about Colombia and its geographic location?

Luisa as Luisa in a mild and soft voice

Luisa:

Yes, in my country we have two oceans.

And what?...

Carolina: Carolina:

Vampires.

Incredible! [ facing the audience asks…] Did you know that? Luisa:

She reinforces

We have the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean.

CAROLINA RITO & LUISA UNGAR

Although the Caribbean Sea is actually an ocean at the same time. But following on from the question you posed, the presence of gold mines and sugar cane haciendas, as well as its location, explains why Cali had one of the biggest slave markets in America. Cali is still the city with the highest black population percentage in Latin America, including Brazil. For over more than two hundred years the economy was dominated by the relationship of slave/master.

Luisa: [ continues talking but not following a clear thread ]

What was happening in the country… Carolina: [ interrupts again in a quite contemptuous way ]

I guess we have heard enough, and that everybody has understood… Luisa:

No, no, no… I want to say something… this interruption can be explored up to the point of saturation. At the end Luisa starts being apologetic and Carolina has the word

Could you also please focus slightly more on the impact it had on urban development? It seems like you are going a bit off topic. Luisa:

Oh! Going off topic… (is that the way you say it?). [ a bit embarrassed ] Sorry about that… [ looks for consent from the audience ] Carolina:

Could you tell us more about the urban development in Cali towards the beginning of the 20th century? [ insists ]

Luisa:

The city grew quite fast and had the highest population rate in Colombia in the middle of the 20th century. Carolina: [ tries to interrupt ]

Ok…

Carolina:

Going back to the images of the film… quite striking! I would like your opinion as someone who was living in Cali, but also as someone who is a practitioner yourself, an artist. I wonder what is your take on this way of exposing poverty? A way to portray the reality of Cali and Colombia, in general. Is it, from your end, promoting any kind of social transformation? Luisa:

The film? Carolina:

Yes.

Luisa:

Well Carolina, I think we have some cultural differences, because I don’t believe we both understand the word poverty in the same way. Carolina giggles sassily

Luisa:

And now you are laughing… I don’t know…

Carolina:

Maybe I don’t know what you mean… Luisa:

I mean poverty, misery and dirt on your skin. Do you remember the man moving the tin? Carolina:

Yes, at the beginning of the film… quite puzzling. Luisa:

…Sitting in front of the Church… that sound was actually the sound of poverty. [ emotional tone ]

Carolina: [ in an unconsciously snobbish tone ]

Carolina:

ON VAMPIRES AND OTHER FORMS OF CONVIVIALITY

Carolina:

This is very moving. I don’t know what to say. I come from a different context, but I need to tell you that I completely sympathise with your experience and the difficulties in your country… but sorry… and thank you for sharing with us. Even though I can tell that it is too emotional for you. And I am feeling quite moved as well.

[ patronizing tone ]

operators. [ continuing the question started before ] Considering that you are an artist, I would like to know how you see your position? Also thinking that as an artist you have some responsibility towards the context you operate in. Luisa:

I think I have to go back to the issue of the context. Because the question is: if you don’t know the context, how do you speak about it? [ …silence ] For instance, once I was doing a residency and they decided to open a club on the premises where the residents where living.

[ expresses her sympathy ]

Luisa: [ repeats the following while Carolina speaks ]

It’s ok…

Carolina:

To continue thinking about the context, I would like to know a bit more about your concerns as a practitioner. Correct me if I am wrong…

Artists, curators, cultural

Carolina:

Oh My God!!! [ stunned, looks at the audience ] Luisa:

And the person that was in charge of the bar was talking about the music that he was going to play and then I told him: ‘Have you thought about playing reggae music, because I have heard people from the city saying they like reggae music…?’ But he suddenly looked at me and told me: ‘Why are you talking about reggae? We want to play electro music.’ I said: ‘But I talked to the people…’ He replied: ‘What do you mean? How many people?’ And then I thought, maybe he is right… it has to do with quantity. Carolina:

Luisa: [ interrupts while Carolina is posing the question ]

What do you mean by practitioner?

Are you claiming that in order to operate in a context you have to consider the

CAROLINA RITO & LUISA UNGAR

amount of people you know in that context? Is this about figures? Luisa:

I am only saying.

Carolina:

As a character; as in a life like performance. As a tool; or as a means to achieve an end. Social transformation or social manipulation.

Luisa:

No. No, I am not talking about familism. I am asking about the veracity of the Carolina: situation and its real content, when a poor Actually I can. Do we have time? family is paid to act as a poor family.

Carolina:

So let’s go back to the question that you didn’t really answer. [ contemptuous tone… again ] I understand… it might also be a matter of language. Considering your position as practitioner in this context, as a Colombian… what is your role?

I can tell you if you let me speak. Carolina:

Could you let me finish? They speak over each other for a few seconds…

Luisa:

You want me to tell you about my context and you don’t let me speak. [ crossed ]

Carolina:

You are being rude. In terms of social injustice…

SCENE II Carolina goes back to her seat after reading. Luisa and Carolina swap microphones (and characters)

Luisa:

Ok Carolina [ pronounced with a Spanish accent ] Carolina:

No… no… [ pronounces her name slowly, syllable by syllable, in a Portuguese accent ] CA-RO-LI-NA Luisa:

CA-RO-LI-NA. Carolina [ still with strong Spanish accent ] I wanted to ask you about the family that we saw in the film. [ Luisa follows the phonetics ]

Carolina:

Those paid to act like a poor family?

Luisa:

Yes. Sure.

Luisa:

Yes.

Carolina: Luisa:

Are you using me as a tool or as a character?

Carolina:

You mean familism Term used in the north of Italy to refer to the enclosed nature of wealthy families. An inheritance from the aristocratic family models.

Carolina stands, goes to the front of the stage, faces the audience and reads from the paper

It is a difficult question. It is hard to tell. But if you would allow me, I would like to tell a story, that actually happened in England not so long ago. [ humble tone ]

[ patronizing tone… again ]

Can I tell you now?

Luisa:

Carolina:

Luisa: [ speaks over Carolina towards the end of the question ]

then it is not so interesting.’ But, can you think of any other example?

ON VAMPIRES AND OTHER FORMS OF CONVIVIALITY

Sure. Carolina:

It just reminded me of an example from India. It might be pertinent to think Luisa: about this in relation to the family in the film. There is this Indian film production Can you talk louder, please? in a remote village in India. The whole both characters have changed slightly. Carolina village was developed around the textile is now a less confident figure, whose practice is unknown, whereas Luisa acts as the interviewer. industry. Pretty much like the heydays of Biella and this space where we are Carolina: now. At the same point, just out of their Sorry… I am just a bit nervous. I was own interest, they started re-enacting saying that it reminds me of a primary famous Bollywood films. However, due school teacher that was fired in the United to their own understanding about the Kingdom for telling her students that plot and characters, they transformed Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Don’t you think the original. At the same time, they then that portrayal is a layer of fiction? Reality also involved their own subjectivity in as another form of fiction. these re-enacted narratives, I would say. A sort of a process of appropriation. Luisa: And for me, it is this idea that there is no I was also thinking about a conversation such thing as a separation between the I had with a friend of mine from moment of re-enactment and their own Colombia and another artist that lived lives. This is proper lifelike performance. in South Africa for a while.. She was Re-enactment and real life, as it were, are describing Anton Kannenmeyer’s work, only different layers of representation. who draws comic strips about racial issues in South Africa. And while we Luisa: were looking at his work the curator But how did they get a hold of the asked: “But is this artist black or white?” equipment to shoot the films? And Milena, my friend, said: “He is white”. And then the curator said, ‘Well,

CAROLINA RITO & LUISA UNGAR

Carolina:

to employ dialects, accents and body language, improvisation, observation and emulation, mime, and stage combat.

It is exactly like it happened here, in this theatre where we are now. The equipment and facilities were Stage combat is uttered by both at the same time provided by the factory owner. When this factory was running, many shows Carolina and Luisa: where held here. It’s quite an interesting Stage combat. combination between labour, theatre and Carolina: free time. Considering the richness of the film, I Luisa: would look further at the relationship Can you relate this to the film? between vampires and the way in which they depend on blood. In short, they Carolina: create a sort of parallelism between Yes. It seems pretty obvious to me. The vampires and blood on the one hand, film is split into two types of images, and artists and reality, on the other colour and black and white. I don’t know hand. Do you think there is a possible if you agree, but it is as if the colour articulation? images are portraying reality, for instance, people in the street. Very serious issues. Luisa: But then the black and white images It is an interesting question. There is are unveiling the mechanisms behind a lot of material written in Colombia, representation, because we can basically specially relating to the vampire issue, see the cameraman and the film-makers, the master/slave relationship put forth who are kind of manipulating reality. by Hegel, and slavery’s historical background. Instead of going on with Luisa: theory, I would like to show some [ interrupts ] Carolina, stop that acting! material about this issue. Carolina stops talking. Looks at the floor

Luisa: Luisa reads from the paper facing the audience.

Acting - requires a wide range of skills, including vocal projection, clarity of speech, physical expressivity, emotional facility, a well-developed imagination, and the ability to interpret drama. Acting also often demands an ability

Carolina:

Shall I just read this short quote before we proceed? Luisa:

like this: “In addition, I feel that the balance between fiction and reality has changed significantly in the past decades. Increasingly their roles are reversed. We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind—mass-merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the pre-empting of any original response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. It is now less and less necessary for the writer to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality.” End of quote.

This is a traditional vampire dance. It is grounded in the slavery period. Carolina:

Could you just translate a bit more for us? Luisa translates the lyrics… despite being quite repetitive.

Luisa:

He is saying: After he reads some books at night, he goes out and looks for blood. Vampire.Vampire.Vampire.Vampire. Vampire.Vampire.Vampire.Vampire. The films is stopped Carolina and Luisa go back to their seats.

Luisa: [ ironic tone ]

Luisa:

Thank you.

Carolina:

Do you want me to set up the material? [ Very attentively ]

Luisa:

Last question before opening up the discussion to the audience. Do you find any difference between the family that is being paid to play the part of a poor family, and the poor family itself?

Yes, please. What we are going to show Luisa: now is a bit different from what Carolina Well… I would just say. Si, pero no. was reading. This material is from an expert on these issues from Colombia. Carolina: His name is Wilfrido Vargas and he has OK. That’s clear enough. Thank you. researched about these relations. The image on the backdrop is replaced with the video clip of El Vampiro sang by Wilfrido Vargas. Carolina and Luisa stand and go and sit on either side of the stage commenting on the images.

They both look at the audience.

Carolina and Luisa:

Thank you!

Sure. Carolina:

This is a short quote by J.G. Ballard in the introduction to Crash. It goes

ON VAMPIRES AND OTHER FORMS OF CONVIVIALITY

CAROLINA RITO & LUISA UNGAR

practices the technologies of mystery 14

PRELIMINARY THESIS ON VAMPIRISM Scattered and read through Agarrando Pueblo and Horacio Quiroga’s El Vampiro.

1. First thing to notice, there is no night in this film. This may means a lot of things in this context, given that we are talking about two things at the same time: Agarrando Pueblo: a Colombian film from 1978 made by Carlos Mayolo and Luis Ospina; El Vampiro and a short story from 1927 by Horacio Quiroga. ‘Film’ and ‘vampires’. The detail of an absent night is crucial—and we are not yet entering into the duality of solstices and earth rotations, into spatial codifications, in an inquiry behind the conditions for the existence of vampires: to the uneven geographies of vampirism. For now, we will refer here to the artificial category of ‘southern vampires’… In both, one can read absent and impossible geometries—one of them was shot in the north of the south, the other written in south of the south. To land back on the first thesis, we must say that the movie is not precisely a movie. But then that it is not a documentary, either. It would be simple to say it is ‘only’ a fictional construction that addresses ‘something’ that could be called the ‘real’. Addressing maybe something that could be called ‘poverty’, a vanishing reminder. 2. The first thesis is double: vampirism is premised on non identical duplication. Agarrando pueblo. The vampires of poverty. Grabbing and gripping the people. Vampiros de la Pobreza. Each version of the vampire implies another version. A vampire does not exist on its own. Both films form a constitutive block within these theses, but they extend the vampires to a different realm. Here, the play of non-equivalences is key for spotting vampires or for failing to see them, since their spectrality has always been part of their constitutive materiality. A worthy reminder: Quiroga’s Vampire is a filmic vampire, it is a vampire that only exists through the mediation of film and in parallel to it.

3. Carlos Mayolo says in a scene in Agarrando Pueblo: Creo que quedamos como unos vampiros oís, como unos hijueputas vampiros que nos bajamos ahí…1

The subtitles on Agarrando Pueblo will not match the slight turn in ‘quedamos como unos hijueputas vampiros’. ‘We appeared as fucking vampires’ is more likely, for ‘quedar’ in general Colombian slang means ‘to appear’: a social performance, an apparition and an image—a spectacle and an expectation. But this point is tricky, for it is not as easy as saying that someone simply ‘appears’ as a ‘vampire’. The articulation of this ‘appearance’ is opaque: if thesis number two is consistent, the vampire has no positive image, its reflection and representation does not materialise as a representation. In Quiroga, vampires seem to come out of films, in Agarrando Pueblo, vampires exist elsewhere as false appearances. This thesis then consists on a modulation of Mayolo’s remark: the filmmakers may not even be the vampires in this film. The vampire is always a meta-entity. 4. We said the vampire might ‘appear’, but it does not have a reflection or an image. Before even going into saying that a vampire actualises iconophobia, we could step back and state that images are simply not the case for vampires. Vampires defy mimesis as representation. But this does not mean that they are not mimetic entities. They become themselves the mimetic entities: Vampires proliferate as doubles by sucking life through blood, by turning something else into a vampire which is not equal to the ‘original’, they are proliferating reproductions. Inducing an undead state of life beyond death, this mimesis is a mimesis of non-living, non-equal reproductions.

5. Proliferation: “Thought is like the Vampire; it has no image, either to constitute a model of or to copy”, Gilles Deleuze and Deleuze Guattari tell us in their book A Thousand Plateaus. Vampire theses sprawl, and so do vampires. 6. Back to daylight, to the working day and the absence of night. This dichotomy always draws us to in the black magic of the economy: a search for the viscous mediator. The fetish here is constituted by the fluid commodity of the ferric liquid, which is said to be both internal and vital. This specific fetish is the ‘lifeblood of societies’, the ‘living blood of labour’, the object of exploitation: “the vampire will not lose its hold [...] “so long as there is a muscle, a nerve, a drop of blood to be exploited”. Karl Marx intervenes by exposing the sorcery of this obscure entity. Capital and Blood are interchangeable words in vampiric times, and the German author’s words serve only to attest to this. Exploitation is the lurking figure behind vampirism. This kinship allows us to think in parallel about things that have nothing to do with each other: a tropical gothic short story on film and a documentary film on a documentary film that addresses poverty. This last one only ‘happens’ to address vampires through a mistranslation. But mysteries abound, and coincidences are sometimes bloody clues. The fetish of today’s vampire ‘revivalism’ in soap operas, games, animates the figure of blood. But what happens when we take blood out of the equation? In Quiroga, vampiric actions are bloodless. The dislocated southern vampire alters the status of the fetish itself, without making the living blood of labour act as a true embodiment of something else. It would seem that the only blood sucking vampire left in South America would be the bat species that the French biologist Buffon named in 1774. Exploitation always exists somewhere else, and the bloodless filmic entities evidence this always unfinished problematic.

7. This one is a typically ‘southern’ problem, which comes back to the absent night mentioned in thesis number one. One could safely say that (the classical) northern vampires are bound to space, that they exist as spatial beings. For them, the night is binding—the night being nothing but their location regarding the earth’s position towards the sun. There is no evidence to say that Quiroga’s vampires are to be affected by daylight. Recall thesis number one: The existence of ‘southern’ vampires relies less on space rather than time. We could say that they behave more or less indifferently towards space. They haunt time and are intransitive: this explains their weird grip on filmic material. They are time based beings, rather than spatially bound entities. This is precisely the ghostly and gripping anxiety surrounding their existence. This thesis also supports the previous claim for absent and impossible geometries. 8. John Locke said: “Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.” Vampires violate Locke’s principle for freedom, liberty and property. A vampire does not own itself nor its victim’s life. It alters ‘man’s’ property of ‘himself’, turning a ‘him’ into an ‘it’. Here the mimetic principle explained above is finely altered. A divergent side of vampyrism, it modifies relations of property, of the ‘proper’. 9. Borrowing Horacio Quiroga’s words, they all spread like an ‘epidemic silence’. Se esparcen como un silencio epidémico. —Manuel Ángel

1. I think we looked like vampires—like fucking vampires that showed up there…

MANUEL ÁNGEL

reviews reality in an inverted manner

THE DIASPORA COURGETTE In the imagination of my mother’s family the cucuzza, a Sicilian elongated courgette, has always been a vegetable with an aura surrounding it. My grandmother, originally from Agrigento, Sicily, but now living in Florence, used to often cook it, and my mother still cooks it from time to time. When it is served at the table it is always something more than just a sweetish aubergine. For the Sicilian diaspora, the cucuzza pertains to the realm of nostalgia. In particular, in the Italian-American imagination, the cucuzza assumes almost mythical connotation— the tale of the seeds, passed on over decades from one generation to the next until today—is one of the subjects of family narratives of descendants of Sicilians who have emigrated to New York. Eating cucuzza in a foreign land is a familiar and convivial ritual; a moment of reconnection within a situation of displacement. The cucuzza is an exclusive link between the emigrated community and an “intimate collective” place; it is the lost Sicily, fantasised by the diaspora. Several websites, blogs and Facebook groups are dedicated to the cucuzza. Even the various versions of its name seem to proliferate on the web. Pronunciation variations differ: kah-gootz-ah or goo-gootz. Spelling variations include: cagutsa, cagutza, caguzza, cuccuza, cucutsa, cucutza, cucuzza, cugutsa, cugutza, and cuguzza. The cucuzza, declined into its different sub-regional pronunciations, is a category of the soul and an infallible sign of the presence of Sicilian migrants, in the old as well as the new world. However, in Tuscany this Sicilian archetype has appeared on the market stalls of Chinese farmers. It is called pu gua, but it also is known by other names. The difficulty in having a univocal translation is due to the co-existence of linguistic and botanical variations. This type of courgette has in fact numerous sub-varieties of a more or less elongated shape, all with slightly different names, which in Chinese vary depending on the language you are using (Mandarin or one of the regional dialects). From the same vegetable two identity narratives are merging— Sicilian and Wenzhounese—which can be linked to emigration and the need for a comforting reconnection with home (?).

LEONE CONTINI

LA TOSCO-WENZHOUNESE ROSETTA STONE Ideogram, phonetic transcription and stylised drawing: Xue Kong’s list of the ingredients needed to make Huo guo is, to me, a rudimentary illustrated dictionary, essential for me to link signifiers and meanings, and to make sense of the mishmash of Mandarin Chinese, Wenzhounese dialect and biodiversity.

XIAO BAI CÀI, BOK CHOY, QĪNG CÀI OR XIĀNG GŪ CÀI? Notes winter 2010

[…] I interview a Chinese boy, he shows me his vegetable garden. I notice a vegetable, which doesn’t have a name in Italian (he tells me that it doesn’t exist in Italy). I insist on knowing its Chinese name. Back home I listen to the audio-recording, and on the Internet I look up the transcription of that fleeting sound—something like “shao bai tzai”. The search engine suggests “xiao bai cai”—Google seems to have corrected my mistake in transcribing phonetically—I eventually end up in a discussion forum: “What is xiao bai cai? Bai Cai is the Mandarin spelling/pronunciation of bok choi, which is Cantonese. Xiao means little. Thus it can be translated as “little bok choi”, which could mean the smaller version of bok choi, a leafy vegetable with bright white stalks and dark spinach-green leaves”.

Huo guo, literally “fire pot”, translatable into English as “hot pot”. It is a very popular, but not typically Wenzhounese cooking technique. It is characterised by a strong convivial aspect: a broth which boils in a pot in the middle of the table. Everyone cooks his own meal in the “fire pot” choosing raw ingredients from serving dishes, immersing them in the boiling broth and then fishing them out with a perforated spoon. It makes for slow eating and a long social occasion.

[...] , the little cabbage is therefore different from the Chinese cabbage . [...] I can’t translate a lot of vegetable names—the use of dialects complicates things making it difficult to find them on the web. I consult my Rosetta Stone. The second vegetable drawn by Xue Kong is clearly the one I saw in the vegetable garden—and which is everywhere on the market stalls—but its translation is not Xiao bai cài (as suggested by Google), but xiāng gū cài, whose corresponding character is —the same for “mushroom”—followed by , “vegetable”. After a discussion with Chinese (but not Wenzhounese) friends, we reached the conclusion that could be translated as mushroom-vegetable; this combination (mushroom + vegetable), rather frequent in Wenzhounese cooking, could have given the vegetable its name. Xiao bai cài, qīng cài or xiāng gū cài? Attempts to settle the ambiguity of the name of a Chinese vegetable.

LEONE CONTINI

THE GROCERY SHOPPING LIST

These and many other vegetables can be bought from small greengrocers and minimarkets scattered between Prato and Florence—fragments of Wenzhou in the heart of Tuscany.

“Translation” of vegetable names bought from a Chinese greengrocer in Seano:

1. 2.

xiāng gū cài yòuzi, pomelo

(called “van ta” or “wan ta” in regional dialects)

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

qiézi, elongated aubergines jiāng, ginger dà suàn, garlic stalks yuán ròu, longan língjiâo, water caltrops

The following is an English translation of the bilingual (Italian/Chinese) press release for the event Feed Your Head.

Reproduced on the following pages are the posters put up in public spaces, in Seano and in Carmignano.

FEED YOUR HEAD An experiment of Tuscan-Chinese collective cooking in Tenuta di Capezzana, Carmignano, Prato. On 10th April the farm winery will host the TuscanChinese culinary event “Feed You Head”. A Chinese and an Italian chef will run a cooking class open to the public. The public will be invited to observe and help with the making of the dishes, and to subsequently enjoy them, together with the wines offered by the winery. The project aims to reveal an affinity between two extremely structured and time-honoured culinary traditions, each very different from the other,

CUCINA TOSCO-CINESE

but both based on the use of similar ingredients (carbohydrates), and with very similar formal outputs (dumplings, noodles). The experiment of Tuscan-Chinese cooking is not just about highlighting cultural differences, it also attempts a “shift”, i.e. it imagines a form of cultural mediation through food, seen as a convivial moment of sharing. “Feed You Head” is a workshop of participative cooking born fromin-depth research in this field, and is the fruit of the meeting of ethnography and public and participative art practices. Attendance is free, but booking is required.

LEONE CONTINI

LĀ MIÀN JIĂOZI

TAGLIOLINI) (RAVIOLI)

Given the vastness of the two culinary traditions, I decided to concentrate on a specific gastronomic element, formulating the experiment around the making of dumplings and noodles—Italian and Chinese. The two dishes define the range of my experiment, making it concretely possible. However, they also represent the two relationship poles—inclusion and conflict— around which the self and the other are represented in numerous guises—as many as the escape routes from the traps they inevitably create. The experiment of Tuscan-Chinese cooking wants to question these representations, revealing their randomness. In other words, the objective of the experiment is to deconstruct a binary way of thinking, which tends to establish a couple of opposite notions: genuine vs. unhealthy ingredients, high cuisine vs. street food, light vs. heavy meal, slow food vs. fast food, familiarity vs. foreignness, Italian vs. Chinese food, etc.

Nearing the dichotomy “la miàn (Tagliolini)” the experiment becomes conflictual. However, the competition is introductory to the experiment. It dramatises a pre-existing conflict, it exorcises it. The “trap” is defused through a semitheatrical representation of the amazing Chinese skills in making noodles by hand. But it is for the match between jiăozi and the “raviolo” that my expectations are at the highest. The “raviolo mugellano” and the jiăozi are in fact two frames of a syncretic and inclusive process, variations of the same gastronomic concept—the dumpling—declined from procedures rooted in the respective traditional backgrounds, adapted to different geographical, social, economic contexts. Possibly influenced by the inclusive and propitiatory vocation of the Euro-Asian dumpling, I feel that an original invention might originate from this clash of different forms and cultures—either an innovative practice or a new dish.

LEONE CONTINI

THE CARMIGNANO JIĂOZI Plastic, inclusive, intercultural conductor-translator, with the power to bring luck and keep evil away.

Its original form, resembling a “panzerotto”, is due to the use of the Italian pastry wheel on the Chinese dumplings dough disc. This technical syncretism compensates for Italian and second generation Chinese people’s lack of manual skills in sealing the traditional jiăozi by hand. Even if it was created in an intentionally built setting, the Carmignano jiăozi is not a “mechanical” merging of the formal characteristics of the Italian raviolo and the Chinese jiăozi, but, on the contrary, it is the result of a complex mediation between raw materials, technological resources and embodied knowledge.

The Carmignano jiăozi is potentially a new entry in the intrinsically inclusive family of the Euro-Asian dumplings. The future is here, in our dishes: a minimal, edible utopia.

LEONE CONTINI

practices activities neighboring the human condition

Salaam Cinema

Entering the space of the unknown

In thinking of where to start from, or rather where not to start from, Salaam Cinema1 is one type of film that effectively manoeuvres itself into certain lines of questioning in relation to curatorial activity and its social engagements. This text, tries to analyse the complexities through which presentation, discomfort and improvisation are activated. Set in 1994 in Tehran, Iran, Salaam Cinema is one of Mohsen Makhmalbaf ’s most exceptional films. Relatively different from the originally planned story, this eighty-nine minute movie jumps between dualities and uncertainties in order to seek the Truth. Zigzagging between theatre and performance, the entire piece deals with the presentation and representation of concepts such as real/fiction, act/re-act and just/ unjust through interference and discomfort. Makhmalbaf, in a very theatrical manner, set up a scene in which a considerable amount of cinema lovers, including a large number of his own fans, took part in a casting session for an imaginary movie. In the moment that these wannabe actors were called for the interview, even the director was not aware that the audition was going to become the actual movie. While the Iranian government’s interest in having North Korean Missiles was growing, and at the same time were cooperating in a nuclear programme with China, besides (possibly) being involved in bombing the 1. ‘Salaam Cinema’, (Hello Cinema), Screenwriter, Editor & Director: Moshen Makhmalbaf, 1995, color, 89 minutes

Argentine Israeli Mutual Association Building in Argentina, 1994 was in fact a new beginning for Iran’s foreign affairs. Filmed in the midst of the political Chain Murders and the disappearance of hundreds of intellectuals, Salaam Cinema sets a different momentum. It is important to mention that here the purpose of this text is not to analyse Salaam Cinema as a successful Iranian independent film production that has received numerous awards. I would, however, like to pose my line of enquiry around the situation through which this film can be looked at as a conditioned/ unconditioned state of events. Following the placement of an advert in a newspaper looking for actors to play in a new movie by Makhmalbaf, hundreds of amateurs showed up for a screen test, forming an extensive queue outside of the announced location. Finding himself in a FERESHTE MOOSAVI

chaotic situation, Makhmalbaf opens the doors to the gathered crowd insistent on having its moment before the camera. Forced into an unforeseen situation, the crowd begins to assist in the creation of a completely unexpected scenario in the film. What is important here is the suggestion that both the artist/producer/ film maker and the participants /rivals/ potential actors are drawn in the unknown. This could be counted as one of the prime instances during the film, where the concept of improvisation comes into being. As hundreds of people show up for the casting session, the unexpected chaos puts Makhmalbaf into a strange and uncomfortable position in which he decides to improvise. He picks up a megaphone and stands in the middle of the muddled situation trying to calm down the excited crowd. He starts to welcome the participants to their own film (not the film they came to audition for—the one yet to be made—but a new part for and of this film. He points out that they have instantaneously become the actors and actresses without being audited. In a sense, the chaotic situation functions as a state within which a number of components start to encounter one another. The crowd that wants to act, and the space which, at this point, is still unfamiliar, create an emergence of an unknown world. It is through this confusion that the act of improvisation comes into effect. The relationship between the unknown and improvisation is, in a sense, a very productive encounter whereby an actualisation arises. If improvisation

simply means to perform/deliver/make/ provide without preparation, then we are dealing with an un-fore-seen/un-expected/ un-pre-dicted situation, coupled with a determination to improve this situation. However, instead of tackling the latter idea of improvement, for the moment I would like to focus more on improvisation’s relation to the unexpected and/or unknown, and the question of how to actualise it. Jean Luc Nancy believes that “If creation means anything, it is the exact opposite of any form of production in the sense of fabrication that supposes a given, a project and a producer.”2 The question here is how, and to what degree improvisation could be placed in relation to creation by different modes of production. Once the chaotic and unexpected situation at the beginning of the casting session in Salaam Cinema turns into an even bigger confusion, suddenly a new form of production is improvised. The chaos turns into an unconventional type of order, when the crowd starts pushing itself through the doors, displaying its power as a whole. In other words, the encounter of the masses with an unknown place results in the production of an improvised act. Entering the unknown space and encountering its possibilities, the participants in Salaam Cinema begin to be interviewed one by one or as a group by Makhmalbaf and his crew on a staged 2. Jean Luc Nancy, The Creation of the World or Globalization, 2007, p.51, Sunny Press, State University of New York Press. In this book Nancy reflects on globalisation and its impact on our existences and being in the world. His discussion on the creation of the world relates to a possible world whereby creation and nothingness are in relation to one another.

SALAAM CINEMA

hall. Throughout the whole occurrence a various number of concepts such as truth/ untruth and real/fiction, start to come into play within the power relation between interviewer and interviewee(s). Yet, aside from its metaphorical and metonymical effects, the following example I am about to give tries to unfold the space within which the unknown and the possible are confused with one another. The first interviewee is blind. He is a young man from a small town and says that he is desperately in love with cinema. Despite the fact that cinema is invisible to him, he nonetheless enters the casting scene with his closed eyes not only to be seen by others, but also to be judged on his acting skills. Being within the uncertain situation of whether he would be accepted for the film or not, he plays a rather theatrical part, and it is then that the truth reveals itself. The young man is not blind; he pretended to be so that he would be seen as a perfect person for the movie. The act of him pretending to be blind, with his closed eyes, which kept his surroundings invisible to him, creates a rather uncomfortable atmosphere for everyone in the room including him. It is through such discomfort that the emergence of a new possibility occurs. Once the truth is uncovered, Makhmalbaf informs him that the screen test is going to be part of the film, and that through his performance he has in fact been acting for the film, and he ‘is’ an actor. This jumble between fiction and reality reveals the present being. The displacement between being an actor and becoming one is the product of the inaccurate match between the recognised and the realisable. In such moments when

being an actor, and not being an actor sweep, the uncertainty of displacement as the third possibility starts to come into effect. It is through such displacement that a new possibility is realised. The zigzagging between the two possibilities of actor and non-actor provides the third mode that displaces, to such an extent that a new possibility comes in to being. By so doing, creation in the Nancian sense is surely operating from the non-presupposed or non-fabricated mode that is known to the beings. In other words, neither the person pretending to be blind, nor the one who questions him have learnt the truth about each other- truth as a displacement for the present possible. The differentiation proposed here between fiction/untruth/non-real and reality, however, has to be looked at whilst considering the concept of decision-making as another component. To improvise or to operate with no preparation or very limited provision has to be comprehended in relation to decision-making, which could be an unfamiliar move. The decision with which the blind “actor” reveals the truth, or with which Makhmalbaf welcomes everybody to their own film, is inspired by the unplanned occurrence. The dispositions of different components in such states create possibilities for the new possibles. Thus, to question how present-ation—not by the way of presenting something to someone, but rather by being present—brings us back to improvisation. The latter is seen as a productive mode through which possibilities as places of realisation arise.

FERESHTE MOOSAVI

—Fereshte Moosavi

obsessively repeats everyday activities

...LINA AND ANA WANDER AROUND THE ITALIAN COUNTRYSIDE, SPENDING THE SUMMER RESEARCHING ARCHITECTURE AND MEDIEVAL RUINS.

SUMMER IN ROSAZZA, ITALY...

SURPRISED, THEY FIND A BOOK THAT CONTAINS SIMILAR SIGNS TO THE ONES THEY HAD SEEN...

SORRY, THIS BOOK CAN ´ T BE LENT! ON THEIR WAY THEY ENCOUNTER STRANGE GEOMETRICAL FIGURES THAT LOOK LIKE ANCIENT SYMBOLS...

...THE LIBRARIAN RECEIVES A CALL, AND THE RESEARCHERS SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY...

SIGNS OF A PAST THAT ECHOED...

...WITH DARK MAGIC

WHAT THEY FOUND WAS SO GRAND, THAT THEY DECIDED TO STEAL IT... A MORAL OBLIGATION THEY MUST FOLLOW...

HUNGRY FOR KNOWLEDGE, THE TWO WOMEN LOOK FOR ANSWERS TO THEIR QUESTIONS IN THE LOCAL LIBRARY...

THEY LOOK FOR A SAFE PLACE TO LOOK AT THE IMAGE...

ANA, STEAL THE BOOK NOW! ...A KIND LIBRARIAN WELCOMES THE RESEARCHERS.

BUT...

THEY WERE BEING WATCHED...

...LITTLE DID THEY KNOW, WHILE THEY WERE STEALING...

...BY STRANGE FORCES!

RUN!!!

THE VAMPIRE AWAKENS...

has no regrets for illusion

THE ‘UN-PRODUCTIVITY’ OF A PRODUCTIVE MODEL: THE RESIDENCY There are a lot of ways of producing knowledge nowadays and very often this vector of possibilities or alternative modes of production goes hand in hand with the re-adjustment of new social, political and economic conditions in which capital operates. Since knowledge has become so far a productive factor, one that—more than any other element—produces and at the same time consumes money, the question of how much these ‘other ways’ of producing knowledge are truly alternative to classical modes come to the fore. The agents (or better the subjects) of this production are cultural operators—a broad definition that includes, artists, writers, critics, curators—and seen in this dialectical way, the object is the ‘outcome’ of the action or of the performance played by them. It would be too simple to say that what made these ‘alternative modes’ of production problematic is precisely the fact that they are captivated by capital (both in its material and immaterial manifestations) through a systemic appropriation of the ‘alternative’ or the ‘emergent’1 into the dominant paradigm. Or too simply to say also, from a classical Marxist perspective that these ‘cultural operators’ are subjected to the logic of capital that extrapolates from them a certain amount of surplus value and creates a new form of proletariat, a sort of ‘cultural proletariat’. 1. I share this vision of the way the contemporary system functions today with Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello, as expressed in their book The New Spirit of Capitalism, Verso, London 2007.

In my view, I believe there is another formulation in these alternative modes of production (here the object of investigation is the contemporary art apparatus) as an object always potentially captivated by capital, while producing capital itself: a force, an element or a factor that can escape this mechanism, generating something ‘outside’ capital. My question would be then: is it possible in some concrete manifestation of this ‘alternative mode’ of production to produce something that really ‘alters’ the way capital works? Or to put it another way: is there something in the air that, at least for some limited time, could possibly be ‘unproductive’, or not productive in the way the current economic paradigm contemplates? I will make an attempt to see if there is a part in this emergent and alternative modality that is outside of capital, even outside for a short time.

In order to develop my argument, I will consider a topology of production that is massively functional to the way in which the contemporary art network or infrastructure operates, that is to say the model of the ‘residency’. The residency is a production site to which artists, curators and critics can apply to, or can be invited to, spend a period of time in a usually remote or peripheral geographical zone, or conversely in a hyper ‘art friendly’ global city (such as London, New York, Berlin or Paris). In the first case, the cultural operators could have an exotic experience and get to know places otherwise peripheral in the contemporary system. In the second case where the residency is in a major city, participants can become connected to the mainstream art world and possibly get in touch with powerful people or such institutions that are normally located in these big cities. While there, ‘cultural operators’ are supposed to present their work, organise lectures, continue with their research that at some point will be presented publicly to an audience or to other peers interested in it. This temporary mode of production is based upon a fragile structure of either having an experience that could potentially be driven towards a career or that could improve the existing body of work through developing a new project. Besides this attractive mechanism of ‘achieving an experience’ or, should I say, of ‘collecting another experience’ for the sake of a ‘career’, there are certain economic conditions that makes the residency an interesting model for analysing the way capital works nowadays.

Some of these residencies are in fact built around the idea that the facilities on offer to the residents have a cost, and of course they have a cost; and someone has to pay for them. The majority of residencies are funded by European and International cultural institutions, which provide food, travel costs and accommodation to the travelling ‘cultural operators’. This mechanism is not something new in the current configuration of the economy, but what is peculiar about the residency is that the money, rather than being invested to pay the work of the residents, is allocated to the hosting institutions. So, there is something quite perverse in this mechanism (at least if we still believe in certain forms of Marxism). The capital in its material manifestation that was supposed to go in the hands of the resident goes to the Machine of Production (the Institution) while at the same time, the institution is benefiting from something that it is not paying for: a production of Knowledge through those subjects producing it. It is clear then—with very few exceptions—that the Machine of Production of Knowledge is duplicating its capital (extracting surplus values from the residents) and at the same time benefiting from the funding that they have received, not only as a cost for the facilities they are offering to the residents, but more importantly on the basis of the cultural value that the operators generate. One could conclude here with a very crude analysis of the model that will not proceed further than any other ‘knowledge production mechanisms’ existing nowadays. Following the analysis above, the condition of the producers of knowledge could be described as a condition of subjection to a certain institution.

FRANCESCO SCASCIAMACCHIA

In their vision of a ‘new spirit of capitalis’, Boltanski and Chiapello would argue that, beyond this subjection, the form of the residency operates in another sense: free ‘people’ from their disconnection from a ‘network’, an exclusion that for them represents the alienation of current capitalism2 . This applies particularly to sectors of production such as ‘contemporary art’, where the more you are connected the more you could possibly achieve a career or at least might have more chances. Despite that this analysis could be, in some way, true, especially when it applies to the model of the residency, I still see some form of subjection in the capital circulation and its normative mechanism within the format of the residency. My argument in support of this is described above at length. Given for granted that this model is not an ‘alternative mode of knowledge’ or better, in my view: an ‘alternative mode of production’, what exactly makes the ‘residency’ a peculiar format that could potentially challenge ‘capital’ and then for some reason become ‘alternative’. I believe that a shift from the ‘economy of production’ or ‘production of knowledge’ is due in this regard. Even Marx was able to think about an ‘unproductive’ force in a modern capitalist economy in a very complex section of the Grundrisse. For instance, this unproductive labour is represented by a piano player that, while playing, reproduces only himself and his life. The piano maker, however, is seen as the other side of the coin; as the one that produces in the classical sense.3

So, as even Marx contemplated a very marginal, but still present activity of ‘unproduction’, one should think about some activities of the cultural sector as ‘unproductive’, or better as entities also with an ‘unproductive’ side. I know that this section of the Grundrisse is where the idea of “biopower” resides, and from that perspective one can argue that lives and effects are ‘productive values’. Nonetheless, I still believe (and this could sound limited to some people) that our economy is still very much based on the same logic Marx was describing. Assuming then that this is the perspective from which I am analysing the ‘model of the residency’—as part of a certain economy of production, I would like to investigate what is, or what can be seen as ‘unproductive’, in this economy. Furthermore, I would like to associate the ‘unproductiveness’ to a factor or a modality that ‘alters’ the dominant (the productivity). As we saw before, the experience of the residency is a ‘productive’ force since it is via the basis of one having an experience in which the model achieves its economic power. Thus, we should dismiss this hypothesis and investigate other dimensions of the residency which cannot be caught (or: snared, touched) by capital. Of course, I am writing this as a writer both involved in a type of institution organizing a residency, and also as a potential resident somewhere. This ambiguous role may allow myself to discover the real ‘un-productiveness’ of this peculiar economy.

A residence generates an economy based on solidarity and sharing; he or she ‘produces’ alliances and in some cases friendships that have a more durational/long-term impact beyond the period of staying in a certain place. It reshapes two parameters of a production mechanism: 1) time: it delays time since the alliances or friendships made will last and be effective beyond the residency; 2) ‘exchange –value’: often the community of the resident or the community of the one who hosts and the guests exchange foods, clothes, space, and time—not a ‘costsbenefits’ relational basis, but on the basis of a more sympathetic relation between peers. The residency generates or facilitates the formation of cellular communities that can create an economy of solidarity beyond the constrained time of production in a capitalist sense, and beyond the rule ‘cost-benefit’ that characterize exchanges. Nevertheless it is maybe more ‘alternative’ that any outcome or modality of production that it could unfold. The outcome and the modality of this model are productive forces responding to the need of the capital to catch the ‘emergent’ and the ‘alternative’. Let us hope for a moment, that this durational time that the residency creates is also something that transforms our lives beyond that residency: some friends here and there around the globe are always willing to host us, give us some food and share their lives with us. —Francesco Scasciamacchia

2. ibid. 3. Karl Marx, Grundrisse: Foundations on the Critique of Political Economy, Penguin Classic, 1993.

THE ‘UN-PRODUCTIVITY’ OF A PRODUCTIVE MODEL: THE RESIDENCY

FRANCESCO SCASCIAMACCHIA

suffering is heroic 52

legitimizes the joy of watching horror 54

September 10, 2013

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PRESS RELEASE:

practice produces mastery

NOTES ON THE MARGINS OF AN OPEN CALL Responsible Transformation of Society, shortly Retraso, starts to feel sick. It complains of depression, loss of confidence, symptoms of paranoia and schizophrenia, a feeling of being used by different people with unclear intentions, and even has thoughts on taking its own life. The following creative professionals and committed cultural actors are trying to diagnose its condition. They will give us their opinions based on an open call for artists in residence. Victor Klemperer (1881—1960) German Jewish philologist and politician, researcher of language of the Third Reich.

Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov (1894—1943 ) Soviet structuralist literary critic, translator and scholar.

Vladimir Lenin (1870—1924) Russian cultural activator: made many changes in society possible, both responsible and irresponsible ones.

Paul Verlaine (1844—1896) creative French poet.

Osip Mandelstam (1891—1938) Russian poet and essayist.

Alexei Yurchak (1960—) Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. Author of Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The last Soviet generation.

UNIDEE in Residence and UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme: open call 2014 UNIDEE IN RESIDENCE 2014 10 JUNE - 10 OCTOBER 2014 Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in partnership with the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme offers a fully supported residency for a young committed visual/ video artists, photographers, architects, animators from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The fellowship is co-financed by UNESCO-Aschberg and the Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto. Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto is a non-profit organisation endorsed by the region of Piedmont, Northern Italy. Since 1998, Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto has run the UNIDEE in Residence International Programme.

1. P. Verlaine: Grip eloquence by the throat and squeeze it to death. 2. V. Klemperer: Language not only thinks for me but also directs my feelings and governs the whole substance of my soul. The more obediently and heedlessly I submit to it, the stronger its rule is over me. 3. Y. Tynianov: Every word represents the fixation of a process, and so it either jumps ahead and anticipates the process or lags behind it, attaching itself to one particular phase. In order to keep the process from solidifying in consciousness and to keep reality from appearing monochromatic through the prism of the word, one must test out words and lay bare their connection to things. 4. O. Mandelstam: How is it to be then with the attachment of the word to its denotative significance? Isn’t this a kind of bondage that resembles serfdom? But the word is not a thing. Its significance is not the equivalent of a translation of itself. In actual fact, there never was a time when anybody baptised anyone or thing, or called it by a thoughtup name. It is most convenient, and in the scientific sense most accurate, to regard the word as an image; that is, a verbal representation. In this way the question of form and content is removed; assuming the phonetics are the form, everything else is the content. The problem of what is of primary significance, the word or its sonic nature, is also removed. Verbal representation is an intricate complex of phenomena, a connection, a “system.” The signifying aspect of the word can be regarded as a candle burning from inside in a paper lantern; the sonic representation, the so-called

UNIDEE is an interdisciplinary program, open to all creative professionals, from visual artists to cultural actors, designers to architects and all those whose practice centers around taking a responsible stance in society.1 2 The aim of UNIDEE is to activate a capacity for transformation in a framework that is both local (Biella) and international (the countries of the UNIDEE residents). UNIDEE seeks to explore the relationship between Art and Society and fosters the role of artists and creative practitioners as activators of a responsible social change in society.3 4 During UNIDLanguage not only thinks for me but also directs my feelings and governs the whole substance of my soul. The more obediently and heedlessly I submit to it, the stronger its rule is over me.EE, the residents initiate projects of responsible social transformation5 6 and actively participate in meetings and seminars held by experts in various fields: artists, professors, entrepreneurs, and researchers. Events at Cittadellarte such as exhibitions, conferences, performances, and workshops represent an integral part of the time spent at UNIDEE. FOCUS POINTS ARE: Collaboration and cooperation among UNIDEE residents and the local population in a common project of Responsible Social Transformation7 8 through art and creativity. During UNIDEE the residents will also have the possibility to concentrate on their ideas, receive feedback, establish contacts, and meet experts and artists who work in similar ways. At the end of the four months there will be a public presentation entitled “UNIDEE in Progress”, displaying the development of the projects. The residents will have the possibility to work together for the preparation and realization of an experimental event and share their conceptual and operational capabilities.

phonemes, can be placed inside the signifying aspect, like the very same candle in the same lantern. 5. V. Lenin: Ask them: Equality between what sex and what other sex? Between what nation and what other nation? Between what class and what other class? Freedom from what yoke, or from the yoke of what class? Freedom for what class? Whoever speaks of politics, of democracy, of liberty, of equality, of socialism, and does not at the same time ask these questions, does not put them in the foreground, does not fight against concealing, hushing up and glossing over these questions, is one of the worst enemies of the toilers, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, is a bitter opponent of the workers and peasants, is a servant of the landlords, tsars, capitalists. 6. O. Mandelstam: The living word does not signify an object but freely chooses, like a place to live, one or another object-related significance, thing-ness, or attractive body. The word wanders freely around the thing like a soul around its cast-off, but stillremembered body.

CONDITIONS FOR ELIGIBILITY: AGE: between 25 and 35. CANDIDATES: committed visual/video artists, photographers, architects, animators, from Asia, Africa and Latin America. LANGUAGE: Good knowledge of English is ESSENTIAL (we might ask for a Skype interview).

DEADLINE: 24th October 2013 Results will be published on UNIDEE website (www.cittadellarte.it/unidee) by the end of February 2014. STUDIOS: available to UNIDEE residents is a common studio space (a 700 square meter loft), a room for meetings and seminars, library and

OLGA JITLINA

cafeteria (who provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, inclusive in the price of the residency).

PAID BY HOST: Please look in section full financial support or partial support on UNIDEE website.

ACCOMMODATIONS: private, single room boarding and shared bathroom facilities.

EXPENSES COVERED BY THE PROGRAM: Seminars and workshops, Excursions, Lectures, tutorials and technical support, Activities organised throughout the program by UNIDEE, Board and lodging for each individual artist on the premises for the duration of the residency. There will be a limited budget specifically for the set up of exhibitions forming part of the UNIDEE program, any expenses incurred outside of this limited budget must be covered by the indivual residents themselves. The round air-ticket offered by UNESCOAschberg is the lowest available in the market.

DATES OF RESIDENCY: UNIDEE in Residence 2014 will take place from 10th June until 10th October 2014. EXPENSES TO BE PAID BY ARTIST: Individual travelling expenses (extracurricular trips during the 4 month period), Personal expenses, Insurance Costs, Visa & Temporary permit to stay (if required), Any materials or exhibitions created outside of the budget given must be paid for by the individual.

APPLICATION GUIDELINES AND CRITERIA: A maximum of 14 places are available each year. Artists, designers, cultural actors, architects and researchers who fit the profile are welcome to apply. The basic prerequisite is a degree at university level, or to be in the process of graduating. If the applicant does not have a university degree, proof of equivalent ability must be provided through his or her artistic career. Participant age ranges from 25 to 35. NB. The projects that will be sent to the selection jury will be used as examples of how each applicant works and not as a specific proposal for work to be carried out during the 4 month residence. MATERIAL TO BE SUBMITTED FOR UNIDEE IN RESIDENCE 2014: q A completed and signed application form (download PDF format and RTF format) q Curriculum vitae q A letter of personal motivation (objectives, needs and expectations (Max. 2 pages)) q A letter of recommendation q An example of a past/on going project to give an idea of your work and methodology Further information about the application processes on www.cittadellarte.it/unidee

7. Y. Tynianov: …the last step of the smoothed over word is to break completely with concrete, specific meanings. The word is used as “the name of a name,” signifying a lexical unity itself. Such are the “words with capital letters” in the press— Motherland, Revolution, Revolt—where the graphemes themselves emphasize that we are not speaking of specific meanings that can be encountered in the space of a lexical unity. No, here we are given the name of the lexical unity, the verbal signification of the word itself. We have seen how smoothed over words can have an emotional effect, how it is in fact their lack of specific, concrete meaning that makes space for emotional shadings around the word and outside of any concrete sense.

projects that help to promote a socially responsible transformation1 in society and open to collaboration both within the residence itself and the greater community. Also someone who is interested in developing new models of culture production, models in connection with interdisciplinary fields such as art, architecture, design, anthropology, urbanism, economy etc etc . We do not accept artists who are studio based and whose practice is based solely on the production of paintings/sculptures etc destined for galleries. We are looking for someone who commits to being here in Cittadellarte for the FULL period of 4 months, therefore someone who wants to use us as a base for travel and research in other countries is not suitable. All applicants are invited to counsult the blogs of UNIDEE’s last three editions in order to understand which kind of projects could be run during the Residence period.

8. V. Klemperer: People are forever quoting Talleyrand`s remark that language is only there in order to hide the thoughts of the diplomat (or for that matter of any other shrewd and dubious person). But in fact the very opposite is true. Whatever it is that what people are determined to hide, be it only from others, or from themselves, even things they carry around unconsciously— language reveals all.

9. A. Yurchak: As is well known, the party’s particular ideological discourse came to dominate Soviet discursive space between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. An important feature of this discourse, beyond its omnipresence and unavoidability, was its frozen, constantly repeated linguistic structure, which by this time had become unwieldy and awkward, full of special grammatical constructions and neologisms. …During the period of late socialism (1960-1980), this ideological language pushed the literal meaning of an utterance to the background, focusing instead on the need to repeat fixed linguistic forms—phrases, grammatical constructions, party neologisms, standard utterances. In other words, in this language the performative function of an utterance (the immediate fact of its repetition) became more important that its constative or referential function.

DEADLINE: OCTOBER 24TH 2013 We are looking for artists who are social activators and in particular

FOOTNOTES FOR AN OPEN CALL

OLGA JITLINA

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On Vampires and Other Forms of Conviviality Edited by Carolina Rito and Luisa Ungar Layout Alfa60 Proofreading Zara Morris Printing Friends Make Books, Torino ISBN 9788898698011 Print run 200 copies Published in 2013 by DIS DIS DIS

We would like to express our very great appreciation to Manuel ﾃ］gel for his valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this publication. We would also extend our thanks to the contributors for their inspiring work and generosity. Finally, we wish to thank Jeanne van Heeswijk for her support and encouragement. Author biographies can be seen on: www.disdisdis.com

Project DIS DIS DIS Concept Carolina Rito Luisa Ungar

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