Thursday 2 April 2009

'ESTADO DE EXCEPCION' A PROJECT BY TANIA BRUGUERA AT GALERIA HABANA EXHIBITING WORK BY THE STUDENTS OF 'ARTE DE CONDUCTA' AND GUESTS


Galeria Habana, exterior


Osdany Morales and Sergio Valdes: Life Exchange


Wilfredo Prieto: 'En Vivo', someone inside the gallery has a hidden microphone, the conversations with this person are reproduced by speakers outside the gallery.


Ghabbana Men's Revolution: about the use of Dolce and Gabbana by male Cubans, a project by Aylee Ibanez, Yanahara Mauri, Daleysi Moya and Reynier Valdes


Makinah: O'Reilly 538, installation on building on ruins


Sislej Xhafa: Cuban businessman chopping onions


Alejandro Ulloa: work realized by Tania Bruguera: stolen tiles from the National Museum of Fine Art


Thomas Hirschorn


Nuria Guell, 'Humanitarian Help', marriage with a cuban national to give him Spanish passport


Tania Bruguera and Claire Bishop

'Catedra Arte de Conducta' is a program of studies in political art. It was founded by Tania Bruguera in Habana in January 2003 with the purpose of creating an alternative training space focused in the discussion and analysis of social conduct and the understnading of art as a way of establishing a dialogue with reality and the civic current situation. Research has centered on the limits of art, the relationship among art, life and society, the paradoxes of cultural identity, the representation of the reality surrounding us, collective moemory, historical conditions and ideology.

More than the results achieved in the time we have been working, 'State of Exception' intends to exhibit the functioning of the project. From March 24 to April 1st, nine collective exhibitions by participating artists and some by professors who have been invited to offer workshops throughout htese years will be daily shown at Galeria Habana . From April 2, a sample including doumentation on the various functions of the Catedra will be exhibited in this space with the inclusion of presentations and lectures by its members. 'State of Exception' is a live proposal that intends to bring to exhibition spaces the working process of its action dynamics.

ABOUT ARTE DE CONDUCTA
Cátedra Arte de Conducta, is the first performance and time based art studies program in Cuba. This project is being hosted by the Instituto Superior de Arte, internationally recognized as Cuba's finest art school and the only university-level art educational center in the island. The project made its debut during Fall 2002. Cátedra Arte de Conducta has three main goals:
1- the study program.
2- the use of this space to bring renown national and international artists to present their artwork and share their experience with the students.
3- the creation of a specialized library / archive.

1. THE STUDY PROGRAM
The first and most important goal of the C·tedra Arte de Conducta is its study program. The Catedra, or department, wants to create a safe, warm, stimulating work space in which students develop their previous skills as well as experiment with new ways of expressing themselves in time based / performance forms.

We will observe performative aspects of behavior and environment. We will also explore how behavior endures as well as how it can be transmitted, the limits of media, the paradoxes of cultural identity -- cultural representations, representational conventions and memory, historical conditions and ideology. We will focus on different elements of structure involving the making of this kind of art and employ multiple models of discourse.

The structure of the program is through courses, advisors, lectures, workshop, school exchange, public presentations and thesis:
_ The courses are the regular non-electives classes.
_ The advisors are artists, directly affiliated with the program or not (but with previous agreement from the program), being chosen by the student to be their personal advisors for a semester on a specific project. A minimum of 6 face to face meetings between the advisor and the student plus a public presentation at the end has to be done.
_ The lectures are a requirement for each of the invited artist, there are open to the general public. They would be as much as possible recorded and being accessible through the library / archive.
_ The workshops are the electives classes and where the invited artists will teach. They can be from one to eight weeks long.
_ The school exchange is a special event held every January, in which we invite an artist, who is also a professor, to come with his / her class for a three weeks intensive course. The result is a group show featuring student work from both schools.
_ Each student as well as selected invited artists would be part of the public presentation series. This is an important part of the program since it is the moment when the student experiences this kind of art in its highest level of intensity. It is also important since the selected invited artists would share there art with the Cuban audience, which generally would not have seen this work in person before. Also, the students can be part of the organization and production of the artistís piece, which would be a privileged way of learning.
_ The thesis is the last and final exercise of the program. It is held as a public presentation. The program has a University level degree and a minimum of two years of study. To complete the degree the student would have had to successfully accomplish a minimum of twelve reglamentary courses, six each year four workshops two advisors one school exchange. a thesis presentation.

The year is divided in two fifteen weeks semesters and one intensive three weeks course. The school starts every first Monday of September and runs the first semester until the second Friday of December. The intensive course starts every January 6 until the 26. The second semester starts the first Monday of February until the second Friday of May.

2. INVITED ARTISTS / PUBLIC PRESENTATION
The decision on the selection of the invited artists would be done taking in mind the value of the artistic discourse of the artist in relationship with the broader discourse of the program. They can be national international artists; in both cases with a respected body of work as well as for the innovative way in which they have addressed specific aspects of art, life and society.
The invited artists could be part of the presentations and / or the workshops. The access to international art scene and artwork in Cuba is mostly done through art magazines and reproductions and since in performance and time-based art the actual experience is such an important element of the consumption and understanding of the work, we want to provide a space for showing in person some of the work of the more important contemporary artists working in this media, a bridge of information / experiences of artworks and artistic discourses.

The students would always be part of the public presentations either through the presentation of their own work or assisting and / or collaborating with the invited artist

Since the best way to learn art is through the understanding of the process of creation and the strategies of and in it, we want for some of the invited artists to share their experiences with our students through a workshop.

3. THE LIBRARY / ARCHIVE
As part of our larger project, we are also opening a specialized library / archive where the invited artists and curators donate any kind of documentation (books, catalogues, slides, videos, CR-ROOM, DVD, magazines, etc.) that they may feel will be beneficial to our students. We will do our best to document the lectures and courses and keep that documentation available through this database as well.

If in the future we have founds, we would publish all the lectures as a book for academic purposes.

If the invited artist agrees, an interview about their body of work and the contemporary aspects of performance can be arranged with an art magazine in Havana. These articles would be archived and available at our library.

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