Kodra '16 Mind the gap Open call// International version

MACBETH:

[…] I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none.

LADY MACBETH:

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man.

(Act 1, Scene 7)

“Mind the Gap”. This is the second time (the first one back in 2009) I have

been assigned on short notice to undertake the organization and artistic

direction of Action Field Kodra. This year bears a special condition, that of

little time available for us to make it happen and facilitate the continuation of

this tradition, exposed as we are to evident shortages, difficulties and

unforeseen obstacles that are sending out the warning “Mind the Gap!”

Action Field Kodra, in its long course, has been cherished by its audience and

now belongs to it. Its existence, as Agamben states, entails the emotional

tonality of “self-enjoyment” as proposed by Deleuze and Plotinus, and belongs

to those “small joys through which being happy means finding therein the

strength to resist villainy”2.

By way of synergies in a context of “a condition of exception”, the aim of a

group of artists and theoreticians who were asked to constructively and

ingeniously respond to the imperative need to coproduce meaning from a

critical and up-to- date point of view.

We are already experiencing the anguish of the age of crisis. Utopias’ era is

long past. Lengthy narratives have collapsed. Disorientation and chaos

triggered thereby have caused breaches, cracks and gaps to the collective

unconscious eventually leading to the exile of common consciousness. What

we take interest in is the desire for a way out of this Hell. However,

“impossible as it might seem, it is precisely this impossibility of the attempt

that reveals its own effectiveness. It is the sheer difficulty of the task of

1 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1982, p. 73

2 Giorgio Agamben, Derive Approdi, issue 9/10, 1996

liberation, the coarseness of resistance and the primeval power of survival

that reveal to us the way which brings us up against chaos, in that actual

chaos”. We truly understand this urge to construct and “create a productive

fantasy”3.

In this context of necessity and under such circumstances of exception, Kodra

2016, “Mind the Gap”, literally constitutes an attempt to fill our gaps against

the suffocating objective circumstances with reformative solutions, in the

same way a womb gestates the inseminated oncoming. Desire, divergence,

body, unconscious, pleasure, slippery signifier, living experience, political,

routine, disguised or non-disguised myths are at all times the early seed that

will produce the final fruit through the processes of viewing, equilibrium,

selflessness, and release of aesthetic experience as proposed by Dewey, by

integrating spiritual and practical experiences4.

For an endeavor to come to life, it takes a condition that will lead to its

release. And this condition clearly results from dialogue, antinomies,

contradictions, the refutation of its own self-delusion, its redefinition, in an art

that even today lives within a dipole: eventually, the emperor is naked also in

Richard Rorty’s folksy admonition: “Don’t scratch where it doesn’t itch”. With

regard to fate, Hermann Cohen states “it is the order of things that triggers

and brings about this violation, this fall”5. While according to Terry Eagleton,

since it is possible for one to become involved so as their attempt ensures

public appeal, we can expect controversy, dispute, divergence, conflict, a

condition which is the complete opposite of some painless utopia6. “For:

every bloodless touch feels like Play-Station: you lose-you win, then get back

into your warm bed”.

Maria Kenanidou

KODRA FRESH 2016: "Mind the Gap"

NEW Open Call

Deadline for applications: 2^nd September, 2016

Kodra Fresh 2016 is inviting graduates (not over 5 years since the acquisition of their degree) and graduation candidates of the School of Fine Arts to submit their portfolio in order to participate in the “Mind the Gap” exhibition that will take place at the Headquarters of the former Kodra Military Barracks in September.

This year’s theme focuses on the creative relationship between man and urban space, as a field of opportunities and interaction. The city, a material environment defined by institutional authorities, works as a factor that molds man’s practices, largely imposing given norms which are reproduced in everyday life. However, man’s inherent creativity can never be completely tamed by authority. Where there is authority, there is also resistance. To the extent that every person has a certain degree of authority, they have some degree of potency, too, that allows them to produce tactics. Such tactics are anonymous, for they are silenced by public representations and they assume the form of everyday, small scale practices.

Under the current circumstances of intensifying crisis, new institutional structures are pressing towards the multiplication of the phenomena of transition, exchange and interpenetration, destabilizing given certitudes along with our relationship with the material environment. The destabilization of our notion of space and its materiality multiplies the opportunities for an opening of urban space towards unanticipated performances and uses thereof in everyday life. Contrived practices permeate the spatial planning diagram of the city causing a crack to the urban and social space. The “in-between space” underway constitutes a gap to the place of dictated orderliness where multiple places are organized and are mainly marked by the invisible and ineffable. The emerging condition favours the possibility of moving through an ever increasing number of places in progress where one maneuvers within the contradiction between the visible and institutionalized and the invisible and anonymous.

Artists are invited to set their creative power in motion and submit visual proposals relevant to the theme of Kodra Fresh 2016. We accept proposals that make use of every medium of modern art (painting, sculpture, installations, video, performance, etc). Each artist can submit more than one proposal (up to 5), wherein different mediums of expression are employed. Special emphasis will be paid to performance works of art which will be presented on the inauguration day and during the exhibition.

To apply, the following are required: 1) photographs, video or sound files of the works, 2) a short description of the proposal, 3) the artist’s portfolio, 4) a résumé, and 5) contact info.

Applications are sent to:

kodramindthegap@gmail.com

politismos@kalamaria.gr

Artistic Director: Maria Kenanidou

Curators of Kodrafresh / Coordinators of Action Field Kodra: Georgia Kourkounaki – Museologist, Doctoral Candidate in Art History, Gianna Kali – Visual ArtistACTION FIELD KODRA

Municipality of Kalamaria

Komninon 60, Τ.Κ.: 55 132

Kalamaria

Thessaloniki

GREECETel.: +30 231 331 4572