The Cyprus Dossier
Nicosia, Cyprus

cyprusdossier.com

DAVID DALE GALLERY

Maria Toumazou, Natalie Yiaxi, Phanos Kyriacou, Stelios Kallinikou

Non-standard testimonials

As an incomplete linguistic entity, the non-standard Greek Cypriot dialect offers itself to a non-representational reading; clandestinely navigating the island’s cultural identity under conditions of post-global regimes that have once and for all outmoded such terms as ‘local’ and ‘traditional’. The 21st century’s reins of representation, long submitted to global market forces, orchestrate an experience of culture that is, predictably, increasingly hyperstandardised and hyper-saturated. Even the slightest allusion towards standard terms of cultural identity today risks conformity to this ‘glocalized’ experience, whereas antirepresentational discourses are being subverted and contained as harmless offshoots. Non-standard dialects, such as the Cypriot dialect, that have not yet been codified and submitted to linguistic representation, still relying heavily on their affective impact to subsist, offer glimpses into non-representational human geographies adapted to the post-global condition yet without being of it.

Presented are testimonials by Maria Toumazou, Natalie Yiaxi, Phanos Kyriacou and Stelios Kallinikou to the Cypriot experience via a geography of what happens, not of what is, forgoing any concepts of representation (such as local or global, subjective or objective, private or public, etc.) and inviting a non-standard encounter. The works thus evade their legitimacy to represent Cyprus within the context of the Commonwealth Games and in doing so challenge the legitimacy of the Commonwealth project as a whole.
Curated by Peter Eramian

The Cyprus Dossier is an intellectual platform with the aim of initiating frequent cross-disciplinary dialogue on social and cultural issues faced by the island’s inhabitants, as diversely and impartially as possible. Special issues have been made for the exhibition ‘Terra Mediterranea: In Crisis’ at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre and for the participation of Cyprus at the 55th Venice Biennale. The Cyprus Dossier is a free press publication distributed in Cyprus at selected locations and online.

Exhibition continues until 30th August

The project was kindly supported by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.

Clark House Initiative
Bombay, India

clarkhouseinitiative.org

GLASGOW TRANSPORT BOXING GYM

Nikhil Raunak, Amol Patil, Yogesh Barve, Sachin Bonde, Navjot Altaf, Rupali Patil, Poonam Jain, Prabhakar Pachpute

For the exhibition in East Glasgow, with its rich history of anarchist and labour movements, Clark House Initiative presents an exploration of radical protest languages as they approach art forms, abstracted from recent historic movements.
Amol Patil inherited from his grandfather, the revolutionary spoken– word–histories of B.R. Ambedkar, the thinker who gave India a road out of caste and towards social equality. These found hand-written scores give impetus to new artistic language and forms. Navjot Altaf makes a powerful triangular conversation on the ‘Gujarat Model’, an economy that recently brought the right into power. Creating a discourse between: herself as an artist; Teesta Setalvad, a civil rights activist; and Rupa Mody, whose son went missing during the Guajarat riots of 2003.

Yogesh Barve’s work parodies political opposition. Nikhil Raunak develops a storyboard in oil paint, humorously narrating the story of social incidents of removing and lending one’s sneakers. A pair of shoes, an alarm clock, a wrestling ring, the spoken–word – become the tactics and mediums of a vocabulary of solidarity, that was and continues to be in use by artists who joined unions and protest movements; for Mill Workers’ rehabilitation pending since the union strikes in 1980s Bombay; or against the displacement of people for the Glasgow games.

Clark House Initiative is a curatorial collaborative and a union of artists concerned with ideas of freedom. It began in October 2010 in Bombay, and continues to be artist supported and artist run. Clark House is a building from 1908, which shares a roundabout with two museums and an art deco cinema. Curatorial interventions mirror the fictions of what these places could be. Clark House once housed an antiques store and a shipping office that had links to countries during the non-aligned years. It has in the past acted as a political refuge for dissent. It is from this building that we took our name and from where our projects are based.

Fillip
Vancouver, Canada

fillip.ca

OFFSITE | SOUTHBLOCK SPACE
29th July, 7pm – 9pm
Please click here to view the event on thisistomorrow.info.

Institutions by Artists
Sarah Lowndes & Matthew Richardson
Moderated by Jeff Khonsary

Fillip presents a book launch and debate focused around current and past institutional practices by artists. Internationally, artists have produced institutional models that act as an alternative to the limitations of marketdriven priorities. Artist-run centres, collectives, and artists’ publishing initiatives form a network of activity that often stands in contestation to dominate economic models, while simultaneously appropriating their language and methods. Using an informal debate format, Sarah Lowndes and Matthew Richardson will address the performance and promise of contemporary artist-run centres and initiatives within the context of Glasgow, the UK , and beyond.

This event is part of a series of activity produced by Fillip beginning in 2012. Initially developed together with the Pacific Association of Artists Run Centres, the project was supplemented by a 384-page book published within Fillip’s ‘Folio Series–Institutions by Artists: Volume One’, edited by Jeff Khonsary and Kristina Lee Podesva. A second volume will be released in the fall of 2014.

Fillip is a publication of art, culture, and ideas released three times a year by the Projectile Publishing Society from Vancouver, Canada.

Fresh Milk
St. George, Barbados

freshmilkbarbados.com

OFFSITE | BROAD STREET/ FORDNEUK STREET
19th July, 3pm – 5pm
Please click here to view the event on thisistomorrow.info

Mark King, Alberta Whittle, Ronald Williams

Fresh Milk’s contribution to IAI is in two parts. The first sees the installation of works by three emerging artists on a billboard, on railings and on the surface of the pavement. The artists include a recent graduate from the Barbados Community College, Ronald Williams, whose crisp digital montages critique the stereotype of the black athlete and are installed on an extended billboard, while Mark King’s temporal, geometric, site specific work is installed on the pavement. Alberta Whittle’s fête posters show the artist masquerading as both man and woman in her critique of gender stereotypes, through her engagement with the local fête posters often seen posted throughout Bridgetown, Barbados’ capital city. The posters are reproduced in multiplies and plastered throughout surrounding streets.

Fresh Milk’s second contribution is a discursive project called ‘Notions of common/wealth versus single/wealth’. This dialogical component provides a platform for representatives of the six invited networks to participate in conversations with each other and the Glaswegian audience. The aim of the conversations will, in part, be to unpack ideas related to the Commonwealth of Nations – the association under which countries gather every four years to celebrate sport, the XX edition taking place in Glasgow in the summer of 2014. The intention is to explore the context of IAI, as a gathering of Commonwealth Nations, and delve into how that relates to the work we all do as artist led initiatives. The concern is to unpack the Commonwealth as a macro, historical entity and understand our relationship to it, if any, and all that entails. Interrelated are ideas about the definition of wealth and value, both single and common, in our local contexts.

The Fresh Milk Art Platform Inc. is a Caribbean non-profit, artist-led, inter-disciplinary organisation that supports creatives and promotes wise social, economic, and environmental stewardship through creative engagement with society and by cultivating excellence in the arts. Critical. Creative. Fresh.

RM
Auckland, New Zealand

rm103.org

GLASGOW TRANSPORT BOXING GYM

Xin Cheng and Chris Berthelsen, David E. Cooper, Sonya Lacey, Dave Marshall, Mata Aho Collective, Raised By Wolves, Sarah Rose, Ella Sutherland, James Wylie, among other contributors.

Since 2009 an integral part of RM has been the project office – a dedicated part of the exhibition space that allows the co-directors of RM to be present and available for visitors, and where meetings take place. It has provided a place where visitors can sit, view the work, hold conversations and engage with the co-directors, artists, and RM’s expanding archive. RM works on the principle that discussion, meetings, admin and paperwork are visible and not hidden away during exhibitions or events. For IAI the concept of the RM’s project office has been transposed to Glasgow and activated by a selection of collaborative projects by New Zealand artists.

Over the last decade New Zealand art has seen a resurgence of collective and self-organised groups, working without dedicated spaces and often beyond the confines of the gallery system, yet acutely engaged with ideas of localism and the community. A number of these collectives and collaborative practices have been invited to contribute to RM’s open office during its temporary relocation to Glasgow.

In response to the Commonwealth Games’ ability to activate a space in which to connect and officiate historic, political and economic relationships between nations, RM’s project office in Glasgow is being utilised as an official meeting point for these disparate and fleeting, yet always collective and locally responsive activities. Invited collaborators are utilising the project office as a working base to develop ongoing research projects and to produce new work. Alongside those working in the space, other collaborative artworks from New Zealand are showcased and utilised to make the space more hospitable. The project office is a place in which we can gather, create new work, maintain existing relationships and produce new ones, through regular office hours, hospitality, nightly screenings, scheduled performances and opportunities for play and exchange.

Based in Auckland, New Zealand, RM is a gallery that places the work of local emerging artists alongside more seasoned practitioners. RM seeks to engage with the practices, discourses and modes of presentation that aren’t well-supported or easily accessible in Auckland. Though we look like a white cube, we are more interested in the potentials of an empty room – a space to gather, to think, to talk, to make, to share… Established in 1997, RM is the country’s longest running artist-run-space. The co-directors are William Hsu, Melanie Kung, Fleur Sandbrook, Taarati Taiaroa, and co-founder Nick Spratt.

Events

Tuesday 23 July | 18:00

“The Classic” recipe, courtesy of D.A.N.C.E. art club.

making do(ing)  (throughout the day)
Help the RM representatives figure out how to create a vocabulary of messages through massage.
Xin Cheng and Chris Berthelsen hallucinated touch-based Glaswegian office communication systems. Cheng and Berthelsen have initiated a system to explore how demanding, exploratory, and surprisingly pleasurable things become when mundane office comms are conveyed solely by skin-on-skin interactions.
Wednesday 24 July | 19:00

“Flash Mulled Wine”, courtesy of D.A.N.C.E. art club, to coincide with the screening of the opening ceremony at David Dale Gallery.

Thursday 25 July | 19:00

D.A.N.C.E. art club’s recipe “Earth”, accompanying a screening of Gloss.

lightreading
Screening of Episode 1 (1987) of New Zealand soap opera Gloss.
The Gloss storyline revolves around a publishing company and a fictional magazine by the same name. The series was produced and set between two key points in publishing history: The mid-eighties when Apple Mac computers revolutionised print production; and the subsequent rise of the internet in the early nineties, which again changed publishing industry.

Sunday 28 July

D.A.N.C.E. art club’s vegetarian recipe “Goddess” to accompany Tenderbar at David Dale Gallery.
Tuesday 29 July

Brun Alen Kombucha will be served.
Wednesday 30 July

“Earth” recipe will be served, courtesy of D.A.N.C.E. art club.
Friday 1 August

Samoan Suafa’i banana dessert will be served, courtesy of D.A.N.C.E. art club.
Saturday 2 August

D.A.N.C.E. art club’s vegetarian recipe “Goddess” to accompany the closing part of International Artist Initiated at David Dale Gallery & Studios.

Video Art Network Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria

vanlagos.org

WOODWORK

Adebukola Bodunrin, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Uche Okpa-Iroha, Oyindamola Fakeye, Jude Anogwih, Emeka Ogboh.

The gathering of people in celebration is an important part of Nigerian culture. The milestones of life are marked through community gatherings, music and dance, with the ‘Owambe’ being a classic example of this. Owambe translates as ‘He/She was there’, a colloquial expression for a party where the who-is-who in Nigerian society are in attendance. Visual cues tell of ties to a celebrant through fabric materials that provide uniformity and a sense of belonging. The entire scene is illuminated by shimmering headpieces (gele) and brilliantly coloured costumes (aso ebi), all creatively embroidered and worn with accustomed grace. Reciprocity is practiced in that giving flows in all directions, from the celebrant to the families and the guest; there exists a commonality in the dispersal of gifts.

As the Commonwealth community comes together to celebrate the XX edition of the games, Glasgow will welcome a congregation of communities and countries, recognisable by their flags and uniforms. The Commonwealth Games will be a melting pot of culture and history, with memories and desires conjured to form what will be 11 days filled with the spirit of celebration, like the ‘Owambe’.

The Video Art Network Lagos is collaborating with invited Nigerian video artists to explore/interpret Owambe, and how Nigerian communities and cultures contribute to the wider cultural discourse of the global community.

The Video Art Network Lagos (VAN Lagos) is a Lagos based New Media art organisation, established by the collaborative efforts of artists Emeka Ogboh, Jude Anogwih and cultural producer Oyindamola Fakeye. The organisation’s objectives are to develop educational and public programmes that promote and create new media art awareness in Nigeria. This is realised through curated screenings and exhibitions of both established and emerging new media artists.