OPEN BORDERS exhibition : documents and deadlines for participating artists

Participating Artists have to select one work of relatively small format, due to the available gallery space in Muggia.

A photo of the work selected has to be sent to my email (hmetaxa@yahoo.com) by the latest on the 20th of August 2011, together with a one page cv and another page, half page containing an artists statement about your chosen work and the other half, a statement about your work in general.

You can send it in English or French or Greek but it has to be translated in Italian at your own expense by the end of August. You can choose who translates them but, please, choose good professionals who understand art technicalities...

As WICCAN involves a group of linguists we decided to offer a professional translation of the two pages at a very competive price.
It is not WICCAN who shall be paid but the individual linguist.

If editing work is required to your Italian translations, it will be done by WICCAN linguists and invoiced back to you.

Do contact us by email for prices and other possible questions.

When the selection process will be completed by the 15th of September 2011, you shall have a week to send the photograph of your artwork and the two translated and corrected pages by mail to my own address in Paris (available on request).

You have to send the 3 documents by regular mail (snail mail) and not by e-mail.
It means you will have to print them out.

More details as they become available.

Please act quicky as the time is limited for the presentation of our proposal to the Muggia Townhall and summer and the heat make it all even more difficult...

Thank you and enjoy the lovely summer!

"DALI" Workshop, exhibition and meeting venue in Crete and Silas Psarakis

Thanks to Giorgia's networking, we met yesterday with Silas Psarakis, the happy and sensitive owner of DALI cafè and gallery space, a wonderful panoranic venue overlooking the north coast of Crete on the way to Anopolis village, just outside Heraklion.
Silas very generously offered the use of his venue for our meetings and workshops during the WICCAN members' meeting on the 7th until the 15th of September.
We can also use his gallery space to present in Crete the travelling "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition sometime next year.


Merci to Silas and to DALI and we shall keep you informed about our activities.

Work in progress: Meeting with participating artist in Crete, Anita Faitaki

We met yesterday in Crete with Anita Faitaki, a young talented artist and designer in her boutique in Hersonisos.
Anita started her artistic reaseach by creating personal and "table" jewelry in precious metals and moved on into full sculptural expression of human figure and objects.
Anita is delighted to participate in our upcoming "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition.

What does the OPEN BORDERS theme mean, An Introductory Analysis

"OPEN BORDERS" and WHY WE MUST PROMOTE THEM

The are places that can be used as symbols of what "open borders" mean.

They are, geographically, places that are situated on the border of two states or even whole regions that were the ball of a historical ping-pong between states, regions that were members of one state at a certain period and of another at other times, when war developments and peace treaties necessities separated and redifined them.

So, these cities or regions are forced by their own tradition to develop an open identity; their borders are flexible and not fixed geographically or historically.

But there is another meaning, one of mental representation: a border     between mental activities that are supposed to be separated instead of being fluidly defined as different points of one and same line, that of thought and creativity.  

And then there is a political-cultural meaning, especially now when some EU member states want to reintroduce border controls in the Schengen area and when culture is the first victim of the international recession everywhere.

There is, therefore, real urgency to insist on opening borders in all those dimensions and to fight against closures.

All those dimensions are to be found both in our WICCAN project and in our first exhibition project's theme as follows:

- Geography and history: the town of Muggia, our first exhibition venue, on the border of Italy and Slovenia.

- Philosophy and theory: an exhibition conceived to present traditional visual artists but also poets, philosophers, musicians, composers etc..

- Politics and culture: the mission and even the existence itself of WICCAN who aims to open, connect and place trust at the centre of the cultural and political arena and to fight against closing, isolating, standing alone and frozen in fear.

Open borders, open minds, open hearts, open creativity, open thought and open communication.

Come to meet us.

We are a group of independent cultural activists and artists residing in different European countries and we believe that hope is the basic message of any cultural activity.

Come and hope with us.

Come and act with us.

Come and enjoy life and creativity with us.

Finally, come and forget for a bit all finitude and separation in our so short (alas!) lives...

For a symbolic cosmology on open borders, beach as a metaphor (by G. Tsouderos)

Immagine :  http://www.micromosso.com/galleria/displayimage.php?album=7&pos=41                              


                           FINIS come “Spiaggia”

     La vista della spiaggia … Quindi il suo topos…. una striscia di terreno che si protrae  lungo il mare e il paesaggio terrestre e collega gli aspetti della natura..

   Nella foto sopra, lo sguardo si riposa sulle forme naturali della spiaggia e del mare, i sensi riproducono nella memoria l’ esperienza familiare del paesaggio marino..ma io chiedo allo sguardo si allontanarsi per un attimo dalle forme naturali per  ritrovarsi nella vista simbolica del mondo (cosmos)…

      Nella lingua greca, omerica , la “spiaggia” veniva designata dal termine < θις, gen. θινος  che nel dialetto eolico suona come < φις, gen. φινος (fis, finos). Sara’ poi la parola eolica «φις, φινος» a dar vita al latino “finis” che abbina per effetto di consonanza l’ immagine della “spiaggia” al concetto del “limite” (confine).

     Il “finis” nel senso della “spiaggia”, quale immagine di topos sabbioso della natura, trova poi la sua analogia politica nel mondo della civilta’ (cosmo-politismo), li dove si fondono gli aspetti complementari, non piu’ naturali ma della vita. “Confine” significa infatti “con-fine” nel senso di complementarita’ e di colmezza tra i paesaggi della natura e gli aspetti della vita che co-esistono come precondizione necessaria per la comprensione del mondo (cosmos).

      E cosi che la concezione del “Finis” come “confine” sfocia in un doppio simbolismo : da una parte, il simbolismo naturale della  “spiaggia” e dall’ altra, il simbolismo politico del “cosmpolitismo”. E in aggiunta, il simbolismo naturale si trova in un rapporto di analogia al simbolismo politico poiche’ la topologia mediatrice della spiaggia coincide con il verificarsi del cosmopolitismo .

     Al contrario del “finis” come “confine” si trova l’ interpretazione del “limite” come “frontiera”. Il termine “frontiera” deriva da frons, frontis (poi nel tardo latino fronteria o frontaria), cioe ha in se’ un significato direzionale, di rivolta verso, contro qualcosa….

       In quale momento della Storia si e’ riscontrato per la prima volta il mutamento dal termine del “confine” in quello della “frontiera” ossia il cambiamento da un mondo del fine insieme alla concezione bellica della civilta’?

       La tradizione biblica del Vecchio Testamento sembra gia’ contenere le tracce di questo evento nella punizione divina dei primordiali e nella loro Espulsione dal Paradiso. E’ di fatto l’ imposizione della Giustizia inclusa nella punizione divina a imporre per la prima volta la scissione del mondo, unico nella complementarita’ dei suoi aspetti, tra il luogo del Paradiso e quello dei mortali, luogo di tormento e dolore. Prima della punizione il mondo esisteva in un’ unica dimensione mentre con l’ attuazione della Giustizia al nome di Dio onnipotente viene diviso nei campi opposti del Bene e del Male e la coppia dei primordiali e’ condannata a perpetuare tale opposizione nella vita mortale.

      Ci troviamo quindi di vivere oggi alla Frontiera nel piu’ profondo del nostro Essere e l’appello alle “Frontiere Aperte” suona come un invito all’ Uomo di ritornare sulla spiaggia del cosmopolitismo, al luogo sabbioso della completezza tra gli aspetti complementari della vita e di recuperare la sua capacita’ di comprensione del mondo. Inoltre, la realizazzione del cosmopolitismo non consiste un vago desiderio ma pressupone una critica radicale alla tradizione del pensiero occidentale e di approcciarsi dunque all’ identita’ etica, politica e psicologica della natura umana in un modo che va oltre i dogmatismi popolari e le fobie connaturate, quelle che sono le due faccie della stessa medaglia .

  In fine, si tratta di aprire le Frontiere verso la contiguita’ degli spazi quali vengono determinati dai comportamenti del Confine e dal Cosmopolitismo.

New member in Heraklion: Giorgia Tsouderos

Giorgia Tsouderos is a young Greek-Italian Philosopher and she is the "theoretician in residence" in Crete where she has been living for the last few years.

She is a specialist on language, namely on metaphors, creativity and   metaphysics of thought (oh, yes!).

Do not worry, all WICCAN writing will avoid technicalities even if they will be philosophical ones and with a simple language we shall write and explain everything we want to share with you all.

Work in progress: Meeting with participating artist in Paris, Reiko Nonaka

Early July I met with the Japanese artist resident in Paris, Reiko Nonara.

Reiko is another talented photographer specialising in autobiographical narratives combining images and texts and declined in thematic series.

The intimate analisis she operates and formalizes in her artistic output succesfully avoids biographical traps in order to concentrate on the representation of a universal intimacy, what I call the "ultimate intimacy" to which each of us can relate.

She is happy to participate in the upcoming WICCAN "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition.

More on Reiko: http://www.reikononaka.com/

Work in progress: Paris - Tanaron and Paris - Barcellona connection opens!

Last June when in Marseilles for work I met in a Natural Heritage conference Marie Dufeutrel and Vicki Gentile.
Marie is a writer and founding member of the TANARON association, a "village d'artistes" in the Provence mountains, their site is on http://www.corac.fr/fr/la-corac/les-membres-du-reseau/tanaron.
Vicki is an Italian Architect doing her Masters degree in Barcellona and is active in cultural politics, mainly music.
We decided to open up a collaboration and to try to have an "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition visiting both Barcellona and Tanaron, among other projects of mutual interest to develop.

Work in progress: Paris - London connection opens!

Few days ago I met in Tuilleries gardens my old London friend, Wangui Wa Goro. Wangui is a talented linguist, poet and cultural activist from Kenya who has been living in London for many years.

Her own interest and activities bring her naturally close to WICCAN  objectives and so she is interested to both participate to the "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition and to promote it in UK, together with other possible WICCAN projects.

Work in progress: Paris - Milano connection opens!

A talented cultural activist since many years, Paola Broggi emigrated recently to Paris from Milano.
We met for a WICCAN related chat in Parc de Bercy and we found out that we agreed in terms of networking and cultural politics.
Paola has many contacts in Italy and she is activating them in order to reach potential interested parties with the objective to facilitate the Italian touring schedule of "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition, among other possibilities.
We are currently discussing with people in Milano, Elba island and Catania in Sicily on collaboration and exhibition possibities.
Paola Broggi has published a book in Italian called "Armonizzazione femminile" and is looking for a French publisher.
More info on Paola: http://www.akkuaria.org/paolabroggi/index.htm

Work in progress: Meeting with participating artists in Paris, Karine Jollet and Sumiko Kai

In May 2011 I met with artists Karine Jollet and Sumiko Kai in a lovely pittoresque cafè close to Buttes de Chaumont park in the North of Paris to discuss their participation to the upcoming "OPEN BORDERS" exhibition.

Karine Jollet is a sculptor from Cognac living in Paris and Sumiko Kai is also a scuptor but from Japan who has been living in Paris for many years.

The first is specializing in "sculpture textile" (see her site on  http://www.karinejollet.com/ ) and the second uses different materials to make sculptures about the passing of time, among other themes (example of her work at http://www.leportillon.com/Photographies-de-Sumiko-Kai ).

Both artists are happy to participate to our exhibition project.