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[SW] DATA AND TERRITORIES. SELECTED PROJECTS

APSCREENS AND WINDOWS

SW is a project that is part of ACVic's Expo Program. It aims at displaying new proposals that use the center's glass façade and at the same time develop an internet version of the project.

The current open call for projects, focusing on DATA AND TERRITORIES, received 78 proposals from 39 cities. Data as raw units of meaning that need to be contextualized in a specific territory. The projects, of open subject matter and referring to any context, meet the prerequisite of addressing the
conceptual relationship between the suggested subjects: data and territories - analog and digital - physical space and virtual space - texts and hypertexts - stops & motions - curtains and banners - visualisation of data and texts in context - maps and cartographies - data and analogies - narrations and dates - information and counterinformation - graphs and cities. Four projects have been selected to be presented within the 2011 program of the center.

The selection committee, formed by Ignasi Aballí (artist), Tere Badia (director of Hangar), Mery Cuesta (independent curator), Núria Enguita (independent curator) and Ramon Parramon director of ACVic), has selected the next four projects that participates in Screens and Windows 2011 open call:

-   ‘VIC NARANJA, VIC CRISTAL’ by Pere Ginard, a project about identity, representation and bureaucracy, through drawing and direct connection with the local context.
-   ‘ARTÍCULO 10 DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN ESPAÑOLA’ by Núria Güell, a project that gives voice to a collective with no visibility such as prisoners through poetic texts and active involvement of this collective.
-   ‘WORDS KILL II: Operation Windows’ by Vartan Avakian, Raffy Doulian, Maral Mikirditsian and Raed Yassin, a project that proposes a parallel reading of QR codes and elements of Islamic architecture, both as elements with mediating qualities.
-   ‘RE_COLLECTOR’, by Collective m [Lester Barreto, Enric Carreras, Pedro Coelho and Pedro Dias], a project of mapping of territories and non-desired objects as traces of the individual’s presence in the city.

These projects have been selected for their accordance with the framework proposed by the open call organized by ACVIC, for their conceptual interest, as well as the favorable interaction between digital and physical spheres they provide.

 

SELECTED PROJECTS. SHORT DESCRIPTION

AP Joan GinardVIC NARANJA ESCRIBE FINO VIC CRISTAL ESCRIBE NORMAL | Pere Ginard

A reflection on identity, representation, municipal census and bureaucracy | Pere Ginard
The project Vic Naranja Vic Cristal adopts the concepts proposed by the organization to play wih identity, representation, municipal census and bureaucracy. It consists in covering the art center’s façade with grotesque drawings, converting it into an eye-catching microcosm of people, situations and attitudes.
The game proposes each visitor to choose one of the drawn characters (no luck, no destiny) and legalize it by giving it an identity (full name, current address, origin and occupation). Once the situation is legalized, the drawing will have the right to appear in the blog created for the project: the blog of the legalized and/or legitimized, some kind of a new citizen order (could we speak of fascism?). A low definition Second Life.

AP_Núria GuellARTÍCULO 10 DE LA CONSTITUCIÓN ESPAÑOLA | Núria Guell

The project, allying with Amnistía Internacional España, will launch a cultural campaign of “creative writing” to all prisoners held under the F.I.E.S (Ficheros de Internos de Especial Seguimiento) regime (in force, but illegal) in Spanish prisons. They will be invited to writ a “poem, verse or short narration” in a “complaints book” format for an arts project that aims at trespassing the walls that enclose them and making their situation visible.
A compilation of the poems will be published and distributed as a supplement with a national newspaper.
Moreover, everyday, a poem will be sent to the Spanish Ministry of Justice. This action will end when all the poems are sent; hence, it can last for years and it would be interrupted only if the authorities implement substantial changes in the internal operations of the Prison System.
The poems will be posted on a website where there will be an update of the daily mailings of the poems to the Ministry of Justice.
AP_Vartan Avakian, Raffy Doulian , Mikirditsian Maral y Raed Yassin 'WORD KILL II: OPERATION WINDOWS' | Vartan Avakian, Raffy Doulian , Mikirditsian Maral y Raed Yassin

WORD KILL II: Operation Windows is a project that proposes a parallel reading of the Mashrabiya and QR Code on both conceptual and visual levels. A Mashrabiya is an element of traditional Islamic architecture made of carved wood latticework that was used to keep out the outsider’s gaze from the inside of the house, and thus protect the privacy of home.
A Quick Response Code technology [QR Code], originally developed in Japan, is an improved version of the traditional barcode that is readable by standard mobile phone cameras. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. Once scanned, the QR symbols are decoded and provide the user with the data encoded, which can be a text, URL or any other format.
Both the Mashrabiya and QR Codes are elements that work as interface between the subject and information, at the same time providing and/or withholding data, and rechanneling data flows. As from a visual point of view, the QR symbols resemble the many different motifs that form a Mashrabiya. Six panels made of a tactile material will be displayed on the façade of the ACVic art center. The panels are composed of manipulated QR code symbols framed with a pseudo-calligraphic image, like an original Mashrabiya. Moreover, the QR code symbols are manipulated, while maintaining functionality, to hide small space invader characters in their matrix of pixels. The encoded text will zap the user to a website of the same name as the project, where Raed Yassin’s Immigration Forecast videos will be automatically played. The Mashrabiyas thus become the metaphorical frame "through which two territories are merged and where the contextual position of the viewer, in other words the geo-ethnic coordinates, contribute to the layering of meaning"*.

*Nat Muller. Coded Framings, from the text to be published in the forthcoming publication of the Institute of Network Cultures.

AP_Enric Carreras, Pedro Cohelo, Pedro Dias, Lester BarretoRE_COLECTOR |
Collective m [Enric Carreras, Pedro Cohelo, Pedro Dias, Lester Barreto]
The objective of the project is to reflect on an emerging nature of the current public space of Barcelona, specifically in the Poble Nou neighborhood. The Recolector de Chatarra (The Junk Collector) is born in a context of poverty and deprivation; an activity of last resort for a collective composed mainly of young immigrants (Sub-Saharans and Gypsies) deprived of stable job and housing. They move around the city, running a circuit of possible collection points, mainly in dumpsters, workshops or other businesses that let them have the leftovers of their commercial activities. The collected garbage is composed of mainly metal components that are later sold in scrap yards that pay, depending on the type of the metal, a fixed price by kilo and then sell them to junkyards. Most of the junk collectors survive thanks to this recollection, making between 3 and 5 Euros daily. They usually use a supermarket cart as moveable container, in which they transport copper, aluminium, iron and lead. As they go on filling the cart, they pass from points of sale to unload and sell the merchandise, and then go back to the dumpsters of the city. They work during the day and/or the night, depending on their needs; they are there when people, at the end of the day, bring down their trash; they work at night to go unnoticed, change neighborhoods according to the municipality’s weekly schedule of garbage collection; they are in the streets during the day to collect debris from construction sites or go door to door looking for material.

 


 

CV

Pere Ginard (Mallorca, 1974) is an illustrator, filmmaker and co-founder, along with Laura Ginès, of Laboratorium, a microfactory that combines the creation of films and experimental publications with illustrations and graphics for the press and television. His specialty lies in experiments with perpetual motion and variations on Lumière’s prototype; including phantasmagorical motions with robots and melancholic representations of mourning, triumphs, monsters, prodigies and mystic raptures, as well as at times unfinished observations on things that turn towards the sun and balding blond people with wavy hair (More info www.laboratorium.cat).

Núria Güell, trained in Barcelona and La Havana in the field of plastic arts. Her work has been shown in different platforms such as the Premio Miquel Casablanques, Can Felipa, Sala d’Art Jove, Transart, CCCB, Arts Santa Mònica, Bòlit in Girona, Sala Moncunill in Terrassa and Off-limits in Madrid, among others. In 2009, she participated in the X Bienal de la Habana, in 2010 in the Bienal de Pontevedra and Liverpool. She is currently showing the project Ayuda Humanitaria in the 15 Trienal in Tallinn, Estonia. Internationally, her work has been shown in La Haya, Paris, New York, Miami, Formigine, London and La Havana. Winner of several awards, she is currently working on the project Aplicación Legal Desplazada #2: Crecimiento Exponencial, winner of the Premio Miquel Casablanques 2010, and the project Fuera de Juego for the upcoming Bienal de Liubliana in Slovenia.

Vartan Avakian is a Beirut-based visual artist. His work is inter-disciplinary employing video, installation, photography and pop media. He studied Communication Arts at Lebanese American University and worked professionally in media production and scenic design. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in Architecture and Urban Culture at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. Avakian is a founding member of the art collective Atfal Ahdath.

Raffy Doulian is a Beirut-based architect. He holds a degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut. Professionally, he has worked on projects in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Spain. He also collaborates with artists and theater directors in the development of visual works and set designs for performances. 

Maral Mikirditsian BA in Communication Studies from the Lebanese American University and a Master degree in Design and Public Space from ELISAVA. She has collaborated with the Cultural Space Metropolis (Beirut, Lebanon), the Associació Marató de l’Espectacle, the Ciutats que Dansen network and Escena Poblenou Festival (Barcelona). Recently winner of the curatorial projects competition launched by Can Felipa with the project Des de l’Interstici. Initiator of the project beirut.Cat that has organized activities in collaboration with the Festival Bouesia and Priorat Centre d’Art. Since 2008, she is the coordinator of Idensitat.

Raed Yassin and works in Beirut and Amsterdam. Yassin is a video, sound and visual artist, who also works as a part-time curator and as a musician (double bass, tapes, turntables and electronics). He graduated from the Theatre Department at the Lebanese University in Beirut. With a strong conceptual focus, he works with image, music and text. His work is based on themes related to the media, the city, Arabic cinema, pop culture, pornography, disasters and archives. His work has been shown across Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and Japan.

Collective m
Lester Barreto (Dominican Republic, 1977), Enric Carreras (Barcelona, 1977), Pedro Coelho (Lisbon, 1977) and Pedro Dias (Lisbon, 1977). Collective who works in the world of communication and
ephemeral artistic interventions from the standpoint of design. Some work has been performed in the CCCB, The Arts Santa Monica, La Panera in Lleida, Fundació Tàpies, Idensitat or in collaboration with artists such as Alexander Pilis or Antoni Abad.

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