19th art-symposium of eu-art-network
from 22nd to 31st August in the Cselley Mill, Oslip / Austria
Since 2000, eu-art-network (EAN) has organised annual symposia whose participants have been international artists from diverse fields of contemporary art.
The participants have used visual art in all its forms, music, performance and literature to express themselves when addressing the different central themes each symposium is dedicated to.
These themes always touch on issues relating to Europe and affect the people of Europe and beyond.
Title of this year:
»I am not what I am…or,
humans as victims of their identity«
This quote by William Shakespeare, »I am not what I am,« spontaneously leads us to the question »What am I then?« and shows us the relativity of the concept of the self, which, on the one hand, signifies uniqueness of the individual and, on the other hand, is subject to constant change. It is an interplay between identifying oneself – How do I see myself? – and being identified – How am I seen by my environment?
The self as a construct – one might almost call it a working hypothesis, which, while making more or less conscious decisions and performing acts of will, experiences itself as real and acting out of free will.
As pressure due to globalisation and economic disadvantage keeps growing, we as individuals are increasingly forced to fall back on our own resources and face more and more challenges pertaining to our own scope of responsibilities. As a consequence, questions such as »Who even am I, what do I want, and where is the journey going?« are becoming more urgent. Role models, provided from within family and village structures a mere hundred years ago, have lost most of their appeal or have completely vanished into oblivion. The search for one’s own identity, or what one regards as such, has considerably gained in importance – an opportune time for demagogues of all flavours and shades, and thus a time that holds many dangers.
Eu-art-network intends to launch a three years long running project which will focus on the Vojvodina region and – in keeping with the region’s history and also the question of identity. Not only because Novi Sad will be European Capital of Culture in 2021, but because the history of this region provides a very accurate look at the history of Europe as a whole.
»large-scale Europe = small-scale Europe«
the question of identity as exemplified by the Vojvodina region
Artists from the nations participating in the project will attend.
All fields of visual art will be represented – including painting, the graphic arts, object art, video, as well as essayistic, literary contributions to the topic. As in previous years, the works created at the symposium will be documented in several languages in the art magazine »Cahier d´art«.
Aktuelles Cahier d´art zum Symposium 2018
ist erschienen: »cahier d´art 2018«