Update on local abominations, written for Wildcat (Germany): where recent events in other countries are also cut to the quick.

A season in (the vestibule of) hell

Over at the Manifesto Club, Valerie Hartwich has written up a long report on the effects of the points-based immigration system on the quality of life of students and academics in the UK, as well as the effects on academia itself. From the introduction: 

Communication Networks (Art institutions and New Publics)

Opening: Thursday, March 11 at 7 pm at the Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana

Concept by Alenka Gregoric & Bojana Piskur

Visual Notes by

A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro

P74 Center and Gallery, Ljubljana

Center for Visual Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade

ICA, Sofia

MGML / Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana

Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana

Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

Open Space - Zentrum fuer Kunstprojekte, Vienna

The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon

Artists

° Extracts from “Eclipsed Voices”, 10 March - 2 April 2010

Opening: 9 March 2010, 7 pm

Project curator: Basak Senova

Participating artists:

Erhan Muratoglu
Sala-manca

Book presentation: 9 March 2010, 7 pm

Eclipsed Voices

The exhibition presents two works whose subject matters alter diverse issues of social, political, cultural, and economic aspects of our daily life. Each work, in its own way, has the restrained intention of trying to understand the local realities that surround us and shape our identity.

It is often argued that New Media Art is difficult to grasp. In contrast to this common argument, I would like to show how New Media Art helps us to grasp the world around us. I’m interested in how we encounter New Media Art and in order to explain this relationship I would like to use a piece of theory which is not often used that is, Phenomenology of Perception (1945) by Maurice-Merleau Ponty. Indeed, Merleau-Ponty is considered as one of the main figure of phenomenology and one of the most politically engage.

Last week’s official celebrations of the February 1979 uprising that brought down the shah’s regime in Iran stood in total contrast to the events of 31 years ago.

http://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/seva-ostapov-convicted-for-the-crime-of-being-beaten-by-the-police/