Transborder Cafés lineup
1.BORDER-CROSSING EXERCISESBoundary problems in the EU and international cultural cooperation in general
WHEN // Thursday, April 2, 2009, 7 PM
WHERE // OK Center for Contemporary Art, Mediendeck, OK Platz 1, 4020 Linz
Free admission!
Pikene på Broen has produced numerous trans-border exercises that foster boundary-transgressing artistic practices and make possible direct collaboration among the peoples of the Barents region. They also work together with partner institutions in Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. In doing so, they utilize art and culture as instruments of conflict prevention.
Pikene på Broen is based in the border town of Kirkenes located in the heart of the Barents region 15 minutes by car from the Russian border and a 50-minute drive from Finland. Today, due to the Arctic’s natural resource wealth, this area has become a political football subject to global economic forces. Official bilateral state treaties are one aspect of this, but of much greater interest are the communication and cooperation among the people on both sides of the borders.
• Norwegian authors Morten Strøksnes and Kjartan Fløgstad present the Norwegian view of cross-border dialog, international tensions and Norway’s relationship to the EU.
• Ane Lan from Oslo will voice considerations on the subject of “marriage” (i.e. joining the EU).
• Kirill Kobrin, a Russian historian and writer, takes a look back at the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and considers Austria's current relations to its neighboring countries. In doing so, he focuses on Linz and the Czech border as well as on physical traces remaining in the city from the American-Soviet occupation zone boundary.
• A trans-border exercise in Kirkenes by Los Torreznos from Madrid ended with the following conclusion: “When you cross a border and look back, the border is still there—and still in front of you.”
• “Warm music from a cold climate”: A production by electronic musician Mombus from northern Russia and by Lawra Somby from northern Norway.
2. BORDERS – CONTROL OR ROCK ’N’ ROLL?
International cooperation in the Barents region
WHEN // Friday, April 3, 2009, 7 PM
WHERE // OK Center for Contemporary Art, Mediendeck, OK Platz 1, 4020 Linz
Free admission!
Borders – Control or Rock ’n’ Roll was the motto of the recent Barents Spektakel, the festival held every winter in Kirkenes with an ancillary location in Russia. This motto suggests that rock ’n’ roll (i.e. art and culture) is understood here as a non-state alternative to border control.
• Rune Rafaelsen: The head of Norway’s Barents Secretariat, a Barents official and a true Barents enthusiast gets things underway with a geographical and geopolitical journey to Barents cooperation: a new security model based on regional political cooperation and boundary-transcending interpersonal contacts.
• Artist/musician Amund Sjølie Sveen has a performance entitled “The United States of Barents” in store. He addresses his audience from the year 2036 and analyses the facts and circumstances that led to the founding of the USB, providing documented proof that the opening of an IKEA store in Haparanda Tornio (a town on the Swedish-Finish border) is a significant event in the history of the Barents region.
• Olga and Alexander Florensky, two artists from St. Petersburg, use irony and humor to present Kirkenes, Norway and Nikel, Russia in their “Advertisements for Eternal Values.”
• Blue Noses, a Moscow artists’ group, discuss clichés about the “Russian city” of Kirkenes and demonstrate possibilities for a trans-border labor market.
• Screening of the film “Kirkenes & Nikel: Dedicated to Voiceless Immigrant Workers.” The mines in Kirkenes will soon reopen whereas the nickel works in Nikel are about to shut down.
• Presentation of the outdoor performance “Control or Rock ’n’ Roll?”, a sound-event rock ‘n’ roll sampling of the 2009 Barents-Spektakel.
• Tequilajazzz: a performance by the rock band from St. Petersburg concludes the second evening.
3. SÁMI-SALAMI
The Sámi and other ethnic cultures in northern Norway
WHEN // Saturday, April 4, 2009, 7 PM
WHERE // OK Center for Contemporary Art, Mediendeck OK Platz 1, 4020 Linz
Free admission!
Sámi-Salami highlights the steadfastness as well as the fragility of the Sámi culture.
• “Anisja Sleeping” by Yvette Brackman (Kopenhagen): A Nenets girl (the Nenets are an indigenous group in Russia) keeps a tight hold on a reindeer sleigh. The wind is howling but she doesn’t loose her grip—even when she’s sleeping. One is tempted to shout to her: “Hold on tight!”
• “The Catalyst”: Yvette Brackman began this project about the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia in the spring of 2006. She established the contact between local artisans in Lovozero and the Spanish shoe manufacturer Camper. What has come of this—for Camper, for the local population and for the artist herself? The audience will not get a rundown of a case study. Instead, its members will play out this narrative and, in doing so, assume the roles of a local craftsman, a Camper representative, an entrepreneur, an attorney, artists etc. They become part of a play written and staged by Yvette Brackman.
• “Wolf-joiking” by Lawra Somby from Tromsø
• Espen Sommer Eide: These musicians from Bergen will present a “Language Memory Project” that has produced a dictionary and a databank containing examples of the Skolt Sámi language. The archive kills the living language in order to preserve it; at the same time, it creates the possibility of an alchemistic transformation into new life.
• Mun Rahkistan: Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je t‘aime” will be performed in the Sámi language by Norwegian vocalist Geir Tore Holm.
• “The Bridge” featuring Inna Zhelannaya, the queen of Russian World music, Sámi guitar virtuoso Roger Ludvigsen, saxophonist Oleg Mariakhin and the Link-Trio from Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost region, concludes the final Transborder Café in high style.
