Galerie Vernon presents TINA B. - The Prague Contemporary Art Festival 2008
The Main Event: September 25 - October 15
Special Events Week: October 9 - 13
Under the patronage and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague

The third edition of TINA B. - The Prague Contemporary Art Festival, organised by Prague’s Galerie Vernon, aims yet again to combine the creative energy of the cultural scene in Central and Eastern Europe with emerging talents and trends from around the world in the Czech Republic’s vibrant capital. Adopting the leitmotif FORMS OF ENGAGEMENT, TINA B. 2008 will focus on the relationships between art and society, exploring the role of contemporary art, artists and artistic practice as socio-cultural agents that not only provide a critique of social order, but also serve a direct, positive and symbiotic social function on both a local and global level.

Curators: Micaela Giovannotti, Rosanna Musumeci, Yukiko Ito, Blanca de la Torre García, Viktor Misiano, Marek Tomin, the Greyzone Collective.

The third edition’s focus on the ways in which art engages with individuals and society is all the more pertinent in the year of the 40th anniversary of the momentous events of 1968, which had a major impact on society and politics throughout the globe, as well as on Czechoslovakia in particular. TINA B. 2008 feels honoured to be able to make at least a small contribution to the commemoration of an anniversary that is a strong symbol of liberty and free thinking (as well, unfortunately, of the ill-fated imposition of political and military might).

The Main Event of TINA B. 2008 will take place from September 25 until October 15, 2008, at various locations in Prague, including the Laterna Magika Theatre, the Italian Cultural Institute, Dům U Kamenného zvonu, Dukelských hrdinů 28 and the Critics’ Gallery, taking contemporary art beyond the confines of the dedicated exhibition space and onto the interface with public space. In terms of art forms and genres, the festival is focusing on video, light and sound installations, projections, screenings and interventions, as well as on visual performance art and the new media generated by mobile technologies, which are so profoundly influencing the course of our lives. Another approach highlighted at this festival is open collaboration, such as the participatory project RE-BRANDING PRAGUE by Wooloo Productions.

Special Events Week will run from October 9 until 13 and will include visual art performances by extravagant Italian performers Coniglio Viola, Berlin-based art project Stupid Green and Czech multimedia artist Darina Alster. Renowned Russian Viktor Misiano and artists Yevgeniy Fiks and Ilya Budratskis are preparing a thought-provoking re-enactment of events linked to the Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party held in Prague’s ČKD factory one day after the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies on August 21, 1968. The performance will involve local artists, intellectuals and the general public. Czech socially and politically engaged art group Guma Guar is preparing a provocative public space intervention that will examine social and political issues on a local and global level. In addition, video art screenings will be held in public space exteriors and one of Prague’s alternative cinemas, as will artist and curator talks and discussions, with a particular emphasis on the theme of engaged art, art activism and the 1968 anniversary.

VIDEOCRACY
Curator Micaela Giovannotti will transform the architecturally rich space of the Italian Cultural Institute located in Prague’s Malá Strana into a vibrant contemporary art location with her section entitled VIDEOCRACY, addressing the democratic approach that video art bears with the use of video installations, as well as revitalizing tangible architectural elements of the institute with site-specific installations employing the ephemeral elements of light, sound and motion.

Among the many other artists involved, including Tamy Ben-Tor (Israel, lives in NYC), Regina Jose Galindo (Guatemala), Ragnar Kjartansson (Island) and Sigalit Landau (Israel), Danish art project Wooloo Productions (Sixten Kai Nielsen & Martin Rosengaard) will present a video documentation of their previous actions carried out for the Defending Denmark project, as well as an exploration of the artist as political agent though their tactical media performance RE-BRANDING PRAGUE. In this performance, taking place at the Italian Cultural Institute during the Special Events Week, the artists will present critical strategies of real and utopian means of re-thinking national identity.
Wooloo Productions

DARKNESS IS NOON
This section curated by Rosanna Musumeci brings together artists mostly from Italy whose works are concerned with one of the essential elements of both art and life - light. “Light is the medium to see - to conceive - the form of any object. Objects, however, are perceived by subjects and that makes the whole difference,” writes the curator. The section includes sound and video projections, as well as digital, video and mixed media installations exploring artistic and scientific, objective and subjective, methods, approaches and strategies tackling the ways in which light enables us to see and alters our perceptions.
Florian Grond - Hear and Now

The section includes Italian artists Carlo Bernardini, Flavia Bigi, Fiodor Bonaviri, Carmen Cardillo, Tiziana Contino, Emanuele Costanzo, Giuliana Cuneaz, Alberto Finocchiaro, Semira Forte, Claudia Gambadoro, Loredana Longo, Valentina Medda, Flaviano Poggi, Gianfranco Pulitano, Paola Ricci, Martina della Valle, as well as Saverio Todaro (Switzerland), Zevs (France), Florian Grond (Austria) and Teun Hocks (Netherlands).

SPECIAL FOCUS - JAPAN
Curated by Yukiko Ito of Hiroshima Art Document, a special section of Japanese Art entitled WE DESTROY WE REGENERATE; A THING OF BEAUTY explores cultural contrasts and synergies, employing video artworks and site-specific installations to engender a stimulating discourse on cross-cultural aspects of the social and political role of art and artistic practice. Participating artists will include Buiper Ware, Koso Haranaka, Jitsuro Mase, Koji Matsumoto, Kiyohito Mikami, Toshihiro Nakanosai, Nobuka Otsuka, Tamaki Ono, Mali Suzuki, Teruhisa Suzuki and Tomohiro Uesugi.
Nobuka Otsuka - Lovers

ALTERNATIVE REVOLUTIONS
With her section Alternative Revolutions focusing on video art, curator Blanca de la Torre García encompasses a series of works that could be seen as a subversion of the classical concept or behaviour of Revolution.

Taking Marshall Berman’s ideas about understanding modern society in an open way (All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, 1982), de la Torre applies its core ideas to the concept of revolution, understanding it in a more expansive way. Therefore, we can see all sorts of political, intellectual, social and quotidian revolutions as part of one dialectical process, and to develop creative interplay among them, enlarging our vision of our own experience and giving our daily lives a new resonance and depth.
Avelino Sala - Culture

Participating artists include Katarina Zdjelar, Eugenio Ampudia, Montse Arbelo y Joseba Franco, Avelino Sala, Cristina Lucas, David Maroto, Masbedo and Jenny Marketou.

1968 REENACTMENT
A special project curated by Viktor Misiano involving New York-based artist Yevgeniy Fiks and Moscow based political activist and artist Ilya Budraitskis will consist of a staged performance or “re-enactment” of events related to the socialist reforms in Czechoslovakia in 1968, as well as the subsequent invasion of the country by Warsaw Pact armies, as experienced by workers in one of Prague’s ČKD factory, which was the site of the free Extraordinary Congress of the Communist Party held just one day after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact armies. Focusing on the social and micro-political dimension of the idea of “socialism with a human face” and on workers’ capacity of self-organisation, this visual art performance will consist of the reading of a script based on authentic historical materials and extensive on-site research including interviews with intellectually and workers conducted by the artists and curator in Prague. Audio-visual material gathered and recorded in Prague will also be used during the performance.

Věněk Šilhán - a key figure of the Prague Spring (stills from recorded interview)

Importantly, the project is open to the participation of local artists and intellectuals, as well as the general public. The re-enactment itself, taking place on the premises of the ČKD Eletrotechnika factory, will also be documented on video and later broadcast in one of the festival locations, as well as being available on the festival website. A film will subsequently be made combining footage of the re-enactment with audiovisual archives and various artistic interventions.

TEMPORARY BOUNDARIES
Temporary Boundaries, curated by Marek Tomin and the collective Greyzone, will create a temporary art centre in a dilapidated building in Prague 7. The building has a unique location - directly opposite Veletržní Palace, which houses the Czech National Gallery’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. The art centre will include the ground floor of the building, which in times past held an apothecary, as well as twelve broken-down garages located in its extensive courtyard. The building’s facade will also be utilised as a space for art, creating a direct communicative interface not only with public space on one of the main transport arteries in Prague 7, but also with the art institution opposite. Erik Olofsen - In Places

On the boundary between private and public space, this temporary art centre will provide a unique setting for the exploration of the different ways in which artists engage with their work, its setting and context, the public domain and society at large, as well as giving new life to an urban structure before it returns to its original functionality - the building is soon to be reconstructed. The section combines video, digital and sound installations with site-specific wall paintings, sculptures and spatial interventions by both domestic and international artists. Artists presenting video and digital installations include Erik Olofsen, Jakub Nepraš, Lukáš Machalický, Jakub Roztočil, Richard Wiesner and Linda Čihařová. Site-specific interventions and wall paintings will be produced by, among others, Guma Guar, Vladimír Skrepl, Mario Chromý and Jan Kaláb. Section guests include David Ter-Oganyan and Nikolay Oleynikov, who will take part in TINA B. 2008 on the invitation of renowned Russian curator Viktor Misiano.

A graduate of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, Jan Kaláb is also closely involved with the Czech street art scene. The third edition of TINA B. views street art, whose authors mostly shun financial gain, as a form of engaged art in public space. Over the last few years there has been an unprecedented proliferation of street art in Prague, including stencil graffiti, sticker art, street poster art, mosaic tiling, installations and sculptures, as well as the more traditional forms of free-hand aerosol sprayed graffiti artwork.
Jan Kaláb - Point

TINA B. ON THE ROAD
This section curated by TINA B. brings together a host of artists from various parts of the world. During her travels around the world, attending various exhibitions and art fairs, TINA B. has come across many interesting artists and their artworks. She has selected some of them and invited them to take part in her very own section. Not being partial to any particular medium, TINA B. has assembled a thought-provoking ensemble of artists whose works broadly correspond with this year’s leitmotif - FORMS OF ENGAGEMENT.

The section will include artworks by William T. Hillman (US), Ulu Braun (Germany), Christoph Runne (Canada), Giovani Agosta (IT), Kensuke Koike (JPN), Donna Conlon (US), Cannon Hersey (US), Samson Mnisi (LSO), Alexandros Yiorkadjis (CYP) and many others.

SPECIAL PROJECTS
As in previous years, TINA B. 2008 will present a number of Special Projects at various exterior and interior locations in Prague. One such project, curated by Micaela Giovannotti, will be a site-specific installation employing light and sound by Stefano Cagol (IT) that promises to transform one of Prague’s landmarks into a beacon of contemporary art. Other special projects will include an installation by Daniel Gonzalez, a public space site-specific video installation by Giuliana Cuneaz, and a mixed-media installation by PP SEMP.

TINA B. ONGOING PROJECTS:
EMERGING WOR(L)DS
Billboard Text Art: EMERGING WOR(L)DS is a unique one-year site-specific project featuring textual and word-based artworks on large billboards throughout Prague, creating a platform for diverse art interventions, messages and statements tackling a broad range of issues and subjects concerned with the complex social, political, corporate and cultural structures currently emerging within the context of the post-Cold War - and post 9/11 - world.

A selection of recent billboards in the Billboard Text Art: EMERGING WOR(L)DS project.

Contributors have so far included Kendell Geers, Kay Rosen, Vittorio Santoro, Jonathan Monk, Bethan Huws, Koki Tanaka, Adam Pendleton, Solange Fabião, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Claire Fontaine, Artus de Lavellion, Detanico & Lain, as well as internationally renowned Czech artist Jiri Kovanda and emerging Czech artists Guma Guar, Pode Bal, Jiri Skala, Jan Serych, Tomas Vanek, Adam Vackar, Zbynek Baladran and Jan Nalevka.

EMERGING WOR(L)DS will culminate during the Main Event of TINA B. 2008 with an exhibition of scaled-down versions of all of the artworks displayed on billboards in Prague during the project with accompanying photographic documentation in the CRITICS’ GALLERY in Prague’s Adria Palace. A comprehensive publication featuring all the billboard artworks exhibited in Prague will be available to accompany the project.

THE INTIMATE LIFE OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Launching its second edition in June 2008, Mobile Video Art: THE INTIMATE LIFE OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE is the first project devoted exclusively to video art created with the multimedia mobile telephone. Designed as an art laboratory and a popular festival for the general public, it employs the website www.mobilevideoart.com to involve the audience in the creative process and set up a highly-charged creative dialogue on the nature and essence of contemporary art and culture. Thematically, it explores the social, political, cultural and personal aspects of everyday life in the 21st Century as influenced by the interweaving of global and local cultural symbols and artefacts. The body of work submitted forms a dynamic and constantly evolving mosaic of perceptions of contemporary life and culture on a global level.

More than fifty artists participated in the first edition of Mobile Video Art. The project has already attracted considerable attention in both the domestic and international arena, reaching beyond the confines of the contemporary art community to engage the general public. A selection of artworks submitted to the project in 2007 will be screened at this year’s Pocket Films Festival taking place at the Centre Pompidou in Paris between June 13 and15, 2008.

The second edition will be launched ahead of TINA B.’s Main Event with a new website design and a new special category: THE INTIMATE LIGHT OF THE GLOBAL VILLAGE. During the TINA B. 2008 Main Event, videos created for the Mobile Video Art project will be displayed on large screens at various festival and public space locations in Prague.

Mobile Video Art (Gunndís Ýr Finnbogadottír, Vladimír Skrepl, Robert Šalanda)

Main Partners: FORTIS, KARLIN REAL ESTATE GROUP
Media Partners: ČRo, ČTK, Houser, Umělec, A2, Prague Events

For more information and high resolution images, please contact:
Marek Tomin, Press Officer and one of the curators,
TINA B. - The Prague Contemporary Art Festival; M: +420 604 237 974,
E: marek.tomin@tina-b.com

TINA B. LOCATIONS / VENUES

• The Italian Cultural Institute in Prague

Šporkova 14, 11000 Praha 1 - Malá Strana, www.iicpraga.esteri.it

• Laterna Magika Theatre

Národní 4, 110 00 Praha 1, www.laterna.cz

• The Critics’ Gallery

Jungmannova 31, Palác Adria, www.galeriekritiku.cz

• Dům U Kamenného zvonu

Staroměstské nám. 13, 110 00 Praha 1, www.ghmp.cz

• Dukelských hrdinů 28

Dukelských hrdinů 28, Praha 7.

List of Artists by Section

VIDEOCRACY
Curated by Micaela Giovannotti

Tamy Ben-Tor (Israel, lives in NYC)
Regina Jose Galindo (Guatemala)
Ragnar Kjartansson (Island)
Sigalit Landau (Israel)
Domenico Mangano (Italy)
Alex McQuilkin (US)
Adrian Paci (Albania, lives in Italy)
Amparo Sard (Spain)
Wooloo.org (Denmark, live in Berlin)
Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi (US)

SITE-SPECIFIC PROJECTS
Stefano Cagol (Italy)
Daniel Hanzlik (CZ)
Martin Kocourek (CZ)
Wooloo Productions (DEN, live in Berlin)

DARKNESS IS NOON
Curated by Rosanna Musumeci

Carlo Bernardini (Italy)
Flavia Bigi (Italy)
Fiodor Bonaviri (Italy)
Carmen Cardillo (Italy)
Tiziana Contino (Italy)
Emanuele Costanzo (Italy)
Giuliana Cuneaz (Italy)
Alberto Finocchiaro (Italy)
Semira Forte (Italy)
Claudia Gambadoro (Italy)
Florian Grond (Austria)
Teun Hocks (Netherlands)
Loredana Longo (Italy)
Valentina Medda (Italy)
Flaviano Poggi (Italy)
Gianfranco Pulitano (Italy)
Paola Ricci (Italy)
Saverio Todaro (Switzerland)
Zevs (France)

WE DESTROY WE REGENERATE; A THING OF BEAUTY
Curated by Yukiko Ito

Buiper Ware (unit)
Koso Haranaka
Jitsuro Mase
Koji Matsumoto
MOUHITORI Tamaki Ono / Kiyohito Mikami (unit)
Toshihiro Nakanosai
Nobuka Otsuka
Akinori Sako
Mali Suzuki
Teruhisa Suzuki
Tomohiro Uesugi

(All artists are from Japan)

ALTERNATIVE REVOLUTIONS
Curated by Blanca De La Torre García

Katarina Zdjelar
Eugenio Ampudia
Montse Arbelo y Joseba Franco
Avelino Sala
Critina Lucas
PSJM
Brody Condon
Ana Prvacki
David Maroto
Jenny Marketou
Johanna Billing

ČKD REENACTMENT
Curated by Viktor Misiano

Yevgeniy Fiks
Ilya Budratskis
Nikolay Oleynikov
David Ter-Oganyan

TEMPORARY BOUNDARIES
Curated by Marek Tomin

Vladimír Skrepl (CZ)
Guma Guar (CZ)
Jan Kaláb (CZ)
Adam Vačkář (CZ)
Erik Olofsen (NL)
Mario Chromý (CZ)
Richard Wiesner (CZ)
Kateřina Fojtíková a Tamara Moyzes (CZ)
Jakub Nepraš (CZ)
Linda Čihařová (CZ)
Jakub Roztočil (CZ)
Lukáš Machalický (CZ)
David Ter-Organyan (RU)
Martina Della Valle

TINA B. ON THE ROAD

Daniel Gonzalez (Argentina)
Coniglio Viola (Italy)
William T. Hillman (US)
Ulu Braun (Germany)
Christoph Runne (Canada)
Giovani Agosta
Kensuke Koike (JPN)
Donna Conlon (US)
Cannon Hersey (US)
Samson Mnisi (LSO)
Veronica Montanino (IT)
Alexandros Yiorkadjis (CYP)
Erika Latini (IT)
Christian Rainer and Karin Andersen (GER)
ConiglioViola (IT)
Luciano Bordin Cattelan
Consuelo de Gara
Jiří Matějů (Czech Republic)
Darina Alster (Czech Republic)
Aleš Čermák (Czech Republic)
Petra Gupta (Czech Republic)
PP SEMP (US, FRANCE)
CASA + OFFICINE AUDIOVISIVE (Italy)