ARTS & GLOBALIZATION PLATFORM

POLITICS OF SPACE

TALK & PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME

11 MAY 2019  

SANTI COSMA E DAMIANO. GIUDECCA ART DISTRICT. VENICE. ITALY

 
Jelili Atiku, Festival of the Earth (Alaraagbo XIII) (2018), performance, mixed media installation. Courtesy the artist.

PART OF GAD - GIUDECCA ART DISTRICT

Curated by
Rikke Jørgensen

www.artsandglobalization.com
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WELCOME
 
We are delighted to invite you to a one-day event in Venice on the 11th of May 2019.

This year´s public programme Politics of Space will be part of the launch of GAD -
Giudecca Art District and will take place at the same day as the official opening of the
58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

In a world characterized by growing inequalities and asymmetrical concentrations of

wealth and power, it is necessary to acknowledge that the spaces through which we
move and the places in which we live are thoroughly political. Politics of space shapes
the homes, streets and cities we live in, and defines the spaces and places in which we
are able to pursue our lives.

From national borders to walls and wire fences; from privatization of land to exclusion
and expulsion of persecuted peoples; questions of space and place, of who can be
where and what can be done there, are at the very heart of the most important political
debates of our time. While the political character of the temporal nature of human
existence is generally acknowledged – history has long been understood in political
terms – we can all too easily fail to recognize, with adequate sensitivity and clarity, that
the spatial dimension of our lives is also essentially political.

Venice is a loaded city where it is interesting to talk about politics of space because of
its history as a center of global trade and finance and because it can be seen as a
microcosm of the western world and its relation to the global.

Politics of Space will take place in the transformed church of Santi Cosma e Damiano
on the island of Giudecca. This programme is the 4th chapter in a series of ongoing
transnational programmes by Arts & Globalization Platform dedicated to collective
investigation and dialogue about important issues and emergencies of our time.

Together with a group of amazing artists and speakers, we will address the relationship
between peoples and space in this phase of globalization.

Our means are performance, dialogue and collective reflection.

We hope you will join us!

Rikke Jørgensen

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SATURDAY MAY 11, 2019
THE FORMER CHURCH OF SANTI COSMA E DAMIANO,
Campo San Cosmo 624 30133, Giudecca, Venice

10:30-11:30 OPENING PERFORMANCE BY JELILI ATIKU (NI)

My Eyes Are Larger Than My Mouth

The performance by Jelili Atiku is organized by Rikke Jørgensen (DK),

Art & Globalization Platform and Simona Carniato (IT), Studioo non-profit.

11:30-12:00 INTRODUCTION to the program Politics of Space

Rikke Jørgensen (DK), Arts & Globalization Platform

12:00-12:15 COFFEE BREAK

12:15-13:00 PERFORMANCE LECTURE

                                                                                                                               S eeing Power - Authoritarianisms & Art    
Arnaud Cohen (FR) in conversation with Enrico Lunghi (LU)

What kind of strategies do artists and curators deploy when the democratic
space shrinks? A performative talk on curatorial struggles and on Arnaud
Cohen´s work Dansez Sur Moi latest exhibited at Kunstverein am Rosa
Luxemburg Platz, Berlin (2017) and at Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris (2019).

13:00-14:00 GIUDECCA PICNIC

14:00-15:00 ARTIST & CURATOR CONVERSATION I

On the Future of Artist-run Spaces
Ibrahim Mahama (GH) in conversation with Paul Goodwin (UK)
 
What does it mean to create a new art institution? What is the motivation
behind and the potential? What does it take? Ibrahim Mahama, artist and
founder of Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art, Tamale, Ghana talks to
Paul Goodwin, Curator and Contemporary Art Professor, Chelsea College
of Arts - University of the Arts London about creating new artist-run spaces
for contemporary art, research and education.  

15:00-15:45 ARTIST & CURATOR CONVERSATION II

                                                                                                                     T he Optimistic Precariousness of the Current Existence
Valentina Gioia Levy (IT) in conversation with Gig Depio (PH/US)
and Tanner Goldbeck (US) with a video intervention of Waseem
Marzouki (SY)

The three artists selected for the exhibition There Are No Titans (GAD)
represent voices of today's American life under extreme duress:
disproportionate wealth distribution, urban growth and decay, immigration
ban, perpetual war, pop culture, and radicalized politics just to name a few.
Gig Depio, Tanner Goldbeck and Waseem Marzouki are mirrors into a
culture and society becoming evermore bipolar and spinning out of
control.

15:45-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

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16:00-17:00 KICK-OFF PANEL SESSION
Articulations of Resistance in Art

Malala Andrialavidrazana, Visual Artist (MA/FR)

Pascale Obolo, Independent Curator/Editor-in- chief of
Afrikadaa/Filmmaker/Activist (CM/FR)
Christian Danielewitz, Visual Artist and PhD fellow, Royal Danish
Academy of Fine Arts (DK)
Kristian Handberg, Postdoc, University of Copenhagen (DK)

On artistic articulations of resistance in contemporary art and on the

biennial as a scene for articulations of the contemporary state and new
global optics since the 1960s.

Moderated by
Awam Amkpa, Curator and Associate Professor of Drama, Social
and Cultural Analysis, Director, Africana Studies, NYUAD Arts
and Humanities Division (NI/US)

17:00-18:00 OPEN ROUNDTABLE WORKSHOPS for the public    

An Inclusive Art Scene - Are We There Yet?

This is a PARTICIPATION FOR ALL session. You are cordially invited to join
us for a collective reflection on 3 questions related to the our current art
scenes. All answers will be exhibited in Giudecca Art District during the
opening week of the Venice Biennale 2019. We will talk about the following
questions:

1. How is Politics of Space manifested at the Venice Biennale?

2. What does it mean to Decolonize the Museum?
                                                                                                                                                                                               3.  How can we create Safe and Healthy Art Spaces for Inclusive Dialogue?    

Workshop facilitator: Rikke Jørgensen, Arts & Globalization Platform (DK)  

 
18:00-19:30 SOCIAL TIME

Updates to the programme will be announced at www.artsandglobalization.com

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BIOGRAPHY

AW AM AM KPA
(Nigeria)

Awam Amkpa is Associate Professor of Drama, Social & Cultural Analysis, and Africana Studies at
New York University. He is the co-founder and co-curator of the annual Real Life Pan-African
Documentary Film Festival in Accra (Ghana). Author of several articles in books and journals on
Modernisms in Theatre, Postcolonial theatre, Black Atlantic Issues, and Film studies he also
wrote the book "Theatre and Postcolonial Desires" (2003). He directed film documentaries such
as: "Winds Against Our Souls", "Its All About Downtown", "National Images and Transnational
Desires", and featured film "Wazobia!". Between 2011-2013 he curated "Africa: See You, See
Me" in Beijing and Macau (China), Rome and Florence (Italy), Dakar, (Senegal) and Lagos
(Nigeria). He also curated the shows: "Africa: Significaciones" at Centro Provincial de artes
Plasticas y Diseño, Havana (Cuba 2017); "ReSignifications: European Blackamoors, Africana
Readings" at Museo Bardini, Villa La Pietra and Galleria Biagiotti, Florence (Italy, 2015);
"ReSignifications: Black Portraiture in the Mediterranean Blue" and ‘Wole Soyinka: Antiquities
Across Times and Place’ under the MANIFESTA12 Biennale, Palermo (Italy) in 2018.

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M ALALA ANDRIALAVIDRAZANA
(Madagascar/France)

Born and raised in Madagascar before settling in Paris at the age of twelve, Malala
Andrialavidrazana fuels her practice by moving from one land to another. By way of the
photographic medium, she interrogates barriers and interactions within cross-cultural contexts,
thoughtfully shifting between private spaces and global considerations to explore social
imaginaries. Over time, she has invented a language whose approach is resolutely turned toward
history, while simultaneously evidencing a profound engagement with contemporary issues and
developments. Graduate from the National Architecture School of Paris-La Villette (1996),
Andrialavidrazana’s education informs her ability to look at the world through three-dimensional
sight, and to use images to create new forms of circulation. She began her career as a visual
artist by extending her investigation of Madagascan burial structures to cities throughout the
Global South – Auckland, Buenos Aires, Guangzhou, and Santiago, among others. The resulting
series, d’Outre-Monde (2003), dealing with funereal traditions beside urban multiple shapes and
dimensions, was awarded the HSBC Prize for Photography.   Andrialavidrazana’s work has been
exhibited in numerous international venues. Recently, these have included: Bamako Encounters,
Fondation Donwahi, Lagos Photo Festival, on the African Continent; Changjiang Photography &
Video Biennial, Karachi Biennale, Dhaka Art Summit, Para-Site, in Asia; Kalmar Konstmuseum,
PAC Milano, Lyon Biennial, EVA Ireland’s Biennial, Warsaw MoMA, in Europe; Fondation
Clément, in the Caribbean; AIC, Ford Foundation, Aperture, in the US.  

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JELILI ATIKU
(Nigeria)

Jelili Atiku is a Nigerian multimedia artist with political concerns for human rights and justice.
Through drawing, installation sculpture, photography, video and live art performance he strives
to help viewers understand the world and expand their understanding and experiences, so that
they can activate and renew their lives and environments. Since 2008, he has been involved in
an ongoing performance project, In the Red, which uses red as a symbol of life, suffering,
danger and violence. In 2008/2009, his performance video, Victim of Political Assassination was
showcased in Video Library section of Rencontres Internationales in Paris, Berlin and Madrid. He
also featured in the Geisai #12 Contemporary Art Fair, Tokyo, Japan (2009), 16th Festival
International D’Art Video de Casablanca, Morocco (2009), Old News #6, Malmo, Lagos and
Copenhagen (2009/2010) and Freedom to Create Prize, Singapore (2009). In 2017 Jelili Atiku
was represented at the Venice Biennale as part of the 57th International Art Exhibition. In 2018
he was the first Artist Protection Fund Fellow at Brown University, USA. For over a decade, Jelili
has put my art at service of the prevailing concerns of our times; especially those issues that
threatening our collective existence and the sustenance of our universe.

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ARNAUD CO HEN
(France)

Arnaud Cohen lives and works in France. Cohen explores the relationship between history and
fiction, ancient and postmodern mythologies. His protean art draws from Situationist traditions
to unpack frames of allegory, post truth and globalisation. His appropriationism extends across
social and aesthetic forms from Greek sculpture to Reality TV. His work has been exhibited and
performed extensively in Europe and around the globe (Palais de Tokyo, Tate St Ives, Berlin RLP
Kunstverein, Venice Biennale's Salon Suisse, Dark'art Biennale, Bienalsur Buenos Aires, ...). This
year’s past presentations include : Something Else Biennale Cairo, Memorial de la Shoah Paris,
Nagel Draxler Gallery Cologne (solo). Subsequent presentations include : Bienalsur curated by
Diana Wechsler and Anibal Jozami, Kampala Biennale curated by Simon Njami, solo exhibition
at National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest curated by Enrico Lunghi.

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CHRISTIAN DANIELEW ITZ
(Denmark)

Christian Danielewitz is an artist, researcher and writer whose work revolves around the socio-
ecological wreckage caused by industries of resource extraction. He is particularly interested in
hidden sites of contamination, geographies that have been permanently impaired by
environmental damage (also known as sacrifice zones), and ventures into contested territories of
ecological devastation to uncover the global division of toxic labour and virulent exposure. His
work is informed by geology, biology, energy and deep time, and the noxious processing of
minerals into elements of information architecture, that is, our contemporary image - and
communication technologies.

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GIG DEPIO
(USA)

Las Vegas-based Filipino painter Gig Depio presents the conjunctions of contemporary and
historical forces in the form of intense, often large-scale, figurative compositions. Recipient of
the 2016 Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Grant in Painting, he has exhibited across Nevada,
with shows at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the
University of Nevada in Reno, and the Clark County Winchester Cultural Center Gallery, Las
Vegas and in his native Philippines with a show titled “Bring Home the Bacon: From Feudal to
Neoliberal,” at the National Commission for Culture & the Arts (NCCA) Gallery in historic
Intramuros, Manila.

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TANNER GO LDBECK
(USA)

Tanner lives and works in downtown Los Angeles. Originally from Baltimore, he received a BFA
from the Maryland Institute College of Art. A current member of the Los Angeles Art
Association, his work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions around Los Angeles for over
a decade. A self-described, “dedicated line junkie”. His work is an evolving struggle between
control and spontaneity that reflects his sense of identity and his relationship with the
environment. He finds energy and influence in the conflict, harmony and cadence of daily life
downtown.

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PAUL GO O DW IN
(England)

Paul Goodwin is an independent curator, urban theorist and researcher based in London. His
curatorial, research and writing projects extend across the interdisciplinary fields of
contemporary art and urbanism with a particular focus on black and diaspora artists and visual
cultures. At the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London,
between 2006 and 2010 he directed Re-visioning Black Urbanism, an interdisciplinary research
project exploring the multiple modalities of blackness and urbanism in cities such as London,
Lisbon and Paris. From 2008 to 2012 as a curator at Tate Britain he directed the pioneering
Cross Cultural Programme that explored questions of migration and globalisation in
contemporary British art through a programme of international conferences, workshops, talks
and live art events. His curatorial projects include a number of internationally significant
exhibitions including: Migrations: Journeys Into British Art, Tate Britain 2012; Thin Black Line(s),
Tate Britain, 2011; Coming Ashore, 2011, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Portugal.

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KRISTIAN HANDBERG
(Denmark)

Kristian Handberg is an art historian, Ph.D., Postdoc at the University of Copenhagen. He has
researched the importance of exhibitions and their international circulation in the postwar era
through the research project “Multiple Modernities” at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and
the University of Copenhagen and organized the conference Multiple Modernisms. A
Symposium on Globalism in Postwar Art (2017). Current project: “Curating the Contemporary:
An Exhibition History of the Museum of Modern Art as a New Bildung Institution”. Recent
publications: Conquering the Present in the Long Sixties: The curatorial birth of contemporary
art (2019), “Multiple Modernisms. Curating the Postwar Era for the Present” in the anthology
Curatorial Challenges (2019), and “In the Labyrinth of the Contemporary Condition: Curating the
Labyrinthine at documenta” in Stedelijk Studies # 6 Lose Yourself! (2018).

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RIKKE JØ RGENSEN
(Denmark)

Rikke Jørgensen is an Independent Curator, Director of the communications agency UrbanArt

Communications and Founder of the Arts & Globalization Platform. She graduated with an MA in
Comparative Literature, Communications and Art History from University of Copenhagen,
Denmark, and Université Paris Diderot in Paris, France. She works on projects that combine
artistic creation, reflection, discourse, research and cultural action. In 2004 she founded
Nørrebro Art Salon in Copenhagen, Denmark – an exhibition and debate space with a focus on
intercultural dialogue, inclusion and global artistic exchange within the Danish community. In
2005 she was the project manager of the first Research Festival in Denmark on behalf of the
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The first Arts & Globalization Conference
entitled Achieving Intercultural Dialogue Through the Arts took place in Copenhagen in 2015
and aimed to engage with visuality in contemporary art practice and art theory in the context of
globalization. It addressed the complex interplay between cultural policymaking, art curation
and art production and promoted minority representation, accessibility and audience
development in national art institutions. The background for the first Arts & Globalization
Conference was the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and
Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. In 2017 Rikke curated the first Arts &
Globalization Pavilion in Venice, Italy with the program Remembering the Future. In 2018 she
curated the program Art & Connectography with Valentina Gioia Levy, a collateral event of
Manifesta 12 Palermo with a focus on hyperconnectivity, geopolitics and migration.

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VALENTINA GIO IA LEVY
(Italy)

Valentina Gioia Levy is the artistic director of Valeria Costa Piccinini Heritage Fund (Rome, IT)
and GAD - Giudecca Art District (Venice, IT). Since 2010, as an independent curator she
collaborated with a number of cultural institutions, museums, art galleries and festivals around
the world. In 2014, she coordinated a curatorial program for the National Museum of Oriental
Art that aimed to present key Asian artists and practices. Since 2014 and 2017 she has been the
curator of the visual arts program of the Festival of Villa Ada in Rome. Between 2014 and 2015
she curated two collateral shows of Kochi - Muziris Biennial (Fort Kochi, India). In 2015, she was
guest curator of the first edition of Something Else OFF Biennale Cairo (Egypt) and in 2016 she
was guest curator of the XII edition of Dak’art Bienniale (Senegal), under the direction of Simon
Njami. In 2016, she was also co—curator of LAM360, Land Art Mongolia Biennial (Ulan Bator,
Mongolia) and co-curator of Mediations Biennial Poznan (Poland). In 2017, she was a contributor
for Arts and Globalization Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennial. In 2018, she co-curated the
program “Art & Connectography” with Rikke Jørgensen, a collateral event of Manifesta 12
hosted by Arts & Globalization Platform and she was a guest curator of the second edition of
Something Else OFF Biennale Cairo.

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ENRICO LUNDHI
(Luxembourg)

Enrico Lunghi studied art history and archeology at the University of Strasbourg. After
being research assistant at the Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art in Luxembourg from 1991 to
1995, he founded, together with Jo Kox, the Casino Luxembourg-Forum d'Art Contemporain in
1996, of which he was artistic director until 2008. From 2009 to 2016 he was general director of
Mudam Luxembourg. Since then he has been research officer at the Ministry of Education
(SCRIPT) and at the University of Luxembourg. He was curator for Luxembourg at the Venice
biennial in 1995 (Bert Theis, Potemkin Lock), in 1999 (Simone Decker, Chewing and Folding
Projects) and 2007 (Jill Mercedes, Endless Lust), and for the project 100 Sexes d'artistes by the
Belgian artist Jacques Charlier in 2009. From 2005 to 2011 he was President of the International
Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT). He has written numerous articles for
exhibition catalogs and, also contributes regularly to the monthly cultural paper kulturissimo in
Luxembourg.

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IBRAHIM M AHAM A
(Ghana)

Photo Credits: Peter Rosemann

Ibrahim Mahama (b.1987) in Tamale, Ghana is an artist who lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and
Tamale, Ghana. He started his practice through his interest in the history of materials and
architecture. Failure and delay through specific forms always inform his choice of sites. He
believes the works do not only occupy but are also occupied within the works/objects. Residues
and points of chaos registered as marks within the forms he selects, they present us alternative
perspectives of looking into the materials/Labour conditions of society. Form is important. His
work has included objects from jute sacks used to transport commodities to the point of decay
and later sewn together with a network of collaborators under specific Labour conditions which
is then superimposed on architecture. The politics of the hand and it’s parallel relation with
architectural forms become a lot more evident. His most recent work, 'A straight line through the
carcass of history' has also dealt with forms related to the second world war and bacteria life. His
work has been included in the 56 and 57 Venice Biennale, documenta 14 Athens and Kassel,
Orderly Disorderly, Accra, Images An Age of Our Own Making, Denmark, the island is what the
sea surrounds, Valletta 18, Malta and Spectacles Spectations, Kumasi Ghana and Labour of
Many at the Norval Foundation, Cape Town. He finished a year residency with the DAAD in
Berlin in 2018. His current interests are using specific architectural forms with history in the
formation of spaces inspired by the potentialities and failures of modernity.

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W ASEEM M ARZO UKI
(Syria)

Waseem Marzouki graduated from Damascus University, Faculty of Fine Arts in 2007 with a BA in
fine art. In 2012, he studied cinematography at the Global Cinematography Institute in
Hollywood, California. He has held solo shows at Castelli Gallery, Los Angeles 2017. Saatchi
Gallery, London 2016. Meem Gallery, Dubai 2014. Markhia Gallery, Qatar 2015. Institute of
Islamic Cultures, Paris 2014. Waqif Art Center, Doha 2009, and Goethe Institute in Damascus
2007. He has also participated in group exhibitions in Switzerland, Berlin, Paris, London, Italy,
Los Angeles, New York, Stockholm, Athena, Istanbul, Dubai, Syria and Qatar. Marzouki has
worked extensively with film and has held screenings of his work at various galleries and film
festivals including Doha Tribeca Film Festival, 2011. Venice Biennale, 2017. Saatchi gallery,
2016. Qatar museum, 2015. Tehran Film & TV Festival 2009, and Damascus the capital of culture
2008. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

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PASCALE O BO LO
(Cameroon/France)

Activist, Editor-in-chief, Cultural Producer and Filmmaker. Pascale Obolo was born in Yaounde,
Cameroon. At an early age, already involved in various artistic expressions, she studied directing
at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français in Paris and then obtained her master’s degree in
cinema at the University of Paris VIII (experimental cinema section). A pioneer of urban culture,
she filmed the early hip-hop scene and Parisian graffiti painters, self-producing several films
about rap, street culture and taggers. As a feminist, she concentrated her gaze on gender with
the Hip Hop women's movement in the French suburbs and on the place of women in the
contemporary art world. Her main focus is on the concept African Futurism. Some of her works
have been exhibited at the Halle de la Villette, Paris in 2009, the Musée du Montparnasse, the
Quai Branly Museum and the 2011 Dak’art Bienniale (Senegal). Pascale Obolo is co-founder of
AFRIKADAA: a contemporary art magazine, an intellectual and artistic laboratory that aims to
create a dynamic setting in Paris and the African diaspora. She also works as educator, curator
and producer at La Colonie, Paris.

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PRODUCTION TEAM

POLITICS OF SPACE is organized by:

Rikke Jørgensen, Creative Director and Founder of Arts & Globalization Platform.
Valentina Gioia Levy, Artistic Director of GAD - Giudecca Art District, Venice (IT).
Em il Lüth, Assistant, Arts & Globalization Platform.
GAD - Giudecca Art District, Logistic and Institutional Relations

For press enquiries please contact:

Arts & Globalization Press Office

Rikke Jørgensen | info@artsandglobalization.com | tel. +45 27509039
Emil Lüth | info@artsandglobalization.com | tel. +45 22126603

Follow us @artsandglobalization | #artsandglobalization I #politicsofspace

Website: www.artsandglobalization.com

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SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS

                                                                                                                                                                   

MEDIA PARTNERS:

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