FORMS OF ENGAGEMENT
The Main Event: September 25 – October 15
Special Events Week: October 9 – 13
The third edition of TINA B. – The Prague Contemporary Art Festival, organised by Prague’s Galerie Vernon, brings together the creative energy of the cultural scene in Central and Eastern Europe with emerging artistic talents from around the world in the Czech Republic’s vibrant capital. Adopting the leitmotif FORMS OF ENGAGEMENT, TINA B. 2008 focuses 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, 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 as of the ill-fated imposition of political and military might).
The Main Event of TINA B. 2008 is taking place from September 25 until October 15, 2008, at various venues and locations in Prague, including the Italian Cultural Institute, the Laterna Magika Theatre, the Gallery of Art Critics and TINA B.’s ALTERNATIVE SPACE, a dilapidated building opposite the Czech National Gallery (Dukelských hrdinů 28, Prague 7), as well as in public space.
The festival focuses on video, light and sound installations and the new media generated by mobile technologies, which so profoundly influence the course of our daily lives, as well as visual art performances. Another approach highlighted at TINA B. 2008 is open collaboration, engendered by two exceptional projects – RE-BRANDING PRAGUE by Wooloo Productions which is part of Micaela Giovannotti’s VIDEOCRACY section, and the groundbreaking multifaceted research and performance project VYSOČANY CONGRESS curated by renowned Russian critic and curator Viktor Misiano.
Special Events Week will run from October 9 until 13 and will include a number of public events and visual art performances, for example by extravagant Italian contemporary art duo CONIGLIOVIOLA and Czech multimedia artist Darina Alster. The TINA B. STREET PARTY will explore the interface between contemporary art and popular culture in general, featuring various visual art activities, outdoor video screening and performances by several experimental music groups with strong contemporary art connections.
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 a public space site-specific video installation by Giuliana Cuneaz (from the Darkness Is Noon section) and two public space projects by CONIGLIOVIOLA. Curated by Blanca de la Torre, David Maroto will organise a three-stage strategic board game tournament during Special Events Week. Entitled DISILLUSION, the project employs the board game as a platform to explore wider issues of coexistence and the generation of meaning through experience.
TINA B. 2008 is held under the patronage and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague.
For more information and high resolution images, please contact:
Marek Tomin, Press Officer and co-curator
TINA B. – The Prague Contemporary Art Festival; M: +420 604 237 974, E: marek.tomin@tina-b.com.
