Colonising Space
International conference in Riga, Latvia
Saturday 5 June 2004
09:30-19:30
Stockholm School of Economics
auditorium, Strelnieku 4, Riga
Moderator: Anders Kreuger
For more information, please contact the Riga Sculpture Quadrennial office
tel/fax: +371 7 322 196,
email: es [at] sculpturequadrennial.lv
This year’s Riga Sculpture Quadrennial is curated by the artists Aigars Bikse and Kristaps Gulbis. Entitled European Space, it is a Pan-European exhibition of sculpture and a series of conferences and workshops.
The quadrennial curators have invited Anders Kreuger, independent curator based in Stockholm, to organise an international conference in connection with the quadrennial opening, which will take place on Friday 4 June.
The Colonising Space conference will take place in the Stockholm Shool of Economics in Riga, Strelnieku 4, on Saturday 5 June and will be open to the public. The following artists, curators and critics will participate:
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Norway), Claire Bishop (England), Esra Ersen (Turkey), Annie Fletcher (Ireland/The Netherlands), Soren Grammel (Germany), Carsten Holler (Germany/Sweden), Solvita Krese (Latvia), Arturas Raila (Lithuania), Hanno Soans (Estonia), Dejan Sretenovic (Serbia), Apolonija Sustersic (Slovenia/The Netherlands/Sweden), Paula Toppila (Finland), Anton Vidokle (Russia/US)
Anders Kreuger‘s statement:
The conference is devised as an informal, inspirational discussion event for artists, curators and critics from all over Europe and the general public in Riga. I have invited the participants to talk about their practice and give concise presentations of ongoing or planned projects.
Colonising space can refer to several things that are connectable through creative association:
The first reference is to the hands-on political practice of colonising land. The term colonisation derives from the Latin colonus (‘a farmer, a settler’). Colonisation is often thought of as a thing of the past, and we are supposed to live in an age of post-colonialism. But today’s world is only experiencing the immediate aftermath of colonisation. Indeed, some territories must be regarded as still colonised or even newly colonised; also on the European continent, from which the most ferocious waves of colonisation originated. It is true that the enlargement of the European Union will benefit the new and the old members, but it will also create new frontiers that will come under attack from those kept outside. With its history and its projected future, Riga is a suitable venue for pondering the geopolitical aspects of colonising space.
The next reference is to cultural practice. Any survey of of colonising space must include creative efforts (be it by architects, performers, visual artists, theoreticians or organisers of art events) to introduce ideas into physical and social reality and to make sure their projects take place. Seen like this, colonising space comprises virtual and actual activities. Sometimes, spatial thinking is the crucial component. In other cases the multi-dimensional realization of such thinking takes precedence. In both art and politics, colonising space also means colonising other people’s minds: making use of them for your own purposes of ‘cultivation’ and leaving your own imprint as you withdraw. If you withdraw.
A straightforwardly utopian interpretation of colonising space is what dominates when you run the juxtaposition of these two words through the internet search engines. No less violent than the colonisation of land and mind, mankind’s expansion into outer space is presented as the only solution for the problem of over-population. On this particular issue there seems to be a curious overlap between the sprawling areas of science-fiction literature or computer games and the over-funded official scientific space programmes. One thing that always comes up is Erik Bergaust’s book Colonizing Space from 1978, with its nicely period cover. On their websites, austronauts recommend it to children.
Colonising space is also used, as a metaphor, in the scientific jargon of biology and medicine. The agent of such colonisation would typically be a population of bacteria gaining access to a host organism. But let us not forget the colonisation, by humans, of our own inner space. There is no lack of colonial metaphors in the classic literature of psycholanalysis. Indeed, the objective of analysis is to conquer as much territory as possible from the unconscious. Freud even speaks of the content of the unconscious as ‘an aboriginal population in the mind’.
For more information, please contact the Riga Sculpture Quadrennial office (tel/fax: +371 7 322 196, email: es@sculpturequadrennial.lv) or see the quadrennial website (www.sculpturequadrennial.lv)
