program

from 23 to 24 October 2015

before numbers. continental breakfast 2015

in trieste the second part of the cei venice forum for contemporary art curators

BEFORE NUMBERS. 
Issues and Activities.
Trieste, Studio Tommaseo (via del Monte 2/1)
Friday, October 23 [4.30 – 8.00 pm] and Saturday, October 24 [4.30 – 8.00 pm], 2015
A FORUM FOR THE 20 YEARS OF TRIESTE CONTEMPORANEA.
On the 23th and 24th October the curators of the Central and Eastern Europe meet in Trieste and discuss on the crucial theme of public funding of research and experimental production in contemporary art.  BEFORE NUMBERS. ISSUES AND ACTIVITIES, organised by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee, schedules experts’ contributions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.

Among the around thirty participants of BEFORE NUMBERS Maja Ćirić, independent curator and currently curator in residency at the BAR project of Barcelona; Julia Fabenyi, director of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest; Suzana Milevska, independent curator and art theorist of Skopje; Raluca Voinea, critic and curator of Bucharest, co-director of transit.ro and founder of the international platform Artleaks.
This dense two-days of “Issues and Activities” in Trieste follows the “Perspectives in funding contemporary art research” tackled at the Seventh CEI Venice Forum for Contemporary Art Curators, which took place last May at Ca’ Rezzonico.
Beside the closing discussion by experts of the 2015 Forum’s topic, and to celebrate its 20th anniversary of “Dialogues with Central and Eastern Europe”, Trieste Contemporanea also offers in Trieste updates from curators on significant new works and European artists – in the original format “My Pick” – and the presentation of the “Franco Jesurun Award”, realized for the contest “Squeeze it” of last year – a video work at the crossing of visual arts, performative arts and new media by the Croatian group Komična Hunta (comic coup) with Adrian Paci guest director.

The experimental production is crucial for the art sector and represents its fundamental contribution for a better future.  At both artistic and curatorial level, contemporary art operates, as an incubator of creativity and imagination for the preparation of the future public sphere.  In times of economic depression is even more essential, therefore, to consider new ways, which can give continuity to experimental research.

However, public funding does not provide enough resources and it is often used for large projects and wide partnerships, which are sometimes forced to state the obvious in compliance with the given rules.  Indeed, the regulations of the contributions’ distribution are more and more asking to the visual arts sector to become an industry that is able to demonstrate efficiency through the amount of numbers which it is able to put in place, – “quantity” of presentation (especially through the media and the new social media) and participation (first of all, numbers related to audience, but also numbers related to hospitality and mobility of personnel).
What the scenario in Europe would be like in the medium and long term, should the current funding guidelines not be integrated with the option of conducting smaller-scale research projects where the new aesthetic production processes and their impact on the contemporary world can be tested?  Which could be downward the threshold of the development of an aware public, if in the meantime the resources to prepare it are not used?
The Forum is a CEI Feature Event and a Continental Breakfast project under the patronage of Mr Tibor Navracsics, Member of the European Commission.  It is conceived and organised by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee, in cooperation with the CEI-Central European Initiative and in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary Art in Zagreb.  The event is held under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, the Central European Initiative, the Regione del Veneto, the Provincia di Venezia, the Provincia di Trieste, the Comune di Venezia, the Comune di Trieste, the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice, the University of Trieste, the Goethe-Institut Triest and the Venice International Foundation.  It is supported by the CEI and the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia.  Thanks to the Trieste Natural History Museum., the Agnus Dei Tiziana Rocca Production, the Agenzia Turismo Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Cividin Viaggi srl and the Zidarich wine estate, Expo Mittelschool. 

See the full PROGRAMME
See the list of SPEAKERS
Free admission

INFO
info@triestecontemporanea.it
+39 040 639187 (from 5 to 8 pm)

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image: The Bora wind, blowing  in Trieste more than 100 km/h speed from East Nord East, as it is pictured in a detail of the bronze Wind Rose placed at the head of the “Molo Audace” pier in Trieste. The new name “Bold Pier” and the sculpture recall the landing there from the Italian Navy’s destroyer “Audace” (bold) of the first Italian troops at the end of WWI, in 1918. (photo: Fabrizio Giraldi; concept: Manuela Schirra; courtesy Trieste Contemporanea)