Methods of research and dealing with reality in anthropology and participative art projects.

The aim of the meeting is to have a closer look on the methods of research or being in the terrain that are used in science (anthropology) as well as in participative art projects.

We invited scientists and artists working with various media (theatre, film, photography, installation, music) to discuss the issues that can be encountered in the field but very often they just pass over and remain inarticulated : hesitation, boredom, awkwardness, uncertainity, fear of having nothing to ask. As they betray a certain fragility of the researcher/artist they are usually swallowed down. But on the other hand they can be seen as a very natural and constitutive part of the research – so we want to admit and discuss them. By doing so we want to analyze the relationship between the researcher/artist and the object of his research – recognizing different factors that comes into play and determine the final version of the „reality“ portrayed.

The second ax of the interest is aimed at the methods of working with the field material and translating it into an art or scientific expression. Here we want to point out also the aesthetic side of the projects with the social outreach which is very often disregarded.

Part of the symposium will be the guided tour through KIA Motors Slovakia and contemporary opera Kráľ duchov (Erl King).

Thursday 6. 12. 2012

10.00 – meeting, introduction
10.30 – theoretical part: Dušan Barok - Participative methods in visual arts. Dušan is an artist, writer and cultural activist involved in critical practise in the fields of software, art, and theory.
12.00 – lunch break
13.00 – Daniela Deutelbaum - will present her projects disturbing borders between private and public space. One of those is m.odla gallery which she runs for almost five years behind the walls of the appartement building she lives in and its A.I.R. programme.
13.45 – Periférne centrá -  is a Slovak civic association which aims to bring art and culture outside zenith of cultural and economic centers, at the same time that provides mutual interaction and exchange experiences between local people and invited artists.
14.30 – coffee break
15.00 – Illah van Oijen - is a dutch photoghrapher living and working in Bratislava. She uses photographs as the means of researching the non-evident identity of the cities.
15.45 - Sarah Günther – a performance artist. She realizes various interventions into the public space creating there a sort of an autonomous space – “Mobile Albania”.
16.30 – Jana Svobodová - is a theatre director who for many years has focused on communication with ostensibly invisible groups of society. Together with musicians, performers and artists she created a series of workshops and projects at refugee camps, Archa theatre and other places.

Friday 7. 12. 2012

10.00 – theoretical part: Mirka Bobáková – is an anthropologist and independent researcher, teaches at Comenius university in Bratislava. She will present the methods of the field research and participant observation that could be useful for the artistic projects as well.
11.30 – coffee break
12.00 - departure to the excursion to KIA motors Slovakia.
14.30 – return to Žilina
15.30 – Juraj Chlpík - is a cinematographer. He will present the project „Petržalka identity“ realized in the slovakian biggest housing estate
16.00 – movie Petržalka identity
16.30 – Adriána Kábová – is a cultural anthropologist researching the tourism and the local representations related to it in Indonesia. She reflects a lot on the exotic position of the researcher in the field.
17.15 – Anna Lengyel – dramaturg and founder of PanoDrama – will present the method of the Verbatim theatre that she uses in the performances dealing with the topic of Roma exclusion in contemporary Hungary.

Saturday 8. 12. 2012

9.30 – meeting in the Žilina city center – participating at the project of Illah van Oijen.
13.00 – lunch and return to Stanica
14.00 – Matej Gyarfáš – experimental musician and teacher at the Academy of Performing Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. He will present an interdisciplinary project in Göteborg based on the interventions to the community and urban spaces of the city.
14.45 – Ján Šimko - creates a formally original work on the border of documentary and played theatre.
15.30 – coffee break
16.00 – Marek Piaček – is a contemporary composer that has participated in many site- and social-specific projects in cooperation with the non-professional musicians.
16.45 – Soňa G. Lutherová – is a social anthropologists and author of several anthropological films and video-art pieces. In her work she deals with the topics of material culture, visual anthropology and anthropology of design.
19.00 – Erl King, Štós – contemporary opera on the J.W. Goethe motives – realized by cooperation of Marek Piaček with the Brass-orchestra of Štós. The text of the opera has been partly translated into the minority dialect of Štós (mantáčtina) which is a branch of the carpathian-german languages.

The lectures will be held in English, the programme is open for public with the free entrance. For the excursion to KIA motors factory a registration is needed.

Registrations – barbora@stanica.sk
Info, program – ivana@stanica.sk

Symposium / workshop is a part of international project Karaoke Europe.