THE RENAMING MACHINE - Skopje 29-30.09 Programme

Curatoress of the Conference: Dr. Suzana Milevska

Conference Assistants: Irena Cvetkoviќ and Slavčo Dimitrov

29.09.2008, 10 am - 6 pm
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National and University Library, Conference and Study CentreBul. "Goce Delcev" 6, Skopje 1000

10.00-11.15 The Rights and Wrongs of Renaming
Introduction and Moderator: Suzana Milevska
Emancipatory politics as a process of involving “wrong” names, Lana Zdravković, researcher, activist and artist, The Peace Institute, Ljubljana
No Name, Aldo Milohnić, MA, sociologist of culture, The Peace Institute, Ljubljana
The Potentialities of Renaming: Negation or Agency, Suzana Milevska, Ph.D, curator and visual culture theorist, Skopje
11.15-12.00 Respondents and Discussion
Zhivka Valiavicharska, PhD candidate in rhetoric, Sofia/Berkeley-University of California
Slavčo Dimitrov, VCRC-“Euro-Balkan” Institute, activist, researcher and M.A. student, Skopje

12.00-12.30 Break

12.30-14.30 The Art of Governing: State Insignia and Governmentality
Moderator: Lana Zdravković
Changes while standing still, Dan Perjovschi, artist, Bucharest
From Neue Slowenische Kunst to NSK State in Time, Miran Mohar/IRWIN, artist, Ljubljana
Collective Panic, Žaneta Vangeli, artist, Skopje
Kosovo Pavilion, Albert Heta, artist, Prishtina
Eternal Recurrence, Liljana Gjuzelova, artist, Skopje

14.30 – 16.00 Break
Video programme during the break:
Liljana Gjuzelova, Eternal Recurrence IV, 45 min video projection
Kalle Hamm, Renamed Helsinki, 16 min video projection

16.00-17.30 Proper Names, Gender Politics and Kinship
Naming and Renaming, Lia Perjovschi, artist, Bucharest
Daslu/Daspu, Tadej Pogačar, artist, Ljubljana
Naming the Bridge, Hristina Ivanoska, artist, Skopje
Given Name/Family Name, Oliver Musoviќ, artist, Skopje

17.30-18.00 Now You See It, Now You Don’t (performance with matchboxes), Aleksandar Stankoski, artist, Skopje



30.09.2008, 7 pm – 10 pm
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Cultural Centre “Točka”,
Str. Kliment Ohridski 15, (behind the Church St Kliment)

19.00 – 20.15 The Politics and Ethics of Renaming
Introduction and Moderator: Slavčo Dimitrov
Name Exchange Office, Žarko Trajanoski, MA in Human Rights and Democracy, Skopje
“The Western Balkans”- News from One Invented Region, Tihomir Topuzovski, artist, Skopje
Laibach and NATO, Julijana Zabeva, musicologist, Skopje
The Failure of Naming: Towards an Ethics of the Renaming, Slavčo Dimitrov, VCRC-“Euro-Balkan” Institute, young researcher and M.A. student, Skopje

20.15 – 20.30 Break

20.30 – 21.45 Cyber Renaming/Virtual Identities
Introduction and Moderator: Irena Cvetkoviќ
Renaming Semantic Cloud, New Media Centre, Skopje
http://newmedia.org.mk/renaming-semantic-cloud
Can you name my IP address? A new representation of body, language and subjectivity in cyberspace, Irena Cvetkoviќ, “Euro-Balkan” Institute, M.A. student in Gender Studies and blogger, Skopje
Discussion with a group of bloggers from Macedonia

21.45 – 22.00 Discussion

The main organiser of the project:

P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute
Hruševska 661000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
www.zavod-parasite.si

Partners:

The Peace Institute, Institute for Contemporary Social and Political Studies
Metelkova 6, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
Phone: +386 1 234 77 20

Press to exit project space
Vasil Gorgjov 28/4, Skopje 1000, Macedonia
Phone: +389 2 322 85 94
www.presstoexit.org.mk/

Cultural Centre “Točka”
Str. Kliment Ohridski 15, (behind the Church St Kliment)
Skopje 1000, Macedonia
www.kontrapunkt-mk.org/
Phone:+389 2 322 58 25

Stacion Center for Contemporary Art
Zija Prishtina Street n. n. 10000, Prishtina 10000, Kosovo
Phone: +381 (0) 38 222 576
http://www.stacion.org/

The project is supported by:
Erste Foundation
European Cultural Foundation-ECF
Swiss Cultural Programme Macedonia / Pro Helvetia Skopje
Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia
Municipality of Ljubljana

Машина за преименување - дискусија

Феноменот на преименување е несомнено проблем што иницираше огромен корпус на дискусии во контекст на спорот околу името меѓу Македонија и Грција. Воопшто, процесите и схемите на преименување силно влиаеја врз конструкцијата и дестабилизацијата на меморијата поврзана со националните, културните и личните идентитети, a особено во текот на последниве две декади на просторите на бивша Југославија и Југоисточна Европа.

Ономастиката, семиотиката, аналитичката философија и културологијата се само дел од дисциплините кои се впрегнати во анализата на оваа проблематика, во арбитрарноста и контингентноста на феноменот на (пре)именувањето, како и во интерпретацијата на репрезентациите и идентитарните политики поврзани со истиот.

Промената на имињата во историската пракса вообичаено се перципира како прв чекор кон апропријација или бришење на извесен национален, културен или личен идентитет, но и како стратегија за освојување или зачувување на одредени територии.

Како контрапункт на овие, длабоко вкоренети, политички и културни пракси на (пре)именувањето го имаме кибер просторот како нов медиум за комуникација, или како експериментален топос кој ја отвора играта со идентитетот и преименувањето.

Дали релацијата меѓу името и идентитетот во социјалниот, политичкиот и културниот простор е толку стабилна колку што вообичаено се претставува?

И од друга страна,

Дали оваа релација во кибер просторот е навистина толку отворена и ослободена од секојдневните културни и политички нормативи колку што се претпоставува?

Кои се импликациите и можностите од преиспитување на овие две навидум автономни, одделни и различни позиции?

THE RENAMING MACHINE - Ljubljana press release

THE RENAMING MACHINE

EXHIBITION: 12–19 June 2008
OPENING: 12 June 2008, 8:00 p.m.
CONFERENCE: 13 June 2008, 12:00 noon – 7:00 p.m.

Curated by Suzana Milevska

JAKOPIČ GALLERY
Slovenska cesta 9
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

The P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute – Ljubljana is pleased to announce the launch of the project The Renaming Machine with the opening of an exhibition on 12 June at the Jakopič Gallery in Ljubljana, and on the following day, a one-day conference.
These events are only the first in a series of curated exhibitions and conferences, research-based art projects, public discussions and workshops, which will extend into the middle of 2009 and will be organised in Ljubljana, Skopje, Prishtina, and Zagreb, all under the umbrella of The Renaming Machine project. The project is being realised as part of Patterns, the new cultural programme of the Erste Foundation, in a partnership between the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute – Ljubljana, The Peace Institute – Ljubljana, press to exit project space – Skopje, and Stacion – Prishtina.

The Renaming Machine looks at the complex entanglements involved in the political and cultural processes of renaming. Its main concept reflects the crucial need to question the way these processes have influenced the construction and destabilisation of the memory of national, cultural and personal identities in the former Yugoslavia and South-Eastern Europe over the past two decades. The project will examine various artistic and cultural phenomena associated with the notion of “renaming” in order to determine the extent to which renaming affects visual culture and shapes the cultural identities and cultural politics of the region.

The Renaming Machine underscores the arbitrary and contingent nature of names, but alongside the theoretical implications of renaming, the project examines clandestine ideological patterns of the “desiring renaming machine” at work behind the dominant social machines. The “renaming machine” has, for example, important implications for gender politics in the way the patriarchal marriage contract has traditionally dictated that a woman assume her husband’s family name, thus overwriting her premarital identity.

As a region overburdened with changes in its state borders, the Balkans possess a history that abounds with the politics of renaming. Changes in the names of institutions, people, ethnicities, languages, toponyms and even states were usually viewed as the first step in the appropriation, or erasure, of national, cultural, and personal identities, as well as a way to protect long-term political interests and ensure the domination of a territory. With the break-up of Yugoslavia, the renaming “apparatus” erased and overwrote most traces from the Tito era, including the Yugoslav leader’s own name, which had been attached to many places in the former country. The region itself has been called by different names: the Balkans, the Western Balkans, South-Eastern Europe, etc., depending on the geopolitical interests and attitudes regarding its integrity or dismemberment.

The conceptual “war of names” between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which resulted in an international outwitting game, is the best example of how the endlessly postponed event of renaming can enable a “state of exception” whereby the “renaming machine” is either underappreciated or overrated.

The first instalment of The Renaming Machine will present the work of different artists, art groups and theorists concerned with the question of renaming. In the project’s future instalments, additional research-based art projects will be commissioned and other artists and theorists will be invited to present work that engages various aspects of renaming.

A comprehensive publication edited by the Skopje-based curator and theorist Suzana Milevska and published by the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute is planned as the culminating segment of the project.

The exhibition is made possible by the enormous contribution of the participating artists as well as the generous support of the Erste Foundation, the Municipality of Ljubljana, the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia, the Swiss Cultural Programme – Western Balkans, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia – Division for International Cultural Relations.

Contact:
P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute
Hrusevska 66
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia

Tel. +386 1 542 56 85
http://www.zavod-parasite.si/
E-mail: suzanamilevska@gmail.com
blog: http://www.renamingmachine.blogspot.com/

The RENAMING MACHINE Ljubljana Poster

THE RENAMING MACHINE - Ljubljana Programme