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/