Maldives Pavilion - Alfredo Cramerotti

49 Pages·2014·4.03 MB·English

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55. International Art Exhibition
la Biennale di Venezia
MAldIVEs PAVIlIon
Portable Disappearance as work
in progress - approaches
NatioN
to ecological romanticism
55. International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia
MAldIveS PAvIlIOn
Portable Disappearance as work
NatioN in progress - approaches
to ecological romanticism
June 1st - November 24th, 2013
Gervasuti Foundation
Via Garibaldi, Fondamenta sant’Ana, Castello 995, Venice
Commissioner Catalogue edited by Advisors Gervasuti Foundation Chamber of Public Secrets
dorian Batycka Mr. Henry Meyric Hughes, Hon. President AICA, Michele Gervasuti, President Chamber of Public secrets (CPs) is a production collective of critical art and culture: an informative,
Camilla Boemio General Coordinator of Council of Europe Fiona Biggiero, Artistic director non-profit, independent contributor to the global art scene. The collective works as a network of
Alfredo Cramerotti Exhibitions, UK. artists, curators and thinkers who have been collaborating since 2004 in the organization, production
Aida Eltorie Ms. Hedwig Fijen, director Manifesta Foundation, and circulation of exhibitions, video and film festivals, art events, experimental TV and radio programs,
Gervasuti Foundation Team
netherland. political fictions and documentaries. CPs members also set up debate forums and talks and publish
Raggio di luna orsi
Supervisor books and articles on issues like migration, mobility, representation, colonialism, gender and difference
Giorgia Mis
Maria Paola Poponi Thanks to to help debate the role of art, its responsibility and its relation to society.
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Giulia Mattutini
Yasmine Allam CPs co-curated the Biennale Manifesta 8 in spain 2010-11, curated events and cooperated with at
Republic of Maldives Alessia Acone
Graphic Project omar donia institutions like Museo nacional Centro de Arte Reina sofía, Madrid; Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong
Abdul Aziz Ciss
lisa Camporesi Contemporary Practices Art Journal Museum of Modern Art, China, and UCCA Beijing; danish Film Institute; nikolaj, Copenhagen Art Center;
Curators Chiara Massini
Mohamed Rasheed Museum for Contemporary Art, denmark; and the nordic House Reykjavík, Iceland; Cinema Paris; KIAsMA
CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets Marialuce Breddo
With the support of Michael Fadel Museum in Helsinki, Queens Museum, nY; Hamburg Film Festival; docu-days Beirut; Video Brazil; der
Alfredo Cramerotti lara Gasparri
Berkeley University The Maldives national University Kunstwerk in Berlin; né a Beyrouth lebanese film festival; sidney Film Festival; Milano Film Festival and
Aida Eltorie Mor Thiam
dhivehi language Academy san Francisco Arab Film Festival.
Khaled Ramadan
Yasmine Allam CPs members are part of globally recognized art associations, among others The Art Consultancy
Gervasuti Foundation Interns
omar dona Unit (ACU), the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT), and the International
Associate curators Thomas Rosenblatt
olympus Cinema, Male Association of Art Critics (AICA).
Maren Richter Malenie Idler
Imad Agency Photo Archive
Camilla Boemio sara Cornejo
The Maldives national Museum Chamber of Public Secrets team
lena Marylova
Gianpaolo Arena www.chamberarchive.org
Assistant curators Valerie Gianni
stine Hoxbroe Rachel Morrall
Galia Kirilova
dorian Batycka
Hanna Husberg
laura Mclean
Abed Anouti www.marettieditore.com
Kalliopi Tsipni-Kolaza All rights reserved. no reproduction and mechanically or electronically
dana Kopel transmission of the present book is allowed in any parts, except with the Parallel projects with the support
permission of the editor’s copyright.
of and collaborations with
Organizing partner © Maretti Editore 2014
All rights reserved
Gervasuti Foundation IsBn 978 88 89477 519
With the support of
ASAC
Critical Media Production
www.doculogia.com lIAF
lofoten International
Art Festival 2013
InvIted ArtIsts contents
OFFICIAL PROJECTS
6 InTRodUCTIon 124 Paul Miller Aka dJ spooky
MOhAMEd ALI Chamber of Public Secrets team 126 Ehsan Fardjadniya

MOOMIn FOuAd 128 Marian Tubbs
7 nATURE As GUIdE
SAMA ALShAIbI Chamber of Public Secrets team 130 Ravi Agarwal, Camilla Boemio and Khoj
International artists - Associations Workshop
uRSuLA bIEMAnn
8 THE MAldIVEs PAVIlIon And GERVAsUTI FoUndATIon: 132 Celeste Pimm
STEFAnO CAgOL PREsERVATIon, CHAnGE And sPIRITs oF REsIsTAnCE 134 Mark dahl
Fiona Biggero
WAEL dARWESh 136 oliver Ressler
ThIERRy gEOFFREy AkA COLOnEL 11 PoRTABlE nATIon - dIsAPPEARAnCE 138 Mike Watson
As A WoRK In PRoGREss 140 Josephine starrs and leon Cmielewski
khALEd hAFEz
Chamber of Public Secrets team 142 PRoVIsÕEs (Provisions) - Book launch
hEIdRun hOLzFEInd & ChRISTOPh dRAEgER
144 PRoVIsÕEs - Uma conferência visual
15 GoInG FoRWARd
hAnnA huSbERg, LAuRA MCLEAn & kALLIOPI TSIPnI-kOLAzA 146 Fielding states: depth Projection
Chamber of Public Secrets team
AChILLEAS kEnTOnIS & MARIA PAPACAhARALAMbOuS 148 Hanna Husberg, laura Mclean
and Kalliopi Tsipni-Kolaza
gREgORy nIEMEyER / ChRIS ChAFE, PERRIn MEyER And RAMA gOTTFRIEd
OFFICIAl PROJeCTS Contingent Movements symposium
khALEd RAMAdAn In COLLAbORATIOn WITh AbEd AnOuTI
16 Mohamed Ali Moomin Fouad
OLIvER RESSLER 21 sama Alshaibi
CRITICAl TeXTS And THeOReTICAl COnTeXTUAlISATIOn
kLAuS SChAFLER 29 Ursula Biemann 152 An Archipelago of new Geographies
40 stefano Cagol A conversation between Alfredo Cramerotti
PATRIzIO TRAvAgLI
51 Wael darwesh and Camilla Boemio
WOOLOO
55 Thierry Geoffrey aka Colonel
154 Could We or should We Make It Work?
58 Khaled Hafez
Art between science and Research
PARALLEL PROJECTS 66 Heidrun Holzfeind & Christoph draeger
Maren Richter
PAuL MILLER AkA dJ SPOOkI 72 Hanna Husberg, laura Mclean & Kalliopi Tsipni-Kolaza
157 A Global Map of nature
74 Achilleas Kentonis & Maria Papacaharalambous
MARIAn TubbS dialogues with Ravi Agarwal, leon Cmielewski
80 Gregory niemeyer / Chris Chafe, Perrin Meyer
and Josephine starr
RAvI AgARvAL, nAvJOT ALTAF, AMAR kAnWAR and Rama Gottfried
Camilla Boemio
CELESTE PIMM 84 Khaled Ramadan in collaboration with Abed Anouti
96 oliver Ressler 160 The Crisis of In(aud)(vis)ibility:
MARk dAhAL
102 Klaus schafler a Perspective from the dumpster
OLIvER RESSLER
Dorian Batycka
110 Patrizio Travagli
JOSEPhInE STARRS And LEOn CMIELEWSkI
116 Wooloo
165 Contingent Movements
MARCOS LuTyEnS Laura McLean
PARAllel PROJeCTS
171 A conversation between Aida Eltorie,
122 Micro-Macro Area: From the Indian ocean
Alfredo Cramerotti and Maren Richter
to the Adriatic and from the Maldives to the Marche
Chamber of Public Secrets team
Venue UNIVPM – Università Politecnica delle Marche
Curated by Camilla Boemio
4
IntrodUctIon nAtUre As GUIde
The history of artistic aesthetics of the Maldives is not widely By inviting such a diverse collective of artists and thinkers to The position of nature is often determined by the contexts our interpretation of nature can never be independent of the
documented. The archipelago is rather known for its most donate their powerful visual and intellectual abilities to the within which non-human entities are integrated into human intellectual, artistic, emotional, and technological resources
central aesthetical topics – the supreme beauty of the ocean, Maldives pavilion, our intention is to provide a meaningful cultural understanding. And because our ability to value the available to us. These resources constitute the prism, or con-
ecology and environment. The first Maldives Pavilion at 55th experience and breadth of knowledge about the notion of non-human world surrounding us is mediated by this under- text, within which what we call nature appears to us and with-
Venice Biennial therefore suggests treating the culture and ‘Contemporary Environmental  Romanticism.’ This concept standing of what nature is or can be, a set of environmental in which we interpret our experiences of the natural world
nature of the Maldives as the central subject, marking its im- we have applied in relation to the nature and culture of the ethics would direct our awareness to the social and political around us. In order to make nature our guide in matters of in-
portance through its ecology, and what it would mean for the Maldives. We are very thankful to all the contributors for mak- milieu within which human beings become aware of that tellectuality and morality we have to understand what nature
islands to disappear. Ecology and nature in the current state ing this experimental approach to a national pavilion pos- world. Human intervention in nature constantly leads to new is, not by applying yet again a set of mechanical codes, but by
of global warming is no longer about national borders or cer- sible. Consequently, we are working in the direction of how interpretations of nature and the concept of the natural. This inscribing ourselves to and within the pulse of nature itself.
tain regions. The fact that the impact of changing nature links Contemporary Environmental Romanticism underlines the interventional contact often reveals new human thoughts This may seem more problematic to comprehend than many
Maldives and Venice in the environmental scenario of rising interpretation of nature as a source of aesthetic experience, and cultural values and a new codes and ethics, which can be in environmental ethics assume. our understanding of nature
sea levels thereby became the starting point to think of an in- by pursuing a critical view on the relation between ecology, constructive and destructive at the very same time. Accord- is still the product of cultural institutions and the multiplicity
ternational discursive format rather than a national represen- art and political-economic constellations. In this way, audi- ing to environmental ethicist Roger J. King, nature cannot be of interpretations of the natural world. We must ask how our
tation of the island nation of the Maldives in a narrow sense. ences may apply their own knowledge and daily experience assumed from the way nature itself is. It all depends on the present understanding of nature was constructed and how it
to the understanding and appreciation of this particular envi- place, which nature has acquired in our discourses with each has led us on to the particular path of environmental destruc-
Consisting of a large team of five curators and sixteen contrib-
ronmental issue. other. Therefore nature cannot be independent from our cul- tion we currently face. The question therefore is: can human
uting international artists/groups, we wish to partially capi-
turally based interpretation and understanding of what it is. culture stop short from disciplining and moralizing nature,
talize on our diverse cultural identities from Europe and the
This makes nature not something in itself, but rather a con- and if we do so can nature still remain our guide?
Middle East, alluding to the overlap of international cultures
ceptual artefact of human cultural existence. Before we can
that coexist on this island paradise. on the one hand, West-
pose the moral question of our obligations towards nature,
ern thoughts concerning nature have been marked by dual-
we inevitably bring before us a particular conception of what
ism, the notion of an opposition between nature and culture.
nature is. To state that nature is an artefact is to say that we
on the other hand, Eastern thoughts consider nature a guide
have no access to nature in itself or as it is, but we can gain
and source of intellectual and spiritual inspiration, because in
partial access to it through heritage and knowledge of what
the East thoughts the natural world simply “is” the law, and
we call the original. Chamber of Public Secrets team
human activities are adjusted according to its mechanisms.
The collaboration we want to capture is to prove the dual-
ity between art/culture and its inter-dependencies with en-
vironmental causes. only through such activities are we able
to regulate interests into ways of developing positive impacts
that will help avoid the negative ones bestowed by any singu-
lar paradigm or set of cultural ecologies. observation is what
converts possibility into reality.
7
the MAldIves PAvIlIon And the GervAsUtI FoUndAtIon:
PreservAtIon, chAnGe And sPIrIts oF resIstAnce
We affirm finally that any deliberate attempt to reach a ratio- The Gervasuti Foundation is proud to present “Portable nation” in the world lost to climate change, causing a mass climate- Change Project, which focuses on an innovative experimen-
nal and enduring state of equilibrium by planned measures, the Maldives first national participation in the 55th Internation- refugee exodus. Venice and its lagoon are among the most tal process which aims to be both local and international:
rather than by chance or catastrophe, must ultimately be al Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Curated by Chamber of studied urban environmental systems in the world and still preserving the uniquely inventive and rich cultural traditions
founded on a basic change of values and goals at individual, Public secrets in collaboration with the Gervasuti Foundation, they battle against rising sea levels and their devastating ef- of Venetian history through the promotion and production
national and world levels.1 this site-specific project is a testament to a complex journey of fects. Both these unique geographical locations suffer from of interdisciplinary contemporary art practice. The aim is to
achievements and an unusual union of intents. the flood of tourism, unsustainable transportation and tourist generate alternative awareness of preservation as well as an
statement by the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome
structures that cater for this growing industry. Although the interdisciplinary and ethically engaged approach to culture.
The theme of the Maldivian Pavilion’s show, denoted by its
kind of tourism is significantly different, the consequences of The Gervasuti Foundation is an interdisciplinary and interinsti-
subtitle ‘disappearance as a work in progress - Approaches
this tourist traffic reflect the need to rethink ways of preserv- tutional non-profit art platform set up in 2004 between lon-
That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but to Ecological Romanticism,’ addresses the alarming and much
ing Cultural Heritage, local identity and the environment. don and Venice and is located in the Venetian area of Castello
that land is to be loved and respected debated issues in contemporary climate change and the con-
orientale.   Its mission is focused on cooperation and the cre-
is an extension of ethics.2 sequent threat to our cultural habitats and ways of life. The The collaboration between Chamber of Public secrets, to-
ation of projects that stimulate a respectful use and develop-
current ecological issues faced by the Republic of the Mal- gether with the network of adjunct curators and the Gerva-
A. Leopold ment of an area that, like so many others, risks being engulfed
dives are the starting point from which broader trans-national suti Foundation stems from an extraordinary union of intents
by global tourism, inevitably resulting in a of loss of cultural
sets of concerns are explicitly and implicitly investigated by and circumstances beginning with a fundamental desire to
memory.
a group of international artists of Arab, European, American, address the urgency of our changing environment and the
It is extremely likely [95 percent confidence] more than half
Australian as well as Maldivian origins. This research-based in- responsibility and role we share as creative agents in these This has been a challenging project born of passion, determi-
of the observed increase in global average surface tempera-
ternational group show calls into question both our subjective rapidly changing times. Both organizations are set out to work nation and deep conviction where each and every participant
ture from 1951 to 2010 was caused by the anthropogen-
has been instrumental in making it come to life. It has been
and cultural conceptions of nature and the increasing need to on projects that include the possibility of creating contexts to
ic increase in greenhouse gas concentrations and other an-
an honour to be part of such an ambitious and provocative
re-evaluate our personal and collective attitudes and respon- discuss and open a dialogue between different practices and
thropogenic forcings together.3
venture. We would like to thank Chamber of Public secrets
sibilities in the light of increasingly evident and growing global review problems that threaten the very possibility of Cultural
and the entire curatorial team, all 18 artists and participants of
The Fifth IPCC Report Climate Change 2013 preoccupations. Heritage. The Maldives curatorial project presents a platform
the on-going programme of events produced during the six
of environmental campaigners, artists and thinkers to reflect
Interestingly this Island nation is hosted by a largely man-
months of the show, for their endless energy and dedication
on the necessity to re-think contemporary definitions of na-
made Island city. The former is an example of a natural para-
to the making of this first national presentation of the Repub-
ture and attempt to question the cultural interpretations and
dise, renown for it’s stunning beaches and sticking environ-
lic of the Maldives.
the national and international environments within an art
ment, and the later is an extraordinary illustration of human
context. The site-specific installations are set in the unusual Fiona Biggiero
settlement and of unique architectural and engineering
spaces of the Foundation, which are preserved as a tribute to Artistic Director
achievements. Venice with its lagoon is in its entirety, is listed
the importance of Cultural Ecology itself and the inherent risk Gervasuti Foundation
1 statement by the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome in donella as a World Heritage site. While the Maldives is the smallest
of the disappearance of Intangible Heritage, that include ways
H. Meadows et. al., The Limits to Growth, new York: Universe Books, 1972, Asian nation, made up of about 1,200 islands, it has the lowest
pp. 185-96. of life, skills, traditions and so forth.
ground level and the lowest natural high point in the world.
2 Aldo leopold, A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, oxford
The islands are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in ‘disappearance as a work in progress - Approaches to Ecologi-
University Press, 1949
their original natural state, they also face the risks of inunda- cal Romanticism,’ also shares affinities with part of the mission
3 The Fifth IPCC Report Climate Change 2013 The Physical science Basis
tion to the point of disappearance. It may be the first country of the Gervasuti Foundation, namely the Preservation Through
8 9
central subject, while at the same time as a point of departure tal question, which many projects in the exhibition are also
PortABle nAtIon - dIsAPPeArAnce As A WorK In ProGress
to tackle the micro and the macro aspects of what it would concerned: what kind of ‘trans-mediating governance’ does
mean for the island nation to disappear, and consequently the symbiosis of humans and nature need in the near future?
for the whole earth. Concurrently the exhibition aims to point This is what social and political theorstis such as Bruno latour
out the very different aesthetical moves towards so-called question as well, with the need of a concept of agencies that
eco-art. In order to reflect and include all these intentions the include nonhuman agendas into politics, or by artists, who
Maldives Pavilion aims to debate the complexity of national are positing extensively experimental aesthetic approaches
The Maldives has been confronted with a stormy colonial exploitative policies while citizens are too busy emotionally representation by proposing a more organic structure - ‘an ex- towards the topic. What governance is capable to consider
the ‘uneven geographies’ between the West and the Global
hibition as archipelago.’ national pavilions tend to emphasize
and post-colonial history. It was and still is a country of a and physically reeling from disasters or upheavals to create
south?
order and stability. In response to this way of interpretation,
transitional nature and culture. Throughout the history of its an effective resistance. By way of example, right after a tsu-
This imbalance is a main concern in Ursula Biemann’s rich
Portable nations-disappearance as a Work-in-Progress rather
culture, which dates back approximately 2000 years, a set of nami wiped out the coasts of southeast Asia in 2004, a huge
body of work over the last decades. The video essay ‘deep
seeks to offer a space for negotiation, of relational and trans-
habits and traditions emerged which are still visible today. amount of beaches in Thailand were auctioned off to tourist
Weather’ draws the connection between the relentless reach
disciplinary practice on environmental discourse, philosophy,
The archipelago is presently inhabited by 350,000 people, and resorts, whereas the fishermen, who had lived at the sea for
for fossil fuel resources, with their toxic impact on the climate,
sociology, natural science, and activism. Conceived as an eco-
over time they are a people who have changed and expanded centuries, were pushed back in the hinterland. The destruc-
and the consequences this has for indigenous populations in
aesthetics space, a platform for artists, environmental cam-
their believes, habits and traditions. The heritage is a mixture tive power of financialization of natural disasters, the power
remote parts of the world, by contrasting images from boreal
paigners and thinkers from around the globe, the Maldives
of East African and south Asian influences. The country is situ- to destroy important elements of everyday culture through
forests of northern Canada with the affects of changing cli-
Pavilion aims to share and exchange ideas, thoughts and
ated on the trading route that connects dubai and singapore. the tsunami, was initially conceived by local environmental
mate in Bangladesh. The political economy of oil and water
knowledge. sixteen artistic projects and a series of seminars,
over the last century when the tourism industry was increas- campaigners in the Maldives as a traumatic ‘rehearsal,’ since are put into focus by Gregory niemayer’s work ‘Polartide’
parallel exhibitions, master classes, a symposium and other
ingly expanded to the third strongest sector worldwide, the the damages on the islands were relatively small compared to also, by relating the two phenomena of sea levels and stock
events will take to proposing a series of questions in multifac-
Maldives became the epitome for tourists seeking exotic des- other countries. The huge media attention was followed by the valuations for oil companies, constructed in collaboration
eted ways. The contributions vary from poetic and subjective
tinations. Throughout its history, the island nation has always largest relief operations ever. But when international attention with Chris Chafe and Perrin Meyer as a platform on which we
approaches and forms of documentary, to using the ephem-
described itself by a seemingly paradoxical set of emerging faded, post-tsunami challenges continued to have an impact can listen to data about global climate change and corporate
eral as an aesthetic response to the notion of disappearance.
and submerging islands. After being a Portuguese, dutch and on affected communities. six years later and just weeks before profits. The sound piece by the Associate director of the data
The exhibited projects produce different models of social
later a British colony, the Maldives gained its freedom in 1965 Fukushima, swiss artist Christoph draeger and Austrian artist and democracy Project illustrates the cumulative imaginative
interaction by understanding the growing need to establish
and has been a republic since then. Heidrun Holzfeind looked at what has been achieved, what effects of collective actions. The intervention at the Maldives
a new model of symbiosis in man-nature relationships, es-
Pavilion’s entrance places two different fluctuating data sets in
The fact that is the Maldives is the planet’s lowest country, went wrong and what challenges remain. on a three-month
tablishing priorities for the usage and conservation of natural
conversation with one another.
rising an average of 1.5 m above the ocean surface, and that it trip in 2010/11 to the five countries most affected, Thailand,
resources, and defining alternative patterns of education or
The failure of global governance concerning the rising effects
has the lowest natural highpoint in the world of 2.4 m above Aceh/Indonesia, sri lanka, Maldives and Tamil nadu/India, the
the concept of productivity in the age of climate change. one
of global warming, particularly concerning the reduction
water. This has turned it into an element of struggle against artists investigated the current state of architecture built or
consistent critical guideline throughout the exhibition is the
of Co2 emissions, has created an intense culture for protest
the natural. A 60 cm raise in sea levels would see the entirety reconstructed in the aftermath of the tsunami that caused a
element of water as an unfailing reservoir of references: water
movements that believe that change could only be con-
of the Maldives smothered by the ocean and make the Mal- significant impact to the quality of daily life.
as a source of life and culture, a metaphor of memory - per-
fronted through a radical transformation of society, effectively
divian population probably the first refugee-nation of global In recent years a wide range of artists felt the urge to respond
sonal as well as collectively, as an alarming indicator of global challenging the existing distribution of wealth and power re-
warming. A fundamental question thus emerges: what does to these complex constellations of power structures of eco-
warming and a contested commodity and a visible mecha- lationships. Oliver Ressler’s three-channel video installation
it means for a culture, which formed an identity originated by logical ethics, posed against industrial capitalism’s despo-
nism of power relations in the age of an anthropogenic world. deals with this emerging social movement that questions and
living with the ocean, which built its entire language on the liation of the environment. Their cultural practices introduce
Italian artist Stefano Cagol, based in the Alps, proposed a selectively fights the response (or non-response) of states and
concept of living in this symbiosis, to be forced to speculate an intense debate of how critical art might contribute to an
simple as well as striking image to underlie how threats to corporations to climate change. one example is the Climate
on relocating from the sea to the inland of the continent, as imagination of ecology that addresses social divisions related
the natural landscape can no longer be separated according Camp to close the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station east of
it was proposed by former President nasheed in 2011? This to geographies, one that also might enable a rethinking of to location. The loss of the so-called ‘internal ice’ of the Arctic, london, UK, which took place in August 2008. The camp was
dramatic proposition spells out a general global dilemma, eco-aesthetics, especially as regards to the relationship be- or the glaciers in the Alps, which in turn affect rising sea levels organized to focus, above all, on providing space for people
one that what writer and social activist naomi Klein depicts tween ecological art and democratic political composition. all over the world, is exemplified by a huge melting ice cube, who believe that market approaches such as emissions trad-
in her book ‘The shock doctrine.’ Klein uses the term ‘disas- The exhibition ‘Portable nation-disappearance as a Work in which he positioned next to the canal on the Venice Arse- ing is not about the protection of the climate, but instead only
ter capitalism’ to denote situations in which the global free Progress’ as the first official Pavilion of Maldives follows this nale. Eco-aesthetical projects like Cagol’s intervention on the about ensuring continued capitalist growth.
market exploits local crises by pushing through controversial, axis by treating the culture and nature of the Maldives as the inter-connectivity of increasing sea levels raise the fundamen- For many, the term ‘ecology’ itself relates to the balance be-
11
tween organic natural life and a complex set of social, politi- While Guattari articulates this ecosystem of machinic ecolo- is asked to get the ransom if he wants them back and by the around climate change. The growing momentum of such
cal and cultural relations, all co-existing simultaneously - as gies as a process of perpetually governing systems dynamic time he finds out that this was just a hoax, it’s far too late. The projects sharpened the search for models of criticality in artis-
dorian Batycka elaborates in his essay published in this cata- and in motion, he links this trajectory with a networked set of film combines the idea of violence between an individual and tic practice and languages of resistance within existing power
logue, where he advances that: processes (machines) that link together social, material and collective disappearance, a subject that can be extrapolated structures. The French-danish artist Thierry Geoffrey aka
affective forces in ways that question the underlying distinc- and seen to reflect the problems the population of the Maldi- Colonel, tries to evaluate and expose these very same struc-
The various levels of ecology – understood as mental, tions between different specific value systems, for example: ves are currently facing. tures confronting the art system with the notion of ecologi-
social and environmental – create a conceptual start- cal emergency. Colonel seeks to offer his exhibition space to
ing point and set of dynamics that at once inform the Material assets, cultural assets, wildlife areas, as well as displacement as a form of disappearance also resonates with artists expressing emergencies and also requests space from
ways in which subjectivity is constructed as well. the social and international relations under the control the Italian artist Patrizio Travagli as well. Using the mirror as others. What nation is willing to debate its capacity to share
of police and military machines. a multi-layered emblem for the collective vs. the individual, some of its territory? Thereby begging the question as con-
The crucial question of the mental in relation to memory, as linked with the overload of image production, he offers a criti- cieved by Colonel: Can Emergencies Be Ranked?
well as to the culture of nature, is in contrast to the concept This entry also addresses the question of political responsibil- cal mindset for the audience as participant.
of biopolitics – as implied in the eco-philosophy researched ity, or what theorist TJ demos introduced as politics of ecolo- The evaluation of a disappearing culture that permeates ev- Egyptian artist Wael darwesh, treats the notion of disap-
by Iraq born artist Sama Alshaibi. Her video installation ‘sil- gy in ‘The Contingent Movements symposium’ presented by eryday life, it’s economy and ecology, was brought to the pearance in different manners, by painterly applying large
sila’ (Arabic for ‘chain’) depicts the artist’s three-year journey the Maldives Pavilion, addressing the need for long-term pro- fore by the danish collective Wooloo. With a symbolic ges- fields of flat solid color and mixed media to capture a fleet-
through the deserts and endangered water sources of the cesses, which in the case of Venice for instance was followed ture placing a small, out-of-place element – coconuts from ing moment in our pulsating memory. darwesh’s visual ex-
Middle East and north Africa, across to the bountiful waters by a long period of denying sustainable solutions of urban the Maldives – into the canals of Venice, Wooloo symbolically perience attempts to explore the consequences on the col-
of the Maldives. By linking performances in the deserts and development, instead forcing the belief in technologies to superimposed one sinking civilization onto another, serving lective memory and psyche of experiencing long periods of
waters of the historical Islamic world with the nomadic tradi- sail around the topic of climate change. Austrian artist Klaus as a reminder of both the resilience and fragility of nature. continuous change, inconsistencies, anticipation and sup-
tions of the region, and the travel journals of the 14th century Schafler’s archive ‘Hacking the Future and Planet’ focuses on Featured on the nation’s official emblem, the coconut palm is pressed actions. The absence of transparency, the inability
Eastern explorer Ibn Battuta, Alshaibi seeks to unearth a story exactly this idea as well, drawing attention to the ambivalent not only the national tree of the Maldives, but also a major to predict the next moment and the emergence of various
of continuity within the context of a threatened future. Egyp- character of large-scale interventions in the global climate element of the island nation’s visual culture. Yet the image predictions has led to many changes around and inside us.
tian artist Khaled Hafez on the other hand, offers a perspec- system and to geo-engineering technologies that ‘hack the of coconuts in the water is also an image of destruction: fol- This visual sonata of solid planes of form blended with gold
tive which addresses water in its different contexts as a frag- planet,’ in order to slow or even reverse our civilizations’ impact lowing the last tsunami to hit the Maldives, the vast num- leaf and collage, are juxtaposed with abstract figures that
ile container for memory: filmed across different geographic on the climate and environment to counter global warming. ber of coconuts floating in the water was a major sign of ruin. seem to dramatically perform roles in a theatrical back-
locations and free of any linear narrative, the footage tackles The use of knowledge in conjunction with science, as schafler ground. Khaled Ramadan’s documentary film ‘Maldives To
water as a source of life, communication and transportation, critically poses, is likewise a concern of the media-installation When it comes to the need of collective action towards cli- Be or not’, realized in collaboration with Abed Anouti, notes
but also of submersion and obliteration. by Cyprus-based artists Achilleas Kentonis and Maria Pa- mate change artistic practice over the last number of years the parodies captured between Western culture and its long
draws a lot attention to new forms of expression. It opens tradition of romanticizing the imagery of the East. Ramadan’s
pacaharalambous. Their room is conceived as a poetic, criti-
Philosopher Felix Guattari understood this dynamic perfectly, up channels of knowledge production that provide alterna- film addresses the confusion of the country’s fictional reality
cal, aesthetic, philosophical and scientific stroll within space
as Batycka states further, terming this as ‘ecosophy’1 that at tives to the economic valuation of nature or promote a dif- and how the Maldives today is wavering between the fiction
and time. Through play and adventure it aims to retrieve hid-
once connected that various social, cognitive and environ- ferent articulation of the commons against its corporate of the West and the reality of the East, and how the island-
den knowledge and forgotten truths, bringing relationships,
mental levels of ecology within a unifying set of principals enclosure. The ‘Contingent Movement Archive’ organized by ers are at the conjunction of Edward said’s theoretical duality
communication, even politics to a purely energetic level.
characterized by an assemblage of machinic processes. This Hanna Husberg, laura Mclean and Kalliopi Tsipni–Ko- ‘West is Culture, East is nature’. The film questions how the en-
fluidity of concepts for those non-indoctrinated into the lan- laza, works precisely on this. The online platform seeks to vironmental hazard about the Maldivian nature has become
According to philosopher and intellectual historian Michel
guage of Guattari is forged by the manner in which he con- unpack the problematics and possibilities of the anticipated an over politicized notion, and why the nature has proven
Foucault, there is a dominant paradigm that actively shapes
nects ‘nature’ with the concept of the machine – continuously submersion and dissolution of the Maldives, exploring these to be much more sustainable then the Maldivian culture. As
our conception of reality, understood for Foucault as truth
evolving and catalyzing into heterogeneous trajectories of contingencies within a global context. staged in the pavilion a citizen of the Arab world, Ramadan wants to learn about
and knowledge, in addition to our social, economic, and po-
material and social becoming. According to Guattari: and in a symposium, the interdisciplinary archive captures a what’s left of the shared history and how this amphibious na-
litical institutions. The loss of identity or the loss of the ’self,’
wide range of perspectives by mapping out potential migra- tion is treating its contemporary culture in relation to its eco-
leads one to sooner or later to consider ‘the disappearance
We might just as well rename environmental ecology tion scenarios for the permanently displaced population and logical strengths and weaknesses.
of man’ as Foucault points out in several occasions. In the
machinic ecology, because Cosmic and human praxis its culture. Projects like the archive highlighted as a trans-
award-winning film ‘Happy Birthday’ by Maldivian filmmak-
has only ever been a question of machines. disciplinary approach around floods, changing watersheds,
ers Mohamed Ali and Moomin Fouad, the hero is a simple
renewable energy and carbon profiling, sought to partner
man, living a normal life, until on his birthday he receives a call
1 Felix Guattari (1989) Three Ecologies. (I. Pindar & P. sutton, Trans.) london,
artists with scientists and theorists to create new dialogues
new Brunswick: Athlone Press, p. 28. telling him that his wife and child have been kidnapped. He
12 13
GoInG ForWArd
The current transformation of the physicality of the planet and Facing this impasse, one must be aware of the fact that what-
its climate and biosphere is considered so severe that scien- ever we know about the environment — knowledge that will
tists have begun to use the term Anthropocene to mark a new determine our future actions and chances of survival — we
era where the Earth as a whole depends on what humans do owe to the diverse practices and institutions that represent
to it. The use of fossil energy has turned humans into a geo- it. As such, we can perhaps only affirm the need for a critical
physical force. As is now widely known — particularly since realism that both refuses to relinquish the validity of scientific
the scientific consensus established by the IPCC (Intergov- paradigms and remains dedicated to a guardedly analytical
ernmental Panel on Climate Change), most recently in sep- approach to ecological discourse as a system of representa-
tember 2013, which has rendered those who do not want to tions forged at the intersection of power and knowledge.
face climate-change increasingly scarce (but, with continued To this end, it is necessary when considering the formation
industry funding to wage their misinformation campaigns, by of environmental art to scrutinize the diverse meanings of
no means extinct) — we live in a changing world of global ‘ecology’ and sometimes denaturalize the rhetoric of nature,
warming. The IPCC predicts a coming scenario of the world, recognizing these buzzwords as deeply political, contentious
half uninhabitable, of rising seas and temperatures, drought and ideological, something that we tried to propose with the
oFFIcIAl Projects
and water scarcity, and massive species extinction, which Maldives Pavilion for 55th Venice Biennial.
will undoubtedly provoke geopolitical challenges regarding
resource distribution, environmental justice between devel-
oped countries and the global south, and vast climate migra-
tion. This future defines new imperatives for an ethics of living,
a politics of governing, and in turn provokes new challenges
for contemporary artistic practice. Chamber of Public Secrets team
14 15
MOhAMEd ALI
MOOMIn FOuAd
hAPPy bIRThdAy
BeyOnd THe dReAM / A CIneMA AS An ISlAnd
The Maldives is a natural setting for cinema, which over the years have
followed shooting and directors such as Ridley scott. The country’s
film industry itself draws inspiration from Bollywood and several Mal-
divian remakes of Hindi movies have made box office hits.
I was taking critical insights when I decided to call Emiliano Mon-
tanari1, a filmosopher and a friend of the icon cinematic writer Enrico
Ghezzi, in order to formulate for understanding the background of the
Maldivian directors Mohamed Ali and Moomin Fouad.
The opinion of Montanari is that cinema is an island, the island of ‘real’
But more that cinema is an archipelago, as is the Maldives is
A broken puzzle of visionary fragments
Photograms shattered on the globe’s liquid sea of tears
Cinema and Maldives are contiguous archipelagos
The CineMaldives
The archipelago composed by the visions-islands of Indian, Indone-
sian, Arab and African cinema recomposing...
The contemporary globalized Bollywood on the Tiber 
A titanic mockumentary that is Cinema itself 
Where tourists become pirates and pirates tourists 
Movies becomes islands zoomed through a cosmic Google eye 
And from the very top sidereal point of view 
All the frames suddenly recompose the cosmological archipelago
Cinemaldives
Exactly an unveiling and denying of the great staging of life master-
fully represented by Mohamed Ali and Moomin Fouad, a theater of
the unexpected in which oscar Wilde and Pirandello are reinterpreted
today to tell: the tragedy, the loss and the adventure of every day. n
1cscuiu rTccrhrhuei isnat itstnel ydgx ptac vliiasnid yeai mnl tyghan e wc– hr ietp,h sWhu tillehotr eson oifen prav h Hedyne,i arthzliooiosgn gpu ,o aeJfra tawc c qciotuihnllea eEsbm mdoaeriltairiatrciin odoonàff ,sM -P swacouirntelht eVa nainrr iantliirosei.t, w s‘Gfi a lTimonhrdoign spigooh. pAilhogesarom,’ psbhheoenrrst,- ‘Happy Birthday’, Film, winner of 12 MFA Awards Photos by Gianpaolo ArenaCourtesy of Maldives Pavilio
from the Maldives Film Festival 2011
Camilla Boemio Courtesy the artists and Darkrain Entertainment – Installation view
16 17