KIBLA in the European Capital of Culture Sibiu 2007

Areas of Conflu(x)ences
Luxembourg and Sibiu 2007
15th August – 15th October 2007

Dušan Fišer and Davide Grassi have been selected to represent Slovenian artists in the exhibition programme, and Marko Košnik is a member of the conference committee.

The Areas of Conflu(X)ences project connects two European Capitals of Culture for 2007 – Luxembourg and Sibiu (Romania), while at the same time relating to future capitals, such as Slovenia in 2012 and France in 2013. It focuses on digital art, wishing to present the general public with the peculiarities of such artistic approach and with various practices it emphasizes. An event will therefore take place simultaneously in both cities, enabling us to witness live spectacles as well as plastic installations that will serve as the bases for dialogue between the two cities. The presentation will comprise works of European artists, revolving around the topic of "landscape". The works featured and connected will investigate various types of communication offered by the new media and digital technologies, and special attention will be paid to works and appliances that develop a special interactive relationship between several distant places.

What brings European artists together is their interest in innovative development, based on the means that are offered by new media. We will try to expose the need for a common European space that has suffered from the lack of versatility and originality of artistic expression, yet it has been struggling to establish bridges of dialogue between various public discussions. Art wishes to be the point of confluence between three areas: Luxembourg and Sibiu as two physical representatives and the Internet as the virtual and global sphere. Works will be exhibited at usual spaces for art, at urban public spaces, but also in virtual spaces on the Internet. The artistic committee with prominent representatives of the field has made a selection of works that were submitted to the public call, and included them in the exhibition and other events. These presentations will be enhanced by conferences, discussions and workshops to provide the critical and educational aspect of the project.

Events in Luxembourg and Sibiu will be continued in Maribor in January 2008. The presentation of a part of the exhibition Areas of conflu(X)ences, a conference on the complexity of the broad concept of art and an exhibition catalogue will also mark the Slovenian presidency of the Council of the European Union in the beginning of 2008 – the first presidency of a new member country after the enlargement in 2004. The project will then be presented in Portugal, who will be the partner of Slovenia for the European Capital of Culture for 2012, and in France, hosting the European Capital of Culture in 2013 (together with Slovakia).
The accompanying events to the Areas of Conflu(x)ences include the conference Art, Space and Technology in the Digital Age, taking place between 4th and 7th October in Sibiu. It will relate to the following issues:
The types of image and sounds and their interaction: digital art and the art of new media, techniques of representation, technology of images, technology of sound, sound visualization, the skills of performances.
Special forms: physical and virtual spaces, space/place/territory, the space and experience of everyday life, private and public spaces, mobility and mobile platforms, utopian spaces, urbanism, landscape, arrangement of space, cartography, topography, the politics of space, environment.
Types of memory: forms of archiving, data systems and models, memory and reminiscences.

The complete event is organized by 2580 Association with partners: Arscenic Association Paris, Czech Cultural Centre Bucharest, Association for Culture and Education KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia, Planwerk Association Cluj, Visual Arts and Design University Cluj, Tranzit Foundation Cluj andGong Theater Sibiu.