9 April 2009 / Casco HQ
In the context of The Antagonistic Link, a project by Electric Palm Tree at Casco that deals with inherent frictions and constructive possibilities in transnational links, Polish curator Aneta Szylak and Iraqi artist Hiwa K. present and discuss their collaborative initiative Estrangement.
Estrangement, which began in 2007, explores the tension between Europe and what was once constructed as the “Orient.” If the dominant forms of representation often produce a sense of distance and estrangement from other cultures, this project investigates activities in which estrangement is used as an artistic strategy that allows us to reformulate intercultural relations.
Aneta Szylak is curator and art theorist, co-founder and currently director of Wyspa Institute of Art in the former Gdansk Shipyard in Poland. She is also Vice-President of the Wyspa Progress Foundation. Her curatorial practice focuses on performativity, contextuality and open, dynamic forms in exhibition- and institution-making.
Hiwa K. is a visual artist and musician. He was born in Iraq and lives in Germany. His major interest circles around the notions of event, performativity, as well as the figure of the artist as an amateur. Since 2005, he has been developing a series of projects involving paradoxes of cultural competence, participation, dissemination of knowledge and distribution of the event.
