Through the Roadblocks - Stage 3

https://www.neme.org/projects/ttr/through-the-roadblocks

Through the Roadblocks: Exhibition

The concern of the curators has been to focus not only on the final outcome but, more importantly, on the relations between the participants, on the networks of agency that have been generated by them, on process, on the value of interdisciplinary collaborations, as well as on the value of the arts as a research methodology that provides a creative framework for establishing collaborations across national boundaries.

Participants

Lanfranco Aceti (IT//UK/TR), Ali Akay (TR), George Alexander (AU), Klitsa Antoniou (CY), Mirene Arsanios (LB), Helene Black (CY), Bernd Bräunlich (DE), Çağlar Çetin (TR), Dimitris Charitos (GR), Yiannis Christidis (GR/CY), Marianna Christofides (CY/DE), Antonis Danos (CY), Yiannos Economou (CY), Phillip George (AU), Jean-Pierre Hébert (FR/US), George Katodrytis (CY/AE), Tahl Kaminer (IL/UK), Nesrine Khodr (LB), Gabriel Koureas (CY/UK), Coti K (GR), Peter Lyssiotis (AU), Seza Paker (TR/FR), Guli Silberstein (IL/UK), Sharmeen Syed (PK/AE), Nicos Synnos (CY), Yannis Yapanis (CY), Iannis Zannos (GR)

• Curators: Helene Black (CY), Antonis Danos (CY)
• Coordination and Exhibition design: Helene Black (CY), Yiannis Colakides (CY)

Through the Roadblocks: realities in raw motion

The Through the Roadblocks: realities in raw motion conference is co-organised by NeMe, the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts (Art History and Theory Research Lab) of the Cyprus University of Technology, and the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture.

Through the Roadblocks: realities in raw motion aims to examine the complex dynamics and often overlooked inter-connections between inclusion and exclusion, sharing and denial, identity and borders, the status of citizenship and the fundamental aporia of democracy in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The conference is held during the Cypriot Presidency of the European Union, which is not only a motive to examine the recent history of the divided island of Cyprus, but also a perfect occasion to spotlight the roadblocks, whether real, implied, concealed and repressed which still exist within this region.

After the “Arab Spring” and Occupy movements, the enthusiasm which existed only one year ago has now turned into a long-lasting process of restructuring and reverberations of different policies and developments. Does everything, as Tomasi di Lampedusa’s famous saying reminds us, have to change, so that everything can stay the same, or can we really say some roadblocks were knocked down and passed through? Whatever the answer may be, what is the role of art and what happens when art meets politics, and vice versa?

Roadblocks and borders exist to exclude and stop crossings; yet, people, ideas, culture and in many cases, trading of political ‘products’ expose the porosity of these enforced demarcation lines. What is the nature of, and the transformations that take place during, these crossings? And, are roadblocks of any kind simply division/obstruction ‘lines’ or are they spaces that contain (in all meanings of the word) activities that are unique to them?

To answer these, and many other questions, philosophers and artists, theorists and activists, from different professional fields and from different parts of the world will meet in Limassol, showing that already this unique event helps to create a shared engine which puts in question different roadblocks.

The exhibition is under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU.

Speakers

Distinguished keynote speakers

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (IN/US), Tariq Ali (PK/UK)

Session keynote papers

Lanfranco Aceti (IT/UK/TR), George Alexander (AU), Srećko Horvat (HR), Nada Shabout (IQ/US)

Speakers

Klitsa Antoniou (CY), Boris Bakal (HR), Antonis Balasopoulos (GR/CY), Helene Black (CY), Umut Bozkurt (CY), Bernd Bräunlich (DE), Çağlar Çetin (TR), Dimitris Charitos (GR), Yiannis Christidis (GR/CY), Marianna Christofides (CY/DE), Antonis Danos (CY), Yannos Economou (CY), Mayssa Fattouh (LB/QA), Phillip George (AU), Jean-Pierre Hébert (FR/CA), Tahl Kaminer (IL/UK), George Katodrytis (CY/AE), Lara Khaldi (PS), Yazan Khalili (PS), Nesrine Khodr (LB), Gabriel Koureas (CY/UK), Maria Lianou (CY/GR), Peter Lyssiotis (AU), Andri Michael (CY/FR), Andreas Panayiotou (CY). Katerina Pejovic (SI), Artemis Potamianou (GR), Ghalya Saadawi (LB/UK), Nana Sachini (GR), Guli Silberstein (IL/UK), Sharmeen Syed (PK/AE), Nicos Synnos (CY), Nicos Trimikliniotis (CY), Susanne Weiß (DE), Yannis Yapanis (CY), Iannis Zannos (GR), Lena Zeise (DE)

• Conference chairs: Antonis Danos (CY) & Helene Black (CY)
• International Coordinator: Srećko Horvat (HR)
• Cyprus Coordinator: Nikolas Defteras (CY)
• Editor of the Conference reader: Denise Robinson (AU/UK)

Through the Roadblocks