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BIG SOCIAL GAME - we need to talk
Torino, 26.04.02 - On Wednesday the 24th of April
we [the group everyone is an expert] were officially dis-invited by
the biennial-direction. Regardless of this, we have held our
WorldExpertForum on the same evening to present our project [the
expertbase] and to publicly discuss the conflict that it has
sparked. This event has been available as a live stream on the
Internet and should hopefully be available for replay on the BIG
TORINO website soon.
The Biennial BIG TORINO has invited us
to present our project www.expertbase.net. The expertbase is a
database that contains self-presentations, job applications,
job-offers, possibilities for the exchange of goods and information.
This database is accessible via a web interface. The expertbase is
targeted directly against discrimination immigrants are facing in
Europe in the fields of labor-, residence- and social status. During
the biennial we wanted to present the expertbase by installing three
terminals in the city, by riding around in our expertmobile and by
holding the WorldExpertForum in
the Cavallerizza. One of the three terminal locations was an unused
kiosk in the Via Pallazzo di Citta, where we had planned to
distribute a newspaper.
In the evening of Saturday the 20th of April - one
day after the official opening of the biennial - we were asked to
have talk with Michelangelo Pistoletto, Luigi Ratclif, Giancinto di
Pietrantonio, tOmi Schneiderbauer and Teresa Alonso Novo as
representatives of the biennial. Earlier that afternoon we had
already been told that our slogan
basta con berlusconi, bossi, fini - benvenuti
clandestini
had been conceived to be problematic. At our
request Christof Schäfer joined the discussion.
The slogan in question had been known to the
direction of the biennial for 8 days at this point: A flyer with the
slogan on it had been uploaded to the BIG GUEST website, and the
text announcing our project, which also contains this slogan, had
been personally cleared for upload to the website by Luigi Ratclif
on the afternoon of Friday the 19th of April.
In the course of this talk we were asked to retreat
the slogan, as it would constitute an undesired provocation towards
the Italian government. We were asked not to distribute our
newspaper, but to produce a new version in cooperation with the
biennial-direction. As foreigners to the Italian political situation
we would not be capable of assessing the consequences of this slogan
for the projects and jobs of the responsible persons and the
biennial as such. Also the slogan would violate the concept of the
artistic direction which advocates subtle forms of expression in
place of straightforward ones.
In the night preceding this talk
our installation the expertmobile had been damaged. the license
plates, displaying the above mentioned slogan had been removed.
During this talk we were informed that this had been carried out by
the direction of the biennial.
We respect the concern of the biennial-direction
that the Italian government and other right wing groups are trying
to destroy the biennial. Two installations have so far been legally
attacked and publicly criticized by the Alleanza Nationale [AN], we
have also been informed that BIG TORINO has been subjected to a
parliamentary questioning.
Such concerns have been explicitly
formulated to us. We were told that the responsable persons, working
with public funding, would not able to defend our slogan as an
expression of artistic freedom.
During this talk but also during following
discussions we have repeatedly stated that the incriminated slogan
is both aesthetically and content-wise an important element of the
expertbase. After consulting with other members of our association
we have confirmed that we wanted to continue our project in the
original form. It was our intention, that when designing the
stations we would adapt them to their respective surroundings by
using more or less subtle forms of decoration. Of course we are
willing to accept full responsibility for our entire project.
The incremented slogan is our commentary on the
Italian situation. Especially the names Bossi and Fini have a very
direct link to our project. The so-called Bossi-Fini-Law makes the
right of residence for immigrants dependent on the possession of a
work. A construction that is also advocated by the responsible
German Minister Schilly. Our expertbase is a subversive answer to
such regulations. Our slogans 'Everyone is an expert' and 'no one is
illegal' do articulate these very views.
We have gracefully accepted the invitation to
participate in BIG TORINO, because we are interested in presenting
our project on another international context. Furthermore we wanted
to get an impression of Italy under the rule of the
Berlusconi/Bossi/Fini government. Thirdly we had hoped to find an
open forum and possibilities for discussion and exchange of
experiences on activism, cultural and artistic interventions in the
political spheres in the countries of the different
participants.
We have found a climate characterize by fear, that
results in taking decisions according to the perceived interests of
the government. In this context it is understandable that rumors
exist that persons of the festival direction [tried to] have
obtain[ed] information on artists by the police. Also other projects
should have been asked to sign declarations stating that they would
not insult anyone in the course of their projects. Our and other
projects have been legally checked in advance by the festival
direction. We just want to remark that we this has not had any
results.
We do not have any problems with political or
aesthetic conflict around our expertbase. We conceive it as an
interesting question whether interventions are indeed only capable
of producing results if they are subtle, or to use BIG TORINO's
words: is this still art or who's game is it?
The climate around this exhibition tells us
otherwise. It tells us that the fear of fascism on the rise is
present. This has been clearly communicated to us. After the
discussions we are left with the questions which tactics and
strategies could be more successful in the current situation in
Italy. We take the critique that our approach can be contra
productive for our project serious. This, however, can only be found
out when we try. Our conception of Culture and freedom of speech
includes the right to say things that are wrong or that are right.
The social game of our project is to undermine laws and to cross
borders.
We are currently experiencing which SOCIAL GAME is
being played in Italy. It produces art and an atmosphere that cannot
bear such a trivial message as our slogan. We do not conceive BIG
TORINO as a place of free speech, of open discussion, of artistic
freedom, of creative communication, that for a moment enables a
clear no to the general social game in Italy.
The french/american artist group rTmark
- also invited as BIG GUESTS - have also formulated a statement referring
to how or forms of expression are dealt with and commenting on the
tension between politics and art in the current situation.
If in Italy it should not be possible anymore to
produce and exhibit in a free atmosphere, when the time of the
little Torinos and speak easies has come, we think it is about time
to make this public, to communicate and to find answers together
especially as the no to this situation is currently expressed very
visibly during a large number of demonstrations against the plans of
Berlusconi, Bossi and Fini.
for the temporary association 'everyone is an
expert'
wolfgang hauptfleisch, frank john, paul keller
pasta con berlusconi, bossi, fini - benvenuti
clandestini | 
