[Daviscenter-list] Art and Public Sphere IN EASTERN EUROPE from Svetlana Boym

Dear Friends: I want to alert you to an exciting event that will take place on Monday, March 29 at 4:00 at the Humanities Center. This is a rare chance to meet international artists from EASTERN EUROPE and to discuss the relationship between art, public transformation and new media. Please come,. Seminar on Literature, Politics and the Arts Invites you to the panel discussion *Art, Public Sphere and the New Media* When: March 29 Time: 4-6 p.m Where: Barker Center, Room 133, 12 Quincy Street, Harvard University *Moderator: Svetlana Boym (Harvard University)* *Participants: Helidon Gjergji (Artist, Tirana-New York)* *Nomeda Urbonas (Artist and researcher) and Gediminas Urbonas (Artist and Associate Professor at MIT, Vilnius-Cambridge) Discussant: João Ribas (Curator, List Gallery, MIT)* http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~humcentr <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ehumcentr> *Helidon Gjergji* works between traditional artistic media combining "television art," installation and architectural design and experimental curating. He represented Albania at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and was one of the artists of the celebrated Tirana façade project initiated by the artist and mayor Edi Rama and aimed to transform the new postcommunist public space through color and artistic imagination. Gjergji was born in Tirana, Albania and live in NYC. In 2000, he received an M.F.A. from Northwestern University, Chicago. Before that, he received a Diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, Albania and a Diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, Italy. Among other exhibitions, he participated in the Venice Biennale 52 (Albanian Pavilion), curated by Bonnie Clearwater; Present Future, Artissima 10 (Turin), curated by Emma Dexter etc.; Tirana Biennale 1 (curated by Francesco Bonami); Madre, (MCA, Naples); Apexart (NYC); National Gallery (Tirana); Villa Arson; Centre d'Art Contemporain (Nice); Lothringer Dreizehn Kunsthalle (Munich); The Kosova Art Gallery. (Prishtina); PAN (City Museum of Naples); Chelsea Art Museum (NYC); Temporary Services (Chicago); Suburban (Chicago); TBA Exhibition Space (Chicago); T.I.C.A.B. (Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual) curated by Edi Muka and Joa Ljungberg; Botkyrka Konsthall (Sweden) . He is also a creator and a curator of famous "parking lot bienniales" initiated in Chicago and to be continued in other cities. *Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas* have established an international reputation for socially interactive and interdisciplinary practice exploring the conflicts and contradictions posed by the economic, social, and political conditions in the former Soviet countries. They use art platform to render public spaces for interaction and engagement of the social groups, evoking local communities and encouraging their cultural and political imagination.Combining the tools of new and traditional media, Nomeda and Urbonas's work frequently involves collective activities such as workshops, lectures, debates, TV programs, Internet chat-rooms and public protests that stand at the intersection of art, technology and social criticism. Urbonas are the cofounders of JUTEMPUS interdisciplinary art program, VILMA (Vilnius Interdisciplinary Lab for Media Art), and VOICE, a net based publication on media culture. He and his partner have exhibited at the San Paulo, Berlin, Moscow, Lyon and Gwangju Biennales -- and Manifesta and Documenta exhibitions -- among numerous other international shows, including a solo show at the Venice Biennale and MACBA in Barcelona. They have been awarded a number of high level grants and residency awards, including the Lithuanian National Prize (2007); a fellowship at the Montalvo Arts Center in California (2007/08); and a Prize for the Best International Artist at the Gwangju Biennale (2006) and the Prize for the best national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2007). Gediminas Urbonas is an Associate Professor in the Art, Culture and Technology Program at MIT. Nomeda Urbonas is PhD researcher at Norwegian University for Science and Technology. -- ____________________________________________ Svetlana Boym Curt Hugo Reisinger Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature Faculty Associate of the Graduate School of Design Harvard University www.svetlanaboym.com <http://www.svetlanaboym.com> -- Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Harvard University 1730 Cambridge Street, 3rd Floor, Suite 301 Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone: 617.495.4037 Fax: 617.495.8319 http://www.daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu