cabaret voltaire was invited by lokal 30 to come to Warszawa to present itself.
As cabaret voltaire today is a young institution with a famous history this is one of the first international presentations of cabaret voltaire.
One of the main questions cabaret voltaire deals with is the question about the potential of Dada today. The question, what is Dada today, and what is the relation to the historical context. From our contemporary situation we are looking back to the time Dada was globaly effective. We call this attitude Postdadaism.
In Warsaw cabaret voltaire would like to do create for a short time a cabaret voltaire – warszawa.
This is a combination of presentation of cabaret voltaire, Zurich, by Adrian Notz, a NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA by Peter Fend (New York/Berlin), „Reading Lenin“ seminars with Rainer Ganahl (New York) and “Copyfight!” workshops with bitnik (Zurich).
program: 09.03. – 13.04.2007
Starting NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA 09.03. – 16.03.2007
Press conference 12.03.2007 11:00
Opening: 12.03.2007 19:00
“Reading Lenin” Seminars 10.03. – 13.03.2007 daily 17:00 – 19:00
“Pro-Vocation” Evening 13.03.2007 20:00
Opening NEWS ROOM: 16.03.2007 19:00 through 13.04.2007
Workshop “Make Your Own Private Pirate TV-Station” 23.03. – 24.03.2007 daily 13:00 – 18:00
NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA
09.03. – 13.04.2007 in Lokal_30
A project by Peter Fend, Berlin/New York.
NEWS ROOM, a collaborative project started in 1990, has converged with a like phenomenon, started 90 years earlier, called Cabaret Voltaire, and it is conducted through Cabaret Voltaire during 2006-7.
Like Cabaret Voltaire, NEWS ROOM is a place. It is a place in which people who are discontent with the world as reported can disassemble and restructure the information reaching the public. Cabaret Voltaire arose in a haven from the Great War, in Zurich, Switzerland, just as it became clear that there would be no Christimas truce, no armistice and only even bigger battles. NEWS ROOM arose in the haven of the New York art world, pre-9/11, where individuals dismayed by Iran-contra, or by distortions of satellite data, could place media reports in an examining room, a critical viewing space. Cabaret Voltaire had one space, in the center of Zurich. NEWS ROOM has been conducted, with a wide range of results, in the center of New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stockholm, Paris, Graz.
From 9 March through 13 April, with a launch phase from 9 through 16 March, NWES ROOM with Cabaret Voltaire will happen in Warsaw.
As with all prior NEWS ROOMs, what happens depends in part on what’s happening in the world, and in part on who in Warsaw gets involved. Every NEWS ROOM is specific to where it occurs. It functions as if Cabaret Voltaire were transferred to Warsaw, and we all ask, Who shows up, and what are they going to do? Only a few elements remain throughout: the global and regional maps, on which events can be plotted to show physical relations, the NEWS ROOM Helvetica-Italic logo, and the presence of one of the three co-founders, Peter Fend.
The news of recent months has been especially intriguing: how will tendencies of 1939 not be repeated; to what extent will Iranian-Russian gas power become dominant: and meantime, could Global Warming overwhelm us all? While potentates play poker with petroleum, Winter gets postponed… with unknown consequences.
Amidst the mounting uncertainties, Fend and Cabaret Voltaire invite people in Poland to help effect a NEWS ROOM, as critical process, in Warsaw. The site is very central: Lokal 30, 1st floor, ul. Foksal 17B, Warszawa. A trusted friend of Lokal 30, Warren Niesluchowski, will be fielding queries and helping construct the project, speaking both English and Polish… and also German, French, Russian…. Poland is in the center of European events, and a center of world energy policies, and NEWS ROOM can be in the center, a central review and re-think space, of Poland.
Given past successes, NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA will probably have:
-comparative display and analysis of news feeds, e.g., of US, French, Arabic and other 24 hour channels
-maps of the Polish region, such as the Baltic, and of Eastern Europe, and then of the world, for plotting news events and seeing their geophysical relations tables on which one can plot the power moves, as on game boards.
All citizens are invited. As we know from experience, there will be much talking and some production of new displays. As we hope now in Warsaw, the NEWS ROOM in Lokal 30 can start a public practice, a public habit, maybe a proliferation of like venues, by which the citizens can empower themselves. The citizenrs can develop the intellectual habits and factual basis for capable self-defense. This entails not just response to danger but also, perhaps more important, the seiziing of opportunities. In the case of global warming, for example, many technologies exist which could be adopted and developed to avert disaster and build a new ecological balance. These technologies need only be recognized. NEWS ROOM could be conducted with such a purpose. But that is largely up to you in Warsaw and in Poland, starting 9 March.
seminar: „Reading Lenin“
10.03. – 13.03. daily 17:00 -19:00 in various places
A project by Rainer Ganahl. New York
While the Dadaists were acting in Cabaret Voltaire in Spiegelgasse 1 in Zurich from the 5th of February until July 1916, Lenin wrote „The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Self-Determination of Nations“ just up the street in Spiegelgasse 14. It is quite possible, that Lenin himself took part in the Dada soirées in Cabaret Voltaire at that time, as it is very well known, that he loved Cabarets in general. Also it seems that he moved earlier to Zurich, coming from Berne, to take part in the artist and intellectual life of Zurich during the First World War. Some quotes from know Dadaists underline this possibility of Lenins participation in dada Zurich. In his journal „Flight out of Time“, Hugo Ball describes this legendary opening night as follows: “The place was packed; many people were not even able to get inside. Close to 6 p.m., when they were still busily hammering and hanging futuristic posters, a deputation of four oriental looking little men appeared, carrying portfolios and pictures; they kept bowing discreetly. They introduced themselves: Marcel Janco the painter, Tristan Tzara, George Janco, and a gentleman whose name I missed.“ Was this fourth oriental looking little man Lenin? Did Hugo Ball really miss the name or did he deliberately forget it?
According to Marcel Janco, who arrived at that very evening, it is a fact that Lenin was in the Cabaret Voltaire, at least once: „Cabaret Voltaire was the meeting point of arts. Here painters, students, revolutionaries (!), tourists, international fraudsters, psychiatrists, the demimonde, sculptors und natty spies searching for information. In the thick smoke, amidst recitations or folk songs suddenly the impressive Mongolian face of Lenin appeared, surrounded by a group, or Laban, the great dancer with the Assyrian beard.”
We will be reading „The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Self-Determination of Nations“ in four seminars together with Rainer Ganahl in specific places in Warsaw, such as in the Palace of Culture and Science, in a shopping mall, in the Center of Finances and in the Krytyka PolitycznaSalon.
presentation: “cabaret voltaire and the idea of Postdadaism”
13.03.2007 20:00 in Krytyka Polityczna Salon
A presentation by Adrian Notz, cabaret voltaire Zurich
Adrian Notz, Co-Director of program and exhibitions, director of international projects at cabaret voltaire, Zurich, will focus in his presentation of the two and a half years activity of the reopened cabaret voltaire, birthplace of Dada in Zurich, on the concept of cabaret voltaire based on the two terms “Dadalogy” and “Postdadaism”. While the term “Dadalogy” seems to be more or less clear in the sense of a scientific, historical research and care the term “Postdadaism” is a newly created term in opposition to the well know term of “Neodadaism”. “Neodadaism” is a practice that copies the style of Dada and does more or less the same like the Dadaist did ninety years ago. By using the term “Postdadaism” we believe that Dada happened during ten years from 1916 until 1926 and then it was finished. Everything after that is something different. In this sense we also try to what Dada would be today. Not as a style or a movement but in the sense of a declaration. Adrian Notz will show some examples of postdadaist actions or artist and will also open the discussion to find out in the plenum what “Postdada” can be and what potential Dada has today. This is one of the main questions which cabaret voltaire keeps asking and instigating.
workshop: „Make Your own Private Pirate TV-Station“
23.03. and 24.03.2007 daily 13:00 – 18:00
in CSW (Center of Contemporary Art Warsaw, to be confirmed)
A project by the !Mediagroup Bitnik
In this workhsop you learn about the history and actuality of pirate transmitters.
You learn about the bitnik copyfight project and other projects similar to this one.
You learn how to build a pirate TV Station with very simple methods.
You learn how to use the copyfight TV-Station.
CopyFight! is a collaborative editorial system for the programming/ editing of a TV station. It consists of a TV-internet interface, an archive for the contents (films) and an editorial interface to manage the actual TV programme.
Using media contents from internet archives and P2P networks CopyFight! enables a small community to run a local (pirate) TV channel. By means of a web interface the viewers decide collaboratly on the contents of their TV channel. Copyfight! thus creates an experimental field between television and internet.
CopyFight! intends to establish a basis for the participation of TV viewers in the process of creating and editing the programme for the TV channel on a community basis. With this, the project aims at a policy of open access and participation.
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NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA
The survival of Poland is under threat.
This is often true in history, now, the dangers are back.
1.The Climate:
We have the hottest summer on record, in Poland and throughout northern Europe, with the result that already 20% of the crop is ruined. The crop was also reduced by the extraordinary and long winter, due to anomalies also due to climate change.
2. The Russian plans to bypass Poland and other countries between itself and Western Europe in the supply of its world-preponderant gas reserves:
This de facto repeats the Russian-German linkup conducted by treaty in August 23, 1939. Although the danger then was military, the results now could be similar: complete subordination of Poland to countries either to its west, notably Germany, or to Russia. For many years, as in 1914, such subordination was the norm.
3. Toxification of the rivers and seas, with potentially disastrous effects on public health:
Eutrophication of the Baltic is a mounting danger. There is also serious pollution on the main rivers, and there has also been sharp oscillations of flow.
4. Investment capital is often directed away from Poland elsewhere, with consequent economic difficulty:
In a recent HSBC report on „Funding Technology“, Germany is featured as an ideal investment climate, with subtitle „better by design.“ Curiously, in the inside covers of this London-
released bank report, there appears a map of „Germany“ that stretches from Brussels to Berlin and from Berlin to West Prussia (including Gdansk) and East Prussia, on to Brest. On being asked why this map was used, the bank explained that it was more aesthetic. This is the largest bank in the UK, the largest bank in Europe. It has allowed Poland to be mapped out of existence. Inside the report, in a one-page chronicle of history for investment in „technology“ in a thus- enlarged Germany, the first events of WW II are described as „August 1939 German-Russian Non-Aggression Pact“ and „3 September 1939 Declaration of war by Britain and France.“History is altered to suggest that Germany had made a fair- enough deal with Russia, and then, when it tried to act on that deal, it was aggressed upon by England and France. With such history being conveyed to investors in London, Poland no longer exists as an issue, or as a place inwhich to invest.
In response, the citizenry can be alerted to the dangers, can develop a realistic appraisal of them, and can organize to respond.
In response, the citizenrry can visit a place, a place called NEWS ROOM, where the dangers, and the opportunities for reducing those dangers, can be displayed and evaluated.
NEWS ROOM, as a place, a room with walls for display, allows for showing the physical relations between events. The subject of display is not just national, not just European, but global. We intend to plot events and study their physical relations, including any dangers or opportunities, on large charts. The charts include:
a world map centered on Antarctica with the three major oceans splayed out this shows where Polish economic activity is occurring now, as in Antarctic waters and the extremely-fecund Sea of Okhotsk; it also can be used to show the „clear and present danger“, to use a US phrase, of global warming
a Eurafrica map, extending from North Cape and Franz Joseph Land to the Equator, and perhaps farther, revealing the continuum of ecological events from deep inside Africa extending along bird and insect migratory routes into Europe; one can also see the human migratory routes, with visual inquiries into how Polish workers could be induced to migrate south into a semi-arid part of Italy, for deprived labor
a Polish map organized into a slightly widened frame, of the hydrometric areas,. or saltwater impact zones, of the Oder River, to the west, and the Vistula River, to the east; this leads to a comprehensive watershed management view of all that flows through Polland from the highlands to the sea, and of impacts on the sea, the Baltic; the hydrometric area mapping is derived in concept from a 1969 Irish law, now being proposed for adoption for all of the EU in the European Union Water Framework Directive.
Substantial research over recent years goes into this effort. Also applied are the practices developed with NEWS ROOMs in Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, New York, Stockholm (perhaps the most successful), Graz and Copenhagen. Several veterans in all these sites will be in Warsaw, working hard. Also engaged will be learned Poles with wide international experience. The thrust tends to be ecological. With the horrendous events of the summer, and with the dangers imposed by Russian attempts to supply still-more climate-damaging fuel, we have little choice.
Most of the visual displays, such as detailed hydrometric maps of the Oder and Vistual basins and their downstream, Baltic Sea impact, have been produced already. In addition, there is a 15- segment video display program called GLOBAL FEED.
The aim is to empower the citizenry, so that they can respond to the dangers facing them in a timely and constructive manner. Thus, rather than just show dangers, we will also be seeking out and displaying many types of renewable-resource technologies, suitable for use inside Poland, and also for export from Poland worlwide.
cabaret voltaire – warszawa: 06.10. – 31.10.2006
cabaret voltaire – warszawa is NEWS ROOM WARSZAWA with Peter Fend, Patrick Maisano and Martin Matter, CopyFight! workshop „Your own private pirate TV-Station“ and TV-Station with bitnik, „Reading Lenin“ Seminars with Ranier Ganahl and cabaret voltaire, Zurich with Adrian Notz.
06.10. – 13.10.2006: phase I: launch. explicit program to be announced.
14.10. – 31.10.2006: phase II: service.
