Project Archive: Delocalisation
14 – 28.11.2009
Press to Exit Project Space, Skopje

Artists: Marjolijn Dijkman, Claire Fontaine, Laura Kuch, Runo Lagomarsino, Ine Lamers, Ahmet Ogut, and Hildegard Spielhofer

The exhibition is influenced by Lucy Lippard’s suitcase exhibitions. Drawing from the activities of the dematerialisation era the exhibition seeks to scrunitize the notion of delocalisation as a proposal to investigate the categorisations as local and global. That is to say, the exhibition is an attempt to introduce another dimension to the binary opposition of interpretation of the local and the global:How the norms of the local is produced in relation to larger scale main-stream receptions, expectations and understanding, and vice versa.

Today, both terminologies are in immense use of articulating difference and diversity or commonality and the familiar. Delocalise means to approach to a certain time-location specific sphere of interaction from a drained-off-pitoresque-elements perspective. Hence it is an act of re-approaching to the understanding of cultural practices, rituals, and customs as well as the historical, political, economical, psychological dimensions of a society.

Delocalisation will be specifically compiled for Skopje, aiming to construct a sphere of meaning and encounter without falling into the lapses of the cliché. Hence, Skopje as the host of the project will be approached eight artists on the scale of unfamiliar and of interest. The artists invited to take part in the exhibition will be commissioned for a new work that is specifically made for the audience in Skopje, whereas the historicity of the location will be at stake. That is to say, the artists of the project will be asked to reflect upon the concept of delocalisation through their artistic practices and evaluations; and will be asked to imagine the embodiment of the piece without visiting Skopje. At this point, the role of the curator will expand its margins of producing the concept and making the selection of collaborators to being an agency of realising the pieces in the public spheres of Skopje in continuous dialogue with the artists.

Delocalisation received additional support from the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans / Local Office Skopje and was promoted in the framework of its closing event “DIVERSions – Independent Culture and the Swiss Cultural Foundation.

The European Cultural Foundation has supported Fatos Ustek’s visit to Macedonia with a travel grant from Step Beyond Mobility Funds.