Syndicate: Re: "why & how" to exhibit net art?

["intim@" <igor.stromajer@guest.arnes.si>]

dear syndicalists
and friends from the festivals and workshops,

i promised to andreas broeckmann today that i will stop posting 
messages to the syndicate for a while, because not all of you are
interested in this debate about how and why to exhibit net art and i
have the impression that there's kind of pressure i'm making on you
with this debate - which is something i don't want to. this mailing
list is certainly meant to serve other needs, not only to my current
frustrations.

and: yes, i'll make a pause, also because i'm not good in words and
theory and i never wrote many texts to any of the 3 mailing lists
where i'm a member.

i just want to describe my position, so that everything i wrote 
until now will be understood from the point of view that makes me
think about what we are debating here.

i can't speak from the objective point of view, so it has to be 
subjective - i apologise for that in advance.

those of you who are following this debate know what raivo wrote. what
you don't know is that ravio and me are trying to find some money (in
this very moment!) for my travelling to the "french-baltic-nordic
video and new media festival" in tallinn, estonia. he is searching for
money in estonia (scca/osi) and me in slovenia (ministry of culture).
maybe we'll succeed, maybe not. you also know what i wrote in this
debate, but you don't know how much would i like to go to tallinn and
i would also spend my own money if i would have enough of it.

you see - this is personal. i wrote about net art festivals what i
wrote and i really mean it, but in praxis... i'm more than happy if
someone invites me to the festival. i just hope ravio will not be
angry with me because i said that in public.

another example:

i was in tornio / finland on the "polar circuit 2" this year. nobody
financed my travel expenses (i asked my local scca/osi organisation
but they had no money). what did i do? i jumped in my car and i was
happy like a bird that someone invited me. tapio was so kind to make
an arrangement that i pay for my travel expenses and "he" pays for
accommodation. i was happy again.

you see - this is personal (again!). i wrote about net art festivals
what i wrote and i really mean it, but in praxis... i was happy, not
angry!

last example:

at this year's seafair melentie was also very kind and he arranged
something like cultural link financing (some scca/osi financial
protocol - i don't know much about it, but it sounds good) for me. but
when i came to skopje i thought i'll have to pay all the expenses for
my accommodation because the festival told us in advance that they can
not cover any expenses. and i didn't stay at home because of that - i
did go to skopje, because it means a lot to me if someone invites me.
i feel honoured and this is certainly not the position of the star: i
refuse this label absolutely: i'm an ultra left anarchist and a
multisexual communist so i disdain, disrespect and scorn the position
of the star and also all stars (wherever the come from) in general.

you see - this is personal (again!). i wrote about net art festivals
what i wrote and i really mean it, but in praxis...

no more examples.

i don't know why do i think that this is something you have to know,
but maybe it's relevant in order to clear our positions in the frame
of this debate.

just few remarks:

> i am not sure that importance of something which is called *art* is
> measured by deepness, bigness and impressiveness of concepts. what's
> actually meaning of *good concept*?

i wasn't talking about "art and artistic concepts" but about the
"festivals and the concepts of the festivals and exhibitions".

> i think main concept of festivals is meeting between people,
> exchanging ideas, search for similarity and differences and
> introducing new phenomena's into local scene.

that's why different artists, selected for the festivals must be 
invited to the festivals in person, otherwise then can't perform all
these beautiful things mentioned in previous paragraph.

> - artist is working not only for money, but he can't work for free
> for long time

i agee that i couldn't agree more. but the debate was not about 
working for money, because we all work for free - the debate was 
about the money for travelling to the festivals and exhibitions. 
let's be precise.


ok. i apologise for being so personal in public and i'd like to 
thank all of you for the informations and facts in this debate - i did
learn a lot.

now: my pause. i'll be happy to read new contributions if there will
be any.

greetings from ljubljana,
igor