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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 [link removed as it does not exist anymore] 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 [link removed as it does not exist anymore], and the text announcing our project, which also contains this slogan, had been personally cleared for upload to the website [link removed as it does not exist anymore] 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
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