Doors 7.30pm
NSK Rendez-Vous London book presentation: "State Of Emergence - The First NSK Citizens' Congress" (Poison Cabinet Press / Plöttner-Verlag 2011)
A documentation of the October 2010 Congress and review of subsequent events.
THE EVENT: To mark the publication of this comprehensive documentation of 2010's First NSK Citizens' Congress, cultural theorists Alexei Monroe (London) and Alexander Nym (Leipzig) will present and discuss the book alongside Israeli NSK diplomat, congress delegate and curator Avi Pitchon. As well as the presentations and discussion there will be an information stall, music and screenings of NSK-related material.
THE STATE: In 1992 the Slovene artistic collective Neue Slowenische Kunst established what it called the NSK State in Time: a non-territorial artistic state which now has thousands of citizens around the world. The NSK State has been built from a wide range of divergent symbolism from across the cultural and political spectrum and its citizens come from divergent and even contradictory contexts and positions.
In October 2010 a unique artistic, social and political experiment took place in Berlin's House of World Cultures (HKW). Thirty-two citizens of the NSK State in Time were invited to discuss the future of “The First Global State of the Universe.” No-one was sure what would or could happen when the citizens came together in order to try and identify common positions and potentials. The project was an initiative of the NSK fine arts group IRWIN working in collaboration with cultural theorist Alexei Monroe, designer and creator of nskstate.com, Haris Hararis and Berlin's bka agency.
THE BOOK: "State of Emergence" explores what did happen, what could have happened and what may happen following the Congress. The book comprises ca 250 pages and includes images from the Congress as well as the accompanying NSK Folk Art and Congress Poster Competition exhibition, as well as documentation of the first post-Congress citizen-organised events.
Also included are a range of eye-witness accounts from delegates, facilitators, observers and others, giving multiple perspectives on the events. In addition, there are essays on the Congress and the NSK State from a range of theorists including Eda Cufer (NSK founding member & international curator), Regina Roemhild (Institute for European Anthropology, Humboldt University Berlin), Yannis Stavrakakis and Kostis Stafylakis.
As is the case with many of NSK's works, the true meanings and significances of the Congress may not be clear for some time, but "State of Emergence" will analyse and contribute to the interpretation and decoding of an event whose implications touch on the key artistic, political and social dilemmas of our time.
"State of Emergence intensively documents and analyses the unique NSK State in Time project, opening up radical new perspectives on the collectivity of NSK and on many of the key artistic and cultural questions of our time. This is an important collection of thought-provoking texts and artwork that is invaluable for navigating this evolving territory."
Catherine Wood, Tate Modern Curator of Contemporary Art and Performance.