TO BE OR NOT TO BE (IN) LJUBLJANA
An installation by Francois Duconseille (Scenographies Urbaines)
Residency period: October 2010
Exhibition: 20- 25 October, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Presentation: 21 October, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
Short description
“This is an abstract storytelling of a personal event which could be entitled also To be or not to be (in) Strasbourg. Until this summer I lived in Paris, now I am installed in Strasbourg where I was living thirteen years ago. It is a strange comeback that I never thought possible before. I know all the parts of my new-old city, perhaps too much. Living virtually in Ljubljana, a city totally unknown to me, is a way to play and enlarge my perception of Strasbourg, being here and being there at the same time. The installation To be or not to be (in) Ljubljana is a spatial transcription of this virtual vital game and haphazard way to discover Ljubljana, mixing views of Strasbourg with sounds of Ljubljana. The playground is made with overlaid maps of the 2 cities, adjusted on the Google’s city marker (in the past this would be a church or the town hall, real references). The rules of the game are to choose different places in Strasbourg for video shooting after mixing the corresponding points on the Ljubljana map with a sound recording and an oral description of the real place found. The spectator of the installation is included in the game, walking on the real-virtual mixed map, visiting two cities in the same space and time.”
The project is a remake of situationist project Naked city. To be or not to be in Ljubljana is a creative derive in the streets of Strasbourg while virtually following the streets of Ljubljana. The project is a real-virtual walk, discovering similarities in non places and places of subjective interest, merging the maps and searching for points of collective subconsciousness in two cities unknown.
About Scenographies Urbaines
(ScU)2 was formed as an artists group by Francois Duconseille and Jean-Christophe Lanquetin in 2000, in order to organise the first Urban Scenography’s residency in Douala (2003) with the Kapsiki Circle cameroonian artist group. After this successful first step (ScU)2 and his artistic partners organised 3 other residency projects : Alexandria (2004) with Gudran, Kinshasa (2006) with Eza Possibles and Johannesburg (2009) with the Joubert Park Project. In principle, (SCU)2’s work has developed through linkages with structures and artists from other countries. Interventions in public space, the relation of art and the urban contexts, questions about how to show art and its relation to audiences are part of the main axis of research and practice of the group.
Links:
SCU2
MoTA –
Museum of Transitory Art
MoTA is a multidisciplinary platform dedicated to advancing the research, production and presentation of transitory, experimental, and live art forms.
MoTA is a museum without a permanent collection or a fixed space. Instead, its programs are realised in different locations and contexts in temporary physical and virtual spaces.
MoTA organizes and supports transitory art in the form of continuous events, exhibitions and educational programs both locally and internationally. As its name indicates, MoTA examines what a museum can be today and in the future.
MoTA is in constant search for the new, the uncertain, and the undefined.
MoTA works on several continuous programmes & projects. We run MoTA Point – a Space for Art & Ideas, we curate and produce the annual SONICA Festival, in addition to regular music programmes such as SONICA Series and SONICA Classics.
Within the years of running our residency programme, we’ve established T.R.I.B.E. – a network of residency spaces in the Balkans & Eastern Europe.
We’ve also initiated the research and archive platforms ArtistTalk.eu and Mediateque MoTA & Tomaž Brate. Our educational programmes serve a broader audience with ongoing workshops, talks, symposia, and internships.
