Parallel Worlds 4
Visual equipment of urban space. Audiovisual events. Interactive objects.

September 10 - 13, 2009, every night between 9pm and 1am
The Square of No Historical Memory, Elementary School and a nearby park
Autonomous Cultural Centre Metelkova City

We would like to inform you of a SCCA-Ljubljana co-production project, conducted by our associate in the field of video art and archives Neven Korda.

Parallel Worlds 4

Everything that used to be new is now falling down and fading away in front of our eyes. What is coming is just old and well known. It is possible that what we see approaching is weak and already helplessly disappearing. Yet, maybe we are heading somewhere where our intellectual climate of totalitarianism will be more understandable to us once again. Anyway, what we observe nowadays is the way the art is being instrumentalised into increasingly narrow elitism on the one hand and the production for the masses on the other. There is some grave cynicism on both of this constrained poles, while in between there is an ever bigger space of emptiness - a noisy silence.

The spaces of culture at Metelkova - and the spaces of alternative margins by and large are paradoxically aimed at the "consumption" rather than at the "production that is being consumed". At the same time, these scenes of the marginal alternative culture are also surprisingly old-fashioned, non-medial, and non-digital.

Event

At the dusk of the day, the big projected images light up above the City. Video. Urban. From the very beginning, four years ago, Parallel Worlds have created an environment in the sky above Metelkova which has attracted the artists of marginal, research, intermedia, and interdisciplinary practices to try themselves in a magical atmosphere and create a cosmopolitan view with their command of the technologies and with the sense of ease and creative climate.

The organizers, the participants, and the users of studios and clubs around the Square of No Historical Memory at Metelkova have for several years presented a contemporary, communicative and technologically elaborated project with minimal resources.

The projections on large-scale screens surround the whole environment. They appear on the windows of studios, on canvases stretched tight between the buildings, on the asphalt, on façades, etc. and in addition there are also media objects and interactive games. Everything is situated on the Square of No Historical Memory, at a centre of Metelkova's creativity. The large-scale visualisations will be unleashed from their subordinate roles; they will be there for the public, for the visitors, appearing as a space being created solely for them and not as a scenery that serves to improve the sales of another product (concerts and other campaigns to promote sales). For the installation of Parallel Worlds, individual artists will develop new ephemeral visual interventions which will once again "burn" all night long in the sky of Metelkova. As usually, the highlights of the evening are going to be the interactive games that adopt computer vision, motion sensors, etc... Unobtrusive and simply placed on the square, they have repeatedly proven to be a very suitable content for an open space where just like that a lot of people gather during the events.

The objectives of the project appertain to the inner-artistic aspects of a joined creative process and by taking part in the event also to some aspects of creating a contemporary cultural initiative in Ljubljana. The first objective concerns the Parallel Worlds initiative as a unique 'jam session' of visuals and visual objects by various artists. On the other hand, this is a magical meeting space that any person can use as he or she likes. The action is not conducted with any pre-conception that would speak about presented works and try to wrap them up in any way. It offers objects as such, as a culture that is built on the spot.

Concept and realisation: Dekaos, Andrej Intihar, Borut Kumperščak, Neven Korda
Visual artists: Fšk, Luka Dekleva, Vesna in Borut, Dekaos Junior, Simon Svetlik (Art group RGB), Igor Grom (special guest)
Guarantee of the program: VJ Rasta
Visual objects: Cirkulacija2, Tomaž Furlan
Production: Zavod Zank
Co-production: KUD Mreža, Društvo Dekaos, SCCA-Ljubljana, K6/4
Help in the realisation: Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, ŠKUC, Gromka Club
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Ljubljana.