Die _ from 29 May to 4 June 2006

circulate

Médiathèque départementale Diois-Vercors, 25 av. Division du Texas

29 May_  1400 :
Participation of Session15 in the round-table devoted to the theme of artist as migrator with Catherine David, art historian and curator
Presentation of the project realized by Ghenadie Popescu

We have replied to the call for a project issued by the Festival Est-Ouest, and have been selected to participate in the Forum of European meetings in Die. We intervene – together with Catherine David, curator and art historian – on the question of artist as migrator by presenting the work by Ghenadie Popescu, an artist from Moldova. As a part of the project A Step Aside, the work of Ghenadie Popescu rises at once the questions of physical (im/e)migration and of migration of ideas which constitute the artistic practices, as well as of a migration through disciplines which is at core of our project.

The Popescu Chronicles
After leaving Chisinau, Moldova, at the end of May, Ghenadie Popescu realises a bicycle trip throughout different countries in Europe. The artist’s itinerary is determined by his various encounters and traffic conditions along the way. Everyday, Ghenadie Popescu is sending by various possible means — mobile phone, fax, email, post or telegram — one or several messages to Grenoble recounting his travel impressions. Once collected and displayed, these messages make up a daily chronicle, The Popescu Chronicles, a kind of log, whose content is voluntarily “offbeat” regarding the epic nature such a trip might convey. Both physical and conceptual, his trip gradually reveals a dual geography: on the one hand, the territorial and political realities of the countries he passes through and, on the other, the more reflexive and subjective geographical experience, arising from his own circulation within these spaces. His messages convey a dual perspective and lead the viewer to project his or her own imaginary cartography. Ultimately, by choosing to circulate by bicycle, the artist reveals his engagement of “slow” resistance, a silent protest in the face of the world’s acceleration.
His messages were on view at the Médiathèque in Die from 29 of May till 4 of June, and at Agencement of Magasin d’en face in Grenoble from 3 to 18 of June 2006.




Association Festival Est-Ouest
From 1989, the Festival Est-Ouest proposes to discover a country of Eastern Europe or Russia during a dozen of days of the festival. Music, cinema, theater, literature, contemporary art, agriculture, environment are presented to novice, experienced or specialized public as the forms to meet and to get to know our neighbors.

Forums in Die
Initiated by the Festival Est-Ouest in 1990, European Meetings of Die regularly contribute into reflection on actual socio-political questions in a dialogue between East and West. They gather artists, students, academics, journalists, writers, citizens to share and exchange their ideas concerning the notion of Europe.

Diversity of disciplines, participants and public, as well as openess to other territories and cultures are at core of the activity of the Festival Est-Ouest.