Critique of Pure Image - Between Fake and Quotation
Lecture on the “E80 Exit Strategies & Projects” and the “Close up” discussion club
Sunday, 9 October 2006, 13h
E80 Exit Strategies & Projects
‘E80’ is an independent association for exit strategies and projects, set up in December 2004, with the mission to implement projects in the field of social policy and culture. The association will aim to identify possible solutions to problems related to a variety of social and cultural practices, to put them to debate, formulate ‘exit’ strategies and promote them.
‘E80’ is the widely accepted abbreviation for a highway linking Europe to the Orient. No organization is an island: the E80 Association for Exit Strategies and Projects will work to assert the culture of sharing identities and differences.
‘E80’ Association for Exit Strategies and Projects
phone/fax: +359-2-931 14 87
e-mail: info@e-80.info
Debating at the ‘CloseUp’ Discussion Club: How Does It Work?
The CloseUp Discussion Club provides room for informal public debates, which keep out the discourse of ‘orthodox’ formal discussions with its rigid audience-versus-lecturer format.
Debating at the CloseUp Discussion Club allows for genuine sharing of opinion and responsible participants’ involvement in the debated topics. Discussions take place Thursdays, 6.30 pm.: discussion topics areannounced beforehand.
The club opens space for participants to share and therefore presenters are challenged to go beyond rigidly framed presentations and to establish good rapport with the audience.
The club does not waste efforts to ‘mimic’ an environment of supporters. Presenters have to work to receive understanding and support for their views. The club is open to anyone who is interested in joining and open to share their opinion freely. The discussions cover a wide range of topics, attracting various soical groups and individuals from all walks of life: in this way the club mobilizes impressive ‘educational’ resourses.
Discussion participants keep a dynamic profile, which mostly depends on the presented topic, the appeal of the preliminary topic announcement and naturally the presenter him/herself.
‘Faking’ an interesting topic and recruiting regular participants are not practiced at the club. The club’s ‘regulars’ are those who make a demanding audience: people capable of asserting their views in debates and responsibly presenting their positions.
CloseUp Discussion Club
Thursdays, 6.30 pm, The Granary
Initiated and run by:
Ventsislav Zankov
Ivan Murdzheva
‘E80’ Association for Exit Strategies and Projects
Project Summary
supported by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Sofia under the Small Embassy Projects Programme (Matra/KAP).
This project includes newspaper publishing, promotion and distribution. 39 grams will be published twice a month, with each issue having a specific thematic focus, to be identified through discussions with key partnering organizations, as well as informal groups and volunteers.
Project Goals
Improve communication between various youth communities and groups. Share information resources and ideas. Raise public awareness on current social and cultural processes and phenomena. Implement joint project for youth communities and groups. Raise public awareness about specific youth problems and their attitudes to current social and political developments. Cultivate a comprehensive vision for democracy, pluralism and civil society.
Why “39 grams”?
This is the average weight of a single issue.
Key thematic clusters
- Ideologies of rebellion (hip-hop & graffiti culture; alternative music; urban legends of the invisible: drugs, prostitution, crime and punishment)
- Culture of relaxation (sports: snowboard, skateboard, hek (footbag); TV & commercials,;gamers; club culture)
- Problems of communication (communities in network: web vs. real, gay communities, HIV/AIDS communities, Balkan identities, legacy v/s change etc.)
- The Body: users manual. Bodies as objects (drugs, fitness, fashion, Internet, human vs. machine, gamers, prostitution, violence and control of pleasure, etc.)
Vencislav Zankov is an artist, independent curator, media activist and theorist, lecturer at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Ivana Murdzheva holds degrees in law and in art history. She has a special interest in the sociology of art.