 | Festival of Contemporary Art from 7th to 24th October 2010 Tina B. Festival - Prague |
The fifth annual TINA B. Festival will be held in Prague from 7 to 24 October 2010. The theme of this year’s festival is ‘Solutions and Evolution’. Like last year, the festival will showcase art created using new methods and employing novel artistic techniques.
The festival presents art from almost all over the world. ‘NEW ERA’ was the central theme of the festival in 2009 and under that heading we introduced work from Israel, Switzerland, and the Near East. The TINA B. Festival 2009 brought art work by fifty different artists to Prague, exhibited in seven curatorial projects.
We are planning to show a similar volume of works in 2010. This time, however, we are going to focus mainly on art figures from Visegrad and Mediterranean countries. We see these regions as cultural antipoles that are nonetheless both located in Europe. We feel that these geographic zones can serve as examples of entirely distinct perspectives of new lifestyles.
The curators in last years were very well-known theorists and artists: Blanca De La Torre Garcia, BBB Johannes Deimling, Paulina Kolczynska, Nina Colosi (with the Streaming Museum project), and Doron Rabina. The specific concept behind the TINA B. Festival 2010 will like last year evolve directly out of the selected centres of art. For this reason for the TINA B. Festival 2010 we are now engaging curators from Turkey, Italy, and the Visegrad region.
Some atypical indoor and outdoor venues have again been selected for the exhibitions. One of the festival sections takes visitors inside Nostic Palace. As always the festival has great potential for awakening a wider interest in art among the public in a way that the established galleries can never do.
This year will be specific in that after TINA B. in Prague the exhibited works will go on to be shown in two Italian cities, Padua and Venice.
THE FESTIVAL THEME – SOLUTIONS AND EVOLUTION
In 2009 the TINA B. Festival conceptualised art as an agency that leads the individual and society to self-reflect and to ponder the direction of the modern world. With NEW ERA as its theme it looked at the future of our society and its artistic direction. The wish to describe and define the state of society in the 21st century spawned the theme for 2010.
The TINA B. Festival 2010 goes even further, progressing from the roots of problems through to their solutions. The theme for the festival’s fifth year revolves mainly around the word SOLUTIONS. We are asking artists about possible ways of mitigating the negative efects of the modern age on society today. We will look at the future from the perspective of efforts to create a better life. How can art improve our living standards – from interpersonal relations to current environmental problems? Today the artist is gradually coming to occupy a position different from that in the past. The artist is becoming a focal point of interest and therefore potentially a vehicle of change. It is therefore extremely important for the artist’s work to be reflective and leading in the right direction.
The TINA B. Festival 2010 will emphasise serious social issues, but will also present meaningful works of art that appeal to the public. The festival focuses on art in public spaces and on new artistic media like digital, mobile, and internet technologies used regularly in everyday life. This ranks the festival amongst the most important contemporary art events internationally.
TINA B.’s fifth birthday
"The TINA B. Festival is being held for the fifth time in Prague. We are pleased with the opportunity we have had to build ties that grow deeper each year and to follow the development of art and artists in the Czech Republic and abroad. We also of course enjoy watching how visitors, their interest, curiosity, and longing for contemporary art develops and grows each year. However, this year the festival itself is growing. TINA B., the festival’s charming and mysterious patroness, has decided to take a trip this autumn. In November, following the threeweek festival in Prague, she’s packing her bags and taking her art to the Architecture Biennale in Venice, where she will exhibit a selection of art works at Fondazione Buziol on Canal Grande and in the Church of St Leonardo.
Tina B. is again highlighting contemporary art and current themes. And because TINA B. is now five years old, the themes it is dealing with now are important, adult ones.
The first such theme is UNDERSTANDING. Art is one of the media through which we are able to understand other people and how things work. We want to penetrate the surface of prejudices and create a more relaxed relationship between people. We have based one of the festival’s programme sections in the Jerusalem Synagogue, we’re organising a social evening in the deconsecrated Church of St Michal in the Old Town. Tina B. is open to every stream of thought, all religions, and every life view. Another area that TINA B. is engaged in is ECOLOGY. Environmental problems, the inability of humankind to respect nature and live in harmony with it: TINA B. wants to draw attention to these issues through art and urge us to think about them. The final theme of interest is EVOLUTION. The evolution of humanity and human thought, in both the positive and negative senses, the evolution of the economy, the media industry, corruption, the new media electronic devices, and also the advancement of new creative ideas and directions. But of course TINA B. is interested in fun as well as serious things. For this reason we are also showing a number of art works that are light and playful and aim to provide enjoyment.
As well as entertainment, we are offering visitors the opportunity for encounters and inspirational experiences from the very start of the festival. From 7 to 9 October we have prepared a live programme where everyone can find an event of their liking.
It’s TINA B.’s fifth birthday and that’s a great honour for us. In conclusion I would like to thank everyone who in the past five years has helped organise the festival, all our partners and sponsors, and all the artists and visitors, without whom there would be no festival, and invite them to take part in the celebrations. And special thanks my husband Roger Jourdan.
Come join us in celebrating this birthday in the festive atmosphere of another festival year. We look forward to seeing you."
Monika Burian Jourdan
