The Mobile Global Exhibition
Project statement

Our journey to India will start on March 1st, after having a great Kick Off Party and Goodbye Dinner with many friends and collegues in the Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.

Here you will find the updates we have made so far.

0. kilometer ranking and slide show overview.
Click here to see some impressions

1. program with Baylor Black Sea Foundation.
3 days program with children and students in Constanta, Rumenia.
This program is focussed on awareness of HIV in Rumenia.
Final presentation in the local Constantsa Museum.

election fun:
3 presentations
260 visitors, 250 votes
memorable paintings:

2. program with Hafriyat Gallery in Istanbul and Anadolu Kultur Merkezi in Kars
4 days program in the Hafriyat Gallery in Istanbul, 3 days in Kars, completed with street presentations and media coverage.

election fun Istanbul:
5 days presentation
240 visitors, 34 votes
memorable paintings:

election fun Kars:
3 presentations
400 visitors, 247 votes
memorable paintings:

3. program with NAA, the national state academy in Tbilisi.
3 day program to introduce the 1700 students to the power of concept, and the content of our concept:hope.

election fun:
3 days presentation
725 visitors, 247 votes
memorable paintings:

4. program In Azarbeidjan
personal presentation to Adil Rustamov, professor and laureate of Baku. There has not been any official program in Azerbeidjan due to the extreme bureaucratic system of this county that could be a new paradise, using their oilmoney, but in fact is a new pain in the ass country because the leaders steal and the people do not want to stay behind with nothing, and also start stealing.

5. Program The House of Artists in Iran
On invitation of Mr. Massoud Shojia Tabatabai, director of the House of Cartoons in Iran we had a two days program in Teheran and a spontanious exhibition in the Silk Road Hotel in the city of Yazd.

election fun:
2 days presentation in Teheran
425 visitors, 347 votes
memorable paintings:

1 day presentation in Yazd
125 visitors, 99 votes
memorable paintings:

 

6. Program with Vaishwik Gallery
7 weeks progam in cooperation with the Vaishwik Art Environment in Pune, India.
This program will take us to 7 major Indian cities where we will present at galleries and in cooperation with local artists we will present to schoolchildren and spontanious on the street.

Amristar
election fun:
1 day presentation at S.G. Thakar Singh Art Center
125 visitors, 51 votes
memorable paintings:

Chandigarh
election fun:
3 days presentation at Punjab Arts Council
100 visitors, 64 votes
memorable paintings:

Dehli
exhibitions at Lakayat Gallery, Hauz Khas; Press club of Indian Journalists and The Fine Arts And litrature Academy.
only votings at Lokayat Gallery:

Agra
Exhibition at Hotel Lauries for the Dragonman crew and audience: not your kind of exhibition. 34 paintings in vote.
election fun:


Bal Ashram, Virat Nagar, Jaipur
Presentation and workshop with 75 children of the rehabilitation center plus 20 local kids.
Election fun:

 

6. Program in the Middle East
Exhibitions in Dubai, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

7. Program in Istanbul
second view

8. Program in Balkan
special presentations in Belgrade, Prishtina, Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubljana.

Kick Off Party


Rumenia, School exhibitions and workshops, Constantsa


Rumenia, Municipal Modern Art Museum, Constantsa

Turkey, Hafriyat, Istanbul



Turkey, Anadolu Kultur Merkezi, Kars

Turkey, Arpacay, Streetperformance

Georgia, National Art Academy, Tbilisi

Iran, House of Iranian Artists, Teheran
Iran, Slik Road Hotel, Yazd

Get the next update

 



Meastro Amaro kicked us off at the Stroomhuis. Having a dinner for with almost 100 friends and family, musicians and artists it means having an excellent time one can imagine, but should experience. Fantasy is a nice thing, but as politics proove: the politics of experience is more fun then the politics of fantasy.

However, with Andre using his imagination to surprise people not only with great food but also with kitchen performences, supported by my great boss Hans Matheeuwsen (the king of soup), my lovely friend Laurie who filled the gaps and neutalized any worries I might have had and took some of her younger friends, altogether it was a good step up to the Kick off party that followed.

The Kick Off party was initiated by Marq Trash, but he was suffering a severe headache due to a car accident. No problem, many other supported this party as well: Stefan van Moorsel, Gijs van de Broek, Nicolien Schrier, the Stroomhuis crew... Besides that, Marq did not leave us alone.

Music by Goof Salimans, Denvis and mini orchestra, The Skat-a-Likes and the Hard Headed Soul.

It was all together quite a massive party that did not take too long but was just great.

And the money it brought in was offered to us to our journey. So thanks to all who enjoyed the experience.

Rumenia

The next morning we took of to Rumenia. Once we met a young woman in BUdapest working for the Belor Black Sea Foundation, a foundation that supports awareness about HIV in Rumenia. She asked us if we could perform in her city, and give great time to students in the city and children in the nearby villages. We mentioned this could only be possible when we will to India. And she managed the complete situation extremely good. Stefania was happy, made us happy and above all together we made many other people happy. Several program in th region with children, a magnificent exhibition in the local art museum and two young artists that received an empty panel to participate in the future.

Turkey

We left off to Istanbul, the city we will meet twice. More then three years ago we have visited Istanbul and invited several artists. One of them was our key person to our current visit: Hakan Gursoytrak is a brilliant painter, a free spirit and very much aware of contemporary politics. His painting (and story) is still very much the case in the contemporary politicl situation. Together with Deniz Erbas they have organized a very nice period in Hafriyat gallery. 4 empty panels were distributed and we will pick them up when we get back to Istanbul on our way back, somewhere in August of September. We are strongly looking forward to it.

It was the suggestion of the Dutch Consulate General to not only present in Istanbul but also in other places. This is how we got in touch with the Anadolu Kultur Merkezi in Kars. This city, at 1750 meters altitude is located at the very end of Turkey. While having an exhibition at the Cultural center we should have some presnetations at schools and on the street. Unfortunaely, although having permission of the municipality authorities for education, no permission was given by the governers office to present at schools. So we have left the town and went to the village of Arpacay. This is where we did a very funny and nice presentation and the central square. Not that people we very much interested in the stories: they wanted to know where we were from, where we go, how much cost the car and so on. How are you? With or mainly without understanding the answer. However, they votes well since democracy is good. The last day we had similar presentation at the streets of Kars. It was pretty cold but many people came to have a look. With the great help of Burcu Yilmaz and Ishan, the local support and translators, we have done very nice time. Kars is really far out, but we have made the promise to come back whenever there is a possibility to do so.
we are awaiting the video shooting made by the local TV and by two jouralists working for news agency's.

with kind support of the Consulate General of the Netherlands who made this part of the project possible.

Georgia

Our next stop is Tbilisi in Georgia. Personally I´m dreaming to visit this place. At first I fell in love with Georgian music. Also I like the Slavic people and although not all Georgian concider themselves Slavic, in my opinion there is no need to doubt about that. In many ways they have similar soul as Russians, Yugoslaves, Polaks and other Slavs. But there is no need to make a point out of this. Georgia is a new country and always have been under the influence of aothers. Logically they prever to call themselves Georgian and not something elase. Due to the fact Georgia was part of Soviet Union most of the people speak Russian, which helps me a lot.

Supported by the Dutch EMbassy, that brought us to the right people on the right way, we have a three days presentation at the National Art Academy of Georgia. It´s director, Gio Budgadze has a difficult job: He must teach 1700 student and learn them the contemporary interest of Georgian arts. But he is an academic that can not forget history as well. There is a very little budget, the accommodation is beautifull but old, Europe is far away, but also that close. He grew up with very strongklassical educational system.
Nino Tchogovili and Maya Kavaya are two cooperator representing the international activities of the academy and they have invited us to present our program. It was a beautifull experience and with the help of Maya as translator we have done an excellent performance. Funny to see that everywhere the people react surprized but also very positive to the storytelling performance.
That night we saw Sophia, the PR manager did her job excellent as well and we find ourselves on the 8 O'clock evening news, happy to be able to think about the painting of Victor Ekpuk: better news then just war. Our first TV appearance this journey. And we save them up for the Mondriaan Foundation.

The complete project was very positive. several artsist have participated and one (Gubaz Tevdoradze) finished his painting within this limited of time. The complete project resulted in the making of a new plan: to create a selection ´the World in Kavkaz´. So in the upcomming period we will investigate the possibilities, we will try to find some sponoring for budget and in September or October 2008 we will decide if 2009 will be focussed on the Caucasus Region. Personally I truly hope so, but one can never be sure what will be the final result. To work to make dreams come true is a special job. If you have this possibiliy, cherish it, and make it happen. That´s what we do.

Iran

At the last weeks of preparations we have received in inviatation to present at the house of Artists in Teheran. We were very happy with this invitation since Iran in an interesting place, it is big and we got a visa for 30 days while applied for 10 only. Iran is a strong state, but it's people are very hospitable.

Having an exhibition in one of the most respected places of Teheran was an honour for us, an honour with concequences; the invitor must not only take the artistic and social responsability for this project, but also the political responsability. It is for this reason we did not bring some of the paintings that we wanted to take. And finally two paintings we took were not accepted. On on eway this seems like a compromise, of kneefall. On the other hand we have a project that is made to communicate and to bring people together, not to provokate or to fight for principales. In fact we told very hard stories, that can also be related to the current Iranian situation. And all people accepted this, including the directors of Houses of Cartoon and Iranian Artists. If these stories had been written down and put up to challence, I do not think they would be accepted. Just to mention there was a good vibe, good challence, good respect and good exhibition going on..

More things happened in Teheran. Massoud Sholia Tabatabai, our host and director of the house of cartoon, showed us the world of cartoon, the complete contemporary atmosphere of it, and made a great painting for us.
Also we met Keyvan Azad, a friend of our partner in Amsterdam, Herman Divendal. He received a panel in autumn of last year and donated it to the Mobile Global Exbibition this week. A fabulous paiting that touched some edges during th Teheran exhibition. But the strong point was, there are so many layers in the painting that even the most radical message could be hidden, seen by those who look well, and ignored or, as you wish... accepted.....

Beside that we have received fabulous music from the ..... label.
check that out. Music remains the most direct emotion.

After this Teheran exhibition we had to travel through the big country of Iran. Then through Pakistan... one long transit of 9 days to Amritsar, India.
We calculated we had one and a half day to spend free wothout traveling. And the very first stop, in Yazd, we decided to spend the first complete day, and have an exhibition at the Silk Road Hotel.
Being supported by loals for translation almost 150 people, both international guests as local people saw the exhibition.