Our
journey to India will start on March 1st, afer having a great Kick
Off Party and
Goodbye Dinner
with many friends and collegues in the Stroomhuis in Eindhoven.
This
left column is a overview. In the middle collumn you see pictures of
this update at right ou can read the stories.
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.
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:
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.
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 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 Gallery 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 prsent to
schoolchildren and spontanious on the street.
Amristar,
Punjab
election fun:
1 day presentation at S.G. Thakar Singh Art Center
125 visitors, 51 votes
memorable paintings:
Chandigarh, State Territory
election fun:
3 days presentation at Lalit Kala Akademi
100 visitors, 64 votes
memorable paintings:
Dehli,
Capitol
exhibitions at Lakayat Gallery, Hauz Khas; Press club of India and The
Fine Arts And litrature Academy.
only votings at Lokayat Gallery:
Agra, Uttar
Pradesh
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
Election fun with 100 kids and 10 people staff:
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat
No elections fun due to the fact we have no more voting ballots. Here
some of the paintings used by the children activities.
Nashik,
Maharashtra
Election on emotional base.
Bangalore, Karnataka
2 days of exhibition at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
190 visitors, 116 votes, 45 paintings in vote
Goa
2 days presentation at the Kelkar Art Complex
slack season, few visitors, great party
46 paintings in vote and 29 votes
Puna,
Vaishwik Art Environment
Results of one month exhibition at Vaishwik Art Environment. from 84
till 149 paintings in vote. 189 votes.
GRAND
OPENING World in India 4 most
respected paintings :
Meanwhile
in Puna also having a street presentation and school presentations:
MG Road
Walking Plaza 08-06-08 with 38 paintings
Dr. Kalmari
Shamarao Highschool
12 classes appeared. 515 votes for 50 paintings
Mumbai Podar International school
Presentations for 5 large groups and several smaller goups. Over 500
votes for 58
paintings:
6.
Program in the Middle East
Due to political situations and due to the fact we drove back from india
we had to cancel our Middle east program
7.
Program in Istanbul
second view, but holiday times so no exhibition
8.
Program in Balkan
In Balkans we metholiday times and some exhibitions in Bosnia and Slovenia.
Our election fun happenings:
Lukamir,
BiH
Without elections
Zelenkovac
art gallery, BiH
16 votes, 16 different paintings
Banski
Dvor, Banja Luka
two day street performance in te evening with 73 paintings.
1000 visitors, 240 votes
Metelkova,
Ljuljana, Slovenia evening
presentation near Menza and Alcatraz gallery. With 96 paintings, 350
viewers and 126 votes.
India
update 5: Getting Back from India
During our way back we have seen some eamples of traffic diversity in
India
We have passed Lahore in Pakistan
The crew that helped us out when having a flat tire in the heat of the
Baluchistan dessert
After passing Iran we crossed the border with Turkey near Mount Ararat
An extra journey to meet friends in Alleppo (picture), Damacus and Latakkia
in Syria
The way through Turkey leads us to Ankara. Suburbs near the ourter ringway.
You need to pass Istanbul when traveling overland. It seems so long
ago. Even the Agia Sophia has no towers yet.
In Bulgaria we have seen the mountains and the amazing Lari Monestir
Since Istanbul Driver Len took most of the control over the stearingwheel.
We have made this picture before. Our most favorite parkingspot in he
city of Sarajevo. All the friends know we have arrived again.
In Lukamir ('the gate to peace') at 1623 meter altitude, we have done
a 'local show'
In Zelenkovac there was an exhibition and we have been decor for the
Frensh band La Bagayie.
In Banja Luka we had fun at Pink TV
Two day seveningshow in Metelkova in Ljubljana is amazing. The location
exists almost 15 years now. I was thehre the very first day. Now is
became a tourist arttraction for alternative travellers
The Austrian Highway is closed due to too much traffic in a tunnel.
Fun
After 4 month of great weather we reach Netherlands again. Now we notice
where the clouds are made and why the weather is often less bright as
in India
Our
journey to India is over. We travel home with the idea to visit Jordan
and Balkans. The feelings and impressions about the previous tour are
still bouncing around in my mind. Every place and every country has
it's good and bad sides, like flipping coins. India shows both sides
of the coin, together, simultaniously, everywhere, all the time. It
is an imperfect chaos and at the same time there is many respect for
the reality, as it is.
We had a great tour and very nice audience, we spend good time and were
very happy about the general results.
We have presented many shows as you can see in our tavel reports on
our site. There has been massive press attention, great response from
Indian artists to this project and there was an enthousiastic and wide
range of audience. There has been no major bad luck or accidents and
with the support of several private sponsores we did had not useless
stress due to the financial situation. The yellow truck, ('Dancing Fool'
as we called it since we had a Frank Zappa record with us) functioned
excellent.
An unbelieveble expierence and a great step into the internationalization
of the mobile global exhibition Show Your Hope.
The new Indian selection, with 79 participants, will keep the subject
"India" alive at the Show Your Hope presentations.
The website is updated regularly and besides the travel blog, it functioned
well during the journey. The final update, with all India participants
will be finished before november 1st 2008.
over 2500 people have added themselves to our newsletter.
We have recieved invitations, developed plans and established contacts
for further presentations in Georgia, India and Turkey in 2009 and 2010.
Meanwhile the little museum in our hometown Eindhoven is reconstructed.
This place will be the central storage and presentation place of the
mobile global exhibition.
At the end of May 2008, 4 exhibitions of Show Your Hope took place in
the same time. In Amsterdam schools wih Aida, in Asten at a festival,
in Bangalore at an educational institute and in Pune at Vaishwik Art
Environment. Excellent!!!
It would
be too much to thank all of them who have made this possible. Even too
make exceptions would be too much. But the thankfulness for your help
is not denied so… Thank you all!!! You all know who you are!! There
might be some who have no email. The police station in Dalbandin for
example, who saved my life. Or Mehmet, who did as well when we had a
flat tire in the Baluchistan heat.
That
was the good news.
We have
a catagory bad news and sad news, just in order to avoid this is an
other good news show.
In the
catagory bad news:
- no 3rd leg of presentations in Middle East, and hardly no up front
organized shows in the Balkans.
- No shipment from India to Middle East. That means: new visa for Pakistan
and Iran and drive in three weeks through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey
to Syria.
- Project catalogue that is ready after the presentations, and it is
of limited quality as project document.
The
second bad newsflash (no shipment) made we had to change our plans.
Instead of having rest and time to organize the way back in Middle East
and Balkans, we now had to hurry and drive 5 to 6000 km in hard conditions:
bad roads and heat. Besides that, the travelpartners went home acoording
to plan, new people could not come in time to get the required visa;
I was on my own. I found myself alone. Although actually a little bit
irresponsable I went and finally found myself a month later at lake
Van in Eastern Turkey. So I survived. But there was no communiation
with Teheran, Damascus, Amman, Beiruth or Istanbul, no follow up on
talks in Skopje, Pristina, Belgrade or Sarajevo. A lot of time was needed
to recover from this travel.
We have
missed our time for exhibition in Istanbul, we missed friends in Belgrade,
Skopje and Sarajevo, we just missed the information about Kosovo. we
only had exhibitions in small places like Lukamir (the gate to peace)
and Zelenkovac and in middle large cities like Banja Luka and Ljubljana.
Specially these last two were funny and nice exhibitions in the evening
with a much different atmosphere as usually. These exhibition have been
performaned in Serbo Croatian language. I can ensure you that will bring
some extra funny dimensions. There is a link on YouTube.
That
last bad news newsflash (problems with the catalogue) made we had to
change plans while we had the idea in mind things could have been much
better in case there had been a better cooperation with our partner.
The catalogue was timed incorrectly and therefore not distributed during
traveling, it is too personal to use it in general and to little detailed
to use as an Indian document. It contains a large amount of mistakes
and it was way too expensive.
This idea of trying to do things better kept on asking a lot of questions.
Questions I had to deal with. Questions I had to ask.
That
brings me to the sad news.
As mentioned before, India tries to show both sides of the coin together,
simultaniously, everywhere and all the time. At the article about sad
news I do not have to discribe how many beautifull things can happen
due to this attitude. However, the other side of the coin is also at
present. And when things become more under presure due to whatever reason,
both sides of the coin show themselves with more pressure. Finally we
find ourselves in a situation where at least 50% of the agreements were
unclear, later to be interpreted again, often differently as before.
We work
with an idea to achieve a working atmosphere and presentation that will
stimulate both partners to see if future cooperation is possible and
desirable. We need to be naive, in order to satisfy the trust we have
towards others. We are very critical to ourselves and in order to improve
ourselves we are also critical to others. Constructively.
Unfortunately we have not been able to establish a mutual trust at this
level of working with our partner. And that is a pity since 75% of the
plan functioned well and was implemented as such.
We can only advise others who would like to work in India with this
partner, to make a solid contract about the financial elements of your
agreement.
And
it is sad news because we would like to tell other things about our
partners, and we would have liked to see this situation would to be
small and therefor irrelevant to mention. Unfortunately it became a
big element and it seems I can not make a good news show. Things should
be told. I favor openness but with respect.
Having
said this all
I thank you very much for your attention.
Please see us in cyberspace or in the world while traveling to all continents.
