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ABOUT ALYTUS BIENNIAL ACTIVITY Print
Written by Redas Diržys   

  

Consider the whole of your life, what you already do, all your doings. Now please exclude everything which is naturally physiologically necessary (or harmful), such as breathing and sleeping (or breaking an arm). For what remains, exclude everything which is for the satisfaction of a social demand, a very large area which includes foremost your job, but also care of children, being polite, voting, your haircut, and much else. From what remains, exclude everything which is an agency, a "means" -- another very large area which overlaps with others to be excluded. From what remains, exclude everything which involves competition. In what remains, concentrate on everything done entirely because you just like it as you do it. (Henry Flynt „Against „Participation“: Total Critique of Culture“)

 

Alytus [Art Strike] Biennial of 2011 is yielding a ground for the Congress of DAta Miners and Travailleurs Psychique (DAMTP). That will happen on August 22-28th in Alytus.

Our aim is to gather world wide radical antiautoritaric post-neoist-out of Dadaists, surrealists or offsprings of fluxus and situationists, post artists (those who ceased their participation in capitalist spectacle), prophets, sages and seers, cultural, political and social workers, dead and alive – everybody who are active in the field of space, time and meaning under the umbrella of DAta Miners and Travailleurs Psychique to discuss, share and spread around our experiences and good will to destroy bourgeois culture and outlive capitalist specializations. So far we found art strike biennial very relevant form to abolish imperialist format of cultural biennial format, also to liberate some funds from them on that occasion and that was very pleasant form to outlive the death of art (and serious culture) in a place were it never was settled (yet).

So,

-          we are inviting everybody who ceased playing the role of artists, or are planning to do it soon – and we expect for not doing arts during the festival, but sharing your artistic experience and fantasies in more useful activities we’ll decide right at place

-          we are inviting theoreticians not to give the lectures and clever advices, neither addressing big names, but rather to look for latent possibilities not hidden under the shiny professionalism

-          we are inviting activists who instead of addressing global capitalist problems would face the misery of everyday life what is actual cause for it.

-          we are inviting everybody to set up the radical consequences of global capitalist cultural colonialism and to look forward for common acts in all levels of space, time and meaning.

The format of the congress:

The DAMTP congress is thought to obtain the open character of art strike format.

The DAMTP’s during the congress days are expected to be militant foo fighters (expected in alliance with community of judoists) in the morning, theoreticians and disputers at noon, clandestine workshop formers afternoon, and finally critical critics in the evening & night.

The DAMTP congress’ pick is planned to explode into:

-          1 or 2 public preemptive anti-capitalist and counter-bourgeois-cultural pickets/demonstrations - dead workers of all nations and times are to be included;

-          psychogeographic 3-sided football match in the public park;

-          total DIY music jam;

-          cloudbusting – the extraction of cosmic sexual energy extracted by 2 cloud engineering busters (according to invention by Wilhelm Reich)… and sharing will all people of good will around.

-          other collective activities proposed by the attending participants

”Spontaneous festival of poetry made by all… to assist in the destruction of all repressive myths and ideologies and to assist in the creating the situation whereby all become poets” (Franklin Rosemont)

“Where life and death, the real and the imaginary, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low, cease to be perceived as contradictions”. (Andre Breton) 

An aspect of dance to be added - the key once provided by Chicago surrealist Debra Taub as she wrote: “everyday life of the Pygmies in the African rainforest includes the custom of allowing anyone at any moment on any occasion to break spontaneously into dance. Whenever a member of his marvelous community feels like it he or she may simply begin to dance and others may join as the please....”

…and we’ll have “a great deal of company, - curious tourists from abroad, artistic people, and socialists…” (Arthur Sumner)... accompanied with an army of local elder teenagers and including  “kite flying contest in a rainy night” (Penelope Rosemont)…

And traditionally: no individual show-ups, no organized [visual] documentation ...and trying to avoid any... 

Prehistory
 
Alytus Biennial is a logic continuation of numerous international experimental art festivals and events held in southern Lithuanian town Alytus since 1993. So far the essential element for the town is an absence of any artistic infrastructure (no galleries, art museums, nor even some exhibition hall in the city hosting 70 000 inhabitants – sic! - and even no any promises from the municipal authorities) the events were held directly in the streets and other urbanist common places. The essential element for any of those activities was political-artistic behavior and problematic.

 

First events overtaking the streets of Alytus for 24 hours were held in 1993-1996 and beared name “Straight. Section”.

 

 

In 1998 the event was intended to held performances directly in the river Nemunas which violently crosses the city. The event was titled “River & Communication”. Unfortunately there happen an accident during the mounting of the piece from the bridge – one of the assistants fell down from the bridge. That was one of the mostly scandalous events during the decade in Lithuania. The access to the strategic constructions and public places was restricted for a period of few years as a result.

 

 

As a clearly defined event under the name of Alytus Biennial the event appeared in 2005. The basic idea for it was to continue experimental art tradition directly in the urban spaces of the town. So far it took the title “Beware!Politics!” it really stood somewhere in-between of arts and politics. The biennial also clamed for debienalization of arts and society so to respond to increasing number of various biennials appeared as art-value in itself. The communal approach of the artists community was taken as a highest value of the event to continue the development further.

 

 

The biennial of 2007 was given to youth with a task simply to demystify it’s importance an so to trap the sacred name of it. So far they did not succeed to destroy the biennial as the symbol of “serious culture” – next step was Art Strike Biennial.: to cease any artistic activity related to mimicking of Vilnius European Cultural Capital and/or any establishment in Lithuania in 2009. Establishment got pierced and Biennial turned into an activity to not produce arts every second the year.

 

 

At the moment the Biennial looks for an opportunity to join the general strike in 2012 accomplishing it with creative experience and psychic liberation of humanity. Also supports whatsoever attempt to destroy any biennial event, any cultural capital celebration and also we aim to support general art strike as well.

 

 

 

Burn, Baby, Burn!

 

 

 

 

“If the end is the taking of power by the people themselves then the means must be the revolutionary organs of the people – worker councils, community councils, communes etc.

If the end is the freeing of man culturally as well socially and economically then the means exist in the destruction of “culture”.

If the end is the liberation of natural man then the means must be sexual as well as social.

If the end is the “totality” then the means must be “total” – all or nothing.”

Ben Morea. Black Mask No. 7, August/September 1967.