“AS YOU GO… roads under your feet, towards the new future”, conceived and initiated by Biljana Ciric, unfolded from 2019 to 2022 as a long term research curatorial inquiry that found great potential in its collaborative practice and situated topics.
Originating from organic research cells[1] varying from independent art practitioners (artists, researchers, writers, curators) to small-scaled organizations or state/private museums, we learned from each other on a long term process through regular meetings, intensive workshops and seminars. We attempted to generate alternative modes of working together that debunks the hierarchy of the artistic institution, encouraging creative interplays amidst the large scope of cultural production and interdisciplinary research.
[1] . Zdenka Badovinac (curator and writer, director of the Museum of Modern Art/ Moderna galerija in Ljubljana until 2021 and currently director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb)
. Nikita Yingqian Cai (Deputy director and chief curator of Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou)
. Biljana Ciric (interdependent curator and founder of What Could/Should Curating Do)
. Sinkneh Eshetu (writer and landscape architect, founder of Fruitycity Children’s World, Addis Ababa)
. Larys Frogier (founder with Alfie Chua of the duo artist studio Ocean & Wavz – OW based in Paris, art historian and artistic director, head of the Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai until 2022)
. Aigerim Kapar, (curator, initiator of the Artcom Platform and Art Collider school, Almaty)
. Dragan Stojmenovic, ethnologist and librarian at Public Library, Bor
. Robel Temesgen (artist, Addis Ababa, PhD. fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Art, Oslo).
From 2019 to 2022,we initiated two encounters one in Addis Ababa in 2020 and one in Bor in 2022. Along with the AS YOU GO… online journal, we organized a meaningful symposium in 2021, issuing a seminal publication in 2023. We also provided substantial support to numerous artists, collectives and researchers (sociologists, scientists, philosophers…) in order to achieve research and art projects through new commissions and residency programs, artwork production funds, curated exhibitions, lectures and papers, performances and events…) [1].
[1] . Chen Liang, anthropologist, Greater China
. Sarah Bushra and Contemporary Nights, artist and curators, Addis Ababa
. Jelica Jovanovic, researcher, Belgrade
. Yabebal Tadesse Fantaye, cosmologist, data scientist and cofounder of Astrobus, Addis Ababa
. Marija Glavaš, culturology researcher, Slovenia
. Aziza Abdulfetah Busser, landscape architect, Addis Ababa
. Alexey Ulko, researcher and artist, Tashkent
. Ash Monish, artist, New York/Cairo
. Hu Yun, artist, Shanghai/Belgrade
. Robel Temesgen, artist, Addis Ababa/Oslo
. The Fault Zone curatorial collective, Greater China
. Wu Yeiji, artist, Shanghai/London
. Jasphy Zheng, artist, Shanghai
. Anastasia Albokrinova, curator and artist, Samara
. Robert Bobnic and Kaja Kraner, researchers, Ljubljana
We developed such network, programs and activities in order to raise unheard voices of shared struggles within different contexts intensified by pandemic and new geopolitical divisions, from China to Central Europe, from Ethiopia to Central Asia. Through building collective and critical learning, the organic research cells have formed a sense of intimacy that challenged the usual definition of curatorial practice and academic research, trying to foresee new forms of collaboration and modes of relationality.
Our practice aims to avoid interpreting “international” as “the opposite of national”, or limiting such quality to the predominant local, national forces, regimes, industries and institutions. We continue to believe in the importance of the small entities, the overlooked routes, but also symbiosis of big and small and their interdependence through subtle yet meaningful interconnections crucial for our survival first as humans, and then cultural workers.
Following these three years of research and collaboration, we believe that the vitality of contemporary creativity involves the constant cultivation of dynamics that encompasses tension, transformation, friction and the invention of cultural and artistic inquiries. We cultivate vulnerability, continue to learn about multiplicity as a passage towards different modes of relationality that would enable healing.
Looking to enable vital practices to continue playing a crucial role in the humanities and the contemporary arts, after three years of working together, AS YOU GO…, is entering from 2023 onwards into a new phase of development, transitioning from a long term based project to:
AS YOU GO… as a sustainable autonomous, transnational and multiplatform organization.
Our transition will take sufficient time and care to implement the following guidelines:
– AS YOU GO… will connect and relate with localities on the margins with the future intention to expand its network to like-minded individuals and institutions in areas in Africa, the Arab world, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Pacific and other regions.
– AS YOU GO… will continue to use opacity and visibility as active choices.
– AS YOU GO…will nurture art and research as political and solidary practices within the organization members and beyond.
We are thrilled and honored to announce that AS YOU GO… transnational organization funding partners cells is now legally registered in Paris as a non-profit organization and its founding members are as follow:
. Biljana Ciric, What Could Should Curating Do, Belgrade
. Larys Frogier, Ocean & Wavz – OW, Paris
. Jelica Jovanovic, Belgrade/Vienna
. Sinkneh Eshetu, Addis Ababa
Partners remain opened and proactive to:
. Conceive and lead art and research programs
. Engage into art and research cooperation projects
. Develop initiatives supporting art practitioners and researchers
. Welcome fruitful exchanges with individuals, collectives, organizations,
institutions, sharing similar values and methodologies of working
. Meet the artistic, cultural, democratic and environmental challenges that are
shaking our contemporary worlds and will determine our common future.
