The Slovenian art collective
NSK State in Time will question statehood with the philosopher during this
year's biennale.
Alyssa Buffenstein,
April 14, 2017
NSK State in Time, the
borderless utopian vision of art collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (New
Slovenian Art), is staging its own pavilion to open in coordination with the
Venice Biennale, initiated with a lecture by philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
“The pavilion does not stand
in opposition to the national structure of the Venice Biennale, but rather
seeks to stand as an independent Pavilion that will redefine the idea of the
state and proffer a new type of citizenship,” the NSK State wrote in a press
release.
While the NSK collective was
formed in 1984 by members including avant-garde music group Laibach and artist
collective IRWIN, the NSK
State in Time was founded in 1992, as a non-geographical ideological “state,”
the self-proclaimed “first global state of the universe.” It is, needless to
say, ultimately a conceptual art project and not a legally recognized nation.
In 2010, it held the first NSK
Citizen’s Conference at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, and today
its international members organize art exhibitions and communicate on online
forums like the NSK Times,
a member-run website dedicated to the art and ideas of self-identified NSK
citizens.
The collective built its
pavilion project “in collaboration with migrant communities, humanitarian
protection applicants, and stateless individuals who are looking for new
citizenship.” Featured will be contributions from more than 200 artists,
philosophers, students, collectives, cooperatives, and institutions.
It will continue the collective’s
ongoing interrogation into contemporary statehood in the context of the Venice
Biennale, which has 84 official national pavilions by participating
countries in its 57th iteration. (Including Slovenia, which is represented
by Nika Autor this year.)
Attendance to the lecture at
the NSK State Pavilion will be free of charge, but is only open to members of
the NSK State, or grantees of a temporary NSK visa. Interested visitors will be
able to apply for the visa on the NSK State Pavilion’s website, where they
can also apply for citizenship—with a €24 application fee.
The NSK State Pavilion will be
open from May 11 to July 15, 2017. The inaugural lecture by Slavoj Žižek will
take place at 5 pm on May 11.
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