Objectiu Actiu: Tarragona's second photography meeting

On 19 March it was held at the Cafe Metropol of Tarragona (Spain) the Second Edition of Objectiu Actiu, an initiative of four citizens with the objective of getting to know the photographers of this Mediterranean city. To do so they organize periodical hangouts where the photographers can show their work with total freedom on the subjects.

Adrià Borràs (photographer), Joel Giné (graphic designer), Pau Luzón (visual editor) and Roberto Eduard (visual amateur) give the opportunity to any photographer, amateur or professional, to show their work. That is how they describe themselves: “we want to be a platform for the young talents and the social voice for the photography community in Tarragona”.

On their web page you can find the projects shown on all the editions of the festival and also a news blog! Please take a look, you will find very interesting projections! On this second edition I myself presented a visual project made with my colleagues Gerard Mateo and Pablo Gonzalez. You can take a look here, we hope you like it: http://vimeo.com/89343368

But... why Objectiu Actiu (Objective Active)? The team assure us the first thing they were sure about was the red bulb logo, a wink to the red light needed in a photography laboratory. Afterwards they had to deal with the riddle of a name, so they look for a clear and catchy pun, and that is how they end up with Objectiu Actiu: Objectiu means either a goal and the camera lens, while Actiu reflects their will and enthusiasm on this project.

You want now to do an audiovisual project and present it at the Cafe Metropol? Then here is the link with the requirements you must follow:

http://www.objectiuactiu.cat/participa/

A great initiative that was born when Adrià finished his studies of photography in Tarragona's School of Art. In that moment he came up with a good idea and created this event with friends who had studied and worked on the world of visual arts to keep themself busy and somehow contribute to Tarragona's cultural life.

The Objectiu Actiu team states their satisfaction with the two editions and explain us that the first one was more about the novelty of being born as a collective but still being a success. On the second edition they were looking for reaffirmation and to connect with audience and participants, and so they did. With hard work and passion they have got a nice place in Tarragona's photography world, which gaves them plenty of energy to keep working forward to grow and improve.

Adrià Borràs

Adrià Borràs

But this young team will not remain only with projections, their are getting stronger and even if the shows are at the base of their project we will see soon new contents like conferences, meetings and much more! 

Paula Arbeloa Suárez

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paula_arbeloa_photography/

The Silence of the Museum of Yugoslav History

View of Belgrade from the Museum

The sky is cloudy. Some falling raindrops. From the House of Flowers the whole city of Belgrade can be seen. The Saint Sava and a concrete building monopolize the view. In front of the Mausoleum of Tito it looks like time has stopped. A lady with a folded umbrella is reading “Josip Broz Tito 1892-1980” in golden letter over white marble.

Inside of the House of Flowers. Tito's mausoleum

At the same time, in the current Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a sunny sky, thousands of people from all ethnic groups take the streets. Some go for a walk. Other for shopping. But a lot of them take part in a demonstration. Unlike what had happen in the last years they are not out to show the division between them but the social union. They are workers against corruption and in favour of justice, who don't want their public heritage to be sold any more.

And with all that the Museum of Yugoslav History is still, like a fossil, at the former capital, now in Serbian territory. There we will not find a historiographical reading of any past, at least not at first sight. Surely the effects of the war, which was over not so many years ago, and some wounds that are still bleeding, might made impossible an official reading without hurting any sensibilities. A lot of their borders are still in question marks. Or maybe they explain that to us using the silence.

Outside the Museum. Allegorical sculpture of Yugoslavia

The Museum is somehow of a cult to Tito, with his mausoleum as the epicentre of it, surrounded by the torches that Yugoslav youth brought there when his anniversary was near. Outside there are statues over the grass, not only his but also with interpretations that some artists made about his position or about the old State in general. In the same set there are included a series of rooms with the presents this marshal received from various countries and regions. In addition to an interpretation centre and some rooms used for temporary exhibition, the artists who expose today are war orphans. They are still too young, which proves we are still to close from the latest bombings.

Temporary exhibitions rooms with war orphan's paintings

Actual state of Belgrade's Defense building after OTAN's bombing in 1999

Surely not everyone agree with Tito's ideology. What is clear is that his internal and foreign politics gave Yugoslavia a period that was little expected to end as it ended, at least as seen from its context and outdistance. Surely that cult, which still today has its reminiscence in all Balkan republics, could explain how everything collapsed after Tito's death, on May 4^th at 3:05pm.

Obviously that neither explains Yugoslav history or provides any revelatory vision of the former federation. However, if every history museum must have and historiographical reading, this is a possible one that we can take from the absence of it. A project that writes his history from the figure of a leader. A mausoleum which calls himself as museum. With the leader the ethnic tensions get to a balance position for the collective sake and class need. With his death, his project dies also. And it remains the House of Flowers, the Museum, as a witness of peace, a quiet space, an oasis inside the capital, isolated from traffic and daily headaches of such a complex big city.

Complementary information:

TheGuardian about Bosnia and Herzegovina protests

Bosniaprotests picture gallery "La Directa"

Ramon Lobo (12/02/2014) ¿Primavera en Bosnia? "Infolibre" 

Igor Bogdanovic (2005) Els Balcans. Publicacions de la UOC. Barcelona.

Gabino Martínez

@gabinotgn

Then

During the last month of February it was held in London the second edition of the Waterloo Vaults Festival. For six weeks the labyrinth of tunnels under Waterloo station were filled up with concerts, art and alternative theater. We enjoyed so much Then, the new show written by and starring Yve Blake supported by the Young National Theatre Studio.

Entrance to the Waterloo Vaults Festival

The stage is almost empty: a microphone stand, a computer, a projector and a curtain for the few but effective costume changes. But as soon as the show begins Yve Blake takes care of covering the entire stage with monologues, interacting with the projections, singing, dancing... and she even dares to go with rap!

The show begins with three questions: Who are you? Who you'll be? And, most important, who you used to be? It is from this last question that the the full show is developed. We are always the same throughout our lives? Or the situations we live make us change gradually while we grow up? Then talks about the past we used to live in, but also invites us to reflect on what this implies about changes and about life .

The project started well before staging with the creation of the website Who Were We where people around the world was invited to anonymously submit their stories, pictures or memories about the people who they used to be in the past. From there the artist created a speech including more than a hundred of the stories received to make us think about ourselves, as most of them are stories which anyone can feel identified with, putting aside a comedy look that turns the reflection in a fun and entertaining show.

Promotional image for the show

Many of the stories are read by the interpreter from behind her computer, some of them accompanied with images from the projector, while others are put together into songs linked by themes and tidying up the speech by age of this past persons. So throughout the show we see our thoughs when we were infants, how we saw the world when we went to school and the problems of becoming a teenager. The last part of the show, however, brings together the reflections of older people who also collaborated on the website and give us an idea of how they see it was their life when they were 20, 30 or 40 years old.

One of the positive parts of this structure is the increase in the intensity of emotions. Leaving the reflections of older people for the end of the show allows it to start in a much lighter and fun way, including the preference for sandwiches without crust, to gradually pass to the typical adolescence body concerns and self-acceptance. Getting to the end of the show one of the most tender and sweet songs is “You grow me up, now I'll grow you down” where, without leacing completely aside the bold and fun touch of the show, we can reflect about elderness and how generation after generation some help us to make the road to success in life while in exchange, sooner or later, we will have to help them rid the road of life.

Finally, the show concludes with a final song bringing the most interesting responses to this particular question from the site : If you had five minutes with your past you, what would you say? We invite you to answer it yourselfs.

Ricard Gispert
@ricardgispert