Sweet 60s: Movements and Spaces (Zagreb)

Sweet 60s: Movements and Spaces

3. & 4. 12. 2010, Gallery Nova, Teslina 7 Zagreb

co-organized by tranzit.at & WHW
within the framework of Act 4/ 8th Shangai Biennial

http://at.tranzit.org/en/sweet_sixties

“Sweet 60s” is a long-term experimental research project that investigates hidden territories of the revolutionary period of the 1960s, regarded from contemporary artistic and theoretical perspectives. The curatorial and artistic focus lies on “post ideological societies” (in post-soviet, post socialistic, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, West and Central Asian as well as North African countries, and in a second phase in China and Latin America) and in making a comparative analysis and contextualization of the historical developments in arts, culture and society of the 1960s and 70s, and their subsequent effects on contemporary socio-political and cultural situations.

The main focus lies upon the still underexposed global cultural shift in the 1960s and its subsequent effects in countries that were skipped out from the historical explorations of that particular revolutionary period. The general perception of the 1960s period is still associated with western culture and with the formal fragmented replications of processes on the “peripheries” and “outskirts”. “Sweet 60s” points at, reiterates, and re-narrates the still hidden geographies and societies of this cultural shift that most recently is getting rediscovered as a main influence for young artists in different localities around the globe.

In contrast to the now accepted master narratives and historical canons, “Sweet 60s” considers the processes of 1960s not as an eruption of a volcano with its fading away waves generating echoes in the rest of the world, but as a certain general socio-cultural, political, economical condition evolving in global context, which determined the development of parallel modernities interrelated with the development of diverse radical socio-political and cultural processes in every part of the world.

SOAS Occupation / Tariq Ali on the Importance of the UK Student Protests

http://soasoccupation2010.wordpress.com/

Press release and statement from the occupation

Posted on November 22, 2010 by soasoccupation2010

PRESS RELEASE

Central London college occupied by students over education cuts.

Students at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, have today taken over the Brunei Gallery, a central college building, in protest at the Coalition government’s plans to impose £4.3bn cuts to higher education.
SOAS is predicted to face 100% cuts to its teaching budget as it specialises in languages and humanities subjects.
Following a mass meeting of the Students’ Union last week, which voted to support occupations at the college, protestors gathered on campus at Monday lunchtime.
The Brunei Gallery was taken over shortly after by cheering students.

The demands are as follows:

Occupation Statement

“At a huge Emergency General Meeting (EGM) last week, SOAS students voted in favour of occupation as part of our fight against Coalition government plans to cut higher education funding and raise tuition fees. Today, over sixty students have occupied the Brunei Suite at SOAS. This number is growing.

We stand in solidarity with other University occupations across the country and all those resisting the government’s draconian and unnecessary cuts. We encourage all students to participate in the National Day of Action against fees and cuts on 24th November. We call on the University administration to join us in our fight to defend education. In particular, we demand:

No victimisation of participants in this occupation and in previous and future student actions against fees and cuts.

That students who participate in the walk-out organised on the 24th of November are not marked as absent from lectures or tutorials on that day

Greater transparency in the School’s budget and in the School’s financial decisions.

That Paul Webley, SOAS Director, releases a statement openly condemning all cuts to higher education and any rise in tuition fees, and writes to the Government in the form of an open letter asking Vice-Chancellors across the country to unite against all threats to Higher Education.

That Paul Webley and SOAS management refuse to budget for the cuts and commit not to raise tuition fees.

We also request that all lecturers devote 15 minutes of lecture time to discuss the impact of the cuts in their classes throughout this week.

The occupation space is open to all students and staff and we encourage everyone to participate in occupation activities.”