OK I finally got the statement for this project and am departing in the beginning/middle of June with my friend Will. The itinerary will be Paris- Nancy (to meet Will) – Prague (for printing and portfolio boxes, several openings) – Brno – Prague – Berlin (to meet Alex, my German publisher for the book project Vis-à-vis, on the female genitalia) – Nancy – Paris. Schedule problems aside, I am really excited:

STATEMENT

Projekt Derniera is the title of a conceptual art project to be realized in the arms factory Zbrojovka Brno. Ten well-known European photographers will be invited to all work in the same space, each realizing their own concept on the site. The Derniera project procedes from the following conceptual thesis:

The world is an aggregate of monologues, dialogues, and scenes. Each of us is an actor playing a role; sometimes better and sometimes worse, we act in different roles. The Zbrojovska Brno factory is a stage on which for almost a century thousands of people played their parts. This stage, however, did not withstand the storms of time: the actors left, the scenery was sold or stolen, but the site with its incontrovertible genius loci remained.

The Derniera Project is the last staged event that will be produced in this space; afterwards, the site will be demolished and completely revitalized.

The Derniera Project seeks to be the bridge connecting the era that was and the era that will be.

The curator of the Project and the developer investing in the revitalization have concluded that it is impossible to erase, without emotion, the significance of the former industrial site, connected as it is with the fates of a thousand people. Such revision is natural; each way out is an invitation to new retrospection and fresh contemplation.

The documentary value of the project will also be far from negligible, although this is not the project’s priority.

By his support of the project, the redevlopment investor has evinced his sympathetic concern for the fates of the people so closely bound up with this space and the memory of their time there.

The participants in the project are not bound by any conditions except the requirement that each project be realized on the site of the Zrojkova Brno factory.

The opening of the project will be an exhibition of the realized concepts — presumably large-format photographs. An industrial hall from the Zbrojovska site has been chosen as the first exhibition space.

The subsequent exhibitions are also envisioned as being held in untraditional venues — in sites either before or after their revitalization.

The results of the project will be summarized in an illustrated publication.

The results of the project may be used in the investor’s revitilization activities.

Notes toward realization

–Reknowned European artists will be invited to participate
–Leading European photography galleries will cooperate in choosing the participants.
–Participants in the first phase of the project will include, among others: Galerie Vrais Reves in Lyon and Galerie Baudelaire in Antwerp.
–The organizer and technical facilitator will be the Atelier Zidlický
–The curator of the project is Vladimír Židlický.
–The organizers will defray the cost of room and board and cover the costs of production for the participating artists.
–We envision that the individual artists will realize their projects in the course of a 10-14 day residence in Brno, during which time the workspace, supplies, technical facilities and personnel of the Atelier Zidlický will be at their disposal.
–The project will be realized in the summer (June-September) of 2008.
–The participating artists will give one realized work to the project’s sponsor as well as grant reproduction rights — by mutual agreement and to a reasonable extent — for the promotional needs of the project sponsors.