Frankfurt Contributors

Apsolutno - Transfer
The association Apsolutno was founded in 1993 in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. The production of the association is created through collaboration of its three members (Zoran Pantelić, Dragan Rakić and Bojana Petrić). Since 1995 the works have been signed Apsolutno, without any reference to personal names. Zoran Pantelic is an artist, producer, educator and researcher. He is currently director of the New Media Center_kuda.org, Novi Sad (Serbia and Montenegro). He holds a BA from the Academy of Fine Arts Novi Sad and MA from the same institution, as well as a certificate from the School of Media Education 2001 Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Shu Lea Cheang - Throne of Blood
Cheang, recognized internationally as one of the leading artists creating works that link physical and online spaces, has previously exhibited at two Whitney Biennials, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Taipei Biennale 2000, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; ICC Biennale 1997, InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, and created the Guggenheim Museum's first web based art project, entitled"Brandon." Her new project "BABY LOVE", the second part of The Locker Baby project following the installation "BABY PLAY" at ICC, will be shown at Taiwan National Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei from May 2006 after the exhibition at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

Celine Condorelli - Theatre of Operations
Celine Condorelli is an architect based in London. She is Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University and both her teaching and practice are concerned with architecture as interface, engaging with complex situations and combinations of spatial, urban, political and social structures. Recent works include developing Support Structure, an RSA Art for Architecture and Arts Council England project with Artist-Curator Gavin Wade, through several exhibitions including at Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2003, and The Economist, London, 2004, as well as taxi_onomy with artist Beatrice Gibson, supported by Arts Council England, the British Council and V2 Rotterdam.

Dietmar Dath - Weather
Dietmar Dath grew up in Schopfheim, finished the high school in Freiburg, did his civilian service and studied mathematics and German studies in Freiburg. Since 1990 he published articles and stories about social themes and popular culture in various magazines. He translated works of Joe Lansdale, Kodwo Eshun and Buddy Giovinazzo into German. Dath was chief editor of the Spex music magazine from 1998 to 2000. From 2001 to 2007 he was journalist at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Dath is married. In 2008 he received the promotion award of the Lessing prize for critic.

Thomas Plischke + Kattrin Deufert - Mine
deufert + plischke gründeten 2001 die frankfurter küche. In dieser arbeiten sie als Künstlerzwilling "deufert + plischke" an verschiedenen Theaterprojekten, Dia- und Video-Installationen, sowie Text- und Video-Publikationen. Von 2001 bis 2006 entstanden ihre Theaterstücke "inexhaustible (RW)" (2003), "Sofia SP – science is fiction" (2004), "As if (it was beautiful)" (2004) sowie die Trilogie "Directories" (2003-6). deufert + plischke unterrichten regelmäßig Komposition und Ästhetik an internationalen Kunstakademien und sind im Sommer 2006 Gastprofessoren an der Universität Hamburg im Rahmen der Performance Studies.

Azza El-Hassan - Featherman
Azza el Hassan is an award winner independent Documentary Producer/ Director. Azza holds an MA in Television Documentary, GoldSmith College, University of London (1995) and a BA in Film and Television studies and Sociology from Glasgow University, Scotland (1994). Her films have been produced and shown by various national and international TV networks.

International Festival - Comrade
International Festival, Tor Lindstrand and Mårten Spångberg, work together since several years and have with their radical projects in performance and architecture developed a strong reputation. Their work focus on conventions and frames as well as on the production of specific inter human relations related to performance and architecture.

Anselm Franke - Trip
Anselm Franke is the artistic director of Extra City Center for Contemporary Art in Antwerp. He has been Director of Exhibitions at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin until 2006. In Berlin, he continues to work as co-curator of the Forum Expanded of the International Film Festival Berlin. He has frequently organised projects in theatres, as well as in architectural and academic contexts. Writing for various magazines such as Piktogram, he is currently completing a PhD at the Visual Cultures/Center for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths College London.

Mansur Jacoubi - Relatively calm
Mansūr Jacoubi lives in Beirut and works with a number of new media, art, and research initiatives. He was co-director of the online video platform for Freespeech TV, a founding member of the Indymedia network, and served as board member of Working Films. Most recently he has been developing a collaborative community website for Palestine refugees as well as an online edition for Zawaya, a pan-Arab culture, politics, and arts magazine. He is also currently a fellow in the Waag-Sarai Exchange, and working towards establishing a networked center for new media and urban practices in Beirut.

Christof Kurzmann - Luftraum
christof kurzmann, born 1963 in vienna/austria, presently lives in berlin/germany. musician between electropop, improvisation and "new music". sometimes soloist, he prefers to be part of an collective or an working group. concerts in all continents with the exception of australia. organizer of various events in the music- and media-genre. labelowner of the small independent label "charhizma" (www.charhizma.com). conscient objector of military- and civil-service, he still is politicly active and/or interested. he likes to travel, go to the cinemas and concerts, likes to read, even emails to charhizma@charhizma.com (he doesn´t reply all the time).

Angela Melitopoulos - Corridors of Subjection
Angela Melitopoulos, artist/researcher in the time based arts, realized experimental single-channel-tapes, video installations, videoessays, documentaries and sound pieces. Her work focuses on migration/mobilty, memory and narration. She conceives media art pieces in that video technology as a time based medium revealing mnemonic and micro-political processes in documentation. She studied fine arts at the Art Academy Düsseldorf with Nam June Paik. Angela Melitopoulos is collaborating in political networks in Paris, Italy, Turkey and Germany and teaches in academic institutions such as the Media Art Academy in Cologne, in the University of Potsdam or the Middle East Technology University in Ankara. She has published theoretical texts and articles in Europe, especially in collaboration with the sociologist and philosopher Maurizio Lazzarato.

Simon Naveh - Rhizomic Maneuver
Dr. Naveh is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and the Security Studies Program, and the director of the Cummings Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies. He is also the head of Operational Theory Research Institute of the National Defense College, IDF.

Hans Nieswandt - Marschgepäck
1964 in Mannheim geboren 1972 nach Friedrichshafen am Bodensee verzogen dortselbst ab 1978 diverse Punk-Bands, Fanzines und DJ-Gehversuche 1983 erster bezahlter DJ-Gig in Ravensburg 1984 Abitur 1985 Studium der amerikanischen Literaturwissenschaft in Hamburg; freier Autor für „tango“, Bandaktivitäten. 1987 – 89 Filmredakteur des Stadtmagazins „tango“, zunehmendes DJ-Engagement 1990 – 1993 Redakteur des Kölner Musikmagazins „Spex“, maßlos überhandnehmende DJ-Aktivitäten. Ende 1991 eigene Kölner Clubnacht „Whirlpool“, Beginn einer anhaltenden Reiseaktivität als DJ, aber auch als Musiker, Remixer und Workshopper, u.a. für das Goethe-Institut, in z.T. exotische Gegenden: Brasilien, Mexico, Südafrika. 1992 Aufnahme der Musikproduktion von Whirlpool Productions. 1995 erstes Whirlpool-Album „Brian De Palma“ 1996 zweites Whirlpool-Album „Dense Music“ 1997 „From: Disco To: Disco“ Nummer 1 in Italien. Aufnahmen für drittes Album in Jamaika 1998 drittes WPP-Album „???“ erscheint. Aufnahmen für Solo-LP „Lazer Muzik“ 1999 „Lazer Muzik“ erscheint 2000 Aunahmen viertes WPP-Album 2001 „Lifechange“ erscheint. Erstes Buch wird geschrieben 2002 „plusminusacht – DJ Tage DJ Nächte“ erscheint. Hans Nieswandt lebt mit seiner Familie in Köln.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad - Life support
Carl Michael von Hausswolff is an artist, a composer and curator living in Stockholm, Sweden. Thomas Nordanstad is a film maker and a curator living in Stockholm and Bangkok.

Battery Operated - Sound Weapon
Battery Operated is a collaboration of artists that have been producing sound, video and Internet projects since 2000. Their first project Chases Through Non-Place used music in public places as its source and since then they have researched and developed projects around the social uses of functional sound and video, from ‘Muzak’ to surveillance cameras. The latest Battery Operated project - S.P.I.R.A.W.L. (Sound Proofed Institute Researching Acoustic Weapons Logistics) is a documentary about the sonic landscape and the pioneering use of sound weapons within it. It can be found at – www.batteryoperated.net/spirawl

John Palmesino - Neutrality
Born in Lugano, Switzerland, 1970. Architect and urbanist. Co-founder of PALMESINO RÖNNSKOG Territorial Agency, Basel. Head of research at ETH Zurich, Studio Basel / Contemporary City Institute. ETH Studio Basel is a research platform for the investigation of the transformation patterns of the city of the 21st Century. Responsible for the research activities at the Institute, with Prof. Jacques Herzog and Prof. Pierre de Meuron. Project manager of the study “Switzerland – An Urban Portrait” (Birkhäuser, November 2005). Founding member of multiplicity, a research agency on territorial transformations. The Milan based firm deals with contemporary urbanism, representation of inhabited landscape transformation, visual arts and general culture. multiplicity is a research network of architects, urbanists, social scientists, photographers, filmakers and artists. Main projects include USE Uncertain states of Europe (Mutations), SOLID SEA (documenta11), Border Devices (Biennale di Venezia). Author of the new Masterplan for the Markermeer, The Netherlands, commisioned by the Dutch Ministry for Water Management and Traffic, RIZA Reijkswaaterstaat and the IABR International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. Initiator and curator of the research project “Neutrality”, a multidisciplinary investigation in the territorial implications of the UN-policies and the self-organisation processes of the contemporary human landscapes. Curator of “Under Construction”, a series of dialogues about different notions of transformation in several disciplines and practices, in collaboration with the Kunsthalle Basel. Author of several territorial research studies, with particular attention to the transformations in the general European context and the Swiss urban structure in particular. His research focuses on the representation of self-organisation processes in the evolution of the contemporary urban condition. Co-author of USE Uncertain states of Europe, Skira: Milano, 2003 and of Lessico Postfordista, dizionario di idee della mutazione, Feltrinelli: Milano, 2001; a interdisciplinary book on the connections between knowledge, productive structures, culture and cities in the contemporary society.

Dan Perjovschi - Think Tank
Dan Perjovschi born 1961 in Sibiu Romania lives and works in Bucharest. He uses drawings as a material to create temporary monumental installations. Drawing is for Perjovschi a primary and decisive medium for political and social expression. Acting also as a journalism he is deeply involved in the social tissue of the society. His recent solo exhibition include The Room Drawinf at Tate Modern, On the Other Hand at Portikus Frankfurt and May First at Moderna Museet Stockholm(2006) or Naked Drawings at Ludwig Museum Koln (2005). He participate at group shows like Sao Paolo Biennial, The Vincent at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Normalization at Rooseum Malmo in 2006 or Istanbul Biennial, New Europe. The Culture of Mixing and Politics of Representation at Generali Foundation and I Still Believe in Miracles at ARC Musee dArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Perjovschi received George Maciunas Prize in 2004.

Jan Ritsema - Struggle for ideas
Jan Ritsema is an independent theater director, and actor and dancer. Makes his own performances and stages repertory as well. Shows his performances mainly in Europe. Works in the field of experimental and political theater. Develops research in theater and teaches in art schools. Is based at PAF (PerformingArtsForum) near Reims in France.

Irit Rogoff - Exergue
Irit Rogoff is Professor of Art History/Visual Culture, Historical and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College, London University. Her research interests include: Visual Culture; contemporary art and critical theory; post-colonialism and gender.

Willem de Rooij - Manhood
De Rooij's recent exhibitions with Jeroen de Rijke include: Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, Artists Space in New York, Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Moscow Bienale (2005), BAK in Utrecht, Museum Ludwig in Budapest, Tate Modern in London, "Busan Biennale" (2004), Kunsthalle Zürich (solo), Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven (solo), Kiasma in Helsinki, Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt am Main (2003). He lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Susan Schuppli - Conflicted/Inflicted
Susan Schuppli is an artist and cultural theorist whose work explores the latent potential of machines to short-circuit normative understandings of media and its received social, cultural, and biological encodings. Working within the domains of video, sound, and interactive media several recent projects have examined the anxieties that arise when commonplace technologies are rendered strange again. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout Canada as well as in Australia, the UK, and USA. Another strand of her research has focused upon the articulation of Canadian "identities" within film and architecture. In 2005 she guest-edited a special edition of BlackFlash journal which brought together cultural practionners from across Canada to reflect upon the legacy of Expo 67 in Montreal. This project continues with a co-curatorial initiative (Christopher Lefler) exploring the contingency of this moment in Canadian architecture and its impact upon emergent notions of "national" identity. Her doctoral research is titled "Unnatural Selections: evolving media ontologies".

Nicolas Siepen - Kriegsmaschine
Nicolas Siepen, geboren 1966, ist Filmemacher, Theoretiker und Mitbegründer des Projekts b_books, das einen Buchladen, Verlag und eine Filmproduktion umfasst. Als Journalist hat er für Zeitungen wie Springerin, Texte zur Kunst, Maska, Frakcija, Phase Zwei, Jungle World, FAZ (Berliner Seiten), Autonomie artistique, Starship und Artfan gearbeitet und ist Mitherausgeber der Zeitschriften A.N.Y.P. und ASSEMBLY INTERNATIONAL. In den 90er Jahren war er Teil der Künstlergruppe KlasseZwei und der Band ZigarettenRauchen und an der Entwicklung von politisch-künstlerischen Projekten wie A-Clip, INNENSTADTaktionen und microStudio-surplus beteiligt. Seit sieben Jahren arbeitet er zusammen mit Tara Herbst an Filmprojekten und ist gerade, neben der verlegerischen Tätigkeit für b_books, mit der Fertigstellung der »Nouvelle Vague Soap« Le PingPong d’amour beschäftigt.

Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss - NATO (as Architectural Critic)
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss [Dipl.Ing.Arch & M.ArchII] is an architect originating from Serbia educated at University of Belgrade and Harvard University. He is the founder of the NAO as well as a founding member of the School of Missing Studies and lives and works in New York City. He has taught research, design studios, seminars and workshops at Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design and Delft University.

Eyal Weizman - Flexibility
Eyal Weizman is an Architect based in London. He studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London and completed his PhD at the London Consortium, Birkbeck College. He is the director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Before this role, Weizman was Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Weizman has taught, lectured, curated and organised conferences in many institutions worldwide. His books include Hollow Land [Verso Books, 2007], A Civilian Occupation [Verso Books, 2003], the series Territories 1,2 and 3, Yellow Rhythms and many articles in journals, magazines and edited books. Weizman is a regular contributors to many journals and magazines and is an editor at large for Cabinet Magazine (New York). Weizman is the recipient of the James Stirling Memorial Lecture Prize for 2006-2007

Ines Weizman - Arms Race (Architectural)
Ines Weizman is an architect and critic based in London. She taught design and architectural history and theory at the Architectural Association in London and at the Berlage Institute of Architecture in Rotterdam. She also taught politics at Goldsmiths College, London University. Her doctoral research, conducted at the Architectural Association, analysed the political and cultural transformations that have occurred in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the post-WWII period to the present. Ines published articles on the political and ideological spectacles enacted by Soviet-era architecture, on the ‘rewriting’ of urban historiography of former cities, on western planning attitudes in the process of reunification as well as on the lost archives in former East Germany.

Program Frankfurt

The Dictionary of War starts with a first session in Frankfurt on June 2 and 3, 2006. 30 concepts will be presented in atrium of the art academy Staedelschule, Dürerstrasse 10, D-60596 Frankfurt am Main.

Working hours:
Friday, June 2nd, 2006, from 16:00 to 22:00
Saturday, June 3nd, 2006, from 14:00 to 23:00

The concepts will be presented in alphabetical order.

FREITAG 02/06

Exergum (Irit Rogoff)

Armes race, Architectural (Ines Weizman)
Comrade (International Festival)
Conflicted Inflicted (Susan Schuppli)
Denkfabrik/Think-Tank (Dan Perjovschi)
Feathermen (Azza El-Hassan)
Flexibility (Eyal Weizman)
Kriegsmaschine (Nicolas Siepen)
Life support (Carl Michael von Hausswolff und Thomas Nordanstad)
Luftraum (Christof Kurzmann)
Manhood (Willem de Rooij)
Mine (Kattrin Deufert + Thomas Plischke, Frankfurter Küche)

SAMSTAG 03/06

Manhood (Willem de Rooij)
Mobility/Immobility (Saskia Sassen)
NATO (Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss)
Neutrality (John Palmesino)
Pack (Hans Nieswandt)
Refugee Camps (Manuel Herz)
Relatively calm (Mansur Jacoubi)
Rhizomatic maneuver (Shimon Naveh)
Sound Weapon (Battery Operated)
Struggle for Ideas (Jan Ritsema)
Theatre of Operations (Celine Condorelli)
Throne of Blood (Shu Lea Cheang)
Timescapes (Angela Melitopoulos)
Transfer (Apsolutno)
Trip (Anselm Franke)
Wetter (Dietmar Dath)

"At least, when we create concepts, we are doing something"

DICTIONARY OF WAR starts on June 2 and 3, in Frankfurt/Main.

The new war, post-modern war, permanent war -- almost every major military operation over the past 15 years has evoked a new debate about the new character of war. After 9-11 state of war has turned into a normality. Five years of global war have turned the world upside down, in a way that the extent of the ongoing changes cannot be fully conceived yet.

On June 2 and 3 the first edition of DICTIONARY OF WAR will take place as a collaborative platform for creating concepts on the issue of war. At four public, two-day events in Frankfurt, Munich, Graz and Berlin 100 concepts will be invented, arranged and presented by scientists, artists, theorists and activists.

The aim is to create key concepts that either play a significant role in current discussions of war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created. DICTIONARY OF WAR tries to make the creation or revaluation of concepts transparent into more or less open processes in which one can and need to intervene in various ways.

“At least, when we create concepts, we are doing something.” The idea of DICTIONARY OF WAR refers to the theory of creating concepts proposed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari: Concepts do not fall from heaven but must be invented, created, produced; concepts refer to problems without which they would be meaningless. It is not about definitions, anecdotes, original opinions or entertainment, but rather about finding out about the tools with which to attain new ideas.

The Frankfurt edition of DICTIONARY OF WAR features contributions by:

The artist group "Apsolutno" from Novi Sad; the sound artists "Battery Operated from Montreal; the artist Shu Lea Cheang; the London based architect Celine Condorelli; writer Dietmar Dath from "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"; choreographers Kattrin Deufert & Thomas Plischke aka "Frankfurter Küche"; filmmaker Azza El-Hassan from Ramallah; Berlin based curator Anselm Franke; the swedish artist duo Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Thomas Nordanstad; the artist group "International Festival" from Brussels and Stockholm; Beirut based media activist Manse Jacobi; the austrian musician Christof Kurzmann; filmmaker Angela Melitopolous from Cologne; military researcher Simon Naveh from Tel Aviv; DJ Hans Nieswandt from Cologne; John Palmesino, co-founder of the "Multiplicity" group; romanian artist Dan Perjovschi; dutch theater director Jan Ritsema; art theorist Irit Rogoff, professor at Goldsmith College London; sociologist Saskia Sassen, professor in Chicago; author Nicolas Siepen from Berlin; Paris based filmmaker Eyal Sivan; Rob Stone, London based therorist; the Frankfurt based philosopher Matthias Vogel; New York based architect Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss; London based architect Eyal Weizman; architect Ines Weizman from London; Berlin based writer Raul Zelik; filmmaker Zelimir Zilnik from Novi Sad.

The concepts are introduced in alphabetical order by their concept persons in half-hour long presentations or performances.

The event starts on Friday, June 2 at 4 pm in Staedelschule Frankfurt am Main, Dürerstrasse 10 and will be continued on Saturday from 2 pm on. The entrance fee for both days is 10 Euro.

More informations at: http://www.dictionaryofwar.org

DICTIONARY OF WAR is a project by Multitude e.V. and Unfriendly Takeover, in collaboration with international academy Staedelschule. DICTIONARY OF WAR is supported by the Federal Culture Foundation, Germany.

Images from Frankfurt Edition

Impression from the Cafeteria of Staedelschule

Opening of the 1st Dictionary with Irit Rogoff

Production space at the Dictionary of War

Willem de Rooij and the Audience in Frankfurt

Dan Perjovschi performing

Material from Frankfurt Edition

Flyer for Frankfurt Edition
Poster for Frankfurt Edition
Video Jingle for Frankfurt Edition

Credits of Frankfurt Edition

The Frankfurt edition of the DICTIONARY OF WAR have been produced in a collaboration of "Multitude e.V." and "unfriendly takeover". It has been funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and it has been produced in close collaboration with Staedelschule.

Curators: Annett Busch, Sebastian Lütgert, Tom Lamberty, Florian Malzacher, Anke & Heike Schleper, Florian Schneider, Bernhard Schreiner

Organization: Franziska Frielinghaus, Susanne Lang, Heike Schleper

Moderation: Sebastian Lütgert

Stage Concept: Celine Condorelli

Stage Building: Dana Backnick, Daniela Guse, Bernhard Schreiner, Knut-Sören Steinkopf

Technical Setup: Jan Gerber, Sebastian Lütgert, Florian Schneider

Video Production: Annett Busch, Jan Gerber, Florian Schneider

Helping Hands: Students from the Stadelschule Frankfurt