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Topic: Press 26/05/2006 - 03/06/2006

For further discussion it may be useful to have the articles about the conflict in mind. So I collected english articles (and some translations from the greek - thanks to Demetris).


Cyprus Mail 26/05/2006

Manifesta on the brink
By Agnieszka Rakoczy

MANIFESTA 6, the European Biennale of Contemporary Art, may not, after all, take place in Nicosia this year, as there is a major disagreement between the biennale’s curatorial team and the non-profit local organisation, Nicosia for Art, created by Nicosia Municipality for the sole purpose of overseeing the project.

Representatives of the two bodies, who should be working together at co-ordinating the event, are to meet today in an attempt to solve the dispute. The discussion will include such points as the location of the art school which constitutes the major part of the project, the current state of the project, curators’ working conditions, lack of communication between the curatorial team and local co-ordinator, and the state of the biennale’s finances.

“The curators are upset for various reasons,” one of the people close to the project told the Cyprus Mail.

“For example, they have planned that the art school will take place on both sides of the Green Line and thought that the local authorities had agreed with it. But for the last several months they have been receiving less and less positive reaction towards this initiative.

“They have been told it would be illegal for them to spend any of Manifesta’s money on the other side. But it is only part of the problem. There are also other disagreements about the way the project is run and the general lack of proper communication and co-operation between the curators and the Nicosia for Art team.

“I have heard that they are more or less not talking to each other. And as far as the project is concerned, nothing is happening.

“I think there is a possibility they [the curators] will resign.”

Manifesta, considered by many to be, along with the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, one of the most important contemporary art events in Europe, is to take place in the capital of Cyprus between September and December this year. The event is said to have a geopolitical context and orientation, and always chooses as its locations places with special meaning and interest in socio-political terms.

The budget of this year’s event is supposed to reach 1.8 million euros in total, out of which one million euros have been secured from the Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (through the Cyprus Tourism Organisation), and the Nicosia Municipality.

The Manifesta 6 curatorial team includes German Florian Waldvogel, Egyptian Mai Abu ElDahab and Russian-born artist based in New York Anton Vidokle. The management team of Nicosia for Art is composed of director of the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre head Yiannis Toumazis as general co-ordinator and financial manager Nicolas Efstathiou.

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Sunday Mail 28/05/2006
Manifesta curators set to resign
By Agnieszka Rakoczy

EFFORTS to bridge differences between the Manifesta 6 curatorial team
and the non-profit local organisation Nicosia for Art created by Nicosia
Municipality to oversee the project ended in fiasco on Friday, when
neither side agreed on any of the issues under discussion.

“Unfortunately, the final moderation meeting didn’t bring any
solutions,” one of the curators, Russian-born artist based in New York
Anton Vidokle told the Sunday Mail yesterday. “We have disagreed on
every single issue.”

Among the points discussed for over four hours were: the location of the
art school that Manifesta 6 planned to open in Nicosia; lack of
information about the state of the biennale’s budget; lack of set rules
regarding expenditure and cash-flow in the project; lack of contracts
for artists invited to participate in the project; lack of a work permit
for one of the curators, and a disagreement over employment of
curatorial assistants.

“We haven’t officially resigned yet but are preparing to do so in the
nearest future,” said Florian Waldvogel of the curatorial team. “Our
colleague Mai Abu ElDahab has already left the island and we will follow
her shortly. Of course, the door is not closed 100 per cent yet. If the
Cypriot authorities come with a good solution within the next few days,
tell us we can do the school on both sides of the Green Line and
organise other things in a more comprehensive manner, we are still ready
to work with them. But the clock is ticking.”

Both Wadvogel and Vidokle stressed yesterday that as far as the
curatorial team was concerned Friday’s meeting was final, as provided in
their contract, and from now on negotiations should take place between
the municipality and the International Foundation Manifesta (IFM), based
in Amsterdam. This may already be the case as IFM director Hedwig Fijen
arrived to Nicosia yesterday on a short visit.

“If a disagreement exists between the curators and the host (Nicosia)
then the procedure of mediation provided by the contract will be
followed,” commented Yiannis Toumazis, the project’s general
co-ordinator and member of the Nicosia for Art team.

The European Biennale of Contemporary Art Manifesta 6, an event that
moves from one city to another, is to take place in Cyprus between
September 17 and December 23. Its locations are always places with
special meaning and interest in socio-political terms. During the
selection procedure for the 2006 edition, Nicosia faced hard competition
from Tallinn in Estonia, as well as a joint bid from Dublin and Belfast.
It is said the capital of Cyprus won both because of the fact that it is
divided as well as because of its interesting location in the Eastern
Mediterranean region, close to the Middle East.

The Manifesta 6 curatorial team came to Nicosia with a proposal to
create an international, independent, interdisciplinary art school,
based on experience of the famous American Black Mountain College. It
was hoped that the school would be an important art establishment for
the entire region, and if things go smoothly during this ‘pilot’
project, after the initial 100 days it would remain open. The curators
planned that the school would take place on both sides of the Green
Line. It received about 750 applications and participants have been
already selected. Several introductory events leading to the opening of
the school have already taken place both in the south and north.

The budget of this year’s event is supposed to reach 1.8 million euros
in total, out of which one million euros has been secured from the
Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Tourism (through the Cyprus Tourism Organisation), and the
Nicosia Municipality.
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Phileleftheros (Greek Language Daily) 31/05/2006
ART WISE
'Yes' , 'No' and Manifesta - By Marina Schiza

[Rough, quick and non spell-checked translation - Demetris Taliotis]

What is it that annoys me more than anything in all these discussions around the possible cancellation of Manifesta is the way it is dealt with by some, eager to trace scapegoats. The side-effects of the Anan plan referendum have alas affected Manifesta too. The burning issue for a lot is why should the government of the Republic of Cyprus spend money in order for the Art School of Manifesta to partly take place in the occupied territories.
It was rystal clear from the beggining that the event would be of bicommunal characteritstics. The proposal that the Ministry of Education and Culture submited to the Cabinet meeting in order to get the go ahead to sponsor M6 with 300 thousand pounds [CYP -trans.], it too made it crystal clear that this event would be bicomunal.

A few months ago, In an interview to this paper [Phileleftheros], the General Co-ordinator of M6 Yiannis Toumazis made it clear that even though the nucleus of the whole project will be The Nicosia Arts Centre, M6 will spread out throughout the old town, on both sids of the Green Line.

Yiannis Toumazis also rightly remarked that "2 years now since the roadblocks have been lifted, resulting in a large number of people having crossed to and from each site, in combination with the visible fact that every Saturday Cypriots 'enjoy' themselves in casinos and restaurants in the occupied areas, we are not pretending to be doing any sort of 'exceedingly transcendental' step; we are just attempting to create a platform extending into both the occupied and free areas. The occupation still exists, but based on our aims and objectives we have already outlined, there is content [in this project / event - trans.] and those individuals genuinly interested in participating in this process I am sure they will actively do so. Manifesta's aim is neither nor 'tidy up' the real problems, nor pretend that there exist solutions to these problems."

Unfortunately, art appears to have been once again incompetent in provoking dialogue. In order to have a dialogue, open minds are needed, and it seems they do not exist. Manifesta was an ideal chance for problems and speculations surrounding art and culture to come out through the exchange of ideas, a process that is creative as well as colective.

It seems however my dear Yiannis that we are still not mature enough to loook at the problem. And unfortunately, once again, a cultural event that placed its hopes with the art world in oder to get the Cyprus problem into a different perspective, has become prey to the petty politicians and patriots.

"In front of the uneasy silence of a line, that no one managed to shake out of, Manifesta will not plat the part of the U.N. or any other independent agent of raproachment and problem-solving. Manifesta's part is to examine all the problems which at a local level create our society, as Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cyprioyts".

Our future, is bleak...

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Politis [Greek Language Daily] 31/05/2006, p.24
Nicosia keeps quiet despite immanent danger of exposure
CYPRUS AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF MANIFESTA

Christina Lambrou

[Rough, Quick and non-spell checked translation by Demetris Taliotis]


3 curators of Manifesta, which started out as a major cultural even and ended up a political horror movie, will be forced to resign if by friday they get no answers.

The danger of M6 not taking place in Nicosia is now both immanent and official. The problem appears to be the lack of communication between the curratorial team and the local co-ordinating non-profit company Nicosia For Art.

Nicosia's Silence

Politis [the paper] has tried time and again to have an official reply by NFA in relation to the grave disagreements [between NFA and M6 curators], however it has been impossible for us to get either an affirmative or a negative answer regarding the claims.
NFA has however issued a press relaese stating that it has posed a nuber of question to the IFM and only after its replies, will [the NFA] make any statement or indeed act.
In the absence of any statement from NFA we here offer only the curatorial team's views, awaiting however the official Nicosia position on the matter.

Sudden Overthrow

How come though that unbridged differences seem to pop-ip, just four months before the official openning of this European Biennale, endangering the materialisation of this significant international event? Anton Vidokel, one of the 3 curators said "There is no possibility left for the co-operation between the curators and NFA. The have managed to suffocate any attempt towards materialising this event, using multiple means and ways to do that." Anton Vidokle points out two main problems: "There is on one hand the utter apathy on behalf of the administartion towards the event in its totality - for example they haven't even taken care of any hospitality infarstructure- and on the other a completely negative approach towards any attempt to try and have some of the events of M6 North of the Green Line [occupied terrritories]".


Points of Disagreement

Politis "But for sure you must carry a significant portion of the responsibility eiher the project succeeds or fails. Have you acted in order to resolve these disagreements?"

"We tried to solve all these problems and disagreements through a mediation process which though ended in total disagreement between the two parties" siad Floreian Waldvogel who represented the curratorial team in the mediatiation meeting.

However, which are these points of disagreement?


The last divided capital is split into two

The bicomunal character M6 has had from the begining, acted as a nucleus around which orbited the idea itself of having M6 take place in Nicosia. The self-same reason making Nicosia interesting as a host of Manifesta is the fundamental barrier on its way to materialisation. Two years ago the Nicosia Municipality made it crystal clear in its official announcements that the city was willing to host an event aiming at becoming "a cursor for change, from within a bicommunal work environment".
The curators propoasal, chosen out of 40 other proposals by IFM (Yiannis Toumazis, the general co-ordinator of M6 is the Nicosia representative in the IFM), to have an experimental school made up of 3 departments taking place within the walled old city of Nicosia, included having 2 of the departments being based in the free area of the republic of Cyprus and 1 in the occupied areas in the North. The proposal had as its aim to create a symbolic framework through which art could project alternative modes of communication and co-operation and move beyond political trivialities. It looks though that it has failed.

Untill recently the issue of having the School located on both sides of the divide did not appear to be a problematic one. On the contrary upto November 200 the curators in close co-operation with the NFA were scouting for spaces across the whole of Nicosia. However, in the next few months things changed dramaticaly, with NFA freezing any funds that were to be used for activities in the North part of Nicosia. "Everything started getting bogged down at some point after the Manifesta Coffee Break [20-21 January 2006 , Nicosia- on the 20th the coffee break took part in the south and on the 21st in the North]. This surprised us because during the coffee break the people were enthusiastically engaged with the project, with lots of them attending a very lively conference, from which the international guests left carrying excellent impression about the whole undertaking." The political dimensions the whole event would have taken might have not being visible from the start but things started getting more and more difficult for the curators, until finally they were informed by the NFA that there are no funds that can come out of the M6 budget re Manifesta's presence in the North. No exact reason for this sudden change of heart from the NFA was given to the curators - who were faced with a possible reversal of heir plan to establish the M6 school in both parts of Nicosia. "Excuses touching upon issues of the guests' security when in the North, passports and checkpoint controls were professed by NFA. But when they committed pen to paper and signed the contract were they not aware of these issues? We kept asking again and again to negotiate and try and save the project but all we kept getting were negative replies"

The Budget

We have repeatedly asked to be given the precise budget figures, since without them we can not plan the whole event" says Florian Waldvogel. The total sum of the budget according to the contract signed is around 1.9 million EUROS. These are managed by NFA with the support of IFM. In January 2006 this amount came down to 1 million EUROS, apparently due to the inability to find enough sponsors. From this later sum 300.000 EUROS are dedicated to the cultural side of the project - the rest are to be spend on pre-production, administration and promoting campaigns. "The exact, final sum of money which is solely dedicated to the cultural side of M6 hasn't been officially disclosed to us up to this very moment." says Vidokle. "At the same time we have been given no authorisation to move on with the project and thus we find that we have to compromise our position vis-a-vis the participants". Some extra money that seems to have been secured through bodies like the Ford Foundation, the EU, European member states' Ministries etc has added to the confusion. "What we certainly know is that around 200.000 EUROS extra have been secured" state the curators. A lot of these sponsorships were given precisely to fasilitate art events within M6. In November NFA agreed to hand the revised budget to the curators by May 1st, but they still haven't delivered it.


The curators do also point out that administrative and organisational procedures, as is Mai Abu elDahab's visa, have been neglected. It is the NFA that employs Abu elDahab and it is the NFA who is responsible to get her a visa, state the curators, to add that the absence of one forced the 3rd curator to leave Cyprus on May 18th 2006. In addition to that the NFA has failed to sign contracts with the artists invited to participate who asked to get the 'green light' by May 4 in order for them to have enough time to schedule their work for the project. A lot are still waiting for an answer.


"We have no other choice but to resign"

"We are very sad that after 18 months of working for the project we see all our efforts drowning, sinking to the bottom" the curators add. "We are keeping the door open to June 2nd, hoping for things to change so as to carry on working for the 23rd September opening and M6. If we are forced to resign we will do that with heavy hearts. However if we cannot work within a framework that protects our autonomy from political pressure - as it is written down in our contract- and if solutions are not found to the practical problems that prevent M6 from taking place, we have no other choice."
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Cyprus Mail 03/06/2006
Manifesta curators sacked by Nicosia Municipality
By Agnieszka Rakoczy

IN A sudden move, the non-profit organisation Nicosia for Art (NFA), established by Nicosia Municipality for the sole purpose of overseeing European Contemporary Art Biennale Manifesta 6 (M6), has terminated its contracts with both the Amsterdam-based International Foundation Manifesta (IFM) and three curators responsible for developing the biennale’s concept and implementation, Florian Waldvogel, Anton Vidokle and Mai Abu ElDahab.

“Last night we received a letter from Mr [Michalakis] Zampelas, the Mayor of Nicosia, saying that we are effectively fired from the project,” said Vidokle yesterday.

“That is what happened. It is very sad that the project comes to this end and we are being arbitrarily fired.

“We have been notified that they cancelled Manifesta 6 and we are very much regretting that this is all taking place,” commented IFM executive director Hedwig Fijen.

“We were looking forward to having Manifesta in Nicosia. At the present moment, the Board of Manifesta Foundation is considering its possible strategies.”

The curators told the Cyprus Mail that the letter of termination they received contained a paragraph stating they could not reveal any of its content and that if they did so they would be immediately sued by the Municipality.

“So at this point it is best not to mention the content of this letter,” said Vidokle.
Meanwhile NFA’s president and Nicosia Mayor Zampelas and its board issued an official statement explaining that the main reason for terminating the contracts was the insistence of both the curators and IFM on locating part of the Manifesta 6 Art School in north Nicosia.

“NFA made repeated efforts to lift the deadlock calling upon IFM for a discussion of the issues involved,” said the letter. “NFA also called upon the curatorial team to engage in mediation in accordance with the terms of the curators’ contracts. IFM declined to engage in immediate talks with the purpose of lifting the existing deadlock; the curators also rejected any form of mediation.”

But both the curators and Fejin were adamant that, contrary to the Municipality’s claim, they had made every possible effort to end the deadlock.

“We tried to resolve the problem during the official final mediation between us [the curators] and the spokesman of the municipality last Friday,” said Waldvogel.

“During the meeting the municipality disagreed with every point we wanted to discuss with them.”

“They didn’t want to negotiate,” agreed Vidokle. “There was no attempt on their side to find some kind of acceptable compromise in any part of the problems, whatever they were, logistic, administrative or financial. Nothing. There were no negotiations.”

According to a report in yesterday’s Phileleftheros, NFA called IFM and the curators to an eleventh-hour meeting aimed at averting the crisis, with NFA representatives even travelling to Amsterdam. “However, neither the curators nor IFM agreed to the meeting,” the paper said.

Fejin denied such a version of the events.

“We are always ready for mediation but it was impossible for us to organise such a meeting with such a short notice,” she said. “They sent us a request on Tuesday evening and came to Amsterdam without even waiting for us to reply. They seem not to understand that it was impossible for us to bring people who would participate in such a panel to Amsterdam within 48 hours. We proposed an alternative date, a week later, but they didn’t want to wait.”

Manifesta 6, one of the most important European art biennales, was to take place in Nicosia from September 23 to December 17-