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Topic: Yiannis Toumazis: "FINAL+LETTER+ADVISORS+SCHOBERT.DOS.HTM"

Today I got an email with several attachments by NFA. Among them there was a file named "FINAL+LETTER+ADVISORS+SCHOBERT.DOS.HTM", a very big file, difficult to open ("DOS.HTM") but with only a few lines of business prose and Toumazis' signature. One should read this FINAL+LETTER+ADVISORS+SCHOBERT" carefully - I guess the other advisors (the invited artists and theorists of the three departments) received similar "FINAL+LETTERS["]:

"Dear Schobert Alfred [Toumazis Yiannis isn't able to write a name correctly; A.S.],

Re: Manifesta 6 – Termination of event

Regrettably we wish to inform you that, due to certain actions by IFM and the Curatorial team which we consider as unilateral breaches of fundamental terms of their respective agreements with NFA, we were left with no alternative than to terminate the said agreements with both IFM and the Curatorial team. Consequently, the Manifesta 6 event shall not take place as envisaged in Nicosia in 2006. We wish to extend to you personally our regret for this unfortunate outcome, and assure you that no effort was spared in order to materialize the event, albeit unsuccessfully and without fault on our part.

We once again regret any inconvenience caused to you by reason of the cancellation.

Finally, please find attached herewith two announcements made by the Board of Nicosia for Art clarifying the reasons for the termination.

Sincerely yours,

Yiannis Toumazis
General Coordinator"

No, this is not a final letter, this affair is not finished!
It'a lie to write that Toumazis and NFA did all in order to materialize the event ("No effort was spared")
Just take one important point: NFA wasn't willing and/or unable to send the contracts for the advisors. We were waiting since january, when we were formally invited to Nicosia by Toumazis; the curators asked repeatedly but nothing happened.
I've read Toumazis' letter repeatedly and very carefully because after the first reading I thought that there was something missing. And I still think that there is a gap in this letter. It's a gap, an abyss of impoliteness. The General Coordinator just "regret[s] any inconvenience" but that is totally beside the point: He doesn't say something like "thank you very much for the work you have done for Manifesta 6".
It is not the first time that I get the impression that Toumazis is unable to communicate adequately with guests. But this time I think there is another reason for this grave impoliteness. Toumazis and NFA don't want to talk about the work the advisors (who don't have contracts in their hands) have done because Toumazis and NFA don't want to pay a compensation (for the work and for all the expenses the advisors had).
In German there is an idiomatic and ironic phrase to characterize such a behaviour politely and with much understatement: das ist nicht die feine Art ("feine Art" sounds like 'fine art' but the phrase says 'these are no good manners'). You may imagine some less polite sentences I could be tempted to write about Toumazis, NFA, and other "demolition artists" (Patroclos) who destroyed Manifesta 6 in Nicosia..."