Kosovo

Time: May 5th – 11th 2012
Deadline for application submission: March 25th 2012

Contact:
Elisabeth Desta: e-mail elisabeth.desta@kulturmanager.net
Sonja Lau: e-mail sonja.lau@kulturmanager.net

Website: www.tiranaartlab.org

source: organisers

Qendra Multimedia, Pristina, and Tirana Art Lab - Center for Contemporary Art, Tirana, are pleased to announce a Call for Entries to attend the upcoming ”GRAPHIC, NOVEL.” workshop in Kosovo. The successful applicants will receive travel costs and free board and lodging in Pristina.

The workshop is open to art students, graphic-novelists, comic artists, designers, illustrators, visuals artists and writers of all ages and backgrounds.

”GRAPHIC, NOVEL.” is organized by Elisabeth Desta and Sonja Lau. The workshop is held by researcher Ute Friederich and graphic novelist Barbara Yelin.

For the last few years graphic novels have attracted more and more attention both in the field of literature and the visual arts. Not only do they provide alternative perspectives onto the complexities of every day life, but with their distinct use of two mediums – image and text – they also suggest how memories and recollections of the past can find new forms of expression despite their inherent blanks.

This interrelation between image and text lies at the core of the project “GRAPHIC, NOVEL.”. Taking the works of W. G. Sebald as a point of departure, we would like to rethink the dynamics between the two mediums in the context of Pristina, eager to tackle what suggests itself as “grey areas” in the memorization process by means of graphic and text. Also W. G. Sebald famously utilized both image and text in his work to find a momentary equilibrium between otherwise hazy or fragmented recollections, personal memories, and, at times, ineffable events. However, similar to the grid-like structure of a graphic novel, the merging of image and text in Sebald’s work produces an “excess of meaning”, which cannot be utterly resolved.

The workshop aims at taking the potential of the literary and graphic elements of graphic novels further by drawing on the author’s “poetic of remembering”, and also by the direct encounter with and research into the environment the workshop is set in. The participants are invited to creatively delve into yet unprecedented graphic-novelist techniques, sketching what has been lost, what is to be retrieved, and how to conjoin the missing bits and contradictions of the local recent history. Being an initiative from Pristina and Tirana, the subject-matter from where to explore the already mentioned techniques are the city and its (in-)visible histories. Therefore, additional to the seminars, the workshop will look closer at the matter and the surfaces of the city. Archival documents, the discovery of old photographs, oral histories and walks through the city will form a central part of the research and of the elaboration of a new graphic novel by means of visual and literary expressions.

Throughout the workshop, participants are invited to work on a on a chosen framework presented to them in the city of Pristina. The results of the workshop will be shown through a group exhibition during the “Polip Literature Festival” held from May 11th – 13th 2012.

Application process:

To download the application form please visit www.tiranaartlab.org or see the attached document.

All applications arriving prior to the due date, March 25th, 2012, will be taken into consideration, assessed, and a selection of participants will be chosen. The result of the selection will be announced by April 15th, 2012. All applicants will be informed of their status in written form.

More information can be found on: www.tiranaartlab.org