Reflections on Genoa-G8»
Presentation from the projet
September 15 - October 5 2002 in the Great Hall of the Bern Reitschule (Riding School)
One year ago, three hundred thousand people demonstrated in the streets of Genoa against the arrogance of the Heads of State of the eight most powerful and most heavily industrialized nations, which had occupied half of Genoa for their G8 meeting. Demonstrators from throughout Europe and all over the world travelled to Genoa, shouting together, «Ya Basta - We've had enough!» «Another world is possible!» The Berlusconi regime created a war zone and unleashed the Italian Repression Machine against the people who had come to protest. The outcome is well known: a demonstrator shot, several hundred people severely injured, and more than three hundred arrests.
The exhibition, «le Geometrie della Memoria» looks back on the G8 summit one year after the events of Genoa, to regenerate and an analyze them from an artistic viewpoint. Large multimedia installations, iron sculptures, projections, water, light effects, and a floor littered with photos and other objects attempt to recreate the feeling on the streets of Genoa in July 2001.
The three weeks of the Exhibition will ba acompanied by a program of political activism, including workshops, lectures, discussions, and film screenings. On September 14, in Bern there will be a solidarity-demonstration against the European meeting of the World Economic forum (WEF), which is taking place in Salzburg; on September 21-22 will be the Europe-wide Indymedia meeting. On October 5, the exhibition will conclude with a «People's Tribunal», which will symbolically call the responsible Italian authorities to trial.
The artistic concept of the Installation comes from Pino Scuro, an Italian artist living in Bern, who had traveled to the G8 summit in Genoa as a photographer. The exhibition has been created by the Association for Applied Geometry, which was formed in May 2002 to form connections between art and politics, and to bring relevant social and political questions into public discourse. The program of events was organized by the anti-WTO coordination in Bern, which mobilized groups to go to Genoa and has organized many other demonstrations, actions, discussions, and meetings.
The fact that, «le Geometrie della Memoria», is located in the Bern Reitschule, is no coincidence. This autonomous cultural and meeting center has been an important focus for Bern's political and cultural life for the past 15 years. Occupied in 1987, the Reitshule has been host to the development of a culture of analysis, experimentation, and political intervention. The Great Hall provides the ideal framework for this ambitious project.
Several institutions have given financial support for this Project: Pro Helvetia, the City of Bern, The Reitschule Cultural Space Community of Interests (IKuR), the meeting series known as Perspectives After Davos, and the Reitschule Association. Further support is pending and will be announced next week.
On July 18 2002, the project homepage, www.memoria.ch was started. This is in German, French, Italian, and English.
We invite you to check out the homepage and to link to it from your own website.
For further information, call 41 (0) 31 306 69 48 or email geometrie@memorie.ch
Sincerely,
David Böhner
