Join us for a long afternoon of discussions on “Change Utopia!” at MAC Niteroi, on Friday 21st February, 15H30-19H00. Before the talk starts, you can visit Carlo Vergara’s exhibition Sudario at the presence of the artist.

Protests in Brazil, crisis in Europe, political stagnation in China. Our current social, economic, and cultural models are failing us everywhere. Artists, philosophers, and cultural practitioners have historically been at the heart of a drive to radically critique the present and imagine alternative futures, positing a radical break and fostering new forms of living together and new scales of values. This final event of the Transnational Dialogues Brazil series brings together an international group of artists, theorists, and activists to discuss the role of creativity and the arts in imagining and opening up alternative futures. Session 1: Change Utopia! Brazil, Europe, Russia, and China between global markets and the search for new development models. Session 2: Protest! Politics, Arts, Imagination. Session 3: Spaced out: Cultural policies and urban space

21st February 2014, 15:30-19:00
Transnational Dialogues @ MAC Niteroi
MAC Niteroi, Mirante da Boa Viagem, Niterói – RJ

In collaboration with: MAC De Niteroi and Prefeitura de Niteroi

On February 20th (10-12 AM) at Studio-X Rio, Barbara Szaniecki (Italy/Brazil), Ren Han (China), Pedro Rivera (Brazil), Robin Resch (Germany), and others, will discuss on artist interventions and processes of urban regeneration. You are invited to join us in this truly transnational dialogue.

Description
By upgrading its city centre and restructuring the area around Porto Maravilha within the framework of the Olympics 2016, and more generally revitalizing and displacing lower income neighborhoods, Rio applies a narrow planning strategy attempting to boost international investment and augmenting its symbolic capital as a competitive global city. Transnational Dialogues wants to discuss these urban transformation processes within a global perspective. After short inputs on the local situations in Europe and China, the discussion will focus on how artists and activists research, comment and intervene around this ambivalent set of transformation processes.

20th February 2014, 10:00-12:00
Intervenções artísticas e o processo de regeneração urbana / Artists’ Interventions and Processes of Urban Regeneration
Studio-X Rio, Praça Tiradentes, 48, Rio de Janeiro

You are all invited to come and discuss on independent art spaces with contributions from China, Russia and Europe at Casa Do Povo, Sao Paulo, on Tuesday 18th February, 20h00-22h00.

The discussion will depart from an analysis of the Chinese context, in which the market and State – most often materalizing as a single, Leviathan-style, entity – do not leave space for independent creation, in particular when political or social issues are involved. Experiences from all over Europe, China, Russia, and Brazil, will be brought forward with the hope of identifying a transnational resistance against the State-market oppression from artists, intellectuals, but most of all from the people to which art and culture speak to.

Speakers include: Mariana Lorenzi (Casa do Povo), Luigi Galimberti (Transnational Dialogues), Maurício Coronado (Baixo Centro), Chiara Tinonin (The Art Newspaper), Maria Monteiro (Casa Juisi Phosphorus), and Anna Arutyunova (Vedomosti.Friday).

18th February 2014, 20:00-22:00
Auto-gestão, espaços de arte comunitários e independentes / Self-managing, Independent, and Community Art Spaces
Casa Do Povo, Rua Três Rios, 252, Bom Retiro, São Paulo

Four main public events will  be part of the Brazilian Caravan of Transnational Dialogues 2014. The discussions, held in English and Portuguese and whatever language makes our participants able to communicate with each other, will tackle the issues of art and protests, independent art spaces, governmental policies in the cultural and creative sectors, urban regeneration and more, in a truly transnational perspectives with contributions from artists, curators and researchers from Europe, China and Brazil.

Continue reading Public Events in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro →

The First Caravan to Brazil will start in Sao Paulo on 15th February 2014, before moving to Rio de Janeiro, where it will end on 24th February 2014. Now available are: a short introductory text to the Caravan, the list of participants and coordinators, and a brochure (in PDF).

Check our website or Facebook page for updates on our public events.

As it has been recently announced, Transnational Dialogues now sports a brand new logo. Despite its unique character and elegant style, the former logo – for which we are still very grateful to its excellent designer, Lorella Pierdicca of LLdesign – could not keep up with the recent evolution of the project, which went from being a Sino-European think-tank to a truly transnational exchange platform for art and culture. Therefore, a new logo was needed. But, as it is rather common in our approach, it came spontaneously and adventurously.

Continue reading The Making of a Logo: From Finland to Brazil →

After three years since it has started, Transnational Dialogues presents its brand new logo.

Far from being a mere graphic restyling, this change represents the evolution of the project from a Sino-European think-tank to a truly transnational platform for art and culture. While keeping its headquarters in Europe (London, Paris and Rome) and China (Beijing and Chongqing), in 2014 Transnational Dialogues goes to Brazil, but is already expanding its network in other areas of the world (e.g., Myanmar).

Transnational Dialogues is a unique project which brings together artists, curators, art managers and researchers from a wide array of disciplines. It promotes sharing of information, networking, and conceptual collaboration in a truly transnational fashion among individuals and organizations. The project, which has started thanks to the support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union, now relies on an articulate network of partners and funders, which sustains its activities throughout the world.

Keep following us on our website and Facebook page for constant updates.