The cultural association KANINCHEN-HAUS with the support of Fondazione Cariplo invites young curators, critics, and theorists from different disciplines to submit contributions for the publication of the Pirate-Camp READER, a volume on the theoretical issues related to the project “Pirate-Camp / the Stateless Pavillion” (www.pirate-camp.org) an itinerant artists campsite that took place during the last Venice Biennale.
The aim of the publication is to explore, develop and reconsider in a multidisciplinary way the key tropes underlying the pirate-camp project: piracy, extraterritoriality, statelessness, temporary occupation, the camp, understood as potent concept-tools to interpret contemporary artistic and cultural practices.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 30th 2012.
The authors of the selected contributions will be awarded 400 Euros.
For further information, please visit: http://www.pirate-camp.org/call-4-papers-pirate-camp-reader/

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Pirate-Camp http://pirate-camp.org is the first itinerant artists’ camping program created to give free hospitality to a selection of young international artists during the most important contemporary art events worldwide. The first Pirate-Camp took place during the 54th Venice Biennale of Art violating the notorious ban on camping in the Laguna.

Pirate-Camp is promoted by the non-profit organization Kaninchenhaus with the support of the Fondazione Cariplo and the patronage of the City of Turin and GAI (Association for the Circuit of the Young Italian Artists) and with the collaboration of the Department for Youth policies of the City of Venice and of Art Enclosures (Residencies for visiting international artists in Venice created and produced by Fondazione di Venezia). The project also involved a network of Italian artist-run spaces.

Following Coniglioviola’s “Pirate Attack to Venice Biennale” http://www.coniglioviola.com/en/attacco-pirata-biennale-venezia/ performed by the group in 2007, Pirate-Camp represents the next step in this story. After the attack, time has come for the pirates to halt on the mainland: colonize the territory and share the treasures stored during their long trip, before taking the Sea route again. The Pirate-Camp – filling up the ideal gap between the sea, the pirates’ dominion, and the land, the system’s dominion – is first and foremost a work of art itself. It is the metaphorical representation of the natural and necessary condition of being-an-artist. The analogy between the artist and the pirate/encamped is the pivot concept, both from a symbolic and a philosophical point of view: a status of extra-territoriality which grants the artist a privileged point of view to critically observe and depict the world.

Pirate-Camp responds to a need shared by many young artists: the great international art events, such as biennials, fairs or exhibitions, force young people to invest often large amounts of money in travel and lodging. For this reason the creation of a totally free camping has allowed a set number of artists – selected by public competition – to live the experience of these events.

Pirate-Camp is an independent project designed by artists for artists. The Residencies we are used to, are generally organized by institutions, museums or private patrons, and seem to work on the unwitting assumption that, not just the work of art, but its creator as well, can be objectified and included in some sort of a private collection. On the other hand, the Pirate-Camp wants to be a living platform, and each and every participant becomes essential to its life. The Pirate-Camp wants to be a great platform supporting the exchange of new ideas and the mobility of young artists. Such a place wants to give life to a collaborative experiment of artistic creation and encourage the development of a collective and solid conscience, creating an international network able to experiment alternative and independent forms of intervention within the contemporary art system.

“The Stateless Pavillion” is the title and theme of the 1st Pirate-Camp: an invitation to focus on the theme of extraterritoriality seen as a natural and necessary condition for being-an-artist. A theme which finds it symbolical representation in the project’s two key-figures: the pirate and the encamped. The status of not-belonging-to-any-place (whether real, common, cultural or symbolical), living on the edge, on the one hand consigns the artist to a condition of marginality, on the other it grants him a privileged point of view in representing and discussing the world. The statelessness theme earns a special meaning when related to the context of La Biennale di Venezia, whose absolute peculiarity resides in the representation of national identities.


THEMATIC CONTEXT

In this historical moment the concepts of belonging-to-place, the idea of having a permanent home in the world, are put radically into question. This is why the figure of the pirate and the camper become two key references: survival solutions that we all should consider for a different awareness and disposition towards the “system”. The project pirate-camp wanted to suggest an analogy between the “mythological” status of the pirate and the condition of practicing art, in all its possible articulations. The pirate is not just an outlaw, but also an outsider from any legal right, because he does not live anywhere. This condition is the origin of both his power and his total marginalization. So much so that the pirates, unlike corsairs, if captured, were not treated according to the rules of maritime war law, but were summarily executed. Such status of radical extraterritoriality, the living out-of-places (both real or cultural) is intended also as the necessary condition of artistic practice: on one side, it establishes an impossible integration on the other it also guarantees a privileged point of view for the representation and the questioning of the world.

Based on these premises. we are looking for theoretical contributions that explore the philosophical, political, social implications of such key concepts.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

This call for papers is dedicated to curators, critics, scholars and theorists under 35 years of age. Your submission should include an abstract (maximum 800 words) and a short cv. Texts can be in English or Italian.

The deadline for submissions is March 30th 2012.

The authors of the selected abstracts will be invited to develop a final contribution of about 3000-5000 words.

The Pirate-Camp READER will be printed under a CreativeCommons License and made also available as e-book.

Submissions, comments and queries can be sent to papers@pirate-camp.org