PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION

Transacciones sprang from the UNIA arteypensamiento (UNIA artandthinking) framework as an ongoing project (it had a beginning of sorts in Almadraba -a multidisciplinary project that took place on the shores of the Gibraltar Straits in 1997, produced by Carta de Ajuste/BNV Producciones and Carta Blanca). Its objective was to work on various narratives that were occurring within the geopolitical framework of the Straits, specifically those narratives that were being created by the war of the cable - the opposition to the high-voltage cable between Spain and Morocco; the local movement advocating the generation of electricity by wind power; and by immigration to the south of Europe. These narratives were to be approached from both artistic practices and from the work carried out by social and activist movements in order to form connections and links while breaking down frontiers and generic categories through a specific erratic production policy that would collaborate in the setting-up of data schemes and networks from fragments that were either compatible or completely unrelated. This policy enabled the number of trajectories to be multiplied and experiences to be reconfigured while creating critical space and discussion where meetings and exchanges could be held.

 Finally, we decided to centre the project on one single micronarrative, based on the overwhelming number of migratory and employment movements that lead to a multiplication in social cooperation networks and help to create other territories where those who capitalism aims to divide and control can meet and organise themselves, people who are part of the movement for emancipation and who are against the economic powers that block everything that it does not control. The objective is to research into and take part in the processes of interconnexion that are emerging between the freedom of knowledge and freedom of movement; processes in which new, fluid alliances are being formed, alliances with a variable geometry between migrant workers and immaterial producers: activists theorists, communicators, hackers and artists. New alliances capable of collaborating in the transformation of society. As Matteo Pasquinelli writes in De la Utopía a las Redes [From Utopia to Networks]: three fields of action that in the 19th century were clearly differentiated - work, politics and art - are today integrated into one sole attitude and are central to all productive processes.

The resignification of concepts such as local and global produced by e-culture, and the changes that this has had on ways of action, organisation and communication as well as in the diffusion of knowledge have also had an influence on the articulation of Transacciones/fadiat. Transacciones/fadaiat, structured upon the binomial of resistance/creation and upon the reconquest of public space, consists of different autonomous, interconnected areas that we have called the LAB and AV Patios in Tarifa's Guzmán Castle in a loop that will last for two days and two nights, terminating with the St. John's Night bonfires on the beach and other offshore actions.

PROGRAMME

PROGRAMME

[Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd June 2004. All of the activities will take place uninterruptedly from 10:30 a.m. to early morning. Free access]

 
+ AV PATIO

- Meeting held under the slogan Freedom of Knowledge/Freedom of Movement with different agents from the fields of activism, cultural criticism, social work, the world of communication, form the fields of labour and trades unionism. The aim is to formulate common strategies, tactics and projects on a local and global level based on the work and processes that are being developed by the Red Dos Orillas network (in Andalusia and North Morocco), Tangiers's Aljaima collective, Indymedia estrecho (Andalusia and the Canaries), Málaga's Casa de iniciativas 1.5 and the Red Global No Border network based in different parts of Europe.

- Operación Antiverja-79 (Operation against the closure of the border). This action took place on the frontier between Spain and Gibraltar. The republication in photocopied form of the booklet by Gonzalo Arias documenting one of the referents of activism in the recent history of the Straits of Gibraltar.

- Online Multimedia Archive (http://transacciones.wewearbuildings.cc), based on an open, contributive publication system. It comprises critical presentations and narratives from Spanish and foreign creators in the fields plastic, literary and audiovisual art concerning the frontier space of the Straits of Gibraltar. The archive will be presented in the form of projections.

- Video Extra. Archivos ovni (Unidentified Video Observatory), www.desorg.org.
Cuando los hombres lloran [When Men Cry], Yasmine Kassari, 57 min., Morocco 2000
Vivir en Barcelona [Living in Barcelona], Zohr Rehihil, 15 min., Morocco-Spain 2001
Boujad: un nido en el calor [Boujad: A Nest in the Heat], Hakim Belabbes, 45 min., Morocco-USA 1992-99

- Front-eras, performance by Miguel Benlloch. Music by Juan Miguel Benlloch Peinado.

- Errando sobre las ondas (portable dance from the El gran juego -The Great Game- series, miniature version) by Salud López.

- m&p (music and projections). Each day's events will be brought to a conclusion by a session hosted by dj's and vj's.


+ PATIO LAB

- fadaiat media&frontera lab, decentralised new media laboratory with different nodes. -Tarifa/Castle, Tarifa/Beach, Tangiers. Numerous hacktivists connected via PC´s and webcams, forming an internet society with the objective of producing an analysis dealing with the concept of territory and connectivity actions between southern Spain and northern Morocco in order to contribute to an "architectural" process for the construction of a bridge for the flow of ideas and information between the two shores of the frontier as well as strengthening the social networks that are being woven together on the southern shore. Other aims include the proposal of a critical-creative use of the new mobility-connectivity technologies, as well as encouraging the use and teaching of open-access software and the interconnection with the internet and nodes via cable, satellite, wi-fi, streaming and live audio and video connections between Tarifa, Tangiers and Alhucemas (in collaboration with various lay collectives from the above cities) and other locations in other frontiers.

- Critical Cartography of the Straits, drawn up by different participating project members. Organised by theme - militarisation, migration, capital flows, etc. - this will be presented in beta format for its collective creation and will later be published in print form.

- Transacciones/fadaiat TV will live symbiotically in collaboration with the municipal TV station, TV Tarifa, for two days of programming. The aim of this action is to raise awareness of the project's most important issues among the local population, thus making them in a certain manner, participants. It will moreover give "news coverage" of the project and also serve as a distribution channel for the various audiovisual works being presented. Television will be one more tool for working and communicating, springing from our desire to maximise the socialisation of the public media and our understanding that television is an important tool in (re)educating and (re)informing.

- In collaboration with Radio Medi1 (Tangiers/ www.medi1.com), there will be a special programme dedicated to the music Graffiti: Jalil&Voluble.

- The fadaiat calls signature, composed by the Tarifa Based musician Fran m. m. Cabeza de Vaca, will be broadcast from thetower several times a day by and will be the project's call to the public.