Panel: Being Global and Staying | Local FACTT 20/21

The Arte Institute and RHI Initiative, in partnership with Cultivamos Cultura, have the pleasure to present a FACTT 20/21 – Improbable Times panel discussion with Eva Bubla from Hungary and Irene Agrivina from Indonesia focusing on their own activities, their mutual collaboration and the international revelation of these forms of activism while working with local communities. This event was conceived by the independent FACTT curator Nina Czegledy.

Watch online: 
– Arte Institute and RHI_Think Facebook pages
June 28, 2021 – 3.00 PM (GMT +1) 

PROGRAM:
– Welcome to FACTT20/21 by Marta de Menezes and Nina Czegledy
– Presentations by Eva Bubla and Irene Agrivina
– Open discussion with the artists and public.

 

The social and ecological challenges of recent times questioned the roles and responsibilities of artists and cultural practitioners. Several artists approached current issues by imagining new ways of living for a more sustainable form of future, attempting to trigger social transformation, a shift in values, changes in environmental issues, or a crucial system change. Is art truly capable of making a difference? The case studies presented will cover some of Eva Bubla’s solo and collaborative projects, artistic strategies and collective practices, and the potential of art as a catalyst. As an artist, activist and educator, Eva’s works articulate current social and ecological concerns and are strongly connected to the specific environment and community. At the boundaries of art and science, her projects aim to raise awareness on various sustainability challenges, in an attempt to catalyse a change in attitude or action. Eva is keen on working together with local communities and other sectors; as these forms of interactions define if an object, an installation, a performance, a workshop, a discussion or a festival is born.

 

Eva Bubla (1985) is a Hungarian artist and activist. Currently, she is enrolled in the Doctoral School of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where her research focuses on the role of art as a catalyst in the context of the social and ecological challenges of our times. Previously she was studying Fine Arts and Humanities (Linguistics and Cultural Studies) at the University of Szeged, and Fine Arts at the Indonesian Institute of Arts Yogyakarta. She works site-specific, focusing on the social and ecological issues of the specific location and community. She combines tools such as public engagement, alternative education, DIY and DIWO methodology, cross-sectoral collaboration and collective creative practices. Her solo and collaborative projects have been presented in Asia and Europe alike, in museums, galleries, festivals and biennales such as Galeri Nasional Indonesia (ID), Jogja National Museum (ID), 2B Gallery (HU), Budapest Project Gallery (HU), FKSE Studio Gallery (HU), HONF Galeri (ID), Taman Budaya (ID), SaRang Gallery (ID), Durbar Hall Kochi (IN), TIFA Working Studios (IN), KOGART House Budapest (HU), Balaton Museum (HU), Williams Art Cambridge (UK), PLACCC Festival (HU), Le Giornate del Respiro (IT), Toortuumik Festival (EE), Mipaliw Wetlands Land Art Festival (TW), Guandu Nature Art Festival (TW), Gram Art Project (IN), Transformaking Festival (ID), Inter-format Symposium (LT), OFF-Biennale Budapest 2021 (HU), The Wrong Biennale (CZ), Geumgang Nature Art Pre-Biennale (KR), Terracotta Biennale Yogyakarta (ID). She has taken part in several residency programs (in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Lithuania, Taiwan). Her work process was granted in the last years by the Ludwig Foundation, the European Cultural Foundation and Compagnia di San Paolo, the Embassy of Hungary Jakarta, the Ministry of Culture and Education of the Republic of Indonesia, and the Department of Culture of the Szeged City Council. Recently, she has been chosen as an Associate artist of IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space, in the frame of the four-year project (UN)COMMON SPACES, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

Since 1999 HONF evolved from a media arts center to open culture and technology laboratory with complex network of relations to the formal and informal institutions of knowledge, but also local and global open communities. Creative practitioners of different backgrounds, including artists, scientist, activists, designers, hackers, makers,, etc. involved at HONF’s projects and demonstrate how science and technology are used to respond to various local challenges and critical issues. The scientific research from different disciplines is transformed into public interactive works using DIY (Do It Yourself) and DIWO (Do It With Others) methods, which have aesthetic as well as educational and social goals. HONF also functions as a cultural laboratory connected to similar networks both regionally and globally and working under their own curriculum called Education Focus Program.

 

Open systems advocate, technologist, artist and educator Irene Agrivina is graduate from Visual Communication Design program at the Indonesia Institute of Art (ISI), Yogyakarta, and continuing her study at Culture and Religion Magister Program at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta. She is one of the founding members and current directors of HONF, the Yogyakarta based new media and technology laboratory. Created in 1998 as a place of open expression, art and cultural technologies in the wake of the Indonesian “revolution”, HONF aka the ‘House of Natural Fiber’ was born out of the social and political turmoil against the Suharto regime, its nepotism and governmental corruption. Agrivina runs HONF’s ‘Education Focus Programme’ (EFP) which focuses on the application and practical use in daily life of collaborative, cross-disciplinary and technological actions responding to social, cultural and environmental challenges. In response to the needs of societies in development and transition, HONF and EFP apply open, collaborative and sustainable actions that systematically expand or convert accessible technologies to be used as multifunctional tools and methodologies. She has participated in numerous festivals such as Re;Publica, Transmediale, Pixelache, Mal Au Pixel, New Museum Trienalle, APAP 5. She exhibited her work and gave her lectures at some respectable galleries, museums and universities around the world. At 2011 in collaboration with Waag Society she co-founded HONFablab, as the first Fablab in South East Asia, and at 2013 she founded XXLab an all female collective focusing in arts, science and free technology as a HONF’s spin-off communities, one of their project, SOYA C(O)U(L)TURE (2015) was crowned as the winner of 2015 Prix Ars Electronica awards, a prestigious European Commission-supported competition for cyberarts in Linz, Austria. She was also chosen by Asialink, Australia as one of The Six Women in Pioneer from South East Asia.

 

FACTT 20/21: Trans-disciplinary & Trans-national Festival of Art & Science is exhibited online during 2021 with different events to be announced taking place throughout the year across continents. FACTT is a project spearheaded and promoted by the Arte Institute in conception partnership with Cultivamos Cultura and Ectopia (Portugal), and, for its 20-21version, in curatorial collaboration with InArts Lab@ Ionian University – Department of Audio and Visual Arts (Greece), Artscisalon@The Fields Institute and Sensorium@York University (Canada), School of Visual Arts (USA), UNAM, Arte+Ciencia and Bioscénica (Mexico), and Central Academy of Fine Arts (China).