Jarrar is participating in this year’s 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (on view until July 1, 2012, free entrance) with a further aspect of the project that uses another official sign: postage stamps. In utilizing the Deutsche Post AG service called “individual stamp”, the artist produced stamps for the State of Palestine to be used in the regular mail. More than 20,000 stamps have been sold so far. Used on letters and postcards, they have circulated worldwide. Central element of the design is the Palestine Sunbird. It embodies the wish to create an open, independent country guaranteeing freedom to everyone to carry one’s life in one’s hand.

Jarrar’s passport and postage stamps tell the story of a state-to-be. But reality goes against him and other Palestinians. Instead of continuing again and again the discussion about a one- or two-state solution, using these stamps is a simple gesture that helps to create normality.

Read an interview with the artist by David Miller here.

You can buy the stamps at the counter of the 7th Berlin Biennale. To order stamps please contact fz@berlinbiennale.de. Against a small surcharge, the standard stamps of 0,55 Euro were produced with the “individual stamp” service of Deutsche Post AG and are valid for regular mailing. One sheet of 20 stamps costs 16 Euro (plus additional shipping fee for mail order of 1,45 Euro). Stamps are sold by sheet only.

Certainly not a new approach is the proposed ‘Rewarding Life’s Work’ Law scheduled for 2013, which will force freelancers from the very beginning of their career to pay a fixed tax of at least a monthly €350 into the country’s pension system – a tax that increases with age, but is not related to your income. Needless to say, this will have some crucial effects on Germany’s cultural landscape. We are not politicians, and it’s not that we know the answers to a huge problem, but we do know that a magazine like mono.kultur would not exist if such a tax were in place.

Find out more here, or if you are registered in Germany, sign the petition for stopping the ‘Rewarding Life’s Work’ tax here.

The Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) calls for the return of 3,300,000 Jews to Poland in order to re-establish the annihilated Jewish community. The movement was initiated by Israeli-born artist Yael Bartana in 2007 and has since spread internationally. It aims to create an atmosphere for a Jewish appearance in Europe. The Jews of today are not the same people who were expelled from Europe—the Europeans of today are not the ones responsible for the ethnic cleansing. This may be the appropriate time to unite again—and change Europe and Israel for the better.

The JRMiP is a response to these times of crisis, when faith has been exhausted and old utopias have failed. The aim of the First Congress of the JRMiP is to ultimately formulate the concrete platform of the movement and collectively imagine the future. The three-day long gathering departs from a letter of the late leader of the movement, Sławomir Sierakowski, found after his assassination, and considers the following questions:

- What should be changed in the EU to welcome the Other?
- What should be changed in Poland to become part of the revived EU?
- What should be changed in Israel to become part of the Middle East?

For the first time since its foundation, JRMiP members assemble, joined by international speakers, to reflect upon particular demands. The movement needs all of you who sympathize with the issues of different Diasporas in general.

Watch the official promo video here.

First International Congress of the Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland (JRMiP) in Berlin
May 11 – 13, 2012
Daily from 3 – 10.30 pm
Hebbel am Ufer – HAU 1 , Stresemannstrasse 29, 10963 Berlin
In the frame of the 7th Berlin Biennale
More Information on the Congress / Program / Tickets

Until April 1, 2012 you still have the chance to register for the press or professional preview days of this year’s 7th Berlin Biennale, taking place on April 25 and 26 – so don’t forget!

Official Opening: April 26, 7 – 10 pm
Dates: April 27 – July 1, 2012
www.berlinbiennale.de

What is the European Union’s official strategy towards Belarus? What are the political and economic expectations for Belarus and, also, for the new candidate countries? What is required and what are the possible consequences? The example of Poland shows us how the very process of transformation and neoliberal reforms in politics and business impacts the social life, now we can take a critical look on it and raise questions. What would be the lessons for today Belarus and other countries where transformation processes has just already started? Can we imagine a different scenario of political and economic transformation?

Today, March 20, 2012, 7 pm:
Political Transformation (into Democracy)
Krytyka Politycna in Berlin #5
Event in the frame of the 7th Berlin Biennale
KW Institute for Contemporary Art , Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin

With:
Olga Karatch (Director of the nongovernmental organization ‘Nasz Dom’)
Marina Naprushkina (Artist, Director of The Office Antipropaganda)
Gisela Neunhoffer (Author „Neoliberal Hegemony: A Global Critique”)
Martin Schibli (Curator, Kalmar konstmuseum)
Agnieszka Wiśniewska (Krytyka Polityczna)
Moderated by Zdravka Bajovic (7th Berlin Biennale)

Admission: 1 Euro

Photo of Cairo by Joanna Warsza

Martin Zet

One month after the call for donations Krytyka Polityczna—media partner of the 7th Berlin Biennale—organizes a debate at KW Institute for Contemporary Art that contextualizes this incident and the extreme reactions. In light of the discussion about right-wing demagogic tendencies in Europe the panelists will talk about Zet’s original intention and offer a critical dialogue with the audience.

Tonight, February 20, 2012, 7 pm:
Krytyka Polityczna in Berlin #3
A debate on the occasion of Martin Zet’s campaign ‘Deutschland schafft es ab’
Debate in English, free admission
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststrasse 69, 10117 Berlin

With:
- Ingo Arend (taz – die tageszeitung)
- Stéphane Bauer (Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien)
- Sebastian Wehrhahn (Mobile Beratung gegen Rechtsextremismus Berlin)
- Koray Yilmaz-Günay (specialist for migration, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation)
- Artur Żmijewski and Joanna Warsza (7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art)
Moderated by Igor Stokfiszewski (Krytyka Polityczna)

Photo: Artist Martin Zet

A message from Hamish Fulton, walking artist:
“I think that global warming comes about as a result of the fact that we don’t consider other life forms. We think: only humans. Obviously it’s a stupid point to make, but the Internet only applies to human beings. You can’t have ants using the Internet. It is something that is incredibly human-based, and so, for example, you can watch a very beautifully filmed wildlife film about Antarctica or the North Pole, and you’re sitting on a seat, watching this amazingly filmed presentation of polar bears and so on – but the question is: what good does that do, other than being amazed at the life of polar bears, or even more amazed at the camera people; the skills of the camera people become sort of the overriding story, then the bears, then global warming, and all the time we’re sitting there and watching this.”

Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries that the United States is in conflict with. The food is served out of a take-out style storefront, which rotates identities every 6 months to highlight another country. Each Conflict Kitchen iteration is augmented by events, performances, and discussion about the culture, politics, and issues at stake with each county we focus on. We are currently presenting the third iteration of Conflict Kitchen via La Cocina Arepas, an Venezuelan take-out restaurant that serves homemade arepas, grilled corncakes served to order with a variety of fresh fillings. Developed in collaboration with members of the Venezuelan community, our arepas come packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Venezuelans both in Venezuelan and the United States on subjects ranging from Venezuelan food and culture to issues of geopolitics.

Conflict Kitchen is located at 124 s. Highland Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

CONFLICT KITCHEN is open for winter on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am to 2:30pm, reopening  7 days a week on April 1st, 2012.

http://www.conflictkitchen.org

He achieved international recognition with the Singing Lesson (I) at the 2002 Frankfurt Manifesta and with Repetition at the 2005 Venice Biennale, a powerful metaphor of our regressive democracies in which the state of exception has become the rule, according to Benjamin’s terms, which Agamben has made famous. Artur Żmijewski is curating the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art which is to open soon (April 27 – July 1, 2012).

Artur Żmijewski continues the artist-talk series HUMBOLDT MEETINGS, to which Christoph Hochhäusler (12 December 2011), Angela Schanelec (10 January 2012), Anne Tismer (31 January 2012), Harun Farocki (NEW DATE:  7 February 2012), and Thomas Ostermeier (15 February 2012) have been invited to open discussions at the Department of Art and Visual History at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

The dialogue series is organized by Régis Michel (Rudolf Arnheim Visiting Professor 2011/12) and Katharina Lee Chichester

HUMBOLDT MEETINGS III
Invitation to an open discussion with Artur Żmijewski
Podium guests: Charlotte Klonk and Piotr Piotrowski
Tonight, January 23, 2012, 8 pm
Humboldt-University of Berlin
Dorotheenstraße 24, Room 1.101

With the kind support of Carolin Behrmann and the students of the seminars

HUMBOLDT MEETINGS is realized by the Department of Art and Visual History at the Humboldt-University of Berlin.

Which reminds me of a little happy encounter with Another Country bookstore in Kreuzberg, where I wanted to depose of some English books. The owner, a rather eccentric Englishman, separated them studiously into different piles, with Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho making one pile of its own. The owner told me what he would pay me for each pile, then said, ‘And for this, you will have to pay me one euro,’ pointing at Psycho. ‘Some books are so evil that I cannot sell them at my store, so I burn them in my backyard. This is one of them and it will cost you one euro.’ I thought it was a fair price. This is the reason why you should always go to local stores, since they are still run by humans, not corporations. Talking about politically correct.