An open letter to the curators, artists, participants of the 11th International Istanbul Biennial and to all artists and art-lovers:

    “We have to stop pretending that the popularity of politically engaged art within the museums, magazines and markets over the last few years has anything to do with really changing the world. We have to stop
pretending that taking risks in the space of art, pushing boundaries of form, and disobeying the conventions of culture, making art about politics makes any difference. We have to stop pretending that art is a free space, autonomous from webs of capital and power. It’s time for the artist to become invisible. To dissolve back into life.”

The first monstration was held in Vilnius on May 28th, 2009. The idea to held monstrations came into head to Russian artists in Novosibirsk. The monstrators are gathering into strange, noisy and crazy street action and rising their impertinent , absurd and usually incoherent slogans. The main task of the monstration is to show up inefficiency of the official political demonstrations, which are obsolete because the authorities established complete control on them.

Grootveld preparing his craft for the odyssey to Sweden in 1972.

"First," he prudently noted, "I must learn to sail." 

Robert Jasper Grootveld, one of the most emblematic figures of the 60s PROVO  movement, has died in a nursing home at the age of 76 on the February 26. 2009 in Amsterdam. Grootveld was famous for the ‘happenings’ he organised on the Spui, then Amsterdam’s ‘magic centre’. The anti-smoking guru would dance around in a cloud of his own cigarette smoke chanting ugh, ugh, ugh - which became one of his mantras. 

Grootveld started out as a window cleaner, then turned to journalism and finally found his feet as an artist in the creative atmosphere of the 1960s. He came up with the famous white bicycle plan which has since been adopted by many cities around the world.

While Capitalism crumbles as international labour continues its historical subordination of land and capital under its power, the bourgeois ruling class in London is defending imperial time via the Centenary of the proto-Fascist Futurist manifesto in another attempt to unify against Communism – from the government’s propaganda machine, through to avant-gardists, artists and of course, the so-called revolutionaries from the left and right of Capital.

(check out the flyer)

While thinking and once again rethinking all the heritage of artists rebellion against falsity and brainwashing of so called “machine of serious culture” one cannot avoid the brilliant futurist explosion happen exactly 100 years ago. The century passed and we are coming to the same necessity of rebellion – just the means clearly to be revised and adjusted to contemporary situation. Especially was pleasant to find it already done by Italians themselves – accidentally on the Webb we found just written post-futurist manifesto by Italian writer, critic, activist-autonomist and media theorist Franco Berardi aka Bifo. The intention to write a counter-manifesto he explains in a following way: 

"One hundred years ago Marinetti published the Manifesto of Futurism. It inaugurated a
century that believed in the future - initiating a process where the collective organism
became machine-like. This becoming-machine has reached its finale with the concatenations
of the global web and is now being overturned by the collapse of a financial system
founded on the futurisation of the economy, debt and economic promise. That promise is
over. The era of post-future has begun." 

In the midday of January 28th, 2009 the group of young activists vestured themselves in white sheets and holding black flags entered the main square of Alytus city and started to march in front of the city hall. They did it in solidarity with the unknown man who was holding the same black flag and sang alone in the same place just one week ago.

“If you’re fuckin’ crazy you can’t follow their rules…” [John Lennon. Working Class Hero.]

In the midday of January 21st, 2009 aged man holding black flag without any symbolic entered the main square of Alytus city. He stood facing the city hall and started to sing songs slightly ironic towards the authorities. Immediately one police crew drove with the car to the man and started to interrogate him. He explained that he asked permission to his wife to do the action, then took self made flag which supposed to mean his hopeless social situation, and simply decided to sing because there is nothing else remaining for him to do. He was not drunk. Meanwhile some people crowded in the place and asked to the policemen – what is wrong in man’s singing. Policeman replied that there is not allowed to sing in the midday in the central square in the city and they suspect the man to be psychic. One more official appeared and asked why ambulance still is not here. Shortly after that ambulance car drove to the crowd. Orange dressed medical asked man his name. Man while singing was not able to answer. “Subject is not going into contact” – said medical and that was a sign to take man by force into the ambulance car. Some time passed and man came back to he square, but without flag and did not sang any more.

Second Temporary Art Strike Action Committee – Alytus Chapter (STASAC-Alytus) calls for the Art strike action to paralyze one of the most primitive and sophisticated snoots of contemporary neo-liberal EU policies – endless sequences of European Cultural Capitals. The art strike calls for striking particular case of Vilnius becoming European Cultural Capital for 2009 and instead to arrange the Art Strike Biennial in Alytus on August 18-24th, 2009. We are also calling for international support to assault the cultural capitals in whatever country it will appear in the future and later to continue the actions in the same place every second year – so to arrange an international network for debiennialization.

Wellknown czech art troublemaker Jiri Suruvka entertains art lovers with art strike activities. Photo taken from a photoposter exhibited on a show in Ostrava, 2008.

Two days after this message appeared on the webb Jiri contacted me and told true story behind:

"It was my performance in Marseille, September 2008, during the performance festival made by ornic art group named Urban disorder. Me and my friends and people walked around, were sitting on the street and striking, doing nothing and drinking beer and discussing about artists' situation and living conditions in Czech and French countries, compearing, speaking about capitalist fuckers etc."