By Jan Oberg
Jan Oberg, Oberg PhotoGraphics and The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF, has been invited by the Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation and the European Cultural Center to exhibit at Palazzo Mora in Venice during the Biennale 2019.
This exciting opportunity stimulated the development of a bigger idea that combines Oberg’s work for peace and art photography with a focus on the Chinese-initiated Silk Belt and Road Initiative, the largest and most visionary in today’s world in terms of linking people and cultures into cooperation rather than confrontation.
In various ways the project – with the Road as metaphor – stretches from Shanghai over Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran and Syria to Venice and seeks to promote cooperation and peace in the process.
The “Silk PeaceArt Road” project is made public at this very early development stage where no funding is secured to encourage you to share co-operative ideas, contacts you may have in China and along the Silk Road or to potential partners, artists, sponsors, art institutions, etc.
The project integrates peace work and art photography and it is the first cooperative endeavour by TFF and Oberg PhotoGraphics.Lund, Sweden – March 8, 2018 – regularly updated. Follow here and on Instagram.
Summary in 7 elements
1. To stay in Shanghai at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel for a period of 3-6 months.
2. Make use of selected existing archived materials such as photos I’ve taken in China 1983, Myanmar, Somalia and Somaliland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Aleppo in Syria and Venice which are all situated on the:
3. Old Silk Road and on the new Silk Road and Belt Initiative (RBI) that China initiated and which my work will evolve around, and:
4. Combining some of the old photos with new ones and various other materials and artefacts into a completely new multimedia creation (one big or several smaller related to each other), and:
5. Exhibiting it all at Palazzo Mora, Venice, in 2019 in the context of the Biennale (May 11-Nov 24) and documenting the process on Instagram, my blog and perhaps also, later, in a book.
6. The project seeks to explore relations between art, the emerging new world order, and history in the future as well as the interactions of cultures, people and expressions, and finally:
7. It will build synergy between my two ‘lives’ as academic peace & future researcher and art photographer.
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Read about the 7 points in detail and see how you can get involved, or help – here
