OLD NEWS 4 -- a non-profit free newspaper presenting a selection of articles and images cut from newspapers by artists

  • kuda.
  • kuda.

Old News is a non-profit free newspaper presenting a selection of articles and images cut from newspapers by artists. In the Old News concept, the artists were to select and cut out articles they found interesting with their comments.

In 2004 (issue 1), 24 artists or artist groups were asked to cut out four articles each during a one-month period - their comments were printed on the front and back cover of the newspaper, separately from the actual article. Premiering at Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis on April 5th, Old News 4 will be presented along with Old News 1, 2, and 3. Additional projects, editions, and material presented include Dieter Roth, Erick Beltran, Thomas Bayrle, Katya Sander, Michalis Pichler, Hans Peter Feldmann, and Blondes, a draft by Jens Haaning for Old News 5, 2008. The newspapers are free for distribution.

Old News / 4 (2007) - Artists: Gabriel Acevedo, Li Yu & Liu Bo, Dineo Bopape, Chris Bors + Ketta Ioannidou, Despina Stokou + Konstantinos Dagritzikos, Filip van Dingenen, Ayse Erkmen, Ryan Gander, Judith Hopf, Ruben Grilo, IngridMwangiRobertHutter, Delphine Courtillot + Folkert de Jong, new media center_kuda.org, Glenda Leon, Erlea Maneros, Gustav Metzger, Caroline Montenat, Ariane Müller, Amuche Ngwu-Nnabueze, Ebru Özseçen, Michalis Pichler, Ramona Ramlochand, Jane Burden + Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Francesc Ruiz, Jorge Satorre, Misha Stroj, Joanna Malinowska + Christian Tomaszewski, Mario Garcia Torres, Rallou Panagiotou + Jannis Varelas, Xie Xiaoze, Carla Zaccagnini and Project: VEO: 1st Case of Study.

Old News / 4 (2007) - Curators: Magali Arriola, Amanda Cuesta, Nikola Dietrich, Bisi Silva & Dominique Fontaine, Carol Yinghua Lu, Raimundas Malasauskas, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou+Christopher Marinos, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Víctor Palacios, John Rasmussen, RMS La Asociación and Franciska Zólyom.

Old News is organized by Jacob Fabricius who is the Director at Malmö Konsthall, Malmö. He has previously curated for the Center d'Art Santa Monica in Barcelona; Malmö Konsthall, Malmö; APPENDIKS, Copenhagen; and Videodrome, Copenhagen. He is the founder of Pork Salad Press, KBH Kunsthal, and co-founder of GAS, Fanzine. For more information visit: www.porksaladpress.org , www.kbhkunsthal.org , and www.gasfanzine.dk .

OLD NEWS: Contribution by New Media Center_kuda.org

ONE REALLY OLD NEWS

In order to get things back into context, we decided to represent one of the crucial events in the present Serbian reality that overpasses politics itself: the relationship of Serbia towards Kosovo. It seems that this long and complex history of ambiguity and paradoxes is coming to its end. But, not if we ask the present Serbian government.

Serbian position in the constellation of the former Yugoslav republics could be determined as “hegemonic”. After the breakdown of Yugoslavia and after the separation of other republics, Serbia remains „left alone“ by other republics and it experiences a boomerang effect of its own politics of previous times. Alone, a martyr, the only one worth carrying Yugoslav heritage. This burden has transformed itself through government actions into a concept of self-victimization, which has been gradually built. This media design of Serbian self-victimization is just being continued on a new level, inside Serbia.

Following Serbian newspapers, we decided to focus on the last week of December 2007 and the first week of January 2008, as the tension towards the end of the year grew higher and (Serbian newspapers) gave an impression that this issue was news number one in the world. This time frame encompasses both Christmasses, the one that is being celebrated on December 25th and the other, celebrated by the Serbian Orthodox Church, on January 6th, as well as two celebrations of the New Year, one on December 31st and the other, “Serbian“ New Year, on January 13th. Serbian society is multicultural, but still, this potential has constantly being projected as the clash of diversities.

Media are not free – they are way too much (and far beyond) compatible with government politics. Both are creating noise – unlimited production of temporal sensation and exclusivity, bringing on stage political and media spectacle, which is nothing more than the distraction of discussing the real issue here.

Pieces of press clipping represented here are merely touching its current strategy for Kosovo, marked with undisguised nationalism, fake cosmopolitism, a selective recall of history, appeal for unity of all Serbian people, and instrumentalized application of democracy. “War for Kosovo”, “Serbia is older then EU”, “Power structures of the World want to steal Kosovo”, “Power structures are throwing dice to decide the destiny of Kosovo”, “West incapable to stand against the Albanians”, “Europe has to choose: Agreement with Serbia or mission at Kosovo” - are just some of the titles witnessing attempt to clear oneself of responsibility for years-long politics of open repression implemented over Kosovo.

In fact, this is one very, very old news. Even too old for the concept of “Old News”. It is the news dated from 1389. and the epic Battle of Kosovo between the coalition of Serb lords and the Ottoman Empire. The Battle of Kosovo is seen by the majority of Serbs as the first defining moment of the rise of their nation.

As Boris Buden said, Kosovo is neither one of the extremely diverse and complex Balkan regions, nor just one province in Serbia – it is territory that Serbia is laying its historical right upon, as a cradle of the Serbian nation, “as a real, material image of the place where the collective identity of Serbs is symbolically born. That identity in its sublime form is represented in the myth of the Battle of Kosovo.” (Buden) He further claims that today's version of this myth is far away from its six hundred years old related event – the use of this myth in actual legal/political dispute about sovereignty over Kosovo is remote from material facts. Those facts say that over ninety percent of inhabitants in this cradle of Serbian people are Albanians. This culminates in an absurd appeal of Serbian politicians expressed through their claim over Kosovo as a territory, but without even mentioning the majority of people that are living there. Serbian politics which wants to win a legal battle for Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo has to remain blind because its real aim is not legal and political sovereignty over Kosovo, but the return of the “lost” identity of the Serbian nation. “To lose Kosovo, for (Serbia) means to lose Serbianhood as such.” Politics based on myth is nothing other than “dialectics of delusion and self-delusion” and it is inevitable that Serbia loses Kosovo, but still it satisfies the need from which it became – the recuperation of national identity. From this constellation, Albanian “truth” is violently suppressed. “Neither Albanian, nor Serb are defeated, but rather a man in the universality of his humanity.” (Buden)