REBRANDING ACTS is an investigation into cultural identity in an age of global migration. The project asks the global Wooloo community of artists to look closely at the ongoing production of "nationality" in their home countries and to examine the ways in which this public narrative includes certain individuals and groups - while excluding others.
Taking the form of an open call, the REBRANDING ACTS project encourages artists to perform and document “rebranding acts” that directly intervenes with the hegemony of their national narrative and presents a radical re-thinking of it. In other words, acts that aims to “rebrand” the national identity in question.
The specific context and method of the rebranding act can take any possible form but the act must be documented in video format.
From all the rebranding videos submitted, the REBRANDING ACTS have selected the ten most intelligent, powerful and humorous documentations and presented them as official part of TINA B. - The Prague Contemporary Art Festival that took place in Prague, Czech Republic from 25th of September to 15 October, 2008.
Furthermore, the selected videos are now shown in New York at the exhibition Ours: Democracy in the Age of Branding taking place at Parsons The New School for Design, the Sheila C. Johnson Center, New York from October 15th, 2008 to January 30th, 2009.
REBRANDING ACTS explore questions of cultural identity in a time where national belonging is becoming an increasingly discussed topic in political debates throughout the world. Facing the challenges of an increasingly globalized economy, combined with internal demographic questions such as the issue of aging populations, and a growing number of immigrants and refugees, a large number of nation states are currently undergoing vast transformations. Often, these transformations include a strong rise in new forms of xenophobia, fueled by the media and capitalized upon by populist political parties.
In 2006, Wooloo Productions (the artists collective behind WOOLOO.ORG) performed our first rebranding act with outset in the case of contemporary Denmark. We did this exactly one year after the infamous publishing of Muhammad caricatures by the Danish nationwide newspaper Jyllands Posten and we launched the campaign Defending denmark as "an international campaign to rebrand the country of Denmark". The Defending denmark project included 18 months membership of the ultra-right Danish Peoples Party, several video interventions, as well as a worldwide media frenzy with national identity at its center. Please go to www.wooloo.org/defendingdenmark to read more.
While REBRANDING ACTS is predicated on the argument that hegemonic nationalist constructions often exclude identities that don’t fit the mold, the project's open call invites anyone to add their voice to the discussion. Through these individual, transnational responses to the widespread nationalistic upheaval taking place throughout the world, RERBANDING ACTS aim to offer alternative ways of thinking about who we are and how we can live together today.
DEADLINE for submissions were Sunday, August 31st 2008.
1.) To apply for this project, you must have a WOOLOO.ORG account. Please click here to sign up for free.
2.) Only applications of video work are eligible but the work itself can be of an older date. All submitted video work should be less than 5 minutes in length and a maximum of 100 MB in file size.
4.) The deadline for submissions is midnight, Sunday 31st of August 2008 (Pacific Standard Time).
5.) REBRANDING ACTS is part of both TINA B. - The Prague Contemporary Art Festival taking place in Prague, Czech Republic from 25th of September to 15 October, 2008; and the New York exhibition Ours: Democracy in the Age of Branding taking place at the New School - Vera List Center for Art and Politics from October 15th, 2008 to January 30th, 2009.
6.) An entry confirmation will be sent out via email, as soon as proposal and payment has been received online.
7.) All applications must be made in English through your WOOLOO.ORG account. Do not send physical material to us, as this cannot be returned.
8.) Applicants whose work is selected for REBRANDING ACTS will be contacted at the email address listed in their WOOLOO.ORG account.
9.) Creators of work presented as part of REBRANDING ACTS retain ALL rights to their work.
10.) Wooloo Productions holds no responsibility regarding the acts performed by artists and/or the content of the videos submitted by WOOLOO.org users.
11.) By submitting an application, you agree that this application and all its accompanying material can be displayed to project curators, as well as any other individuals or groups that Wooloo Productions deem appropriate.
12.) Employees, sponsors and patrons of Wooloo Productions are ineligible to apply.
DISCUSS THIS PROJECT
vealeartis
FRANCE
Aug. 05, 2008 05:38
Hi I am interested in this project as my work has been about cross cultural boundries and global migration I am irish and recently took on Franch nationality the french government have been trying to impliment a new bill to examine dna of immigrants I want to do work on this and in video would i be suitable to apply .?th
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 05, 2008 09:42
Your project sounds interesting and would definitely be suitable for the project.
We hope to see your work among the applications.
Kind regards,
Wooloo
kleurke
BELGIUM
Aug. 06, 2008 03:23
I'm from Belgium.
Does that say enough?
My work isn't about the current situation of Belgium or any other global gouvernemental problem.
I'm building walls.
Very small walls.
You could say I make my own universe.
My own reallity.
By showing my work to others, I show my mind, my reality.
I never explain my work, so people can create their own point of view.
Is my work suitable for this exhibition? There is one picture on this site of a wall I build.
A video of the work would be pure a documentation of sculptures.
S
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 07, 2008 10:56
Dear S,
Thanks for your interest in the Rebranding Acts project.
I am not sure it would be a very good idea for you to apply for this specific project. Pure documentation of walls does not seem to be fitting into what we are looking for here, however, we appreciate your interest and energy.
Hope a future participatory project will suit your work better.
Kind regards,
wooloo
quarterbit
PORTUGAL
Aug. 08, 2008 10:45
Hello Wooloo,
I am a sound designer and I would like to present a project that approaches the issue of identity in my home country, Portugal.
The idea is to record a famous poem by Fernando Pessoa - it's called "Message" and it deals with the expansion of the portuguese kingdom in the 1500s. The people that will say the poem are imigrants that have been forced to learn portuguese by the government: Chinese, Ucranians, Russians,Brazilians etc. .
By using a self developed data bending software the audio recordings will generate signals that will trigger randomly a image pool made of photographs from these imigrants and photos that they have brought to Portugal from their home country as well current images from the places they live in Portugal...
Would this be an acceptable concept and project for you?
Thank you in advance,
QB
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 11, 2008 06:33
Dear QB,
Your project sounds interesting and the investigation is definitely in line with what we are searching for, however, it is impossible for me to say weather we can accept your project beforehand. The selection process is depending on your entire application as well as the collective decision of the curatorial team.
Hope this finds you well.
Wooloo
kosar
UNITED STATES
Aug. 13, 2008 03:40
I wanted to express interest in the rebranding project but I am afraid the deadline is coming up too soon. I work with issues related to intergroup relationships and xenophobia, so the concept compells me very much.
I have two ideas, one is to make a video about rebranding a building as opposed to a person. The second is to make a short video about the adventures of a Turkish Cypriot friend trying to marry a Turkish American woman in Turkey. They now live in the USA.
Hagia Sophia is an architectural marvel in Istanbul. It was built as the greatest Orthodox church on the site of a pagan temple. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, Hagia Sophia was converted to a museum. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the building was reinstituted as a museum. It is quite interesting that while the land and buildings are stable, and the people often transient, the identity of the the place changes by the transient forces, the people. In Istanbul and Hagia Sophia’s case first the pagan Romans, then the Christians, then the Muslims, then the secularist republicans. After all, it was only during the latter era that the concept of national identity emerged as a separate entity from religious or tribal identity. If I can pull it off, I’d like to create a sound track for the video by playing with the lyrics of the swing song “Istanbul (not) Constantinople”.
My other idea is indeed about creating a narrative about globally migrant people, who are labeled as outsiders whereever they go and have to jump through hurdles so ridiculous that it’s actually humorous. It is the true story of a Turkish Cypriot man who has a Turkish name and speaks Turkish as his native language who had to translate and notorize his Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus passport from Turkish to Turkish as a foreign applicant for a marriage certificate in Turkey. Although both the bride and groom were of Turkish bloodline, spoke Turkish but they were treated as foreigners. So the national identity is not in the bloodline or name or language, but the passport? Yet when the groom applied for a governmet job in Turkey, as a Cypriot, he had to prove he was ethnically pure. Hmm, sometimes it’s the bloodline that counts. Or when he visited Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with his new American passport, at customs he was questioned about his mandatoy military service , because of his Turkish name and place of birth. Back at home he keeps hearing he’s so Americanized. In the USA, where he is now a full citizen, people ask him where his accent is from. So the US passport doesn’t really count. Neither the guy at customs in Cyprus nor the guy on the street in the US take it as a proof of his national identity. They want to know where he’s originally “from”. Then he has to explain he’s from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, as opposed to “the” Cpyruss, which is a whole different story. Perhaps I should appropriate Stings song I’m an Englishman in NY to all the different identities this man takes on in different circumstances.
I hope I can finish at least one these videos. I believe they’d fit right within the project.
I'd be curious to see all the "rebranding" videos, too bad it's not travelling to west coast. Will you post them online?
Eliseo
UNITED KINGDOM
Aug. 13, 2008 11:23
hi, I'm italian and moved 12 years a go in london where I live and work,
do I have to investigate my native (Italy) or my adoptive country England?
also, can the I submit a video as work of acts??
Many thanks
E.P.
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 14, 2008 02:00
Dear Kosar,
Both videos sounds very interesting and from here we can only say that we hope you manage to finish at least one of the videos and make it for deadline.
Thanks for the in-depth description of your ideas we especially find this strange "search" for nationality in the second story interesting. Good luck and keep us updated.
Best,
Wooloo
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 14, 2008 02:05
Dear E.P,
You do not have to investigate your native country it might as well be your adoptive country.
The specific context and method of the rebranding act can take any possible form but the act must be documented and submitted via WOOLOO.ORG in VIDEO FORMAT.
Hope this answers your questions.
Kind regards,
Wooloo
giorgio
UNITED KINGDOM
Aug. 15, 2008 05:15
Dear Wooloo,
While I believe that my work matches the brief presented, it is much more powerful if exhibited as a video installation. Is it possible to submit video installations / multi-channel videos, or will you only accept single channel videos?
Thanks, GG (UK/Italy)
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 19, 2008 04:24
Hey All,
please remember that we also accept works done in the past (previous works)
Thanks for all the great submissions and we hope to see much more before deadline September first.
Wooloo
guadalupearango
SPAIN
Aug. 21, 2008 05:51
Hello, I´m a peruvian living in Madrid. Actually I am working in how people discrimanated people because their accents...I did a performance related with the feelings of south american women living in Madrid, these voices talk about discrimanation and their points of views. Well, I did this performance in december of 2007,and I wonder, if this type of performance fit with your ideas of the exhibition.
Thanks for all,
Guadalupe
waynemontecalvo
UNITED STATES
Aug. 24, 2008 12:24
I would like to submit two entries, and pay for two submissions, of coarse. Will the online application allow me to do that? I am only allowed one video on my page. So what can I do to submit more than one?
waynemontecalvo
UNITED STATES
Aug. 24, 2008 12:52
Alright. While trying to submit a video piece not on my page, (only allowed one on the "free" page)I decided to delete the one I used to have, and replace it with one I would like to submit. Now I can't unpload a new one and can't put the old one back on my page. Two questions; how do I get the old video back up, and can I submit a video piece that is not on my wooloo page? I think I'm missing something. Please let me know soon.
wooloosupport
GERMANY
Aug. 26, 2008 08:29
Hey Guadalupe,
Thanks for your interest in the Rebranding Acts project.
Your performance sounds interesting, however, it is hard to get a real idea about what is going on from the short information in your forum post.
Please just upload one video and our curator team will let you know if they need to see any further videos.
Best,
Wooloo
kosar
UNITED STATES
Aug. 31, 2008 03:19
I am trying to apply for the rebranding project. It is 2:15am PCT. I have uploaded the video and made it an exhibit. When I try to apply for the project, I can go from step 1 to step 2, but it stops there. The application webpages will not let me view or add the video, nor proceed to step 3. Any help is appreciated. Today is the deadline!
tobrien
IRELAND
Sep. 02, 2008 09:26
Hi,
I'm an Irish artist. I recently made a video work with Israeli artist, Einat Amir, on the Swiss-Italian border at Chiasso/Ponte Chiasso.
The video shows two groups of people playing a mimed match of volleyball, and was filmed in 'No Man's Land' using the border fence as the net. Essentially, the players are tourists at a 'privileged' border. It also references Antonioni's last scene of Blow-Up in dealing with perceptions of reality and authority. This work and other work we are collaborating on, explores 'soft' or anti-climactic' borders and the charge they are given by association. The work we are making is not about that specific border but about political and psychological borders in general.
I see the closing date was 2 days ago - but would it be ok to still submit?
Treasa O'Brien
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This film is shot, in Canada, on the river that separates Quebec and Ontario. There has been a long debate as to what it is called and it is now known by two names. La rivire des Outaouais, in Quebec and The Ottawa River to Ontario and most of Canada. It is a natural border that separates culture and identity and is a fragile environment for political debate
Re- Branding With(in) Flatiron is the CorpusCollective's approach to the idea of pre-interpreting and pre-constructing the Brand Identity of the people of these United States of America. A protest is staged in a New York City public park where the protestors have no agenda. The protest is as apathetic and uninterested as the whole of the American people, with blank protest signs as homage to the America of the Past. CORPUS COLLECTIVE (Ektoras Binikos, William Brovelli and Vincent Como)
'The Rights' is an ongoing series of video recordings of different boys and girls, originating from countries of the 'New Europe' and living in the countries of West Europe, who are reading the description of the 'European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom'.
The complexity of the vocabulary and sentence structure and the boys' and girls' inability to comprehend the concepts contained in the text symbolically reflect the impossibility of immigrants to become integrated into the 'maze-like' legal systems.
The white flag is the icon of all the project and means surrender, in Switzerland it definitely could be connected to neutrality, for me the white flag is having no other choice, we have to accept the global ecomomy and the global financial system, by making an active choice (surrender) we gain awareness of our position within society.
I grew up in a town in the United States that fought a battle of independence from the British in 1776. Every year since 1800 there was a re enactment of this event. Until 5 years ago. 5 years ago a new set of invaders, a cadre of wealthy Hummer drivers, occupied the town, and insisted that the re enactment was tacky and canceled the event.
Deciding that I would rather have the British then this new elite class, I re-took the town for the British on the anniversary of the battle.
This performance piece is an ironic take on the common perceptions of "East" and "West". I chant top 10 asian brands (as listed by www.brandingasia.com.) The very idea of simplistic opposition of cultural "East" and "West" (often framed as higher spirituality vs. material prosperity) is called into question. Chanting, interspersed with occasional "a la Tuva" throat singing, is used to evoke an idea of "Eastern" spirituality, while the content, quite materialistic and "Western" undermines the method of delivery (and points to current economic conditions.) This unstable narrative is a way of complicating the binary opposition, which all too often defines our worldview.
Chance is an attempt to switch identities. The identities are a result of the same historical moments that had been experienced from different perspectives. Chance is trying to answer the hypothetic question "What If" to an extant of schizophrenia, when one identity merges into the other in order to reflect on the history that made them who they are.
At the age of 19 Peter S. became a soldier in the National Peoples Army of the East Germany.
One of the most important skills which a soldier would learn during the basic training was to disassemble and to reassemble an AK47 in absolute darkness.
This elementary skill assured the functionality of the weapon and therefore the completion of the mission.
22 years later Peter S. was asked again to disassemble and to reassemble an AK47 in absolute darkness.
