Panel Discussion:

HOMESICKNESS - Nostalgia or Necessity

Saturday, May 6, at 1 PM
Deiglan, Akureyri (Iceland)

With Ólafur Arni Ólafsson & Libia Pérez de Siles Castro (artists,
Iceland/Spain), Nevin Aladag (artist, Turkey), Guy Ben-Ner (artist, Israel),
Haraldur Jónsson (artist, Iceland), Wojtek Szepel (film maker, Poland),
Hannes Sigurdsson (Director Akureyri Art Museum) and Christian Schoen
(Director of the CIA.IS and curator of the show)

The world has seen great social changes in the last decades which are
clearly reflected in the economy, in education, art and social values. Open
international trade and communication have increased the participation and
importance of so-called marginal areas in Europe. Relationships that seemed
stable are being remade through ever-greater influence from other cultures
and geographical areas, which in turn requires us to redefine our identity
and our culture to adapt.

How important is identity in contemporary society? What role do history,
language and the arts have in a global culture and what, specifically, can
art bring to the debate?

This panel discussion is related to the exhibition project opening the same
day:

HOMESICK

Homesickness is a term used in a number of languages to express illness,
pain or a longing for one's distant home. Homesickness is a concrete feeling
or a romantic term. It is childish, antiquated and yet current and relevant
since it touches on the question of one's own (individual or collective,
ethnic or cultural) identity. The question of what 'home' can signify in
times of globalised societies, which leads on to the question of what is
signified by 'homesickness', can be put both concretely and metaphorically.
The question can be grasped as an approach both towards the subjective
phenomenon of people yearning for a sense of belonging and towards a
cultural or ethnic group's collective pursuit of identity.

It was also its assonant double entendre that caused HOMESICK to be chosen
as the laconic title of the exhibition project in which the desire to leave
home is likewise expressed: to be sick of home. The globalised world economy
demands modern nomadism from the individual; the home becomes a
claustrophobic nightmare, escape represents freedom.

HOMESICK - Act I. Participating artists: Guy Ben-Ner (Israel), Chantal
Michel (Switzerland), Nevin Aladag (Turkey), Katrin Siguroardóttir
(Iceland), Haraldur Jónsson (Iceland), Ólafur Arni Ólafsson & Libia Pérez
de
Siles Castro (Iceland/Spain)

The exhibition at the Akureyri Art Museum in Iceland forms the starting
point of the HOMESICK Project, a series of exhibitions in co-operation with
CIA.IS - Center for Icelandic Art together with the Akureyri Art Museum
(Iceland), Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center Istanbul (Turkey) and
the Center for Contemporary Art (Israel).

Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland
Opening: Saturday, May 6, at 3 PM
Duration: May 6 - June 25, 2006

Online:
www.cia.is/news/homesick.htm
www.homesickx4.blogspot.com

CIA.IS - Center for Icelandic Art
Hafnarstræti 16
IS-101 Reykjavík
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M: ++354-863 70 08
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