Nada Prlja

GIVE TO TAKE, Intellectual Property Agency

The project ‘GIVE TO TAKE –Intellectual Property Agency’ looks at the exploitation of intellectual property, which is happening within the framework of the Visual Art Networking in Europe, focusing in particular on the relation created between the networks of Eastern Europe (South Eastern Europe) and those of Western Europe.

This project aims to trigger several issues by offering everyone art-related information from EE/SEE, entirely for free.

Firstly, the project would like to point out the fact that intellectual property from EE/SEE, has been misused in the past. But as a reaction to it – it poses the question: will the cultural/art scene from EE/SEE – after years of exploitation and the post-socialist ‘boom’ of market-based values – be willing to give the information for free? And, in the end – will any ‘outsider’ be prepared to request information, despite the fact that his/her action will be publicly exposed as abuse/misuse of the system?

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

THE CONCEPT

‘GIVE TO TAKE –Intellectual Property Agency’ will focus on the exploitation of intellectual property, which is happening within the framework of the Visual Art Networking in Europe.

THE INSPIRATION

‘GTT -IPA’ is an art project initiated as a reaction to the situation that has established itself over the last decade by the ‘careless acquisition of intellectual property in South Eastern Europe by institutions and individuals from Western Europe’ – as I learned during conversations with SEE artworkers, who question their position within the art market or Art Networking in Europe.

THE GOAL

‘GTT -IPA’ is tailored to reveal the unfair methodology that has been used in the circles of cultural networking and to react / act against it.

STAGES OF THE PROJECT

1. Curators and artists from or related to the cultural scene in EE/SEE, have been asked for their contribution to the project. They have been asked to agree to answer any question posted to them by Western cultural workers, during the exhibition period. They have been asked to provide answers truthfully and for free.

2. Any Western European cultural workers who may be interested to participate, could post any question related to EE/SEE cultural scene, during the exhibition period by answering with a ‘yes’ to the following conditions:

– Do you agree to receive information for free?

– Do you take moral responsibility for NOT PAYING (giving nothing in return) for the information given and received?

3. BLOG – questions by West European cultural workers and the answers to their questions by EE/SEE cultural workers will be posted on a blog (with the possibility for anyone / everyone to comment on the answers/questions).

Nada Prlja was born in Sarajevo (1971), moving at an early age to Skopje. Since 1999 she has been living and working in London. Prlja’s work deals with the complex political and sociological situations of the contemporary world. Public Art is one of the art forms that Prlja frequently works with, starting with her first solo show Walking on Cold Water According to Dr.Knaipp (1997), which was the first ever public project in Macedonia to be realised in an institution other than an arts institution. In 2006 she realised her project Advanced Science of Morphology in Marble Arch Park, London, which provoked a great deal of interest and debate, and the subsequent publication of the project on the front cover of daily newspapers. This project has been show in Rijeka, Croatia and in Zagreb, Croatia in 2007, provoking similar kind of fruitful reaction by the public and the media. Prlja’s public projects have been always followed by the media and have been published widely.

Prlja recently initiated Serious Interest Agency (SIA), a series of curated art projects and events, that explore and question notions of the New European identity – focusing specifically on the interpretation of South Eastern Europe within a global context of Europe.

Her work has been reviewed in Artreview, Time Out, Art News, Third Text, etc. Prlja has been lecturing in various London colleges since 2003 and is currently on an artists research residency at CRIR in Copenhagen, Denmark.