The transit lounge is the archetypal transit space, the point where the hyper-global + hyper-local coincide; a location which blurs traditional conceptions of geo-political boundaries, creating pockets of international space within the borders of individual nation-states. An in-between space, it exists relative to a fixed departure and arrival point, not to the area that surrounds it.

The Transit Lounge is a series of overlapping residencies for Australian and German artists and architects in Berlin. It is also a blog where themes relating to the project will develop, collaborations will be initiated and sustained, and observations on the city collected. The Transit Lounge invites you to participate in these transnational conversations by commenting on the blog.

For more information email us: transit [AT] transitlounge [DOT] org

The transit lounge is supported by Culturia and the DAZ

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

TRANSIT LOUNGE 2008: BERLIN BRISBANE PERTH MELBOURNE SYDNEY

TRANSIT LOUNGE 2008 – BERLIN-BRISBANE-PERTH-MELBOURNE-SYDNEY

In 2008, TRANSIT LOUNGE begins in TRUDE, Calvino’s ubiquitous city of tourism. From the 16th of January, TRUDE will be found between the cities of Berlin, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, as 15 artists collaborate remotely on the evolution of a complex, emergent structure.

The platform for this trans-disciplinary exchange is the TRANSIT LOUNGE website, powered by open-source, wiki software. An organic structure, the site grows in multiple directions as the content is layered and interlinked, tracing remote interactions and local interventions between artists. The latency of these dialogues across time zones and locations creates feedback loops (local interventions – web – local interventions) opening up spaces for mistranslation resonating between the different cities.

The multitude of inputs, exchanges, and disruptions will be distilled in an exhibition which opens in Berlin at PROGRAM on the 31st January, 2008 to coincide with transmediale.08. Here the variations will continue to multiply as the process is augmented by the actions of visitors to the space.

TRANSIT LOUNGE is a project by Katie Hepworth (Sydney) and Miriam Mlecek (Berlin) and involves the following artists:

Chris Bennie (Brisbane), Bianca Calandra (Berlin), Robert Curgenven (Berlin), Cat Hope (Perth), Tanja Kimme (Melbourne), Govinda Lange (Paris-Berlin), Somaya Langley (Berlin), Sarah Last (Brisbane), Silvia Marzall (Berlin), Ben Milbourne (Melbourne), Michael Prior (Melbourne), Lynda Roberts (Melbourne), Jodi Rose (Berlin), Sumugan Sivanesan (Sydney), Anna Tautfest (Berlin)

EMERGENCES

PROGRAM Gallery
Invalidienstr 115
10115 Berlin

Vernissage: 19:00, 31.01.08
Opening Times: 14-19:00, 01.02.08-06.02.08

(other sites to be announced)

TRANSIT LOUNGE is a partner event of transmediale.08 CONSPIRE…

TRANSIT LOUNGE would like to thank the Australia Council for their support.


This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

TRUDE

“If on arriving at Trude I had not read the city’s name written in big letters, I would have thought I was landing at the same airport from which I had taken off. The suburbs they drove me through were no different from the other, with the same little garnish and yellowish houses. Following he same signs we swung around the same flower beds in the same squares. The downtown streets displayed goods, packages, signs that had no changed at all. This was the first time I had come to Trude, but I already know the hotel where I happened to be lodged; I had already heard and spoken my dialogues with the buyers and seller of hardware; I had ended the days identically, looking through the same goblets at the same swaying navels.

Why come to Trude? I asked myself. And I already wanted to leave.

“You can resume your flight whenever you like, “they said to me, “but you will arrive at another Trude, absolutely the same, detail by detail. The world is covered by the sole Trude, which does not begin,nor end. Only the name of the airport changes.”

ITALO CALVINO - INVISIBLE CITIES

Saturday, January 05, 2008

DATES

The new website is almost finished + will go live HERE on the 11th of Jan. The 14 artists from Berlin, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne will begin their online exchange on the 16th Jan, going through until the 6th Feb. The ensuing collaborations, disruptions, interuptions and evolutions will be distilled in an exhibition to be held in Berlin from the 31st Jan - 6th Feb, to coincide with the Transmediale.

WHERE
Program Gallery
Invalidenstr 115
10115 Berlin
www.programonline.de

WHEN
Vernissage: 7pm, 31st Jan 2008
Opening Times: 2-7pm, 1st - 6th Feb 2008

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