ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit:
The idea of tranzit was conceived at the end of 2001 and implemented in the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2002, and in Austria in 2004, in response to what was generally understood as structural crisis in our cultural and socio-political situation in contemporary Europe. The end of the confrontation of systems between East and West triggered a multitude of projections. In the beginning of the 1990s, it seemed as if in pluralistic democracy and capitalism we had finally found what we had been seeking in political experiments for centuries. But the end of the West-East conflict was shadowed by another development: the globalisation of production and markets, finances and corporations, communications systems and culture industries.
These developments made many people believe for a time in the dream of a better future. But the political reality showed that the hopes tied to this dream also had a dark side, in Europe manifesting itself through emerging nationalism and fundamentalism; in the field of art through overt production of exhibitions and the establishment of numerous art institutions around the world, perpetuating and multiplying existing models of working. The discussion of a redefinition of the content of art, of curatorial and content-driven practice, has proven to be just as difficult as formulations of artistic or socio-political visions.
Amidst these realities the idea of tranzit emerged out of the need for new productive conditions for artistic and intellectual work that may result from experiences with the specific cultural and socio-political situation in contemporary Europe. Tranzit evolved as a modest but active proposition for another type of working and thinking in art, which includes questioning the economic and political structures in which art and culture are embedded. It also includes the possibility to overcome the isolation of contemporary art from former Eastern European countries from the international context and to make the intellectual and artistic knowledge and experience from these countries internationally accessible.
Tranzit began at a point in which the political and social utopias of recent years came to an end, and the framework of tranzit reflects this change. It is a diverse and flexible initiative that has been created based on our firm belief that on-going transformations in contemporary society and art need to be responded to and supported with strong visions. Tranzit is a platform for articulating visionary perspectives geared towards the future, and it responds to the need for a new type of operational structure for cultural production and collaboration in Central Europe.
Tranzit is a long-term initiative supported by Erste Bank Group for contemporary art projects in Central Europe and is a dynamic, transdisciplinary platform for dialogue between artists, curators, critics, other art professionals and their audiences. Tranzit supports local expertise, individuals instead of institutions and small-scale, realisable projects with the potential to significantly contribute to local and international contexts. Supported projects are process-oriented, innovative and experimental and have the potential to be sustained and further developed over the long-term. Tranzit supports collaborative partnerships, the sharing of networks across borders, generations and disciplines and the mutual exchange of knowledge and expertise.
Mária Hlavajová, Kathrin Rhomberg, tranzit programme directors
ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit: