CLEVER ISLAND, IN OUR INCREASINGLY PERILOUS AND INHOSPITABLE WORLD

Trans media project Clever Island taking place on multiple locations is the latest creation of, group of artists from ArtfarmP2, deterritorialized from physical and mental territories that propagate and impose dominant structures of meaning and/or attempt to intervene in our conception of everyday reality.

Already at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century philosophers such as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari as well as Jacques Derrida already warned us of the importance of the flight from the ultimate consequences of late capitalism and its adaptable mechanisms of social and political control. Speaking of the modes of social and political control we need to remind ourselves of the assertions of Hardt and Negri elaborated in their book Empire: according to them in our so-called postmodern society cultural and economic changes on the one hand presumably enable the processes of deterritorialization while at the same time they support the new networks of communication and control. The thing is as they explain, that Empire (which they call a decentralized and deterritorialized apparatus) does not depend on a territorial centre of power and does not rely on fixed borders and obstacles. (Today we cannot be completely sure and accept these assertions at face value because it is becoming more apparent where the hunger for control is coming from.) Hardt and Negri added that the consequence of this is that Empire controls plurality and hybridity by appropriating various modes of social control. They meant this in the symbolic sense but at the moment we are threatened with the literal control or rather effacement of plurality and hybridity.

Hardt's and Negri's assertions dovetail directly with Foucault's discussions on the disciplined society (as in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison), Deleuze's and Guattari's concepts of deterritorialization (particularly in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia as well as Castells writings about new global flows (in his, today still relevant The Rise of the Network Society). We can say however that it is Jacques Derrida who pinpointed the state of things more than twenty years ago; Derrida introduced the term mondialisation - worldization - to underscore the difference between the general aspects of globalization and ethical problems related to these processes. The emerging question is: can globalization be defined by free markets, circulation of goods and the expansion of tele-technological communication outside of the USA or, as Derrida suggested, by new measures of border control. In his book Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness Derrida evoked the idea of cosmopolitanism according to which humane and enlightened people can forge relations regardless of the religious, national or state borders; this idea in the first place presupposes hospitality, but contrary to this, satellite signals, money and merchandise can easily traverse borders but as far as people are concerned this is much more difficult. Derrida also writes about the outrageous truth - that never in the history of mankind was there such a difference between the rich and the poor, and he reminds us that the Bible speaks of cities and places where foreigners and outsiders could find shelter; these thoughts have become incredibly urgent today in our so-called postcolonial global community where hundreds of thousands of people, mostly for economic reasons, are forced to illegally cross borders, and as is momentarily the case in the richest country in the world ruled by a group of oligarchs that is, billionaires, are facing deportation.

We necessarily have to ask ourselves is all of this logical and "normal" as do the ArtfarmP2 artists based on the island of Hvar. They are creating projects that provide alternative ways of experiencing both space and time. As their current project Clever Island involves books (or rather the exchange of books) in this context it is impossible not to recall Michel Foucault and his reference to Borges' “a certain Chinese encyclopaedia”. Foucault begins his book The Order of Things by quoting a passage from Borges' encyclopaedia in which it is written that “animals are divided into the following categories: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) etcetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies”. The reason why Foucault finds this taxonomy important and exotically charming, as he adds, is because it demonstrates another system of thought and underlines the limitations of our own. This “certain Chinese encyclopaedia” just as Deleuze's and Guattari's concept of deterritorialization, helps us to understand that ArtfarmP2 has done just that, performed a “flight” from the “dominant territory” and moved to a place where they can establish their own sense of normality, and radiate a humane and hospitable vision of life and art.

In their project Clever Island they have introduced a network of libraries that encompasses all 22 towns and villages of the island.

Several centuries ago libraries were mysterious places where only the chosen ones were allowed to enter. Fascination with libraries was expressed for example in the novels of Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum and particularly The Name of the Rose structured as a crime story about a series of deaths of the priests who were secretly reading the forbidden book. In these cases libraries were crucial for the development of the narrative, without libraries mysteries, crimes or conspiracy theories could not be resolved. Even in the far east in ancient China, only those highly positioned in the royal hierarchy had access to the secret knowledge hidden in the books of the Forbidden Palace libries. For instance, it is well known from martial arts novels and films that those who had access to the secret knowledge about this discipline were royal eunuchs exquisite martial arts experts regularly described as evil antagonists. Even in the Harry Potter franchise, in order to explore the library with his two mates and get a hold of the information from the forbidden books without being caught Harry Potter wears the invisibility cloak.

In the Clever Island project the libraries work in such a way that the books are acquired from the inhabitants' attics and cellars and nobody knows nor remembers what these books are about and where they came from.

The other part of the installation is pomalo'clock, set to the default speed of 33% of the actual progression of time.

With the Clever Island project ArtfarmP2 artists have not only set its own mode of collection and distribution of knowledge but it has also demonstrated an alternative, productive and unique communications network. Just as the pomalo'clock ArtformP2 refuses to follow the rules of the hideously normal and timely world.

Sasa Vojkovic 25.01.2025.