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(c) Danube Transformation Agency for Agency, 2022

2,850 km transformative swimming session with the Danube Transformation Agency for Agency

Lecture by Solmaz Farhang, Alexandra Fruhstorfer, Ege Kökel, Lena Violetta Leitner and Andrea Palašti


Join: https://dieangewandte-at.zoom.us/j/62405472256?pwd=aHh4U2E2WUx6WEd1NjZDY0dIbFk4dz09
Meeting ID: 624 0547 2256 Passcode: 878600

Perhaps a certain amount of delusion is needed for an art collective to think they can transform the Danube for better. More so, it takes some courage to envision the Danube Transformation Agency for Agency (DTAFA)!
 
Yet, that’s what Alex, Andrea, Ege, Solmaz and Violetta have been undertaking since March 2021. Meanwhile DTAFA has become a home for transformational thoughts, struggles and fears; a roof for speculating, examining, failing and learning together; a stage to tell impossible stories about the contradictions, misinterpretations, conflicts, hopes and empathy; and in a nutshell, an agency for artistic investigation about, around and along the Danube.
 
Want to hear about their thoughts and actions? Be prepared. You may lose your way in the google map or may need to ask Woodiana.today about the hero of the war! You may be asked to practice some swimming strokes behind your screens or draw a brave black fish in the stomach of a pelican.
 
This lecture needs no previous knowledge about the Danube. Just bring something to write with and draw on.

Solmaz Farhang is a visual artist-researcher based in London. She is a graduate of the Art and Science Master programme at University of Applied Arts Vienna. In her interdisciplinary approaches she investigates the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche along with the interrelations between individuals and societies. She strives to desacralize ignorant beliefs and question society’s prejudices.
Farhang works across multiple disciplines. Her practice materializes in many forms, including photography, videos, multimedia installations, book illustration and science communication projects.

Alexandra Fruhstorfer is a transdisciplinary designer with an investigative and research driven approach. After graduating from Industrial Design, now Design Investigations, at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2017 and working in London for a bit, she is now based in Vienna.
Within her creative practice she uses design as experimental tool to question prevalent political and cultural paradigms, while trying to embrace phenomena of accelerated technological and ecological change. She works across various media. Whether in design research processes or in participatory workshop projects she enjoys working in collaboration with others.
 
Ege Kökel is a designer who received her master’s degree in Industrial Design/Design Investigations from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She is interested in the natural and social sciences and how the developments in them shape our lives and future(s). She uses design as a tool for speculation, sense making and research.
In her practice, she tries to delve into complex topics through tangible design means and explores both digital and analogue mediums with a focus on materiality and aesthetics. Collaborating with others/other disciplines and exploring different viewpoints are important aspects of her work.

Lena Violetta Leitner lives and works in Vienna and Graz. In 2017 she completed her studies in Digital Arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with the founding of the "Integration Center for Migrated Plants" (IZMP), for which she was awarded a scholarship by the Province of Styria in 2019.
In her work, she explores power structures and social patterns through the means of irony and humor. The works, which range from installations and interventions to (sculptural) performances, scrutinize our constructions of what is ‘natural’ and ‘foreign’ or ‘alien’. They employ language in the form of code, text and sound, hack objects, systems and structures. An important component of her practice is networking and collaborative and interdisciplinary work.

Andrea Palašti is an artist and educator based in Novi Sad, Serbia. She is a graduate of the Photography Master programme at the Academy of Arts, University of Novi Sad. She works across artistic, curatorial and pedagogical boundaries experimenting with ways of knowledge production. Her work includes photography, video and illustrated lectures - often in playful ways. Her practice is highly informed by collaborations with other artists/collectives, her family, students, curators, journalists, scientists and/or historians. She is a board member of the SULUV gallery, and associate professor at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, where she teaches Elements of Visual Art, blending her collaborative artistic research projects with educational strategies.

Link to video from the lectures, excursions.

2,850 km transformative swimming session with the Danube Transformation Agency for Agency
March 24, 2022, 9:00h
Location
via Zoom - link in article