Oberg PhotoGraphics Blog

Lund, Sweden – from March 10, 2018 and till today
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Jan Oberg, Oberg PhotoGraphics, has been invited by the Global Art Affairs (GAA) Foundation and the European Cultural Center to exhibit at Palazzo Mora in Venice during the Biennale 2019.
This exciting opportunity stimulated the development of a bigger idea that combines Oberg’s work for peace and art photography with a focus on the Chinese-initiated Silk Belt and Road Initiative, the largest and most visionary in today’s world in terms of linking people and cultures into cooperation rather than confrontation.
In various ways the project – with the Road as metaphor – stretches from Shanghai over Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran and Syria to Venice and seeks to promote cooperation and peace in the process.
The “Silk PeaceArt Road” project is made public at this very early development stage where no funding is secured to encourage you to share co-operative ideas, contacts you may have in China and along the Silk Road or to potential partners, artists, sponsors, art institutions, etc.

Summary in 7 elements

1. To stay in Shanghai at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel for a period of 3-6 months.
2. Make use of selected existing archived materials such as photos I’ve taken in China 1983, Myanmar, Somalia and Somaliland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Aleppo in Syria and Venice which are all situated on the:
3. Old Silk Road and on the new Silk Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that China initiated and which my work will evolve around, and:
4. Combining some of the old photos with new ones and various other materials and artefacts into a completely new multimedia creation (one big or several smaller related to each other), and:
5. Exhibiting it all at Palazzo Mora, Venice, in 2019 in the context of the Biennale (May 11-Nov 24) and documenting the process on Instagram, my blog and perhaps also, later, in a book.
6. The project seeks to explore relations between art, the emerging new world order, and history in the future as well as the interactions of cultures, people and expressions, and finally:
7. It will build synergy between my two ‘lives’ as academic peace & future researcher and art photographer.

[175 words]

Continue under project logo…

Point by point

1. Shanghai

I’ll apply for a scholarship to stay and work for 3-6 months at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, China. I need impulses from the non-Western world, from Asia/China which will, I believe, be the main driving force in changing our world during decades to come – a world beyond Western domination.

I visited China during 16 days in 1983 as a member of a Danish cultural and friendship delegation and have wanted to return ever since – both for peace and future research and to learn about the super dynamic Chinese art world.

I can’t think of a better place than the Swatch Art Peace Hotel which carries both “art” and “peace” in its title. One gets a room and a working space in which to test ideas, materials and techniques and get inspired by being in a very different culture and by working together with people from around the world who are passionate about art.

A stay there will also give me the opportunity to explore the Chinese contemporary art world and travel around a bit in China (before or after) and study how the Chinese themselves and their cultural world(s) relate to the huge Silk Road and Belt Initiative – and its cultural potentials.

Finally, the Hotel wants the resident to leave behind an artistic footprint. That’s the very least and I’d be happy, beyond that, to give seminars/discussion intros – or whatever formal/informal –  about peace thinking & culture, nonviolence, conflict-resolution; peace, war & art while at the Hotel. Perhaps of interest to both some of the global residents and the Hotel organisation? While I’m an international peace studies professor and have been nominated several times the Nobel Peace Prize, I’m experienced in interacting with non-academic audiences too. My academic CV here.

Continue reading “SPAR – The “Silk Peace Art Road” Project” →