State of Emergence

In 1992 the Slovene artistic collective Neue Slowenische Kunst established what it called the NSK State in Time: a non-territorial artistic state which now has thousands of citizens around the world.In October 2010 a unique artistic, social and political experiment took place in Berlin's House of World Cultures (HKW). Thirty-two citizens of the NSK State in Time were invited to discuss the future of "The First Global State of the Universe." The project was an initiative of the NSK fine arts group IRWIN working in collaboration with cultural theorist Alexei Monroe, designer and creator of nskstate.com, Haris Hararis and Berlin's bka

The NSK State has been built from a wide range of divergent symbolism from across the cultural and political spectrum and its citizens come from divergent and even contradictory contexts and positions. No-one was sure what would or could happen when the citizens came together in order to try and identify common positions and potentials.

State of Emergence explores what did happen, what could have happened and what may happen following the Congress. The book will include a range of eye-witness accounts from delegates, facilitators, observers and others, giving multiple perspectives on the events. In addition, there are essays on the Congress and the NSK State from a range of theorists including Eda Cufer, Regina Roemhild, Yannis Stavrakakis and Kostis Stafylakis.

It will include images from the Congress as well as the accompanying NSK Folk Art and Congress Poster Competition exhibition and will also include documentation of the first post-Congress citizen-organised events.

As is the case with many of NSK's works, the true meanings and significances of the Congress may not be clear for some time but State of Emergence will analyse and contribute to the interpretation and decoding of an event whose implications touch on the key artistic, political and social dilemmas of our time.