New Herald

This afternoon at two o’clock a Swiss artist on her way to Nimis, broke her leg. The Swedish Räddningstjänst was alarmed.

Swiss artist with her broken leg

Help arrived from the sky

But the best option was by boat

At this time of year when you are visiting Ladonia, take Folkets, simply the best

Always Folkets (Photo: James Hartman)

Minister James Hartman has made it possible for a meeting between Edvard Munch and Nimis, Nimis represented by Wotan’s Tower. A meeting of not too different styles.

James Hartman, Minister of Future Science, has a very interesting project exhibited in Bergen, Norway. It is made in a style which he calls “pre-Nimis”.

James Hartman: “Untitled” (For Bergen) 2006

Ladonia University has given Manny Neira the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. We congratulate Doctor Neira and hope that his new position will imply important research for the benefit of our remony.

Manny Neira PhD

French citizens are tired of their government. In the riots in Paris the Ladonian flag was shown as an alternative to the Republic of France. There is a possible solution to the riots and protests in France: parts of France can be made Ladonian territory.

Ladonia flag in the streets of Paris (Photo: James Hartman)

Ladonia is putting pressure on Belarus

The Ladonia Fleet is on its way, we have just had this report from Admiral Pedro:

FROM: COMMANDER TASK FORCE 0000 (CTF 0000).
TO: LADONIA CABINETS MEMBERS (LCM).
INFO:
COMMANDER LADONIAN NORTH COMMAND(CLNC).
COMMANDER LADONIAN FLEET (CLF).
COMMANDER LADONIAN NORTH FLEET (CLNF).
COMMODORE IN CHIEF IN COMMAND OF COMMANDMENT (CICICOC).
COMMODORE OF SERENITY SEA FLEET (COSSF).
LADONIAN ALMIRALTY (LA).

1. SITUATION (S): BELRUS LIBERATION (BL).

A. The blokage of St. Petergsburg and the White (WS) Sea by the North
Fleet (NF) to put preassure in the Russian Government (RG) is not
producing any possitive effect.
B. Relationship with the Russian Federation (RF) have continued to
deteriorate.
C. Intel indicates that the RF is trying to establish a base of
operation in Belrus. We anticipate they pass thru the Gulf of Finland
(GOF) and will penetrate Belrus thru St. Petergsburg (SP).

2. MISSION (M).

A. Intercept the penetration via the GOF and to stop land forces (LF)
from St. Petergsburg.
B. Frigates FFG1 and FFG2 with Sub 001 sail from Ladonia and at night
time pass Riga in Latvija, sailing along the river Daugava to Vitebsk.

3. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (ROE).
A. Autotized to engage RF forces only for self preservation and in
response in case they shoot first.
B. We believe that if we get drunk all the RF sailors will surrender
with no combat, we will then give a breakfast to the RF sailors and
take possesion of the RF vessels and add them to the Ladonian Fleet.
C. We have 4 dozen of Hooter girls (HG) on our side and they have
agreed to show up everything showable to RF sailors. We keep them as
last ressource Weapons of Mass Seduction (WMS).
D. They maybe some frendly RF female Sailor and we have also
contracted Robert Redford (RR) to sign autographs and more for free.
E. We will be positively classifying targets before any corporal
engagement.

4. COMMAND AN CONTROL.
A. Maintain continuous communication.
B. We will continue to download the radio broadcast periodically for
your orders and awaiting for intelligence informacion data on Russian
vesels movments.
==============================================================
P.S. The Admiralty will be making a short stop in Riga, Intel info
shows that Latvija female are very pretty, Commander in Chief needs
to investigate by himself the truthfulness of this information by
penetrating Latvija territories.
—————- END OF TRANSMISSION ———————–

Ladonia Fleet in the Baltic Sea (Photo: Admiral Pedro)

This is the first issue of the art magazine The Hedgehogger.

The Hedgehogger

- When he fears he is safe

No. 1/2006
The Hedgehogger is a non-official voice for the upcoming 2006 Momentum, Moss

Editorial:

MOSS IS THE BOSS

This magazine is not an official voice of the upcoming biennial 2006 Momentum in Moss, Norway. Instead, the magazine is a part of the art project The Hedgehog by Martin Schibli and Lars Vilks which will be presented in 2006 Momentum, which opens on the 2nd of September. The Hedgehogger will be published on a monthly basis at www.ladonia.com, the official site of the micronation Ladonia. Schibli and Vilks will serve as the editorial staff for the magazine.

The intention of the magazine is to function as a “work in progress”, it could also be seen as “platforms”, for the art project The Hedgehog. Further, the magazine aims to examine the biennale culture and how contemporary art exhibitions are produced today, on both theoretical and practical levels. The Hedgehogger could also be seen as a contribution to biennale-publication-culture that has become growingly important, i.e. Documenta 12 soon launches its Documenta 12 Magazine, some kind of metamagazine that collaborates with app. 70 art magazines around the world. The reason for the increasing need of publication is clear, the text and information – and not necessarily theory - surrounding an exhibition are getting to a greater extent in the foreground. And there is a limit to how much information a visitor, when visiting a biennale, could apprehend in a short period of time; therefore the theory, the text and information normally will be presented in advance. This tendency - and sometime illness - to present an overkill of information is not excluded from the biennale culture. In Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Modernautställningen 2006, with contemporary Swedish art, has an ambition to work on a pedagogical level in order to increase more people to open their eyes for contemporary art. In the logic of information, every visitor is given a catalogue in 350 pages about the exhibition.

In this issue no.1 we will present an introductory text of 2006 Momentum; more statements will be given in the following issues of the Hedgehogger. Lars Vilks will present the theoretical framework for the art project The Hedgehog, based on the following quotation from Friedrich Schlegel: “A fragment ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog”.

But remember: When he fears he is safe

Martin Schibli
Senior editor

2006 MOMENTUM – AN INTRODUCTION
- A curatorial statement I

Today’s artistic situation is highly complex, contradictory, and confusing. It is an environment few can make sense of. Despite the proliferation of large-scale, comprehensive, international exhibitions - biennials, triennials, and the like - that aspire to reveal trends and meaning, the current state of affairs seems more complicated than ever given the sheer number of working artists and the morass of seemingly conflicting styles, conceptions, and directions. Curators are often at sea as to how to approach the overwhelming task of providing a coherent overview. Frequently, they simply cherry-pick and assemble what is perceived to be the best art of the moment in the hopes that quality alone (however one may define it) will carry the day. This strategy is far more difficult than it might seem on the face of it, if for no other reason than an exhibition of works by a hundred or more artists selected with little or no structural framework will likely be seen as an inchoate mess. Other curators might select a concept or theme that seems emblematic of the moment and sort worthy art into various conceptual baskets. The danger here is a heavy-handed, overly predetermined methodology that precludes a full consideration of the art itself.
The two curators of the 2006 Momentum, Annette Kierulf and Mark Sladen, are themselves reflections of the contradictions and heterogeneity of the art world today. And though deeply embedded in the particularities of the Norwegian and British context, they are simultaneously active participants in an increasingly fluid, global art community. Both curators have organized exhibitions in a range of media, from film and video to architecture and performance, not to mention painting and sculpture. And, perhaps most important, both have worked extensively with artists on residencies, commissions, and exhibitions as well as through teaching. Their approach to the 2006 Momentum is neither simply descriptive, representing the quality of work being produced, nor proscriptive, as determined in advance by an organizing principle. Rather, their method lies at the intersection of these two methods. Through visits with and consideration of hundreds of artists, they took their cues from the art itself. This exhibition includes not only artists they perceive to be outstanding but also artists who reveal a particular perspicacity. And through consideration of their artworks certain coherences, patterns, and relationships became evident. The curators’ metaphor for the exhibition - “Try again, fail again, fail better” - was not premeditated but realized much later in the process, growing out of engrossment with, and in direct response to, exemplary works and intensive discussions with the artists. In other words, the exhibition is not merely a selection of important works, but important works that reveal overwhelming evidence of certain artistic responses to a broad range of aesthetic, social, political, and cultural phenomena.
The Momentum from its inception has fostered close relationships between curators and artists. Indeed, most of the early directors and curators of the Momentum were artists themselves. While there are certain scholarly exhibitions that require distance from the makers, others such as the Momentum not only benefit from this involvement but necessitate a direct and dialectical relationship with artists.
At least a passing reference needs to be made in these introductory remarks regarding the political environment from which these artworks emerge. America and England today is engaged in a tragic and distressing war that has taken thousands of lives. And though these events take place hundreds or even thousands of miles away, they are omnipresent through the media. However, for many Norwegians such events exist more as the crackle of background static than as a palpable presence, seeing that much of this country lives simultaneously in a bubble of prosperity and security. This schizophrenic situation gives rise to at least two realities that discomfortingly coexist: one of anxiety, exasperation, and despair; and another of exuberance, energy, and wishful thinking. These contradictions will be poignantly and disturbingly evidenced in the Momentum itself. How could it be otherwise? Accordingly, the curators have described the museum exhibition as a model for the exploration of the zeitgeist, “where not everything is understood, but everything is questioned” Such risk taking and honest examination are what distinguish the Momentum and the artists the curators have courageously selected.

More information regarding 2006 Momentum at:
http://www.momentum.no

THE HEDGEHOG HAS BEEN OUT OF FASHION FOR 200 YEARS. THE TIME HAS COME FOR ITS COMEBACK

“A fragment ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.”
- Friedrich Schlegel –

Fox knows many,
Hedgehog one
Solid trick. - Archilochos –

A SHORT STORY OF REMAKES HITTING THE FUTURE (Fritz, Caroline; a hedgehog)

F.S.: “There are many foxes around”
C.S-S.: “Well, you don’t know me, but I know you. And I’ve got a message to give to you:
Sky-blue sky. foxes are out tonight. let x=x. you know, I could write a book, and this book would be thick enough to stun a fox.”
F.S.: “Foxes as running hither and yon, taking actions that are unconnected by any guiding principle and that may even be at odds with one another. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, relate everything to a single central vision.”
The hedgehog cometh:
“I know only one thing and that is to aestheticize what comes in my way. I do not know why it should be important to do this. It could, I say, not be the end, it could not even be the beginning, but it is perhaps, the end of the beginning of representing the unrepresentable. Shall we try worse?”

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
- by Lars Vilks

”Romantic poetry is a progressive, universal poetry. Its regulation is not bare to combine all separate kinds of poetry again and to set the poetry with philosophy and Rhetorik in contact. It wants and is also poetry and prose, Genialitaet and criticism, art poetry and nature poetry soon to mix, soon merge; life and society makes poetry alive and informal [… ]. Poetry alone is infinite, how it is free and alone and recognizes as its first law that the arbitrariness of the poet does not suffer under a law itself.”
from Athenäeum-Fragment, 1798

According to this famous fragment 116 from “Athenaeum”, romantic poetry, for F. Schlegel is a “progressive Universalpoesie” (progressive universal poesy), that means not only unification of all forms of art until the present time [of Romanticism] but a manifestation of the all-encompassing principle of any form of life and experience.

Novalis writes in his fragments: “In giving a high spirit to the common, a mysterious outlook to the ordinary and to the well-known the dignity of the ignored; to the finiteness the appearance of eternity - in this way I can romanticize [”romantisieren”] it.

Why Schlegel is important can easily be explained. No Schlegel, no art, no art, no biennials; in every artist you will find a Schlegel.

Schlegel: More important to art than Kant

Artist walking in the snow in Moss (Feb 06). In Norway is hiking a natural part of life. Thus, Ida Mathistad forced all visiting artists into a hard snow walk. Also curator Annette Kierulf made the walk, she is also from Norway. Curator Mark Sladen did not walk as he curated himself away from the walk and into a car. He is from London.

EDITORIAL STAFF

Senior editor: Martin Schibli, martin.schibli@comhem.se
editor: Lars Vilks, lars.vilks@swipnet.se

In the next issue: Curatorial Statement II

Minister Taru has been in contact with Ladonia censors in Iraq:

Our official Censors Ants and Anty say that they decided to send Ladonian Military “Intelligence” 6 agents to Iraq, because they can’t cause any extra harm there.

Now they passed me a telegraph reading:

LITTLE PROBLEMS SETTLING IN HERE. ON THE PLANE WE READ “TEACH YOURSELF: HOW TO BE A GOOD MUSLIM.” OTHERWISE OK, BUT WE FOUND THAT OUR COMPASS POINTING TO MECCA IS SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE COMPASS GIVEN AS A “SPECIAL OFFER” WITH THE COMPASSES MINISTER OF FINANCE ORDERED FOR OUR AIR FORCE. SO WE FIRST PRAYED TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE. WE WERE CURSED AS “SHIAS” BUT WE MANAGED TO GET AWAY SAYING: “CALM DOWN BROTHER, WE ALL HAVE THE SAME GOD.” THAT SILENCED THEM. LET’S SEE WHAT THE NEW DAY WILL BRING.

ANTON LM”I”6

Today we were just walking by a bazar when we heard a loud bang and people screaming everywhere. We went closer and saw the terrifying sight: something that once had been a car was smoking, bleeding kids everywhere, crying mothers and angry fathers.
“Who can do anything like this?” we asked the crowd.
“It must be Abu Amr,” one man replied.
“How can anyone having relatives and friends here do a thing like this,” we wondered, but the crowd corrected: “They have no relatives and friends here. Abu Amr preaches in a mosque in Jordan.”
“We must go there to stop this,” Thomas concluded.
“But first we are needed here,” I said and took Magic Healing Lotion from under my kaftan. Anton understood at once and took a seriously wounded little girl to his arms. The kid was screaming from pain when Thomas pulled pieces of glass and metal from her small body, but that must be done for Magic Healing Lotion to work.
You see, Magic Healing Lotion is a secret product available for us agents only (it would be dangerous if criminals and enemy agents could use it, otherwise bad guys falling from the roof or being hit by a car during their flight would survive, and that of course is not the point). You have seen its effects in agent movies, where agents recover from bullet wounds at once after the object being removed and the lotion used. It seems we need more of that here. We must send an order at once, in case these 14 kids are not the only wounded people we will meet here.

Martin LM”I”6

Somewhere here our censors can be found