UNITED TEMPORARY NATIONS

NULITHIQUE

2008-06-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

NULITHIQUE 27 juin - 29 juillet 2008
Ferme de Kervic
Névez, Finistere, Bretagne, FRANCE

SCHATTENLAND

2008-05-04T09:14:00.001-07:00

Citizens :
the shadows of
Christian SCHLOH
Ayumi MATSUZAKA
McCloud ZICMUSE
your shadow can become a part of this nation, if you wish so, send your shadow in the same manner of the shadows above to this contact email.

Schattenland is a nation composed of shadows. The nation was defined in Berlin Germany on the 28 of April 2008. We each have the right to declare that our shadows are citizens of this country. We document our shadows and capture the shadow structures in drawings and photos. We make shadow puppets to entertain our shadows. We tell time by sundials. Our shadows are dependant on us, we take care of them but they have a life of their own. Our bodies act out the movements necessary for our shadows to live and make their place in the world. When the sky is grey or during the night we have different relationships and our shadows exist in different ways. The shadow of the earth is what surrounds us and we are thus dependant on our shadows.
The sun is very important to this country as are all light sources.

Schattenland arrived from a discussion of Germany, and the feelings that many Germans have about being German. There is also a large question of being European, and how this is also something to think of. In the last one hundred years Germany has had a difficult history. Perhaps SCHATTENLAND can heal the wounds of the past and present an all inclusive canvas for all people living in the world.

22:22:22

2008-04-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

It is the time when all the numbers are the same. It was a little nation that existed for one second on the 24 April 2008 in Oslo, Norway. All we did was say "youp !"
Citizens:
Ingeborg AARSAND
McCloud ZICMUSE

CUNODER

2008-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

CUNODER existed between the dates of 18-20 April 2008, superimposed on the city of Malmö, Sweden. With the folks of C.CRED

Citizens:

Jesper CEDERBERG (documentation of node 12)
Jesse KAUPPILA
Carl LINDH
Ola STÅHL
Kajsa THELIN
McCloud ZICMUSE

Ola & Kajsa invited us to to their house for a meeting.

Jesse brought a 33cm2 copper intaglio plate to the meeting.

In the midst of our sill and akavit tasting, we decided to make a "map" of our country using this plate.

The method chosen was to place the plate on Ystadvägen in Malmö for two beer units of time. Cars ran over the plate. We drank our beers.

Jesse picked up the plate and emphasized certain points by dropping a knife onto the plate. It was then passed around with a burin and we sketched in the lines of relations we saw between the marks on the plate.

Serendipitiuosly, the size of the plate roughly corresponded to a map of Malmö. Jesse tranferred the information using transparent sheets and overlayed our marks onto the map.

Thus we decided to explore our territory the next day.

The enhanced map of the Malmö area contained roughly 16 circled areas, we made a visit to 12 of these on the first day, then shared our observations through text and photos. We followed rather closely the lines from the copper plate .
the following nodes were visited:
1. terrain vague near the intersection of Lönngatan & Rolsgatan

2. 46 Idunsgatan, homes

3. behind Lönngatan & Lantmanngatan a woodshop
4. Torekovsgatan housing blocks
5. Betania Church
6. back of the main police station

7. Södergaten baggage store
8. Malmö Central Station

9. Bagars Plats A parking with maintainence building and metal sculpture (national instrument)
we played this and Carl recorded our national anthem (along with other field recordings).
10. Repsl.gatan & Långg.gatan historic homes district

11. Slottsparken south of the Kommendantbron between the canal and a lake.
Jesse & I shared a picnic here.

12. Pildammsparken near Tubo.gatan & Roskildevägen north of the northern lake

We then realised the "nodal" qualities of our country and thus came up with the name in our discussion that evening.
The name comes from the table of elements sign CU for copper and Noder which is Swedish for "nodes".
We chose five of the spots to explore further the following day.
plus
13. a Cherry Tree near 45 Dammfrivägen and the ajoining "greenspace" next to a high rise housing complex.

raising the flag (2nd Version) at the cherry tree

For the most part CUNODER has been documented primarily with text.
The country is more about observation than occupation.

As more texts & photos become available, they will be shared, or linked to, here.

The terrain vague: for some, the node with the most potential, for others a sad, surveyed terrain.

A monument to CUNODER, built during its final moments.

TERRA

2008-03-31T11:04:00.001-07:00

Citizens :

Mandi EDELJUNG
Yvonne ERIKSSON
LennART FROSTESJÖ
Aron HIDMAN
Jerker JANSSON
Ymas JANSSON
Claude LACOURSIERE
Anders LUNDKVIST
Lotta NILSSON
Oden NILSSON
Tove SANDELL
Terra TIGER
McCloud ZICMUSE

The nation of TERRA took place in UMEÅ, Sweden. The information is printed on the invitation.

We decided that this nation would focus around one of the workshop participants, Terra.
Terra was born in 1975 so we date that as the beginning of her nation. To share this nation with other people we installed a shrine to Terra. Terra chose our national colors and the PI symbol as our sign. Yvonne was the prophetess for having instigated the declaration as Terra as the nation and wrote the hymn to Terra whose lyrics follow:
There is a land
There is a land
Terra
Terra
You can come if you want
You can come if you want
to Terra
to Terra
She speaks to me sweetly
She speaks to me sweetly
Terra
Terra
There were other versions in other languages written, but the English version was the only one performed . We started the ceremonies by singing the hymn to Terra then she replied using only her voice, that of the clarinet, our national instrument.

Anders the minister of Cultural Propaganda gave a speech and we were joined by members of the local community including the neighboring gallery, who also became citizens.
Shortly afterward we held our national dance on the hill behind the shrine. Aron received the sacred stick from Terra, the dancers (myself and Anders) followed him in a procession up to the hill where he placed the stick in the ground and using a string, traced out a circle roughly one meter from the stick. The dancers had one ski and one ski pole and took part in drinking the national beverage (lignonberry/vodka) for each full circle completed.

After the dance, the we shared the national cuisine, LENNART, with Terra. LENNART was prepared by LennART . Named by Terra, it consisted of beet slices with lentil paste inside, like ravioli, then a vinaigrette sauce of secret ingredients was sprinkled on top.

Aron, as the minister of sound, produced a soundscape of stories and music. Since it was decided that sounds were the national currency he was therefore the minister of finance. In order to eat the national dish, people had to offer a sound to the "sound bank" which then was distorted and rebroadcast.

Tova and Jerker performed some traditional songs as others reveled.

Then, to close the ceremonies, Terra again spoke to us with her clarinet

and we sang her hymn one last time.

The nation continues in the physical form of Terra and also as an online community group.

The shrine space was provided by :
Galleri Andersson Sandström
Aktrisgränd 34 S-903 64 UMEÅ

MOONSHAKE club were the people
myspace.com/moonshakeclub

SNÖLAND/SNÖRGE

2008-03-28T05:30:00.001-07:00

SNÖLAND/SNORGE existed from 12h33 to13h26
25 March 2008 near Göteborg, Sweden.

Here is a link to DÅNK collectif inGöteborg,
our citizens collaborative organization.

The following people participated:
Lalya GAYE
Olle HUGE
Richard WIDERBERG
McCloud ZICMUSE

these are our tools of exploration and conquest

Early constructions.

Trading SNÖLANDISH snow for SWEDISH branches

Olle the snowsmith built the gates.

the costs of construction : depletion of national natural resources

preexisting structures with the national flag to the right.

defensive wall

It was decided that we should expand our territories, Olle took it upon himself to not only be the snowsmith, but our army as well. He cleverly stole snow from Sweden to create our first and only weapon of mass destruction.

We decided to try out our national dish to celebrate.

Lalya, our minister of everything muses over our educational system, and changes the name of the country to SNORGE.

The only official image of King SNOR. He in fact had very little power, as most decisions including his kingship were decided by other citizens.

A second liquid attack on Swedish soil.

Richard arrived, at first he was aggressive, hurling snowballs, but afterwards we all came to the understanding that he would like to immigrate. so we took over the other side of our structure and found the cave of mystery.

there is really no way to describe the cave so here is a video.

It became too cold, the king was poorly dressed, and the snowstorm continued.
We peacefully disbanded, and indulged in lunch at another location.

ICEBURG

2008-02-23T12:05:00.001-08:00

Iceburg, is the idea to install a nation inside the cavities of an iceberg. The country exists until the iceberg melts.

NOW

2008-02-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

NOW, is a place of the soul, a place where my spirit is at ease: a place to make wishes, and say thank you.

It is difficult to describe: it is communication with the spirit world, a place to reflect on the interconnectivity of all things animate, mineral, and ethereal, a refuge.

This land does not exist physically in one spot, it travels and finds form, that form rests and I find NOW again. It is composed of many satellites.

The main body is the surface of the Earth.

KUMOKOKUDO 雲国土

2008-02-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

Every day when I look at the sky, I think of the freedom of clouds. When I take the plane to other countries, I see a country of white: mountains and valleys, all composed of tiny droplets of water. It is in this spirit that I began to document the country of Kumokokudo: an ephemeral nation of autonomous clouds.

Kumo (雲) is the Japanese word for cloud and kokudo (国土) is again Japanese for realm.
the grouping of these two sets of words is not a proper combination of kanji, but I think it fits.

There are some words that describe the life of this constantly starting/ending land : evaporation, condensation, evapotranspiration, precipitation.

There is also a cloud classification system, that works much in the same manner of Linnaean taxonomy for living organisms. The following link is a good starting place.
http://www.met.tamu.edu/class/Metr304/Exer10dir/classification.html

Ideally, Kumokokudo is documented by filming the birth of the cloud mass, its voyage across the skies, through to its eventual dispersion. So, I will continue to update this as evidence presents itself.

The birth of clouds over Berlin 08v05.

CARTONDULE

2008-02-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

CARTONDULE : 5 - 10 séptembre 2007

The first installment of the Temporary Nations Project took place in Lyon, France.
Blandine CATTANI
Mahjoub EL HASSINI
Emanuel MATHIAS
Maxime RIZARD
Laurène VERNET
McCloud ZICMUSE
were the citizens of Cartondule. We worked together from the 12 of August until the 10 of September. Our territory was provided by Chantier Public. Here is a photo during the calm declaration of (en)dependence.

We created our own musical instruments and experimented with ritual expressions of our community.
www.myspace.com/cartondule
There are many photos and videos here as well www.chantierpublic.org/cartondule (français).

In addition to the creation of our nation we continued to build on the project in other ways, making use of the time we had there.

Le Tour de CARTONDULE

We went on an expedition and founded our National Park in a relatively nearby abandoned lot.

I will continue to update this portion of the site as we created so many objects.

Here is an essay on the prehistory of Cartondule :

Prähistorische Geschichte von Cartondule

Die hier fotografisch dokumentierten prähistorischen Funde, sind Zeugnisse der schon früh hochentwickelten kartondulischen Kultur. So finden sich neben einer detaillierten Bauanleitung eines Pfeil und Bogen ähnlichen Werkzeugs auch künstlerische Frühwerke in beeindruckender Qualität und Vielfalt. Die Analyse der Artefakte führte zu radikalen Neuinterpretationen frühster Kulturgeschichte.

Cartondule`s prehistoric history

These prehistoric findings, documented through photographs, are witnesses of Cartondulian culture, already highly developed at an early stage. Next to a detailed instruction of a bow-and-arrow-like hunting tool, there are early artistic works in impressive quality and diversity, too. The analysis of these artifacts led to radically new interpretations of earliest cultural history.

Préhistoire de Cartondue

Les découvertes préhistoriques que l'on peut admirer sur les photographies réunies ici témoignent du degré élevé de développement de la culture cartondulée à un stade encore précoce. Ainsi se trouvent à côté du mode d'emploi détaillé d'un arc et d'une flèche des outils similaires et des œuvres d'art primitives d'une qualité et d'une diversité impressionnantes. L'analyse de ces artefacts mena à des interprétations totalement nouvelles quant à l'histoire des civilisations premières.

TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT français

2008-02-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT

orchestré par McCloud ZICMUSE

Descriptif du workshop :

Temporary Nations Project est une installation qui traite des idées de nationalité, d'appareil étatique et d'autonomie avec les paramètres de la société d'aujourd'hui. Le but de TNP est de créer dans l'espace et le temps d'un workshop, une (ou plusieurs) micro-nation(s) en marche. Les participants établissent les frontières, créent un système de communication, incluant les symboles de la nation tels que drapeau, blason et emblèmes. La structure gouvernementale de chaque nation du TNP est déterminée à chaque fois par les participants. Dans le projet est inclus la création des coutumes locales, de l'économie, de la gastronomie et des événements culturels. Ces points auxiliaires sont déterminés en accord avec le gouvernement fictif et les règles du jeu inventées au début du workshop.

SYMBOLES

A travers l'Histoire, les tribus, villes et nations ont adopté des symboles visuels pour exprimer les idées ou les icônes de la civilisation. TNP explore ce fait en utilisant l'environnement construit et naturel qui entoure l'espace de travail en tant que point de départ. Au minimum, il faudra créer un drapeau, un blason et un hymne. L'utilisation de ces symboles dépend des autres facteurs décrits ci-dessous.

GOUVERNEMENT

Le gouvernement de chaque nation est déterminé par les participants du workshop. Toutes les formes de gouvernement sont possibles, le but de TNP étant de les explorer.

FRONTIERES

Les frontières établissent la zone dans laquelle un groupe doit travailler ensemble. Ils vont d'un territoire bien défini, avec des barrières et des gardes, à un terrain vaguement défini. Pour la plupart, les frontières sont établies sur la base d'un gouvernement choisi pour le projet et la construction de l'exposition.

ECONOMIE

L'économie est un autre aspect de TNP qui est largement défini par le gouvernement, les frontières et la durée du workshop. L'accent est mis sur le commerce local et, une fois de plus, est inspiré du lieu où se déroule le workshop. L'économie choisie aura le fonctionnement d'une économie avec son unité monétaire et son commerce et sera exprimée en accord avec les symboles choisis pour la nation.

CULTURE

Chaque nation devra explorer les cultures possibles dans la micro-nation à travers la langue, les traditions, les costumes, la cuisine, la musique.

DOCUMENTATION

The United Temporary Nations est le système d'archives qui documente chaque nation, leur structure, symboles, monnaie, système gouvernemental et durée. Chaque nation est ajoutée à The United Temporary Nations à la fin du workshop.

CONCLUSION

TNP est une installation artistique et sociale qui implique les artistes, les organisateurs du workshop et le public de l'exposition. Cela augmente la perception et exprime les formes variées de l'organisation humaine. Le projet travaille sur différents niveaux : pédagogique, artistique et fun.

2008-02-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT

ARTIST PROPOSAL

authored by McCloud ZICMUSE

OVERVIEW

The TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is an installation which deals with the ideas of nationality, statehood and autonomy within the parameters of todays society.

The goal of the TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is to create, within the space and time of an exposition, a working micro-nation. The artists establish frontiers, create systems of communication, including symbols of the nation, such as a flag, crest, and emblems. The governmental structure of each nation in the TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is determined by the participants in each setting. Included in the project is the creation of local customs, economy, cuisine, and cultural events. These auxilliary items are determined by the agreed upon government, and the other factors determined at the debut of the exposition.

SYMBOLS

Throughout history, tribes, cities, and nations have adopted visual symbols to express the ideas or icons of the civilization. The TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT explores this issue using the built and natural environment surrounding the exposition space as a starting point. The minimum range of this aspect of the project is the following: a flag and a blason (coat of arms). The application of these symbols depends on the other factors described below

GOVERNMENT

The government of each nation is determined by the participants in the exposition. All forms of government are possible, the goal of the TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is to explore them.

FRONTIERS

Boundries establish the area in which a group must work together. They range from a well defined
territory with fences and guards, to a vaguely defined terrain. For the most part, the frontiers are established based on The government chosen for the project and the setting of the exposition.

ECONOMY

Economy is another area of the TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT which is largely defined by the government, frontiers and duration of the exposition. The emphasis is always on local trades, and is again inspired by the location. The chosen economy will have the workings of the economy, such as a monetary unit or system of trade and will be expressed in accordance with the symbols chosen for the nation.

CULTURE

Each nation group will explore the possible cultures in the micro nations including: language, traditions, costume, cuisine

DOCUMENTATION

The United Temporary Nations is the archive that documents each nation, their structure, symbols, currency, system of government and duration. Each nation is added to the United Temporary Nations at the conclusion of its exposition.

CONCLUSION

The TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is an artistic and social installation that involves the artists, organisers and viewing public of the exhibition. It increases the perception of and expresses the various forms of human organization. The project works on a number of levels, it is educational, artistic, and fun. TEMPORARY NATIONS PROJECT is a fine addition to the oeuvre of any gallery, cultural centre or museum.