The South Project looks towards Chile as the next location for the annual Gathering of artists, writers and cultural thinkers, following on from the success of the gathering held in Wellington in 2005. Creative New Zealand has been an integral supporter of the project and this will continue in 2006 through funding from the CNZ Arts Board.

The South Project will base itself in Santiago, in October 2006, to present two major international exhibitions under the South banner alongside the symposium Culture and Politics in times of the South.

Image: Ash Keating, Press Release, 2005, photograph of performance, November 2005 Press Release is a mixed media installation.The South Project looks towards Chile as the next location for the annual Gathering of artists, writers and cultural thinkers, following on from the success of the gathering held in Wellington in 2005. Creative New Zealand has been an integral supporter of the project and this will continue in 2006 through funding from the CNZ Arts Board.

The South Project will base itself in Santiago, in October 2006, to present two major international exhibitions under the South banner alongside the symposium Culture and Politics in times of the South.

Image: Ash Keating, Press Release, 2005, photograph of performance, November 2005 Press Release is a mixed media installation.TRANS VERSA, conversing across the south features the work of Australian and New Zealand artists and is co-curated by Australian curator Zara Stanhope, who made a significant contribution to the New Zealand art scene as the inaugural Director of the Adam Art Gallery, and Danae Mossman, Director of the Physics Room in Christchurch. Reflective of New Zealand's growing relationship with its Pacific neighbor Chile, TRANS VERSA brings to the fore important cultural ideas and practices emerging from lateral connections between the countries. TRANS VERSA features the work of six established and emerging artists from New Zealand including Dane Mitchell, Maddie Leach, David Clegg, Daniel Malone, and Fiona Jack. All avid contributors to the New Zealand art scene, these artists present an artistic perspective firmly grounded by a New Zealand vernacular yet progressively outward looking in their attempts to explore the tenants and threads of lateral connections, migration, travel and modes of communications - the language of an increasing global village. The Australian artists include, among others, Tom Nicholson, Selina Ou and Ash Keating.

Housed in three of the leading venues in Santiago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Galeria Metropolitana and Matucana100, TRANS VERSA will be the first major exhibition to be developed by the South Project and an important point of contact for a Chilean audience largely unfamiliar with contemporary art practice from New Zealand and Australia. The second exhibition to tour to Santiago is Make the Common Precious, an exhibition of contemporary Australian craft, curated Kevin Murray, director of Craft Victoria and the South Project.

The exhibitions will open during the symposium Culture and Politics in Times of the South, which will take place from 3-6 October 2006. The symposium will provide speakers an opportunity to debate and explore issues concerning contemporary art practice in the south, particularly notions of translation, political activism in the arts, notions of exile, alternative structures and collective practices. The New Zealand presence at the symposium will be significant and include leading arts thinkers such as Ian Wedde, Christina Barton and Manos Nathan.

Further information on the Santiago Gathering can be found on the project website www.southproject.org.
Registrations for the Gathering will be received in August.
For all media enquires please contact Nicola Harvey nharvey@craftvic.asn.au.
Tel: +61 3 9650 7775 Fax: +61 3 9650 5688 31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, Victoria 3000 AUSTRALIA