Subject: First iteration in Berlin | Date: 05 June, 2007 | Time: 16:06

Dear abschlussballerinas,

so, after one week in Berlin here is what we can say.

i/
Last Friday, the Abschlussball exploded in 21 directions, for the
great pleasure of the audience.

Before this joyful catastrophe, 7 ballerinas + our 2 hosts from WestGermany have been able to participate in the internal contract deliberations:

Robin Bhattacharya,
Gaia Fugazza
Gabriele Gaspari
Pia Fuchs (dt ID v. Patricia Reed)
Societe Realiste (Ferenc Gróf & Jean-Baptiste Naudy)
Inga Zimprich
WestGermany (Stephan Kallage & Ingo Gerken)

We have produced an "exhibition version" of the contract.
Please find attached, this latest version. What we propose is that all of you can
change it, until a last, FINAL deadline, of the 1st of July.
****Please submit your corrections/modifications using a large black typeface (20pt) similar to the last revisions.****

After this deadline, the FINAL version will be constituted, and
designed.

During the internal deliberations contract, we have decided to propose you a form for this final contract:
a double-sided poster, which can be folded, and to be disseminated as a supplement for art reviews or magazines, this way we can also use our individual contacts and networks to disseminate the project in "tentacular" ways, similar to the direction of the text itself.

Please let us know if you are supportive of this Magazine supplement idea as a distribution mechanism. And if so, what other partner magazines you would propose, again as mentioned above, particularly those with whom you have some existing contacts.

By putting in common these opportunities and after asking for financial support in order to publish this poster contract, the idea would is to try to
synchronize these publications.

iii/
As you know, the first draft contract has been published. We would
like to send to all ballerinas 10 copies. Could you give us your
Postal address so we can send these to you right away?

Cordially,

Dear participants,

After exchanging with several participants in the project, we have realized that for a some of them, it will be difficult to be present in Berlin at the end of May (Too long distance, no-budget profile of the project, schedule problems...) This is why we would like to propose to you to work on a collective textual "piece", which is very conducive to remote/virtual participation.

It seems to us that such kind of textual project is pertinent in the context of Manifesta 6. Indeed, from the beginning until now, this Biennial has been the first to be entirely textual (applications, curatorial statements / publications, emails / letters, communications, legal documents, press articles, etc).

The form that we would like to propose as a basis for this piece is the one of the "Contract". The failure of Manifesta is concretely the rupture of a contract between the International Foundation Manifesta and Nicosia for the Arts Ltd. It appears to us that working on "our" contract can be a good way to synthesize the variety of our positions and interests in working together.

Attached to this e-mail, you will find a "Sample Contract". It is divided in six parts: Recitals, Definitions, Objectives, Agreement, Terms and Miscellaneous. "Recitals" concerns the origin of this project. "Definitions" is a pragmatic description of our collaboration. "Objectives" is the issues that each participant would like to address, develop and define. The "Agreement" is the purpose of this contract. "Terms" defines the time limit of it. "Miscellaneous" is an open chapter.

As a participant, you have full rights on this contract, and we propose you to add, contest, expand and ameliorate its contents in the form of amendments, definitions, notes, footnotes, meta-textual content, quotes, clippings and interjections as well as structural improvements.

Of course, you are very cordially invited to work freely on it, and to add terms, conditions, appendixes or addendums of any textual kind. In Berlin, from 28.05.07 to 31.05.07, we will work together on the final version of this Contract. In this period, people that can not come to Berlin will be regularly informed by e-mails and will be able to participate at distance (Skype, e-mails, Chat, ...) On the 1st of June, we will have our Abschlussball, which will be the moment of the official signature of the contract between us, followed by a party / musical program. Of course, as a participant, you are part of the programming team if you have suggestions.

Publications & website:
The financial support we have for this event will be used to print a booklet (A5, 12 pages, 1000 copies), which will be in the same time the communication material of the project and the "First Draft" of our collective piece.

We have created a website for the project, www.abschlussball.net
You can see pictures of WestGermany there, www.abschlussball.net/wg_images.html

It will be a tool for publishing the final work and to communicate about the project. We are also thinking that after the Abschlussball, maybe could we publish the Final Contract, still under the form of a booklet, something like 1000 copies that we would share between us. This, however is pending, so we'll have to take one step at a time.

Schedule:
- 04.05.07 > Deadline for participation confirmation. (Even if you can not start working as soon, please just send us an e-mail to confirm that you will participate in a way or another.

- 05.05.07 > Sending of press material.

- 11.05.07 > Deadline for the printing of the "First Draft Contract".

- 28.05.07 > First meeting at WestGermany, 10:00. Our meetings will be held daily until 31.05.07 - 01.06.07 > Abschlussball.

Budget:
As you can easily imagine, it will be impossible for us to manage financial issues for everyone. We recommend you to contact in Berlin your local embassy or national cultural centers or foundations for travel costs and hosting. In order to contact them, we can of course send you a letter of invitation.

Participants:
As far as we are now, there are already 20 participants from the former Dept III.

Technical requirements:
To facilitate the collaboration, we would like to ask you to work on RTF format, and to colour your changes. VERY IMPORTANT IS TO SEND THE CONTRACT WITH YOUR NAME AND DATE - so we can manage to keep the "global" contract up to date as we work on it.

We hope that you will like this idea and start working on it. We do not have a lot of time. We are waiting for your contributions and questions. Do not hesitate to send us modifications several times, even if it is to change very little things.

The principle of this work is also spontaneity.

All the best,
Aesthetic Management + Société Réaliste
m6.abschlussball(at)googlemail(dot)com