VLAK 3 will be launched during the Prague Micro-festival (14 May) and the Poetry & Revolution Conference (26 May) in London
VLAK is an international curatorial project with a broad focus on contemporary poetics, art, film, philosophy, music, design, science, politics, performance, ecology, and new media.
VLAK invites contributions that extend our understanding about what is possible; which pose questions about the prevailing attitude of norms; which explore the ramifications of contemporary culture and attempt new critical and creative methods.
"What is lost in abstraction? What is signified by a long work? By a serial work? What are its limitations? How might multiple voices reflect reality? Infect reality? And how sustain such a work? How does the world enter the work? How is the inside destroyed or transformed into 'another' space? How end a work? How reshape parts of the world, and is that what we aspire to anyway? Are we breathing easier, feeling better, glutted with our 'contemporary practice' digested? Or fiercely unsatisfied, curious, anxious, asking, 'What are tomorrow's questions?'" (Abigail Child, This is Called Moving)
VLAK stands for the drive to experiment, to synthesise, to extend--holding to the principle that a vital culture is always experimental and thus always "at a crossroads."

We are living in a cynical society: Business, Avidity, Sex, Politics, Violence, War. Perversion is a part of our environment.
It is not a coincidence if Maldo Nollimerg uses the collage. It is a method used by DADA, the surrealists and the Punk by the past.
Mountainous landscapes meet porn scenes. Destruction, Eroticism, Fury, Kitsch. Nothing is holy.
Guillaume Daeppen

"Die schwellung hat deine schënheit zerstërt"
Die Schwellung hat deine Schënheit zerstërt. So lautet der ungewëhnliche Titel dieser aussergewëhnlichen Ausstellung. Ungewëhnlich ist der Titel nur so lange, bis man das erste Bild, oder besser, die erste Collage des Franzosen betrachtet. Dann fängt es an Sinn zu machen. Der Künstler ist vom Dadaismus des fr¨hen 20. Jahrhunderts geprägt. Er erschafft mit seinen Collagen surrealistische Welten, die doch irgendwie eine Spiegelwirkung auf unsere Realität haben. Schamlos, vulgär, pervers, brutal. Ja solche Wërter gehen einem durch den Kopf beim betrachten seiner Werke und eben auch beim betrachten dieser, unserer Welt.
Martin Burkhalter, April 2010 in Bewegungsmelder.ch

The punk movement was most relevant during a very limited periode.
Punk had its origin in the New York scene: The Velvet Underground, The New York Dolls and The Ramones. Additionally, in the history of art there were foundational influences: from the Poetes Maudits in the 19th Century, to Dadaïsm and Situationisme of the 20th Century.
During the 70's New York and London were broke. Artists, musician, Drag Queens and other bohemians occupied the empty buildings in the centre of the city.
Without money or business structures, young creative people established new independent labels, fanzines and art spaces. There were no borders or categories. More important was to do something new. Spontaneity, desire, innovation, radicalism, as well do-it-yourself and collage techniques were the keywords of this scene. In this context, punk first exploded in 1975 in New York; London, Berlin and Zurich soon followed suit, and finally the rest of the world. The youth and the commercial industries used punk very effectively and efficiently for their own goals. Punk lost its initial innocence and became fashion. In 1979 the first participants finally left the punk scene and developed their own creativity.
Punk was a liberating movement, which changed profoundly the music, fashion, design and art. And punk today?
The same ideas are still valid: Individuality, creativity, subversion and extension of the borders. The answers however, have new names: Internet, Street, Urban and Guerilla art. For how long? The exhibition BORN TO BE PUNK shows the work of young artists, who identify themselves with the spirit of punk.