Yoko Ono


INVISIBLE PEOPLE


PALERMO CAPITAL OF CULTURE

Mura delle Cattive

16 June – 19 July 2018

Opening hours: 10 am - 7 pm

PRESS RELEASE

On the occasion of PALERMO CAPITAL OF CULTURE, an installation by Yoko Ono will be presented for the first time in Palermo. INVISIBLE PEOPLE, a project that has required long preparation: a symbolic and metaphoric vision of the journey of migrants, between imagination and poetry, so as not to forget.

YOKO ONO is an artist whose thought provoking work challenges people's understanding of art and the world around them. From the beginning of her career, she was a conceptualist whose work encompassed performance, instructions, film, music and writing.

Promoted by the City of Palermo - Department of Culture, curated by Jon Hendricks and Paolo De Grandis, coordinated by Carlotta Scarpa, the exhibition is organized by PDG Arte Communications in collaboration with Valorizzazioni Culturali.

The work will be exhibited at the Mura delle Cattive, considered one of the symbols of Palermo. The “Walk of the Cattive” is a nineteenth-century monument in Palermo overlooking the sea, located on the city walls at the Felice Gate and close to the Foro Italico. The name of the Walk dates back to the nineteenth century, for many centuries it was for Palermo the extreme defence of the city. The story tells of a nineteenth-century terrace reserved for the "bad" women, that is, the prisoners (from the Latin captivae) of pain. As widows, in fact, they could take their walks without being bothered.

 

INVISIBLE PEOPLE, presented as a world premiere at OPEN 20 - International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, conceived by Paolo De Grandis in parallel with the International Film Festival, will be open in Palermo until August 19.

YOKO ONO was born in Tokyo in 1933, and moved to New York in 1953, following her studies in philosophy in Japan. By the late 50s, she had become part of the city’s vibrant avantgarde activities. In 1960, she opened her Chambers Street loft to a series of radical performance work, and exhibited realizations of some of her early conceptual works there. In 1961, she had a one-person show at the legendary AG Gallery in New York of her Instruction Paintings, and later that year performed a solo concert at the Carnegie Recital Hall of revolutionary works involving movement, sound, and voice. In 1962, she returned to Tokyo, where she extended her New York performance at Sogetsu Art Centre, and showed her Instructions for Paintings there. In 1964 Yoko Ono performed Cut Piece in Kyoto e Tokyo, and published Grapefruit. The end of that year, she returned to New York, and in 1965 and 1966, performed another concert at Carnegie Recital Hall, participated in the Perpetual Fluxus Festival, and exhibited The Stone at the Judson Gallery, made the first version of Film No. 4 (Bottoms), as well as doing numerous other events throughout that year and half. In summer 1966, she was invited to take part in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London, and held oneperson exhibitions at the Indica Gallery, and the next year at the Lisson Gallery. During this period, she also performed a number of concerts throughout England. In 1969, together with John Lennon, she realized Bed-In, and the worldwide War Is Over! (if you want it) campaign for peace. ONO has made a number of films, including Fly and Rape, and many records, including Fly, Approximately Infinite Universe, Rising, and most recently, Between My Head and the Sky. She has had numerous exhibitions in museums, including traveling exhibitions organized by the Museum of Modern Art Oxford and the Japan Society in New York. In 2009, she exhibited ANTON’S MEMORY at the Bevilacqua Foundation in Venice, and received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale. Among numerous recent exhibitions, in 2010, she exhibited I’LL BE BACK at the Studio Stefania Miscetti in Rome, and DAS GIFT at the Haunch of Venison in Berlin. In 2011, she showed participatory installation pieces at the Wanås Foundation in Sweden, and the Yokohama Triennale, and held four one-person exhibitions in Tokyo, New York and Hiroshima including Road of Hope – Yoko Ono 2011 at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, where she was honored with the prestigious 8th Art Prize for her dedicated peace activism. Currently, Yoko Ono has major one-person exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. This year, she was given the Oskar Kokoschka Prize 2012 in Vienna, Austria. In February 2013, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is mounting a major retrospective, which will travel to three other venues. In 2007, she created the permanent installation IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on Viðey Island, Iceland, and continues to work tirelessly for peace with her IMAGINE PEACE campaign.

For further details,

see www.imaginepeace.com

              

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:      

PDG Arte Communications

pressoffice@artecommunications.com

 

 

Poetry of the Flow

Yahon Chang

Curated by Maria Rus Bojan
Collateral event at Manifesta 12 in Palermo

Yahon Chang, Untitled, 2018, Oil on canvas

 

PRESS RELEASE 

17 June – 19 August 2018
Inauguration 15 June 2018, 6pm – 8pm

Sala delle Armi, Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri, Palermo, Italy

 

In the exhibition Poetry of the Flow, Taiwanese artist Yahon Chang’s site-specific installation converts the monumental space of the Sala delle Armi in Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri into an interactive environment, tackling philosophical, spiritual and existential issues that revolve around the contemporary human condition. Employing Chinese ink painting techniques, Poetry of the Flow shows multiple large-scale ink paintings that cover the entirety of the exhibition space that surround the viewer.

                   

Over the last 2,000 years, Palermo has been occupied by numerous European countries and has long-term connections with North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean. The artist draws inspiration from the social context of the city which hosts Manifesta 12, with its lavish historical, syncretic and cultural values.

Ink painting and calligraphy have been an integral part of Chinese literati culture for thousands of years. Chang uses these classical techniques and aesthetics to create a new language that is relevant to a contemporary society. Rather than focussing on the process of creation, the artist works similarly to the western art movement Expressionism whereby the artworks are expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas. 

                  

Creating an open and performative element, the artist involves visitors and the local community with the exhibition by inviting them to daily workshops at his temporary studio on via Pantelleria during the vernissage week. He will be teaching Chinese calligraphy as well as how to paint on traditional lanterns.

The artist integrates local materials through painting on bedsheets acquired in Palermo, which are hung in the outdoor garden of his studio. This mirrors the urban landscape within the city, where citizens hang their laundry on balconies in abundance. The combination of the large-scale Chinese ink paintings and paintings on locally sourced bedsheets comments on the layering of histories that have saturated the city for thousands of years. Chang creates a bridge between his own culture and the multicultural Palermo.

                   
  

Notes to editors

About the artist

Born in 1948, Yahon Chang lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. He has shown in numerous international solo and group exhibitions including the recent solo show The Question of Beings at MACRO in Rome (2016) and the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia (2015). Raised in post-Japanese-colonial Taiwan, his works portray a particular visual language that voices the agony, rejection, struggle, adversity, acceptance and love as well as his quest to find a higher spirituality and peace. There is a mysterious quality to Yahon’s paintings that cements serenity within the viewer, rendering the work in a state of timelessness.

Exhibition
17 June – 19 August 2018

Sala delle Armi, Palazzo Chiaramonte-Steri, Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy

Opening Hours:
Daily 10am – 7pm (closed on Mondays, except 18 June)

Free entry

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Workshop and painting studio
14 – 20 June 2018, 4-5pm

Via Pantelleria 18, Palermo, Italy. (10 minutes walk from the exhibition space)

The workshop is open for visits from 14 – 20 June for an hour daily from 4-5pm. Embracing inclusivity and connecting local and international audiences, the artist invites the diverse communities of Palermo and the surrounding region into his personal space through an accessible public programme that incorporates dialogue and a unique opportunity to perform ink painting with the artist. Activities include painting Chinese lanterns with messages, as well as drawing and ink drawing workshops. These activities are part of the collateral event programme of Manifesta 12.

 

 

Artist	Yahon Chang (b. 1948, lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan)
Curator	Maria Rus Bojan
Assistant Curator	Francise Chang
Organiser	MDCA Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan
Coordinator	Paolo de Grandis & Carlotta Scarpa PDG Arte Communications, Venice, Italy
Sponsors	BANK / MABSOCIETY, Shanghai, China
	C-Space + Local, Beijing, China
Supporter	Valorizzazioni Culturali, Venice, Italy

 

Under the patronage of: Città di Palermo

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Press Contact

Carlotta Dennis-Lovaglio at Pelham Communications

carlotta@pelhamcommunications.com

+44 (0)20 8969 3959

Organisation Contact

Francise Chang                       francise@mac.com

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Website

www.yahonchang.com

Social

www.facebook.com/yahonchang

Hashtag

#yahonchang

 

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From La Biennale di Venezia & OPEN to Rome. International Perspectives | "7" AMIN GULGEE

Curated by Paolo De Grandis e Claudio Crescentini

Co-curated by Carlotta Scarpa

presents

 

"7" AMIN GULGEE

 

   

PRESS RELEASE

Amin Gulgee, one of the most important Pakistani artists
at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna 

For the first time in Rome, the installation "7" by Amin Gulgee,
an artist who has made an art form out of secularity and poetry

Galleria d’Arte Moderna

31 May – 23 September 2018

 

Rome, 24th May 2018 - New exhibition concept of the project “From La Biennale di Venezia & OPEN to Roma. International Perspectives” promoted by Roma Capitale, Department for Cultural Growth - Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, conceived and curated by Paolo De Grandis and Claudio Crescentini, co-curated by Carlotta Scarpa. Museum services by Zètema Progetto Cultura.

The general project, launched in 2016, is dedicated to the presentation in the Capitoline exhibition areas of international installations from International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale and from OPEN International Exhibition of Sculpture and Installations, linked to the Venice International Film Festival, in a site-specific version, recomposed and remodelled for the capital. The aim is to bring together the art "perspectives" of two cities that work to allow the experiences of international art to travel in the national territory. From the city on the lagoon to the capital.

To mark this new appointment, held in collaboration with PDG Arte Communications and the Embassy of the Republic of Pakistan in Italy, an installation entitled “7”, is presented, by the Pakistani artist Amin Gulgee, who has made an art form out of secularity and poetry.

The artist starts off from a sentence in Arabic, transcribed in nakshi script, untranslatable but with a universal significance, since it refers to peace among peoples and human love. Gulgee divides the sentence into seven parts, those of the title, with very light bronze installations, located in the cloister/garden of the GAM in via Crispi. The sentence is then broken up and repeated several times in the installation, as in spiritual meditation, yet without becoming legible and thus becoming a universal sign.

Below this sentence/sign, a mat of letters in charcoal and copper will be created, a mat that cannot be walked on and which repeats the same sentence, still decomposed, thus creating a metaphysical structure that juxtaposes the vertical lines of the works with the horizontal line of the mat, like a metaphor of top and bottom, of heaven and earth. On the day of inauguration of this "artistic space", there will be the performance conceived by the artist and a reading of works by poets invited by the artist himself to read their poems and texts inspired by the theme of the work.

The poets - Lucianna Argentino, Italo Benedetti, Stella Cacciamani, Antonella Maria Carfora, Patrizia Chianese, Laura Colombo, Rossana Coratella, Francesco Del Ferro, Stefania Di Lino, Andrea Felice, Camelia Mirescu, Daniela Monosi, Angelo Palombini and Maria Grazia Savino –  and the members of the audience will be invited to write, still starting from the sentence in nakshi, declarations of peace and love as a potential sign of freedom of spirits brought together by one and the same thought which becomes action. Art for everyone, therefore, and not just a privilege of chosen spirits.

The sentences that emerge will be inserted in special containers and taken to Karachi, where the artist will read them during a grand public performance: an ideal connection between Europe and Asia, Rome and Karachi, cities linked by the conceptual work of Amin and by the words of the participants dedicated to love and peace.

 

Amin Gulgee (1969) internationally acclaimed artist and performer. After graduating in "History of Art and Economics" at Yale University (U.S.A.), he began his artistic career, creating and exhibiting his works in Pakistan, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. In Italy, he has never exhibited in Rome, but in 1998 and 2017 he took part in “OPEN – 20th International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations", linked to the "Venice International Film Festival" and he will represent Pakistan at the next "International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale". He has held legendary performances in many world cities (Karachi, Lahore, Dubai, Nagoya, New York, Philadelphia, Dresden, London, etc.). In these performances, based mainly on works, signs and phonetics, he often involves other artists as well as the audience, between East and West. The leading art critic of the “Washington Times”, Joanna Shaw-Eagle, wrote in her review of his personal exhibition at the FMI in 1999: “Amin Gulgee is an artist to watch both for the originality of his ideas and the sensuous, handsome quality of his work.” In 1987, Amin Gulgee won the “Conger B. Goodyear Fine Arts Award”. In 2005 he received the prestigious “President’s Pride of Performance”, which is awarded only to exponents who have achieved iconic stature in their field of excellence, by the President of Pakistan. The Pakistani government commissioned him to create numerous pubic sculptures, including the following: Messaggio, for the Presidency of Islamabad; Minar for the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport in Karachi; Forgotten Text, standing 40 mt tall, for an important rotonda in Karachi. He has taken part in numerous international collective exhibitions, among them: “Pakistan: Another Vision,” Brunei Gallery, London, UK (2000); Beijing Biennial (2003); “Beyond Borders,” National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India (2005); “Paradise Lost,” WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA (2008); “Rites of Passage,” Ostrale, Dresden, Germany (2010) and “New Pathways: Contemporary Art from Pakistan,” UN Headquarters, New York, NY, USA (2016). He has also held more than thirty personal exhibitions in Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, India, UK, Portugal and USA. In 2017, following in the wake of the great international artists and curators, he conceived, planned and organised the "1st Karachi Biennale 17".

 

Zètema Progetto Cultura Press Office

Gabriella Gnetti +39 06 82077305; +39 348 2696259; g.gnetti@zetema.it

 

INFO

Exhibition	“AMIN GULGEE / 7”
Where	Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome Via Francesco Crispi, 24
When	31 May – 23 September 2018 Press preview: 30 May 2018, at 11.30 a.m. Inauguration: 30 May 2018, 6.30.9.00 p.m.
Opening hours	From Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 a.m. - 6.30 p.m. Visitors will be allowed to enter until half an hour before closing time. Closed on Monday 1 May.
Tickets Info	Admission ticket to the Galleria d’Arte Moderna: € 7.50 full price and € 6.50 concession, for non-residents; € 6.50 full price and € 5.50 concession, for residents; free for the categories provided for by the current rates. 060608 (every day, 9.00 a.m. - 7.00 p.m.) www.museiincomune.it; www.galleriaartemodernaroma.it
Promoted by In collaboration with	Rome Department for Cultural Growth - Capitoline Superintendency for Cultural Heritage PDG Arte Communications and Embassy of the Republic of Pakistan in Italy
Conceived and curated by Museum services	Paolo De Grandis and Claudio Crescentini, co-curated by Carlotta Scarpa Zètema Progetto Cultura
SPONSOR SYSTEM OF CIVIC MUSEUMS With the technical contribution of	Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane

Vertical Fabric: density in landscape: Hong Kong in Venice

垂直肌理：密度的地景

Collateral Event of the 16^th International Architecture Exhibition –  La Biennale di Venezia

Illustrate Hong Kong Vertical Architecture and Urbanism with Innovation Visions

 

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation (HKIABF) and Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) jointly organise the exhibition titled “Vertical Fabric: density in landscape” (垂直肌理：密度的地景)  to participate in the 16^th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia under the sponsorship of Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The Grand Opening of the Hong Kong Exhibition will be held at 5:00pm, 25 May 2018 (Friday), while a Forum will be held at 4:00pm, 25 May. A Media Tour will be arranged for press preview at 11am, 25 May.

The Organisers are pleased to announce that Professor Weijen WANG (Chief Curator), Mr. Thomas CHUNG (Co-curator), Mr. Thomas TSANG (Co-curator), and Ms. Grace CHENG (Managing Curator) have been appointed as curators of the exhibition following a public call for proposals. The curators have extensive experiences in curating similar exhibition, including Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, HK-SZ Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture both in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, as well as Collateral Events at the International Architecture Exhibitions of La Biennale di Venezia. In response to the theme titled “Freespace” of Biennale Architettura 2018, the Curatorial Team has developed concepts for the exhibition.

 

INTRODUCTION OF EXHIBITION

Vertical Fabric: density in landscape

100 towers 100 architects

Looking down on Hong Kong’s Central from the Victoria Peak, one could find that the city’s vertical fabric creates a wave of towers springing up from the sloping terrain down to the harbour front, spreads along the water edge as a belt of tightly woven texture. The slender towers, framed by land economy through demands of density, establish the city’s dominating typology, not only governing the urban skyline but also shaping daily urban and architectural experiences. Distinguishing itself from other global cities, Hong Kong is unique in its urban form celebrating an aesthetic of density, while comprising a gigantic rhetoric of speculation for both transaction and consumption.

Responding to the theme on “Freespace” of Biennale Architettura 2018, the Hong Kong Exhibition Vertical Fabric: density in landscape, demonstrates the urban conditions of Hong Kong and explores the freespace through towers. The exhibition manifests innovation within constraints while generating extraordinary spaces from ordinary form. A total of 100 white tower model-bases with infrastructures of 360mm square plan extrusion and structure of 2.0 meters in height, are open for the 100 exhibitors to re-define the typological, spatial and façade potential while maintaining the constraint of its envelope as a collective urban form. A total of 100 Exhibitors, including architects from Hong Kong and overseas, are invited to design their towers of Freespace, making statements on tower typology in the vertical city.

By installing 100 towers marching along the courtyard extending into the exhibition rooms in Venice, the Hong Kong exhibition illustrates the compactness of Hong Kong’s urban form. The exhibition provides a platform for dialogue with the world, shaping a discourse of Hong Kong’s urbanism and vertical architecture.

And most importantly, the venue provides architects with opportunities to re-think the design of tower typology beyond, incubating visions for vertical freespace facing global challenges in technology, environment, society and culture.

 

“Vertical Fabric: density in landscape: Hong Kong in Venice” in the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Date	25 May 2018 (Preview) ; 26 May – 25 November 2018 (Open to public)
Media Tour	11am, 25 May 2016 (Friday)
Grand Opening	5pm, 25 May 2016 (Friday)
Forum	4pm, 25 May 2016 (Friday)
Venue	Campo della Tana, Castello 2126-30122 Venice, Italy (opposite the main entrance of Arsenale)

ABOUT ORGANISERS

The Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation www.hkia.net

Hong Kong Arts Development Council www.hkadc.org.hk

Vertical Fabric: density in landscape: Hong Kong in Venice http://vbexhibitions.hk

 

ABOUT CHIEF CURATOR

Professor Weijen WANG

Wang Weijen , FHKIA, AIA, HKIUD, Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong; Design Director of Wang Weijen Architecture. Received MArch from UC Berkeley, MS and BS from National Taiwan University, he was the Associate at TAC San Francisco 1987-1994. Joined University of Hong Kong since 1994, he was the Head of Architecture Department from 2012-2016, Visiting Professor at University of Montreal and Taiwan Jiaotong University in 2014, as well as Visiting Associate Professor at MIT in 2008. He was also the Curator of 2007 Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

His design projects have won AIA Honor and Merit Design Awards, HKIA Design Award, Japan Good Design Award, Far Eastern Architectural Award, China Architectural Media Award, WA Architectural Award, as well as Merit Award from Green Building Council. His design works had been exhibited in Taipei Museum of Modern Art, Architecture Biennale in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, as well as Biennale Architettura in 2008 and 2016.

With research focuses on typology and transformation of Chinese Architecture and Cities, his design works and articles have been published in Domus, Mark, Stradt Bauwelt, T+A, TA, WA, Dialogue, UED. His main publications include Refabricating City: a reflection by Oxford University Press, Regenerating Patio: Studies of Macau Historical Urban Fabric, Urban Courtyardism: Special issue of Wang Weijen Architecture by Taiwan Architecture 185, UED 056, and AW 158.

 

Curators:

Chief-Curator: Weijen WANG

Co-Curators:Thomas CHUNG, Thomas TSANG

Managing Curator: Grace CHENG

 

Participating exhibitors

AU Fai

BELL Michael

BUCCI Angelo

CARLOW Jason

CHAN Billy/TZE Ida

CHAN Corrin

CHAN Joel

CHAN Stephen/TAM William

CHANG Wallace/ YUET T.C.

CHANG Yung Ho

CHEN Marvin

Cheung Suanne/KUNG Alvin

CHU Karl

CHU Paul

CHU Steven

CHUNG Thomas

CROLLA Kristof

CUI Kai

DONG Gong

EBERLE Dietmar

FERRETTO Peter

FINGRUT Adam

FUNG Martin

FUNG Philip

FUNG Raymond

FUNG Wilson

GALOFARO Luca

GAO Yan

GE Ming

HE Jian Xiang

HE Xiao

HSIEH Ying Chun

HU Rossana/NERI Lyndon

HUNG Matthew

HWANG Patrick

IGARASHI Jun

KIRCHHOFF Ulrich

LANGE Christian

LAW Chris

LEE Clover

LEE Sarah/YANO Yutaka

LEUNG Frank

LIU Doreen

LIU Xiao Du

LU Ronald

LUI Frankie

LWK&Partners

MCKEE Chad

MENIS Fernando

NG Edward

NG Vincent

OTTEVAERE Olivier

PREMTHADA Boonserm

REISER Jesse/UMEMOTO Nanako

SCHULDENFREI Eric

SERAJI Nasrine

SEUNG H-Sang

SO Kwok Kin

TAKEYAMA Kiyoshi Sey

TANG Hua

TING Evelyn/TSE Paul

TSANG Anson

TSANG William

TSE Kenneth

TSE Serena/YEUNG Wyan

WAI Ken

WANG Weijen

WONG Humphrey

WU Maggie

YIM Rocco

YIP Alvin/ ITO Irene

YIU Marisa

YU Frank

ZHU Jing Xiang

ZHU Tao

ZHU Xiao Feng

11ARCHITECTURE

AaaM

AECOM

AGC

CHEUNG Kong-yeung Architects

Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers

EUREKA LTD

Hong Kong Housing Authority

KPF

MVRDV

NAPP STUDIO

Omar Yeung Architect & Associates

P&T Architects and Engineers

PangArchitect

Philip Liao and Partners

Ronald Lu & Partners

 

Organisers:

 

Leading sponsor:

 

For general administrative matters, please contact the Organizer:

HKIA Secretariat Mr. Ken TSANG

Email: kent@hkia.net

Tel: (852) 2805 7372

 

For curatorial matters, please contact Curatorial Team:

Curatorial Contact Person Ms. Grace CHENG

Email: grace@communityartnetwork.hk / enquiry@vb208hk.org

Tel: (852) 9417 2490

 

For media matters, please contact the appointed PR agency

Blink Events & PR Consultants Ms. Mandy LAW

Email: mandy.law@blink.com.hk     

Tel: (852) 9611 5027

 

Disclaimer:

Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) are those of the project organizers only and do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Communications and Creative Industries Branch of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, Create Hong Kong, the CreateSmart Initiative Secretariat or the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee.