Very interesting post re. 'Vernacular' and plagiarism on this blog at present
http://www.artsjournal.com/
Public Art, Plagiarism & Vernacular
also they looking for art critics...must be some out there???
Aesthetic GroundsThe dialogue on public art and public space has almost no American art critics. We need some.
Public space is addressed in the socio-political critique of modern culture or in the propaganda of the smart growth, new urbanism and/or green sustainability. And 30 years after the invention of public art, the artists and administrators of the genre are afraid to establish criteria beyond acceptance or tolerance. To have critics of these art forms, new verbal and visual images must flow everyday. With consistent writing to focus thoughts, empathy and make-believe, aesthetic grounds emerge. The human pleasures of public art and public space deepen - and that is the goal of this blog. Glenn Weiss, January 24, 2007
MSB brainstorming
30 March 2007
25 March 2007
Alex Max Meszmer: Duchamp on the run
Mit „Re-object“ versucht das Kunsthaus Bregenz, Duchamps Ansatz des Readymades neu zu denken: Es soll zurückgestellt werden in den Kontext des Ateliers um dort als „Instrument künstlerischen Denkens und Handelns“ zu fungieren. Herbert Molderings hat ein paar der Schlüsselwerke ausgewählt - das Urinoir, die Schneeschaufel und das Fahrrad-Rad – die zusammen mit einer boîte-en-valise, der Weissen und der Grünen Schachtel einen kleinen Einblick in das Denken Duchamps geben. Zusammen mit Werken von Gerhard Merz, Damien Hirst und Jeff Koons soll die Idee des zur Kunst gewordenen Alltagsobjekts weiter verfolgt und vertieft werden – so weit so schön!
Eigentlich ist der unterste Raum im KuB unbespielbar – als Besucher drängt es einen immerzu nach oben und es braucht viel, vielleicht auch viel Anstrengung gegen die Architektur, um einen dazu zu bewegen, Arbeiten im Erdgeschoss wirklich länger zu betrachten. Schnell wirkt die Kunst hier verloren und abgestellt.
Molderings Idee, Duchamp im Kontext seines Ateliers zu zeigen, ist ein hübsches Gedankenexperiment. Vielleicht haben Kunsthistoriker ihre ganz eigene Vorstellung, was es bedeutet, Arbeiten im Atelier zu betrachten. Ein paar grosse, reproduzierte Schwarzweissfotos können zwar zeigen, wie es bei Duchamp aussah, ich bezweifle allerdings sehr, ob dadurch der Kontext Atelier auch für den Betrachter geschaffen wird.
Nice concept – but it won’t work!
Interessanter finde ich den Gedanken, Duchamps Spiel mit Alltagsobjekten nachzuforschen und sich vor Augen zu führen, was sich bei der Betrachtung von Gegenständen verändert hat.Industriell hergestellte Produkte sind für uns Alltag. Es ist selbstverständlich, dass sich Designer um das wechselnde Aussehen dieser Produkte kümmern, die rationell gefertigt werden. Die Herstellungsprozesse sind automatisiert und Handarbeit ist so selten geworden, dass sie extra deklariert wird. Preisunterschiede ergeben sich vor allem durch das Label und weniger durch die Qualität.
Die Industrialisierung im 19. Jh. bedingt gesellschaftliche und politische Veränderungen. Wir kennen die Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung und die Anfänge unserer politischen Systeme. Die Geschichte der Alltagsprodukte erscheint weniger interessant. Jedoch: Vorbilder für die ersten industriell hergestellten Produkte waren die als besonders schön geltenden Handwerksarbeiten. Es galt die handwerkliche Arbeit möglichst gut zu imitieren und die schöne Form ergab sich aus dem Traditionellen.Die Euphorie, all diese schönen Dinge viel einfacher und billiger herstellen zu können, liess die Hersteller in den Jahrhunderten und Epochen wildern.
Als man begann Gebäudeformen für Grossbauten wie Fabriken, Energiewerke oder Bahnhöfe zu suchen, griff man zurück auf das, was es gab: Schlösser und Burgen, Klöster und Kirchen waren Bautypen die vorhanden waren und deren Formen den neuen Bauten lediglich angepasst werden mussten. Es scheint uns natürlich, dass die ersten Autos aussahen wie Kutschen ohne Pferde! Alles Technische wurde argwöhnisch betrachtet und die Verzierungen und Ornamente versuchten auch, die Technik zu Verbergen und den Menschen die Angst vor dem Neuen zu nehmen.
Industriedesign wurde vom Bauhaus erfunden – Peter Behrens verpasste AEG ein corporate design und stand an der Spitze einer Entwicklung, die reproduzierte, traditionelle Formen als überholt ansah und begann neue Formen zu suchen.
Das alles stak noch in den Kinderschuhen, als Marcel Duchamp begann über Readymades nachzudenken. Duchamp war ein Quergeist, der sich nach einem fulminanten Beginn in der Malerei auf das Denken zurückgezogen hat. Die Diskussionen, die um sein Werk kreisen, binden ihm zuweilen Bedeutung auf, die sich aus unseren persönlichen Zeiterfahrungen speisen. Vielleicht wird an Duchamp noch schneller deutlich, was es heisst, einem Künstler seinen Platz in der Kunstgeschichte zuzuweisen, drückt er sich doch vor einer eindeutigen Stellungnahme, wo immer es geht.
Duchamp spielt ein Spiel. Und er wusste sehr genau, wie er es spielen muss, um Kritiker und Kunsthistoriker zu fesseln. Seine Notizen und Zettelchen, die er zum Beispiel in der Weissen und Grünen Schachtel vereinigt hat, zeugen davon. Er wusste, wie ein Kunsthistoriker beginnt Kunst zu lesen, zu deuten, zu interpretieren und zu analysieren. Auf die Spur gebracht, wird er den Anspielungen folgen, in seinem Leben Entsprechungen suchen und Bedeutung durch einerseits persönliche, andererseits biographische Details erkennen wollen. Der Kunsthistoriker ist ein Deuter der Symbole und ein Fährtenleser, der seine Aufgabe in der Entschlüsselung von Kunst erblickt. Er muss das vom Künstler aufgeworfene Rätsel dem Publikum darbringen. Duchamp machte nie ein Hehl daraus, dass er die Bedeutungszuweisungen und Symbole in seinen Werken als absolut überflüssig einschätzte. Aber er benutzte sie, weil er Spass und Freude an Verschlüsselungen und an Sprachspielen hatte.
Duchamp veranstaltet eine intellektuelle Schnitzeljagd auf der Suche nach Sinn, einen gebildeten Kindergeburtstag – wenn man ihn glaubt inhaltlich lesen zu müssen. Seine Alltagsobjekte sind Zwischenformen. Sie sind gefälschtes Handwerk. Sie repräsentieren Dinge, die nicht das sind, was sie suggerieren. Erst Benjamin wird später versuchen die Kunst von diesem Weg abzubringen, der Suche nach dem Falschen. Benjamin führt den schwammigen Begriff des „Auratischen“ einer bürgerlichen Kunstvorstellung ein, der auch gegen eine intellektuelle künstlerische Geste Duchamps gerichtet ist. Vielleicht liegt der Fehler einfach darin, Duchamp unbedingt entschlüsseln zu wollen? Vielleicht liegt er darin, seine Arbeiten inhaltlich zu verstehen?
Die Moderne hat mit allen Traditionen gebrochen und provoziert. Künstler haben austariert, wie weit sie gehen können und welche Tabus brechbar sind. An der allgemeingültigen traditionellen Form zu rütteln und neue Ausdrucksformen zu suchen, war die grosse kreative Leistung dieser Zeit. Ich denke, man muss auch die Werke der Moderne als formale Arbeiten erkennen und als solche lesen. Sonst wird man ihnen nicht gerecht. Hier liegt vielleicht auch das Missverständnis, das es dann etwa hundert Jahre später erlaubt, einen fanatischen Pedanten, einen sammelnden Möchtegern-Bohemien und einen Börsenhändler in die gleiche Reihe zu stellen.
Eigentlich ist der unterste Raum im KuB unbespielbar – als Besucher drängt es einen immerzu nach oben und es braucht viel, vielleicht auch viel Anstrengung gegen die Architektur, um einen dazu zu bewegen, Arbeiten im Erdgeschoss wirklich länger zu betrachten. Schnell wirkt die Kunst hier verloren und abgestellt.
Molderings Idee, Duchamp im Kontext seines Ateliers zu zeigen, ist ein hübsches Gedankenexperiment. Vielleicht haben Kunsthistoriker ihre ganz eigene Vorstellung, was es bedeutet, Arbeiten im Atelier zu betrachten. Ein paar grosse, reproduzierte Schwarzweissfotos können zwar zeigen, wie es bei Duchamp aussah, ich bezweifle allerdings sehr, ob dadurch der Kontext Atelier auch für den Betrachter geschaffen wird.
Nice concept – but it won’t work!
Interessanter finde ich den Gedanken, Duchamps Spiel mit Alltagsobjekten nachzuforschen und sich vor Augen zu führen, was sich bei der Betrachtung von Gegenständen verändert hat.Industriell hergestellte Produkte sind für uns Alltag. Es ist selbstverständlich, dass sich Designer um das wechselnde Aussehen dieser Produkte kümmern, die rationell gefertigt werden. Die Herstellungsprozesse sind automatisiert und Handarbeit ist so selten geworden, dass sie extra deklariert wird. Preisunterschiede ergeben sich vor allem durch das Label und weniger durch die Qualität.
Die Industrialisierung im 19. Jh. bedingt gesellschaftliche und politische Veränderungen. Wir kennen die Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung und die Anfänge unserer politischen Systeme. Die Geschichte der Alltagsprodukte erscheint weniger interessant. Jedoch: Vorbilder für die ersten industriell hergestellten Produkte waren die als besonders schön geltenden Handwerksarbeiten. Es galt die handwerkliche Arbeit möglichst gut zu imitieren und die schöne Form ergab sich aus dem Traditionellen.Die Euphorie, all diese schönen Dinge viel einfacher und billiger herstellen zu können, liess die Hersteller in den Jahrhunderten und Epochen wildern.
Als man begann Gebäudeformen für Grossbauten wie Fabriken, Energiewerke oder Bahnhöfe zu suchen, griff man zurück auf das, was es gab: Schlösser und Burgen, Klöster und Kirchen waren Bautypen die vorhanden waren und deren Formen den neuen Bauten lediglich angepasst werden mussten. Es scheint uns natürlich, dass die ersten Autos aussahen wie Kutschen ohne Pferde! Alles Technische wurde argwöhnisch betrachtet und die Verzierungen und Ornamente versuchten auch, die Technik zu Verbergen und den Menschen die Angst vor dem Neuen zu nehmen.
Industriedesign wurde vom Bauhaus erfunden – Peter Behrens verpasste AEG ein corporate design und stand an der Spitze einer Entwicklung, die reproduzierte, traditionelle Formen als überholt ansah und begann neue Formen zu suchen.
Das alles stak noch in den Kinderschuhen, als Marcel Duchamp begann über Readymades nachzudenken. Duchamp war ein Quergeist, der sich nach einem fulminanten Beginn in der Malerei auf das Denken zurückgezogen hat. Die Diskussionen, die um sein Werk kreisen, binden ihm zuweilen Bedeutung auf, die sich aus unseren persönlichen Zeiterfahrungen speisen. Vielleicht wird an Duchamp noch schneller deutlich, was es heisst, einem Künstler seinen Platz in der Kunstgeschichte zuzuweisen, drückt er sich doch vor einer eindeutigen Stellungnahme, wo immer es geht.
Duchamp spielt ein Spiel. Und er wusste sehr genau, wie er es spielen muss, um Kritiker und Kunsthistoriker zu fesseln. Seine Notizen und Zettelchen, die er zum Beispiel in der Weissen und Grünen Schachtel vereinigt hat, zeugen davon. Er wusste, wie ein Kunsthistoriker beginnt Kunst zu lesen, zu deuten, zu interpretieren und zu analysieren. Auf die Spur gebracht, wird er den Anspielungen folgen, in seinem Leben Entsprechungen suchen und Bedeutung durch einerseits persönliche, andererseits biographische Details erkennen wollen. Der Kunsthistoriker ist ein Deuter der Symbole und ein Fährtenleser, der seine Aufgabe in der Entschlüsselung von Kunst erblickt. Er muss das vom Künstler aufgeworfene Rätsel dem Publikum darbringen. Duchamp machte nie ein Hehl daraus, dass er die Bedeutungszuweisungen und Symbole in seinen Werken als absolut überflüssig einschätzte. Aber er benutzte sie, weil er Spass und Freude an Verschlüsselungen und an Sprachspielen hatte.
Duchamp veranstaltet eine intellektuelle Schnitzeljagd auf der Suche nach Sinn, einen gebildeten Kindergeburtstag – wenn man ihn glaubt inhaltlich lesen zu müssen. Seine Alltagsobjekte sind Zwischenformen. Sie sind gefälschtes Handwerk. Sie repräsentieren Dinge, die nicht das sind, was sie suggerieren. Erst Benjamin wird später versuchen die Kunst von diesem Weg abzubringen, der Suche nach dem Falschen. Benjamin führt den schwammigen Begriff des „Auratischen“ einer bürgerlichen Kunstvorstellung ein, der auch gegen eine intellektuelle künstlerische Geste Duchamps gerichtet ist. Vielleicht liegt der Fehler einfach darin, Duchamp unbedingt entschlüsseln zu wollen? Vielleicht liegt er darin, seine Arbeiten inhaltlich zu verstehen?
Die Moderne hat mit allen Traditionen gebrochen und provoziert. Künstler haben austariert, wie weit sie gehen können und welche Tabus brechbar sind. An der allgemeingültigen traditionellen Form zu rütteln und neue Ausdrucksformen zu suchen, war die grosse kreative Leistung dieser Zeit. Ich denke, man muss auch die Werke der Moderne als formale Arbeiten erkennen und als solche lesen. Sonst wird man ihnen nicht gerecht. Hier liegt vielleicht auch das Missverständnis, das es dann etwa hundert Jahre später erlaubt, einen fanatischen Pedanten, einen sammelnden Möchtegern-Bohemien und einen Börsenhändler in die gleiche Reihe zu stellen.
24 March 2007
Christine Enz: Tanz in der Multergasse, St. Gallen
Auf alle, die am Samstag 28. April einkaufen oder flanieren, wartet eine ganz besondere Attraktion in den Schaufenstern in der Multergasse; für einmal sind nicht Parfüms, Schuhe, Kaffee oder Schaufensterpuppen zu bewundern, sondern TänzerInnen und PerformerInnen. Sie nutzen die Fenster als Bühne und werden auf engstem Raum bewegen, tanzen und Schritte auf das Publikum zu machen, bis zur gläsernen Grenze.
Getanzt wird von 13–16 Uhr in den Fenstern der folgenden Geschäfter:
Manor, Parfümerie Baettig, Perosa, Kaffee Baumgartner, Sports Lab, Navyboot, Fielmann, Bata, Tally Weilj, Import Parfümerie, Ochsner Sport und Orsay.
Wer alles sehen will, muss schon selber im ZickZack durch die Multergasse tanzen.
Organsiert wird die Aktion von der ig-tanz St.Gallen/Appenzell anlässlich des internationalen Tag des Tanzes und soll die verschiedensten Tanz- und Bewegungsformen einem breiten Publikum zugänglich machen und wer gar selber Lust zum Tanzen bekommt, kann sich am Info Stand der ig-tanz am Bärenplatz über Kursangebote in der Ostschweiz informieren.
ig-tanz in der Multergasse, St.Gallen
Samstag 28. April 2007
13–16 Uhr
www.ig-tanz.ch
23 March 2007
Belcher, UK: Disappearing Labour: U.K. Arts Council Debate
the following will be submitted to 'The Arts Council' debate an online discussion of our august funding body in U.K. Apologies for length but these concerns are I think wider than just U.K.
see
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsdebate/
Raleigh Plant Nottingham : Now redeveloped into University Buildings.
How ‘professional practice’ removed the working-class from the picture.
On of the most striking aspects of the development of the fine art world in the last 25 years since I was at art-college has been the rapid and total de-skilling of artistic ‘practice’. Indeed that word ‘practice’ sums up the qualitative change in the environment that artistic ‘practitioners’ and students operate in. I am focussing on that word because it seems to me to be symptomatic of the larger changes. Trends begin in language and ‘practice’ supplanting ‘art work’ or ‘oeuvre’ is one of the most significant.
As an art student we had ‘complementary studies’ which ranged across critical studies and other art forms but nowhere was I introduced to notions of ‘critical practice’, ‘networking’ or ‘research procedures’. Instead there was a healthy insistence on the ‘materiality’ of the process down to the actual grinding of pigment for paint (how quaint that seems in cyber paint age) and the physical act of creation as a significant and in some cases all-encompassing feature of creating ‘art-works’. That word ‘work’ there is important. Tutors not only theorised in the abstract but also commented on constructive principles, materials and assembly.
To read back through the statements of artists such as Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney even was to be introduced not only to intellectual concepts of ‘making art’ (again note word ‘making’) but also to physical notions of ‘craftsmanship’. For artists from working-class backgrounds such as Moore and Hockney there was a seamless affirmation of the quality of making that their communities whether in Bradford Mills or Leeds Foundries would have understood. The general public may have baulked at the physical embodiment of those ideas but a welder or sign-painter would have understood the technical ability involved in its construction. Without ‘labouring’ the point there is a direct correlation with this activity and the philosophy of craftsmanship stretching back through Morris to the old guilds. Even as a lowly labourer (working on middle-class tutor’s house for cash be it painting and decorating or building work with my fellow working-class students) I and my ‘labouring’ friends were acutely aware of the instilled belief in ‘a job done properly or not at all’. Coming from a background of low incomes that mantra was a source of pride that maintained dignity and purpose when treated badly.
So what does this have to do with artistic ‘practice’? Well as the artistic climate began to morphose into dealing with the destruction of traditional class divisions with the breaking up of the Miner’s Strike and the new opportunities of money from selling the state assets back to its people the hard left suddenly found it could no longer ‘believe’ or support those hackneyed themes and looked to wider academic philosophies for support…Derrida, Foucault..whatever suited was used. Language invaded the academies and process became mental rather than physical. Life-rooms were ‘disappeared’ as were the craft technicians and their areas..wet photography, etching, printmaking in general and sculpture. Advances in digital equipment and the internet made costing art education cheaper and also opened up the floodgates of language which washed over the huddling masses in spectacular fashion. The result two decades later is that ‘practice’ has replaced ‘work’. Painters and their messy procedures have been sidelined in favour of more streamlined and cost-effective ‘streaming’ per unit (a unit=one student by the way). Result has been a complete implosion of not only those more gruelling and supposedly less intellectually taxing pursuits as painting, etching, bronze casting but also a radical denial that those forms were anything but an old-fashioned aspect of bourgeoisie and right-wing ‘control’.
Unfettered from their working-class shackles of mind these warriors of the new left/right could dance around the world as ambassadors of Thatcherite ‘entrepreunership’ or New Labour ‘Cool Brittania’ with not a moment of doubt or guilt that they had thrown any babies out with the bath water. This process was so swift and its impact so total that even before I left art college in 1981 the process had started. This process found its moment of triumph in ‘Sensation’ and its attendant ‘Brit-Art’ boom. Gone were the toiling working class and the effete bourgeoisie world of watercolours and oil-painting. Swept aside in the revolution of two strange-bedfellows – new money a la Saatchi ( gained from political propaganda lest it be forgot in the fog of time) and the hard-left apparachiks of ‘new’ Polytechnic/Unis and ‘new’ art. These were heady times and so what if half the philosophy and theorising did not stand up it had that elusive ‘Wow’ factor and it sold. Yes these partners in the dance had found each other and would never let go.
Twenty years later and like the ‘little’ man who sweeps up after the art-school ball the effects are everywhere. Art-schools and Polytechnics (Rebranded New Universities to give them ‘professional status’) are no longer under local authority control but are multi-million pound businesses siphoning off cash from those who can best pay i.e. the middle-class and the ubiquitous and much loved ‘overseas student’. That process of removing the original meaning and philosophy of the ‘Technical Schools’ and the Victorian notion of ‘training for ornament’ to decorate the ‘Empire’ are gone and with them Morris and Co’s belief in progress through labour.
Here ‘practice’ has come into its own. It is a fact that the recent changes in grants will remove the few working-class students foolhardy and resistant to parental pressure able to make into the newly ‘professional’ class of the ‘contemporary artist’. A few will always slip through because of inate ability as Grayson Perry recently noted. For the majority though a ‘second-stream and second-rate’ mountain to climb through school, further education and maybe an HND if they are lucky awaits. The good aspects of ‘craftsmanship’ (abilty, hand and eye co-ordination and pride) have been jettisoned along wth the bad (subservience, minion status, ‘little-man syndrome’) and we are left with a system that as ruthlessly middle-class in its deportment, salary expectations and class awareness as any yet seen. Blairism is not the triumph of the ‘old working class’ it is the triumph of the new ‘middle-class and it’s most recent converts…those lucky enough to slip their working class shackles and join the ‘parade’.
How does this affect the Arts Council? In the past the Arts Council from its post-war origins onward has been largely a middle-class/upper-class dominated project despite its Welfare State status. As pointed out to me recently by someone in the Arts Council the post-war remit was heavily towards supporting the noble performing arts…Opera, Dance, Theatre. These were in need of rebuilding and supporting post-war at a time of rationing and scant resources and the Arts Council did its job well within that remit. Indeed some positive extras even appeared such as Larkin’s idea for a Poetry Library. Despite boom and bust several times over these arts are sacrosanct and let us not forget that they will retain their core funding unless some real revolution happens soon. The reality is the support of individual artists and community arts projects etc has been largely funded out of the lottery funds which are now on the wane. Forget Olympic slight of hand the real downward trend in that area of ‘smoke and mirrors taxation’ will continue as the public grow tired of losing their few quid every week.
My argument is that the Arts Council recently has become a partner in the ‘professional-isation’ of the arts. Individual grants have mostly gone to those most able to tick the boxes which is not the same as the most deserving or the most able. A middle-class practioner of whatever background with a good grasp of language and networking is able to jump hoops required and draw down funding.
The Arts Council actually funds A-N the artist’s newsletter which has come to define one area of ‘practice’ as defined by the new universities. Artistic finishing schools like the Slade, Chelsea and Royal College continue to process artists through to the major galleries as they have done since time immemorial. When I received an offer of a place at the Royal College in 1981 I was a working-class exception not the rule and was swiftly replaced by ‘overseas student’ when I could not afford the fees. From comments by a current RC student on a Grayson Perry article nothing much has changed there. Outside that alumni network the practicing artist from the New University flowerbed has pretty much taken over the ‘alternative’ network of regional arts centres, art galleries and a-n itself.
Nothing wrong with that in principle but because this new class also sees itself as ‘professionalised’ and newly minted ‘middle-class’ it keeps a distance from anything that reminds it of its non-professional background….paint, stone, non-literate visual communication…..the values of its parents if working class and the manners and dirty hands of ‘that lot from the estate’ if it middle class. Result the Arts Council unwittingly because it speaks only in the ‘new language’ is part of a process that divorces the working class student from its background and makes it feel ashamed. I may be regarded as being sensationalist here but Jeremy Seabrook identified a similar process in regard to community thirty years back as the ‘magic-carpet’ ride in regard to working class students going to university and never returning to their ‘sink estates’.
Artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin are like Ali Baba riding that carpet for all it is worth but they have never touched down in their original communities since unless as ‘researchers’ or for the occasional family get together. They have done the trick their families expected of them of converting all that ‘arty stuff’ into cash and that brings a grudging admiration from their peers but do they give anything back?
Where the Arts Council has failed in my opinion and where it could make a great leap forward is in increasing the ‘scope’ of its funding to include more of what regarded as ‘amateur’ by the new professionals which as I stated can and does include a great deal of painters and crafts people ‘removed’ from the bigger picture who do not apply for Arts Council funding (including serious for want of better term artists disenfranchised by the new elitism) because the gatekeepers - are generally the young professional middle-class – the ‘mujistas’.
If they could reintroduce the ‘floating’ and disenfranchised practitioners back into their communities or the communities they now live in we’d have a start. Paul Oliver argued for a nodal system of arts centres based on BBC buildings around the country and it still an area for possible development.
The key concept here is the A.C.E. remit of supporting the ‘cutting-edge’ - -who’s edge and who’s cutting? . Paring down the amazing variety of art and culture created in this country by narrow ‘professionalist’ concepts of right and wrong means many left out by default. Narrow face-saving attempts to promote inclusion by parachuting white middle-class artists into ‘problem areas’ to facilitate do more harm than good if not speaking with local knowledge and understanding.
Another £30 K sculpture of a giant egg on the roundabout on the edge of town reinforces that lack of communication. The ‘disappeared’ labourers……the ones on night shift cleaning, herded into lump labour vans at dawn, garage forecourts etc etc have a right to seeing the arts too but are their notions of what art is …craftsmanship and effort maybe? ….to be ignored too because not cutting edge?
Can that always be dismissed as dumbing down?
Clean bright empty offices and clean bright empty shows and no workers…….unless serving…
The future is bright..the future is black. The future is a blank canvas?
Will the new elite be our doctors ..their practice our medicine?
Shaun Belcher
23 March 2007
References:
Grayson Perry: You can lead a chav to culture but can you make him think?
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article628373.ece
Grayson Perry: Stop art schools from turning into posh white ghettos.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article1448160.ece
Accessed 22.3.2007
see
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsdebate/
Raleigh Plant Nottingham : Now redeveloped into University Buildings.
How ‘professional practice’ removed the working-class from the picture.
On of the most striking aspects of the development of the fine art world in the last 25 years since I was at art-college has been the rapid and total de-skilling of artistic ‘practice’. Indeed that word ‘practice’ sums up the qualitative change in the environment that artistic ‘practitioners’ and students operate in. I am focussing on that word because it seems to me to be symptomatic of the larger changes. Trends begin in language and ‘practice’ supplanting ‘art work’ or ‘oeuvre’ is one of the most significant.
As an art student we had ‘complementary studies’ which ranged across critical studies and other art forms but nowhere was I introduced to notions of ‘critical practice’, ‘networking’ or ‘research procedures’. Instead there was a healthy insistence on the ‘materiality’ of the process down to the actual grinding of pigment for paint (how quaint that seems in cyber paint age) and the physical act of creation as a significant and in some cases all-encompassing feature of creating ‘art-works’. That word ‘work’ there is important. Tutors not only theorised in the abstract but also commented on constructive principles, materials and assembly.
To read back through the statements of artists such as Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, David Hockney even was to be introduced not only to intellectual concepts of ‘making art’ (again note word ‘making’) but also to physical notions of ‘craftsmanship’. For artists from working-class backgrounds such as Moore and Hockney there was a seamless affirmation of the quality of making that their communities whether in Bradford Mills or Leeds Foundries would have understood. The general public may have baulked at the physical embodiment of those ideas but a welder or sign-painter would have understood the technical ability involved in its construction. Without ‘labouring’ the point there is a direct correlation with this activity and the philosophy of craftsmanship stretching back through Morris to the old guilds. Even as a lowly labourer (working on middle-class tutor’s house for cash be it painting and decorating or building work with my fellow working-class students) I and my ‘labouring’ friends were acutely aware of the instilled belief in ‘a job done properly or not at all’. Coming from a background of low incomes that mantra was a source of pride that maintained dignity and purpose when treated badly.
So what does this have to do with artistic ‘practice’? Well as the artistic climate began to morphose into dealing with the destruction of traditional class divisions with the breaking up of the Miner’s Strike and the new opportunities of money from selling the state assets back to its people the hard left suddenly found it could no longer ‘believe’ or support those hackneyed themes and looked to wider academic philosophies for support…Derrida, Foucault..whatever suited was used. Language invaded the academies and process became mental rather than physical. Life-rooms were ‘disappeared’ as were the craft technicians and their areas..wet photography, etching, printmaking in general and sculpture. Advances in digital equipment and the internet made costing art education cheaper and also opened up the floodgates of language which washed over the huddling masses in spectacular fashion. The result two decades later is that ‘practice’ has replaced ‘work’. Painters and their messy procedures have been sidelined in favour of more streamlined and cost-effective ‘streaming’ per unit (a unit=one student by the way). Result has been a complete implosion of not only those more gruelling and supposedly less intellectually taxing pursuits as painting, etching, bronze casting but also a radical denial that those forms were anything but an old-fashioned aspect of bourgeoisie and right-wing ‘control’.
Unfettered from their working-class shackles of mind these warriors of the new left/right could dance around the world as ambassadors of Thatcherite ‘entrepreunership’ or New Labour ‘Cool Brittania’ with not a moment of doubt or guilt that they had thrown any babies out with the bath water. This process was so swift and its impact so total that even before I left art college in 1981 the process had started. This process found its moment of triumph in ‘Sensation’ and its attendant ‘Brit-Art’ boom. Gone were the toiling working class and the effete bourgeoisie world of watercolours and oil-painting. Swept aside in the revolution of two strange-bedfellows – new money a la Saatchi ( gained from political propaganda lest it be forgot in the fog of time) and the hard-left apparachiks of ‘new’ Polytechnic/Unis and ‘new’ art. These were heady times and so what if half the philosophy and theorising did not stand up it had that elusive ‘Wow’ factor and it sold. Yes these partners in the dance had found each other and would never let go.
Twenty years later and like the ‘little’ man who sweeps up after the art-school ball the effects are everywhere. Art-schools and Polytechnics (Rebranded New Universities to give them ‘professional status’) are no longer under local authority control but are multi-million pound businesses siphoning off cash from those who can best pay i.e. the middle-class and the ubiquitous and much loved ‘overseas student’. That process of removing the original meaning and philosophy of the ‘Technical Schools’ and the Victorian notion of ‘training for ornament’ to decorate the ‘Empire’ are gone and with them Morris and Co’s belief in progress through labour.
Here ‘practice’ has come into its own. It is a fact that the recent changes in grants will remove the few working-class students foolhardy and resistant to parental pressure able to make into the newly ‘professional’ class of the ‘contemporary artist’. A few will always slip through because of inate ability as Grayson Perry recently noted. For the majority though a ‘second-stream and second-rate’ mountain to climb through school, further education and maybe an HND if they are lucky awaits. The good aspects of ‘craftsmanship’ (abilty, hand and eye co-ordination and pride) have been jettisoned along wth the bad (subservience, minion status, ‘little-man syndrome’) and we are left with a system that as ruthlessly middle-class in its deportment, salary expectations and class awareness as any yet seen. Blairism is not the triumph of the ‘old working class’ it is the triumph of the new ‘middle-class and it’s most recent converts…those lucky enough to slip their working class shackles and join the ‘parade’.
How does this affect the Arts Council? In the past the Arts Council from its post-war origins onward has been largely a middle-class/upper-class dominated project despite its Welfare State status. As pointed out to me recently by someone in the Arts Council the post-war remit was heavily towards supporting the noble performing arts…Opera, Dance, Theatre. These were in need of rebuilding and supporting post-war at a time of rationing and scant resources and the Arts Council did its job well within that remit. Indeed some positive extras even appeared such as Larkin’s idea for a Poetry Library. Despite boom and bust several times over these arts are sacrosanct and let us not forget that they will retain their core funding unless some real revolution happens soon. The reality is the support of individual artists and community arts projects etc has been largely funded out of the lottery funds which are now on the wane. Forget Olympic slight of hand the real downward trend in that area of ‘smoke and mirrors taxation’ will continue as the public grow tired of losing their few quid every week.
My argument is that the Arts Council recently has become a partner in the ‘professional-isation’ of the arts. Individual grants have mostly gone to those most able to tick the boxes which is not the same as the most deserving or the most able. A middle-class practioner of whatever background with a good grasp of language and networking is able to jump hoops required and draw down funding.
The Arts Council actually funds A-N the artist’s newsletter which has come to define one area of ‘practice’ as defined by the new universities. Artistic finishing schools like the Slade, Chelsea and Royal College continue to process artists through to the major galleries as they have done since time immemorial. When I received an offer of a place at the Royal College in 1981 I was a working-class exception not the rule and was swiftly replaced by ‘overseas student’ when I could not afford the fees. From comments by a current RC student on a Grayson Perry article nothing much has changed there. Outside that alumni network the practicing artist from the New University flowerbed has pretty much taken over the ‘alternative’ network of regional arts centres, art galleries and a-n itself.
Nothing wrong with that in principle but because this new class also sees itself as ‘professionalised’ and newly minted ‘middle-class’ it keeps a distance from anything that reminds it of its non-professional background….paint, stone, non-literate visual communication…..the values of its parents if working class and the manners and dirty hands of ‘that lot from the estate’ if it middle class. Result the Arts Council unwittingly because it speaks only in the ‘new language’ is part of a process that divorces the working class student from its background and makes it feel ashamed. I may be regarded as being sensationalist here but Jeremy Seabrook identified a similar process in regard to community thirty years back as the ‘magic-carpet’ ride in regard to working class students going to university and never returning to their ‘sink estates’.
Artists like Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin are like Ali Baba riding that carpet for all it is worth but they have never touched down in their original communities since unless as ‘researchers’ or for the occasional family get together. They have done the trick their families expected of them of converting all that ‘arty stuff’ into cash and that brings a grudging admiration from their peers but do they give anything back?
Where the Arts Council has failed in my opinion and where it could make a great leap forward is in increasing the ‘scope’ of its funding to include more of what regarded as ‘amateur’ by the new professionals which as I stated can and does include a great deal of painters and crafts people ‘removed’ from the bigger picture who do not apply for Arts Council funding (including serious for want of better term artists disenfranchised by the new elitism) because the gatekeepers - are generally the young professional middle-class – the ‘mujistas’.
If they could reintroduce the ‘floating’ and disenfranchised practitioners back into their communities or the communities they now live in we’d have a start. Paul Oliver argued for a nodal system of arts centres based on BBC buildings around the country and it still an area for possible development.
The key concept here is the A.C.E. remit of supporting the ‘cutting-edge’ - -who’s edge and who’s cutting? . Paring down the amazing variety of art and culture created in this country by narrow ‘professionalist’ concepts of right and wrong means many left out by default. Narrow face-saving attempts to promote inclusion by parachuting white middle-class artists into ‘problem areas’ to facilitate do more harm than good if not speaking with local knowledge and understanding.
Another £30 K sculpture of a giant egg on the roundabout on the edge of town reinforces that lack of communication. The ‘disappeared’ labourers……the ones on night shift cleaning, herded into lump labour vans at dawn, garage forecourts etc etc have a right to seeing the arts too but are their notions of what art is …craftsmanship and effort maybe? ….to be ignored too because not cutting edge?
Can that always be dismissed as dumbing down?
Clean bright empty offices and clean bright empty shows and no workers…….unless serving…
The future is bright..the future is black. The future is a blank canvas?
Will the new elite be our doctors ..their practice our medicine?
Shaun Belcher
23 March 2007
References:
Grayson Perry: You can lead a chav to culture but can you make him think?
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article628373.ece
Grayson Perry: Stop art schools from turning into posh white ghettos.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article1448160.ece
Accessed 22.3.2007
20 March 2007
Moogee, Brighton UK: Raining on their Parade...
“Historians when they come to write about New Labour, need to look no further than our council (Brighton) to see where it all went wrong; an administration that consistently ignores core services in order to spend its money on headline-grabbing projects which benefit an elite few”
Julie Burchill quoting a Brighton resident in Guardian Weekend 17.03.2007
What has this got to do with Parade, the Angel Row Nottingham showcase of local artistic talent? Well everything and nothing. The title itself is an oblique reference,I presume, to the coincidental ‘parade’ of dignitaries, binge drinkers, (or are they one and the same) community groups and past their sell-by-date musical acts which are launching the opening of the new ‘city square’. By an act of stupendous largesse the Nottingham City Council have managed to spend £7 million pounds ‘renovating’ the city's market square and as if that not enough then celebrated their municipal munificence by spending another £400,000 on opening celebrations. This in a city about to see community funding go into freefall pre-olympics and which despite multiple funding initiatives still has some of the worst crime and social problems in England to deal with. Hey ho let them eat cake ...
On the opposite side of this mock-Spanish square replete with silver chairs (Café Nero not Yates is our cultural destiny) we find a rather worn Angel Row which in its heyday was something of a noise in the IAW (International Art World). Ironically that golden period was long ago and far away and after a time when local-bred initiatives such as the Playhouse and Midland Group actually gave the city some claim to ‘avant-garde’ status.
Fast-forward and although the Polytechnic has blossomed into a first-rate art-school the Angel Row seems curiously caught in its own reflection. Parade number 2 curated by Mary Doyle is the second in a series of 3 showcases promising the newly ‘Europeanised’ residents of Nottingham a taste of local artistic produce …a sort of organic vegetable box of the brightest and best from the region. Well.. Nottingham actually if the map on the wall is correct then contemporary art is alive and well only within the city and at one location in Lincoln and Northampton. How fresh and sustainable is this box of goodies?
This show using the usual curatorial ‘premise’ of a trendy title is called ‘Out of Place’ so is it and what does it have to say about this place here and now? Well first thing seen is a screen showing two of Roger Suckling (Nottingham resident – Lincoln teacher) shorts which are amusing and well made musings upon just such a notion. Train tickets flicker and hand held video jogs and yes we get the message…global/local. Short, well crafted and communicative. Hats off Roger and more like that please. The fresh carrot in the box and no wilting yet.
Open the door on the gallery space and another interesting piece – Eric Rosoman’s ‘Muckle Flugga’ lighthouse in miniature and a series of marks (in tasteful artschool tape as crosses..religious symbolism?) across the grey floor. A successful and intriguing piece especially when related to the framed ship’s names. Out of place certainly but fresh still and another carrot.
The rest of the room contains a few mouldier items. Simon Withers has managed to be featured in two shows on the basis of continually shifting his ‘practice’ to suit the prevailing winds. This particular vessel. ‘Rokeby Venus by jumping’ can be safely dropped in the ‘an idea you’d have in the pub but dismiss as too silly when you woke up’ school. Flimsy but attractive to funders and small children because it is funny even if it isn’t meant to be.
Candice Jacobs is big in an ‘a-n’ (that's artists newletter to the unsophisticated) land sort of way apparently and boasts of having Damien Hirst ‘view’ her work which marks a new low in ‘solipism’ on art c.v.’s. On this basis expect lists of ‘Famous people what walked past my work’ soon. Her work…contemporary ironic with a capital ‘C’. Ironic references to other artists in same leaky boat and to be frank dull. Apparently her work uses ‘ everyday objects in unexpected ways’ - old vinyl records, glasses and artwork that looks faintly like photos in back issues of art magazines circa 2000. You get the picture. Kids like it when it revolves though so not all bad.
Oh there a site-specific wall-piece so bland I’d almost forgotten it which managed to make one corner of the room look like habitat across the road. So two limp lettuces and a mouldy parsnip there folks.
Second room and we into the potatoes (no meat..this is council funded remember). Paul Matosic and Roger Suckling both showing large films both of which enabled through munificent Arts Council funding. Both interesting and of a piece with their careers and as older members of show surprisingly fresh still. A couple of solid cabbages. Neither piece in my opinion as good as other work they have done. The third pillar in the room by Tomas Chaffe tells you all you need to know again kids like it because it a game working out which is the 'false' one. It no more an artistic revelation than the glorious reworking of an old idea (sadly not his own) by Niki Russell which proves that a good idea (Rachel Whiteread’s in this case) can keep you in funding for a while. As an actual object it was built by somebody with all the building skill of a member of the Royal Family. Fabulous but not as fabulous as Mayer’s film of a woman regarding a step ladder. Maybe she waiting for Niki Russell to finish his room? Three very limp turnips.
So there you have it. Global influenced local produce. If shown at a vegetable show I’d say that Suckling and Rosoman would get rosettes for at least truly describing things that were ‘out of place’. The rest I’d maybe use in an art stew like this but a couple probably end up in bin as ideas too far gone to be edible.
Re-emerging into a beautiful European-influenced marble square with trams gliding surreally through the St.Patrick’s Day parade do I feel that Nottingham’s contemporary art has suddenly risen to such a degree that it deserves attention. Well no. Decent enough attempt but lacking that particularity and individuality that is going to storm the IAW (International Art World). No point in musing on what might have been in last ten years with real support and funding for these artists and what could have been achieved with the same old square in place and all that money. No we live in a world where initiatives replace commitment and PR has supplanted common sense. Nottingham had a very strong art history before all the art-speak and interventions got in the way of the expression of raw talent.
The Angel Row and its apparachiks are not a cause of this disease they just attempting to deal with a plot of ground infected with the symptoms. Even this small plot of ground is under threat too now. The powers that be say money is needed for athletes and sports stadia not exhibitions. Maybe this isn’t the rosy dawn of a new European era but the last 'Hurrah' of a New Labour dominated agenda that said let everybody eat cake and things will come right.....more parades, more bread (foccacia not hovis) more circuses, more lottery money for everyone....
They didn’t come right…….but we have some lovely fountains to piss away our sorrows in.
Enjoy...
'Moogee'
Julie Burchill quoting a Brighton resident in Guardian Weekend 17.03.2007
What has this got to do with Parade, the Angel Row Nottingham showcase of local artistic talent? Well everything and nothing. The title itself is an oblique reference,I presume, to the coincidental ‘parade’ of dignitaries, binge drinkers, (or are they one and the same) community groups and past their sell-by-date musical acts which are launching the opening of the new ‘city square’. By an act of stupendous largesse the Nottingham City Council have managed to spend £7 million pounds ‘renovating’ the city's market square and as if that not enough then celebrated their municipal munificence by spending another £400,000 on opening celebrations. This in a city about to see community funding go into freefall pre-olympics and which despite multiple funding initiatives still has some of the worst crime and social problems in England to deal with. Hey ho let them eat cake ...
On the opposite side of this mock-Spanish square replete with silver chairs (Café Nero not Yates is our cultural destiny) we find a rather worn Angel Row which in its heyday was something of a noise in the IAW (International Art World). Ironically that golden period was long ago and far away and after a time when local-bred initiatives such as the Playhouse and Midland Group actually gave the city some claim to ‘avant-garde’ status.
Fast-forward and although the Polytechnic has blossomed into a first-rate art-school the Angel Row seems curiously caught in its own reflection. Parade number 2 curated by Mary Doyle is the second in a series of 3 showcases promising the newly ‘Europeanised’ residents of Nottingham a taste of local artistic produce …a sort of organic vegetable box of the brightest and best from the region. Well.. Nottingham actually if the map on the wall is correct then contemporary art is alive and well only within the city and at one location in Lincoln and Northampton. How fresh and sustainable is this box of goodies?
This show using the usual curatorial ‘premise’ of a trendy title is called ‘Out of Place’ so is it and what does it have to say about this place here and now? Well first thing seen is a screen showing two of Roger Suckling (Nottingham resident – Lincoln teacher) shorts which are amusing and well made musings upon just such a notion. Train tickets flicker and hand held video jogs and yes we get the message…global/local. Short, well crafted and communicative. Hats off Roger and more like that please. The fresh carrot in the box and no wilting yet.
Open the door on the gallery space and another interesting piece – Eric Rosoman’s ‘Muckle Flugga’ lighthouse in miniature and a series of marks (in tasteful artschool tape as crosses..religious symbolism?) across the grey floor. A successful and intriguing piece especially when related to the framed ship’s names. Out of place certainly but fresh still and another carrot.
The rest of the room contains a few mouldier items. Simon Withers has managed to be featured in two shows on the basis of continually shifting his ‘practice’ to suit the prevailing winds. This particular vessel. ‘Rokeby Venus by jumping’ can be safely dropped in the ‘an idea you’d have in the pub but dismiss as too silly when you woke up’ school. Flimsy but attractive to funders and small children because it is funny even if it isn’t meant to be.
Candice Jacobs is big in an ‘a-n’ (that's artists newletter to the unsophisticated) land sort of way apparently and boasts of having Damien Hirst ‘view’ her work which marks a new low in ‘solipism’ on art c.v.’s. On this basis expect lists of ‘Famous people what walked past my work’ soon. Her work…contemporary ironic with a capital ‘C’. Ironic references to other artists in same leaky boat and to be frank dull. Apparently her work uses ‘ everyday objects in unexpected ways’ - old vinyl records, glasses and artwork that looks faintly like photos in back issues of art magazines circa 2000. You get the picture. Kids like it when it revolves though so not all bad.
Oh there a site-specific wall-piece so bland I’d almost forgotten it which managed to make one corner of the room look like habitat across the road. So two limp lettuces and a mouldy parsnip there folks.
Second room and we into the potatoes (no meat..this is council funded remember). Paul Matosic and Roger Suckling both showing large films both of which enabled through munificent Arts Council funding. Both interesting and of a piece with their careers and as older members of show surprisingly fresh still. A couple of solid cabbages. Neither piece in my opinion as good as other work they have done. The third pillar in the room by Tomas Chaffe tells you all you need to know again kids like it because it a game working out which is the 'false' one. It no more an artistic revelation than the glorious reworking of an old idea (sadly not his own) by Niki Russell which proves that a good idea (Rachel Whiteread’s in this case) can keep you in funding for a while. As an actual object it was built by somebody with all the building skill of a member of the Royal Family. Fabulous but not as fabulous as Mayer’s film of a woman regarding a step ladder. Maybe she waiting for Niki Russell to finish his room? Three very limp turnips.
So there you have it. Global influenced local produce. If shown at a vegetable show I’d say that Suckling and Rosoman would get rosettes for at least truly describing things that were ‘out of place’. The rest I’d maybe use in an art stew like this but a couple probably end up in bin as ideas too far gone to be edible.
Re-emerging into a beautiful European-influenced marble square with trams gliding surreally through the St.Patrick’s Day parade do I feel that Nottingham’s contemporary art has suddenly risen to such a degree that it deserves attention. Well no. Decent enough attempt but lacking that particularity and individuality that is going to storm the IAW (International Art World). No point in musing on what might have been in last ten years with real support and funding for these artists and what could have been achieved with the same old square in place and all that money. No we live in a world where initiatives replace commitment and PR has supplanted common sense. Nottingham had a very strong art history before all the art-speak and interventions got in the way of the expression of raw talent.
The Angel Row and its apparachiks are not a cause of this disease they just attempting to deal with a plot of ground infected with the symptoms. Even this small plot of ground is under threat too now. The powers that be say money is needed for athletes and sports stadia not exhibitions. Maybe this isn’t the rosy dawn of a new European era but the last 'Hurrah' of a New Labour dominated agenda that said let everybody eat cake and things will come right.....more parades, more bread (foccacia not hovis) more circuses, more lottery money for everyone....
They didn’t come right…….but we have some lovely fountains to piss away our sorrows in.
Enjoy...
'Moogee'
17 March 2007
Décès de Jean Baudrillard
Par Liberation.fr / AFP; LIBERATION.FR : mardi 6 mars 2007:
Décès de Jean Baudrillard, pourfendeur de la société de consommation et des médias
Le sociologue et philosophe est décédé mardi à Paris, à l'âge de 77 ans
Le sociologue et philosophe Jean Baudrillard, mort mardi à Paris à l'âge de 77 ans des suites d'une longue maladie, a porté pendant 40 ans un regard féroce sur la société de consommation, dont il a dénoncé l'insignifiance et prophétisé le déclin.
Issu de la mouvance de mai 1968, ce penseur de renommée internationale, et également photographe à l'oeuvre reconnue, a élaboré une critique radicale des médias, baignée d'humour noir et d'un pessimisme joyeux qu'il a instillé dans une cinquantaine de livres.
Né le 20 juillet 1929 à Reims, germaniste de formation et traducteur de Brecht, proche des situationnistes de Guy Debord dans les années 1960, Jean Baudrillard enseigne la sociologie à partir de 1966 à l'Université de Nanterre.
"Compte tenu de mes diplômes, je n'avais pas le choix. En 1965, la sociologie était la seule discipline qui restait ouverte. Au début, j'étais obligé d'apprendre au fur et à mesure ce que je devais enseigner à mes élèves", expliquait-il. En 1968 parait son premier livre de sociologie, "Le système des objets", suivi en 1970 de "La société de consommation".
Jean Baudrillard s'éloigne ensuite du marxisme et poursuit ses recherches en franc-tireur. "Les masses" ne sont plus pour lui les victimes de l'ordre social, mais les complices de cet ordre qui les enrichit, à cette époque des trente glorieuses finissantes.
Visage rond derrière de fortes lunettes, il tourne alors en dérision la prétention de la gauche unie de changer la vie et celle des intellectuels de peser sur les choix politiques. Sa philosophie, fondée sur la critique de la pensée scientifique traditionnelle, développe des idées fondées sur la simulation et la séduction.
"Intellectuel dégagé", pour les uns, "fossoyeur des utopies" pour les autres, Baudrillard est un penseur inclassable, devenu suspect à gauche, capable d'exhumer la pensée réactionnaire du philosophe Joseph de Maistre dans "La transparence du mal" (1990).
"Il faut vivre en intelligence avec le système et en révolte contre ses conséquences. Il faut vivre avec l'idée que nous avons survécu au pire", soutient-il alors.
Ce style cinglant, fait d'aphorismes parfois hermétiques, devient sa marque de fabrique. "Ce que j'écrirai aura de moins en moins de chance d'être compris. Mais ça, c'est mon problème. Je suis dans une logique de défi", prévient-il.
En 1986, un voyage aux Etats-Unis, dont il rentre subjugué, lui inspire "Amérique", feu d'artifice d'images et de traits philosophiques : "L'Amérique est la version originale de la modernité, nous en sommes la version doublée et sous-titrée"... "L'Amérique, c'est l'utopie réalisée".
Fuyant les médias qu'il s'évertue à décortiquer, il consacre en 2001 dans Libération plusieurs chroniques à l'émission "Loft Story", "laboratoire d'une convivialité de synthèse, d'une sociabilité télégéniquement modifiée".
Mais Baudrillard s'intéresse à tout ce qui fait l'actualité et les attentats du 11 septembre lui inspirent "Requiem pour les Twins Towers" l'année suivante.
Considéré tour à tour comme un nihiliste ou un moraliste, il a souvent été vivement critiqué. "En fin de compte, on peut se demander ce qu'il resterait de la pensée de Baudrillard si l'on retirait tout le vernis qui la recouvre", écrivaient ainsi en 1997 Alan Sokal et Jean Bricmont dans "Les impostures intellectuelles".
Jean Baudrillard se voyait lui en résistant. "La lâcheté intellectuelle, soutenait-il, est devenue la véritable discipline olympique de notre temps".
16 March 2007
Moogee: Where is the Art World located?
I seem to have slipped this debate onto the artforum website ….please contribute…especially if a provincial:-)
http://www.artforum.com/index.php?pn=talkback&id=65007
http://www.artforum.com/index.php?pn=talkback&id=65007
Where is the art world located?
by Moogee, 03.21.07 02:24 pm
I was amused by your august journal’s City names on the front of your web page. According to this Nottingham U.K. is not a part of the IAW (International Art World) and neither is Chicago which I find distressing for those poor artists there. I would love some advice on how long this state of affairs has pertained and with government funding we may be able to relocate to somewhere that is in the IAW immediately thus rectifying the situation.
( note: Chicago was added since yesterday:-)yours
a proud provincial
'moogee'
14 March 2007
Dreaming Monk: Mushrooms, Soy Noodles and Soap?
In an attempt to avoid putting to much junk down the drain I have gotten into the habit of washing my brushes and stuff in a little water filled pail which, when it gets too disgusting, is poured into an old container or can; whatever is convenient. Depending on the season and the humidity level, either the water evaporates and I can put the residue in the trash bin, or the whole thing starts to rot and stink. Which of course raises the internal, eternal(?) debate of self comfort versus idealism.
A few years ago my “mixture” rotted, dried up, rotted some more, dried up again and really became beautiful both in color and texture. I made a silicon mold ;-) of it with the thought of making a little bronze relief souvenir,.. or something, which I sadly admit, I have yet to do.
All that to not explain my basic happiness at looking at the pictures from we make money not art's post about Michel Blaz's Post Patman installation at the Palais de Tokyo. Hope I can make it there in April!
From Rattlebrained.
Belcher: New Cartoons - from Thames Valley Texas
A cartoon a day keeps the funders away...see
http://belcheresque.wordpress.com
serious side
THAMES VALLEY TEXAS
http://www.sdbmedia.wordpress.com
10 March 2007
ostschweizer — comics — now! sequenz #4 – brutti ma buoni
sequenz #4 – brutti ma buoni
's liegt bereit: ein überquellendes, vielfältiges, 224 seiten starkes taschenbuch. das haben wir gestern abend gefeiert, im badhaus hinter der lokremise! brutti ma buoni
ostschweizer und –innen — comics — now!
beatboxer camero war sagenhaft!
dazu kam
bondage fairies
«die ankündigung (...) hier habe man eine «mischun aus punk und elektro-wahnsinn ergänzt von atari-melodien» vor sich, klingt ja erstmal wie eine drohung. nicht schon wieder! diese hybriden, die nicht wissen, was sie wollen oder können oder wie sie's anstellen sollen, endlich auch mal in die presse zu kommen! glücklicherweise sind die bondage fairies aber wirklich eine ganz fabelhafte band, die erstens in schweden schon so manche großartige liveshow hingelegt hat als auch mit "what you didn't know when you hired me" eines der ersten großartigen alben dieses jahres rausbringt. sie haben nicht nur die richtigen klamotten (und treten als zweiköpfige roboterband auf, komplettiert durch einen computer), sie haben auch die richtigen illustrationen im booklet (ein strümpfiger he-man zum beispiel oder ein totenkopf mit zwei gekreuzten vibratoren) (...) nicht zuletzt sprechen elvis creep und deus deceptor (die richtigen namen haben sie also auch!) als schweden auch noch so manches englische wort auf charmante art falsch aus.»
tina manske, gaesteliste.de, internet-musikmagazin
www.betterbondage.se
john player
«john player (bürgerlicher name: hans spieler) gehört zur züricher partyszene wie die kuh auf die alm: egal ob als dj, partyveranstalter oder labelbetreiber von 7b records. «j» ist der hans dampf in allen gassen ...»
DE:BUG, magazin
www.7b.to
mitsutek
mitsutek hat bereits an der ersten sequenz-vernissage gerockt, und ist als st.galler dj, netzwerker und partyveranstalter öppis. www.abbruchhaus.net
sister jane
«30er, 40er, 50er»
sequenz-visuals
brutti ma bouni - womit wir wieder beim thema wären. wer sie noch nicht kennt, sollte sie langsam kennenlernen, unsere hauseigene visualbande.das magazin sequenz soll in erster linie eine plattform für menschen bieten, welche sich mit sequenzieller grafik, oder der sequenz im allgemeinen sinne (dies sei nun zu erforschen) beschäftigen, jedoch nie die möglichkeit oder den mut hatten ihr schaffen der öffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. gleichzeitig soll es dazu anregen, sich mit diesem thema zu beschäftigen, neues zu schaffen, den rahmen der sequenz, wie dieser begriff bis heute definiert wurde zu erweitern.
nun greifet zu farbstift, startet den computer, spannt film in eure kameras, kritzelt geschichten und poesie und erhebet euch aus des klosters schatten und sequenzimentiert!
es gibt keine grenzen, keine regeln, keine vorschriften- nur einen rahmen: die sequenz. die definition sei dem schaffenden überlassen...
sequenz soll animieren, informieren und interessieren.
07 March 2007
exex: can you now return to from where you came
can you now return to from where you came
peter dew, petra elena köhle und nicolas vermot petit-outhenin> eröffnung donnerstag 8. märz 2007, ab 19 uhr
> mit einer einführung von matthias kuhn
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«can you now return to from where you came» ist der abschluss einer trilogie - nach «travelogue» (2004) und «warum die pilze hier und dort wachsen» (2005) - welche den narrativen möglichkeiten der kunst nachgeht. die frage ist ganz einfach: mit welchen mitteln erzählt die kunst geschichten? während die literatur sich fast ausschliesslich auf das medium buch beschränkt und geschichten linear erzählt, hat die visuelle kunst - im besten sinne des wortes - multimediale formen entwickelt, die vielschichtig, verzweigt und assoziativ funktionieren. die ausstellung «can you now return to from where you came» zeigt noch einmal zwei positionen, die sich in völlig unterschiedlicher art und weise narrativer techniken und strategien bedienen.
peter dew (*1967, lebt und arbeitet in st.gallen) ist ein sammler. er trägt materialien wie drähte, plastikteile oder hölzer zusammen und baut damit ganze universen, verbindet die absurdesten gegenstände zu kleinstskulpturen, fügt diese wiederum in grössere zusammenhänge ein und setzt sie zueinander in beziehung. seine installationen sind unübersichtlich und chaotisch und doch in den einzelheiten ordentlich und präzis. dews neuste installation «oh, but what if i want to go down that way?» gründet auf einem komplexen system von wegen, die als netzwerk die zum teil disparaten einzelteile zusammenführen, verbinden und zu einem einzigen geflecht von verweisen und bezügen - auch auf filme, songs und stories - verdichten.
petra elena köhle und nicolas vermot petit-outhenin (*1977, leben und arbeiten in zürich) reisten im frühling 2006 für ihr projekt «anche se non posso focalizzarti - sei nel mio sguardo» («auch wenn ich dich nicht sehen kann - du bist in meinem blickfeld») getrennt nach palermo. 21 tage wollten sie in der stadt leben und eine untersuchung über die wahrscheinlichkeit einer zufälligen begegnung führen. ausgerüstet mit fotoapparat, diktafon, notizblock und gps-gerät, das die wege durch die stadt aufzeichnete, verbrachten sie ihre tage flanierend und in der steten erwartung, den andern zufällig zu treffen, ihn in einem café sitzen, oder hinter der nächsten ecke auftauchen zu sehen. unter dem titel «über das eigenleben einer versuchsanordnung, oder von der unmöglichkeit keine geschichten zu erzählen» zeigen petra köhle und nicolas vermot eine dichte installation von texten und fotografien aus dem palermo-projekt.
projekteitung matthias kuhn
weitere informationen zum projekt unter http://www.visarteost.ch
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projektraum exex, oberer graben 38, 9000 st.gallen
telefon 071 220 83 50, e-mail exex@visarteost.ch
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projektraum exex, oberer graben 38, 9000 st.gallen
telefon 071 220 83 50, e-mail exex@visarteost.ch
öffnungszeiten: donnerstag 9 bis 12 uhr und 13.30 bis 17 uhr
oder auf anfrage
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alle veranstaltungen märz/april 2007
www.offoff.ch
bar zur lancierung des portals der off-spaces der schweiz!
- url http://www.offoff.ch
> freitag, 16. märz 2007, ab 19 uhr
> freitag, 16. märz 2007, ab 19 uhr
petra elena köhle & nicolas vermot petit-outhenin:
von der unmöglichkeit keine geschichte zu erzählen
von der unmöglichkeit keine geschichte zu erzählen
köhle/vermot lassen sich in gespräche über palermo verwickeln ...
> donnerstag, 22. märz 2007, 20 uhr, nocturne surprise um 22 uhr
<peter dew: the feeling arranger, the heavenly conductor and me, or:
a different story for every set of eyes
a different story for every set of eyes
peter dew legt musik von neil young auf.
> donnerstag, 5. april 2007, 20 uhr, nocturne surprise um 22 uhr
ON TOUR: kunsthaus glarus
sonntagsausflug zur ausstellung von köhle/vermot in glarus ...
- url http://www.kunsthausglarus.ch
> sonntag, 15. april 2007, st.gallen ab 10.02 uhr
> anmeldung bis 13. april 2007 unter webmaster@visarteost.ch
> sonntag, 15. april 2007, st.gallen ab 10.02 uhr
> anmeldung bis 13. april 2007 unter webmaster@visarteost.ch
matthias kuhn/alex meszmer: travelogue (remastered)
- url http://www.wortwerk.ch/travelogue
> donnerstag, 19. april 2007, 20 uhr, nocturne surprise um 22 uhr
> donnerstag, 19. april 2007, 20 uhr, nocturne surprise um 22 uhr
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exex präsentiert eine sight-hearing-tour durch st.gallen:
AUDIOMOBIL
blablabor (reto friedmann/annette schmucki), sven bösiger,
andres bosshard, karin bühler, marcel gschwend, häfligerohr
(hans häfliger/jürg rohr), matthias kuhn, silvan lassauer,
arno oehri & marco sele, andrea siering, hildegard spielhofer,
strotter inst., martina weber
25. bis 28. april 2007
(hans häfliger/jürg rohr), matthias kuhn, silvan lassauer,
arno oehri & marco sele, andrea siering, hildegard spielhofer,
strotter inst., martina weber
25. bis 28. april 2007
projektleitung karin bühler
06 March 2007
A.G. Corciulo: 1. Ausstellung von Gabriella Tundo
GABRIELLA TUNDO
MALEREI
VERNISSAGE FREITAG 9. MÄRZ 18-20 UHR
Im Atelier von Andrea G. Corciulo/ St.Gallen/ Lagerhaus/ Davidstrassse 44/ 2. Stock/ beschildert
Weitere Ausstellungsdaten:
SA. 10.03 / SO 11.03
SA. 17.03 / SO 18.03
JEWEILS VON 11 – 17 UHR
Gabriella zeigt ihre über das letzte Jahr entstandenen Insektenbilder.
Wir freuen uns auf Euren Besuch!
Herzliche Grüsse
Andrea + Gabriella
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