[-empyre-] Fw: nationality, contextual issues and exhibition at Documenta 12, forward from Lucio Agra

[christina mcphee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

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forward from Lucio Agra:



>I felt the same, but concerning other aspect: the lack of context regarding to artist's nationality did not bother me so as the lack of context of some work pieces. I can speak for at least one artist (but I felt it in various others), the brazilian LuÃs Sacilotto - historical participant of the Ruptura group in Brazil, co-founder of brazilian concrete art. His work deserved a far more representative ensemble of pieces and not the only one that is showed, which works to furnish an analogy to other pieces that are far from his (Sacilotto's) poetics. 
>I would like also to mention some great omissions and misunderstandings. Again I can only speak about the artists I know: one (not brazilian) artist showed a documentation about Candomble in Brasil (Salvador) and Cuba, beyond other references he quoted in a collection of pictures. The problem is that he shows a book and reproductions of a very famous brazilian artist (not one of my favourites, I would say) named CarybÃ, without giving any credit to him (at least not at the exhibition space). I also felt the absence of Wang Qing Song in the chinese context, although it can be considered under the argument of curator's choices. 
>best
>Lucio BR
>
>
>2007/7/19, christina mcphee <christina112@earthlink.net>:
>Hi, this post from Christiane had formatting problems.  Here forwarded. -cm
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Christiane Paul, Curatorial
>Sent: Tue 7/17/2007 4:16 PM
>To: soft_skinned_space
>Subject: RE: [-empyre-] "national representation" at Documenta 
>
>By the way, Documeta did not list any national affiliation on their labels, that is, there was no indication of the national origin of an artist. I can't even remember having been to an 'international exhibition' where this was the case. I know many people appreciated this (I can see why) but given the main theme of Documenta -- "migration of form" -- this proved to be (one instance of) a highly problematic contextual omission for me. There was such a lack of contextual information (national origin being just one aspect) that, in the end, the connections between formal elements in a work remained almost the only foundation on which to construct meaning. One could argue that, in the age of globalization, this is precisely what we do all the time: adopt and import elements of other cultures and understand them on the basis of how they relate to familiar elements in our respectively own culture. But shouldn't an exhibition such as Documenta offer possibilities for a deeper "reading" and provide context that allows to look at the specifics of cultures rather than enhance the superficial readings that are supported by "cultural gloabalization"? 
>Christiane
>


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