[-empyre-] Fwd: Call for e-action | Venice Biennale |Manifesto

Kristine Stiles awe3 at frontier.com
Sun Jun 12 06:05:35 EST 2011


Tim,

Sorry for the unfinished sentences below - I was in a hurry to get to  
the farm to take care of my horse.

I meant to write: "I read Johannes' statement as saying that he did  
not find "loveable...the rhetorical manifesto." To that comment I  
would add that all rhetoric is not the same, and if it is all folded  
together and reduced to a "performative condition of art," then can  
anyone say anything about anything?" But now let me also add (after  
thinking further about the issue of rhetoric), that I prefer to take  
the manifesto seriously and not just as a piece of rhetoric. In doing  
so, then, it's language is critical and makes all the difference in  
how the text can be interpreted, and that means -- in addition to the  
serious subject it purports to raise -- taking into account passive  
aggressive the ad hominem attack on Nicolas Bourriaud (named only  
metonymically through the mention of "relational aesthetics") to the  
attack on everyone from "artists" to "chit-chatters" (a funny word  
that made me smile).

Kristine

On Jun 11, 2011, at 12:50 PM, Kristine Stiles wrote:

> Tim,
>
> As someone who has written on behalf of the disenfrancised and  
> traumatized for my lifetime, I am in sympathy with any constructive  
> critique of the current situation, but not one that reduces its  
> attack to those staying in nice hotels and drinking in cafes. As for  
> defending the stateless, one of the first artists I ever wrote about  
> (some 30+ years ago) was the, then, stateless artist Gustav Metzger.  
> As I read Johannes' statement as saying that he did not find  
> "loveable...the rhetorical manifesto." To that I would add that all  
> rhetoric is not the same, and if it is all is folded together and  
> reduced to a "performative condition of art," then can anyone say  
> anything about anything?
>
> Kristine
>
>
> On Jun 11, 2011, at 10:27 AM, Timothy Murray wrote:
>
>>> Kristine,
>>
>> I understand your impatience but I'm wondering whether me might be  
>> able to appreciate  this intervention to be in line and solidarity  
>> with the kind of thinking about immigration, mobility, and  
>> extrastatecraft posited, say, by Keller Easterling in her work on  
>> infrastructure or by Arjun Appadurai on stateless migrants and  
>> aspiration.   Perhaps we could understand this manifesto to  
>> "inhabit" or "squat" in the spectacle it condemns precisely to  
>> foreground rhetorically (and isn't rhetoric a formal and  
>> performative condition of art?)  the conditions that Johannes  
>> articulates.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>>> I concur with Johannes. I find nothing interesting in the  
>>> manifesto's
>>> hubris, self-importance, and sophomoric lack of empathy and  
>>> curiosity (to say nothing of understanding) of those it critiques.  
>>> Finally, the manifesto exemplifies the spectacle it condemns.
>>>
>>> Kristine
>>>
>>> On Jun 10, 2011, at 9:32 AM, Johannes Birringer wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Not sure what there is,  so lovable,
>>>> about the rhetorical manifesto (Stateless1 Pavillion  
>>>> Biennale.jpg)  of futile gestures,
>>>> and the proposal to squat between the fascist monuments (german  
>>>> and  italian
>>>> pavilions) in the Giardini, if one were to travel to Italy,
>>>> that would require a passport, no?  and a Biennale ticket?
>>>> when I became a stateless citizen of the State in Time (NSK
>>>> issued the virtual passports in the mid 90s), i tried to enter
>>>> the U.S. with it but no such luck.
>>>> anyway, to those on the ground there, the pirates,
>>>> my best wishes
>>>>
>>>> regards
>>>> Johannes
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>> I absolutely love this!
>>>> xl
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Jun 8, 2011, at 8:37 AM, Ricardo Dominguez wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I will let the group that developed this gesture speak for  
>>>> itself  (also a short manifesto as .jpg attached):
>>>>
>>>> On 5/27/11 3:35 AM, statelessimmigrantspavilion at riseup.net<mailto:statelessimmigrantspavilion at riseup.net
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We, the Anonymous Stateless Immigrants, will construct a "Stateless
>>>> Immigrant's Pavilion" by occupying the Giardini during the Venice
>>>> Biennale (June 5-15), pirate style, and we need your help!
>>>>
>>>> This is a call for participation to claim space for stateless
>>>> immigrants in between the erected pavilions of all the nations  
>>>> for a
>>>> sit-in with tents, bbq, music, dancing, etc. In solidarity with the
>>>> Spanish Revolution and other emancipatory movements, our actions  
>>>> are
>>>> closely aligned with our brothers and sisters all over the world  
>>>> who
>>>> are struggling against the suffocating encroachment of capitalism  
>>>> in
>>>> all its manifestations and forms. Advocating nomad-ism, autonomy  
>>>> and
>>>> anonymity as alternatives to the representational border politics
>>>> inherent within the structure of the biennale itself, this is a  
>>>> call
>>>> for artists, activists and local people of Venice to join us!
>>>>
>>>> You could do so by replying to this email for further  
>>>> organizational
>>>> support or forward it to relevant people in your network. More
>>>> information about our statement can be found attached, but please  
>>>> do
>>>> not hesitate to contact us directly for more info etc!
>>>>
>>>> statelessimmigrantspavilion[at]riseup.net
>>>>
>>>> Ps: This is not a mass email! our and your anonymity is  
>>>> important  for us!
>>>>
>>>> I did not attend VB and have only considered the event via this   
>>>> gesture
>>>> and this union strike:
>>>>
>>>> "Italian unions certainly know how to get a point across. At the   
>>>> last Venice Bienale, in 2009, workers at the international   
>>>> exhibition went on strike<http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/moma-preview9-29-09.asp
>>>> >, protesting the degeneration of working conditions and  
>>>> picketing  the Giardini in August. This time around it was the  
>>>> vaporetto  operators who called the "manifestazione," meaning  
>>>> that service on  the affordable water buses had been shut down  
>>>> for 24 hours in  protest of labor conditions. This being Venice,  
>>>> where private water  taxis run a cool ¤60, and where the only  
>>>> other alternative to  vaporetti is walking miles of twisty,  
>>>> staircase-ridden calli (narrow
>>> > streets), there were a lot of blisters and missed art at the
>>>> Biennale today. Chalk one up for the vaporetto union. (Some of  
>>>> the  tonier exhibitions fought back, however - the Prada  
>>>> Foundation and  François Pinault both supplied water transport to  
>>>> ferry press and  VIPs to their shows.)?
>>>>
>>>> But I do think the questions you asking about the performative   
>>>> matrix playing out at VB in terms of routing around
>>>> the question of the "Global Citizen" and transborder_bodies in  
>>>> terms  of presence - even as a frame of a question is
>>>> definitely out of the question for the state-driven definition  
>>>> of  art that state's internal crisis (as in the case of the tactic
>>>> that you mention for Mexico etc.,) - but perhaps this has always   
>>>> been the case for VB specifically (since Hitler came by and
>>>> probably before) and the problem for most most Biennales in  
>>>> general.
>>>>
>>>> But to be clear this is all from a distance.
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Ricardo
>>>>
>>>> On 6/8/11 7:58 AM, Timothy Murray wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Thanks, Ricardo, for letting us know about this action.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm wondering if you would mind saying a bit
>>>> more about the context of the action : "In order
>>>> to maximize impact and attempt to gain
>>>> visibility for
>>>> nameless, anonymous, stateless, non-represented
>>>> global citizens at theVenice Biennal."  In
>>>> thinking about this month's discussion topic,
>>>> Renate and I were hoping that the list would
>>>> address precisely this kind of disparity between
>>>> the (non)-representation of "global citizens" at
>>>> the Venice Biennale and those endorsed by
>>>> state-sponsored representation.  It's also
>>>> interesting to note that some national pavilions
>>>> seem this year to be engaging in an end run
>>>> around this thorny issue (i.e. Mexico) by
>>>> featuring non-national artists in national
>>>> pavilions.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>>
>>>> Tim
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> <Stateless1.jpg>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
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>>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
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>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Timothy Murray
>> Director, Society for the Humanities
>> http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
>> Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
>> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
>> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
>> A. D. White House
>> 27 East Avenue
>> Cornell University
>> Ithaca, New York 14853
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>

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