[-empyre-] Curatorial Studies

[Brian Holmes]

On 04/06/2012 06:45 AM, pedro wrote:

> not sure what you mean by a romance, susan, do you mean a fantasy ?

I was really kinda curious about that too... For sure, with the formerly 
democratic societies in a state of total corruption, basically on the 
edge of a new kind of fascism, and falling over that edge all the time, 
politicized art practices that unfold in institutionally sanctioned 
spaces often DO look like a fantasy. And when they don't, as in the 
example of LABoral that Pedro gave, well, such experiments are often 
closed down.

But what exactly do you think, Susan?

> in this sense i think its very important on any debate about curating
> to talk about open practises such as budgets being well documented and
> communicated with the artists and public, the willingless to let
> processes unfold outside of the narrative framework determined, what
> licenses are used, the role (or absence) of collective processes, the
> documentation ...

I'd like to hear more about the above, because those are serious 
questions about the practice of curation, which otherwise are usually 
tied so closely to the power structures of the capitalist/oligarchical 
state which Ana talks about, that I tend to lose all interest. If you 
want to check out what I mean by total corruption, read Andrea Fraser's 
recent article "L'1% c'est moi," whose title indicates a very productive 
anxiety about who we might be becoming in the world of art. And check 
out the prototype of her and Jennifer Gradecki's "Artigarchy" project 
which I hope will go viral and relieve Fraser of the evidently useless 
and fruitless search for some institution that would "take it on" (I 
think no such institution exists at present):

http://toddusandronicus.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/andrea-fraser-1.pdf

http://jennifergradecki.com/artigarchy.html

There is also quite an interesting video (I actually love this thing) 
that was made a few years ago by Marysia Lewandowska and Neil Cummings, 
about the possible transformation of art institutions. It's called 
"Museum Futures: Distributed." It was commissioned by the Moderna Museet 
for their 50th anniversary, and the strategy of the video is to take the 
the commission quite seriously and project 50 years into the future to 
see what an institution might become if Pedro's basic ideas - what you 
might call democratic common sense - were actually implemented. If you 
listen closely to what is being said, you realize that the new 
institution only emerged after a great economic crisis and a period of 
major social unrest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW6RbAXSo6I

There are three parts to the YouTube upload. The script by Neil Cummings 
can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/museum-futures

subvert and enjoy, Brian