From one European country come revealing words which express the embattled position Curators can find themselves in. One of the post-'communist' but in effect monarchical societies newly adjoined to Europe, wishing for the full benefits of freedom, yet reveals to us a stark example of a Curator openly seeking to be bulletproof. This Country x is decided upon moving its national Museum of Modern Art , and rooting it within the broad context of 'international art'. Departing from a previously super-controlled artistic milieu, we find a curious re-imposition of yet another super-control which appears, by submission to a close coterie of multinational Curators, to echo a very similar super-control.
Drawing upon support garnered by personal contacts, as within a professionally fraternal milieu, the aim would appear to be the imposition of freedom under an imposition of practise defined via this close if international group. Just as the original Communist origins previously affecting this country could be seen to have originated within beneficial idealism, so the international Curatorial nexus, as close and controlled as any Communist Party structure, appears to believe itself equally beneficent.
The words of the leader-Curator reveal a sense of being as embattled as the original Communist Party internationalists, and the jargon is but little changed between the present representative of 'freedom' and the old original Soviet ideologues. A curious support within the international Curatorial 'scene' is visible, indeed claimed, as prop against reactionary elements and negative forces. The selected few, representatives of the ultimate in revolutionary thinking, determined upon freedom, bring to the nationally local the firepower to withstand internal reactionaries. The chief Curator shows, by the claim to thereby have become 'bulletproof', an exact picture of the present trans-national Curators as Comintern-like members.
The analogy exists within reality to such extent that once again it is advisable to limit the links normally so desired in publishing, though the 'leadership' referred to will of course recognise themselves in what are selected quotes from an interview of the national Curator:-
"It is actually very difficult to convince the press to get their attention towards something else beside killings, dirt and scams. Generally, we do not have time to sing praises to ourselves (not forgetting that about 90% of what [country x] mass-media hails as a cultural phenomenon is obsolete, made by epigones and with no value abroad - and it is extremely difficult for us to convince them to do otherwise. Falsehood is overwhelming us: false values, false modesty, a culture of mediocrity, when we have all the possibilities not to be like this; and the absence of money…"---------------
"I have very little time to write. I am taking care of =m presentation texts to the international partners and press and travel to conferences abroad to inform about the "emerging" [country x] art. I write almost exclusively in the foreign press. The public there is prepared for the type of discourse that I maintain and this is the case for my colleagues."-----------------------
"[Director], you are the [country x] curator with the most extensive international CV"--------
"a few young specialists would give you two answers to the question about their profession: curators, what are they really, and 'museographers', what are they"-----------
"We are an extremely united team.... Thus we are here about 4-5 "curatorial brains", each with a remarkable CV....the coordinator of New Media Department will work as transferred specialist......was.. the assistant curators at the Venice Biennale(the ignorant malevolent spoke badly)...& ,artist and curator, earned a lot of international prizes of digital art"-------------------
"The museum director, xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx, is undoubtedly the charismatic personality able to realize this project in [Country x]"--------------
"visits - lately more frequent then ever, of international contemporary art personalities who arrive here at our invitation or because they have heard about the major project of a contemporary art museum"----------------
"the most prestigious theorists of contemporary Art"----------------
"This is also how we co-opted the members in the international board, achieved on the basis of personal friendships, as well as on the very firm commitment of [country x's modern art museum]'s new location"---------------------
"The board is a reference to obtain international legitimacy and to get access in networks of significant cultural cooperation. The board members, outstanding personalities on the international scene, will be supportive (in fact, they already are) and I hope that they will succeed to offer a "passage-way" for [Country] artists to the international contemporary phenomena."-----------------
"The members are:"
="almost mythical international curatorial figure, the gallery owner who launched =b"
="ex-Director =n Institute for Contemporary Art, now free-lance"
="director =a magazine, Paris"
="art theoretician, curator and Director of =p Paris"
=" video artist and media theoretician"---------------------------------
....."The =r public it is not very familiarized with what is going in the visual field world-wide"-------------------------
--------********:::::::"At the international level we are, as it seems, "bulletproof" "::::::::********--------------
"it is said to be for the first time when something like this takes place, and the successful outcome belongs to a large degree to me....and =y .. who succeeded in overcoming the suspicions and endemic 'bad-faith' that naturally appears when something 'constructive' is undertaken"-----------
"because there were enough exclamation marks in the press, of a more or less negative connotation... inauguration will take place around two-three international exhibits, coming from Musée d'Art xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Paris, Palais de xxxxxxx and probably xxxxxx xxxxxx from Madrid, a series of site-specific interventions, which are addressing directly to the complicated history of the place, and an exhibit which I am responsible together with M, provisionally entitled =xxxxxxx[country] artist"-------
" A poor artist in the computer era doesn't work anymore, the romantic cliché is worn out."-------------------
"the emergence of a dynamic public, adaptable to changes, capable of a constructive dialogue with the artistic phenomena"-----------------
"public (in its majority retrograde in the visual area, less so the young generation), and on the other, a handful of specialists and artists internationally renown[ed], less so here (they don't have a dialogue with the press, not to mention with television), who continue to "fight the wind-mills" "-------------------
"We hope to do our work at international parameters, not local..."------------
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