Hi Everybody,
Not to diverge too much from the current trend, I thought it would be
great to add a few side comments. I was thinking of those lines that
stemmed from a discussion between Robert Nickas and Xavier Douroux,
curator of Le Consortium in Dijon. While writing the text for Nickas
exhibition's Red at Gallerie Isy Brachot in Bruxelles, where he indeed
only shown red artworks, Douroux coined those few lines:
1. The curator can make the exhibition (le commissaire peut
construire l'exposition)
2. The exhibition can be put on (l'exposition peut etre montee)
3. The exhibition need not be realised (l'exposition n'a pas besoin
d'etre realisee)
And as another transversal approach to our lovely interest in
curation, here is a little text by Bob Nickas, as everybody seem to
have those questions such as what on earth are we, and until we can
finally make exhibition without art artists and spaces, and as after
all so many seem to see the curator as the great compiler, why not
compile those few lines myself!
Hope you will enjoy those and that you will come back to curating new
media with a bright new light, and not try as so many have said in
past few month here to apply straight onto this new system we try to
think and create the old and worn out system that underlines museums.
Voila,
Mathieu Copeland.
PS sorry Mr Nickas to make this text open source, but I am sure one
appreciate much more the notoriety than the fee.
Robert Nickas
Live free or Die,
Les Presses du reel, 2000.
A Rejected Text: A/Drift
In the summer of 1996, Josh Decter asked me to contribute an essay to
the catalogue being published to accompany his exhibition A/Drift,
which was organized for the Center For Curatorial Studies Museum at
Bard College, where he was teaching at the time. When I asked what the
show was about, it was difficult for Josh to give me a clear idea of
what he was doing, although he assured me that I could write what I
wanted to write. his only words of guidance were: " you know what to
do. " But then the invitation card came in the mail, with the names of
80 or 90 artists floated around a half dozen subtitles, and I began to
see why it had been so hard for him to describe his own show, The card
gave me the feeling that the trendiest contents of art magazines and
exhibitions of the last five years were suddenly on instant replay.
After seeing the show for myself - albeit at the opening/"rave" -I
still didn't know exactly what it was about, but I did have an idea
for my text. The Center for Curatorial Studies is a place where
students learn about organizing show's, and since I have had some
experience in that line of work, it made sense to take A/Drift
literally, as a jumping-off point, and write for the students, to give
them something they might use or at least be amused by - and be able
to use that. Unfortunately, as I soon came to realize, Josh may have
encouraged "drifting " in his show, but it wasn't going to be
tolerated on the parts of those who were asked to write for the
catalogue. Even though he had told me that I could write what I
wanted, he felt that my text was overtly critical of him and his show.
I thought he had possibly identified a little too closely with some of
the points l' d made - had seen himself in them - and might have been
more satisfied had he simply told the writers what he expected of us.
( Of course, there is some measurable difference between people who
write and people who take dictation, and the two should never be
confused.) He also couldn't comprehend that I might very well have
implicated myself in my own text. But maybe Josh was right after aIl.
In defending my text I had been reminded of that song - "You're so
vain, you probably think this song is about you " - and told him so.
And despite my insistence that I was not "Carly" and he was not "Mick,
" he still refused to publish the text in his catalogue. ( Oddly
enough, item number 18 almost came true, but that's another story.)
Now, setting aside the distinct possibility that I might be completely
delusional, when someone tells me that I can do what I want, I tend to
believe them. At least I would like for it to be true- at least in
this culture. And although it was Josh Decter who had devoted an
entire issue of his Acme Journal to the topic of "Cultural
Permissions," I guess the rules of the game must really change when
you 're the one doling out the permission slips. Back at school, I had
to wonder what was being taught to, potentially, this next wave of
curators, and how those "Iessons" would shape or distort their views
of what it means to exhibit works of art. And I had to hope that when
they began to organize shows of their own they would, at the very
least, be able to say just where it was they were heading, and in
doing so, be able to take us there.
Anchors Aweigh
Some Advice for Those About to Enter:.. Show Business
I. You cannot exhibit a work of art without good reason. To do so is
to have abducted an object. Any text you write is thus no better than
a ransom note. Ask for your fee in unmarked bills, no larger than
twenties.
2. Never, ever exhibit a work of art in a show in which the artist has
not agreed to take part. Unless the artist is dead, without an active
estate, and you honestly don't believe in the afterlife.
3. You can't sail without an anchor.
4. When placing the work of two artists in relation to each other,
avoid three-dimensionalizing pictorial elements. If an artist wants to
construct a picket fence and place it on the floor in front of their
painted landscape, they can surely do it by themselves. Your mise en
sc=E8ne is nothing more than mis-representation. The hybrid "third
work" is a myth.
5. Do put works next to each other that wouldn't in a million years
seem to belong together. You probably won't have seen it before, and
if a suggestive space does open up between them, no one has to know it
was a shot in the dark.
6. "You don't need permission to participate in culture."
7 . Only go to openings if you 're invited.
8. If you do sleep with a young artist, you must be convinced that his
work will be of interest to others, and for more than a season. After
aIl is said and done, it is the exhibition which should be well-hung.
9. Of the '60s, Andy Warhol once said, "You were never sure whether
you were getting to know the person or the drug the person was on."
Think about this when offered cat tranquilizer.
10. The only reason to tell someone you liked their show is if you
did.
II. Keep your honest opinions about art reviewers to yourself.
Otherwise, your shows will be panned or ignored in the local papers,
as will the work of those artists you support. Objective journalism
and petty retaliation are Dot entirely incompatible.
12. Gifts from artists are only acceptable if the gesture acknowledges
sincere appreciation for something you have done, rather than for what
you will do. Gifts are not bribes.
13. Artists you have selflessly championed for years who give you
nothing are cheap.
14. Experience is to be found in the everyday, in the world in which
we live. The "monastic retreats" of Pasadena and New Haven are
symptoms of withdrawal. Wave a white flag and go to sleep.
15. The Unconscious is to be explored thoroughly as the only site of
truth-magic available to you free of charge, night after night.
Remember, dream time is prime time.
16. If you don 't have a TV, get one.
17. When you're paid to write by the word, keep in mind that footnotes
don 't count.
18. Get half your money up front before you push even one single piece
of paper, and if you don't have an agreed upon "kill fee", you're
dead.
19. Life is no performance.
20. If you curate shows and you also make art, you are absolutely
disallowed, under any circumstances, to include yourself in your
shows. Those who do should be flogged, pants down, in the town square.
21. The public, as a rule, doesn't like public art.
22. "Art is to change what you expect from it."
23. No matter how grievous your crimes - financial, ethical or
spiritual - everyone has nine lives in the art world. Christian
forgiveness is alive and well. Amen.
24. Try to remember that you are at play, Dot a power player, and in
the end we are, every one of us, reduced to dust. So you're going to
be finer and more powdery. So what.
25. If all else fails, have fun and fuck things up.
Written in 1997, previously unpublished.
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