"Arts organisations sometimes have to make difficult decisions, and in  
this case we have regretfully supported the ICA's decision to close  
the Live & Media arts department." The Arts Council, UK, http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2008/oct/23/ica-live-arts-closure

"Sometimes leaders have to make difficult decisions. This is one of  
those times for the Walker and for every museum in the country, due to  
economic conditions beyond our control... there are times in the life  
of every organization when it simply cannot afford to implement the  
dreams of a visionary leader like Steve Dietz. " Kathy Halbreich's  
response to the net art community, 2003, http://www.mteww.com/walker_letter/halbreich_letter.html

A little bit of history repeating? Maybe. Maybe not. It's right to say  
that, whenever an istitution "has to make difficult decisions", it  
cuts its media arts department. But my feeling is that we usually fail  
in pointing out the real reasons for this. Is Media art too radical?  
Does it defeat the rules the contemporary art world is based on?  
Mmmmh. I think that Beryl pointed out the real problem when she wrote:  
"I think it is more the case that Bourriaud simply won't have seen any  
of the good artists that we know and love - he's probably seen the  
fine art version of video - where portentousness, size and duration  
are often mistaken for depth." But why Bourriaud - who, with  
Postproduction, wrote a wonderful essay on the consequences of the  
information age on non-media art - didn't see these works? Because  
they are little or not present in the "right places" (the right books,  
the right magazines, the right institutions, the right biennals, in  
galleries and art fairs). And why does it happen? Because we, are  
critics and curators, do little or no effort to bring them there. We  
don't do it for laziness, for ideological reasons (we are against the  
market and the religion of contemporary art) or simply because working  
in a confortable niche is easier than working on the edge, or fighting  
on a broader, competitive arena.
The result is that many people on the conteporary art scene doesn't  
understand why they should invest so many money on an art form that  
they never see in Art Basel, at Documenta or in the Turbine Hall.

Obviously, the things are changing. Etoy and Mongrel were in Manifesta  
this year, not as a separate media art section, but as part of a good  
curatorial project. Think to exhibitions such as Maquinas & Almas and  
Deep Screen, and to the books Beryl mentioned. There is an hard work  
to to, and WE have to do it. WE have to stop complaining and licking  
our wounds. This is a bankruptcy strategy - it never changed anything.

Sorry for my sermon-like style. And, just to avoid misunderstandings:  
the adjective "right", in the sentence above, does not have any moral  
value. The "right places" are just the places that are able to  
influence and change people's idea of art.

Bests,
d

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Domenico Quaranta

mob. +39 340 2392478
email. [log in to unmask]
home. vicolo San Giorgio 18 - 25122 brescia (BS)
web. http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are  
incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful  
beyond imagination." Albert Einstein