Passion for Art
November
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November 2011
What does curating the 2012 Abraaj Capital Art Prize exhibition mean for you?
It offers a wonderful opportunity to be very closely involved in the creative process of five leading MENA artists. Each artist and project has its own rhythm and way of working, so it’s quite exciting to witness these five trajectories develop in parallel, and see a project transform from its initial proposal on paper to its material manifestation. The artistic process is a narrative-in-the-making: choices are made, others are discarded. To track and trace these narratives respectively for all five projects, and then find a contextualising form - discursive as well as in display - will be my challenge.
Could you give a brief overview of the structure of the ACAP 2012 winners’ exhibition?
In previous years the ACAP prizewinners’ work was exhibited separately, more a showcase than an exhibition. I would like to try and create a coherent platform for the works, and a viewing experience wherein all the projects become more than the sum of their parts, wherein moving from one work to the other will sediment layers of meaning for the viewer. Luckily all five projects have enough common thematic strands to attempt such an experiment. The task at hand is not only to create an intellectual environment that facilitates this, but also a material and spatial one. Remember, we are not in an arts venue, but in Madinat Jumeira, a lush hotel. So we will have to find a way to transform the space into a space conducive to the works, and the affects and ideas they convey.
What is the specific role of curatorial practice in relation to the production of meaning and knowledge at work in this project? Do you see your role as that of an auteur?
Well, I definitely do not see myself as an auteur. More as someone who navigates between a bird’s eye view and a magnifying glass in terms of contextualising meanings and possible interpretations. For the production of new work, the conversation with the artists is always key. The artistic process is the moment that knowledge is accumulated in a very specific way. That trajectory of tapping into various knowledge bases is not always encapsulated or obvious in the final work. So the publication can try to disclose that journey for every individual artist, and also provide additional frameworks to place, understand and appreciate the work. Nevertheless, in the end, artworks are stubborn things. They have a way and will of their own. As a curator you can attempt to facilitate, and direct that. However, the ultimate conversation and production of meaning will always be the intimate encounter between the viewer and the work.
How many works will be displayed from each artist? and art forms?
Each artist or artist duo produces one new work for ACAP, so inevitably you will have five very different art forms. Many artists also combine disciplinary practices, which range from media art, drawing, photography, to work with textiles, ceramics, and installation.
How would you determine the success of this project?
If the artists manage to produce work that does justice to the complexity of their practice, and if I manage to make an exhibition and publication that does justice to the latter, then I will be very pleased.
On a personal level, you have a strong background as a new media art curator, can you share some writers, curators or exhibitions that have inspired and shaped your practice?
I came to media art in the mid-90s through “cyberfeminism”, a feminist strand led by artists, media theorists, scientists, activists and girl geeks. My academic background is in literature and in gender studies, and in “cyberfeminism” I found something new, creative, cheeky and extremely energetic. Here were a bunch of women who were showing that technology was not just toys for the boys, but that women have always been instrumental to technological development. Similar to what feminist literary critics did in the 1970s, these women were rewriting historical technological narratives. On the art side you had collectives such as OBN (Old Boys Network) and VNS Matrix, who produced art, symposia, workshops and manifestos. On the academic side you had the grandmother of it all Donna Haraway (author of the fantastic but often misquoted A Cyborg Manifesto), and a slew of feminist standpoint epistomologists who researched the gender bias in science, here Evelyn Fox Keller, Helen Longino and Sandra Harding come to mind. I am also a big fan of communication philosopher Vilém Flusser (1920-1991). Apart from developing theories on design, photography, media and communication, he also wrote beautifully about exile, creativity and on being a migrant. In his essay “Exile and Creativity” he wrote:” Habit is like a cotton blanket. It covers up all the sharp edges, and it dampens all noises. It is unaesthetic (from aisthesthai=perception), because it prevents bits of information from being perceived, as edges or noises.” I could not agree more: in life and in art, one should keep the sharp edges.
What was the last project you worked on before you were selected to curate ACAP 2012?
The last few years I have been concentrating more on writing, but when ACAP selected me, I was in the middle of conceptualising a project for a venue in Cairo together with New York-based curator Niels Van Tomme. The project is titled Strategic Patience, a diplomatic term introduced by the Obama administration. Through an international exhibition, publication, workshops and lectures, we want to explore the grey zone in which opposing notions of patience and impatience, suspension and persistence, stasis and mobility play off against one another. The project intends to focus more on poetics than directly on the political. We had thought of the project before the uprisings in the Arab world took form. In and by itself the so-called Arab Spring can be seen as an eruption of “strategic patience”. At this moment it is a bit unsure if the political developments in Egypt will allow us to stick to our time schedule, but let’s see.
What is the latest integration of new media art into the common arts field?
Tough question. I have always felt that the new media art world, and the contemporary art world are quite segregated and the two hardly meet. Recently though, they might be moving a bit closer. In that respect, hovering between the two, I am a bit of a red herring. I always felt that they have so much to teach other: the new media art world has been pushing interdisciplinary collaboration (out of necessity) and “open source” ways of working (in content and strategy) far before it became fashionable in the contemporary art world. The contemporary art world on the other hand, could teach the new media art to shy away from the technophilic, and focus more on content, the curatorial and issues of display. With video art being shown all over the world, we see that all kinds of art institutions and collections grapple with questions around preservation, storage and what conceptually constitutes the “core” of a work.
Is it possible that a collection that is more about hyperlinks or simultaneity than linearity is the collection of the future?
No, I don’t see a virtual collection ever replacing a material collection. The experience of art is so much about proximity and sensing the presence of a work in terms of texture, spatial configurations, scale, etc. There is art that is specifically produced for the internet (for example net.art), but this type of practice takes the aesthetics and format of the technological platform into account; it is work that is inextricably linked to the medium. It is made to be viewed on the net. For example, showing it offline in a museum would just not make sense; it would undo the particularity of the work. Similarly, it would not make sense to show material work as jpgs on a site only. If anything - and this brings me back to your previous question - we have witnessed in contemporary art and in media art - a return to materiality.
What do you see as the major challenges for media art curators today?
Media art curators in Europe, as all other art workers nowadays, face similar challenges. In a European political climate of populism and of economic austerity, there’s little goodwill towards arts and culture. Art budgets, which make up a tiny fraction of governmental spending, are being slashed on unprecedented scales. The investments in artistic and cultural infrastructure and the respective knowledge bases created, the past 30 years, are coming apart rapidly. Everything is cast in terms of the market. But not everything of value is quantifiable in terms of money! This is something art workers have to keep insisting on. If this trend of cultural and social erosion continues we will be left with a very grey, intellectually impoverished and bland society.
For media art in The Netherlands, where I live, the future looks very bleak. From 2013 the Dutch government will scrap all its funding for e-culture. This means that the existence of many media art institutions in The Netherlands becomes uncertain. It threatens an incredible expertise built over decades, platforms for experiment and discussion, as well as whole collections of media art, which need specialized care in terms of archiving, preservation and storage.
Media art workers and art workers should work more closely together, and should work in solidarity with other parts of the population hit by the austerity measures. Only if they create a larger social base, will they be able to make a case. If public transport services, school teachers and hospital staff can go on strike to voice their demands, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we go on strike?
Finally, what are your thoughts about the dynamic and the role that you think individual curatorial conceptions, or ideas for shows plays in institutional identity?
Ideally there is a synergy between curatorial practice and institutions. You can view institutions in two ways: as static monoliths or as dynamic entities. The former is becoming outdated as a concept. In order to survive and remain relevant institutions have to be more than just buildings. They have to be places where ideas germinate, meanings are created, and opinions are contested. They have to be able to take risks and re-invent themselves. Now of course this is easier said than done. But set formulas have an expiry date and models which worked a decade ago might not seem effective today. In order to ensure that institutions keep thinking out of the box, and keep their approach fresh you need to bring in people who will think in a curatorial fashion about institutions and how they work. These people are not necessarily curators; they are artists, designers, critics, architects, theorists and of course the audience.
It offers a wonderful opportunity to be very closely involved in the creative process of five leading MENA artists. Each artist and project has its own rhythm and way of working, so it’s quite exciting to witness these five trajectories develop in parallel, and see a project transform from its initial proposal on paper to its material manifestation. The artistic process is a narrative-in-the-making: choices are made, others are discarded. To track and trace these narratives respectively for all five projects, and then find a contextualising form - discursive as well as in display - will be my challenge.
Could you give a brief overview of the structure of the ACAP 2012 winners’ exhibition?
In previous years the ACAP prizewinners’ work was exhibited separately, more a showcase than an exhibition. I would like to try and create a coherent platform for the works, and a viewing experience wherein all the projects become more than the sum of their parts, wherein moving from one work to the other will sediment layers of meaning for the viewer. Luckily all five projects have enough common thematic strands to attempt such an experiment. The task at hand is not only to create an intellectual environment that facilitates this, but also a material and spatial one. Remember, we are not in an arts venue, but in Madinat Jumeira, a lush hotel. So we will have to find a way to transform the space into a space conducive to the works, and the affects and ideas they convey.
What is the specific role of curatorial practice in relation to the production of meaning and knowledge at work in this project? Do you see your role as that of an auteur?
Well, I definitely do not see myself as an auteur. More as someone who navigates between a bird’s eye view and a magnifying glass in terms of contextualising meanings and possible interpretations. For the production of new work, the conversation with the artists is always key. The artistic process is the moment that knowledge is accumulated in a very specific way. That trajectory of tapping into various knowledge bases is not always encapsulated or obvious in the final work. So the publication can try to disclose that journey for every individual artist, and also provide additional frameworks to place, understand and appreciate the work. Nevertheless, in the end, artworks are stubborn things. They have a way and will of their own. As a curator you can attempt to facilitate, and direct that. However, the ultimate conversation and production of meaning will always be the intimate encounter between the viewer and the work.
How many works will be displayed from each artist? and art forms?
Each artist or artist duo produces one new work for ACAP, so inevitably you will have five very different art forms. Many artists also combine disciplinary practices, which range from media art, drawing, photography, to work with textiles, ceramics, and installation.
How would you determine the success of this project?
If the artists manage to produce work that does justice to the complexity of their practice, and if I manage to make an exhibition and publication that does justice to the latter, then I will be very pleased.
On a personal level, you have a strong background as a new media art curator, can you share some writers, curators or exhibitions that have inspired and shaped your practice?
I came to media art in the mid-90s through “cyberfeminism”, a feminist strand led by artists, media theorists, scientists, activists and girl geeks. My academic background is in literature and in gender studies, and in “cyberfeminism” I found something new, creative, cheeky and extremely energetic. Here were a bunch of women who were showing that technology was not just toys for the boys, but that women have always been instrumental to technological development. Similar to what feminist literary critics did in the 1970s, these women were rewriting historical technological narratives. On the art side you had collectives such as OBN (Old Boys Network) and VNS Matrix, who produced art, symposia, workshops and manifestos. On the academic side you had the grandmother of it all Donna Haraway (author of the fantastic but often misquoted A Cyborg Manifesto), and a slew of feminist standpoint epistomologists who researched the gender bias in science, here Evelyn Fox Keller, Helen Longino and Sandra Harding come to mind. I am also a big fan of communication philosopher Vilém Flusser (1920-1991). Apart from developing theories on design, photography, media and communication, he also wrote beautifully about exile, creativity and on being a migrant. In his essay “Exile and Creativity” he wrote:” Habit is like a cotton blanket. It covers up all the sharp edges, and it dampens all noises. It is unaesthetic (from aisthesthai=perception), because it prevents bits of information from being perceived, as edges or noises.” I could not agree more: in life and in art, one should keep the sharp edges.
What was the last project you worked on before you were selected to curate ACAP 2012?
The last few years I have been concentrating more on writing, but when ACAP selected me, I was in the middle of conceptualising a project for a venue in Cairo together with New York-based curator Niels Van Tomme. The project is titled Strategic Patience, a diplomatic term introduced by the Obama administration. Through an international exhibition, publication, workshops and lectures, we want to explore the grey zone in which opposing notions of patience and impatience, suspension and persistence, stasis and mobility play off against one another. The project intends to focus more on poetics than directly on the political. We had thought of the project before the uprisings in the Arab world took form. In and by itself the so-called Arab Spring can be seen as an eruption of “strategic patience”. At this moment it is a bit unsure if the political developments in Egypt will allow us to stick to our time schedule, but let’s see.
What is the latest integration of new media art into the common arts field?
Tough question. I have always felt that the new media art world, and the contemporary art world are quite segregated and the two hardly meet. Recently though, they might be moving a bit closer. In that respect, hovering between the two, I am a bit of a red herring. I always felt that they have so much to teach other: the new media art world has been pushing interdisciplinary collaboration (out of necessity) and “open source” ways of working (in content and strategy) far before it became fashionable in the contemporary art world. The contemporary art world on the other hand, could teach the new media art to shy away from the technophilic, and focus more on content, the curatorial and issues of display. With video art being shown all over the world, we see that all kinds of art institutions and collections grapple with questions around preservation, storage and what conceptually constitutes the “core” of a work.
Is it possible that a collection that is more about hyperlinks or simultaneity than linearity is the collection of the future?
No, I don’t see a virtual collection ever replacing a material collection. The experience of art is so much about proximity and sensing the presence of a work in terms of texture, spatial configurations, scale, etc. There is art that is specifically produced for the internet (for example net.art), but this type of practice takes the aesthetics and format of the technological platform into account; it is work that is inextricably linked to the medium. It is made to be viewed on the net. For example, showing it offline in a museum would just not make sense; it would undo the particularity of the work. Similarly, it would not make sense to show material work as jpgs on a site only. If anything - and this brings me back to your previous question - we have witnessed in contemporary art and in media art - a return to materiality.
What do you see as the major challenges for media art curators today?
Media art curators in Europe, as all other art workers nowadays, face similar challenges. In a European political climate of populism and of economic austerity, there’s little goodwill towards arts and culture. Art budgets, which make up a tiny fraction of governmental spending, are being slashed on unprecedented scales. The investments in artistic and cultural infrastructure and the respective knowledge bases created, the past 30 years, are coming apart rapidly. Everything is cast in terms of the market. But not everything of value is quantifiable in terms of money! This is something art workers have to keep insisting on. If this trend of cultural and social erosion continues we will be left with a very grey, intellectually impoverished and bland society.
For media art in The Netherlands, where I live, the future looks very bleak. From 2013 the Dutch government will scrap all its funding for e-culture. This means that the existence of many media art institutions in The Netherlands becomes uncertain. It threatens an incredible expertise built over decades, platforms for experiment and discussion, as well as whole collections of media art, which need specialized care in terms of archiving, preservation and storage.
Media art workers and art workers should work more closely together, and should work in solidarity with other parts of the population hit by the austerity measures. Only if they create a larger social base, will they be able to make a case. If public transport services, school teachers and hospital staff can go on strike to voice their demands, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we go on strike?
Finally, what are your thoughts about the dynamic and the role that you think individual curatorial conceptions, or ideas for shows plays in institutional identity?
Ideally there is a synergy between curatorial practice and institutions. You can view institutions in two ways: as static monoliths or as dynamic entities. The former is becoming outdated as a concept. In order to survive and remain relevant institutions have to be more than just buildings. They have to be places where ideas germinate, meanings are created, and opinions are contested. They have to be able to take risks and re-invent themselves. Now of course this is easier said than done. But set formulas have an expiry date and models which worked a decade ago might not seem effective today. In order to ensure that institutions keep thinking out of the box, and keep their approach fresh you need to bring in people who will think in a curatorial fashion about institutions and how they work. These people are not necessarily curators; they are artists, designers, critics, architects, theorists and of course the audience.
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"The artistic process is a narrative-in-the-making: choices are made, others are discarded. To track and trace these narratives respectively for all five projects, and then find a contextualising form - discursive as well as in display - will be my challenge"
Nat
ACAP 2012 Guest Curator
Muller