THE PROCESS
BUT HE DIDN'T GET THIS PROCESS INTEGRATED
Lecture at Upgrade Skopje Chain Reaction
TOCKA Cultural Center Skopje, MK
3rd Upgrade International Meeting
We can approach the Soros network of art centers as the largest scale funding sheme for the arts with an ideological background.
Given the impact international cultural funding has today on artistic production in Europe, it might be relevant to look at the Soros Centers as an example of a large scale international funding scheme taking its ideology, managerial procedures and cultural effects into account.
After two years of working in the CCCK project focussing on local artistic contexts in Ukraine we have started to focus on the effects of the restructuring of the public and cultural realm through the Soros Art Centers. Especially considering that the countries of Soros activity have been designated as transitional countries, we may ask:
Why has contemporary art provided such a promising discipline?
How are its values corresponding to that underlying the open society ideology?
In view of the underlying concept of the open society?
How has the replacement of Socialist Realism with contemporary art in many countries aided to restructure social relations, and arts social position?
As a means of transition?
Which procedures of structuring artistic production and arranging its logics of visibility have been established through the Soros Art Centers?
Where does that contemporary art derive from that we all are so used to and which is being promoted as the desireable cultural product of our societies?
QUOTATIONS READ AT THE END OF THE LECTURE
THE FIRST INSTITUTES OF CONTEMPORARY ART, AS WE KNOW THEM TODAY, WERE LAUNCHED IN THE UK (LONDON ICA, 1946) AND USA (THE BOSTON ICA, 1948). BEFORE WWII THE EXPRESSION ìCONTEMPORARY ARTî WAS ALSO USED SPORADICALLY TO NAME ARTIST ASSOCIATIONS, GALLERIES OR PUBLICATIONS, BUT THEN THE PHRASE DID NOT HAVE THE SAME SYSTEMATIC CHARACTER THAT IT WOULD ACQUIRE AFTER THE WAR, FIRST NAMING KEY ART INSTITUTIONS, THEN SPREADING GRADUALLY TO BECOME A NEW GLOBAL INSTITUTIONAL MODEL.
Octavian Esanu. The managed avant garde. Published by CCCK at Periferic 8 Biennial for Contemporary Art. Art as Gift
WE MIGHT START TO UNDERSTAND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS THE SOROS CONTEMPORARY ART CENTERS NETWORK AS THE PRODUCTION OF AN INSTITUTIONAL SPACE THAT REMAINS EMPTY. THIS SYMBOLIC SPACE INSTITUTES A SYSTEM OF RELATIONS THAT PROMOTES PURE CIRCULATION, PRECISELY WITHOUT HISTORICITY. IT FOLLOWS AN EXPANSIVE LOGIC THAT AIMS AT INFINITE NEGOTIATIONS ñ EFFECTIVE LIKE SPECULATION. IF THIS IS TRUE, WHAT EXPERIENCE IS AT OUR DISPOSAL HERE? WHAT KIND OF TERMINOLOGY ARE WE TO FOLLOW IN ORDER TO APPROACH A HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE THAT HAS BEEN RESHAPED AND THAT HAS GONE LOST AT THE SAME TIME? Sönke Hallmann. Excerpt from CCCK project
ON THE AESTHETIC LEVEL THIS TRANSITION WAS MANIFESTED IN THE ATTEMPT TO BREAK WITH THE DOCTRINE OF SOCIALIST REALISM, WITH ITS AESTHETIC AND IDEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES; ARTISTS WERE ENCOURAGED TO WORK WITH NEW MEDIA WHEREAS ART HISTORIANS WERE TO WRITE NEW ART HISTORIES, WHICH WOULD EVOLVE AROUND THE NARRATIVE OF THE FORMERLY SUPPRESSED NON-CONFORMISM. ECONOMICALLY THE SCCAS PROVIDED EXPERTISE FOR DEVELOPING LOCAL NETWORKS OF WESTERN STYLED PRIVATE AND CORPORATE ART INSTITUTIONS CAPABLE OF ACCOMMODATING TO THE LOGIC OF THE FREE MARKET. AFTER ESCAPING THE IDEOLOGICAL AND MATERIAL CONTROL OF THE STATE THE CENTERS WERE TO HELP LOCAL ARTISTS ADJUST TO A NEW ORDER, DEVOTING A GOOD PART OF THEIR EFFORTS TO CULTURAL MANAGEMENT AND FUND RAISING. Octavian Esanu. The managed avant garde. Published by CCCK at Periferic 8 Biennial for Contemporary Art. Art as Gift
AFTER THE WALL, ñ ART FROM POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE. THE FIRST AND THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WITH REGARD TO ITS IMPACT, WAS ORGANIZED AT THE OCCASION OF THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF DISMANTLING OF THE WALL, AND IT TOOK PLACE IN MODERNA MUSEET IN STOCKHOLM IN 1999. IT IS INTERESTING THAT THE ORGANIZATION OF MASSIVE EASTERN ART EXHIBITIONS WAS MORE OR LESS SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE FADING OUT OF SOROS FUND DONATIONS AND WITH THE FIRST MENTIONING OF CULTURAL INDUSTRY AS A PRIMARY GOAL FOR THE LOCAL MINISTRIES OF CULTURE. THOSE PROCESSES IN CULTURE AND POLITICS WERE EMPHASIZED BY THE USE OF THE TERM ìNORMALIZATIONî, FREQUENTLY MENTIONED IN THE CATALOGUE OF THIS EXHIBITION, AS THE UMBRELLA-TERM FOR THE OTHER KEY-WORDS OF THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM. ALL THE TEXTS IN THE CATALOGUE OF AFTER THE WALL EXHIBITION REFLECT POST-COLONIALISM IN THE CONTEXT OF DE-SOVIETIZATION OF EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, BUT NEGLECT THE NEW FORMS OF COLONIZATION ACCOMPANIED BY NEW IDEOLOGIES AND NEW HEGEMONIES. Jelena Vesic. (An)other Publication
INSTITUTIONALIZATION, DOMESTICATION, ADMINISTRATION, AND MANAGEMENT REFER TO A SERIES OF STRATEGIES OF CONTAINMENT OF WESTERN ART AND CULTURE. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY SUGGEST A WAY OF KEEPING UNDER CONTROL THE POLITICAL ACTIVISM AND THE SOCIAL AND AESTHETIC UTOPIAS THAT WERE AT THE HEART OF THE CLASSICAL AVANT-GARDE.
Octavian Esanu. The managed avant garde. Published by CCCK at Periferic 8 Biennial for Contemporary Art. Art as Gift
DIVERSITY AND COHESION: THESE ARE WHAT CHARACTERISE EUROPE TODAY.
AGE-OLD DIFFERENCES AND NEW URBAN REALITIES PRESENT THEIR OWN CHALLENGES, TO ARTISTS, TO CULTURAL WORKERS, AND TO PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. WE GO OUT TO MEET THESE CHALLENGES HEAD-ON, IMPROVING SKILLS, DEVELOPING POLICIES, SO THAT PEOPLE IN EUROPE CAN LIVE CREATIVELY AND AT PEACE WITH DIVERSITY. LEADING CULTURAL ACTIVISTS AND EXPERTS FORMULATE STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS TO MOVE CROSS-CULTURAL COOPERATION AHEAD IN CHALLENGING TIMES European Cultural Foundation. Website
POST FUNDING
[brochure]
TRY TO FIND ANOTHER COW
[round table discussion]
AND PRIVATE INVESTORS APPEAR
[article]
A SHORT INSTITUTIONAL AFFAIR
[exhibition]
WHO ARE THOSE WE?
[talk]
EXTERIORS
[catalogue]
HE LAUNCHED A MACHINE
[lecture]
SPEAKING OF A GAP
CAN CAUSE DOUBLES [exhibition]
