[NetBehaviour] Crisis at the ICA: Ekow Eshun¹s Experiment in Deinstitutionalisation

[marc garrett]

Hi all,

All the archives for netbehaviour are here - 
http://www.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/

So, if you have missed out on posts and discussions this would be the 
place to find them :-)

wishing all well.

marc
> Hi Simon,
>
> I agree with what you are saying here. As usual, the artists are pushed 
> aside like 'economical fodder' for the patriarch, in this case by a 
> ego-centric, journalist who is onto a good thing through, exploiting 
> sensational contexts whilst promoting his own position/status. The other 
> dodgey thing here is that Eshun, is actually quite high up within the 
> Arts Council himself, making decisions as a high-profile board member. 
> This surely has an influence on the outcome regarding how much support 
> they get from the Arts Council...
>
> Another aspect of the article I found curious was Eshen's idea of 
> exploring new territories which may relate to our own way of working, 
> some of the processes he has proposed seem to be influenced by media art 
> culture's own strategies in survival, as well as similar to festival 
> behaviours - I fear that all it means is that he will steal many of the 
> contemporary/imaginative ideas as part of a strategy to put himself and 
> perhaps like Nicolas Bourriaud's top-down related solution for moving 
> forward. Thus, exploiting the ideas of smaller groups like ourselves to 
> promote those who are already considered safe or viable items for 
> profile rather than content or 'real' change. So, supporting a 
> modernist, capitalist and neo-liberalism agenda in the guise of supposed 
> 'radicalism'.
>
> The power positions remain in place but the interface changes, just 
> another brand to sell...
>
> marc
>
>
> The main point of the article is that Eshun has sought to agrandise 
> himself and his position as a pundit in the media at the expense of the 
> ICA and the artists that support it and who are in turn meant to be 
> supported by it. This is what happens when journalists take over 
> cultural organisations. A bit like bankers taking over industries. The 
> new BBC arts blogger Will Gompertz was recently the focus of some 
> alarmed discussion as it became clear BBC Online has appointed a 
> journalist and marketing person as their key arts commentator. It could 
> be assumed that the UK arts scene is being taken over by such people. 
> The ICA was the original “artists’ run” space in the UK but has somehow, 
> over the past 60 years, transformed into a Hela cell. Perhaps it needs a 
> little chemotherapy – but I don’t think Eshun is part of the cure. For 
> him the art is irrelevant.
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> Simon Biggs
>
> s.biggs@ eca .ac.uk  simon at littlepig.org.uk  Skype: simonbiggsuk  
> http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
> Research Professor   edinburgh college of art   http://www. eca .ac.uk/
> C reative I nterdisciplinary R esearch into C o L laborative E 
> nvironments  http://www. eca .ac.uk/circle/
> E lectronic L iterature as a M odel of C reativity and I nnovation in P 
> ractice  http://www.elmcip.net/
>
>
> From: Jim Andrews <jim at vispo.com>
> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity 
> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
> Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:26:06 -0800
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity 
> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Crisis at the ICA: Ekow Eshun’s Experiment 
> in Deinstitutionalisation
>
> i'm only very remotely interested in what's going on at the ica, but the
> article was interesting in its picture of the relation of art and artists to
> the ica and, by extension, many other institutions of art.
>
> in the picture charlesworth draws, the art itself is irrelevant compared
> with the buzz, and the buzz not even about the art as the moment in which
> the art is situated.
>
> ja
> http://vispo.com
>
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