[NetBehaviour] Crisis at the ICA: Ekow Eshun's Experiment in Deinstitutionalisation
Curt Cloninger
curt at lab404.com
Thu Feb 11 19:21:53 CET 2010
Hi Helen (and all),
It seems to me that for an artist, the next tactical turn is to not
bother about the next tactical turn (don't bother to make it; don't
bother to refuse to make it). The next move is to follow the topics,
interests, and concepts of one's own practice, however long they may
take to develop, into whichever communities of shared interest they
may lead (on or off the popular radar). The less dependent one's art
is on any particular "tactical" approach ("institutional critique,"
"hacktivism," "relational aesthetics"), the more free it is to pursue
its own peculiar ends. Indeed, what fruitful, monstrous, utterly
irrelevant situations may emerge?
If I spend all my energy making art that seeks to avoid being
commodified by the spectacle, I'm always already being influenced by
the spectacle. It seems almost a requisite, then, to be willing to
move into art practices that don't necessarily involve "art"
(writing, design, urban planning, nursing, geology, advertising). It
is not a matter of outpacing institutions; it may be a matter of
using institutions to make moves that reverberate beyond institutions
(beyond museum systems, gallery systems, biennial systems, new media
festival systems, academic seminar systems, online art discussion
group systems). Then one begins addressing larger forces without
being constrained to act solely within the sandbox of "art," which is
itself always already modulated by larger forces.
Best,
Curt
> With participatory,conversational, collaborative, temporary, fluid
>approaches all being appropriated so quickly into institutional
>policies and communication being commodified by social networking
>sites.. has really made me wonder what the next 'turn' will have to be
>in artists tactics
>
>What new approaches will emerge?
>
>best
>Helen
>www.helenpritchard.info
More information about the NetBehaviour
mailing list