| The project group Reinigungsgesellschaft (RG) organized in collaboration with Bayerisches Haus Odessa (BHO) an exhibition and conference at the Museum of Contemporary Art Odessa, Ukraine. With the aim of a holistic view of cultural and social phenomena and with the objective to establish a dialogue on critical art practice, RG proposes an exhibition combined with talks and roundtable discussions. The exhibition The (Re)Socialisation of Art shows especially a younger generation of Ukrainian artists, who work conceptually and with a great deal of irony on different phenomena of society… |  |
Museum of Contemporary Art Odessa, Ukraine
The project group Reinigungsgesellschaft (RG) organized in collaboration with Bayerisches Haus Odessa (BHO) an exhibition and conference at the Museum of Contemporary Art Odessa, Ukraine. With the aim of a holistic view of cultural and social phenomena and with the objective to establish a dialogue on critical art practice, RG proposes an exhibition combined with talks and roundtable discussions.
The exhibition The (Re)Socialisation of Art shows especially a younger generation of Ukrainian artists, who work conceptually and with a great deal of irony on different phenomena of society, including Igor Gusjew, Igor Gusjew, Leonid Woizech, Oleg Gurenko, Dimitri Dulfan, Sergei Safra, Goscha Kuschir, Alexander Lisovski, Juri Pliss, Alexei Schapigin, Igor Tschumetschenko, and Alexander Schewtschuk. They aim at an intense dialogue with a wider audience to raise questions about cultural education, alternative forms of economy, and structures of existing institutions. The museum offers an appropriate initial point and connecting factor to mediate contemporary themes and questions.
The project examines the political function of contemporary art and determines positions from Eastern and Western European perspectives. The (Re)Socialisation of Art operates inside society as part of the artists’ action. Re-socialization can be understood as re-politicization. The project calls for a reclaim of the relation between art and social reality as a condition for political actionability and social liberty. It postulates responsible action and critical awareness of the activists. The (Re)Socialisation of Art forms an utopian imaginative space in order to be an object of reflection for society. The utopian space is a place where we try to develop alternatives, which are able to reform politics.
Frederic Jameson once said that we couldn’t have politics without imagination of an entire way of life. The current global financial and economic crisis occurs in the Western industrialized states especially as an identity crisis of economic and political institutions. The situation in many Eastern European and post-Soviet states is, in contrast to that, more existential. The turbo-capitalist development in its post-socialist form led to increasing gaps of prosperity. The hardly adopted democracy and free-market economy are on the test bed now. The question is which values gain importance when the Western ideology of growth fails as well as the utopia of the class-free society?
The financial and economic crisis offers multifaceted possibilities for a new positioning especially in the art world. Which effects do these economic and political aspects have in the field of contemporary art? Since the 1990s the art market has experienced a global growth spurt, and was pumped up by an increasing capital flow. Contemporary art was en vogue, and part of the internationally uniform understatement. During this period the emphasis was put more on money than on art content. This led to banality and overvaluation by art dealers.
The requirements and possibilities of state, private, and civil art institutions in Western Europe and in the Ukraine could not be more unequal. While Western Europe has a relatively compact network of different institutions, art associations, communal galleries, and public museums, there are only a few places that represent contemporary art in the Ukraine. The increasing influence of oligarchs in the Ukraine upon the issue what is defined as contemporary art and what is not remains questionable. There is a deficit of public and civil discourses on that issue. The basis for a transparent and open dialogue in order to form a critical and public opinion is missing because of this structural weakness. Artists are asked to determine their role in this context. It is of importance for all participants to become aware of the social responsibility of art.
