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In his 1974 essay, Art as Collective Action, Howard Becker argues that art is created in a complex context of cooperating parties that together form the art system. He rejects the idea of the genius artist who is superior to all the supporting personnel that make his creations possible. If he were writing now, he would give the example of an artist like Damian Hirst, who depends on a factory of people to produce and sell his work. |
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“the often exclusionary curatorial process is subverted in favor of a more democratic platform for exploration and collaboration.”
Paradis Garaj, 2010. Performance still. Courtesy of the artist.
Romanian Hospitality
Olga Stefan
In his 1974 essay, Art as Collective Action, Howard Becker argues that art is created in a complex context of cooperating parties that together form the art system. He rejects the idea of the genius artist who is superior to all the supporting personnel that make his creations possible. If he were writing now, he would give the example of an artist like Damian Hirst, who depends on a factory of people to produce and sell his work. All of these “support personnel” are as important to Becker as the artist himself, because together they form a collective that through collaboration manages to produce artistic works. The network that is established to make the art object possible is an elaborate system he calls the art world. It includes the conceiver of the artwork, the producers, the exhibitors, the translators of the work, the many people involved with promoting, marketing, and selling it, but also very importantly, the audience who needs to exist for the art object to be given life.
“Just Another Brick in the Wall” focuses on the different art networks working simultaneously in Romania, a country that is currently seeing a sort of Renaissance in its artistic output.
By inviting a diversity of groups to propose projects, including non-profit organizations, collaborative, and commercial endeavors, the often exclusivist curatorial process is subverted in favor of a more democratic platform for exploration and collaboration. The exhibition will explore the change in systems and how, in fact, from one system to the other, people still must find their place within this wall – the system. Even artists, generally so anti-system, must learn to fit within it (this will be explored also on the background of system-change in politics and economic models since 1989).
The show is titled after the Pink Floyd lyric as a double-entendre, alluding to the Berlin wall itself, and the change in political systems, but mainly to the idea that cultural workers and artists are also part of a system that they seem to forget and would rather ignore. Therefore, the show will also feature work regarding the new systems that are being formed in Romania, alternative or mainstream, and focused on a critical self-analysis. This exhibit will highlight certain questions such as: What is each participant’s role in the building of this system, reinforcing its current values, or altering it? What is one’s responsibility vis-à-vis this system, if any? Is an alternative really possible or is it a construct that turns into yet another system? Are we just another brick in this wall or can it be rebuilt?
*** Just Another Brick In The Wall is on view at Barbara Seiler Gallery, Zurich, CH from December 8, 2011-January 7, 2012
*** This article was published by NY Arts Magazine, 2011. NY Arts Magazine is published by Abraham Lubelski. Sponsored by Broadway Gallery, NYC and World Art Media.
