SCOPE Miami, SCOPE New York

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
Shoe Horn, 2002
Mixed media, 11 x 5 x 4 in.
Courtesy INVISIBLE-EXPORTS

Miami 08’s Most Talked About Art Fair Draws A Record 30,000 Visitors

Scope New York 09 Announced

http://www.scope-art.com

MIAMI–Huge crowds embraced SCOPE’s raw floored pioneer spirit, fueling sales and shifting focus from tough economic times to notable optimism. SCOPE Miami 08 hosted its 90 exhibitors from 22 countries in a new 60,000 square foot pavilion centrally located at Midtown Miami. Undeniably the most talked-about fair during this year’s Olympics of the art world, Miami’s original emerging contemporary art fair drew an enthusiastic audience of 30,000 art world VIPs, collectors, and art lovers as it returned for its seventh year December 3-7.

Recent new comers to SCOPE, included ARATANIURANO | Tokyo, Ark | Jakarta, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS | New York, Jacob Karpio Galeria | San Jose, Like the Spice | Brooklyn, Y Gallery | Queens, Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels | Vienna, and Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska | Salzburg all reported strong sales with Jacob Karpio exclaiming, “SCOPE is the pioneering fair to break the monopoly in the market, opening the door for galleries around the world and providing viewers with a real-time survey of emerging art. SCOPE took a risk and was a huge success.” Benjamin Tischer of INVISIBLE-EXPORTS beamed, “Traffic was wonderful, the new location brilliant. I had a consistent stream of visitors telling me that SCOPE was the busiest fair.”

Sarah Douglas of ARTINFO reported, “Despite the gloomy global economic conditions, things seemed, rather improbably, to be chugging along over at the SCOPE fair and its new sister event, ART ASIA.” SCOPE Miami’s dynamic partnership with ART ASIA, maintained unique identities with separate pavilions, presenting a combined 135 exhibitors from over 36 countries. The partnership helped to increase audience attendance while attracting new collectors, curators and press. Expanded museum quality programming, which included a well-attended lecture series, was a result of this new partnership. Both fairs look forward to a similar relationship with ART ASIA’s debut in Basel, Switzerland on June 10th, 2009.

“This year, SCOPE definitely was my favorite fair, not only because the work for sale was superb, but their commitment to inviting local artists and musicians to take part in the festivities is refreshing,” said Jose Duran of the Miami New Times. Spotted early at the SCOPE Pavilion were collectors Beth Rudin DeWoody, Richard and Eileen Ekstract, Michael and Susan Hort, Stephanie Igrassia, Arnold Lehman, Takashi Murakami, Todd Oldham and Charles Saatchi. The SCOPE Collectors’ tours attracted members from Art in Embassies, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Christie’s Education-New York, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Miami Art Museum, MoMA, National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, The Phillips Collection, RBC Financial Group, Smithsonian American Art Museum, TATE Modern, and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Much viewed and reviewed, programming at SCOPE was curated by the SCOPE Foundation, newly named the ARTIST FOUNDATION 501 (c)(3), Miami 08 Foundation highlights included:

Museum Presents
SCOPE’s third edition of Museum Presents, Narrative/Non-Narrative: Contemporary Artists from the CIFO Programs, a nonprofit exhibition focusing on Latin American artists co-presented and curated by The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO).

Collector Mentorship Auction
SCOPE’s Collector Mentorship Auction also celebrated its third auction with competitive bidding for its ten collectors: Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Lisa Kirk, Arnold Lehman, Kathryn Mikesell, Dennis Oppenheim, Dennis Scholl, Nancy Seltzer, Andres Serrano, Rob Teeters, and Ultra Violet. Past participants included Louisa Buck, Melva Bucksbaum, Frank Cohen, Bob Colacello, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Eileen and Richard Ekstract, John Friedman, Raymond Learsy, Arnold Lehman, Adam Lindemann, Enrique Norten, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Lowell Pettit, Julia Peyton-Jones, Kay Saatchi, Kenny Schachter, Terrie Sultan and Rick Wester. The fourth edition of the CMA will reach outside of the art world to include titans of industry, tastemakers, and iconoclasts.

ARTIST FOUNDATION
Thirteen ARTIST Projects were presented, included: The Girl Project, GLOWLAB, mr.brainwash, and Matthew Porter’s Startled Birds. FriendsWithYou’s Fun House, transformed SCOPE’s VIP Lounge into an interactive bounce house, a crowd favorite.

Returning galleries posted strong results with Toby Clarke from the Fine Art Society (FAS) reporting that Annie Kevans, who only joined the gallery three months ago, sold 12 portraits, all priced at 4,300 USD, while a painting by Keith Coventry went for 40,000 USD and another by Stephen Goddard for 27,800 USD. “Long time SCOPE exhibitor Helmut Schuster of Galerie Schuster | Frankfurt/Berlin commented, “SCOPE is no longer a satellite fair and has made its mark for presenting the young and emerging contemporary artists. SCOPE is what collectors and curators want to see- the buzz about the fair is proof! I thought because of the problems in the market that it would be harder to sell, but the first day relieved all my anxieties.”

With total sales of over 100 million USD and attendance of over 250,000 visitors, SCOPE Art Fairs have drawn wide media attention including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Art in America, and ArtNet Magazine, which wrote, “Of the various art fairs in Miami, it was SCOPE that served up the best and most playful energy, both inside and out.”

NEW YORK-Building on SCOPE Miami’s overwhelming success, SCOPE launches the 09 season returning to New York for the eighth year with its flagship invitational fair, March 4-8. SCOPE New York 09’s third year located at Manhattan’s iconic Lincoln Center on the corner of 62nd Street and 10th Avenue just blocks from the Armory Show will be serviced daily by VIP cars, shuttles and pedicabs.

Last year SCOPE New York featured galleries from four continents and 20 countries, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This year SCOPE New York 09’s 50 international exhibitors will continue to uphold its unique tradition of one-person and thematic group shows presented alongside museum-quality programming, collector tours, screenings, and special events. To apply, please visit http://www.scope-art.com

SCOPE Art Fair, Inc. 355 West 36th Avenue 3rd Floor | New York, NY 10018 | T: 212.268.1522 |
F: 212.268.6258

Contact Adman Abdalla at adam@susangrantlewin.com with all press inquires.

For more information on SCOPE’s tours, programming, and visitor information,
please visit http://www.scope-art.comb

Carlos Garaicoa Studio
invites you to the opening of:

The Observatory
A project for Castleford
17 January - 27 March 2009

2 Sagar Street Gallery,
Castleford, England WF10 1AF

You are warmly invited to the private view on Friday 16 January 2009 in the presence of the artist, to be opened by Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

1.30pm exhibition preview
2pm speeches
2.30pm ‘art in the public realm’ panel discussion with Carlos Garaicoa, Robert Powell
(Executive Director, Beam), Alison Drake (Chair, Castleford Heritage Trust) and
chaired by Dr Helen Pheby (Deputy Curator, YSP).
4pm open house to Castleford residents

Carlos Garaicoa is a Cuban artist of international acclaim whose practice considers architecture as the biographer of place. In 2003 Garaicoa was invited by Arts Council England, Yorkshire, to create a work of art for Castleford, the birthplace of Henry Moore. Garaicoa felt a strong connection with the place: its rich history and heritage, a sense of melancholy about its recent fortunes and a hopeful energy for its future.

This exhibition presents three models by Garaicoa of a conceptual cultural centre for the town and contextualising work. The models are sculptures in their own right, but also suggest the possibility of a building that incorporates the town’s Roman ruins, a meeting space whose floor is a direct representation of the town as seen at night, and an observatory. The floor, entitled ‘How the earth wishes to resemble the sky’ functions as a didactic model leading to 200 carefully chosen books and a multimedia library; a gateway to learning about the town.

Castleford’s complex and multilayered history is revealed through the building and includes an evolving memory landscape of the place being built by its residents and visitors. The three works from ‘The Observatory’ series are complemented by recent sculpture, photographs and paper works from the artist’s collection.

Funded by Arts Council England, Yorkshire, and realised in collaboration with Yorkshire
Sculpture Park and York St John University, The Observatory is a poetic and beautiful, yet realistically possible, response to the artist’s time in the town and with its residents.

More info: garaicoaestudio@carlosgaraicoa.com

Please RSVP by 9 January 2009 at helen.pheby@ysp.co.uk, 01924 832511

John Miller / Richard Hoeck “Camouflage…” 2008

“Camouflage..” by John Miller with Richard Hoeck (2008) currently sponsored by KOER – Kunst im oeffentlichen Raum Wien. (www.koer.or.at) has been extended until 31. January 2009

„Camouflage…” is a project initiated by Independent curator, Michael Hall to John Miller to re-consider an earlier work (but little known) of his entitled “Mannequin Lovers” which originally appeared at Paula Cooper Gallery, 2002. “Mannequin Lovers” was a simple mannequin ‘peeking’ out window of the Chelsea storefront confusing the line between gallery and boutique forcing viewers expectations of an ‘art’ experience - were they supposed to look at the clothes or the object itself as sculpture? Miller asked the other artists in the group show to re-dress and re-position the mannequin(with Paula Coopers clothes) further confusing the role of the artist and the autonomy of the sculptural object.

For KOER, Miller chose to make a new work together with Richard Hoeck, they have collaborated on several project since 1998- including the film “Something for Everyone“ (2005). “Camouflage…” is 2 mannequins ( 1 man, 1 woman) wearing a variety of hunting/military/fashion outfits and carrying rifles. Presented in a public context, the casual passer-by must negotiate the meaning of the work without the aid of an particular (art or fashion) context.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions regarding the frame of the project.

(photos and additional text available upon request)
additional info:contact / michael_hall@gmx.at
http://michaelhallgalerie.blogspot.com

Nordrhein-Westfalen

Ayşe Erkmen
Netz (Detail), 2006
Baumwolle handgeknüpft, Maße variabel
Courtesy Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
© Ayşe Erkmen, 2008

Ayşe Erkmen – Hausgenossen
November 11, 2008 - January 17, 2010

Nordrhein-Westfalen
Ständehausstraße 1
40217 Düsseldorf
+49 (0) 211.8381-600

http://www.kunstsammlung.de

The Turkish artist Ayşe Erkmen has set up an installation beneath the glass cupola of the K21 that is designed especially for this vast and spectacular space. Her piece – a textile structure that is essentially plaited into the roof steel construction – concentrates on the skin of the containing architecture. The large, colored lengths of fabric delineate the structure’s essential contours, not unlike an architect’s building survey.

The artist has charted a path between architectonic integration and autonomous artistic gesture, so that both literally and metaphorically, her work occupies an intermediate zone. The textile material not only subtly modifies the structure, coloration, and illumination of the space, but also relativizes the dominance of technology, thereby generating a new “atmospheric environment.” The remainder of the space under the cupola remains empty - except for a single sculpture having barely the width of a hand, a depiction of Erkmen herself produced in a scanning process by her colleague Karin Sander. Displayed elsewhere is the tangle of a textile strip into which Erkmen’s first and last names have been woven.

The works of Ayşe Erkmen always develop from the actual givens of specific locations. Her points of departure are preexisting spatial, formal, or societal structures. Her pieces are characterized by extreme economy of means: she seeks less to add something new to a given space than to take up and reinterpret elements that are already present. In all of their material and emotional dimensions, the spaces with which she engages are not only occasions for interventions, but also essential co-actors. Erkmen is committed to no definite style, nor to any single medium. Her works extend from architectonic and urban interventions, to objects, text, writings, and videos, and all the way to acoustic structures. Hers are works for the present, for a particular moment of experience. With few exceptions, they disappear again at the close of a given exhibition – although a few may resurface in altered form at new locations.

The artist lives and works in her birthplace of Istanbul as well as in Berlin. Her works have been exhibited in numerous international museums and galleries, and she has participated in many exhibitions, including the biennials in Berlin, Kwangju, and Istanbul, the Manifesta, and the Münster sculpture projects. A retrospective of her works is currently on view at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Berlin.

Also on public view in conjunction with the K21 project will be a sculpture created for the roof of the NRW.BANK (located in the museum’s immediate vicinity), which will be visible from nearby streets. Both projects are documented with commentary in a catalog scheduled for release in late 2008.

Bloom in Gloom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bloom in Gloom – Emerging Talents from China

January 16 – Feburary 21, 2009

Opening reception: Friday, January 16, 6:30-8:30pm

Location: G/F, 1 Shin Hing Street, Central, Hong Kong

gallery EXIT is pleased to present “Bloom in Gloom”, an exhibition of paintings by six emerging talents from China: HUANG Zheng, DENG Yu, DENG Bin, LU Pei, MEI Zijia and MO Di.

These six artists, born in the 1980s, originate from South China and currently work between Beijing and Guangzhou. Their fresh and emotive worldview gives shape to an artistic language typical of their youthfulness: hints of the rebellious, miserable, pathetic, melancholic, fashionable, comical, disoriented, aspiring and curious are often detected in their work. All these traits open a window into how this generation experiences the world.

With intimate language, HUANG Zheng captures the ambiguous identity of the female subject by observing, voyeuring, analyzing and translating what he sees in order to question the social construct of a woman. Such fixation is carried out by painting detailed close-ups of a woman whose body and mind are in bondage. The paintings of DENG Yu are filled with fashionable fantasy and manga-ish sensibility. Her fluid yet precise compositions make free use of pop icons and symbols to achieve a subtle and virtual world of endearing colors. With melancholic tone and impressionistic color palate, DENG Bin reveals the solitary and petty side of being human. His works evoke an uncertain undercurrent of fear and anxiety. LU Pei employs the language of abject realism. By depicting the accumulation of discarded cigarette butts in a burnt plastic bottle, he humbly observes and draws with care that which is not loved. It arouses in us a disquieting feeling of helplessness in the face of the ab!
andoned.
There are hints and early signs of a Chinese Gothic style emerging in MEI Zijia’s violent and enigmatic paintings. The overlapping layers of black and white photo imagery are brought into sharp contrast with the colorful, eye-dizzying conglomeration of fragmented anatomic figures, flowers, butterflies, newspaper clippings, and cartoon icons. MO Di colorfully portrays the hesitancy of a teenager in search of self identity. The possibility of youthfulness – be it introverted, self-doubting, confident or even narcissistic – is brought into play.
These six artists came of age during China’s reform and opening up. Their joys and sorrows in the journey towards self-liberation will be witnessed in the bustling city of Hong Kong.

For further information and images, please contact Doris Wong (9499 4395) or email us at info@galleryexit.com
gallery EXIT was launched in October 2008 with a purpose to exhibit progress and ambitious works in all media that seek to go beyond the boundaries of nationality and discipline. The gallery acts as a platform to collaborate with artists to realize their projects and long-term relationships that promote understandings and awareness of their work.

BARACKING THE VOTE - BOOK COVER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE”

Anahi DeCanio, who recently had a photograph included in “Barack Obama Person of the Year 2008″ Issue published by TIME Magazine, has just completed the publication of her photography book “BARACKING THE VOTE” - a photojournal from the streets.
The book chronicles support for President Barack Obama by the everyday actions of “ordinary” Americans who made the extraordinary happen.
Street scenes, murals, graffiti, polls and political rallies capture the essence of a movement for CHANGE!
For additional information and a photographic preview, please visit Blurb Books at
http://www.blurb.com/books/528323

Extra City

Justine Frank
from The Stained Portfolio (51)
1927–1928
Courtesy: Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv

Justine Frank (1900-1943):
A Retrospective
Roee Rosen
9 January - 8 March 2009

Opening and book launch:
Thursday, January 8, 2009 / at 19.00.

Curator: Hila Peleg

Extra City
Tulpstraat 79,
2060 Antwerp, Belgium

http://www.extracity.org

Extra City presents the first-ever European retrospective of the work of Jewish-Belgian Surrealist and pornographer Justine Frank; this work has not been exhibited in Belgium since her death in 1943. Frank was born in Antwerp, lived in Paris and died in Tel Aviv. Recent inquiries concerning her life, her ethics and her aesthetics continue to yield contradictory responses and create controversy. Frank was active during several crucial junctures of Twentieth Century culture, yet at each of those junctures she seems to have generated antagonism and confusion in those around her. Frank was a Surrealist during the movement’s most radical phase, yet even within that audacious circle they had a problem stomaching her artistic concoction of explicit erotic imagery and Jewish iconography.

The current exhibition contextualizes a large selection of Frank’s paintings by including the cinematic portrait Two Women and a Man (2005), directed by the artist and writer who played a major role in Frank’s recent revival from obscurity, Roee Rosen.

This exhibition will be accompanied by the release of the English version of Roee Rosen’s book Sweet Sweat, published by Sternberg Press (Berlin, NY) and co-produced by Extra City. Sweet Sweat is the title of Justine Frank’s only book, a scandalous novel, now forgotten, written in French in 1931. This edition of the book also contains Frank’s biography as well as extensive commentary on the historical and cultural contexts of the novel.

“What are you doing after the orgy?” Jean Baudrillard once perversely asked. I would answer: “Just read Roee Rosen.” Rosen came after the orgy, and he knows it. With Sweet Sweat, he is bringing in for a last call all the erotic avant-gardes of the West. But he can only do it with a vengeance – by writing himself into the picture. Erudite, baroque, dazzling, maniacal, and all-encompassing in his approach, Rosen keeps erasing the fine line that separates fiction and truth, imagination and reality, just as Sade and Lautréamont have done before him. But he is also keenly aware that this division doesn’t exist anymore and that all one can do is hallucinate over its existence. What makes his summa erotica erotic is that for him, as for Georges Bataille, pornography is philosophy. - Sylvère Lotringer

Roee Rosen is an artist, writer and lecturer; he was born in Israel in 1963, where he currently lives and works.

A public presentation by Roee Rosen will take place on Saturday, February 14, at 18.00.

The project is supported by the Brandes Family Art Collection, Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv, and the Israeli Embassy in Belgium.

Extra City benefits the support of: Vlaamse Ministerie van Cultuur, Jeugd en Sport, Stad Antwerpen, (H)ART, Klara, Bureau Bouwtechniek, Mampaey, Jaga, Zumtobel, Levis, Koning Boudewijnstichting.

Extra City

Opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday 14.00 – 19.00
/ Thursday 14.00 – 20.00
Closed on public holidays. Guided tours for groups and schools on request.
Press contact: katrien.reist@extracity.org - T +32 3 677 16 55

Affirmation Arts

PS: Parsing Spirituality
Curated by Micaela Giovannotti

January 10 - February 17, 2009
Opening Reception
January 10, 2009 6-9pm

Affirmation Arts
523 West 37th Street
New York, NY 10018
212.925.0092
http://www.affirmationarts.com

Affirmation Arts is pleased to present the most recent exhibition from international curator Micaela Giovannotti opening January 10th 2009. PS: Parsing Spirituality examines the recent resurgence of spirituality in contemporary art. Featuring artists: Janine Antoni, Sebastiaan Bremer, Melissa A. Calderon, Gordon Cheung, Graham Caldwell, Andrea Galvani, Dan Kopp, Ivan Navarro, Lisa Ross, Courtney Smith, Xaviera Simmons, and J. G. Zimmerman.

“Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions”
(Concerning the Spiritual in Art, W. Kandinsky.)

After being neglected for quite some time, spirituality has risen to the surface in contemporary art. Spirituality based on religious belief has been part of art history since the dawn of time. Art has both advertised and glorified religions, but contemporary art has generally distanced itself from the spiritual realm, focusing its lens on formal and conceptual tenets. Not surprisingly, as often happens in times of secular uncertainties and political and economic turmoil, there is currently a resurgence of interest in spirituality, wherein artists are exploring and re-defining themselves in their work with very introspective and personal means and approaches. However, from a different perspective, these new spiritual elements can be interpreted in part as a contemplative reaction. Layered with complexity, these explorations include universal issues that, while external, are nonetheless of primal importance to the self.

Affirmation Arts is a newly renovated arts space located in the Hudson Yards district of New York City. Gallery hours are Monday- Friday 10am-6pm and Saturdays 11am-5pm. For more information, please contact Marla Goldwasser at 212-925-0092 or marla@affirmationarts.com.

For more information go to: http://www.affirmationarts.com

Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)

© CCA, Montréal

CCA launches a website accompanying the exhibition Actions: What You Can Do
With the City.

http://www.cca-actions.org

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue Baile
Montreal, Québec, Canada
H3H 2S6

On view 26 November 2008 until 19 April 2009, Actions: What You Can Do With the City presents 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city, and challenge fellow residents to participate.

The website http://www.cca-actions.org presents a playful toolkit to sort and browse the databank of individual actions from the exhibition, and challenges users to respond by posting their own thoughts or initiatives on how to improve the city through individual action. All entries will be displayed on the website and reviewed by the Actions team to be included a presentation at the CCA.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Actions: What You Can Do With the City and its accompanying publication and website present specific projects by a diverse group of activists whose personal involvement has initiated vital transformation in today’s cities. These human motors of change include architects, engineers, university professors, students, children, pastors, artists, skateboarders, cyclists, pedestrians, municipal employees, and many others who address the question of how to improve the urban experience. The individuals and groups presented in the exhibition employ a range of approaches, from skating and parkour to dumpster diving and urban foraging. Some engage architecture directly by finding new uses for abandoned buildings, while others create tools for guerrilla gardening. In their individual critiques of urban modes of production and consumption, these actors share a conviction that the traditional processes of top-down civic planning are insufficient, and new approaches and tools must be deve
loped from the ground level upwards.

Actions: What You Can Do With the City is curated by Giovanna Borasi, CCA Curator for Contemporary Architecture, and Mirko Zardini, CCA Director and Chief Curator, with Lev Bratishenko, Meredith Carruthers, Daria Der Kaloustian, and Peter Sealy.

The design concept for the exhibition is by Andrea Sala, Milan, and the graphic design including display brochures is by Project Projects, New York City.

The accompanying catalogue is co-published by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, and SUN, Amsterdam. Designed by Novak, Amsterdam, the 240-page, soft-cover book includes 70 colour and black and white illustrations, and features a folded poster as cover wrap. The volume is available at the CCA Bookstore in English and French editions (ISBN: 978-0-920785-82-9).

The Actions website is created by Bluesponge, Montréal, with creative direction by Marian Kolev and concept by Mouna Andraos. The CCA’s online initiatives are led by Steffen Boddeker, Director of Communications, with Alexandra McIntosh, Editor, CCA Website.

ABOUT THE CCA

The CCA is an international research centre and museum founded in 1979 on the conviction that architecture is a public concern. Based on its extensive collection, the CCA is a leading voice in advancing knowledge, promoting public understanding, and widening thought and debate on the art of architecture, its history, theory, practice, and role in society today.

Actions: What You Can Do With the City is part of the CCA’s ongoing exploration of key issues in contemporary architecture with a specific focus on urban, social, and environmental concerns. The exhibition follows Some Ideas on Living in London and Tokyo by Stephen Taylor and Ryue Nishizawa (2008); 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas (2007); Environment: Approaches for Tomorrow, with Gilles Clément and Philippe Rahm (2006); and Sense of the City (2005), the groundbreaking exhibition dedicated to the sensory dimensions of urban life that have traditionally been ignored or repressed.

http://www.cca.qc.ca

e-flux

e-flux journal Issue #2
January 2009

e-flux journal issue #2
January 2009

available online:
http://www.e-flux.com/journal

print on demand coming soon

contact:
journal@e-flux.com

Issue #2
Editorial

The nature of artistic speculation is, in part, to create new spaces and defer their use to others. While the pioneer gets first dibs in deciding the ideologies and governing principles of the spaces he creates, he is seldom present to see his planning in practice—he is off to new adventures while the subject must find ways of translating this vision into something inhabitable. Beyond the issue of governance, these circumstances beg the deeper question of the potential for simply inhabiting existing spaces, for properly addressing important questions that have already been asked before seeking the questions of the future. After all, we have set aside many models for possible use, and speculation on their viability has yielded productive results. How then do we begin to use or inhabit these possibilities?

In the first installment of a two-part essay on discursive practices in art, Liam Gillick suggests that the first step in doing this is perhaps to accept that, in our present condition, everything is based on projections and perpetual expansion. The idea is perhaps not to suspend speculation, but to acknowledge, as he puts it, that “true work, true activity, true significance will happen in a constant, perpetual displacement.” The urgent forms that can accommodate this displacement and engage these multiple temporalities are perhaps yet to be found, though for Gillick, the forms of co-authorship generated by informal groupings and their “collaborative, collective, or negotiated positions” remain perhaps the closest thing to them. (see full essay here)

In Hassan Khan’s RANT, a text based around his video work of the same name, there is a darker side to discursivity to be found in the way art practitioners must market themselves within an informal network of perverse rituals, hierarchies, rivalries, unrealized ambitions, overworked anxieties, and a general “hysterical defensiveness.” Tracing a particular sort of cultural “scene” (with close ties to an international community as well as to a specific cultural context), from the exhibition out to the dinner after the opening, Khan finds in the operations of this scene—or of scenes in general—a dysfunctional condition that does not really serve as a model for anything. But if the weight of these operations is so heavy, they must necessarily begin to change the basic character of the field, prompting Khan to ask, “more importantly, what kind of aesthetic choices do these conditions lead to?” (see full essay here)

In Politics of Installation, Boris Groys considers the multilayered nature of the artist’s sovereign will and the challenge posed to it by the fundamental act of exhibiting work to the public. Here, within the modernist notion of absolute artistic sovereignty, he identifies a kind of short-circuit in the Western conception of freedom. This is very simply because, in exhibiting work to the public (in the name of the public), the artist effectively justifies the place of his or her work in public discourse (through the mouthpiece of the curator or institution). So the artwork’s sovereignty is, in a sense, limited by the same process that allows it to exist as such. In order to recover this lost agency, Groys finds in installation practice a public space in which the artist’s sovereign will can be reclaimed. (see full essay here)

Silvia Kolbowski contemplates the current schizoid condition of the US, simultaneously suffering from deep economic anxiety, a hangover following the heady enthusiasm of Obama’s victory, and a general state of uncertainty regarding its future. In the voice of an intrepid Googler looking for answers in a mad panic, Kolbowski reflects upon the toll that the current political transition and the fallout from capital speculation are taking on the American subject. (see full essay here)

In Daniel Birnbaum and Anders Olsson’s 1990 interview with Jacques Derrida, the late philosopher muses eloquently on the process by which knowledge and meaning are incorporated through an interpretive act of “digestive” assimilation. For Derrida, this symbolic “eating” constitutes a site where meaning can be received, where we begin to have difficulty distinguishing between human and animal, and where fundamental organic reactions of revulsion and disgust mark the limits of that which cannot be assimilated or understood. (see full essay here)

In the last installment of a three-part contribution by the artist group Reartikulacija, Marina Gržinić addresses the dissolution of borders characterizing late capitalism’s “imperialism of circulation.” Gržinić proposes that in the face of a borderless world, the critical resistant strategy might become one that counters the free flow of capital by drawing new borders and establishing new coordinates for movement that can limit and redirect critical and capital flows to the places where they are most needed. (see full essay here)

- Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, and Anton Vidokle