Thursday, 14 January 2010
Steven Baelen
[photo from previous installations, courtesy of the artist]
"Consider the drawing as a 'virus', who manifest as an independent 'mass', anywhere, but at the same time adapts to -can not exist without - a specific place. Once I'm gone, the content of the wall-drawing - like a palimpsest - keeps on growing trough the damages until it will finally disappear again." Steven Baelen
http://www.stevenbaelen.hi-ka-sk.be
ZAPROSZENIE - PIĄTEK/SOBOTA
PIĄTEK - 15 stycznia
godz. 17:00
"Wolność od/zysku" - prezentacja wystawy dyplomowej absolwentów Muzealniczych Studiów Kuratorskich 2009 (projekt zrealizowany w Zachęcie Narodowej Galerii Sztuki w ramach seminarium Marii Brewińskiej, w którym wzięły udział Beata Seweryn, Anna Bargiel, Ida Smakosz, Natalia Zawiejska, Karolina Bujnowicz, Joanna Ruszczyk)
godz. 18:00
PANEL DYSKUSYJNY:
"Wystawa na zamówienie"
Współpraca między instytucjami - szansa czy pole minowe? Czy wystawy wynikające ze współpracy między instytucjami mogą być interesujące dla publiczności? Jaka jest rola kuratora w tego rodzaju przedsięwzięciach? Czego od takich wystaw oczekują instytucje? Czy tego rodzaju wystawy są interesujące i faktycznie potrzebne? Dlaczego tego rodzaju projekty są tak dobrze dotowane?
PANELIŚCI:
Hans Martens (dyrektor artystyczny, HISK)
Karolina Nowak - (związana z CSW w Warszawie, kuratorka wystawy New Cold War w ramach zeszłorocznego Biennale w Moskwie)
Andrzej Szczerski - (dyrektor Muzealniczych Studiów Kuratorskich,
Uniwersytet Jagielloński)
prowadzenie: Magdalena Kownacka
panel w języku angielskim
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SOBOTA - 16 stycznia
godzina 16.00
Steven Baelen, artysta HISK, interwencja
Godzina 17.00
"Nie ma sorry" - prezentacja wystawy dyplomowej absolwentów Muzealniczych Studiów Kuratorskich 2008 (projekt zrealizowany w Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie w ramach seminarium Joanny Mytkowskiej, w którym wzięli udział Klaudia Benjaszewicz, Aleksandra Jach, Kamila Jezierewska, Katarzyna Karwańska, Piotr Lisowski, Elżbieta Piotrowska, Anna Tomaszewska, Stanisław Welbel)
Godzina 18:00
PANEL DYSKUSYJNY:
"Czy promocja artysty jest funkcją szkolnictwa artystycznego?"
Jaki jest kierunek kształcenia artystów - rynek sztuki czy instytucje/muzea? Czy artyści przed dyplomem powinni wystawiać swoje prace w galeriach komercyjnych? Czego oczekuje Akademia od swoich studentów? Jaka jest relacja pomiędzy Akademią, galeriami oraz kuratorami i czy celem Akademii jest promocja jej studentów?
PANELIŚCI:
Steven Baelen - (artysta, HISK)
Hans Martens - (dyrektor, HISK)
Agata Pankiewicz - (ASP Kraków)
Grzegorz Sztwiertnia - (ASP, Kraków)
Stanisław Welbel - (Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki)
prowadzący: Magdalena Kownacka
(panel w języku polskim)
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Wszystkie wydarzenia odbędą się w sali konferencyjnej w Pawilonie Wyspiańskiego na I pietrze.
Wszystkich zainteresowanych serdecznie zapraszamy.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
CREDITS/CZOŁÓWKA - kontekst / context
Miejscem wystawy jest Pawilon Wyspiańskiego. Przestrzeń trudna, o skomplikowanych znaczeniach i przystosowana do pełnienia kilku różnych funkcji. Obok punktu informacyjnego i przestrzeni konferencyjnej jest też przestrzenią wystawienniczą. To było nam dane i stanowiło punkty niezmienne w spirali faktów, zdarzeń i relacji które nastąpiły.
Kwestie współpracy między instytucjami, różnicy w rozumieniu funkcji szkolnictwa (tak artystycznego jak i kuratorskiego), problemy przestrzeni wystawienniczej, istotności lub nieistotności tej wystawy w karierach młodych artystów stały się tematami dominującymi w dyskusjach dotyczących tego przedsięwzięcia. W końcu zadaliśmy sobie pytanie, czy sztuka jest w ogóle potrzebna, aby tego rodzaju projekt zakończył się sukcesem w rozumieniu wszystkich stron zaangażowanych w realizację tego projektu.
W rezultacie w ostatniej chwili zmieniliśmy koncept zupełnie, doprowadzając większość z uczestników tego wydarzenia co najmniej do konsternacji. Sprowokowaliśmy Hitchcockowską sytuację w której zaczyna się od trzęsienia ziemi, a potem napięcie tylko rośnie. Wystawa zatem w klasycznym rozumieniu tego słowa nie odbędzie się, choć serię wydarzeń, których miejscem stanie się Pawilon Wyspiańskiego nadal chcielibyśmy określić tym mianem.
Strona wizualna tego projektu ograniczy się jedynie do dwóch list z nazwiskami artystów i absolwentów studiów kuratorskich zaangażowanych w projekt, wydrukowanych na papierze firmowym obydwu instytucji. Pomysł zapewne dość przewrotny, choć przewrotność tego projektu w tym miejscu się zaczyna, ale się nie kończy. Jego celem jest zbadanie najważniejszych problemów czy dylematów przed jakimi postawione zostały wszystkie podmioty tego zdarzenia, a zatem artyści, biorące udział we współpracy instytucje, publiczność oraz kuratorzy.
Pragniemy aby projekt ten z jednej strony stał się prezentacją działalności obydwu zaangażowanych instytucji poprzez indywidualne prezentacje absolwentów studiów kuratorskich oraz artystów Hisk, z drugiej zaś aby stał się dyskusją nad problemami wynikającymi bezpośrednio z organizowanej przez nas wystawy (panele dyskusyjne dotyczące problematyczności wystaw opartych na współpracy instytucji, roli szkolnictwa artystycznego, miejsca młodych artystów w skomplikowanych strukturach świata sztuki, metod i kierunków budowania karier młodych artystów, sytuacji artysty pozbawionego swojego podstawowego medium komunikacji, problemu kolekcjonowania prac młodych artystów, kwestii znaczenia przestrzeni wystawienniczej czy wreszcie granic uprzedmiotowienia sztuki).
Projekt CREDITS/CZOŁÓWKA jest zatem konfrontacją artystów z kuratorami, kuratorów z instytucjami oraz każdej ze stron z publicznością. Jego celem jest ukazanie dynamiki sił, które napędzają mechanizmy życia artystycznego, zwykle podawany publiczności w postaci gotowego produktu zwanego wystawą.
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Exhibitions structured upon the collaboration or cooperation between institutions are usually perceived as boring, not awakening any significant public interest. This has been our experience. In the past year, we were invited to realize just such an exhibition in the guise of cooperation between the Curatorial Studies Program in Cracow and the post-graduate fine art academy in Ghent, the HISK (Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten).
The site of the present exhibition, the Wyspianski Pavilion in Cracow, is a difficult space, of complex meaning and serving several diverse functions. Among a city information point, offices, and a conference room, is an exhibition space. This space is what was given to us and what was presented as an one of several immutable aspects of the project amidst a spiral of facts, events and exchanges which took place over the course of planning and preparation.
Issues concerning inter-institutional cooperation, differences regarding the role and function of education (equally artistic as curatorial), problems of the exhibition space, the significance, or insignificance, of the present exhibition in the careers of the young artists involved – all became the topics that dominated the discussions concerning our undertaking. Finally, we asked ourselves the question: Is art – or rather, “the” art – at all necessary for such a project to be called a success and understood by all the participating sides – institutional and individual – as such?
As a result of our thoughts on the matter, we completely transformed the concept for the exhibition in the final moments indicated by the project deadlines. This was a maneuver that lead most of the project’s participates to a state of consternation at the very least. We soon provoked a Hitchcock-esque situation that began with an earthquake after which tensions only escalated. An exhibition – in the classic sense of the word – will not take place; however, we would still like to define the series of events that will be held in the Pavilion with just such a word. The visual side of this project will be limited to only two lists of names, those of the artists and curators involved, printed respectively on the stationary of each institution.
An idea capricious enough, yet while the project begins in this notion, it does not end at the level of a prank. The aim here is an examination of the most crucial problems and dilemmas presented over the process of our work, those facing the artists and the public – their expectations and our assumptions.
We hope that this project will, on the one hand, become a presentation of the activities of both institutions through presentations by former students of the curatorial studies program as well as artists of the HISK, and, on the other, that it will become a discussion surrounding the problems resulting directly from the organization of this project by us, its curators. Hence panel discussions concerning: the problematic of exhibitions founded on inter-institutional cooperation, the role of the academy in the education of artists, the place of young artists in the complicated structure of the contemporary art world, the methods and paths of career-building for young artists, the situation when artists are denied the ability to insert the fundamental (i.e., visual) medium of their communication, the problems involved in collecting young artists' works, the questions relating to the exhibition space and last, but not least, the limits of materiality of art on display.
The exhibition, CREDITS/CZOŁÓWKA, is thus a confrontation of artists with curators, curators with institutions, as well as of each side with the public. In the process, we hope to reveal some of the dynamics of power that propel the mechanisms of contemporary artistic life, usually presented to the public in a ready product, so-called the “exhibition”.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
E-mail form Cracow 5/1/2010
After the emails that we have been receiving from you we would like to explain the concept once more to make it clearer and we hope that it will solve most of the current concerns.
The idea is to make the show’s situation as open as possible. That is why we invited all of you and did not select any particular artists. It is you who make the decision whether you want to participate or not.
Another thing: the presentations that we asked of you. Perhaps we did not choose the right words, but we did not mean power point presentetions. You are open to present yourselves and the institution in any way you like. So you can really do whatever you feel like doing. It can be a presentation, but you can organize a demonstration against the project, show a video or sing a song or any other activity or action you like to undertake in a group or individually. Our sessions are divided into HISK presentations, curatorial course presentations and panel discussions which are aimed at gathering us together, lending the opportunity to talk about topics which we think can be of interest to all of us in context of the cooperation between our institutions and the different reallity that we have here in Cracow and that you have in Ghent.
We decide not to make a visual show for various reasons. First of all, it would be an artificial situation to chose only some of you and to put some topic to this kind of show somehow pretending that you represent one idea or you are interested in some specific issues, that in our opinion is not really true. All of you are very different and in the end we decided to show this diversity instead of creating some fake impression. The other thing is the bulding that really is not a place for contemporary art presentations (you can ask Joris if you have any doubts). Contrary it is more an information point with a nice conference room. So we decided rather to use the good sides of the building and opportunity that it gives instead of formating your projects to this difficult exhibition space. But most of all we would like to support you with as much public attention as possible and after a few projects that some of us did for example with Staedelschule from Frankfurt am Main or HGK from Zurich we know how Krakow‘s public is not willing to attend these kind of events if they do not undertake topics that address their local concerns. It is of course a pitty but it is the context that we all need to be concious of. What we want to say is that you will benefit from the project with much more attention than from the regular show.
The other issue concerns your question about the purpose of grouping you into three teams of four artists. This is something that came from the HISK side and is dependent upon the budget and logistic. But from our side we would also like to leave it as open as possible. So if you have any other suggestions let us know. The problem is only, that if you all come in one weekend you will not be able to present yourselves only in light of time.
We would like to ask you to rethink our proposal and to get your proposals concerning who will come, when and which topics of panel discussions are interesting for whom. We need to make some reservations for you and it is really important for us to know it as soon as possible.
All the best,
Cracow team
Monday, 4 January 2010
Reply to Lara
Our suggestions remain just that - suggestions. The event - atypical, for it is neither group show, nor solo show, nor exhibition for that matter - will only remain "closed and controlled" if we do not have the opportunity to express what it is that is sitting on our chests, equally the spoken and the unspoken.
a reply dated 19/12 .
An important, because also practical one, is the matter of dividing us into 3 small parts. We understand that you´re aiming for the ´duration´ of an exhibition., with us visiting you 3 weekends. But I, and many others, don´t feel happy about this . We feel, for your project, aswell as with an ´ordinary´ group-exhibition, it is important to have all the works there together (thus all the artists in this situation), which makes it a whole. What you propose now, is actually 3 separate groupexhibitions instead of one project. (3x 4 artist x 3 different dates). Offcourse we could choose to work separatly or collaborate during this one weekend, but it would ad power and much more possibilies to the rather ´closed and controlled´ event that it seems to be now.
Besides that I feel your project should and needs to benefit from the energy of a group of artists together in this exhibition. Otherwise we will end up, I fear, with an exhibition of curators, where the few artists present are not only outnumbered, but also become merely objects. It would be more interesting for you and much more interesting for us, to go at one and the same weekend. That weekend, I feel, should focus on the role and the side of the artist, and we should be able to propose our own subjects, make and show work if we would want to, perform, have debates, .... The other weekends could then be used to debate on a more curatorial level, the role of the institute,and offcourse everything that took place at the artist´s weekend is also good material to use in the lectures and debates.
I feel that this is a very important issue, and that it should not only be gazed upon as a practical solution or decision.
Our first loyality should be with the art-content, and it seems that in this project the artworks are replaced by the artists, this means us...
I´m still interested to be part of this project. If only because I feel that the problematic relation between the artist and the curator, only can be dealt with through actual confrontation. It seems to me that this project actually could work in this way.
But then as stated before, the energy of the group united (those who want to go) is a basic need for succes.
I leave you with some thoughts from Marco Stamenkovic (from another project!) on the problematic situation we´re in, as artists and curators. Please don´t miss the opportunity...
we need to work (and this will be a long road to DRIVE, in the future) in order
to CHANGE the usual attitudes of "curators" and especially in order to
change the relation between artists and curators (especially because
this relationship has been usually a power relationship, where
curators are "sacred beings" above the artists, etc etc)
None of us wants this situation to remain as such and we have to work
towards the elimination of this power-relationship -
Lara.