2009

From Post-Communism to Post-Transition

In the first decade after the Fall of the Berlin Wall the label ‘post-communism’ appeared as the most appropriate term to refer to the overall situation in Eastern Europe and was applied in the first major survey show of the contemporary art of the region. Today, the pressures of the present outweigh the burden of the past to such an extent that contemporary art in Eastern Europe is fast moving beyond the ‘transition’ into uncharted territory...(more)

The Exclusive World of Art Power

What these two recent books have in common is that they both set out to reveal the inner mechanisms and driving forces of the contemporary art world. While one author places the art world squarely within the arena of rampant liberal capitalism, the other positions it within the contradictory frame of post-communism...(more)

2008

Three Colours Red

Miklós Erhardt, Thomas Hirschhorn and Isa Rosenberger at Vienna Secession July-September 2008

Austrian artist Isa Rosenberger’s exhibition at Secession consists of a series of projects that reflect on the socialist past in Eastern Europe. Her socially-engaged film, A Monument for the Women’s Centre (2006) focuses on the lives of women who are former employees of a defunct DDR chemical factory and their attempt to combat the media image of East German women as victims of the transition by creating a contemporary monument. Speaking in the distanced tone of the specialist, the artist poses a series of direct questions to the women, such as ‘Why are you a double loser?’...(more) 

The Ecology of Post-Socialism and the Implications of Sustainability for Contemporary Art

The fall of communism was the moment when radical theorist Felix Guattari reoriented his thinking towards the ecological crisis of the world and criticised the purely technocratic perspective towards the environment seen in terms of simply tackling industrial pollution. His study The Three Ecologies, first published in 1989, laid the blame at the door of Integrated World Capitalism (IWC), which through a series of techno-scientific transformations has brought us to the brink of ecological disaster. Guattari called for an ‘ethico-political articulation’ of the problem according to the principles of Ecosophy that takes into account the three ecological registers of the environment, social relations and human subjectivity...(more)

Towards the Ecology of Freedom

GROUND UP: Re-Considering Contemporary Art Practice in the Rural Context, edited by Fiona Wood (2008)

It is perfectly possible for contemporary art to be sustainable without having a direct political or environmental message, as long as it meets the requirements of not damaging the environment and not being exploitative. Many contemporary art projects however resist the simple binary opposition between engaged and non-instrumental art, no longer so much for the sake of the ambiguity prized by the art market, but because they refuse to compromise the autonomy of art by submitting to external discourses. It is precisely the autonomy that art nurtures in society that gives art its sovereignty, or the power to be critical and explore alternatives. The singular creativity of artists puts them in a unique and increasingly recognised position to be free...[more]

Manifesta Reaches New Heights

Exindex ((August 2008)

To some extent it seems that Manifesta 7 aspires to flourish on ambiguity, manifold readings, and the realm of the post-political, taking modernism and regionally-specific Futurism as constant reference points, rather than confronting the critical state of this region or Europe today. One wonders whether this is because the over-politicised ambitions of Manifesta 6 had such disastrous results, or if the general line of this Manifesta is just following wider trends...(more)

Revolution I Love You: 1968 in Art, Politics and Philosophy, edited Maja and Reuben Fowkes (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2008)

The exhibition publication considers the interconnection of art, politics and philosophy in 1968 across a divided Europe. It is a mosaic of interviews, statements and essays by prominent theorists, historians, curators, cultural workers and artists that shows the multipolar and interrelated experience of that extraordinary year...(more)

Gerald Raunig, Art and Revolution: Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century (book review)

Art Monthly (May 2008)

The theoretical basis for Art and Revolution comes from the distillation of the core elements of Hardt and Negri’s post-Marxist epic Empire, an essential reference point in current discussions of the revolutionary potential of contemporary art. Revolution should be understood not as a ‘one dimensional attempt to take over the state apparatus’, but rather as a triad of ‘insurrection, resistance and constituent power’. Gerald Raunig takes issue with celebrity theorist Slavoj Žižek’s mischievous campaign to rehabilitate Lenin and the tactics of the October Revolution, which throws a Bolshevik spanner in the smooth, tripartite ‘revolutionary machine’ theorised by Hardt and Negri.  Art and Revolution is a considered intervention in the delicately poised debate on the relevance of post-Fordist theory to art by a Viennese philosopher who is himself a leading figure in the field...(more)

Can Provincialism be Rehabilitated?

INDEX (Budapest) spring 2008

Provincialism is a very loaded term. Especially when applied to contemporary art. Recently, provincial art, in an Estonian context, has been described as:  ‘governed by the infantile, psychopathology and parapsychological experience.’  It is accused of lacking a concrete form and being born of improvisation...(more)

2007

Don’t Complain

Review of Venice 2007 for exindex.hu (July 2007)

‘Don’t Complain’ is the message of the Turkish pavilion, however there is little in the 52 nd Venice Biennial to bring you to your knees. The colourful pavilions in the Giardini attract the most initial interest and the spirit of friendly national competition is extended to the receptions and parties that smooth the preview days. The central exhibition in the Arsenale seems designed to avoid over-enthusiastic reactions in favour of a contemplative and intelligent response in the spirit of ‘slow art’. The result is a toned down account of contemporary art that does not seek to seduce, excite or create a spectacle...(more)


2006

Sensuous Resistance

Dokumenta 12 magazine project / exindex (autumn 2006)

Arguably Adrian Paci's PilgrIMAGE resists the customary interpretation in terms of binaries such as engaged versus autonomous art, which are a straight forward inheritance from modernist art theory. Equally, the division between the modernist legacy of the solo artist as self-referential and the contemporary affection for the collaborative, socially-engaged, community-based artist, no longer holds. Collaborative projects can turn into vehicles for the enhancement of an individual’s career and ego, while individualist works such as this, have the potential to contribute more to the quality of life for a community...(more)

The Art of Making do with Enough

Published in the new art (Rachmaninoffs, 2006)

Sustainability in art brings awareness of a wider ecological context around the production and reception of art works. It questions the sacrosanct status of the art object as the highest civilisational value and problematises the belief that artworks are created, and should be preserved, for eternity. Just as in society there is a tendency to stop seeing nature as an endless resource, attuned artists problematise the understanding of art as commodity, and are reluctant to add to the stockpile of art objects, choosing instead to explore alternative means of expression...(more)

Transmit

In Action! edited by Hajnalka Somogyi (Sparwasser HQ, 2006)

To take two words with a vague metaphorical reach, such as ‘transmit’ and ‘insert’, is reminiscent of the strategy of innumerable curator’s initiatives. ‘Insert’, for example, was the name chosen for a recent survey show of Croatian video art at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb. It was arguably an attempt to cheaply appropriate the names and work of dozens of artists and insert them into the collection and historical narrative of the Museum, to fill a gap in the institution’s account of contemporary art caused by years of professional neglect.

(more...)

The Principles of Sustainability in Contemporary Art

Praesens 2006/1

Sustainable art is arguably a wider concept than environmental art, which is primarily focussed on remedying ecological problems, recycling, and the healing of nature. While in contemporary living we have a greater understanding of sustainability in our everyday choices (or the lack of them), contemporary artists increasingly take on the role of alternative knowledge producer, involved in ‘producing, mediating, and exchanging alternative models and dealing with issues that are marginalised in mainstream culture and politics.’The artistic engagement with sustainability entails an understanding of ecological equality, a shift from the anthropocentric model to include the non-human world in our moral universe, a renewed sense of social responsibility, as well as a concern for grassroots democracy, and draws on radical critiques of art and society and the dematerialised practices of conceptual art to offer sustainable alternatives in art and life...(more)

Indie Art and the Seventies

Umelec 2006/1

So, what could be the possible reasons for our interest in the Seventies? The contemporary understanding of the role of art is changing towards a renewed autonomy of art on one side and socially and politically engaged art on the other, both though distancing themselves from the idea of art as ‘imaginative stimulation’. The contemporary artist as ‘alternative knowledge producer’ is involved in producing, mediating, and exchanging alternative models and dealing with issues that are marginalised in mainstream culture and politics. Not only artists, but curators and art theorists have also taken a lead in the reorientation of art to confront the global social and political context. Undoubtedly, the reawakening of concern about the threat posed by international politics and the global capitalism to nature and society has encouraged a return to the radical ideas and practices of the artistic avant garde of the 1970s...(more)

Less is Beautiful

www.exindex.hu

A review of Magánügy / Private Matter? Műcsarnok Budapest 17 December 2005 – 26 February 2006

The exhibition ‘Private Matter?’ promises a new start for the Műcsarnok, headed by a new curatorial team, who through their choice of artists have made a strong statement about contemporary Hungarian art. There are several aspects of the exhibition which come across as different to the previous practise of Műcsarnok exhibitions, the reduced number of participating artists in the first place, its cross-generational stretch, bold interventions in the exhibition space, ascendancy of relational aesthetics, dematerialisation, and, intentional or not, the sense of sustainability in many works...(more)

2005

Art and Ecology: Unified or Fragmentary?

www.greenmuseum.org

The RSA and Arts Council England have organised a major programme of events to ‘profile, encourage and support artists in addressing ecological concerns.’ The Ecology and Artistic Practice Symposium was the first of a series of five conferences intended to address the issues raised by questions such as: ‘Can artists make a difference? Is it the task of art to point out solutions to ecological problems? What are artists currently doing in response to these issues?’ Surprisingly perhaps, there was no clear consensus on the podium over the answer to the first two questions, although the familiar arguments between the ‘autonomy of art’ and socially-engaged practice were aired. The third question proved the most fruitful line of enquiry, and delegates were treated to fascinating and enlightening presentations by leading contemporary artists...(more)

Little Warsaw 2002-2004: Displaced Monuments and Deconstructive Strategies [magyar]

Umelec: Contemporary Art and Culture (Prague) no.3 2005

On the occasion of their presentation in Galerija Balen, Slavonski Brod, in January 2005, Little Warsaw, delivered a summary of projects carried out in last two years. Several recurring preoccupations and common strategies in their practice emerged in the course of the talk. Points of reference included the properties of public space, the tension between monuments and collective identities, and the recontextualisation of the reception of art works. Their principle strategy came over as centred on the notion of ‘removal’, both of objects and established readings attached to them...(more)

System of Coordinates

An exhibition of contemporary Russian art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2004

ArtMargins June 2005

On their research trip to Moscow, Zagreb curators Tihomir Milovac and Leila Topic visited Oleg Kulik in his studio, and subsequently decided to call the exhibition System of Coordinates, after his recently completed video. Despite relating to a particular work, the idea of ‘system of coordinates’ proved to be a suggestive concept for positioning current tendencies in contemporary Russian art. In this sense, the poles could be identified as running from social activism to the autonomy of art, from brutal humour to poetic seriousness, and from the Soviet artistic heritage to Western advertising slickness...(more)

Grass Sculptures

Erika Feher, Milenaris Park Budapest

Praesens: central european contemporary art review no.2 2005

Erika Fehér’s new work is a temporary public sculpture, which is going to be exhibited throughout the summer and into the autumn in a busy Budapest park. It consists of two objects in the form of large armchairs that are covered with a drapery of grass. The green fabric appears to stretch over them and merge into the surrounding lawn. The grass chairs are positioned such as to suggest the possibility of dialogue, both betweenthem and with the viewer...(more)

2004

Glocal Practices in Contemporary Croatian Art

Praesens: central European contemporary art review
No.4 2004

The syntagma ‘cheese and cream’ has a particular resonance in Croatia, bringing to mind a fresh, homemade regional speciality, as opposed to the bland, mass-produced fare of the dairy multinationals. It is perhaps not surprising that the issue of the survival of ‘cheese and cream’ has become a touchstone of the debate over globalisation and the costs and benefits of European integration. What is less well-known, and rarely acknowledged, is the role that contemporary art has played in bringing this issue into the public arena...(more)

Unframed Landscapes: Nature in Contemporary Art

GreenMuseum 2004

The artistic representation of nature is closely linked with the social perception of the natural world. This is a two-way process: society draws its ideas about how to view and experience nature from the conventions of visual culture, while at the same time artists reflect and react to current societal attitudes to the environment...(more)
[hrvatski] [magyar]

Branding vs. No Logo: Current Trends in Croatian Art

ArtMargins July 2004

Throughout April 2004, the House of the Society of Croatian Artists in Zagreb was given over to the long-awaited Salon of Youth. Lately there have been several attempts to change the inherited concept of a grand survey exhibition of artists under thirty five. For example, the previous one, with Slaven Tolj as chief curator, took place in 2001 and was sited in the Velesajam fair complex. The works were exhibited in transport containers, playing on the idea of evaluating art. Now, this year’s show is back in the gallery, lacks an overall concept, and the committee of curators remains invisible...(more)

Tibor Iski Kocsis: Identity

Liget Galeria, Budapest 11 April – 15 May 2003; Deak Erika Gallery, Budapest 21 April – 29 May 2004

Praesens no.2 2004

The series of portraits entitled Identity are based on photographs taken at a detention centre for illegal immigrants near Debrecen in November 2002. The artist iski Kocsis Tibor asked children from the camp to pose for photographs that have become known as the ‘portraits of refugee children’. These young models from Afghanistan and Iraq were though strictly-speaking asylum seekers with no legal status, rather than refugees...(more)

2002

Here Tomorrow

Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb
4 October - 3 November 2002.

Frieze no. 72 (December 2002)

Led by the desire for a fresh and impartial view, the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb entrusted a major survey of Croatian contemporary art to an outside curator. Roxana Marcoci from MOMA New York approached her task conscientiously, following Croatian art on the international scene and making 120 studio visits across the country, before eventually settling upon thirty-five artists. As the initial frame of the exhibition grew over time, it spread beyond the museum walls to other cultural institutions, public venues and urban space. The broad overall concept of temporality suggested by Here Tomorrow and the generous scale of the show made possible the inclusion of both established and emerging artists...(more)

Budapest Box: The Hidden Scene in the 1990s

Umelec: Contemporary Art and Culture no.3 2002

The manifesto of kmkk (Two Artists, Two Curators), written in autumn last year, proclaimed some of the troubles of the present Hungarian art scene. It denounced the lack of an effective infrastructure, the political and commercial manipulation of mainstream culture and problems with the reception and support of contemporary art. In addition, the ignorance of the institutional art apparatus, misunderstandings between artists and curators and the lack of a market for non-conventional culture were pointed out. In their programme, kmkk call for a 'healthy and equal exchange of ideas between curators and artists' and announce a return to avant-garde strategies, consciously choosing the periphery of public attention, in the hope of awakening the interest of a targeted art public...(more)

Getting Personal

36. Zagreb Salon
23. December 2001 - 20. January 2002. Zagreb, Croatia.

Balkon April 2002

The Zagreb Salon has a special place in Croatian cultural life as one of the most respected art events with a long tradition and far-reaching significance. As it is periodic, yearly changing between architecture, design and fine arts, it successfully serves as a survey of Croatian artistic achievements of the previous three years...(more)

Maja and Reuben Fowkes