RES ART WORLD / WORLD ART NO:3 MAY 2009

CONTENTS COVER (detail) Vik Muniz, Action Photo, after Hans Namuth INTERVIEW WITH VIK MUNIZ KATHY BATTISTA (Pictures of Chocolate), 1997 Cibachrome print, 60 x 48 in / 152.4 x 121.9 cm INTERVIEW WITH SEMİHA BERKSOY HANS ULRICH OBRIST © Vik Muniz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN ART OLESYA TURKINA A REVIEW OF THE TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2008: NO:3 MAY 2009 VIK MUNIZ / SEMİHA BERKSOY PETER KOGLER SOLMAZ SHAHBAZI (WHEN) GLOBAL ATTACKS ON A LOCAL PARADISE ADNAN YILDIZ INTERVIEW WITH RAINER FUCHS AND PETER KOGLER RES INTERVIEW WITH JAMES COHAN DEBORA WARNER NO EXCEPTION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART: WHY AN EXHIBITION OF THE PRISHTINA ART SCENE COULD NOT OPEN IN BELGRADE SEZGİN BOYNİK THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS LIBRARY IN PRISHTINA/BERLIN JUDITH RAUM, FITORE ISUFI-KOJA, ‹Z ÖZTAT STATES AND TRAITS OF SERBIAN ART SCENE NIKOLA SUICA INTERVIEW WITH FULYA ERDEMCİ / SKOR BORGA KANTÜRK INTERVIEW WITH SOLMAZ SHAHBAZI ASHKAN SEPAHVAND KOONS IN VERSAILLES SABINE BOEHL SPACES BETWEEN SPACES: AYŞE ERKMEN—WEGGEFÄHRTEN ADNAN YILDIZ BJØRN MELHUS AT THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL’S OPERATION ROOM LILIANA RODRIGUES DER NITSCH UND SEINE FREUNDE (NITSCH AND FRIENDS) FREYA MARTIN

RES Art World / World Art

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Editors: M. Azrâ Genim, Micha O. Goebig Layout Design and Art Direction: Emre Ç›k›noğlu, BEK Graphic Design: P›nar Akkurt, BEK Design Consultant: Bülent Erkmen Pre-press: BEK Design and Consultancy Ltd Printing and Binding: Mas Matbaac›l›k Hamidiye Mahallesi So€uksu Caddesi No:3 Ka€›thane Istanbul Turkey T: +90 212 294 1000 F: +90 212 294 9080

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION You areholdingthethirdissueofDirimartGallery’sbiannualpublication EDITOR M. AZRÂGENIM the 11thInternationalIstanbul Biennial. We hopeyouwillenjoythisissue aswellourfourthissuedue out inSeptemberwhen Istanbulhosts Architecture Museum(DAM)inFrankfurtandtheaccompanying publication. Pelin Derviş,DirectorofGarantiGallery,Istanbul,aboutthe exhibition Martin, with her book titled American Hospital’sOperationRoominIstanbul.Theguests ofthis issue’sbookreviewsectionareFreya Palace ofVersailleslastyearwhileLilianaRodrigueswrites about BjørnMelhus’exhibitionatthe Gegenwart, Berlin.SabineBoehloffersanaccountofJeffKoons’ controversialexhibitionheldatthe retrospective showWeggefährten (Travel Companions)stagedatHamburgerBahnhof–Museumfür 2008 heldunderthecuratorshipofManrayHsuandVasıf Kortun, Adnan Yıldızcontributedtwopiecestothisissue:hedescribes his Judith Raum,FitoreIsufi-KojaandİzÖztat,offersanoverviewo LibraryPrishtina/Berlinproject,whichwascreatedundertheinitiativeofthreeyoungartists Arts nationalism, basedonanexhibitionthatfailedtoopenthePrishtina–Belgrade axis.TheContemporary while SezginBoyniktouchesonthesubjectofproblematicrelationship ofcontemporaryartand comprehensive lookatthecontemporaryartsceneinRussiaand Nikola SuicaatthatinSerbia The curatoroftheRussianPavilionat48thVeniceBiennial (1999), OlesyaTurkina,takesa Space, FulyaErdemci,aboutpublicartandtheirforthcomingprojects. while BorgaKantürkspokewiththenewlyappointeddirectorof the SKOR,Foundation andPublic Art Solmaz Shahbazi.DeboraWarnermetJamesCohan,whohasrecently openedanewgalleryinShanghai, of thisexhibition,RainerFuchs;andlastbutnotleast,AshkanSepahvand’s interviewwithIranianartist recently exhibitedattheMUMOK,MuseumModernerKunst StiftungLudwigWien, andwiththeco-curator Semiha Berksoywhopassedawayin2004;aRESinterviewwithPeter Koglerwhoseworksweremost inNewYork,withVikMunizathisstudio;HansUlrichObrist’s interviewwithoperasingerandpainter Art highlights includeaninterviewbyKathyBattista,Directorof In thisissue,wecontinueourinterviewswithfigureheadsfrom the worldofcontemporaryart.Our very pleasedtoseethatREShasbecomehighlyesteemedinsuch ashortperiodoftime. In recentmonths,ourreadershaveshowereduswiththequestion whenthenextissuewillbeout.Weare Der Nitsch und seine Freunde (Nitsch and Friends) about Hermann Nitsch, and Contemporary Art atSotheby’sContemporary Art Instituteof f contemporaryartinKosovo. and commentsonAyşeErkmen’s impressions oftheTaipeiBiennial Becoming IstanbulattheGerman RES Art World/World Art World/World Art RES .

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3 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY me a screwdriver when I was seven years old and I opened all the electrical appliances in the house, in the appliances electrical all the and I opened years old was seven when I screwdriver me a And what is inside. always good to see the television. It is including stuck in the moment I remember of a painting. have this secret life you insects live or images where these places behind my mind about is the are most familiar with of the artwork you that the side I realized I became an artist, Later on, when story of Picasso It reminds me of the about the back. childhood curiosity So there was this one you build. you and said, “I’ll pay you anything Paris him to make a drawing at a café in when somebody asked she said, “How this collector and then he drew this pigeon and gave it to So he said, “Okay”, and want.” and he said “Thirtymuch do I owe you?” a few it took you just dollars.” And thousand “Well, she said, years ago, if I had thirty Obviously, “No madam, it took me a lifetime.” and he said, seconds to make it.” to look at the back and asked them or conservation department of a museum approached the curator develop from when I was these things how would probably have said no. It is just of a masterwork they it was there somehow in of that because some I am 47. So forty years later I can use seven years old. Now actually still picking things from. that soup that I am been with me for a long that has something work to date is where I can get I believe my most successful point it just occurs to me that I can a while, and then at one time, that has been brewing there for quite What I also the benefit of being a successful artist. This is it. do something, but I do not have to rush you have a comfortable pay your rent, your house, you can mean by successful artist is that you have in Brazil and I live very well. from a working class family life. I am not a multi-millionaire. I come twelve years before I was living in Paris Another series is Pictures of Dust that I showed at the Whitney. Actually where they had minimalism. that and I went to visit this show at Beaubourg it is funny because and I like minimalism—these furniture. I like modernism they had a collection of international style will go into that later… They had a We especially minimalism. are like driving forces behind my work, not done anything. I was reading this book two months they had major strike of maintenance there. For inside cases of glass , where he talks about things that grow by George Didi Huberman called Phasm he also talks about minimalism, but it of species. In that book at the Jardins des Plantes as some kind the Barcelona chairs and there was beautiful because they had took me eleven years. This show was so Since then, I always had this they were made out of marble. this thin layer of dust and it looked like carved out of carrara and having chairs and getting them idea of getting pillows from the Barcelona do this because I think it would look in my house. I still want to these really hard chairs that look soft sculpture, they had this thin layer of dust. When you came to the minimalist like cemetery statuary. like time measuring devices. The idea that minimalism emphasized was that looked The Donald Judd’s something to mean itself it has to rely else and to know that for the idea only means itself and nothing that means itself impregnated with there you have something on maintenance and cleaning because and thing you can think of is dust something that has all the meanings in the world. The most general then you have this cube. KB Dust is the remnants of people? and I I was still thinking of this and I was looking at dust from the light of a lamp, years later, VM Ten and she had Museum, Silvia Wolf, was rereading this book and bingo! I had this curator at the Whitney ringing and the work specific started asked me for an exhibition for the museum that was very specific, It was four o’clock in the morning in Honolulu and I said, “Silvia, I need you to save all and I called her. all the photographs from the records the vaccum cleaner bags from this week and I also need access to taken by the museum photographers of the museum.” So what I did was look for photographs that were was conceived when I was seven years old when I come to think of it. The first museum that I think of it. Verso was conceived when I was seven years old when I come to which is this amazing building by (MASP**), ever visited in my life was the Museum of Art in São Paulo she displayed these masterworks—I am talking about Velázquez, Lino Bo Bardi. In its original concept, a seven year old, most seven years Rafael—and she had these masterworks on glass. I remember as just looking at them and they were olds do not have an interest in the master paintings, so I was just on the intersection where sometimes paintings. I was not really into them. But looking through the glass really these things. I always have this one was smaller than the other you could glimpse at the back of to give Somebody had the stupid idea keen interest in mechanics: what is at the back, how does it work? . If I had not been at the museum at the right time to ask the right person if I could see ask the right time to Verso. If I had not been at the museum at the VM Yes, On the other hand, I like the would not have happened. the back of this first artwork, those things (He brings out a scholar stone.) stones? I collect them. metaphor… Do you know the Chinese scholar It is just an expression that is always have one of these. Chinese scholars who practice calligraphy in their raw state makes you wander around and find things found in nature. The idea that you can think about something. And It is not and you work the base for it. then you take that into your studio Andreally creation, it is just demonstration. this dichotomy between what you find, I really believe in Most of the time, I just leave things what you do with that. what comes into you and what you produce, point in my career I am at a way. weird to form in a very so these very unlikely liaisons start to ferment, you are an intellectual, coming up with ideas and trying One thing is that where the weirdest is the best. side, you are a person, a biological live in. But on the other to make commentary about the world you know what you think about your own body and the way you go about things. construction (Laughs.). You Everything is there. Alland causality. these things have an influence on your ideas, as well as accidents KB Verso. One thing about process is that in my case it is not so much about process in a way that what about process in is that in my case it is not so much VIK MUNIZ One thing about process more an exercise in process development. it’s ends up with an object or an image, but starts with an idea the time than to ways all in different about how to start and end things I am even more curious that in mind I always try to go of making art objects. So with even think about the process as a way with material and then get to the get to the material or to start backwards—to start with subjects and space for these things to happen. when you just allow yourself subjects. I think things usually happen is when I find the most when I’m working set myself any rules. The thing that excites me Basically I don’t Although the making of something. a completely different way to go about I am a conceptual artist there gallery. Like this last series at the is a lot of room for spontaneity in this. The first thing I want to ask you about is your process because you often work in series. Do to ask you about is your process because KATHY BATTISTA The first thing I want of them? on several a series or do you work concurrently you start and finish KATHY BATTISTA

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INTERVIEW WITH VIK MUNIZ VIK WITH INTERVIEW 2

5 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY You would be surprised. Some of them are quite light, especially Judd’s work. They are kind of kind of They are work. Judd’s especially quite light, them are Some of surprised. would be VM You painted a solid piece of metal . It is like work called Won Ton Ray’s is this Charlie There light. deceivingly this idea (Laughs.). white. I love white cube? KB It is just a heavy. tons. It is very it is solid. It weighs something like ten but VM Yes, work. KB I love Charles Ray’s dripped from the line of ink that just a for this first time in Chicago. He had VM Me too. I saw his work ceiling. And piece. It was this beautiful at 303; I will never forget that he had something that was quite up and find a hear this noise and you look You fast and it looked like stationery. disc that spun really of contemporary “Where do you find yourself in this map about minimalism. People ask, pencil. Talk art?” And that I think lonely where I am. But the only people I feel very I have a really hard time to do it. some notion of minimalism or those are people who work with about and relate to in a very weird way there. But one of them I have a funny place photography. from the 1970s, mostly sculptors or painters, I know I am going to like it. Whenever he has a show would definitely be Charles Ray. Foundation? KB Have you been to Marfa to see Judd’s especially when it comes to places with might be disappointed, VM I am afraid to go because I am afraid I and thinking it is I am afraid of going there Marfa or Spiral Jetty. these mega projects like Roden Crater, because they are kind are far off, because they displacement, too small. These places, because of their see a tourist spot like the Pyramids mind. Every time I go to of inaccessible, they start growing in my killing something that be somehow that I will I always have this apprehension in Egypt or Angkor Wat, Andexperience of it. than it was in the was much more interesting in my imagination superficial all the things. as thinking of these experience by travel would not be as exciting KB Marfa is pretty amazing. to go, but I had to get back. I was very tempted VM I was very close when I did a show at Menil. or contracts depending on the in that it expands KB I imagine your office is like a film production project? It has been expanding mostly in the last few years. But you have VM It changes according to the project. me and she was part time. I worked to consider that until about five years ago I only had Erika to help like printing I would not have mainly by myself and it is just the idea that if I were to oversee things Immediately you will see of it. any time to do anything, I would just be consumed by the production The reason that I do not do cinema possibilities of avoiding this and delegating that to other people. photography you can still say With and I do photography is that I have this problem with authorship. can play of ideas of art production. You a lot of things and play with all kinds of elements from all sorts still you can do microsculpture and with painting, with collage, you can do environmental sculpture, It is not like have full control of it. come up with something that can fit inside your own program. You different than what you have an amalgam of specialities that ends up being something completely

I love the disparity between the lightness of dust and the heaviness of the real work. KB I love the disparity between the lightness of dust and the heaviness No. Two of them were completely destroyed in the process. I went weekly to look at the space where of them were completely destroyed in the process. I went VM No. Two because I knew exactly where they were going to be shown. The installation lasted about five minutes me this walk around in them. For they were going to go. I go to museums all the time to look how people the cinematic thing, the mechanics of going towards artworks because that is how the is very important, artwork really functions. It was a really fortunate little click. KB Did you adhere it with something, a fixative? of the collections that were shown in the museum and then I rendered them with the museum dust. It them with the museum dust. museum and then I rendered of the collections that were shown in the range be more general because you get this idea and all this be more specific and it couldn’t couldn’t called The Things Themselves and it was the hardest The show was from the material and the subject. working on ten stations continuously. me about a year and a half thing I have ever done because it took and air dryers I would work with stencils cannot just put dust where you want it to be, it just falls. So You it. to just pull the dust up to mixing the colors you just lay on top of Mixed media object, 29 x 36.25 x 12 in / 73.7 x 92.1 x 30.5 cm Verso (Starry Night), 2008 RES MAY 2009 4

7 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Marilyn Monroe, Actress, NY City, May 6, 1957, after Avedon (Gordian Puzzles), 2007 Chromogenic print, 70.5 x 70.5 in / 179.1 x 179.1 cm It looks just like mercury. I can show it to you in the studio. We did this in a series two years ago I can show it to you in the studio. We VM It looks just like mercury. just I thought maybe now I could where I was trapping air bubbles in gel in the position of stars. But make drawings with them. And I was thinking of constellations, or a unicorn, or little things that do not I keep thinking about and which do not. from my telling my daughter which animals exist It comes exist. I have been learning so much from her. is my teacher. She that. KB What kind of metal is it? Is it like mercury? Yes. Exactly. VM Yes. It sounds like Koons’ super-reflective surfaces. super-reflective KB It sounds like Koons’ A lot of the work as it develops we do together. We are working with so many funny things now. I have are working with so many funny things We A lot of the work as it develops we do together. by making little dots. And with which I can draw discovered these non-toxic liquid metals each dot If we can shoot this extremely which shows the entire studio. would be like a Gerhard Richter sphere it. have the entire studio in sharp, as we usually do, each shot will conceived. I am still very much into the idea of when you imagine something and go after that thing go after that and something you imagine of when the idea much into still very I am conceived. in the first the vision you had match a thought to then that becomes see it materialize and until you intellectual material and the keep between the dialogue you material dialogue—this this place. So it’s is sort of a part because it is the most important that really to me artwork is something part of an side always is your intellectual I live. The thing of the world in which stick for the reality measuring do. I think the most what you can about you become more and more ambitious takes over and then Although artist always a good way... in a you keep these things in perspective important thing is that always work You always work around the impossible. of what is possible. You works beyond the borders to keep a little control on have You part. done?” I think that is the most important thinking “Can this be that I have full control be something still still be my work? Can this be done and “Can this be done and assistants, with the of my for years—any that I work with have been with me of?” Most of the people is just a mechanic, scientific thing. which who helps me with the photographic part, exception of Lucas, my student at Bard so I he was also that to illuminate something. It happens It takes some creativity help me with the photo the people who of all my errors. I have known most taught him all my mistakes, there. I trust these people was teaching I Ben was the tech guy at Bard when part through my teaching. they will have similar optics. And of my ideas to them. So and I have also been able to pass on a lot a lot certain things. And how tolerant I am with of what we do is just about trying to gauge I am generally my experience first of all, and I am but I always think about tolerant and I like working with a group, I work with Cata and AK. part or the developing part, In the drawing very selfish when it comes to that. an assistant to look at prints. Cata has now. Before, I only had Cata has been with me for over five years and there is another woman whom I am still three and a half, been with me at least five years and AK changing things. One thing that I because we are constantly training. But it is a certain type of training So she is also involved in the part assignment to try out materials. can do with Cata now is to give her an Andis research and development. that I did mostly myself before, which results. I can just harvest the for things. I think it is a question of read and travel and search That in a way allows me to sit around, to select stuff that can go into that. hard drive gets more crowded and you need more time age, too. Your At the end of that you need yourself. become a little bit more selective and you become harder on You more time to do that. filter is a little bit more tight so you need more information. Your

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9 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Going back a little, you asked about method and process. Your idea of a public also defines your working your working defines public also idea of a Your and process. method about you asked back a little, Going or art history or philosophy who know enough audience as people If you thought of your methods. part would play it and the material of intellectual side work on the more studies, you would postmodern are mainly done exhibits. They with these international that as a problem different role. I see an entirely type of people. for a specific KB Do you mean the biennales? like they are It looks redundancy. an exercise in and documenta. It also looks like biennales VM Yes, in my working process defining thing the just like them—curators. I feel that really designed for people I do not have a specific person imagine my audience. I never could. I cannot is my lack of discernment. the basic requirement would imagine I academic background in mind… nothing. of a certain age, sex, into the I walked I walked into this place in Austriais that they can see. laughter. once and I heard this touching the sculptures. blind people of noise was coming from, and I saw a group rotunda, where the of seventeenth know those busts You were laughing really hard. them they looked like jokes so they For people laughing so hard and I was There was a group of blind century where they were making faces? these people. kind of jealous. I could not make art for KB Maybe Verso. about painting. Everybody knows have to know a few things VM This is a little bit more specialized. You the American Gothic. People joke about these paintings all about paintings such as Nighthawks and Advertiserstime. They have been in the collective media. all the time. I think that is not that use them hard. Even you are a little bit easy on daughter with Janaina Tschäpe**). I like to show it to Mina (Vik’s this amazing challenge, which is to make art that is completely accessible Still you are facing yourself. do. It is becoming an obsession to me. the really hard thing to and intelligent at the same time. This is and I would guess that people were talking about your audience. I expect you have a market, KB You the Gordian Puzzles or the Pictures When you move from, say, who want your work want photographs. work, like the clown skull, is there a certain of Junk to Verso, which I think goes back to your earliest expectation from the collectors? of the weird spot that I am in— like collecting, because VM It is funny that in more practical terms not buy painting and drawing—I manage to bring in a likely collector who would between photography, buy my photographs, or somebody photography for instance. They only buy paintings and then they who collects photographs and then they buy Verso. And also people who do not buy art at all start I was they can relate to. That is what buying my work because they just like it or because it is something of this collections. I am very proud talking about with being accessible. I am the first artist of so many saw my work, that says something (Laughs.) because if they bought art for the first time because they This is when I feel really good. Normally when you go from a body of work, about what I am as an artist. that I or condition. If I were to do and I get tired of things, I do not do this because of a market request like diamond or chocolate pieces. I get tired of things so I just would be doing things that I sold a lot of, can move on. And sometimes along the way you come up with the idea to use a very early process. You are up with a new thing that you always allow yourself to go back if you need to. Every time you come Richard Serra, Prop, 1968 (Pictures of Dust), 2000 (Pictures of Dust), Serra, Prop, 1968 Richard 4 - May 5, 1969 Selection 2, April Sculpture: American Museum in Contemporary at the Whitney Installed 121.9 cm 48 in / 170.5 x print, 67.1 x Ilfochrome

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11 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Action Photo, after Hans Namuth (Pictures of Chocolate), 1997 Hans Namuth (Pictures of Chocolate), Action Photo, after 60 x 48 in / 152.4 x 121.9 cm Cibachrome print, VM This is what I mean about minimalism. Although I am talking about being Brazilian, too, I decided to made was that art from come artist an as influences my of Most here. moved I after only artist an become 1960s and 1970s. This is the stuff during my lifetime in Europe and the United States, especially the sculpture and performance is something that I moved from that I really like, even in Japan. Mona Ha’s The whole world, in my formative Brazil to here thinking about film and theatre and things like this. even these main centers. Andyears as a person, has had a lot to do with art being produced in I didn’t I just had very inadequate information and my own ideas of what this world would be. There know that. is a guy called Luis Sepúlveda, a writer from South America, and in one of his stories he describes this but he lives in the middle of the Amazon. Andman who is reading this pink romance about Venice, he Your work is like that because it is always one step removed from the objects. it is always one step removed from work is like that because KB Your Maybe that is why I do not live in Brazil. I do not like things to surface too much. I am married to a I do not like things to surface VM Maybe that is why I do not live in Brazil. emotional than I am. I am a Brazilian she is ten times more German woman who is completely Brazilian, I am very detached. I like to relate to the I only cry in cartoons. guy and I am very cold. I never cry. I need the room between who I am and what is being projected there. things around me as an observer. KB That seems unusual for a Brazilian. He talks about Borges and how Borges started very quietly and was just a struggling personality started very quietly and VM He talks about Borges and how Borges things and it all became part of his stories and all his personal and he ended up just getting to use all And this story. of the person who writes it is just killing him because it takes all the life story. Borges’ nobody knows who this person is. is loved and respected and Borges is much more powerful. Now he Atis quite a beautiful story and I think who wrote this, me or Borges? It the end he says I do not know you so you can keep on changing it this part that is still not it says a lot about trying to always have even this one part that nobody knows So you have to cultivate and betraying even yourself in the work. person. I have this sort of I am a very superficial I achieved a lot of that through superficiality. about. person. I am not a very emotional crust and I keep it all to myself (Laughs.). KB No, I do not. One of the hardest things if you intend to have a very long career is how to manage your creative is how to manage career if you intend to have a very long One of the hardest things follow your work. I would when people time your own timing and think about the impulses and respect have enough time to come up with something. I do not because I have this drive be working a lot faster, get more as I go and that I will to mention all the ideas that I already have. Not in my life to work on that I did because of good few things a anxious all the time. I managed to spoil as I live. So I am very little more. It is nice to find a balance learn to respect that a I think as you get older you this anxiety. you have to betray it. But your audience. still having this conversation with between betrayal and or to become of your life trying to become an artist spend half feeling numb. You Otherwise you start new. There is a it into something the other half of your life trying to deconstruct this person, and then this one? Borges and I. Do you know story by Borges called working on there is a lag. People are unsure about it and they look at it, they like it. Talking about the about Talking it. they like at it, look and they about it unsure People are is a lag. on there working is all sold out.” “It gallery and say, the where you go to the type of shows My shows are not buying part: end of heats up and you The thing sort get used to it. a while for people to sold, but it takes A lot of it is most of that work. up selling

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13 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY already, but I could not Treasure Island already, everything—to be twice detached from the thing. To have the kind of ambiguity, that space in the middle the middle space in that of ambiguity, the kind have To from the thing. detached be twice everything—to a really hard photography had that I really think and experience. fill in with questions that you can was that of the main arguments one and I think for so many years considered an art form time to be image The photographic about representation. gap for you to think provide the necessary it did not is a painting, there it is. With like indeed it looks that thing is, but is not really what of something that can everything the color, light, the to think about it: the degree of likeness, already so much room think for something to I of representation. a sort of meditation on the nature go wrong also becomes about the relation inspire thinking also it has to be convincing, but it must fully represent something is just a representation. fact that this of the thing represented. So you are aware of that thing with the even, which is a main perspective, about of representing things. Just think There are so many modes whole Hokusai or Hiroshige who discarded the have amazing artists like You element of this argument. in coming Probably my main argument it. they wanted people to wonder about idea of depth because depth or you must work yourself into seeing the flatness of these images. You to photography is also the picture. It is great depth in perceive question your own ideas about how you would have to really idea of being able to make fond of the am very all these academic little things still. I that you can touch still very important and they should but these things are something from scratch or pure observation, not be discarded. Art academic drawing. And I went to art school and I just learned schools today are very different. realize that I do not use academic make money (Laughs.). I I taught academic drawing for years to drawing but still it taught me things math than academic drawing for anything. I probably use more If I was not there up with myself. not possibly have come and made me think of things that I could The practice of drawing is really a setup for you like that. drawing a mood or a landscape or something to see things. to make pictures for you to train yourself the junk pieces? Those kinds of work is about drawing, even KB Do you not think that a lot of your work space. are so much about drawing with the negative I was like a self-taught dyslexic because of a language deficiency I have. I turned to drawing VM Well, read words by their entirety when I taught me how to person because I could not write. My grandma we were reading was four or five. By the time I got to school cursive. I could read only certain because I could not read write a word until my third year of school I could not write the word very fast I how to read. Whenever fonts, too. It took me a long time to learn And which was sort of shorthand. would just make a little quick drawing, if you do it enough of course I never ceased to look at drawing start thinking about drawing. you start doing it better and then you It was always a tool. That is why I never thought of becoming an separated from a certain grammar. It some kind of handicap that I had. artist earlier in my life. I did think of drawing as making up for was a tool for me to understand things or to express things. And it was so engrained in me that I never although I could draw very well. It was only once I started looking at thought of becoming an artist, add things or take things. I saw it as a tool I saw it as a mechanism. I saw that you could actually I designed them in a different way. which parts were essential and which parts worked better if you too, and through drawing I understood theatre, opera and movies. It was could see the grammar of it, of a the simplicity of the simple line always by comparison that I could analyze other media, based on It also more sophisticated media. presentation. I could see where I was and it mapped me to understand I was watching movies and gave me a very good foundation so I could look at them very systematically. build how they work, how you could trying to understand the grammar of movies, the individual parts,

Oh yes. When you are just outside of it, just imagining things, there is this gap. It would be a cliché VM Oh yes. When you are just outside of it, García Márquez. But Borges and Cortázar just to start were the very I like I love that, for me to say, come Allen So a lot of my interests people I read as a kid and I was crazy about them. Or even Edgar Poe. Italo Calvino, for instance, another one, always tries to pair from this gap between reality and intellect. get something minimalism. You these two notions which I think goes back to what I was saying about material The discrepancy between the that is just a cube of metal and only exists as a conceptual device. poetic very a is It to connect. them for only possibility the becomes it that great so intellectual is the and that can only be understood structure, so strategically weak and beautiful when you have something deal with It is so simple that it can only be seen from that perspective. I always because of its simplicity. I deal form and immediate properties, issues like this in my work; but instead of dealing with issues of with material in a sort of detached way as well. And that could be one of the reasons why I photograph KB It is like magic realism. describes this Amazonian Venice with crocodiles and everything is green. He fuses these two ideas. And with crocodiles describes this Amazonian Venice I think my idea of the American is similar to that vision of Sepúlveda’s European canon of art production Amazonian Venice. Toned gelatin silver print, 20 x 24 in / 50.8 x 61 cm Scissors (The Sarzedo Drawings) (Earthworks), 2002 RES MAY 2009 12

15 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY digital. I am not a Luddite. I am all for technology, but I like it when you have a certain sense of what you of what sense have a certain when you I like it but for technology, I am all a Luddite. I am not digital. are doing. too much? you manipulate that by using digital KB Do you worry capture the digital If you manipulate want to. way or another if you things one you manipulate VM Well, still works pretty much resolution. It in bring things into Photoshop they go down you lose. Once you to use it for is absolute what we want or the chemical print or chrome. But mainly like the regular neg we do, we work do not see this but bypass something that existed. People digital you sharpness. With and unreal, but it is a little aura-like look Digital prints have no grain. They with this, which is grain. So it has this of a photograph. element used to perceiving grain as a syntactical just because we are conditioned to see grain. are but it is just a generational thing. We semantic relevance Verso is a result of that? toward making objects again in KB Do you think the move right now: I have Verso. I have I have three work fronts VM I am not sure. I really enjoyed doing this. like a film production crew. I have everything from it is a little to agree with you, as you mentioned it, who can make things people carpentry, who can age things, color separation, printing resources, people He is such a detail oriented my framer. other end there is Barry, look really fucked up (Laughs.). On the this and pass the information on to me. person to oversee all person that I thought he would be the best in the back room of the show. frames on the photographs KB There are even rivets on the back of the is very beautiful but it looks It like the back, but it is not. VM Oh yes, we designed the frame to look things and he really looks about the carpentry of these like the back of a painting. Barry oversees There were actually two or three lucky sometimes, like in the case of Seurat: were conservation. We a lot of information on that particular of that painting so we had chapters dedicated to the conservation single nick, every single hole. could put a photograph next to it and it is just like it—every painting. You the wood because you cannot have two replicate is the grain of The only thing that we could not exactly same. else is exactly the grains of wood that are alike. But everything KB It is almost forgery. forgers, as we learned in only replicate the look of a painting. The best Forgers VM It is more than forgery. Julian Levy Gallery looked like. Or or in the 1960s would know what the label for Leo Castelli the project, the back Most of the forgery of they had some kind of record of it and would make something convincing. easy to forge because it is exposed, of paintings is mere art direction and antiquing. The front of it is painting that is there. The back of it is easel and go to the Met and copy a can take your easy to see. You go to it or some curious children that always concealed. It is the privilege of a few people who get to see When studios of the artists themselves. the museum (Laughs.). It is also the part that looks most like the the people who buy art do not buy the image. That you can get for free on the you come to think of it, buy the object and the object has two sides. Its least known side is You Or you can get a poster. Internet. The front of a painting by Cezanne, actually the one that tells the story of what happened to that object. the same the same feeling, the same day, say Mount St Victoire, will bear exactly the same light, It would be exactly the same today afternoon than when painting was made in the nineteenth century. forever. and document that moment because the function of the painting is to remain the same: to record Yes, they just discontinued Polaroids and we are down to our last boxes of 8 x 10 Polaroid. We can We and we are down to our last boxes of 8 x 10 Polaroid. Polaroids they just discontinued VM Yes, is something that I learned how to work with and I feel more preview digitally but still the Polaroid But there will be a day when they say we do not make color film anymore, comfortable working with it. are trying to do the same with which may not be so soon. After all they still make oil paint (Laughs.). We Like the Polaroids. KB Like the Polaroids. Different cameras do different things. Right now, we still have not been able to escape the 8 x 10 Right now, we still have VM Different cameras do different things. worked with people in Europe to get have been trying for the last four years that we have camera. We aspects but I think we are close similar results with a digital camera. It is still very limiting in many then how will we work? The digital is that we are not going to have film anymore and My theory to it. are a very little niche. these days. We industry is taking over and not that many people buy 8 x 10 film Do you always use the same one? Or does it vary according to the project? it vary according to KB Do you always use the same one? Or does This is the greatest thing about photography because it defies or actually comments on scale. You or actually comments on scale. You because it defies VM This is the greatest thing about photography can make very You can make very tiny pictures of huge things. You can make all kinds of commentary. in its resolution. Before digital prints scale of a photograph is big pictures of tiny things. But the true can make a important thing. You photographs it is a very nobody knew what it was but if you make you get to As close to it. anything when you get photograph look huge and you do not see you step away, So it is a tiny picture, even though it is bigger than a postcard. see it but from where you see it it is not printed big. I use very large cameras. KB What about scale? When you have ideograms then this is a completely different way of thinking again. I may be way of thinking then this is a completely different VM When you have ideograms I the drawings that myself, memos for little the way I started writing and creating completely wrong but things are shorthand and A lot of writing. so they are very similar to Chinese had are very ideogramatic, I look at things. I think Buster Keaton said the way crooked way, they look like hieroglyphs. It is a very I think I can say the same thing. I am have been an engineer. if he had not been a comedian he would And apart and put them back together. how to break things crazy about mechanics, about parts, about Even in physics, which I love connect. also how things do not it is in my work, how things connect and same shape, things like probability, how mountains stay the to read, you have particle dynamics and this. causality… I am very curious about all It is like the Chinese languages where one thing can mean so many different things. many different so languages where one thing can mean KB It is like the Chinese one thing or the other. So I already had a working principle of looking at things that came from drawing. drawing. from that came at things of looking principle a working had So I already other. or the one thing Somehow Brazil. in dictatorship military of time the in raised was I that fact the from came also it think I you say selective with what very you say and very careful with what very cynical and you become have to negotiate You All black market. the term semiotic sort of coded. I use the images are or hear. The very versed on metaphors. are are. Brazilians out what they really of things to find the meaning say three things with one you can meanings so many double entendres and double language itself has things so you can mean three different are actually meaningful simultaneously, word. The three things itself like your to the language word. They also rely a lot on things extraneous just by uttering one begin with. language to your body language. It is a very interesting facial expression and

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17 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY

Marat (Sebastião) (Pictures of Garbage), 2008 Marat (Sebastião) x 40 in / 129.5 x 101.6 cm Digital C print, 51 Digital C print, 86.7 x 71 in / 220.3 x 180.3 cm Venus and Cupid, after Correggio (Pictures of Junk), 2006 RES MAY 2009 16

19 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY what it is. It reflects the parts. It also got me thinking. It is the only completely organic abstraction that that abstraction organic completely only It is the thinking. got me parts. It also the it is. It reflects what better: it is an of molds. But even kind cut in the same They are always as something. you can recognize logic of the The picture making with that as a material. time. I can work a picture at the same object and picture. What they make the another connect to one moment those parts physical one. The puzzle is a print You make several puzzles. so you dependency, from the physical to free the picture I wanted was way that you stick to the but in the again then you mix them and remake them them in different angles, they are just thrown there They look like no physical connection between the pieces. picture but there is out perfectly. and the picture came to make one of them, a a long time It takes work; some of them do not work at all. Some of them really paper cut pieces I am as these as quickly a half sometimes. They did not develop month, a month and thing. Before you just know how She is really good at this knife make them so fast. doing now. Cata can getting a direction of that you start work It is not until like the sixth or seventh to make something. Now we are going to really with it. I already feel we are going somewhere Now it. where you want to take Sometimes you a sense of direction. to find things. It takes you a while challenging and complicated done. only find it when the series is already for something? with female figures. Is this a metaphor KB I have only seen the Gordian Puzzles are all about disruption. All It is by chance. The themes VM Now you have really got me in trouble! of Desperate Man. That was the first one I did. Then I didGirl in them are broken. I did one man—Courbet’s It is also because on my part. the Cemetery by Delacroix, Marilyn… Maybe it is something kind of sexist until Charcot If you think about it, that is not very recent. I am tapping on a history of representation these were crazy men. Dementia, senility, There were no and La Salpetriere only women were crazy. is probably one reason That crazy. got sick, only women got just things that happened to women. Men for Marilyn Monroe. It is always Except for that. I am tapping into nineteenth century iconography you do it with broken puzzle pieces you you have a portrait and confusing, broken situations. Whenever I did some modernist posters, too, is kind of not fair. think of something that You think of a broken self. of Babel. I did a lot of very complicated multiple things, the Tower the Russian one for example. I also did The one that we did that for you to see it. them so it is harder like images that have lots of images within one series of artists, one of them by Bosch. Within came out really cool is the Garden of Earthly Delights Sometimes these elements may or have lots of different elements. is pictures with pictures inside, which portraits. The other ones are these may not fall within one single puzzle piece. right? for example, at the center in Rio, have worked with children quite a lot, KB You but I with children specifically, VM The center is for adolescents from 14 to 22. I wanted to do something We But I worked with homeless children from Salvador. have not found the right project to tap into it yet. I like working with children. The school worked in India, too—Janaina and I—in Delhi and Ibrahimpor. of on natural history and the history in Brazil is sort of a project based art school. They have classes Because of the very accessible nature of my philosophy and then along with that they follow one project. punished for coming from advertising. work, you see a lot of pictures that look like my work. I am being Big companies come to me and ask me if I want to do things for them. you? didn’t did something with Lancôme, KB You Observing how my daughter organizes sentences and the relationship to things is like an education. to things is like an education. Observing how my daughter organizes sentences and the relationship about looking and observing me—I am 47 and I have a 2 year old—it is nice to be very discerning For I love the fact that I can observe her with a focus. I am not experimenting on her or anything but I feel like Sarah Palin Sorry, way. these things—the way she deals with the world—in a very productive the I find fascinating. The symbol for answering a question. It got me into autism, which is something know a beautiful logo. You Society for Autism this logo and I thought it was brilliant, is a puzzle. I saw The puzzle pieces are always the same scale. To begin with a puzzle piece is something quite amazing. scale. To VM The puzzle pieces are always the same in autism as a working metaphor. I am very interested This is another one of these fortunate moments. is something more me, nature For clouds and birds. People like to think of nature as the seashore, we cannot control. It is everything—chaos, particles, Nature is everything that frightening than that. And is not culture or civilization. noise. I think of nature as everything that do to be able to what we things for what they are it would be unbearable. It If we could really see exist in this environment. it is, with such an intensity because who sees everything as would be the reality of an autistic person rocks that are the same. Each one is anymore. There are no if a thing moves, it is not the same thing manage to make a We see things by names or categorization. unique. So an autistic person does not that are perceived to be the world and cleaning up structures place for ourselves by means of hygiene the garbage series. The junk itself is just for the junk series or we live in. This is also a working principle about autism it is because somehow is. When you think a metaphor for the scales that I think nature lived in like newborns. We have any discernment, when we did not we were all autistic at one point, or sound. The moment we start making single thing that is light this world where we just suck up every the time are and how we function. From where we can see who we distinctions we start creating this room is already shattered. It is already we start to speak, this world written language comes into play and visual world as it really is. There is cease to have this connection to the organized in little boxes. You that is why people take acid or drink: to lower this It is an acid trip. Probably great nostalgia about it. world of just living like a newborn. you better access to this crazy linguistic structure. Somehow it gives have a lot of artificial ways to get to this nostalgia. And Being an artist has very one of them is art. We an with when everyone else stops being little to do with when you start being an artist; it has more to do this prelinguistic environment and you do something that still has some connection with Then artist. derive a lot from it. . They are like Escher drawings. How did you make them, and drawings. How did you make them, and the Gordian Puzzles. They are like Escher KB I want to ask about the puzzle pieces? what is the scale of Well, you know I live in a place that is plagued with film production crews. with film production you know I live in a place that is plagued VM Well, Like the film production crews! KB Like the film production The back, on the other hand, tells the entire story of how that painting gets to represent the same thing same thing the to represent gets that painting story of how the entire tells other hand, on the The back, people write on paint on it and people and things and with little nicks It is actually scarred all the time. of the role of interesting metaphor It is a very it is the back of it. trust because It is sort of mistreated it. All cameras make eternal—through the things that we like the back of it. are We in our society. the artist be replicated, have invented—can we which after all or documentation, of representation or the advent real meaning of the work there. The are not can be thought about even though you can be remembered, the woods are just background. We But you know we work on the function in it. is that we can actually and internal. see, that is beautiful to mistreated part of this world that we want and nails and dirty

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20 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY connecting large companiestosocialprojects throughartists.It takesup theideaofCentroEspeciale, Micro Madnesswhichisnamedafterastory byVoltaire, thefirstsciencefictionstoryever. Itisabout my work,butwithotherartists. Sowe’resettingupwhatfeelsa little likeanadvertising officecalled they wantedtobeginwith.So everybodywins.LatelyIhaveanother ideahowtodothis, withnotonly up withthesameproductthey wantedtohave,andtheyareassociated withmyname,if thatiswhat behavior. For them,itiswonderfulbecause theyaredoingsomethingthatissociallyrelevant, theyend ahead oftheirowntimesotheyhavebeenthinkingabout this. You usethischange in consumer think theultimateluxuryisnotbling,buthealthandaclean consciousness. Lancômeisextraordinarily environmental orsocialsustainability. Theyarelosinggroundtothisnewgenerationofconsumerswho people likeBodyshoporNatura,thecompaniesthatcome witha philosophy, whichismostlyabout Companies havealotofpressurefromdifferentkind luxury ideology, mostlyputforwardby Ido notgetmyworkmisrepresented. young artistscopymywork,Iloveit. And I wantedthemtocopymywork,notonlybecausetheyare young, butbecausetheyneedit. Whenever It isareal-worldthing,professionaltoo.Ihavemy work being copiedorrippedoffbypeople. need tokeeptheplacegoing,theygetsomethingcan taketosomebodyandsay“Ihelpedmakethis.” thekidsgetfundingthey rose istheLancômelogo.Theymadeversionsandofthis rose. And work thatendsupbeinganeditionandabook,whichbytheway is calledARosea.The me. Sincetheywantthefocusonmywork,Italktothemandlecture themandthentheyproducethe help theschoolcontinue.Theytakeinthisprojectandthenthey discussitandthentheywith to keepbusyandgetawayfromthedrugtrafficking.You aregoingtoworkonaprojectthatis We startedoffwiththeideaofanartschoolandthenIaddedthis otherthing.Isaid,youarenotjusthere have togettheafter-schoolthings. beautifully. Mostoftheseprogramsaimatkeepingthemfrombeingrecruitedfornarco-traffic.You just a groupofunderprivilegedinnercitykidsfromBrazil.They’regoing todoitandthisisgoingwork Isaid, theyaskedwho.And work foryou,butIamgoingtohelpsomeoneelsedothe you.And no. ThesecondtimeIsaid,beforeyouhirean18yearoldstudent, letusdothis:I’mnotgoingtothe I thoughtLancômewasabigcompanyandtheytwiceaskedme to doabigproject. ThefirsttimeIsaid your worktosellvaginalcreamorpanettone.Thatisannoyingbecause itisjustacompanydoingit. artist tomakeworkthatsayssomethingaboutelse.It is anotherthingwhensomebodyuses something, youshouldpassiton.To behonestwithyou,Iampretty much againstit. Itisonething asan complimented meforworkthatIhadnotdone!dobelievein intellectualproperty. Ifyoulearn just likemyworkandtheyputitinrestaurantsotherplaces. TherewasthisguyinSãoPaulo who this big(Showsacoupleofincheswithhisfingers.).Somepeople areworse;theymakeworkthatlooks then theyhireakidwithsomePhotoshopexperienceandmake somethingthatlookslikemywork things thatIdonotbelievein.Whathappensthenistheysay, “Oh,letmegetbacktoyou.”And Normally Isayno.donotwantmyworkconfusedwithcommercial things,especiallybadbusiness, because theyknowthatweareslow(Laughs.)soaskusearlier. editorials allthetimeandIcannotdoitbecauseofmytiming.We workalotwithNewYork Magazine try toworkwiththem,butthenmyspeedofdoesnotmatch theirexpectations.Igetrequestsfor as anillustrator. NormallyIsayno.Ifitissomethingreallyinterestingthatgoingtohelppeople them, mostlyadagencies.Thefirstthingisitdoesnotreallypay becausetheywanttodealwithme VM Yes. BeforeLancôme,thereweremanycompanieswhoaskedme ifIwantedtodoaprojectwith New York,NY All images©VikMuniz/LicensedbyVAGA, Kings College,theLondonConsortium,RuskinSchoolofArt,andTateModern. Art &ArchitecturalJournalandistheNewYorkcorrespondentforPhotoIcon.ShehastaughtatBirkbeckCollege, (errant bodies,2003),aswellthejournalsThirdText,FriezeandArtMonthly.Sheisoneditorialboardof (Black Dog, 2006), articles haveappearedinLadiesandGents(TempleUniversityPress,2009),Arcade:ArtistsPlacemaking is acoauthorofArtNewYork(ellipsis,2000)andRecentArchitectureinTheNetherlands1998).Her Institute ofArt,NewYork.Herdoctoralresearchcenteredontheworkfeministartistsin1970sLondon. She Kathy Battistaisawriter,lecturer,andcurator.ShecurrentlydirectorofContemporaryArtatSotheby’s collector—of ideas,ofimages,intriguingthingsandpeople. On thewayout, Inoticedalargedisplaycabinetfilledwithantiquecameras. Muniz isa (MoMA)andthelargescalecomputerthathehisteam use. at ModernMuseumofArt experimenting withaswellthedraftlayoutforhisforthcomingartist’s choiceshow his work,Muniztookthetimetoshowmenewliquidmetallicmaterialthathe is daughter Minaonhispractice.Far fromrushingmeoutsothathecouldgetonwith negative space,withalargecamerapoisedaboveit, onecouldseetheinfluenceofhis Comprised ofthousandstiny, brightlycoloredtoysthatformedanimageoutofthe A photographwasbeingcomposedonthefloor, whichtookupmostofthespace. successful artist’s studioinBrooklyn. the amiableMuniz—whichremindsonemoreofafamilyinRiothancommercially and introducedhiscoreteam.Therewasawarmatmosphere—nodoubtinitiatedby approachability. alongconversationinhisstudy, After hegavemeatourofhisstudio Muniz hasthatrarecombinationofkeenvisualacuity, intellectualprowessand sotheconversationmovedontobeachesinRio,Brazilianbodiesandpolitics. And the idea.IamfromSãoPaulo, butIamthebiggestdefenderofRio. more sophisticatedintermsofasocialnetwork.Everybodylives in RioandworksSãoPaulo. Thatis very smalltownforartproduction.SãoPaulo iswhereeverythingis.Rioaresort, althoughRioisalot them intheworkforce.Itisnotlikehere.InBrazil,ithardtobe an artist, especially inRio.Rioisa which bynowinitssecondyear, isdevelopingprojectswithNokia.We haveactuallybeenabletoplace Surface Tension: Supplement 1 (errant bodies, 2006) and Surface Tension: Problematics of Site Cloud Cloud,Arizona(PicturesofClouds),2001 Gelatin silverprint,20x24in/50.861cm

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23 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Semiha Berksoy in 2000’s I am delighted that we can see this. I thought your room at the Global Art at the your room I thought see this. that we can delighted HUO I am very was Exhibition room. dense space, your It was an incredibly interesting. my bedroom. SB My room... an actress, a painter… singer, are a You HUO Exactly. of art! , a synthesis of all forms SB I’m a Gesamtkunstwerk work as one unifying great artwork? HUO So you see all your that. have enough time for I don’t I do not compose though. I write, I sing, I act. SB Everything I do is art: I never studied way. I was born that acted. I was five years old. I painted, sang, I’ve done all this since on my own. I just started singing any of it. HUO So you are self taught? And the professors thought I myself. and then did everything SB I have always thought things through in school, regarding my voice and so on. I studied at They would present me as a role model was right. teacher… Lohmann, a renowned the Conservatorium—opera with Paul HUO Where was that? I 75th birthday. in honor of Richard Strauss’ in Berlin Festival SB In Berlin. I was at the Richard Strauss that? It was in 1939; I ] during the Hitler era. Can you imagine was chosen to sing in Ariadne [auf Naxos I was an impeccable singer. career. made a worldwide a star, was completely unknown and then became without any outside help. The way I sing this is just how I sing. I found my voice myself, Unknowingly, I learned the same. First I would speak a text. me, speaking and singing are the is light and natural... For words by heart for the lead in Ariadne in Berlin. auch “Es gibt ein Reich wo alles rein ist, es hat Es gibt einen Namen, Totenreich!” Then I sang: “ ein Reich wo alles rein ist!”. It is exactly the Speaking and same, very simple. Singing is easy. you singing are the same. I always speak. When you must speak sing, you need to speak the text, it correctly. HUO And does painting also come easy to you or is that more difficult? I just do what I feel. I don’t SB No, it is also easy. my portrait: I did this example, For think about it. in Berlin. HUO In 1958? I understand you were in Paris? HANS ULRICH OBRIST I understand you were make the first film about Turkey, SEMİHA BERKSOY They were going to can you believe I actually met René Clair, with René Clair. in Paris, see, I was just with me, but I told him, no. You that? He wanted to work in to stay I had no common sense. I did not want a child, 20 years old, Paris. HUO When was that? , by Studio René SB In 1931. The first sound film, Dans la Rue d’Istanbul from a star, I was very young then. I have always been Clair in Epinay. my very youth to today as an old lady. MICHA GOEBIG AND CHRISTINE LIESE-SCHIKANEDER

BY

TRANSLATION

GERMAN.

IN

He gave me all the freedom I wanted. He knew I was an actress. He told me: You are free, you are an He told me: You SB He gave me all the freedom I wanted. He knew I was an actress. a film, me. I am currently making actress. I used to be a sparrow all my life. He was enthusiastic about AtamanSemiha B. Unplugged, 1997, Single- [ a performance. I have made a performance with Kutluğ it with a young man who works as Installation] before. This is the second one. I am making Screen Video I speak, all alone. Anda camera man. I play all alone, it is my performance: I act, now I will show you my latest pictures. HUO How was working with Robert Wilson? As a child, I played with my mother. My mother was a very curious person; she always went to the My mother SB As a child, I played with my mother. I was four her. at home, she would play and I watched Later, movies to watch these Italian silent movies. I played together with my mother. so to say. years old when I became an actress myself, a tune from I would sing Mozart, was only five. In kindergarten, I always had a good voice, even when I years five only was I that? imagine you Can time. same the at act would and Turkish in Wedding, Figaro’s But a person always stays the same from to be an opera singer. old! I did not know yet that I was going you know, from birth. I I have a voice for Wagner, opera singer. the day of birth. I am a born actress and a rich, gentle sopranos. I am an old soprano for Wagner, am a soprano, but not one of those translucent, singing the Liebestod aria in New can hear my voice. I still have a tape of me full-bodied soprano. You He wanted to work with me. by Robert Wilson. I also sang in The Days Before York. did you start? were born in 1910. When You HUO Could you tell us about your early years? TEXT HANS ULRICH OBRIST

Semiha Berksoy in 1930’s RES MAY 2009 22

BERKSOY SEMİHA WITH INTERVIEW

25 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY I meant to ask you more about the city because you said you lived in Ankara. lived said you you city because about the you more to ask HUO I meant in Ankara,SB I had a commitment first opera I retired, as the This is from where the State Opera House. at to the Ankara has always been connected My life in both. theatre. I played and also to the Opera, singer. been your favorite city? HUO But Istanbul has always my bedroom and my I think they show house where I was born is now a museum. SB I was born here. The studio. HUO The room I saw in Bonn? on the Asian of Istanbul, very beautiful. side born is in Çengelköy, SB The house where I was of the city today? How has it changed? HUO What do you think find won’t place on earth. You the most beautiful SB Istanbul is a very old city and very beautiful, else. something like the Bosporus anyplace now there are one million people, and have seen the city grow. Fifty years ago, there were about HUO You more than ten million. course, the make a difference to me. I am not interested in such things. But,of but this doesn’t SB Yes, people are the same all In their character, we have too much envy. world changes. There is so much envy; Do you know Wagner? of the human character. over the world. Envy is an essential part work. HUO I do know Wagner’s going downhill; it He tells it all. The world is SB The Ring of the Nibelung, a great opera, is about society. This is not badly. and treat each other take long any more. It is all very bad. People kill each other won’t good. Wagner? you influenced by HUO Were because people are very jealous. But he is right, all those pessimistic feelings. SB One has to see Wagner, and drawn. I you have painted an actress, a writer, fields: as a singer, have worked in so many HUO You this incredible agility with which you would like to know if you could tell me more about this fluidity, completely free. are move back and forth. You speak, act… everything is done by paint, SB I do it all. It does not make a difference to me whether I sing, It is always the same, a feeling. Art I act with it. is a matter feeling. I paint with this feeling, I sing with it, feel ready to sing. But I have the example, right now I don’t defines it all. For of feeling, full stop. Feeling no idea. I am only think about whether my voice is sick or healthy, feeling. I sing with a feeling. I don’t feeling. Sing with feeling, put it in your expression. Then people will recognize what interested in art, the right feeling. Art have to have is a matter of feeling, right? You I feel right. you do. I speak right, In 1958 when I was in Berlin. My aunt and I and I My aunt was in Berlin. when I SB In 1958 that I would have at a B&B. She said were staying did not want a different B&B as she to stay at I was as herself. at the same place me to stay how much I loved just thought about so upset! I would treat me like that. my aunt and why she is why I made this picture I was very sad. This my soul, It came directly from spontaneously. pictures always show a this expression. My totally different this is about feelings. It’s story, like photos. My paintings from making portraits such an there is for example always tell a story, surprised myself. expression… I was totally I studied acting at the Conservatory I also play, Nazi in Istanbul. I sang in Berlin, during the to time. I met von Ribbentrop. I was invited the embassy in Berlin. I sang at a reception for Secretary of State Joachim von Ribbentrop. have Afterwards he came up to me and said: “You He was a great voice!” I have a fabulous voice. tall, absolutely enthusiastic. A handsome man, will not blonde, blue eyes. My life—and all this I on art. change until I die—has always centered I This is who I am. will never do anything but art. and I love art. do music every day, HUO Who were your role models in art?

Not under Atatürk! Later, after Atatürk had died. That was in 1941. Nazım Hikmet was in prison and I SB Not under Atatürk! Later, Hikmet died as an immigrant in Moscow, in 1963, from a heart attack. visited him. He was a great poet. Why should I have any? I go by my feelings, then I know what to do. I paint because I like to, I don’t to do. I paint because I like to, I don’t then I know what SB Why should I have any? I go by my feelings, urge, I go ahead immediately. work. But when I feel the have to. Nobody tells me to paint and to lived here or were there times when you Have you always HUO Have you always had a house in Istanbul? left Istanbul? SB I was also in Ankara, at the State Opera House. When Karl Ebert came to Ankara, I was the first opera opera. Karl Ebert Atatürk in a Turkish the lead and I sang founded the first opera house in 1934, singer. European opera, Toska. It was arrived in 1936 and founded the Conservatorium. I sang in the first know him, he is world famous. He was in You by our famous poet Nazım Hikmet. translated into Turkish prison. HUO Under Atatürk?

Private Collection Oil on Cardboard, 39.4 x 27.6 in / 100 x 70 cm Sound, 1970 RES MAY 2009 24

27 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Private Collection Love, Self-Portrait, 1974 Oil on Cardboard, 39.4 x 27.6 in / 100 x 70 cm Ölümü... German, French, Italian, Turkish. I am an opera singer and an actress. I am a actress. and an singer I am an opera Turkish. Italian, French, German, SB Ölümü... ! Gesamtkunstwerk enters into the painting? your music, HUO And life as a singer, here, your self-portrait . This is my Phoenix Anka you: some more I will show the feeling. I have it is all about SB Yes, as a phoenix. the Anka I become In the past I bird, the Phoenix. with reality. But it has something to do It is a story. words I am murdered. But I In other me sing. because of my voice. They do not let was envied so strongly say? What do you stage. God has given me. I revive and take the have a strength that paintings tell stories. HUO This means that your stories. I did it in about an hour. SB Stories, yes, amazing Phoenix Anka has a unique, beautiful voice. [On And Ankathe back of the painting it says:] Phoenix revives on the 7th of January. Semiha burns herself from her own ashes. paint that fast? HUO You The phoenix was born and I wrote the story. SB Yes, They found a Turkish 12,000 years AD in Levant. one found statue, not in Egypt or India. This is where artifacts. Phoenix is a bird, have the Turkish We it. you know. And I am a phoenix because I have many This is one powerful, bad stories which I cannot tell. The phoenix will burn and then return to life story. Many story. from its ashes. This image became my people are very jealous. HUO Many people envied you? I was but I did not give anything about that. SB Yes, This is a like that. tough and stayed alive forever, story. HUO Phoenix is always a beginning, too. SB Phoenix dies. HUO And then there is a new beginning... know the SB The story goes on and on and on. You phoenix is why Atatürk founded the opera. Aşk Ölümü. .) Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. This painting is Richard Wagner. und Isolde by .) Tristan . I need large canvases, but the material is not called Isoldes Liebestod. I need large canvases, but the material with unfolds a folded canvas Now I show you my paintings. (Berksoy an assistant You have done so many things in your life, so many performances, performances, many so life, your in things many so done have You HUO Arepaintings. projects? any unrealized there there are different projects! In art, projects, realized SB Unrealized is art, well. It need fantasy as stay realistic. But you have to ways. You An have to sit right. feeling. But first you have to idea and a feeling but an idea and art… art and a feeling A style may change, sit right. should sit right. and then comes everything else. and feel right, First you have to think the But things, make fantasies become real. Then you can do surreal the main that is they have to be right, matter, idea and the feeling a piece if do nonsense. It is obvious immediately thing. One should not Artis not good, not art. is never nonsense. Art has to think and feel This it and feel right. think about you need to think right, In art, right. is art.

Collection

Foundation

HUO Isoldes Liebestod...Mort d’Isolda... Morte di Isotta... Isolde’nin SB Do you see the date? I did this the day before yesterday! As seen in my dream. This is what it says here, too. HUO An homage to Wagner! Yes. So then I made this painting for Wagner. You can read this all in German. I wrote it down. can read this You So then I made this painting for Wagner. SB Yes. in the world. I painted what I saw in my dream. There is no second Semiha Something to think about. to me in my dream, just like this, and then Robert He came Read what I wrote about Richard Wagner. at the Lincoln Center in the millennium year 2000, in the days before... City, sang in New York I Wilson. in 2001. gave me this picture as a gift, Isoldes Liebestod, from his Tristan and Isolde. Wagner HUO Dream is reality! Wagner, yes. I saw Wagner in my dream, exactly like that. He came to me and then Robert Wilson who He came to me and then Robert Wilson exactly like that. in my dream, yes. I saw Wagner SB Wagner, important. that! So, dreams are hired me. I saw them in my dream, imagine HUO This is Wagner? . She is dying, right? He is already dead. And this is Wagner, down here. And. She is dying, right? He is already dead. Isoldes Liebestod this is Wagner, SB Tristan. HUO Is this a new painting? available. Because there are not any big-scale canvases like these, I work on bed sheets. canvases like these, available. Because there are not any big-scale Opera

Berksoy

Semiha Oil on Cardboard, 39 x 27.6 in / 99 x 70 cm Self-Portrait, 1972 RES MAY 2009 26

29 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY

Collection Collection Collection

Foundation Foundation Foundation

Opera Opera Opera

Berksoy Berksoy Berksoy

TOP LEFT Family, 1972 Oil on Cardboard, 38.6 x 27.2 in / 98 x 69 cm Semiha TOP Love Eyes Shut, 1966 Oil on Cardboard, 29.3 x 18.5 in / 74.5 x 47 cm Semiha LEFT The Birth, My Mother, 1972 Oil on Cardboard, 39 x 27.6 in / 99 x 70 cm Semiha The house where I was born. In a year, it will be a museum. SB The house where I was born. In a year, voice, a deep, rich I have six stories. I have a Wagnerian The woman is Diton. She dies. This is my story. Nobody is allowed is difficult. Singing in New York and you will hear it. soprano. Let me sing Wagner I have always loved Beethoven, Wagner, sang in Fidelio. Just look at this Beethoven portrait. I to do it. to the right things for me Strauss. It is because of my voice. They composed for me! They composed sing… I have another one. Did you like the story? the horns, the tongue hole, six, seven, See, this is a head. This head has nine holes: two eyes and ears, It points to And then a hand. The head is clever. the breath hole and the food hole, nine holes altogether. In the bottom, you see two stupid C,spot. an important point in the world that is naturally in the right are Stupid people believe that these people people, a whore and a pimp who work together successfully. Wagner loves me. This is why I sang in New York. I was in Bayreuth three times and sang on stage. I why I sang in New York. loves me. This is Wagner handsome man and he wanted to work invited me to Bayreuth in 1958. He was a very Wagner Wolfgang it is. I have my fee and I will with me but I had an engagement in Ankara. “Yes, “Is this a fixed contract?” invited three times. He I was wanted me to come to Germany. receive retirement benefits as well.” He but I am going to send him a letter. know what I do today, doesn’t HUO And In your house? will the museum be? you mentioned earlier that there will be a museum. Where In the house where you were born? And when is it due to open? So could one say that composing is your unrealized project? HUO So could one say that composing is your absolutely in love. And He is all I need. I am he was in love too compose, I don’t. had to SB Richard Wagner and came to me… I sang in New York. HUO And snake kills the dervish… the it was in love with the his nape because bite was jealous and wanted to kill him, to SB Not kills! The snake cures the woman and takes her from the is a cardiologist; he woman. But it does not succeed. The dervish grave. time… Maybe, if I had had the The only thing I cannot do is composing. Here is another story. A dervish, you know. A necrophilic dervish loves the woman and goes into the A necrophilic dervish loves the woman A dervish, you know. Here is another story. Altogether The snake gets jealous of the in the grave, there is also a snake. lover. grave with his dead it loves the woman. dervish, you see, because No, I write for myself. What I do is all mine. I write, I sing... What I do is all mine. SB No, I write for myself. Have your literary texts been published? literary texts been HUO Have your SB In Ankara, Atatürk. founded in 1934 by yes, me. He did it because of This is Atatürk’s Opera House in Ankara? House Opera is Atatürk’s HUO This

RES MAY 2009 28

31 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Hans Ulrich Obrist Photograph: Dominik Gigler

, with ainter. Death, 2003.

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HUO Here? want to. but I don’t with me again, work with. He wants to this person I worked here. I found SB Yes, HUO And stories? you be telling the painting? Will doing in front of what are you performance soon. AsSB I am going to do this . AndSalome and others. It will be called Love this a picture you see that? of me as a child. Can HUO Absolutely! for a picture from the grave. This is a story SB A portrait of a girl, Many different portrait. a new a cardiologist, is my doctor, I always paint my life. This with my mother. is enough for today. things. But I think it HUO Alright. Thanks a lot. All images courtesy Galerist, Istanbul at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 1999. In 2003, she participated in t Destruction and Detroit III at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 1999. In 2003, she participated Beethoven Biennial with her stage interpretation of Salome, and she was preparing another project, Robert Wilson for 2005. of Exhibitions and Programmes Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zurich) joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director de he was curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this, Vienna, from 1993-2000. He has curated la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, over 200 exhibitions internationally since 1991, including on the Move, This Hans opera singer and a p Semiha Berksoy (b. 1910 – d. 2004, Istanbul) was a world-renowned Turkish soprano singing at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. She studied painting at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts and Streets of Istanbul Berksoy started her acting career in the role of Semiha in the first Turkish sound movie icon in with her heavy make-up making her an when she was 21. In addition to her career as a soprano singer, which often depicted a little girl, a symbolic Turkish culture, she was known internationally for her paintings at Opera Singer and qualified for a scholarship personification of herself. She was honored as the First Turkish and in 1934, performing in Turkey, Germany Berlin Music Academy. She started her international singing career Portugal, becoming known as a Wagnerian soprano. In 1939, for the 75th birthday of Richard Strauss, she sang return her success in Germany, she chose to first Turkish prima donna to perform on stage in Europe. Despite the Turkish State Opera and Ballet. This to Turkey that year and assisted Carl Ebert in his efforts to create retired Ankara State Conservatory in 1940. She initiative led to the creation of the Experimental Stage of the as a theater artist. At the mostly active she remained from the Istanbul Opera in 1972. Following her retirement, in Robert Wilson’s opera The age of 90, she appeared in a dramatic scene singing Liebestod Ulrich America, 1st Moscow Triennale, 2nd Guangzhou Triennale (Canton China), and Lyon Biennale. In 2007, Hans same co-curated Il Tempo del Postino with Philippe Parreno for the Manchester International Festival. In the year, the Van Alen Institute awarded him the New York Prize Senior Fellowship for 2007-2008. artists. But this is not true. One day, the head shows culture shows the head One day, is not true. But this artists. is on the bottom die, culture above. The two on coming from wrong people on top. Other, and art are always top. Culture ideas? you think of such always do. What do lose, they the picture. Many pictures HUO This is a picture within within the picture. Stories and ideas. I was in Bursa SB Everybody has an idea. director came to me and gave There a museum in Turkey. He a pharaoh. I drank water out of it. me a golden bowl of and told me to drink from the bowl. said I was a great artist This is a coffin. This was my fate, yes… HUO A green coffin. man. SB My grandfather was a dervish, an intelligent grandfather was a dervish? HUO Your window... for praying. SB Culture... the window... prayer... Champs Elysees. Exposition, A portrait of my mother. Paris... collection. My critics were enthusiastic. I have a large HUO A collection of works by other artists?

Collection

Foundation

SB This is a completely new, a completely different type of performance. HUO And you are wearing different costumes? SB I have them in my room. I have another studio. No, this one is from an old Turkish artist, an acquaintance. I do not sell my works because I always artist, SB No, this one is from an old Turkish tell the story of my life. tell stories from my private life. This is why I cannot sell them. I in which you stand in front of a your latest project is a performance mentioned earlier that HUO You painting. SB My paintings, right. HUO So those are all your works? HUO Of your paintings? SB My collection, only mine. Opera

Berksoy

Semiha Oil on Cardboard, 39.4 x 27.6 in / 100 x 70 cm My Mother and Me, 1974 RES MAY 2009 30

33 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Courtesy the artist Oil on canvas, 59.1 x 78.7 in / 150 x 200 cm grand narrative of Socialist Realism in art for formal devices formal in art for Realism of Socialist narrative grand pictorial radical rejection of we referring to the (8). Nor are 1921 declaration example, Alexanderform—for Rodchenko’s (9). put an end to painting that he had of art and forensic the fantastic mix rather, have in mind, We of a contemporary ars morendi and a medicine, the fusion emerged at the very end of the totalitarian dying ideology that Necrorealism was a movement age in the art of necrorealism. to in the mid-eighties as a reaction that arose in Leningrad It is no of death in socialist realist art. the official doctrine name, socialist was replaced in the movement’s accident that, Eugeny Yufit, Egg from the series Positive Regression, 2008 Victor Alimpiev, Thrown Banners Look like an Victor Alimpiev, Thrown Banners Arable Land 5, 2005 / 175 x 203 cm Acrylic on canvas, 68.9 x 79.9 in Courtesy Regina Gallery where an eternally living realism situated in the timeless utopian space of social justice and utopian space of social living realism situated in the timeless by necro where an eternally Soviet period, during at the end of the was declared dead. Necrorealism emerged universal prosperity General Secretaries of with the last along stagnation, when the country agonized the so-called era of after the other (10). By satirizing the beloved Central Committee, who died off one the Communist Party life for the to sacrifice one’s and heroism, the willingness motifs of official Soviet culture—courage realist art into the black the bombastic tales of socialist Motherland—necrorealism transformed was a “living death,” the artists humor of its necrocomics. Understanding that the utopian experience toughness, and extreme stupidity, principles of their movement: formulated the fundamental aesthetic courage. worked in film, necro- Yufit, Yevgeny artist and independent filmmaker founder, The movement’s photography (for which he senseless activity), staged performance (which he described as wild, meant covering canvases with a Yufit and painting, which for developed a special “zombie make-up”), are animal-like beings, half-men/ characters of his paintings frozen, black-and-white animation. The ends up in the maw of another beast. the tail of one beast half-beasts who form daisy chains in which and painting—is zooanthropomorphization. Whereas motif—in cinema, photography, principal Yufit’s in secret experiments to improve middle-aged men involved the characters in his films are mostly men with trees or chimpanzees, the experiments in crossing human nature and the products of these of Positive Regression (as the who become the symbol subjects of his paintings are beastly bipeds is titled). latest series of paintings artist’s necrograffiti. His favorite subject Sergei “Serp” Barekov paints a kind of pseudonym— that the artist’s is the harvest festival. (It is no coincidence Soviet Serp, or sickle—refers simultaneously to a farming tool and to the The symbol of the union of workers and peasants, the hammer and sickle. paintings of brutally agrarian cult of fertility is transformed, in Serp’s fertility productivity, of rejection deliberate a into figures, male mutilated produces his own black-and- Vladimir Kustov life itself. and, finally, of white paintings by using forensic medicine textbooks as the source His characters are transformed by bullet wounds, stab his iconography. wounds, fire, and decomposition, forming a black-and-white ornamental of the pattern that ushers individuals along the “corridor of dying” (one main points of the necro-method developed by the artist). The reception of contemporary Russian art is still much The reception of contemporary Russian century, in the earlier twentieth influenced by the fact that, it led some of Russia was the homeland of modernism: economics, and the most radical experiments in politics, and economic) aesthetics. Whereas the first two (political years of Soviet rule utopias utterly collapsed, and seventy experiments the aesthetic were declared a failed experiment, Russian The fruit. made during the period continue to bear art (1), dubbed art a avant-garde discovered non-figurative (2): all technique, declared its rejection of the easel format to ably channel the these highways of modernism continue

DR. OLESYA TURKINA said Alice, you ran “you’d generally get to somewhere else—if still panting a little, in our country,” “Well, time, as we’ve been doing.” very fast for a long running you can do, to keep , you see, it takes all the of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here slow sort “A as fast as that!” at least twice must run you want to get somewhere else, you in the same place. If Glass Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking AFTER PAINTING famous statement is a slogan of modernism and is “The medium is the message”: Marshall McLuhan’s the end of definition of “art as technique” (6). With Shklovsky’s thus akin to the Russian formalist Viktor that artists begin to re-examine modernization and the realization that a socialist utopia is impossible, , the emergence of good bad painting most traditional medium, painting. The extreme example here is the end of painting was postponed. The end of which diagnoses the death of painting (7). Moreover, ideology made the autonomy of painting impossible by substituting the come when total painting didn’t traffic of international contemporary art. It is no accident that after Perestroika—which is when, two It is no traffic of international contemporary art. until that point divided into official and unofficial art, decades ago, the very notion of contemporary art became, in essence, a for a new revolutionary entered the Russian vocabulary (3)—the quest art, repressed by the Stalinist regime and that had been search for a miraculously preserved modernism critics and museum directors quest brought many curators, was therefore untouched by time. This versus the local (4), so critical for the past The discussion of the global into this newly opened territory. “local” Russian avant-garde that The contemporary Russian art. decade, features in a particular way in global phenomenon. Now, global trends century became a emerged in the early decades of the twentieth dialogue with modernism is one of the flavor in Russia. The in contemporary art have taken on a local This does not so much involve attempts most characteristic “local” traits of contemporary Russian art. much as a rethinking of the “utopian to preserve and revive an “avant-garde halted in mid-flight” (5) as utopia. heritage,” a search for an answer to the question of what to do after

Courtesy Regina Gallery Acrylic on canvas, 27.6 x 74.8 in / 70 x 190 cm Erected in 3014, 2007

Pavel Pepperstein, Antennae for Communicating with the Deceased. Pavel Pepperstein, Antennae for Communicating with the Deceased. RES MAY 2009 IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN ART RUSSIAN IN CONTEMPORARY

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY IS CONTEMPORARY WHAT 32

35 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Dmitry Gutov, Fence, German Ideology, Karl Marx (1818-1883). A Page of the Manuscript of the German Ideology from the Chapter Feuerbach, 2007 Metal, 78.7 x 47.2 in / 200 x 120 cm Courtesy the artist impact, whether they are family members, homeless children, schoolgirls or rollercoaster riders riders or rollercoaster schoolgirls children, homeless family members, they are whether impact, together by a common Project are bound of The Human The characters a random snapshot. recorded in age of means in the asks what humanism Ragimov In this project, or joy. it pride, rage, pain emotion, be them. events but creates not merely reflect when media does mass media, school the meaning of this style, but rethinks in a hyperrealist Ulymov works The young artist Valery evokes memories of and details of cars, and this in part Ulymov paints cars of painting for today. of desire and as well as meditates on the car as an object glorification of mechanisms, as futurism’s and its glamour world the contemporary of the new economic hierarchy of an inalienable attribute presents pipes and engine parts that Ulymov cold surfaces of the automobile shiny, culture. The steely, to its aesthetic, which the object itself, to a new reality whose function is limited to the viewer generate in the world of sheen and glamour, The narcissistic reflection its environment. is capable of reflecting a system of paintings, in Ulymov’s becomes an artistic technique valorized object, in the mirror of the and perspectives. multiple of reflections a series of ruined monuments— The young artist Ivan Plyushch creates dense, These viscous, painted panels that depict Stalin-era playgrounds. park ruins of a fun plaster-like paintings show us the archaeological which is the tempera surface, populated by totalitarian ghosts. Through of half- figures cracked just like the “originals” themselves—plaster-cast memories. ruined Young Pioneers dancing in a circle—we glimpse childhood the end of turned to painting after The new generation of artists who have integrity of the appeal not so much to the painting and the end of ideology, in their subjects or which might be read either bygone totalitarian ideology, ruptures, cracks, and wounds. techniques, as much as to this ideology’s AFTER IDEOLOGY is curious that the artists It art. Ideology is one of the leitmotifs of Russian but rather themselves avant-garde, of the Russian avant-garde did not call with Beginning label to their art. “leftist” artists, thus giving a political within the Sots Arts, which unveiled the mechanism of image-production ideology style, the appeal to framework of the hegemonic socialist realist of the of ideology after the collapse becomes a formal device. The rethinking one of of these is art activism. Here, USSR takes on various forms. The first Founder Anatolythe principal figures is the artist and activist Osmolovsky. of Art), editor of the radical of the ETI group (Expropriation of the Territory journal Radek, and author of the revolutionary program Netseziudiki, the leftist Osmolovsky throughout the nineties elaborated on the theory of movement in post-Perestroika Russia. Along with his comrades, he spelled out the word Khui (“dick”) on Red Square and organized the action Barricades on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street honoring the the slogan which he declared along fortieth anniversary of the student revolts of 1968, thus following after a struggle. In the new century, with his allies, that only utopian ideology provides the basis for Osmolovsky has shifted to the production of a series of objects that dalliance with “non-spectacular” art, leftist ideology meets its artistic source, reexamine the history of abstraction. Thus, in his work, utopian political thought meets the left-wing discourse of the avant-garde. In their Necrorealism emerged at the end of the totalitarian ideology, ideology, of the totalitarian the end at emerged Necrorealism its death, and it overturned of its imminent in anticipation (the ideology fact that one ideology values. Despite the principal of by another (the ideology was replaced of redistribution) question the rather, life and death, or the question of consumerism), of relevant in the new ideological regime of death in life, is still the necrorealists reject as much as they which advertising and profit, rejected its predecessor. for realist painting was the starting point Reflection on socialist of Alexanderthe conceptual project and Vladimir Vinogradov in which they launched Commissioned Painting, Dubossarsky, recent rejected, unfashionable painting of the 1994. The turn to the artists as an artistic gesture for whose sake the past might be read socialist realist notion the style. Taking declined their “personal” address workers and of the “social commission” (i.e., art should and Dubossarsky Vinogradov collective farm laborers) to its limit, Realism’s Socialist of matter subject the of hierarchy the reestablished Painting for Different grand style. They produced series entitled of Labor and Struggle. Countries, Erotic Pictures and Images new style merge with the paintings, memories of the socialist realist of execution and the heroes consumerist mythology; the manner of The porn magazines. the grand style, with images from contemporary the social utopia of happy, painters create an earthly paradise where the The artists transferred free labor meets earthy erotic fantasies. mediatized space (which bombast of Socialist Realism into the new that appeared in Russia included glossy magazines and advertising) and Dubossarsky launched during this period. In 2001, Vinogradov the project Total Painting. Mass culture images populate their , in which pop stars and comic paintings as in the cycle Our Best World Spiderman, Madonna, and Barbie meet. book heroes Schwarzenegger, In the project Underwater World, which began in 2003, the heroes of The with aquarium fish. the glossies celebrate a utopian Christmas

The mass-media imaginary is represented by painterly means in the projects of Kerim Ragimov. The the projects of Kerim Ragimov. The mass-media imaginary is represented by painterly means in the and magazines and preserves artist literally transfers onto canvas images found in newspapers with which critics frequently compositions and color schemes of his “originals.” Unlike photorealism, the but original, printed the vis-à-vis verisimilitude optical not is focus his painting, Ragimov’s compare mediatic nature of the image. In the series The Human Project, which the artist began in 1994, Ragimov works, in mass publications. In these presents anonymous group portraits based on photographs found The subjects in these scenes, the individual meets the collective in the phenomenon of “humanity.” make an emotional by Ragimov, captured by a photographer and scrupulously reproduced on canvas artists moved from the Soviet ideological utopia to its mass-media equivalent by fusing various clichés utopia to its mass-media artists moved from the Soviet ideological picture. Good bad painting emerged in Russia as a reaction to from a mail-order “paradise” into a single at the of the last grand style—that is, the destruction of the political message and modernist intentions (11). moment when the mass-media ideology replaced totalitarian ideology

Courtesy the artist Oil on canvas, 74.8 x 107.1 in / 190 x 272 cm Kerim Ragimov, Human Project, Portrait #35, 2007 BOTTOM Courtesy Regina Gallery Acrylic and marker on canvas, 59.1 x 102.4 in / 150 x 260 cm Vlad Kulkov, TXK FOIL from the series / SUB, unique, 2008 MIDDLE Courtesy the artist Tempera on canvas, 157.5 x 78.7 in / 400 x 200 m Ivan Plyushch, Dance, 2008 TOP RES MAY 2009 34

37 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY 4 5 1 Dubossarsky, Kiss Mickey Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Mouse, 2003 x 90 cm Oil on canvas, 51.2 x 35.4 in / 130 artists Private Collection, Courtesy the 2 Blue Soup, Lake Video still, 2007 Courtesy XL Gallery 3 Valery Ulymov, BMW, 2006 x 150 cm Oil on canvas, 47.2 x 59.1 in / 120 Courtesy XL Gallery 4 Vladimir Kustov, Dissolution, 2007 Oil on canvas, 77.2 x 57.5 in / 196 x 146 cm Courtesy the artist 5 Oleg Kulik, Mad Dog or the Last Taboo Guarded by the Lonely Cerberus (with A. Brener) Performance, 1994 M.Guelman’s Gallery, Moscow Courtesy XL Gallery 3 2 1 The Crisis of Ugliness (1968) in which he The actionism of Oleg Kulik, who rose to fame in 1994 with a series of with a fame in 1994 rose to who of Oleg Kulik, The actionism famous of these (the most exploring the “non-human” performances the corporeal the role of a dog), was artist taking on involved the in the post-socialist trauma experienced of the political manifestation so powerful that created have proved images that Kulik space. The in art fair to censorship. Thus, at the last FIAC they are still subjected his performance Mad Dog, or The police removed photographs of Paris, by a Lonely Cerberus from the stand of Moscow’s Last Taboo Guarded they might offend the sensibilities of viewers. XL Gallery because After in the new a series of photos, objects, and videos produced to collective (conciliaristic) has shifted his emphasis Kulik century,

The political activism of Dmitri Gutov is bound with an unmediated appeal to Marxist theory. The The Marxist theory. appeal to of Dmitri Gutov is bound with an unmediated The political activism sixties—a period that saw the last by the aesthetic of the creator of installations and pieces inspired Mikhail Lifshitz was the founder the Mikhail Lifshitz Institute. upsurge of romanticism—Gutov founded of such odious book as of a Marxist aesthetics and the author as well Gluklya and Tsaplya, the artists Dmitry Vilensky, The Chto Delat work group, which includes Alexei Penzin, Alexanderas the philosophers and writers Artemy Skidan, and Magun, David Riff, one of its principal artistic of an eponymous newspaper Oxana Timofeeva, has made the publication Chto Delat newspaper combines video works. Like its art projects, gestures, along with installations and and reflections on the role of art in the pathos of the workers movement leftist intellectual theory, projects of contemporary artists who per se is redefined in the new circumstances. Ideological utopia Pepperstein, a post- utopia. Pavel were old enough at the time to witness the collapse of the Soviet group, has created the project The City conceptualist artist and a founder of the Medical Hermeneutics be built in a of Russia—a futuristic image of a new Russian capital, which the artist proposes should location between Moscow and Petersburg. According to Pepperstein, he was moved by a preservationist wild capitalism, which is literally impulse, by the desire to save both Moscow and Petersburg from this very eyes. On the other hand, destroying the architectural landmarks of the capitals before our the the future that was rejected for is a project for a positive utopia in which the repressed past meets The City of Russia is a series of works that represent a new, symbolic urbanism—for sake of the present. example, Mountain of Skyscrapers: Drunkard, Year 2604, which takes the form of an enormous figure in both the old and the new Russia. of a sleeping drunkard, one of the most beloved popular characters reminiscent of both Malevich’s Government House is depicted by the artist as a gigantic black cube, , in which he reassigned personal response to a commune personal response to a commune 2007 group show I Believe, in which he reassigned work by curating the of artists. texts right at the moment when the influence to Lifshitz’s savaged bourgeois aesthetics. Gutov turned in his own day) made itself felt not Lifshitz had criticized of triumphant capitalism in Russia (which Gutov is one of in contemporary art. of existence, but also only in the social and political conditions Moscow. A collective reading of Marxist the English Language in the founders of the Karl Marx School of is reproduced on monochromatic of paintings in which text texts is accompanied by the production project The Declination of Atoms from example, in the canvases (as in the aesthetics of the sixties)—for Biennale. In Fence was shown at the last Venice the Straight Line (2007, together with David Riff), which objects reminiscent of the barb-wired as Beethoven and Mi Fu (2007) Gutov reproduces the words of Marx, true to at the last Documenta, Gutov, which were presented fences at Russian dachas. In these objects, of popular self-education. on the Marxist notion his theoretical views, offered his own take

Courtesy the artists and Marina Gulyaeva Courtesy the artists and Marina Pulkovo Observatory, St. Petersburg Site specific installation, dimensions vary Site specific installation, dimensions Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, Vanya, Come Back Home!, 2007 Elena Gubanova and Ivan Govorkov, RES MAY 2009 36

39 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY TOP Peter Belyi, Danger Zone, 2006 Installation, dimensions vary View at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, NY Courtesy the artist BOTTOM Peter Belyi, La bibliotecca di Pinocchio / Pinocchio’s Library, 2008 Installation, dimensions vary View at Galleria Pack, Milano Courtesy the artist This Is Not a Sterligov School retains its private character in the studio of artists now headed by Sterligov’s student Sterligov’s headed by now of artists in the studio character its private retains School Sterligov Gennady Zubkov. avant- those of the Russian artistic values, whether as an appeal to of formalism The re-elaboration garde or American the late eighties Alena work of characteristic of the minimalism, is Kirtsova. From task.” Kirtsova made a “technical by a series of abstractions generated on, Kirtsova has produced continues to elaborate on and she paintings, blocks the subject of her abstract concrete prefab housing of a well- The title reprises that a cycle entitled A Manual on Color. In 2006, she produced this project. students in which they and his Matiushin in 1932 by the avant-gardist Mikhail known book published This book was printed in in Leningrad. of color schemes for the façades of buildings developed a system technical task was thus The hand-colored. the tables included in the manual were a limited edition, and it is paintings In Kirtsova’s were solved. color of tables in which formal problems of embodied in a series task. itself that serves as this technical the painterly problematic of the 1910s and twenties experiments on the Ivan Govorkov rely to a great extent Elena Gubanova and was not an abstract sculpture or most formalistic objects in their objects and paintings. One of their Vanya, Come Home (2007). Atpainting but rather the site-specific object radio the site of the first Soviet Gubanova and Govorkov placed Observatory in the seventies, telescope, which was set up at the Pulkovo visitor put on the headphones he a large antenna. When the a stool and a set of headphones under who mother, the words of the artist’s but instead he heard expected to hear a “message from the cosmos,” simple and effective device, summoned the artist to come home. The the present age, the appeal the critical approach to the mediality of embodied in scientific to the utopian dreams that were, in particular, radio telescopes, which discoveries (including the invention of of cosmos”), and the illogical enabled scientists to listen the “voices nature of the situation remind us simultaneously the combination of incompatible elements) to industrialize art in the of the futurist period and the attempts twenties. to artist of the new generation, has turned an David Ter-Oganyan, the modernization the tradition of the avant-garde and undertaken of abstractions, entitled of modernism. In 2003, he produced a series plan of some kind of Operation, in which geometry turns out to be the realized right at the moment anti-terrorist operation. This project was that Moscow was rocked by a series of explosions in subway stations and a hostage crisis. In the series of black-and-white geometric objects This Is a Bomb (1999), which are seen as it were on the screen also explores the Ter-Oganyan of a security monitor at an airport, links between the avant-garde and the political conjuncture. The in which the avant-garde explosiveness and political power of art, been had once believed, is reconfirmed in the way that the project has received. The assemblages of everyday items—for example, canned preserves to which electrical wires and insulators are attached— incited real-life anti-terrorist operations in 2005 when Bomb (1997-2008) was presented at the 32nd FIAC art fair. Danger Zone Black Square and the black cube of the Qaaba, the principal holy site in holy the principal the Qaaba, cube of the black Square and Black , Russian Spirituality looms the Sphere of the city of Russia Mecca. Over and of the Suprematists compositions both the weightless which recalls for features antennas are made. It from which snowmen the snowballs memory. and atmospheric as well as cultural with the dead, communicating the connotations and the letter that accompanies Despite the political the mayor of to the Russian president and to which Pepperstein sent project, and foremost a poetic image of the future. Moscow, this is first the involve architectural utopias, and his projects Peter Belyi works with It modeling usually relates to the future. although modeling of the past, a during this genre was popular in the twenties, was not by chance that of future design when artists were engaged in the period of utopian hopes technique memorial modeling, and it is directed cities. Belyi calls his to the hopes pinned on utopias but to the past, not toward the future them. Associatedand the disappointments generated by idea of with the rendition is focused mainly on the sixties progress, modeling in Belyi’s hopes and disappointments, and seventies. By analyzing architectural Danger Zone (2006), modeling, the artist deconstructs utopia. In the project avant- character of the which was once bound up with the project-based trauma is caused by modernism. This garde, becomes a model of the trauma social space. via the destruction of literally manifested via physical damage, the carcasses of buildings manufactured Multi-storey buildings—or rather, impression material—create the from plasterboard, an extremely short-lived their work either did not complete of a fragile construction whose builders the It is unclear what caused or who abandoned it to its eventual collapse. of political regime. destruction—time, war or the latest change trauma, and this meaning imparts an aesthetic meaning to mechanical (2008) deals with a sixties- Pinocchio’s Library produces a therapeutic effect. sixties building projects of the era architect who embodies in the faceless his hopes and disappointments. and seventies, one of the last utopias, and leads to a disappointment The strict censorship established by ideology wooden books cannot be opened. His library is with knowledge—Pinocchio’s a memorial. itself is always already a peculiar memorial to utopia, which in books the library is a memorial model of the city: the upright Moreover, and the bookshelves in Pinocchio’s Library are urban housing projects, skyscrapers.

AFTER THE AVANT-GARDE periodically while it preserves its vector, The fate of formalism could be compared to a dotted line that, might also speak of the direct application of avant-garde disappears and becomes invisible. We form consistent experiments in this traditions in unofficial art beginning in the sixties. One of the most who was a student of Malevich Sterligov, of revivalism was the undeclared, semi-legal school of Vladimir at of young artists who gathered at the Ginkhuk in the twenties. In the sixties, Sterligov and a group supplemental element system as well as the bowl-and-cupola system his studio studied Malevich’s the Perestroika, after legalized was avant-garde the that fact the Despite himself. Sterligov by discovered

Cultural Center, Moscow Courtesy the artists and Garage Contemporary 19.3 x 15 in / 49 x 38 cm Color pencil and water color on paper, White Ball 1930 Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Charles Rosental, BOTTOM Courtesy the artist and Marina Gulyaeva Pulkovo Observatory, St. Petersburg Installation, dimensions vary Elena Gubanova, Redshift, 2007 TOP RES MAY 2009 38

41 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY and cold estrangement of the modeled space. space. the modeled of estrangement and cold idea (2006), the installation Echelon Thus, in the conveyed by three space is of three-dimensional left and the viewer’s speeding trains to projections: plunging from screen, cargo and, on the center right, analyze installations Soup’s heaven to earth. Blue contemporary perception. the virtual nature of Defense (2008) features a The video installation double projection of a swamp in carefully elaborated as an increase in fog that which alterations—such almost place quite slowly, lowers visibility—take This slow-motion viewer. imperceptibly for the is periodically speeded up stream of virtual images that recalls a gunshot. via a percussive sound is When artists turn to abstraction, which after experienced anew after the end of painting, they do not adhere to one canon the end of ideology, but formulate a new approach to media. or another, poems of Renowned for his video works (symbolic visible and sorts in which the simple action is made tangible through the device of de-familiarization, Alimpievby means of color and rhythm), Viktor a series of has in the new century been at work on painted abstractions—for example, A Battle in the Distance, The Abandoned Banner and The Banner’s Edge. His minimalist abstractions are a battlefield utterly between two colors, gray and pink. The David Ter-Oganyan, Not a bomb, David Ter-Oganyan, Not a bomb, 1998-2008 Mixed media, dimensions vary Courtesy the artist Alexandra Galkina, from series Skirts, 2004 Print on paper, 23.6 x 23.6 in / 60 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist Alexandra Galkina, from series Shoes, 2004 Print on paper, 23.6 x 23.6 in / 60 x 60 cm Courtesy the artist legible boundary between the two colors produces a symbolic fold in which we might make out either produces a symbolic fold legible boundary between the two colors or of a landscape. Here, it is not the merges into a single whole the contours of clouds, or of a crowd that wrote about his most precious experience—the Whereas Kandinsky associations that arise that count. surfaces. paintings insist on their two-dimensional sense of being surrounded by painting—Alimpiev’s of the canvas. emerge on the screen In an age of flat screens, his abstractions pictures that merge graffiti with abstract expressionism. produces The young artist Vlad Kulkov spontaneous gesture—be it that artist’s the expressive manner of painting is a territory where Kulkov’s paints on canvases, banners, and Kulkov the subject. of Jean-Michel Basquiat or Jackson Pollock—is In his and caramel to traditional oil paint. graphite, rust, acrylic, spray paint, adding marker, paper, figures of strangers as in a forest, suddenly, abstractions, in the midst of patches and clots of color, the artist himself puts it). Kulkov emerge—freestanding “energy clots of urban environments” (as arises. fusing the jungle and urbanism. It is in this space that a new tribe fashions his own mythology, politics, society or aesthetics), on a reexamination of the utopian heritage (whether in Focused Alicecontemporary Russian art is partly reminiscent of the straits that finds herself in the looking- the same place.” The fixation on glass world, where “it takes all the running you can do, to keep in Khlebnikov said futurist poet Velimir utopias makes cause and effect switch places. In the twenties, the

In the work of the group Blue Soup (Alexei Dobrov, Danila Lebedev, Valery Patkonen, and Alexander Patkonen, Valery Danila Lebedev, In the work of the group Blue Soup (Alexei Dobrov, in such simple, witty digital Lobanov) abstract tendencies were manifested in the late nineties, geometric animated films as Center, The End and Report. Moving to 3D computer animation, the group is emphasized by the technicality set about producing futuristic installations whose utopian character (based on an idea by David Ter-Oganyan), Alexei literally Buldakov In the animated film Sex Lissitsky (based on an idea by David Ter-Oganyan), Thus, the vitality of the to it. reanimates a Suprematist composition by adding a porn film soundtrack and its “fertility” get nearly a century, Russian avant-garde, which was the perpetual object of desire for In the black- of the avant-garde itself. an absurdist reading that is very much in keeping with the spirit and-white minimalist animated film Crash Test, Buldakov shows safety tests performed on a car and an incessant and repetitive action. airplane. A formalist approach is likewise revealed in the film’s Alexandra Galkina, who likewise works with the problematic issues of formal art, turned miniskirts into Alexandra of formal art, works with the problematic issues Galkina, who likewise of graphic works, her project Skirts (2006). The artist also produced a series Red Square in Malevich’s She thus Suprematist underwear. of black-and-white Untitled (2005), in which she presented images involvement with clothing recalling the avant-garde’s by first, doubly inverted the historical situation: of these artists in a latter-day design the formal innovations design in the twenties; second, by using project.

Courtesy the artist 7.9 x 11.8 in / 20 x 30 cm David Ter-Oganyan, Series of photos, 1999 RES MAY 2009 40 The Chain of Flowers in Alyona Kirtsova, Landscape #23 from the series Color Guide, 2006 Oil on canvas, 23.6 x 31.5 in / 60 x 80 cm Courtesy the artist (in Russian). Wiener (in Russian). Wiener Cultural Moscow Art Journal, Paradoxa (London), (10) After the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 (he had ruled the country since 1964), state funerals almost almost state funerals since 1964), ruled the country in 1982 (he had Brezhnev the death of Leonid (10) After two died after serving for almost his successor Yuri Andropov news event in the USSR. In 1984 became the main who by Konstantin Chernenko, Committee. He was followed Secretary of the CPSU Central years as the General for the be imagined as rehearsals this series of funerals can little over a year. Retrospectively, was in power for empire. death of the Soviet Press 1992), that Stalinism (Princeton Univ. in The Total Art of accept Boris Groys’s argument, (11) That is, if we modernism. was in a way a continuation of Socialist Realism Life in Moscow Seventies: Notes on Unofficial The Sixties and (12) Ilya Kabakov, 47, translated by Thomas Campbell, Vienna, 1999, p. 227 Slawistescher Almanach, Sonderband exhibitions, including the Russian Pavilion at the 48th Dr. Olesya Turkina is a critic, curator of numerous the State Russian Research Fellow in the Department of Contemporary Art in Venice Biennial (1999) and Senior written articles for the Museum in St. Petersburg. She has catalogues (. Hannover, Siksi (Nordic Art Review) and numerousEurope, Kunst Studies, Kabinet (St.Petersurg), . 1950-2000, , Stockholm, 1999; Manifesta 3, 2000, Berlin; Moskau. Kunst 1991; Manifesta 2, 1998; After the Wall Since is also the St. Petersburg correspondent for Flash Art International. Martin-Gropius-Bau, 2003). She was In 2006 she on Contemporary Russian Art http://www.newsletter.net.ru. 2003 she edits an online journal Recently she Prize in contemporary art theory and criticism for 2005. awarded the first National Innovation 100 Culture. 10 curators. to the publication ICE CREAM. Contemporary Art in contributed as one of 10 curators teaches contemporary art at Smolny artist, Phaidon Press Limited, 2007. She contemporary artists. 10 source of the Russian St. Petersburg State University. She has been a Member College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, several years she has been working on the films series Space Federation since 1999. For collaboration with The Museum of Jurassic Technology (Los Angeles). , and Blue

. Art

Good

Painting

Bad . Newton Building, Miami Design District , 04-12 Pure Red, Pure Yellow, and Pure (8) This situation was inverted by the Sots Arts movement, in particular by its founders Vitaly Komar and (8) This situation was inverted by the Sots Arts movement, in particular by its founders Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, who began in the seventies to represent this narrative as a device. (9) In 1921, Rodchenko painted three monochromatic canvases, NOTES figurativism and the production of “non- (1) The Russian avant-garde focused precisely on the reject of figurative” art, not abstraction. the artistic gesture, and the transition from (2) The rejection of previous art forms, the industrialization of of art and production, was incarnated in individualism to collectivism, from easel painting to a merging Productionism, one of the major tendencies of the 1920s. the Khrushchev Thaw, when the easing of the (3) The division between official and unofficial art emerged after political climate made the partial emergence of alternative culture possible. “Official” art followed the doctrine refused of Socialist Realism that was declared in 1932 and continued to exist until Perestroika. “Unofficial” art to recognize the primacy of the only politically permitted style. began (4) The discussion of the balance between the global and the local has not let up since the nineties. It which with the notion of the glocal, proposed by Klaus Biesenbach, and has continued up to the last Documenta, exhibited the “migration of forms” in local modernisms. (5) Yevgeny Kovtun, a leading specialist on the Russian avant-garde, coined this phrase in reference to the repression of the avant-garde during the Stalinist period. (6) This is the title of Shklovsky’s landmark 1917 essay. On formalism in contemporary Russian art, see the catalogue Modus R. Russian Formalism Today. 20 Russian Artists December 2006, in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach. WAM Publishing House. (7) Consider, for example, a recent exhibition at the MUMOK in Vienna, declared, “It is all over. The primary colors. Every surface is a surface and there should be no images.” An Alternative History of Art at the newly opened Garage An Alternative History, presented this fall In their installation exhibited the story of three Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Contemporary Cultural Centre in Moscow, and Igor Spivak, inhabitants of Rosenthal, Ilya Kabakov, generations of fictitious artists—Charles but he was unable to give up realism and Malevich in Vitebsk, utopia. Rosenthal allegedly studied with exclusive tendencies, abstraction and where he attempted to unite two mutually immigrated to Paris, birth), when he tragically (the year of Kabakov’s He lived and worked there until 1933 figurative art. saw the works fictional version of the artist) Ilya Kabakov (that is, the show’s died after being hit by car. poised between two poles, abstraction and whose work is of Rosenthal, whom he considers his teacher which are part of the installation, lives in Kiev; his works, and realism as well. Igor Spivak supposedly , an enormous installation housed in were produced in the nineties. An Alternative History of Art asks the fundamental Melnikov, twenties by Konstantin a constructivist building designed in the three fictitious answer the question, the Kabakovs created fate. To question—the question of utopia’s the history of their efforts we might try to rewrite of works. Via artists who produced an endless series rewrites life. art the same way that the literary text The sixties were a movement toward chaos. This involves a rather faint recollection of rising currents, faint recollection a rather toward chaos. This involves The sixties were a movement were a the twenties In contrast, collapse. being, but it is a movement of dying, of of rising vectors of tendencies— new the that nothing for not is it movement: purified a was It worlds. new toward movement to the essential. They stripped-down and ascetic movements, lean Suprematism, Constructivism—were architectonic structures perennial certain superfluous and revealed the essence, cast aside all that was (12). that time “times” from the future. In the sixties, the astronomer Alexander Kozyrev, working at the at the working Alexander the astronomer In the sixties, future. from the “times” that time Kozyrev, nature of time, reevaluated the linear time in which he a new theory of elaborated Pulkovo Observatory, taking in art that is new revision of utopia The of cause-and-effect. and chains of entropy, the concept and experience of the twenties the without have been impossible our very eyes would place before as that between the two decades the difference between described Kabakov has graphically sixties. Ilya hopes. “rising” and “falling”

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45 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Christodoulos Panayiotou, Never Land Slide projection, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Rodeo Gallery budget, and target audience who pays the entrance fee. Taipei Biennial is organized by Taipei Fine Arts Fine Taipei by is organized Biennial Taipei fee. pays the entrance who audience and target budget, and events take installations the Biennial’s A majority of of its official program. as part Museum (TFAM) museum. place in the institutions and the city between in structure developed an interdependent and Hsu have Kortun one of the pieces through a discussion and this structure already has triggered individual projects, “How ____ a contemporary art which asks an interesting question; proposal in the show: Jun Yang’s has already begun to connect with the where the local art market for a city, center ____ in Taipei?” with a “happy meal menu” that the Biennial audience is not provided It is clear international market. primarily based on an honest and but an exhibition, which is the pops” artist list, show with a “tops of discussions. This strategy audience is throughout included in the The with the city. natural relationship audience, but also for the local works starting point where the show not only turns into an efficient this approach which the context-sensitivity, art scene. Moreover, for the professional/international Asfor the audience. ground whole map of the show and creates a produces, covers the mentioned can easily forget that s/ however the audience takes place in the TFAM, before, most of the installation into that context; rather than an is smartly penetrated he is in a museum setting since the installation economical discussion about today’s like an alternative form of institutional representation, it is more why it is not only for the audience, but also for the global and political spheres of liberalism. That’s a ground. players to see how transparent it is as the Biennial in Taipei At the end of the day, their text: happens to be as the curators wrote in “every situation is specific”. B) THE EXHIBITION GUIDE AS A TOOL OF DEMOCRACY Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) The exhibition at Taipei is the heart and soul of the Biennial program. of the museum to the second the entrance From floor the works are positioned as open-ended collective discussions and reflexive proposals. A from Argentina, Internacional Errorista, that welcomes the viewer with an installation or what looks like a stage for a demonstration, and is left after a real one; papers on the ground politics, moments from the memory; politicians, and public voters in the public space. The term Internacional Errorista is conceived from The Bush to the Summit of of George W. Errorists that first appeared as a protest group during the visit Americasaction the after just process its continues practice art performing This 2005. in Plata del Mar in money. which is run/rent/sold by state in the lobby of the museum, taking over the “empty“ public space, in a and state also engages you How you define “museum“ and think about its relation with economy a capitalist form of control, b) a national discussion about the way you perceive the state economy: a) as which transmits its local values into market power that keeps the borders, or c) a trans-global entity, a absent presence but also provides dynamics. The collective not only questions the audience by their given for them; the audience is persona, which could be also reflected again and again on the audience, own understanding and experience a stage where they can perform their virtual citizenship in their This is the Biennial’s working strategy in terms of the links between the organizational structure, its This is the Biennial’s Taipei Biennial 2008, which is curated by Manray Hsu and Vasıf Kortun, aims to present a large-scale Kortun, Biennial 2008, which is curated by Manray Hsu and Vasıf Taipei neo-liberal capitalist globalization through diverse positions and statements. panorama of today’s the been commissioned or re-adapted, Bringing together 47 artists with their projects that have either the curators underline In their statement, Biennial looks at global issues in their specific local context. and their primary aim was to Taipei, Biennial has always been embraced by the citizens of that Taipei which will hopefully continue create a platform for its people to generate a collective public discussion, as audience as a reference after the show closes rather than focusing on an international/professional so many internationally recognized biennials do. Since the 1950’s Taiwan has grown from an agricultural into the model of a developing industrial has grown from an agricultural into the model of a developing Taiwan Since the 1950’s China always casts its transformations. and Since then, the island state has seen many changes society. Japan against this threat, chosen ally and whilst America is Taiwan’s powerful shadow over the country, was once heavily ‘Japanized’ and there are business; Taiwan is influential on its industry and fashion Expanding into an urban city within speak fluent Japanese. still many from the older generation who tourism, and the service has experienced all the challenges of transport, a short time period, Taipei following the track “think it is developing its own synthesis of global identity, Moreover, industry. globally and act locally…” AtI had not realized that this small jetlag and cultural disorientation, that time, maybe because of visiting the Biennial show. Traveling during my stay in Taipei incident would come back to my mind I had a chance to taxi, moving from the sub-urban outskirts into the center, by into the capital Taipei of the city: face throughout different sections changing Taipei’s watch how the urban sprawl has been housing estates, and old gardens there newly developed Here, some abandoned houses and factories, between bright signs of led lights, types and logos faded away making way for apartments… Old letter billboards. huge advertising and mobile companies’ A) TAIPEI CITY CONTEXT AND CURATORS’ APPROACH A) TAIPEI CITY CONTEXT hotel, I was listening to my taxi Airport, on my way to the International Afterlanding at the Taipei in Mandarin. All was broadcasting the morning news choice of program, which apparently I driver’s Probably the (“America”). country name and a same word being repeated in English, understood was the Great Depression of 1929: since the biggest about the financial crisis, which is the reporter was talking closing in on us from that is “depression” depression”. Even if it is a global “depression, depression, I kind of liked In fact, me at that moment. it did not so much depress every point of the world economy, as in a Dadaist performance. It may be a “Global Depression” itself, the way it was becoming a pastiche of but I was in a local paradise. ADNAN YILDIZ

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Buenos

Errorista BOTTOM are all We Errorista, Internactional Errorists 2008, installation, Mix technique vary dimensions Courtesy produced on the occasion of Stalin’s death and commissioned by Aragon. The for Les Lettres Françaises of Stalin’s produced on the occasion the reference point of the ideologies is about artistic freedom and political historicity of the discussion with a conceptually historical example a to the Biennial. Berg reflexively staged artist as a contributor done by Picasso during the which fictionalizes an experiment designed storyboard or a desktop film, what an artist can/might/must/ drawing, she created a discussion about on one Focusing Cold War. or another the Communist Party) articulate through a political party (in this case should/shouldn’t marching next that simultaneously shows two bands video Here I am public media. Roderick Buchanan’s work: one video calls for the removal of British heritage in Ireland, to each other complements Berg’s other is for preserving the British heritage. clear that a globalist point of sections where it becomes The show gains momentum in the following space, as in the form of site-specific and critics in the public view is being challenged by new politics It continues with intervention by Lara Almarcegui or an investigation on border control by IRWIN. archeological research of “ready-made” images from artistic reflections: Christodoulos Panayiotou’s film, which is about two Mario Rizzi’s installation; Cyprus turns into a site-sensitive slide-projection the orientation of the context deconstructs in Taipei foreign women (an Indonesian and a Vietnamese) of Orientalism, and Self-Orientalism; between diverse modes of the biennial and tries to create a balance connected to Cheng-ta Yu’s (for/in a museum) as a graffiti is organically wall painting and Bbrother’s intervention on the street.. documentary videos of his public space

Shaun Gladwell’s videos are also about actions, but he appears (or performs) in his pieces with an Shaun Gladwell’s motorbike or a bus) as poetically abstracted style of movement; they are urban expressions (on a video piece Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache, beautiful statements. Lene Berg’s is drawing by Picasso. The drawing a delicate film episode about art-history and politics, is about a is the second stop in the show. Passing it, the robot moves its hands the robot moves its hands it, is the second stop in the show. Passing Beggar Robot Seso Sedlacek’s move like those of real beggars on the sensors and the hands towards you – like a beggar – since it has robots on the streets in order to survive as “public This work is about how humans are becoming street. This robot of their life, their misery. the most private aspect space pets” that try to survive by selling applying do-it-yourself strategies Sedlacek suggests that “by in the museum is also like a proposal, a more inclusive environment for goods, we can create and participating in open source and common unsatisfied with the mainstream.” the growing number of people who feel excluded, disposed, or simply normal conditions – cannot enter; This robot is allowed to enter to a museum, which a beggar – under which is manned by police officers paid by the state. Nasan they cannot pass through the security, with videos that show public space actions and bags, which are used / to be Backpacks comes next, Tur’s invisible “tourist” profiles; artists, re-used for these actions. They all create a conceptual imagination; curators, audience as tourists – mobile entities in the public domain. The multiplicity of shadow identities creates a silent comedy in the space like a sort of 2008 version a silent comedy in The multiplicity of shadow identities creates staff more visible in the lobby . The installation also makes the museum The Divine Comedy of Dante’s emptiness like a sort of Matrix as usual in an institutional when they move. Instead of seeing them instance, as far shadow characters. For as figures on a stage of background the audience now see them than women who sat at fewer men were middle aged or elderly, as I saw, almost all the museum guards and dressed like stewardesses or stewards. drinking green tea with a social smile, their desk all day, a Brechtian play; that looks like the looks as if it is a stage for In this installation, where everything and the other characters in the of the presence of the audience two dimensional characters are aware flight nannies for First Class kids; all looked like “aged” museum as guards or hosts, these attendants into the atmosphere, where the air staff you have flown too far as if you were a child of six or seven and The Errorists play with your imagination in a become adult. on the plane has aged and you also have real but conceptually artistic space into a possibly delicate manner of transforming an institutional experience. their possible participation in any demonstration they have been, a) as a demonstrator, b) as a member a) as a demonstrator, been, in any demonstration they have their possible participation c) as a speaker. of the police force, or

Courtesy the artists Courtesy 12’43”, dimensions vary dimensions vary 12’43”, 4 channel video-installation / stands, 2007, / stands, 2007, video-installation 4 channel Welfare State / Smashing the Ghetto Ghetto the / Smashing State Welfare Democracia RES MAY 2009 46

49 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY A World Where Many Worlds Fit by Oliver (and at the same time maybe even more abstract) in the museum context in terms of its production, abstract) in the museum (and at the same time maybe even more license. under the Creative Commons circulation and collaborative identity at the Biennial, There is also an artist-curated exhibition less a didactic scenario and a dry or name but more the show is not as promising as its However, Ressler. people So most likely, of the story. to anticipate the end statement that makes it easy for the audience or producing something political, it than taking a position do not keep watching till the end. Rather slide in a discussion. Allan activities or engaged mostly shows people who involved in political Sekula’s poster – and it cannot compete with the open structure of the projection meets with Petra Gerschner’s piece I could not go home. There was one of an old story: Yankee Biennial, but becomes a representation slot machine video Beautiful World, something like a moving version of a part with: Mieke Gerritzen’s from global contemporary culture such quotations and effects that churns out sounds, logos, messages, Peaks or Antonio Negri, bringing about a world of controversy and allegory. as Twin and some other spots in the city. Beer Factory, includes a metro station, Taipei Biennial map The Taipei say the organizers inside, or let’s should have more material In my opinion, the show at the beer factory – the most challenging and architecturally and contextually might use it more efficient as it is – both Beer with most of the pieces, Taipei of stuffing the museum space interesting venue on the map. Instead Brewery) might open a new contextual and open frame for some of the works like Nasan (Taipei Factory Free Beer. At the point when it starts to trigger the visitor to look at the Backpacks or Superflex’s Tur’s installation Faustino’s Fiuza Didier gesture: historical art an with ends suddenly show the again, factory . legendary proposal from 1960, Leap into the Void that provides a chance of experiencing Yves Klein’s the beer factory needs more input… Definitely, monumentally beautiful and politically poetic installation, The Madrid based collective Democracia’s of El Salobral in Madrid, creates including a multi screen projection of a film about the demolition and leaves a very strong a unique environment that puts ghetto life in a contemporary context me, a question like “What is the end of globalization going to look like in the neo-liberal impression. For The during my walk between capitalist societies?” has become more and more apparent and dominant Superflex, Free Beer Taiwan 2008, dimensions vary Interactive public installation, Courtesy the artists An who is also showing in the Biennial, artist has answered my question: “What to Jun Yang before getting on the say was already decided so it was like a closed discussion, plane to Taipei, for these people just after how can you speak What a staying one week or ten days in the city? he were a generous gesture and a brave heart? If be such a local artist doing this, then it wouldn’t nice story on the museum wall…” the exhibition continued On the second floor, a wide with a video-based surface, which reflects diverse variety of video content ranging from artistic to activist approaches. The presented artists such as Nevin Aladağ, Ziad Antar, Anetta Mosa Chisa and Lucia Tkacova, Nicoline Men all share critical van Harskamp, The Yes

, a decoratively designed documentation documentation designed Attack , a decoratively Counter Burak Delier’s sort out me to artists helped Some in form public installation project), a temporary neighborhood intervention (or another of a social – over the a young community and of the schools with the participation banner – installed of a huge workers who Shijou construction on the sad story of The work is based Shijou Community. houses of on the brink houses now are 101, and whose Taipei architectural projects the contemporary worked on English as the was written in The statement Win”. Will banner carries the words “We of destruction. The skyscrapers, with airplanes, directly up to the heights”, thus communicating banner was “speaking attack). But there was a (as a counter who control and watch us from above and others (big brothers) say for whom? question: Who decides what to The second floor is composed of installation units; rooms host different project-based collaborations project-based collaborations The second floor is composed of installation units; rooms host different forms of presenting research and practice together, Men etc. Various such as IAA, Superflex, The Yes that a vivid and dynamic platform combining performance with documentary and interaction, create to get in touch with local realities. demonstrates how contemporary artists produce global strategies Biennial Free Beer for the Taipei One of them is Superflex with a playful installation. They produced relationship more visible audience and designed an alternative economy to make the buyer-seller positions as well as similar humorous tonalities. Katya Sander’s installation, a 3D visual experience tonalities. Katya Sander’s positions as well as similar humorous the museum into the surrounding four different views from positioned between the videos, shows the of the room, whereas three others show be seen from the window landscapes; one is the real landscape to architectural stage but also interacts not only function as an recorded material. The installation does installation. This makes for the site-specific with the other works in the show as a research-based, approach that ends up with a critical and site-specific most interesting twist in the show: a formalistic conceptual approach and opening a virtually distorted extending its transformation of its own context, The distortion of perception is through a museum perspective. panorama for the viewer who looks at it Invisible City: Taipari York which Tsui’s complemented by the illusion of the exotic, namely Kuang-yu or the Statue of Liberty and puts reproduces international cultural heritage such as the Eiffel Tower situations or teasers made of thus transforming them into local everyday context, them in a Taipei postcards.

Courtesy the artist Installation, 2008, dimensions vary Jun Yang, A Contemporary Art Centre, Taipei [A Proposal] RES MAY 2009 48

51 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Video, 2008 Courtesy the artist Katya Sander, Estimations 4 screen video installation, 2008 Courtesy the artist and Eslite Gallery Kuang-yu Tsui, Invisible City: Taipari York Roderick Buchanan, I am Here Buchanan, I am Roderick to video, 2007 16mm film transferred Courtesy the artist Sabancı Muhtelif, an Istanbul based contemporary University, Istanbul) and later participated in Curatorlab/Konstfack, Stockholm, a research based curatorial residency program (2006-2008). Currently he travels back and forth between Berlin and Istanbul for projects that are mostly based on fiction(al space) and audience. Adnan Yıldız (b. 1979) is a curator and a writer. He is also co-editor of art publication and co-founder of Good Gangsters (www.goodgangsters.com and www.bigfamilybusiness. net). He studied psychology (BA, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul) as well as visual arts and culture (MFA, Just a few weeks before the biennial program, China and Taiwan have signed historic agreements to China and Taiwan Just a few weeks before the biennial program, to visit the island. This was the first more mainland tourists establish regular direct flights and allow till 1999. It was almost the right time their first formal talks time since the two sides have been holding many discussions around one basic plays the role of opening to make a change, so the biennial also the challenge of how to be a participatory member of a global transformation and challenge for Taiwan; The biennial as a show is a generous attempt – not to negoatiate resisting as an independent unity. It has of its limitations and edges… stuck in its ambition, audience, budget and borders, but also aware it is not easy to be generous in a world that the official global a lot of stories for its audience. Today, it. language belongs to buyers and sellers, they are the ones who rule In one of his early writings, Walter Benjamin reflected on capitalism as: “Capitalism is a religion of pure Benjamin reflected on capitalism as: “Capitalism is a religion of In one of his early writings, Walter (this must be in the West a parasite of Christianity without dogma. Capitalism has developed as cult, Christian churches), until it reached but in the other orthodox shown not just in the case of Calvinism, of capitalism.” history is essentially that of its parasite—that is to say, the point where Christianity’s as a religion that he focuses on the is positioning capitalism In a nut shell, what he is emphasizing optimism, a general believe in its needed a kind of common pure cult without any dogma. Capitalism moments of big economic crisis, this always Moreover when it is the promises of happiness and liberty. this process neoliberal arguments of economy and along with reduces the “gloriole” of capitalism and loosing their power of persuasion. That’s troubleshooting are about deregulation as the way to universal and moral values, beauties, and some of their traditional why the local territories, which still have look like local paradise... Where you after capitalist revoltion) patterns (that have not been transformed the most direct and wild face of it. but at the end find can escape from the harsh capitalist models, C) GLOBAL HELL AND LOCAL PARADISE AND LOCAL PARADISE C) GLOBAL HELL against the mainstream discourse a critical as a reflexive and has been developed Biennial Taipei than a factory in China shutting down Globalization means more neo-liberal society. politics of today’s sell their denims to Americansbecause they cannot to lose their jobs any longer who, in turn, start crisis, since the Americanbecause of the financial on borrowing and banking system, which is based the Chinese markets. If Americaconsuming also effects consumer goods is not going to buy all these to produce all card loans, then what for is China going pay back their credit can’t anymore, since they the global traffic of be sold? The global crises also decode whom are they going to these products? To without any logic. But this and selling buying been organized on the condition of capitalism, which has for 60 cent an hour at girl who works year old globalization also means that a 15 is not the whole story; during her night shift. her stay awake help also borrows money to afford pills that that denim factory the local paradise is the real the global economy attacks How can any economist explain this? How story. Errorists and Democracia. While the first serves more as a parody of public space, redefining it as “the it as “the redefining space, of public as a parody more first serves While the and Democracia. Errorists turns which of legal terror, situation about a real is a lyrical epilogue power”, the second territory of in the ghetto. to the people living into a homage

RES MAY 2009 50 your practice? AY How do you think showing at Taipei Biennial will (or has) influence(d) It gives me a wonderful CHENG-TA YU It is a great opportunity for me, especially as I am still a student. art life as well. It is a good start for my experience to work with international curators, artists and a museum and I treasure it. to your work in this context? AY How is the local audience responding to the Biennial and particularly of responses from the local audience who CY I googled some blogs about 2008 Taipei Biennial and found lots people Taipei in a humorous way; it makes seems to like it very much. This exhibition shows something about is. I am also happy about getting some positive realize what the works really say and what the idea of the show all of the videos and loved them. Especially on feedback on my work. Lots of people told me that they watched unbelievable! the weekend, people have to line up for watching my videos. Really AY What does the Biennial mean for Taipei? this city. I think it is a good event for CY The most important point of Taipei Biennial is not publicity for is not in Asia, and particularly our art history developing the artistic practice in Taiwan. Taiwan is a small island Taipei a new vision for Taipei. In this respect, too long. The Biennial is a standard for art people and provides Biennial 2008 did really a good job for Taipei . INTERVIEWS WITH SOME PARTICIPANT ARTISTS: PARTICIPANT WITH SOME INTERVIEWS (or has) influence(d) your practice? showing at Taipei Biennial will ADNAN YILDIZ How do you think on am shown in a museum as a “graffiti writer”. When you paint BBROTHER Well, it is the first time that I busted or not. 12 spray cans and a climbing rope, it is just a matter of being the street at night with a bag of and executives you have to deal with many other things, such as curators, However, when you are in a museum, to myself, in the system now. To me, graffiti is an unrestricted way to express your audience which is, you are audience Your ways. Being in the show, you can only choose “one way”. speak to different people in unexpected at Taipei already trained to see your work as an art piece. I think, showing has been selected and they are of being an artist and being a graffiti writer. Biennial reveals the contrary roles AY What does the Biennial mean for Taipei? that KUANG-YU TSUI The First Taipei Biennial was cutting-edge among Asian countries and the sort of show Now helped promote the city. But later the focus transferred slowly towards the quality of the Biennial itself. be it finds its position again. Of course there is some competition between Asian countries, but it seems to meaningful to built a platform and connect Taiwan to other artists and put it in an international context. art For example, this time you can find that many technical resource and education systems as well as the community in Taipei are involved in and supporting the Biennial. It is a good opportunity for both sides this (especially for local ventures) to engage and ‘know’ what is happening inside or outside Taiwan. Maybe or is not true for all participants and locals, but it is still something valuable for some. I do not expect local of people international artists could really react to this Biennial or Taipei City, but what matters is the process communicating with each other. 2008

Yıldız,

Adnan

TOP TO BOTTOM Installation view from Lene Berg’s video Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman with Moustache, TFAM Courtesy the artist Didier Fiuza Faustino, Opus Incertum, Taipei Brewery Courtesy the artist Oliver Ressler, A world where many worlds fit, TFAM Courtesy the artist Photographs:

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55 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY new about his or her work, and what logic is behind this specific development. In the exhibitions the the the exhibitions In development. specific behind this logic is and what or her work, his new about recognize whole career and artist’s the particular that carry through trace specific themes viewer can up to the in numerous variations and inventively that is developed of motifs and themes a repertoire present. of in the relationship specific interest has this example: Peter Kogler current show as an take the Let’s artists were interested when most 1980s, and in the role of media. In the early space and architecture was a really new theme in art at concentrated on modernist film. That Kogler in modernist painting, of technical media. Andthat time, this sort this interest set him apart from all those new painters, that of the 1920s and 30s. in the films important the subject of urbanization that was so in film-making and the individual and the between the tension the idea of the mass society and This subject also includes a historical took Kogler of that era. the films which plays a great role in collective due to urbanization from the 1970s to the the transition it to on the past and updating and adapting position by drawing painting that was going all the new from this wave of new media. This set him apart 80s when there was architecture and media Both the exhibition. we try to show his specific position in on around him and work and we look at how these themes have evolved, developed and are dominant themes in Kogler’s so far. changed over the thirty years of his career also in the way it is perceived is integral to his work, reference to space and architecture Kogler’s the space where the work is shown. into a specific context with because it means that the viewer is set And a great role—may perception plays when the work is an installation or the room itself is the work, might be aiming at with his interest in media, which Kogler it be the change or irritation of perception new technological media change our perception of investigates how virtuality or simulation. Kogler that connect places all over the do communication technologies reality and our cognitive abilities. How of the orthogonal world? of stability, idea of space, our concept world at the speed of light influence our These are the essential questions. Basically we get to see three main is clearly defined, right? RES So that is why every room in the exhibit seen when it is dark, then the foyer which can only really been rooms: the first being the outside façade patterned walls and ceilings and the space upstairs with its with its projections and finally the large passages. Every room is a separate are two small rooms and paintings on the walls. In addition there entity and yet there is a consistency throughout. when it thinks in categorical norms—also It demonstrates that Kogler and that is significant. RF Yes, often look like architectural models are Even the early works that comes to the presentation of his work. space becomes part of the work. The positioned or hung in the room in such a way that the space itself of the but it becomes an integral part where the works are shown is not merely some neutral backdrop artwork and a model of its own means. And is this theme carries on throughout the whole show. Kogler to hang that the space is not just a place an artist with a great sensitivity for space and he has this idea Anda picture or to display a work but it is also part of the situation. that is why he visually designs or with either the theme of a picture merges decorates the rooms and incorporates them. It can happen that can kind of pictorial quality—you the room that may itself become a picture or that the room has some as if the motif brain pattern wallpaper, see this, for example, with the brain pictures that are hung on a work. has spilled over onto the space. Architecture and space are central motifs in Kogler’s you consider the exhibition also a kind of retrospective? RES Would MICHA GOEBIG AND CHRISTINE LIESE-SCHIKANEDER

BY

TRANSLATION

GERMAN.

IN

To place the whole exhibition within a certain art historical framework, we have outlined a tentative place the whole exhibition within a certain art historical framework, To and time: what is so special, individual chronology and show how each artist reacted to influences of his With these exhibitions we try to illustrate the artists’ development; how the early works, their themes development; how the early works, their exhibitions we try to illustrate the artists’ these With development happened and evolved. and motifs were the foundation for their later work and how this how his work was modified by the for example, has this very specific style, and we look at Kogler, media such as drawing and introduction of new kinds of media; how the transition from traditional are also looking at how these We works on paper to working on the computer changed his oeuvre. work. changes in the use of media influence the formal esthetics of his Well, in a way, yes. The series shows a selection of artists who are about 50 years old. We have shown are about 50 years old. We of artists who yes. The series shows a selection in a way, RF Well, have also exhibited Brigitte We Kogler. Gerwald Rockenschaub, Peter Heimo Zobernig, Erwin Wurm, from the new painting emerged of artists who work. So we are talking about a generation Kowanz’ different positions and ended up went on to take their own, movements of the early 1980s and then belongs to this group of artists, and various media. Kogler working increasingly with conceptualism artists who had a much broader approach, who and Rockenschaub. These are and so do Zoberling, Wurm a more powerful They have demonstrated the merely painterly. took a more differentiated position than internationally and they have consistently they have been exhibited and substantial development, are looking at artists who have gained a reputation through their developed their body of work. We shown in two Documentas who was Peter Kogler participation in international exhibitions—like of artists. It is our job to show who have influenced a new generation Biennale—and and in a Venice accredit and substantiate them with a museum context and to these various artistic positions within position these artists internationally catalogues, and then to appropriate theoretical publications and via collaborations with other museums abroad. RES So that has nothing to do with their age? That means artists who are in the middle stage of their career and who have an international stage of their career RF That means artists who are in the middle reputation. RES What exactly do you mean by mid-career? We are running a series of exhibits at the MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art)are running a series of exhibits at the They in Vienna. RAINER FUCHS We show works by Austrian mid-career. artists who are in the stage of TEXT renowned Austrian internationally for your current exhibition series about RES What was the motive artists?

RES MAY 2009 AND PETER KOGLER KOGLER PETER AND INTERVIEW WITH RAINER FUCHS FUCHS RAINER WITH INTERVIEW 54

KOGLER AT MUMOK OF PETER ON THE EXHIBITION

57 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Untitled, 2008 Untitled, animation, projection, looped Installation, computer Wien Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Façade of Museum

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59 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY I would like to start by mentioning that you were expelled from the Vienna Academy the Vienna from were expelled that you start by mentioning like to RES I would as a student. Is that correct? as a professor. But you returned was I guess. this is how it Yes, PETER KOGLER from the academy in the first place? RES Why were you expelled PK At you could also say that the But of the matter there were a few misunderstandings. the bottom AcademyVienna 1970s. late back in the was a very conservative institution have must but there Misunderstandings, well yes, what happened exactly. RES But I would like to know reason. a been received. be could it how and was art what of understanding different fundamentally a had just We sure. Yes, PK RES Let me ask directly: What did you do? But I guess the trigger was a little performance I made. It referred to PK A few things came together. Duchamp was not really dealt was clearly a cause for conflict. Marcel Duchamp, and at that time that back then. with in Vienna Duchamp in your performance? RES So people were mad that you referred to the form … That all happened know if it was because of Duchamp or if it was the overall thing, PK I don’t of what actually happened. a long time ago. I only have a vague memory RES But it was a performance? or March, or maybe January. a little performance, I think in 1979, in February PK Yes, make a performance? RES Did you need an official permission to actually So someone called the police—which was were required to obtain permission, but I did not. PK You at that time. not that uncommon in Vienna still Actionism.Viennese we know that from the You How was your time as a professor in Vienna? RES Yes, you? teach, don’t filling in for Thomas Bayrle in 1987 or PK My first teaching assignment was at Städelschule in Frankfurt, research semester and asked me if I would be willing California, for a 1988. Thomas went to San Francisco, This was my first teaching experience. to fill in for a semester. How was it and how had the academy changed since your time as a student? in Vienna? RES And later, no did not have one at all. There was PK They asked me to establish a media class in 1993 because they So I started to set up a computer lab. new media infrastructure—just like at Städelschule, by the way. Self Construction (2005), Keren Cytter (2007), Roland Kollnitz (2008). Various Baldessari

publications on modernism and contemporary art. (b.1959 in Judenburg, Austria) studied art history, history, and philosophy in Graz and Vienna. Rainer Fuchs (b.1959 in Judenburg, Austria) studied art history, history, and philosophy in Graz and Vienna. He is a Vice-Director and Head of the Scientific Department at MUMOK. Exhibitions include: (1996), Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1998), Lois Weinberger (1999), Öffentliche Rituale – Video/Kunst aus Polen (2003), Christian Hutzinger (2004), John RF After to the Museum Berardo in Lisbon in spring 2009. And the show will go Vienna in 2011 it will be a traveling exhibition of Peter Kogler it must be understood that shown at the Santral Istanbul. However, locations. Another will be shown at different does not mean that the same exhibition place will always the space plays such a significant of the work because generate a new definition and understanding mean a different or at least modified Different rooms will role in the conception and the presentation. transplanted from one place to be easily organism that can’t work is a living exhibition. Kogler’s drawings and collages—lay is this idea that the early works—those What can be transferred another. can demonstrate how incredibly versatile this artist is and the groundwork for the later oeuvre. We and in creating a site specific reacting to different spaces how accomplished he is in adapting and interpretation. RES Where will the show go next? It has been very positive. What has worked particularly well in this exhibition—and has been particularly well in RF It has been very positive. What has worked thus comprehend the artist’s they learn to trace and positively noted by the viewers—is that didactic. The personal experience of to become superficial or development without the show having perception becomes the focus of the or the irritation of one’s the spaces and their visual perception in the perception of the works are and their integration exhibition. The involvement of the viewers want the viewers to be actively involved in the reception of the work and to a major aspect here. We I believe that is an essential quality of this exhibition and it has experience their own creative self. the media. worked very well with both the public and How has the reaction of the public been so far? RES How has the reaction That wouldn’t be possible anyway because Kogler’s work consists mainly of temporary installations in work consists mainly of temporary be possible anyway because Kogler’s That wouldn’t be documented in really be exhibited again. They can are short term and can’t public spaces. His works are representative for the works that exhibition is primarily a selection of important some ways but this overall development. artist’s Well, it gives you a certain overview. It is not a retrospective in the sense that it shows the artist’s the artist’s it shows sense that the in retrospective It is not a a certain overview. you it gives RF Well, the helps the viewer understand that of works of specific groups but it is a selection complete oeuvre, at are not looking And has developed. way the artist We direction he is headed. it also shows in which and open that is dynamic expand, to evolve and at one that continues body of work but a completed be better relative sense. It would in a retrospective only apply the term future. So you can toward the neutral context and it into a more puts as an “overview” because that term to think of the exhibition is not a complete oeuvre on show. clarifies that there

RES MAY 2009 58 Untitled, 2008 Sound: Franz Pomassl Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, looped Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, It is nice, but it is also a fresh start. PK It is nice, but it is also a fresh start. same time? Does this cause any problems, and a professor at the RES Do you see a problem in being an artist with regard to time for example? After all, you have to give a lot. work at the studio, your own artwork, between your own PK The point is that you have to find a balance Naturally there is art academy. or doing something at the and whatever is necessary for teaching need to be to keep up to date. You some overlapping. I always enjoyed teaching because it forces you I have always enjoyed the input I get from familiar with the current debate—at least to a certain extent. with regard to music or films that are widely but quite generally, young artists, not only in terms of art, discussed. there silk screen prints? Before that weren’t RES In your work, the computer plays a major role as a medium. the computer came first and then silk screen printing. On the contrary, PK No, not before using a computer. There there were no suitable machines for data output. Because when I started to work with a computer, So in the beginning, silk screen printing was were no digital printers, only matrix printers and that was it. the most direct way to transfer information to a carrier material.

RES How do you feel about being a teacher? PK Graphic design actually. RES Doing new media again? Exactly. PK Exactly. RES And now you are in Munich? König was not there yet. Peter Kubelka still served as the principal. So I arrived in 1993 to set up the still served Peter Kubelka PK König was not there yet. tiny room with three computer workstations. But it grew a unit, media division. It started as a very small over the years, and towards the end it was a really good media lab. So that was even before Kasper König arrived? RES So that was even before Kasper König No, that was earlier, in 1987 or 1988 when the school did not have any computers. in 1987 or 1988 when the school did not have PK No, that was earlier, Together with Peter Weibel? RES Together

Sound: Franz Pomassl Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, looped Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, Untitled, 2008 RES MAY 2009 60

63 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Untitled, 2008 Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, looped Sound: Franz Pomassl

RES MAY 2009 62 Acryl, silkscreenprintoncanvas,86.6x68.9in/220175cm Untitled, 1986 of acertainimportance—butyouareawaretheimpactconceptual art. Haring orDonaldBaechler, tonameafew.Theseareartistsforwhompaintingorproducingpicturesis thaninEurope.IamtalkingaboutartistssuchasMattMullican,Keith happened muchmoreinAmerica thesethings conceptual perceptionorartthatincludedsigns,pictogramsin thebroadestsense.And painting, butfromacertaindistance.Ihavealwaysbeenmore interested inpositionswithafocuson to saythatIhavealwaysbeeninterestedintheproductionofpictures andalsointhediscussionabout not onlythereturnofthisartform,butitsstrongpresenceingalleries andonthemarket. Butitisfair certain way. Thereturnofpaintingwassomethingabsolutelyirritating formeasayoungartist. And These werethemainthingswediscussedwhenIstartedoutasan artist, sotheywereformativeina reduced tothebodyofartist, toanideaorperceptionofartthathassomethingintangibleit. equated withitsimplementation.Thesecondformwasperformance art, anotherformthatisbasically thatpoint,has becomeintangible.At itdoesnotmatterwhetheriscarriedoutornot;theconcept case ofconceptualart, inits mostradicalform,itisthereductiontotermitself, anartformthat conceptual artandperformance—twoformsthatarebasedona ratherradicaldefinitionofart. Inthe started todoart. Thethings wemostlydiscussedwereminimal art toacertainextent, butprimarily become seriouslyinterestedinart. Thisistheperiodbeforereturnofpainting,ifyouwill,whenI PK Itisprobablyeasiesttoreconstructthisdevelopmentchronologically. Inthelate1970s,Istartedto instead. Howcome? the 1980s,wethinkofpredominantstyleWild Painting. Butyoustartedworking withacomputer drawings onthem,putthemupthewallandpaintedtransparent paper. Usually, whenwethinkof RES Intheearly1980s,youdidcharcoaldrawingsoncardboard, mademodelsfromcardboardwith surrounding isonparwiththepictureitself. is animportantissue,inwhichtheinteriorandexteriorform anequivalent, inwhichthepicture’s paper isattachedpartofthework.Thisprobablymostobvious in workswhichtheformofframe the charcoaldrawings.Ithinkusedtransparentmaterialbecause itmakesthewalltowhich youhavementionedthem,Iwouldliketocommentonthe transparentthings.Theyareolderthan PK As develops, yourapproachdevelopsaswell,butnotmotifs. in theverybeginning,transferredthemtocomputerandstill usethemtoday. Whenamedium development, alsowithregardtoyourmotifs;theants,tubes, the brains.You drewthesethings Who isafraidofRed,BlueandYellow.Inretrospect, Iwouldsaythatyourworkdemonstratesastringent obvious. Thetransparentpaperpaintedyellow,redandbluepoints toyourinterestinminimalart, like RES Theresemblancebetweenyourearlierworksandthelatest exhibitedatMUMOKispretty and pictograms. images thatwascompletelyinlinewiththethingsIdeveloped my charcoaldrawings,namelyimages images withoutbeingaprogrammer. For somereasonorother, thecomputerfacilitatedalanguageof images. For thefirsttime,youcouldproduceimagesintuitivelyanddirectlyevenmanipulate The newthingwasthegraphicinterfaceandthatyouwereable tousecomputersdirectlygenerate PK Ithinkcomputershaveexistedsincethelate1940s.Theyhad definitelybeenaroundquiteawhile. RES Backthen,thecomputerwasacompletelynewmediuminart production,right? Acryl, silkscreenprintoncanvas,86.6x68.9in/220175cm Untitled, 1986

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67 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY focus shifts to something else. You know from your own work that it is basically a process. Sometimes Sometimes a process. basically that it is own work your know from else. You something shifts to focus different. something completely is and the outcome and then you start a certain intention you have And cannot use sometimes you had in mind originally. than what you even more interesting Maybe it is it at all. printing. The by silk screen canvas computer to the developed on the transfer patterns RES You to implement an idea. So options how many digital print techniques provide continuously developing screen printing today? how important is silk is still a good screen printing Silk so that affects my work as well. PK Many things have changed, as far as materiality in digital print difficult color directly—something that is still method to transfer of time until new It is only a matter years. have improved a lot over the last few is concerned. Things I am as interested technologies. in these But I do not see a hierarchical order technologies develop. we can create now. surfaces the super-fine we could produce in the 1980s as in in the rough surfaces surface in the 1980s, had a particular So we corresponds with a certain culture. Because each surface one now. another one in the 1990s, and again another that you started to use computer technology it is quite a challenge in your work RES The way I see it, general in a time dominated by Wild and in the art world in so early and established it in your work Painting. the computer appeared as a paint in the mid-1980s when PK It was very appealing, primarily because to start from scratch. At I basically had a chance tool it hardly had any history at all. So the same time, by this medium at least for the next would be dominated it was already obvious that image production business in culture, and arts in areas different of variety a but production, image only not decades—and So this gave people a chance to work with a medium that would have and communication and whatever. that was connected to all were able to use an interface You an effect on all cultural and social areas. other processes. red background. And by the heads on the RES In the current exhibition, I was fascinated I was very the façade, exhibition, apart from Communist portraits. Your surprised to read about your interest in I could not connect to them as works made by me, these are rather strange motifs. starts with them. For you. PK Because they are so grotesque? But when I read that you speak about empty forms in this context, RES Grotesque and somehow different. it took shape for me. Are you very interested in Communist painting? at the time of the Soviet not at all. What I am interested in is the Russian avant-garde PK Actually, more about these omnipresent Soviet Revolution. But I could not care less for Socialist Realism. It was time and again. They were so portraits I remembered from my childhood which were reproduced generally associate with a portrait. monumental that they lost every trace of subjectivity you would me, but based on this They reached a great degree of abstraction and that was what interested more or less black and white portraits. formalism: There are always these red backgrounds and usually So while you continue to work with similar motifs, you never repeat yourself. repeat yourself. RES So while you continue to work with similar motifs, you never you change things around. Maybe PK I think there is a certain system you work with and within which number of certain parameters and it can be compared to working in a lab where you have a certain be find out what happens. This can substances and then you start trying out variants, just trying to have a basic material and a certain You studio as well, at least to a certain extent. done at an artist’s the to see what happens or whether constellation and then you just go ahead and try out things, just Well, these two works are eight years apart. PK Well, It is an interesting fact that you do not use many motifs, but when one looks at your work, the use many motifs, but RES It is an interesting fact that you do not This seems to out identically. time. The motifs are not carried impression is that it is different every I saw the Ornament and Abstraction exhibition in Basel in 2001, be true for the matrixes as well. When work and it looks at MUMOK, there is also a matrix I saw your matrixes for the first time. And today, completely different. Yes, it applies to all motifs. PK Yes, RES This is also true for the brain. There have been small modifications. Just like a piece of furniture: When you keep building it for Just like a piece of furniture: PK There have been small modifications. the might be changes to the symmetry, Not too much, but there a long time, it will change slightly. or the form over the years. contrast between light and dark maybe Is there a difference between your earlier and your later ants? RES Is there a difference between your earlier I think the decision for these things is pretty intuitive. It is a mix of reflection and intuition, but I mix of reflection is a for these things is pretty intuitive. It PK I think the decision ant crawling across the with the exhibition up to intuition. This little film in the would say it is more But the main point is that it is not the image of an ant I did it. newspaper was not meant to be art when And context of a sign system. in its natural habitat but an ant in the I made many it took the works for me. So it was not a deliberate and to make it important years later to remind me of this little film statement; it was only material, but to make a particular artistic decision to film an ant on a newspaper became important to me. meanwhile done, the film in the context of different things I had How did you come to use these particular motifs; the ants, the rats or the tubes, for example? rats or the tubes, the use these particular motifs; the ants, RES How did you come to I think this is called wallpaper works—because the wall space is turned into an image space. into an image is turned the wall space works—because is called wallpaper PK I think this who made the Stella Frank with It all started back to minimalism. considerations dating These are space, the window and the picture between this Or the interrelation a central theme. shaped canvas material: because the transparent I used else. I think this was the reason why architecture, anything whole thing. And a part of the was to be directly on the wall, as if the wall the drawing appeared fact is that developed early of images a vocabulary continuity in motifs, something like that there is a certain I work with. So this on the medium that remain and are only modified depending on, a few basic motifs add to it. new to something but also expanded, there is always vocabulary is modified, I also see similarities between your wall projections and your works on transparent paper. transparent works on and your wall projections your between see similarities RES I also

RES MAY 2009 66 Untitled, 2008 Sound: Franz Pomassl Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, looped Installation, computer animation, multiple projection, sound, RES Another does not move, general. Even if an image thing I had to think of is your interest in motion in something else does, like the curtains. are made. in film and how films that is true. I think in the early 1980s, it was due to my interest PK Yes, This includes motion sequences. know those stills taken fast enough to be put together to form You this role of film also represents a on the other hand because movement on the one hand and reality performance was good enough form of ornament or surrealism. And at a certain point the computers’ though. The curtains, the am not sure about the curtains, to convert stills into moving images. I in a form between image and an expression of my interest room dividers, the wallpapers—they are architecture, a type of hybrid of image, furniture and architecture. Can you tell me a bit more about the RES I did not see the curtains on San Marco Square in Venice. project? as sunscreens. They are always PK There are these white curtains on San Marco Square that serve I had designed. Anotherthere, and for my project I simply exchanged them with the curtains thing I on a but weaved. They were produced should mention about these curtains is that they were not printed most likely about 1830, and those jacquard machine, an invention dating back to the early 19th century, was Obviously this aspect were the first punch card-controlled machines, the first digital machines. important to me.

There are some works from the early 1980s which quote Fritz Lang films or generally films from the Lang films PK There are some works from the early 1980s which quote Fritz This scene is Lang in particular. Fritz 1920s, German expressionistic and Russian avant-garde films, but Lang film. from a Fritz RES In your exhibition, there is a drawing from a film of his ... I have to confess that I have never been particularly interested in this Viennese tradition. But in this Viennese particularly interested PK I have to confess that I have never been leave their mark. So there were things that when you have lived in a city for so long, things obviously, were important to me, especially Actionism. was the most important thing to I would say that that And It gave artists a I think that internationally it is still underrated. happen in Austria after the war. it was completed. The early period of Modernism, significant impetus and there was nothing to add to it, or later, here in the way it did in France at least when we are talking about fine arts, never really existed He directed films but was an Lang who lived in Vienna. in America. I dealt a lot with Fritz after the war, play a key role in his films. Andarchitect by training. So architecture and things like ornaments this is something I have always been interested in. I would like to talk about your entire body of work because you make a lot of very different objects of work because you RES I would like to talk about your entire body you comment projections ... How would furniture, wallpaper, that are exhibited next to each other: tables, Wiener with a view on the historical you living in Vienna, on the idea of oevres—in the context of And what is your relationship to ornaments? Werkstätte? Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien Installation view, 2008 RES MAY 2009 68

71 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Installation view, 2008 Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien

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73 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY One last question: If there were new developments in computer technology, would your work reflect your work would technology, computer in developments were new If there last question: RES One these changes? happens in perspective what from a general always tried to observe always do. I have PK I guess they software that new computers, new This includes could apply to my work. technology that I the field of medium I work with. along with the one did not think of before. My work changes supports processes MUMOK. on view from October 31, 2008 to February 2, 2009 at Peter Kogler (b.1959 in Innsbruck, Austria) was the 1979 up to Rainer Fuchs. The exhibition covered over 100 works from Curator: Edelbert Köb, co-curator: present. for as the basis Peter Kogler began to use media and computer technology A two-time documenta participant, with confronting and blending the perfectionism of the new technologies his installations in the early 1980s, are then serially basic modules such as an ant, a brain, a rat or a pipe (which physical and organic motifs. Simple as the medium features of his works. Architecture and public spaces serve reproduced) have become distinctive which are structured in a repetitive, patterned way. for impressive, large-scale works Peter Kogler at MUMOK Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien Photograph: RES This phenomenon exists, yes. But you have asked me what I think will happen in this field and I will happen in this field and I PK This phenomenon exists, yes. But you have asked me what I think The first applications that were developed for computers, during the war, think it is hard to forecast. the So this was the one area, were coding and decoding programs, a rational, mathematical procedure. by the its high degree of rationality or other one was chess. Once again an application characterized by consoles. have come a far way when we look at the surfaces of today’s We intellect. So in the future we will be able to do without real screen heroes and simply replace them by RES So in the future we will be able to do without real screen heroes computer-generated heroes. Another possibility to which gives you the aspect we could consider is the area of computer games The interesting point is that the focus is not on modern, manner. simulate realities in a highly complex Just know from the 19th century. space, similar to what we technical spaces but on a very romantic think about Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. These are images you would not dream of putting in a irrational and romantic. context with state-of-the-art technology because they are highly These things have always been hard to forecast—apart from the fact that they will definitely become forecast—apart from PK These things have always been hard to can be anticipated. A good example would be think that the consequences don’t But I faster and faster. allows us to use certain machines in A technical innovation the graphic interface I have talked about: do not a low number of images. You pointing and interpreting the way we know from our childhood, by It is enough to point to something, these complex machines. need to use language any longer to manage see that this technology and something happens. It is fascinating to to an eraser, to a paint bucket, left behind. we thought we had long brings us back to a communication level What do you think, how will the media computers develop further? RES What do you think, how will the media I am also looking forward to it. PK I am also looking forward to it. RES I am especially happy about that. The exhibition will next be shown at the Berardo Museum in Lisbon. And in Lisbon. next be shown at the Berardo Museum PK The exhibition will there are several projects One is for the of this exhibition. because that have been neglected for a while that I will turn to now And a rather large project. there are a few upcoming exhibitions, such as the National Archive in Paris, on those. So I have to start working one at Santral Istanbul scheduled for spring. What is your next project? What are you up to right now? RES What is your next project? I have always seen it as an equivalent to receiving architecture. When you enter a building, let’s say a say a building, let’s When you enter it as an equivalent to receiving architecture. PK I have always seen because you are inside. It simply the building, to put a distance between you and cathedral, it is difficult that hangs in front from a painting different you. The involvement is quite is something that surrounds field and allows you to keep your distance. of you like a defined Yes, I do. RES Yes, I am not sure about that. You think so? You about that. PK I am not sure Your work requires active viewers. viewers. active work requires RES Your

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75 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Well, we don’t represent him but we have included his work in several shows, and similarly we were we and similarly shows, in several his work have included but we him represent don’t we JC Well, wall drawings for us. he would make and when he was alive close with Lewitt always very at Mass MOCA? seen his installation DW Have you Have you? wait to. but I can’t JC Not yet, you had in the I loved the Haacke piece the NY Times review. Actually, DW No, I just finished reading piece! Mask show. What a great with four weights on each , a blue billowy cloth showed a work from 1964 called Blue Sail also We JC Right. That was in an exhibition called the air. up in a fan underneath that made it float corner and there was first opened downtown in 2002. Air that we did when we in 2002 was from 57th Street? DW The move to Chelsea 1999 until 2002. were on 57th Street from We JC Right. DW When did you work for Anthony D’Offay? for D’Offay for almost five years to London where I worked JC In the early 1990s, my wife and I moved It was he and I were then partners for three years. in 1996. In New York, until we moved back to New York incredibly informative. the best university that I ever went to, DW Did you take on some of his artists? JC Anthony and he was also about art dealing D’Offay was the greatest model for how to be very precise people to make decisions and work in that he really empowered brilliant in his management of his staff of the questions he asked me when I first moved to One with artists that they felt passionate about. with already? work whom we don’t we ought to be working with London was, which artist do you think in 1986 at the because I had seen this incredible exhibition of Viola’s Just off the cuff I said, Bill Viola, Museum of Modern Art just an extraordinary experience. which virtually no one reviewed and it was you Anthony don’t why told me to go see it. Peter Campus, had great, said, Another artist friend of Bill’s, a month I was in California and Bill and an exhibition. So within go meet him and see about organizing I think that was one of the really significant relationships I were talking about doing a project together. that I was able to foster in London that has continued in New York. days? up to these Bill Viola DW What’s called during the time of the last Biennial, had in Venice just finished this large project that Viola JC We created this beautiful piece with three monitors in an intimate chapel The Ocean Without A Shore. Viola of which was just installed in Australiajust off San Marco Square. That work was an edition of three, one in Melbourne. He is now working on a very significant commission for at the National Gallery of Victoria where he is at. Cathedral in London, so that’s Paul’s St. DW And now you have a gallery in Shanghai. DW And are you still working with Hans Haacke? I started in the early 1980s which were incredibly bleak. Then there was a moment at which Charles there was a moment at which Charles JC I started in the early 1980s which were incredibly bleak. Then to pay like $20,000 for a Robert Saatchi was buying minimalist art and suddenly people were willing I So it was quiet but interesting. Mangold painting or a Judd or even think about Lewitt at that time. Gallery for five years where I had the good fortune to work with Hans Haacke and worked for John Weber among others. Sol Lewitt, DW So you were working in galleries… No, I didn’t. I started in the art world in 1982 when I got out of college and I was traveling two I started in the art world in 1982 when I got out of JC No, I didn’t. from grant a received had I University. Washington at history art studying was One paths. simultaneous to do an exhibition on Joseph Cornell with a partner the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) result of a highly drug induced evening where The idea was the and his relationship to symbolist poetry. Thomas Coleridge and I was studying My partner was reading we were talking about art and literature. you know and so wouldn’t we shared a common interest in symbolist poetry, work and Joseph Cornell’s The for an NEH grant. university appeared at our two days later there was some application that it, Louis. So then I Cornell boxes in St. exhibition of thirty long and the short is that we did this beautiful to the Institute of Fine Arts route and applied thought that maybe I would take a curatorial at NYU, but I academic so when I got to New York as opposed to I was always inclined to be more entrepreneurial galleries. And and went to work for decided to defer graduate school for a year is where I have been this ever since. Did you have your gallery during the previous downturn in the early 1990s? previous downturn in DW Did you have your gallery during the Totally, so everyone is pretty freaked out. JC Totally, DW It is unprecedented. I am sure it is temporary, but who knows, we have never been in an economic crisis like this before. but who knows, we have never JC I am sure it is temporary, DW How temporary is it? JAMES COHAN But it is temporary. I don’t want to talk too much about the market, even though it is relevant right now. even though to talk too much about the market, want DEBORA WARNER I don’t DEBORA WARNER

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INTERVIEW WITH JAMES COHAN COHAN JAMES WITH INTERVIEW 74

77 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Installation Trenton Doyle Hancock: Fear at James Cohan Gallery, NY, 2008

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79 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY I see you have two Chinese artists in your program. Are in your program. artists two Chinese you have DW I see additions? recent they is from Bejing last 15 years. He for the living in New York someone who has been Ji is JC Yun-Fei America but immigrated to working artist we are Zhen, the other Chinese around 1985. Xu originally, know the and getting to there of us being is very much a product in Shanghai and with, is living Instead, it is to art. not really to show Chinese at this point is our brief in China However, community. It is a long road because we think that has a rich potential. art market for Western develop the Chinese There are a lot of Western a fruitful one. it is a long period of education, but we think because it will take I think it could be that opportunity keen to show in China, and if we can provide artists who are very very successful. artists to China that you are aware no other Chinese dealers bringing Western DW There are currently of? I think the biggest hurdle Chinese art. is about domestic more or less the Chinese market JC Not really, background and consequently collector lacks the educational we have to deal with is that the Chinese to travel within the Western decisions about which direction the confidence to go forward and make collect European and American to us we would love to art world. So many times people have said over the last half year is know where to begin. So what has happened but we just don’t contemporary art, artists who are interested in our introduced to us by Chinese that we have met collectors that have been program, which is very intriguing. DW And how many exhibitions have you had there so far? and we are heading into our fourth exhibition. we opened in July JC Well, How did around this time last year. received a lot of attention for the Mask show here in New York DW You that exhibition come about? about selling. cultural and not so much know we have done a number of exhibitions that are cross JC You Unlike a museum we have with it. of ideas together and running They are a lot more about putting a set of dealers and collectors as well as work with a whole variety the ability to be more flexible and can , which was based on works of art that years ago we did an exhibition called Cosmologies artists. Two ideas of a cosmological world view— their world, the outside world, micro, were all relating to artists’ macro, cosmic views. At time that I was looking at the art of the Jains from the Indian Jainism the same making these cosmological mandalas that someone had introduced me to. They have a long history of their world, past life, that are both physical as well as conceptual mappings of their universe—present that in It was really interesting to explore the idea future life as well as the geography of their society. miles made while at the same time, 7,000 the 17th century some of the great Jain cosmologies were being and writings about the micro and Robert Flood in England was making his cosmological drawings away, ideas different cultures, comparable macrocosm of the world. So, during the same time period in totally artists like Anselmare being played out; at the same time we know that contemporary Kiefer are keenly host together: working with a whole interested in Robert Flood and the Jains. It all kind of started fitting had everything from a young artist named Dawn Clements, to Fred of different objects and artists. We drawings that to Mark Lombari who did a series of cosmological Winters, to Terry to Kiefer, Tomaselli, were about …

Well it is not in the commercial center of town, but rather in a historic neighborhood where the it is not in the commercial center of town, but rather in a JC Well have the ground cultural centers. We Shanghaiese live, with lots of small boutiques, restaurants and floor of a beautiful Art Mayor of Shanghai. The Deco building which used to be the old villa of the Vice and it is much more about placing art within a domestic environment space has a lot of personality, rather than in a white box, which Arthur thought was a very good idea from the point of view of showing Having a gallery in Shanghai is an exciting opportunity the Chinese public how you can live with art. artists. They are the ones who are for artists, because any great gallery is actually an invitation to know, collectors come and go, but artists are the You the driving force behind any successful gallery. franchise that we depend upon. No, I have yet to travel to Shanghai. But I saw some images on your website. DW No, I have yet to travel to Shanghai. But I saw some images on Right. A couple years ago one of our directors, Arthur Solway, who had been married to a Taiwanese who had been married to a Taiwanese A couple years ago one of our directors, ArthurJC Right. Solway, to Asia,woman, started traveling rather consistently and discovering what the market meeting people period, he met lots of curators, as in Mainland China. Over a three year as well was like in Taiwan for us to have a presence in me that this was an opportunity collectors and artists and he convinced Asia behind that project, the driving force and that he wanted to move there. I think he really has been you seen it? Concession quarter of Shanghai. Have in the French and we have opened a beautiful space at James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, 2008 Installation Folkert de Jong: Early Years RES MAY 2009 78

81 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Installation Folkert de Jong: Usual Business at James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai, 2008 Mask show in a commercial gallery. DW It is quite opposite from your role as a gallerist. I was once being interviewed for Brazilian TV and they were asking me to describe the art world me to describe the art world JC I was once being interviewed for Brazilian TV and they were asking and at a possibly more cynical moment I just said, “What art and the art community in New York, experience to be an artist anywhere. community?” The truth is—and I do think it is—it is an isolating the benefit that you can leave your studio and go to an opening and find I think you have In New York it is a pretty solitary career. other artists, but in large part, Yes, I do. The community is something I love about being here in New York. We take care of each We in New York. something I love about being here I do. The community is DW Yes, other. It is unusual to see such a broad range of works like in the DW It is unusual to see such a broad range the community that is necessary greater probability of gaining JC I would say in the long run you have a think proximity to the center is what makes greatness, Now I don’t to sustain a career here in New York. On the other hand, less than center. helps to be closer to the but I think to get recognition it probably in London, have an artist from Nigeria, Yinka Shonibare, who is living half of our artists live in NYC. We Dolye Hancock lives in Trenton Zhen, who is in Shanghai. Beatriz Milhazes, who lives in Brazil, Xu but for a younger is in Long Beach, California. So I think it is not imperative, Bill Voila Houston, Texas. artist … for a younger Americandifference. Do you think it makes a artist it probably makes a big difference? We were thrilled. It got a great response, and I think it is important to be able to do exhibitions where to be able to do exhibitions where I think it is important were thrilled. It got a great response, and JC We and not about commerce and passionate have that sense that the show is compelling people come in and But in the end, 95-99% fantastic! something, set of ideas, and if people end up buying per se. It is about a could make a very nice from us. We into the gallery will never buy anything of the people who walk resource and this is what point of the gallery is to be a public but the privately, living just selling art they want the public exposure. So, it has been fun. They want that feedback and artists really want. to have a presence here? do you think it is still important for artists DW Speaking of New York, I’m really sorry I missed it! DW I’m really sorry I missed or London would in the world. I suppose Paris is the greatest resource York in a way I think New JC Well, in so many different disciplines that it dealers who are dealing be comparable in that there are so many collectors and introducing new in meeting new possible is a treasure trove, and everyone is interested very collaborative. communities to their ideas, so it is actually Yes, and the network and scandals that surrounded certain corporate structures. Last year we did Last year we structures. corporate surrounded certain and scandals that and the network JC Yes, Mask. At exhibition called another such To great collection of masks. a dealer who had a that time, I met really would be another and then thought this to that collection I was introduced story short, cut a long or hiding behind one’s obscuring the mask: The idea of “masking” as well as interesting combination. compelling. identity seemed really DW … corporations.

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83 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Installation group exhibition Mask at James Cohan Gallery, NY, 2008

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85 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY All images courtesy James Cohan Gallery at the University of Illinois Gallery 400, Chicago. Her audio pieces at the University of Illinois Gallery 400, Chicago. Her audio Ideology

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That is fantastic. I see you have your Polar fitness watch there on your wrist. Are wrist. on your there fitness watch a training for you Polar have your I see you is fantastic. DW That marathon? my body. am not into killing I run like 10k. I JC No, but I run. There the market at all. up talking about really end question, because we didn’t DW I just have one final the early 1990s was “Stay alive till The phrase from galleries closing at the moment. are a lot of younger are people saying now? ‘95,” right? So what There is something I have often be a big challenge. what they are saying. I think it will know JC I don’t are more collectors ... though there that even but I think it is fair to say said, not to sound pretentious, over the last became so extraordinary market of the market and the depth of the because the broadness mean there are more great artists, necessarily an explosion of wealth, it doesn’t five or six years, with handful a be only still will there history, and time over look you If truth. unfortunate the is think I which I think one period in art. of any figures remembered and who will be the defining of artists who will be there has been more opportunity for of life. It is great because that is just kind of a Darwinian reality see. is still so harsh. So we will people to be discovered, but the reality photo- exhibition of early James Cohan Gallery opened in New York City in September 1999 with an inaugural opened July 2008 in the French Concession quarter pieces by Gilbert & George and James Cohan Gallery Shanghai of Shanghai with a group exhibition entitled, Mining Nature. The focus of the gallery exhibition program in both gallery works with established and emerging New York and Shanghai is international contemporary art. The de Manfredi Beninati, Ingrid Calame, Folkert artists; those represented include: the Estate of Robert Smithson, Paine, Long, Beatriz Milhazes, Bill Owens, Roxy Jong, Simon Evans, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Yun Fei Ji, Richard Erick Swenson, Tabiamo, Alison Elizabeth Richard Patterson, Alan Saret, Hiraki Sawa, Yinka Shonibare MBE, In addition to representing and building the Taylor, Fred Tomaselli, Bill Viola, Wim Wenders, and Xu Zhen. business in the sales of works and selected careers of artists on our roster, the gallery maintains an active Anselm Keifer, Nam June Paik, and Sol Lewitt exhibitions by other modern and contemporary masters such as the gallery distinguishes itself among others. Alongside the vibrant program of solo artists’ exhibitions, throughout history and across cultures. through presenting thematic group exhibitions that explore topics latest multi-media exhibition Debora Warner is an artist, activist, and amateur triathlete living in NYC. Her solo exhibitions at the Akira Ikeda Gallery in was at the I-20 Gallery in NYC (2007). Prior to that, Debora had at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Tokyo and Berlin. Recent group exhibitions include Alt Pictureshow Diego and The the Swiss Kunsthalle Frankfurt, and in New York at have been presented at the FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, the Schirn next solo and Art in General, among others. The Institute, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, White Columns, the Project New York. Current works explore exhibition is scheduled for 2009 at the Akira Ikeda Empty Space concept of social transformation symbolically and metaphorically. Jane Cohan Gallery. RES gratefully acknowledges This interview was conducted on December 18, 2008, at James Cohan, James Cohan and Kara Vander Weg for their contributions.

Well, I think it is related to that idea of dendroids and the kind of branching networking systems I think it is related to that idea of dendroids and the kind JC Well, It should be a very and the body. of nature as well as the biological ideas of networking in the brain we are excited. ambitious, enveloping environmental experience for everyone. So DW No more trees? JC A brand new piece. It will be called Maelstrom and should be spectacular. DW It is a new piece? We are in the middle of negotiations with a museum over the purchase of that, but Roxy has an of that, negotiations with a museum over the purchase are in the middle of JC We exhibition that will open at the end of April 2009, which is on the roof terrace of the Metropolitan. So It is a wonderful opportunity for him for the Met. and be the next commission he will follow Jeff Koons which he is now fabricating upstate. and—true to form—he has made an incredibly ambitious project, Now what happened with Roxy Paine’s elaborate piece, Inversion, which was at Basel? elaborate DW Now what happened with Roxy Paine’s Yes, my wife and I have worked together since 1999. And it has been a great learning curve for her JC Yes, Jane has overseen the designer. before. She was an industrial because she had not been in the art world takes care of all of our publicity and has projects, and she fabrication of works of art and more elaborate gratifying. done a brilliant job. So it has been very DW And you have a partner. I love the idea that we can do exhibitions and lots of people can come to see it and I love the energy and lots of people can JC I love the idea that we can do exhibitions and the theater of putting on exhibitions. at James Cohan Gallery, NY, 2008 Installation group exhibition Mask RES MAY 2009 84

89 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY at Kontekst Gallery in Belgrade on February 7, 2008. The protest of the opening of the Exception exhibition Unfortunately these kindred spirits of ‘Balkanization’ based their collaboration on the fundaments of the fundaments on collaboration based their of ‘Balkanization’ spirits these kindred Unfortunately Two passed unnoticed. exploitation politics of this all the economic representations and nationalist like Herald definition of curators in the dead end is cultural-nationalism of the resulting main reasons practitioners. of local art an apolitical readiness and René Block, and Szeemann some exhibitions created these ‘Balkan’ is that here without repeating myself again What I want to show That is the reason why readily followed. which the art exhibitions in the region kind of national agenda, the situation in Belgrade is far based on this kind of discussion. But the Exception exhibition was also it is in Kassel. more delicate than Prishtina since 1999 Belgrade and between no official and public relationship Even if there has been regions both from artists Belgrade) in care medical or visas foreign for applied who Kosovars from (apart was aiming to establish exhibitions. Exception in the international ‘Balkan’ made personal contacts wanted to challenge the stated, the curators for these contacts. This exhibition, as an official platform is all Serbian media, Kosovo among the Serbs. In almost contemporary Kosovo ignorance about the place under a heavy represented as a culturally backward feudal of Exception wanted influence of ultra-nationalism. The curators show the urban and to escape these stereotypes by trying to advertise their This is why didn’t modern life in Kosovo. art from art’, but as ‘contemporary exhibition as ‘Kosovo in the name “Kosovo” Prishtina’, which meant first to avoid the meaning in title of the exhibition as it has an over-pejorative the exhibition by reducing Serbia, and second not to ‘nationalize’ also the curators city, it to a region or state. By underlining the wanted to deal with one attempted to show that the exhibition rather than national specific contemporary art scene as a social exhibition in Istanbul phenomenon. Imagine, for example, an art scene’: which would be about the ‘Diyarbakır contemporary for the definition Regional, national and specific social conditions scope would merge. of the exhibition’s for the fundaments Exception is in many ways symptomatic: first, own historical problems making this kind of exhibition have their the imagination of Block as in the way the Balkan is defined by of Exception are aware and Szeemann (even though the curators of this danger and they warn of a possible misunderstanding in further readings of the exhibition). Second, the curators, even if they wanted to avoid an ethnic or national reading of the exhibition, could not avoid that because most of the selected art works for the exhibition are works which are uncritical about by Lulzim Works nationalism or are even ambiguous about it. and Flaka Zeqiri, Nurhan Qehaja, Dren Maliqi, Fitore Isufi-Koja Haliti are directly or indirectly connected to nationalism, and in many of the art works it is possible to see the Albanian flag or to hear Albanian folk music. These works are not ‘nationalist’ in the sense of an official representative ideology of the state, like most After establishment of the UNMIK protectorate in 1999 Serbia lost all its intervention and the the NATO state, which was operating was a kind of spectre that time on, Kosovo From political rights over Kosovo. especially after 2001 and But in the meantime in Kosovo, within pseudo-definitions of sovereignty. a new contemporary art scene emerged. further on with the support of the German Cultural Foundation, art was more than accidental. The correlation between the new para-sovereign state and contemporary uncontrolled privatization, corrupt experiencing post-socialist transition symptoms like was Kosovo the first contemporary art scene. For governance, wild urbanism etc. together with the flowering of a were represented in international exhibitions, and curator Rene Block went so time artists from Kosovo is the avant-garde of the Balkans.” In these international, mainly ‘Balkan’ far to declare that “Kosovo states. artists from the ‘Balkan’ exhibitions some kind of connection and collaboration started between As and had requested foresaw problems regards the timing of the exhibition in Belgrade, the organizers declared its independency only ten days after the Kosovo police protection in advance. The fact that Exception had been planned situation is. The exhibition failed opening shows how tense the political be interpreted by the public in different and so it was open to and organized under these circumstances, ways. For a reader who is not familiar with the specifics of the local circumstances leading up to this situation circumstances a reader who is not familiar with the specifics of the local For led to the decision not to open this and political facts which we have to explain some basic historical exhibition in Belgrade. In order to discuss this question it would be interesting to analyze the failure of one exhibition. This be interesting to analyze In order to discuss this question it would Contemporary art scene of Prishtina and exhibition was titled Exception (Odstupanja) with the subtitle It was planned to Knezevic, Kristian Lukic, Ivana Marjanovic and Gordana Nikolic. was curated by Vida was the opening of the exhibition 07, 2008 (2). However, in Belgrade on February open in Gallery Kontekst called Obraz (cheek) protested against youth organization cancelled because a Serbian radical fascist and to destroy one of the art works in through a police cordon the show. Its members managed to break an art exhibition due to lack of security for visitors the aborted opening of the exhibition. This event, of national feeling in the media, followed by a euphoric flow and organizers (as police announced), art professionals. and contemporary triggered a lively discussion among intellectuals It is possible to discuss at length about the problematic relationship between contemporary art and between at length about the problematic relationship It is possible to discuss art has usually been contemporary field for potential political emancipation, nationalism; as a cultural art is This means that contemporary way. to nationalism in a very affirmative interpreted in relation we tried to show earlier, But as of emancipatory politics of anti-nationalism. affirmative in the sense the difference from the ideologies, with also be a material basis for nationalistic contemporary art can (1). of sophistication nationalism only in the degree forms of so-called ‘’vulgar’’ SEZGİN BOYNİK

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NO EXCEPTION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART CONTEMPORARY FOR EXCEPTION NO 88

OPEN IN BELGRADE SCENE COULD NOT ART OF THE PRISHTINA WHY AN EXHIBITION

91 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY All images © Vladan Jeremic (by MM Publication, Prishtina, 2007), An Interrupted (by BAS Publication, Istanbul, 2007) and Public Turn in statement by a Kosovo artist, art critic or curator. No one from Kosovo was asked to interpret what interpret what asked to was from Kosovo No one critic or curator. art artist, Kosovo by a statement of RUK’s The main problem their views quoted. were interviewed or and no artists had happened in art exhibition of having a contemporary to the impossibility of Exception was reduced interpretation AnBelgrade. compares titled Alarmed Signal Dejan Sretenovic and art theoretician by the curator article the Dusseldorf Art Joseph Beuys from to the expelling of of this exhibition the closure Academy the by that the Exception incident by arguing in 1972. Sretenovic politicizes the situation regional government cannot meaning that Belgrade city, urban does not pass the exam of a truly demonstrates that Belgrade that it is not also believes Belgrade demonstrated He cultural cities in the West. claim to be on par with in 7/February is written article A similar enough to bear hearing other opinions. democratic and open From Stojanovic. In his article Where Was Shiptar philosopher Branimir newspaper, by the editor of the into two the cultural and political scene of Serbia Art, Stojanovic devides Now On Will Be Contemporary their relations to Albanians.opposite poles by considering Albanians The ones who are critical about who support citizens of Serbia, and the others Exception exhibition are ‘regressive’ and are against the Albanianthe emancipation of of Serbia. This Exception are ‘progressive’ citizens national identity and era of Slobodan Milosevic, from the familiar is typical of Serbian political discourse, kind of polarization Second Serbia. The First Serbia was as the First and the but then it was defined with different terms corruption, closeness, anti- which is nationalism, xenophobia, everything associated with Milosevic, everything absolutely not-Milosevic, The Second Serbia was Europe, mafia-like para-state powers etc. NGO culture etc. contemporary art, openness, non-dictatorship, which means rock culture, liberalism, Serbia is pro Exception. Because of is against and the Second So it is easy to see that the First Serbia became so sensitive and in February closure of the exhibition this, the discussions which followed the came to realize that their cultural citizens of Serbia once again hysterical that all the intellectuals and still lurks in Serbia: The and that the shadow of Milosevic foundation is based on shaky grounds ideological apparatus continue to be present in the discourse of collateral damages of Milosevic’s Serbia. today’s NOTES and by Minna Henriksson and Sezgin Boynik, MM-Publications (1) Contemporary Art and Nationalism. Critical Reader, Edited Contemporary Art Institute Exit, Prishtina, 2007. and closed Museum in Novisad on January 22 (2) Exception was first opened, without any problem, at the Contemporary Art in Serbia. of democracy in the Vojvodina region on March 5, 2008. It was celebrated there as a proof of the level Finished Department of Turkology. Sezgin Boynik (b. 1977) lives in Prizren. Teaches Sociology in Prishtina University, International’’ in 2003 in Mimar Sinan University his master thesis on ‘’Aesthetical Political Strategies of Situationist Situationist International (2004), Finnish Institute of Social Research. Edited issues of art-ist contemporary art magazine, Berlin Kassel; Serious Pop, Vienna; Klartext, Radical Art (2005). Participated in many conferences like Punk Kongress, Recently movements, on nationalism and on punk. and contributed to many journals and publications on radical political co-edited books like Nationalism and Contemporary Art–critical reader History of Punk and Underground Resources in Turkey 1978–1999 of Yugoslav Contemporary Art (by Santralistanbul, Bilgi University, Istanbul, 2008). Currently works on political history underground and subversive cinema history of 60’s and 70’s. stopped being merely a criticism of Serbia’s ignorance about Kosovo’s ignorance about Kosovo’s In a very short time Exception stopped being merely a criticism of Serbia’s of the First and Second Serbia. contemporary culture but became a symptom of the inner problems newspaper 7/February does not carry a single A very simple fact demonstrating this is that RUK’s Following this incident, a very emotional discussion about the destruction of one artwork and cancelling a very emotional discussion about the destruction this incident, Following of the exhibition together with the most prominent the organizers the exhibition started in Serbia. First, a discussion panel on this kind of from Belgrade organized curators, art theoreticians and artists in Culture). They published censorship called RUK which is the acronym for Radnici u Kulturi (Workers the newspaper 7/February which refers to the date when Exception was supposed to open. Considering the Deputy Minister of Culture the fact that RUK participants included the Dean of Belgrade University, Serbian critic art establishment, and other high ranking cultural officials within the contemporary RUK Nebojsa Milikic jokingly renamed RUK Rukovodioci u Kulturi which means Managers in Culture. of the exhibition are also a symptom and many other discussion groups which followed the censorship of Serbia. of the significance of the ‘national’ agenda in contemporary culture exhibition in Belgrade is that somehow a work by Dren exhibition in Belgrade is that somehow What happened at the opening of the Exception of police presence, one work from in spite Maliqi, Face to Face, was destroyed. How it could happen that, The incident caused too a mystery. and was destroyed remains the exhibition was ripped from the wall youth organization. Dren Maliqi’s collaborated with the fascist many people to believe that the police and Ademinstallation Face to Face was made in 2003 and shows Elvis Presley UCK fighter Jashari, a Jashari are shown Both Elivis and by the Serbian army. killed together with all his family in 1998 pop art style. When Maliqi made this work it was supposed holding weapons and painted in Warholian and opposing orientations, which could refer to American two different or to represent the Kosovars’ via Jashari. It was a work about the and traditional or nationalistic values values via Elvis Western exhibition in Belgrade Face to Face was completely In the ambiguity of the post-Rambouillet Kosovo. on the depiction of Ademmisunderstood and the main focus was ended up being Jashari. The work in the future. Adem to an uncertain date destroyed and the whole exhibition postponed Jashari was pointed out in one of his as the Serbian curator Branislav Dimitrijevic the most famous UCK fighter, in greatest contempt. the ultimate evil. and is held interviews, and to Serbs he represents of the art produced in the Artof the art produced Academy in their attitude about the of Prishtina. They are more careful the Art dropouts from are its representations. Many of the artists ‘national’ problem and an Academy, with this issue in an But by dealing the most vulgar aesthetic nationalism. institution that produces to wave over of their nationalism cultural these artists risk a Democles sword of ambiguous manner head.

The opening of the Exception exhibition RES MAY 2009 90

93 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Artist talk with Elke Marhöfer The Contemporary Arts Library, Prishtina, 2008 a functioning library, and beyond Kosovo as a structure that myself and other artists who are not based are not based who other artists myself and that as a structure Kosovo beyond and library, a functioning events. and the organizing projects, collaborations for research can use as a framework in Prishtina Contemporary Arts structure of the the live it, The way we us with a space Prishtina provides Library allows participating our activities and It pools of the recent past. as well as an archive for dialogue to enter into dialogues networks and and backgrounds to create own structures artists from different was an exhibition of a library function in. A recent project that exceeded the that we are interested of working with the conditions I reflected upon my experiences where Kunstverein, at Frankfurter on diverse topics a series of talks project produces. The presentation included and implications the and Germany from Kosovo, speakers time of three months and given by guest stretching over the Artsby the Contemporary was on the discursive space created England. Here the emphasis Library. arose and Germany that Another Turkey Kosovo, of artists from example is the collaboration of a group each of us in her series of interviews, a the last workshop in Prishtina. Doing from discussions during exhibitions in the art in international the Balkanization phenomenon specific context researched recent past. FITORE ISUFI-KOJA The concept of the Contemporary Arts Library was one. Equally from the very beginning a collaborative create networks important for me is another key idea: to call it a new of contacts, based on which this library—I an accessible art institution—then works to develop public space through various events. houses By addressing art institutions, publishing a call for as well as different individual artists with this project donations of books on contemporary art, and the most very quickly became an ‘institution’ country important gift of art-related material this a large space has ever had. The books were put up in of Prishtina. at the National and University Library to install It had been proposed right from the start the Contemporary ArtsLibrary because this way it would be Library at the National and University disciplines. accessible to university students of all This means that from the beginning the Contemporary Arts Library had a strategic foundation that by people of different ages and It creates a space for relevant activities determined its development. art members of the contemporary professions and a neutral platform for an open dialogue between landscape of institutions and self- It is gradually clarifying its position in the local scene in Kosovo. organized activities. as one can see when looking at the were very successful in self-organization intellectuals Kosovar These the years of conflict in the region. parallel cultural and intellectual systems which existed during I at the time. They were run by what parallel institutions were the only way to oppose the repression support and acted without institutional would call elites who produced culture individually or in groups ztat from Istanbul, we discussed the documentary in cinemas and museums today and studied artists’ initiatives, collaboration and self- documentary in cinemas and museums today and studied artists’ resulted in the decision that organization. Our meeting and cooperation in Prishtina in November also developed a strategy for We would take on the project in Prishtina independently. Fitore Isufi-Koja the future of the Contemporary Arts Library—both in Prishtina itself as an open space for events and During a second workshop in November 2008 with guest artists Laura Horelli and Gerhard Friedl, Horelli and Gerhard Friedl, During a second workshop in November 2008 with guest artists Laura two Berlin-based filmmakers/video artists, as well as artist İz Ö I proposed to do a series of workshops in order to connect people and books, to reinforce the public in order to connect people I proposed to do a series of workshops the Contemporary Artsawareness of the resources available in sure that the Library and to make supportive in the future. New books for the library would be personnel and institutional structures with international guest of two multi-day workshops, were collected and presented on the occasion The first workshop in January seminars and group readings. artists talking about their work, offering of new furniture for the also included the construction 2008 with Berlin-based artist Elke Marhöfer equipment to watch films Technical of new books. space, namely colorful boxes for the presentation thought in progress—a playful but to regard the library as a was acquired. Elke Marhöfer proposed some of the books available in the also programmatic attitude which tried to consider the fact that days, discussions on users. For library were publications of—possibly—minor importance for current discussed the relevance of certain art unfolded while workshop participants looked at books together, creating new categories. subjects, sorted out books and rearranged them on the shelves, When connecting with local artists and creating visions for the library project, I primarily asked library project, creating visions for the When connecting with local artists and like the donation of thousands slightly paternalistic project myself how and if an idealistic but also could work out at all. Could a non-systematic to Kosovo of books on contemporary art from Germany that had been needed in Kosovo) what could be library based on donations (and the imagination subsequently its own roots on site? develop its own logic and implemented in a local context start to the fact that there was a domination of I also wanted to challenge Myself being myself from Germany, practice, research and publications in and to put a focus on notions of artistic publications “Western” the region. The Contemporary Arts from an started in 2005 as a project resulting Library Prishtina/Berlin Art and Prishtina, Kosovo. books Germany, artists from Frankfurt/Main, exchange between young that point only houses—at art publishing artists, curators, art institutions and were collected from from books also films and music, resources, apart European addresses. 9,000 collected from Western of Prishtina, centrally Library University in 2005, and the National and the were brought to Prishtina placed on shelves, but The books were us with a space to house the material. located in town, supported take over the project from friends, the to Prishtina in order to in 2007, when I first traveled from Berlin Contemporary Arts Library was not really used and accessible. JUDITH RAUM

RES MAY 2009 92 AND İZ ÖZTAT (ISTANBUL) FITORE ISUFI-KOJA (PRISHTINA)

(BERLIN), BY JUDITH RAUM ON THE PROJECT REFLECTIONS

PRISHTINA/BERLIN

LIBRARY ARTS CONTEMPORARY THE

95 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Judith Raum, The Contemporary Arts Library Services, Prishtina/Berlin Presentation and lecture program, Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2008 - 09 But our challenge when coordinating the Contemporary But our challenge when Arts The Contemporary was quite different. Library Arts is located in an important institution Library merge the ‘mainstream’ or some from where it tries to expressed by the contemporary predominant ideologies society into a and the Kosovar art scene in Prishtina regard To neutral, contemporary cultural diversity. the Contemporary Arts Library as a platform in a the people in strategic sense also means challenging funds, as well as control of institutions, of government to challenge the content they push. It is also designed contemporary artistic positions and structures of the and beyond. Asart scene in Kosovo artists who are we can take engaged in the Contemporary Arts Library, its physical body advantage of the symbolic meaning of and (the resources) and its location in the National modes University Library when developing operational It strengthens our position for its policy management. the people in towards important art institutions and to cultivate an charge, and it provides us with the tools young generation elite intellectual structure among the positions which can then attempt to reach important and in state/official institutions such as museums galleries. to take This year some important events are going Let me mention place at the Contemporary Arts Library. a panel discussion, Methodologies some of them: For of Research and Teaching at the Faculty of Arts, Adem of Arts at University of Rusinovci, Head of Faculty Prishtina, will be invited together with further long- term professors and the young alternative professors

of the faculty. Another workshop will examine Genuine Critical Understanding and Critical Writing of the faculty. about Contemporary Art in Kosovo. Art critics, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, artists, of the Contemporary Artscurators and feuilleton journalists will be invited. The strategy Library will us and lectures will help consequently be built together with the invited people. Their presentations contemporary art community. figure out our preoccupation and discuss the priorities of the local With the country in crisis for so long, artists in Kosovo lived in a culture gap, led a ghetto artistic life. gap, led a ghetto lived in a culture artists in Kosovo crisis for so long, the country in With were seen as underground artists these intervention, political and military the international Following They started to bring had established). they the NGOs and alternative institutions artists again (just like had that borders opened way this and ideas artistic own their expressing of ways interactive and new up art institutions. independent alternative, decades. Prishtina still has some of these been established for to realize their visions. They cultivated the first real avantgarde movements in the country, means of means of country, in the movements avantgarde first real the cultivated visions. They their to realize society. region and Yugoslavian in the former the dominant ideology to react to artistic expression The Contemporary Arts Library, Prishtina, 2008 Workshop with Gerhad Friedl and Laura Horelli RES MAY 2009 94

97 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY The exterior of the National and University Library Prishtina

ossible Read/ Academy Remix at Portikus, at Frankfurter Kunstverein in UFO UNO at Frankfurter Kunstverein material-based work and process-based projects, alone or in cooperation with others. Her work was exhibited exhibited Her work was with others. or in cooperation projects, alone process-based work and material-based contexts, such as shows in German and international in solo and group Cracow. Artpol, at Samsa Presents Berlin and Bonn in 2005 and recent shows at Kunstmuseum 2006, Videonale workshops, talks, seminars Arts Library project, organising has worked on the Contemporary Since 2007, she solo show at the Frankfurter is currently presented in a in and outside Kosovo. The project and exhibitions of Fine Arts in Berlin. Raum teaches at the University Kunstverein. Judith at the from the Faculty of Arts based artist. She has graduated (b. 1982) is a Prishtina Fitore Isufi–Koja Fitore Isufi’s joined artists’ residencies in France and in New York City. University of Prishtina and recently and international exhibitions, among them work was part of several national of Prishtina and Exception/Contemporary Art Scene, Museum of Contemporary Frankfurt/a.M., Germany in 2005 of the in 2007. Fitore Isufi has been engaged in the organisational team Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia library project since 2008. She developed a conceptual framework for the Contemporary Arts Library Prishtina coordinating 2009’s program of events in the space. on site in Prishtina and is responsibly her who lives and works in Istanbul and London. She completed İz Öztat (b. 1981) is an artist and performer She is (2006–08) and her BA at Oberlin Collage, Ohio, USA (2000–05). MA at the Sabancı University, Istanbul She and Emincan good provider of spaces for the articulation of new cultures. interested to learn how to be a made p for this with cura bodrum residency in Muğla, 2008; it was Alemdaroğlu made the first attempt by the commitment and support of the participating guests and hosts. Her first solo show in Istanbul, of the participating guests and hosts. Her first solo show in by the commitment and support show is Translation and Conversion in colloboration with Nanette Oku took place in PiST (2008). Her upcoming and Ian Warren at Play Studio in Istanbul. Yannuzzi–Macias, Sarah Schuster Judith Raum (b. 1977) is an artist living and working in Berlin, Germany. She studied fine arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt/a.M. and at The Cooper Union in New York City, as well as philosophy at Goethe University of Frankfurt/a.M. Her work includes the making of objects and images, writing, interviewing, teaching and curatorial practice. She likes to explore the political and aesthetical in human activity through I experienced the Contemporary Arts Library in Prishtina as a structure that over a long time and to create a discursive public space thanks to great commitment and a dialogue approach managed It is a resource and a platform within the local scene, as well as forming transnational connections. own of it to articulate their managed by the emerging generation of artists, who can take advantage And,culture in dialogue with the recent past. like any other artistic collaboration, it has the potential to expand and grow in any direction. Spending time in the library, I got to learn about the contemporary cultural production in the region I got to learn about the contemporary Spending time in the library, intellectual ties in the region critique and the solid in more depth. The strong presence of Marxist was very impressive. A history of constructed borders that articulate a dialogue beyond the recently visible through catalogues and books, institutions also became Balkan shows produced in big European the expansion and integration process the role culture plays in demanding me to reflect once again on of the European Union. With these thoughts I arrived at the airport, passed through the security with every single book in my passed through these thoughts I arrived at the airport, With and Altin,security guard. I found Judith suitcase being flipped through by the who were encountering of customs because of the changed books for the library out problems getting newly arrived, donated the five of us—two more guest artists, negotiations, procedures after the independence. Following Judith, Altin as our luggage and three big boxes of books crammed in a car and were and me—as well Arts home of the Contemporary headed to the National Library of Prishtina, Library. Within the bigger picture, attempts by artists that create alternative structures for a transnational create alternative the bigger picture, attempts by artists that Within institutions. When the host and the exist within established dialogue open up a space that does not are theirs to make decisions with, and the financial resources guest are artists in an equal relationship emerges. an experience of very strong community with the support of my family, private sponsors, Platform Garanti Platform Garanti private sponsors, of my family, residency with the support cura bodrum I organized artists in August of participating and the cooperation me to do research experience which led 2008, an and finding artists for artists, by created support structures exploring self-organized in two areas; these programs kind of rhetoric and what for residency programs came from out where the funding the Contemporary Arts workshop at do a 2008, I was invited by Judith Raum to employed. In October Cultures the title, Formation of Artistic with decided to share some of my research Library Prishtina and the same and Southeast Europe share and Professionals. At Turkey in the Absence of Experts present, manifests This process east. expanding to envision their place in a Europe faith, as they are trying of the world into a the integration while as cultural integration and diversity itself in cultural policy partnership securing writes, “Europe is a giant private-public Boris Groys single market is underway. Western-dominated into the global, Europe and standardization of Southeast the capitalist integration of economic prospects the advantages architecture, while offering its populations economy and security both military and legal.” and imperial protection, İZ ÖZTAT

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99 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Maria Calic, Isaiah 63:15, 2007 C-prints, 47.2 x 35.4 in / 120 x 90 cm Courtesy the artist of the other, of dealing with the principle of governing became a mere mere a became governing of principle the with dealing of other, the of struck have that changes Wall, Berlin the of fall the of wake the In hint. decades the from away moving were countries ex-communist the of most in bred was art of language new The life. political controlled state of as hand, other the on Crisis crisis. in culture of redevelopment the New itself. reconfigure art of language the help can be, can it as painful mere of principle a became agencies networking the within migrations question, of clichés tiresome their matter no artists, younger for survival anthropological social of reprisal nauseam ad and adaptation of correctness. political or gender identities, as such issues of redefinition and ecological the political, the of knot tied the sense, physical the In Milan Blanusa, Untitled, 2003 Oil on canvas, 47.2 x 39.4 in / 120 x 100 cm Courtesy the artist What can happen to a society that, for more than fifteen years, has become isolated and violently violently and isolated become has years, fifteen than more for that, society a to happen can What and recent more the as needed, definitely is overview An anthropological doing? own its by threatened They procedures. individual relentless of scope the demonstrate art in examples transitional ongoing in arts visual specific of and culture of both challenges of complexity relational increasingly the reflect economical and political that reactions artistic of kind the comprehend to commonplace a is It Serbia. sharing the and workshops networking making, exhibition of practices Global produce. circumstances the altering of state a into developed have They values. art of standards the affected also have topics of elevation This procedures. making image or perceptions diverse of gathering a to as least at not modernity, nineties grim and dreadful the after effective became illusion satisfactory and contained self toward Republic The Yugoslavia. of Federation the of remained has what of inside territory of terms in and period, ruling the manner: awkward most the in impact deep a had nationhood with terms to coming Serbia’s of of validity a generate to appeared nationality of idea the as well as period the pervaded had that party postmodernist the defined region the to close Armedwars world. the of rest the for issues exposed overly were arts visual and general in culture on knowledge, of questions on Effects instability. focal of variable in world, the in everywhere such as seen be can they Although phenomena. social quite undoubtedly artistic in reflected was This anxieties. psychological stressful more toward led they Serbia, of case the aware socially of number a Serbia, Second parallel a of formation the was One ways. several in behavior started that trends governing and institutional the opposing of practices non-alignment of strategies was Serbia Second 1991. in wars the of beginning very the at statements of ensembles social minor as political of multitudes the of absurdity the to even diversity, of system new a toward oriented critically an as served has phenomenon This viewpoints. and position own their with each options, and parties challenge real any to weakness a prolonged fact in but, all, for choices democratic of stance enduring output history negative current then the of awareness performance and Artistic rule. autocratic the to (notably protest of politics the in or practices gallery post-conceptual indirect in whether displayed were the of role the but outputs), imaginative with 1996 late in protests Belgrade massive the throughout rhetoric inefficient This activism. non-recognizable decorative, a as served society in artist individual NIKOLA SUICA

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101 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY at the Venice Venice the at at the Centre Georges Georges Centre the at Identity and Alterity and Identity , or or , Punti Cardinali di arte di Cardinali Punti L’epoque, la mode, la morale, la passion la morale, la mode, la L’epoque, Pompidou in the late 1980s set the cultural parameters for a quest for significant artistic relations. After relations. artistic significant for quest a for parameters cultural the set 1980s late the in Pompidou equate cannot parks theme artistic relevant of staging the and market projects, art the demise, their concern oriented Such functions. constructive of experience cultural and legitimacy social of flow the the arguing as seen be can that rethinking a to contributes it as age current the of landmark the is the within neo-modernism a or postmodern whether art, of development of idea very the and ideology with confronted often is artists from work Employing capacities. shaping post-conceptual of practice generating image the taken have that methods entertainment and commercialism advertising, of realms to has one positioning mere a inside craft the is what of placing the and sense the for techniques art. contemporary as recognize unrealistic, willful, utterly singular, irreducibly be to appears that everything that seems it Nowadays the handles that outlook an creating is fashion psychological and social in marginal course of and mid- the from exhibitions group and solo in both practice, gallery in even Belgrade In currents. artistic century, 21st the of decade first the in art visual for capacity social generated already the to up 1990s self lively, are Contributions boundaries. traditional between interplay constant the witnessing are we and significance of disappearance the in overburdened domestically or inclined globally reflexive, or Serbia, of margins narrow current the in both addressed is society principles: operating increasing artist the Serbia, in Even images. referred or produced of deployment global the of network wider a inside objects or media of position low-profile the inside react to trying is images of presenter / creator the as of scope vast a is There perception. of layers the personify somehow that effects advertising produced explains This existence. projected a grasp to have also we as focuses, perceived and documented such of dream modernistic the breaching just not are that resources handling of capable becomes art that post- in techniques exteriorizational and environmental as well as video, in image motion or progress diverse quite in seen be can quest artistic nomadic the as quality perusing specific The art. conceptual social predicted and myths historical of , weariness political of utopia negative into launchings artistic of paradox the that obvious became It point. culminating no have that society Serbian of perspectives waste or objects used of worlds inside exiling of frictions inside generated be must violence political disposals. Biennale in the mid-1990s, or previously previously or mid-1990s, the in Biennale the landscape of inhabited architectural realm of the City of Belgrade (notably a center), and also in the the in also and center), a (notably Belgrade of City the of realm architectural inhabited of landscape the Negotin, Uzice, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Sad, Novi Nish, as such turmoil social and poverty escalated of cities province questioned the Serbia, southern of borders troubled the as well as others and Vranje Pirot, Bor, troubles narrowing the were seen be could What dependent. quite and impoverished remained Kosovo, of an is There common. in had approach public of possibility the as well as media, the source, artistic that practice. exemplary their and artists of variety a in terms in come to has that result obvious aware, so-called the and alienation the as such activism, artistic of accumulation following the is One absurdly the Both conflict. cultural of subject a became that decade conflicting political and socially a ruling the of overthrowing the and 2000 after campaigns political tense ridiculously and coherent the in afterworld real a to applied be can term This conflict. agonistic entirely an defined party Socialist cynical advanced the recomposing or engendering of as well as Media, New of both practice arts visual be. to proved has isolation and cities ruined Serbian in existence contemporary what of dissemination redefined that technology and history recent within explorations of age the that seen generally is It and Provoking past. the become have history of layers inside revealed be can or production artistic the as such exhibitions international ambitious Courtesy the artist Mihael Milunovic, The Bound, 2004

Plywood and cables, 98.4 x 47.2 x 4.7 in / 250 x 120 x 12 cm

Courtesy the artist Video stills, 10 min. Nenad Glisic, Moving track, 2007 RES MAY 2009 100

103 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY When the question of the emblematic image of local time can be visually pronounced in economic and and in economic pronounced visually can be of local time image emblematic of the the question When Moving Track by Nenad Glisic titled of a video work mind is a slow motion what comes to brutal turmoil, chamber terrier in an exercise bull fighting a powerful and aggressive fixed camera follows where the of sounds. The dismantling growls and screeching by amplified track belt accompanied on a moving are only the task. Such examples is a heightened no voluntary identity suggests that the primordial of independent artists. the works permeates closure that the sense of sadness principles of an arbitrary no matter media output, result in their neglected, a non-recognizable subjective Their display is often The video or rarely site-specific examples. objects, installation, photography, the painting, sculpture, treasure of of historical paintings, mainly a national are a source Cedomir Vasic lenticular prints of as another pictorial of disappearance century that were pushed into an angle late 19th or early 20th the information of what the scope can be determined by undermining The level of political conflict. contemporary holds as well as inside Kosovo, myth, such as the 1389 Battle of central Serbian historical of 20th century. by the end of Kosovo territory and the troubled affaires of the same reflection of the past of the whole vast even evolutionary the origin of conflicts or quite The history and engendering Courbet painting L’origin du Monde. Such compositional world, came through the title of the famous influenced her work in sculpture came as a trail of her gender as the object Ostojic reprise for Tania the female crotch from this famous emulation of and performance: depicted is a direct photographic the as such issues several raised picture The Eurostars. with decorated knickers in dressed but painting, the mockery of creation and the immensely scandalous affairs own security, questions of hiding of one’s of the military and cognitive function demonizing of European self-understanding. The de-constructive in the figurative approaches as well as the historical past were created His by Mihael Milunovic. both in paintings, prints and sculpture-objects of the as the afterfall of the period somber mechanical machine works came of and the global breakdown diminishing violence of the 1990s in Serbia meaning. from the were quite different activities and also the general emotion Artists’ in the days and artistic experiments now almost archaic dissent of politics world over Europe and the of student and labor movements that spread examples of cynical imaginative stripping down, The four decades earlier. can of dissent and contestation even the possibilities of wider movements Kokic, artists such as Natasa be seen in the media-oriented work of younger Their punctual and media-controlled Gordana Zikic and Jovanka Stanojevic. controlled media and multicultural work contains the imagery of cityscapes, as large expression. In their meticulous and eloquent compositions, such apparent open faced portraits, the readings of the other are provoking the in struggle with turbulence and solitude within the artistic experience On the other side are the globalized receipts contemporary Serbian society. Zikic. In her of making imagery on the brink of global subculture by Gordana warrior videos, photo snaps and paintings the conflict of the solitary female insights is a model for the harsh breaking of everyday communication. Such such as reside apparently on the side of politically provocative paintings expression the series by the veteran from the late 1960s, Milan Blanusa. His in grey tonalities is another passionate play with solitude and social Beckmann or where the international heroes are artists such as misconduct, OPPOSITE PAGE TOP TO BOTTOM Simonida Rajcevic, Diagnosis, 2008 Acrylic on canvas, 177.2 x 82.7 in / 450 x 210 cm Courtesy the artist Jovanka Stanojevic, Untitled, 2007 Acrylic on canvas, 66.9 x 94.5 in / 170 x 240 cm Courtesy the artist TOP TO BOTTOM Tania Ostojic, After Courbet, 2004 Color photography, 18.1 x 21.7 in / 46 x 55 cm Courtesy the artist Ivan Petrovic, from the Documents Series, 1999 b/w photo prints, 11.8 x 15.7 in / 30 x 40 cm Courtesy the artist

RES MAY 2009 102 Video stills Courtesy the artist Anica Vucetic, Iris, 2008 Cedomir Vasic, Fugitives (detail), 2008 Lenticular print on canvas, 64.2 x 90.6 in / 163 x 230 cm Courtesy the artist (www.alexandria-press.com) Reljic, Serbian Academy of Sciences Belgrade

from

(www.ulus.org.yu) Solo and group exhibitions in Journal

Cultural

Independent and Arts, 1996; Memorial Chamber, Gunpowder Storage, Belgrade, 1997; Leon Koen, Yugoslavian Gallery of Artworks, Belgrade, 2001; Sculpture of Milun Vidic, ULUS, 2003; Tom Phillips, New Moment Magazine, 2003; Closed Circuits, Belgrade, 2005. Belgrade and Pancevo in 1996/1998 and 2008. Author of several exhibition monographs, including (b.1960, Belgrade, ex-Yugoslavia) completed his BA and MA in History of Art at the Faculty of Philosophy, University Nikola Suica (b.1960, Belgrade, ex-Yugoslavia) completed his BA and MA in History of Art at the Faculty He is currently an of Belgrade, and his PhD on Visual Arts/Photography and Film Studies at the University of Arts in Belgrade. lectures and presentations, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade. Since 1987 numerous public Decontamination, Jewish contributions to the programmes of The British Council in Belgrade, Cinema Rex Radio B92, Center for Cultural Florence in Belgrade in 2002. Community Belgrade, Instituto Cervantes, Goethe Institut Belgrad. Co-organiser of Outside Project SACI Since 1999, associate editor of Alexandria publishing house, and since 2002 editor of Web Journal of Mecena Association of Fine Artists of Serbia Immendorf who hold a necessary artistic frontier. Through examples of the younger generation, such younger generation, of the examples Through artistic frontier. hold a necessary who Immendorf in the expressive as displayed and the everyday, of popular culture of anxieties is a mixture redefining tensions of Rajcevic. The Simonida in the works of historical affections of the human and rendering reflection in an uncanny represent conflicts intensity and irrational of wars, or many low isolation, in dealing is quite different and of disturbance attitude of haunting artworks. These contemporary anarchical potency in liberal and Serbian of artistic freedom that became a with the past principles political campaign has in each society and 1970s. Since the 1990s, Serbian culture in the late 1960s diminishing illusions. of security and impoverished sectors of daily living, created vast and absurdly of present was a magnitude there global recession, the state of current facts, Now facing the new displayed through arts. They are visual examples within stances of current and slowly advanced line or even the along the governing the rise of violence: against the own people, responsibilities for an obsolete recycling practice and art as Serbian official post-conceptual use of relational aesthetics of the art world? a political awakening beyond the confines Is this leading to of the media imagery. symbolic marking the selection was a calculating Bienniales, recent three Venice Throughout the most presentations, no the Neoavantgarde in an attempted goal to internationalize of the Serbian art world This use of what is significant on undoubtful qualities. matter their pictorial and individual, usually or laid back in the contemporary and, what is really subverted, the international level of presentation, in contemporary culture in principle of artistic modes practice and even repressed is a defining scopes of internalism of the very terrain with visual Serbia. Through comprehending the non-political of solitary self-examination comes the video art as well as the installation body or the question artist’s visual strength follows the encounter with Their Anicainteriors with objects and projections of Vucetic. dominate the emotionally charged overlapping details that a fragmentary pulse of multi-screens or emotional mixture occurs in not a few examples It is obvious that the rediscovered gallery environment. The evidence or a record of ruined oriented artworks. of critically aware photography or photography bombing campaign of 1999 seen in in the aftermath of the NATO social gatherings of society during or human portraits of the media-driven, response to the photographs of Ivan Petrovic carry a meaningful social space grasps the composition in both of nature and post-historical state of facts. Representation tradition of the European heritage They testify the painterly the polyptich photographs of Maria Calic. of time, where the issue of temporality the ruined or eroded relics and the uncanny layers of memory in examples as well as the whole Both the mentioned is holding a universal and pervasive significance. in Belgrade and other Serbian cities and exhibited mainly gamut of processed and lively work produced artists. Their contextual regional diverse generation of active gather the positioning of art from a quite positioning of existence. and psychological and global awareness relate to the geographic

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Lin Tian Miao, 5. International Istanbul Biennial, 1997, Curator: Rosa Martinez Lin Tian Miao, 5. International Istanbul Courtesy BÜLENT ÇINAR

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SKOR has a rather long history, dating back to 1986. It was founded as dating long history, FULYA ERDEMCİ SKOR has a rather Art (Bureau for Visual Assignments).Praktijkbureau Beeldende Kunstopdrachten In 2000, it has since specialized in art and and Foundation became independent from the Mondriaan as a transitional period towards Lenz can be summarized public space. The period of Wilfred Since I don’t this process is still continuing. creating an independent institution and ideas and visions and to suspend all my existing believe in top-down changes, I am trying that contribution. To to be able to create my specific to understand the local context better and meeting with artists galleries and exhibitions end, I have been doing research, visiting I have already started to and institutions. and representatives of city councils, ministries team. discuss them with the SKOR develop certain ideas and plans and to TRANSLATION

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There is a substantial support system for arts and culture in the Netherlands. The so-called one the Netherlands. The so-called one FE There is a substantial support system for arts and culture in well spaces. Financially it is a very percent rule makes public money available for projects in public Between 1994 and 2000, you worked as the Director of the Istanbul Biennial for the Istanbul the Director of the Istanbul BK Between 1994 and 2000, you worked as for Culture and Arts, were held. At when the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Istanbul Biennials Foundation the same through a foundation. Since in Turkey time, you were closely involved in the presentation of public art then, we have seen the Pedestrian Exhibitions (1), which you realized with Emre Baykal, centering on in pioneering exhibition in Turkey the street as the exhibition venue. That was truly a groundbreaking, entered into a legitimate, recognized can even say that after the exhibition, public art has this field. We space. also focuses on art in the public dimension for the City of Istanbul. SKOR, whose director you are, are talking about an institutional address for an art How does the system work in such a structure? We What kind of a role does and should a foundation with such a form that is directly linked to the street. title assume? FE After a rather long I consider eight years my seven years as the Director of the Istanbul Biennial, project and want to see I regard SKOR as a long-term However, period for an institutional commitment. what we can do together. TEXT Art en Openbare Ruimte / Foundation the new director of SKOR (Stichting Kunst are BORGA KANTÜRK You for the last eight years. Eight Lenz who worked in that capacity Wilfried and Public Space) succeeding ways you plan to improve and in which Could you please tell us about his approach years is a long time. to change? expect have your own projects? What shall we the process? Do you eight years is a very in Turkey, and the art institutions BK Considering the structure of organizations and organizations in Western the institutions, foundations long time compared to the continuity of SKOR for such a long time? Erdemci as the director of we also see Fulya Europe. Will BORGA KANTÜRK

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109 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY mentioned, any art project created for the public space is a result of such a consensus, so expertise so expertise a consensus, of such is a result space for the public created art project any mentioned, without parties involved between the is to create a consensus role is required. SKOR’s in this field of publicness. artwork and the idea the quality of the sacrificing in the of art projects realization services for the and consultancy financial support BK SKOR offers process? you please tell us briefly about the consulting public space. Could FE As city councils etc. SKOR from several institutions, before, we receive applications I mentioned and the managing committee advisory case and discuss it with the team, the curators research the three artists to the hosting we propose develop a project for that specific situation, board. If we decide to After artist can convey. that each aspects and point out the several different institution or municipality on the specific case and ask we contact the artist to start a dialogue on the artist, we reach a consensus the project. we ask the artist to develop proposal is accepted also by the applicant, for a proposal. If the same artist for a different we ask the reasons, accepted by the applicant for sensible If the project is not proposal. At project is accepted. or not her/his each step the artist receives a fee, whether project costs. How much we pay depends or at most 1/2 of the total Our financial support includes 1/4, 1/3 this artwork is created. use and for whom on several different criteria, such as location, works and short-term projects? Does projects, permanent BK What is the respective share of long-term for the public space or organize are specifically produced the foundation support artists whose works related exhibitions? exceptional. exhibitions are are either permenant or long term. Temporary projects FE Most of SKOR’s activities is part of my future SKOR’s manifestations among Increasing the share of such temporary plans. to develop site-specific and projects, SKOR invites artists Rather than supporting already defined rarely SKOR supports already existing proposals since there are context responsive projects. Very artistic production for the public solely dedicated to supporting several institutions in the Netherlands space or other purposes. assistance in public art Or does it also provide BK Does SKOR operate only in the Netherlands? partnerships? productions and events through international are exceptions in terms of international activities. there FE Actually it is a national institution. However, is a governmental organization that supports international As you may know Mondriaan Foundation are biennials, etc. Right now, we activities like the Dutch participation in international exhibitions, in an international context. working on a number of commitments that SKOR can undertake Arts,BK SKOR was established by the Office of Visual so it is associated with public institutions. However, Are we talking about full independence here or is there it claims that it is managed independently. that am asking this out of a concern an ongoing negotiation between the state and the foundation? I the cut when there are changes in the funding for long-term projects and support for artists may be government and the administration. organized system. SKOR advises and advises and SKOR system. organized for the public projects develops exemplary and educational domain: health-care projects urban development institutions, related squares or projects like highways, like the to nature and its transformation, municipalities polders. Such institutions, as well as or related official bodies us to develop projects individuals apply to Accordingfor the public domain. to the the we interview nature of the project, the site. If it can be applicant and visit (İKSV)

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SKOR has considerable experience and specialized expertise in public domain issues. AsFE SKOR has considerable experience and specialized expertise you Public space has its own rules and also requires a mutual accord. While this accord works between While this accord works between BK Public space has its own rules and also requires a mutual accord. is its role where does SKOR step in and what people in the street and the artist, the institution, the street, in sharing this space? Since I haven’t read it, I cannot talk about the tripartite structure in the book. However, mediation, However, I cannot talk about the tripartite structure in the book. read it, FE Since I haven’t to public space. I think that we common terminology in reference communication and participation are context: we have to discuss and question the transient in today’s should discuss these abstract concepts of cities under neo-liberal urban to the transformation meaning and usage of this trio in relation anything else, subject to market of the cities are, like policies. The regeneration and transformation business, entertainment and on commercial interests, conditions and almost everything is focused call an Can we, for instance, tourism. In this sense, the public space is under question and negotiation. change a meaningful position in this open-air shopping mall a public space? I think that art can assume the micro milieu and the macro process: It can create a platform for research and mediate between in and other protagonists involved milieu; between the community/ground, the planners/developers research and practice. shaping urban space. SKOR offers an incredible opportunity to develop (2), Pelin Gökgür states that the definition of (2), Pelin Gökgür states that the definition BK In her book The Place of Public Space in Urban Venue communication and participation. Do attributes: mediation, public space is based on three theoretical you agree with this structure? And such a structure; which of the how would you place SKOR within three aspects do you consider the closest? evaluated under the SKOR’s aims and vision, then one of our curators develops a project to be presented then one of our curators develops a aims and vision, SKOR’s evaluated under the Allto the advisory committee. which by SKOR are discussed by the committee, projects developed producer or representative of media/ a artist, an an architect/landscape architect, consists of a curator, to continue either we committee, the by taken decision the with accordance In designer. a and media new be realized if the project cannot or, provide financial support develop the project further and, if needed, specific institutions that could necessary advice and suggest by SKOR, we provide the applicant with In the case of projects which require support from SKOR exceeding the project. evaluate the applicant’s approval is required. Besides these regular procedures, board’s amount of 50,000 euros, the management projects, like the BEYOND exhibition are considered exemplary SKOR can initiate other projects which van Gessel (Senior Curator/Adjunct Director) in 2002 for Leidsche Rijn, a that was developed by Tom September 2009. that will be finalized in recently developed residential area, and

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Courtesy Ugo Rondinone, 6. International Istanbul Biennial, 1999, Curator: Paolo Colombo Ugo Rondinone, 6. International RES MAY 2009 108

111 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY ganized in accordance with its own

You have a great deal of experience with experience deal of have a great BK You a considerable and museum administration Among international exhibitions. number of my mind is the first that comes to these, the Conflict (Proje4L,Organized 2003), in Istanbul, on painting and brought which you focused in painting. This together various stances you an important point exhibition has made art world in of reference in the contemporary re- with regard to the redefinition and Turkey Anotherimagination of painting. be show would Skies (Karşı Sanat, Regrets, Dreams Changing was organized on a rather Istanbul, 2001) that marked the But it employed and low budget. as well as the building itself entire gallery space and its surroundings. Are you now far away from about this type of exhibition? Or do you think such processes and installations? art FE It is true that my present focus is on the it is still very exciting in public space, however, places for me to think about exhibitions for the indoor exhibitions Certainly, reserved for art. of the give you more control over the totality In manifestation and what you aim to deliver. and you public space, you work with constraints life, are engaged with daily routines in urban thus, with ever emerging problems. Joep van Lieshout, Darwin, 2008 SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial Copyright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Photograph: Hayley Roberts Getting back to the issue of public space, when this space is or BK Getting back to the issue of public space, rules in an independent and hidden way—I could call this illegal or underground art— there is no could call this illegal rules in an independent and hidden way—I artists for productions similar institutions commission lavish funding. On the other hand, high-budget these production practices, one aims in the public space. Of to the monuments of the past to be placed in the bustle of the city rather than to camouflage itself to be documented while the other undertakes does the foundation heed? At which aspect being an obvious sight. this point, and avoid oversimplifying its FE I think that we have to take art in public space in its historicity public space in contemporary complex processes. The main challenge today is to open up art in Actionslanguages of art. activists or shock art artists are of so-called interventionists, and practices there is a general tendency in contemporary However, a part of what we call art in public space today. Andart: the appropriation of radicalism by the establishment. in that sense, there is no cutting edge. the governmental art institutions and instance, right now, ephemerality is one of the priorities of For societies the way we imagine the differentiation between legal and illegal does not work in western but between the radicals and is no longer between the official bodies and the radicals The conflict it. maybe especially after the creation of the European The western society, a neo-conservative society. “sexy” McCarthy’s instance, Paul For Union, has become more and more a part of the establishment. BK As to director of SKOR, you were also selected the of the 5th SCAPE Biennial of serve as the co-curator Art Public Space. I am sure that a mere relationship in the audience is not the only between the street and with Artcharacteristic that distinguishes a biennial in What is Public Space in its title from other biennials. the key objective of this biennial? FE As the co-curator of the 5th SCAPE, rather than in general commenting on the priorities set for SCAPE by the organizing institution Art and Industry Biennial very briefly the specific I would prefer to mention Trust, in. Asfocus of the actual exhibition I am involved my co-curator articulated in our conceptual framework, a research Danae Mossman and I wanted to create of exhibition in public space on the transformation in the specific cities under neo-liberal urban politics And our understanding of case of Christchurch City. as to participation or commitment can be summarized create a contrast in the public space. focused on BK Has your curatorial production always a field public art? Could we call public art curatorship of specialization and research? function in public space is not only To FE Certainly. a matter of different locations, not just a matter of inside and outside. It is almost two different registers. Considering art in public space as the most vital it is a challenge to interface between life and art, reach the people in the street and simultaneously the

museum-goers. Furthermore, there are two major approaches to intervening with the city: taking the museum-goers. Furthermore, field and intervening with it through city as “museum without walls” or taking the city as a research Therefore, it is a vast field, of the city. context responsive proposals which grow from the very texture and as you mentioned, it requires specialized research and expertise. In the Netherlands, such systems are organized very successfully; governments do not interfere not interfere do governments successfully; very are organized systems such Netherlands, FE In the all the art institutions like almost However, or any other institution. affairs of SKOR with the internal regulations in Education with strict of Culture and by the Ministry SKOR is subsidized in this country, Any and related budget. four year policy plan with an approved accordance intervening new proposal currently instance, I am For of negotiation. an official process basic policies requires with these now, which has been a minor function till the existing public program of SKOR, working on expanding ministry and other are in the process of negotiation with the of the foundation. We into a main activity So, unlike budget to do it. have sufficient we funds for this major change though related parties to create in the Netherlands, but maybe over- continuity is not a problem in Turkey, what we are experiencing a limitation. programming can be

different interests and desires.” remain heterogeneous to the systems they infiltrate and in which they sketch out the guileful rules of syntaxes (the temporal modes of schedules, paradigmatic organizations of places), these “traverses supermarket or city planning) as their material, although they remain within the framework of prescribed Although they use the vocabularies of established languages (those of television, newspapers, the that remain unpredictable within the space ordered by the organizing of techniques and systems. constructed, written and prefabricated space through which they move. These trajectories are sentences “trace indeterminate trajectories” that are apparently meaningless since they do not cohere with the (3) Ibid. From de Certeau describing Francios Deligny’s experience of working with autistic children who (3) Ibid. From de Certeau describing Francios Deligny’s experience of working (2) Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1998 (2) Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, University of California 2004, p.30. (1) Vito Acconci, Leaving Home, Notes on Insertions into the Public in Public Art, ed. by Florian Matzner, (1) Vito Acconci, Leaving Home, Notes on Insertions into the Public in Public city grid which can reveal new possibilities beyond those the city proposes. city grid which can reveal new possibilities beyond those the ways of operating within the existing urban design. This suggests a deconstruction of the ways of operating within the existing urban design. This suggests because of SCAPE 2008’s desire to unfold the constituting structures and conventional because of SCAPE 2008’s desire to unfold the constituting structures obeying their own logic” (3) can provide new understandings of space. It was chosen obeying their own logic” (3) can provide new understandings of The title Wandering Lines (2) is drawn from the notion that “indirect or errant trajectories The title Wandering Lines (2) is drawn from the notion that “indirect spatial politics of established ways of operating to reveal conflicts in specific localities. spatial politics of established ways of operating to reveal conflicts projects will be selected in accordance with their ability to de-design/deconstruct the projects will be selected in accordance with their ability to de-design/deconstruct In line with Vito Acconci’s definition of the function of art in public space, all SCAPE 2008 In line with Vito Acconci’s definition of the function of art in public dialogue about a new culture of space. sense, interweaving art within the social and urban context is vital in initiating a critical sense, interweaving art within the social and urban context is interventions can propose an entirely different experience of locale and situation. In this interventions can propose an entirely different experience of exist in the city. Making these seemingly invisible contingencies visible, the artistic exist in the city. Making these seemingly invisible contingencies social, psychological, individual or communal, political and historical contingencies that social, psychological, individual or communal, political and historical and will develop relationships between artworks and an infinite number of spatial, urban, and will develop relationships between artworks and an infinite SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial is firmly positioned in the dynamic systems of the city SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial is firmly positioned in the dynamic respond to the contingencies of real time and space, in other words of everyday life. The respond to the contingencies of real time and space, in other words Unlike earlier permanent “drop sculptures” in public spaces, temporary¬ art interventions Unlike earlier permanent “drop sculptures” in public spaces, temporary¬ new conditions. with the issues of how we live and how culture is constantly transforming and adapting to with the issues of how we live and how culture is constantly transforming The exploration of urban spaces that construct and contain the life of the city engages The exploration of urban spaces that construct and contain the Contingencies of Space

“The function of public art is to de-design.” Vito Acconci (1) “The function of public art is to Curated by Fulya Erdemci and Danae Mossman Curated by Fulya Erdemci and Danae SCAPE 2008 CHRISTCHURCH BIENNIAL OF ART IN PUBLIC SPACE SCAPE 2008 CHRISTCHURCH BIENNIAL RES MAY 2009 110

Nasan Tur, Demo-kit, 2008 Photograph: Michael Leung SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial Copyright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu 002, Istanbul James Oram, See change, 2008 SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial Copyright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Courtesy the artist Wandering Lines: Towards A New in Rotterdam in 2002, a cultural exchange (available only in Turkish), Bağlam Publications, (available only in Turkish), Bağlam Publications, Making of Istanbul Modern and 3 Videos. She was Waterfronts

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, an art historical account of Turkish Modernism and Contemporary Art , an art historical account of Turkish Modernism and Contemporary Art Beyond

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project between Istanbul and Rotterdam. She co-curated Where?/Here?, Saitama in 2003 with Emre Baykal, Vasıf Kortun and Yuji Maeyama, again as a part of a cultural exchange program, this time between Japan and Turkey. She worked as the Associate Curator for the Istanbul section of the 25th São Paulo Biennial, Citades/Cities, 2002. In 2004, she was the Temporary Exhibitions Curator at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art and curated two of the inaugural exhibitions, appointed Director of Proje4L–Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003. She was part of the curatorial team of the 2nd Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art (2007) and curated the contemporary art exhibition (1970–2000) of Modern (1950–2000) in 2007. Fulya Erdemci also taught at Marmara University in Istanbul (1999–2000) and has been teaching part-time at Visual Communication Design Department, graduate program, Istanbul Bilgi University, since 2001. Erdemci recently co-curated with Danae Mossman NOTES from September 28 to October 29, 2 (1) The 1st Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibition was realized in Nişantaşı 16 to October 22, 2005. and the 2nd exhibition in the Tünel-Karaköy district from September (2) Pelin Gökgür, The Place of Public Space in Urban Venue I think, rather than making a differentiation a differentiation than making rather FE I think, properties of an with the formal in accordance we its visibility, in public space, like art project space projects in art in public should evaluate are we Today context. their situation-specific (this talking about the New Culture of Space for the Scape Biennial) or was a part of our title of Politics of Space related to the transformation that creates socio- cities under neo-liberalism new Therefore, cities. the within divides economic and strategies in public forms of commitment architectural and spatial space include more However, a higher visibility. practices that have art project in accordance we cannot judge an as I mentioned but, with its form or visibility before, in accordance with the reactions ephemeral Very and discussions it calls for. public community projects may also sooth the in that reaction and cover the conflict imbedded general situation. I personally try to avoid such case remarks and to think about each specific and situation. I can also understand very well what However, of you are implying with the repercussions funding and support systems. Such democratic funding systems simultaneously create urgency. downfalls such as loosing the sense of Istanbul, March 2008 of art history and Fulya Erdemci (b. 1962) studied art history and theory in the graduate program archeology at Columbia University, New York, from 1990 to 1993. On her return, Erdemci begun to teach part-time at Bilkent University in Ankara and worked as the Director of the International Istanbul Biennial from 1994 to 2000. She initiated the series of urban art exhibitions in public space called Pedestrian Exhibitions in 2002 and 2005 (Istanbul Pedestrian Exhibitions 2: co-curated with Emre Baykal). Erdemci co-curated (with Ron Mandos) Between Lee

When we compare examples of contemporary art that centers on the street, with the performance and on the street, BK When we compare examples of contemporary art that centers productions have transformed into a majestic show rather street art of the 1960s, I believe that today’s art market trends in the international than a strong socio-economic gesture that gravitates towards the it seems inevitable that this area will assume Consequently, world, to the showcase of contemporary art. A as it legalizes and popularizes. a more distinct yet harmless role that receives institutional support more striking works that everybody result of this would be the desire for more grandiose, greater and This is at times demanded also by the supporting institutions can see and that result in better publicity. lose after all this process of shaping and bending, does art and by the artists themselves. Ultimately, historical period or to the liberalized its essence and power? Should we link this to the structure of the there is better funding, but is more global and conciliatory art acceptable conciliatory policies? True, art? , which was created for and installed at Rotterdam’s Schouwburgplein, was taken down Rotterdam’s Santa Claus, which was created for and installed at the general public. Anbecause of the vociferous complaints from space, thus, cannot artwork in public cause are as important as its objecthood. public reactions it may be considered as an object by itself; the work because of negative reactions or abolition of an installed Refusal of a project by the authorities involved since such reactions unveil part of the processes from the public are an essential and integral sense, an unrealized In this society. in that particular the basic bureaucratic or cultural structures on the condition that it is discussed and more than its realization project fulfills its function sometimes recorded publicly.

Brendan

Photograph: Copyright Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu SCAPE 2008 Christchurch Biennial Murat and Fuat Şahinler, Breather / Tenefüs, 2008 RES MAY 2009 112 Luna and Kristin Maurer, The sea to Harderwijk, 2009 Courtesy SKOR, Photograph: Luna Maurer Luna Maurer and Kristin Maurer, who were commissioned by SKOR and Luna Maurer and Kristin Maurer, two artists behind the project. From the St Jansdal hospital, are the at the St Jansdal hospital will have January 6, 2009 all patients staying days when Harderwijk still bordered a ‘sea view’, just like in the old they will be able to receive live the Zuider Zee. From their beds In short, a camera and sound images of the sea on their televisions. in Zeeland will record installation pointed at the Oosterscheldekering the sea for a period of one year. The round-the-clock live images of to one of the hospital’s TV channels, images will be sent by internet to experience the waves, tides, surf, making it possible for viewers day. and sea sounds at any time of the Luna and Kristin Maurer, The sea to Harderwijk, 2009 Courtesy SKOR, Photograph: Teo Krijgsman h

ked Art

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. He lives and works in İzmir

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1 Jan Dibbets, 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective on the Maasvlakte beach, 2009 Courtesy SKOR, Photograph: Paloma Polo The artist has made a new version of his film 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective (1969) on the Maasvlakte beach, February 8, 2009. The film was shot during Art Rotterdam (February 5-8, 2009). It also marks the start of Portscapes, a series of artists’ projects which are being developed by the Latitudes curators duo (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna) for the Port of Rotterdam Authority in consultation with SKOR. İzmir.

and curated several exhibitions for Archive and curated several exhibitions assistant since 2002. Kantürk has participated in several international and national exhibitions and has exhibitions and has in several international and national 2002. Kantürk has participated assistant since Atelier Frankfurt of Hiap, FRAME, Av-Arkki (Finland), exhibitions with the support curated international also wor As the founder-director of KUTU Portable Art Gallery, he (Germany) and K2 Art Center (İzmir). team of from 2004–2007. Kantürk was a member in the curator as a project director at K2 Art Center the project (2007). In 2008, he foundedİzmir the 10th Istanbul Biennale Nightcomers the 5th edition of the Scape Biennial of Art in Public Space, Christchurch, New Zealand New Zealand Christchurch, Art in Public Space, Biennial of edition of the Scape of Space, the 5th Culture Ruimte (Foundation of SKOR, Stichting Kunst en Openbare Fulya Erdemci is the Director (2008). Currently, in Amsterdam. Art and Public Space) and from the Department of Painting and curator. He graduated Borga Kantürk (b. 1978) is an artist been working as a researc in İzmir where he has degree at Dokuz Eylül University completed his master’s

RES MAY 2009 114

117 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Most of the population is quite young, correct? quite young, is of the population Most AS five years I began exploring which My theory, around 25. age should be somewhere SS The average will this new generation had some hope that I yet. has not finished the Iranian Revolution ago, is that same are all the four people I interviewed been stopped. The they have but unfortunately lot, change a who has one is a girl is the son of a lawyer, One very different parts of society. age, yet they come from are both unemployed, whose parents a boy since she was 16, one is been working as a photojournalist And the last one is some money. works jobs here and there just to make He addict. his father is a drug hoping to gain Tehran, who attends a theology seminary in a very poor family, a young mullah from I am I am not judging them, each other. next to a mullah. What I do is put them some power by becoming decide for yourself—whether being can You as a snapshot of the Iranian youth. presenting them only make him and I didn’t guy, because this guy at the end is the nicest bad or not, a mullah makes you images that about the preconceived you feel closest to. Here, I am talking he is just the one the nicest, by taking a closer look. Also, and how these images change I this subject, one has when approaching it is possible to work in to show that wanted works as a photojournalist because I selected the girl who son because he is the intellectual one, and he demonstrates Iran as a young woman. I chose the lawyer’s Actually about Tehran. I have made a third film a certain anger. AS It is called Persepolis? that I live in. It does not have it is called Persepolis after the high rise building in Tehran SS Yes, that the word Persepolis evokes. I try to avoid using these anything to do with all these symbols there is a whole set of expectations Iran and you are a woman, stereotypes, because when you come from minds. About you are, what you do, what you are interested in: the who about you already in people’s memories. I always negate that home and talks about her nostalgic Iranian woman who goes back from all possible perspectives. I am examining these subjects concept in my work. I am interested in This is not about a modern metropolis. I look at memory as a subject in itself. as approaching Tehran youth talking about youth. people talking about memory, rather, Iranians talking about memory, what is there, what exists right now. What are with are always in the present it seems. Working AS You ? you focusing on specifically in Persepolis , is to start with a panoramic view of with Tehran 1380 SS What I tried to do in this trilogy initially, with the camera, which means I attempted to get closer to the subject In Good Times / Bad Times Tehran. but the of the city are far away, questions. The pictures becoming more private, asking more personal private homes, all of to go into people’s people are right in front of the camera. What I do in Persepolis is I attempt to point out the city of Tehran. whom are my neighbors in the building. I ask them to describe I do not remember memories of Tehran, that even though I have started a personal discussion about my do in Persepolis, however, What I don’t that much. I must go and ask others, I have to hear their stories. is show the people. have in their homes. only show the objects they AS You hear their voices and their stories and you see the objects in their living very private objects. You SS Yes, and what the person could look like, room and you have to imagine for yourself what the city looks like, who this person could be. It is about youth. Actually, the title comes from a German soap opera [Gute Zeiten – Schlechte Zeiten]. SS It is about youth. Actually, is not so different from the daily, What I intended to say with that choice is that being young in Iran not exactly the same thing, it’s average lives of youth here, their problems and concerns. Of course, who were born after the Iranian but there are many similarities. In the film, I interview four people in This is related to my interest Revolution. I call it the Iranian Revolution—not the Islamic Revolution. did it ever finish? Andthe idea of what this “revolution” was. When did it start, given the fact that most of the population was born after the Revolution… AS What is Good Times / Bad Times about? . It doesn’t deal so much with memory. I recognized during the deal so much with memory. watched Tehran 1380. It doesn’t You’ve SS Not really. close to everything, but I had to get making of Tehran 1380 that I naturally felt much more emotionally Good Times way I wanted it to be. Andrid of that in order to make the film the trilogy, the next film in the / Bad Times, has nothing to do with memory. I am curious to know if any of your memories of growing up in Iran have taken you back there, of growing up in AS I am curious to know if any of your memories in your work? pushing you to explore something personal I met Tirdad after I graduated. I went to Tehran for the summer and met Tirdad. We got into this got for the summer and met Tirdad. We Tehran SS I met Tirdad after I graduated. I went to discovered project specifically (1). We and about the Ekbatan housing conversation about the city, continued this conversation about We really love this complex. that we were two of the rare people who And then I asked him to make a film with me because in Tehran. Ekbatan and urban planning in general I had spent my childhood at Tehran: perspective on looking I thought that it would provide a different political situation, but I knew more he knew a lot of theory and history and about the there, he hadn’t; an interesting collaboration. about the daily life, and together it was How did you begin your collaboration with Tirdad Zolghadr on the film Tehran 1380? with Tirdad Zolghadr on AS How did you begin your collaboration My father is an architect. Other family members of mine are architects as well; some are family members of mine are architects Other SOLMAZ SHAHBAZI My father is an architect. and then I went to an for a year, studying architecture at a technical university engineers. I started to the Academy painting, and finally I transferred art school and started of the Artswhich in Stuttgart, I began working a lot with video. I There, and conceptual art. is pretty free—you study mostly theory combining department at Stuttgart, while in the architecture developed a few projects that utilized video else. the two. I was always looking for something You were trained as an architect. What was the basis for your decision to study What was the basis for trained as an architect. were ASHKAN SEPAHVAND You architecture? ASHKAN SEPAHVAND

RES MAY 2009 116

SHAHBAZI SOLMAZ WITH INTERVIEW

119 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Courtesy the artist (September 16 - October 30, 2005) Exhibition views from the 9th International Istanbul Biennial They are all urban subjects. You do not see any people, therefore you cannot recognize through a through recognize you cannot therefore any people, do not see You subjects. are all urban SS They two video atmosphere. In the all about the urban was taken. It is where the photo human reference communities, sprawl of the gated the One video shows offer two narratives. in Istanbul, I works I showed perfect of their own imagined version form a bizarre and how they the outskirts of Istanbul, located on called of this specific community with a resident one private interview second video involves place. The as demonstrating their shared as well and anxieties about the city, Kemer Country, reflecting their fears I am interviewing, just again, I am not judging the people Once and security. feeling of community urban patterns. in of view to demonstrate complex shifts allowing for their point is constructed as well as how our reality our physical explored in your works ways in which have AS You wish to What do you identity. “modernizing” mediated by bio-political interests in built environment is experience? urban, social behind by exposing the intricate narratives accomplish artistically in the global I am more interested thing. I am trying to accomplish a specific SS I would not say that working on Iran.” an “Iranian specifically cities are developing. I do not want to be similarities of how which is why I have also worked in trilogy, in my Tehran There is nothing unique to the situation that exist similarly in modern Berlin. There are patterns Shanghai and am now doing a project in these patterns. modernist connections to metropolises, and there are historical, AS There is a quote in Tehran 1380 that really struck me. was saying One of the urban planners you interviewed all of Iran by extension—to that in order for Tehran—and structures must develop, “the cramped and chaotic social boundaries for the first be broken, in order to set up clear then one can hope to introduce and inhabitants of Tehran This is a a new, law abiding mentality among them.” reference to the destruction of older neighborhoods in them, and the complex communities that resided to build huge eradicating these private spaces in order (2). Andhousing projects like Ekbatan and Navvab I example: the cannot help but to think of an historical “Athens International Congress of Modern Architecture’s which stated Charter”, set down by Le Corbusier in 1941, chaos, brought on by the that “in the functional city, eradicated, not introduction of the machine, would be by restricting machines, but by remaking cities more do this, cities would have to become more rationally…To scientific, less emotionally charged.” SS I have always been interested and immediately drawn to modernist thinking, especially that of Le Corbusier. I think part of the reason I was attracted to Ekbatan as an architectural form, was because of my initially, And if Le Corbusier were to see interest in Le Corbusier. reactions, he would be very Ekbatan and hear the people’s happy I think. Thus the only register the viewer has is the series of objects that objects that series of has is the viewer register the the only AS Thus the individual come to represent records, and the objects the camera so to speak, Memory becomes, of the person speaking. memories existence. material in each subject’s embodied SS Exactly. a whole body of work, you as in your trilogy, AS It seems then that spaces spans the range of public and private explore an arc that in also the literal distinction of city/home, but available, not just in components of each film. the technical and aesthetic SS Right.

AS What are your photographic subjects in this series? Yes, I did two videos as an installation for the 9th Istanbul Biennial in 2005, on the subject of gated for the 9th Istanbul Biennial I did two videos as an installation SS Yes, Untitled Series and that is communities. I also did a photo series presented in light boxes titled East, photos were taken in the Middle about urban spaces. The viewer is told at the beginning that the etc. but I do not tell them the location of each photo. What I am doing again here Switzerland Germany, to look Middle East and other places is catching people by their own expectations of what they want the like. You have also done some work in Istanbul? have also done some work AS You It is not interesting to the people there at all. People get angry. They ask: What are you trying to They ask: What at all. People get angry. SS It is not interesting to the people there made Tehran 1380 for a Western We all of this. It is obvious. do? Why are you telling me this? I know audience. And definition in Iran a very different has even the aesthetic, the aesthetic of art and film, we had problems with filmmakers here in Germany who became At one point, than it does in the West. “Thissaying, us, with angry very Andfilm!” a not is look even not would People worse. even was it Iran in super straight black and white, and go back to Nouvelle Vague, at the film. In their film tradition they Tehran 1380 does not serve any of those expectations—of editing. They would not even give it a chance. you want to is not the kind of Tehran an “experimental film”. It what a “work of art” should be or even want to see, and definitely not the not the kind of editing you see, not the kind of film you want to see, type of editing you are used to. I am curious to know if you feel as though the information presented in the films would reveal itself the information presented AS I am curious to know if you feel as though audience? Iranian through public reception, if it were seen by an differently, , but since we had people engaging a bit in political conversations as , but since we had people engaging a bit tried to screen Tehran 1380 SS We we decided to have one semi-private/public wear the headscarf, well as some women who decided not to Ministry the to sent be to had tapes the that told were we screening the before week a but once, screening showed it in private groups. Why do you ask? decided not to. We of Islamic Guidance to be checked, so we Have any of these works in your trilogy been screened in Iran? in your trilogy been screened in AS Have any of these works

Courtesy the artist Projection 15 min., tv screen 13 min., edition 4+2ap Projection 15 min., tv screen 13 Video still, 2 channel video installation Solmaz Shahbazi, Perfectly Suited for You, 2005 Solmaz Shahbazi, Perfectly Suited RES MAY 2009 118

121 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Tehran 1380, 2002 Courtesy the artist 45 min., edition 4+2ap Video still, single channel video Video still, single channel video to create in his mind’s eye. He senses eye. to create in his mind’s with the appearance of the city. As “The said: interviewed person we one city. of the the appearance with must be to the city entrance Imam pass from the new visitors arrive and where south of Tehran, Navvab is in the appropriate.” International Airport. Khomeini are block housing, which rows and rows of they would pass AS And along the highway, as they drive poor and crowded of underdeveloped, rest a high-rise wall to block the view of the effectively acting as South Tehran. would drive on, would hold panoramic And that visitors, say from the West, these highways SS Exactly. as the taxi speeds on the viewer “modern” housing, making a first impression images of new, sleek, where all the luxury hotels are. to North Tehran, that connects South Tehran along the major highway And offered a new vision of life, it does they are used to being the people do not care, though although simply take it. not mean they will Tehran 1380, Forouzan interviewed in you to me was how the architect AS: What was most astonishing living conditions.” people to get used to new Deylami, says that “This is the role of the architect: Forcing live. show people how to SS To population? situation among the AS Do you believe this creates an alienating of my colleagues at school That is the way many SS But that is the way many architects think. discussions with the students I had big of the architect. approached architecture. That is the role do you think other people beside architecture, asking them, who would get very experimental in their would you do that? As in this building? Why architecture students would feel comfortable an architect it accommodate them, that are comfortable, that they live in, that is your basic job to give people buildings as an architect in a different way. level, understand their duty and some people just take it to another manifestos on architecture, where be seen in AdolfAS The same authoritarian discourse can Loos’s Arthe saw the works of the Jugendstil and as not just excess, but immoral. In his Nouveau architects envisioned as a personal houses with fanciful decorations opinion, these architects were building first senses the desires. Loos said that instead “The the architect, artist, interpretation of their subjects’ sees the rooms he wants effect that he intends to realize and [then] The the spectator.” the effect that he wishes to exert upon desires. Instead, he architect does not produce what his subject produces his desired subjects. SS And that is why we chose to show the scene we did after it shows the dining If you remember, comment. Deylami’s apartments, and the ceiling room inside of one of Navvab’s has caved in directly above the dining table. There are huge chunks of ceiling covering the table and at the same time, the man living in the apartment is telling us, “Thank God that my children were having their breakfast over here, on the They would have been injured rather than at the table.” floor, if they had been at the table. But what is interesting is that

In a way it is also interesting that the people do not really seem to care. It is not such a one-sided to care. It is not such a one-sided SS In a way it is also interesting that the people do not really seem that the urban planners rebuild action with the government demanding and the people giving. Or many of these neighborhoods, such as Navvab, are really not and the people are helpless. First off, monuments or buildings being “historical.” They may be old but it is not as if there were historical plans drafted under the Shah, torn down. On the one hand, it is an attempt to follow through with purely superficial plans, concerned now that the funding has become available once again. These are That’s bizarre and wonderful. This particular urban reorganization also reminds me of what happened what of me reminds also reorganization urban particular This wonderful. and bizarre That’s AS based specifically the Haussmannization of Paris, in European capitals in the mid-nineteenth century, are an planning projects in Tehran on a fear of the masses. Do you believe that all these new urban space, into an open, urban attempt by the government to reorganize formerly tight-knit neighborhoods for the purposes of public order and surveillance? And in that sense, given the Shah’s persistent use of Western models, it is immediately drawing of Western persistent use AS And in that sense, given the Shah’s inspiration from modernist urban architecture… ideas are not far off from what the original architects and developers plans and Le Corbusier’s SS Right. everybody who lives in Ekbatan loves living Ekbatan. Today, were looking at when they envisioned Le Corbusier a stroke, out of joy or to leave. That would give there; everybody is happy; nobody wants have been met with so much hatred and projects in the West confusion, since all other urban housing resentment.

Courtesy the artist 17 min., edition 5+2ap Video still, single channel video Persepolis, 2005 RES MAY 2009 120

123 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Reloading To Whom Life will be Semina series in April 2009. He lives and and Reloading Images Damascus Work-in-Progress 2008. His 2007

Work-in-Progress

Berlin/Tehran

I do believe in imagination in architecture. But at the same time, there are practicalities. Where is Where practicalities. there are same time, But at the in architecture. imagination in SS I do believe idea of the plans? Each will the city approve project, is developing your coming from, who your money processes that by all the official and diluted imagination is contorted with imagination but may start years he has written work: Over the Rem Koolhaas’s of the site. Think about the actual building surround only a few Yet, much imagination. visions, and employed architectural described numerous extensively, the art context. Now they are instead being built within been built. of his buildings have the Serpentine Gallery in London. AS Like his pavilion at SS Andplay an important role, it is given a imagination can demonstrates that although I believe this by architects and urban to them given world works. But people will use the space limit by the way the interesting Some of these projects fail, and some take They will interpret. way. planners in their own ways never imagined. Architectureturns, developing in it only cannot change people completely; of space. extends the possibilities NOTES of the city of Tehran. It is located in the west (1) ‘’Shahrak-e Ekbatan” is the largest residential complex in the Pahlavi was initiated under Shah Mohammad Reza city in Tehran Municipal District No. 5. Construction of Ekbatan and Italian and German engineers designed in 1975 and was completed shortly after the 1979 Revolution. and constructed over a three-phase period, oversaw its construction. It is composed of 15,500 housing units, 70,000 inhabitants. spreading over 2,208,570 square meters. Ekbatan has around still under construction, the Navvab (2) Navvab is a neighborhood in the southern part of Tehran. Currently housing units and 160,800 of commercial project will consist of 743,640 square meters of subsidized residential The stretching 45 meters at its widest. and office space, along with a highway running through the complex, the main highway system downtown. highway connects the main road leading south out of Tehran to Solmaz Shahbazi (b. 1971, Tehran) lives and works in Berlin and Tehran. been Since 2006 he has Ashkan Sepahvand (b. 1984, Tehran) is a writer, translator, and cultural researcher. working with Reloading Images, with whom he has co-organized the artistic research workshops Images new iconoclasms, the aesthetics of terrorism, personal research interests center on the Messianic operative, His forthcoming book subjective historiography, and porno/political desire-machines. of the published by the London-based organization Book Works as part works in Berlin. even though they are given a table, no one can no one a table, are given though they even to sit on to sit there; they continue force them eating their way to dine, the traditional the floor, can say and the mayor The architects breakfast. is limited when want but their power what they decisions of individuals. it comes to the private become jokes, even—for So many things have of green land running along instance, the strips of through Tehran—part the highways that pass These green spaces project. a city beautification co-opted by families sitting have been effectively picnics, children playing there and having their relaxing in the sun. These badminton, youths for such use, but the people spaces are not meant

Do you believe in imagination in architecture? I mean, in a way, imagination would allow for the AS Do you believe in imagination in architecture? I mean, in a way, incorporation of traditional forms into modern ones. SS Yes. The forms may not be provided, but as with your example of people having picnics along the grassy having picnics along the grassy AS The forms may not be provided, but as with your example of people would say, maybe people recreate the activities that the traditional courtyard, let’s strip on the highway, else. They transport their practices. but somewhere normally allow for, SS That is a good question. I mean, how could architects in Iran incorporate traditional, indigenous forms of architecture—the traditional, indigenous AS I mean, how could architects in Iran incorporate the water fountain, the shaded part the small garden space, shadowy entrance portal, the courtyard, could these be unified with more outdoors—how of the house that allows for spending afternoons and spatial efficiency? modernist concerns of formal division I think a modern model does not really exist yet and that is the problem. exist yet and that is the SS I think a modern model does not really I was also interested in the popular reaction to what these architects are doing in Tehran. One of the are doing in Tehran. to what these architects AS I was also interested in the popular reaction contentment with the housing project. Navvab does not express residents in the older neighborhood of She curiously says, “The with are not Iranian ones… They get models our architects and engineers work Iranian model? then, is an their ideas from the other side.” What, Yes this has become a joke. The campaign extends from brightly painted murals down to trash cans, painted murals down this has become a joke. The campaign extends from brightly SS Yes And in the proper place. promoting people to throw away their trash laugh and joke now people just City Our Home”. something, “I need an Our around when they need to throw away The “Shahr-e Ma, Khane-ye Ma”, Our City Our Home campaign? AS The “Shahr-e Ma, Khane-ye Ma”, Our City use them as they would traditionally use green space, regardless of the highway. And the murals that of the highway. traditionally use green space, regardless use them as they would the Mayor commissioned all over Tehran.

Courtesy the artist and Istanbul Modern Courtesy the artist and Istanbul The International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Modern, 2007 The International Istanbul Biennial, View from the exhibition Time Present, Time Past: Highlights from 20 Years of View from the exhibition Time Present, RES MAY 2009 122

125 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Lobster Collection, Michael and BZ Schwartz, Studio Jeff Koons Michael and BZ Schwartz, Studio Lobster Collection, With all its strong references to the Rococo, it was an apt decision to to the Rococo, it was an apt decision all its strong references With the In this respect, work at the palace of Versailles. present Jeff Koons’ Union appears ever so much Writers’ by the French harsh criticism voiced whose president Arnaud-Aaronmore incomprehensible, Upinsky scored the comparing arts by complete lack of connoisseurship in ultimate own goal of Where huh? a fake moustache to Mona Lisa….. the exhibition to sticking of the of zeitgeist—that better can we witness the ultimate representation age in or that of our times and of Versailles Ancient Regime with its Palace which status quo? Andwhich the shell is the statement of the by the way, my little made a picture of Mona with a beard? Follow artist actually French excursions and I might reveal his name. MICHA GOEBIG AND CHRISTINE LIESE-SCHIKANEDER

BY

TRANSLATION

GERMAN.

IN

Entering the royal apartments the visitor passes through a number of sculpture-lined corridors on the of sculpture-lined corridors Entering the royal apartments the visitor passes through a number the the Salon d’ Hercule. Here, first and second floor to finally enter the first room of the exhibition, Le Repas blocking the view on Veronese’s magenta colored Balloon Dog turns its rear end to the viewer, chez Simon as if he himself was contemplating the painting. All of a sudden it becomes notable that in the in the foreground. the depiction of the washing of feet is flanked by two dogs Veronese Having passed through the palace’s iron gates that are crowned by the yellow gold escutcheon of France, iron gates that are crowned by the yellow gold escutcheon of France, Having passed through the palace’s façade one encounters the greenish yellow Balloon Flower (Yellow) that mirrors in its windings the palace’s of the palace like the blow-up in numerous perspective distortions. The object reclines in the forecourt received a proper tinted product that hasn’t version of a cheap accessory from a bijouterie, a semi-finished epochs physically and rhetorically. gold coating, while reflecting both the historic and contemporary In an interview in April 2008 Koons states: “Well, I think that works have to be chameleon to a certain I think that works have to be chameleon to a certain “Well, In an interview in April states: 2008 Koons in front of it and not find any meaning. chameleon, eventually someone is going to be degree. If a work isn’t meanings that people place on them to be able to absorb Things change and works have to be adaptable are now revealing themselves in the historic spaces of the palace of chameleons or find in them.” Koons’ Versailles. Although Jeff Koons’ work adopts the idea of the ready made by means of shifting context, it still banks on adopts the idea of the ready made by means of shifting context, work Although Jeff Koons’ effectively was which of atmosphere the 1980s, the of brainchild a is Koons object. the of aspect affective the happiness of promise the seeks who consumer the is Koons Jeff protagonists. Ellis’ Easton Brett by mirrored generally around economics...” Koons and morality is based in consumption. “It is a commercial world, context via cartoon characters, toys, consumption into an artistic translates the desires of childhood and in my work (…) but viewer might at first see irony products: “A super aestheticised sex scenes or consumer critical contemplation.” I see none at all. Irony causes too much TEXT SABINE BOEHL

Jeff Koons, 2003, Studio Jeff Koons RES MAY 2009 AS AN AUTHORITARIAN MEANS...” AS AN AUTHORITARIAN KOONS IN VERSAILLES VERSAILLES IN KOONS 124

ART A SYMBOL OF USING IS POWER, “...LOUIS XIV

127 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY New Hoover Convertibles Green, Green, Red, New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers, New Shelton Wet / Dry 5-Gallon, Displaced Tripledecker, 1981-1987 New Hoover Convertibles Green, Green, Red, New Hoover Deluxe Shampoo Polishers, New Shelton Wet 123 x 54 x 28 in / 312.4 x 137.2 x 71.1 cm Studio Jeff Koons, l’Antichambre du Grand Couvert, Grand Appartement de la Reine TOP Koons Private Collection, Studio Jeff Rabbit Collection, BOTTOM Rabbit, 1986 30.5 cm 41 x 19 x 12 in / 104.1 x 48.3 x Stainless steel, Le Salon de l’Abondance, Studio Jeff Koons, du Roi Grand Appartement

RES MAY 2009 126 129 MAY 2009 In the following Salon de l’Abondance, the chrome- RES plated Rabbit (1986) is placed under a showcase on top of a porphyry plinth in front of a green velveteen wall covering. Continuing to the Salon de Venus which was decorated by LeBrun as part of a baroque master plan, perspective tricks make corners appear to jut into the room and both the walls and ceiling merge into a single decorative ensemble. Placed underneath a ceiling fresco depicting Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, and her attribute, the swan, is Koons’ porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson with his pet chimpanzee Bubbles. Framed by gold ornamented doors, this installation creates not only a contextual but also a dialogue of color with its environment.

Split Rocker, 2000 In the Salon de Diane, a sculpture of a boy pushing Stainless steel, soil, geo-textile, internal irrigation system and natural a pink pig flanked by two angels (Ushering in florescence, 440.9 x 464.6 x 426 in / 1120 x 1180 x 1082 cm Studio Jeff Koons, L’Orangerie (Du côté du midi) Banality, 1988) is placed in front of a Bernini sculpture of Louis XIV, which incidentally is supported by golden angels. Hung head down in the same perspective angle as a chandelier is the signal red Lobster—a creature that Dali already used as an Aphrodisiac Telephone in 1936—creating a disharmony of nuances of reds in the otherwise red and blue decorations of the room next door.

A portrait of Maria Leszinska (wife of Louis XV) is joined by Koons’ steel bust of Louis XIV. The material is kept matte with exception of the highly polished face that—framed by decorative hairdo and clothing— reveals itself to and simultaneously withdraws itself from the viewer by reflecting its surroundings. The silver tonality of the bust echoes the overall grey tones of the painting that focuses merely on the color triads of the dress’s floral décor and of some furniture details. Following this installation is Koons’ self portrait in the Salon d’Apollon, the former throne room: a white bust of upward reaching crystalline forms which is placed on top of a neo - baroque pedestal.

In the Salon de la Guerre, one of the two rooms that flank the Hall of Mirrors, Koons has installed Bear and Policeman of 1988. In this room which displays gold leaf depictions of prisoners in chains by Antoine Coysevox that border a ceiling high relief cartouche of the king as a roman emperor, Koons’ comic figure bear puts one paw on the shoulder of a policeman while grabbing his whistle with the other.

Continuing on the walkabout through the palace, one notices a bluish convex shape at the front wall of the Hall of Mirrors. It seems to be derived from the halved shape of a foil party balloon—or better: a hybrid between a crown cap and this balloon form (Koons developed it by a crown cap). The object was produced in five pastel color versions silver, light blue, yellow, light pink, violet—the object initially strikes one as a disturbance, a blemish to the perfect harmony of this historic space. Stepping Moon, François Pinault Foundation, Studio Jeff Koons closer to the object, the eye catches on the light effects of its crimped and frayed edges which open up associations with mercury, a material used to make mirrors. Standing in front of the object one RES discovers that it actually reflects the entire hall in a highly comprised fashion. MAY 2009 128

131 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY decorations of gold and floral wall hangings. In the Salon des Nobles—where Marie Leszczinska held Leszczinska Marie des Nobles—where In the Salon hangings. floral wall gold and of decorations in front of apple-green Train (1986) is placed Jim Beam-J.B.Turner steel sculpture audiences—the rendered in the god of commerce, a depiction of Mercury, in this room is historic counterpart damask. Its gilded stucco. The Antichambre Marie Antoinette du Grand Couvert where Queen accompanied used to proceed to dine series. A newer piece, New Hoover Koons’ with a tower of stacked vitrines from by music, is furnished guards did their where the queen’s on display in the Salle des Gardes, Chainlinks (2003-2008) will be his to Jupiter (the god who devoured by historic scenes relating until January 4, 2009. Surrounded duty, vertically against blue hippo—placed and a swimming toys—a green turtle newborns) are two inflated toy sculptures Koons’ oval shapes of the at the installation from behind, a wire mesh fence. Looking bellicose scenes on the marble wall panels. correspond with the stairs leading away from the flight viewer on the marble (1994-2006) greets the Hanging Heart Koons’ while travelling in Bavaria, he discovered a heart shaped chocolate that Koons of halls. Inspired by cellophane. It had two figures on Munich wrapped in reflective remembers “seeing a chocolate heart in something that balances (…) It could I removed them to make the front—a little boy and a little girl—and or Christian love.” Andrepresent romantic love or spiritual love been first greeted so thus, after having backside, the viewer is finally seen off with an afterthought about different rudely by the Balloon Dog’s object of this exhibition. aspects of love to meet up with the last composed from horse or a dinosaur, Split Rocker is an over-dimensional fragment of a rocking earlier Puppy sculpture. Already in 1999, Koons to Koons’ innumerable blossoming plants, comparable this chimera looks from the left, aluminum version. Seen had created this object in a multicolored bar made of green-yellow plants. a rocking horse with a hand like the blue and violet colored half of of red plants. composed however, the handle again, this time, On the other (right) side one discovers Also with a darker centre, reappears side is composed of white blossoms the eye, which on the “horsy” and hues like a its appearance but is placed at a higher angle. The object which changes on the other, in the midst of the ornamental grass blossoming cycles is placed chameleon depending on the different And with its whilst Janus is the god of beginnings (and endings), Split Rocker lawns of the Orangery. of the horse and the fossil brutality of of the fleeting beauty childlike abstract forms reminds the viewer of the historic flower gardens, I leave the exhibition, once by the aromatic scents Followed the dinosaur. the Balloon Flower sculpture. more passing the yellow reflections of art market in order to make it “dance” the superficiality of the Contrary to Damian Hirst who exploits works lure the viewer as much as they cast him back upon himself with Koons’ around a golden calf, and accurately mirror is not as much one that symmetrically their distorted reflections. Jeff Koons’ of its casts the warped and distorted view reflects the elegant dimensions of baroque spaces but one that funfair equivalent. a Marcel Duchamp whom Henri-Pierre Roche called “a hermit, Oh, I still owe you a name: It’s contemplator” and who used a urinal for his Fountain in 1917. Duchamp wanted to use “objects that and a goatee on a postcard have the least chance of being loved” and in 1919 pencilled a moustache (L.H.O.O.Q. Mona Lisa read as: Elle a chaud au cul). Duchamp did not care for reproduction of da Vinci’s bets on visual Jeff Koons on the other hand is no friend of irony. art for the retina, and Koons overflow.

In the following Salon de la Paix leading to the queen’s apartments, the viewer encounters Pink Panther leading to the queen’s In the following Salon de la Paix pinup. Entering the queen’s (1988), where the comic character snuggles up to a half dressed buxom Rococo Large Vase of Flowers perfectly blends in color and shape with the room’s bedroom, Koons’ What a clever idea to place this object in this specific location and to enter a game of distortions which to enter a game of distortions What a clever idea to place this object in this specific location and reflections, this installation its irregular shape and distorted With the baroque era was so very fond of. means “bizarre, which in French plays elegantly with the etymological sources of the term “baroque” “barroco”, a term used for an irregular shaped pearl. grotesque” and hails from the Portuguese

Studio Jeff Koons, Le Salon d’Apollon, Grand Appartement du Roi Marble, 37.5 x 20.5 x 14.5 in / 95.3 x 52.1 x 36.8 cm Self-Portrait, 1991 RES MAY 2009 130 Barral

Xavier

Lecat/Éditions

Laurent

Versailles, Château de Versailles Koons,

Jeff

© Jeff Koons All images courtesy the artist and Musée du Château de Versailles September 10, 2008 – January 4, 2009 Sabine Boehl (b.1974, Darmstadt, Germany) 1995 – 1999 Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach; 1999 – 2004 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (studied under Gerhard Merz and Daniel Buren); 2003 Meisterschüler Gerhard Merz; since then national and international exhibitions; 2001 – 2005 Critics for www.kunstmarkt.com. Gigantic baboons Cereal spoons Philosopher kings The moon in June Disney cartoons The morning sun Jeff Koons Every time that it appears that happiness and fun Every time that it appears that happiness Are as far away as Jupiter and Mars According to the lore of great philosophers A shaman must appear amongst the stars A Sun King lifts hands amongst the stars And a vacuum cleaner stands amongst the stars Pink panthers from the realm to the ephemeral A friendly advertising testimonial Botticelli hair A second empire chair, love to wear Cut-outs at a fun fair and the clothes you Mr. Koons with a swordfish! Koons Mr. Pin the tail on Koons! on Mount Rushmore! President Koons by donkey The Klondike Trail Context is a game that you can play And art can help you have a better day A box of breakfast cereal we market to the morning A box of breakfast cereal reprimands you with a warning A teddy bear policeman falls apart made in haven And that’s all Pink and yellow arrows through your heart Blue and yellow arrows through your heart heart Green and yellow arrows through your Basketballs suspended in Bavaria Basketballs suspended pig Usher in a fatt contented hand-carved by Italian master-craftsmen Whose every hair is Jackson and Bubbles in a wig A porcelain Michael He has come to bring you things that make you happy that make you to bring you things He has come flowers puppy made of living A gigantic like a helium Brancusi A ballon dog Rococo, Louis Quatorze Baroque and SONGTEXT OF MOMUS, 1999 SONGTEXT

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135 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Ayşe Erkmen, Weggefährten / Companions, Hamburger Bahnhof the installation was supposed to stay only for a month and a half but later people who lived in the who lived people but later and a half a month only for to stay was supposed the installation that Erkmen reflects refurbishment. until the next keep the installation building wanted to residential the Likewise, how they want. to get out of it whatever about the piece and is free to think the audience who have it but also by the people artist decided by the should not be only to survive also work is going life. in their everyday the district of Kreuzberg— community in Berlin, of hot spots of the Turkish-Kurdish Being known as one see a wide range of you can where particular street—has a lively café culture and especially this Okey whereas gay game the Turkish tea or coffee and play men sit together drinking lifestyles. Turkish a football club come together in a of Fans sip cappuccino right across the street. and lesbian couples and enjoying with people socializing their favorite team. The street is vibrant café—also named after of life. The end syllables and way customers place has its own style, menu, fashion, their social life. Each you, as a way of telling stories about -yormuşuz, -mişsin could be understood -mış, -miş, -muş, -mişiz, create an invisible of our social life—and can all together —anyone who is part me, us, them or those of meta-cognition or as patterns explained like a sort of structure that can be best public in our minds steps to hell. The Problem of Speech Genres that deals Bakhtin’s it is a good idea to remember Mikhail In this context, as a living dialogue (which can be also linguistics and language with the difference between Saussurean and everyday language, conceptualized as translinguistics). Bakhtin distinguishes between literary According language but rather in communication. arguing that genres exist not merely in to Bakhtin, discipline each but literature, and rhetoric of realms the within only studied been primarily have genres The extra-literary genres have both rhetoric and literature. draws largely on genres that exist outside primary genres and secondary makes the distinction between remained largely unexplored. Bakhtin that are acceptable in everyday words, phrases and expressions genres. Primary genres comprise those secondary genres. Through or scientific texts—characterize life; various types of text—such as legal on the hidden agenda of the language; of emphasis her approach, Erkmen reminds us of Bakhtin’s but creates an archeological study on of genres from this point course she does not indulge in a theory regarding migration politics, that is open to any discussion the grammar of the language in a context integration and democracy. (as possible forms of language) Turkish and narrated in How everyday politics/reality are fictionalized circles is metaphorically characterized through different and in Kreuzberg (in a multi-cultural context) words (which are not even words themselves, but the Turkish by a minimalist intervention; leaving in the air and alone grammar) elements of Turkish Through jokes, exaggerations, humor for passers-by. and gossip, identities and profiles are reproduced That is in conversations on the street day and night. installation of end syllables (specific why Erkmen’s grammar), which do not exist in forms of Turkish German as narrative tenses make another cultural channel visible and accessible in the middle of everyday chaos. Through this channel Erkmen enters into a reflexive dialog with something that reminds us of a phenomenon, which is known as the Chomsky hierarchy. This is not out of blue, since the most fascinating motif of this episode motif of this episode This is not out of blue, since the most fascinating transformation of the legendary movie series is the architectural with the latest visual effect of the hidden temple, which is produced temple is transformed technologies; specifically the way the hidden scene behind as if nothing into a spaceship leaving an apocalyptic I would like to borrow this has happened or everything has ended… does not only work: Erkmen image for describing Ayşe Erkmen’s relationships and new investigate contemporary forms of spatial creates spaces between forms of spatial perception; but she also spaces. transition between/ Her focus possibly promises an alternative medium she chooses—video, within spaces; no matter which form of During one of her interviews, Erkmen mentioned that the installation caught mostly the eyes and caught mostly the eyes and During one of her interviews, Erkmen mentioned that the installation In the beginning of the process, people who live there or pass by every day. attention of Turkish Even before this retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin has been living with Erkmen’s work for Berlin has been living with Erkmen’s Bahnhof, Even before this retrospective at Hamburger which is situated on the lively Oranienstrasse in quite a while. Since 1994, the façade of an apartment, -mış, end syllables of the Turkish Berlin-Kreuzberg, has been the showcase for an installation of the gigantic pieces that represent various possible -miş… tense, cut out of black plexiglass. Erkmen’s grammar—when they are added after verbs—are installed over the very concrete narrations of Turkish House, it can be seen as a way of stones of the building. Since the title of the installation is On the that could bring up some unspeakable getting into a relationship with a context through a specific site for The piece is openly waiting aspects of the space but does not have to provide an inevitable reading. anyone who will see it or ignore it. sculpture or installation—she always deals with where we are, from which point we look at things, and deals with where we are, from sculpture or installation—she always Titled Ayşe Erkmen—Weggefährten (Travel main statement. the context/ground of the exhibit as her Bahnhof —Museum für Gegenwart— Berlin is on view Companions) her retrospective show at Hamburger and other passers-by to experience diverse providing an opportunity to the Berliners through January, and image. movement, levels of perception regarding space, time, Where’d they go? Into space? I.J.: Where’d they go? Into spaces. ‘Ox’ Oxley: No. Into the space between Prof. , there is a short conversation Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, there is a short conversation movie, Indiana Jones and The In Spielberg’s (Harrison Ford): Oxley (John Hurt), and Indy Jones character of the story, between the spooky ADNAN YILDIZ

Ayşe Erkmen, Weggefährten / Companions, Hamburger Bahnhof RES MAY 2009 134

AYŞE ERKMEN—WEGGEFÄHRTEN

SPACES BETWEEN SPACES

137 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY ) Erkmen’s installation points at points installation ) Erkmen’s war speed is today of war, be the essence used to (if speed and speed which history of the building, the in relation to social determinator main element of the time as the to three comes since 1976, Virilio he has published In his writings which a railway station. used to be and space, undermine time media b) because is seen has been killed; a) whoever basic conclusions: not mediated information is since lost credibility they have and make it superfluous, flood the body remains. Information checking or double for control, filtering immediate; c) no time but is any longer, her red resistance. With and allow no at once media are everywhere and nowhere is disinformation, and in essence she kills bang—or Erkmen shoots the time, space, space-time—bang signature-like gesture, back to its ultimate reference. modernity by going Erkmen uses a sort of homework, a student’s as if marking school teacher, Like an elementary rather than an gesture, and reminds us of “the red pen”. This is a formal resemblance which also function at any social that would gesture it should be taken as a formalistic institutional criticism that has been painfully industrialized city, as in context with Berlin; a post-war and cultural level such the access gesture of cancelling Erkmen’s into a contemporary metropolis. and gradually transformed masterpiece The Clock Setting Institute to a clock on a museum also refers to Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s the rapid change of their times who fail to catch up with (1963) which is about fictional characters under harsh Westernization. for the destruction of traditions within the nostalgic aura of mourning approach; the term is of Erkmen’s “site-specific” in terms Here it might be crucial to define the term site or space. location, context, attached to a particular often used for any work that is permanently a formal link starting from in her work it certainly indicates a context-sensitive historicity However, that are conceived for a special generally addresses works to its appearance or space. Site-specificity building or a landscape etc. And a street, place, a certain context; for instance a a site-specific work is Ayşe Erkmen, Weggefährten / Companions, Hamburger Bahnhof We can begin to review Erkmen’s Hamburger Hamburger Erkmen’s can begin to review We her Bahnhof exhibition by first looking at intervention to the façade of the museum building. Erkmen again transforms the but this façade of Hamburger Bahnhof, time her point of reference is directed to the notion of time. Her intervention makes the clocks of the building look as if they have been sketched by a giant red pencil, scratched into the façade with red blood. gesture, she delicately plays a simple With with the notion of time and its relationship with the institution and organization. In conceptualized time relation to how Virilio In comparison to Haaning, Erkmen’s work is conceptual and minimalistic regarding the artistic work is conceptual In comparison to Haaning, Erkmen’s triggers an open ended process that whereas Haaning approach that shapes the form of installation by minor represented is or isn’t on how the public space can be also seen as a performative research might make the community or other that a sound installation identities in that cultural context and (or not). As it might create an audience possible identities more visible (or not), installation it is an piece is In my opinion Haaning’s its audience. highly political through the way it conceptualizes a process and an audience in order to his work needs designed to be completed through its audience, installation Erkmen’s process its statement. prefers to be alone and formalistic in order Erkmen’s to retain its conceptual power. installation is not only about the grammar or the effect of syllables separated from the language, but also about the relation between form and space. At this point we can develop a comparative reading of Erkmen’s work referring to the Danish artist, the Danish artist, work referring to At of Erkmen’s we can develop a comparative reading this point (and also in Arabic but using another medium) broadcasted jokes in Turkish Jen Haaning: Haaning in the main square in Copenhagen. Accordingover a loudspeaker to Jennifer Allen, the Turkish Jokes and ArabicEurope; their speaking immigrants in Turkish (1996) are enjoyed by (1994) and Arabic Jokes adoptive countries who of their speakers while cutting them off from the native laughter connects them cannot understand why they are laughing. The controversial American writer, Noam Chomsky, has investigated various kinds of formal languages formal languages kinds of various investigated has Chomsky, Noam AmericanThe controversial writer, hierarchy separates Chomsky of human language. to capture key aspects of their capacity on the basis class i.e. each successive power, expressive or groups, with increasing into classes, formal grammars modeling Chomsky argues that than the one before. formal languages a broader set of can generate by the (as measured grammar complex formal requires a more of human language some aspects regular language is powerful enough example, while For ) than modeling others. Chomsky hierarchy That channel is the powerful enough to model English syntax. it is not to model English morphology, in another one— which exists a culture, fragility and narrative difference of synthesis of linguistic albeit in another context.

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Ayşe Erkmen, On the House, Permanent installation, Berlin-Kreuzberg, 1993

organically connected to its environment. In Erkmen’s work, it is mostly the context that provides the more about bureaucracy and institution with a gesture of cacophony. It is a reference which would make conditions for its functioning but the perception processes through its meaning on the surface.To sense as part of an architectural space such as a hospital or a school or a government office but here specify her notion of site-specificity, Berlin based art-critic Travis Jeppesen quoted Gertrude Stein: there in the museum it looks like something from Star Wars. As this sort of lighting is mostly used in public is no there there… buildings, fluorescent lights reminds us of the way public space is defined in terms of neutralizing the space with white light and white walls. The way these lights have been installed creates an absurd When you walk inside the museum to see Erkmen’s installation, first you have to pass through the metal comedy; it breaks the cold atmosphere and draws a panorama of lights in the air. If you like, you can detector, which originally did not exist and is actually an installation by the artist that was originally touch them, walk between them or look at them from a distance while they all together create a painting exhibited at the Porticus in Frankfurt. The detector has no security function; the viewer is already in the (made of light) in the air. museum, and you generally see this kind of metal detectors at the entrance of shopping malls, parks, museums or galleries, but not inside when moving from one show to another. Continuing through the exhibition, we find cut-out layers on the carpet or more clearly, Erkmen cropped the carpet. By showing the underlying pattern of the floor she makes a statement out of form and Referring to the control mechanisms that have a growing impact on our everyday lives after 9/11, ground in the space. Like the flag, that adorns the roof of Hamburger Bahnhof, “Ayşe Erkmen” is written Erkmen’s piece creates an obligation, which means that you have to smile at the museum guard and on ribbons like a label or a brand. The ribbons are hung from the ceiling and look like a green waterfall. let the detector check you when you are passing through. You have to get into a social contact with the This piece works as a signature, which has been reproduced over and over again through a fabric, which museum, with the institution in terms of public security. is mostly used for decoration, celebration and covering.

Fredric Jameson described pastiche as blank parody (Jameson, 1991), especially with reference to the The same installation is repeated on both floors, huge digital prints mounted on two big walls; these two post-modern parodist practices of self-reflexivity and inter-textuality. Rather than being a jocular but big installations look like billboard advertisements. One of them displays the image of a woman who still respectful imitation of another style, pastiche in the postmodern era has become a “dead language”, reaches up from a pool. She is supposed to stand on the shoulders of a man who most probably has been without any political or historical content, and so has also become unable to satirize in any effective distorted through digital intervention. Like the way Erkmen cuts the shapes and gestures out through way. Whereas pastiche used to be a humorous literary style, it has, in postmodernism, become devoid physical intervention, here she also repeats her strategy in the virtual by distorting the image and of laughter (Jameson, 1991). Erkmen’s detector not only reproduces the situation of being controlled blowing it up to a gigantic monument of an advertisement which does not advertise anything but is de- and letting the museum institution be controlled, but also doing this publicly, creating its own queues, contextualized. social talks and relations. The metal detector is a monumental representation of today’s public space and for me is going to be homage to the “Jameson” pastiche. Upstairs you first see a gnu before entering a room dedicated to sound and image, all together creating a big noise pool. Every ten minutes, the gnu moves through the audience that can be taken as a sad On the first floor, you see fluorescent lights which have been hung low from the ceiling. The way they welcome but also makes a dramatic effect. Next, Ayşe Erkmen videos are shown on seventeen monitors. represent and reflect light plays with the notion of institution. Fluorescent light normally looks cold It becomes a game room, like the one you can see at amusement parks, a room that is full of videos and formal but here through the way Erkmen arranged them the space becomes a stage that the viewer reflecting each other and showing something from Erkmen’s history of image, movement and animation. RES walks through, an absurd experience in an institutional setting comparable to a Kafka story that tells In this big room you are in between all the stimulation and input, in this big pool where safety belts MAY 2009 138

2008

Berlin

Yıldız,

Weiss,

Adnan

Barbara

Galerie

Photographs: and

artist

the

courtesy

images

All Sabancı oth Skulptur Muhtelif, an Istanbul based contemporary project in Frankfurt am Main in 2001, a stir with her Shipped Ships project in Frankfurt am Main in Projekte in Münster 1997, Erkmen caused Space art series Moment-Temporary Art in Public. In 2002 she was awarded conceived for the Deutsche Bank’s 1998 she of the Hesse state government. Since the Maria Sibylla Merian Prize of the Ministry for Science and Art in was appointed professor to the Städelschule has taught at the University of Kassel and from 2001 until 2005 Frankfurt am Main. at Hamburger Bahnhof includes b The artist lives in Istanbul and Berlin. Ayşe Erkmen’s solo exhibition (b.1949, Istanbul) graduated from the sculpture faculty of the State Academy of Fine Arts in 1977. the sculpture faculty of the State Academy of Fine Arts Ayşe Erkmen (b.1949, Istanbul) graduated from Berlin artists of 1989 and 1995 and was invited in 1993/94 to join the She took part in the Istanbul biennales program run by the DAAD. St. Gallen) in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland (Kuckuck, Kunstmuseum Numerous solo and group exhibitions to to a number of biennales. Besides her much discussed contribution while she has also contributed retrospective elements as well as a site-specific installations—a “path” from the exterior to the interior of “path” from the exterior to the interior retrospective elements as well as a site-specific installations—a eventually arriving at the main exhibition hall the museum. This path leads the visitor through many spaces, view. The installation comes out of a practice where her sculptures, larger installations and film works are on entices surrounding objects. Her minimalist work of creating interventions where the viewer is at odds with the to be in dialogue with said physicality. the viewers to have physical reactions to their environment and created for the façade as a prelude— Through interventions and installations—including a work specially wing. site on the first floor of the east Erkmen interlinks the various spaces leading to the actual exhibition site to the specific conditions of the exhibition She creates irritating situations by staging subtle references is and large installations, her film oeuvre and the metaphorical associations it evokes. Along with sculptures shown. Adnan Yıldız (b. 1979) is a curator and a writer. He is also co-editor of art publication and co-founder of Good Gangsters (www.goodgangsters.com and www.bigfamilybusiness. as well as visual arts and culture (MFA, net). He studied psychology (BA, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul) , Stockholm, a research based curatorial University, Istanbul) and later participated in Curatorlab/Konstfack forth between Berlin and Istanbul for projects residency program (2006-2008). Currently he travels back and that are mostly based on fiction(al space) and audience. What stays with me after leaving the installation is the desire of running to Oranienstrasse, having a to Oranienstrasse, running is the desire of the installation with me after leaving What stays and thinking about for its passengers, installation waits where Erkmen’s coffee under that apartment the next pass by and listen to their stories from Observing people who what is -mış, -miş, -muş, müş... and again being part of it... tables. Eventually again surround the whole space and where “Ayşe Erkmen” videos are all installed the same way, screens way, the same all installed videos are Erkmen” “Ayşe and where space the whole surround you or with a belt that a belt, up to your seat without of images tie you A sequence on grey pedestals. cannot see.

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143 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY 16 mm film, 39 min. Far Far Away (Dorothy), 1995 nevertheless There nevertheless Still Men Out the installation Melhus himself— trademark —namely Missing a of film of the conventions as the exploration work, such of the artist’s characteristics contains other (American Placed and sound footage. of effects repetition and multiplication movies in this case), war Monochrome face upwards. monitors of the eighteen circles, the screens in three concentric on the floor soundtrack, composed of to the sound of machine guns. The pulsing rhythmically, color fields alternate requires, from marching war movie a good war movies, includes everything snippets from mainstream image, script of monochrome sequences gunfire and heroic soliloquies. These troops to tragic love, At at other times pure kitsch, Still Men a penetrating effect. times full of pathos, and sound produce present in American entertaining and spectacular qualities Out There stresses the highly mainstream from Still Men Out There includes sound footage sources are well documented: war cinema. The work’s (Ridley Scott, Malick, 1998), Black Hawk Down The Thin Red Line (Terrence Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986), 2002). (Randall Wallace, 2001), and We Were Soldiers dispositive of all technical manipulative in showing how cinema, as the greatest Melhus is interested in this case, to our cultural notions of, and behavior in respect times, has been conditioning our feelings war and death. “Still Men Out There is not a statement about the artist said in an interview: Regarding this aspect, but is about evoking and exposing refer back to this reality), war or politics (even if the material does end the work does open into the partially true, for in the cinematic stereotypes.” But this is only representation. ideological workings of cinematic war without images (except offered the spectacle of war It is extremely significant that we are recently been described as the addresses what has monochromatic images), a fact that directly refusal to show the American dead media’s “American the work and injured in the war”. On the one hand, trust any image conveys the idea that one can no longer solution would of war to be authentic and that the only This feeling is a direct be the renunciation of all imagery. images of war consequence of the ongoing control of —from which only generic scenarios since the Gulf War divulged. Andnight shots of Bagdad under attack were in practice since of the so-called “embedded journalism” alongside the the Iraq war —when journalists marched troops during their advance— which resulted in a loss of objectivity and also contributed to a general sense of crisis due to the conflict of interests it generated. On the other hand, because we can identify the audio sources of the installation, the work forces us to deconstruct the cultural references regarding war on film, thus giving rise to all sorts of images of war which lie dormant in our heads and which obviously have been shaped by the mass media. Still Men Out There does not only explore the impact of American cinema on Deadly Storms. If the centrality of the works alone (2001) and such as Again & Again (1998), The Oral Thing oeuvre, within the artist’s Presenting key works its title, the show also features recent Still Men Out There (2003), from which the exhibition borrows installation pieces like his 2008 multi-channel video works regarded upon as classics an opportunity to compare This exhibition provides the viewer with characters— with a work like Still Men and acts out different +those in which the artist himself appears Out There. Less recognizable as a Melhus piece, Still Men Out There is basically a pure, synchronized The the shape of his own figure. sound and light installation in which the artist consciously redraws and in which Melhus embodies current show demonstrates that —besides pieces which are figurative has also created pieces in which different roles, including sometimes that of a woman— the artist Both approaches have in fact always coexisted in Bjørn images are reduced to abstract fields of color. unusual as one might think, though oeuvre and their absence in some of his pieces is not as Melhus’ from being an of his work. Far this fact is not without consequences for the overall understanding successive isolated example, one must only think of Emotional Fields (2007), Murphy (2008) or Melhus’ all these works have been produced at the same time as Most significantly, tree houses to recognize that. for the specially identifies as typical those in which the artist plays different roles and which the public artist and critics have paid most attention to. The Operation Room ArtThe Operation Room Gallery at the American show of video installations by Hospital is hosting a includes videos such 25, 2009, on. The exhibition which Melhus from February German artist Bjørn Ekrem Deadly Storms has been curated by Again & Again, The Oral Thing, and as Still Men Out There, and will be on display until April 19, 2009. Yalçındağ Bjørn Melhus grew up as a member of one the first Germany, Born in 1966 in Kirchheim/Tech, in a time in which dubbed versions of popular American TV series, generations of children watching TV, Recognized internationally as one were extremely popular. such as Lassie, Flipper, Fury and Bonanza interviews how his childhood as a video artists, Melhus stressed in various most famous of Germany’s felt regarding the shortcomings of the sense of strangeness he spellbound television watcher and the synchronization of American production. TV series came to influence his overall LILIANA RODRIGUES decisive aspects in Bjørn Melhus’ to grasp several This exhibition offers the viewer the opportunity to the worlds of American attention commercial film, television, pop the artist’s work– particularly, embodies all the media roles coexist with more abstract in which the artist Works music and publicity. aspect made a certain performative himself from. Andworks in which he consciously withdraw finally, on the occasion of this exhibition, of the catalogue published available through the documentation in films. Melhus’ involved in all of Bjørn the intense and rich pre-production work is not reason enough to visit the venue, the specific chance provided by their selection is. the specific chance provided is not reason enough to visit the venue,

RES MAY 2009 142

IN ISTANBUL ROOM OPERATION HOSPITAL’S

AT THE AMERICAN BJØRN MELHUS

BY EXHIBITION AN OUT THERE: MEN STILL

145 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY The Oral Thing, the artist uses the talk show our collective memory but also forces us to admit that some of our notions are actively designed by it, by it, designed are actively notions our some of admit that us to also forces but memory our collective favor of specific ideologies. facts and in against historical us to but also encourages stereotypes the spotlight on cinematic does not only put So the work moments sound and its different The representation. of cinematic war consider the reception critically As to a work, which is in itself abstract. lend a narrative structure noted, this “practice of previously and strategies of the mass topics, figures, and reconstitution of well-known fragmentation, destruction, but also defines commentaries, and critical only a network of new interpretations media opens up not the mechanisms Bremen, 2002) By exposing mass media and viewer anew.” (Schmidt, the relationship of and global cultural simplifications Melhus rebels against pre-established of mainstream cinema, standardization. Admitting media, Melhus’ exist apart from those in the corporate that today no images iconographic hegemony. works contest such disgusted with the AmericanBoth fascinated and Melhus has made his mainstream media culture, Bjørn others would hastily judge as Americanfield of research what and consequent trash. In a meticulous media by successively paying power of the modern way he has been exposing the manipulative just channels and the talk show format, Hollywood films, TV news attention to several genres, including to name a few. a saleswoman of himself, doubles two identical In Again & Again, Melhus conducts a discussion between process of giving birth to a clone repeats itself again and again, and the clones The and an eager buyer. like “fabulous”, “beautiful” and “perfect” pop up in the Words look at each other in open admiration. not to there to which the saleswoman responds, “What’s “I’m in love with it,” The buyer exclaims, air. we consume on television. But Melhus identical with the image love?”. Happiness is derived from being as and alienation from oneself, only results in depression seems to imply that this thrilling promise One side as “high polish, beautiful when they turn around. the reversible clones flatten into 2-D boards a little bit more demure.” little bit quieter, finish” and the other as “satin finish —a cloning at the time, debate on the public If in Again & Again (1998), created as a direct response to No Sunshine and reinforcement, as a process of self-infatuation multiplication is understood positively It shows two bodies fighting the seems to stress the opposite. (1997), produced just one year earlier, introduced as one of them strives in the duo is openly process of unification and a note of disharmony for liberation. production, these works deal with identity and self- Melhus’ Corresponding to a specific period in Bjørn identity but an exploration of the logic and reflection —though this is less an exploration of the artist’s effects of the mass media in our culture. In his 2001 piece A compressed version of around it. format and the phenomenon of televangelism and builds a parody The metamorphosis of the strategies and inner laws is exposed in a hysteric crescendo. this format’s of the weird inner logic of television and victim into the aggressor can both be seen as a criticism of the the viewer to. consequences brought about by the passivity this medium sentences served as a source of inspiration, in If in The Oral Thing shows as Jerry Springer and Maury Povitch Deadly Storms the artist had a close look at one of the most powerful and influential US American news talk show and the news channel— network, FOX News. He manages to reveal how both formats —the exploit the viewer in their own, very specific manner. 3a 3b 1a 1b 2a 2b 1a-b 3a-b Primetime, 2001 Primetime, 2001 Again & Again, 1998 Again & Again, 1998 The Oral Thing, 2001 Video installation, 6 min. Video installation, Video installation, 8 min. Video installation, 11 min. Video installation at the Kunstverein, Hannover Video installation 2b

2a RES MAY 2009 144 147 MAY 2009 The talk show format is designed to elicit a confession of Liliana Rodrigues (b. 1979, Lisbon) graduated in History of Art and post-graduated in History of Contemporary

Art at the University Nova in Lisbon. She complemented her studies in Spain (Erasmus), Germany (Leonardo da RES sorts. While the participant seems reluctant at first, we Vinci scholarship) and New York (research grant by the Luso-American Foundation). In the past years she made come to realize that he in fact enjoys being the object of an intership and worked in the area of Contemporary Art, Art Communication and Public Relations, in art scenes attention. The Oral Thing makes us understand how the as diverse as New York (Mike Weiss Gallery), Lisbon (Gallery Filomena Soares) and Leipzig (Gallery SPINNEREI Archiv Massiv). Together with Professor Doctor Marc Ries, she recently lectured a seminar on “New-Media participant basks in his newly gained self-importance and Self-Reflexivity” at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. Since May 2008, she works on a and in being watched, even though it means being freelance basis for Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt. placed under the judging, humiliating gaze of others. More than in seeking justice or vengeance, the victim All images courtesy the artist and Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt. is usually interested in this new “heroic” status which results from the recognition of one’s own role as a victim by others. Tampering with our expectations and our knowledge of such talk shows, Melhus humorously transforms the victim into the aggressor, thus, at the same time, forcing us to confront with our role as ecstatic viewers.

By exposing the dangerous logic behind this approach, Melhus’ work forces us to conclude that “there are no more identities, just endless reflections, whose forms and contents arise from earlier media reflections.” (Schulz, Saarbrücken)

TOP The topic of the human conditioning being perpetrated Auto Center Drive, 2003 by modern media brings about the most dreadful 16 mm film, 28 min. consequences in Deadly Storms where the mechanical BOTTOM repetition of catchy slogans sets the pace to a general Captain, 2005 2 channel video installation, 14 min. tone of alarm and the complete emptiness, if not impossibility, of meaning. Based on appropriate audio footage from FOX News, a network that claims to be fair and unbiased, Deadly Storms reveals exactly how FOX News is instead a populist propaganda machine whose success is based on creating and

exploiting an atmosphere of permanent alarm and fear. Deadly Storms, 2008 video installation, 7 min. Three identical talking heads rhythmically repeat alarming sentences and statements, slogans which are becoming more common, even in the so-called serious press, exercising a hypnotic power over the viewer. The extremely emotionally charged language and the tone, which keeps us in a state of constant attention and anticipation, oppose the emptiness of its content. The constant repetition of such stuttered, broken sentences and sound bites makes us realize the complete absence of meaning and the fact that there is no dialog or communication.

With his systematic examination of different mass media frameworks, Bjørn Melhus has been exposing the stereotyped voices, gestures and slogans which are conveyed on a daily basis and which seem to be dictating our behavior. It is up to the viewer to decide what to do with this awareness and whether to accept it as a sort of pledge for responsibility. RES MAY 2009 146

151 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY LEFT, FROM TOP TO BOTTOM LEFT, FROM Asolo, 1978; is drawing, While Nitsch 1983; Last Supper, Como, edition of the During the water, with blood and of cloth The preparation Dolo Venezia, 1983; Villa Meneghelli, Prof. Gadenstätter with his wife Hermann Nitsch, and Francesco Conz Conz Courtesy Francesco Freunde, p. 63 Der Nitsch und seine FROM TOP TO BOTTOM Beate, Hermann and Heinz The wedding with Eva Kranich; Cibulka, Asolo, 1974; in Prizendorf; The wedding of Hermann and Rita Brus, 1988 Geoff Hendricks, Rita and Günter Courtesy Francesco Conz 62 Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. On 29 August in born Hermann Nitsch, the conceptual artist and painter 2008, a book birthday—the perfect occasion to publish celebrated his 70th Vienna, Art.” master of Conceptual As Der Nitsch und as it turns out, about the “Austrian a look behind the Taking biography. artist’s seine Freunde is not your ordinary colleague, husband, Hermann Nitsch, the person—the scenes, the book presents the friend. and most importantly, boss, pioneer, companion, artist, campaigner, is a unique kind of biography as it Der Nitsch und seine Freunde Martin’s Freya phases of his Nitsch in different combines stories by people who accompanied is a collage of narrations of The result life, some of them very close to the artist. colleagues, benefactors— friends, companions, family, and talks with Nitsch’s Austrianincluding the internationally renowned painter Ch. L. Attersee, the his wife and muse Annifellow conceptual artist Günter Brus with Brus, the foster Essl, Hermann Nitsch’s famous benefactor and art collector Karl-Heinz Conz, the photographer his Italian friend and supporter Francesco son Leo Kopp, and director of his Orgies Mysteries Theater Heinz Cibulka, the long-time friend the German-Austrian critic gallery owner Heike Curtze, the art Peter Kubelka, Schmied, the CEO of the Austrian Museum of AppliedWieland Arts in Vienna to name a few. Peter Noever, MICHA GOEBIG AND CHRISTINE LIESE-SCHIKANEDER

BY

TRANSLATION

GERMAN.

IN

TEXT FREYA MARTIN Long-standing friendships and other relationships—some dating back to the late 1950s—have Long-standing friendships and other relationships—some dating “I love boundlessness, excess, opulence, vastness, life and biography. always been a staple in Nitsch’s This quote also applies to his approach to friendships. Nitsch says about himself. inexhaustibility,” Though Hermann Nitsch’s upcoming birthday was the initial starting point and inspiration, Nitsch Though Hermann Nitsch’s guiding spirit: Besides being an artist whose work is often himself could be regarded as the project’s Considered both generously. controversial, Nitsch is a person who has a lot to give and does so their by many people who have told significant and typical for Nitsch, this character trait is mentioned stories to the author. The book serves two purposes: First, to present a less well-known and unresearched image of Nitsch, to present a The book serves two purposes: First, Andin his environment. namely how he is perceived by people of second, to derive an understanding This unique portrait of Hermann intersocial context. his direct, the artist/person Hermann Nitsch from picture of Hermann Nitsch the artist. and interesting Nitsch as a person also brings forth a complex all of which feature Hermann Nitsch. stories from everyday life The book focuses on anecdotes and little and archives—underline the almost both private sources Numerous photographs and images—from on the occasion of his 70th birthday. intimate character of the book/collage paying homage to the artist

Photograph: Erika Schmied Freya Martin, Styria Verlag, 2008

The cover of Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, RES MAY 2009 (NITSCH AND FRIENDS) FRIENDS) AND (NITSCH

DER NITSCH UND SEINE FREUNDE FREUNDE SEINE UND NITSCH DER 150

153 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY time you come for a visit, their flock is time you come for a visit, their flock is Courtesy Freya Martin Prinzendorf/Weinviertel, Austria, July 2008 Hermann Nitsch and Freya Martin at the Prinzendorf Castle, DER NITSCH UND SEINE FREUNDE Freya Martin Published by Styria Verlag, Austria, August 2008 Studies at the University Freya Martin (b.1975, Klagenfurt/Austria) studied German Literature and Theater of the Orgies Mysteries Theater in the context of Vienna. In 2007, dissertation about Hermann Nitsch and his on the occasion of Hermann Nitsch’s 70th Greek tragedy. In 2008, publication of Der Nitsch und seine Freunde birthday. is that the book’s Another the book’s is that seine Freunde und Der Nitsch of the creation towards that worked fact residence, Castle, Nitsch’s of Prinzendorf lives in the direct vicinity Martin, Freya author/publisher, working at has been living and Hermann Nitsch Austriain northwestern close to the Czech border. as castle is also used 1970s. The baroque since the early likes to call it, “Bayreuth” as he his Prinzendorf, Theater productions. his Orgies Mysteries a stage for the press and other critics as an animal by with his “small zoo.” Villainized Nitsch lives at Prinzenburg including peacocks, animals, of different for decades, Nitsch keeps a multitude torturer and murderer and in harmony called Louise, cats and dogs—at Prinzenburg a goat a donkey, ducks, chickens, geese, with nature. a story about Nitsch’s Essl shares renowned art benefactor Karl-Heinz In the book, the internationally Castle: geese at Prinzendorf traditional goose at Nitsch for the Rita my wife and I visited Hermann and “On November 15, 1998, geese. When I told Nitsch by a flock of squawking Martinmas. When we arrived, we were welcomed they know you. Every about it, he responded: ‘No surprise there; diminished by one …” stopped to draw on the plentiful Nevertheless, he has never Nitsch is an artist through and through. most fascinating thing about the full human potential. The resources life offers and to tap into the and trying to understand them as well as in approaching things person Hermann Nitsch is his precision unique and rare talent to live to the Nitsch has a beyond his art. his naturalness in receiving the world people master. This alone is an art few full and to celebrate life in all its facets. “It is what it is!” And Nitsch frequently answers, When asked about his oeuvre, Hermann it seems fair to add: “HE is what HE is!—Simply Nitsch!” 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 Courtesy Studio Nitsch Courtesy Studio Nitsch Courtesy Rudolf Klapper Courtesy Sammlung Essl Courtesy Sammlung in front of his house in Asolo, 2000 in front of his house Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. 96 Der Nitsch und seine Karlheinz Essl with Hermann Nitsch Karlheinz Essl with Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. 101 Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. 172 Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. 186 Der Nitsch und seine Freunde, p. Nitsch at the vineyard in Prinzendorf Nitsch at the vineyard in Prinzendorf Nitsch—Wine, 2007, bottled by Michael Martin Nitsch—Wine, 2007, bottled by Karlheinz and Agnes Essl with Rita and Hermann Karlheinz and Agnes Essl with Rita Hermann Nitsch in his studio with his dog, Fredy Hermann Nitsch in his studio with 4

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155 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Photograph: Tomas Riehle Courtesy Deutsches Architektur Museum/German Architecture Museum DAM, Frankfurt/Main . 10 projectors, 10 computers and 8 pairs of speakers . 10 projectors, 10 computers and 8 pairs 2 NAZIM DİKBAŞ

BY

TRANSLATION

TURKISH.

A 19th century villa in Frankfurt on the side of the River Main, on Schaumainkai Street. From 1979 From Street. on the side of the River Main, on Schaumainkai in Frankfurt A 19th century villa IN

EXHIBITION 8 pairs of concepts, forming the main a) Interactive database: The first page of the interface features the user clicks on a tag, a motto map. Each pair of concepts is tagged with 10 further concepts. When on a thumbnail, a short introduction and a series of thumbnails are accessed. When the user scrolls this particular medium is related to the content and red guiding lines indicating the other concepts Having chosen the medium, the viewer can click on the thumbnail to to on the interface will appear. tags related to the conceptual content begin to watch. Once the user clicks on the thumbnail, the other is on medium. The “click to close” sign of the medium selected will appear on the left of the frame of the The viewer can close the window at anytime to return to the main map or click on the right top corner. thumbnails. The media featured one of the concepts on the left of the screen to access one of the related caricatures, TV news reports, include: Series of photographs, videos, articles, architectural projects, More featured on the database. advertisements… There are 390 visual groups under the 80 sub-headings than 7000 visuals were accumulated for the project. are concealed behind the beams and 8 tables, 16 stools and a glass wall have been placed in the space. 8 tables, 16 stools and a glass are concealed behind the beams and 8 and the stools and tables with a mouse database on the 22 m. wall, projectors are used to project the same Ateach are placed parallel to the beams. these tables, the viewer is able to browse within the interactive walls. The glass surface two, narrow other separate videos of maps are reflected on the database. Two is all. Perhaps after a long time, Unger’s of the exhibition. That features the introduction, logo and credits this set-up. design returns to its original state with Exhibition set-up: The space is approximately 300m to 1984, transforming the villa into a museum, architect Oswald Mathias Ungers preserved only the outer Mathias Ungers the villa into a museum, architect Oswald to 1984, transforming This second building itself. as the building high adding a second structure almost as shell of the building, each of the 4 levels. The on organizations different functions and spatial is formed of cubes fulfilling (beams and columns) are system the structural on the entry and top floors and cubes form closed spaces to lower and upper sides (in relation on both levels. The cube and gallery spaces visible on intermediate up from the gallery spaces, this second on all levels. Looking levels) disrupt the continuity of the space perceived as a whole. Asstructure placed within the building is this design too in his other designs, rather than the arguable success of story/scene Ungers is after stands out more with the staging of the an exhibition in such a space. The is quite problematic to design the formation of an exhibition space. It using increased is spaces gallery and columns and beams featuring space in-between this in area surface further articulating the main space. exhibition surface, temporary partitions because of insufficient This is the German Architecturearchitecture museums in Europe. The Museum (DAM), one of the first building this of floor first the on installed was Gallery Garanti by organized exhibition Istanbul Becoming theme was Becoming Istanbul. (September 6 – November 9, 2008). The PELİN DERVİŞ / GARANTİ GALLERY PELİN DERVİŞ / GARANTİ TEXT Site:

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157 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY escape, nostalgia, concerns/anxiety over concerns/anxiety nostalgia, escape, belonging, and globalizations, localization idleness, future, pessimism, fear for the not attempt to exhibition does charity…The concepts any single one of these construct it attempts to visualize on its own, rather, structure (discourse- this coiling triple spiral It was impossible for the phenomenon-aura). we never concepts to be complete/absolute, But we still tried either. claimed them to be as wide as possible. The to keep the spectrum on the interface with pairing of the concepts different directions concepts pointing in helps this opening. Concept pairs on the interface: – DISSEMINATE AMASS – INEXISTENCE EXISTENCE FEAR – RELAXATION MOVEMENT – STASIS OLD – NEW PURE – HYBRID VISIBILITY – SURVEILLANCE YEARN – FORGET Exhibition views Exhibition It is of course vital to correctly determine the documents to be used. We attempt first to decipher and We the documents to be used. It is of course vital to correctly determine resort to different complex structure. We taken from this then to reconstruct the city using intersections to open a concept to communication. which will help types of documents and presentation techniques video on closed housing estates, an article on the rehabilitation of Fener-Balat, This enables an artist’s project to exist under the same heading and an architectural a demonstration about Iraq in a TV report layers by the maps exhibited using a presented in various under equal conditions. The relationships the triple spiral structure of greatly to understanding different technique of presentation contribute the relationship of the building stock classified example, visualizing the database on a higher scale. For view of the city as a whole. Maps are of hospitals enriches our according to age along with the location and relational information they of the city via the statistical amazing tools in understanding the whole contain is systematically accumulated The data the maps specifically prepared for this exhibition carry. cannot fully guarantee the We sources of reference. not from a single database but from various we to access more than one source, accuracy of data accessed via different sources. When we were able have had to select the one which seems most realistic to us. And in other cases when no data at all was and a certain topic. The categorization available, there were instances where we gave up on mapping out Mapping Istanbul is an important transfer of data to graphic maps was realized with meticulous care. nature. document both with the information it contains and its easily understandable the discourses of different actors A further stage of the project is to show how we conceptualize both For to attain a very sensitive balance. and urban and psychosomatic phenomena. Here we again have what legal grounds on another, instance, with law makers on one side, executives on the other and mean for us in the context of Istanbul? This exhibition does not intend to exactly does ‘conservation’ viewer it is important for us that the reach any final judgment or have the final word, quite the opposite;

This exhibition was based on a series of concepts. The This exhibition was based on a series Conceptual structure, content and method: to be instrumentalized when selection of the concepts subtlest part of the work was perhaps the story of transformation for the exhibition – whatever the method of exhibition constructing the city’s of the inhabitants and the outside city, may be. The discourses of the actors who physically change the of historicist approaches, words observers, popular domestic – international urban jargons, outdated aspect to survive…This is the discursive the opposition, cries of the victims, arguments of those who fail Anotherof the project. to concrete phenomena and physical change. Urban policies, aspect is related landfill areas, new residential building development decisions, master plans, existing urban texture, museums, skyscrapers, shopping areas, new ideal living conditions, new bad living conditions, new educational-school buildings, public malls, tourism, conservation, failure in conservation, expulsion, tankers, overflowing rivers, dam culture-arts, hygiene-health buildings, sunken space, transport, the singular and collective spiritual/psychological structures this water levels, bank loans. And finally, becoming visible, hiding, search for power, hope, search for democracy, terror, plurality possesses. Fear, Book: An from a were presented by writers A-Z, atypical Istanbul encyclopaedia. 152 different articles architecture, music, urban planning, literature, economy, range of disciplines including anthropology, in two separate editions, English The black and white book was printed film and sociology. history of art, edition will be printed in 2009. English edition is 384 pages. and German. The Turkish This 16-minute film features 70 maps on different subjects. A group of these maps subjects. on different b) Mapping Istanbul: This 16-minute film features 70 maps in comparative charts. Some other information is presented features statistical information and the maps present relational cartographies. Photograph: Uwe Dettmar Exhibition view RES MAY 2009 156

159 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY There are increasingly more exhibitions where spectators take on an active role, this is no longer a where spectators take There are increasingly more exhibitions in this sense it presents nothing novelty… Becoming Istanbul also gives the viewer an active role, and were held in the same exhibition space but within a one could demand that the exhibition new. In fact, it is difficult to support the latter idea, personal monitors… No, black-box or that it were reduced to a few on the web site. Why? the entire exhibition it would then be more suitable to broadcast to the surfaces of the walls which are Becoming Istanbul could have been organized on panels affixed interspersed with models and videos could have been now being scanned by projectors. The exhibition still be held back… If there is where the final word would and presented with an expansive content is about the changing it today, the exhibition as it is shown a powerful aspect in the presentation of point and creates her own exhibition begins ‘work’ at zero sounds and images of the space. The visitor Every visitor in a foreign city determines her own in the form she determines. It is an inspiring journey. This perception is related to what the visitor itinerary and forms a perception that belongs to herself. tourist home is memories, one or two takes rather than what the city gives. What remains on the journey guides or books and this unique perception. The Becoming Istanbul exhibition, reflected through 8 visitors, exhibits 8 different journeys projectors and in a constant motion of change determined by its of Istanbul” is a comment we have in this mould. “It succeeds in transmitting the chaotic structure be exhibition of any metropolis would received, and that may be true in one sense, but then again, the in the journeys rather than chaos chaotic by definition. It seems more appropriate to speak of personal have been by-passed? Do visitors context of this exhibition. What has then been skipped, which routes this How many unique trips has get absorbed in what the person sitting on the next stool is watching? exhibition produced? can feel the chain of thought and the position taken the position and of thought the chain can feel into a whole. This the exhibition which integrates next to the tag: attach our own notes is why we Another kills the dead”. “Conservation indicator of documents have been is to which tags the our intent related to. we adopt a critical stance; however, clearly We into the trap of aestheticizing have tried not to fall or in or ugliness, to be fair, instances of beauty the existing state with all its other words, to define also contains approximately aspects. The database of various scales completed 40 architectural projects of these works are projects in the last 5 years. Some Is this an exhibition? All the work is very rich, very beautiful, and that’s fine, but the A question: Is this an exhibition? All the work is very rich, very beautiful, and that’s so why the user to access it from home, database and the maps could be uploaded to a web site, allowing than reach would be much higher restrict it between four walls? The number of people a web site could the and I am curious about the busiest exhibition hall. So, then… I find this question very important believe that it can answers. Becoming Istanbul borrows its logic from the internet in the first place. We and it will then have more visitors be transferred to the web, and in fact that it must at one stage. That that it will possibly be better consumed… After all, an exhibition like this cannot be fully consumed by any viewer in a defined space for a defined time. The multi-authored book prepared along with this exhibition is not a catalogue. Although with this exhibition is The multi-authored book prepared along its encyclopaedia, it neither has historical it is not a typical subheading states that it is an ‘encyclopaedia’, the same triple spiral structure and the it incorporates timeline, academic perfection nor bibliography; of the articles from A to Z often struggle via reference notes. Most texts are associated with other articles adopted by the exhibition. the concepts directly with concepts, however these are not necessarily changing rhythm, some texts are a reference book. It has a It is more a book to dip in and out than all the differences it contains, it is both serious and fun, and a With aggressive, some are calmer. contemporary book. All media proposed for the database were examined, eliminated, selected, modified if necessary, Allselected, modified if necessary, were examined, eliminated, media proposed for the database critically benefited from We to these criteria. classified and associated one by one according thinkers, Many activists, in this comprehensive study. the communication network we formed writers and artists took part in archivists, academicians, photographers, architects, artists, producers, of this project were realized with a belief formed on the occasion this work. The platforms of discussions the exhibition. and motivation almost independent of featuring large scale urban interventions, others have the potential to completely change social to completely potential urban interventions, others have the featuring large scale of some are very young, their projects are perhaps The authors structure, yet others are more modest. Each of the 40 projects takes its are star architects of Turkey. being exhibited for the first time, others by its author and all the projects with the city explained place on the database with its relationship just as they are in the , where they are seen as singular entities, have equal weight in Becoming Istanbul city.

Cem Yardımcı, Self Portrait of Istanbul, 2006 Cem Yardımcı, Self Portrait of Istanbul, RES MAY 2009 158

161 RES RES MAY 2009 2009 MAY Cevdet Erek – “The 2nd Bridge” (video) – “The 2nd Cevdet Erek “5 Hours” (video) Özgür Erkök – “Balcony”, Is The Disney World” (video) Esra Ersen – “This 1 group) Juul Hondius – (Photographs, – (Photographs, 3 groups) Pınar Gediközer (Photographs, 2 groups) Murat Germen – (Photographs, 1 group) Erik Göngrich – Hansmann – “Gecekondu- Ebru Karaca – Anja Über Nacht Gebaut” (video) Of A Square”, Gülsün Karamustafa – “Memory Waited For”, “Stairway”, “The Days We Have “Bosphorus 1954” (video) Ömer Kokal – (Photographs, 4 groups) 1 group) Halil Koyutürk – (Photographs, Oğuz Meriç – (Photographs, 5 groups) – Murat Musulluoğlu – Erdem Helvacıoğlu “İstanbul Kondu” (video) Polat – Ceren Oykut – Selda Asal – Neriman “Postcards” (video) Ceren Oykut – “City Can” (video) Fatih Pınar – (Photographs, 6 groups) Cities Erich Pick – “Duplication 1-2”, “Garden 1-2”, “Monument 1-2”, “Stadtkrone 1-2”, “Visionary Tower 1-2”, “White Cube 1-2” (video) Neriman Polat – (Photographs, 1 group) Neriman Polat – “Two Partridges”, “Crazy In Love” (video) Ali Saltan (Photographs, 1 group) Nermin Saybaşılı – (Photographs, 1 group) Tayfun Serttaş – “The Other, The Other And Beyond” (video) Solmaz Shahbazi – “Perfectly Suited For You” (video) Senem Sinem – (Photographs, 4 groups) Ali Taptık – (Photographs, 2 groups) Nasan Tur – “Somersaulting Man” (video) Aysim Türkmen – “Galata Tower Street No:23”, “Sulukule, My Love” (video) Aysim Türkmen – Erkin Peprek – “Kapital-Ist- anbul” (video) Belmin Söylemez – “34 Taxi” (video) Özlem Ünsal – Research project Cem Yardımcı – “An Essay On A Space”, “Self- portrait Of Istanbul.09.2006” (video) Hakkı Yırtıcı – (Photographs, 1 group) Anze Zadel – (Photographs, 1 group) Architectural Offices and Projects Boğaçhan Dündaralp DDRLP - NP12 Houses Boran Ekinci Architecture - Ekinciler Construction Ltd. Headquarters, Eston Housing Showroom and Sales Office, Esit Administration Building, Hisar House, Tedkent Kemer 50 Houses, Ursa World Megayacht Shipyard CM Design/Architecture - Rose Marine Social Center Emre Arolat Architects - Kemerlife XXI, Maksimum Houses and Sales Office, Santral Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum Emre Arolat Architects – NSMH Nevzat Sayın Architecture Services – İhsan Bilgin - Evidea Erginoğlu & Çalışlar Architecture - Açı Elementary School, Açı High School Esin Yürekli Tire Construction - Tire Apartment Building Consultancy Atayurt, Deniz Aslan, Osman Özge Açıkkol, Ulus Didem Danış, Ayşe Bozkurt, Banu Cennetoğlu, Fatma Olgaç, Evren Uzer Erek, Saitali Köknar, for Printed Material Conceptual Design and Logo BEK Bülent Erkmen, Design for Printed Material Emre Çıkınoğlu, BEK Exhibition Design Mario Lorenz, Deserve (DAM) Post Interface Design, Application and production JKRProject Maps Superpool Özbay Murat Güvenç, Eda Yücesoy – Serdar Motion Design Lasyos Medon Translation Tankut Aykut, Melahat Behlil, Ergin Bulut, Nazım Dikbaş, Balca Ergener, Alev Erkmen, Cem Şimşek Scanning Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Center Difo Lab Newsclips Fehmi Gürdallı, Research Sena Oğuzertem, Transcription Karma Yapım, Post production Source: NTV Archives and Institutions Arkiv, Arkitera Architecture Center Caricature And Humor Arts Museum Cengiz Kahraman, private collection Hafriyat Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes Istanbul Magazine Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Center Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center Pozitif Magazines and Newspapers XXI, Yeni Mimar – Depo Yayıncılık Artists/Works Özge Açıkkol – (Photographs, 2 groups), “Shore” (video) Laleper Aytek – (Photographs, 16 groups) Selda Asal – “Competing With Genies”, “Hard To Die” (video) Altan Bal – (Photographs, 2 groups) Osman Bozkurt – (Photographs, 5 groups) Banu Cennetoğlu – (Photographs, 1 group) Antonio Cosentino – (Photographs, 4 groups) Photograph: Laleper Aytek Laleper Photograph: BOOK CREDITS: BECOMING ISTANBUL, An Encyclopaedia Editors Tanyeli Pelin Derviş - Bülent Tanju - Uğur English translation Nazım Dikbaş German translation Stefan Hibbeler Design concept and consultancy Bülent Erkmen, BEK Graphic design Burcu Kayalar Authors Ahenk Dereli, Alan Duben, Alexis Şanal, Arzu Öztürkmen, Atilla Yücel, Ayda Arel, Aydan Balamir, Ayşe Akalın, Ayşe Çavdar, Ayşe Erek, Ayşen Ciravoğlu, Başak Sanaç Tanrıverdi, Bengi Güldoğan, Beyhan İslam, Bülent Tanju, Bülent Usta, Burçak Madran, Burçak Özlüdil, Can Altay, Cem Akaş, Cem Yücel, Deniz Aktan Küçük, Didem Danış, Ekin Sanaç, Ela Çil, Emre Ayvaz, Emre Zeytinoğlu, Ersin Altın, Evren Uzer, Faruk Göksu, Benmayor, Gila Sönmez, Uz Funda Özgüven, Fatih Hakan Tanyeli, Gülsün Köksal, Gül Özgün, Gökhan Tüzün Şengün, Hakkı Yırtıcı, Hülya Hatipoğlu, İlkay Baliç, İpek Yada Akpınar, Işıl Baysan Serim, İsmet Elif Kılıç, James Hakan Dedeoğlu, Kathrin Wildner, Kerem Öktem, Kevin Robins, Levent Şentürk, Meltem Ahıska, Meltem Türköz, Meriç Öner, Murat Şanal, Nalân Bahçekapılı, Namık Erkal, Nermin Saybaşılı, Nora Şeni, Orhan Esen, Osman Cenk Demiroğlu, Özge Açıkkol, Pelin Tan, Peter Taylor, Rinaldo Marmara, Saadet Özen, Saitali Köknar, Şebnem Köşer Akçapar, Senem Akçay, Senem Deviren, Sıla Durhan, Şükrü Aslan, Süreyyya Evren, Tangör Tan, Tolga İslam, Uğur Tanyeli, Ulus Atayurt, Yıldız Salman, Yoshiko Tsuruta, Zeynep Kuban, Zeynep Mennan, Zühre Sözeri EXHIBITION CREDITS: BECOMING ISTANBUL Exhibition Curators Pelin Derviş, Bülent Tanju, Uğur Tanyeli Project Coordinators Meriç Öner / (GG), Mario Lorenz / Deserve (DAM) Assistance Bengi Güldoğan, Paula Quentin, Ekin Sanaç (GG) al Caddesi/Istanbul where Platform Meriç

(b. Ankara, 1967), architect. Graduated from Istanbul Technical University and completed her Pelin Derviş (b. Ankara, 1967), architect. Graduated from Istanbul Technical University and completed master’s degree in the university’s History of Architecture Program. She established her own architectural design practice and worked on a variety of projects ranging from urban inventory projects to spatial and object (1997 - 2004). While continuing to practice architecture she also took part in various exhibitions and book projects. Since 2005 she has been the director of Garanti Gallery in Istanbul. We want to publish the entire database on the web after the exhibition in Istanbul. Our aim is to both entire database on the web after the exhibition want to publish the We new data. It will soon be the project to grow by incorporating enable much wider access and to allow site via www.becomingistanbul.org possible to reach data related to the web realizes its exhibitions and other programs will be completely renovated. These two institutions will be completely renovated. realizes its exhibitions and other programs renovated building. The Becoming and new programs in this will begin to serve with a new identity and then return to Istanbul after Frankfurt Istanbul exhibition will travel to other cities/countries relations in multiple at intersections and Looking at the city, for the opening of this new institution. field of interest. dimensions, Becoming Istanbul finds itself in this new institution’s Garanti Gallery and Platform Contemporary ArtThe future: Garanti Gallery and Platform Contemporary These two institutions Centre are merging. will transform their structure in disciplines and they see the future on a platform beyond singular The building on İstikl accordance with their belief in this future. Oğuz

Photograph: RES MAY 2009 160 GB Engineering Architecture - Bozbağ Apartment Building Kreatif Architecture - Babylon Music Club, Memorial Hospital, Sahra Apartment Building MAM Architectural Research Center - Green Valley Residences, Millenium Park Residences MArS Architects - garajistanbul, Süngü Apartments Murat Arif Suyabatmaz - Mısırlı House Mutlu Çilingiroğlu Miar Architecture - Antrium Residence, Refiye Soyak Mosque NSMH Nevzat Sayın Architecture Services - Gön, Irmak High School, Maya Çekmeköy Campus, NSMH Office Plan A - Istanbul Bilgi University, Noa Galata Triumvirate Tabanlıoğlu Architects - Istanbul Modern, Kanyon, Levent Loft I TRafo Architects - Istanbul Technical University Rectorate; Maksimum Houses, Tarabya, Özen House (landscape projects) UMO Architecture - Milli Reasürans Multi Storey Automatic Carpark Building Uras + Dilekçi Architects -360 Istanbul, Fateks Headquarter Building, Krunch, Prestige Mall

CONTENTS COVER (detail) Vik Muniz, Action Photo, after Hans Namuth INTERVIEW WITH VIK MUNIZ KATHY BATTISTA (Pictures of Chocolate), 1997 Cibachrome print, 60 x 48 in / 152.4 x 121.9 cm INTERVIEW WITH SEMİHA BERKSOY HANS ULRICH OBRIST © Vik Muniz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN ART OLESYA TURKINA A REVIEW OF THE TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2008: (WHEN) GLOBAL ATTACKS ON A LOCAL PARADISE ADNAN YILDIZ INTERVIEW WITH RAINER FUCHS AND PETER KOGLER RES INTERVIEW WITH JAMES COHAN DEBORA WARNER NO EXCEPTION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART: WHY AN EXHIBITION OF THE PRISHTINA ART SCENE COULD NOT OPEN IN BELGRADE SEZGİN BOYNİK THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS LIBRARY IN PRISHTINA / BERLIN JUDITH RAUM, FITORE ISUFI-KOJA, ‹Z ÖZTAT STATES AND TRAITS OF SERBIAN ART SCENE NIKOLA SUICA INTERVIEW WITH FULYA ERDEMCİ / SKOR BORGA KANTÜRK INTERVIEW WITH SOLMAZ SHAHBAZI ASHKAN SEPAHVAND KOONS IN VERSAILLES SABINE BOEHL SPACES BETWEEN SPACES: AYŞE ERKMEN—WEGGEFÄHRTEN ADNAN YILDIZ BJØRN MELHUS AT THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL’S OPERATION ROOM LILIANA RODRIGUES DER NITSCH UND SEINE FREUNDE (NITSCH AND FRIENDS) FREYA MARTIN

RES Art World / World Art

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Editors: M. Azrâ Genim, Micha O. Goebig Layout Design and Art Direction: Emre Ç›k›noğlu, BEK Graphic Design: P›nar Akkurt, BEK Design Consultant: Bülent Erkmen Pre-press: BEK Design and Consultancy Ltd Printing and Binding: Mas Matbaac›l›k Hamidiye Mahallesi So€uksu Caddesi No:3 Ka€›thane Istanbul Turkey T: +90 212 294 1000 F: +90 212 294 9080