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PAVILION journal for politics and culture #16 TACTICS FOR THE HERE AND NOW ISSN 1841-7337 PAVILION #16 TACTICS FOR THE HERE AND NOW READER OF BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5 | MAy 25 - JULy 22, 2012 www.pavilionjournal.org | www.bucharestbiennale.org | www.pavilioncenter.ro Editors: Răzvan Ion & Eugen Rădescu Advisory Board: Felix Vogel, Peter Osborne, Sina Najafi, Suzana Milevska Contributors: Anne Barlow, Eugen Rădescu, Stephen Duncombe, Răzvan Ion, Suzana Milevska, Sotirios Bahtsetzis, Tom Holert, Olive McKeon, Simon Sheikh, Ștefan Voicu, Marius Stan Translations: Radu Pavel Gheo Web & Software Design: Alexandru Enăchioaie DTP & Prepress: Andrei Grigore BUCHAREST BIENNALE 5 Curator: Anne Barlow Participants: Abbas Akhavan (IR/CA), Marina Albu (RO), Haris Epaminonda (CY/DE), Klas Eriksson (SE), Ruth Ewan (UK), Aurélien Froment (FR/IE), Ciprian Homorodean (RO/BE), Iman Issa (EG/USA), Janice Kerbel (CA/UK), Jill Magid (USA), David Maljković (HR), Marina Naprushkina (BY/DE), Ahmet Öğüt (TR/NL), Vesna Pavlović (RS), Anahita Razmi (DE), Wael Shawky (EG/FR), Alexandre Singh (FR/USA), Mounira Al Solh (LB/NL) & Bassam Ramlawi (LB), Rinus Van de Velde (BE) Directors: Răzvan Ion & Eugen Rădescu Executive Director: Andrei Crăciun Assistant Executive Director: Andrei Grigore Education & Communication Manager: Florentina Buburuzan Web & Software Design: Alexandru Enăchioaie Design of the BB logo: Håkan Gustafson DTP & Prepress: Andrei Grigore Interns: Daniela Pălimariu, Andreea Pătru Volunteers: Roxana Aron, Monica Beatrice Bercovici, Ioana Tincuța Bratu, Maria Buda, Mădălina Buhoș, Anca Andreea Chitoran, Daniel Comendant, Mihaela Conciu, Alexandra Dănciulescu, Fadi Drăghici, Alexandra Enache, Gabriela Ghircoiaș, Andreea Maier, Anamaria Mișcu, Ioana Rozalia Moldovan, Demir Nurla, Daniela Pălimariu, Oana Anca Porime, Laura Prodan, Oana Irina Rusu, Ioana Șomănescu, Ioana Trușcă, Liana Andreea Voinea PAVILION is the producer of BUCHAREST BIENNALE www.bucharestbiennale.org Published by: Artphoto Asc. Chairman: Eugen Rădescu Email: [email protected] Phone/Fax: +4 021 310 54 69 Postal Address: P.O. Box 26-0390, Bucharest, Romania Subscriptions: 1 year subscription, 2 issues: 42€ [Europe] / 51$ [outside Europe] Printed and bound in Romania ® PAVILION & BUCHAREST BIENNALE are registered marks of Artphoto asc. © 2000-2012 PAVILION & the authors. All rights rezerved in all countries. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form without prior written permission from the editor. The view expressed in the journal are not necessarily those of the publishers. Cover: Rinus Van de Velde, "untitled (The Lost Bishop)", charcoal on wall, 240 cm x 360 cm, 2012. Courtesy of the artist. [1] In memoriam Ioana Nemeș (1979 - 2011) exTenT PArTiCiPAnTs And Venues of BuChAresT BiennAle 5 Column 100 PAVILION - Center for Contemporary Art and Culture 102 Iman Issa (EG/USA) Anne Barlow 106 Ahmet Öğüt (TR/NL) 5 Tactics for the Here and Now 110 Alexandre Singh (FR/USA) 114 Rinus Van de Velde (BE) Around 118 Casa Presei Libere / The House of the Free Press Eugen Rădescu 120 Abbas Akhavan (IR/CA) 11 Fordism. Post-Fordism and attempts to reposition art in globalization 122 Jill Magid (USA) 126 David Maljković (HR) Stephen Duncombe 130 Marina Naprushkina (BY/DE) 18 Politics as Art of the Impossible: The Case for a Dreampolitik in the United States 134 Vesna Pavlović (RS) 138 The Institute for Political Research Răzvan Ion 140 Marina Albu (RO) 28 From Contemplating To Constructing Situations 144 Ciprian Homorodean (RO/BE) 148 Janice Kerbel (CA/UK) Suzana Milevska 152 Anahita Razmi (DE) 34 The Internalisation of the Discourse of Institutional Critique and the ‘Unhappy Consciousness’ 156 Alert Studio 158 Haris Epaminonda (CY/DE) TACTiCs for The here And now 162 Make a Point 164 Klas Eriksson (SE) Sotirios Bahtsetzis 168 Wael Shawky (EG/FR) 43 Eikonomia: Notes on Economy and the Labor of Art 172 Mounira Al Solh (LB/NL) & Bassam Ramlawi (LB) Tom Holert 176 Nana Restaurant 178 Ruth Ewan (UK) 54 Art in the Knowledge-based Polis 182 Cinema Union Olive McKeon 184 Aurélien Froment (FR/IE) 68 Oh What A Mess I've Made: On Aesthetics and Political Praxis 186 Tabu | Vice | Zeppelin Simon Sheikh 187 Jill Magid (USA) 76 Spaces for Thinking: Perspectives on the Art Academy 190 Biographies Ștefan Voicu 84 Practice Here and Now. The Shift in Contemporary Art and Theory 200 Parallel Events Marius Stan 203 Education & Mediation 92 Avant-garde Arts under the Spell of Politics 204 Partners [2] [3] Tactics for the Here and Now by Anne Barlow In the last few years, the ‘here and now’ has been increasingly referred to as ‘pre- carious,’ giving rise to a number of publi- cations, conferences and exhibitions[1] that examine the relationship between dif- ferent forms and interpretations of precar- iousness in relation to current artistic practice. As Hal Foster noted in his article ‘Precarious’, 'Over the past decade, this condition became all but pervasive, and it is this heightened insecurity that much art has attempted to manifest, even to exac- erbate. This social instability is redoubled by an artistic instability, as the work at issue here foregrounds its own schismat- ic condition, its own lack of shared mean- ings, methods or motivations. Paradox- ically, then, precariousness seems almost olumn constitutive of much art…'[2]. Foster fur- C ther notes that within such work, the '“con- fusion" of ruling elites and the "violence" of global capital… is often staged in per- formative installations,' and cites work by Thomas Hirschhorn and Isa Genzken that, in different ways, reflects this in both form and content. Operating within the same context of the shifting nature of economics, politics and culture, are artistic practices whose agency lies in investigative or indirect approaches that possess their own kind of power. The fifth edition of the Bucharest [4] [5] Biennale focuses on such practices omy was regulated by short-term and provocatively embedded within sites of wise concealed data, as well as its poten- through a number of installations, environ- long-term plans. As laws were frequently daily activity. In relation to how one tial to generate associative meaning ments and performances, as well as idealistic – and consequently also often defines the public domain, it is important through multiple direct and tangential through the integration of projects within unrealistic – and plans (carrying the sta- to bear in mind William Pope.L’s comment searches. As John Conomos notes, we existing presentation and distribution sys- tus of law) usually too taut to be imple- that agency 'is relative to context. It is not are living 'in a world where the computer tems outside traditionally conceived art mented, informality became a useful tool natural and freely given … . Agency is a and its attendant techno-utopian myths of venues. While many of the artists engage to circumvent the former and secure fulfil- negotiation, always mediated.'[8] As artifice, control and rationality create in us with the subjects of territories and histo- ment of the latter. It was also used by the Maria Lind points out, there are differ- a sense of reality that is becoming more ries, risky and unstable positions or sys- general public as a strategy for coping ences between work that is 'context-sen- elaborate, more contingent, and more tems of authority, they do so in a way that with everyday life.'[4] During that time, sitive' as opposed to 'site-specific.' Lind dependent on digital languages of repre- is characterised by ambiguity, opacity, informal environments offered artists the considers that 'recipes must be reformu- sentation – where the discourse between non-linearity and the quasi-fictional, or by opportunity, albeit within limited circles, to lated for every occasion' since being con- cognition and epistemology, images and tactics of subterfuge and infiltration. While show and discuss their work.[5 ] text-sensitive is more about being sensi- knowledge is being radically alerted by some use processes that are investigative tive to situations and a 'challenge to the electronic technologies.'[12] or slow in the making – expressing a kind The informal can spring from popular cul- status quo – being context-sensitive with of resistance to the speed and instability ture, quotidian events and the actions of a twist … .”[9] Within this framework, the User-generated sources such as of everyday life – others turn to more various kinds of 'subcultures.' Informal Biennale contains several projects that Wikipedia, with its inherent potential ‘informal’ methodologies. As Simon structures have been recognized in differ- generate spaces of encounter outside art for multiple and possibly inaccurate Sheikh points out, 'The field of art has ent sectors of society, not only in culture venues themselves, altering the expected accounts, and the sheer act of research- become-in short-a field of possibilities, of but also in business and management, as realities of a given context – whether this ing links and connections from one thing exchange and comparative analysis. It having the capacity to act like a shadow, is a cinema schedule, social space, or to another online, provide rich material for has become a field for alternatives, pro- operating from the ground up. Such publications on subjects other than art – artists interested in more associative posals and models, and can, crucially, act approaches are well suited to artists allowing for moments of confusion or structures, narratives and meanings. as a