RE-THINKING ARTISTS IN TRANSIT Isil Egrikavuk & Georgia Kotretsos In 2001, fifteen Biennials took place around the world. In 2002, nineteen; in 2003, seventeen; in 2004 nineteen and in 2006 the grand total of 27 biennials were organized, some of which were making their official debut on the scene. In 2007, fifteen Biennials have been announced. Since the early 90's the Biennial tradition turned into the epidemic of Biennialization as we know it today. Its contagious nature spread rapidly among peripheral art communities and lured in art professionals from all four corners of the world. Biennials opened our art world to Art Histories that had been neglected in the past on an international level; they were and still can be informative and critical platforms 1 where Contemporary Art can be re-thought, re-evaluated and re-articulated. Yet, the pervasive model slowly seemed to loose ground in terms of the classic fashion – like a great song is being overplayed on the radio. The word Biennial completes the title of over 50 international grandiose exhibitions around the world. This commitment is no longer the case for the Biennial Ceará América Fortaleza, Brazil; the Five Continents and One City Biennial, Mexico City, USA; the Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa and the media city Seoul Biennial, South Korea. Others have been inconsistent in honoring that very commitment, which nurtures art professional’s critical itch. Either way nearly 20 Biennials have made their debut since 2000. We have to acknowledge though that the "mother" Biennial, which takes place in Venice since 1895 serves as the inspiration of the mimicry we are witnessing over the last 15 years. Participating in a Biennial is recognized as a prestigious achievement for an artist. Specifically in the model of the Venice Biennial artists do not only present their work, but also become representatives of their “native” countries by showing at national pavilions. Venice Biennial seems to reinforce the idea of nomadism, but its structure supports the contrary. The notion of borders is imposed upon the Biennial and as a results it reflects globalization. Our critique focuses on how commissioners, curators and artists deal with this ethnocentric categorization and how that affects their practice. Mika Hannula in his essay, “New Hope For the Dead” questions the legitimacy and credibility of Biennials in relation to their plethora worldwide. He further prods at the matter by closely looking at their context and identity. If and when the only identity that an event has is that it is just an international biennial, then there is no chance of it producing anything other than just more of the same. However, if and when a given biennial is constantly in search of its own particular identity, things all of a sudden seem much more interesting. The 2 difference is telling, and it is crucial. Borrowing from Miwon Kwon’s vocabulary, instead of biennials at site just happening one after another, the task is to shape them so that they happen next to one another. Hannula does not fall into generalizations and certainly we do not wish to project a demonized perspective of Biennials, but we insist in exposing this problematic side of the Venice Biennial with the rather rudimentary analogy of Eurovision1. Europe’s boarders are still very much alive in people’s consciousness, culture and education. Sadly it is amplified in the Eurovision Song Contest when countries are invited to present a Pop song that will be voted from all competing countries. Participating countries project very distinct musical, cultural characteristic inspired from their own traditions. It is one of those social events fans get really patriotic about, wave flags, methodically cast their votes and religiously get glued on their TV monitors hoping their country will win. Even the preliminary domestic competition commands immense national media attention, and fan frenzy. We never witnessed our so-called victory as children when the competition still served as innocent entertainment for us but finally in 2003, Turkey won the competition and later on in 2005 Greece did as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23DV5Pd9RFo&mode=related&search= 1 The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held between active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which participating countries each submit a song to be performed on live television; then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs, in order to find the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to go forward to represent the country in the international competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world,[1] with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally.[2][3] It has been broadcast around the globe — beyond Europe — to such places as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand and the USA; even though these countries do not participate.[4] Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet;[5] with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.[6] The Contest is historically known for being mainly a bastion of formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However it has featured a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arab, Balkan, Celtic music, Dance, Folk, Israeli, Greek, Latin, Metal, Nordic, Pop-rap, Rock, and Turkish. Over the years, the Song Contest has grown from a mere televisual experiment into an international institution of mammoth proportions. Most countries in Europe have taken part at least once during the Contest's history, and such is the magnitude and scale of the Contest that the word "Eurovision" is one of the few household names to be recognized across an entire continent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe0nKho8DI In the Youtube live Eurovision videos, one can easily distinguish the motifs that are linked with national prototypes. The rhythm of the songs, their dancing and the costumes contribute to a constructed representation of their nationality. One may plausibly question our line of thinking in relation to Biennials but when one reads the titles of the Afghan, Egyptian, Israeli and Venezuelan participation in this year’s Venice Biennial, will connect our observation with the nationalistic profile of such events. AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan My Love! Creative genius – witness of destructions and rebirth EGYPT Egypt ... sources of civilization ... and junction of cultures ISRAEL The Guardians of the Threshold VENEZUELA Gods of America It is not a coincidence that these titles come from peripheral art communities. The problem is that, while promoting international identity and mobility, the Venice Biennial creates the opposite effect of exoticism and curiosity of the unknown. The works and titles become documents of social, political, historical, cultural and geographical states of the countries represented. Geography and its politics are often explored within different contexts in contemporary art but how one chooses to address this issue or contextualize its participation is very complex. Everyone is in transit; everyone is a so-called post-nomad (Morley, 210). This nomadic life eventually raises many questions of time/space, belonging and identity. Where does one belong when he/she is in constant movement? In what space and what 4 time? Zygmunt Bauman defines this constant flux as “a series of improvisations, moving through time/space and simultaneously through a series of new identities.” (Morley, 210) Homi Bhabha describes this phenomenon of transition as a “Third space”, “where the familiar and the foreign are conjoined, where it is less clear where home concludes and foreign begins.” Where do Biennials stand in relation to third space? Do they succeed in creating a space for artists, where the borders of geography become indivisible? Or do these events turn into giant spectacles, like Eurovision and the audience into fanatic fans? Surely, it is hard to say that the answer is one or the other, but there is and should be alternative modes of creating cultural productions without falling into the category of romanticizing places or creating stereotypical identities. State funding organizations, commissioners, curators and artists need to resist collectively to this model, if inclusivity is what the art world seeks. Beatrice Born 1972, Berlin, Germany Lives and works in Berlin, Germany/Amsterdam, The Netherlands/London, United Kingdom BFA – School of Visual Arts New York, United States Rijks Academy Residency Amsterdam, The Netherlands Selected exhibitions: 2003 – 1st Prague Biennial, Czech Republic 2004 – Busan Biennial, Republic Korea 2005 – 3rd Goteburg Biennial, Sweden 2005 – 7th Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates 2006 – 27th Sao Paolo Biennial, Brazil 2007 – 10th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey 5 Fenuku Born 1972, Cairo, Egypt Lives and works in New York, USA/Cairo, Egypt BFA – Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts Amsterdam, The Netherlands MFA – Central Saint Martins College London, United Kingdom Whitney Independent Study Program New York, United States Selected exhibitions: 2001 – 4th Caribbean Biennial, Dominican Republic 2003 – 2nd Tirana Biennial, Albania 2004 – 3rd Berlin Biennial, Germany 2006 – Dak’Art Biennial, Senegal 2007 – 2nd Moscow Biennial, Russia 2007 – Biennale Montreal Instead of discussing existing artists’ work and career moves, we chose to fabricate two accomplished characters, who derive from our research. They represent the generation that boomed alongside the phenomenon of Biennialization. We have come across artists who have participated in ten Biennials by the age of thirty-three and it is a career pattern worth discussing in terms of the work that is being produced.