to a sustained politics of fear. affective economies, supporting everything from humanitarian aid a time when documentary visual material is a part of contemporary and lesstrustindocumentaryrepresentations. Thisisthecaseat are more powerful thanever. Ontheotherhand,we have less The doublebindisstrong: ontheonehanddocumentaryimages in various parts oftheworld, documentary practices and contemporary art have been organized and alarge numberofexhibitionsandotherprojects dealingwith tionist art. Although such innovative documentary art forms abound, avant-garde film,andfrom reality TV toperformanceandinterven art forms and conventional reportage to Third Cinema, essay and collages. Itsfieldof reference ranges from traditional documentary video reportages, reenacted printed matter, andarchaeological to reflexive photo essays via split-screen slide shows, found footage and complexity of forms, ranging from conceptual mockumentaries ceptual art. Recent documentaryworks attesttoanewdiversity con and performance, video, as such traditions with merging by reinvigorated and reinvented been have film and photography documentary Traditional decades. two last the during art within practices have madeuponeofthemostsignificanttendencies transformed it. not onlyentered collective imaginationbuthave alsoprofoundly have they interfaces; other and youtube, phones, mobile through spheres of intimate most the pervade also images tarymedia for example, world politics would be completely different. Documen media wouldlookentirely different, andthecourse ofevents in, 01 02
In thislight,itshouldcomeasnosurprisethatdocumentary See HitoSteyerl, “DiedokumentarischeUnschärferelation,” in 2002–04; After the News—Post-Media Documentary Practices at the CCCB in Barcelona, 2003. This list repre- list This 2003. Barcelona, in CCCB the at Practices Documentary News—Post-Media the After 2002–04; “Ficcions documentals,” Fundació “la Caixa”, Barcelona 2003; “It’s Hard to Touch the Real,” KunstvereinWorkshop München andMuseum,Philadelphia2004–05;“True Stories,”WittedeWith,Rotterdam, January–March 2003; various locations,2005;“AftertheFact,”Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin 2005;“ExperimentswithTruth,” TheFabric the Desire to Simplify: A Symposium on Critical Documents,” Iaspis, Stockholm 2006; “The Need to Document,” Center ofPhotography, NewYork 2008;“NoMore Reality,” BELEF, Belgrade 2006;“SlowlyLearningtoSurvive A fewselectedexamplesinclude:“Archive Fever: UsesoftheDocumentinContemporary Art,”International 2008), 13. sents merely a sample from a much larger pool of shows, which have addressed documentary modes in art art in modes documentary addressed have which shows, of pool larger much a from sample a merely sents since 2000. since
the discussionofphenomenonis 01 Without it something like globalized Die Farbe derWahrheit (Vienna:Turia undKant, -
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Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 11 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 12 04 03 practices, whicharound 1925 wrote this in ignorance of the Soviet discussions about documentary the document as the preoccupation of “primitive man.” He probably Benjamin, for all his usual sophistication, goes so far as to describe way street), juxtaposesartanddocumentastwooppositions. (One- passage“Einbahnstraße” of noted little a in who Benjamin, Walter is documentary the for contempt well-known Greenberg’s disputed asever. articulations of the documentary, where its status as art remains as opposite of art, its alter ego. documentary practices have traditionally beenunderstood asthe always been strongly contested. In the wake of modernist art history, documentary as well as conceptualist documentation. hegemonial movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, and nouvelle vague anti-colonial movements and the birth of the film essay, the counter- sion of the 1930s in the US and reformist documentary photography, its debatesaboutproductivism andfactography, theGreat Depres as was the case with the early years of Soviet communism with the art field historically marks a moment of social and political crisis, past or recent political and economic upheaval. of Theireffects the inclusion mirror to aim intooften They content. social of cussion us of quests for suitable forms and provide methods for the dis crisis: it is no coincidence that many documentary art works remind Historically, the documentary is a form that emerges in a state of Document vs. Art? offer newperspectives onthiscrucialtheme. journals. still mostly confined to scattered texts in various catalogues and
Walter Benjamin:“13 Thesesagainst Snobs,”in One oftheserecent debatesaround theinclusionofdocumentaryintodocumenta 11 istraced indetail Clement historian art modernist of precursor unlikely An Yet the inclusion of documentary modes in the art field has also Okwui Enwezor’s text. masters thesisattheWhitneyIndependentStudyProgram: “Art,Document,Witness,”2004. Press, 2000), 459. This hint is owed to Sophie Hamacher, who analyzed Benjamin’s text in detail in an unpublished 02 This anthology seeks to overcome this dispersion and and dispersion overcome this to seeks anthology This 03 This reading also affects contemporary — the year Benjamin wrote these Selected Writings,Vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University 04 -
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08 10 09
understood as a form of critique and a site of intervention. is it practices: art critical of concern important an become has negotiate anunstablerelationship between thetwo.Information practices documentary and field, art the on age information the during whichwe have witnessedtheimpactofmassmediaand period the marked also has art conceptual and performance into modes documentary of today, 1960s incursion until late the the serve torenew it, various primitivismsconstructedfrom within the artfieldwhich era, documentarypractices have becomeanupdatedexampleof that contemporary debatesare struggling to achieve. insight of depth a with perception of politics the and facticity Soviet avant-garde, whose members discussed the construction of its transformation ofartandreality occurred inthecircles ofthe Throughout the 1920s, heated debates about the documentary and aphorisms distance themselves from worn-out aesthetic standards. to order in conceptualists early some by exploited strategically about itsstatusasart.Itsalleged non-artisticnature waseven times ofconservative rollback) isaccompaniedby disagreements within theartfield(as well asitssubsequent marginalization in into asetofpractices anddevelops acertainself-awareness. coalesces it contexts; local transcend documentary of notion the does wars world both between period the in Only apparatus. state the with relationship fraught documentary’s the of glimpse documentary anditsrelations ofproduction. Italsoconveys a of thesedebatesandpresents amuchmore articulateview of the Producer,” as Author “The text 06
07 05 See Sabeth Buchmann, “Under the Sign of Labor,” in Photography andConceptualArtinBritain1966-1976 See JohnRoberts, “Photography, IconophobiaandtheRuinsofConceptualArt,”in See LucySoutter, “ThePhotographic Idea:Reconsidering ConceptualPhotography,” in See OlivierLugon,pages 28–37inthisvolume. Walter Benjamin: “TheAuthorasProducer,” in For anoverview ofsomethesedebates see Since then,therepeated appearance ofdocumentaryforms 1999). Buchmann (Cambridge, MA:TheMITPress, 2006),179–196. — displayed a fascinating degree of sophistication. sophistication. of degree fascinating a displayed
by tappingintoitsself-imagined“Other.” New LeftReview 06 October written in 1934, captures some some 1934, in captures written , ed.JohnRoberts (London:Camerawork, 1997), 7–46. Art after Conceptual Art 118, “Soviet Factography—A SpecialIssue”(Fall2006). I/62(July/August1970). , ed. Alexander Alberro and Sabeth TheImpossibleDocument: 05 Afterimage Benjamin’s 08 In this 10 09 Artists (March–April From
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Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 13 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 14 17 16 15 14 13 11 it.” of part a much very yet art, “beyond being as perceived within theartfield,but repeatedly deniedany partinit.They were Ambiguities,” and Authority “‘Documentary’: text introductory his in remarks the art field has produced heated debate. As Olivier Lugon cogently for representation ofreality by massmedia. the formal experiments of the artistic avant-gardes set the standards this is a function it has held since the inception of documentary film: ment ofnewdocumentaryexpressions. According toBillNichols, the art field. productiondocumentary hasagain beenincreasingly pushedinto experimental funding, public in cuts and media of privatization to the ambivalent transitions of globalization. the multiplemodesofdocumentaryare intrinsicallyconnected documentary production itself. The massive transformations within asingly privatized andfragmented global environment. to “touch the real” which despite their huge formal differences attest to a shared desire modes, documentary rangeof own its spawned has upheavals of authenticity. and offer skeptical and subversive readings of documentary jargons practices 1990s the from 1970s the especially in and starting critique: as tion and psychoanalytic film theory later challenged the idea of informa working inthewake ofrepresentational critique, feministtheory, 12 I Ibid. See StefanJonsson,pages 166–186 inthisvolume. See HitoSteyerl, pages 224–231 inthisvolume. See OkwuiEnwezor, pages 62–102 inthisvolume. See JanErikLundström,“AftertheFact,”in Historically, theoverlap between documentary practices and The recent fragmentation of the social also impacts the site of The era of neoliberal globalization after 1989 with its enormous the Kunstverein Münchenforatwoyear-long screening series,twofestivals andanarchive whichtraveled toa “It’s hard totouchthereal” isaquote by documentaryfilmmaker Johan van der Keuken. Itwasalso used by number ofvenues inEurope, includingKunstverein Graz, 2006. bid. onwards, postconceptualistandessayistic documentaryart tended to instead emphasize the critique of information 14 16 The art field has become a laboratory for the develop historical documentary modes were primarily forged 11 and to create arenas of debate within an incre After theFact , catalogue,1stBerlinPhotography Festival, 2005,11. 13 15 Due to the increasing 12 17
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19 18 documentary expression, appears Janus-facedintheprismofits about its own status onto the Other. Modernity, whose offspring is tothematerialworld,italsoprojects profound anxieties fidelity certain a to testifies it hand, one the on while, ambivalent; thus politics of“cleansing.”Themyth ofdocumentaryauthenticityis a and purges catalyses and reality into over spills which desire a inauthentic, deemed things renewedfrompurgeall reality of itself asapoliticsofsuspicion.Thepassionforthereal callsfora Badiou hasshown,thisdesire isintrinsicallyparanoid: itrealizes unmask thetruthandtocleansereality from allappearances? As desire to both let the subject express itself without much interference the twodifferent tendenciesinherent indocumentarycreation: the and transform each other. This conflict reflects the tension between conflict inwhichdifferent ideasofart(andits relation tolife)clash documentary formsfrom thefieldofartandopensupazone of exclusion and inclusion successive the to paradoxleads This “passion ofthereal” Or does Vertov’s slogan rather embody what Alain Badiou called the treacherous? and corrupted, alienated, essentially is which one that haunts the notion of real life. Could there be another life as well, suspicion the about us informs also sounds, it as assertive as have to reassure us this life is really “as it is”? Vertov’s exclamation, paradoxically introduces doubtsaboutits nature. Why doesVertov underlining theimportanceofreal andauthenticlife,italso exclaimed: “Longlive life,asitis!” since itsearlydays. Intheearly 1920s, Dziga Vertov triumphantly Notions of the real or true life have haunted documentary expression True Life ever more authenticrepresentations ofthereal. this tensionalsocreates thedrive ofadocumentaryquest for and yet ontheaestheticlevel toturnitintosomething unique. But Alain Badiou, Leben,” in For anextendeddiscussionaboutVertov andthedocumentary’srelation tolife,see HitoSteyerl “Kunst oder Die Farbe der Wahrheit The Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007). 19 duringthe20thcentury:aviolentdesire to (Vienna:Turia und Kant, 2008),93–100. 18 Whilethisslogan seemstobe
Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 15 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 16 24 23 22 20 and itssocial,political,economicconditions. documentary power and documentary potential, and between art between artifice and authenticity, between fiction and fact, between new zones of entanglement between the aesthetic and the ethic, nature, hovering between art and non-art, has contributed to creating novative forms of contemporary art. The documentary’s ambivalent hasalsomadedocumentarypractices oneofthemostin tainty effects. productive its acknowledge instead practices. Insteadofdenyingmentary thisuncertainty, oneshould docu of dissemination the to and success the to contributed “documentary.” the of definitions theoretical to applies certainty of lack same justice to an intransparent and dubious contemporary reality. does ultimately which certainty, to pretense its fulfill to mentary times. our of image an as documentary uncertainty, which paradoxically is extremely pertinent but theeffectisrather aperpetualdoubt;blurred andagitated to institutionalmodesofpower/knowledge and citetheirauthority, as advanced well medialiteracy. Documentarymodesstillappeal as distrust habitual called be could which attitude, an created have disinformation, and propaganda of enterprises large-scale porary consciousness.Theexperiencesofthe20thcentury, its the legal in realm, thiscertitudehasallbutvanished from contem used primarily is and confirmation and certitude of ideas to tied traditional truth claims. While the notion of a document is historically failure inrealizing thoseideals. catastrophic the to contribute actively also sometimes but record only not they education, and enlightenment, progress, of spirit the with documentary reflection: if documentary works are historically imbued 21 See OkwuiEnwezor, pages 62–102 inthisvolume. Ibid. See Lugon,page 29inthisvolume. Ibid. See HitoSteyerl, “DiedokumentarischeUnschärferelation,” in documentary’s the on impacts also modernity of crisis The 2008), 15. 22 At the same time, this vagueness has actually actually has vagueness this time, same the At 20 20 It is precisely the failure of the docu the of failure the precisely is It Die Farbe der Wahrheit 23 Perhaps this uncer this Perhaps 24 (Vienna:Turia und Kant, 21 The - -
- - - 25 published in such diverse contexts as an art magazine from from magazine art an as contexts diverse such in published documentary’s role in the construction of our present. Having been investigate to the needs of middle the in real; sits the it touch 2008, engages withthecontestedfieldofdesires andanxietiesto This publication, containing eleven essays written between 2003 and Communicating Vessels the paradoxes of documentary representation are further explored. the dynamic nature of documentary representation. any formal affectation. This paradox cannot be reconciled; it defines aesthetic impact, because the resulting images seem stripped from desire can create press the desire to get rid of the author or creator. On the other, this fice and authenticity. On the one hand, documentary practices ex basic tension within documentary forms is the conflict between arti mentary practices are also filled with internal contradictions. The unstable, torn as it was between rejection and embrace. But docu shifted historically, the art field’s reaction has also turned out to be theories and the art field. While the meaning of “documentary” has perspective on the connection between documentary practices and art. In the first text of this volume, Olivier Lugon gives us a historical representation and its conflictual relation to various definitions of but are alsointrinsicallyinterdisciplinary. mentary practices not only permeate the world of contemporary art film festival. This is yet another sign of how concerns about docu documentary well-known a running or magazines, art mainstream history teaching,literary critique, editingdailynewspapers and backgrounds, which include writing and art production, curating, art professional their in diverse equally are authors The date. to extensive anthology on contemporary art and documentary practices land among otherplaces,thiscollectionoftextsformsthemost Holland, an online periodical and a scholarly journal from New Zea See Jean-Pierre Rehm, pages 38–47inthisvolume. Witnesses,” the of Plays “The text, Rehm’s Jean-Pierre In The first three texts explore the various impasse of documentary — as in the work of Walker Evans — an even stronger 25 -
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Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 17 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 18 27 26 with eachother. Bycontrasting thismodelwithJürgen Habermas’ of truth as a tautology in which power and truth are simply equated distortion anddescribesFoucault’soften-citedmodelof apolitics from fiction or to disentangle historical events from their revisionist facts distinguish to necessity ethic the in debate his grounds He truth. documentary of models constructivist with dissatisfaction entirely fictional: it begs the question of truth. Heiser expresses his to thecore ofthedocumentary problem precisely becauseitis of its supposed Other: fiction. According to Heiser, this piece points Rooij posesthequestion ofthedocumentaryfrom theperspective of thework explores the link between fact, truth, and fiction. His close reading simultaneously recording andmakingupreality. the riskofmoving in-between andbeyond thesterileoppositionof mentary. Thus,documentarypractices are characterized by risk, an entirely manufactured process, which blendsfictionanddocu duction of reality rather than its mimetic or naturalistic reproduction: pro documentary the in consist could information this of critique documentary A obedience. coerced and subjection of process a thus is information Conventional hypotheses. initial all of mation without consequence orconsistency, inorder toobtainaconfir and convenient, to report the past and the future in a desired present of documentaryinformation:toidentify, toreport whatisknown spectator.” a process ofinterpretation offered to thepoliticalfreedom ofthe themselves objectsofstudy, documentamongdocuments,linkin that they“onlycontainopacityandthicknessare in documentary forms as transparent rip-offs of reality means denying and carefully executes codednarrative systems. documentary often parades as a mere reflection of reality, it obeys At itscore are abundleofpermanentdiscrepancies: althoughthe See pages 40–41 ofthetext. See page 40of thetext. A completelydifferent approach istaken by Jörg Heiser, who 27 Quoting Michel Foucault, Rehm elucidates the function Mandarin Ducks by artistsJeroen deRijke/Willem de 26 To simplyview - - - of truth in the realm of art. Could we call it beauty, a quality producedstill emerge between both. More generally, he explores the question lights eachmodel’sfailures butemphasizesthatmomentsoftruth the different logicsofenunciationin he argues foradialecticalmovement between both.Byanalyzing pragmatic theory of truth reached by communication and consensus, a truth process. As vérité, the documentary is not only mimetic but an abstracted between thespectatorandother, aspace in whichtruthisnot encounter ethical an for space possible a creates it Instead, with non-negotiable facts, as more conventional documentary does. “documentary”). The mode of vérité doesn’t confront the spectator callsvérité(incontrastEnwezor tothemore conventional modeof which documentary, the of articulation specific a by mediated configuration gives rise to a new relation of ethicsThis and aesthetics processes. these of consequences catastrophic the by as mobility, and migration, well as globalization, of “unhomeliness” contemporary political and social constellation characterized by the terized by twoalternateendingsofmodernism:1989 and9/11. charac world a in documentary the of dimension general the on of the documentary character of documenta 11, his text is a reflectionthe aporiasofglobalization. Crafted asaresponse tothecriticism thecontemporary conditionofdocumentaryformswithin analyzes he present; the in documentary and art of relation the about concerns traditional the of most anchors firmly Enwezor Okwui Art,” ‘Truth’ of Contemporary Figure in the and Rights, Human drifts of globalization. In his essay “Documentary/Vérité: Bio-Politics, political and economicupheavals causedby thecontradictory massive the context: social and political contemporary the in art and documentary the about concerns locates section next The Global Documentary by asustainedcontradiction? According toEnwezor, documentaryartworks condensea mot d’ordre , but instead, as Alain Badiou proposes, Mandarin Ducks , Heiserhigh
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Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 19 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 20 shows how the representation of bare life proceeds within the the within proceeds life bare of representation the how shows Taking YtoBarrada’s andEmilyJacir’sworkasexamples,Demos other handunderminingthe samestructures itserves touphold. ting bare lifesuchasinthepictures from AbuGhraib of power and surveillance mentary formsare thussuspendedbetween beinganinstrument and creates holes, blurs, and lacunae within the visual field. Docu expression. Theuncertainstatus ofitssubjecttroubles theimage official representation can nevertheless be captured by documentary does itfigure inartistic representation? how representation, political classical of terms in representable global sphere unboundby any ruleoflaw. Butifthissubjectisnot and corporations, and is left to the precariousness of a deregulated is theonewhoinhabitsfissures she and gaps between states or He globalization. of vicissitudes the embody metaphorically rights,” the refugee deprived of any political representation, came to and representation. It is no coincidence that the bearer of “human necessitates a fundamental revision of the relation between politics rights human of promises the of failure The Holes.” of Full “Life also fraught withambivalence. an unevenly globalizing world.However, ashenotes,thistermis to enable such communication and create a common ground within it? Enwezor insistsontheimportanceofterm“humanrights” public sphere whenthere are nodemocratic institutionstoback still have to answer to his or her gaze? How do we imagine we do Why a globalvoyeurism? into lapsing without other the of pain the within theethicalnecessitiesofpresent: Howdowe lookat combines reflexivity withanethicalstance.Itisalsofirmlylocated Chantal Akerman, Walid Raad,ortheBlackAudioFilmCollective, documentary, embodiedby works from authors like AllanSekula, mentary ceaselesslyconstructsanddeconstructs.Thisversion of also analytic.Itisnottruth,butthefidelitytothatdocu Demos argues thatthestructural absenceofbare lifefrom This ambivalence isfurtherexplored inT. J.Demos’essay — not only representing but even constitu — and onthe - - - documentary representation, as in and disfiguration canalsofree thesubjectfrom theconfinesof lowed by the chasms in between them. But paradoxically, dispersion spaces and to portray the fates of people who end up being Absence is the only way to depict the realities of fragmented global holes,andfissures withindocumentary representation.ruptures, open upaspacecharacterized by mobilityandnomadism. other disciplinesbutalsoto transcend alocalperspective andto methods, enablesdocumentary formstotrespass notonly into methodology, which more often than not incorporates other research aspect ofwritinghistory. Thenecessitytodevelop adocumentary the space of writing art history, while others focus on the subjective imaginaries). Works suchasIRWIN’s spread amnesia (or one might add, to privatization and new national wide- a to prey fallen has it because reappropriated be to has At the same time, the historical space in some transitional countries works by Roman Ondák, Deimantas Narkevicˇ ius, and Pawelwithin theartfieldoritsinstitutions.Thesamecanbe said about Althamer. Andrea Fraser’s work, documents map out the relations of productionof documentary production itself relation is often probed in relation to the social and economic contexteach other of itssubjectmatter. Formandcontentcannotbeseparated from public, the documentary is always grounded in the social positions contrast tothiseconomicallyvery potentyet vacuous formofthe produced inthisperiodbears thevisualstamp ofadvertising. In vacuum 1989. ethical after The reality reorganization of total the to European countries during so-called “transition” represent a reaction tions. ForHavránek, recent documentaryartpractices inEastern recent effects of capitalist globalization on documentary preoccupa becoming. a spaceofuncertaintyandindeterminacyopentoexperiment and challenges notionsofthespectators’ bodilyintegrity andcreates Vít Havránek points out a different consequence of the most — an ethicalrelation between bothisestablished. This — the art field. In Hans Haacke’s or Pursuit East ArtMap by Steve McQueen, which reappropriate swal - -
Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 21 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 22 journalism, similartotheclaims inthetheoretical workof late of spots blind the for compensates Art vessels. communicating as two the sees He half. a and decade last the of music) and taneous politicizationofcontemporary art(includingliterature, film, glaring conformismofglobal massmediaincontrast tothesimul following section.Theliterary critic Stefan Jonssondiscussesthe The relation between media and documentary art is the focus of the Media andtheArchive wait forthemtohappen. produce practices their ownevents these lities and ways of managing radical plurality. And more importantly, power. Instead, this typeofworkallowsfornewcognitive possibi photojournalism and its preference for single images and iconic bition space. At the same time he understands it as a critique of moves comfortably between the academic department and the exhi interest that work with contemporaryart, in in educationalmodels approach this Guerra, can be seen in light of a general revival of documenting reality butrather organising complexity. According to and thetotal partial.the Not unlike montage in film, they are not Germany ex-Yugoslavia to through Greece from stretching route highway infrastructure and In globalization. of with current conditions examples ofhowartistsmightsuccessfullydeal prime as quoted are Melitopoulos Angela and sayistBiemann works by Ursula a pedagogyinwhichinformationandopinionintermingle. Thees argues thata“collectivehe pedagogy”isnecessary, to this examine order In us. offers media the that information l’oeil” “trompe the behind happens what ask to us encourages 2007, he in focusing on the cut-off of the old oil pipeline from Russia to Belarus mobility are explored further. Usingtheexampleofmediareports Corridor X Corridor In CarlesGuerra’s essay “Negatives ofEurope,” questions of — through anintricateplay ofthevisibleand invisible, — the artists the investigate transport and communication both the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the the and pipeline oil Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan the both — The Black Sea Files Sea Black The they donothave to
- - - - worthy? According toJonsson,parochial newsiscodedasuniver and we have to ask what is allowed there. What is considered news contemporary society, globalized mediaisthemainpublicarena, and experiences, which have no other place in the public debate. In how thearts,duringcertainhistoricalperiods,channelinformation 19th-century Marxists Karl Kautsky and Franz Mehring. They showed me archive” in the work of Christian Boltanski and Hanne Darboven, archive, particularly within the context of art. Moving from the “subli modes. lies a much-needed ambition to challenge worn-out representational and localresistance. Atthecore ofitspluritopicinterpretations between the commercialized mass culture, standardized elite culture, a fourthtendency, whichdealswiththeconflictual relationships This public sphere of inbetweenness is, in Jonsson’s understanding, produced by aesthetics and cultural theory rather than in journalism. be found almost exclusively in the “public sphere of inbetweenness” This leadstoasituationwhere pluritopicinterpretations cannow selves andtheirinterest inapublicsphere and economicpolicies meaning theunderlyingprinciplesandconsequences ofpolitical nowadays catered to by journalism. At the same time “the political,” opinions andfollowingtheritualsofday-to-day politicalaffairs, is resistance of certain local traditions. the and Politics, West, the beyond in thelifestyles in sense culture ofhigh mirroringWestern of integration the culture, mass American of triumph the tendencies: called “globalization ofculture,” inwhichJonssonidentifies three globalization. equivalent isfurthermore thekey componentofcultural universal The characteristics. local other excludes it and classes, owning known figure: itisbasedonexperiencesof Western men,ofthe universal equivalent.” This universal equivalent, or leveler, is a well- sally applicabletohumankindbutonlyaslongtheyfollow“a In his essay Jan Verwoert takes a closer look at the logic of the Today both art and journalism are part of the historical process — and theways peoplecanrepresent them — are explored by art. - - - -
Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 23 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 24 to a cultural condition in which corporations and their advertisements tation Maurizio Lazzarato breaks with the age-old paradigm of represen movements, protest contemporary of expression the of analysis his In documentary. the of conditions material the concerning on transforming them? The last two texts address urgent questions documentary embedded in its social conditions, and how can it work of informationcapitalismandthecultural industries?Howisthe How does documentary theory align itself with contemporary theoriesDocumentary Power andPotential and apparatuses governing them. at the same time as it confesses to an awareness of the ideologies bility, which acknowledges the urgency to represent specific realities common denominator to the multiplicitya is of practices:there yet, a criticalAnd sensi diversifying. and expanding both are They in contemporary artare neithertiedtoagenre nortoamedium. with a number of the other authors here, that documentary practices search available. Verwoert concludesby arguing, asisthecase gaps inthearchive, whichallowforrefined attemptsatmaking re as anexample,hesuggests thatcinematicmontage cancreate available material.Usingthe filmic workofDeimantasNarkevicˇ ius and hercollaborator performinfront ofthecamera inrelation to place in a video such as Gitte Villesen’s rational arguments. Thisspatio-temporal experience canalsotake subjective experiencerather thanpromoting linearprogress and privileges associatively arranged statements, filtering them through Adorno’s definitionoftheliterary essay, theessayist installation with Margreiter. As Dorit of installations essayistic the in present Office Funk Export is fostered between theworkandviewer inGreen’s how a record becomes a document. The “respectless” contact,lized and subjectivewhich archive in the work of Renée Green, he asks in whichhistoryisencountered initstotality, tothede-institutiona — whether in politics or artistic modes of expression. Referring , for example, is according to Verwoert also also Verwoert to according is example, for , Willy as DJ , where the artist Import/ - - - - for a different reality instead of being its representation. He is in its realization. Adocumentaryimage therefore becomesacatalyst instead contributetotheemergence ofthepossibleaswell asto signs, images, and statements function in contemporary economies way the that claims he world, a to belonging means sumption produce aworldinwhichobjectsandsubjectsexist,where con to reality shiftsaswell. Asarchives becomesfluidandmore and national fragmentation and “ethnic” strife), the documentary relation andcapital. nation both of control the from itself emancipated has which sphere, public a of nodes new become also could producers cumentary do experimental of networks volatile property. the But tellectual in and copyright of question the on as well as production digital sharing platforms.Thisopensupreflections ontheconditionsof embedded and into global databases, p2p networks, and other file freelancers by peopled is production documentary perimental ex contemporary of space The workers. digital dispersed tween be- connections and links also but works, create to serves only In herview, experimentalcontemporary documentarypractice not cerns with representation but also by addressing shared practice. perspective on the documentary that is not only constituted by con political a establish to seeks Steyerl Hito practice, documentary but projects aheadandcreates “possibleworlds.” classical representational paradigm this does not reflect backwards intellectual-emotional andperformed,literally. Asopposedtothe both is body.It and soul aspects: two with encounter an is event he proposes theevent-multiplicity bind.Oneadvantage isthatthe work relationship, which is the basis of a representational paradigm, different conceptual constellations. To replace the outdated subject- possible” protesters the of slogan the him to and spired by events in Seattle and collective demonstrations elsewhere, In theenvironment ofdigitalcapitalism(andvery oftenalso By addressing the contemporary conditions of production within — signifies entry to a different intellectual atmosphere, with — “a different world is is world different “a ------
Introduction: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art 25 Maria Lind, Hito Steyerl 26 Art (Part II)”isscheduledforFall 2010. Greenroom:Reconsidering theDocumentaryandContemporary rigour. “The and concentration of sense a provides limelight the give spacetounexpectedexchanges, andyet theirproximity to from those on stage. Greenrooms are made to relax protocols and broadcasting and engage in discussions, whichafter and tendbefore tomeet be differentguests and staff There, stations. television room fordocumentarypractices,” comparable togreenrooms at “green a be to meant is project research the components its all With Bard. CCS at Museum Hessel the 1, at 2009 2008—February 27, September from place take will I),” (Part Art Contemporary the exhibition “The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Documentary and ely three years, having started in March 2008. Its first public event, project in various ways. The research project will run for approximat- Raad, and Hito Steyerl has been invited to contribute to the research of Petrasisting Bauer, Matthew Buckingham, Carles Guerra, Walid reference A group, Steyerl. con Hito and Bard College, Studies, research project is a collaboration between the Center for Curatorial photography umentary The art. wellvideo televisionas to as and practices in contemporary art, in relation to the history of film, doc- documentary situating at aims also It activism. and streammedia main within role their explore to and production cultural current and contextualise these contemporary documentary practices within “the documentary.” The aim of the research project is to investigate umentary and Contemporary Art,” a long-term research project on This publication is part of “The Greenroom: Reconsidering the Doc- The Greenroom Project arethe reality. reality. They represent not do They conditions. these face to has social disintegration. Butcontemporary documentaryproduction and Othering processes of in implicated further becomes mentary property ofdocumentaryimages andsoundsincrease. Thedocu more information is available online, conflicts about the intellectual - - - -