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Issue 41 / June 2019 Notes on Curating www.oncurating.org Centres ⁄ Peripheries – Complex Constellations Editors Ronald Kolb, Ella Krivanek, Camille Regli, Dorothee Richter Contributions by Heike Biechteler, Christine Maria Kaiser, Marco Meuli Interviews partners: Dena Beard, Lisa Biedlingmaier, Damian Christinger, Maria-Cristina Donati, Theaster Gates, Stacy Hardy, Ritva Kovalainen, Olaf Kühnemann, Marta Rodriguez Maleck, Renzo Martens, Peter Märkli, Montecristo Project, Gabi Ngcobo, Jittima Pholsawek, POST-MUSEUM (Jennifer Teo & Woon Tien Wei), Raqs Media Collective, Lukas Sander, Hans Schmid, Gregory Sholette, Anuradha Vikram, Dmitry Vilensky, Knut Wold, Kacey Wong Interviews by Maya Bamberger, Giovanna Bragaglia, Francesca Cec- cherini, Anastasia Chaguidouline, Damian Christinger, Gozde Filinta, Beatrice Fontana, Paola Granati, Kristina Grigorjeva, Franziska Herren, Ronny Koren, Ella Krivanek, Eveline Mathis, Miwa Negoro, Camille Regli, Dorothee Richter, Oliver Rico, Domenico Roberti, Carolina Sanchez, Jan Sandberg, Yan SU, Pongpan Suriyapat, Noriko Yamakoshi Contents Centres ⁄ Peripheries – Complex Constellations 3 65 Centres ⁄ Peripheries– Poetics of Topological Secrecy Complex Constellations An Interview with Lukas Sander Ronald Kolb, Camille Regli, Dorothee Richter Miwa Negoro 12 68 Urban Villages within the Megalopolis Interview with Olaf Kühnemann of Shenzhen: A (De)centralised Driver for Oliver Rico Urban Change? Christine Maria Kaiser 74 From an Imaginary Interview 24 with Gregory Sholette Far Away, So Close: Yan SU Between Congiunta and Piz Linard Kristina Grigorjeva 82 “Anxiety now prevails” 31 A Conversation with Dmitry Vilensky The Zuoz Case Anastasia Chaguidouline Heike Biechteler 90 37 Interview with Raqs Media Collective Curating Otherness – A Selective Reading Francesca Ceccherini & Noriko Yamakoshi of the Diaspora Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale 97 Marco Meuli Interview with Jittima “Len” Pholsawek Pongpan Suriyapat 43 National Tourist Routes Project in Norway: 102 Architecture and Artworks to Rest, Recollect, Interview with the Founders and Reflect of POST-MUSEUM: Jennifer Teo Franziska Herren and Woon Tien Wei Carolina Sanchez 51 The Repatriation of the White Cube: 105 How Should the Rural Capitalise on Art? Interview with Anuradha Vikram A Conversation with Renzo Martens, – 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles Artistic Director of the Institute Domenico Roberti & Eveline Mathis for Human Activities Camille Regli 109 A Conversation with Lisa Biedlingmaier 56 about the Kunstverein Wagenhalle e.V./ Interview with Gabi Ngcobo Container City Ella Krivanek Beatrice Fontana 62 117 Kacey Wong: Art and Resistance Interview with Dena Beard Giovanna Bragaglia Paola Granati & Ronny Koren 1 Issue 41 / June 2019 Contents Centres ⁄ Peripheries – Complex Constellations 125 Interview with Montecristo Project Domenico Ermanno Roberti 130 “Who No Know, Go Know”: How to Shift Knowledge about/of Africa Interview with Stacy Hardy – Chimurenga Magazine Gozde Filinta 135 Encounter with Finnish Artist and Curator Ritva Kovalainen Jan Sandberg 144 A Momentary Centre of the World A Conversation with Curator Damian Christinger on Assembleia MotherTree, Zurich Maya Bamberger 150 Interview with Marta Rodriguez Maleck Dorothee Richter 160 La Quadreria di Anita Spinelli: A Place Where Silence and Dynamism Prevail Interview with Maria-Cristina Donati Camille Regli 166 The Gaze of the Black Madonna. A Political Conversation with Theaster Gates Damian Christinger 172 Imprint 2 Issue 41 / June 2019 Editorial Centres ⁄ Peripheries – Complex Constellations Editorial: Centres ⁄ Peripheries– Complex Constellations Ronald Kolb, Camille Regli, Dorothee Richter Artistic and curatorial practices can be seen as the prime testimonies of transforma- tive movements—on the one hand situated in a specific site and region, and on the other, transgressing disciplines, classes, norms—proposing new forms and relations of living and establishing these practices (building centres along the way) but at the same time always changing their positions, never staying at the centre, but instead unfolding on the periphery of social life. In this OnCurating Issue, we searched for and researched projects and institutions that hold at their core something between the lines of centres–peripheries with their transversal practices and modus operandi. For many of our interview partners, the question of oppositionality is less important than the equal networking of their own artistic and curatorial practices in an interna- tional exchange, which is informed by the historical and local references of the particular place. These projects do not establish a distinction—aesthetically and personally; they open up to a broader public (and not only the “art insider”), and they relate to an embracing mode of encounters with “other” cultures, identities, and ideas, and present an inclusive gesture. Instead of voicing one view on the complex constellations of centres–peripheries in the arts, we have decided to propose different introductory statements to show the multifaceted approaches to this topic. *** Ronald Kolb If one still is able to speak about Centres and Peripheries today, it must clearly unfold through more complex constellations of power relations, situated knowledges, economic dependencies, expanded spatial dimensions that have long overcome regional and national borders, and states of thought and practice, of solidification and ephemerality. Referring to the Centre–Periphery (or the Core–Periphery) model, one must be aware of its origins in economics: Centre–Periphery basically describes an (unequal) relationship between places. It is used as a spatial description of a relation between a so-called “advanced“ (or dominating) place and its allegedly “lesser developed“ (or serving) periphery. In this model, the centre is the place of power (of law, of trade, of military force) and is a door to the rest of the world. The periphery is a remote, rural place, and it delivers raw materials, food, and other resources to the centre under the condition of exploitation. The centre provides goods and ”superior“ products. This relation is described as exploitative in the Marxist tradition: from a global point of 3 Issue 41 / June 2019 Editorial Centres ⁄ Peripheries – Complex Constellations view, so-called underdeveloped countries (the periphery) have to be kept in depend- ency to Wealthy States (the Core or the Centre). “According to the centre–periphery model, underdevelopment is not the result of tradition, but is produced as part of the process necessary for the function of accelerated capitalism in the central capitalist countries—and its continued reproduction on a world scale.”1 However, conveyed within an art discourse, this relationship has already been thoroughly scrutinized, questioned, and turned upside down. The publication Im Zentrum der Peripherie (In the Centre of the Periphery), published by Marius Babias in 1995, described the art discourse of the 1990s. The preface addresses the historical political context—the consequences of the end of the Cold War, and the dissolution of the binary world order in West and East and the associated delay in the complexification of geopolitical and cultural relations worldwide—but at that time understandably it did this only from the point of view of the European (decidedly German) and US American perspectives. Centre–Periphery is understood here as the relationship between the “autonomous artistic proposition” (“künstlerische autonome Behauptung“) as the centre and an oppositional theory-based practice of discourse and mediation as the periphery.2 A postcolonial exhibition practice and theory conscious of geopolitical contexts came to light much later. Catherine David’s documenta X (1997) introduced an explicit political stance in art and exhibition practice on a big stage, placing the “100 Days - 100 Guests” talk format literally in the middle of the documenta hall. And with Docu- menta11 (2002) by the late Okwui Enwezor, art established itself beyond Western connoted genealogy and found its way into the larger art canon. documenta 14 (2017) lastly related to Nikos Papastergiadis’ concept of the “South,” which was outlined in the essay “What Is the South?”3 The “South” is not to be understood as a place, but as a “little public sphere” where dialogue and collaboration are still possible, absent from fragmentation and commercialisation. This concept shifts away from place and emphasises a mode of thinking and sharing. Papastergiadis conceives this “spherical concept” within a global network like this: “In the recent past it [the South] has been revived as a possible frame for representing the cultural context of not just regions that are geographically located in the South, but also those that share a common post-colonial heritage. […] In geopolitical terms the South is not confined to the southern hemisphere as it captures elements that are located on both sides of the equatorial divide. The only constant for those who identify with the concept of the South is a dual awareness that the Euro-American hegemony in global affairs has concentrated power in the North, and that survival requires a coordinated transnational response.”4 Following this line of thought, it may be no surprise that the next documenta is being directed by the community-based Indonesian collective Ruan Grupa with a decisively discursive practice. Their first statement addressed a globally oriented art and culture platform declared an aim to “focus