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Curating Resistances Crisis and the limits of the political turn in contemporary art biennials Panos Kompatsiaris PhD in Art University of Edinburgh 2015 ii Declaration This is to certify that that the work contained within has been composed by me and is entirely my own work. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed _____________________________________________________________ Panos Kompatsiaris iii iv Abstract Curating Resistances focuses upon the socially interventionist and activist agendas of two contemporary art biennials in Europe during and in response to the current economic crisis. This thesis seeks to untangle their tensions, conflicts and intimate socialities as they evolve against the backdrop of neoliberalism, austerity, crisis and the rise of Occupy cultures. Drawing upon primary ethnographic research on the 3rd Athens Biennale (2011) and the 7th Berlin Biennale (2012), as well as on the examination of curatorial, journalistic and archival documents, I argue for an approach that takes into consideration the threefold nature of these sites, as institutions, organizations and events. A central area of investigation is the post-1990s curatorial idea of strategically occupying the institution from within and mobilising it as a space of radical knowledge production. This idea gave rise to a model of exhibition-making, that I call the ‘discursive exhibition’, which shapes the vocabulary and forms of curating cultures at least since documenta X (1997). I argue that this model was challenged during the European crisis through the post-2010 art activism that brought ideas related to class, labour and the commons to the centre of debates on art and politics. Through their attempts to radicalise in response to such challenges, I argue that the two biennials I examine expose the limits of biennials as sites of activism and political resistance. In employing the research perspectives of place and translocality, terms borrowed from cultural geography, I argue that rather than imposing a global art language, biennials unfold through complex socio-spatial dynamics, manifesting a remarkable capacity to absorb, remediate and repurpose their surrounding environments. By discussing how a series of failed statements, border-crossings, internal conflicts, withdrawals, police interventions and press spectacles interconnect with the biennial’s organizational and institutional dynamics, this thesis navigates through the translocal tensions played upon the materiality, infrastructures and economies of curating resistances. v vi Acknowledgements This study has been made possible with the generous financial support of the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (I.K.Y.). I would like to enormously thank my two supervisors, Neil Mulholland and Angela McClanahan, for the invaluable guidance, attentiveness and inspiration they provided during these four years. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the two examiners of this thesis, Jean-Paul Martinon and Richard Baxstorm, who thoroughly read and commented on the submitted manuscript. Their feedback will be a strong reference point for any published material that will come out of this research in the future. There are a number of people whose contribution has been vital to the completion of this thesis. I would especially like to thank Angela Dimitrakaki for the constructive advice and direction throughout these years; Penny Travlou for the helpful suggestions in all theoretical and practical matters; Yiannis Mylonas for the extensive collaboration and fruitful discussions; Christos Papanikolaou, Kostas Venetis, Markos Katsianis and Irma for the spatial and spiritual backing during my fieldtrip in Athens; Vangelis Makrigiannakis and Beata Migut for being the kindest hosts and intellectual allies; Vassileia Stylianidou for the long and stimulating talks; Katerina Pantazi for the emotional support during the early phases of this dissertation. I am also extremely grateful to friends and colleagues with whom I had valuable theoretical exchange and debates over the years. In particular I want to thank Stergios Valioulis, Sylvia Gaetti, Nikos Kourampas, Magnus Lawrie, Evangelos Chrysagis, Georgia Axiotou, Georgios Papadopoulos, Vangelis Poulios, Xavier Contier, Mary Zygouri and Marios Chatziprokopiou. Also, Jenny Gypaki whose greatness and generosity will be missed. A special note should be made for all the cultural workers, artists and curators that agreed to talk with me during my fieldwork in Athens and Berlin. I am deeply grateful to my family. The unremitting encouragement and self-sacrifice of my father Christos Kompatsiaris, mother Vasiliki Tokmakidou and sister Kyveli Kompatsiari stood as a source of inspiration. vii Finally, this thesis could not reach its final form without the unfailing love, support and motivation of Hypatia Vourloumis who offered the most critical, thorough and caring advice throughout all the stages of this dissertation. This thesis has been immensely inspired by her courage and devotion to social change. viii Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………vii List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………..xiii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 PART I: THE BIENNIAL AND ITS OTHERS: CONTEXT AND FOCUS CHAPTER 1 WHY BIENNIAL? STAGES OF VALUE AND SOCIAL CRITIQUE ............................. 19 1.1 The predicaments of power and resistance .................................................................................19 1.2 Mediating values .........................................................................................................................25 1.3 The creative act of naming and the making of histories ...............................................................28 1.4 Performing social scripts ..............................................................................................................33 1.5 Biennial, labour and artistic subjectivity ......................................................................................36 CHAPTER 2 WHOSE BIENNIAL? : ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS ON BIENNIALS .................... 41 2.1 Complex interweaving .................................................................................................................41 2.2 Approaches on biennials .............................................................................................................43 2.2.1 Dismissive approach ....................................................................................................................... 45 2.2.2 Agonistic approach ......................................................................................................................... 48 2.2.3 Transversal approach ..................................................................................................................... 51 2.3 Toward an ethnographic reading of biennials as institutions, organisations and events..............54 2.3.1 Choosing ethnography ................................................................................................................... 54 2.3.2 Approaches on institutions, organisations and events .................................................................. 56 2.4 Fieldwork and research material .................................................................................................63 ix PART II: BIENNIALS AND SOCIAL INTERVENTION CHAPTER 3 THE DISCURSIVE EXHIBITION: SOCIAL VISIONS, CURATORIAL AUTHORSHIP AND DOCUMENTAS IN THE 1990S .............................................................................. 71 3.1. The discursive exhibition ............................................................................................................71 3.2 Vision in an expanded field ..........................................................................................................75 3.3 The Curator as Author .................................................................................................................81 3.4 Fragments of 1990s Documentas: Publications in Documenta 9 and X ........................................85 CHAPTER 4 THE BIENNIAL IN CRISIS? MAPPING FIELDS OF TENSION IN THE POST- RECESSION ART WORLD................................................................................................. 95 4.1 Challenging the priority of the discursive.....................................................................................95