Kategori: Archive

On June 7, 1998, the Swedish section of AICA and Edsvik konst & kultur hosted a seminar, Translating Cultures, at the castle of Edsvik on the outskirts of Stockholm in connection with the Medialization exhibition, curated by Joseph Backstein and the BRUS exhibition with works by students at the Royal University of Fine Arts (Konsthögskolan) in Stockholm, curated by Tom Sandqvist

TRANSLATING CULTURES

STOCKHOLM
JUNE 7, 1998

On June 7, 1998, the Swedish section of AICA and Edsvik konst & kultur hosted a seminar, Translating Cultures, at the castle of Edsvik on the outskirts of Stockholm in connection with the Medialization exhibition, curated by Joseph Backstein and the BRUS exhibition with works by students at the Royal University of Fine Arts (Konsthögskolan) in Stockholm, curated by Tom Sandqvist. The seminar was co-arranged by the Swedish Broadcasting Company, the Arts Department, and by Partnership for Culture, initiated by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in close co-operation with the Ministry of Culture and the Swedish Institute, project manager Mika Larsson. The first step in this long-term governmental project was Shaking Hands & Making Conflicts, April 23 – 26, 1998, at Färgfabriken in Stockholm. The seminar at Edsvik has been recorded.

Moderator: Karsten Thurfjell, Stockholm, critic at the Swedish Broadcasting Company and board member of the Swedish AICA. Panelists: Joseph Backstein, Moscow, Disa Håstad, Stockholm, journalist at Dagens Nyheter and Margareta Tillberg, Stockholm, slavist, art historian and art critic. All the artists in the two exhibitions were invited as well as the public. Among the participants in the lively discussion can be mentioned the artists: Alexander Brener, Vienna, Caraggio, Olga Chernysheva, Moscow, Amsterdam, Christiane Dellbrügge, Berlin, Lev Evzovitch, AES, Kendell Geers, Johannesburg, Jårg Geismar, Dusseldorf, Róza El-Hassan, Budapest, Ralf de Moll, Berlin, Nedko Solakov, Sofia, Maciej Toporowicz, Poland, New York and Borut Vogelnik, IRWIN and further: Maria Fridh, Stockholm, Director of Edsvik konst & kultur, Sirje Helme, Director of Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Ando Keskküla, Rector at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn, Magnus af Petersens, Riksutställningar, Stockholm and Christian Chambert.

To start the discussion Irina Sandomirskaja, linguist from Moscow currently working in Stockholm had been invited to write ”The Fourth Power”: Mediating Between Global Interests and Local Myths. At the workshops during the lunch break we discussed, in connection to the text, questions as: ”Are the media the universal language of post modernity?”, ”What is the relationship between the globalized mass-cultural mainstream as represented in the media and the local knowledge concentrated in cultural traditions?” and ”Intervention of the media and the right to privacy.” Ralf de Moll didn’t want to talk about privacy any more. He felt it is an outdated moral attitude in a media time, when the outside comes inside.

Questions raised during the discussion in the auditorium were e.g.: What does the sudden medialization of Eastern Europe mean? and: What is a radical standpoint for an artist today in a medialized community? From a South African position Kendell Geers said that we, the artists, are always there, even if the media do not cover the artists’ work.

What is the changed role of the museum in the age of the new media? The site specific remarks, like many of the pieces in the Medialization exhibition, are influenced by the media and they are not done for the museums.

Karsten Thurfjell made a distinction between an art critic writing for the art pages and the news journalist writing for news media with a news angle. The approach is quite different. In the latter case the art work becomes the media coverage itself and the artist becomes an icon.

Many of the speakers commented on the ”scandalous” activities of Alexander Brener and Oleg Kulik at the Interpol show at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, some years ago, which is a very good example of an exhibition immediately being medialized, with reactions going on all through the art world for months after, in a way and to an extent, which was not possible with the so called scandals in the radical 1960s.

As a background to the two exhibitions and the seminar, Edsvik konst & kultur had commissioned some theoretical texts, which are available on the Internet, www.edsvikart.com Joseph Backstein The Fine Arts and the Phenomenon of Medialization, Boris Groys Media in the Museum/The Museum as Medium, Tom Sandqvist When the Ketchup Bottle Is Re-Presented: Art and Medialization and Michael Yampolsky Between the Immediate and the Mediated.

During the autumn of 1998, the Medialization exhibition has been shown in The Art Museum of Estonia in Tallinn. As a part of the Partnership for Culture project a seminar was organised on November 22 – 23, 1998, in Tallinn Action – Reflection Conference on Art, Culture and Social Action Strategies in New Mediaspace, with special emphasis on artists and critics particularly from the Baltic Sea countries, together with Belarus and the Ukraine. Organisers were Sirje Helme and Ando Keskküla.

Christian Chambert,

President AICA Sweden.

A biennial for cultural magazines took place in Stockholm May 7 – May 10, 1998, as a part of Stockholm as Cultural Capital of Europe 1998. During the biennial the Swedish AICA, in co-arrangement with Siksi, hosted a discussion with the title Art Magazines. Can You Trust Them?, which took place on May 8, in the auditorium of the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Stockholm.

ART MAGAZINES –
Can You Trust them?

STOCKHOLM
MAY 8, 1998

What is a good art magazine, what does it represent? The supply of art in the world has increased drastically. The globalisation and the medialization make us aware of what is going on on the international scene. How do the art magazines relate to this new situation? How develop new forms of publication, such as video and Internet magazines?

A biennial for cultural magazines took place in Stockholm, May 7 – May 10, 1998, as a part of Stockholm as Cultural Capital of Europe 1998. During the biennial the Swedish AICA, in co-arrangement with Siksi, hosted a discussion with the title Art Magazines. Can You Trust Them?, which took place on May 8, in the auditorium of the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Stockholm. The panel discussion was held in English and open for free to the public. The arrangement got financial support from the Swedish National Council for Culture. Editors of international as well as Scandinavian art magazines were invited to the panel.

Moderator: Joshua Decter, New York, contributor to Artforum, Siksi, Flash Art. Panelists: Sara Arrhenius, Stockholm, Index, art critic at Aftonbladet, Sarah Greenberg, London, The Art Newspaper, Helena Kontova, Milan, Flash Art, John Peter Nilsson, Stockholm, Siksi, Matthew Slotover, London, frieze. Further we invited editors of Swedish art magazines to take part in the discussion from the auditorium. Among the participants in the discussion were: Ximena Narea, Heterogénesis, Marie Johansson, S.cr.a.m., Anders Engman, Konsttidningen and Christian Chambert.

One of the questions during the afternoon was: What is the relation between advertisements and the editorial material ­ are there any secret agendas? Can you trust the magazine, when you realise that to a decisive extent it is supported financially by advertisers? Are art magazines, e.g. in the Nordic countries, which get substantial governmental funding, more trustworthy than magazines based on advertising and on subscriptions and on sale of single copies? Helena Kontova said that trust is a pathetic word, a little outdated. Sara Arrhenius continued by saying that identity is a very important aspect of trust in a magazine and Matthew Slotover talked about trusting somebody’s sensibility.

Joshua Decter took up the relation between the local and the international. How maintain the fine balance between subjective or individual sensibility, but also appeal to a broader readership in various countries? In the Nordic countries, as in many other regions in the world, writing for an international art magazine is a language problem. Many art magazines use post-colonial English as a language of communication. Index is bilingual, Swedish, English. Helena Kontova talked about the different editions of Flash Art. Ximena Narea told us about her magazine, Heterogénesis, which is bilingual, Spanish, Swedish.

John Peter Nilsson said that it is important, in our dense media climate, to support good, strong art writers and let them grow: ”Pay for articles not published.” Let a good writer shine through. A part of Nilsson’s credo as an editor is that an art magazine should take part in the formulating of a new vision of the globe and I think that we all agreed when he added: ”A good magazine should have a soul.”

Christian Chambert,

President AICA Sweden.