26.12.10
Ai Weiwei in the wall street journal
http://www.metropolism.com/fresh-signals/ai-weiwei-in-the-wall-street-jou-1/
11/02/2010
By AI WEIWEI
China may have become the second-biggest economy in the world, but its political system remains stuck in the early 20th century. Even as Chinese people's horizons are broadening, the government clings to a one-party ideology that is hostile to personal freedom. Technology is making possible greater expression and political participation, but that has only prompted the authorities to work harder to stifle these impulses.
All this makes Google's decision to stop censoring to protect its China operations especially significant. First, it is encouraging for the Chinese people to see that a leading Internet company recognizes that censorship is a violation of basic human rights and values. Such controls damage the core ethos underpinning the Internet.
To stand up and speak out in a society in which those values are under constant attack requires courage and deserves moral support. Politicians and enterprises should not trade those basic rights for profits, because any short-term deal will only lead to long-term losses.
In several cases the judicial system has used information from an accused person's email as evidence of attempting to overthrow the government. This is a clear case showing how an authoritarian state can use technology not to benefit social life and improve political participation, but rather to violate the privacy of individuals and control their thinking, communication and expression.
From last October, I found that two of my Gmail accounts were being hacked by unknown intruders, and my Gmail messages were being automatically transferred to an unknown address. Other activists have reported the same intrusions to their Gmail accounts.
Most discouraging to those of us who are fighting for increased freedom is the tendency for developed nations to lower the bar to please China. They make excuses not to concern themselves with violations of human rights. To espouse universal values and then blind oneself to China's active hostility to those values is irresponsible and naïve.
When American officials come to China with a pretty smile and the soft tone of a so-called "friendly gesture," this only tells us how fragile and vulnerable these moral standards can be. It makes the people still in the struggle feel disappointed.
In recent months China has tightened its censorship over every medium, from the Internet to the mainstream media to instant messaging over mobile phones. This is the mark of a government that has lost confidence in its own ideology and is nervous about its power to control its own people. Stopping the free exchange of information ultimately hampers economic growth and opportunity, which is the Chinese government's main claim to legitimacy. The question then is how a state based on limiting information flows and freedom of speech can remain powerful. And if it can, what kind of monster it will become.
Mr. Ai is a Beijing-based artist and activist.
23.12.10
Tate
http://aiweiwei.tate.org.uk/content/635326970001
For Ai Weiwei, voicing opinions and communicating with one another is of great importance.
From October 2010 to May 2011, visitors to Sunflower Seeds can record a video; either asking him their question or answering one from him. All the videos will appear here and Ai Weiwei will respond to a selection of questions.
Gabriel Orozco at Tate Modern: the curator’s blog | Tate Blog
Gabriel Orozco at Tate Modern: the curator’s blog | Tate Blog
Gabriel Orozco
19 January – 25 April 2011
Creative, playful and inventive, Gabriel Orozco creates art in the streets, his apartment or wherever he is inspired. Born in Mexico but working across the globe, Orozco is renowned for his endless experimentation with found objects, which he subtly and playfully alters.
His sculptures, often made of everyday things that have interested him, reveal new ways of looking at something familiar. A skull with a geometric pattern carefully drawn onto it, a classic Citroën DS car which the artist sliced into thirds, removing the central part to exaggerate its streamlined design, and a scroll filled with numbers cut out of a phone book are just some of his unique sculptures.
Orozco’s photos are also on display, capturing the beauty of fleeting moments: water collecting in a punctured football, tins of cat food arranged on top of watermelons in a supermarket, or condensed breath disappearing from the surface of a piano show Orozco’s eye for simple but surprising and powerful images.
His art also shows his fascination with game-playing, for example a billiard table with no pockets and a pendulum-like hanging ball, or Knights Running Endlessly, an extended chess board filled with an army of knights, both of which are well-known games to which he has added an element of futility. This kind of unexpected twist makes Orozco’s work interesting to both contemporary art lovers and also anyone who wants an unusual and captivating art experience.
Global exhibition sponsor: Fundación Televisa and the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), Mexico.
19.12.10
Wang Du
Par la suite, Wang Du s’est consacré aux événements les plus sensationnels relayés par les médias, principalement ceux relevant du star system de la culture populaire, mais aussi ceux appartenant aux conflits géopolitiques. Il poursuit sa collecte d’images provenant de supports médiatiques variés pour en faire de grands collages. Ces images assemblées, allant de la banale anecdote à l’événement politique capital, de l’histoire vraie à la fiction, deviennent à leur tour les scénarii, voire les encyclopédies, d’un monde « réinventé » par le biais des médias eux-mêmes. Le travail de Wang Du, s’il est ouvertement provocateur, n’est pas moins amusant et visuellement rafraîchissant, que ce soit en termes de contenu – les images qu’il choisit pour constituer ses collages du monde médiatique – ou en termes de formes – le vocabulaire sculptural, l’échelle et la disposition dans l’espace, etc. Dans cette tension entre provocation et divertissement, on peut sentir une claire méfiance envers les relations artificielles entre image et sens tel qu’elles sont propagées par les médias, afin d’exercer leur pouvoir hégémonique.
Cette méfiance révèle une position tout aussi ouvertement provocatrice et avant-gardiste qui ne risque certainement pas d’être accusée de « politiquement correct.
Texte de Hou Hanru tiré de Wang Du Magazine « Je veux être un média »
10.12.10
7.12.10
17.11.10
14.11.10
12.11.10
6.11.10
4.11.10
30.10.10
25.10.10
22.10.10
BORIS GROYS/about mass production, copy and paste and 'the working body' today...
Boris Groys
Marx After Duchamp, or The Artist’s Two Bodies
And that is precisely what hundreds of millions of people around the world do every day in the context of contemporary media. As masses of people have become well informed about advanced art production through biennials, triennials, Documentas, and related coverage, they have come to use media in the same way as artists. Contemporary means of communication and social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter offer global populations the ability to present their photos, videos, and texts in ways that cannot be distinguished from any post-Conceptualist artwork. And contemporary design offers the same populations a means of shaping and experiencing their apartments or workplaces as artistic installations. At the same time, the digital “content” or “products” that these millions of people present each day has no direct relation to their bodies; it is as “alienated” from them as any other contemporary artwork, and this means that it can be easily fragmented and reused in different contexts. And indeed, sampling by way of “copy and paste” is the most standard, most widespread practice on the internet. And it is here that one finds a direct connection between the quasi-industrial practices of post-Duchampian art and contemporary practices used on the internet—a place where even those who do not know or appreciate contemporary artistic installations, performances, or environments will employ the same forms of sampling on which those art practices are based. (And here we find an analogy to Benjamin’s interpretation of the public’s readiness to accept montage in cinema as having been expressed by a rejection of the same approach in painting).
Read furher
Marx After Duchamp, or The Artist’s Two Bodies
And that is precisely what hundreds of millions of people around the world do every day in the context of contemporary media. As masses of people have become well informed about advanced art production through biennials, triennials, Documentas, and related coverage, they have come to use media in the same way as artists. Contemporary means of communication and social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter offer global populations the ability to present their photos, videos, and texts in ways that cannot be distinguished from any post-Conceptualist artwork. And contemporary design offers the same populations a means of shaping and experiencing their apartments or workplaces as artistic installations. At the same time, the digital “content” or “products” that these millions of people present each day has no direct relation to their bodies; it is as “alienated” from them as any other contemporary artwork, and this means that it can be easily fragmented and reused in different contexts. And indeed, sampling by way of “copy and paste” is the most standard, most widespread practice on the internet. And it is here that one finds a direct connection between the quasi-industrial practices of post-Duchampian art and contemporary practices used on the internet—a place where even those who do not know or appreciate contemporary artistic installations, performances, or environments will employ the same forms of sampling on which those art practices are based. (And here we find an analogy to Benjamin’s interpretation of the public’s readiness to accept montage in cinema as having been expressed by a rejection of the same approach in painting).
Read furher
21.10.10
17.10.10
16.10.10
Copy the helmet of Darth Vader (Michael Rakowitz)
Darth Vader and Star Wars inspired Saddam Hussein Iraq army.
14.10.10
no more excuses
gesprekken over het publiceren van artistiek onderzoek
Maurizio Nannucci (°Firenze, 1939) is een pionier van de concrete en visuele poëzie.
Vanuit zijn thuisbasis Firenze onderhoudt hij sinds 1967 contacten met de internationale neo-avant-garde, en dit ondermeer via zijn alternatieve uitgeverij Exempla Editions, die de basis vormde voor de kunstenaarsgroep Zona en de Zona Archives, een omvangrijk archief van kunstenaarspublicaties en multipels. No More Excuses is Nannucci’s bijdrage aan de gesprekken die Track Report. Cahier voor artistiek onderzoek van de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, organiseert.
Vanuit zijn thuisbasis Firenze onderhoudt hij sinds 1967 contacten met de internationale neo-avant-garde, en dit ondermeer via zijn alternatieve uitgeverij Exempla Editions, die de basis vormde voor de kunstenaarsgroep Zona en de Zona Archives, een omvangrijk archief van kunstenaarspublicaties en multipels. No More Excuses is Nannucci’s bijdrage aan de gesprekken die Track Report. Cahier voor artistiek onderzoek van de Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, organiseert.
Beleidsvoerders, docenten en onderzoekers aan de kunsthogescholen hebben al een tijd de mond vol van onderzoek in de kunst. Het ‘ontsluiten’ van de onderzoeksresultaten vormt een belangrijk aspect.
Dat gebeurt ondermeer via periodieke publicaties, tijdschriften en onderzoekscahiers.
Dat gebeurt ondermeer via periodieke publicaties, tijdschriften en onderzoekscahiers.
Maar hoe relevant zijn deze publicaties eigenlijk voor de hedendaagse kunst en het onderzoek in de kunst? Fungeren zij als artistiek platform of enkel als (zelf)promotie? Vervullen zij hun rol als snijpunt van praktijk en reflectie? Hoe verhouden zij zich tot de rijke traditie van neo-avantgarde kunstenaarspublicaties?
Deze en andere vragen komen aan bod op het panelgesprek dat Track Report naar aanleiding van het verschijnen van drie nieuwe nummers (door Johan Swinnen, Lieven Segers, Mark Luyten, Arthur Cools & Nico Dockx) organiseert. In de context daarvan stelden kunstenaar Nico Dockx en kunsthistoricus Johan Pas een tentoonstelling samen met inspirerende periodieke kunstenaarspublicaties van de laatste vijf decennia.
28 oktober 2010,
opening expo 17h, gesprekken 18h
Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerpen (aula Pand / Wintertuin)
Voorstelling TR10/01 (Johan Swinnen), TR10/02 (Arthur Cools, Nico Dockx & Mark Luyten), TR10/03 (Lieven Segers)
moderatie: Thomas Crombez
Panelgesprek: Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Luc Derycke, Nico Dockx, Wilfried Huet, Els Roelandt en Boy Vereecken
(moderator: Johan Pas)
12.10.10
11.10.10
8.10.10
6.10.10
statistics on our blog
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5.10.10
MDD - too too much much / Thomas Hirschhorn
Thomas Hirschhorn over het project TOO TOO – MUCH MUCH:
« Too Too – Much Much is een werk dat mijn richtlijn ‘Energy : Yes ! Quality : No !’ volgt. Er zijn twee ‘topics’ in dit werk. De eerste is gelinkt aan het motief : de drankblikjes, de consumptie, het teveel terwijl de tweede topic verband houdt met de taak van de kunstenaar om altijd teveel te willen doen, om niet tot de essentie te komen, om integendeel voorbij te gaan aan de essentie, om werkelijk te veel te doen. Deze twee topics vinden elkaar – desalniettemin – in één vorm. De Vorm Too Too – Much Much. De vorm van dit werk is eveneens een manifest voor de bevestiging dat de kunstenaarspraktijk noch theorie, noch pure praktijk is. Het werk van de kunstenaar moet absoluut verder gaan dan de theorie en de praktijk. »
« Too Too – Much Much is een werk dat mijn richtlijn ‘Energy : Yes ! Quality : No !’ volgt. Er zijn twee ‘topics’ in dit werk. De eerste is gelinkt aan het motief : de drankblikjes, de consumptie, het teveel terwijl de tweede topic verband houdt met de taak van de kunstenaar om altijd teveel te willen doen, om niet tot de essentie te komen, om integendeel voorbij te gaan aan de essentie, om werkelijk te veel te doen. Deze twee topics vinden elkaar – desalniettemin – in één vorm. De Vorm Too Too – Much Much. De vorm van dit werk is eveneens een manifest voor de bevestiging dat de kunstenaarspraktijk noch theorie, noch pure praktijk is. Het werk van de kunstenaar moet absoluut verder gaan dan de theorie en de praktijk. »
1.10.10
artistic method (avantgarde?)
"We soon moved to the idea of a collective and magazine. We needed a name and found it by utilising the precedent of Dada i.e. by opening a dictionary at random."There my finger alighted on icteric - meaning jaundiced and a cure for jaundice. Undoubtedly a happy accident; a kind of objective chance. We took on board much of the anti-art aesthetic - the jaundiced; but also the idea of the curative; thus we could indulge the luxury of continuing to make art.
See also earlier info on this link on our blog...
Uit Roy Hunt, Icteric and Poetry must be made by all / Transform the World: A note on a lost and suppressed avant-garde and exhibition.
See also earlier info on this link on our blog...
Uit Roy Hunt, Icteric and Poetry must be made by all / Transform the World: A note on a lost and suppressed avant-garde and exhibition.
30.9.10
uit (H) ART - hedendaagse chinese kunst in de jaren 80. Een geschenk uit de (Chinese) hemel
Het Asian Art Archive in Hongkong en het MOMA in New York sloegen de handen in elkaar voor een gigantisch prestigieus project dat momenteel wordt voorgesteld: de lancering van de website www.china1980s.org, met een boekpublicatie ‘Contemporary Chinese Art. Primary Documents' in een redactie van Wu Hung. Dat gaat gepaard met evenementen in Hongkong, Beijing, Shanghai en New York. Met dit project wordt voor het eerst op een gestructureerde manier materiaal ter beschikking gesteld over het ontstaan van de hedendaagse Chinese kunst in de jaren 1980.
further research
B O O K S
The success of this archive will depend on the extent of its usage. Therefore, we urge everyone — students, professional colleagues, enthusiasts and friends — to explore this website, visit our physical library in Hong Kong, and augment this resource with ideas, suggestions, new information and material. We are delighted to assist you in any way we can, and thank you very much in advance for your interest and guidance.
An archive is not static, and neither is this project. Opportunities to collect new material and to pursue new avenues of inquiry will continue to develop. But as we conclude this critical initial phase, we would like to acknowledge the generous support of a long list of valuable contributors without whom this project could not have come this far.
The success of this archive will depend on the extent of its usage. Therefore, we urge everyone — students, professional colleagues, enthusiasts and friends — to explore this website, visit our physical library in Hong Kong, and augment this resource with ideas, suggestions, new information and material. We are delighted to assist you in any way we can, and thank you very much in advance for your interest and guidance.
An archive is not static, and neither is this project. Opportunities to collect new material and to pursue new avenues of inquiry will continue to develop. But as we conclude this critical initial phase, we would like to acknowledge the generous support of a long list of valuable contributors without whom this project could not have come this far.
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