Fear for Contemporary Art
In september 2010 I visited ART FORUM Berlin, an International Art fair where some of the most acknowledged galleries present “the best of the best” from their stack of artists. But my oh my! Everything was installed so tightly that the works could barely breathe. This is the place to experience art reduced to commodity.
Me, at the Art Forum Berlin 2010. Photo: Rasmus Hungnes.
I was explained that the Art Forum is not an art exhibition. The purpose of this particular circus is getting to know the galleries. That doesn’t justify the lack of innovative presentation strategies though. Only a few of the galleries had interesting curatorial solutions adjusted to the context (for instance Galleri ARNDT showing works of Ralf Ziervogel and Team Gallery with works of Gardar Eide Einarsson). But then, most galleries are no more than exhibition booths surrounded by white walls. No wonder it’s hard to differentiate one from another.
- Me, standing in front of (between?) works by Ralf Ziervogel at the ART FORUM BERLIN 2010. Photo: Rasmus Hungnes.
Disillusioned with the art market, I consulted a Berlin resident and fellow artist, who advised me to visit the BERLINER LISTE 2010, with the justification of it being the complete opposite of Art Forum. I did not know what to expect, but I was to regret it. The french philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote “Hell is other people” (“L’enfer, c’est les autres”), but I suspect Hell is Berliner Liste: a nightmare of labyrinths filled with kitschy, amateur works, claustrophobically mounted. The experience was so grotesque and horribly depressing that I could just as well have thrown myself and the admission fee (10 Euros) into the Spree river.
Fortunately I didn’t; instead I concluded that:
- Profesionnal art fairs such as Art Forum Berlin are depressing, but there are actually much worse ones, such as amateur “art” fairs such as the Berliner Liste
- I cannot tell you what art is exactly - but I’m more aware of what it isn’t
- Berliner Liste 2010: Fear for Contemporary Art and Photography. My friend Rasmus Hungnes and I felt obliged to modify the poster just a little bit.
- Note: This post was originally published in Norwegian on www.ellenringstad.blogspot.com on 09.10.2010, available from URL: http://ellenringstad.blogspot.com/2010/10/fear-for-contemporary-art.html. Translated by Ellen Ringstad.
I Know That You Know Nothing About Art
I found this striking accusation whilst roaming the streets of Berlin, in an area especially overpopulated by galleries, so I had to document it. It must be intended for those who believe they have the answer to what art is, how it is supposed to look like, and how it must be presented. Needless to say (but I will anyway) – I liked it a lot.
Photo: Ellen Ringstad
Beginnings
“A bad beginning makes a bad ending”
- Euripides (486 BC- 406 BC), Aegus
Some weeks ago I had the idea of starting up a blog, the main purpose being honesty and openness around my artistic working process, no matter how stupid, immature or irrelevant the ideas, because I believe that a work of art is the sum of its processes and not only the end result.
When we visit a gallery, what we often see is an artistic product. It’s been developed, and thoroughly thought through (The Three Ts). In essence it is not so different from any other ordinary/extraordinary product. Many artists, including myself, don’t like to think of art as a product. We like to differentiate ourselves as sceptics by staying “true”, “idealistic” and “uncommercial” (which really means “we don’t sell ourselves cheap”).
The term “product” can give associations to pejorative terms such as “capitalism”, “marketing”, “consumerism”, “mass-consumption”, “industrialisation”, “pollution”, “third world exploitation”, “depletion of natural resources”, “global warming/climate changes”, etc, perhaps explaining why we don’t like art products. According to the guru of marketing, Phillip Kotler, a product is “anything that is offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a need. Products include more than just tangible goods. Broadly defined, products include physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations, ideas or mixes of these entities”
So when “art” ends up in a gallery, it is – let’s just call a spade for a spade – a product. It may not always be for sale, but it has a purpose. Which purpose? – Now that is up to the viewer – you – to decipher. But don’t ever forget that someone is trying to pitch you something, be it an aesthetic ideal, a political message, a theoretical conviction, a transcendental experience… The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
“People who live in society have learned to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. Is that why my flesh is naked? You might say – yes you might say, nature without humanity… Things are bad! Things are very bad: I have it, the filth, the Nausea”
— Jean-Paul Sartre. Nausea. 1964 edition, p 29
Lately I’ve been feeling nauseous. In Jean-Paul Sartres novel Nausea, the main character writes: “nothing seemed true; I felt surrounded by cardboard scenery which could quickly be removed…”
I recognize this anxiety. I’ve had it before. I have it again.
Let me offer a small personal chronology of events. In 1999 I started my studies of marketing at the Norwegian School of Management BI/Norwegian School of Marketing NMH. After four years I broke off my studies. I got the nausea: starting off as light prickles in the skin the first semester, spreading to the pit of my stomach until one day I could no longer set foot in the school building. But there was no escape. The filth was everywhere: in the streets, newspapers, television, movies, people, in my cupboard, in my refrigerator, in me: surrounded and engulfed by superficiality there is no place to breathe. I sought refuge in art but I should have foreseen that running away never solves anything, for unresolved issues always come back to haunt you. Superficiality is as valid in the art world as anywhere else.
Now, superficiality is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s honest. It is deceitful however claiming something is more than it really is. Marketers are exceptionally gifted in devising rhetorical methods in order to sell products. For instance: hide your flaws – “you’re worth it”, drunks give you – “absolut truth”. Artists learn a vocabulary to devise sensual rhetorics (look! Listen! Taste! Touch! Smell!), strategies on how to talk about and present their art, building their image to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. It’s all marketing to sell yet another product.
Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Illusions lose its magic once the tricks are revealed. Artists hide their process to create mystery around their artworks. We all need an occasional escape to Neverland. It’s entertainment – fine! But be skeptic of anyone claiming aboslute truth, no matter the packaging.
I was planning on publishing a manifesto, a sort of purpose statement, as the number one post for this blog. It’s not finished yet. I’ve been hatching little devious strategies on how to word my manifest as efficiently as possible. But I realised the manifest might just as well be the end product, to convince you of my artistic viewpoints. That is why I’ll just end this thread, or rather begin, by quoting the science fiction novelist Frank Herbert
“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand”
This blog comes with an artistic intent. This is my disclaimer.
Sources:
-
Cohen, Leonard. 1988. “Everybody Knows” from the album I’m Your Man. Columbia Records.
-
Herbert, Frank. Quoted in Quotationspage.com. Available from URL: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/26173.html [Downloaded 2011-01-06]
-
Kotler, Phillip, Gary Armstrong, John Saunders and Veronica Wong. 1999. Principles of Marketing, Second European edition. New Yersey: Prentice Hall.
-
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Nausea. 1964 edition. Quoted in Wikipedia.org. Nausea (novel). 2011. Available from URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel) [Downloaded 2011-01-06]
