Social Practice

Regine Debatty, editor of We-Make-Money-Not-Art, flexes her interviewing skills once again. This summer, she’s posted insightful dialogs with a range of Social Practitioners.

Most recently, she discussed art and activism with the The Institute for Applied Autonomy. Because the group works anonymously, it’s not clear if the questions were answered collectively, or by a single spokesperson. They raise interesting questions about the current shape and practicality of artistic resistance.

With Rogues Gallery, the robot overcame certain kinds of social conditioning not because of its mechanical capabilities but simply because it was seen as legitimate, based on the assumption that anyone possessing a robot represented some large research institution which probably had the “right” to spray its messages on public space, rather than simply being a couple of crazy people who built a machine in their garage. Imagine if we had tried the same experiment without a robot, using only a few cans of spraypaint – no one would have participated because the action would have been clearly understood as an illegal act of public defacement. [read the entire interview here]

WMMNA’s in-depth conversation with Christine Hill included some introspection on Hill’s recent book project, “Inventory: The Work Of Christine Hill And Volksboutique.” This weaves into a discussion on commerce, money, and the evolution of ‘Volksboutique’ (is it one large project? a series? a franchise?). And a little taste of Hill’s contribution to the Venice Biennale.

This idea of merging income and art occupations culminated with opening the Volksboutique-as-shop in 1996. It was a way of claiming autonomy. It both freed me from being anyone’s employee, and launched me straight into Proprietor-status, and it absolved me from having to rely on the art system to provide me with an audience. It allowed me to build a base of operations, and work from it, which is a device I’ve held onto over years.[read the entire interview here]

Also of interest was a shorter conversation with Mark Tribe about the ‘Port Huron Project’ in which protest speeches from the New Left movements of the 60’s and 70’s are re-enacted at the original site.

We protest the war in Iraq, or the WTO, but it’s hard to imagine that we could really change things in a radical way: put an end to the military industrial complex, replace consumer capitalism with another form of economy, or achieve true democracy. Back then, people seemed to be able to imagine a radically different future. I think it’s vitally important that we recapture some of that utopian spirit. [read the entire interview here]

The semester is drawing to a close, and the first group of students who entered into the Social Practices program are now graduating! Congratulations of course are in order to Jen Durban, Carly troncale, Bridget Barnhart, Amanda Herman and Anne Devine. Watch for future posts detailing a PDF book that was produced to give an overview of the work they made while in the program.
There has been a lot of interest and excitement about the incoming group for fall of 2007. Not only will it be the first group to fully step into the new curriculum and the workshop, but it is the largest group we have admitted (7 people). I will be posting images, links and project descriptions for the various people over the next few posts, starting with links to pre-existing websites.

Welcome to Forrest Lewinger, Lynne Mccabe, Anthony Marcellini, Boris Chesakov, Matthew Rana, Ella Watson and Piero Passacantando.

Links to websites and project information:

Ella Watson: Ella Watson videos
Matthew Rana: matthewrana.net, Guerre Atelier Website

Anthony Marcellini : portfolio download
Also It Can Change Website

For the Dale Sko Hack, Otto von Busch initiated a workshop for factory workers and designers at the Dale shoe factory. This activity brought together people intimately tied to the physical prodection of style with those responsible for the aesthetic prodection of style. The discussion centered around questioning and redefining the process of manufacture. They concluded that “. . . we must find ways to use the existing manual craft skills better in the design, find non-linear ways to operate production that creates more interesting results and narratives” (via wmmna interview). Not only have the results of this dialogue recieved the critical attention of the international fashoin community, but shoe factory is sustantially restructuring and reforming their production. They also produced a download-able book [PDF] documenting the project.

Otto von Busch sees his practice as similar to ‘hacking’ or heretical thinking:

“Modifying and breaking into systems to alter them, injecting micropolitical will into the channels and flows of the system. But they do not oppose the inherent power or code processing of that system. This is what makes hackers similar to heretics; they oppose the hierarchical role of the interpreter, administrator, or author, but not the power itself – code or faith. The heretic is not an atheist, but someone hacking the institutional and hierarchical interpretation of the faith. Like the hacker, modder, or tinkerer the heretic is keeping the power on, not renouncing or opposing the core or energy of a system.” (also via wmmna interview)

Von Busch and his partner, Evren Uzer, constitute the group “roomservices.” Currently they are working on a two part workshop/conference called “epicenter/periphery.” These events will consider the “exploration, mapping, and building of rural conditions for embracing creativity.” Epicenter/periphery will take place consecutively in June and October 2007; the workshop will take place in 14-21 June 2007 and the conference will be realized in 18-21 October 2007, in Dale Norway in collaboration with Nordic Artists’ Center- NKD and United World College in Fjaler.

If one thing is clear, it’s that Mircea Cantor likes his art history. As a Romanian artist (currently based in Paris), he left home eight years ago hitchhiking across europe with a blank sign (implying that he had no destination and was willing to travel anywhere). Adding to the Beuys-ian echos is a piece from 2005, “Deeparture,” a film documenting the uneasy circling of a wolf and a deer trapped together in a gallery space. Going even further back through art history is the cheeky photograph of discarded urinals titled “I shot this image because it is highly suggestive within a specific circle.
Perhaps his most interesting art historical repurposing happens in “The landscape is changing,” in which Smithson’s mirror displacement becomes a vehicle for protest. The documentation of this event (2003) reveals demonstrators marching through the capital of Albania with mirrors in the place of traditional slogans on their picket signs.

His show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art just came down, and back in December, 1995 Frieze did a small write up on some recent work.
He’s also the co-editor of Version Magazine.

Dave Beech presents an alternate take on some of Nicolas Bourriaud’s theories:

Postproduction does not match the emphasis on cultural contestation and collaborative independence that is so conspicuous in the networks and projects of the new socially oriented artists. True, Bourriaud argues that “art can be a form of using the world”, but when it comes to the details, Bourriaud converts these social events back into those of an encounter “between the artist and the one who comes to view the work”. His new artist is a ’semionaut’ (the DJ, the programmer, the web surfer), whose ‘collaborations’ with the social world are reduced to exchanges of signs.

. . .

We are not semionauts; we are, if anything, socionauts. Socially oriented artists do not demonstrate any inclination today to reduce social encounters to semiotic encounters. At the same time, such social encounters are not typically those between an artist and a viewer mediated by the object that is made by the former for the visual pleasure of the latter. If the contemporary artist contests culture by, among other things, contesting the role of the artist, then it follows that the contemporary artist contest culture by contesting the modes of attention of the viewer (the artist’s traditional collaborator). In fact, contemporary artists seem to be in the process of converting the viewer into a doer, an active participator in the events and actions set up by the socionaut. (excerted from “Independent Collaborative Hospitality“)

Last summer, Galería de la Raza (located in the Mission area of San Francisco) installed a street-level billboard/mural featuring two images from Dulce Pinzón’s photo series, “Superheros.” Each photograph depicts a Mexican immigrant worker in New York doing their job in an off-the-shelf superhero costume. The Hulk unloads produce from a truck, Batman drives a taxi, and Catwoman takes care of her employer’s children. The superhero’s name, home town, and the monthly amount of money they send home captions each photograph.

During last year’s Conflux festival in New York, Mushon Zer-Aviv presented the collaborative project “You Are Not Here,” an “urban tourism mash-up” allowing participants to explore Bagdad while walking around the streets of New York City. Now, he’s working with Kati London, Thomas Duc, and Dan Phiffer (some of the original collaborators on “You Are Not Here”) to put together a similar experience for two cities that are geographically much closer. Participants will be able to walk through the streets of Gaza while physically in Tel-Aviv.

He has also been collaborating with Dan Phiffer on ShiftSpace, an open source project that attempts to do with the web, what “You Are Not Here” does with New York. They have built (are building) tools to allow a second layer to be created on top of the current world wide wibe that we see with our regular web browsers. Inspired in part by the democracy of Wikipedia, they want to give the entire web a layer that is editable by anyone. This project arose from their

[concern] about the main paradigm of the web, namely privatization. While the discourse about the web is full of superlatives implying freedom and sharing, we find ourselves constantly bouncing into new walls and boundaries online. The web is built as a huge set of private spaces - while the internet protocol is indeed distributed, the DNS (Domain Name System) protocol is totally centralized - meaning the control of the page content (no matter how interactive or web 2.0-ish it is) always in the hands of a single private power holder.We are trying to challenge this approach and make a point by not just questioning the web’s power structures, but prove that we can build an interesting and useful tool. ShiftSpace is an open source platform for the social extensions of websites. It is if you will, a transparent layer above any website where users can leave notes, discuss, protest, create art, and deeply explore the interactive potential of the web. (via an interview with Regine Debatty)

German artist, Anke Heelemann has opened a shop dedicated to archiving and presenting personal photographs that have wandered astray from their original owners to be rediscovered in junk-shops, on ebay and in flea markets.

The FOTOTHEK presents analog imagery of anonymous past lifes. By showing private moments which are no longer remembered, the photographs lose their function as an individual source of memory. The project questions the potential value of these pictures outside of their original context. As the image-material will be reprocessed and reused, it exercises image recycling in order to visualise the narrative, aesthetic and cultural dimension of such images.

As a public space, the FOTOTHEK extends an invitation to everyone who wants to experience the large collection of found photographs. In addition to the ever-changing presentation of the collection, the shop makes various offers with the private image. Although the pictures themselves are not for sale, the shop provides services such as the transmission of image messages, the adoption or rental of photographs. (via the FOTOTHEK blog)

Apparently adopting photos has been quite popular:

Some 100 people have already signed up. “Adoptees” include a picture of a silhouette of a nude woman made out of wire hanging on the wall next to a rubber plant, considered a petty-bourgeois icon in Germany. Another one depicts a group of people and has been dedicated by the adopter to one man, whose head has been cut off in the photograph. There’s a picture of an East German Trabant car chosen by a visitor as a present to his father, who used to drive one just like it. (via Deutsche Welle)

New Work: Sylvie Blocher

Friday, February 23, 2007 - Sunday, May 13, 2007French artist Sylvie Blocher has been working on her Living Pictures video series since 1992. This ongoing project is made up of multiple site-specific video installations. Each work follows a basic format: the artist recruits volunteers through classified ads and other postings, then conducts filmed interviews with these subjects. Editing the videos into a compilation, Blocher creates a group portrait out of individual encounters. Her interviewing technique opens up possibilities for personal response and reflection and touches on issues such as immigration, privacy, memory, and the authority of the artist. This exhibition features Living Pictures/Je et Nous, a 2003 project in which Blocher filmed volunteers wearing T-shirts printed with statements they had written. In addition, it includes a new San Francisco-based installment of Living Pictures, commissioned by SFMOMA.

MEMBER EVENTSPreviews and Events for New Work: Sylvie Blocher, Picasso and American Art, and Brice Marden
Members are invited to take a first look at New Work: Sylvie Blocher, Picasso and American Art, and Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings at special events before the exhibitions open to the public. The member evening reception features refreshments and entertainment, while the daytime preview offers private access to the exhibition galleries.Member Preview and Reception
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
6:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Artist’s Circle and Director’s Circle members
7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. upper-level members
8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. general members
Museum-wide

Member Preview Day
Thursday, February 22, 2007
11:00 a.m. - 8:45 p.m.
All members
Fourth- and fifth-floor galleries

Watch your mailbox for an invitation.

Also in conjunction with Brice Marden and Picasso and American Art

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Lecture Series
Artist Talk: Sylvie Blocher
Sylvie Blocher, artist
February 22, 2007
6:15 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater
One of France’s most notable multimedia artists, Blocher produces site-specific installations that explore concepts of otherness, authority, representation, memory, and the political responsibility of art. By interviewing strangers and compiling group portraits from the individual encounters, Blocher encourages different ways of viewing and understanding the world. She will discuss her ongoing video series Living Pictures as well as the new work commissioned by SFMOMA on view in the galleries.Free with Museum admission.

Ami Sioux, a French photographer, has a new book called REYKJAVIK 64°08N 21°54W. It’s the first in a five-part series (Berlin, Paris, London, and New York to follow) of what she calls “personal city guides.” For this project, she asked friends and acquaintances (fifty in all) to draw a map for her to get to a place that has personal meaning or significance to them. She pairs these hand-drawn maps with photographs of the destination represented on the map. Unlike Stanley Brouwn, she doesn’t re-stamp these drawings as her own (besides publishing them in a book with her name on the cover). The obvious care and effort present in many of the maps tells a story not only about the place, but about her relationship with the cartographer. Unlike a “This Way Brouwn” these maps are not only drawing in the minds of their commissioners, they are also drawings in the minds of their creators. This fundamental difference changes the power structure of the exchange. It makes Ami Sioux’s project less of a conceptual exercise, and opens the door to collaboration.