Cultural bloggen

A reaction on the debate on blogging and art criticism, in Dutch

Door: Daphne Rieken

Kan bloggen kunstkritiek zijn?
Dat is de drijvende vraag achter het debat Cultural Blogging als kunstkritiek op Art Amsterdam. En de vraag die Ine Poppe als eerste spreker al in de voorstelronde van tafel veegt. “Het doet er niet toe, als het maar goed is.” Wanneer de grenzen in de kunst en wetenschap vervagen en interdisciplinair werken de norm wordt dan weet je dat andere concepten er ook aan moeten geloven. Kunstkritiek is al lang niet meer de recensie die in krant of tijdschrift verschijnt. Naast dat hier steeds minder ruimte voor is op de cultuurpagina’s, ontbreekt vaak iedere kritische noot en diepgang. Genres mogen dan vervagen deze twee elementen lijken me de fundamenten van iedere vorm van kunstkritiek. En om dit in veranderende kunstwereld zo goed te doen als Ine Poppe zou willen dan moeten er vele dingen samenkomen.
Het blog is hier wellicht de uitgelezen plek voor. Halverwege de jaren zeventig ontwikkelde de october group verschillende frames om de kunst te bestuderen. Vanuit een post-modernistisch wereldbeeld was het niet meer dan logisch om kunst niet langer in kunsthistorische lijnen te plaatsen, maar te benaderen vanuit verschillende (theoretische) kaders. Dus vormde bijvoorbeeld het formalisme of de psycho-analyse het uitgangspunt van waaruit kunst betekenis en gelaagdheid kreeg. De frames zijn inmiddels enigszins gedateerd, maar nog steeds van waarde voor wie nu nadenkt over kunstkritiek. Want binnen het zich steeds verder versnipperende kunstenveld (kenmerk van onze tijd op vele gebieden) zijn er plekken nodig waar al deze initiatieven betekenis krijgen en bekritiseerd worden. En dat gebeurt binnen zeer uiteenopende frames op het web.

Trends and Déja Vus

More than a thousand objects, thoughts, ideas, techniques, viewpoints and materials passed my retina during Art (in) Amsterdam. With this first post#AA11 post I’ll be a bit superficial in mentioning recurring themes, presentations and techniques.

Lightpaintings and moving paintings – actually they were respectively lightboxes or animations shown on monitors, mounted on the wall like a conventional framed piece. Sometimes very beautiful and mesmerizing like those of Eelco Brand (1, 2, 3) or plainly eyecatching like those of Davor Sanvincenti and Atladóttir & D‘Ors. Others were maybe not more than just another nice decorative lightsource, soon the be seen in rip-offs at Xenos or IKEA. (If you can’t wait, there’s always the exotic household store around the corner which sell lightbox waterfalls)

Where is the passion for art?

In this last post about the digitalization of the art world, we wanted to focus on the lack of experience in the virtual art fairs.

If you are an art collector, artist or just an art lover in general, going to art fairs might often leave you with a mixed feeling. The venue of a trade fair leaves its stamp on experiencing the works, which don’t always get the space and the light they need… and the food is never as good as what you get served in restaurants from gallery districts of London, Berlin or Paris. But all this is often compensated by the joy of seeing new work from one of your favorite artists, by having an inspiring conversation with a gallery owner or by running into fellow collectors. If a virtual art fair wants to compete with the vibrant atmosphere of its real-life counterpart (including the experience of a nice city trip), it needs to be more than just a website.

Most virtual art fairs have failed until today because they didn’t build upon a lively online community. The Art Amsterdam Online was hosted on Open Art Collection, the VIP Art Fair was a new platform. Both initiatives couldn’t benefit from an existing online community. We think that initiatives such as Independent Collectors or Welcome to Company who are today creating a community of art lovers, have more potential to become a market place later.

Long-distance picks: Tinkebell

While not being able to experience the art fair in real life this year, we were nevertheless following related online news and selected our favs purely virtually. Some “good ol’ image manipulation” compensated lack of original photos.
So here goes our Art Amsterdam pick nr 1:

Represented by Torch gallery, Tinkebell was one of the artists selected for “No Holds Barred”, series of 12 solo shows within the fair, where – as the name implies – all means were allowed. A theme that easily fits all Tinkebell’s work up to date, as her absurd, hilarious and thought-provoking projects pretty much all use extreme methods. Genius as they are, they’re also continuously misinterpreted, and needless to say that extreme measures bring extreme reactions (which she again makes good use of).  The most media-washed are her projects involving animals. Tinkebell’s message is very direct, but the incapability or a denial of plenty of general public to “get it” speaks for everything.

For her solo at No Holds Barred, Tinkebell prepared a fabulous presentation “On Amy Taxidermy – From a True Fan”, featuring photos and objects related to this truly fascinating young lady from North Carolina. Wow, Tinkebell, wish we’ve found her first!!!

Babbeltjes en dingen

YASMIJN JARRAM

 

“Mooi hoor, zo’n kunstbeurs. Je ziet er veel – veel kunst, veel bezoekers en veel incrowd. Maar wie wil weten wat kunst in onze tijd werkelijk te zeggen heeft, moet de context zoeken van museum en tentoonstelling.” Zo besluit Anna Tilroe haar artikel over de kunstbeurs als ‘uitstalkast’ in de special van De Groene Amsterdammer. Tilroe verwoordt precies mijn eigen gevoel bij een beurs als Art Amsterdam. Kunstbeurzen vormen (steeds meer) een belangrijk onderdeel van de culturele infrastructuur. Wie op de hoogte wil blijven van met name het galeriewezen, ontkomt niet aan een regelmatige rondgang langs witte kubussen. Dus ook ik toog dit jaar weer naar de immer sfeervolle RAI, die vijf dagen lang dienst doet als artistiek winkelcentrum – met winkeliers die hun toeschietelijkheid niet zelden afstemmen op de vermeende koopkracht van het flanerende publiek.

 

Een kunstbeurs staat in het teken van verkoop, waardoor het maken van kunstinhoudelijke statements niet echt relevant is. Het geheel doet dan ook veilig en behouden aan. Om toch enige ruimte aan artistiek experiment te bieden is er No Holds Barred, een afdeling waaraan twaalf geselecteerde kunstenaars bijdragen leverden. Vele hiervan blijken zeer de moeite waard, zoals de boot met verhalende filmbeelden en ingesproken dagboekflarden van Jetske Verhoeven (PARC Editions), de door Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya verzamelde kledingstukken van Russiche arbeidersvrouwen (White Space Gallery) en de voetballers op een verlaten rangeerterrein in de video van Simon Gush (West).

Why are virtual art fairs failing?

We ended our last post about digitalization of the art world with 2 images which illustrate quite well what’s going on. The first – a screenshot of Jan Hoet’s profile on the Open Art Collection – was… empty. Although a member since 2010, Jan Hoet has 0 friends, 0 galleries, 0 collectors and artists linked to him on the platform. What a contrast with his offline address book, probably one of the most valuable items in Belgian art world and beyond. The second screenshot –  a tweet from @artamsterdam about the first sale on the virtual art fair – shows how painfully underperforming this platform is (first sale on Saturday, while fair was open from Wednesday).

So why are virtual art fairs failing? One of the reasons is the way most of these initiatives approach the digital space. They seem to lack every understanding of how digital works and simply try to copy what is happening off-line in an online environment.

Let’s take Art Amsterdam Online as example. This virtual art fair is hosted on Open Art Collection platform. After spending 5 minutes on this platform, clicking left and right, you will already hit the first barrier: you need a subscription.

Crisis Crisis Crisis

Lots of crisis in the wind, but it wasn’t the vibe this weekend in Amsterdam.

The organizers of Performance Art Event (PAE) hosted an evening at the Brakke Grond last week, which begin with criticism and an open ended question. According to organizers, ‘The creative arts sector is worried about the crisis and its impact on the arts.  The more crises, the more performance is an expression of the growing awareness of this tendency. Live art doesn’t need much, it can take place always and everywhere, and especially in a period of crisis this could evoke a renewed interest in performance art. Could this mean that more artists will turn to performance art, leading to a revival of the genre?’

Are online art fairs the new black?

Yesterday, we opened these couple of posts about Art Amsterdam Online and the digitalization of the art business with some general ideas. Today we want to dig deeper into the whole debate with focusing first of all on the plethora of digital initiatives we have seen in the art world over the last quarters. Why do they appear all of the sudden? What is driving these initiatives? Are they going to change the art world?

Let’s take a step back and try to put this in perspective. What is happening in the art business is not unique. In fact, the art industry is very late in reacting on the new digital reality. Since the first internet bubble in the late nineties, a lot of industries have experimented with the possibilities the growth of internet has created: from online book stores and travel agencies to online grocery stores, etc… as obvious examples. Not all of them were successful – especially not during the first years – and hardly one of them has pushed an old industry players completely out of the market. However, the ones that managed to make money have grown into strong modern brands, influencing the standard practices of their respective industries and often influencing the relationship between the company offering products or services and the consumer buying them.

Thoughts on the debate

On Thursday the debate on whether or not blogging was a valid platform for art criticism was held. I was in the debate with four other speakers, and a moderator. The debate was mostly in Dutch, and I followed along as best I could before responding in English (sadly my spoken Dutch is not really up to snuff yet).

I won’t dwell on the underlying absurdity of the panel, because let’s face it, asking if a blog is a proper platform for art criticism is an unanswerable question on the level of “what is art?”. Despite this, the panelists were informed and felt strongly about their positions, which varied along a continuum of a one panelist likening blogs to diarrhea to me waving my smartphone in the air and quoting comments from my friends on Facebook.

Is Blogging a Form of Criticism?

I should start by saying that my Dutch isn’t that great and while I did my best to follow the discussion, I may have missed some nuances along the way. I could be talking mousse … but that’s what I was invited here to do so I’m gonna indulge before I head out again. I write, right now, out of duty and respect. I write from a critical position and without time to process, reflect and self censor to provide a more economical and useful answer.

First Response: The Medium is not the Message

Is putting ink on paper a form of criticism? Is spraying white paint out of a squirt gun a form of criticism? Is using the word Mousse a form of criticism? Is recording yourself ranting on skype and putting it on Youtube a valid form of criticism? It would be if you were Allen Kaprow or Jerry Saltz, but not if you’re a 14 year old up past your bedtime. The medium is not the message. It might provide grammar. It might deliver, but it isn’t the blog I’m reading. It is the thoughts and attitudes of the person who fills it. From the very beginning the discussion made me think of Douglas Adams and the answer to everything in the universe, which when delivered makes no sense, because the question failed to ask for a meaningful answer.