N A A C National Association of Art Critics

Towards Collaborative Curating: Contemporary Curatorial Education in the Age of the Global Art Market
Summer Seminars’ For Contemporary Art Curators,
4th Annual Edition
27 July – 2 August, 2009
Yerevan, Armenia

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the disintegration of the Warsaw Pact the new era for the countries of former USSR and Eastern bloc was soon termed as a post-socialist condition, which described a space in-between, a gap that emerged from the corpse of the dying political ideology of state socialism and the utopian dream to achieve the perceived romanticized paradise of Western liberalism and consumerism. By the mid 1990s it became clear that there was no alternative envisioned for former Soviet countries except adopting to the market logic of late capitalism, thus closing off the space for debates around the political and economic formations these countries would possibly consider after the collapse of the bi-polar world order. On the level of cultural production which underwent a transition from centralized and state-sanctioned organization to the capitalist art market relations, whatever could be incorporated into the market logic of late capitalism prevailed while those contexts and initiatives which remained outside of the trajectory of the neo-liberal market economy and its value system were condemned to oblivion. Simultaneously, like so many transplants from Euro-American systems of representation and signification, contemporary art curating often emerged as a practice which would assist towards the incorporation and appropriation of newly “uncovered” geographical and cultural contexts of the former East into the international art market, thus reproducing the logic of commercialization and reaffirmation of the status quo.

Is it still possible to break away from the cycle of reproducing the already existing and inherently hierarchical systems of representation? How do individual curatorial practices reaffirm or subvert the ways in which the global art market functions? Can curating function outside of market conditions? Is it possible to come up with common theories for contemporary curatorial education across heterogeneous contexts, or is curating only a context- specific and context-sensitive practice? What are the main problems facing the curatorial education today? Is it possible to prepare curators who are able to address ever- changing art practices? What role do theories of curating play in practice? Do these have a pragmatic aspect making it possible to implement theories in practice and education, or do they rather have an autonomous function aiming to occupy a certain position in the discursive market? These are some of the questions we would like to discuss within the framework of AICA-Armenia’s annual curatorial program, focusing on the intersection of curatorial education, theories and practices.

The 4th edition of the Summer Seminars’ Program for Contemporary Art Curators entitled Towards Collaborative Curating: Contemporary Art in the Age of the Global Art Market brings together art curators, theorists and academics, who are involved in the ongoing theoretical and practical issues of researching and finding adequate methods and modules for curatorial education and practice. The week-long seminars are comprised of lectures, round-table discussions and public presentations. The contributors, including several previous alumni of the Summer Seminars’ program, are specifically invited to this event by AICA-Armenia. The Seminars have three components: a. daily lectures on different models and theories of curatorial education by invited specialists, b. moderated round-table discussions on theoretical issues related to curating and educating curators as well as cultural practitioners in general, c. public presentations addressing specific curatorial practices by invited art curators.

10:00-10:45
Introductory Note: Nazareth Karoyan and Angela Harutyunyan -Art Criticism And/As Education
In this talk we will theorize different models of our practice as curators and critics involved in art education. We will discuss some of the ways in which educational initiatives become extensions of and basis for our critical practice. We will also outline the background, aims and the agenda for the 4th edition of the summer seminars’ program in 2009.

11:00-12:30
Lecture by Aras Ozgun- Post-Fordism, Neo-Liberalism, and Cultural Production
One of the definitive features of post-fordism is that it incorporates certain forms of labor and value (which we have thought of as belonging to the sphere of cultural production so far) as dominant forms of economic productivity. Such conditions force us to reconsider the basic terminology of political-economy on the one hand, which had provided us with a basis for political criticism and action until now, and on the other, the cultural production practices that we participate in and contribute to as artists and cultural producers.

By looking at certain sites of cultural production --such as New York, Berlin, Vienna, this lecture aims to discuss certain modes and moments of contemporary artistic and cultural production, the ways in which cultural production articulates capitalist production cycles, neoliberal cultural policies (such as the "creative industries" programs/discourses), and the subjectivities, social relations and resistance potentials shaped within such practices.

13:30- 15:00
Round-Table (moderated by Marko Stamenkovic) Economy of Art, Art Education and Curating within the circulation of the global art market
Curating, perhaps more than any other type of contemporary cultural practice participates in a specific economy of circulation since it is directly related to the production of value. How does art education participate in the production of “professionals” who are expected to contribute to and reproduce the existing capitalist modes of art consumption? Can we point at specific politics and economy of curatorial education? Can we formulate any alternative modes/methods and theories which could challenge the dominant circulation of the capital in which artistic and curatorial practices often participate?

10:00-11:30
Lecture by Clémentine Deliss
Future Research Collections in a Period of Recessional Curating

Future Research Collections questions the physical and conceptual shape that future study collections might take, and how they might boost breakthroughs in artistic practice and research. If previous study collections were built on art works, artefacts, and physical objects of various kinds, can we imagine a less material-based collection, one that gathers together the off-cuts, conceptual blueprints, and prototypes of research and production? Can the future study collection be understood as a collective work of research and communication between artists, curators, collectors and students and thereby support the evolution of new approaches in the study of contemporary art, visual culture, and curating? What type of curatorial approach would a future study collection require? Would it necessitate rooms, museological amenities, and an archival procedure, as we know it? How do practicing artists identify with the investment potential of such a collection, conceived as the foundation stone of a future institute?

Future Research Collections is part of Future Academy, a forecasting laboratory based at Edinburgh College of Art that connects to the University of Edinburgh and the National Galleries of Scotland.

13:00- 14:30-Round-Table (moderated by Lali Parteneva): Art Education as a Site of Critical Practice

We will discuss whether art criticism or a specific articulation of this field, can enrich contemporary curatorial education. Is it possible to redefine critical education away from its connotations of liberal tolerance on the one hand and the standard critique of capitalism (always already incorporated within the very system it tries to attack)?

19:00-19:45
Public Presentation by Nat Muller
The Curatorial Affect: Surplus Value in an Age of Globalisation

The documentary turn in art during the past decade has had the effect that artists, as well as curators, have approached their subject with a difference. Pressures of third parties, such as cultural ministries, funding bodies and other policy apparatuses have, over-time, attributed a functionality to artistic practice – such as conflict resolution, furthering inter-cultural dialogue etc. Within these constellations, how does the element of “affect” fit in? Has it become an artistic and curatorial “no-no”, or is there a way to reinstate and rethink affect as knowledge proper, and an agent for knowledge production? In addition, with current systems of representation in perpetual crisis, how could affective aesthetic practices negotiate openings within artistic production, and break with current models of perception and its management?

20:00-20:45
Public Presentation by Marianna Hovhannisian
Marianna Hovhannisyan will present her recent curatorial experience at L'Ecole du Magasin international curatorial training program’s 18th Session in 2008-2009. She will introduce the collective project developed under the name ''Season18'' and her individual research called ''Archive-Practice''. The ﬁrst public section of this project was Season18.com, a blog in which the participants connected the state of six individual research projects and published one thematic group discussion through weekly “episodes”.

10:00-11:30
Lecture: Mel Jordan and Andy Hewitt (Freee Art Collective )
In this paper we endeavour to respond to two of the questions posed by the organisers of the conference: Is it possible to prepare curators who are able to address ever- changing art practices? What role do theories of curating play in practice?

We attempt to explore the function of display, publishing and the role of the exhibition in the production of artworks. We intend to examine how artists use the exhibition to realize and publish artworks and how curators and artists co-produce1 (whether intentionally or not) in the realization of artworks.
We have organized this paper into three sections: 1. Post studio production2 2. The exhibition as a public sphere and 3. Being curated: Freee on co-production.

13:00-14:30
Round-Table: Curating in the Expanded Field (moderated by Joanna Sokolowska and Sara Stenczer): Curating and Creativity: Curator as Mediator/Translator
Expositions and exhibitions not only often shape the interpretive paradigms for art works but also inform their ad hoc production. Then, exhibition is often a space for the production of meaning, often outlining a trajectory for the artistic practice. Can curatorial mediation be integral to the artistic practice itself or is the curator merely someone who provides a frame of representation and interpretation for the art work?

How do we deal with the issue of curatorial creativity or rather its repression in an age when the politically correct curator has to give up his or her ambitions to be a creative agent, in order to provide the best possible light for the artists? How is it possible to articulate polysemic positions in which the curator’s creativity meets the artist’s own desire to participate in the selection, display and interpretation of his or her own works and those of his/her peers?

19:00-19:45
Public Presentation by Sára Stenczer
Making a use of my experience and knowledge as a curator, I organized the exhibition Young Contemporary Statements and presented it in multiple phases. A prime motivation was the desire to produce a space in which the audience would see and examine those works contemporary Hungarian works that dug deep into fundamental issues, problems, tensions and dead-ends prevalent in contemporary Hungary and in the wider, globalized world. The first exhibition was a virtual democratic salon for which artists under 35 could submit applications via the Internet. These works may be consulted freely by anyone on the website www.fika.hu; all the other phases of this project can be viewed on the website as well.

The selection I have made is a kind of situation report, while the exhibition, which took place in Pécs attempted to describe the intellectual, formal and effectual plurality of the critical approaches, giving an ample picture of the reality around us through an innovative and individual analysis of the issues we face. I would like to speak about my experiences during this open call, which I organized without an institution, with a European financial help and share with the audience the difficulties and questions I encountered throughout my curatorial work during the preparation and the show.

20:00-20:45
Public Presentation by Lali Pertenava

I will present Union of Art Professionals “Archidrome” project, which aims at popularization of contemporary art in Georgia and creation of a live archive of contemporary art. One of the main goals of the project is to open a space for independent curating practices in Georgia.
What does it mean to curate contemporary art in Georgia, where space for contemporary art is limited, and its public acceptance does not stand competition with cultural heritage? Meanwhile there is an increased popularity in the use of the term curator to describe various practices in the arts. Curators are challenged to shape forms in an unsystematic art world of Georgia and give direction to newly emerging artistic initiatives.

10:00-11:30
Lecture by Malcolm Miles: Contemporary Art, Theory, and Education

Through the 20th century most professional artists gained qualifications in specialist art schools, or more recently in art, design and media departments in universities. At the same time, most European countries retain art academies based more or less on the 19th-century model of an atelier in which ‘masters’ comment from time to time on the work of students. The relation between art practices and art education is two-way: art education informs art practice, but is also informed by it. From the 1960s - the period of both pop art and conceptualism (and the ‘permissive society‘) - the borders between traditional art forms - painting, sculpture, photography, film, &c. - were not policed, art was critically set in an expanded field, and new hybrid art forms emerged crossing between art, theory/criticism and curating. Now, in many art educational institutions, models of learning ranging from the 19th-century life room to the 21st-century media laboratory are co-present. This reflects (or shapes) new cultural practices which are pluralist, contingent, subjectivist, and ambivalent in their relation to the society in which they are set. Among recent critical frameworks are relational aesthetics and alter-modernism. What kind of art education is implied by these frameworks? Does art education seek to develop new frameworks today (for example outside that of the globalised art market) or to equip graduates for success in existing frameworks?

How is it possible to teach without constructing and reproducing the hierarchies between the one who “knows” and the one who is “ignorant”? What are some of the powers behind the established methods of education based upon explication? Does the choice of educators merely lie in being a Socrates or an Oracle, or is there an alternative? This round-table is a reading session. The participants are asked to read Jacque Ranciere’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster (http://www.scribd.com/doc/11669548/Ranciere-The-Ignorant-Schoolmaster ). We will discuss and test Ranciere’s propositions for emancipatory learning.

19:00-19:45
Public Presentation by Joanna Sokolowska
Another City, Another Life - of the Archives, video screening with introduction
The programme, which consists of video works and documentation of artistic actions is conceived as a modified and extended version of an archive accompanying the project Another City, Another Life (www.ancity.blogspot.com), which took place in Warsaw in 2008. The aim of the archive is to map the ways in which contemporary artists represent and engage in spatial, esthetical, social and political regimes that have been developed in various cities of East Europe since the decisive changes at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s.
The archive is constructed loosely around several thematic questions. What are contemporary consequences and potential of the abandoned ideas of the revolution, communism and of socialist modernity, which were implemented in urban planning and collective identities? How is the dialectic of destruction and building inscribed in diverse material layers of cities related to the memory work and to the processes of constant (re-)writing of history? How do the artists position themselves within the ambivalent field of cultural production? What role can they play in the economy (symbolical capital) and the public space of cities undergoing transformation?
The selection will include works by: Chto Delat?, Škart, Zbyněk Baladrán, Mona Vătămanu & Florin Tudor, Khinkali Juice, Miklós Erhardt, R.E.P., Voina, Angelika Fojtuch, Karol Radziszewski
20:00-20:45
Public Presentation by Viviana Chechia
FRAME
Borrowing a term by Jonathan Culler cited in Norman Bryson, FRAME , Viviana Checchia will try to reconstruct the paradigms of art by a collaborative curatorial project in which she was involved this year. Researching the art of Slovak Republic, Rumania and Armenia she discovered more things about different developments in the semiotic and ideological spaces of the art of these contexts in comparison with Italy or Spain. She will create an open panel about what is needed between the East and the West in order to open up spaces for art and culture. With the help of the audience she will create a public tribunal.

19:00-20:00
A public conversation with Marko Stamenkovic, conducted by Angela Haryutunyan

SPLAV MEDUZE takes into account (without necessarily referring to) the myths and iconographies around the landmarks of cultural consciousness as exemplified by canonical artworks bearing the same name - Théodore Géricault's painting Le Radeau de la Méduse (1819) and Karpo Godina’s movie Splav Meduze (1980) – or directly referring to such iconic examples – Julian Barnes’s novel A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters (1989), and Martin Kippenberger’s installation The Happy End of Franz Kafka's 'Amerika' (1994), for example. It also takes into account (without any pretension to compete with) an infinite number of contemporary interpretations quoting and/or parasiting upon the precedent visual and associative patterns related to the historical event of a famous shipwreck from the early nineteenth-century ('somewhere' in West Africa, off the 'inhospitable coastline of Mauritania' and within the realm of a foreign sovereign dominion - but not in the 'hospitable' heartland of West European geopolitical power at the times, and thus far away and far enough from the colonial frigate’s departure point, its untouchable and invincible land of origin).

SPLAV MEDUZE relates to these historical and cultural examples only as a common and critical point of departure for (and an invitation to) a conceptual and creative voyage into the unknown Land of Potentialities. It looks for the existence of insular experiences in the continuous global circuit of people, goods and signs, and for the possibilities of having an individual freedom of choosing one's own perspective at the stage of progressively conservative mindsets and in the conformist spectacle of institutionalized normativity.
*Splav (slo, n.) = raft, float-bridge, float, miscarriage, feticide, abortion, craft, sooterkin
Exhibition SPLAV MEDUZE is produced by Zavod Celeia Celje – Center for Contemporary Art / Likovni salon (season 2009).

*August 1-2- Weekend Retreat to Lake Sevan (charge for overnight accommodation and transportation applies (approx. 20-30 euros per person)

Biographies:
Viviana Chechia (*1982) was born in Troia, namesake of the mythical city of Troy, a citizen of Puglia in Italy, a place known in the world for its 12th century cathedral with the chiseled bronze doors of Oderico da Benevento. She received her degree in Communication and Organization of Contemporary Art from Accademia di Brera a Milan. She has curated numerous events, amongst which is Invasioni Sistematiche in June 2008, which involved the entire town of Zungoli, southern Italy. In concurrence with this event, she conducted a house lab experiment for artists, curators and other actors in the art field, Casinprovisando, near her hometown. She is now finishing her Master in Culture Management at tsm school in Trento, Italy. She is working as a researcher for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Slovak Republic. Her interests include Eastern European contemporary art.
Clementine Deliss is an independent curator, researcher and publisher. She studied art in Vienna, and holds a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Early curatorial work includes Lotte or the Transformation of the Object (Steirischer Herbst, Graz, and Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna 1990); Exotic Europeans (National Touring Exhibitions, London, 1990); and Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa (Whitechapel Gallery; Konsthalle Malmo 1995-96). From 1992 to 1995 she was the artistic director of africa95, a contemporary arts festival coordinated with the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Since 1996 she has produced the writers’ and artists’ organ Metronome, publishing in Dakar, Berlin, Basel, Frankfurt, Vienna, Edinburgh, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, London, Portland Oregon, and Tokyo. Since 2003 she has directed Future Academy at Edinburgh College of Art with research cells in Senegal, India, Europe, Australia, USA, and Japan. In 2007, she established Randolph Cliff, an artists’ residency programme in Edinburgh together with Edinburgh College of Art, The National Galleries of Scotland, and patron Charles Asprey. She lives in London.

Freee is a collective made up of three artists, Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt and Mel Jordan, who work together on slogans, billboards and publications that challenge the commercial and bureaucratic colonization of the public sphere of opinion formation. Freee occupies the public sphere with works that take sides, speak their mind and divide opinion. www.freee.org.uk
Andy Hewitt, born Hull 1966, studied Design at Staffordshire Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. Hewitt teaches Fine Art at University of Wolverhampton, UK. He is currently undertaking a PhD in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art. He has co-authored the forthcoming book Futurology, New Art Gallery Walsall (2009) with Mel Jordan.
Mel Jordan, born London 1966, studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic and Birmingham Polytechnic. Jordan is a member of the art collective Freee and teaches Fine Art and Critical and HIstorical Studies at Loughborough University. She co-edited the book Art and Theory after Socialism, Intellect (2008) with Malcolm Miles and she has co-authored the forthcoming book Futurology, New Art Gallery Walsall (2009) with Andy Hewitt.
Marianna Hovhannisian has experience in organizing and coordinating contemporary art projects and exhibitions, such as coordination in Changes Through Exchanges-- an experimental educational project realized at Fine Arts Department, coordination of Soviet AgitArt: Restoration exhibition (2008, curator Beral Madra, artists Samvel Baghdasaryan, Armine Hovhannisyan) amongst others. She took part in the International Summer School for Art Curators organized by AICA Armenia from its start. In 2008 she assisted in Strategies of History/Strategies of Art exhibition conceived in the framework of the 3rd Summer School and implemented in the scope of the 6th Gyumri International Biennial of Contemporary Art in Armenia. From 2008-2009 she is a participant of Session 18 at the L'Ecole du Magasin international curatorial training program, France.
Malcolm Miles is Professor of Cultural Theory at the University of Plymouth, author of Urban Utopias (2008), Cities & Cultures (2007) and Urban Avant-Gardes (2004); he is currently researching for a book on the aesthetic theories of Herbert Marcuse.

Nat Muller is an independent curator and critic based between Rotterdam and the Middle East. Her main interests include: the intersections of aesthetics, media and politics; media art and contemporary art in the Middle East. She has taught a.o. at the Willem de Kooning Academy (NL), ALBA (Beirut), the Lebanese American University (Beirut), and A.U.D. in Dubai (UAE). She contributes regularly to Springerin, Bidoun, and MetropolisM. Her latest projects include The Trans_European Picnic - The Art and Media of Accession (Novi Sad, 2004), DEAF_04: Affective Turbulence: The Art of Open Systems (Rotterdam, 2004); INFRA_ctures (Rotterdam, 2005), Xeno_Sonic: a series of experimental sound performances from the Middle East (Amsterdam, 2005), DEAF07 (Rotterdam, 2007), the workshop 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Negotiating Artistic Practice, Audiences, Representation and Collaboration within Local and International Frameworks' (Amman, 2007).

Aras Ozgun is a media artist/scholar living and working in New York. He currently teaches digital media and media theory related graduate courses at the Media Studies Department of the New School University. He is a Ph.D. candidate at Media Studies program of the Sociology Department of New School for Social Research, and he will be completing his Ph.D dissertation on the political economy of contemporary cultural production in spring 2009.

Lali Pertenava

Born in Tbilisi; independent curator and researcher; member of union “Archidrome”; Taught Photography History and Theory; Modernism and Photography in Tbilisi Fine Art Academy (2006-2008); Headed Library of Contemporary Art (2004-2006); Graduated Art History Department at Tbilisi state University (Aspirantura in 1999); Certificate in Arts Management from George Washington University (2006);

Joanna Sokolowska
Joanna Sokolowska, (*1978) art historian, curator based in Warsaw. Currently (2008/09) she is attending a curatorial scholarship in the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig, where she is preparing an exhibition devoted to transitions of labour and leisure in post-socialist countries. Since 2004 she has worked for the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, where she curated several exhibitions including Another City, Another Life, Interrupted Connections, On their Own and coordinated numerous shows, e.g. Revolutions 1968, Boys and Girls, Hot /Cold – Summer Loving, among others. Her agenda is focused on artistic production in East Europe.

Marko Stamenkovic (*1977) is an independent curator based in Belgrade (Serbia) and a member of IKT – International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art. He has been curating projects and exhibitions in Serbia and abroad, among which: Splav Meduze (Center for Contemporary Art, Celje), Never Means Nothing (Tatjana Pieters/One Twenty), Gent), Contrasted Working World – CWW (Critical Curatorial Cybermedia, Geneva), Art as Option for Action (Villa Arson, Nice), Private Dancers (O3ONE, Belgrade), A Life Less Glamorous (O3ONE, Belgrade), Dis-Economy of Life (Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb), Beograd nekad i sad (Galerija “Beograd”, Belgrade), Micropol (SKC Gallery, Belgrade). He has participated in numerous international curatorial programs (Slovenia, Armenia, South Korea, Spain, Italy, Germany, The Neverlands) and has been lecturing in Egypt, France, Estonia, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, Portugal. His writings on contemporary art have been published internationally. He is a recipient of awards and grants from, among others, American Center Foundation (New York), Unicredit Bank (Milan), and CEC ArtsLink (New York).

Sara Stenczer graduated from Art History, eminent grade, University Eotvos Lorand, in Budapest; worked as an art critic first in a daily newspaper and later with the Ernst Museum as public relations manager. Received Ile de France scholarship and completed a course (Master 2) on contemporary art curatorship at the Sorbonne University, 2005. Since then shehas lived in Paris and worked as freelance curator, organizer of events on contemporary art and contributes as art critic to various Hungarian e-periodicals. (artportal.hu, tranzit.hu and other printed supports occasionally, like balkon.hu, fotomuveszt.hu). This year she organized 4 thematic exhibitions with contemporary artists in Paris and in Hungary and participated in the Salon of Montrouge as an art critic.