Kuratoren selv og hendes venner på udstillingen

Igår fik jeg et nyt “newsletter” fra Rhizome.org og der præsenterede Marisa Olson “New Girls Network” – et projekt som sætter fokus på kuratorer i kunstudstillingen og etik. Kuratorene i “New Girls Network”tar sig selv og deres venner ind på utstillingen, og det er jo uetisk ikke sandt og noe man bør undgå, men dette blir tydeligere for omverdenen når en gruppe med kvinnelige kuratorer gør siden det “træder mere ud” fra normen…på grund af køn….synd at det er muligt at bruge sådan et knep idag…for de gør det jo som et grep…men nok rigtigt at det desværre stadig er effektivt. Eller hvad?

Citat fra epost, Rhizome News, February 26, 2007:

“New Girls Network There are a few important codes of ethics in the contemporary art world. They tend to go unspoken, but everyone knows them. Among these are the edicts that you shouldn’t curate your own work, and you should be very careful about curating the work of close friends and partners, past or present. Shared Women, a major group exhibition opening this Wednesday at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), kicks those rules to the curb. There is certainly a tongue-in-cheek element to this organizing principle, as manifest in curators A.L. Steiner, Emily Roysdon, and Eve Fowler’s description of Shared Women as ‘an exhibition that is dependent on cronyism, feminism, and nepotism.’ While this type of insider trading has gone a long way in establishing the members of many an ‘old boys network,’ the practice’s recontextualization from a feminist perspective formulates what the organizers call a ‘dirty commerce’ which is truly predicated on collaboration, support, and the construc! tive critique necessary for growth in the art world. Needless to say, the esteemed curators included themselves in this show (…)” Marisa Olson, http://www.artleak.org/

Maria Heller – Snakes and ladders og varianter af Matador (Monopoly)

Mandag d. 5/2 var jeg var på en forelæsning på instituttet om spil set i et historisk/sociologisk perspektiv holdt af Maria Heller . Fokuset var mest på brætspil og det var specielt interessant at høre om spillet Monopoly (Matador /Monopol) der ifølge Heller var forbudt i Ungarn under det socialistiske regime. Det blev, ikke fejlagtigt, set på som et spil baseret på kapitalistisk verdensbillede. Desværre for ungarske myndigheter var det er vældig populært spil trods forsøg på at introducere en erstatning baseret på socialistiske værdier. I det alternative forslag kan man ikke købe hotelgrunde og indkassere leje fra uheldige medspillere der lander på ens hoteller på de dyre grunde, men man kan “economize wisely” med de midler man har til rådighed. Jeg gjorde et søg på “economize wisely game” på Google og fandt denne tankevækkende beretning af David Stark ved Columbia Universitet om “Economize Wisely” og Matador i Ungarn (mine udhævninger):

“Fathom: Is there a way you could sum up the postsocialist condition today?

Stark: In the 1990s, a friend in Budapest told me about a board game he had played as a child during the socialist period. Prior to the Second World War, Hungarians had played Monopoly, known there as Kapitaly. But this competitive, capitalistic game was banned by Communist authorities, who substituted another, Gazdalkozde Okosan!, or Economize Wisely! In this Communist version, players tried to get a job, open a savings account, and acquire and furnish an apartment. My friend was too young to have a Kapitaly board, but his older cousins knew the banned Monopoly game and taught him the basic rules. They quickly saw that Monopoly was the more exciting game. So they turned over the socialist board game, drew out the playing field from Start to Boardwalk on the reverse side, and began to play Monopoly–using the cards and pieces from Economize Wisely! But the specifics of the rules were unclear, and the memories of the older cousins dimmed, so the game developed its own dynamic, using the cards and pieces from the “other side.” Why, for example, settle for simple houses and hotels when you could have furniture as well? In what situation would a Prize of Socialist Labor release you from or send you to Jail?

The idea of playing capitalism with Communist pieces seems like an apt metaphor for the postsocialist condition. The political upheavals of 1989 in Eastern Europe and 1991 in Russia turned the world upside down. Misled by an apparent tabula rasa, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Western advisers issued instructions for the new “rules of the game.” But the game was played with these remnants of the past; they may limit some moves and facilitate other strategies. Firms responded to these uncertainties by exploiting the uncertainties, using these networks that linked statist institutions and “privatized” firms. There are creative organizational solutions that are evolving, and they show that the most dynamic sectors are likely to be arenas where public and private are closely intertwined.”

(Fra “Hungary in transition”, session 3: “Transitions in Postsocialist Eastern”, http://www.fathom.com/course/10701019/session3.html)

Med dette eksempel på hvordan spillerne skaber sit eget spil og på et spil brugt som “sum up”-eksempel i forbindelse med en beskrivelse af store samfundsomvæltninger venter jeg hellere til en anden dag med at skrive om “Snakes and Ladders”.

“Surrendering to the image”

” “Surrendering to the image”
9 – 10 february 2007
Bergen National Academy of the Arts
Location: the Tower room, Bergen Art Museum (Address: Lysverket, Rasmus Meyers Allé 9)
FS-one (Fotografisk Symposium 1) is a two day event organised by Subject Area Photography, at Bergen National Academy of the Arts. This year’s seminar will focus on different discusssions and relevant questions related to understanding the photographic image, and is given the title “Surrendering to the Image – questioning the textual reading of the photograph “.” (http://www.khib.no/khib/ku_fou/konferanser_seminarer/photographic_symposium)

Hello world!

Jeg accepterer at det vil være nyttigt at have et sted at snakke om de ting jeg er ved at undersøge (se http://stedsans.net). Jeg har blandede følelser overfor blogge-formatet og har en tendens til at poste meldinger med ganske officiel ordlyd. Desuden har jeg jo sprogproblemer som udenlandsdansker. Skal jeg skrive på dansk med fejl? Ja, det tror jeg. Jeg kommer til at begrunde dette senere. Nu vil jeg blot få katten ud af sækken – startet bloggen og lade default-overskriften stå som besynderlig velkomst. Til den sprog-minoritet som kan læse dette og som finder sjove fejl: Det skyldes mange år i Bergen i Norge.