2010 No4
August / September
Let us call it a coincidence. Each year, we ask several authors to visit the art schools and graduate institutes to select the best that they see there. This year, they came back with art that was remarkably similar in tone and tendency: conceptual, rather serious, subdued and almost devoid of colour.
Coincidence would have it that long in advance of this, we had planned an article on Jan Dibbets and Ger van Elk, two icons of Dutch conceptual art, who thanks to an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York are currently receiving a great deal of international attention. However great the relationship, this issue does make it clear that there is a marked difference between then and now. Although this is not the place to examine that difference, what is striking is that back then, art was lighter, more humorous, while today there seems nary a chuckle to be had.
This issue also gives ample attention to life after art school. Rather playfully, nine representatives of the art world offer their own tips for a shining career as an artist. Somewhat more serious is an article about artists working on their PhD's. This is a follow-up to our discussion about art as a form of knowledge production, which we took pause to examine earlier this year.
- Domeniek Ruyters
Metropolis M asked nine people in the art world for their tips for a successful start to a career as an artist.
A Laboratory for Contrary Investigation -
Clémentine Deliss on the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt
30/09/10 Marion Ritter
In the next few issues, we look at a number of pioneering positions in the international museum world. We begin with Clémentine Deliss, curator and publisher of the highly praised magazine Metronome, as she completes her first year as director of the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt.
30/09/10 Gésine Borcherdt
In an exhibition at BAK, curator and art historian Simon Sheikh speculates on the possibilities of life in an age that has moved beyond political chaos. What are the perspectives? Are there new reference points?
'My Work Is Not Aggressive'
Monica Bonvicini on Power and Sexuality
27/10/10 Johannes Wendland
Power is an important theme in Monica Bonvicini’s probing art. More specifically, the influence of power in gender issues and architecture. At the invitation of Rein Wolfs, Bonvicini is presenting a large exhibition this autumn in Museum Fridericianum.
The Amsterdam Connection
In Conversation with Jan Dibbets and Ger van Elk
27/10/10 Nathalie Zonnenberg
Last year, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art 1960-1976, an exhibition highlighting Amsterdam as an important centre of European conceptual art. The American exhibition formed a springboard for a conversation with Jan Dibbets and Ger van Elk about this flourishing period in Dutch art.
LETTER
