2011 No6
December / January
The art world has recently been celebrating the return of the object. Following the years in which video set the tone, darkened rooms have increasingly been disappearing from exhibitions. They are making way for ‘old school’ installations of objects, drawings and (sometimes) paintings, as we saw at the recent Istanbul Biennial, where there were hardly any videos to be seen.
With the art object making a comeback, there is also renewed interest in the coherence of exhibitions, the syntax of the images being shown and their influence on one another in creating meaning. Curators had long held exclusive rights in playing with the art they presented, but it is striking how artists are now engaged in winning back that terrain. In arrangements completely determined by themselves, artists such as Carol Bove and Josephine Meckseper are the sole directors of how their work is best experienced.
Just as the artists are increasingly taking the curator's chair when it comes to installing works of art, so too are designers. Where designers once had but a small role to play in the process, in some museums today they are more important than the curators. In collaboration with those in charge of presentations, they determine the look of the exhibition – with the curator sometimes providing only the ingredients. These shifts in the nature and the character of the way in which art appears to the public are a good reason for us to take pause in this issue to look at today's forms of presenting art, the precarious relationships between designers and curators, and the role of the artist. We also take a look at the digitalization of the art sector, which means that digitalized artistic expressions are making themselves manifest in increasing numbers of ways. This is not only just on screens, but also in the form of objects. In this issue, we also offer an extensive overview of the best of what 2011 has brought in art. We do that not quite as other magazines might, but with a twist.
-Domeniek Ruyters
12/12/11 Merijn Oudenampsen
Franco Berardi is one of the controversial Italian thinkers who are seeking a solution for the gradually collapsing capitalistic system. For him, the best method of fighting today’s abuses comes from an unexpected corner, through love. (dit artikel is gepubliceerd in Metropolis M No 6 -2011-2012, waarin ook de Nederlandse vertaling te lezen is - nu in de winkel).
12/01/12 Annet Dekker
Initiated by a generation of artists that has grown up with the Internet, the practices and methods of the Internet are moving over to the exhibition space. The process of materializing the digital is not taking place without a struggle, however. The Netherlands Media Art Institute is devoting an exhibition to this theme. This article is published in Metropolis M no. 6, 2011.
19/01/12 Mick Wilson
Cuts in culture are not only being made in the Netherlands, but also in Ireland and England. The manner in which each country’s cultural sector is protesting against this differs greatly. An analysis of the rhetorics of resistance, with a few proposals for possible improvement. (This article is published in Metropolis M no. 6 - 2011)
26/01/12 Erik Wysocan
She is considered a ‘mother’ of contemporary sculpture. Carol Bove’s installations of objects - once subtle tableaux of found objects, nowadays more often constellations of self-made sculpture - have a cohesive configuration that also has multiple layers of meaning. (This article is published in Metropolis M No. 6 - 2011)
OPENING
