[spectre] media art and dictatorial regimes
Armin Medosch
armin at easynet.co.uk
Mon Jun 30 09:29:37 CEST 2008
Melinda, Alex,
I would clearly be the last one to excuse imperialisms of the past or of
the present. however, i find this relativism problematic. sure,
australia has a disgusting policy towards immigrants, as have by now
nearly all european countries. in my posting I was also addressing the
justified concern with western democracies regression to a type of
democracy which becomes ever more similar to efficient regimes.
But, although I am not blind to those mistakes, I still see a difference
with China style one party capitalism, where workers have no right to
demonstrate, where supposed criminals are executed in their thousands
after fast lane trials, and where a revolt, such as in tibet, has just
been bloodily suppressed. You may say it is not worth having a
discussion about that. Well, I dont see that discussion happening at
all. I only notice a deafening silence. In this overall climate, surely
it is necessary to think and act a bit more politically?
Alex, I was not summarily 'condemning' everyone doing something in
China, but I am insiting that it matters _what_ people do if tehy decide
to work in specific contexts. Thankfully you have explained V2's
activities in that regard. Maybe you have a few links for us so that we
can follow up on the work with bloggers for instance? I would be glad if
more people who participated in the show explained themselves. Cause not
being there and with all that I can see on the internet, synthetic times
still looks like an aestheticised high tech trade show to me.
Thanks Alex also for mentioning Stubnitz. This is a really good example.
With Stubnitz we did not go for cultural export, there was a very clear
agenda of east-west networking and exchange. one of the first things
that we did was bring a computer and fax to our collaboration partners
from gallery 21. and by working with curator alla mitrofanova we made
sure to engage with the most interesting and radical artists in
St.Petersburg, Russia and beyond. With River Inspektor we even had our
own pirate radio station on a river patrol boat. When Stubnitz came to
Russia it's load rooms were full with audiovisual and computer equipment
(as in that time access to hardware was an issue in Russia, in
contemporary China thats probably different) and the ship hosted many
work shops and seminars, following an open workspace approach, producing
copy art posters which went up all over the city as part of a festival
which included many partners from the dissident art scene to Tam Tam
Youth club with all its inclusive work with youth groups. I think all
this speaks for itself as an approach which was quite exemplary as at a
very early date it focused on participatory ways of working. I still
have a video archive which urgently needs digitising to survive the next
technical upgrade. maybe V2 wants to support this, should we write a
funding application together, Alex?
best
Armin
On Mon, 2008-06-30 at 11:09 +0930, Melinda Rackham wrote:
> I find this discussion odd
>
> wouldn't working in most countries, under most regimes, be problematic?
> all western democratic governments supports horrible human rights
> abuses, engage in wars for profit, are well documented torturers,
> thier corporations destroy communities and the environment in
> developing countries, they unlawfully detain people, support forms
> of slavery, child sex trafficking, etc.
>
> Australian is seen a fairly benign in terms of world regimes.. yet
> our democracy is built on genocide of indigenous population, slavery
> of whites ( convict labour) and decimation of whole pacific islands
> and slavery of pacific islanders. Today we have monstrous detention
> centers in the desert which traumatize the detaines to suicide and
> self mutilation, a lovely project called "the pacific solution", we
> let refugees drown to discourage others - http://www.sievx.com Our
> indigenous communities have high addiction rates ( six year olds with
> petrol sniffing habits) , short life spans, an outrageously high
> proportion in jail and "deaths in custody".
>
> where do you draw the line?
>
> warm regards,
> Melinda
>
> ++++++++++++
> Dr Melinda Rackham
> Executive Director
> Australian Network for Art and Technology
> +61 (0)8 8231 9037
> +61 (0)410 596 592
> http://www.anat.org.au
> director at anat.org.au
>
> Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) is generously
> supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council,
> its arts funding and advisory body, the South Australian Government
> through Arts SA, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an
> initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.
>
>
>
> On 27/06/2008, at 8:48 PM, Alex Adriaansens wrote:
>
> >
> > Dear Armin, your email about artists working in China is
> > questioning the intentions of artists participating in the
> > Synthetic Times exhibition in Beijing, and artists working in
> > countries with problematic regimes in general. I assume you have
> > informed yourself and talked to many of the artists about this and
> > that from this communication you decided to post your email?
> > Nevertheless I get the feeling that your email is based on some
> > quick conclusions and generalisations of how artists in general
> > should behave when setting up contacts and projects in countries
> > with regimes that are questionable, please correct me when my
> > conclusions are also to hasty.
> >
> > As you know in 1996 V2_ was one of the initiators of the Syndicate
> > East European network. This network focussed on engaging artists
> > and organisations by facilitating an online infrastructure and by
> > setting up events / meetings in Russia and other east European
> > countries that were in difficult transitions (these meetings were
> > preferably done at the geographic political hot spots).
> >
> > I also remember that you yourself went to St. Petersburg during the
> > ISEA meeting in the early nineties with your Stubnitz project, this
> > while also Russia can still be understood as an authoritarian
> > country with repressive methods. Nevertheless I’m sure you had
> > clear motives for engaging artists and cultural producers in and
> > from Russia.
> >
> > You are right if you would say that any comparison with Russia in
> > the nineties is not correct when understanding China in 2008.
> > Indeed the world is more complex then at first sight and indeed the
> > developmental history of certain countries and regions shows us
> > different angles to look at what is actually happening or changing
> > in certain regions and how these transitions come about and how one
> > can engage with that. It is specifically this developmental context
> > in which to understand contemporary transitions that can motivate
> > people to engage and setup networks in countries and regions that
> > are under the rule of strict regimes.
> >
> > Artist should surely ask themselves why they want to engage and
> > with whom they will work with, and what their presence might mean
> > for them and their partner. V2_ has been active in China since the
> > last 5 years and we have in the meantime set up a quite broad
> > network varying from independent artists, media activists like the
> > Chinese bloggers, to independent art spaces, and a national
> > institution like the National Art Museum Of China (which is an
> > important organisation for transforming the role of musea in
> > contemporary China).
> >
> > V2_ is not just looking for spaces to do one time large exhibitions
> > – even though these are important as well. We’re also setting up
> > workshops with students and artists, and we are hosting young
> > Chinese artists, curators and professors to the Netherlands /
> > Europe – to let them participate in for example our bi-annual DEAF
> > festival where they can connect to an international network and
> > take part in and fuel the debates around contemporary social,
> > cultural and artistic topics.
> >
> > It is easy to judge the intentions of artists and institutions but
> > you can often be sure that they are clearly motivated of what they
> > are doing and how they do it.
> >
> > China is in a fast transition and many independent artists and art
> > groups, organisations in China are actively reflecting this process
> > and its social, cultural and political effects. They operate and
> > work in international networks and V2_ supports some of them and
> > collaborates with them. To give you a few interesting angles: try
> > to get hold of the magazine called Urban China - http://
> > magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=140 or http://
> > www.urbanchina.com.cn/ ; or take a look at the research of the
> > Dynamic City Foundation (http://www.dynamiccity.org/ ) in Beijing;
> > or the Long March Project based in Factory 798 in Beijing (http://
> > www.longmarchspace.com/ ) etc. it gives you a glimps of
> > contemporary artistic practices in China reflecting social and
> > cultural issues and connecting to an international debate.
> >
> > I would advise you to just go there and engage people, see what is
> > happening and grasp the complexity and paradoxes and ask yourself
> > again if the exhibition Synthetic Times is a value free exhibition
> > (or as you wrote “an exhibition which on the whole is a sanitised
> > version of media art from which all notions of dissent and social
> > critique have been purged”). And after your visit to China read
> > again the catalogue (btw. have you read the texts from for example
> > Arthur Kroker, Jordan Crandall or some of the project descriptions
> > like that of Kr+cF, and can you imagine the implications of what
> > some of the works express within the context of China).
> >
> > I’m sure your next email will be significantly longer and express
> > more of the complexities of the matter then your first email, at
> > least I hope so. You raised a topic that is on the tongue of many
> > people but few write about it since there are no simple answers, so
> > I would suggest that instead of judging those who have been there
> > it would be good to hear about the experience people had while
> > being there.
> >
> > Regards Alex Adriaansens (V2_)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 25.06.2008, at 16:11, Armin Medosch wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> The currently running exhibition in beijing, synthetic times, and the
> >> holding of isea 2008 in singapure both raise the question of the
> >> compatibility of media art with dictatorial regimes. I am not
> >> commenting
> >> on the quality of individual art works, and surely a show as big
> >> as the
> >> beijing one contains at least a few good artworks, yet the field as a
> >> whole must ask itself the question if it has any potential of
> >> resistance
> >> vis-a-vis the cooptation of 'digital creativity' by regimes
> >> practicing
> >> totalitarian capitalism - especially as western countries
> >> themselves are
> >> on the tipping point of becoming electoral dictatorships whereby
> >> politics is replaced by technocratic crowd management and other
> >> techniques of 'authoritarian democracy'. it is clear that in times
> >> of a
> >> funding crunch many people are happy to show any work anywhere,
> >> but the
> >> institutions and individuals participating must ask themselves where
> >> they stand when they show work in an exhibition which on the whole
> >> is a
> >> sanitised version of media art from which all notions of dissens and
> >> social critique have been purged. if this is business as usual
> >> then it
> >> is not my business, sorry, I could not leave this unnoticed ...
> >>
> >> armin
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
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> >
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> > fax: +31.10.2067271
> >
> > Alex Adriaansens
> > dir. V2_
> > www.V2.nl
> >
> >
> >
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