Claire DohertyIn Search of the MiraculousI have yet to find it… …that elusive group exhibition through which the contradictions of social engagement and visual pleasure run into one another, sending the viewer/participant back and forth between conspirator and spectator. These visual notes from the last six years trace singular moments of remarkable participatory events, remedial interventions, utopian gestures and disturbing transactions. How might an exhibition in 2001 have prepared us for such encounters? As a statement of intent, the inaugural temporary exhibition at Tate Modern should have been a promise of experiences as yet unimagined: asking urgent questions and proposing new modes of engagement beyond the passive contemplation dictated by the survey show’s meta‑narrative. If, as Lars Nittve’s openi ng gambit suggests, Ta te Modern i s “of our time”, how might the museum have opened up new ways of thinking about how art enters and activates the social imagination? There have been glimpses of new ideas (e.g. MACBA’s Las Agencias (The Agencies) , 2001 and Mass MoCa’s The Interventionists , 2005) and widespread examples of the co‑option of institutional critique, epitomised by the Museum as Muse , MOMA, 1999), but what seems to persist in Western curatorial practice are two dominant orthodoxies: the annexing of participatory strategies under Education and Outreach or the performance of prescribed engagement under the self‑reflexive banner of New Institutionalism. For this exhibition to be ahead of its time, In Search of the Miraculous would need to combine the potential of multiple modes of engagement with the popular appeal of distinct curatorial narratives, so often missing from the ‘navel‑gazing’ of new institutionalism. Though the project might signal the critical platforms, social spaces, radio stations and networks that would come to characterise the key European exhibitions of the last five years (such as Utopia Station, Documenta 11, Rooseum, Malmö and Kunstverein München), it should recognise Tate’s primary role as a cultural destination and the increasingly corporatised context in which its programmes (and publics) are produced. I’ve wrestled with the form such a project should take, after all most of the projects projected behind me occurred outside the space of the museum, including that of the i ll‑fated journey d escribed in Bas Jan Ader’s title, and come to a simple conclusion. In Search of the Miraculous should start with a
…that elusive group exhibition through which the contradictions of socialengagement and visual pleasure run into one another, sending theviewer/participant back and forth between conspirator and spectator. Thesevisual notes from the last six years trace singular moments of remarkableparticipatory events, remedial interventions, utopian gestures and disturbingtransactions. How might an exhibition in 2001 have prepared us for suchencounters? As a statement of intent, the inaugural temporary exhibition atTate Modern should have been a promise of experiences as yet unimagined:
asking urgent questions and proposing new modes of engagement beyondthe passive contemplation dictated by the survey show’s meta‑narrative. If, asLars Nittve’s opening gambit suggests, Tate Modern is “of our time”, howmight the museum have opened up new ways of thinking about how artenters and activates the social imagination?
There have been glimpses of new ideas (e.g. MACBA’s Las Agencias (The Agencies) , 2001 and Mass MoCa’s The Interventionists , 2005) and widespreadexamples of the co‑option of institutional critique, epitomised by the Museumas Muse , MOMA, 1999), but what seems to persist in Western curatorialpractice are two dominant orthodoxies: the annexing of participatorystrategies under Education and Outreach or the performance of prescribedengagement under the self‑reflexive banner of New Institutionalism.
For this exhibition to be ahead of its time, In Search of the Miraculouswouldneed to combine the potential of multiple modes of engagement with thepopular appeal of distinct curatorial narratives, so often missing from the‘navel‑gazing’ of new institutionalism. Though the project might signal thecritical platforms, social spaces, radio stations and networks that would cometo characterise the key European exhibitions of the last five years (such asUtopia Station, Documenta 11, Rooseum, Malmö and Kunstverein München),it should recognise Tate’s primary role as a cultural destination and theincreasingly corporatised context in which its programmes (and publics) areproduced.
I’ve wrestled with the form such a project should take, after all most of theprojects projected behind me occurred outside the space of the museum,including that of the ill‑fated journey described in Bas Jan Ader’s title, and
come to a simple conclusion. In Search of the Miraculousshould start with a
proposition: take the mechanisms of the temporary exhibition (nine roomsover 1,300 sq m, 88 days, 240‑seater auditorium, registrars, technicians,fundraisers, PR teams and event managers) and offer them to nine artists for
whom social engagement is fundamental – with just one request: that theartists curate. The resulting projects would be structured through thetemporary exhibition suite, creating a unique set of entry points for the visitorthrough one artist’s thinking process to another, with the potential for eventsand programmes to bleed out into the social spaces of Bankside. This is not aform of delegational curating, but rather attempts to open up the decision‑making process and foregrounds the possibility for artists to contribute newmodes of experience to the spaces of Tate Modern.
The initial proposition derives its imaginative charge from the history ofartist‑curated projects (from Broodthaers Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des
Aigles to Jeremy Deller s Unconvention). But its capacity to emerge as anexhibition ahead of its time relies on two key ideas: the cross‑generationalselection of artist‑curators should reflect a multiplicity of approaches to thesocial (thereby opening up debate beyond the narrow confines of onediscourse or another) and the provision of a free public space through theconstruction of Rita McBride’s spectacular Arena in the Turbine Hall shouldallow for the confluence of those approaches through a critical programmedevised by the group. Such an idea draws inspiration for Catherine David’s100 days and the subsequent ‘opening exhibition’ of the SalzburgerKunstverein 100 Days No Exhibition. This addresses a key concern: how toreach the remaining 85% of visitors who do not pay to visit the exhibition.
So what might such a proposition lead to? One might speculate on thesurprising loans acquired by Kendell Geers, the dialogues and disagreements
between the environments of Cildo Meireles, Raqs Media Collective andAdrian Piper, the beguiling fictions of the Atlas Group and Minerva Cuevas,the sheer reverie of Johanna Billing or Annika Ström’s contests and the
contradictory pull between the autonomous interventions of William Pope L.and the collaborative assertions of Jeremy Deller. These are just suggestions ofartists, and from the standpoint of 2006 of course, we can speculate on theartists who were just about to make profound works – how fascinating itwould have been to see those propositions and conversations unfold.
Shifting Tate’s organising principles, In Search of the Miraculouswould askhow social engagement might not be predetermined; what differences lie
between provocation and solidarity and how power is exchanged in the social
In Search of the Miraculous , as the great utopian Ernst Bloch once suggested,would have allowed a process of dreaming forward, speculating on what wasto become one of the primary locales of debate around ethical and relational
aesthetics, at the threshold of a calamitous year, and might haveproblematised the now pervasive rhetoric of participation and questioned theinstrumentalising of art’s social value.
Critical Art Ensemble Body of Evidence , 2004video still
Francis Alÿs Cuando la fe mueve montanas(When faith movesmountains) , in collaborationwith Cuauhtémoc Medinaand Rafael OrtegaPerformance view, LimaPeru, 11 April 2002
