Possibility, Risk, Pedagogy

8/2/2019 Possibility, Risk, Pedagogy

1/35

National College of Art & Design

Fine Art, Media.

POSSIBILTY. RISK. PEDAGOGY.

An ideology of the artist run space.

Kari Cahill

Submitted to the Faculty of Visual Culture in Candidacy for the Degree of BA (Hons) in


2/35

Fine Art, 2012

ii


3/35

National College of Art & Design

Faculty of Visual Culture

I declare that this thesis is entirely my own work and that all sources have been fully

acknowledged.

Signed:

Dated:

iii


4/35

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to Emma Mahony for her invaluable research

assistance and support. Thanks also to the NCAD Library.

A special Thanks to Hannah Fitzpatrick, Greg Howie, Hugo Byrne and everyone who has

been involved with BASIC SPACE since its inception.

iv


5/35

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION5

BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN ART AND CURATION.

Strategies and approaches to exhibition making...8

A PLATFORM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE

APPROACHES TO ART MAKING.

The role of the New Institution...16

POSSIBILITY, RISK, PEDAGOGY & ENGAGEMENT.

Presenting the synomity and comparisons between the ideology and practice of BASIC

SPACE and New Institutionalism...23

CONCLUSION...30

BIBLIOGRAPHY...34

v


6/35

INTRODUCTION

This thesis is an attempt to locate the position of BASIC SPACE, Dublin an artist-led

initiative which I co-founded in 2010 along with Hannah Fitzpatrick, Greg Howie, and

Hugo Byrne1 within the twentieth century genealogy of the artist-as-curator,

Institutional Critique and more recently, New Institutionalism. With reference to Hegels

Dialectic, and specifically the idea of an active space where infinite outcomes are possible

between the thesis and antithesis, I will consider how BASIC SPACE explores this space

between two static sides. The triad can be made form any number of opposing ideas, but

it is what happens inside the triangle that creates new ideas. BASIC SPACE explores this

space with each project or initiative.

Hegelian Dialectic is a term used to describe a theory of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Evolving from the thoughts of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the

dialectical method involves the notion that the form of historical movement, process or

progress, is the result of conflicting opposites.2 The triad consists of: The Thesis a

determined intellectual proposition. (An idea); The Antithesis the negative reaction to

the thesis; The Synthesis the middle ground formed out of the conflict

(Friedrich/Raapana, 2005)

The theory creates a structure similar to a triangle. If you imagine the conscious as the tip

of the triangle, then one side of the triangle as the thesis, the other as the antithesis.

Dissecting the angle between the opposing thesis and antithesis is the synthesis - a new

proposition arising from the conflict and holding onto the truths of both. This theory has

acted as a framework for guiding our thoughts and actions to a predetermined solution

(Friedrich/Raapana, 2005), but rather than accepting the restriction of the synthesis as asolution located half way between the two opposing ideas I am interested in looking at

every point between the two. From the instant you leave thesis to the instant before you

enter antithesis there are infinite possible outcomes.

BASIC SPACE has existed as a space for exhibitions and projects as well as seminars and

1Hugo Byrne is no longer involved in the organization and running of the space.2 The triad has been linked to philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who used it to back

up their theory of communism. Hegel himself only used the term once and attributes it to 18 th

Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

6


7/35

discussions, and is generally defined as an art space. The ideology of the space is in a

constant flux; each project/initiative taken on questions the identity of the space. Through

this thesis, I will illustrate the influential factors, which circulate BASIC SPACE, in an

attempt to locate it both physically and ideologically. The development of the artist-as-

curator in the twentieth century, explored in the first chapter, will open up the question of

the relationship between curators and artists. Chapter one will demonstrate how the line

between art and curation is becoming more and more blurred. With many artists

travelling down the curatorial route within their own work, as well as curators considering

their curatorial ventures as art in their own right, a complex question of authorship

arises. I will consider various stand points in this argument, focusing on the views of

Anton Vidokle, Matthew Higgs, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and Jens Hoffmann whose

varied arguments expand the complex discourse concerning curation. I will outline the

opposing strategies employed by curators; performative, editorial and artists-as-curators.

My interrogation of the self-reflexivity of developing curatorial strategies will lead onto a

discussion of the similarities between the theory of New Institutionalism and the

curatorial approach of BASIC SPACE; one as a counter-critical curatorial framework,

developed in small to medium scale institutions located mainly in the Nordic countries

and in Northern Europe, which oppose the establishment; and one, which through the

making of art, has become the manifestation of the idea that art can happen outside any

institution.

The second chapter will focus on New Institutionalism, tracing its history from

Institutional Critique through to its application as a platform for the development of

alternative approaches to art making and exhibiting. It will interrogate the ideas of

Charles Esche, as he applied them to Rooseum, Malm during his tenure there as director(2002-2004), and his opinions about the role of art as an instrument for progressive

thought and social change. Chapter two will also consider opinions opposing New

Institutionalism; claiming that it itself has become institutionalised, and marginalises art

practises not concerned with the same preoccupations. The final chapter will expand on

the relationship between BASIC SPACE and the characteristics associated with New

Institutionalism; comparing and contrasting the methods and approaches applied by each,

in an attempt to dissect and re-frame the boundaries set up by governing institutions. The

synonymy found between projects embarked on by BASIC SPACE and those under the

7


8/35

authorship of New Institutions will be outlined, especially with reference to each ones

ideology concerning risk, possibility, education, and engagement.

The factors circumventing BASIC SPACE are as important as the ideologies determined

by those involved. These factors range from the economic situation of the current

recession, the fact that the space is run by full time students, and the simultaneous

association with, and autonomy from, the adjacent National College of Art and Design

(NCAD). It is hoped that the following analysis of the evolution of BASIC SPACE as a

project, initiative and idea will determine its situation within a curatorial framework and

the larger genealogy of critique.

8


9/35

BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN ART AND CURATION

Strategies and approaches to exhibition making.

Curation was first used in popular english literature only sometime before 1914 which

in etymological terms is a very short time. It is also not surprising that the word

curation was beginning to circulate through literature as Modernism considered one

of the most influential and important movements in art history was flourishing.

Modernism marked the beginning of lart pour lartart for arts sake a term coined by

the French in the late 19th century. Modernist artists began to question the value of art

and their philosophy was that the intrinsic value of art, and the only true art is divorced

from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function (Gautier, 1835)3 And so in order for art to

engage, impress or challenge, practitioners must place it within a context be it social,

technological, political or cultural.

The word curation is difficult to define, it is derived from the Latin curare to care

which implies a relationship of responsibility. Wiktionary.com, a wiki based, open

content dictionary variously defines it as:

1. The act of curating, or organising and maintaining a collection of artifacts.

2. The act of curing or healing.

3. The manual updating of information in databases.

And merriam-webster.com, the online version of the Webster Dictionary defines a

curatoras:

1. One who has the care and superintendancy of something; especially: one in chargeof a museum, zoo, or other place of exhibit.

But these definitions dont necessarily fit with the contemporary understanding of what

curation is and what a curator does. Furthermore, there is no option on these dictionary

databases to search for art curation, and so it is no wonder that artists, art writers and

3 Cited from Thophile Gauitier in his reviews inLArtiste (1865) through which he publicized

Art for Arts Sake theories through many issues. Gautier originally voiced his theory through

novels such asMademoiselle de Maupin (1835). The words can also be traced back to works by

Edgar Allen Poe, Benjamin Constant and Victor Cousin.

9


10/35

critics have long stuggled with the definition. In this chapter I intend to identify the

challenges that exist within the role of the curator of contemporary artistic practice. I

will consider the current debate which oscillates around two key and opposing curatorial

positions the performative curator and the curator-as-editor and their effects on the

exhibition as a vehicle for contextualising these practices.

At the forefront of Modernist Avante-Garde, and more specifically of Dadaist and

Surrealist movements, was the French artist Marcel Duchamp. Duchamp challenged

conventional ideas about art production, processes and markets as well as questioning the

role of the audience or viewer as a participant. He wrote: The creative act is not

performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external

world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications (Duchamp (1957), Cited in

Jodovitz, 1998, p.49)

As artistic critique grew within Modernism so did the idea of curation and in 1938

Duchamp agreed to take on the role of the exhibition designer for the International

Surrealist Exhibition in the Beaux-Arts in Paris, a move which saw the beginning of a

radical questioning of the role of the audience and the gallery space. Duchamps

intervention quite literally turned the conception of what the gallery should look like on

its head. By suspending 1,200 coal sacks from the roof, covering ornate mouldings on the

ceiling, turning down the lights and blackening the walls, he turns the elegant Eighteenth

Century interior into a dingy grotto. Visitors were handed a flashlight on entering the

gallery which, in the darkened room, meant the viewers had to step closer to each work in

order to see what was there. This disregard for the rules of exhibition viewing and

proper distance along with the soot falling from the coal sacks onto the bourgeoisieaudience meant that the viewer, instead of being a pair of disembodied eyes was faced

with an inescapable situation of audience participation (ODoherty, 1989(b) pg 69). This

installation has proved to transcend time as its critique echoes in radical contemporary

installations.

Once again in 1942, Duchamp challenged the viewer in the the Madison Avenue venue of

The First Papers Of Surrealismexhibition. Using the buildings architectural details as a

backdrop, he tied a mile of string between each moulding, ceiling painting and chandelier,

10


11/35

creating a criss-cross web through which the other works in the exhibition could not be

properly seen. Through this barrier the viewer was cut off from the art and so had to make

decisions about how to interact alternatively with what was on show (ODoherty,

1989(b), pg 72). This challenge presented by Duchamp set the stage for curation to

expand and grow into what it is today; a vehicle for a contextual framework that makes

art a more meaningful activity (Dickson, 1998 pg 83).

This framework has, by and large, taken the shape of exhibitions, with a large proportion

of artists relying on exhibitions staged within/by art institutions in order to get their art

out into the world. The exhibition has become a right of passage, and curators and the

institutions they are associated with have the power to decide what is or isnt seen; they

act as mediators between the artist and the audience/public. Therefore, there is a level of

responsibility to the artist that isnt fulfilled by many existing curatorial structures. Over

the last 100 years, the role of the curator has grown from picking out and hanging

pictures, which would be more like the dictionary definition of a curator as a caretaker of

art pieces, to a role of an all encompassing promoter-come-organiser-come-producer, who

in many cases see themselves as artists in their own right. This increase in the power to

dictate what makes it into an exhibition, goes beyond any kind of rational reasoning when

it exists within such huge mega-gallery institutions, such as MoMA, the TATE and

Guggenheim franchises. Critics such as Anton Vidokle argues that curators are using

artists as their medium.

Curatorial practice portray[ed]s the figure of the curator as a knowledgeable and

transparent agent moving between cultures and disciplinesa cultural producer

par excellence. Furthermore, it seemed to suggest that art has become a subgenre

of the Curatorial (Vidokle, 2010)

Anton Vidokle, artist, writer and founder of the international art network E-flux, has

focused his work on experimental artistic education setting up projects such as

UnitedNationsPlaza (2006-2007) and Night School(2008-2009). He believes that the

shift in curation towards this cultural producer within the realms of established

institutions is something of concern. In his article Art Without Artists posted on E-flux,

he outlines his concerns that curators may well undermine artists by using their

production as a tool for realising their own ideas. He writes:

11


12/35

The necessity of going beyond the making of exhibitions should not

become a justification for the work of curators to supersede the work of artists, nor

a reinforcement of authorial claims that render artists and artworks merely actors

and props for illustrating curatorial conceptsmovement in such a direction runs a

serious risk of diminishing the space of art by undermining the agency of its

producers: artists. (Vidokle, 2010)

His accusations raise questions of authorship. When a work of art is contextualised by

being placed into a specific framework by someone other than the artist, who concieved

the work within their own personal context, who does the work belong to? Who takes the

credit for the idea? What Vidokle suggests is that curatorial practice is undermining the

artistic decisions and direction of the work being produced by artists. This is being done

in order to fit the objectives and conditions of how the curators want the work to be

viewed. Unless the curator works closely with the artist making the work, the initial

meaning behind the practice can be lost to the framework decided by the curator. In this

article, Vidokle is arguing that the role of creating the conditions necessary for the

production and reception of art lies with the curators and critics and not the artists. They

set the scene for audience expectation. If you are spoon fed the answer to a question; told

exactly what to expect and how to feel afterwards you may not recognise the other

elements that may be at play or those you werent told to expect. This undermines the

freedom of production and the agency of artists.

Many curators acknowledge this and have developed their curatorial practice on the basis

of a closer working relationship between artists and curators. Jens Hoffmann, curator,

editor, writer, and currently director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the

California College of the Arts in San Francisco, believes that this closer working

relationship has led to expanded curatorial practice. Notions of style, in terms of having a

recognisable methodology or approach (a characteristic associated with artists and

writers) begins to manifest itself in the realm of curation, as engagement between artists

and curators becomes more visible. Artists are considering curatorial routines within the

structures of power and institutions while expanding their practice, and in turn are

influencing curators to consider artistic (visual art) routines and concepts. (Hoffmann,

2005, pg. 324) This strengthening relationship by-passes the concerns of curators using

12


13/35

artists and, as each is influenced by the other, we are also seeing artists begin to curate

exhibitions themselves. However Hoffmann is a self-proclaimed performative curator,

who can be subjected to the criticism outlined by himself above. This hypotheses

outlines how uncertain and interchangable these ideas can be. While curating exhibitions

for which he could be accused of using artists. Hoffmann seems to deflect these

accusations by further enhancing these ideas again when he expands his investigation of

the relationship between artists and curator and artist as curator to the understandings

between artist and community/audience/public. His exhibition Institution 2, at KIASMA

in Helsinki, questioned the function of the art institution and was interested in a self-

reflexive process which is one of the characteristics of the theory of New Institutionalism

(Doherty, 2004, pg. 1), which I will explore further in the next chapter.

Vidokles concerns around curators using artists are echoed by critic, curator and writer

Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt. In her essay Harnessing The Means Of Production (2003),

Gordon-Nesbitt voices a strong opinion that institutions are harnessing the energy,

imagination and ability of artists to express themselves. Gordon-Nesbitt, focusing on the

ICA exhibition, CITY RACING 1988-1998 A Partial View, 2001, she looked at the

contribution of artist-led space, City Racing, London to the artistic scene in the United

Kingdom during the 90s. (The artists showcased by City Racing were largely making

work in opposition to the dominant Young British Artists(YBA) culture of the London

art scene in the 90s). Using the example of how City Racing was represented in the

exhibition by its curator Matthew Higgs, she outlines her opinions concerning curatorial

roles within the context of representation: simply being aware of the local social

significance of artists-led initiatives and inviting them to the intitutions does not make it

ethically sound (Gordon-Nesbitt, 2003).

City Racing was an art space set up in 1988 by five artists recently graduated from art

college who turned an old betting shop into a gallery. Keith Coventry and John Burgess

along with Paul Noble, Peter Owen and Matt Hale began by squatting the building near

the Oval Cricket Ground in South London. The interior was grubby and almost

uninhabitable, but with limited funding, they hosted exhibitions, showcasing many local

young artists. Their ideology lay in their attempts to work with emerging artists in an

13


14/35

inclusive way. Rather than using their access to an exhibition space as a way of self-

promotion they also created a platform where emerging artists could exhibit without

commercial pressures. She says They diversified from showing their own work into

offering exhibitions to artists who generally would not have the chance to show their

work in London otherwise (Gordon Nesbitt, 2003). In 1996, after it had ceased operating

as an artist-run space, City Racing was invited to play an important part in the exhibition

at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) curated by Matthew Higgs. Existing primarily

as a platform for artists who couldnt get out there, City Racing worked with the artists to

put together shows that would best represent the artists. However in CITY RACING 1988-

1998: A Partial View, Gordon Nesbitt feels that Higgs exhibited a false representation of

City Racing by focussing on the artists who had become successful. Higgs, she feels, had

no regard for how inclusive City Racing had been and that omiting some of the lesser

known artists, went against the ethos of the space. The City Racers stated that they agreed

to this project so that they could further the exposure of emerging artists, but that was not

Higgs intention for the exhibition. They felt that a shared dialogue and exchange

between curator and artists was necessary for development of a comprehensive overview

of the inclusivity of City Racing. The resulting exhibition, they contended, was the ICAs

view of City Racings contribution, not the City Racers. Is this an example of curators

going too far in the framing and contextualising of art, risking losing the value of what

they are trying to frame? City Racing had a clear objective and manifesto to support

emerging artists whether famous or not, and through this exhibition City Racing was

framed in such a way that only the successful artists would represent the space.

In this case Matthew Higgs is portrayed in a negative light, but it is important to point out

that he titles the show A partial view, admitting it was not a full account of theideologies of City Racing as an initiative, but rather an overview (by an outsider) of the

art produced there. As curator of the exhibition, Higgs was given the responsibility to

make decisions concerning which pieces would go into the show. As an editorial

approach to curation, his decisions cannot be faulted. Higgs supposed concept for the

show was a representation of the contribution not success of the initiative to the

artistic scene in the UK in the 90s, and especially those who were working in opposition

to the fanatical YBA movement (which was underpinned by notions of fame and

glory).But although representing an alternative space/inititiative, which would surely

14


15/35

need to be represented through an alternative approach, to keep the ethos of the space

intact, Higgs can be criticised for approaching the whole exhibition from an institutional

angle. This is a good example of how the institution can shift the ideals of a particular

artist or group of artists and their initiatives to suit its own agenda and raises a very valid

question; who benefits from the exhibition?

Matthew Higgs, ironically, shares some of the positions put forward by both Vidokle and

Gordon Nesbitt. He is skeptical about curators having too much control over the

production of art, believing that curators often appropriate ideas and strategies from

artists, which they then put forward as their own. In an interview with cuartor, artist and

writer, Paul ONeill, Higgs states, Curators rarely create new approaches or

methodologies for exhibition making, they simply adopt or adapt strategies developed by

artists (ONeill, 2006, pg 2). He believes that artists are the driving force behind new and

exciting developments in art, not curators when artists are creating the rules or

parameterswe stand to gain a great dealart changes exhibition-making, I dont think

the reverse is true (ONeill, 2006, pg. 2).

In critiqueing the concept of curation and exploring its effects on art, we realise the

argument that curation does have an effect on the work of artists. The extent of this can

depend on whether the curator is aware of the effect of their opinions and whether the

exhibition is being curated by an institution or an individual. When the insitution is in

control there needs to be an degree of precaution by the artists, questions must be asked

concerning the overall benefit of taking part in such exhibitions. By all means there is

nothing to fault in artists who take part in large institutional exhibitions with the

progress of Institutional Critique, and its acceptance into the mainstream institutions there has been a distinct growth in the discourse between artists and curators. In the next

chapter this discourse will be explored with secific reference to the role of New

Insitutionalism, and its development in alternative approaches to art making and

exibitions.

15


16/35

A PLATFORM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES

TO ART MAKING.

The role of the New Institution.

If we assume that every attempt to recontextualise strategies for exhibition making, and

every approach to re-framing art making, borrows from models already in place, then the

approaches used by BASIC SPACE, Dublin, shows similarities to the ideas within New

Institutionalism. New Institutionalism is a theory based on the multi-functional approach

to curation which exists most notably in Northern European art institutions, and which

has origins in the practice of Institutional Critique. It is interesting to note that although

New Institutionalism is the closest institutional model BASIC SPACE can be compared

to, it is in fact alternative, artist-led initiatives which inform much of the methodologies

that characterise the New Institution. The third chapter of this thesis will expand on the

relationship between BASIC SPACE and New Instititionalism, tracing synonyms through

their ideologies and practice, whereas this chapter will form the basis of knowledge that

will inform the parallels drawn in the next chapter.

Many artist-led inititatives centre around investigating how their localised art sphere

works. In an attempt to deconstruct any preconceptions of how artists are expected to

make work, exhibit work, gain access to audiences and frame their art within boundaries

set up by their previous governing institutions (most commonly the Art School), artists set

up spaces where a discourse questioning these assumptions can happen. Although most

artist-run spaces are run by recent graduates, BASIC SPACE was set up by students

which allowed an immediate questioning of the practice taught by art schools, in this case

NCAD. Exploration of these alternative spaces challenges ideas of education and systemsof working, thereby questioning top-down learning, and new approaches to exhibition

making and the production of art. Artists who take investigation and critique, of already

set boundaries, as the subject of their art fall under the heading of Institutional Critique.

Institutional Critique investigates the framework of art institutions and establishments,

with the desire to systematically re-frame and contextualise previously assumed

boundaries within any institution. Institutional Critique seeks to break down the structure

of institutions, examine them critically, and re-frame them.

16


17/35

Artistic practice concerned with this investigation of structures of institutions was

initiated in the late 60s by artists such as Michael Asher, Daniel Buren and Hans Haacke.

Burens first solo exhibition at the Galleria Apollinaire in Milan, 1968, consisted of him

blocking a glass door, the only entrance to the museum, with his signature stripes (Il

sAgit de Voir des Bandes Verticales Blanches et Vertes) He used these stripes as a way

of challenging previous notions of a space and how it was used, in later years

concentrating on museums, galleries, public and institutional spaces. Again in 1986, with

his 3,000 metre squared sculpture at the Palais Royal in Paris (Les Deux Plateaux), Buren

questioned the boundaries of contemporary art existing within public spaces as he filled

the courtyard with striped columns. Like Buren, but operating on a more directly critical

level of museum politics was artist Hans Haacke. Haackes critique focussed on social

and political systems; especially on the system of exchange between museums and

corporate bodies. In, Moma Poll, 1970, Haacke installed two transparent ballot boxes

inside the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as part of the Information Exhibition.

Printed above the ballot boxes was a sign which read: "Would the fact that Governor

Rockefeller has not denounced President Nixon's Indochina Policy be a reason for your

not voting for him in November?". Haackes intervention sought to reveal that Nelson

Rockerfeller was both governor of New York and a donor and board member of MoMA.

This question directly commented on the relationship between political sponsors and the

museum and had he not kept the question under wraps until just before the show opened

there was no doubt that at the time his proposal for a ballot box would not have been

accepted. (Buskirk, 2005, pg. 166-167)

A second wave of Institutional Critique emerged in the late 80s and 90s with a

younger generation of artists, including Andrea Fraser, Renee Green and Fred Wilson.Performance artist, writer and lecturer Andrea Fraser, in 1989, imitated a museum tour

guide at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in an attempt to highlight the museums

involvement in the commerce, sale and diplay of art. Typically drawing from political,

historical and commercial connotations of the art museum, Frasers intervention

highlights the museums agenda for art as enterprise. A later work, Untitled (2003),

consisted of an hour-long video documenting a sexual encounter between the artist and a

man in a hotel room. The man, an unidentified American collector, paid 20,000 dollars to

take part in this art piece and the contract was drawn up by the gallery representing

17


18/35

Fraser. Quoted in a New York Times Article, Fraser says, ''All of my work is about what

we want from art, what collectors want, what artists want from collectors, what museum

audiences want(Fraser, cited by Trebay, 2004). Her agenda to expose the power

mechanisms at work within the art institutution is contrasted by the humorous manner of

her wild gestures.

If Institutional Critique is considered the work of artists, New Instititionalism is

considered the work of the establishment (curators) and engages with the transformation

of art institutions from within, by using tactics of investigation informed by the institution

itself. It is envisioned largely as the third phase of Institutional Critique, where the

institution begins to internalise the critique which once operated against it in an attempt to

create internal reform. (Mahony, 2011). These investigations include questions of

curatorial practice, critical debate and transparency within institutional frameworks. New

Institutionalism is characterised by concepts of the temporary: transient encounters, event

based/ process based work, education and peer critique. It also focuses on socially and

economically contextualising the institution and its space within this context, by

attempting to redefine the art insititution through interrogation of not only the limited

discourse of art works but the whole framework supporting the institution (ibid). New

Institutionalism is largely the preserve of small to medium-scale, publically funded

European art institutions, with many spaces existing in countries with strong social

democracies, such as the Nordic countries.

Rooseum, located in Malm, Sweden is one such space. For the period it was directed by

Charles Esche (2002-2004), it was held up as being one of the most progressive New

Institutions in the Nordic Countries. Esche conceived Rooseum as a space of democraticdeviance, where incoherance, disagreement, uncertainty and unpredictable results were

encouraged (Esche, 2004, pg 2-3). This approach to curation, critique and art-making has

bred an ethos of social, active spaces. Currently director of the Van Abbe Museum,

Eindhoven, Esche, having experienced the fall of Cummunism while growning up in the

German Democratic Republic, is interested in the philosophical concept of possibilty as

an aid to rethinking the relationship between art and social change (Project Base Lecture,

Press Release, 2011). Art, he believes, gives priority to the imagination and has the ability

to become an instrument of progressive thought. In Rosseums mission statement Esche

18


19/35

notes,

Now the term art might be starting to describe that space in society for

experimentation, questioning and discovery that religion, science and philosophyhave occupied sporadically in former times. It has become an active space rather

than one of passive observation. Therefore the institutions to foster it have to be

part-community centre, part laboratory and part-academy (Esche, 2001).

To these ends, he imagines the experimental institution, not as a container for art, but as a

creative engine for re-thinking the change that can occur within our own personal

consciousness but also through society as a whole. (Esche, 2004, p.1) He is interested in

the impact visual art could and does have all over the world. In an interview for Artforum

Magazine with Mats Stjernstedt, Esche calls for responsive action to social change

through art, whether that is through imitation of the fluidity of capitalism, stating that art

centers are still rightly required, to serve and create possibilities for the society in which

they find themselves (Stjernstedt, 2001).

Within New institutionalism, there have been an array of projects developed which are

anchored in social and political awareness and pedagogy. To take the example of

Unitednationsplaza; Anton Vidokle in collaboration with Liam Gillick, Jalal Toufic,

Boris Groys, Martha Rosler, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Nikolaus Hirsch, Tirdad

Zolghadr and Walid Raad, set up a temporary art school in Berlin between 2007 and

2008, after the cancellation of Manifesta 6, Nicosia, a project they had been working on.

Unitednationsplaza took the form of an independent long-term project involving artists,

writers, philosophers and curators.(unitednationsplaza.org) Existing now as an online

archive documenting the debates, workshops, seminars and essays, the

Unitednationsplaza started with the the desire that art and artists should engage with all

aspects of social life (Vidokle, Rosler, 2008) and held a strong desire on the part of the

organisers and participants of these shows to see their work as transformative social

projects rather than merely symbolic gestures.(ibid). The project is linked indirectly to

establishments but also directly when it was commissioned as a new iteration, under the

name Night School, which travelled to the New Museum, New York in January 2008.

Unitednationsplaza ticks all the boxes in terms of being a model of investigating

boundaries within New Institutionalism; socially and economically contextualising the

institution and its space within this context both in Berlin and New York, rendering it

19


20/35

transient and movable. It also ticked the box of pedagogy with the array of educational

discourses in that it took the form of an art school.

It is important here to note that there is considerable doubt surrounding the outcomes and

affects of New Institutionalism and its compulsion to broaden the ideology surrounding

art. This goes back again to the role of the curator and his/her responsibilty to the artist.

Claire Doherty states that rather than a broadening and expansion of ideas, I believe

weve seen a narrowing of the field(Doherty, 2006, pg.3). The field being different

kinds of curatorial strategies and interrogative practice talks, discussions, seminars,

exhibitions, education, performance, film, events. But what Doherty is suggesting is that

rather than opening up a platform for the development of alternative approaches to art

making and exhibiting, curators have begun to focus on art practices that deal directly

with strategies of investigation within what New Institutionalism stands for; thereby

closing the door to developments in practices that arent entrenched in notions of

mediation, self-reflexivity and interrogation of institutions. A gap has been created with

one side fully anchored in ideas of critique, which question the prescribed and non-

prescribed theories and positions of society within political realms and establishments. On

the other side, we have artists for example whose practice can be considered more object

based; spectacular, especially large scale practices which are embraced by the counter

model to New Institutionalism the corporatized art museum. These artists while still

making art; exploring ideas, criticality, alternative notions of education and practice

(ideas associated with the other side), find that because their art isnt necessarily framed

by the artists as directly complying with the disposition of New Institutionalism, their

work isnt considered relevant. Alex Farquharson, writer, critic and director of

Nottingham Contemporary, states that Curators interested in dealing self-reflexivly withthe structures of mediation inevitably end up privileging and creating an artificial demand

for art practices engaged in the same questions (Farquharson, 2003i, pg. 7). In The

Curatorialisation of Institutional Critique, 2005 Jens Hoffmann reflects a concern, that if

curators become wholly preoccupied with practices related to Insititutional Critique as the

only strategy of critical engagement, they will risk losing out on possibly new radical

strategies. Once a catalyst for interpretation and fundamentally challenging critical

engagement, curation distracted by these strategies will become merely a celebration of

self-reflexivity that ultimitely re-sanctifies the institution (Hoffmann, 2005, pg 334). His

20


21/35

opinions echoes with those of Andrea Fraser, mentioned above as an artist previously

preoccipied with notions of Institutional Critique, who is presently engaged in New

Institutionalism. In her essayFrom a Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique

she asks what happens when artists who previously critiqued institutions have now,

through their critique and New Institutionalism, become institutions themselves? (Fraser,

2005, pg. 2) She outlines her argument by presenting Daniel Buren and Hans Haacke, as

artists who, returned to corporate museum franshises such as the Guggenheim and

MoMA, once censored their work, and now put on huge solo shows. She claims that the

practises once associated with Institutional Critique, an alternative radical movement,

have themselves become Institutionalised (Fraser, 2005, pg. 1).

Having looked at the methods and approaches to practice, of New institutionalism that

span various disciplines of art, curation and critique, both praise and criticism become

increasingly evident. The very nature of New Institutionalisms self-reflexive,

questioning, discourse, allows it to be both an established ideology, as well as a

constantly evolving alternative to an established ideology. Going back to Hegels

Dialectic and the analogy that between the thesis and antithesis, there exists infinite

alternative standing points, ideologies, truths and ideas (the active centre), New

Institutionalism encapsulates the practice of stimulating this centre.

21


22/35

LOCATING BASIC SPACE

Presenting the synonymy and comparisons between the ideology and practice of

BASIC SPACE, and New Institutionalism.

There have been many parallels drawn between the strategies and ideals characterising

BASIC SPACE and those associated with New Institutionalism. While not intentionally

set up with the methodologies of New institutionalism in mind, there is a strong sense that

BASIC SPACE is asking some of the same questions that set the foundations for those

institutions and projects which exist under the umbrella of New Institutionalism. Four

major criteria come to mind when looking at these similarities: Possibility, Education,

Risk, and Engagement. In this chapter I will outline the synonymity between BASIC

SPACE and New Institutionalism, paying particular attention to these criteria. Through

this investigation I will hopefully give a sense of the somewhat unique position of BASIC

SPACE as a project, a building, a movement, a curatorial venture, and an idea.

BASIC SPACE was conceived out of the frustration felt at the lack of exhibition spaces

for emerging artists in Dublin. This reality existed alongside an abundance of commercial

properties left vacant by the recession. The belief behind the initial idea was that at least

one of those spaces could be transformed into an art space, and while changing the use of

the building; the organizing collective would also be creating cultural capital for the city

and support for ourselves and other emerging artists. After ten months of meetings and

negotiations, a prominent Dublin-based property developer drew up a contract that would

allow us to use a vacant warehouse without paying rent. The ten thousand square foot

property would stay on the market and there would be a two-week-kick-out period if

tenants were found. It was not the street front commercial unit anticipated when webegan the process, it was a hanger-sized warehouse, and so BASIC SPACE grew from the

foundations and physicality of this space.

Underpinning the ethos and ideology of BASIC SPACE are a number of circumstantial

factors the recession, the fact that the collective are all NCAD students, the unfurnished

state, the precarity of the availability of the building, and the lack of funds. The founding

members saw these factors as challenges and not setbacks. Each of these circumstantial

challenges have led the group to investigate more interesting ideas, for instance, the size

22


23/35

of the building led us to reconsider scale when large objects looked tiny in relation to the

building. The freezing temperatures during the winter months inspired artist Andreas

Kindler Von Knobloch to make a piece of work using a thermal infrared camera which

measured the temperatures of people who attended Half Way There, the inaugural

exhibition. Our lack of funding means that we havent invested anything that can be lost

into the building. As full time students, we have access to all the facilities NCAD has to

offer, including workshops and tutorials, as well as a body of artists who are engaged with

contemporary artistic practice. We dont have a set of guidelines we have to follow set

out by a governing body or institution. There was never any commercial agenda with

BASIC SPACE, which opened up opportunities to take on the space as literally four walls

and a roof with nothing inside, or as a space which had no previous ideals attatched, and

to figure out what that allowed you to do as an artist, a collective, a student and a

curator.These factors allow us to take more risks, while at the same time not risking

anything.

Charles Esches approach to curation and critique within the realm of art-making

interrogates the concept of possibility. These possibilities occur in the the form of

neither positive nor negative outcomes, but are reached through a desire to answer a

question or to unravel an idea without the pre-set boundaries of having to come up with a

finite result. This mirrors the appraoch of BASIC SPACE. Set up simply as a space for

things to happen (basicspacedublin.wordpress.com), the space allowed for the

possibility of failure and, like Esches Rooseum, Malm, for incoherent, uncertain and

unpredictable results. The acceptance that failure is just as inevitable as success alleviates

the pressure to avoid failure when embarking on a project and allows for increased

experimentation. Again, going back to Hegels triad, BASIC SPACE allows for theexistance of limitless outcomes and ideas.

One of the attributes which sets BASIC SPACE apart from other alternative spaces and

institutions is that it was set up and run by undergraduate students, as opposed to recent

graduates. In effect, this means that the running and organisation of events, access and

availablity of the space, and facilitation of projects and ideas all had to be negotiated

while engaging in full-time study. James Merrigan, a Dublin based artist, writer, critic and

founder of +BILLION- Online Art Journal made an observation relating to this in his

23


24/35

essay Historical Cases of the Subterranean Kindwhich reviewed Underground An

Exhibition of Works Below Surface Level(November 2011, www.billionjournal.ie) when

he compares the situation existing between BASIC SPACE and the National College of

Art and Design, and that of Gordon Matta-Clark and his relationship with his college.

Merrigan writes that although BASIC SPACE is affiliated with NCAD, the founders are

all NCAD students, the colleges student union insurance policy extends to cover all

student registered with NCAD to work in BASIC SPACE and the warehouse is situated a

mere 100 metres away, there is autonomy from the college. The disconnection between

NCAD and BASIC SPACE is clear from talking to tutors and lecturers from the college,

but it is inevitable that what each does influences the other. Merrigan talks about how

Gordon Matta-Clark describes his study of architecture in university as his first trap and

that without this trap, he would have had nothing to oppose, and perhaps would have

ended up an entirely different artist. Just as without NCAD, BASIC SPACE would not

have evolved the way it did. Not strongly against the attributes and virtue of NCAD, but

rather using the existence of these attributes as a starting point, to evolve and experiment

with other ways of working, learning, making and engaging, rather than just engaging

with what the art college teaches.

There is some semblance between the educational discourse of BASIC SPACEs projects

such as Half+Half (2011), and Summer Camp (2011) and Anton Vidokles project

UnitedNationsPlaza (2007-2008). As mentioned in the previous chapter,

UnitedNationsPlaza existed as a temporary art school dedicated to the idea of exhibition

as school. Using the model of an art school for an exhibition allowed a questioning of

what constitutes a learning experience; discharging assumptions that school signifies

learning while challenging the potential of an exhibition to facilitate educational discourse(Hadley, Maxwell, 2008). Summer Camp took the form of a six-week full time residency

with a high concentration on production, discourse, experimentation, critiques and

collective work. The artists involved dedicated six weeks of their summer to full-time

participation in the residency with a view to extending the college term into the summer

without the formal strategies of assessment, but maintaining the element of productivity

and activity. There was an emphasis on skill sharing and interdisciplinary practice with no

clear end point at the beginning. (Host Press Release, 2011) Like UnitedNationsPlaza,

Summer Camp andHalf+Halfacted as a tool to realize different forms of exchange and

24


25/35

discourse that could only exist outside the walls of an institutionalized art school.

Half+Halfwas concerned with interdisciplinary practices spanning different colleges and

specific courses. It grew out of the desire to explore academic disciplines throughout the

arts, humanities, sciences and technology sectors through the medium of art, and took the

form of two one-week seminars held in the warehouse. Half+Half was interested in a

form of art that looks beyond the self and personal experience towards collaborative

learning and communal engagement. (Fitzpatrick, 2011).

As Summer Camp evolved over the first few weeks, it became evident that the

participants were imagining an exhibition as the manifestation of what was happening;

that the doing was as important as the discourse surrounding it. There was a desire to

show work, as individuals but also as a collective; to turn our custom designed summer

camp into something more tangible, and an exhibition was the way this would happen.

This show, entitledHost, acted as a signifier of the experience of Summer Camp, and was

curated by the group as a whole.

It is important here to tackle the notions of curation within BASIC SPACE at this

juncture. Initiailly there was no sense that what was happening in Basic Space was in any

way involved with a curation process. This is possibly because a lot of what BASIC

SPACE does is out of necessity the necessity of providing a platform for emerging

artists and what is important to us at that time. Although we dont send out open calls for

submission and we dont hang any work for other artists, we work as a team/as a group of

autonomous individuals, or somewhere between the two, to turn an idea into something

more tangible through the means we see fit. This, in a nutshell encapsulates our curatorial

approach. It is about realizing potential in the present moment and challenges those whoknow about it to realize ideas through engagement (Fitzpatrick, 2011). NCAD, while

helping us achieve our goal to open a space up to the arts, also presents challenges.

Experiencing rigid structures around the areas of critique, tutorials, and examination

requirements in college, BASIC SPACE opened up the discussion for how we, given the

freedom, would assess ourselves; taking the boundaries, opening them up, and re-framing

them within the context of our needs and requirements. We introduced new methods of

peer-to-peer critiques, a process whereby the artist under critique is only allowed to talk

about their work after the rest of the group has discussed it. This seemed like a natural

25


26/35

thing to do as our position as emerging artists means that we have limited exposure to

critiques other than from college tutors. Existing alongside the institution but being

autonomous from it, has meant that we can investigate notions of education without

having to reach an answer. Similar to Charles Esches vision for Rooseum, BASIC

SPACE realizes a potential for self-perpetuated education and promotes experimentation

with no clear end point, possible uncertain outcomes, and the freedom to work without

boundaries. (basicspacedublin.wordpress.com, 2011i).

Through all the initiatives, projects, events, and exhibitions we have become preoccupied

with notions of challenges, and engaging with these challenges (doing and making)

provides an atmosphere of activity. The aforementioned element of risk and our current

situation means that we dont lose anything if a project fails or happens to take a

different direction than we originally planned. These were the initial ideas that led to the

conception ofUnderground - An Exhibition of Works Below Surface Level, which took

place in November 2011 and included the work of nine artists. The physical features of

the building have allowed us to consider different methods and approaches to making

work. Site specificity, in terms of 'taking on' the building, has become an integral part of

any project that is realized in BASIC SPACE. Until recently it operated as a warehouse

and still bears evidence of industry. Adjacent to each supporting wall, are trenches of soil;

long narrow pathways where the concrete has been removed; scars from the routine

survey of the foundations for a future construction on the land, planned before the

recession hit, and a constant reminder to all involved of the fragility of the buildings

existence. (Merrigan, 2011). In this exhibition, a specific objective was given to the

participating artists: Create a site-specific work that engages with the underground

(basicspacedublin.wordpress.com, 2011iii). This exhibition says a lot about the way art ismade in BASIC SPACE Artists used the idea of labour and the physical engagement

of digging into the earth as their way to explore and generate individual ideas for the

exhibition. The premise was that labour adds value to something; gives it value as art. Just

as the digging informed the practice of the artists involved in the exhibition, what BASIC

SPACE is, is what happens, what is done there, what is made. Directly relating to ideas of

deconstructing institutional presumptions the elements at play in Underground; the act of

digging/unearthing created a sense of value to the work being made, and while doing so

allocated it as art, and shift[ed] any predetermined notions the viewer may bring to an

26


27/35

exhibition of work (Wasser, 2011).

Understandably there are questions surrounding the longevity of an initiative that has no

funding and no stable residence. Its situation begs the question: Is there an inevitability

that BASIC SPACE will eventually fade away or be forced to join an institution in order

to continue? This question assumes that BASIC SPACE can only exist within a building,

that it needs four walls to exist. What sets us apart from New Institutionalism is that we

dont hold onto the importance of the physical building as a site for art. The ideas

manifested inside the warehouse could easily exist elsewhere. A reliance on state funding

often sees art institutions defeated during times of economic crisis, when arts funding is

one of the first areas to experience severe cuts. BASIC SPACE in this regard has the

upper hand, as it has been proven that it can evolve without any funding and without the

building it would continue to do so. The reality is that it is just an idea, BASIC SPACE is

a collection of exhibitions that happened; a community of artists who make work; an

investigation into methods of practice; a desire to create a self-sufficient support network

during a time of uncertainty.

27


28/35

CONCLUSION

The action of looking back poses many problems. In the case of BASIC SPACE, we have

always just done things and then talked about them afterwards. Being described as a

philosophical group4 recently baffled us, as we see BASIC SPACE as a practical space; a

place to get things done, whatever the outcome, whatever the reason. But then in

hindsight you can find the links between ideas, and apply theory to the practice stating

what you may not have been able to articulate during the process of making. This thesis is

a retrospective analysis of how and where BASIC SPACE fits into of the institutions of

the art world; how what we do could be compared to other projects and approaches. It is

also a way of locating co-ordinates for our position on a map. Ideally this thesis will

become part of a series of literature that interrogates the activities and ideology of BASIC

SPACE in relation to its position in the here and now. The retrospective nature of this

textual analysis creates a strange situation where BASIC SPACE is being objectively5

discussed and investigated in text, while at the same time it continues to change and

evolve without any concern for this thesis.

Alongside this thesis, BASIC SPACE has recently been invited to take part in a

programme running in the NCAD Gallery, which focuses on the history of alternative

spaces in Ireland especially strategic, independent, artist-run projects. BASIC SPACE

was asked to represent its work as a project where the process of exhibiting is as much the

subject of the work as the objects or ideologies. In other words, to translate what BASIC

SPACE does into an institutional gallery space. This prompted some very interesting

questions about how our activities would translate when contextualised in a typical white

cube gallery space, how this ideology would impress on BASIC SPACE? Other morebasic questions followed, would we make art or make an exhibition? Would we curate

other artists work or would we use the gallery space as just another building for a project

to take place within? The conversations that happened mirrored the ideas being

investigated in this thesis in relation to New Institutionalism, Institutional Critique and

4During a conversation between BASIC SPACE, and the NCAD Gallery board of directors.The discourse was centered around why BASIC SPACE was asked to participate in the gallery

programme, and what BASIC SPACE proposed to do with the space.5

Although I am a founding member of BASIC SPACE, and organize the day to day running, I

endeavor to remain as objective as possible in this thesis treating it with the same analysis as

if I was not immediately involved.

28


29/35

curation, and subsequently have informed our discourse. Projects like

UnitedNationsPlaza, Night School, illustrate the manifestation of ideas that bear

resemblance to the ideas important to BASIC SPACE. This invitation from the NCAD

gallery made us realise that although BASIC SPACE is an alternative space and

essentially autonomous from NCAD, we were not against the institution per se. On the

contrary, the relationship between the art college and BASIC SPACE has informed our

ways of working. Through our 4 years studying in NCAD we have been exposed to the

teaching methodologies of an institution. Granted that there has been space to expand on

the methodology to a certain degree, but for the most part, being part of the Irish

Education System, each department and faculty adheres to regulated criteria and

processes of teaching. While providing students with a trove of knowledge and

professionally taught skills and practice, there is a limit of opportunities to expand on, a

lack of experimentation with alternate ways of learning, or considering, work. BASIC

SPACE is a place that allowed us this exploration. Since BASIC SPACE was founded,

NCAD has experienced the growth of a series of part collective, part community within

the students in college who have a desire to expand their knowledge, not through top-

down learning, but through peer-to-peer critiques, group tutorials and skill-sharing

workshops. Due to the current economic crisis and the cutbacks, which have heavily

affected arts funding, students have realised the importance of gathering the skills to learn

and think independently, with no provisions, only the knowledge and opinions they can

share and refine together.

BASIC SPACE might fail in that it wont last forever. Its future is uncertain; access to

the building could be revoked for any reason, at any stage. Furthermore, no independent

funding limits the possibility of insuring the space following our graduation from NCAD,as currently we are covered by college insurance6. However, going back to the theories of

Charles Esche, when asked whether the closure of Rooseum meant that the project had

failed, he replied-

There isnt any experimental institution (New Institution) that you can point to, that has

6 Under NCAD Students Union Insurance Policy, all registered students are covered, anywhere

in the EU, by the policy as long as they can prove their activity to be furthering their studies.

Once we graduate this policy will still be in place, but only for registered NCAD students.

Anyone outside the college will have to supply their own insurance.

29


30/35

been a hundred per cent successfulthe point is that thats the very nature of what were

doingof course these institutions are going to fail. (Esche, interview with Kunstkritikk,

2011)

Rooseum closed due to funding cuts, but deciding to set up against an established modus

operandi was to embrace the possibility of failure. The closure of Rooseum has left many

questions unanswered; would it have produced greater and more varied publics given

more time? Would it have influenced more artists, or would it have self imploded as the

self reflexivity of its ideology spiralled into an all encompassing black hole, with nothing

being produced, just the same conversations happening over and over? Esches thoughts

about the success of projects like this resonate hard here. Its very nature meant that it

had an objective to be seen as a working model of an alternative approach to art

making, curating, education and the dissemination of ideas. It is the contention of this

thesis that Rooseum succeeded in doing this, and that Basic Space operating in the same

way has also succeeded.

One might assume that the goal of the New Institution is to take over and replace

traditional institutions to leave behind the old ideology and replace it with a new one.

This is not the intention. Replacing or doing away with long standing establishments

would mean disregarding everything that has happened within their walls their history.

The new ideas, once they get marked as an ideology have their own flaws and will be

opposed and reacted to. What Esche was trying to do with Rooseum was show an

alternative way of working, an approach that considered both time and place and that

could be emulated within the framework of another institution. The criticism of these

spaces exists only when you base their success on whether they are still operating, and

maybe in that sense BASIC SPACE has the upper hand in that it never had any funding inthe first place and so cannot lose its funding. The current building BASIC SPACE

occupies can be taken but, unlike New Institutions, there isnt an importance placed on

the physicality of the building, and so the idea can exist in another site.

Potentially BASIC SPACE fits the ideology of New Institutionalism; it adheres to its

methods and approaches, but equally, BASIC SPACE could possibly represent a counter

model to New Institutionalism in the future. This poses a difficult aversion in this thesis

to define BASIC SPACE with any longevity rather this thesis will locate its co-

30


31/35

ordinates at this present moment. BASIC SPACE is a space, which currently engages in

alternate methods of pedagogy, where artists can take risks with their work, and where

possibilities are realised.

31


32/35

BIBLIOGRPAHY

Baldessari, J. Craig-Martin, M (2009) Conversation in Madoff, 2009, The Art School

- (Propositions for the 21st Century), Cambridge Massachusetts/ London, United

Kingdom: MIT Press

Buskirk, M. (2005), The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art, Cambridge,

Massachusetts: MIT Press

Charlesworth, J. (2007) Curating Doubt, in Rugg, Sedwick, (eds.)Issues in Curating

Contemporary Art and Performance, Bristol: Intellect Books

Deliss, C. Roaming, Prelusive, Permeable: Future Academy in Madoff, 2009, The Art

School - (Propositions for the 21st Century), Cambridge Massachusetts/ London,

United Kingdom: MIT Press

Dickson, M. (1998), Another Year of Alienation: On the Mythology

of the Artist-Run Initiative, in McCorquodale, Siderfin, Stallabrass, (eds.),

Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art, London: Black Dog.

Doherty, C. (2006), New Institutionalism and the Exhibition as Situation, in

Protections Reader, Graz: Kunsthaus Graz

Esche, C. (2009) Include me Out: Preparing Artists to Undo the Art World, in

Madoff, 2009, The Art School - (Propositions for the 21st Century), Cambridge

Massachusetts/ London, United Kingdom: MIT Press

Ford, S. The Myth of the Young British Artist, in McCorquodale, Siderfin,

Stallabrass, (eds.), Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art,

London: Black Dog.

Gielen, P. (2009), The Biennale: A Post-Institution for Immaterial Labour, In Seijdel,

(ed.), Open 16 Publication, The Art Biennial as a Global Phenomenon, Strategies in

Neo-Political Times, NAI Publisher, SKOR

Hoffmann, J. (2005) The Curatprialization of Institutional Critique, in Welchman,

(ed.),Institutional Critiue and after, Volume 2 of the SoCCAS symposium, Zurich:JRP Ringier.

Hoffman, J (Ed) (2004) The Next Documenta Should Be Curated by and Artists,

Revolver, Frankfurt, Germany: / e-flux, New York / Platform Garanti Contemporary

Art Centre

Judovitz, D. (1998) Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit, London:University of

California Press.

Mahony, E. (2012) New Institutionalism and its Legacy(Unpublished manuscript.)

Montmann, N. (2005) Opacity: Current Considerations on Art Institutions

32


33/35

and the Economy of Desire, in Montmann(ed.), (2005), Art and its Institutions:

Current Conflicts, Critique and Collaborations, London: Black Dog Publishing

Mouffe, C. (2002), For an Agonistic Public Sphere in Okwui, Basualdo, Meta Bauer,

Ghez, Maharaj, Nash, Zaya (eds.),Democracy Unrealized, Documenta11_Platform 1,

Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz

ODoherty, B. (1989a), The Gallery as a Gesture inInside the White Cube, The

Ideology of the Gallery Space (Expanded Eds), London: University of California Press

ODoherty, B. (1989b), Context as Content inInside the White Cube, The Ideology of

the Gallery Space(Expanded Eds), London: University of California Press

O'Neill, P. & Wilson, M.(Eds.), (2010), Curating and The Educational Turn, London:

Open Editions/de Appel

ONeill, P.(2007), The Curatorial Turn: From Practice to Discourse. InIssues inContemporary Art and Performance, Bristol: Intellect Books

Raqs Media Collective, On Curatorial esponsibility, in Filipovic, Van Hal, Ovstebo

(eds.) (2010), The Biennial Reader, Bergen Kunsthall: Hatje Cantz

Siderfin, N, Occupational Haazard, in , in McCorquodale, Siderfin, Stallabrass(eds.),

Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art, London: Black Dog.

Vidokle, A (2009) From Exhibitions to School: Notes from Unitednationsplaza in

Madoff (2009) The Art School - (Propositions for the 21st Century), Cambridge

Massachusetts/ London, United Kingdom: MIT Press

Welchman, J.C. (ed),Institutional Critique and After, Volume 2 of the SoCCAS

symposia, Zurich: JRP Ringier

ARTICLES

Farquharson, A.(2006) Bureaux De Change, Frieze Magazine, Issue 101, Published

Setpember 2006.

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/bureaux_de_change/

Article accesses October 2011

Farquharson, A.(2003i) I curate you curate we curate: feature on curating, Part 1. Art

Monthly Magazine, Issue 269, page 7.

Farquharson, A.(2003ii) I curate you curate we curate: feature on curating, Part 2. Art

Monthly Magazine, Issue 270, page 13.

Fraser, A.(2011) Where Do You Stand, Colleague? Texte Zur Kunst, Issue 81,

http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/where-do-you-stand-colleague-art-criticism-

and-social-critique-symposium-on-the-occasion-of-the-20th-anniversary/

Date accessed December 2011

Haake, H.(1975), The Role of the Artists in Todays societyArt Journal, Summer

33
http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/bureaux_de_change/http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/where-do-you-stand-colleague-art-criticism-and-social-critique-symposium-on-the-occasion-of-the-20th-anniversary/http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/where-do-you-stand-colleague-art-criticism-and-social-critique-symposium-on-the-occasion-of-the-20th-anniversary/http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/bureaux_de_change/http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/where-do-you-stand-colleague-art-criticism-and-social-critique-symposium-on-the-occasion-of-the-20th-anniversary/http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/where-do-you-stand-colleague-art-criticism-and-social-critique-symposium-on-the-occasion-of-the-20th-anniversary/


34/35

edition 1975.

Hadley+Maxwell (2008), Find Us at the Kitchen Door,Art Lies Contemporary Art

Journal, Issue 57. http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1583&issue=57&s=1

Accessed: January 2012

Vidokle, A.(2010), Art Without Artists?, E-flux issue 136, May 2010

Available: http://e-flux.com/journal/view/136 Accessed: October 2011

Vidokle, A., Rosler, M. (2008) Exhibition as School as Work of Art, ART LIES, issue

59.

http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1661&issue=59&s=1

Accessed: December 2011.

Wasser, F.(2011), Sisyphus Rishing A Review of the Underground Exhibition at

BASIC SPACE, Dublin, Critical Bastards, Issue 4.

http://criticalbastards.wordpress.com/2011/12/ Accessed: December 2011

ONLINE

Doherty, C. (2004) The Institution is Dead! Long Live the Institution! Contemporary

Art and New Institutionalism,Engage-Art of Encounter, Issue 15

http://www.situations.org.uk/media/files/Engage.pdfAccessed: October 2011

Esche, C. (2011)Historical Times: the capabilities of an art museum and how it comes

to terms with the world today, Project Base, Lecture Press Release, 2011,

http://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-

capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-

wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpg

Accessed: December 2011

Esche, C. (2004), Whats the Point of Art Centres Anyway?

Possibility, Art and Democratic Deviance, www.republicart.net

http://republicart.net/disc/institution/esche01_en.htm

Accessed: October 2011

Esche, C.(2001) Can Everything be Temporary? Art, institutions and fluidity, series ofdebated on Netw, Context, territories, November 2001

www.proyestorama.org/00/INGLES/TEXTS/REDES/eschei.htm

Accessed: November 2010

Fraser, A. (2005) From the Critique of Institutions to Institutional Critique, Artforum.

New York: Sep 2005. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 278

http://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-

Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdfAccessed: December 2011

Gordon-Nesbitt, R. (2003), Harnessing the Means of Production.

http://www.societyofcontrol.com/pmwiki/Akademie/uploads/Main/harnessing.htmVerksted #1, Norway: Office for Contemporary Art

34
http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1583&issue=57&s=1http://e-flux.com/journal/view/136http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1661&issue=59&s=1http://criticalbastards.wordpress.com/2011/12/http://www.situations.org.uk/media/files/Engage.pdfhttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://republicart.net/disc/institution/esche01_en.htmhttp://www.proyestorama.org/00/INGLES/TEXTS/REDES/eschei.htmhttp://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdfhttp://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdfhttp://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdfhttp://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1583&issue=57&s=1http://e-flux.com/journal/view/136http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1661&issue=59&s=1http://criticalbastards.wordpress.com/2011/12/http://www.situations.org.uk/media/files/Engage.pdfhttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://www.projectbase.org.uk/talks-and-events/charles-esche-historical-times-capacities-art-museum-and-how-it-comes-terms-with-wo#/sites/default/files/_DSC5163.jpghttp://republicart.net/disc/institution/esche01_en.htmhttp://www.proyestorama.org/00/INGLES/TEXTS/REDES/eschei.htmhttp://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdfhttp://www.marginalutility.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Andrea-Fraser_From-the-Critique-of-Institutions-to-an-Institution-of-Critique.pdf


35/35

Accessed:September 2011

ONeill, P.(2006), Curating Subjects Interview with Matthew Higgs. North Drive

Press, Issue 3. Edited by Paul ONeill

http://www.northdrivepress.com/interviews/NDP3/NDP3_HIGGS_ONEILL.pdf

Accessed: October 2011

Raapana, N., Friedrich, N.(2005), Introduction: Why study Hegel, What is the

Hegelian Dialect?,http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htm Accessed

February 2012

Trebay, G. (2004) Sex, Art and Videotape,New York Times (Encounter), June 13

2004,http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?

pagewanted=all Accessed: January 2012

Ekeberg, J., Seihaug, J. (2011), Interview with Charles Esche, The Possibility of

Politics, Kunstkritikk, http://www.kunstkritikk.com/international-edition-en/the-possibility-of-politics/?lang=en Accessed: January 2012

PUBLICATIONS & PRESS

BASIC SPACE(2011i) http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/about/Updated 2011,

Accessed: August 2010

BASIC SPACE (2011ii) Host Press Release, HOST Opening 15 Sept, September 3,

2011http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/host-opening-15-sept/

Accessed: August 2010

Basic Space (2011iii) Underground Press Release, New Show Opening November

10thOctober 28, 2011,

http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/underground-show-opening-

november-10th/ Accessed: August 2010

Fitzpatrick, H. (2011) Half+Half Press Release. Information courtesy of Hannah

Fitzpatrick, Ireland

Open Dublin(2010) Open Dublin Proposal: For the Use of Vancant Properties in

Dublin.http://opendublin.wordpress.com/proposal/ Accessed: April 2010
http://www.northdrivepress.com/interviews/NDP3/NDP3_HIGGS_ONEILL.pdfhttp://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htmhttp://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htmhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.kunstkritikk.com/international-edition-en/the-possibility-of-politics/?lang=enhttp://www.kunstkritikk.com/international-edition-en/the-possibility-of-politics/?lang=enhttp://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/about/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/about/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/host-opening-15-sept/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/underground-show-opening-november-10th/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/underground-show-opening-november-10th/http://opendublin.wordpress.com/proposal/http://opendublin.wordpress.com/proposal/http://www.northdrivepress.com/interviews/NDP3/NDP3_HIGGS_ONEILL.pdfhttp://www.crossroad.to/articles2/05/dialectic.htmhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/magazine/13ENCOUNTER.html?pagewanted=allhttp://www.kunstkritikk.com/international-edition-en/the-possibility-of-politics/?lang=enhttp://www.kunstkritikk.com/international-edition-en/the-possibility-of-politics/?lang=enhttp://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/about/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/host-opening-15-sept/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/underground-show-opening-november-10th/http://basicspacedublin.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/underground-show-opening-november-10th/http://opendublin.wordpress.com/proposal/

Date post:	05-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	karicahill
View:	220 times
Download:	0 times

Possibility, Risk, Pedagogy

Documents