praxis - art in times of uncertainty

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INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL

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Praxis: Art in Times of Uncertainty

Posted on September 16, 2011

The investigation of the influence of social change in artistic creation and the detection

of critical research shifts towards issues of collective interest oriented the curatorial

direction of Thessaloniki Biennale. In 2009, the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of

Contemporary Art, organized by the Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art,

attempted to record the state of art in times of uncertainty focused on a dialogue

between artists from prominent geopolitical centers and their colleagues from distant and

not easily accessible areas an aim well inscribed within the broader agenda ofThessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. The 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale, curated by

Gabriela Salgado, Bisi Silva and myself, attempted to bring together in one exhibition the

work of artists from Latin America, Africa, West Europe and the Balkans. Based on the

work of the English theorist, Terry Eagleton, After Theory, the exhibition Praxis: Art in

Times of Uncertainty tried to trace the emerging sense of awakening that seems to

follow the lethargy of uncritical and total disregard of ideologies and sociopolitical

systems. Wondering whether the time for the re-examination of the inherent value of

artistic practice has come, whether the moment to explore art as a privileged space for

relatively free expression of ideas and for an alternative view of the world has arrived,

the exhibition presented groups and single artists whose art returned back to life, back to

praxis and to collective creation contributing to the formation of a political view and

proposing new ways of co-existing with the other. \n\nThe Thessaloniki Biennale

guarantees the internationalized character of the visual arts in Thessaloniki. Among the

150 artists and groups that were chosen for their quality of transforming contemporary

sociopolitical questions into visual art, were Chto Delat? (What is to be done?), a

contemporary Russian collective of intellectuals and visual artists. Named by Lenins

homonym manifest published in 1902, which claimed the need for the formation of arevolutionary party, their film, Perestroika Songspiel. The Victory over the Coup, a

heretical hybrid between ancient tragedy and musical, recomposed lyrically the recent

history of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Identifying the heroes of the new

era: the idealist democrat, the gentle businessman, the revolutionary, the nationalist, and

the woman who found her lost voice, the chorus in the lyric interludes deconstructed the

illusions of the protagonists for justice within the capitalist system in an ironic manner.

Chto Delat, Perestroika Songspiel. The Victory over the Coup, 2009. Video still

In her video projection Mumbai: A Laundry Field, Kimsooja takes us through the slums

of Mumbai, contrasting the seductive colorful laundry to the tragic poverty of the


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abandoned social strata, the bad

plumbing system, and the

suffocative accumulation of

people in the settlements.

Kimsooja, Mumbai: A Laundry Field,

2007-8. Video still

In All that is Solid Melts into Air,

Mark Boulos suggests an

alternative reading of the Marxist

notion of commodity fetishism

focused on the metaphysical

qualities of petroleum. One

screen projects scenes from theactivities of the Movement for

the Emancipation of the Niger

Delta against the international

corporations that steal the

petroleum from the natives with

the collaboration of Nigerian

state, while another screen

shows scenes from the Chicago

Mercantile Exchange during the

period of the recent financial

crisis.

[left] Mark Boulos,

All that is Solid

Melts into Air,

2008. Chicago

Mercantile

Exchange. Video

still

[right] Mark Boulos,

All that is Solid

Melts into Air, 2008. MEND fighter, Niger Delta. Video still

Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djumaliev, in their video work A New Silk Road:

Algorithm of Survival and Hope, attempt to recompose the contemporary economic realityfocused on Kyrgyzstans role in the conduct of international trade and the dramatic

changes effected in the lifestyle of the people of Central Asia after the collapse of Soviet

Union.


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Gulnara Kasmalieva, Muratbek

Djumaliev, A New Silk Road: Algorithm

of Survival and Hope, 2007. 5 channel

video installation, photographs

Jodi Bieber, in her photographs

from Las Canas series, portrays

stories of degradation from the

everyday life of drug users in

Spain.

Jodi Bieber, Las Canas, 2003.

Photographs

While the complexity of the

experience between individuals,

groups, nations, social categories,

genders and religions has been

interwoven with globalization and

more recently, the economic

crisis in Greece, encounters of

personal narrations with collective

experiences, traumas,expectations, and losses, as well

as the profound political and

economical changes that

jeopardize social cohesion, has

formed the canvas on which the

narrative of contemporary art is

unwrapped. This narrative is

structured around the axis of the

urban experiences of a medium-

sized Greek urban center, namely Thessaloniki: a city with complex social tissue and a

multi-national character enriched by the latest immigration of people from the regions of

the former Soviet Union, rich historical heritage, and cultural stratification. Ottoman

monuments, covered markets, museums of Byzantine and Modern art, open places,

stores and warehouses in the port all these composed the topography of the exhibition

spaces of the Biennale in an attempt to incorporate organically contemporary art into the

urban fabric through the selection of different institutional and alternative spaces.

Posted to

2010 NYSE Dinner with Nancy Spector
http://curatorsintl.org/events/2010_nyse_dinner

praxis - art in times of uncertainty

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