letter
from germany : : gloria zein
edited
by matthew rose
documentation
as artistic practice
Part 2; continued from part
1
manifesta
4
At Manifesta 4, the nomadic European biennial held in Frankfurt, there
was also (similar to Documenta 11) a tendency towards
documentation.
Russian
artist Ludmila Garlova, presented at the Staedel Museum an 18-minute video tape
of dancing brides and grooms. There are ephemeral portraits of young people, grooving
towards universal questions of future, visions, hopes and insecurity. Although
the scenes are obviously placed in Eastern Europe, the brass band's music reminds
us of Emir Kusturica's film-settings, and Garlova's piece wants the viewer to
look beyond the celebration and the prospect of Russia in the world.
American
artist Sal Randolph proposed a very different form of impersonal archive. Her
"Free Manifesta," an enormous group work came about through curious beginnings.
She bid for a place at Manifesta on eBay, acquiring the slot for $15,999 from
Christophe Büchel, an artist selected to show at Manifesta 4. Randolf used her
space, located at the Kunstverein, to present the works of over 225 international
artists. None of the artists paid a fee to Randolf, who has several times created
"free shows." Her Free Manifesta asked for non-monetary projects designed for
the public or semi-public space. Since its foundation in June, "Free Manifesta"
has become a generous documentation of today's non-established worldwide art scene,
including performances, giveaways and internet-art. As artistic director, Randolph
becomes somewhat invisible: She did not refuse a single entry.
It
seems as if the emphasis on subject matter and the method of neutral documentation
can basically be divided into two different approaches: One questioning art formally,
and the other devoted to social causes framed by an artistic sensibility.
Formal
clarity and (more or less) consistent points of view emerged from the Bechers'
teaching at the Düsseldorf Academy: Most of the artists presented above have created
"inventories" (often using photography or video) in order to claim things from
the world, rather than produce objects themselves. The common strategy is one
of reversed proportions: The less an artist is offering himself, the more subjectivity
is asked of the viewer. The viewer supplies history, social concerns, and possibly
an artistic context to fill the void created by the artist's "objective" look.
The viewer is charged with filling in many of the blanks. This artistic practice
has been developed, however, from inside an art sensibility, and produced for
an artistic context.
Artists
like Le Groupe Amos have completely left the artistic context for direct interventions.
Here, the practical work and its use for social purposes are the most important
issues. These artists need to show their documentaries in art exhibitions in order
to reintroduce the strictly social work into the artistic discourse. It is unlikely
these works will ever make it to prime time, or even a screening at the United
Nations. Neutral recording seems appropriate to their work, since the interventions
themselves are critique and commitment enough.
Working
inside an artistic or cultural context but far from avoiding commitment, the Black
Audio Film Collective (1983-1998 in London) created film documentaries after the
tradition of critical journalism. At Documenta 11, "The Handsworth Songs" (film,
16mm, 58') stands for a ludic and experimental working practice which seems to
be disappearing in today's socio-cultural art-making. The film is an associative
composition of interviews, statements, TV-spots and news (e.g. Margaret Thatcher),
off-screen comments, and film stills, short takes and jump cuts. The camera is
not used as objective eye, but presented as aggressor, creating and provoking
situations. Two North-African women are followed, for example in one scene, while
walking through the streets. They try to enter a house with their children, then
regain the sidewalk, cross a street, all of the time fleeing the camera - until
one of them slaps the cameraman, and the tape is violently interrupted.
Black Audio Film Collective
Handsworth Songs, 1986 Stills from 16mm film , transferred to DVD, color,
sound, 58 min.. Directed by: John Akomfrah Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films, London
With its entry,
the Black Audio Film Collective suggests different viewpoints of common social
contexts, forcing the viewer to take part, even take sides. By implicating the
viewer, interaction is possible and almost mandatory. By opposing broadcast material
to the Black Audio Film Collective's own, their film questions the belief in objective
documentary.
The Atlas Group
Walid
Ra'ad
Already Been in a Lake of Fire, 1999* Detail/ 9 digital color prints,
mounted on aluminum, each 144,8 x 109,2 cm Courtesy the artist.
The
Atlas Group, an imaginary foundation, created 1999 in New York by Walid Ra'ad,
has also developed an idiosyncratic artistic language. Walid Ra'ad (born 1967
in Lebanon) plays with the ongoing obsession of archiving and indexing through
an impersonal and informative documentation. Politically and socially concerned,
Walid Ra'ad focuses on the civil wars in Lebanon (1975-1991) but presents them
as a parody on our belief in documentation. His fictional archive contains such
works as the Lebanese historian Fadl Fakhouri's notebooks. In one of them, he
accurately documents the car-models involved in each bombing! Fakhouri also documents
the amount of explosives used, the time and place of ignition as well as the number
of people killed. Another illustrates Lebanese historians betting at horse-races
during the civil war.
As
The Atlas Group leaves us uncertain about each piece's balance of fiction and
reality, Ra'ad both criticizes the feigned objectivity of historical discourse
and dismantles the supposed autonomy of artistic work. Due to its working-practice,
Atlas Group's projects are equally politically engaged, conceptually subversive
and one of the few doors to life-assuring humor to be found in this year's Documenta
and Manifesta.
In
the catalogue of Documenta 11_Platform 5, we find a text by Boris Groys (Professor
for Philosophy and Media Theory at the Academy for Design [Hochschule fuer Gestaltung]
in Karlsruhe, Germany.), entitled "Art in the age of biopolitics From artwork
to art documentation."
From
there, he draws the plausible question: "If life is only documented by narrative
and cannot be shown, then how can such a documentation be shown in an art space
without perverting its nature?" As soon as artistic life or practice has been
halted via documentation, I would say, we cannot speak about a "pure activity"
any more. On the contrary, we consider the document as something already digested
- a product, which must be shown in an art space, to state that documentation,
as a result of an artistic practice, can in fact be considered as artwork.
Go
to part 1
Links
to the exhibits:
www.documenta11.de
www.manifesta.de
www.freemanifesta.org
Gloria
Zein is an artist living and working in Paris and Germany. Her "Vorspiel(e),"
a collection of 30 photographs based upon images of women selected by men, will
be shown in November at Syrius Agency in Düsseldorf, Germany, and in January at
the German-French Cultural Institute in Aachen, Germany. Her e-mail is: gzein@noos.fr
Matthew Rose
is an artist and writer based in Paris. He recently completed a novel, Plan B,
about an obsessive suicidal stock day trader. His e mail is: mistahrose@yahoo.com
