subvision concept
Article for the subvision short guide by Brigitte Kölle
At the last sculpture projects in Muenster (2007), one could experience an inconspicuous yet extremely impressive work by the Polish artist Pawel Althamer. It consisted of a small path in a grain field, which near the Aasee, led out of the city and abruptly ended after a few hundred metres: A nice picture for leaving predefined trails, walking cross-country and creating new paths, in view of which the structures and possibilities can and must be renegotiated.
subvision. kunst. festival. off. is a festival for international contemporary art in Hamburg. More than 30 artists’ initiatives from 20 countries will come together for twelve days to bring about and present artistic projects in a special architectural form made of shipping containers and scaffolding in HafenCity. The artists will be present during the course of the festival—which is rather unusual in the art business. This is the great potential the festival has to offer: The opportunity to get to know each other, to exchange ideas, to communicate, to make contacts and to create networks.
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The invited artists’ initiatives are groups, networks and collaborations, not individual artists and lone fighters. How important collaboration as a social form and cultural practice is for many artists’ initiatives is often already indicated by their names: Konsortium, Komplot, Guestroom … Several people jointly working on a project is at first nothing unusual, not in the fine arts either, although this phenomenon is by far not as common as, for example, in music or theatre. Yet it does shake two traditional foundations of art: sole authorship and the self-containedness of the artistic work. Multiple authorship replaces the “one voice”; what is developing and in a state of flux gains importance vis-à-vis the static and completed work. In this respect it is consequent that what takes on a prominent position at subvision are projects in a state of change and development, inviting people to interact and participate.
To give a better understanding of what is meant by the frequently used term “artists’ initiative” (as opposed to artist) in the context of subvision, the meaning of “initiative” should be pointed out. Initiative is derived from the Latin „initium“, „beginning“, and describes: 1) an active decision, an incentive to act, 2) the self-motivation to act, and 3) a loose association to represent one’s interests. This definition contains features that are central to subvision: collaborative, self-determined, active, self-organized, able, experimental, alternative. Concepts, then, that depending on the perspective, are as succinct as they are imprecise.
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What is equally hard to grasp is the little word “off” in the festival’s subtitle, but this is deliberately meant to be so. It originates in film theory and designates what can be heard but not seen, what takes place off screen, but is perceptible all the same and important for the development of the story. The prefix off in the field of culture usually describes forms of cultural production that deliberately distinguish themselves from the established and commercial business—the assumed “on”. But the conditions and motivations of off-culture often vary greatly, and they can always be exploited on the art market. This makes it clear that off is a relational concept, strongly characterized by the viewer and the context in which it is perceived. Hence, no distinct definition of off exists. At least in the case of subvision, it designates a search term, an imaginary boundary, for which one’s self-attribution is important and the comparative perception in specific contexts is decisive.
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Since one can hardly argue making use of imaginary boundaries, and even less curate exhibitions with them, I translate the question as to the relation between off and on (the “established and commercial” business, or so-called hegemonic culture) as a quest for alternatives, innovative counter-proposals and alternative paths. Or, to once more refer to the mentioned work of Althamer: to go your own way off the road, to try out something new, to experiment without knowing how things will evolve.
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Testing new exhibition formats and other forms of presenting and communicating art, falling back on older and forgotten models to see whether they are still (or again) viable today, developing alternatives to the existing exhibition practice, countering deficits with self-initiative, or simply doing what has to be done—out of curiosity, interest, passion, commitment, or the will to change. That is the driving force behind the artists’ initiatives who are invited to subvision. They are independent exhibition spaces, off spaces or artist-run spaces, nomadic projects, special artists’ archives, curator collectives, self-published magazines, as well as alternative mediation networks and research projects. The common notions of the venue for art, the duration, the structural course of organizing an exhibition, are all put up for debate. subvision is about the diversity, independence and uniqueness of the artists’ initiatives, their working methods and strategies of presenting and mediating art outside the usual and known structures. At the same time, the selection of the invited artists’ initiatives gives exemplary insight into an expanded form of exhibition practice.
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Most of the initiatives understand themselves as artist-run spaces. They can be centrally located, rented spaces with good transport connections (Kling & Bang gallery, Reykjavik or Galleria Huuto, Helsinki), a garage in a suburb (The Suburban, Oak Park) or a former pub in the township (Gugulective, Gugulethu near Cape Town); one’s own studio occasionally used for joint artistic projects (Guestroom, London) or one’s home (The Hex, London). Some can look back ona long history and belong to the founding generation of artist-run spaces (Artspeak, Vancouver), others pop up, last a while and disappear again. The working principle for some, is to exhibit without a fixed space, occupying a certain venue for the duration of an event, for one evening. The names of noroomgallery from Hamburg or the Parachutartists Foundation from Amsterdam already refer to their nomadic mode of working.
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Other initiatives do not even clearly decide between remaining in one place and permanent nomadism, but deliberately choose a path in between: Baltic Raw Org from Hamburg creates mobile architectural units that can be used temporarily as short-term occupation of empty spaces in the city. Their modular architecture becomes a platform for installations, actions and projections. The Kunst-Imbiss from Hamburg takes its exhibition space along on trips like a snail-shell: Disguised as a snack stand, the exhibition space for small-format works, editions and multiples also attracts visitors who usually feel inhibited by art.
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That one can cast aside the conventional expectations regarding a space for art, a housing of any sort with floor, walls and ceiling, is demonstrated by the artists’ initiative i-cabin from London, who recently purchased a piece of land near the border to Wales, on which artistic projects have been initiated. Publish and be Damned, a cooperative founded in 2004, deals with the production, exhibition and marketing of experimental fanzines and magazines edited by artists. The aim of their activities is to promote alternative “spaces” of artistic practice with the fanzines. Chto delat / What is to be done? from Russia publishes an English-Russian periodical of the same name. In performances and exhibitions in urban space and in the context of art the group is dedicated to connecting political theory, art and activism. Graffiti Research Lab grasps itself as an international network serving to further develop street art, exchanging and offering its technological research results to the general public via Internet forums. Temporary laser tags and light-emitting diodes with gaffer tape not only let us perceive urban space in a different manner, but also encourage us to take artistic possession of it ourselves.
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In some cases, the place of art (exhibition space, property, fanzine, urban space, Internet etc.) is not put up for debate. Instead, a common exhibition practice is deliberately countered with other forms of intensity and continuity: a deceleration of exhibition intervals, for example, or the appreciation of information, materials, and what is ephemeral. 98weeks from Beirut calls itself a research project that takes the time—something highly extraordinary in the fast-paced international art and exhibition business—to work on a self-determined theme for the period of 98 weeks, almost two years. Continuity also characterizes the CAA/CAA from Bucharest. Founded in the 1980s by the Romanian artist Lia Perjovschi with the assistance of her colleague and husband Dan Perjovschi, the “Contemporary Art Archive / Center for Art Analysis” serves to collect, archive, structure, and distribute knowledge of society, politics and art. The artists’ own biographical background (their life under the dictatorship of Ceaușescu) can be understood as the starting point. They have been pursuing this freely accessible archive and exhibition project dedicated to collecting material on international contemporary art and art theory for more than 20 years.
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Even if all the invited initiatives cannot be mentioned here, it does become clear that each is engaged in a special exhibition practice. It is the multitude of individual visions that—like in the wonderful small drawing that Dan Perjovschi made specially for subvision—come together like in a kaleidoscope, forming a corona, and thus contribute to expanding the line of vision in an astounding way.
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subvision grasps itself as a heterogeneous presentation platform for the artistic production and mediation of art, as well as for reflecting on them. subvision is structured in three parts, exhibition/academy/stage: an exhibition that will repeatedly be altered during the course of the festival, depending on the dynamics of the artists working on site; a temporary academy with panel discussions, artists’ talks, lectures, and seminars; as well as a varied event program with performances, book presentations and concerts. The special combination of exhibition and working situation gives rise to new networking, exchange and communication possibilities—between the individual artists’ initiatives as well as with interested visitors. The entire structure of the festival is generally geared to communication, to talking with each other: Starting with sufficient space to sit down, eat and drink together, to the possibility of participating and discussing, be it with the initiatives on site, at public artists’ talks or when socializing together at the end of the day.
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In contrast to other cities, Hamburg has the possibility of growing within its city limits due to the logistic restructuring of the port area. In a downtown, highly attractive location on the banks of the Elbe, international star architects are rivalling each other with ambitious projects to implement their vision of the city and urbanism in the HafenCity. Urban development is managed by the HafenCity GmbH, a private subsidiary of the City of Hamburg that is selling the pieces of property one by one to investors as gated communities. The Strandkai, as a 10,000 square-metre “prime cut” of the HafenCity directly on the Elbe, is an ideal venue for subvision, because is forms both the context and the contrasting backdrop of the artistic contents and issues.
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The Architektur Werkstatt Hamburg has designed a temporary exhibition architecture consisting of shipping containers and scaffolding specially made for the festival. It is oriented towards urbanistic models, citing them en miniature. Hence, a “city in the city” is created on Strandkai which, with its block structure, is reminiscent of both the city map of Manhattan and a playing field. Its structural elements and materials will be returned to their original contexts of use after the festival. It is a temporary architecture, a flying structure and the implantation of a foreign body to which the invited artists must and are eager to respond. In general, the festival offers many participating initiatives an incentive to show new projects and works conceived specifically for this occasion that in varied, critical, ironical and surprising ways, deal with the wide spectrum of tensions that subvision unfolds. “Art is to change what you expect from it.” (Seth Siegelaub)
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Under aggravated conditions, subvision is concerned with fundamental questions posed to art, its aesthetic function and social role. subvision focuses on initiatives that do basic research and do not lose sight of their original motivation when dealing with art, beyond traditional and routined paths and procedures, as well as beyond quick market success.