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- Convenors:
-
Judith Laister
(University of Graz)
Anne Kersten (New Patrons Germany)
Alexander Koch (Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber - GNA gGmbH)
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- Formats:
- Panel Roundtable
- Stream:
- Performativity
- Sessions:
- Monday 21 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
Starting from the international movement of the "New Patrons", the panel examines the practice of commissioning art in various times, contexts and places: What happens when social and cultural encounters, collaboration and dialogue are established as dominant rules at the start of art-making?
Long Abstract:
Following Bourdieus "Les Règles de l´art", the modern concept of artistic creation is dominated by the idea of autonomy. Art, according to one ideal prevelant since the 19th century, is the result of free development rather than of orders and commissions. Bourdieu, in contrast, conceives art as a social field in which various actors engage in a combined, hierarchized practice, driven by rules which govern them - especially by social and cultural distinction.
Drawing on this discourse, the panel examines art commissions throughout history and societies. It starts from an organization which strives to break the rule of distinction in the arts and encourages encounters: "Les Nouveaux Commanditaires" (New Patrons, Neue Auftraggeber). Initiated in 1990 by French artist François Hers and supported by thinkers like Bruno Latour or Isabell Stengers, with the proclamation "Anyone can be a patron of art!", the "New Patrons' action allows anyone who wishes so, to take responsibility for the commissioning of an artwork." (http://www.nouveauxcommanditaires.eu). Under the slogan "reclaiming art, reshaping democracy", this organization has realized more than 500 projects in Europe and around the world.
Challenging disciplinary boundaries and cooperating with art institutions and artists in Helsinki, the panel - combined with a roundtable - invites contributors from different fields to discuss this movement in a critical way: What concepts and rules of art support or restrain it? How does it deal with the "neoliberal invasion" and its imperatives of participation, creativity and self-organization? What role did and does the commissioning of art play in various times, contexts and places?
Accepted contributions:
Session 1 Monday 21 June, 2021, -Brita Polzer
Contribution short abstract:
The two republics of Germany, divided after World War II, developed contrary attitudes towards commissioned art. In the BRD, Jochen Gerz and Klaus Staeck represented different positions. Until today's "return of commissioned art", this contribution illuminates changing facets of the model.
Contribution long abstract:
During the Cold War, commissioned art was regarded as something fundamentally contradictory to the free Western world, and the defeated and divided Germany was a suitable stage for making this glaringly clear. The so-called free art competed against commissioned art, abstraction against realism. With Jochen Gerz and Klaus Staeck, two positions emerged in West Germany, both of which dealt with the concept of the commission, albeit with different signs. Both aimed at the development of civic commitment, democratic maturity, enlightenment and responsibility. The one, however, was against mandates, the other for them. In "Without commission. Unterwegs in Sachen Kunst und Politik", published in 2000, Staeck emphasizes that artistic work and commissions are contradictory. For Jochen Gerz, on the other hand, clients are people who are involved, who let their voice be heard, people who basically act as every responsible citizen should. Commissioned art has many different facets and its return today could be seen as a symptom of a refeudalization. Commissions, however, that are not linked to personal possession but are awarded within the framework of local authorities or associations hold potential that still needs to be explored. This article deals with the recent history of and some current positions on commissioned art.
Judith Laister (University of Graz) Anne Kersten (New Patrons Germany) Alexander Koch (Gesellschaft der Neuen Auftraggeber - GNA gGmbH)
Contribution short abstract:
The paper discusses - with focus on art commissions across time and space - dominant rules of the contemporary art world in relation to the protocol of the New Patrons.
Contribution long abstract:
The paper comprises two parts: The first part introduces briefly the New Patrons network in past and present with special consideration of the "Protocol of the New Patrons", written in 1990 by Belgian/French artist François Hers. Compared to the dominant rules of the contemporary art world, the protocol strives to shift the practice of commissioning art and consequently the ways art is produced and mediated. It opens up new perspectives on participation and offers the potential to rethink the role of art in society: not focusing solely on the artwork itself but the entire process of production.
The second part reflects upon the New Patrons network and its rules from an anthropological perspective. Based on empirical research, it examines rules and modes geared towards establishing connectivity and regulating controversies between the heterogeneous parts of New Patrons activities: Which different groups of actors are coming together? What provokes them to commission an art work - or to participate? What rules the co-operations and creates connectivity? Where and why do conflicts occur? To approach these questions, the paper uses the analytical concept of "translation moments" for the purpose of identifying significant impulses, which either support connectivity or cause controversies.
Franziska Wilmsen (Loughborough University)
Contribution short abstract:
My paper examines relationships between museums and artists in the act of commissioning by looking at the idealised and realistic representations of shared art production. The paper shall further explore to which extent aesthetic creation and the artist's sacrosanct authority is being distorted.
Contribution long abstract:
Over the past two decades, the commissioning of contemporary art has become a key activity in museums' programming. Particularly by museum branding, commissions are promoted as epitomes of mutually enriching collaborations with artists and thus, help flag the institution as a supporter or even a co-producer of emerging art. Though such representations present commissioning as a democratic and egalitarian act of cooperation in which the institution champions and facilitates artistic visions, the concrete conditions of this practice remain mostly covert to scholarship and audiences. Despite this idealisation casting a particular social image of commissioning, cases such as failed commissions between museums and artists rather necessitate the critical review of such practice: If the museum co-produces the artwork how might artistic authority be endangered? What conflicts of forces are ignited within these museum-artist-networks? Does museum commissioning actually allow for artistic autonomy, or is such autonomy circumscribed by art institutions' selective narratives?
Accordingly, my paper examines relationships between museums and artists in the act of commissioning by looking at the idealised and more realistic representations of shared art production. The paper shall further explore to which extent aesthetic creation and the artist's sacrosanct authority is being distorted. Therefore, I shall not solely consult scholarship on contemporary art museums, network and sociological theories. Rather, by drawing on recent case studies from Western art institutions, I will provide fresh insights to the institutional patronage of art that is profoundly imbued by competing aesthetic and economic agendas.
Simone Egger (Klagenfurt University)
Contribution short abstract:
Curating RODEO 2020, a dance and theatre festival in Munich, was challenging in many ways. Repositioning a current structure aiming at participation means perceiving power and requires transgression. Commissioned by the cultural department, the art directors had to break rules in principle.
Contribution long abstract:
Some years ago, as an anthropologist especially interested in the urban and arts, I became part of a collective who applied for the curation of "Rodeo", a dance and theatre festival in Munich. Participation and audience development were integral to the renewed concept, which focussed on repositioning supposedly established civic structures. Together with the artists Bülent Kullukcu and Karnik Gregorian I awarded the direction with an alternative proposal to preceding formats. "RODEO 2020_Construction Site Utopia" focussed on mediation and worked to enable encounters between contemporary artists and people who have never heard about this kind of dance and theatre. We also incorporated new art spaces outside well known middle class venues. Most dancers performed in a shopping center away from the inner city for example.
Thinking about diversity of class, gender and race in relation to an urban society was not only a topic of talks and plays but also a main theme of organisation. The municipality as commissioner supports these ideas, however there are still norms regarding behavior in the arts. In addition there are interests of the arts scene in the city we had to satisfy. Acting in the field of communal cultural and educational policy the question of power soon became apparent. The experience showed that discussions of diversity do not necessarily lead to changes in behaviour given the exclusion of social differences in the sense of Pierre Bourdieu through class and habitus. From this background it has to be negotiated what transgression means.