Through the Net - On Anthology of Art and the Future of Art conference, Budapest, May 9-10
anna balint
epistolaris at freemail.hu
Thu May 8 16:02:51 CEST 2003
The conference is related to the THE ANTHOLOGY OF ART Art and Theory in Dialogue
exhibition in the Budapest Kunsthalle.
For over one year, the Anthology of Art has provided an internet-based platform for
dialogue between artists and theorists from all over the world. This process focused
on current visions of art and the relationship of art to theoretical discourse. The
Anthology of Art website now houses the complete archive of 156 images and 156
texts.
Jochen Gerz
The Anthology of Art: Art and Theory in Dialogue
Contemporary art reflects the conditions of its production and promotion. The
appropriation of art by art history and theory tends to show that art and the
discourse about art are more interconnected then ever before, and that an equal
emphasis is placed on theoretical reflection as on the work of art itself.
The Anthology of Art investigated the connection between art production and art
theory instead of presuming it. The project also shows how much traditional
relationships within the international art world are changing through the medium of
the Internet. The yearlong process was an online experiment that provided insight
about the contemporary artistic process itself, with artists, theorists, and
institutions more and more interacting via the Web.
To launch the project, six artists and six theorists were invited by Jochen Gerz.
Each of them made a contributions to the Anthology of Art : www.anthology-of-
art.net. Artists chose one of their own images and theorists wrote a short text (one
to three pages) in their native language or in English, all answering the question:
"In the context of contemporary art, what is your vision of a yet unknown art?"
Each of the original twelve participants was asked to invite an artist or theorist
of their choice to follow suit. Since September 2001, twelve different artists and
theorists have made new contributions every other week. The website has been updated
each time so that no more than twelve contributions appeared at any given time. Now
this process is completed and a total of 312 independent verbal and visual
contributions—156 images and 156 texts— have been collected. The Anthology of Art
is a plural artwork whose content and contributors were unpredictable. Do the self-
curated process and the diversity of the contributions provide clues about the
direction of an emerging form?
Beyond compiling a representative collection of contemporary theory, the intention
was to investigate a collaborative process, largely without interference or
influence by a traditional author. It may be assumed that today art itself is no
longer being questioned. On the contrary, every word about art tends to transform
itself into art as well. The Anthology of Art tested the limits of this tendency:
Can a large number of independent authors produce a work of art? Does this form of
production reflect a global society better than traditional curated models of art
exhibitions?
The objective of this work in progress was to encourage a new dialogue between art
and theory, word and image. Members of an international art community are the
authors and curators of the Anthology of Art. Existing contacts were nurtured and
unexpected relationships initiated.
The claim of an international and interdisciplinary contemporary art has often been
taken for granted. It has been questioned by the simultaneous, ephemeral and
aleatoric confrontations between authors in different regions of the world connected
through the Internet - no longer from privileged centres or isolated peripheries and
no longer from naive or informed perspectives.
The Anthology of Art website now houses the complete archive of 156 images and 156
texts. For the first time this ensemble is accessible.
All contributions will be published in a catalogue for the Anthology of Art
exhibition at the Gropius-Bau in Berlin from April to August 2004. In conjunction
with the exhibition, the Akademie der Künste and the Neuhardenberg Foundation will
organize the "Manifest/Symposium". In 2002/2003 an European research-project about
the Anthology of Art will be hosted by the School of Fine Arts in Braunschweig, the
Visual Arts department at the University of Rennes, and the Art History department
of the University of Budapest
Through the Net - On Anthology of Art and the Future of Art
EXHIBITION CONFERENCE
MAY 9-10, 2003
M?csarnok
Friday (May 9)
14:00-15:00 Opening
Judit Fabinyi, director, M?csarnok
Judit Droppa, rector, MIE
Speakers, University of Braunschweig and University of Rennes
15:00-16:15 /Chair: J.A. Tillmann
• Horant Fassbinder (Braunschweig): The Anthology of Art and its Concepts of Art
• “Abécédaire” I. Antoine Bricaud (Rennes)
• Géza Perneczky (Budapest-Köln): Closed and Open Utopias (Falsifying Utopias)
Discussion
16:30 –17:00. Coffee break
17:00-18:00 /Chair: Horant Fassbinder
• Anne-Marie Duguet (Paris): The Art of Digital Memories. Building Archives,
Personal or Collective. Beyond the Database Project.
• “Abécédaire” II. Aurélie Desmas (Rennes)
Discussion
18:00-19:00 Exhibition Opening
Speakers: Hannes Böhringer and J.A. Tillmann
Saturday (May 10)
10:00-11:45 / Chair: Attila Horányi
• Nathalie Magnan (Dijon): net art/no war.
• “Abécédaire” III. Marion Hohlfeldt (Rennes)
• László Beke (Budapest): Anthology or Musée Imaginaire - Weltkunst or
Globalization?
Discussion
11:45-12:00 Break
12:00-13:45 / Chair: Hannes Böhringer
• Richard Jochum (Berlin): Dis-positive. The productivity of art and discourse.
• “Abécédaire” IV. Christelle Mallet (Rennes)
• János Sugár (Budapest): Recycled Attention
Closing Discussion
14:00-15:00 Lunch
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