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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