Negotiating Equity
http://negotiatingequity.net
Negotiating Equity at the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) aims to offer a participatory
platform to address the ethics and practice of curatorship as a mode of art
production, asserting that these terms of engagement imply rethinking the
economic and social conditions of art. Negotiating Equity will draw upon theories
of fairness in questioning divergent value systems and testing artistic models
amongst students, curators, artists, art critics and writers from around the world.
Negotiating Equity addresses collaborative curation and the position of the artist
as curator- investigating experimental and conceptual art practices under physical
as well as virtual conditions. The nature and format of this project favours
cooperative endeavour, while considering the implications of self-curation.
Equity may refer to:
Fairness
▪
the difference between the market value of a property and the claims held against it
Equity (law), a branch of jurisprudence in common law jurisdictions
▪
Equity (economics), the study of fairness in economics
▪
In many political and legal systems, a concept encompassing ideals of justice (fairness) which often corresponds to equality of
opportunity.
▪
Intergenerational equity, equality and fairness in relationships between people of different ages
▪
Equity theory, on the relations and perceptions of fairness in distributions of resources within social and professional situations.
▪
Employment equity (Canada), policy requiring or encouraging preferential treatment in employment practices for certain designated
groups
Ownership
▪
Stock, common or preferred stock
▪
Ownership equity, the value of an ownership interest in property, including shareholders' equity in a business
▪
Equity investment, investment in stock. It can be done through stock market (primary or secondary market) or private placement
▪
Private equity, stock in a privately held company
▪
In poker strategy, a player's expected share of the pot
▪
Brand equity, in marketing, the value built up in a brand
▪
Equity in income of affiliates
DAI curriculum 2009-2010
‘Negotiating Equity’ : curating the self or self-curation
Keys words: self-organisation, transformation, negotiator, mediation, repossession
There are many definitions of curator and many curatorial positions, to name a few: curator, middleman, interlocutor, caretaker,
intermediary, networker, organisor, arbitrator, moderator, participator, etc. All encompass negotiation -the act of mediation with
others. The term artist/curator is still open te interpretation and implies a certain slippage and has a range of definitions. It can
mean that both modes are separate actions, or ‘self-curation’ or artists who engage in ‘the curatorial’. Some artists see curation
as an extension of their artistic practice -highly operational- both actions feeding each other. In his article The art of curating and
the curating of art Jens Hoffman articulates a reciprocal relationship between both practices, giving credit to the conceptual
practice of artists that has facilitated the position of the contemporary curator.
This year Negotiating Equity will focus on ‘self-curation’ and the transformation of space into a sphere of circulation that
searches for a different socio-political order. Self-curation doesn’t necessarily mean curating one’s own work. Rather it envelops
‘self-organisation’ and to what extent art is discussed in relation to this. Is it a verb or a noun - in which there are implicit
associations with territorialisation. Therefore can the position of the individual (artist) encompass self-organisation yet distribute
responsibility? How do we curate the immaterial? In this regard we want to look at how artists curate their own work, how artists
curate others works and how other people, in turn, might curate. Curatorial collaboration questions if excessive cooperation is
curation. Would aspects of the performative including protest inform a curatorial (and collective) empowerment? Is the multitude
actually the individual that is reproduced, digitally or by analogue that then forms the collaborative? Individuals, collaborations
and the multitude merge work (poesis), intellect (theory) and action (praxis) with the curatorial position of in-betweenness,
offering the potential of realising projects outside of administered or purely institutionalised discourse whilst reconstructing
modes of presentation.
We will be examining the space for artistic production, but also its potential as a transformational context for dialogue, exchange,
critique, happenings, performance. With a focus on artistic practice within ‘curatorial positionings’ we intend to explore ‘space’
as an open-ended term, ranging from personal space of one’s self and domestic, intimate surroundings, the Internet, TV
broadcasting, the streets, web-based online curating, abandoned buildings and even art venues, including the imaginary space
of reflection preceding these presentations. Notions of self-organisation, aspects of the performative, distributions of
responsibility and terms of repossession will comprise our field of operations.
Though not limited to nor focused on the city of Amsterdam,
many aspects of this project will take up its artistic past in
relation to collaboration, organised creative endeavor
digitally and in analogue contexts.
How can the urban landscape be transformed and what are
its spaces for negotiating equity?
READING
1. Negotiating Equity site
keep documentation and a blog of work on the site. Presentation medium is open but expected to follow research from
the beginning to the end of the academic year.
2. participants are encouraged to follow and read n.e.w.s. along with frequent visits by her contributors (Ade
Darmawan, Prayas Abhinav, Stephen Wright, Branka Curcic, Lee Weng Choy)
3. Texts assigned by invited guests
PRESENTATIONS
1. Video programme: Salto 1 – Local channel, digital broadcast. Students will be responsible for one programme during
the year, one hour of time. They will be responsible for content, material, editing and delivery of the one-hour
programme. To be negotiated with the group or certain tutors.
2. Poster: Participants will be asked to design a poster (or series) that focus on a specific issue of personal choice
reflection. Possible sources Dutch poster book: Met kwast en Verf (Eric Duivenvoorden)
3. Local newspapers: Stadskrant, Echo, Daklooskrant, HTV, etc? Upcoming publications
STUDIO VISITS
This will take place at DAI in Enschede or in Amsterdam with powerpoint presentations, etc. Broadcasts, designs, work
in progress will be discussed and shown during these visits.
SPACES: MAY,JUNE,JULY
A place of happenings, interventions (an abandoned space, nature, Internet, street, publication, performance)
Poster project
Poster: Participants will be asked to design a poster (or series) that focus on a specific issue of
personal choice reflection. Dutch poster book: Met kwast en verf
(Eric Duivenvoorden)
Met Kwast en Verf:
Eric Duivenvoorden
SIGNS OF CHANGE: SOCIAL
MOVEMENT CULTURES 1960s TO NOW
http://www.exitart.org/site/pub/exhibition_program
s/signs_of_change/index.html
Video Programme: Salto
Video programme: Salto 1 – Local channel, digital broadcast. One programme during
the year, one hour of time. Responsible for content, material, editing and delivery of
the one-hour programme. Collaboration is encouraged. To be negotiated with the
group or certain tutors.
Be at the Media
http://www.be-at-the-media.nl/
Guests
http://northeastwestsouth.net
Ruangrupa
http://www.ruangrupa.org/
Branka Curcic
http://www.kuda.org/en
Branka Ćurčić: Less of a Cultural Patrimony - More of an Actualisation of Past
Practices of Dissent
How can the usual practices for the protection and conservation of our cultural heritage be
transcended? And how can they be used today, as political agents of change? Could
specific ways of dealing with this heritage become tools for analysing contemporary
cultural creation? Could it be said that the once progressive practices of dissent from the
1960s and 1970s are today being implemented in a quite disturbing way, in the flexible
and precarious field of contemporary creation? This text includes analyses of two regional
and international projects – ‘The Continuous Art Class’ and ‘Political Practices of (post-)
Yugoslav Art’ – both dealing with the cultural and intellectual heritage of former
Yugoslavia, by way of creating a space for autobiographical narrative, self positioning, and
reinterpretation of the art history of former Yugoslavia. As one of the partner organizations
in these projects has written, the aim was to work ‘against the understanding of cultural
domain based on the notion of identity, particularly on national identity’, in favour of a
‘shift from the paradigm of art-as-representation to art-as-political practice’, and an attempt
to use ‘the discursive, analytical, and explicative possibilities of contemporary art’, to reexamine myriad old relationships between social activism and aesthetic gesture, and open
up new ones.
Exhibition ID: Ideology of Design
Production: Centar za nove medije_kuda.org, Novi Sad
23 October – 23 November, 2009
Muzej savremene umetnosti Vojvodine, Dunavska St. 37, Novi Sad
In what way are design practices perceived and understood today and in what way can one follow their crucial development during the last decades of the 20th century and their connections with artistic
practices and critical discourses? Planning for mass production, graphic design, industrial design, environmental design, advertising, interior design, fashion design etc. are but some of the determinants of this
complex discipline of culture. Whether we examine its development in socialism or capitalism, design is always in close and dynamic connection with the economic and productive bases of society, building
different and/or specific relationships of man with material culture. The object of researching and Ideology of Design exhibition are theories and practices (of industrial and graphic) design that were taking
place during almost half a century of the socialist Yugoslavia, and their wider social and ideological context.
Design is a pregnant and highly interdisciplinary field which includes highest achievements from culture, science, architecture, technology and artistic practice, and thus represents a fertile soil for sociological
and philosophical discussions on technology and markets, about the social and political-economical dynamics and the process of work. A special aspect of the project was set on discussions and practices led
at the time of socialist Yugoslavia which tried to define the role of design in a (non)market socialist economy, its functionalism and its being conditioned by the market, or social engagement, and the role of
design in forming a new relationship of man with material objects, a new way of life towards establishing a classless human community. Developing progressive, critical and contradictory positions, design was
simultaneously presented a symbol of a post-war reconstruction of a country under the wing of industrialisation and liberation of man from material privation, but as decades went by it played more and more
one of the main roles in building a socialist market society.
Research work, exhibition and publications of the Ideology of Design deal with contextualisation of contradictory processes refracted through theory and practices of design and, parallel to this, the way by
which different ideologies of design and visual identities were created in the first post-war period of forming Yugoslavia, then during the tempestuous 1960s and 1970s until the very end when this community
ceased to exist. Also, this project re-examines the chance to create a relationship between critical and historical practices of design and contemporary design, which is more and more seen as something
belonging to the exclusively commercial aspect of creative industries, which, refracted through an ideological prism of neoliberal capitalism preserve the exploiting relationship regarding creativity and the
creative people. In this sense, a question arises: Is it possible today to observe and practice design practices outside of the dominant functionalist principles and the market-dictated production and
consumption, and develop their engaged dimension in creating more humane social relations, i.e., is it possible to conduct politization of design practices during “transition” times?
Ideology of Design is comprised of a couple of entireties, and of those didactic exhibition stands out, with the represented video recordings – interviews – with some of the most important protagonists of the
Yugoslav theory and practice of design and history and art criticism, and among them are Jerko Denegri and Branko Vučičević, Matko Meštrović and Fedor Kritovac from Zagreb, Stane Bernik from
Ljubljana and Branislav Dobanovački from Novi Sad. Along with the series of interviews realised for the Ideology of Design, you will find an interview with Ivan Picelj, a designer from Zagreb, on the
occasion of the anniversary of Helvetica which was realised by Dragan Mileusnić and Željko Serdarević, a designer couple from Zagreb. In a joint production, Zagreb designer Dejan Kršić and
Centar_kuda.org within the exhibition present a subjective timeline to the practices of industrial and graphic design, and institutional and alternative frameworks of design practices related to the paradigmatic
social political and economical events in the socialist Yugoslavia. The exhibition also presents spatial intervention of two art and designers’ collectives Metahaven from Holland and Société Réaliste from
France and Hungary. “Total design” of the exhibition is completed by the mobile and modular furniture “Z” blocks made after the design of NAO – Normal Architecture Office and Srđan Jovanović Weiss from
Philadelphia, USA. During the exhibition, a number of workshops and educational-collaborative programmes will be organised and realised by two Novi Sad initiatives of young generation designers - Open
Design Studio and A3.Format project.
Apart from the spoken programme that takes place during the exhibition, the discursive platform of the project is completed by the 13 collected essays which provide a theoretical insight into the project theme
published by Autonomedia from New York. Among the authors of the essays you will be happy to find the works of: Jean Baudrillard, Igor Chubarov, Branislav Dimitrijević, an interview with Jerko
Denegri, Hal Foster, Dejan Kršić, Nenad Malešević, Metahaven, Borislav Mikulić, Barbara Predan, Žak Rancijer, Feđa Vukić and WHW collective, editor: Branka Ćurčić.
ID: Ideology of Design is an integral part of a long-term research project called Art Always Has Consequences, and four organisations are cooperating in this project: Što, kako i za koga/WHW from
Croatia, tranzit.hu from Hungary, Muzej Szutski from Poland and Centar_kuda.org from Serbia in the period between 2008 and 2010. The project is dedicated to creating and distributing new discoveries and
knowledge about paradigmatic socially engaged practices in art and design in the region and in the Eastern Europe, including their relationship with the wider European context in the past and now. Also, the
exhibition is a part of the Individual Utopias Now and Before project which is realised in cooperation with SCCA/pro.ba from Bosnia and Herzegovina and T.I.C.A. from Albania.
www.kuda.org/sr/id
www.artalways.org
www.pro.ba/bs/utopije
Stephen Wright
http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n1/wright.html
Prayas Abhinav
http://prayas.in/
http://prayas.in/urbangeography/canopy-2008/
http://cityspinning.org/category/porous-city/
http://cityspinning.org/spiritedcaravans/
Brigitte van der Sande(2030: War Zone Amsterdam)
http://www.fineart.utoronto.ca/symposium/
2030: War Zone Amsterdam
starting week: November 22-28, 2009
Maja Bajevic (Sarajevo, 1967/Parijs), Joze Barsi (Ljubljana, 1955), Sawsan Bou Khaled
(Beiroet, 1975), Persijn Broersen/Margit Lukács (Delft, 1974/Amsterdam, 1973), (Giorgio
Andreotta Calò (Venetië, 1979/Amsterdam), Tony Chakar (Beiroet, 1968), Lana
Čmajčanin (Sarajevo, 1984), Danny Devos (Vilvoorde, 1959/Antwerpen), Katja van Driel
(Kleve, 1971/Amsterdam), Ronen Eidelman (Jaffa, 1971), Jamelie Hassan (London,
Ontario, 1948), Khaled Hourani (Ramallah, 1965), IRWIN (Dusan Mandič, Ljubljana,
1954/Miran Mohar, Novo Mesto, 1958/Andrej Savski, Ljubljana, 1961/Roman Uranjek,
Ljubljana, 1961/Borut Vogelnik, Kranj, 1959/Ljubljana), Adi Kaplan/Shahar Carmel (Kibutz
Ein Hahoresh, 1967/Tel Aviv, 1958/Tel Aviv) Nesrine Khodr (Beiroet, 1973), Gert Jan
Kocken (Ravenstein, 1971/Amsterdam), Reine Mahfouz (Beiroet, 1975), Hwa Yeon Nam
(Seoul, 1979), Pil and Galia Kollectiv (Jerusalem, 1975/1976/Londen, GB), PiST///
(Didem Özbek/Osman Bozkurt, beide Karabük, 1970/Istanboel), Plastique Fantastique
(David Burrows/Simon O'Sullivan, Londen, 1965/Norwich, 1967/Londen), Sebastian
Romo (Mexico City, 1973), Menachem Roth (Israel, 1975), Eran Sachs (Jerusalem,
1975/Jaffa), Sala-Manca Group ((Lea Mauas/Diego Rotman, Buenes Aires,
1974/1972/Jerusalem), Malkit Shoshan (Haifa, 1976/Amsterdam), TG42 (Joeri Vos,
Haren, 1981/Isil Vos, Haren, 1986/Mariana Aparicio Torres, Leiden, 1983/Noel S. Keulen,
Heerlen, 1978/Amsterdam en Rotterdam), Alite Thijsen (Eibergen, 1957/Amsterdam),
Philippe Van Wolputte (Antwerpen, 1982/Amsterdam)
Simon Ferdinando
Rotten Cinema
The Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan taught that 'Luciferian Light' is Light which has become dislocated from the
Divine Source and is thus associated with the seductive false light of the lower ego which lures humankind into selfcentered delusion. Here Lucifer represents what the Sufis term the 'Nafs', the ego.
Cinema since its invention by the Lumiere brothers has staked a claim to the physical as well as metaphysical realm
of light. It is not simply a representation of the world nor is it an object caused by the reaction of light, time and
chemical compounds (photography) rather as in Alex Cox’s Repo Man light is itself a violent force
Peter Kubelka (the Austrian film-maker) explains his first conception of cinema being derived from his experiences as
a child, herding cattle home ward one summer evening he paused on a bridge and looked at the reflections of the sun
in the water. For Kubelka this experience constituted his first encounter with cinema. He goes on to argue that the sun
is the light source of a projector and vice versa. In a sense this poetic thought is aimed at demanding more than
theorizing a physicality of cinema.
The analog of this physicality of cinema is I feel connected to the ancient but still potent myths of the theft of light
challenging the established order in particular those concerned with Lucifer.
In the Koranic tradition Lucifer is one of the angels created by God from fire. When required to bow to Adam at Gods
command Lucifer refuses; arguing that as he was created from fire he was superior to the new human created out of
damp sticky clay. For his troubles Lucifer is cast out of heaven. This tale bears a curious similarity to George Bataille’s
text The Rotten Sun. Though Bataille uses Icarus for his metaphor, the primary elements remain unchanged: the
challenge to order sees the insolent photo-phile thrown down with huge force into the world of dark matter (shit).
Frans-Willem Korsten
Reading the City
Battling for the Soul of the City by Frans-Willem Korsten
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/garden/initiatives/animalestates/prot
otypes/utrecht.html
Fritz Haeg’s project at Casco:
http://www.fritzhaeg.com/webpdf/AE06-fieldguide.pdf
Michael Bauer
http://a.aaaarg.org/text/3107/vagabondism-reader2009
http://www.thanktankannual.net/index.php?/ourunion/lay-state-of-our-union/
CMP: Community Museum Projects
http://www.hkcmp.org/cmp/
Geoff Cox & Joasia Krysa
http://www.kurator.org/wiki/main/read/Home
Dennis Rojo a.k.a. Jaromil
http://jaromil.dyne.org/journal/
Field trips?
Paris? Berlin?
Paris Biennale College
http://www.college.biennaledeparis.org/en.html
Museum of American Art,
Berlin
http://www.museum-of-american-art.org/Info.html
(MoAA-Leke Dukagjini, Goran Djordjevic)
Raqs Media Collective
http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/
http://www.sarai.net/