Getting ready, red lights in the space part of the “Heiter bis Wolkig” (sunny with cloudy intervals) by Studio Miessen, and a bar that finally opened, about to listen to how a spaceship with the mission to disseminate art landed on planet Earth.
Anton Vidokle mentions how the idea of e-flux came about. Its was 1998, and it was virtually impossible to present artworks unless you would rethink the whole system (particularly if you had no money and no gallery). So productive reflections emerged such as rethinking the city (say the city of New York and its infrastructure, to keep in line with our topic) in a different way: what if all its possible spaces, of all sorts, would be thought of as spaces full of possibilities and potentialities (instead of constraints and closed doors)? It all started with 200 hundred dollars invested to rent a hotel room…but then another the question aroused: how do people come when you can’t afford any invitation card or posters? /remember It was 1998/ and many people didn’t have email addresses, nevertheless a hotmail email account sent invitations to “best surprises no surprise” (show title) to about 30/40 friends (with an email address!)…and more than 60 people showed up…
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While we were typing we lost a few projects Anton and Julieta mentioned.
But here is where we are at: The Next Documents Should Be Curated By An Artist: http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/42825/the-next-documenta-should-be-curated-by-an-artist/
Followed by e-flux video rental (2004) during which a storefront became a video rental room (imagine this happened before youtube and before a whole certain type of technology), and the question the project addressed engaged with how moving images circulate within the art context (particularly given that at the time circulation heavily depended on only still images and short descriptions, etc…) and how to negotiate copy-rights in acceptable ways that may be productive for both makers, producers, and distributors…
Ah, now it’s the time of Martha Rosler’s library.
In short: it all started by talking about libraries (Donald Judd’s library in particular) in which you can’t touch books…while Martha Rosler on the other hand was surrounded by books (touchable ones). These were archived and transported to e-flux becoming a public library and from there on (please note this is a story reduced to its bones).
http://projects.e-flux.com/library/about.php
Do check Pawnshop, maybe a less known, but equally interesting project of eflux :http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/39995/pawnshop/
While we in the meantime listen to an introduction to Time/Bank - all of you readers probably already know this project: how to make a transaction that is not based on capital but on an exchange of skills and of time instead? Let’s face it, we still all need it today, particularly when working in small organizations or being some precarious worker (be it an artist, curator, or whatever else you want) that has a lot to share but not money…As part of this project the duo commissioned new works, new works thought of as currency, to a number of artists including Jimmie Durham, Mladen Stilinovic, Lawrence Weiner (we’re not sure we’ve seen any example of works made by women artists…but maybe we missed it while typing).
http://www.e-flux.com/timebank/
Could this project be considered a way to think how we actually function as an (art) community?
Thinking about new forms of funding and of income is really hard if you don’t rethink simultaneously spaces for artistic production and presentation. In essence, rethinking art’s infrastructure goes hand in hand with the type and nature of both artistic works that are produced and forms of exhibiting them.
People we are closing here. No matter the questions. Have a good evening from planet earth.
Cheers from Athens.
x The Redistributors.
Thank you. I missed the live coverage, but reading through this was very interesting.