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symbols of past eras, or the genres of science
fiction or documentary, content is
altered through a process that is additive
or reductive in intention and form, producing
a configuration of components that
require a shift in perception. Several histories
or time frames may be evoked in
one image, or a sense of place suggested
yet concealed: in such cases, one has to
‘reorient’ the position from which one
receives and processes information, setting
aside assumptions and previously
acquired knowledge. As Claire
Staebler notes in the journal Typologies of
Unlearning: Resistance, Renewal and
Fresh Attempts, 'If unlearning becomes a
means of connecting with the world – an
individual or collective tendency, allowing
everyone to rethink, to renegotiate and to
question what they believe or think they
know – then art, inevitably, can help us
reformulate our perceptions of the
world.'[14] With several of the Biennale
projects, relationships between visual art
and literature also blur, not just in relation
to how text is used as primary material,
but in terms of how purely visual elements
create 'the imaginative space and potential
that is usually associated with literature
… without recourse to the trappings
of language or narrative.'[15] Operating
‘in-between’ fact and fiction, history and
the ‘now,’ the works draw on, as well as
project, either a multiplicity – almost overabundance
– of references, or conversely,
possess strength by virtue of creating a
space where something seems ‘missing’
or incomplete, giving rise to 'a multiplicity
of folds and gaps in the fabric of common
experience that change the cartography
of the perceptible, the thinkable and the
feasible.'[16]
[8]
[1] Precarity in relation to contemporary art has
been explored in exhibitions including Human
Condition: Empathy and Emancipation in
Precarious Times, Kunsthaus Graz/Universalmuseum
Joanneum, 2010, and The Workers,
MASS MoCA, 2011–12; articles including Nicolas
Bourriaud, 'Precarious Constructions: Answer to
Jacques Ranciere on Art and Politics,' in A
Precarious Existence: Vulnerability in the Public
Domain (Rotterdam: 2009); 'Thriving on
Adversity: The Art of Precariousness,' Anna
Dezeuze, in Mute 2, 3 (September 2006); and
conferences including Zones of Emergency:
Artistic Interventions – Creative Responses to
Conflict & Crisis, MIT Program in Art, Culture and
Technology (ACT), fall 2011.
[2] Hal Foster, 'Precarious,' Artforum (December
2009).
[3] Simon Sheikh, 'SPACES FOR THINKING:
Perspectives on the Art Academy,' Texte Zur
Kunst 62.
[4] Åse Berit Grødeland and Aadne Aasland,
Informality and Informal Practices in East Central
and South East Europe’ Complex Europe
(Melbourne, 2007).
[5] As noted in the essay for Agents &
Provocateurs (Institute of Contemporary Art.
Dunaúvaros, 2009): 'In his fictive dialogue with
Ceausescu from 1978, artist Ion Grigorescu takes
the “father of the people” epithet literally, and
directly addresses the political leader to offer constructive
criticism. For several decades, this film
of Grigorescu was only available to a narrow circle
as the artist mostly worked as a restorer,
secluded from the professional public.'
[6] 'Mixing Business with Pleasure,' interview with
artist Jill Magid, Base Now 15 (May, 2009).
[7] Eugen Radescu, Free Academy, Pavilion,
Bucharest.
[8] William Pope.L, 'Agency and What Y ou Can
Do With It,' in Creative Time: The Book: 33 Years
of Public Art in New York City, eds. Anne
Pasternak and Ruth Peltason (New York, 2007).
[9] Maria Lind, 'Selected Nodes in a Network of
Thoughts on Curating,' in Selected Maria Lind
Writing, ed. Brian Kuan Wood (Berlin, 2010), p.
30.
[10] Simon Sheikh, 'Talk Value: Cultural Industry
and the Knowledge Economy,' in On Knowledge
Production, A Critical Reader in Contemporary
Art, ed. Maria Hlavajova, Jill Winder and Binna
Choi (Utrecht and Rotterdam, 2008), p. 196.
[11] Lauren Cornell, 'Walking Free,' essay for the
exhibition Free (New Museum, 2010–11).
[12] John Conomos, 'Art, the Moving Image and
the Academy,' in Rethinking the Art School: The
Artist, the PhD, and the Academy, ed. Brad
Buckley and John Conomos (Nova Scotia, 2009),
p. 116.
[13] Irit Rogoff, 'Practicing Research: Singularizing
Knowledge,' in maHKUzine, Journal of Artistic
Research 9 (2010), p. 42.
[14] Claire Staebler, 'Typologies of Unlearning:
Resistance, Renewal and Fresh Attempts,' Le
Journal de la Triennale (Paris, 2012), p. 2.
[15] Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, 'Haris Epaminonda,'
Bidoun 20, p. 126.
[16] Jacques Rancière, The Emancipated
Spectator (London and New York, 2009), p. 72.
[9]