Download the Catalogue PDF - Afgangs-undstillingen 2010

constructive, and that we should get rid of them. There
are many interdependent ways of connecting with other
people, and these connections are increasingly part of a
mobile life.
The «here and now» of art
Art is said to have a «here and now» about it that is
important for its being, and thus the viewers’ physical
presence is important for fully experiencing the work.
Will this understanding change in a more mobile world?
Is the art experience within a physical art space more
real or authentic than through Internet or in a catalogue?
The ubiquitous biennials are based on the assumption
that people want to travel to see art, thus biennials are
relying on a tourist economy. Will other ways of experiencing
art, forms that are more adapted to our mobile
way of life, become more common?
A catalogue can be such a form, a «room» that simultaneously
contains both proximity and distance. It creates
its space between its covers at the same time as it
somehow relates to the physical presence of an exhibition.
While working with this catalogue, we have chosen
to focus on the possibility to create a new space that in
itself makes up an exhibition. The artists have chosen for
themselves how they want to use this space; some have
written their own texts, other have commissioned them
from writers of their choice. This catalogue can also be
downloaded from the Funen Art Academy’s web site.
Thus it has a life on its own and its mobility is adapted
to an existence where meetings take on different forms
and where physical mobility can be both troublesome
(in terms of volcano clouds) and unethical (in terms of
pollution).
You gotta move it, move it
Mobility and the nomadic are central elements in today’s
society. Zygmunt Bauman describes modernity as
divided into two phases: solid from the beginning and
liquid during the last fifty years. Bauman holds that from
its outset modernity’s first and foremost project has
been to change and modernize the world. The solid
modernity believes in a
«(…) fully rational perfect world, rationally
perfect, or perfectly rational. And what is perfection?
As Renaissance master builder Leo Battista Alberti
put it, «perfection is a state in which every change
could be only change to the worse». So a perfect
state is the state in which all change should grind to
a halt, because you can’t improve on it. During the
period of «solid modernity» the most powerful thinkers
were convinced that it was a matter of acquiring
enough information, enough knowledge, and enough
technological skills in order to achieve such a perfect
world. Change was seen as temporary until we construct
a world which won’t require further change.» 6
During the last fifty years, we have moved away from
solid modernity to what Bauman refers to as liquid
modernity, i.e. something unstable and unable to keep
its form over a longer period of time. Our existence is
nomadic and entails an increasing sense of insecurity,
where one can shift from one social position to another.
Bauman holds that this is a revolutionary change. When
mobility transcends everything, we no longer search for
a perfect goal, as this can never be reached. Firstly the
perfect state of existence will never be able to be constant.
Secondly the underlying ground, i.e. the criteria
for the perfect state will be in constant motion. So the
only permanent aspect of our existence is change. Thus
we have to find new ways of behaviour and new ways to
connect, ways that suit the new existence.
You are only as good as your last project
Bauman’s description of life in liquid modernity is a
good description of life as an artist, working in constant
insecurity concerning economy, security and artistic
development. In liquid modernity, flexible labour where
work is organized as projects has become a constant
condition, as a state, city or a totality of projects «Cité
par projets»7– especially (though not exclusively) in the
case of artists.
In this existence, the insecure can rather be described
as mobility, where the best strategy is to be like a shark,
constantly moving. The shark dies if it stops.
«(…) living in a «liquid» modern world
breaks down into three conditions. We need to act
under the condition of first: uncertainty; second: under
the condition of continuous risk which we try to
calculate but which in principle is not fully calculable,
as there are always surprises; and third: we need to
act under the condition of shifting trust. A common
trend which was trustworthy today may become
condemned and rejected tomorrow. This is not only
true in the field of work but everywhere.» 8
In a liquid modernity the important thing is to learn how
to learn, because there is no final stage where you have
nothing left to learn, no ideal goal for you to reach. This
has of course always been the case with art. Any great
artwork needs a flaw; if it were perfect, it would be only
that and not a great artwork. In the preface of this catalogue,
headmaster Merete Jankowski writes about how
to learn to be an artist, and that in the Funen Art Academy
great emphasis is put on entering into a dialogue
with the day and age you are living in. In this communication
with constantly changing times, it is important
both to learn and to forget that which you have learnt
simultaneously. All the time you need to start afresh and
question what you have and what you know.
«Because there is never a point when you
can actually sit down quietly and say: «I have arrived,
I have done it, now I can just gather the cream of
profit from my previous efforts.» There is no such
moment of time. Learning is now a life-long process.
And today learning consists, above all, in the ability
of changing what you consider to be the true, the
proper, the usable, the effective knowledge.» 9
This catalogue will in various ways give an introduction
to 11 young artists who want to create their own stories
and their own spaces. In working with the graduation
show, it was important for us that the artists define their
own work. At the same time a common understanding
had to be established of how works are always in motion
when they meet with other works, other spaces and a
society in motion. As a continuation of the Marx quote in
the beginning of this text: Creative work will always take
place in a context, whether that context is a weighing
nightmare from earlier generations or something constantly
in motion, a site where old and new ideas mix and
are redefined. It is important for an artist to be able to
manoeuvre within these movements in time, space and
context. When working with the graduation show it has
therefore been important to together create a community
within a graduation class where everyone is, naturally,
focused on their own production in the final year of their
education. The exhibition and the graduation class forms
a society or collective as described by Urry:
«(…) there is communion, a human association
that is characterised by close personal ties,
belongingness and warmth between its members.
[This] is what is conventionally meant by the idea of
‘community’ relationships.» 10
As in the story of travellers in a time of volcanic clouds,
outer borders (like Western against Eastern Europe)
created a common internal identity and proximity. This
exhibition’s walls, this catalogue’s covers and the time
shared at the Funen Art Academy is part of the context
in which the 11 artists create their own stories.
Åse Løvgren / Karolin
Tampere, Curators,
RAKETT
(Endnotes) 1 / http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/
works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm 2 / http://www.scribd.com/
doc/16443296/Tallverdens-flyktninger-og-internt-fordrevneFlyktningregnskapet-2009
3 / John Urry, Mobility and Connections,
http://www.ville-en-mouvement.com/telechargement/040602/
mobility.pdf 4 / Ibid. 5 / Ibid. 6 / Zygmund Bauman, lecture at
ANSE-conference 2004 in Leiden, http://anse.eu/html/history/2004%20Leiden/bauman%20englisch.pdf
7 / Boltanski and
Chiapello, 1999 8 / Bauman, op.cit. 9 / Ibid. 10 / Urry, op.cit.