Expanding Internationalism - A Conference on ... - Mary Jane Jacob

international exhibitions and the necessity of presenting one aspect that
marks a contribution to an ongoing debate, keeping in mind both the local
and broader, international audiences.
She indicated that, to take another
view, she now feels that when talking to international visitors about
British art, via the British Council, she advocates being partisan,
presenting a clear picture of what she thinks is the most interesting, in
the hopes that others will do likewise. Ryszard Stanislawski questioned
the very relevance of the terms "national" and "international," noting
that most of these distinctions are artificial, and citing, for example,
the divisions used to delineate the participants in this conference, and
noting as well the irrelevance of the term "Eastern Europe. "
All
decisions of whom to include in an exhibition or in a collection, he
notes, are "critical" decisions. He also observed a lack of criticality,
in the midst of a very comnercial climate, since it is always the same
so-called "international" artists that are represented in all the museums
around the world.
Lars Nittve pointed out that it is erroneous to just blame the art
market for the homogeneous view of international art that now dominates.
He brought up the notion of center and periphery, which the art market
reflects, and which has existed for at least a century. He observes a
loosening of or loss of center that is now occurring, along with an
increased possibility for local or regional dialects, as it were, to exist
within the international art world.
He is interested now particularly in
art that operates in those gaps.
Helen Escobedo raised the question of
what can happen in the future, what type of exhibitions could be
-115-