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

We also kept in mind and touched on the fact that political factors,
for instance, current encouraging changes in the global situation, namely
in South Africa or Eastern Europe, as well as wide economic imbalances
between highly developed and developing countries, play a role in
determining the fluctuating concept of international exhibitions and their
location. While artists from new situations will be entering and helping
to re-shape the nature of these shows, the larger part of the world will
continue to be left out of these dialogues.
* * * * * * *
"... the art market system, the Biennial system, exists in a way that
even if there is no more art, the system would invent art ..• And this is
not a nice thing at all. We are so Im.lch connected with our Western
Civilization system because it is linked to our . infq:rmation system, and we
have to break it." Jean-Christophe Ammann.
"As the best, and worst, shows of the past 30 months attest,
authoritative curatorial statements are required not only to make sense of
the plethora of work currently produced but to engage the audience with
significant issues or questions instead of pandering to a desire for
entertainment." Lynne Cooke
These two quotations were among those that o:pened our debate.
The
first is from the BBC "Kaleidoscope" program reviewing the "International
Exhibitions Now" conference held at the Riverside Studios in London in
1985. The second quotation is from an essay "Exhibition Tracking: The
Late I 80s" written for the carnegie International catalogue in 1988.
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