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

Mark Francis
Curator of Contemporary Art
Carnegie Museum
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
This debate is becoming riddled with the corpses of "compulsory
sincerity." We should not succumb to the illusion that we are discussing art
or human rights here, but rather a context of power and politics.
(We are
meeting under the auspices of an organization which states "our goals are to
increase U.S. representation at important international festivals and
exhibitions ....")
For myself, I would like to see an emphasis on three linked attitudes:
scepticism toward the national or regional interests of politicians,
bureaucrats, and critics who normally tend to hijack or simplify artistic
projects; generosity toward the interests of artists and the viewing public
(such as we experienced during the installation of "Magiciens de la Terre" in
Paris last year); and pragmatism toward realistic projects which will create a
dialogue of different histories and geographies, of artistic dialects, and of
the hybrid, composite, complex diaspora in which we are all living.
Let us take a practical example.
We might investigate what common
structures and differences could :be identified in the great urban centres of
the world--such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, cairo, Kinsha, Mexico City, Bombay.
This was something we discussed but did not treat in Paris. And here it is
more or less fruitless to superimpose the old intellectual ~ of the 20th
century, or words such as idealism or the "exotic."
-67 -