[Oberlist] Fw: Moldova Pavillion @ Venice Biennale 2011 issue
Kovacs Balazs
mmi at art.pte.hu
Sun Apr 24 18:26:33 CEST 2011
Hi Oberlist from Hungary,
it's really a hungarian-style discourse about representing Your
collective by outsiders :(
Our country, recognizing the problem, solved it since several years:
they (personally
the director of the Műcsarnok in Budapest) publish an application for
curators and exhibitors (1-1
people in pairs!) every 2-year in september. The winner gets a lot of
money (ca.
148000€) for the whole project, and the other curators/artists try to
remain in silence. Not the
best solution, but maybe a working one which You could also follow in
the next
years to avoid the conflicts.
all the best
Balázs
2011.04.24. 10:26 keltezéssel, Macari Lucia írta:
> Dear Oxana,
>
> Month ago I've tried to establish with you a conversation via
> Facebook. I get from you only one answer - that you do not curate all
> participants, but only MOE group.
> You have also mentioned that you have had a "talk" to Ministry of
> Culture of Moldova --> those are your words "Я высказывала свое мнение
> Министерству Культуры, что Венецианский BIENNALE это выставка
> современного искусства.... Мое мнение осталось не замеченным!!!!" (I
> expressed my opinion to the Ministry of Culture that Venice BIENNALE
> is an exhibition of contemporary art .... My opinion remains unnoticed!!)
>
> Could you tell us little more about that fact?
>
> In what way you did it? Have you meet someone representing Ministry of
> Culture during your visit to Chisinau? Did you write some letter? To
> whom in particular was it adressed?
>
> This would really help and give some extra power to our arguments,
> which we addressed to Ministry of Culture of Moldova. In case it's a
> letter, could you forward it (or a scaned copy of it) to us?
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> *From:* Macari Lucia <l_macari at yahoo.com>
> *To:* "cultura tinerilor, arta, politici culturale / youth culture,
> art & cultural policies" <oberlist at lists.idash.org>
> *Sent:* Thu, April 21, 2011 8:21:20 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Oberlist] Moldova Pavillion @ Venice Biennale 2011 issue
>
> Dear friends and colleagues,
>
> We, artists from Moldova, took the curage and get in direct contact
> with OXANA MALEEVA - curator of Moldova Pavillion at Venice. We would
> like to make this conversation widely open and invite everybody to
> follow and actively participate to our discussion.
>
> Please, write your comments and ask her question.
>
> Just fell free to add the following email address ( info at artapart.org
> ) next to the email address of the main recipient, because she is not
> connected to Oberlist network.
>
> First, get in aquantance with our preview dialog --->
> ________________________________
>
> ...
> From: Dima Riba <dima_riba at yahoo.com>
> To: Info Artapart <info at artapart.org>
> Sent: ...
> Subject: for Oxana Maleeva
>
>
> Dear Ms. Oxana Maleeva,
>
> This is a PUBLIC message within I would like to inform you that an
> entire artistic community of Moldova and in particular community that
> activates in the frame of Contemporaty Art is expecting an answer from
> you.
>
>
> We would like to understand the way of strange unification of
> commerial brand Moe and Mark Verlan.
>
> 1. What is your strategy as curator of Moldovan pavillion at Venice
> Biennale 2011 ?
>
> 2. What consist the particular strategy of project TRANSNISTRIA that
> made possible to put together in one exhibition one artist and two
> people (based in Italy) without any eligibility to name themselves
> artists?
>
> 3. What are your connection with Mark Verlan, who said that he didn't
> meet any curators that would represent Venice Biennale?
>
> 4. How it happens that you are a curator from St.Petersbourg based in
> Italy, but curate an exhibition that represent Moldova Republic?
>
>
> I kindly ask you to reply. You may take it as a public interview.
> In case you decide to remain silent, we are going to take it as an
> ignoration of artistic interests by you as professional curator.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Info Artapart <info at artapart.org>
> To: Dima Riba <dima_riba at yahoo.com>
> Sent: ...
> Subject: for Oxana Maleeva
>
>
> Dear Dima,
>
> I will reply to your questions one by one.
>
> Dear Ms. Oxana Maleeva,
>
> This is a PUBLIC message within I would like to inform you that an
> entire artistic community
> of Moldova and in particular community that activates in the frame of
> Contemporaty Art is
> expecting an answer from you.
>
> We would like to understand the way of strange unification of
> commerial brand Moe and Mark
> Verlan.
>
> 1. What is your strategy as curator of Moldovan pavillion at Venice
> Biennale 2011?
>
> I don’t understand why you are talking about “strategy”. We simply had
> the idea of trying to
> create a Moldovan Pavilion at the Venice Biennial for the first time,
> without any particular
> financial or political connections or “strategies”. Surprisingly we
> have managed to do it,
> though on a budget of zero. Without more financial and/or state
> support it is not possible to
> do a more ambitious project that might offer, as you seem to wish, a
> more comprehensive
> overview of the art scene in Moldova today. Which brings up another
> issue, however… namely
> that there is no reason to assume that the pavilion of a given country
> at the Venice Biennale
> somehow “represents” the art scene of that country. It’s an
> interesting theme, and it is part of
> what we want to address in our project.
>
> 2. What consist the particular strategy of project TRANSNISTRIA that
> made possible to put
> together in one exhibition one artist and two people (based in Italy)
> without any eligibility to
> name themselves artists?
>
> The TRANSNISTRIA project is what we, through our own unremunerated
> efforts, have been
> able to salvage of an initial idea. It even has a sort of symbolic
> isolation about it, in its location
> and its approach (as you will see if you come to Venice). Why are you
> not also discussing the
> issues of the rest of Moldova’s participation at the Biennale? The
> entire process of initiating
> Moldova’s presence in Venice was quite complex. Perhaps you should
> look at the bigger
> picture before drawing conclusions.
>
> 3. What are your connection with Mark Verlan, who said that he didn't
> meet any curators that
> would represent Venice Biennale?
>
> Maybe it’s your English, but I don’t think I understand the question.
> Perhaps it is answered in
> our general statement (below).
>
> 4. How it happens that you are a curator from St.Petersbourg based in
> Italy, but curate an
> exhibition that represent Moldova Republic?
>
> The world of contemporary art is completely globalized. There is
> nothing unusual about
> such situations of interaction among people from different countries,
> even in a specific
> national pavilion context. Just as there is nothing unusual about
> interaction between different
> disciplines… it seems rather old-fashioned to insist on definitions of
> who is an artist, who is a
> fashion designer, who is a musician, etc. One of the main evolutions
> taking place in the world
> of contemporary art is precisely this kind of breaking down of
> disciplinary and geographical
> barriers.
>
> I kindly ask you to reply. You may take it as a public interview.
> In case you decide to remain silent, we are going to take it as an
> ignoration of artistic interests
> by you as professional curator.
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> I don’t really appreciate the slightly threatening tone of your
> communications. Your interest in
> what is happening is understandable and laudable, but your veiled
> insinuations regarding the
> genesis of the project are not appropriate or understandable at all.
>
> Sincerely, Oxana Maleeva
>
> STATEMENT BY MOE ART GROUP
>
> First of all we would like to thank you for your interest in our
> project. Your questions
> raise certain points that could be better expressed as not-so-personal
> issues, and they
> are issues we take very seriously. For example: just how does the
> process of creation,
> curating, selection and organization of national pavilions at the
> Venice Biennale (and
> other major art events) really work? Often there are hidden or not so
> hidden economic
> and political agendas, situations of personal favoritism,
> discrepancies regarding
> the quality and quantity of the work presented. These are issues that
> need to be
> addressed by all countries and by the organizational machinery of such
> art events
> themselves… and by the entire international art system. Our exhibition
> is, in part,
> about just these issues and, ironically, is probably one of the few
> situations at the
> Biennale that is without any hidden financial or political backing…
>
> “TRANSINISTRIA” is an art project by MOE Art Group, which consists of
> 4 people: Aliona Kononova, Igor Avramenko, Mark Verlan and Oxana Maleeva
> as curator. We have worked together on this project from the initial
> idea to the
> bureaucratic process to the realization. TRANSNISTRIA is just one part
> of Moldova’s
> participation at the Venice Biennale this year. In a certain sense, it
> is what remains of
> a more ambitious initial curatorial-artistic project, after the
> various compromises and
>
> filtering involved in the organizational effort of establishing an
> official state pavilion.
>
> We are convinced that art and culture have no frontiers or national
> boundaries. This is
> one aspect of doing an exhibition called TRANSNISTRIA… a
> self-proclaimed country
> inside a country, a self-proclaimed pavilion within a pavilion,
> something hyperlocal yet
> almost universal.
>
> We believe in the importance of what we are doing, and are investing
> our own time,
> energy and resources in making it happen.
>
> We hope these thoughts help to clarify the situation, and of course we
> welcome further
> dialogue with the artistic community in general, in Moldova and all
> over the world. This
> is the first time Moldova is participating at the Biennale, thanks to
> our idea, our efforts
> and our personal investment of energy. Other artists could have done
> the same thing.
> They (you) just didn’t do it. Maybe next time…
>
> In any case, soon an official website and a Facebook page will be
> launched for the
> “Transnistria” art project, where you will be able to make comments,
> ask questions and
> express your opinions.
>
> MOE Art Group
>
> ___________________________________________________________
> Re: for Oxana Maleeva
> ...
> From: Dima Riba <dima_riba at yahoo.com>
> ...
> Add to Contacts
> To: Info Artapart <info at artapart.org>
>
>
> Dear Oxana,
>
> Thank you for reply!
>
> I'm not trying to offence you. Please, be more tollerant - you are
> maybe the only one who could, moreless, clarify for us (artists from
> Moldova) the created situation in an easyest way.
>
> First, about Mark Verlan - an answer like "I don't understand it
> because of your english" sounds boring - what is your connection with
> M.Verlan could mean only one thing: Where, when and how did you meet
> him? He sais that he didn't meet nobody who would introduce himself as
> a curator working for VB.
>
> We (his friends and colleags) have had a strange impression that
> somebody tries to use him (and his creation) for representing other
> people - simply saying, somebody had an intention to still his
> work/works! Now, after a slight tochering of you and other
> "participants" his name at least appeared on the list of that
> "art"-formation .. But things can not emerge in such way! This is not
> normal!!!!
>
> "We simply had the idea of trying to create a Moldovan Pavilion at the
> Venice Biennial for the first time" --> this also does not convice! VB
> is not some local project but an international forum with history.
> Isn't it? And who are those WE? Are you a part of them? Why then,
> during your visit in Chisinau, you didn't visit Center of Contemporary
> Arts, for example? Or at least just Mark studio? You intended to put
> an artist in your exhibition which you have not any idea? My opinion
> is that this is at least not professional!
>
> By the way, in 2007 as well like now, a Moldova Pavillion appeared at
> VB with some weird unnoun artist. In 2009 as well an italian macho
> wanted to promote in this way his moldovan girlfriend. You see? This
> seems already to happen in regular way! But the situation in 2011,
> what is happening now with Mark artworks - this is just to much! This
> is abbusive!
>
> We are not discussing the rest of participants because they are not
> part of your project. Center for Contemporary ARt in Chisinau already
> have sent an open letter to Ministery of Culture of Rep.Moldova. We
> know that this letter would not change nothing, because contemporary
> art in Moldova is far from being established, is not supported in any
> forms by State and is ignorated by Ministry of Culture. This is maybe
> our deal as artists to work out the fact that our Ministry does not
> pay attention to our existence. This is totally representing Moldova -
> as well as biggest part of population, artists have to survive by
> themselves because the State has no money to pay and no work to offer
> in their own country.
>
> I know the notion "globalization", but I think it has nothing to do
> with our situation - there are an organised contemporary art community
> in Chisinau, Moldova. This community is represented by Center of
> Contemporary Art KSAK www.art.md <http://www.art.md> which is quite
> known in many european art networks. Would be normal if an
> international curator (like you) would first get in aquantance with
> the context of geographical space he's going to represent.
>
>
> We hope for your understanding!
>
> ________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Info Artapart <info at artapart.org>
> To: Dima Riba <dima_riba at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Tue, April 21, 2011 5:38:18 PM
> Subject: for Oxana Maleeva
>
>
> Dear Dima,
>
> now your position is much clearer. It seems to be based, in part, on a
> misunderstanding. I didn't get your question about Mark because I
> obviously DID visit Mark's studio (we spent a very enjoyable entire
> day with him there) and I was very impressed by his work, which I
> already knew about thanks to Aliona and Igor. The idea of Art Group
> MOE is not a sudden development, the people involved have been working
> on this collaboration for years. We are convinced that Mark's work
> deserves to be shown in an international context. There is no
> "strategy" of exploitation!
>
> For the rest, as I wrote previously, I agree that the mechanisms of
> promotion and visibility of art (not only in Moldova) should be
> questioned and challenged. I wish you success in your efforts to
> improve the situation of contemporary artists in Moldova in the
> future. I hope our initiative will help, not hinder, such efforts.
> Just to do this relatively small project has not been a simple
> process, and it necessarily had to be quite limited in its scope.
>
> I hope this clarifies matters at least a bit... and I hope that our
> initiative in Venice can also, in its small way, become a forum for
> discussion of the situation to which you refer. Again --- not an easy
> task!
>
> Thank you also for your understanding, best regards, OM.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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