1

Hedwig Fijen

Introduction toManifestaJournal Series 3

NataaPetrein-Bachelez and Virginie Bobin

Editorial Statement
P.7 CONVERSATION P.9

Conversation between RobertoJacoby and AnaLongoni

With Uneasiness astheStarting Point

Cuauhtmoc Medina
SPECULATION

P.13

Retroactive Vampirism: On TheAge ofDiscrepancies

Tom Pospiszyl
ETUDE

P.27

Narcisse Tordoir

CONVERSATION

Etude
P.50

inConversation With thePhantom ofAllanKaprow

Raqs MediaCollective

P.53 STATEMENT

Mangelos

MATERIALS

Shid Theory
P.67

Statement
P.70 SPECULATION

Suely Rolnik

Archive for aWork-event: Activation oftheBodily Memory ofthePoetics ofLygiaClark and its Context
Dawn Ades
GAME

P.72

Ludic Experimentation by theSurrealist Group inCzechoslovakia, 19711985

BettinaKnaup and Beatrice Ellen Stammer
STATEMENT

P.82

Sven Augustijnen

On Re-Act Feminism

Fragment Spectres
P.86 P.88

Colophon

ETUDE

P.98

Cuauhtmoc Medina

Guest Editorial: TheFungus intheContemporary

Miguel Lpez

P.11 PROJECTION

Back toNo-Objetualismo: Returns ofPeruvian Artistic Experimentalism (1960s / 1970s)

KaterinaGregos
SPECULATION

P.21

MagaliArriola

EXHIBITION ROOM P.42

IsThePast Another Country?

P.33

APlace Out ofHistory

Erick Beltrn, VictoriaNoorthoorn

EXHIBITION ROOM P.60

Mirlitonnades

Contributors

P.99

Introduction toManifestaJournal Series 3

Theformat ofManifestaJournal (MJ), like theManifestabiennial, isachanging model. Every six editions, anew Editorial Team from diverse areasofEurope and beyond are invited todevelop adifferent concept for theseries; toreflect on contemporary Europe and theworld. Initiated by theManifestaFoundation, theManifestaJournal isanindependent project. It aims tobe critical and self-reflective toward thetheory and practice ofinternational curatorship and biennials ingeneral, but also towards its own functional mechanisms. Weare very proud oftherealization ofthesecond series oftheManifesta Journal inwhich theMJ editorial team sought toestablish acomprehensive manual, comprised ofawide-reachingsequence ofboth theoretical and pragmatic articles,often produced by up-and-coming writers, curators and artists inaddition totheoreticians and practitioners from marginalized areasofEurope and theworld. Wewould like totake thisopportunity tothank theeditorial team ofthesecond series ofthe ManifestaJournalViktor Misiano, Nathalie Zonnenberg, FilipaRamos andLisaMazzafor their invaluable contributions. Following thespirit and model oftheManifestabiennial, wehave appointedanew editorial team for thethird series oftheManiestaJournal (20112013), with NataaPetrein-Bachelez aschief editor and Virginie Bobinasassociate editor. Inthisthird series, ManifestaJournalintends toreconsider thenotion ofcontemporary curatorship and focus on its (geo)political, socialand controversial potentials, its ability toinstigate fresh discussion; toobserve its past and comment on its possible future. Asaresponse totheconsolidated understanding ofthenotion curatorial, thesubtitle ofthisseries ofManifestaJournal will be ManifestaJournal Around Curatorial Practices. Another major change intheManifestaJournal will be its transformation from aprinted publication intoafree online magazine. Asever, westand for theopen exchange ofknowledge. With thisdevelopment, theMJ intentionally deviates from theselectiveness ofmany academic journals tobecome awidely available source tool inwhich areciprocal relationship with our audiences isestablished. Weare thus pleased toannounce that from MJ #13 onwards, theManifestaJournal will be freely accessible worldwide. Thiswill enable us tocommunicate with greatly expanded and previously disconnected audiences.

Hedwig Fijen, Director ofManifesta

With thisnew series, theManifestaJournal will becomemore integratedwith other projects developed by theManifestaFoundation. Tothiseffect, theguest editors ofthepresent first issue ofthethird series, MJ #13, isthecuratorial team ofManifesta9: Cuauhtmoc Medina, Dawn Ades and KaterinaGregos. EntitledFungus intheContemporary, theissue metaphorically addresses there-activation and re-contextualisation ofthe1960s incontemporary art practices. It takes theform ofartistic or historical suppositions that canbe seen asspying on, fictionalizingor causing delays inthecontemporary condition. Thefollowing three issues, MJ #14-16, will be guest edited byLebanese film curator RashaSalti, and will explore thepolitics oftime asacrucial approach toboth art and society. Iwould like toextend aspecial thanks toLisaMazza, MJ managing editor, aswell asDianaHillesheim and GeorgiaTaperell for their valuable support and input intothemulti-facetedManifestaJournal project. Inatime oftumultuous social, political and economic change, thecontextualization ofcontemporary curatorial practices and theory shall no doubt be agreat challenge, with its own rewards. Itherefore wholeheartedly support thenew team and wish them success intheir new undertaking.

Editorial Statement
After thecomprehensive grammar and manual for contemporary curatorship that theeditorial alchemy ofthegreatly-missed Igor Zabel and Viktor Misiano established inthefirst six issues ofManifestaJournal, and which Viktor Misiano, Nathalie Zonnenberg and FilipaRamos then prolifically continued intheseries ofsix issues that followed, weare honoured totake over theediting ofManifestaJournal. Proposing several mutations ofprevious editorial endeavours, weintend touse ManifestaJournal asaporous platform toreconsider themeanings and theeffects ofcuratorial practices today. Inthecurrent state ofsociopolitical, economical and ecological emergencies, inthecontext ofrapid changes affecting theGlobal South and North, inthemidst oftheprotests and upheavals borne from theArab Spring and theOccupy movement that isspreading around theworld, wewish toemphasize our viewpoint on contemporary artistic and curatorial practices asbeing negotiations between objects (images, texts, gestures, presences), situated knowledges and subjectivities. Wehave deliberately chosen theencompassing subtitle Around curatorial practices inorder tomark thetrajectory from theprevious subtitle, Journal ofcontemporary curatorship. If wewere tovisualise our editorial logic, concentric circles would be most appropriate asthey have incommon one centrecuratorial practices, inour case. Thus thepreposition around should be devoted towhat actually moves subjectivities when they adopt thenotion ofcurating asresponding totheir practices. Wewish tolook at thepractices intheglobal art world that reassess thisnotion today and focus onits urgent (geo)political, humanistic, instigating and controversial potentialities; practices that are informed by subjective drives, subversions, opacities, risks, desires, beliefs and solidarities. Through them wewill investigate thepast history ofcurating, speculate on its future, and allow its relationships tothesensorial and thediscursive tounfold, all thewhile offering space up tothe powerful real andtotheequally powerful imaginary. Wewish toreflect on current practices ofreading, researching, publishing and curating that have been enabled by theinternet anditssocial technologies, while exploring new formats and advocating theopen circulation ofknowledge. Wetherefore present here anew online and downloadable ManifestaJournal, with most ofits texts licensed through Creative Commons. Every two months, weinvite ablogger-inresidency toshare with us their research inprogress: their reflections on, assessments of, and reactions toaspecific subject. Asour first resident for December 2011January 2012, weare very pleased tohost AdnanYildiz, theartistic director ofKnstlerhaus Stuttgart. ManifestaFoundation isrecognised for its having embraced progressive curatorial positions aswell asfor its understanding ofcuratorial practices aspolitical agencies. TheManifestaBiennials have given aspecial emphasison thecollaborative, negotiating, affective, political, andgroundbreaking aspects ofwhat theunprecedented curatorial federations, exhibitions and mediations have relayed tothem.
9

NataaPetrein-Bachelez and Virginie Bobin

Thisisapoint ofinspiration. Furthermore, weare motivated by recent attempts togo beyond social cynicism by establishing once more thecapability toact and resonate inthepublic sphere. Wethus wish tobring forward with each issue those potentialities that enable us tothink what wethink, feel what wefeel and do what wedo when wesay that wecurate. Weare most delighted toinaugurate thenew series ofManifestaJournal with Cuauhtmoc Medina, KaterinaGregos andDawn Ades, thecuratorial team ofManifesta9, asguest editors forthisissue, where ghosts from thepast prove tointeract very actively with our current preoccupations. Engaging inadialogue with these persistent spirits isaway for us toopen thedoor tothepressing questions that wewould like tounfold with you through thenext five issues ofManifestaJournal.

Thenew sections ofManifestaJournal include: SPECULATION (Syn.: cogitation, conjecture, contemplation, deliberation, hypothesis, meditation, reflection; Ant.: fact, information, reality, truth) In-depth theoretical texts offering investigations of, reflections on, and even diversions from thejournals core issues. STATEMENT (Syn.: affirmation, allegation, announcement, articulation, charge, comment, manifesto, proclamation, testimony, utterance; Ant.: question, request) Contributors are invited toexpress their position through ashort text, optionally accompanied by visual or audio material. CONVERSATION (Syn.: chat, colloquy, debate, dialogue, discussion, exchange, palaver, tte--tte; Ant.: silence) Unexpected or long-awaited encounters between artists, curators, critics, theoreticians, or people from other fields thanart. PROJECTION (Syn.: extension, fantasy, forecast, project, prediction, prognosis; Ant.: depression) Studies ofpast exhibitions/events or reflections onpotential future exhibitions/events that constitute ahistory ofcuratorial forms, offering space up tofiction.
10

ETUDE (Syn.: analysis, cogitation, comparison, contemplation, deliberation, examination, inquiry, investigation, meditation, musing, questioning, reflection, reverie, scrutiny; Ant: idleness) Critical studies written inresponse toanimage orasound chosen by theauthor. EXHIBITION ROOM (Syn.: exposition, display, narration, position, presentation allowance, area, capacity, chance, occasion, opening, opportunity, place, play, scope, space, territory, volume; Ant.: dissimulation zone) Curators are invited todevise anexhibition for thespecific space ofboth thejournals online andprinted versions. MATERIALS (Syn.: being, body, component, constituent, documents, elements, evidence, goods, paraphernalia, stuff; Ant.: absence) Exploration ofarchival materials that have not yet widely circulated. GAME (Syn.: adventure, amusement, occupation, pastime, play, recreation, undertaking; Ant.: immobility) Artists whose practices encompass scores, instructions or games are invited toshare them withthereaders ofManifestaJournal.

Guest Editorial: TheFungus intheContemporary

Chronological art categories have anidiosyncratic density. They do not point so much toestablished fixed lines inthetime continuum astotheopaque horizons and conventions ofthenarratives weinhabit by turning them, either subtly or confrontationally, intobattlefields ofmeaning. Behind therelative neutrality oftheterm contemporary art, differing accounts, casts ofcharacters and plots are constantly deployed, both from within thetexture ofour works and texts andinterms oftheir institutional condensations. Infact, thecontemporary is, more thanamoment inhistory, theinterlocking ofgeographical, temporal, poetic and political elements around which thedifferent parties oftheglobal art networks constantly dispute therelevance and urgency ofdifferent ifnot opposedpractices, along with therelative significance ofanumber ofgenealogical lines. Inthat sense, thecontemporary ought tobe understood asone ofthemost powerful instances ofwhat Mikhail Bakhtin described with theconcept ofthechronotope: it isaconcept where Time, asit were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise, space becomes charged and responsive tothemovements oftime, plot and history .1 Thecontemporary isnot anadjective describing recentness, but atime-space narrative that structures different views on culture and, therefore, also propagates among its consumers modalities ofagency withinculture and intheworld. What makes thischronotope especially sensible inthefield ofart is, however, its function asjudgment. Asit used tobe with thenotion ofnew and modern, toargue for thecontemporariness ofcertainworks, artistic devices or curatorial 1 M.M. / critical operations involves Bakhtin,TheDialogic infact some kind ofdictate on Imagination, tr. by their right ofexistence. Indeed, Caryl Emerson & despite theclaim oftheantiMichael Holquist, historicism ofseveral forms Austin, University ofpostmodern thinking, terms ofTexasPress, 1981, like anachronistic, regressive,
p.84

Cuauhtmoc Medina

belated, outmoded and reactionary remaincritical puns. It isfor thisreason that thebattles ofinclusion and thegeopolitical transformation oftheartworld intherecent decades has, toagreat extent, behaved inreatroactive mode. No surprise, the socalled process ofglobalization ofart hasalso been theimaginary time-space where curating involves art historical operations asacentral part ofits political agenda. Theexperience oftheculture ofthecontemporary hasintherecent years, however, involved aparticular paradox inherent toitsturning intoahistorical category. Thecontemporary isconstantly defined interms ofthefixed and standardized annexation ofacertainmoment ofthepast. Asif reforming theNietzscheandichtum that history wasborn from theyearning ofthemanofaction unable tofind examples and guidance from hiscontemporaries,2 both interms oftheinstitutional policies ofcollecting and scholarship, and also intheoperative demarcations ofmarketing ofart, weare witnessing amoment where thenarrative stands still fixated inthemedusaeffect ofaconstant mirroring and testing ofwhat iscurrent, inrelation tothe1960s and1970s. Through anincreasing numberofexhibitions and scholarly accounts, if not also inthe shaping ofthememory oftheparticipants and theway they organize their growing archives, thecontemporary isincreasingly growing white hair. Inparticular, intheneed toremap theformerly marginalized histories ofart oftheso-called periphery, but also inthepolicies ofmuseums and intheparlance ofthemarketplace, there isatendency tounderstand thecontemporary ashaving started sometime inthe1960s. Aparticular date stands behind thisseeming reluctance toclear out therefrigerator. Aninordinate number ofour initiatives and narratives stand 2 Friedrich still, asif caught with thesight Nietzsche, Untimely ofaghost, inand around thefailed Meditations, ed. oraborted revolutions of1968. Daniel Breazeale,
tr. R. J. Hollingdale, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 67. 11

It isinterms ofunderlining that unwritten global convention ofconstantly making exhibitions that reflect on thepresent state ofarts looking back intotheborderline between the1960s and 1970s, thatthisissue ofManifestaJournal haschosen foritstitle theimage ofthefungus ofthecontemporary. Weare conscious ofthe ambiguity ofthisfigure, for it both suggests acertain concern with theway that thecircularity ofthat narrative isindanger ofallowing our reading ofcontemporary art toturn stale, and ofthe extraordinary proliferation ofmoments ofdissidence and creativity involved intheconcentration ofthose contemporary-historical curatorial and artistic operations. Theexperiences, texts and images that thisissue oftheManifestaJournal contains attest both totheunlikely coincidence ofcuratorial efforts around theworld tointervene inthehistorical narratives ofcontemporary art interms ofamanifold ofways towiden its fables, restore (and frequently reinvent, alter and even remake) theartworks that stand asits referents, and introduce awealth ofintellectual and sensible complexity tocounter thehegemonic academic and commercialized standard narratives that theacademic industry oftheNorth fashions asglobal histories. Wewould like toimagine that, among thetruffles, magic mushrooms and huitlacoche that thecuratorial and artistic

projects selected have all gathered inthisjournal, thereader may also find some strains ofpennicilum fungigrowing, so tospeak, on thecorpse ofrecent contemporary history-based curatorial projects. Rather thandocumenting thehistoricist leanings ofthecontemporary art world, wehave chosen projects that activate production ofthesocial memory ofart asameans topoliticize, complicate and even question its radical or even revolutionary myths oforigin. For what ischaracteristic ofthetrope of thecontemporary is, again, asBakhtinargued, thattheauthor ofthenarrative appears dialogical tothetime structure ofhisor her narratives, feigning acertaindistancing and exteriority from which thefable emerges, atthesame that that theauthor specifies hisor her tangential3 role intheaccount. It isinterms ofreflecting on thecomplex coming and goings ofthemushrooming ofthecontemporary that thisManifestaJournal would like tolet its spores spread.

3 Bakhtin, op.cit., p.256 12

With Uneasiness astheStarting Point

From February toJuly 2011, intheMuseo Nacional Centro de Arte ReinaSofa(MNCARS) inMadrid, themultifarious and elusive work ofArgentine artist and sociologist RobertoJacoby wasexhibited for thefirst time, under thetitle Desire Rises from Collapse. Intheface ofapraxisthat overlaps themost diverse fieldsexperiments with mass mediaand technologies, social research, festive celebrations, lyrics, experimental communities,

CONVERSATION

networks, literary, essayistic and theoretical writing what wasshown there, rather thanabody ofwork, wasanever-insufficient series ofmontage and narration experiments, archiving modalities and exhibition strategies. Here follows adialogue, between anartist who seldom defines himself asanartist and anemergency curator, inwhich they offer areview ofwhat happened there.

RobertoJacoby: Imight be said tobelong toatradition ofpractices that try todissolve intosocial life, practices ofaninapprehensible, ephemeral, discontinuous, immaterial and context-specific character: experiments with mass mediaand technologies now outdated, social research, festive celebrations, lyrics, political interventions, subjectification operations, experimental communities. Consequently, amuseographic review ofmy work presents, from thestart, contradictions and difficulties. Ibelieve both you and Ihave anethical attitude towards these dilemmas. Neither ofus have felt thattheproposal ofthisexhibition wasamoment like any other. AnaLongoni: Id dare say wesuffer from exacerbated ethics!
RJ: Thesame dilemmacould arise with Dadaism and other historical

avant-gardes. But weare used togoing toamuseum and seeing aTatlin, and wedont say, Tatlininamuseum! Thats preposterous! That no longer shocks us.
AL: Ithink that thats aneffect oftime. Enough time haselapsed for

RJ: Those avant-gardes were constitutionally against museums. They

wanted toburn them down, because art wassomewhere else if such athing wecall art existed.
AL: They felt acalling todissolve art intoits autonomous statute, togo

out intothestreets and abandon institutional spaces. Thats something Dadaism shares with theArgentinianavant-garde ofthe1960s.
RJ: Exactly. Thats why theinvitation toexhibit my work inamuseum

such astheReinaSofabecame anethical dilemma, aswell asalogical one. Theattempt toshow something that from themoment it isshown itisbetrayed canbe asort ofdenaturalization.
13

RobertoJacoby and AnaLongoni

us tobe able tocodify those irruptions inamuseum and even have at our disposal encyclopaediasthat help us understand them asart. Ihave thefeeling that thesame thing isbeginning tohappen with what took place inthe1960s. Wealready have codes toread those radical experiments asanart that canbe seen inamuseum. Ithink that thats thedifference. What they have incommon, Iagree, istheir revulsive condition.

AL: Once faced with thedilemmaofthisexhibition, weturned

thisuneasiness intoour starting point.

RJ: Anuneasiness that isethical, intimate, personal, and not just rational or

historiographic.
AL: Wewere running therisk ofgoing against theinherent potency

ofthose manifestations, those ideas, that past.

RJ: Sure. Wewerent talking about theconcerns ofanalert and savvy

curator, ofaself-demanding curator. Our discomfort didnt originate intheintrinsic dilemmasofcuratorship.

AL: Rather, intheinterrogation about what it meant that your experiences

were finally being displayed inamuseum

RJ: Im not speaking only about myself, but about certainpractices

ingeneral. And about your work too, both asahistorianandaresearcher, since you, who dont define yourself asacurator, but who have acted asanemergency curator, also share thisfeeling thatyour relationship with those modes ofdoing and understanding art hasapolitical meaning that you dont want torenegade.
AL: Wedidnt want tonaturalize theappearance ofyour works

inthemuseum, asif that had always been theplace expected and most likely toreceive your practices, but rather asaplace toput inevidence our uneasiness and make it visible. Thatwastheexperiment.
RJ: Something like starting from angst and turning it intoareparative act. AL: When faced with theMNCARS invitation tomake thisexhibition,

our answer could have been asimple no, or wecould have attempted areconstruction; aconventional display ofdocuments without turning theoperation intoaproblem. Our intention, on thecontrary, wastomake thedifficulty that therestitution ofthose practices entailed all themore apparent. Your works are too far away from thestandards ofvisibility suitable for amuseum, and they run therisk ofatotal deactivation once they are exhibited there, and ofbecoming mere
RJ: Exhibition devices. Theres avery delicate, critical point between

anexhibition device and its fidelity totheexperiences itintends toreconstruct. Ithink that hereinlies theartistic aswell astheerotic aspect ofacuratorship ofthiskind. Inthegap between atheoretical strategy and its effective realization, anideacango down. Agood approach doesnt automatically imply agood outcome. Trueexperiments must be able tofail.
AL: Acuratorial experiment such asthisalso hastodisturb other peoples

expectations. Our aim ofmaking theexhibition not just amemory ofthepast but apowerful actual experience wasapolitical wager: togenerate inthepublic thekind ofexperience that might also be shocking inthepresent.
RJ: By definition, past cannot be restored. What matters ishaving acritical

relationship with thepast, being aware oftheprocedures used torepresent it. Inmy case, thisalso means going beyond hermetism, making sure thework doesnt yield anerudite result, butone accessible and friendly tothepublic.
14

AL: One ofthesignals ofthat friendly communication

wastherelationship weestablished with theguardians oftheexhibition rooms, who are unemployed people on transit toward better jobs. These guardians, who spend alot oftime inthemuseum, have no training asguides but simply look after therooms. They established avery strong complicity with theexhibition, giving their opinions and getting involved. Aswecame back, months later, they would say, People stand here, Thisand that happens, Have thisfixed very involved, indeed. Manuel Borja-Villel, theMNCARS director, says that that kind ofaffinity isathermometer that indicates anexhibition may work. It wassomething remarkable inamuseum with those characteristics.
RJ: Yes. So gigantic and complex. AL: Touristic and massive. RJ: Wecouldnt have made it without thespirit that prevails

intheMNCARS. They havent got thekind ofbureaucratized staff you find inother institutions. They were so patient with us.
AL: Really, having tosuffer acurator and anartist who change their minds

all thetime issomething unusual for them.

RJ: And putting up with agang ofArgentines! Its normal for us

toimprovise, toreinvent, tofalter, todecide what todo aswego along, totake advantage ofdifficulties. Otherwise, wewouldnt have survived inacountry like ours.
AL: Inthisexhibition, asinall your projects, theteam worktheblurring

ofhierarchies and theenhancement ofcollective intelligencewascrucial. Your way ofworking activates asort ofmultiple brain; each one with his/her abilities, his/her sensibility, his/her power intheencounter with theothers. It isnt amere aggregate or assembling ofparts; rather, it produces anunexpected and nutritious concoction.
RJ: Ilike polyphony aswell asplaying different chords. Ithink energy

isgenerated only when there are differences. Therooms werent similar toeach other either.
AL: There were some common resonances, however. Each space

implied adifferent experiment, but it wasprecisely intheir contrast that thealmost- invisible threads uniting those parts appeared.
RJ: Definitely: weescaped thehorror ofthewhite cube and homogeneity.

Each room initself wasaninstallation.

AL: Ithink thats also due tothefact that weworked with thespecificity

ofMNCARS spaces: Space One, then theVault Room and finally theProtocol Room. Thats why it isimpossible toreproduce theexhibition, asit took place inMadrid. With theexception, perhaps, of1968, el culo te abrocho, your 2008 installation that canbe read independently ofits context, because, toacertainextent, it isself-contained.
RJ: Its true; there issomething inthat work that makes it accessible

toaudiences who have no information about the1968 inArgentina.

AL: Ithink that theoverprinting ofpoetic and theoretical texts ofdifferent

moments ofyour career over documents ofyour own mythology

15

intheArgentine 1968 canbe understood anywhere asanirreverent, ironic gesture. For instance, thedocuments ofthemythical Tucumn Arde in1968, asabackdrop for anerotic song ofthe1980s, set off bythemselves abuzz oftemporalities andmeanings.
RJ: Infact, it wasanger that moved me tomake that installation. AL: Anger? RJ: Yes, angernot intheresult but inthemotivation. Thecelebrations

for thefortieth anniversary ofFrench May that included thePresident ofFrance, themost reactionary newspapers and themost despicable journalists, were atrivialization ofthat rebellious feat. It wasimpossible toknow whether they were celebrating May 1968 or its demise.
AL: Yet, besides debating with those trivial readings oftheFrench May, you

were also responding tothemyths oftheArgentine May. Inthelast decade and ahalf, events such asTucumn Arde have suffered aremarkable distortion.
RJ: Thats why Idecided tostart from my own experience, without

lecturing about or historicizing theevents. Iendeavoured tostudy thehistory refraction on myself. There isaprocedure ofcontemporary DJs, themash-up, that consists inblending two or more songs together. Anoperation different from collage, from thecut-and-paste. With 1968, el culo te abrocho, Itried toproceed asaDJ, using history asabackground over which tooverlay another text.
AL: It wasthefirst time werelied on archive materials, since youve always

had avery detached relationship with thedocuments ofyour own past. Asamatter offact, Iremember that when you did 1968, you didnt even have thedocuments with you. You had toborrow material from other archives.
RJ: Yes, my archive hasavery weak memory. AL: Another archive experiment took place intheexhibition areawecalled

theCabinet ofCuriosities, intheProtocol Room. Thesame documents that appeared modified in1968, el culo te abrocho, were exhibited here inshowcases but intheir original versions. Thus, what had been seen intheother room reverberated here, but at thesame time that residue wastreated inaradically different way, and that difference produced ashock. Theexacerbated fetish-like treatment ofthedocument inone showcase, highlighted by aspot, inacatacomb atmosphere, restored its aura. Amausoleum inshadows, inwhich thedocuments appeared asif they were floating inmid-air. That aural exhibition ofdocuments also contrasted with what wecalled theArchive inUse. Thisarchive wasavailable for public manipulation through two computers. People could dive intothelyrics you wrote for thepop/rock group Virus inasort ofkaraoke orsearch what productions you had made inacertainyear or together with such and such person or based on aseries ofkey concepts. Thisgenerated aplayful contact with thedocuments that contrasted with what happened intheother room, where thealmost sacral solemnity prevented all use. Asamatter offact, weemployed three clearly distinct archive treatments.
16

RobertoJacoby, 1968, el culo te abrocho, series, 2008

RJ: TheCabinet ofCuriosities wasdistantly inspired by aseventeenth

century artefact collection. There wetreated thearchives asadistant presence, deliberately rendering them inaccessible. Theobjects ordocuments were before everybodys eyes but at thesame time appeared tobe distanced. There were recordings nobody could hear, films nobody could see, miniature slides, texts that were impossible toread. Wewerent after thelegibility ofthematerial; what wewanted wastodisplay it asaseries ofcult objects.
AL: Yes, theCabinet ofCuriosities worked with theelusiveness

ofexperience, while theArchive inUse established anopposed logic. Init, documents were socialized through digital images available totheexhibition public and also for consultation indifferent points ofLatinAmericaand Spain. For thecabinet, wefunctionalized agigantic wardrobe from thetime when thebuilding housed ahospital, inthe sixteenth century. That huge wooden piece offurniture, extending from thefloor totheceiling, wasused tokeep thehospital linen. Today it iscalled theProtocol Room and isusually employed for sound installations, since thewardrobe presence istoo imposing for visual works. When they offered us that space, wechose totake advantage ofits materiality, instead oftrying tomask it. It waslike aready-made cabinet ofcuriosities.
RJ: Those who saw thespace for thefirst time thought thewardrobe

wasastructure created by us.

AL: That would have sapped themuseums annual budget!
17

RJ: Besides, it had asort ofmortuary connotation. When thebuilding

served asahospital, it wasthere that thesheets were kept that may have been used tocover thedead
AL: Or sick people, or thewar wounded. RJ: There issomething macabre tothose shelves. AL: Like acrypt. But with thematerial exhibited there, weallowed

ourselves some humour or equivocation. Thefirst showcase displayed anapocryphal manifesto, written by you in2004, inthefashion ofthe1960s proclamations, but with amocking caustic tone. That means tosay that westarted with afalse clue; afake. Then followed theshowcases containing thefew remaining documents oftheso-called Arte de los Medios group, thefirst oral literature experiences, Tucumn Arde, and theresearch work on the1969 social conflict. Each object, each document, wasaccompanied by atypewritten label such asthose used inethnographic museums. Inthenext room, weoperated with thesame logic ofshowcases inshadows, but thefetish objects exhibited there were from the1980s to2010, totheBrigadapor DilmaintheSo Paulo Biennial, ortotheparty you held, also in2010, asamaterialization ofthe1966 Anti-happening exhibited inthecabinet room. Once again, theresonance ofahistorical work overlaid acontemporary one. Thephantasmic rest ofthe1960s had thesame weight astheworks you made afew months before theMNCARS exhibition. It isasif what isincorporated today inthemuseums collections and theart market, once transformed intohistorical pieces, corresponded toaprocedure that could be extended even tolast weeks experiences.
RJ: Webrought intoplay thekey questions implicit inthenotion

ofarchive: authenticity and falsification, copy and original, thearbitrary and interested nature oftheselection, theflattening oftime, legibility and legality, sacralisation and profanation.
AL: At thispoint, Id like tomention theuse ofthewall texts. These showed

texts written by you, operated asacounterpoint for that phantasmic atmosphere. Id like toquote them literally. Thefirst one isanexcerpt from amanifestowritten in1968: Aesthetic contemplation hasended, because aesthetics isdissolving intosocial life. Thework ofart hasalso ended, because life and theplanet itself are becoming art. Thefuture ofart islinked not tothecreation ofworks but tothedefinition ofnew life concepts, and theartist becomes thepropagator ofthese concepts. Art hasno importance. Its life that counts. That is: your call totransform art intotheinvention ofnew ways oflife appeared strikingly negated or contradicted inthemiddle ofthat mournful atmosphere. Also inthesecond room, arecent passage, inwhich you express your perplexities intheface ofthecontemporary demand toturn your life traces intomuseum pieces: What remains tobe shown ofpractices now over forty years old, which took place inadistant context and that escape theart world? Certainly,
18

those yellowed papers full ofwriting, those photographs and artefacts are not, and cannever be, TheWorks. Are they, consequently, fetishes ofahistorical recuperation? Memorabiliaoffleeting moments? Researches ofrecent archaeology? Theopening ofinaccessible archives? How toinfuse life intothese maimed and defective records? Theauthentic documents are exhibited asinaccessible, aural and even illegible fetishes, asarchaeological remains ofatoo-distant past that interpolates us from theshadows, forcing us torelativize our supposed absolute dominion over history. Your text, set over anabyss, juxtaposed tothematerial spoils ofyour actions, stresses theimpossibility ofcoping with theuneasiness ofcommunicating that which cannot be communicated.
RJ: It waslike archaeologically counterbalancing thecaducity

oftheimmediate past and, whats more, ofthepresent. Thevery ideaofcontemporary art isparadoxical, since what weusually call contemporary isnothing but apast, anot-so-recent past that isat least fifty years old. Artefacts like typewriters, slide projectors, cassettes, or even computer diskettes establish adistance almost asremote asGuttenbergs press. Where are we? Where am I?
AL: You are talking about theacceleration intheobsolescence

ofrepresentation techniques that contemporary art faces today, and that wasalso staged intheexhibition ofthose archive materials. Many ofthose records are nowadays inaccessible because they have become technically outdated, although weused them only ten years ago.
RJ: Conservators, who are used torestoring paintings or papers, have

thesame nightmare. Today, toget atelex, atape recorder oranelectric typewriter running isatechnological challenge!
AL: Thevertigo and strangeness produced by technologies also points

totheworlds brutal changes over these last fifty years. Thediscourses ofthe1960s canalso sound truly obsolete. Westill have tospeak about therest ofthespaces. Living Here wasone ofthespaces wediscussed themost. Its constructive principle wasone used by you inmost ofyour projects: working incollaboration with other people, usually artists, tobuild aspace that simulated your living room: Theplace where you and your friends meet daily toconceive projects. Thestarting point wasour certitude that it wasimpossible and pointless toaccurately reconstruct anexperience ofthemid 1960s: theaction you called Living Here and that consisted inmoving your studio and home toagallery for twenty four hours.
RJ: Living Here wascertainly thespace Ihad thegreatest number

ofdoubts about, because it wastheonly space that aspired toexist intheactual temporality ofthepresent; tobe aliving space, apleasant meeting place, vibrant at thesame time with art.

19

AL: Ithink that while wewere inMadrid, at least, theexhibition space

wasaplace people inhabited; avery vital one aswell. Even ontheopening day, there were music recitals and hundreds ofpeople wearing t-shirts with thephrase Ihave AIDS. Obviously, themuseum regimen istobe taken intoaccount, and aslong asthisisnt activated, it becomes amere backdrop. However, people felt inclined tolinger there.
RJ: Yes. Longer thaninany museum room. That, inspite ofthefact that

wecouldnt serve coffee and cookies! Its true: people sat inthearmchairs, stopped tolook at thebooks and listen tosongs, rested.
AL: However, Ive been told that themost visited spaces were those

oftheVault Room, adamp subterraneanvault ashuge asapharaonic tomb. It issaid that lunatics used tobe confined there, when thebuilding served asahospital. Our original project had been toreproduce the Darkroom performance, inwhich twelve blinded performers played inutter darkness for asole viewer. Intheend, though, wehad thegood sense ofshowing thevideo records on small monitors. Inthat dark atmosphere, thecharacters appeared aspresences, more disturbing thanthey would normally have been if wehad reconstructed theplay.
RJ: That proves that sometimes arecord canbe more faithful

thantheoriginal.
AL: Finally, people could leave theexhibition, taking with them aposter

that wasreally ananti-poster: Che Guevaras typical image saying Aguerrillafighter doesnt die so he canbe hung on thewall, awork you made in1969. So they left, taking home thisuneasiness: what todo with aposter that asks not tobe used assuch? Dozens ofthousands ofsamples ofthat uneasiness that haunted us were thus scattered around theworld.
RJ: Aparadox. AL: Anobject that rebels against

its own being; that revolts against itself.

Exhibition view ofRobertoJacoby. Desire Rises from Collapse at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte ReinaSofainMadrid, 2011 20

Theaesthetic flustering ofthe1960s returned toLimain2007. For amonth and ahalf, between March and April, some thirty instances ofdematerialized art were brought back tothepublic discussion after forty years ofsilence. Through photographs, documents, objects and installations, theexhibition LaPersistenciade lo Efmero. Orgenes del no-objetualismo peruano: ambientaciones / happenings / arte conceptual (19651975) [The Persistence oftheEphemeral. Origins of Peruvian No-Objetualismo: Environments / Happenings / Conceptual Art (19651975)] presented abaffling panoramaoflocal artistic practices that were completely peripheral tothehistorical discourses Exhibition view ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural which had hithertodescribed theperiod.1 Such Centre, Lima, 2007, PhotoEduardo Hirose wastheshock that some suggested thepossibility 1 Curated by Miguel A. Lpez and Emilio thatwe, thecurators, were retrospectively inventing afictitious and artificial scene. Had there really been such aradical andcritical PeruTarazona, theexhibition waspresented at theSpanish Cultural Centre inLimafrom vianexperimentalism during the1960s and 1970s astheone seen in 15 March to30 April 2007. Some these galleries? Why hadnt that conceptualism transcended its time, oftheideasinthistext were presented by its generation, or even its borders? And why no photographs, works or thecurators at thesymposium Recargando documents had been published or exhibited afterward? Where were lo Contemporneo: Estrategiasde these belligerent artists today?
Recuperacin del Arte Reciente, organized by Olivier Debroise and Cuauhtmoc Medinaintheframework oftheexhibition TheAge ofDiscrepancy: Art and Visual Culture inMexico, 19681997, inMexico D.F., September 2007. Thetext ofthisconference wasrecently published: Miguel A. Lpez y Emilio Tarazona, Re/montar lahistoria. Intervenir los 60, 40 aos despus, in: William Alfonso Lpez Rosas(ed.), Arte y Accin PolticaICtedraLatinoamericanade Historiay Teorade lasArtes. AlbertoUrdaneta, Bogot, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2011, pp. 51-71. 2 See: MartaTraba, Dos dcadasvulnerables

en lasartes plsticaslatinoamericanas, 1950-1970, Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 1973, pp. 9-32. Acounter argument isprovided by thePeruviancritic JuanAcha, see: JuanAcha, Vanguardismo y subdesarrollo, Mundo Nuevo, Paris, SeptemberOctober 1970, pp. 73-79.

Decentred For some reason not entirely explicable for the metropolitan perspectives, some ofthemost daring attacks on theart object intheregion had emerged inPeru. However, these had neverbeen recorded properly inthecontinental discussions, and muchless preserved inthememory oftheir own local context. Unlikethe international impact had by cosmopolitancountries such as Argentinaand Brazil during those years, theexperiences ofanother group ofLatinAmericancountries, strongly marked by their colonial heritage, had remained intheshade. This, perhaps, under thehypothesisthat incertainclosed countries (or undeveloped countries, asimperial discourse decreed shortly after theSecond World War), theavant-garde and all forms ofartistic experimentalism were nothing but blatant signs ofU.S. domination and ofcultural submission.2 Abiaseasy toendorse inthemidst ofthefierce ideological struggles spanning LatinAmerica, during which art became amajor weapon oftheCold War.

Miguel Lpez
21

Back toNo-Objetualismo: Returns ofPeruvianArtistic Experimentalism (1960s / 1970s)

PROJECTION

That assumption isclearly wrong, however. Onthecontrary, it wastheunexpected collision ofparochial concerns and spectres ofglobalism that channelled some ofthemost unusual (andleast addressed) aesthetic processes ofalternative modernity, which exceed themodels ofsocial identification and artistic recognition that would have been expected at thetime. If there wasaprimary drive toLaPersistenciade lo Efmero, it wasinmaking clear that theforms ofcultural radiation and influenceand their effectsare anything but unidirectional or predictable. Theexhibition itself wastheresult ofdetective work: thedecision toexhibit thetraces ofascene that had been completely suppressed necessarily meant drawing from theimagination, while combining rigorous historical research strategies and thealways risky tasks ofartwork reconstruction, inclose collaboration with theartists. Our initial question waswhether or not it would be possible toconceive thisfading asacentral historico-political issue ofthepresent. And admitting it were, towhat extent would it be possible toresize theeffects ofsomething that does not seem tohave taken place, inorder toalter theorigins and thescope ofso-called critical art? By 2007, anadditional situation made such kind ofcuratorial recovery particularly important. Since theturn ofthemillennium, theemergence ofanaccelerated phenomenon oftransnationalisation ofyoung Peruvianart wasfelt inLima, alongside theconcomitant consolidation ofapreviously nonexistent art scene: new galleries, new collectors and even unseen museum projects. Widespread enthusiasm seemed tosignal thedefinitive arrival oftheforms ofthecontemporary and theacquisition ofthecoveted passport foraesthetic exchange granted byglobalism embracing thefantasy ofliving synchronous times. However, once more, thissudden currency wasdivorced from internal historical reflection, ignoring those other aesthetic forms ofmicroglobality thathad emerged inthecountry forover four decades. Could thedelayed arrival ofthese works from the1960s and 1970s alter theparameters ofthecontemporary inthecountry? Contemporary towhom? Contemporary inwhich way?

Exhibition view ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural Centre, Lima, with photographic documentions ofworks by Felipe Buenda, GloriaGmez Snchez, TeresaBurgaand Rafael Hastings, 2007, PhotoEduardo Hirose

Exhibition view ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural Centre, Limawith work by LuisAriasVera, Ah! Y el Chino de laesquinai, 1965 / 2007, PhotoEduardo Hirose

22

Persistence Theexhibition surveyed ten years ofexperimental practices (1965 1975) recurring tonon-historicist modes ofarticulation, generating temporal intersections and overlaps. Our objective wasclear: installing anexhibition set torecuperate thehostility oftheearly instances ofahithertodespised dematerialised art, inorder tointercept and repoliticise thecourse ofcertaingenealogies. It wasnecessary toattest that, intheface ofthefamiliar flow ofdominant pictorial trends raised and preserved during those years by themarket, there wasalso aninsubordinate and non-collectable artistic wager that vindicated attitude over themere objectness heralded by theprevailing taste; anoffence that had meant its loss. LaPersistenciade lo Efmero wasbasically divided intoone large room, presenting acopious photographic record ofhappenings, actions and early environments, and six other rooms where objects, conceptual pieces and partially or completely rebuilt installations were displayed. Thistask ofspatial reactivation seemed decisive: wecould only imagine conveying certainepisodes through theexperience ofthebody. Theeffect wasgreat. One ofthemost striking works wasAh! Y el Chino de laesquina? [Ah! And theChinese from thecorner shop?],3 by LuisAriasVera, one ofseveral ephemeral environments originally presented by theartist inasolo show in1965. Thework, reconstructed following theartists blueprints and instructions, consisted ofasign emblazoned with thetitle phrase hanging at 65 centimeters from theground, from which yellow arrows guided theviewer from thegallery toagrocery store inastreet corner, run by aChinese immigrant and hisfamily. Thepiece made oftheviewers path thework itself, and it wasascathing reference tothose migration processes that had turned theChinese community intoagroup ofprosperous merchants.4 Another important piece wasAutorretrato. Estructura. Informe. 9.6.72 [Self Portrait. Structure. Report. 9.6.72] by TeresaBurga, aninstallation often cited but never seen after its 1972 exhibition, until 2007. Thework uses thenotion ofself portrait topresent sound and light pieces, aswell asmedical documents and charts oftheartists face, body and blood taken on asingle day (6 June 1972). During 2005 weonly found fragments ofthework at theartists home, for which it wasdecided toreconstruct themissing elements on thesame date, albeit thirty-four years later (6 June 2006), tobe exhibited thefollowing year.5 Works done indiasporawere also shown. Itwas amazing tosee inLimaRafael Hastingss installation LEspace, originally exhibited attheYvon Lambert Gallery inParisin1970: six diagrams that summarise theruptures inthemodes ofrepresentation in Western art criticized back then for voicing acomment about Europeanart from themouth ofaSouth American. Different internal migrations were also included, such asthesubversions ofmetropolitan categories such asconceptual
23

3 Translators note: Traditionally, inLima, it wascommon for Chinese immigrants towork asshopkeepers ofcorner shops. 4 On theemergence ofthefirst happenings and environments inPeru in1965, see: Miguel A. Lpez and Emilio Tarazona, Erosion and Dissolution oftheobject inthePeruvianart ofthe1960s. Afirst, barely- perceptible tracking coordinate, Papers dArt 93, 2007, pp. 189-192. 5 Inrecent years wefound thiswork

almost inits entirety inthehouse oftheartist. It wasexhibited inher recent retrospective inLimaand inStuttgart, aswell asinthe12th Istanbul Biennial (2011). See: TeresaBurga. Informes. Esquemas. Intervalos. 17.9.10, Lima: ICPNA, 2011. Exhibition view ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural Centre, Lima, with work by TeresaBurga, Autorretrato. Estructura. Informe. 9.6.72, 1972 / 2007, PhotoEduardo Hirose

art or ideaart (and its proclamation ofthedematerialization oftheart object) topropose festivals ofinterdisciplinary and plural art that combined indigenous and urbanaesthetics with other cultural expressions, inthecontext ofanationalist military dictatorship. Another issue opened up by theproject washow art history wasbeginning tobe written, increasingly so, from curatorial practice rather thanfrom academia. Inthat sense, LaPersistenciadeloEfmero worked effectively asacritical provocation ofthemeta-narratives ofPeruvianart, but also against interpretive axes that were operating since the1990s inthetransnational construction ofso-called Latin Americanart (from which Peru and other Andeancountries were obviously excluded). Non-Objectual Acontroversial aspect washow toname what wasbeing recovered. Could one inscribe it inthehegemonic rhetoric ofglobal conceptualism, even though these experiences forged autonomous concepts and spaces ofdiscussion? Theopportunity appeared astheperfect occasion tobring back aminor concept tothedebate, one almost vanished intheprocess ofstandardisation oftransnational vocabulary: no-objetualismo, aMarxist theoretical concept formulated by thePeruviancritic Juan AchainMexico, circa1973, aspart ofhisapproach tothecountercultural protest and performative artistic production oftheso-called Mexicangroups ofthe1970s, but also inreference toindi-genous aesthetics such aspopular arts, crafts, and design, which put incrisisthemodern/colonial perspectives ofWestern art history.6

Exhibition view ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural Centre, Lima, with work by TeresaBurga, Work that Disappears When theSpectator Tries toApproach It, 1970, Courtesy theartist

See: JuanAcha, Teoray PrcticaNo-

Objetualistaen AmricaLatina in: JuanAcha, Ensayos y PonenciasLatinoamericanistas, Caracas: GAN, 1984, pp. 221-242. 24

Therecovery ofthisconcept tothink about theemergence ofunorthodox art forms, asAchadid inthe1970s and the1980s, wasthus acuratorial gesture ofpolitical vindication for acategory that had played animportant role inLatinAmerica. Even though theconcept had sometimes been misunderstood asmerely aLatinversion ofthedematerialisation ofart, its scope islargely more complex, and impossible toexhaust inone exhibition. For us, it wasnecessary toregister thefact that inthat subaltern theoretical presence underlies alatent struggle for other ways ofliving and constructing thecontemporary.7 Coda Tothink thepersistence ofthat which wasmeant tobe ephemeral did not imply being anchored totheimmateriality oftheworks, but recovering theblaze and theintensity oftheir effects ofthat which istocome. It wasnot about altering thecontent ofthediscourses, but modifying themargins from which these very discourses could be perceived. Beyond questioning history, wewere interested inspreading thedesire for another history: reinstating theinconsistencies and conflicts, fostering atransfusion ofintensities and emotions, and enabling those arrested explosions toinscribe new openings inthepresent. Certainly there wasadegree ofcuratorial fiction: toput together all ofthese experiences could give theimpression ofcohesion when thescene wasactually scattered, anachronistic and disjointed. Yet fiction also produces reality. Our intention wasnever tomirror theperiod, but toprovide evidence ofapassionate movement torestore tothese radical practices thefurious public impact that waspartially taken away from them during their time.

Exhibition views ofLaPersistenciade lo Efmero at Spanish Cultural Centre, Lima, with work by Rafael Hastings, LEspace, 1970 / 2007, PhotoEduardo Hirose

There are several other concepts coined

by artists or theorists inLatinAmericatoname their practices during the1960s through tothe1980s. See: Miguel A. Lpez, How Do WeKnow What LatinAmericanConceptualism Looks Like?, Afterall 23, Spring 2010, pp. 5-21. 25

Exhibition catalogue page ofTheAge ofDiscrepancies. Art and Visual Culture inMexico 1968-1997, 2007 26

Retroactive Vampirism: On TheAge ofDiscrepancies

Cuauhtmoc Medina

SPECULATION

Inmemoriam Olivier Debroise, 19522008

1. Institutionalized amnesia From themoment weconceived ofit far back inthemid-1990s, those ofus involved inTheAge ofDiscrepancies: Art and Visual Culture inMexico, 196819971 understood theproject tobe acuratorial intervention intothetexture ofcultural memory, and not asamere exhibition. Discrepancieswas part oftheset ofcritical and intellectual operations towhich wehad been committed since weworked intheCurare group, inthesense that it demanded that weoperationalize inpractice aswell asindiscourse adifferent institutional, intellectual and affective inscription for contemporary art inMexico as acrucial component ofpublic life. For all those rea-sons, weunderstood theexhibition tobe apolitical intervention, directed at several planes simultaneously.

2. Institutional critique Discrepancies wasconceived asasort ofMuseum ofContemporary Art project; asthepractical refutation ofobjections that could have been raised against thepresence ofpermanent representations ofrecent art inMexico city museums. Wewere reacting toanear-total absence ofpublic and private collections, historical research and archives dedicated totheartistic period after 1968. Weimagined this project asagesture that demanded tobe inserted withinsociety and its cultural institutions. Indeed, wewanted toadvance akind ofinstitutionalization. Tothisend, ourintervention had tobe vigorous and ambitious: it wasnecessary tocreate afetish, which would imply, inaddition toanepistemological project, acirculation ofvalues. 3. Temporary museum

LaErade laDiscrepancia: Arte y

CulturaVisual en Mxico, 1968-1997, curated by Olivier Debroise, lvaro Vzquez, Pilar Garcade Germenos and Cuauhtmoc Medina, wasorganized for theMuseo Universitario de Arte Contemporneo at theUniversidad Nacional Autnomade Mxico, from 18 March to30 September 2007. Afterward it traveled totheMuseo de Arte Latinoamericano inBuenos Aires, Argentina(MALBA) and thePinacotecado Estado inSao Paulo, Brazil. Thewebsite compiles texts, reviews and images oftheexhibition: http//servidor.esteticas. unam.mx:16080/~discrepancia/

TheAge ofDiscrepancies sought tobe asort oftemporary museum; anexhibition about exhibitions. Theshow waslinked totwo other initiatives that theUniversidad Nacional AutnomadeMxico (UNAM) wasundertaking at thetime: thecreation ofthecollections, thephysical building and the2008 museological project oftheMUAC (Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporneo)2, and thereconstruction ofMathias Goeritzs Museo del Eco3. 2 http://www. Theproject wasinscribed muac.unam.mx/ inastrategy ofreorganizing webpage/index.php thefabric oflocal artistic politics whereby theuniversity comes, 3 http://www. eleco.unam.mx/sitio asinmany other places, toamend
27

thecatastrophic failures ofthestate structure, snatching away themonopoly ofinstitutional artistic control from thefederal government and its agencies. 4. Critical hypothesis Instead ofsubscribing toahistory ofart conceived asanunfolding ofpersonalities and styles, weadopted areading that, inacertainway, shares much with theanthropological definition ofcertainvisual subcultures or tribes. Thegroupings intowhich theshow wasdivided operated asdifferentiations: not according totheir contributions toculture or art ingeneral, asgestures that claim aparticular field ofpractice. Wewanted toconvey thenotion that there isno single shared cultural trajectory, but rather different adventures whose concurrence owes totheir wanting tocombat each other mutually without managing tobecome complementary. Weaimed toconvey theideathat tointervene artistically and culturally istoproduce adifferentiation, asplit, abias. Inthissense, wesought tomine theprestige ofgeneral constructions: painting, national culture, thehollow notion ofthecultural itself. 5. Politics oftemporality Choosing tobegintheexhibition in1968with theoriginoftheSaln Independiente (19681971), theresult ofartistss refusals toparticipate intheofficial events oftheOlympics inMexico, which coincided with therepression ofthestudent movementwasno countercultural whimsy, asmany ofour critics have suggested, and much less adesire tosubsume artistic genealogies withinapolitical
28

narrative. It supposes, rather, assumes thetask ofaddressing thefact that after 1968 theframework oftheconditions ofart and culture underwent afundamental alteration, whereby animportant subset ofthose social projects that could not be brought tothestates field ofconstitution reverberated withinthefield ofthecultural. On one hand, one ofthedecisive hypotheses ofour exhibition wastodiscern inthegenealogy that leads from theSaln Independiente tothemovement oftheurbanstrategies ofLos Grupos inthe1970s by way oftheexperimental circuits oftheartists books inspired by Ulises Carrinacontinuous re-elaboration ofcollective and self-generated utopiasthat had begun gestating in1968. Inretrospect it would be more convenient tohave said that aportion oftheenergy ofexperimentation oftheLefts subjectivities wastranslated intoart, and that even thisfailure made evident thecomplexity ofpinpointing theformation ofanew historical subject beyond theparty / proletarian, avant-garde / guerrillamodel. Inthesame way it seemed crucial that wesuggest aseries ofmoments ofavirtual visual Left that, throughout the1970s, 1980s and 1990s, would seek toreorient theradical imaginary toward new referents: from Central Americanguerrillastosuburbansubalterns, passing through thefracture ofthenotions ofnational identity toformulate amicropolitics ofidentity. Theway inwhich diverse forms ofartistic production confronted both theprogrammatic artistic vacuum and theprogrammatic political vacuum does not seem at all foreign totheeras trajectory. Thispreference for aparticular affective political intensity also explains our clear indifference tothose forms ofartistic practice that did not

have aradical subjective or intellectual project. Visitors totheexhibition could not have failed torecognize that, on some level, thechronicle that wewere proposing had todo with understanding theend ofthetwentieth century asilluminated by Godards phrase inmasculin/feminin: Thechildren ofMarx and CocaCola. Likewise, our decision toconclude theexhibit with theeconomic and political crises of1994 and 1995 would have had tosuggest theassumption that, with theend oftheregime ofsingle party rule inMexico, anew political stage had begun, whereinthepolitically intense contents ofthetwentieth century had become acrucial part ofartistic productionvisibly, commercially, inthemass media, and institutionally. Thecollusion ofmarket and politicization did not bring us todespair, inpart because it washard for us toimagine how radical culture could operate under late, revitalized capitalism without making use ofthecommodity form asamode ofdissemination. Tostudy thedynamic between culture and society inthepresent would require another theoretical apparatus. Weimagined that therecuperation ofhistory depended on performing akind ofretroactive vampirism: tore-read theprestige ofcontemporary art back ontoits obliterated past. 6. Currents ofdissemination Cultural contagion isanything but academic and territorial. All those present here cantestify totheeffect ofthebottle lost at seathat decided our involvement inagiven cultural field. It isindeed because ofsporadic contamination or indirect transmission that wegainaccess tothecrucial references inour lives: thephotocopy ofacounter-

relief by Tatlinseen at just theright moment, thefragment ofafilm by Jodorowsky that gives us thekey toquestion our progressivism, thegood fortune ofhaving been taken by afriend toanhomage toSergey Kuryokhin, theunexpected discovery ofawork at amuseum that, despite themuseographic narrative inwhich it isinscribed, stands out asaunique and unrepeatable moment, designed ex professo for each ofus. Every purist argument against theincorporation ofart and radical culture tothemuseum or tohistoriography that hopes tosalvage its anti-systemic character isanexpression ofastrange religiosity that effectively collaborates with repression through thecontrol ofsupposedly orthodox information. InDiscrepancies, by contrast, wewanted toactivate thegreatest space ofdissemination that had been possible for us, above all through atype ofcatalog-book that attempted toexcite acontinuous uncovering ofreferences, cases and examples, rather thantoprovide aclosed and systematic recounting ofaperiod.4 Thevery decision toconceive thebook oftheexhibition asasort ofscrap-book had 4 Olivier Debroise, avery specific purpose: tocreate ed., TheAge apublication that weourselves ofDiscrepancies: Art would have consumed when and Visual Culture wewere twenty-three years old, inMexico, 1968tothedegree that it would offer 1997, Mexico City, anaccount ofculture asafield UNAM / Turner, ofadventures and promises, 2006, 426p. ISBN and not asabody ofominously 978-970-32-38293. finished works. Cultural memory Preview available should be preserved not out online at http:// ofasense offidelity tothepast, books.google.com. but with theambition offacilitating mx/books?id=Sofuture explosions. Tothink i03PG1xQC
29

otherwise istodesire that radicalism be transformed intoesotericism, with all oftheadvantages that come with controlling afield ofsecrets. 7. Themotives behind atitle That aproject such asTheAge ofDiscrepancies could have come tofruition had alot todo with thegood fortune that theexhibition wasadopted by thecultural project oftheUniversidad Nacional Autnomade Mxico in2003. Insofar asmuseums ingeneral exercise aproductivist criterion that focuses curatorial efforts on producing, inthemost spectacular way possible, thetraditional art exhibitions Aristotelianunity oftime, narrative and place, operating withintheUNAM made it easy toconvey theideathat thiswasaproject centered on research, and that theanthological show wasjust one ofits instantiations. For four years weenjoyed (and maliciously abused) all theadvantages that are supposed toobtaininatruly extraordinary academic institution, which allowed us tomobilize theresources ofthecountrys premiere film archive, various libraries and theonly center ofresearch on artistic materiality and technique inMexico, theLaboratorio de Obrasde Arte at theInstitutode Investigaciones Estticas, which oversaw thereconstruction ofworks using ascientific degree ofinvestigation. Finally, wehad theenormous advantage ofusing thespace ofinstruction itself asafield on which totest out our arguments, tastes and elaborations. For two years, intandem with theweekly curatorial meetings that arbitrated theteams coordination, wecolonized graduate seminars inArt History at theDepartment ofPhilosophy and Letters, covering our own reading lists by way ofholding discussions with thegraduate students there.
30

From thisperspective, thetitle oftheshow came about naturally. TheAge ofDiscrepancies recalls and memorializes one ofthemost notable gestures inMexicanpolitical history: adeclaration by theUniversity dean, Javier Barros Sierra,who proclaimed in1969just over ayear after the massacre at TlatelolcoLong live discrepancy! after pointing out that theuniversity had been attacked for fulfilling its function ofbeing discrepant. After challenging thepresident oftheRepublic by defending theright ofdemocratic assembly during thebattles ofthemovement of1968, deanBarros Sierraproposed avision ofanew republic, based on anovel relationship between authority and society that, instead offearing disagreement, would place it at thecenter ofthefunctions ofits educational apparatus and its academic class. Inopposition toall hegemonic visions ofculture, Barros Sierras phrase seemed tous more thanappropriate todescribe anage when, despite theestablishments disdain, cultural producers opted for acreative dissensus with anintensity that would be hard tocompare toother sectors ofculture. Nevertheless, here it isworthwhile tospecify, dictionary inhand, that discrepancy isnot synonymous with opposition or sub-version. Oneoftheelements that attracted us totheconcept ofdiscrepancy wastheway theterm isused inthescientific field torefer not so much tocontrariness, but rather totheideathat two ormore pieces ofdatadiffer from each other, andthus suggest aninconsistency. Being discrepant meant curating ashow based on clashes, frictions, and disagreements, but also on indifferences, lateral displacements, and thecultural space for dreams, irresponsibility and reticence.

Exhibition view ofTheAge ofDiscrepancies. Art and Visual Culture inMexico 1968-1997 at theMuseo de Arte Latinoamericano, Buenos Aires, 2008

8. Themechanisms ofthelocal are already theframework for theglobal. Ofall thearguments that have arisen around theexhibition ofTheAge ofDiscrepancies, there isone that particularly surprised us: thecomplaint made by certainreviewers that our point ofdeparture should have been ananalysisdefined out ofour own ideas and stories, and thetaking up ofan endogenous self-consciousness.5 Wecurators ofTheAge ofDiscrepancies understood ourselves tobe part ofacontext that, inthelast two decades, hasoccurred intheNorth aswell astheSouth, whereby theart, counterculture and visual production ofthelast third ofthetwentieth century have demanded their insertion intothemuseums discourse because thenotion ofcontemporary art haschanged social valence. Thisisalso why weexpected our program ofsending theshow abroad tomobilize exchanges and vibrations within theglobal South. Although wedid fail tosend the exhibition totheUnited States and Europewhere central institutions choose not toaccommodate shows defined geographically unless they resonate with their own interests inproducing national stereotypestheshows itinerary wasaimed more energetically at South America. 5 MnicaMayer, By presenting it at theMuseo de Artes Visuales, El Arte Latinoamericano inBuenos Universal, Mexico Aires and thePinacotecaDo City, 8 June 2007. Estado inSao Paulo, Brazil Available online in2008, wewanted tooccasion at http://www. acontagion oftactics. eluniversal.com.mx/ Today, perhaps for thefirst columnas/65618. time, there isacontemporary html art intwo senses: thework

ofart interacts with its social moment inadirect, unmediated way, without modern arts biases, delays, advances or its cult ofuntimeliness. With this, thehostility between production and reception haslargely disappeared. However distressing it may seem tothose who feel nostalgiafor theavantgardes critical function oftension, contemporary art hasanincreasingly fluid relationship with its host society: collections, capitals, museums, publics, educational apparatus and textual attention spill over intotheproduction ofcontemporaneity with adisposition that would have been unthinkable for themodernists. Inthissense, art iscontemporaneous with its society inanimmediate, vigorous way that hasnot been possible since 1793. But theassumption that geography implies delays and advances hasalso disappeared: no longer does anyone openly maintainthat theperiphery follows, imitates or re-elaborates thecenters innovations according toadiffusionist schematic. Rather, different latitudes occupy thesame temporal horizon, even asasymmetries ofpower and visibility persist. Resistance tothismulti-polarity survives, nevertheless, intheshared account ofthehistory ofart that isstill thenarrative ofmodern art that centers on theregion oftheold NATO. It isinthese terms that wemust acknowledge that many ofthecuratorial operations with therecent past around theglobe have involved thecommon and not entirely conscioustask ofconstructing amulti-focal account irreducible tothenarrative ofthemetropolis, one that seeks toreveal ageographical framework ofcultural genealogies that no longer bears any relation tothemainstream notion ofmodernism. Indeed, there isno principal current: only routes that crisscross each other, inanuneven
31

Exhibition view ofTheAge ofDiscrepancies. Art and Visual Culture inMexico 1968-1997 with reconstruction ofSUMAgroup, ElDesempleado, 1978 atthePinacotecadoStado, So Paulo, Brasil, 2008

weave ofoperations ofpower that makes the historical account increasingly complicated. But it isno longer possible totrace inthisdimension ofcomplexity alocal or national history ofart that would establish its developmental logic and its own temporality internally, inasmuch asartistic genealogies, too, undergo analmost instantaneous process ofglobalization. Indeed, asweproposed intheintroduction tothecatalog, TheAge ofDiscrepancies originated inafeeling ofunease that several Mexicancurators and art historians had experienced asaresult ofthe superficial rewriting oflocal accounts that accompanied thevisibility that thecountrys contemporary art acquired inthemid-1990s.6 Wewere alarmed at thepossibility that theproduction ofvarious generations ofartists between muralism and theglobal emergence ofartists like Gabriel Orozco or FrancisAls would end up completely erased.7 It seemed clear tous that theinsertion ofanartistic scene withintheglobal territory would involve arenegotiation ofperipheral genealogies. It isat thelevel ofthese interactions that thedisputes over insertion are produced, which also operate because ofretroactive transfusions ofprestige and contemporaneity. Inany case, there wasanaffective motive that obliged us tothink thisshow outside ofany national culture scheme. Wewanted toimagine anexhibition that would do justice toarange ofworks and gestures that had occurred 6 Olivier Debroise and Cuauhtmoc amidst disinterest or disdainfrom Medina, Genealogy local institutions and audiences. ofanexhibition, TheAge ofDiscrepancies wished TheAge tobe acatalog ofpassions and ofDiscrepancies, productions that occurred despite pp.25-31. Mexico.
32

Inparticular, Olivier Debroise and

Iwere reacting totheargument inthepress releases for Gabriel Orozcos project for theMuseum ofModern Art inNew York in1993, which suggested that thework ofOrozco had derived from rejecting thetradition ofMexicanmuralism. On top ofthefalsehood ofthisassertion, theargument assumed thetotal eradication ofsix decades oflocal anti-muralist reactions, polemics and rejections, which were invisible totheMoMAprecisely asaresult oftheir own politics ofexclusion. Cf. Olivier Debroise, MexicanArt on Display, inTheEffects oftheNation: MexicanArt intheAge ofGlobalization, Carl Good and John V. Waldron, eds., Temple University Press, 2001, p.35 n.11 and Cuauhtmoc Medina, Delays and Arrivals, Curare 27 (JulyDecember 2006), pp.113-117. See also TheAge ofDiscrepancies, p.26.

IsThePast Another Country?

KaterinaGregos

SPECULATION

If there are two defining and symbolic dates inrecent history that have marked theworld and collective memory for subsequent years, one would be 1989, and theother, 2001. For many people, theday on which theBerlinwall fell wasone ofperceived optimism and hope; theday on which thetwintowers collapsed wasdystopianasit wasshocking, and marked thebeginning ofaperiod ofregression and counter-Enlightenment policies inthename ofsafety and security. It isnow twentytwo years after thedemise ofreal socialism and ten years after 9/11; post-1989 euphoriahasevaporated and post-9/11 fear and pessimism persists, fuelled by thebanking crisis(2008 isalso akey date inthisrespect, and may prove tobe much more momentous than9/11 inthelong run), economic instability, continuing conflict intheMiddle East and Afghanistan, and therise oftheright wing inEurope. Inthese last twenty years, momentous political and ideological shifts have taken place, from thedemise ofsocialism and thecollapse ofideological certainties, tothe consolidation ofglobal capitalism and neo-liberalism, and insome cases, therise ofnationalism and xenophobia. At thesame time, Western consumerist culture hasincreasingly become thedesirable norm intheplanetary casino oftheglobal market economy (toborrow anexpression by philosopher and economist Cornelius Castoriadis) and there hasalso been amomentous shift intherepresentation and perception ofreality itself; technology having dramatically altered theway inwhich weconduct our lives and experience reality. But hasthere been time totruly evaluate and understand that which isour elusive present? Do wepossess theclarity toanticipate thefuture aside from theusual blind

optimism or rhetorics ofcatastrophology? According totherecently deceased historianTony Judt, weare living inanunpolitical age offorgetting, one in which there isaprevalent belief that thepast hasnothing ofinterest toteach us. Ours, weinsist, isanew world; its risks and opportunities are without precedent;1 it isaworld where weseek actively toforget rather thantoremember, todeny continuity and proclaim novelty on every possible occasion.2 He goes on to say: Inthewake of1989, with boundless condence and insufcient reection, weput thetwentieth century behind us and strode boldly intoits successor swaddled inself-serving half-truths: thetriumph oftheWest, theend ofHistory, theunipolar Americanmoment, theineluctable march ofglobalization and thefree 1 Judt, Tony, market Theproblem [with all TheWorld WeHave ofthis] isthemessage: that all Lost inReappraisals: ofthat isnow behind us, that its Reflections on meaning isclear, and that wemay theForgotten now advanceunencumbered by Twentieth Century, past errorsintoadifferent and Walter Heinemann, 3 better era. London 2008, p. 2. Ageneration ofpoliticians and citizens who are oblivious 2 Ibid. tohistory are turning thetwentieth century intoamoral memory 3 Judt, Tony, What palace, he argues, sacricing Have WeLearned, history toboth myth making and If Anything?, denial over memory. Thisnot only TheNew York Review hasdisturbing implications for ofBooks, Volume thefuture ofdemocratic gover55, Number 7, May 1, nance but also leads towhat he 2008. calls themisidentication ofthe See also: www. 4 enemy. Burgeoning ignorance nybooks.com/ and amnesiaisproving, he argues, articles/21311
33

calamitous, with theclear prospect ofworse tocome. Afairly recent case inpoint would be thewar inIraq. During histime asPrime Minister, Tony Blair, inhis drive todefend hismotion toauthorize thewar inParliament, failed tomention Britains previous invasion ofIraq in1914, which wascarried out inorder toprotect its oil interests intheregion. Had theBritish public been informed 4 Ibid. ofBritains previous adventure there, thesituation would have 5 For more on been better illuminated and thisrepressed history would or might have brought see: Jack Bernstein, sharply intofocus therisk TheMeso-potaofinsurgency and continuing miaMess, InterLininstability after theinvasion, quite guaPublishing, 2008. possibly changing public opinion Bernsteinargues and thepolitical consensus on that thesimilarities thewar.5 Inhisbook Why History between theBriMatters,6 historianJohn Tosh tish invasion and argues that New Labors whole occupation in1914, political machine wasbuilt on and thecurrent amnesia; amnesiathat facilitated U.S. experience are thisvery dangerous venture. remarkable and He warns oftheprecariousness that there were many ofhiding historical facts for lessons that U.S. political purposes, using overpoliticians and milisimplied historical analogies tary could haveand tojustify public policy decisions, should havelearned or hand picking arguments tosuit before the2003 courses ofaction, and advocates invasion. thereturn ofthefunction of history inthepublic sphere. 6 Tosh, John, Why He goes on tosay that active History Matters, citizenship inadeliberative demoPalgrave Macmillan, cracy stands inmuch greater London, 2008. need ofhistorical knowledge
34

thanisgenerally recognized7 and that thinking historically hasacrucial part toplay intheintellectual equipment oftheactive, concerned citizen.8 Finally he suggests that our world would be better governed and administered if abetter understanding ofthepast were available todecision makers and thepublic. While acknowledging theproblems that history asanacademic discipline isplagued by, aswell astheproblematics ofhistoriography and thefact that history may be abused, manipulated or distorted, thispaper advocates theimportance ofhistory asatool for furthering knowledge and awareness, supporting thebelief inthesocial use ofhistory, aswell astheimportant role it hastoplay inbattling amnesia, selective memory, forgetfulness, and our cultures short attention span. Thespeed with which events occur, are transmitted, consumed and then brushed aside nowadays entails that our understanding ofthepresent isnow, perhaps more thanever, temporary and ephemeral, not to mention partial. How do wecope intodays hurried, information overloaded, perpetually networked, Blackberried, i-Phoned and i-Padded society which ceaselessly demands instant gratication? One could say that 7 Tosh, John, Why toagreat degree, our culture History Matters, seems dominated by presentism transcript ofspeech or short-termism thetendency at Birkbeck College, tofocus on thenarrow condiLondon, 28 May, tions ofthemoment and to 2008, uncritically embrace modernity, www. technology and progress asbeing historyandpolicy. aboon tosociety. Thisno doubt org/papers/policypaper-79.html fosters amnesiaand selective memory, not tomention ignorance. Inthemaze and wake 8 Ibid.

ofinformation overload and global event saturation, it now seems even more important torecall history and past events asakey tounlocking contemporary identities and psyches, and positing visions ofthe future. AstheveteranMarxist historianEric Hobsbawm (arguably one ofthegreatest historians ofour time) hasunequivocally put it, History alone provides orientation and anyone who faces thefuture without it isnot only blind but dangerous, especially intheeraofhigh technology.9 Though thepresent isoften envisaged asbeing utterly divorced or cut off from thepast, wetend toforget that, inreality, thepast isacollective continuity ofexperience.10 Inthecontinuum that constitutes time, Thepast isapermanent dimension ofthehumanconsciousness tobe amember ofany humancommunity istosituate oneself with regards toones past, if only by rejecting it For thegreater part ofhistory wedeal with societies and communities for which thepast isessentially thepattern for the present.11 It now appears that for therst time, we have begun moving further and further away from thisidea. TheCambridge University historianChristopher Andrew hastermed thisincreasing prevalence ofhistorical denial Historical Attention SpanDecit Disorder 9 Hobsbawm, Eric, Looking (HASDD).12 He maintains that Forward: History and thisdisrespect for thelongtheFuture, inOn term past produces two serious History, Abacus, intellectual disorders. First, London 2007, p. 69 thedelusion that what isnewest isnecessarily most advanced 10 Ibid page 27. not aproposition which anyone with even anoutline knowledge 11 Ibid page 14 ofthethousand years which

followed thefall oftheRomanEmpire would take seriously And second, thebelief that interpreting thepast and forecasting thefuture require anunderstanding only oftherecent past Thiskind ofintellectual parochialism has, for example, led tothe common belief that globalization isanoff-shoot ofAmericancapitalism rather thanaproduct ofalong and complex interaction between theWest and other cultures.13 Inlight ofthissituation, it isthus perhaps anopportune moment toreiterate what infact should be obvious: that theconcept ofhistory plays afundamental role inhumanthought. It invokes notions ofhumanagency, change, therole ofmaterial circumstances inhumanaffairs, and theputative meaning ofhistorical events. It raises thepossibility oflearning from past events. And it suggests thepossibility ofbetter understanding ourselves inthe present, by understanding theforces, choices, and circumstances that have brought us toour current situation. Indeed, asnumerous thinkers 12 Andrew, have maintained over time, Christopher, it isnecessary tounderstand Intelligence what hascome before inorder analysisneeds tounderstand thepresent aswell tolook backwards asposit visions for thefuture. before looking Anunderstanding ofhistory forward, inHistory or histories, asisperhaps more and Policy correct atermisparamount www. asit entails anunderstanding historyandpolicy. ofsocial and cultural being. org/papers/policyDavid Cannadine, professor paper-23.html ofhistory at Princeton University, explains thefunction ofhistory 13 Ibid
35

asadiscipline that makes plainthecomplexity ofhumanaffairs, therange and variety ofhuman experience, which teaches proportion, perspective, reectiveness, breadth ofview, tolerance ofdiffering opinions and thus agreater sense ofself knowledge.14 By extent, it isatruism tosay that one canonly really know who one is, if one knows where one comes from; it isno coincidence that so many people who have suffered displacement due topersonal circumstances customarily try totrace back their origins or nd their roots; like theadopted child who eventually wants tond out who hisor her true parents are. TheHegeliannotion ofhistory asaninevitable form ofprogress or development that, inturn, isrelated totheideaoftheperfectibility ofhumanitywas shattered by theviolence and Total War ofthetwentieth century, toborrow thetitle ofPeter CalvocoressIand Guy Wints homonymous, germinal book. Moreover, those who were quick toproclaim theend ofhistory (Francis Fukuyama 14 Cannadine, David, included) and who hastened Making History Now, toannounce thevictory of History Today, Vol. 49, Western liberal democracy as July 1999. thenal form ofgovernment See also: www.questia. have had toadopt amore mocom/googleScholar. derate, reserved stance about qst?docId=5001275704 their sweeping declarations For further reading: inthelight oftherise ofauthoCannadine, David, ritariannon-democratic powers Making History, Now (even if they appear inquasiand Then: Discoveries, capitalist guise), nationalism, Controversies and xenophobia, and radical Islam. Explorations, Palgrave These are also reasons why Macmillan, London John Tosh advocates that 2009. weneed topay more attention
36

toteaching people tothink historically. That istosay, tograsp what isthenature ofunderstanding thepast inahistorical sense, and theways it could be useful, inanopen-ended way because thedifculty with all these agendaswhether national, religious or otherwise isthat they are closed agendas with only one outcome inmind, and thats adenial ofwhat history canprimarily offer.15 Apart from thefact that arguing infavour oftheend ofhistory seems arather myopic view totake, asit does not take intoaccount thepassage oftime and historical circumstances beyond our own lives, it also completely ignores theunpredictability ofhistorical events. Who could have possibly imagined what happened on 9/11, for example (except for Hollywood blockbuster action film directors?) It also does not take intoaccount themillions ofpeople all over theworld who do not enjoy thecomfort and relative security ofasecular free market democracy. True, it canbe argued that democracies are probably better at dealing with poverty but, on theother hand, asJacques Derridahaspointed out (inresponse toFukuyama), never have violence, poverty and inequality affected asmany humanbeings inthehistory ofhumanity asnow. 15 Lawless, Andrew, One cannot speak ofhistory in such absolute, mono-theoristic History Matters: Interview with John terms asthose oftheend Tosh, November ofhistory simply because, toquote Alexander Herzen, 2008, thefather ofRussiansocialism, www. threemonkeysonline. History hasno Libretto. com/als/why_ Thefuture, Herzen maintained, wastheoffspring ofaccident and history_matters_ willfulness. There wasno librettoor john_tosh_interview. html destination, and there wasalways

asmuch infront asthere wasbehind.16 Inlight ofthese developments it hardly seems acoincidence that, inrecent years, anincreasing number ofartists are trying torecapture thishistorical sense, tore-claim its importance and are making work that refers back tohistory, dealing with notions oftime, memory, and bygone events. Thework ofthese artists, such asYael Bartana, Lene Berg, Matthew Buckingham, AndreasBunte, ChtoDelat?, Omer Fast, JohanGrimonprez, David Maljkovi, Vincent Meessen, DeimantasNarkeviius, T. J. Wilcox among others, demonstrates akeen desire toconnect with and understand thepast inorder tomake sense ofthepresent. Asaresult, historical and archival research and representation are now aprevalent tendency insome areasofcontemporary art. Thisuse and re-use ofdocuments and archives not only sheds new light on important or overlooked aspects ofhistoriography, but also makes cultural and historical attributions shift, highlighting thevariable mechanisms ofmemory and reception. Likewise, inlm and video practices, many strands ofhistorical reference have emerged, asthese mediaare among themost appropriate for thedeployment ofnarrative strategies that historical subject matter invariably relies upon, and because lens-based practices are, inany case, records ofthings that were registered inthepast tense. Perhaps it isthecollapse oferstwhile steadfast ideologies, belief systems or political certainties, and thedemise oftheutopianquest 16 Stoppard, Tom, that hascaused artists tolook back TheForgotten Revolutionary, intime, tosearch for sheltering perspectives. Intheearly and midTheObserver, twentieth century there seemed Sunday 2 June 2002 tobe avision ofhow toadvance (Features, p. 5).

inthefuture, inart aswell asinpolitics, something that cannot be said oftoday. InEastern Europe thereturn 17 Kagan, Robert, 17 ofhistory toborrow TheReturn thetitle ofRobert Kagans ofHistory and recent bookinart practice theEnd ofDreams, probably relates tothefact that Alfred A. Knopf, history wasviolently repressed New York, 2008. and historical representation Kaganargues against wasbanished during Communist theend ofhistory times, whereasintheWestern and theideathat world therenewed interest liberal democratic perhaps comes from thecritical ideals and market realization that history economics have hastended tobe increasingly proved illusory tied totheleisure agenda, and stating theentertainment and culture instead weare industries and hence hasbeen witness totheresubjected tocommodication, emergence romanticization, nostalgicization, ofthegreat and spectacularization (asopposed autocratic powers, tobeing seriously studied). along with Despite theabundance ofhistory thereactionary aslight entertainment and its forces ofIslamic consumption intheform oftheme radicalism, forces parks, museums, heritage sites, which threaten and costume dramason TV toweaken theworld and incinema, itisdoubtful order. whether these forms contribute See also: Sanger, tohistorical knowledge or David Democracy, awareness; moreover they Limited, New York clearly have been inadequate Times, May 18, 2008, toforge ahistorically wellwww.nytimes. informed public. Historianand art com/2008/05/18/
books/review/ Sanger-t.html 37

historianLudmillaJordanovasuggests that, if wewant tochange public cultures connected with history, theways inwhich it ispresented currently need tobe reconsidered.18 It iswithinthislight that theartist ashistorian hasarole toplay. Thisinterest inhistory and historiography stems from aneed toformulate anunderstanding ofthepresent, from ademand tond meaning inthepresent and, insome cases, from adesire toimagine thefuture. Walter Benjamintalked about thevanishing point ofhistory asalways being inthepresent moment: Thepast carries asecret index with it, by which it isreferred toits resurrection. Are wenot touched by thesame breath ofair which wasamong that which came before? Isthere not anecho ofthose who have been silenced inthevoices towhich welend our ears today? ... If so, there isasecret protocol between generations ofthepast 18 Jordanova, Ludand that ofour own.19 So, ineffect, milla, How history thisretreat tothepast isnot matters now, History anescape from thepresent but and Policy, www. rather away inwhich toconfront historyandpolicy.org/ or comprehend it. Like Benjamins papers/policy-paview ofthehistorian, many conper-80.html. temporary artists record the Thepaper isanexconstellation with which their own epoch comes intocontact panded version ofaspeech given with that ofanearlier one20 with by LudmillaJordaaview toaddressing present day novaat thelaunch realities and concerns. ofJohn Toshs book, For some, contemporary art Why History Matters history may inretrospect appear (Palgrave Macmillan, frivolously, irresponsibly obsessed 2008) at Birkbeck with thepast and that thecurrent College, London, on interest inhistoriography isescapist 28 May 2008. indicating arts inability tograsp
38

or even look at thepresent, much less toexcavate thefuture.21 Iargue theopposite. It isextremely irresponsible not tobe interested inthepast, for if weare tobe able tograsp or even look at thepresent or think or simply imagine thefuture wecanonly do so with thebenet ofhindsight. Weneed more history, not less, and it iscareless and dangerous todisregard it. Incontemporary art weall-too-often see thisproblem emerge intheshortcomings ofart education, for example theignorance ofstudents who dont have apast knowledge ofart history that they should; works being blindly churned out without knowledge oftheir genealogy and what hasbeen done before. Thecurrent interest inhistory isnot something wecandismiss asone ofthose trends that occur incontemporary art; it isaserious intellectual pursuit ofdiachronic value. Theimportance ofhistory isofcourse inextricably tied 19 Benjamin, Walter, totheimportance ofmemory. On theConcept Thishistoriographic turn inart ofHistory, www. isnot amere trend asIhave marxists.org/ suggested above, but something reference/archive/ that isrooted inthehistorical benjamin/1940/ circumstances ofour recent history.htm past. Nor isit anentirely new phenomenon that arose 20 Ibid. inthepost-1989 era. Inhisessay, TheArtist asHistorian, Mark 21 Roelstraete, Godfrey points out that already Dieter, After attheend ofthe1970s, There are theHistoriographic anincreasing number ofartists Turn: Current whose practice starts with research Findings, e-ux inarchives, and others who Journal #6, May 2009. deploy what hasbeen termed 22 anarchival form ofresearch. He www.e-ux.com/ goes on toelaborate on thetwo journal/view/60

strands that exist withinthisgenre ofartists using history: on theone hand, there isapreoccupation with thehistory ofmediums and forms but more importantly, his mainpoint about theartist ashistorian concerns methodology. Tothat Iwould add thefreedom toengage inwhat Roland Barthes called theconstant opposition between thediscourses ofpoetry and thenovel, thectional narrative and thehistorical narrative.23 Artistically speaking, toborrow images, stories, practices and aesthetics from thepast isoften tocreate different narrative methodologies and build bridges with thepresent, but also toraise awareness ofalternative or marginalized narratives; narratives that have been swept aside inthewake ofHistory with acapital H. AsFernand Braudeltheforemost French historianofthepost-war erahasobserved, thishistoire obscure de tout 22 Godfrey, lemonde isthehistory towards Mark, TheArtist which all historiography tends asHistorian, atpresent. 24 Thisisno coincidence October, vol. 120, given that for themost part History Spring 2007, p. 143 hasalways been written by those inpower; thewinners; or those 23 Barthes, at theforefront ofruling class Roland, Discourse politics.25 These so called grand ofHistory, translated or master narratives and by Stephen Bann. themyths and barbarism they Comparative often perpetuate and sustainhave Criticism, 3 (1981): not only been promulgated by pp. 7-20. ruling class politics but also, See also: inmodern times, by themediaand http://evansculture industries. Inthat respect, experientialism. Braudels contribution topost-war freewebspace.com/ historiographic practices, like that barthes.htm. oftheAnnales school, hasbeen

indispensable, asit hashelped tofurther thestudy ofhistory on those aspects ofit, which have been brushed aside, repressed or left unsaid. While historical events are often seen asbeing perpetually consolidated, one never knows what theoutcome will be further down theroad. Braudel therefore argues that it isonly through study ofthelongue dure that one candiscern structure, thesupports and obstacles, thelimits manand hisexperience cannot escape.26 Thelongue dure isanexperimental approach tothetheoretical reconstruction 24 Braudel, Fernand, oflong-term, large-scale historical Une Parfaite change which represents Russite, reviewing atemporal rhythm so slow and Claude Manceron, stable that it approximates physical LaRvolution 27 geography. He used thelongue quIlve , 17851787 dure approach toargue infavour (Paris, 1979), inL ofhistorical social science and Histoire 21 (1980), theplurality ofhistorical time, p.109. aswell astostress theslow and often imperceptibleeffects 25 Benjamin, Walter, ofspace, climate and technology On theConcept on theactions ofhumanbeings ofHistory, www. inthepast. Themediainparticular marxists.org/ and political opportunists ofsorts reference/archive/ have been oblivious tothelongbenjamin/1940/ term effects ofvarious historical history.htm. parameters, promoting instead theideaofevent history which 26 Braudel, Fernand, Braudel nds lacking intime density. On History, translated TheAnnales historians, grass roots by Sarah Matthews, history, and history from thebottom University ofChicago Press/Wiedenfeld & up28 have, toacertainextent, alleviated thisbarbarism of Nicholson, London, omission that Benjaminrefers to. 1980.
39

Theother problem that plagues thehistorical scholar isthepersistence ofdeep-held myths about thepast, selective memory and theeffects ofthese on collective consciousness. These canbe better grasped on themicro-level, 27 Tomich, interms offamily and personal Dale, TheOrder life, for example. When it comes ofHistorical Time: tofamilies, there isfrequently little TheLongue Dure consensus on thekey story and and Micro-history. their interpretations. There may Paper presented at not even be ashared account TheLongue Dure about thenature and timing ofkey and World Systems events. People constantly make Analysis, Colloquium myths that take deep roots and tocelebrate use existing myths that relate the50th Anniversary totheir past.29 Thepractice ofFernand Braudels ofwriting history isindeed not Histoire et Sciences aneasy one, asit ismarked Social: LaLongue by questions epistemological Dure, Annales aswell asmoral; from theauthoE.S.C., XIII4, 1958, ritative or subjective voice 2425 October ofthehistoriantothevoiceless 2008, Fernand position ofthesubject may stem Braudel Centre, awhole host ofmisunderstandings Binghampton and misrepresentations. How University, objective cantherecounting Binghampton, New ofhistory be anyway, and whose York, p. 2-3. History isit? At what point does truth collapse and ction take 28 For further over? reading: Hobsbawm, Roland Barthes posed thevery Eric, On History important question: Does From Below, inOn thenarration ofpast events History, Abacus, really differ from imaginary London 2007, pp. narration, aswend it intheepic, 266-286. thenovel and thedrama?30 True,
40

thehistorianmust organize her own discourse and indoing so may sacrice objectivity. Barthes denes thehistoriannot so 29 Jordanova, Ludmuch asacollector offacts milla, How history asacollector and relater matters now, History ofsigniers; that istosay, and Policy, www. s/he organizes them with historyandpolicy.org/ thepurpose ofestablishing papers/policy-papositive meaning and lling per-80.html. thevacuum ofpure, meaningless Thepaper isanexseries.31 Braudel, on theother panded version hand, pointed out that history ofaspeech given does not exist independently by LudmillaJordaofthehistorians perspectives novaat thelaunch and that thehistorianintervenes ofJohn Toshs book at every stage inthemaking Why History Matters ofhistory. All these considerations (Palgrave Macmillan, are inone way or another related 2008) at Birkbeck totwo fundamental questions College, London, on inthephilosophy ofhistory: 28 May 2008. Isthere axed historical reality, independent from later representations ofthefacts? 30 Barthes, Or ishistory intrinsically Roland, Discourse constructed, with no objective ofHistory, translated reality independent from theways by Stephen Bann. inwhich it isconstructed? Comparative Whether one subscribes Criticism, 3 (1981): totheobjectivist, empiricist, pp. 7-20. positivist or structuralist view, See also: inthiswriters opinion, there http://evansistruth inboth theaforementioned experientialism. statements. Theevent did happen freewebspace.com/ but weget different stories ofit. barthes.htm. There isanoutside reality outside thereality oflanguage and what 31 Ibid.

isinour heads. Toillustrate my point: thetwintowers did collapse; there isno doubt about that. How thisfact issubsequently interpreted by different parties isanother matter altogether. History, thereforeaswell asthestudy ofit isamatter ofmaneuvering slippery, complex concepts. History does not only meanthepast but it isalso anaccount ofthepast, for wedo not just want toknow what happened, but also how and why. Wemight ask, what isthepurpose ofhistory? Do westudy it for its own sake; do wetry tond out thetruth about thepast; do wetry tocomprehend where wecame from; do wetry tounderstand why aparticular event happened; do wewant todiscover historical laws, or do wewish tojustify present actions? While historical events are occurrences, history ismanmade. It involves matters ofauthorship, availability and reliability ofsource material, the interpretation ofit, personal interpretation and bias. Historical knowledge isreal, because there ismaterial evidence that certainevents did occur. But it canbe relative aswell, because theevidence might be interpreted differently by different historians and indifferent times. It isobjective insofar asthere isphysical proofoftheexistence ofapast, and it issubjective inso far asthere isanhistorianinvolved who establishes thenarrative. History, much like artistic practice, isnot acut-and-dried set ofarguments and facts; it lives through debate and argument.32 TheEnd ofHistory hasended, if it ever began.
32 Lawless, Andrew, History Matters: Interview with John Tosh, November 2008, www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/why_ history_matters_john_tosh_interview. 41

1.TheFacts (Just aFew) In1939, Carmen Ruiz Snchez, formerly known asTinaModotti, disembarked at theport ofVeracruz. Asafinal gesture, theactress-turned-photographer abandoned her spot behind thecamera, alleging other kinds ofpolitical priorities.

Many ofthestories surrounding TinaModotti, photographer and agent oftheCommunist Party, have been based on theletters she exchanged with Edward Weston aswell ason newspaper articles. Modottifirst became apublic figure when she waslinked, in1929, tothemurder ofJulio Antonio Mella, founder oftheCubanCommunist Party. She would later be absolved ofthiscrime when suspicion would fall on thethenCubangovernment, and on Communist agents from Moscow.

Some ofthose who have written her story have done so inorder toslant it toclear their own names, asdid Vittorio
TinaModottiat anexhibition ofher work at theNational Library inMexico City, 1929 Courtesy Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

Vidali, Modottis last partner, who worked for different agencies oftheSoviet Communist Party. It washe who accompanied Modottion theboat that took her toEurope after being implicated intheattempted murder ofPresident Elect Pascual Ortiz Rubio in1930, acrime for which she waslater thrown out ofMexico. Modottithen settled briefly inBerlinand, following Vidalis advice, moved toMoscow in1931. There she gave up photography inorder topursue her activities asanInternational Red Aid agent, aSoviet organization that supported persecuted or jailed communists around theworld.

Around 1943, ayoung Pavel Gubchevsky offered aguided tour through theempty galleries ofthe Hermitage Museum for theSoviet soldiers who had helped safeguard its treasures against theimminent danger ofplundering by theNaziarmy that wasthen advancing on Saint Petersburg.

Vittorio Vidalion theship, 1930 Courtesy Museo MelvinMoti, No Show, 2004 Courtesy oftheartist 42 Nacional de Arte, INBA-Conaculta

MagaliArriola

APlace Out ofHistory

EXHIBITION ROOM

On October 29, 1947, Dutch painter Hanvan Meegeren wastried for collaborating with the Nazisacrime that waspunishable by death inpostwar Netherlandsand sentenced toayear inprison for forgery.

TinaModottiduring thereconstruction ofMellas assassination, 1929, CasasolaArchive Julio Antonio Mellas typewriter, 1928 Courtesy Museo Nacional deArte, INBA-Conaculta 46373 Conaculta.INAH.Sinafo. fn.Mexico HanVanMeegerens trial, 1947 Courtesy Yale Joel/Time & Life Pictures Editorial/Getty Images

Sometime in1967, thewriter and famous hoaxer Clifford Irving isreported tohave irrupted, impersonating anFBIagent, intoLaFalaise, theIbiza residence oftheeccentric millionaire and indefatigable jetsetter, theart dealer, arms trafficker, Ambassador-at-Large for Haiti, Nicaragua, and Liberia(among others), and long-time CIAagent: Fernand Legros.

Fernand Legros infront ofhisRolls-Royce (no date) Courtesy Foundation Ral Lessard, Hong Kong

Letter from TinaModottitoEdward Weston, February 25, 1930 Courtesy Center for Creative Photography, University ofArizona 43

In1979, Sir Anthony Blunt, amember oftheBritish intelligence service, arespected art historianand thesurveyor ofQueen Elizabeth IIs Pictures, wasremoved from hispost and stripped ofhis knighthood when Margaret Thatcher revealed him tobe thefourth manintheCambridge Fiveagroup ofspies that had worked for theSoviet Union during theCold War.

Upon not achieving recognition for hisown artistic work, VanMeegeren chose toforge and sell paintings by great Dutch masters oftheseventeenth century inorder tosilently devote himself tohistalent. In1932 he painted Manand Womanat Spinet, awork similar tothecompositions and themes ofJohannes Vermeer, which wasclaimed by art historianAbraham Bredius tobe one ofVermeers greatest works but nonetheless managed toraise suspicion among specialists. VanMeegeren reassessed hisstrategy and decided tocreate aseries ofpaintings that would fill avoid inthereligious period that specialists maintained had existed inVermeers work. Among others, he painted Christ with theAdultress (19301944), which he sold toHermann Gring at thebeginning oftheSecond World War. After theend ofthewar, VanMeegeren wasaccused oflooting Dutch cultural heritage inorder tobenefit Naziofficers when Christ with theAdultress wasfound inGrings possession. Thepainter thus confessed tohaving forged thework, along with several others. During thetrial, inview ofthedisbelief that he could create aVermeer, he painted anew piece which absolved him oftheaccusation ofbeing aNazicollaborator.

Film stills ofSimon Starling, Project for aMasquerade (Hiroshima), 2010 Courtesy oftheartist and TheModern Institute, Glasgow

He was, however, charged with forgery and fraud.

Recovered painting ofChrist and

Inthespring of1990, amid all thepolitical changes brought about by thefall oftheCommunist regime, Nedko Solakov exhibited hiswork Top Secret for thefirst time, togreat controversy, asit constituted akind ofpublic confession detailing hiscollaboration with theBulgarianSecret Police.

theAdultress with Americansoldiers, 1945 Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration, Washington

Two people studying Christ and theAdultress by HanVanMeegeren, November 1, 1947 Courtesy Yale Joel/ Time & Life Pictures Editorial/Getty Images Nedko Solakov, Top Secret (19891990) Courtesy oftheartist 44

In1998, AndreaWolf (aliasSeht Ronah), afriend ofHitoSteyerls who starred inone ofher early films combining feminism and themartial arts, waskilled inaction asshe fought for theKurdistanliberation movement.

HanvanMeegeren, Manand Womanat theSpinet, 1934 1938 PhotoRamiro Chavez

Video still ofHitoSteyerl, November, 2004 Courtesy oftheartist

Between 2005 and 2008, theartist Jill Magid interviewed several undercover agents from theDutch Secret Service, after receiving aninvitation from that countrys Security and Intelligence Service (AIVD) tocreate awork ofart that would give theagency ahumanface.

HanVanMeegerens trial. Theartist ispainting toprove he wasable toforge aJohannes Vermeer, October 1, 1947 Courtesy Yale Joel/Time & Life Pictures Editorial/Getty Images

Jill Magid, Hacked Novel, 2009 Courtesy ofYvon Lambert, Paris

45

On January 25, 2009, Milo Rau asked acertainWalter Benjamin, theself-proclaimed official spokesperson oftheMuseum ofAmericanArt (MoAA), If there isaplace out ofHistory (even if it isjust thehistory ofart), what kind ofstories are told there? 1

In1939 Henry Moore installed Reclining Woman(1930) inthe garden ofthearchitect Ern Goldfingers newly completed home at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead. Themodernist home proved unpopular with many residents, most famously with thewriter IanFleming whose wrath led him torecast Goldfinger astheCold War villainpar excellence. InToronto, however, Moores connection tointernational espionage wasfar more real: hiswork wasfirst introduced totheArt Gallery ofToronto (now theAGO) by Anthony Blunt, theDirector oftheCourtauld Institute, Keeper oftheQueens Pictures, now infamous spy. In1955 Blunt, anadvisor totheTorontomuseum, had proposed Moores Warrior with Shield (19531954) for acquisition.

Installation view ofMuseum ofAmericanArt (MoAA) at Museo Tamayo, Mexico D.F. PhotoRamiro Chavez Simon Starling, Musselled Moore, 2007 Courtesy oftheartist and TheModern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow

2. TheScene Each ofthecharacters assembled inthisexhibition hasastory ofhisor her own totellinsome cases narrated, analyzed or distorted multiple times depending on theeraand theauthor on duty. APlace Out ofHistory emerges asakind ofplatform or stage set where awhole series ofstories converge, most ofthem told from thecorridors ofhistory, and whose central figures each seem todemand their turn inthespotlight. Inthese stories, false identities, secret agendas, official versions and half-baked truths all played anactive rolethough almost always from behind thescenesinthedefinition ofspecific political scenarios and movements. However, their narrative reconstructions and mediatic restitutions reveal aseries ofhistorical coincidences and ideological divergences which have blurred thelines that divide theinside from theoutside ofhistory, and fiction from reality.

While Moore wasno doubt oblivious tothelatters connection tointernational espionage, thismost international ofartists wasnot untouched by themachinations ofglobal politics and appears tohave become adept at balancing hisinterests with those ofpeople with money and power. While Moore wasapublic sponsor oftheCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament, he wasalso happy toreceive acommission for asculpture (Nuclear Energy, 19641966) tocommemorate Enrico Fermis first self-sustaining nuclear chainreaction inChicago in1942. Even before that commission had been completed, Moore had, much tothedistress ofChicago University, made anedition ofasmaller working model ofthesculpture under thetitle Atom Piece (pun clearly intendedone ofwhich he later [controversially] sold totheHiroshimaCity Museum ofContemporary Art (). Further still, it wasobserved that Moore had amassed aconsiderable fortune from hisassociation with Joseph Hirshhorn, whose own vast fortune had inturn

Walter Benjamin: Places ofRe-

come from thephenomenally profitable sale ofuranium deposits inCanada, asale bolstered by thefrenetic activities oftheAtomic Energy Commission during the1940s and 1950s (Simon Starling, Redeploying Mooreexcerpt).

remembering, consulted at http://www. althussers-haende.org/walter-benjaminplaces-of-re-remembering , June 21, 2010 46

Project for aMasquerade (Hiroshima): Asixteenth century Japanese play ofpersonal reinvention, double identity and disguise restaged asacold war drama. With James Bond, Joseph Hirshhorn, Enrico Fermi, Anthony Blunt, Colonel Sanders and themultifaceted Atom Piece asUshiwaka, theexiled son ofthedefeated Lord Yoshitomo, flying from incarceration with thehelp ofHenry Moore asahat maker, whofashions hisdisguise.

Film stills ofSimon Starling, Project for aMasquerade (Hiroshima), 2010 Courtesy oftheartist and TheModern Institute, Glasgow

TheMuseum ofAmericanArt (MoAA) inBerlinisaneducational institution dedicated toassembling, preserving and exhibiting memories oftheMuseum ofModern Art and its circulating exhibitions inEurope during the1950s. Curated by Dorothy Miller, these exhibitions first introduced Gorky, Motherwell, Pollock, Gottlieb, Rothko, Kline and de Kooning intothemuseum context. These artists constituted themost attractive and radical segment oftheworks promoted by theInternational Program ofCirculating Exhibitions, established by theMoMA, and funded by theRockefeller Foundation with theaim ofpromoting greater international understanding and mutual respect. Those were strange years inart and politics. On theone hand, Modern Art had tobe defended from thecriticism from theright (see Alfred Barr Jr., IsModern Art Communistic?). On theother, it became apparent, especially topeople like George Kennan(North Americandiplomat, political scientist, and historian, known asthefather of containment during theCold War), that AmericanModern Art could be used inthecultural Cold War asanexpression ofWestern creativity and freedom. Nevertheless, these exhibitions helped establish thefirst postwar common Europeancultural identity, based on Modernism (abstract art), Internationalism and individualism, finally establishing Barrs narrativeconstructed inthemid 1930s, asdefined through hisfamous diagram and later through theMoMApermanent exhibitasthedominant history ofModern Art until today (MoAA, Mission Statement).
Installation view ofMuseum ofAmericanArt (MoAA) Courtesy ofMoAA, Berlin 47

3. TheCharacters Milo Raus question toWalter Benjaminregarding thenarratives that emerge from themargins ofhistory marks apause inthechronological and causal unfolding ofthefacts, and opens up aline ofquestioning regarding therole played by theprotagonists ofsuch narratives. Themainfeature ofart history, states Benjamininanother recent interview where thequestion ofhisidentity wasaddressed, istheuniqueness ofits characters: persons, objects or events. However, from themetaposition, art history becomes just astory and all these unique historical entities are now transformed intothecharacters inthisstory, like thecharacters inatheater play. 2 4. TheMotive Thedialogue wepropose among contemporary artists, historic pieces and archival documents falls intoanow-traditional line ofresearch that questions theso-called neutrality and autonomy ofartistic expressions, aswell asboth art historys constructive strategies and its forms ofenunciationand, one should add, those ofthecuratorial practice; discourse asareconnaissance tool that contributes tothewriting ofahistoric moment. From thisperspective, theworks intheexhibition not only address artistic production asanideological tool that hasplayed aninstrumental role intheconstruction ofhistory but also, and conversely, thefact that art history hasso frequently been written according toapolitical agenda, ultimately evolving intotheconstruction ofasystem ofcommunication and international exchange. But toreturn totheoriginal question: Isthere (or isthere not) aninside and anoutside ofart history? Theanswer may vary depending on where thenarrator islocated. Thequestions weshould be asking then are: How do images travel? What political and discur-sive economies do they react to? Theanswers are even more compelling when weconsider theneed torethink theformat ofexhibitions, which, asthisone, are obliged toinitiate anegotiation between thefunction ofart and theartists role; between art asthe object ofdesire and asahistorical document; between thedesire tobelieve and theright tobe fooled.

Once upon atime there wasaboy. They say he wasasmart and obedient one. He got thehighest grades inschool, he read books at home and he drew. (...) He particularly liked thebooks with theadventure stories where thegood guys won out over thebad guys. He also liked spy stories. Thebrave Soviet Chekisti and their Bulgariancolleagues Avakum Zakhov and Emil Boev really compelled him. They made him confident that theenemies who were spoken and written about everywhere were not going tointrude upon hissocialist fatherland. Theboy wasgrowing up Intheautumn of1976 (when he wasinhissecond year at theAcademy ofFine Arts), he went on atrip toParis(hisloving parents, whom he loved dearly inreturn, paid for thetrip). Everything waswonderful theLouvre, theRodin(museum), theDuffy retrospective, afew porn movies. Inthemiddle oftheeight-day trip, thetour leader ofthegroup ofBulgariantourists told him that packages had been left at thereception desk for both him and B. (akind older man, thebrother ofawell-known professor). Totheboys surprise, hispackage contained enemy propagandamaterials. Theboy read thisand that and then handed thematerials over tothetour leader with thewords: They are spitting on Bulgaria! Thetour leader got worried and quickly summoned amanfrom theEmbassy towhom theboy gave thepackage, happy tohave carried out hispatriotic duty*

*Nedko Solakov, Theaction ison (for thetime being)excerpt. Text written in1990. Originally published inKulturaweekly newspaper (Sofia), 22 June 1990. 2 Walter Benjamininterviewed by Maxine Kopsa, TheMuseum isHistory: TheMuseum ofAmericanArt intheVanAbbemuseum, http://www.metropolism.com/features/themuseum-is-history/english (consulted June 22, 2010).

Exhibition credits: Afirst version ofAPlace out ofHistory wasoriginally presented at Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporneo inMexico City from September 2010 toMarch 2011. Curated by Magali Arriola in collaboration with Magnolia de la Garza.

48

Top Secret, created between December 1989 and February 1990, consists ofanindex box, filled with aseries ofcards detailing theartists youthful collaboration with theBulgarianstate security, which he stopped doing in1983. InBulgaria, twenty one years after thechangeover, theofficial files remainclosed, and there are no publicly known documents on theartists collaboration. Thework caused great controversy when it wasfirst exhibited inthespring of1990, at theheight ofthepolitical changes tothelong-standing communist rule. Theself-disclosing gesture inthisartistic project isstill unique inthecontext ofpost-communist Europe, and since its appearance, Top Secret hasbecome anicon ofits time. Aforty-minute long video, which shows theartist re-reading theindex boxs contents, wasshot inhisstudio inSofiain2007. Nedko Solakov, Theaction ison (for thetime being), 1990. Originally published inKulturaweekly newspaper, Sofia, June 22, 1990 Index box

In1969two years after hisintimidatory intervention at LaFalaise, Irving would publish Fake! TheStory ofElmyr de Hory, theGreatest Forger ofour Time, abiography detailing theacclaimed forgers complicity with theart dealer Fernand Legros. Legros sued him for defamation while he allowed hisfriend, thewriter and diplomat Roger Peyrefitte, toenthusiastically depict him not only asacollector ofart and ofexquisite teenage males, but also asanunscrupulous arms merchant and money launderer suspected tobe asilent accomplice invarious obscure political scenarios such asthekidnapping ofMoise Tshomb and themurder ofBen Barka. Legros wasfinally convicted for fraud by theFrench government in1979, after twelve years ofpreparation ofacase and several extradition demands, and theintervention offorty one international lawyersamong which Henry Kissinger, who personally oversaw hisrelease from one ofhislast stopovers inprison four years earlier, by protesting themistreatment ofanAmericancitizen. Having received atwo-year sentence, he walked away from theParisiantribunals scot-free, claiming that he had already spent that time incustody. False. Everything that follows isfalse Any resemblance toexisting persons or topersons who have existed ispurely coincidental, and whoever would see any comparison or rapprochement with any real person would be acting against my will. Fernand Legros, Fausses histoires dun faux marchand de tableaux, 1979, Preface
Front cover ofIci Parisannouncing Fernand Legros death on April 7, 1983 Courtesy Foundation Ral Lessard, Hong Kong 49 Fernand Legros coming out from thePalaisde Justice, Paris, May 1978 Courtesy KeystoneFrance/GammaKeystone viaGetty Images

Etude

Ji Kovanda, Contact, VodikovaStreet inPrague, September 3, 1977 Courtesy oftheartist

Several writers have already noticed thesimilarity between thedocumentation ofperformances by Czech artist Ji Kovandaand thephotographs taken by communist secret police ofthose being followed. Infact, they seem almost identical. Thepictures taken by thepolice using hidden camerascapture theenvironment ofthehardline communist days ofPrague ofthe1970s and early 1980s. Thesecret agent follows anindividual who cannot be visibly distinguished from theother citizens. It isonly from therecords that welearn that thisindividual, seemingly doing everyday things, isinfact committing acts against thestate. Sending letters, meeting with friends inrestaurants or picking up visitors from theairport are later viewed asthedistribution

50

Tom Pospiszyl

ETUDE

Czechoslovak Secret Police, Photos from Operation Alex, 26 April 1980 Courtesy Institute for theStudy ofTotalitarianRegimes, Prague

ofsubversive materials, gathering for counter-revolutionary reasons orestablishing contacts with foreign spies. Thephotograph serves here todocument criminal acts, which are not apparent at first glance. It isimportant that thephotograph capture theenvironment inwhich theact takes place, and that it include theother individuals incontact with theperson followed. It istherefore necessary that thephotograph containinformation on theplace and time, and toassure that theother people appearing init are identified. Photography only becomes proof ofthecrime with theadditional interpretation ofthecaptured facts, with ananalysisoftheentire police record. What ismost important for acommunist court oflaw isthereal or fabricated intention oftheacts
51

ofthose being followed, and even their class or social affiliation. Many ofKovandas performances took place at roughly thesame time and inthesame places inPrague where people were going about their everyday business. Those passing by never even expected that anartistic performance wasbeing played out around them. Kovandabrushed against people, hid on thesidewalks for no apparent reason, or acted according toapredetermined scenario that did not differ from everyday behaviour. All ofthese performances were documented by anon-professional photographer. Kovandathen glued thephotograph ona piece ofpaper, and beneath it wrote thetitle oftheperformance, itsphysical location, thetime it took place, and described thescenario. Only after reading thisrecord isit made clear that theactivity wasindeed anart action. Brushing against people, hiding and walking back and forth have become thework ofanartist, and therefore wemust perceive and assess them asart. Two types ofhidden scenarios were thus being played out concurrently inPragues public spaces: one led by thesecret police, theother by unofficial artists. Even though they were based on completely different motivations, their photographs and accompanying texts show anumber ofsimilarities. Wefirst have tolearn toread thesecret police records, just like thelanguage ofpost-war art. Even though we are familiar with this language, we should be wary of it. Many of those who were being photo-graphed by the secret police knew that they were being followed. They modified their behaviour to prevent being persecuted or to confuse the police in different ways. Kovanda knew that he was being photographed, for he had himself invited his friend to his inconspicuous performances. Nevertheless, he acted as if he were not aware of his friends existence. Admittedly, these similarities and discrepancies are for the most part random. The police record was a collective product; Kovandas documentation was part of the artists work. Neither were originally available to the public, or if so, only shared with a select group of viewers. Even though Kovandas work may not appear so, it was an art piece from the very outset. The possible interpretation of the police record as an artwork comes up against a number of essential limits that shift such an interpretation to the level of mere intellectual tightrope walking. The records of the communist police are still quite combustible in Eastern Europe. They continue to be perceived as evidence of individual guilt. Even though the volumes of records are composed of individual, osten-sibly authentic records and reports, few people bring themselves to admit that they are, in their essence, a work of fiction in which those who were the objects of interest were viewed in advance through the deformed lens of political interest. Kovanda himself did not derive his 1970s performances from the secret polices tactics, however. Though from todays perspective it may even seem hard to believe, he considered them to be apolitical and did not consciously react to the events of the day with them. Today we interpret them as individual artistic expressions that arose from the artists inner needs, as well as an effective metaphor of personal resistance against totalitarianism. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that Ji Kovandas work has become so popular.
52

Narcisse Tordoir inConversation With thePhantom ofAllanKaprow

CONVERSATION

Narcisse Tordoir, WORDS, series, 2007 Courtesy theartist

Thisconversation between Belgianartist Narcisse Tordoir and thephantom ofAllanKaprow (embodied byPhilippe Pirotte) took place on theoccasion ofthere-invention ofKaprows Words (1962) by Tordoir, fortheexhibition AllanKaprow: Art AsLife curated by Pirotte (incollaboration with Stephanie Rosenthal andEvaMeyer-Hermann) for theKunsthalle Bern in2007. It wasoriginally printed inanewspaper* produced byTordoir for theexhibition, which canbe downloaded here:http://www.narcissetordoir.com/books.html.

Narcisse Tordoir: So! What do you think? AllanKaprow: Wow! Thats apainting?! NT: Yeah, some big painting. You were apainter too, werent you? AK: Iwas, Iwas, but NT: Wait! Here inthestudio it might look like painting but once it

isinstalled it will form what youve called anenvironment, consisting oftwo canvases, anewspaper and some documentary material. Youll be submerged init. Infact, you are already part ofit right now
AK: Weird though, Idont recognize my own work anymore. Isit really

based on one ofmy strategies?

NT: From where Isee it, there-invention ofyour work isacollaboration,

anartistic dialogue, or even anexchange between thetwo ofus.

AK: Acollaboration inwhat sense? Icansee that theimagery inthese

paintings isdrawn from documentation ofmy work, but other thanthat

NT: These paintings are not based on theoriginal documentation ofyour

work. Instead Ive re-done that documentation. You see, there isnothing left but thephotographs, so Ive had tofind all visual clues there.
53

Narcisse Tordoir

AK: Its funny that you consider registration and not experience tobe

theessence ofmy art.

NT: Experience isinfluenced by theZeitgeist. Theenergy and power

inthose images isfascinating precisely because they dont bring back thepast. They incite something totally different!
AK: When Ire-invented my own environments in1991 inMilan, Iadded

amural-scale photograph oftheoriginal for each reinvention, allowing people tomake avisual comparison between then and now. Thefrozen poses oftheparticipants inthese photographs gave clues about how tohandle thereinvented environments.
NT: Exactly. Westarted out by performing acts and movements that were

loosely modelled on theones inthepictures. Wetried tophysically imitate theposes and behaviour ofthese historical predecessors, creating mock documents, not necessarily correct or
AK: Getting it wrong isprobably

getting it right! Still, these types ofdocuments never hold thepromise ofafuture artwork.
NT: Why not? While studying

thescore ofWords, thephotographs ofyour Happenings kept haunting my head. They are lasting images that have become iconic... Intheend, they are theonly thing that remains, really. Whether or not these remains are art, isofless interest tome. When wedeal with experiences ofthepast, aswedo inthiscase, that kind ofessentialism seems valid
AK: Strange. Ithought it wasexactly theovercoming ofthepast that

Narcisse Tordoir, WORDS, series, 2007 Courtesy theartist

pushed art, certainly when considered from anavant-garde logic. It isasif nowadays there were analmost fetishist interest inavanishing modernism and thegestures ofour generation ofartists.
NT: Do you know that Ialmost abandoned thisproject at one point? AK: No, for what reason? NT: AsIsaid, it washard toseparate thescore from thephotographic

documents. Thepictures ofyour originals, whether artworks or not, came todominate my mind astheonly possible reinvention ofthescore. Icouldnt get rid ofthose images!
AK: Iwanted tocreate asort ofresult without aresult. For me, art ispure

activity. It isidentical tolife precisely because intheend Iproduce documentation rather thanart.
NT: Identical tolife? How canyour art be identical tolife, when

thepictures clearly show you posing or strategically overlooking your own orchestrated performances?
54

AK: Happenings, or activities! These are not performances. Ideliberately

used thewords happenings and activities todescribe my work. Remember, there isno public. InaHappening, all ofthespectators are participants!
NT: Whatever You threw tires. Pollock threw paint. There isnot

necessarily that much ofadifference.

AK: Iagree Nowadays, life isprobably part ofaprefabricated reality. But

then, how do you explainthisproject asacollaboration? What did you do with my ideas, besides abandoning them?
NT: My way ofworking stems from thesame ideasyou put forth inyour

text TheLegacy ofJackson Pollock. You pursued Pollocks logic by introducing all sorts ofmaterials: thespace ofeveryday life and ofour bodies wasanextended notion ofpainting. Involving others tointervene literally or mentally while working on apainting isquite thesame for me.
AK: So, you are trying torehabilitate painting asamedium. Pollock

destroyed that, didnt he? Like some ofmy colleagues, Iconsidered dropping out oftheprofessional art world myself, inorder todeconstruct theartistically hollow professionalization ofthefield. Didnt you start inthe1980s, when there wasamassive return topainting?
NT: Idid start then, but that does not necessarily meanIm trying torestore

themedium. At theend oftheseventies, Idid alot ofresearch concerning thereinvention ofmy medium: painting. It would be nave not toacknowledge that our society isacomplex situation; aweb ofrelations between people. Personally, Ive always seen painting asaninterface and Iworked inaseries ofcollaborative undertakings.
AK: So for you, artistic activity isnot about afinal product? It isnot about

making more art?

NT: No, theart world isomnipresent today and it markets its products

accordingly. Iprefer tosee painting asaway ofworking. It allows me toarticulate cultural dispositions and their transformations. Ive done alot ofworkshops where Ive tested thepossibilities ofdifferent relations between people. These workshops might be seen ascultural exchange stations, realised specifically through themedium ofpainting.
AK: Rauschenberg once said: Painting isrelated toart and life. Neither

canbe made. Perhaps wetry toact inthegap between thetwo

NT: Iam interested inthemaking ofart, inthesame way you processed

Pollock, hisact ofpainting, possibly intrance, and these ritual aspects and thats what one canread asaspectator, close tothework, close tolife maybe.
AK: For thisre-invention, you combined pictures ofdifferent environments

and happenings. You did not stick totheexisting images ofWords.

NT: When you sent me thescore ofWords inorder todo are-inven-

tion, Ifelt reluctant at first, because it seemed tobe abit ofanold schoolmasters game. It islike teaching achild toswim by asking him or her toswim tothepart ofthepool where theswimming lesson will start.
55

AK: You teach art, dont you? NT: Yes, but Iam not interested intheteaching itself; Iam interested

inwhat Icangainfrom it. That iswhy Ihave accepted todo this. Iwant toinvestigate thelimits ofartistic collaboration. Toput myself inanother mans shoes and think and work with him, that iswhat fascinates me most. Inthat sense, teaching isavery rewarding activity.
AK: Ishare your fascination for thecollaborative element inart practice.

However, it isprecisely thisfascination that hasled me tocreate my Happenings and invite thepublic toparticipate. Toacertainextent, theHappening istheplace where collaboration isenhanced and stimulated. You, on theother hand, choose toinvestigate thepossibilities of artistic collaboration through painting. Isnt that acontradiction, or isnt painting, at thevery least, amedium too stubborn for your said purpose?
NT: After art school, Igave up on

painting for awhile. Ifocused on actions. However, theregistration ofthese Actions gradually pushed me back towards painting. When Istopped painting, Idid something very similar to, yet different from what you did when you were thinking about Jackson Pollock. Imade big, foldable drawings and walked through thecity, holding them up indifferent places.
AK: Like engaging inaconversation

on thestreet?
NT: Yes, but rather astheaction

ofashy person. Recently, Ibrought some ofmy works resulting from theworkshops Iorganised intothepublic sphere and asked thepublic tomanipulate them. Iam too shy though, togo on with performances. Lets just say it wasnot really my praxis.
Narcisse Tordoir, WORDS, series, 2007 Courtesy theartist

AK: Ididnt make performances NT: Sorry, Happenings. Ithink inthe1960s and 1970s one could motivate

people, do something personal, perhaps even odd, and that would be called aHappening. Iknow you use theterm toindicate avery specific type ofact. Wewere not always that precise. Wefocused on theideathat doing things would change other things, but theunconscious, even nave, implicit level ofsocial transformation got lost over theyears
AK: Iwasconscious about that when Ire-invented my own work from

the1980s onward. Thespace welive inonce stood for thebody and its functions but all ofthat hasbeen mediated intosemiotic oblivion
NT: Yes, and on top ofit, thegovernment now strongly encourages
56

Narcisse Tordoir, WORDS, series, 2007 Courtesy theartist

participation incultural actions. Its so boring. Participation and art ingeneral are presented ascommodities accessible toall, asameans for social transformation, where infact, people are merely being kept occupied entertained at best.
AK: And you think returning topainting will challenge that status quo? NT: Well, no, and besides, its not just painting. My activities did not bring

me alot, even when Iworked together with people from theBehaviour Art Group, Reindeer Werk. Weexchanged materials inakind ofparallel economy, or weorganised workshops and tried totransgress theborders ofart and life, intertwining thetwo. However, thewhole collaboration remained between us. It didnt really blur with life.
AK: Explainthat tome. NT: There, you do that teaching-thing again. Art isnt about confessions.

Wetried tostimulate social transformation and it didnt work at all. Intheend, thewhole ideawasnave and asaresult Istarted drawing again: registering actions.
AK: Iwant toknow what art isabout, then. How does theregistering

ofactions become art again? My scores and activity booklets are certainly not art.
NT: Totell you thetruth, it doesnt interest me that much, just asit

wouldnt interest me totake aseries ofpictures for thesake oftaking pictures. When Italk about anartwork, Italk about themaking of that artwork. How does anartwork come intobeing and how are its potentialities reactivated? Those are my mainconcerns.
AK: So how did you use thescore? NT: You gave me thescore and trusted me tore-invent it, asyou say.
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Istarted by reading about it and looking at theremaining pictures. Gradually, working with those pictures became painterly research.
AK: Thats alittle like what IwasdoingIwanted todissolve

theboundaries between art and reality, so that my activities became indistinguishable from real life. That iswhy Ididnt like museums. Iliked ordinary life, performed asart or non-art. It wasable tocharge theeveryday with ametaphoric power.
NT: But werent thescores working documents inthefirst place?

Elaborated sketches? Didnt they become ideasonly afterwards? You designed decors for theHappenings and wrote instructions inmuch thesame way asachoreographer or afilm director would. From that moment on, Ithink theHappening hashad nothing todo with everyday life anymore. My re-invention ofWords started asaHappening and weacted asif wewere participating inanunknown Happening ofyours, acting inyour absent presence.
AK: But then theparticipants are not thesame astheones experiencing

thework?
NT: Not necessarily, but you participate, Iparticipate, weall participate and

sometimes others participate. What Imeanisthat you participate because you are there. You look over my shoulder and see what Iam doing. Itry tounderstand you. Ireach out for what you mean, even when Ijust see you smoking apipe inthebackground.
AK: Thedocuments provided you with material and incited you topaint. It

isnot totally unlike compensating for theactual demand for conventional works ofmine that amount toart history.
NT: You are your past! You became your own medium and you are your

own fiction.
AK: Iwant tobe asabsent aspossible from these re-inventions by others. NT: Well, you are very present! AK: That wasnot exactly intended but if you insist, Icould see my artistic

existence functioning inmuch thesame way asanoral history would.

NT: Maybe; Idont know much about that. But yes, why not like anoral

history.
AK: Iwant my art tofunction asanintegral part oflife, not asaforeign

body that isburied inamuseum, even when it isonly kept asadocument ofthepast. By theway, Ive wanted toask you, why did you not use words inthisversion?
NT: Arent weblabbing all thetime? Our words will be anintegral part

ofthisreinvention, perhaps asacounterpoint totheideaofthelanguage imposed upon us inpress conferences and discourse.
AK: Ahhh, ok. Idid Words asaspontaneous language collage, abandoning

philosophy infavour ofart. Thewords intheenvironment were physically used and given aplayful significance that went beyond facts and theacquisition ofknowledge. Words are both communication and noncommunication at once
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NT: Exactly. Iliked thenotion oforganised junk. So Iresearched

thepresence oflanguage: what istheequivalent ofarandom collection ofwords today? Then Imade my own non-narrative collage; adeconstruction oflanguage similar totheone you intended.
AK: Theresult looks abit like neo-classicist painting. Jacques-LouisDavids

Oath oftheHoratiicomes tomind

NT: Youll live on totell my story Again, words! Hamlets last ones.

There are probably many digested references but if Ive understood you correctly that could just be another form ofthefunctioning oforal history. Look at El Greco for example: hisclouds glue everything together. Iuse that inmy collage-technique.
AK: Mmmh. Manthinks inpictures, said Aristotle. NT: And Apicture isworth athousand words. Think ofit asabig collage

whereineverything fits and nothing isright. Language today isused similarly: communication, public relations, news, infotainment All very visual, infact.
AK: Indeed. IntheWords environment, there were no images

intheordinary sense because thewords themselves functioned asimages. Here there isno play with model and symbol; no confusion between image and meaning.
NT: Iam aBelgian. Icant redo Magritte all thetime. AK: True, but your version doesnt incite thebeholder todo things

involving hisor her own subconscious thought patterns and polysemic illusions
NT: Doesnt it? Maybe it does. People will deal with thisnewspaper*. Itll

be distributed inside and outside themuseum. Besides, you even made some fantasies about your own work inthe1990s didnt you? Judging by thephotographs, your 1991 version ofWords looks like design tome.
AK: Well, it sure didnt look like theoriginal! Theexpressionism ofthe1960s

environments gave way toelements, which witnessed theregulated consumerism and corporatism ofthe1990s. Some ofthem even had references tothefirst Gulf War. You know, Iread somewhere that Warhols Piss Paintings, with their queer take on themythical Pollock and hismacho acts, were theultimate Pollock re-inventions.
NT: Itll become anendless process ofmythologization and

deconstruction. That isquite are-invention initself. Themuseums wont be able totruly ossify your legacy.
AK: But theyll try to, Iam afraid.
Edited by Philippe Pirotte

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VictoriaNoorthoorn incollaboration with Erick Beltrn

EXHIBITION ROOM

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Shid Theory
Mangelos

MATERIALS

Mangelos nos. 1 to9 BrankaStipani

Ashe himself accurately foresaw, Dimitrije Baievi Mangelos died in1987 at theage of66; inhismanifestoShid Theory, published and exhibited in1978 inZagreb, he divided hislife intonine-anda-half Mangeloses, ending intheyear ofhisdeath. Referring inthemanifestotothebio-psychological theory he had learned about asaschoolboy inhis native village ofid informer Yugoslavia according towhich thecells inthehumanorganism are completely renewed withinseven years and therefore each humanbeing contains several completely different personalities Mangelos used it toexplain thedifferences between early and late works of various artists, claiming there were two Rimbauds, two Karl Marxes, three VanGoghs, several Picassos and nine-and-a-half Mangeloses. He also applied thismethod when categorizing and dating hisown works: one Mangelos wasacritic and curator, while another questioned it all, claiming that one must start from acleanslate; tabularasa. One wasinvolved inart institutions, while theother doubted thevalidity ofsuch systems, prompting thethird, and ones that followed, topersevere intheformulation oftheartistic project termed No-art.

Mangelos no.1 wasacountry boy inid; Mangelos no.2 aprimary and high school student; Mangelos no.3 wrote poems inhisexercise books andcommemorated relatives and friends killed inthewar with black squares he waslater toterm Paysages de lamort and Paysages de laguerre; Mangelos no.4 inscribed hisfirst alphabets inblackened books and studied history ofart; Mangeloses no.5 and 6 were already deeply committed toart, painting tabulae rasae, paysages, anti-peinture, pythagoras, no-stories, and thelike, and taking part inthework oftheavantgarde group, Gorgona, who based their radical projects on anti-art foundations. Mangeloses no.7, no.8, no.9 and no.9 formulated theories on art, culture and civilization, writing them down inbooklets, cardboard panels, and globes. But no matter how hecalculated hislife stages, somewhat imprecisely and invarious versions, thefinal entry inhisbiography always remained thesame. Thisistheyear ofhis death, towhich headded hisfinal and eternal resting place: Leschamps du dernier goulag thefields oftheformer Soviet concentration camp asanantipode totheChamps Elyses.

Thistext by BrankaStipani hasoriginally been published inMangelos from 1 to9. No art, inMangelos nos. 1 to9, exh. cat., Porto: Fundao de Serralves et. al., 2003, pp. 1233 (p. 13). Trans. fromtheCroatianby Majaoljan. Mangelos, Shid-Theory, 8 pages, 1978 Courtesy ofGalerie Frank Elbaz, Paris 67

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Statement
Raqs Media Collective

STATEMENT

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At the very moment when the artist digests the object, he is digested by society, which has already found him a title and a bureaucratic function: he will be the engineer of the leisures of the future, an activity that has no effect whatsoever on the equilibrium of social structures.
Lygia Clark, 19691

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Suely Rolnik

Archive for aWork-event: Activating the bodys memory of Lygia Clarks poetics and its context / Part 1

SPECULATION

Lhomme structure vivante dune

architecture biologique et cellulaire, in the dossier dedicated to Lygia Clark in the magazine Robho, n. 5-6 Paris, 1971. Copies of the magazine are rare, but the reader can make use of the facsimile of the journal, as well as of the first issue that was dedicated to the artist in the 1968 issue of the magazine, published in the exhibition catalogue Lygia Clark, de luvre lvnement : Nous sommes le moule, vous de donner le souffle, Suely Rolnik and Corinne Diserens, eds, Nantes: Muse de BeauxArts de Nantes, 2005. Portuguese version: Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento: Somos o molde, a voc cabe o sopro, So Paulo: Pinacoteca do Estado de So Paulo, 2006. The Brazilian edition includes the reproduction of both cahiers, which have been translated to Portuguese.

The work of Lygia Clark is today recognized as one of the founding gestures of contemporary art in Brazil, and has an important presence in the international scene. Her artistic trajectory occupies a singular position in the critical movement that shook the international art field during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. But as with many artistic practices of that period, especially in Latin America, her work risks being reduced to an unarticulated set of sterilized legacies. The need and desire to face this situation triggered the creation of a project, which I undertook between 2002 and 2010: constructing the bodily memory of Lygia Clarks work and the context from which it originated. The result is an archive of sixty-five interviews registered on film, fifty-three of which were selected to be released in a DVD format,2 and which have already been the object of diverse unfoldings in different contexts, some of which are still ongoing: an exhibition of the artist at the Muse des Beaux-Art de Nantes (2005) and at the Pinacoteca do Estado de So Paulo (2006); a series of exhibitions of the archive in different countries;3 incorporation of the archive in the collections of museums in Latin America, Europe and the U.S., each subtitled in the appropriate official language; and finally, a box that contains a selection of twenty DVDs and a booklet, which has been produced in both France and Brazil.4 The project will be the starting point for an attempt to revisit Lygia Clarks work and to problematize theoperations of archiving, preserving, collecting and exhibiting this kind of artistic practice, if indeed itshould persist as a living experience today. What will be presented here is a stance on the current debate regarding the destinies that are given to this kind ofworkdestines that range between its announced death and the vitality of its pulsing in the present.

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2 The fifty-three DVDs of the archive will be available for free public consultation in the museums and cultural institutions of several countries. In Brazil, they are already available in So Paulo, at the Cinemateca Brasileira, that also makes available for consultation the DVCams of the sixty-five interviews, in their original, unedited version. 3 Exhibitions of parts of the archive, accompanied by a conference by the author of the projects, were presented in the following countries and institutions: in Belgium, as the co-initiative of four institutions: Performing Arts Research Training Studios (PARTS), Extra CityCenter for Contemporary Art, Beursschouwburg Theatre, and Gallery Jan Mot, with conferences and workshops of Hubert Godard and Guy Brett, in collaboration with the author (Brussels and Antwerp, 24 March31 April 2007); in Germany, as part of IN TRANSIT 08 Performing Arts Festival Singularities, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, 11 June21 June 2008); in the United States, at Cage, an experimental gallery that was inaugurated with a one-year-long presentation of the archive (New York, JanuaryDecember 2012). In Brazil, at the Museu Universitrio de Arte of the Federal University of Uberlndia (Uberlndia, 14 March25 April 2008); at the Centro Cultural Banco do Nordeste (Fortaleza, 17 April07 May 2010) and at the Museu de Arte Moderna Alosio MagalhesMAMAM (Recife, 2011). Other than the exhibitions of the archive, five DVDs of the interviews were presented in Spain, on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Brazilian Government in the edition of ARCO 08, which had Brazil as the guest country (Madrid, 13 February18 February 2008). Among the exhibitions of this archive, scheduled for 2012, are: In France, at the Laboratoires dAubervilliers (Paris, June 2012) and in Spain, at MACBA (Barcelona, October 2012). 4 This essay was originally published in a booklet included in the box set. The initiative of the realization of this box set came from a suggestion of the Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, in France, after the enthusiastic reception that the exhibition Lygia Clark, de luvre lvnement received in the French and international press. Some of the volumes were freely distributed in libraries, cultural, and educational institutions in both France and Brazil, and the other volumes are being sold in bookshops in both countries.

An unusual territory
Lygia Clarks trajectory began in 1947. She dedicated her first sixteen years of activity to painting and sculpture, which had a surprising early repercussion inBrazil and, already in 1964, representedthe beginning of an international presence.5 Thesingularity of the artists research led her, in1963, to the creation of Caminhando (Walking).6 The origin of this work was a study that Lygia had made for one of her Bichos (Beasts): while cutting a piece ofpaper as a Mbius strip, the artist realized that theartwork consisted in the very experience of cutting that surface and not in the object that resulted from it. She then decided to transform it into an artistic proposition: the receiver would experience a time without a before or an after, and a space deprived ofrear and front, right and reverse, above and below, inside and outside. The work would be accomplished through that experience: in the temporality of thegesture of the person who would definitively stop being reduced to the condition of spectator, with his or her sterile relation with a supposedly neutral object, situated outside in a supposedly inert space. This experience privileges a living space created through the act that operates between the two; made of the fusion of the bodies of the hand, the paper and the scissors. Simple and powerful, the proposition went beyond the frontiers that delimited the field ofart inthat period, and allowed Lygia Clark to foresee anunknown territory. This vision opened a deep crisis with no return: there would be from then onaninflection in the trajectory of the artist that would lead her to risk the beginning of aninternational consolidation; to radically follow her new path of research. She would need three years more to start giving body to what was by then only virtual. The first proposition to follow was Pedra e ar (Stone and air) (1966),7 which inaugurated a series ofworks that Lygia Clark put together under the title Nostalgia do corpo (Longing for the Body).8 Four other series of propositions that mobilized the last twentythree years of her work followed: A casa o corpo (The house is the body) (19671969); O corpo a casa (The body is the house) (19681970); Corpo Colectivo (Collective Body)that the artist subsequently named Fantasmtica do corpo (Phantasm of the body) (1972 1975)and Estruturao do Self (Structuring the Self) (19761988).9 Those works progressively embodied the virtual territory that she had inaugurated with Caminhando (Walking), and in which she would invest

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5 The text refers to the exhibition of David Medalla and Paul Keeler at Signals Gallery, in London, in which the English critic Guy Brett was involved. Brett was the only person to maintain a dialogue with the work of Lygia Clark from that period until the end of the artists life, and he did not move away after the inflection of 1963. Mrio Pedrosa also remained close to her, and continued to praise her research. His reaction to Trepante, the last exemplar of the series of Bichos, made of rubber, is widely known. Seeing her first version, he kicked it, joyfully exclaiming: Finallywe can kick a work of art. However, Pedrosa recognized that he did not know how to think of her work after Caminhando (Walking). The same happened with Yves-Alain Bois, who explicitly declares so in his text Nostalgia of the Body, in October 96, October Magazine, MIT Press, Summer 1994, pp. 85-99. 6 The proposition consists of offering the spectator a strip of any paper, scissors and glue. The objects come with instructions: he or she should twist the strip 180 degrees, then glue the front face of one extremity to the back face of the other, forming a two dimensional single surface (like a Mbius strip). Then choose any point of the strip to start a longitudinal cut, avoiding hitting the initial point every time a lap is completed. The cut generates both spiral and intertwined forms, while the strip narrows and lengthens, until the scissors can no longer avoid the point at which the operation began. At this moment, the strip regains its front and back, and the work is fulfilled. 7 Pedra e ar (Stone and Air) consists of a plastic bag, a rubber band, a pebble, and air. The receiver must fill the bag with her or his own breath and close it with a rubber band; in one of its exterior angles, facing it up, he or she places the pebble. Then he or she should hold the air balloon with the palm of his or her hand, pressing it with systolic and diastolic movements to make the pebble go up and down. Lygia Clark considered Pedra e ar (1966) her first work on the body, the simplest one; and perhaps because of that it was her favorite. 8 Nostalgia do Corpo is a phase from Clarks trajectory from between

1966 and early 1967. The following works, among others, are from this phase, and were all created in 1966: Pedra e ar, Livro sensorial, Pinguepongue, Desenhe com o dedo, gua e conchas, Respire comigo, Dilogo de mos e Natureza (Estrutura cega). 9 For further information on the Objetos Relacionais and their use

in the Estruturao do Self (Structuring the Self), see: Suely Rolnik, Breve descrio dos Objetos Relacionais, in Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento (catalogue), op. cit., p. 15. In the original French: Brve description des Objets Relationnels, in Lygia Clark, de loeuvre lvnement. Nous sommes le moule, vous de donner le souffle. 10 Empty-full was how Lygia Clark referred to this kind of experience; a conceptual refrain throughout her artistic trajectory. 11 For further information on the presence of this direction of research since the early works of painting and sculpture, see: Suely Rolnik, Molding a Contemporary Soul: the Empty-Full of Lygia Clark, in Rina Carvajal and Alma Ruiz, eds., The Experimental Exercise of Freedom: Lygia Clark, Gego, Mathias Goeritz, Hlio Oiticica, Mira Schendel (Los Angeles: The Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999, pp. 55-108). Bilingual edition (English/Spanish).

her creative power for the remainder of her life. After the turn that took place in 1963, the artists research persisted in the creation of proposals that depended on the processes they mobilized on thebodies of people who offered themselves to live them as a condition for the realization of those practices as artworks. The oeuvre was accomplished in the expansion of each one ofthose persons sensibilities. It activated his or her aesthetic experience, that is to say the capacity to be affected by the forces that shake both the objects created bythe artist, and their environment, thereby demystifying the illusory stability of their shape ascould be apprehended by perception. The work was completed by the activation of those persons vulnerabilities to the sensation of the paradoxical disparity between two exercises of cognitionon one hand, perception of the worlds shapes, and, onthe other, the resonance of the forces thatanimate itwhen its tension reaches a threshold of tolerability. This cognitive approach challenged the experimentalist to sustain him/herself in the empty-full10 zone of otherness that such forces open inhis or her own subjectivity. I refer to the zone made bya fullness of sensations of the forces that disturb the layout of ourselves and of the world, producing an emptiness of meaning that pushes us to reinvent both. The opening of this otherness that inhabits subjectivity was the event through which the work was accomplished. Thewager was that this event would affect the daily life of the people who had experienced the propositions; the opening would impregnate their relation with the forces at play in thedifferent environments of their existence. Even in her early practice of painting and sculpture, Lygia Clark tried to shift from the reduction oftheeyes exercise to its retinal potency (that which apprehends the forms), in search of its resonance potency (that which apprehends the forces) and theparadoxical dynamics between both.11 What changes and becomes more complex after 1963 is that the research of these dynamics is no longer limited to the eye, and is now explored with theother senses, through the creation of objects that appeal to all of them. It is in this aspect that Clarks works are distinct from the exploration ofthe senses made by the sensorial experiences or by the practices ofbodily expression developed during those decades, most of them limited toperception. Thecoincidence of such movement with the sensorial propositions of Lygia Clark simply
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indicates that they breathed the same air du temps, which summoned the question of the body-in-art practices, especially inthe research of other senses, towards anovercoming of the primacy of vision, both inartistic creation and in its reception. Lygias work would no longer be interrupted inthefinitude of the spatiality of the object; it would now be accomplished as temporality, inan experience in which the object would lose itsthingness tobecome, once more, a field of living forces that affect, and are affected, by the world, promoting acontinuous process of differentiation of subjective and objective realities. If this central aspect of the artists thinking poetics was part ofherpictorial and sculptural strategies, after theshift in 1963, itexpanded and became even more radical. It is true that in Bichos (Beasts)the last series before theinflectionthe gesture of the socalled participant and, beyond it, the experience it enabled were summoned as part of the work, through the invitation to the manipulation of the object. Yet the work could still exist as such, independent of this experience, and those who approached it could still remain simple participants. From 1963 onward, Clarks works could no longer support themselves on the autonomy of the individual objectsisolated from theexperience of the context of the specific dispositive they belonged to, as otherwise, they risked becoming a sort of nothingness. Such is Lygias strategy to avoid her creations from succumbing toany desire of fetishization (even if the institutional system of art is able to turn anything into a fetishized work).12 The artist digested the object: the work becomes event; an action on reality that transforms it. It is important to underline that the invitation of Lygia Clarks work to mobilize the body as its decisive element cannot be mistaken with the simple invitation to manipulate the objects created by the artist, aswas the case with other works that invited spectator participation, common to the artistic scene at the time. In their missives, both Lygia Clark and Hlio Oiticica insisted on distinguishing their works from those practices.13 It still makes sense to establish that distinction in regard to the contemporary works characterized by a fascination for interactivity, in which aesthetics is usually qualifiedand more recently theorizedas relational,14 reduced to asterile relation between the faade of the objects and that of the body that manipulates them, both turned into things. This is very different from thedisruptive experience produced by the
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12 An example of the fetishization of an object that was part of a proposition, for which such a fate was never imagined, is a large, rectangular piece of plastic with nylon or jute bags stitched at the ends, of the series Arquiteturas Biolgicas, created by Lygia Clark in 1968 and practiced with variations until 1970. The object was used by a group of people, who inserted either their feet or hands into the bags and went on to improvise movements, each one involving the other person in the plastic. The work was realized through the exploration of approaches between the bodies, different from everyday experiences. This work has been reduced to the plastic with the bags sewn at their edges, resting on a pedestal in the exhibition Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s1980s, which intended to show forms of conceptual art outside of the North American axis. 13 In one of the letters, Hlio Oiticica writes to his friend (20 June 1969): [...] for you the most important thing is the discovery of the [body] [...] and not of the participation in a given object, because this relationship with the object (subject-object) is overcome [...], while in general the problem of participation keeps this relation. In Luciano Figueiredo org., Lygia Clark. Hlio Oiticica. Cartas 19641974 (Rio de Janeiro: UFRJ, 1996, p.115). Cf. Suely Rolnik, Afinal, o que h por trs da coisa corporal?, in Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento, op. cit., p. 9. 14 See especially Nicolas Bourriaud, Esthtique relationnelle (Dijon: Presses du Rel, 2002). English translation: Relational Aesthetics (New York: Random House, 2009). The ideas put forth by this author have been widely disseminated in Latin America, generally isolated from the vast and varied international production of thought in this field. This mode of dissemination characterizes the colonial tradition that is still present in the region, and that consists on the idealized and a-critical consumption of foreign theories, especially those of European and North American provenance. 15 UFR dArts Plastiques et Science de lArt de lUniversit de Paris I, Sorbonne. 16 Lygia Clark lived in Paris during three periods of her lifetime. The first one was in the beginning of her artistic trajectory, from 1950 to 1952, when she studied with rpd Sznes, Isaac Dobrinsky and Fernand Lger. The second one was in 1964, when she frequented the group of Latin American artists of kinetic art, mostly Venezuelans, such as Soto and Cruz-Diez, and the circle of artists at Galerie Denise Ren in Paris, and Signals, in London. This text focuses on her third and final period, from 1968 to 1976. 17 Lygia Clarks students whose interviews were filmed for the Archive for a work-event are Christinne Ishkinazi, Galle Bosser, Claude Lothier, Berndt Deprez, Marie-Jos Pillet and Didier Vignon.

mobilization of the resonance of the experimentalists body operated by Lygias Relational Objects and by the dispositives that create the conditions to approach them. Such postures, which tend to belong to the sphere of entertainment, will always remain foreign tothis other sphere in which the body and the objects it encounters awaken from their inertia as things, inorder to exist as living beings, in a permanent process of creation that takes place between them, leading both to become others. Lygia followed that path for twenty-six more years, until her death in 1988. Her penultimate step would be taken in the work with her students in the recently created Faculty of Fine Arts at the Sorbonne,15 where the artist taught from 1972 to 1976.16 Known as Saint-Charles, the name of the street where it was located, it was the first art faculty of the university, created to answer to the conservatism of fine arts schools, to which art training in France had previously been confined. As a consequence of the movements that shook the country in 1968, SaintCharles redrew the very field of contemporary art practices, andof the freedom of experimentation that usually characterizes them. Therefore, in order to pursue her artistic research, Lygia Clark chose to exile herself from the institutional and disciplinary territory of art, and to migrate to the university. In that context, it was more feasible to sustain, in her propositions, the otherness of the field of forces that destabilises the forms of subjects and objects, hereby dissolving their separation, which belongs to a perceptive, representational and rational approach. This choice strengthened in her work the active presence ofotherness that inhabits the body, and the becomings that it implies; a presence that tended to be banished from the official art world at the time. The conditions that the artist encountered in the university allowed her to take a step ahead and to exhaustively explore the experiences propitiated by her dispositives. For the first time, she began closely following the effects of her objects and procedures in the subjectivity of their receivers. With a relatively stable group of people for sufficiently long sessions, an appropriate environment was created for the experimentalists to allow the sensations summoned by the propositions to emerge, to free the images they evoked, and even to verbalize them, if they wanted to. In that setting, the process amplified and unfolded according to the rhythm of the recurrent sessions. Also, Lygias presence became an essential element of the experience that the work required to

happen. The artist participated in the process: a ritual that she conducted, using the objects in the bodies of her students, and/or offering the conditions of their experimentation. The new experience of the university work would allow Clark to face the difficulties that most of the students experienced in their attempts to abandon themselves to her propositions, which depended on their possibility to free their aesthetic experience and the poetic capacity they mobilized. Lygia realised then that the subjective event presupposed and mobilised by her objects and dispositives as the condition oftheir expressivity tended to clash with certain psychic barriers of those who accepted to experiment them. These barriers are built by the phantasmatics inscribed in the memory of the body, as the artist herself called it. This unease can be perceived in the interviews of her Sorbonne students, which are part of the archive.17 Most of them recognize the germinal importance of these experiences for their lives, and those who became artists admit the strong influence they played in their work. However, many revealed aclear ambivalence when recalling the rage they had felt for the artist, when they were haunted by their phantoms and by the memory of the sensations that convoked them and caused anguish, without having an adequate environment to deal with the bodys memory of their traumas and to carry out the work ofelaborating it. Phantasmic barrierswhich in this case were manifested through the students resistance to experience the artists proposalsare raised as aprotection from traumatic memories, caused by failed attempts to live the aesthetic experience and to reinvent oneself through this process. This failure is the consequence of an inhibition ofaesthetic experience because it is unable to find an environment that responds to its expression. The micropolitical characteristic of dictatorships, forexample, tend to summon and strengthen existing traumas; or to produce them for the first time in those who have had the opportunity to live the aesthetic experience and its expression before the installation of such regimes in their countries (an opportunity that was especially favoured by the countercultural movements that preceded the dictatorships and that continued during their first years, before being repressed). Phantasmic barriers are inscribed in the bodys memory as a strategy of defense, alongside the traumatic experience that unleashed their
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construction; both the trauma and the defense can simultaneously be mobilized by any context that directly or indirectly evokes the original situation. It is in relation to this impasse that the artist created Estruturao do Self (Structuring the Self), thelast gesture of her oeuvre, which took place after her definitive return to Rio de Janeiro in 1976. Torealise it, she dedicated a room of her flat to asort of installation, where she received each person individually for one-hour-long sessions18 one to three times a week over a period of months, and in some cases, even a period of years. The Relational Objects were the instruments conceived by the artist to touch the bodies of her clients, as she referred to those who were available to experience this proposal. Naked,19 they would lay on one of those objects, theGrande colcho (Large Mattress),20 and the session would begin. Many were the uses of the Relational Objects, and they were chosen concerning Lygias listening to the requests made by the clients bodies at each moment of the process. The feeling of an invisible demand oriented her in the selection of the objects, as well as in the sequence of their use and their manipulation during the session. Traumas and their ghosts inscribed in the memory of the body consequently became the focus of her research, whose mobilization would no longer be amere collateral effect of her proposals, butrather, the nervous center of their dispositives. Lygia Clark sought to explore the power of the objects to bring this memory to the surface and to treat it (an operation she called vomiting the phantasmatic). Itistherefore the inner logic of the investigation that led her to invent her last artistic proposal, which included a deliberately therapeutic dimension. Hermany years of psychoanalysis had prepared her for such experience,21 by making her delve into the complexity of her own bodys memory and the work of releasing its entanglements. A new exile of the institutional terrain of art took place, this time toward the field of psychotherapeuticsa far distant region from the boundaries of art, within which was still situated the university context that she had chosen tomake her experiments possible. It is worth recalling that throughout the twelve years in which Lygia worked on Estruturao do Self (Structuring the Self), she insisted in pointing out that it was a psychotherapeutic practice and, atthe same time, often repeated that she had neither ever stopped being an artist, nor had become apsychoanalyst (or anything of the sort). How then, can we
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understand her exile into psychotherapeutic terrain? Perhaps such a shift was the solution she had found in order to free the exercise presupposed by the word art from the determinations that prevailed in the institutional terrain in which the artistic practices were confined at the time; a gesture that was shared by many artists of her generation (those who had made the act of questioning this context the main focus of their aesthetics. From Lygias unique answer, through her work, to the challenge of such astate of things, we can assume that what mattered to her was the operation of the artistic practice and the event it promoted, and neither the field in which the event took place nor its name or categorization, and even less so, the place it was assigned inside apreestablished hierarchy of cultural values. In fact, in that moment, the institutional field of art was the least suitable place for such an operation. Lygia was accordingly obliged to migrate to the terrain of psychotherapy in order to continue and to complete her operation of creating a new territory that she had constructed throughout her artistic trajectory. From the viewpoint of that unknown territory, the polemic surrounding the question of where to situate this specific work is sterile; itis afalse problem; a cul-de-sac: it does not matter if it is still in the field of art or already in that of psychotherapeutics. We should thus make an effort to enter the singular territory created by the artist: there where aesthetics and therapeutics reveal themselves as potentials of experience, inseparable in their act of interfering in subjective and objective realities. Such an act is therefore also political, given its disruptive effects on the dominant mode of subjectivation and, specifically, in its power in the institutional field of art. It is precisely the confluence of poetic, therapeutic and politic powers in a single gesture that we need to (re)activate when updating Lygia Clarks works in the present.

18 She exceptionally worked with a couple. 19 The clients kept their underwear on. 20 Grande Colcho (Large Mattress) is the name that Lygia gave to a Relational Object that consisted of a large pillow of transparent plastic filled with polystyrene beads and covered with a loose sheet on which the client was lying during the whole session. Lygia Clark also used it for other purposes, for example, by pressing against this mattress the clients body, demarcating her or his contour in order to mould itan expression that the artist proposed specially to describe this operation. Cf: Suely Rolnik, Breve descrio dos Objetos Relacionais, in Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento, op.cit., p. 15. 21 Lygia Clark engaged in analysis for a large part of her life, in different periods and with different psychoanalysts, among them Pierre Fdida, during her last period in Paris. I filmed an interview with Fdida for this archive in 2002, before the project received support, because there was a risk of losing the opportunity to record his precious testimony, as the analyst was seriously ill. This was the last interview given by Fdida, who died three months later. The interview is part of the complete archive of 53 films and can also be entirely read in in Lygia Clark, da obra ao acontecimento, op.cit., pp. 69-71. 22 The magazine Robho played an important role in the opening of France to contemporary art. The discovery of Lygia Clarks work by its editors, Jean Clay and Julian Blaine, triggered the shift of the magazine, so far focused on kinetic art (being the main vehicle in Paris of its divulgation), towards installations, performances, public interventions, etc. An interview with Julian Blaine is included in the archive. As for Jean Clay, we were unable to interview him, as he has refused to talk about Lygia Clark for many years. 23 Exhibition organized by Fundaci Antoni Tpies (Barcelona, 1997), in partnership with MAC de Marseille (Marseille, 1998), Fundao Serralves (Porto, 1998), Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, 1998) and Pao Imperial (Rio de Janeiro, 1998-1999). The publication of the catalogue of this exhibition, conceived by Manuel J. Borja-Villel, then director of the institution, and Nuria Enguita Mayo, co-curator of the exhibition, is a prime source for researchers of the work of Lygia Clark, thanks to the attentive work of investigation, which incorporated the artists manuscripts hitherto unpublished and inaccessible to the public, and whose reading is essential to the understanding her work. 24 Two small aluminum sculptures of the series Bichos from the 1960s were sold in October 2010 for about 700 000 euros each at the 37th International Fair of Contemporary Art (FIAC) in Paris to a French collector. In May that year, in the Art Auction BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), held in London, an aluminum sculpture of the same series doubled the estimated, reaching half a million dollars. More recently, another work of the same series was sold at the Art Basel art fair for around 1.5 million euros, and the work Abrigo Potico 3, from 1964, was sold at the same fair for around 1.8 million euros.

The event fades away

During Lygia Clarks life, and in the ten years that followed her death, her practices dedicated to the bodily experimentation of those who had accepted to involve themselves with her propositions enjoyed no reception in the institutional context of art. Theartist was recognised exclusively by her works of painting and sculpture, which only comprise one third of her trajectory. With the exception of a brief period between 1968 and 1971, in Europe, with the retrospective of her work in the Venice Biennale (1968), the dossiers published in two issues of the magazine Robho22 (1968 and 1971), and the beginning of her classes at the Sorbonne (1971), the attention towards the remaining two thirds of her production only emerged in 19971998. Such attention was the result of the successful reception of the small room dedicated to some of her propositions in documenta X, organized by the curator Catherine David, and mainly of the itinerant retrospective organized by Fundaci Antoni Tpies, where for the first time the whole body of works by the artist was exhibited.23 From that moment onward, the practices dedicated to the body have been recognized as part of her work, which has since been admitted to the exclusive club of the international stars of contemporary art. Inrecent times, the artists work has appeared in at least thirty exhibitions globally every year. Theexperimental period has increasingly been paid attention to; her paintings and sculptures fetching ever-higher prices on the art market.24 In that context, and considering the way in which Lygias propositions tend to be presented, they are on most occasions drained of vitalitysomething that also happened to other artistic practices of those decades. Only the objects that participated in those actions are exhibited, and sometimes the actions are remade for an audience of museums and biennials, who observe them with a mixture of curiosity and distraction, without any condition for actualizing the experience that makes them make sense. Such propositions, especially Estruturao do Self (Structuring the Self), are strictly incompatible with the presence of anyone adopting the position of spectator; of anyone who is exterior and/or immune to the experience such works require and mobilizenot to mention the silence, the temporal continuity and the mute intimacy between resonant bodies; essential aspects for the realization of the
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work. We could say the same to anyone adopting the position of receptor in its passivityas the work doesnt exist without his or her actionor the position of participant. If the artist had made of her work the digestion of the object in order to reactivate the critical power of the artistic experience, the circuit was now digesting the artist, turning her into the engineer of the leisure of a future that was already there, which in no way affects the balance of social structures, just as she had predicted more than three decades earlier. In the best of cases, the objects are presented alongside documents, and sometimes the only thing that is presented is the documentation. Yet,these allow no more than a fragmentary and merely external apprehension of such actions, stripped of their relational essence, according to the meaning of the term implied by Lygia Clarks work. Theartists poetic gesture is thus emptied out, and her work is turned into a luxury item for the feast of the reification of art that cultural capitalism promotes. The epigraphy to this text is a sort of prophecy that confirms the artists acute lucidity in relation to the new regime back in 1969, when one could only vaguely discern it in the horizon. This lucidity was already evident in shift of the artists work in 1963: by circumventing that instrumentalization, she was laying it bare, even if it was still too early to be able to verbalize it with such accuracy. This was something that could only happen six years later. The critical forms set in motion by Lygia in her proposals over the two following decadesmainly when she migrated outside the field of artonly found resonance after her death, during the second half of the 1990s, in the extra- or para-disciplinary drift of a new generation of artists. Those young artists began to rethink and activate the movement of Institutional Critique initiated in the 1960s from different conceptual and political grounds.25 Many of those artistic practices that began to proliferate, especially in Latin America, tried to infiltrate the interstices of the urban life, making apparent what was irrupting in the official cartography of the city. The drift outside the official spaces and categories of art undertaken by that third generation of the Institutional Critique did not imply a complete exile, as was required for Lygia in her time. The context had completely changed: the relation of those new artistic practices to the official circuit of art was now marked by a fluid dynamic of comings-and-goings that tended to disseminate micro-movements
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ofacritical deterritorialization of the established field. That generation was thus moving away from the antiinstitutional and anti-disciplinary imagery that had triggered the most radical creations of the 1960s and 1970s, and had also embedded Lygias propositions, despite that her drift out of the institutionalized realm was not motivated by an opposition to it but by the very demand of her poetics, which could not be addressed within that context. The anguish I felt by the way in which the work of the artist had been incorporated within the official circuit found a fertile ground for confrontation in the critical gesture that was reactivated by this new generation of artists, now employing other strategies. For them, the entire act of questioning the value of acting in the institutional terrain of art had become a false problem. A collective support was now offered to my desire to activate the poetic power of Lygias work in its recent return to that terrain, which she had deserted in life. Infact, this desire originated much earlier, inthe impulse that had initially led me to take her bodily propositions as the subject of my doctoral thesis at Paris VII, inresponse to a request by the artist herself, who was frustrated by the lack of dialogue with the critics at the time. The thesis was a first step, but the desire to push the task forward and to give more consistency to it remained. I owed it to Lygia and to her work, which thinking poetics contributed and continued to contributeto my own work. And so it was that, in 2002, I began to conceive the project of building a bodys memory of her propositions, whichresulted in the archive.

... To be continued in Manifesta Journal #14

25 See Brian Holmes, L'extradisciplinaire. Vers une nouvelle critique Institutionnelle, and Suely Rolnik, La mmoire du corps contamine le muse, in Multitudes, no 28 (Paris, 2007), http.//multitudes.samizdat. net. An issue produced in collaboration with the mutilingual Austrian magazine Transform, http.//transform.eipcp.net.

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Dawn Ades

Ludic Experimentation by theSurrealist Group inCzechoslovakia, 19711985

GAME

Ludic Experimentation by theSurrealist Group inCzechoslovakia, 19711985

Janvankmajer, whose film Down totheCellar will figure inManifesta9 next year, isamember ofthelong-lived Prague surrealist group. Inthe1970s, at atime when thegroup had had tocease publication temporarily ofits journal, Analogon, games became amajor part oftheir activity. Gamesgroup activities combining thepoetic and theexperimentalhad been integral tosurrealism since thebeginning. Thegames invented by theCzech surrealists, some ofwhich were published inAnalogon 6 iii, 1991, add acritical dimension tothepoetic and experimental. Wepresent here asmall selection ofthese games, which were generously provided by Bruno Solarik, member ofthePrague group. Dawn Ades
and aninterpretation ofitthework oftheprevious participanton theother. These experiments inartistic and literary interpretation on agiven theme aim todetermine theextent towhich thefunctions and qualities ofeach participants associations concur and theways they dispose them toward mutual inspiration. (V.E.: interpretation games) Good Day, Mr Each participant knew before thegame beganofthecondition involving two interpretational aspects; nonetheless, most ofthem preferred toreact tothework ofthepreceding interpreter. Thisdemonstratesonce again, asinChinese Whispersthat theinclination toward aninternal imaginative dialogue between theplayers wasgiven preference over theinclination toward abstract experimentation. Thisstrange form ofpictorial dialogue outside thebounds oflanguage indicates apossible approach toacertaindeeper layer ofintersubjective communication whose symbolic functions are broader and more dynamic thanthose oflanguage, Theideaoftheexperiment wastofind out: 1. If thesense oftouch isable toarouse associative thinking and become asubject matter for theimagination.
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Prague surrealist group, Game instruction, re-published inAnalogon 6 iii, 1991

I. Interpretation Games (19711974)

which istoo closely bound up with conventional rationality. (V.E.: idem) Theconflict between

Each participant wasfree todecide which ofthetwo points ofdeparture would predominate. (V.E.: ibid.)

theromantic spirit and therational mind intheir past and present forms (and theresulting erotic appeal) are two ofthemost important problem areasdealt with inthisgame. game) II. Restorer (1975) (Collective experiment intactile Conception, instructions, (M.S.: Closing commentary on

Gauguin(conception and instructions: MartinStejskal) Item for interpretation: Order ofparticipants: Gauguins eponymous 1889 painting MartinStejskal, Evavankmajerov, Vratislav Effenberger, Andrew Lass, Janvankmajer, Ladislav Novk Rules: Inthisinterpretation game each artist insuccession had toexamine two different interpretations at thesame time. They used Gauguins celebrated painting, on one hand,

interpretation) adaptation: Janvankmajer

2. Whether particular objects, forms and structures, placed incertainimaginative circumstances (with atactile object) can, after being read by touch, be connected consciously inacontinuous perceptual experience. 3. Towhich extent asubjective tactile objectification ispossible. 4. If touch, isolated from theother senses, iscapable oftransmitting aesthetic arousal. 5. Whether thevisualisation ofthetactile perception takes part inthetransmission. Rules: Theparticipants

humorously symbolise, inmy reading, theentire complex ofhisconsciousness, thecreative potency hidden inold stockings. Game]. (M.S.: commentary on hisown Thegame isincluded participation intheexperiment) inthecollection titled Oteven hra[Open

horn (from ahairy rhinoceros) at asecond-hand shop inCeletn Street. 4. Looking for Martins studio (went intono. 5 instead ofno. 15, asusual). 5. Waiting with full bladder for Martintoarrive. Cards: 19. Sun inwindow 20. Carriage-ride 47. Work inrice field 69. Stone column inmiddle 70. GeminI(twins) Dream: Im feeling drowsy with pressure

III. Quarrel inaCompass (1981) Original conception and

ofroom

intheexperiment were presented with anobject Icreated which wasatactile interpretation ofRestorer at Work, apicture cut out from amagazine. No one, aside from me, had seen theoriginal image. Theparticipants were required to: 1. Insert their arm(s) inacotton sleeve and identify theobject, describing it and giving their first impressions 2. Connect thetactile impressions acquired and theassociations or analogies that might arise intoanimaginative whole 3. Try todetermine which often pictures served astheinspiration for theartists tactile interpretation. (J..: commentary on game) Participants: M. Bounourov, V.

instructions: Gilles Dunant, NalaAttia, Michel Dubret, Vince Adaptation: F. Dryje Participants: N. Attia, M. Dubret,

inthebelly area. Iknow already from experience that Im infor afretful dream. Nonetheless, Ifall asleep rather easily: Im racing along on aroad at abreakneck speed behind thewheel ofa(rather large) sort ofcar. Im driving so fast because Ineed toget home intime. Our toilet isflooding. Theflushing lever hasbroken off. However, Icant concentrate on driving, because ofthesun shining intherear view mirror, blinding me. Itilt themirror every which way, forward and backward. Suddenly thetruck bed ofthevehicle Im driving inthemirror. Isee that Im transporting apile ofraw lard. Ared tarp hasbeen thrown over thelard. Michlek, thelawyer, sits on thepile with abandaged leg. Mrs Kaiserov sits next tohim. They are holding hands and looking ineach others eyes amorously. It disgusts me, so Itilt themirror back. Suddenly, out oftheblue, amassive stone column appears inthemiddle oftheroad. Iclearly wont be able tostop intime or swerve around thecolumn. Ilet go ofthesteering wheel and cover my eyes. Thetruck slams intothecolumn, which breaks up intosmall pieces ofagate-stone and one rhinoceros horn. Everything istumbling along theroad. People come running and collect thepieces ofpolished agate from thepaving stones. Irush out ofthemangled car and run along

G. Dunant, Vince, F. Dryje, J. Koubek, M. Stejskal, J. vankmajer Rules: 1. Each participant

inthegame wrote down that days experiences and impressions (from themorning till thebeginning ofthegame); 2. Five cards with pictures were taken and each player described it inwriting; 3. Each player composed anartificial dream (using themethod ofdream logic) integrating theelements in1. and thecharacteristics ofthecards in2.; 4. Each player took atrip around Prague, sharing only thebeginning and end points with theothers, and eventually wrote them down; 5. Connections between thecontents

Effenberger, A. Marenin, E. Medkov, J. Moj, A. Ndvornkov, M. Stejskal, L. vb Isee here similarities not

oftheartificial dream and thetrip were sought (analogies, correspondences, and so on). Thewritten record ofthegame wastobe supplemented with acommented evaluation by theartists. Trip Fragments ofreality:

only inform, but inactions. Abearded Christ, whose mouth has, remarkably, been stepped on, leaving theimpression ofashoe (Isubsequently ascertainby touch that theshoe isalso real.) Thetenacious restorer istrying toeliminate thedecoration by injecting it. [...] Thesyringe seems tocome directly out ofhiseyes, which Ihave symbolised intactile form asapair oflittle hanging balls. Theneedle isrepresented here asacorkscrew and thebody ofthesyringe asanantiseptic phallus made ofBakelite (hard plastic). Two
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1. Atruck loaded with lard and covered with ared tarp (Iencountered them twice that day). 2. Alimping lawyer (Mr Michlek) and aclerk at thetribunal (anacquaintance ofours, Mrs Kaiserov). 3. Pieces ofpolished agate and astrange

sacks totheright ofthetactile object

theroad. Its SlavkovaStreet. Isearch for thebuilding containing Martins studio. Icant find it. First Ienter no. 5, but its not there. Some people send me on tono. 15. Finally, Ifind thestudio. Ibang on thedoor, but nobody opens. Iwake up with astrong desire tourinate. Thefictional dream came

they were completely unaware of. They were there only tocarry out, unawares, asort ofmagical mission Ihad set inmotion by writing thedream. InMartins cellar, where wehad picked our cards and then written down our dreams, Ihad ageneral sense that wewere involved inagreat conspiracy against all ofhumanity. Thefirst thing that caught my attention wasabunch ofodd pipes sticking out oftheground inVinohrady Park; pipes about 20 cm on average were protruding from theground and returning againwithout reaching it. Thepipes reminded me ofabent-over figure intherice field on card no. 47. At that moment, Ididnt realise it, however. Instead, they gave me theimpression ofbeing some sort ofdark link with theunderworld. Iremembered card no. 47 once inthecourse ofmy walk, asIwatched agroup ofpeople waiting meekly for ahot dog. When Ileft thepark, anasphalt truck zoomed by me, incredibly caked over with asphalt. Thewhite lard thus became black asphalt. On my walk Inoticed several times that Iwaswalking inthemiddle oftheroad. Iwasreminded ofcard no. 70 (Gemini) twice by two railroad workers Imet, thetwo towers ofTn Church and two girls sitting across from each other behind acaf window. Im walking along Vinohradsk Street and decide toenter abook shop; thefirst thing that catches my gaze istheAtlasofPrecious Stones, published about amonth before, which Id been looking for with no success. Ibuy it. Itake thepedestrianunderpass toWenceslasSquare. Thecolumns intheunderpass seem tobeckon me towalk intothem. Autosuggestion? Aconscious attempt at dream fulfilment? At thesecond-hand shop inCeletn Street Ibuy abox ofpolished agate stones which Isaw inthemorning (Idont buy thehairy rhinoceros horn). Inthecourse ofthewalk, thepassive expectation turns intoasort

ofwringing out ofconnections from reality. Itake notes asIwalk. Imeet Dr. Drvota, but Iavoid him; Idont want tobe drawn from thedream. Inone ofthealleys leading away from theOld Town Square Im suddenly blinded by sunlight; Iswerve over intosome shade tofinish taking down my notes. Progressively, Ifind fatigue sets in, my feet start tohurt and Ineed tourinate. About two hours later Icome home. Im thethird. Martins already there. So, thewhole journey took

out ofme inone sitting; actually, all Idid wasput theevents oftheday and thecard symbols inorder and joined them inmy own self. Thecard symbols related tothedays events inaneerie manner: Carriagetruck loaded with lard Stone columnpieces ofagate Mr Michlek, thelawyer, and Ms

place inquite anormal, banal manner, uneventfully, with no exciting chance encounters. Theconnections between thedream and reality are minimal, rather insubstantial. Still, Icant say Im disappointed with thegame. Theafternoon filled with magical expectationdespite being constantly held back by arational scepticism suffused thegame with anunrepeatable atmosphere inwhich Ihad some sort ofpersonal superiority, asort ofdetached view ofreality from above, which gave me thefeeling Iwasincontrol, incharge ofit, and toacertainextent liberated me from afear ofit. For thefirst time Iwasfully cognizant ofthefact that Iwasamember ofacult, with all thepositive and negative aspects that go along with such amembership. (J..: excerpt from game)

KaiserovtheGeminI(twins) Themagic ofthisgame lies

intheexpectation. Like ashamanwho hasjust finished hisdance and iswaiting for therain, Iwhen Ihad finished writing down thedream and walked out intothestreetcouldnt rid myself oftheideathat Ihad just brought some misfortune down on myself or, inthebest ofcases, Iwould witness some misfortune Iwould be responsible forif only unconsciously. Ishuddered at thethought that at any moment Imight hear behind me thetinkling ofbroken glass and thesound ofcrumpling ofmetal from acar accident. But Ieventually realised that theconnection between thedream and reality didnt have toplay itself out at theidentity level and Istarted toworry about falling rooftiles. Worry isnt theright word for thefeeling, though, because at thesame time Iwassecretly hoping for thedream tocome true. Thisambivalent feeling accompanied me thewhole way. Another feeling accompanied me: afeeling ofsome sort ofsecret mission that elevated anordinary walk toameaningful undertaking with ahigher purpose. Ilooked on other people asmere marionettes or moving props inasecret play ofcircumstances

Key toabbreviations K.B. F.D. V.E. J.K. A.L. A.M. E.M. A.N. M.S. L.. E.. J.. Karol Baron Frantiek Dryje Vratislav Effenberger Ji Koubek Andy Lass Albert Marenin EmilaMedkov AlenaNdvornkov MartinStejskal Ludvk vb Evavankmajerov Janvankmajer

Compiled by Frantiek Dryje 85

On Re-Act Feminism
re.act.feminism #2aperforming archive Inthecontext ofthecurrent trend ofthehistoricization and institutionalization ofperformance art, our goals are: >> Toinvestigate feminist, gendercritical and queer strategies withinperformance art from the1960s totheearly 1980s aswell asthereturn ofthisartistic practice intheform ofre-enactments, re-formulations and archival projects. >> Togo beyond current strategies ofcanonisation and stress thediversity ofperformative practices beyond Western normativity. >> Tocreate acritical and thematic cartography topromote atranscultural and cross-generational dialogue. >> Tohighlight thecomplex relationship between live performances, their traces and documents, and their reception. re.act.feminism #2aperforming archive isacontinually expanding temporary and living performance archive travelling through six Europeancountries from 2011 to2013.1 Inits current version it presents feminist, gendercritical and queer performance art by 125 artists and artist collectives from the1960s tothebeginning ofthe1980s, aswell ascontemporary positions intheform ofvideos, films, photographs and texts. Theresearch focus ison artworks from Eastern and Western Europe, theMediterraneanand theMiddle East, theU.S. and countries inLatinAmerica. On its route through Europestarting inSpainand continuing through Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Denmark and ending inGermanythistemporary archive will continue toexpand through research ofthepartner institutions and cooperation with various art academies and universities. It will also be animated through exhibitions or screenings or performances or workshops along theway, which will continuously contribute tothearchive.
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Theworks have been chosen based on their potential and relevance for todays feminist and queer debates and artistic strategies. They allow us tosee thepower relations inscribed inthebody aswell asits potential for resistance and for pleasure, and thediscovery ofsingular subjectivities and connections between life and art. Theproject isbased on theideaofaliving archive. Wedo not stress theartefacts and documents assuch, and wedo not focus primarily on thearchival function ofpreserving and conserving. On thecontrary, weemphasise their use, reuse, appropriation and reinterpretation. Inother words, weare interested intheproductivity ofthedocument: What effect does it have inthemoment ofits reception, what does it do? What kind ofrelationship does it create between thepast and thefuture, between its author and its recipient? What types ofreferences and interpretations are offered by thearchive? re.act.feminism isamanner oftime travel that invites us toengage inalively dialogue beyond thelimits oftime and space. Our focus isnot on historical reconstruction, but rather on infectious gestures and productive translations.

BettinaKnaup, Beatrice Ellen Stammer

1 Centro Cultural Montehermoso, VitoriaGasteiz, Spain(October 7, 2011January 15, 2012); Instytut SztukIWyspa, Gdansk, Poland (March 23 April 22, 2012); GalerijaMiroslav Kraljevi, Zagreb, Croatia(May 5-26, 2012); Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde, Denmark (June 16 August 19, 2012); TallinnaKunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia(August 27 - September 23, 2012); Fundaci AntonITpies, Barcelona, Spain(November 15, 2012 - February 15, 2013); Akademie der Knste, Berlin, Germany (June 21 September 1, 2013).

STATEMENT

Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Charming for theRevolution, 2009, Perfomer Werner Hirsch, PhotoAndreaThal

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Fragment Spectres

88

Sven Augustijnen

ETUDE

89

90

91

92

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Two excerpts from Every evening, wewired news toBrussels, aninterview with Jacques Brassinne de LaBuissire, conducted by Sven Augustijnen inBossire (Belgium), on 3 February 2011, published inSpectres, pages 76, 78, 90, and 92 (Brussels, ASAPublications, 2011), accompanying thefilm with thesame title.

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Photograph by unknown author taken themorning of18 January 1961 at theentrance oftheSs. Peter and Paul Cathedral ofElisabethville on theoccasion ofthesinging oftheRequiem Mass for four Belgian officers who had served for theKatangese Gendarmerie and who had fallen intheKatangaSecession War Major Collet, Major VanDamme, CapitanSmets, Lieutenant Williquet and Under-Lieutenant Randour. More precisely, it depicts themoment that thefive coffins were carried inside thecathedral by soldiers oftheKatangese Gendarmerie, followed by thechaplain, Father Pierre Adam, and hisentourage. Inthemiddle, theflag bearer oftheKatangese Gendarmerie iswalking out ofthecathedral with theKatangese flag, with thefanfare ofthe Katangese Gendarmerie on theright. On theleft stand thepresident ofKatanga, Mose Tshombe and hisministers, Jean-Baptiste Kibwe, Godefroid Munongo, and Gabriel Kitenge, amongst others. Jacques Brassinne de LaBuissire would state inhisdoctoral dissertation, Enqute sur lamort de Lumumba in1991, that thepresident and these ministers aswell assome ofthesoldiers oftheKatangese Gendarmerie, including five Belgians were present during theexecution ofPatrice Lumumba, Joseph Okitoand Maurice MPolo on theevening of17 January intheKatangese savannah.

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contributors

Dawn Ades isProfessor ofArt History and Theory at theUniversity ofEssex. She haspublished widely on twentieth century art and hascurated major exhibitions such asUndercover Surrealism: Georges Bataille and DOCUMENTS (2006). MagaliArriolaisanart critic and curator living inMexico City. Thework oftheBelgianvisual artist Sven Augustijnen expands and undermines thetraditional codes ofdocumentary practice, questioning thenarratives underlying current political and social practices. Erick Beltrn works currently on thephantom image, thesocial disappearance ofnotion ofscales and thecreation ofunits. KaterinaGregos isacurator and writer based inBrussels, who iscurrently Associate Curator ofManifesta9 and curator oftheDanish Pavilion at theVenice Biennale (2011). Almost all ofRobertoJacobys work hasbeen collaborative, be it with therock-pop band Virus inthe1980s or through thecreation ofdiverse experimental microsocieties, involving different actions and thedevelopment oftechnologies offriendship inthe1990s and 2000s.

BettinaKnaup isaBerlin-based independent curator who focuses on live arts, performance and gender. AnaLongoniisawriter and researcher specialized inthearticulations between art and politics inLatinAmericafrom thetwentieth century onwards. She isalso aProfessor intheUniversidad de Buenos Aires and hasbeen anactive member oftheRed Conceptualismos del Sur / Southern Conceptualisms Network since its founding in2007. Miguel A. Lpez isawriter, researcher and curator based inLima, and hasbeen anactive member oftheRed Conceptualismos del Sur / Southern Conceptualisms Network since 2007. Dimitrije Baievi (1921 inid, Yugoslavia1987 inZagreb, Croatia) lived and worked inZagreb, Croatiawhere he wasanart historian, arespected art critic, amuseum curator, and anartist who signed hisworks under thepseudonym Mangelos. Cuauhtmoc Medinaisaninternational curator, art critic and historianbased inMexico City, Mexico, aresearcher at theInstitutode Investigaciones Estticasat theNational University ofMexico, and thecurrent curator ofManifesta9.

VictoriaNoorthoorn isanindependent curator based inBuenos Aires; she istheCurator ofthe11th Biennale de Lyon (September December 2011). Art historianPhilippe Pirotte (BE) isanindependent curator and Senior Advisor at theRijksakademie, Amsterdam (NL). Tom Pospiszyl isawriter and curator based inPrague, where he regularly lectures at theFilm School inaddition tocontributing toLidove noviny daily newspaper. Raqs MediaCollective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) have been variously described asartists, curators, editors, and catalysts ofcultural processes, working along theintersections ofcontemporary art, historical inquiry, philosophical speculation, research and theory. Suely Rolnik, psychoanalyst, art and culture critic and curator, isaProfessor at PontifciaUniversidade Catlica(SP). Beatrice Ellen Stammer works ascurator, project manager and art consultant inBerlinthrough her own art management company, and specializes ingender issues.

NARCISSE TORDOIR IsONE OfBELGIUMS BEST KEPT SECRETS.

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Cover Image: Roberto Jacoby, 1968, El Culo te Abrocho, series, 2008

Published by ManifestaFoundation Amsterdam, TheNetherlands CHIEF EDITOR NataaPetrein-Bachelez ASSOCIATE EDITOR Virginie Bobin GUEST EDITORS Cuauhtmoc Medina incollaboration with Dawn Ades and KaterinaGregos MANAGING EDITOR LisaMazza Assisted by GeorgiaTaperell COPY EDITOR Shannon dAvout GRAPHIC DESIGN g.u.i., Paris: Bachir Soussi-Chiadmi, NicolasCouturier TRANSLATIONS Sven Augustijnen: Emiliano Battista(French-English) Cuauhtmoc Medina: Christopher Fraga(Spanish-English) AnaLongonIand RobertoJacoby: Jorge SalvettI(Spanish-English) Miguel Lopez: Max Hernndez Calvo (Spanish-English) Suely Rolnik: FilipaRamos / Pablo Lafuente (Portuguese-English) Janvankmajer: IvanGutierrez (Czech-English)

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