***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 15:30:58 -0500
   [From]: "Juan JosŽ D’az Infante"-- <jdiazinfante@altamiracave.com>
     [To]: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: [forum1] web curating/exhibiting

Hi everybody

I was yesterday at a contemporary art show (prices ranging 20, 000 dollars
and upwards). Sponsored by a major "bank art foundation". It was very
unfortunate that somebody asked me what I thought. You can imagine the gala
setting and the typical question: "Does this painting talk to you?"

The painting was like any other painting, nice colors, semi abstract, not
insulting to anybody, decent composition, decent size, decent signature,
very pretty.I decided to be frank to that semi-known set of people dressed
in black, black and black (that fashion established by the science fiction
action movie men in black). I said, all the paintings had a strong statement
to say: "Please buy me and hang me in a rich person=B4s house"... Maybe ten
seconds after I had finished my very cynical remark a very well dressed man
in a dark blue suit (Hermes tie and maybe two aesthetic surgeries) came into
the group to announce "I have bought the most expensive one"...In a very
fast reply I said "Are you sure?" It sent him  right back in a panic  to
check the prices again.

The average artist in today=B4s world of art is continuously painting (or
creating) a work of art that imitates a work of art that keeps saying:
"please, at least hang me in a museum"... Art is a game we make the mistake
of taking it seriously.

regards

Juan

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>From: Pat Binder <pat@uinic.de>
>To: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
>Subject: [forum1] web curating/exhibiting
>Date: vier., 8 octu 1999 00:37
>

> hello everybody,
> hi Christy,
>
>
> "A second idea has to do with the curator as talent scout.  I think many
> curators depend too heavily on their existing networks. Exclusionary
> tactics are often not tactics at all.  People don't have enough time or
> impetus to search for new voices.  When selecting work for My Millennium
> and when creating a syllabus for a trace Writer's workshop I felt I
> should seek out and include projects from around the world." (Christy
> Sheffield Sanford on Wed, 06 Oct 1999)
>
> First of all congratulations for your project's approach!
>
> What I would like to ask you and the other fourm's members, if there
> shouldn't be a web-specific curating-exhibiting modality. The audience
> usually doesn't take the time to really get through the proposed
> web-works, since online-time is money. On the other hand it is really
> important, since the audience is spread around the world, to give some
> hints of what the work is dealing with, or what one should be looking
> for, or what technical feature is being used in an original way, or some
> references to previous works (maybe "real" works of the same artist, or
> a specific cultural context the work should be framed in, etc.
>
> What do you think?
>
>
> pat