***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
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   [Date]: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 01:23:42 -0500
   [From]: Leandro Katz <leandrok@interport.net>
     [To]: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: [forum1] Re: America? (Americas??)



Olu Oguibe's response to Kim Machan's concerns about the Forum giving too much space and time to American art and politics is very poignant.


Olu's questions "How does discussion about a culture activist dismissed from his job in Latin America, or concerns about the future of the web [an area where you are obviously a player], or the opinion of an African artist and critic who edits a journal of contemporary African art, contributing on discussion around a controversy at the center of which are a Black British artist of Nigerian descent, and a largely Latino and Italian catholic community in New York constitute derailment from the goals of this forum?" offers an opportunity to question and to compare the conditions under which artists, teachers and culture workers manage to exist and to produce work in distant parts of the world.

In addition, let's remember that the New York art community includes artists from all over the world who maintain close ties with their own original national communities.
The emergence of an activist community in the New York artworld -particularly after a long decade of being on the defensive from political opportunism and conservative attacks- makes Olu Oguibe's remark "there is no better inducement than example" ever more significant, especially when the time comes to put up a fight for the arts and for the right to freedom of expression.

What is alarming about American culture politics and the language of democracy is how it echoes elsewhere and how contagious it is. In an attempt to define the 

notion of democracy (regardless of what Penal Code a country happens to embrace!!!) the parody of democracy appears to reverberate quickly all over the world, no matter whether it is a sexual scandal, a military attempt to eliminate "terrorists" or a power hungry politician trying to 'curate' a show.

Regarding the conditions under which American and International artists living in the U.S have to work through, we may be able to draw comparisons between distant communities in order to understand what everyone has to do to make art.

Considering that this country is going through the strongest economic period in its history, that the major museums have admission charges equivalent to twice a migrant worker's minimum hourly wage, let's ask around and find out what these institutions give to their artists when they show their work. And then, hold on to your hats!

It would be interesting to expand Olu Oguibe's line of questioning, even if we end up with just a list of questions. And not necessarily to inquire about disparate economic conditions only, but also to articulate the ethics between cultural institutions and artists, cultural institutions and governments, artists and our sense of importance in our own societies.

Leandro Katz

El D’a Que Me Quieras
http://www.frif.com/new99/eldia.html