Page 48 - Studio International - September 1974
P. 48
Projekt '74 of an international community of
avant-garde artists. The stone rolls
On the credit side :1) there were on, gathering no moss.
seven signatories to the press release; A lot of money was disbursed in
the organizational work was well Cologne, where the shops are
spread, and there was no feeling, as stuffed with consumer goods and the
there has been at most previous equivalent of a quart of gnat's piss
events of this kind, that however costs the equivalent of £1. Vast
incompetent the organization, amounts were very evidently spent
however sloppy the decision-taking, to the benefit of some local
someone was building a career on it equipment hire firms ; apart from the
all ; 2) there's always the Walraf- plethora of TV sets and video cameras,
Richartz Museum, where you can there was at least one colour-video
REVIEW
see a few superb Cézannes, a late camera and a video projector (hired
Rembrandt self-portrait, Miss to produce an effect which would no
6
O'Murphy (though not, alas, when I doubt have been regarded as trivial at
went) and all kinds of other delights, the appropriate kind of trade fair).
plus (coming down a few levels) a Artists were also paid to produce
good selection of Johns and 'new work' for the show. I don't
Rauschenberg, together with the know how they sorted out who got
bulk of the Ludwig Collection, to how much. Just what sort of
show that the art of the sixties wasn't criteria would you use ? Artists also
all bad (though Ludwig has got paid air fares and a per diem
obviously bought his share of allowance to 'install work' and attend
rubbish). the opening. Again (apart from the
Photos: Rodney Staines
Cologne's Projekt 74 was due to A Et L contingent) I don't know
last from 5 July to 8 September. The 'this new artistic medium ... hardly who got paid how much or why.
avant-garde bit was staged in the has anything in common with How long do you need to be there
Kunsthalle/Kunstverein complex public television'. Another 'artform' to install your work if all you're
under the title 'Kunst bleibt Kunst' thus matures into isolation. Two going to do is walk about with a
('Art's Art for a' that'). A large poster rooms were reserved in Cologne for striped pole, or hang one painting ?
at the entrance displayed this legend apparently continuous screening. Does everyone get paid according
against a magnificent On the day after the opening these to how far they have to travel ?
Götterdämmerung sunset —the work rooms were sparsely occupied by (American artists always tend to
of the only really professional painter sad-looking individuals watching cost more, and usually they seem to
associated with the exhibition, a interference on television sets. stay at more expensive hotels.
former publicist, under Albert Speer, 'Private' instead of 'public' TV ? Perhaps they need that extra
for an earlier and more potent avant At what level was the 'art' accessible degree of insulation from life.) Does
garde. to them ? Certainly not in terms of Art Er Language (for instance) count
Around 115 artists are listed on the such daft notions about the as 'one artist', or as two, or as
back of the provisional catalogue, even 'conservation', 'repetition' and however many are actually involved ?
if you count Art Er Language and 'simultaneity' of 'time' as were Well, er subject to negotiation.
Phil Glass Er ensemble as one each. bandied about by the organizers in A lot of continentals consider it
(The complete catalogue, with justification for including video as an terribly radical to have people
artists' contributions, was due to 'essential aspect for numerous working as a group, but can't cope
appear some time after the date of working groups at the beginning of with the practical consequences.
writing ; surprise, surprise, the budget the 70s'. Considering the extent to which
had been overspent.) A few American 'Time', 'Perception', 'Formal the 'international art world' is
artists withdrew in support of Hans Systems', 'Conceptual Systems', predicated upon privatism, this
Haacke — as part of a now familiar 'Video' and 'Performance' were the should surprise no one. The
ritual in which institutions fail to various administrative areas into 'artists'- involvement-with-
cope with ideologically null which the world of art was divided technology' aspect is depressing :
'political' contributions, involving by the organizers. Given such it's largely a matter of avant-gardists
'revelations' which should surprise categories to work with, just what ripping off expertise in circumstances
no one, and Haacke has his cake and do you leave out? If what you claim where they don't see any need to
eats it—and I think some artists to do is to 'represent the art scene acknowledge collaboration. This is
got de-invited at the last moment, today' what parameters do you have, not merely a matter of dependence
though you'd have had to be pretty what sort of defence against upon the 'technician' at the
fanatical to mind. A supplementary mindlessness? None. The only 'realization-of-ideas' stage. When
list itemizes over 100 video problems are contingencies and the one exhibitor's machine failed to
occurrences, performances, concerts only decisions compromises. produce the right display he took
and films, with at least one event per There is a well-established tradition the back off to look at the works ; it
day during the course of the
in events of this kind. They have appeared to be the first time he had
exhibition. In addition (I think) become self-generating. 'Op Losse seen them and he was obviously
a package was due to be purveyed Schroeven' (Amsterdam 1969), baffled. (This is nothing to do with
which had originally been put 'When Attitudes become Form'
'truth-to-materials' notions; it's a
together by the video curator [sic] (Berne, Krefeld, London 1969), matter of lousy labour relations.)
of the Everson Museum of Art in 'Documenta 5' (Kassel 1972) and Half the equipment used was
Syracuse, NY. This involves some 'Contemporanea' (Rome 1973) essentially domestic —ie not
62 mostly North-American-based are among the antecedents. You'd designed to such specifications as
artists. Quite apart from this the
think something would have been might be considered appropriate to
catalogue lists independent
learned from experience, but ensure adequate function in
videotapes by 39 individuals.
experience in these matters does not critical operations over the course of
Back in 1969 the late Gerry
appear to have been much passed on : two months. The result was that
Schum put together his
'Land Art'
one institution, one administration from any time after the opening one's- --
programme in close collaboration
after another has one go at putting on first confrontation with the
with the artists involved, and had it the definitive avant-garde 'technologically advanced' artwork
screened over normal German
exhibition. The same artists' names necessarily involved sorting out
television. Now, five years later, the
crop up over and over again in a whether it was functioning properly,
Projekt press release, in introduction succession of social events or malfunctioning, or simply not
to the riches of video, boasts that apparently staged for the benefit switched on. Only too often the