Artist's Contribution
A project by Marysia Lewandowska and Neil Cummings
Neil Cummings' & Marysia Lewandowska's film Museum Futures: distributed is a machinima record of the centenary interview with Moderna Museet's executive director Ayan Lindquist set in June of 2058. It explores a possible genealogy for contemporary art practice and its institutions, by re-imagining the role of artists, museums, galleries, markets, and academies in the world dominated by a shrinking public sphere.
The film is live streamed on www.marysialewandowska.com
Centenary Interview 2058
Interior: the common room, Moderna Museet v3.0 a beautiful lounge, comfortable seating, local lighting, graduated windows with breathtaking views of the sea. the Executive of Moderna v3.0, ayan lindquist is waiting to be interviewed in real-time from guangzhou, in the asian Multitude network. she is browsing screens as a face fades-up on the wall window.
Ms. Chan Nihao, hej, hello! Hello is that Ayan Lindquist?
Ayan Lindquist Nihao, hello. Yes Ms Chan, this is Ayan. We are in sync.
Ms. Chan Thank you so much for finding time... you must be very busy with the centenary launch.
Ayan Lindquist It's a pleasure. We really admire your work on mid 20th C image ecologies. Especially your research on archival practice.
Ms. Chan Well I'm flattered. For many Asian non-market institutions, your pioneering work with long-term equity contracts has been inspirational too!
Ayan Lindquist Oh, there was a whole team of us in- volved... So lets begin.
Ms. Chan Ok. Just to refresh, for the centenary I'd like to archive your live-thread recall of Moderna.
Ayan Lindquist Yep, that's fine, I've enabled about 20 minutes.
Ms. Chan Ok, live. Maybe we could start with some personal history. What were you doing before you became executive at Moderna Museet v3.0?
Ayan Lindquist Well, I joined Moderna 2.0 in 2049, almost ten years ago. First as adviser to the development working group. Then as part of the governance team. I participated inthe forking of Moderna 3.0 in 2'51. And was elected fixed-term executive in 2'52, ... uhmm, ... until today. I've got another four years in the post.
Ms. Chan And before that?
Ayan Lindquist Immediately before joining Moderna I col- laborated in the exhibition programme at the MACBA cluster in Mumbai for six years. Although, more in resource pro-vision. That's where we worked on a version of the equity bond issue you mentioned.
Ms. Chan And before that?
Ayan Lindquist In programming again at Tate in Doha for four years, particularly developing exhibitionary plat- forms. And even before that, I participated in research on culturalgovernance, for the Nordic Congress of the European Multitude for six years. I suspect exhibition agency and governance are my real strengths.
Ms. Chan Maybe we should dive into the deep-end. Could you briefly say something of why Moderna v3.0 devolved, and why was it necessary?
Ayan Lindquist As you can imagine there was a lot of consultation beforehand. It's not something we did without due diligence. For almost forty years Moderna v2.0 has explored and developed the exhibitionary form. We pioneered the production of many collaborative ex- hibitions, resources and assemblages. We helped build robust public — what you prefer to term non-market cultural networks. And scaled those networks to produce our i-commons, part of the vast, glocal, Public Domain. We have continually nurtured and developedemergent art practice. Moderna can proudly, and quite rightly say that we participated in shaping the early 21st century movement of art. From an exhibitionary practice basedaround art-artefacts, spectacle and consumption — to that of embedded co-production.
Ms. Chan Do you mean...
Ayan Lindquist Of course there are many complex factors involved... But we were agent in the shift from a heritage cultural mind-set of 'broadcast', to that of emergent, peer-to-peer meshworks. Following the logic of practice, we became an immanent institution.
Ms. Chan Could you say a...
Ayan Lindquist Uhmm... Although having said all of that... We've not really answered your question, have we? Given that Moderna 2.0 continues its exhibitionary re- search, some ofus believe that exhibition as a technolo- gy, and immanence as an institutional logic needed to be subject to radical revision. So this is what we intend to explore with Moderna 3.0,we want to execute some of the research. To enact. To be more agent than immanent. Ms. Chan Ok. I wondered if you could you say a...
Ayan Lindquist Sorry to over-write, but in a way the fork- ing follows something of the tradition of Moderna Museet. Moderna 2.0 mutated through 1.0 because the tension between trying to collect, conserve, and exhibit the his- tory of 20th Century art, and at the same time trying to be a responsible 21st Century art institution proved too difficult to reconcile. Moderna 1.0 continues its man- date. Its buildings and collection has global heritage status. In turn, this early hybridization enabled Moderna 2.0 to be more mobile and experimental. In its organi- zational form, in its devolved administration, and its exhibition-making practice...
Ms. Chan Could you just expand on the 'more complex factors' you mentioned earlier...
Ayan Lindquist That's a big question!! Let me re-run a general thread from composite... (...) ...uhmm
ayan taps the terminal/tablet
Well, a good place to start might be the bifurcation of the market for 'contemporary art' from emergent art practices themselves. Although the public domain has a long genealogy;Waaaay... back into ancient European land rights, 'commons' projects and commonwealth's. It was the advent of digitalisation, and particularly very early composite language projects in the 1980's which — and this appears astonishing to us now, were proprietary — that kick-started what were called 'open,' 'free' or non-market resource initiatives. Of course, these languages, assemblages and the resources they were buil- ding needed legal protection. Licenses to keep them out ofproperty and competitive marketization. The General Public License, the legendary GPL legal code was written in 1989.
Ms. Chan It's not so old!
Ayan Lindquist So then, text and images — either still or moving; artefacts, systems and processes; music and sound — either as source or assembled; all embedded plant, animaland bodily knowledge; public research, and all possible ecologies of these resources began to be aggre- gated by the viral licenses into our Public Domain.
Enumerate on fingers?
Landmarks include the releasing of the sequenced human genome in 2001. The foundation of the 'multitude' social enterprise coalition in 2'09. Intellectual Property reform in theteen's. The UN-Multitude initiated micro- taxation of global financial transactions in 2'13 — which redirected so many financial resources to Public Domain cultural initiatives. Well I could go on, and on, and on. But anyway, most participants will be over-familiar with this thread.
Ms. Chan Remind me, when did Moderna affiliate?
Ayan Lindquist In-Archive records suggest Öppna dagar or Härifrån till allmänningen, with Mejan... I'm sorry. We did some collaborative 'open' knowledge projects with Mejan inStockholm in late 2'09. And when Moderna 2.0 launched in 2'12 we declared all new knowledge general Public license version 6, compliant.
Ms. Chan Wasn't that initiated by Chus Martinez, one of your predecessors? She seems to have shaped early Moderna 2.0, which in turn, became an inspiration globally.
Ayan Lindquist It's nice you say so. Since 2'12 we col- laborated with the fledgling Nordic Congress, in what was to become the European Multitude, to form the backbone of the Public Domain cultural meshwork. It eventually convened in late 2'22. So we were at source.
Ms. Chan Ok. Uh ha, thanks.
Ayan Lindquist Now simultaneous with the exponential growth of the Public Domain, was the market for what we still call 'contemporary art'. Many historians locate one of the sources for this 'contemporary art' market, as the auction in New York in 1973 of the art-artefact collection of Robert and Ethel Scull. An extraordinary collection of paintingsby pop-male-artists like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Ed Ruscha, and... er... I re- call... Jasper Johns.
Ms. Chan Ok. From composite I'm streaming the John Schott analogue film of the sale, from New York MoMa's Public Domain archive.
Ayan Lindquist It's a great film, and many of the art- artefacts have subsequently devolved to Moderna.
Ms. Chan I have the catalogue. It's present, ... I'm browsing.
Ayan Lindquist That auction set record prices for many artists. It also connected art-artefacts with financial speculation in a way previously unimagined. By 1981 one of the 'bigtwo' auction houses, Sotheby's, was active in 23 countries and had a 'contemporary art' market through- put of 4.9 billion old US dollars. Soon, global Trade Fairs mushroomed. Commercial galleries flourished and a sliver of'branded' artists lived like mid 20th Century media oligarchs. By 2'06 complex financial trading technologies were using art-artefacts as an asset class. And most pub- lic Modern ArtMuseums were priced out of the 'contem- porary art' market. In retrospect, we wasted an enormous amount of time and effort convening financial resources to purchase, andpublicly 'own' vastly overpriced goods. And we wasted time wooing wealthy speculators, for spo- radic gifts and donations too!
Ms. Chan That connects! It was the same locally. The con- flictual ethical demands in early Modern Art Museums were systemic. And obviously unsustainable.Reversing the resource flow, and using Transaction Tax to nourish Public Domain cultural meshworks seems, ... well, inevitable.
Ayan Lindquist Ahhh, sometimes, rethreading is such a wonderful luxury! Anyway, auction houses began to buy com- mercial galleries. And this dissolved the tradition of theprimary — managed, and secondary — free art market. As a consequence, by 2'12 the 'contemporary art' market was a 'true' competitive market, with prices for assets falling aswell as rising. Various 'contemporary art' bond, derivate and futures markets were quickly convened.
And typically, art-asset portfolios were managed through specialist brokerages linked to banking subsidiaries.
Ms. Chan Ok. I also see some local downturns linked to financial debt bubbles bursting. Spectacularly in 2'09, again in 2'24 and again in 2'28. Market corrections?
Ayan Lindquist Probably. Market corrections and their repercussions. Overall the market expanded, matured in 2'27 and has remained sufficiently resourced ever since ...
More or less. By 2014 formerly commercial galleries, the primary market, had became a competing meshwork of global auction franchises. By 2'25 they needed to open brandedacademies to ensure new assets were produced.
Ms. Chan I can see the Frieze Art Academy in Beijing, that was one of the earliest.
Ayan Lindquist The market for 'contemporary art' became, to all intents and purposes, a competitive commodity market, just like any other. Of course, useful for gener- ating profit and loss through speculation. And useful for generating Public Domain financial resources, but com- pletely divorced from emergent art practice.
Ms. Chan Ok. This might be a bit of a dumb query. But does Moderna feel that in the self-replication of the 'contemporary art' market, that something valuable has been lostfrom public Museums?
Ayan Lindquist To be perfectly honest, no. No, we only experience benefits. You see, through the UN Multitude dis- tribution of Transaction Tax we are much better finan- ciallyresourced. Which in turn, has enabled us to develop our local cluster and node network. Generally, competitive markets thrive on artificial difference and managed risk. They are just too limited a technology to nurture, or challenge, or distribute a truly creative art practice. And just take all these private art-asset collections, built by speculator-collectors, andsupported through pri- vate foundations. Apart from the hyper-resourced, they all ultimately fail. Then they're either broken-up and re- circulated through the 'contemporary art' market. Or, more usually, devolve to the multitude and enter public Museum collections. Here at Moderna, we have benefited enormously from a spate of default donations. Consequent-ly, we've a comprehensive collection of 'contemporary' art-artefacts through reversion.
Ms. Chan Ok. Then this was the basis for the amazing Moderna Contemporary art exhibition in Shanghai in 2'24. It was reconstructed as a study module while I was at the Open University in 2'50. I can still recall it. What a collection! What an amazing exhibition! Ok, so maybe here we could locate an ethic approaching something like acritical mass. As Moderna Museet's collection. Exhi- bitions and activities expanded - and of course other Museums too - the ethic of public generosity is distrib- uted, nurtured andalso encouraged. Everyone benefits.
I can see that when the Ericsson group pledged its col- lection for instance, it triggered a whole avalanche of other important private gifts and donations. Like the Azko — la Caixa collection, or the Generali Foundation gift. Or like when the Guggenheim franchises collapsed as thedebt-bubble burst in 2'18, and the Deutsche Bank executive decided to revert their collection.
Ayan Lindquist (laughter) We think that's a slightly different case, and certainly of a different magnitude!!
Although it's a common trajectory for many public/private museum hybrids.
Ms. Chan Ok, it's certainly true of museums locally.
The former Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing... and MOCA in Shanghai for instance.
Ayan Lindquist That connects. The increased resources, and the gifts, donations and reversions enabled us to seed our local cluster devolution. From 2'15 we invested inpartnerships with the Institutet Människa I Nätverk in Stockholm; with agencies in Tallin and also Helsinki. With the early reversion of the second life hive, and with Pushkinskaya inSt Petersburg. We created, what was rather fondly termed, the Baltic cluster.
Ms. Chan Ok, from composite I see there had been an earlier experiment with a devolved Moderna. During the enforced closure in 2'02 — 2'03, exhibitions were co-hosted withsympathetic local institutions. There was even a Konst- mobilen!
Ayan Lindquist Yeah, and it was always considered some- thing of a success. Distributing and re-imagining the collection through the cluster - incidentally we cut our carbon debt toalmost 12 — radically scaled our activ- ities. So, while developing locally, we also began to produce a wider Moderna Museet network. The first Moderna node opened in Doha inthe United Arab Emirates. We participated in the local ecologies restructuring of re- sources; from carbon to knowledge. That was in 2'18. In 2'20, Mumbai emerged, Ex Habarethree-year research pro- ject in cooperation with several self-organised Research Institutions- I recall nowhere from Moscow, the Criti- cal Practice consortium in London, andsarai from Delhi. And as you already mentioned Shanghai launched in 2'24 with the landmark Contemporary art exhibition, then the Guangzhou node went live in 2'29 with la PartMaudite: Bataille and the accursed share. A really timely exhibi- tion! It explored the distribution of trust and 'well- being' in a general economy. The ethics of waste and expenditure;and the love, and terror, implicit in unin- hibited generosity. Isn't that node's location near your present Guangdong Museum hub? On Ersha Island, by the Haiyin Bridge?
Ms. Chan We're almost neighbours! As for the la Part Maudite: much of that source work is still live, and still very present.
Ayan Lindquist We saw you did some restoration to the image server codecs recently, thank you for that.
Ms. Chan Ok. A pleasure.
Ayan Lindquist Our most recent node emerged in San Paulo in the Americas in 2'33. Through the agency of the Alan Turing Centenary project almost real: CompositeConscious- ness.
Ms. Chan Ok, if I may, I'd just like to loop back with you, to the twenties and thirties. It's when many academic historians think we entered a new exhibitionary 'goldenage' with Moderna. You co-produced a suite of landmark pro- jects, many of which are still present.
Ayan Lindquist We're not too comfortable with the idea of a 'golden age.' Maybe our work became embedded again. Anyway, if there was a 'golden age' we'd like to think it started earlier, maybe in 2'18. We set about exploring a key term from early machine logic — 'feedback.' And we made a re-address to the source, the legendary Cybernetic serendipity exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London; on the exhibition's 50th anniversary.
Ms. Chan From composite — I see Tate has many Public Domain archive resources — it's recorded as the first ex- hibitionary exchange between visual art and digital assemblies.
Ayan Lindquist For us at Moderna, that exhibition set in motion two decades of recurrent projects exploring art, technology and Knowledge. Its most recent manifestation, linked to the Turing research, has resulted in Moderna 3.0's cooperation on a draft amendment to Article 39 of the United Nations Declaration of Human rights. We are seeking to extend certain rights to organic/synthetic in- telligent composites.
Ms. Chan You're co-producing sovereign composites?
Ayan Lindquist Yes, yes, that's what I was hinting at earlier; about Moderna being more agent, and executing as well as exhibiting.
Ms. Chan Now I understand Moderna's centenary proposal for a Museum of their Wishes. It's absolutely amazing! I know it's a very common thread, but definitely worthre- running. The one about the foundation of the Moderna Museet's collection with the Museum of our Wishes exhi- bition in 1962. And how this was revisited in 2006 with theMuseum of our Wishes II — to address the lack of women artists within the collection.
Ayan Lindquist We see our legacy as a resource, not a burden. It's something we have been working with for a while, recursive programmes. It's at root. Actually, Wish II was finally fulfilled in 2'22, when some Dora Maar photographsreverted. But, with the emergence of self- conscious composite intelligence, addressing 'their' wishes seemed appropriate, even necessary. And it's true, if the draft amendment isratified, it will be an amazing achievement.
Ms. Chan Ok. Even if you don't like the term, maybe a new 'golden age' is beginning?
Ayan Lindquist For that, we'll all just have to wait and see. But earlier, you were right to suggest that in 2'20, with Ex Habare the Practice of Exhibition, we consolidated theidea of emergent art. And, distributed new institutional practices.
Ms. Chan In the Asian network it's common knowledge that Ex Habare reaffirmed the role of the Museum in civil society.
Ayan Lindquist Well to start, we un-compressed the Latinate root of exhibition, ex habare, to reveal the in- tention of 'holding-out' or 'showing' evidence in a legal court. It'sobvious, that implicit in exhibition is the desire to show, display and share with others. By grafting this ancient drive, to desires for creative co-production, we enabled exhibitions toremain core to Moderna's aspi- rations. It's also true that to source, participate, co- produce and share, to generate non-rivalous resources, are vital to the constitution of a PublicDomain. And in- deed,a civil society. There's a neat homology. Ex Habare distributed these values, and it's also true, they repli- cated at an astonishing speed.
Ms. Chan It's so good to be reminded! Even I tend to take the power of exhibition as a technology for granted. Do you think that this is because artists and others movedinto collaborative relationships with Moderna?
Ayan Lindquist Var ska vi börja? Artists and others realised... that the 19th Century ideological construction of the artist, had reached its absolute limit. As config- ured, art as a'creative' process had ceased to innovate, inspire or have any critical purchase. Quite simply it was irrelevant!
Ms. Chan Everywhere, except in the 'Contemporary Art' market!
Ayan Lindquist (laughter) That heritage 'broadcast' com- munication model of culture that we mentioned earlier, privileges creative exchanges between artist and media in thestudio/manufactory. Exchanges which were distributed through competitive trade and collecting institutions.
At best, 'broadcast' extended a small measure of creative agency to the encounter between audiences — often referred to as passive 'viewers' — and artworks.
Ms. Chan Ok, I have material from composite. So even when this model was disrupted; like in 1968, the Modellen; a Model for a qualitative society exhibition at Modernafor example. It looks like we fell back into umm... Perhaps the wider creative ecology was just not receptive enough.
Ayan Lindquist You might be right, Ms. Chan. It was really when artists began to imagine art as a practice, and ex- plore creativity as a social process...
Ms. Chan Sometime around the late 1990s perhaps?
Ayan Lindquist Yes, yes, then we could detect something of a change. Artists began to engage creatively with institutions, and vice versa. With all aspects of institutional practice; of course through co-producing exhibitions, but also through archival projects — which you've done so much to research Ms Chan — through organisational engagement, administration, and so on...
Ms. Chan Ok, I'm browsing material from composite on Institutional Critique. Michael Asher and Hans Haacke, they seem to be mostly artists from the Americas in the 1970s – 1980s
Ayan Lindquist Not sure if those are the appropriate resources? Artists associated with Institutional Critique, I recall Michael Asher and Hans Haacke but also Julie Ault andGroup Material, or Andrea Fraser. They had a much more antagonistic and oppositional relationship with exhibitionary institutions. They resented being repre- sented by anexhibitionary institution. Especially those linked to a 19th Century ideology.
Ms. Chan Ok, now I'm browsing material on Sputniks, EIPCP, Bruno Latour, Maria Lind, Arteleku, Van Abbe Museum, Superlex, Franc Lacarde, Raqs and Sarai, Moderna's pro- jects, Bart de Baer...
Ayan Lindquist Yes, this constellation feels more relevant. As artists rethought their practices, they re- cognised themselves as a nexus of complex social process. And thatcreativity was inherent in every conceivable transaction producing that nexus. At whatever the intensi- ty, and regardless of the scale of the assembly. The huge challenge for all of us, was to attend to the lines of force, the transactions, and not be dazzled by the subjects, objects or institutions they produced. We recall that it was under these conditions that artists' prac- tices merged with Moderna. Merged into relations of mutual co-production. And so in exchange, Moderna began to think of itself as a creative institution. Subject to constant critical and creative exploration.
Ms. Chan Ok, so these were the forces generating Moderna 2.0 in 2'12.
Ayan Lindquist You're right. We simply stopped thinking of ourselves as a 19th Century museum — which had to constantly expand, commission signature buildings, evolve hugeadministrative hierarchies — exhibition, education, support, management and so on. And more on instituting in the ancient sense of the word — of founding and sup- On instituting creative practice. So, we started to play, risk, cooperate, research and rapidly prototype. Notonly exhibitions and research projects, but our- selves. Some values were lost — which is always painful, and yet others were produced. And those most relevant maintained, nurturedand cherished. We learnt to invest, long-term, without regard for an interested return. And that's how we devolved locally, and networked globally.
We've had some failures; either exhibitions couldn't convene the necessary resources, or we made mistakes. But as an immanent institution, most experiences were pro- ductive.Ahm... Not sure if that jump-cut thread answered your query...
Ms. Chan Sort of...
Ayan Lindquist The short answer could be that artists have transformed Moderna, and we in turn transformed them.
Ms. Chan Ok, but that last sound-bit is rather banal. Although, the thread's not uninteresting.
Ayan Lindquist Ironically, our playful devolution of Moderna 2.0 reanimated the historical collection displayed in version 1.0. We freed art-artefacts from their func- tion, of'recounting' the history of 20th Century Art; however alternative, discontinuous, or full of omissions we imagine that thread to be. And once free, they engaged with real-timediscursive transactions. They became live again, contested nodes in competing transactions of unsettled bodies of knowledge.
Ms. Chan Um..., I'm not sure I'm following this... As time is running out, and there's so much to cover. I just wonder if you could mention... Could you recall, even briefly, some beacon exhibitions. like Transactional Aesthetics, or the Ecology of Fear.
Ayan Lindquist rädslans ekologi, or the the Ecology of Fear was timely, given the viral pandemic throughout DNA storage - so many systems were compromised; and the.various 'wars' that were being waged, against difference, material resources, energy, and public attention... And
I guess the same for transactional aesthetics. It was the right moment to be participating in the production of local social enterprise and well-being initiatives...
Ms. Chan Could you just mention the legendary ararat, alternative research in architecture, resources, art and technology exhibited at Moderna in 1976, which you re- visited onits 50th anniversary in 2'26. From composite I can see archive materials. They're present.
Ayan Lindquist There's not much to add. Obviously the first version of ararat explored appropriate local technologies for buildings and urban systems — using sus- tainableresources. In 1976, this was the beginning of our understanding of a global ecology, and of the finite nature of mineral resources; especially carbon. Given our populationreached 8bn in 2'26 it was vital to revisit the exhibition. To somehow, take stock... The first shock was that so little of the initial exhibition was recoverable — we invested in reconstruction and archival research — it's all Public Domain composite now. And the second, was the realisation that so little of the source exhibitionhad had any real effect. We suspect a serious flaw in the exhibitionary form.
Ms. Chan The lack of resources from those early exhibitions is always disheartening. It's hard to imagine a time before, even rudimentary Public Domain meshworks,embedded devices, and semantic interfaces.
Ayan Lindquist Well, one of the great outcomes of the Moderna Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2'08, is that they revisited and reflected on the preceding fifty years. We recentlyfound shadow-traces for a Moderna History book.
And for reasons that are not entirely clear, it remained unpublished during the Jubilee celebrations — so, we in- tend to issue a centenary heritage publication. We'll be sure tosend you a copy.
Ms. Chan I see we have overrun, I'm so sorry. I just wonder before we disconnect, what is Moderna re-sourcing in the near future?
Ayan Lindquist Well, for us, there are some beautiful assemblies emerging. Real-time consensus is moving from a local to regional scale. triangle in the African Multi- tude isdistributing amazing regenerative medical technolo- gies. Renewable energy has moved through the 74% threshold. Um... live, almost retro, music performance is popular again.Nano-technology has come of age, and 1:1 molecular replication will soon be enabled, linked to scanning technology hardwired to the manufactories in the Asian network. Outside ofheritage, singularity will be over- written by difference. Now that's exciting!
Ms. Chan Exciting indeed! Thank you so much Ayan.
It's been a privilege, really. Enjoy the centenary cele- brations, we'll all be there with you in spirit.
Zai Jian, goodbye.
Ayan Lindquist Thank you, Ms. Chan. Goodbye, zai jian, hejdå.
Neil Cummings was born in Wales, lives in London and when not working as an artist he is a professor at Chelsea College of Art and Design. He is also a member of Critical Practice and on theeditorial board of Documents.
Marysia Lewandowska is a Polish born, London based artist who collaborated with Neil Cummings from 1995-2008. As artists they have been interested in thinking about and working along-side many of the institutions that choreograph the exchange of values between art and its public. Research has played a cen- tral part in all of their works, which include a book: August Birkhauser, the Value of things, 2000; give & take at the V&AMuseum, and Capital inaugurating Contemporary Interventions series at Tate Modern, 2001. Recent projects include Museum Futures at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and Manifesta 7 inBolzano. Marysia is a Professor of Art in the Public Realm at Konstfack in Stockholm where she established timeline: artists' Film and Video archive. www.marysialewandowska.com
The second part of the publication for the symposium, Institution as Medium. Curating as Institutional Critique?, organised by the Kunsthalle Fridericianum and the Zurich Postgraduate Programme in Curating (Institute for Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural Analysis, Zurich University of the Arts), deals with notion of art-mediation and addressing publics in the realm of institutional critique. The question remains: how can a practice that intends to radically show the conditionality of art, its financial entanglements, and its function as a means of distinction, be related to institutions and curators’ activities therein? Is this not a contradiction in terms? The aim of the symposium was to explore these contradictions, as well as the possibilities and limitations of critical curatorial practice.
Contributions by Giovanni Carmine, Maja Ciric, Neil Cummings, Helmut Draxler, Beryl Graham, Damian Jurt, Hassan Khan, Marysia Lewandowska, Isin Onol, Dorothee Richter and Yael Eylat Van-Essen. Edited by Dorothee Richter and Rein Wolfs.