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Curators Questioned over "Child Porn"; Porn in German Journals; Journal des Arts and ZKM Celebrate Milestones; Luxembourg's Cultural Capital; More Documenta Artists
"KIDDIE PORN" CURATORS QUESTIONED
The scandal continues to grow around "Présumés Innocents—L'Art Contemporain et l'Enfance" (Presumed Innocent—Contemporary Art and Childhood). The exhibition, which took place at CAPC Bordeaux from June to October 2000, gave rise to an official judicial inquiry after local children's organization La Mouette lodged a complaint, claiming that the show contained child pornography. Last November, Henri-Claude Cousseau, director of the CAPC Bordeaux in 2000 and now director of Paris's École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, was summoned to a judicial inquiry in Bordeaux to answer questions about his role in the exhibition.
Most recently, the show's cocurators, Marie-Laure Bernadac and Stéphanie Moisdon, were brought before the case's judge, Jean-Louis Croizier. But there appears to be a striking lack of evidence. La Mouette based their complaint on the catalogue, which contains images of artworks that were not in the exhibition while excluding other works that were shown. While La Mouette cited twenty-one artworks—including pieces by the late Robert Mapplethorpe, Christian Boltanski, Annette Messager, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and Carsten Höller—the inquiry has focused its efforts on just two: Elke Krystufek's installation The Tunnel, which shows the artist masturbating, and drawings by Ugo Rondinone. But Krystufek, questioned by the Viennese police, said that the installation in question was destroyed and thus could not be provided as evidence.
"I attempted to demonstrate (to the judge) the legitimacy of all these artists," Moisdon told Artforum.com, adding that Rondinone is currently completing a commission for a Venetian church. For Moisdon, the complaint reflects the "dysfunctionality" of French law, in particular the 1993 Jolibois amendment, which makes no distinction between a real act of violence and its representation. Despite the lack of evidence, Le Monde's Nathaniel Herzberg reports that not everything will be easy for Bernadac and Moisdon. The mayor of Bordeaux refuses to assume the cocurators' legal fees, or those of Cousseau. Moreover, the group could still face a hefty fine and up to three years in prison.
Commenting in Le Figaro, philosopher Yves Michaud claims that the affair is revealing of "several essential aspects of French contemporary society"—including the legal system's sluggishness. The inquiry began a full six years after both the show and the filing of the complaint, but the interval was not used to gather sufficient evidence or witnesses. But Michaud also questions artists who denounce society while claiming freedom of expression: "It is rather strange that they are shocked when what they hoped to be shocking effectively shocks." For Michaud, artists should stop claiming immunity and begin to demand the simple, universal right to free expression in "a formerly democratic society that is unfortunately becoming a hypocritical clerical society."
PORN ART EXPANDS IN GERMANY
As France tackles issues of legality and morality, across the border in Germany, "porn art" seems to be experiencing a critical renaissance. Reviewing recent periodicals, Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Ingeborg Harms reads the rise of the "anus as a radically democratic zone" in the current issues of Texte zur Kunst and Theater Heute, both of which are dedicated to porn.
Harms claims that aesthetic debates have shifted from what an artist can do to what an artist is permitted to do. Art's "surprise potential" is to be found less in the political realm than in the body, sexuality, and metamorphosis. While the focus on porn comes as no surprise, each journal's approach is different. Theater Heute attempts to defend the use of nudity, sexuality, and even sperm on German theater stages. Meanwhile, Texte zur Kunst opens up a debate about the critical potential of images that use pornographic themes in an unorthodox manner. A case in point: Special editor Diedrich Diederichsen sees a historical link between "porn and counterculture" in the '70s, when the leftist magazine Konkret filled its pages with female pinups.
JOURNAL DES ARTS CELEBRATES 250 ISSUES WITH A CHANGE OF STAFF
The French bimonthly Journal des Arts celebrated its 250th edition by inviting its usual subjects—artists, gallerists, collectors, curators—to take over columns usually written by critics. As Le Monde's Harry Bellet reports, over forty individuals accepted the challenge, including French minister of culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. Highlights include an interview between rival gallerists Daniel Templon and Yvon Lambert as well as an exchange between superstar Daniel Buren and rising star Adel Abdessemed, who has a few words of advice for curators: Return to your "true territory, that of writing."
ZKM CELEBRATES TEN YEARS
Karlsruhe's Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) celebrated its tenth year with a no-fee day last weekend. As Der Standard reports, the event is just the beginning of the year's celebrations, which include a series of exhibitions focusing on the history of media technologies. ZKM was founded in October 1997 along with the arts academy Staatlichen Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. Founding director Heinrich Klotz shortly quit after failing to meet expectations for visitor numbers; he was succeeded by Peter Weibel, who still heads the center.
LUXEMBOURG'S GROWING CULTURAL CAPITAL
While Luxembourg enjoys its status as one of this year's European Cultural Capitals, Woxx's Luc Caregari wonders what the long-term impact of the title will be. For Caregari, the first cultural-capital year, 1995, marked the beginning of a new era, which led to the opening of several cultural institutions, including Casino-Forum d'Art Contemporain and MUDAM.
"2007 will fill up the sites created by the rapid expansion of 1995," Caregari writes, though he casts doubt on the notion that the year will change public perception of Luxembourg, let alone provide a common identity for the surrounding region with which events have been organized. Caregari is more hopeful about the creation of a transborder network of artists—a task he believes should be left to the artists rather than the bureaucrats.
"In this whole circus, one thinks the least about them," he writes. "One characteristic of artistic management in general, and in 2007 in particular, is the talk about networks, collaborations, and synergy, while the content is almost forgotten. The artist is almost reduced to being a content provider for what politicians have decided."
DOCUMENTA LIST GROWS—SLOWLY
Citing a report in Der Spiegel, Die Welt has added a few more names to the list of participating artists in Documenta 12: Cosima von Bonin, Saâdane Afif, Gerwald Rockenschaub, and Jürgen Stollhans. While D12 refused to comment, the artists confirmed that they have indeed been invited to participate in the event, which gets underway June 16 in Kassel, Germany.
Rockenschaub, who moves between Vienna and Berlin, plans to show some older works. "But I also want to make something new, as soon as I see the exhibition space," he told the newspaper. "Then I will work on the fine-tuning." Afif, also based in Berlin, is "happy" to have the chance to present his work to such a large public.
Like his predecessors, D12's artistic director Roger M. Buergel has been trying to keep a tight lid on the final artist list. Last February, he revealed a few participants: Ferran Adrià, Artur Zmijewski, Ricardo Basbaum, Imogen Stidworthy, and Allan Sekula. James Coleman, Sheela Gowda, and the late Charlotte Posenenske are other artist names that have been let out of the bag. Meanwhile, the construction of a glass exhibition pavilion—designed by the French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal—has already begun in the Orangerie.