Re: Ai Weiwei and Sharjah Biennial 10

by neery melkonian (06.03.11 04:42 pm)

Thank you for this excellent piece!

Re: Ai Weiwei and Sharjah Biennial 10

by gregory sholette (06.05.11 06:22 pm)

The question Okwui Enwezor raises by asking why focus criticism only on the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi unknowingly parallels an entreaty made by certain interests in the United Arab Republic (UAE) to not to blame them for bad labor conditions, but to look instead towards those countries who supply the UAE with highly exploitable workers in the first place: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines among others. This is of course not entirely wrong, but it is, to use a popular expression “kicking the can down the road.” Likewise, generalizing a critique of cultural power from one region into a broad-based soul searching about art world hypocrisy is not a bad idea, its just that it should not take place at the expense of what is one of the few successful artist interventions in favor of human rights that we have witnessed for decades. Effectively, those who collectively prop-up the museum’s global brand have demanded a small say in how this cultural legitimately is consumed. And they have insisted on doing this not as some abstract variant of institutional critique, but instead by formulating concrete outcomes that improve working conditions for non-artist laborers. Thus a sustained tactic of targeted resistance by living artists has preceded the hiring of a human rights monitor to oversee the construction of the Guggenheim Museum on Saadiyat Island. Admittedly, this type of campaign is most effective when focused on specific issues close to the core of a given conflict. The Guggenheim Foundation remains headquartered in New York. Unlike the Louvre its anticipated UAE collection will feature the work of contemporary artists. Perhaps a boycott led by French art historians would serve a similar function with regards to the Louvre? But these are not Okwui’s real issues after all. His question lingers. Is a new found (if still mild) militancy among artists and cultural workers the sign of a political spring or the last leaves of a fading autumn? The lines of a different poet with very different politics from those of Elliot come to mind:

/After the wailing had already begun/ along the walls, their ruin certain, the Trojans fidgeted with bits of wood in the three-ply doors, itsy-bitsy/pieces of wood, fussing with them./And began to get their nerve back and feel hopeful./ Bertolt Brecht

Re: Ai Weiwei and Sharjah Biennial 10

by Jujunakinow (06.08.11 07:48 am)

If I may be so bold, the questions asked in Okwui's paper will unfailingly fall short of real answers. Whatever questions asked by confirmed artists or confirmed curators of the likes of Okwui, such questions will always already have lost their original apparent purpose to be repurposed as another interesting thought provoking text published in ARTFORUM under one of the headings etc. The reader would read it, think for a while, and ponder how relatively wise the author is, and move down the road.
As with what is happening in the street, the real questions should frankly be asked by non-branded names with no real track record. Only then would they be taken at face value. There is an endeavor of the sorts that sprung up in the Lebanese artscene recently self-institutionalizing art scene which might be of interest. This specific art scene still holds opporutinities for outside intervention althewhile being connected to the regional and international arts communities.
It goes without saying that outside intervention should be ultimately met by a reaction from within, such a reaction would be tantamount to the level authentic critical discourse. A great part of this is hypothetical of course, suffice to say that Okwui was contacted about such an endeavor with no real response in fact.