(english translation of the original, drawn on the wall at the Ist Fair).
The Ist Fair of the Spectral Institutions
17th of June - 6th of July 2011, the Gallery for Contemporary Art, Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu
featuring:
The Bureau of Melodramatic Research
The Blind Museum (Veda Popovici)
Kunsthlale Batistei & ParadisGaraj
PARApolice (Arnold Schlachter)
CAA/CAA (Contemporary Art Archive/Center for Art Analysis), (Lia Perjovschi)
The Presidential Candidacy
The Department of Art in Public Space (E-cart.ro)
MAMA – The Museum of Modest Art of the Apartment, (Luiza Alecsandru)
The Kunsthalle Batiştei: seat awaiting the new Direktor with cocktail made by Flaviu Găitan, bartender at the Bufniţa (Owl) restaurant in Sibiu.
Performance by Daniela Kneip-Velescu at the opening of the Fair.
Text performed:
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
Doamnelor si Domnilor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My name is Daniela Kneip-Velescu and I just started an internship / Praktikum at Kunsthalle Batistei – a very misto place!
I’m studying Fine Arts at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, where I´m also involved in administrative Angelegenheiten representing the student body in the Konvent. Therefore I am really interested in the art scene and the Funktionalität or Dysfunktionalität of its structures specially in the realm of the representing institutions.
Stellvertretend I will introduce you to the Leitmotiv and Ursprung of Kunsthalle Batistei and the urgent issue titled „Most wanted: DER DIREKTOR for KUNSTHALLE BATISTEI!“
(What is Kunsthalle Batistei or better still, how did we become Kunsthalle Batistei?)
Kunsthalle Batistei is the hidden dream-come-true of every contemporary art space in Romania in the last 20 years or so. Kunsthalle Batistei has achieved this air of inevitability and inescapable sense of self-importance and value after being part of the Bucharest Biennale.
Kunsthalle Batistei was formerly known as ParadisGaraj, a small independent space in the city center of Bucharest (Batistei street, just across from the US Embassy). It was re-baptized Kunsthalle Batistei in 2010, after the first DVD started playing video's in a loop on a new installed white screen, just on top of the former entrance of the space. Then, after two years functioning as a tiny ParadisGaraj, we suddenly realized the “Kunsthalle”-Potenzial had always been there. But „even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while“.
Unfortunately it was a short-living hope as the owner had also noticed this potential and also the fact that it was much cleaner and whiter than before. Unsere Kunsthalle Batistei, even more than ParadisGaraj, was the usual Romanian success story – Das Leidmotiv. In the moment we turned into something better than our usual „Do It Yourself“ precarious and dingy garage, it got taken away from us. In the moment we thought we made it, our success got stolen from us. It was kind of the same story when Romania joined the NATO, or joined the EU, there was an effort in trying to build better roads but Romania ended up being scolded for corruption.
(What does Kunsthalle Batistei look for in Sibiu/Hermannstadt?)
Kunsthalle Batistei has tried out a lot of solutions, a lot of strategies and artistic models. But somehow things always fell apart, got out of hand, there was a sloppy management, a lack of vision maybe, or just plain idleness. And Müßiggang ist aller Laster Anfang. So actually the situation got even worse: we don't own a space and there´s a lack of money to pay the rent, we cannot offer very much. What we can offer is raw muscle power, we can carry materials (stone, wood, big monitors, etc), we also have a lot of primitive instincts and brutal creativity. We´re lacking brains and a Direktor that could lead us and Kunsthalle Batistei to the next Biennale, the next art fair, and maybe the next young curator-guru.
I think we have finally found the answer to our dilemma: We need a Direktor. Der Direktor should be of German or Austrian origin, specially a Swab/Schwabe or a Sas/Sachse would be most welcome. He could be mixed-blood, But he should have a German element and we prefer a German to come and fix things in Romania. We also have a historical precedent with the Hohenzollern dynasty, when the modern state of Romania was basically manufactured under Western inspection and wise rule. We need a German Leitfigur. We need a responsible person who knows the definition of Ordnung und Disziplin. A Direktor, who can establish these magnetic poles / diese magnetischen Pole in our artistic universe. As the Germans did so many good things in Romania, maybe they can also fix Kunsthalle Batistei. We think that only a Direktor can put an end to a vicious circle of misery, a circle of ineffectual and sloppy management and transform it into a virtuous circle of artistic and curatorial bonanza.
It is not enough to have funds, to get money from foundations, from banks or from the EU. We are convinced that we hauptsächlich are in need of a real boss, a Leitfigur. We can offer this Direktor total control over our institution. Kunsthalle Batistei can become his home, his pet project, his secret lover, his backyard, his parking lot or frontispiece. He can also change the name, he can add his family coat-of-arms to the Kunsthalle, advertise his family business or brand, or his hometown name. Der Direktor can have total financial control over Kunsthalle Batistei. We want to be the forefront, the Apex of the current trends and offer him totale Kontrolle on who gets thrown out, who gets employed, what art projects should be realized, and which decisions are richtig oder falsch. Der Direktor can also tell us whom to love and whom to hate. It would be perfect if he could transform Kunsthalle Batistei and improve or rather establish a Service-Landschaft. We consider this Service-Landschaft to be fundamental to the art scene in Romania. In Romania we are encountering a Service-Wüste, people are grumpy with bad manners and spiteful, maybe because of all the years of Communist rule, but now a German could improve the welcoming aspects of our Kunsthalle Batistei and turn it into a Service-Oase, to make it more magnetic to foreign artists and curators, their galleries and Kunstvereine.
Because of the given fact, that we are invited to this fair in Sibiu/Hermannstadt, a former cultural Capital, an ancient German town, we would like to ask Klaus Johannis, the former mayor of Sibiu to become the honorific Direktor of Kunsthalle Batistei. We got this idea, because at some point in the past, to end a political crisis and strife between the parties in Romania, he was called as a German to fix things and maybe become our president. We can only offer a comfortable chair for our next Direktor with a cocktail to quench his thirst. We cannot offer him the presidency, but an important and all-powerful/omnipotent role as Der Direktor of our Kunsthalle Batistei if he would like to help/support/use us. Klaus Werner Johannis, Please become Unser Direktor!
Vielen Dank für ihre Aufmerksamkeit!
Und Herzliche Grüße
(gezeichnet)
Der Vorstand der Kunsthalle Batistei /
(signed)
the board of Kunsthalle Batistei
Performance by Daniela Kneip-Velescu at the opening of the Fair.
Text performed:
Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
Doamnelor si Domnilor,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My name is Daniela Kneip-Velescu and I just started an internship / Praktikum at Kunsthalle Batistei – a very misto place!
I’m studying Fine Arts at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, where I´m also involved in administrative Angelegenheiten representing the student body in the Konvent. Therefore I am really interested in the art scene and the Funktionalität or Dysfunktionalität of its structures specially in the realm of the representing institutions.
Stellvertretend I will introduce you to the Leitmotiv and Ursprung of Kunsthalle Batistei and the urgent issue titled „Most wanted: DER DIREKTOR for KUNSTHALLE BATISTEI!“
(What is Kunsthalle Batistei or better still, how did we become Kunsthalle Batistei?)
Kunsthalle Batistei is the hidden dream-come-true of every contemporary art space in Romania in the last 20 years or so. Kunsthalle Batistei has achieved this air of inevitability and inescapable sense of self-importance and value after being part of the Bucharest Biennale.
Kunsthalle Batistei was formerly known as ParadisGaraj, a small independent space in the city center of Bucharest (Batistei street, just across from the US Embassy). It was re-baptized Kunsthalle Batistei in 2010, after the first DVD started playing video's in a loop on a new installed white screen, just on top of the former entrance of the space. Then, after two years functioning as a tiny ParadisGaraj, we suddenly realized the “Kunsthalle”-Potenzial had always been there. But „even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while“.
Unfortunately it was a short-living hope as the owner had also noticed this potential and also the fact that it was much cleaner and whiter than before. Unsere Kunsthalle Batistei, even more than ParadisGaraj, was the usual Romanian success story – Das Leidmotiv. In the moment we turned into something better than our usual „Do It Yourself“ precarious and dingy garage, it got taken away from us. In the moment we thought we made it, our success got stolen from us. It was kind of the same story when Romania joined the NATO, or joined the EU, there was an effort in trying to build better roads but Romania ended up being scolded for corruption.
(What does Kunsthalle Batistei look for in Sibiu/Hermannstadt?)
Kunsthalle Batistei has tried out a lot of solutions, a lot of strategies and artistic models. But somehow things always fell apart, got out of hand, there was a sloppy management, a lack of vision maybe, or just plain idleness. And Müßiggang ist aller Laster Anfang. So actually the situation got even worse: we don't own a space and there´s a lack of money to pay the rent, we cannot offer very much. What we can offer is raw muscle power, we can carry materials (stone, wood, big monitors, etc), we also have a lot of primitive instincts and brutal creativity. We´re lacking brains and a Direktor that could lead us and Kunsthalle Batistei to the next Biennale, the next art fair, and maybe the next young curator-guru.
I think we have finally found the answer to our dilemma: We need a Direktor. Der Direktor should be of German or Austrian origin, specially a Swab/Schwabe or a Sas/Sachse would be most welcome. He could be mixed-blood, But he should have a German element and we prefer a German to come and fix things in Romania. We also have a historical precedent with the Hohenzollern dynasty, when the modern state of Romania was basically manufactured under Western inspection and wise rule. We need a German Leitfigur. We need a responsible person who knows the definition of Ordnung und Disziplin. A Direktor, who can establish these magnetic poles / diese magnetischen Pole in our artistic universe. As the Germans did so many good things in Romania, maybe they can also fix Kunsthalle Batistei. We think that only a Direktor can put an end to a vicious circle of misery, a circle of ineffectual and sloppy management and transform it into a virtuous circle of artistic and curatorial bonanza.
It is not enough to have funds, to get money from foundations, from banks or from the EU. We are convinced that we hauptsächlich are in need of a real boss, a Leitfigur. We can offer this Direktor total control over our institution. Kunsthalle Batistei can become his home, his pet project, his secret lover, his backyard, his parking lot or frontispiece. He can also change the name, he can add his family coat-of-arms to the Kunsthalle, advertise his family business or brand, or his hometown name. Der Direktor can have total financial control over Kunsthalle Batistei. We want to be the forefront, the Apex of the current trends and offer him totale Kontrolle on who gets thrown out, who gets employed, what art projects should be realized, and which decisions are richtig oder falsch. Der Direktor can also tell us whom to love and whom to hate. It would be perfect if he could transform Kunsthalle Batistei and improve or rather establish a Service-Landschaft. We consider this Service-Landschaft to be fundamental to the art scene in Romania. In Romania we are encountering a Service-Wüste, people are grumpy with bad manners and spiteful, maybe because of all the years of Communist rule, but now a German could improve the welcoming aspects of our Kunsthalle Batistei and turn it into a Service-Oase, to make it more magnetic to foreign artists and curators, their galleries and Kunstvereine.
Because of the given fact, that we are invited to this fair in Sibiu/Hermannstadt, a former cultural Capital, an ancient German town, we would like to ask Klaus Johannis, the former mayor of Sibiu to become the honorific Direktor of Kunsthalle Batistei. We got this idea, because at some point in the past, to end a political crisis and strife between the parties in Romania, he was called as a German to fix things and maybe become our president. We can only offer a comfortable chair for our next Direktor with a cocktail to quench his thirst. We cannot offer him the presidency, but an important and all-powerful/omnipotent role as Der Direktor of our Kunsthalle Batistei if he would like to help/support/use us. Klaus Werner Johannis, Please become Unser Direktor!
Vielen Dank für ihre Aufmerksamkeit!
Und Herzliche Grüße
(gezeichnet)
Der Vorstand der Kunsthalle Batistei /
(signed)
the board of Kunsthalle Batistei
The Ist Congress of the Spectral Institutions
3rd-4th of June, 2011, UNAgaleria, Bucharest
Participating institutions: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, The Blind Museum (Veda Popovici) Kunstahlle Batistei & ParadisGaraj (Claudiu Cobilanschi), PARApolice (Arnold Schlachter), The Presidential Candidacy, The Department of Art in Public Space (Raluca Voinea, E-cart.ro), The Museum of Modest Art of the Apartment – MAMA.
Participating theorists: Corina Lucia Apostol, Irina Costache, Matei Demetrescu, Simina Neagu.
3rd of June
11:00 Intro
Veda Popovici. Welcome to the Ist Congress of the Spectral Institutions
11:30
Simina Neagu. Institutional Critique in the East?
12:30
ParadisGaraj. The Lost Paradise. (film)
13:30
Corina Lucia Apostol. Post(modernism) between East and West: the Institutionalization of Romanian Artists on the Global Market.
15:00
The Presidential Candidate. The Limits of Depression, what remains to be when the postspectacle has been integrated?
4th of June
11:00
Arnold Schlachter. About security and private polices.
12:00
Matei Demetrescu. About the spectral dimension of authority in contemporary politics: towards a conceptual definition.
Pause
13:30
Irina Costache, Luiza Alecsandru, the Bureau of Melodramatic Research
Workshop: “Institutional futurology: prospections beyond planification”
14:30
Common Space project: institutionalization vs. organization.
Invited: the commuminity around the project. Moderator: Raluca Voinea
16:00
Closing remarks: the Spectral Institution – where to ?
Participating institutions: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, The Blind Museum (Veda Popovici) Kunstahlle Batistei & ParadisGaraj (Claudiu Cobilanschi), PARApolice (Arnold Schlachter), The Presidential Candidacy, The Department of Art in Public Space (Raluca Voinea, E-cart.ro), The Museum of Modest Art of the Apartment – MAMA.
Participating theorists: Corina Lucia Apostol, Irina Costache, Matei Demetrescu, Simina Neagu.
3rd of June
11:00 Intro
Veda Popovici. Welcome to the Ist Congress of the Spectral Institutions
11:30
Simina Neagu. Institutional Critique in the East?
12:30
ParadisGaraj. The Lost Paradise. (film)
13:30
Corina Lucia Apostol. Post(modernism) between East and West: the Institutionalization of Romanian Artists on the Global Market.
15:00
The Presidential Candidate. The Limits of Depression, what remains to be
4th of June
11:00
Arnold Schlachter. About security and private polices.
12:00
Matei Demetrescu. About the spectral dimension of authority in contemporary politics: towards a conceptual definition.
Pause
13:30
Irina Costache, Luiza Alecsandru, the Bureau of Melodramatic Research
Workshop: “Institutional futurology: prospections beyond planification”
14:30
Common Space project: institutionalization vs. organization.
Invited: the commuminity around the project. Moderator: Raluca Voinea
16:00
Closing remarks: the Spectral Institution – where to ?
About the Spectral Institutions
A Spectral Institution is an institution in the course of being authorized. It is the weaker double of a strong, authentic institution. Its (apparent) weakness, however, always disturbs in some way the authoritative structures.
The Spectral Institution is a conceptual framework shared by various projects created by artists and not only.
The Congress and the Fair have been initiated with the Blind Museum's invitation towards other institutions of the same spectral nature to gather, share ideas and prospects for the future.
The Congress is a discursive platform for lectures, debates and workshops.
The Fair is an exhibition platform for the visual and performative representation of the institutions.
The Ist Congress has taken place in Bucharest, Romania and the Ist Fair in Sibiu, Romania.
The Spectral Institution is an open conceptual framework and a network in continuous expansion. To collaborate, participate and find out more please contact veda.popovici(at)gmail.com.
The Spectral Institution is a conceptual framework shared by various projects created by artists and not only.
The Congress and the Fair have been initiated with the Blind Museum's invitation towards other institutions of the same spectral nature to gather, share ideas and prospects for the future.
The Congress is a discursive platform for lectures, debates and workshops.
The Fair is an exhibition platform for the visual and performative representation of the institutions.
The Ist Congress has taken place in Bucharest, Romania and the Ist Fair in Sibiu, Romania.
The Spectral Institution is an open conceptual framework and a network in continuous expansion. To collaborate, participate and find out more please contact veda.popovici(at)gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)