Text in GZT

The workshop Mutating Organization/ Organizing Mutation decided that it is important to realize a presentation that binds the participants together but also leaves space for individual creativity. To advocate for the continuity of the workshop as part of future Guangzhou Triennials, these exhibits as elaboration of the idea of towers as metaphor, are a gesture to request for continuation as the urgency to share experience of this encounter without pressure of time/ space and resources.

Workshop keywords: journey, experience, tension.
Presentation keywords: past, present, future.

“组织变异”小组提倡工作坊应为未来广州三年展的常设部分。展示目的是要思考有关延续性的架构，一种能紧扣所有参与者而容许个人创造性空间的展示方式就非常重要，最后发展出来的是一个以塔为概念的隐喻，每个作品都是由此出发各自演绎，迫切地要求延续在没有时间、空间和金钱压力下分享这回艺术 邂逅的经验。

工作坊关键字：旅程、经验、焦虑
展示关键字：过去、当下、未来

Photos from GZT

Tobias Berger talks

Podcast at Studio bbq after three and a half years at Para/Site.

Roger McDonald talks

Podcast at Studio bbq about A.I.T. & etc.

A Dialogue on Ambience and Biennales by Lee Weng Choy and Roger McDonald

It was not easy to translate; I did have a little interpretation.

關於環境和雙年展的對話
李永财與櫓蛇亜．蒔土成努


“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.” — Guy Debord

“在現代生產條件當道的社會裡，人生皆以無窮無盡的景觀呈現出來，所有過去直接經驗到的，已轉變為一種表象”。 — Guy Debord


How might one describe the job of the art critic or the curator? Someone who has a conversation with Art. Given that what we have are the texts of critics and curators, one might be mistaken that this conversation is mostly one-sided: the writer speaking to art.

可以怎樣描述藝評員或策展員的工作呢？是跟“藝術”對話吧。就我們所讀的藝評和策展的文章，也許會誤以為這種對話多數是單方面的：書寫者對著藝術說話。


Display / Exposition / Presentation / Showcase / Exhibit / Demonstration / Manifestation

陳列 博覽 呈現 表現 展品 示範


But what we forget, at our peril, is that conversation begins and ends with listening. So what is it that one hears, when one listens to Art? There is the stuff that is apparent, but there is also a lot of stuff in the background.

但挺危險的，我們忘記的正是那對話的開始和結束同在於聆聽。那當我們聆聽“藝術”，我們是聽見什麼呢？有些東西是很明顯的，但也有很多是藏於背景中。


Atmosphere / Air / Aura / Mood / Climate / Feel / Quality / Flavor / Sense
Tone / Setting / Milieu / Environment / Conditions / Temperature / Situation

氛圍 氣氛 靈氣 心情 氣候 感覺 素質 味道 意識
調子 佈景 處境 環境 條件 温度 形勢


“The concept that previously unacceptable sounds can be used as music has disturbed the musical world.” — David Cope, New Directions In Music, 1976.

“Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular.” — Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, 1978.

“以過去不可接受的聲音作為音樂，這概念已擾亂了音樂界。”— David Cope, New Directions In Music, 1976.

“環境音樂一定要能照顧到聆聽上不同層次的集中力，毋須勉強某一方面。”— Brian Eno, Ambient 1: Music for Airports, 1978.


“We are presenting today for the first time a creation of Messieurs Erik Satie and Darius Milhaud, directed by M. Delgrange, the ‘musique d’ameublement’ which will be played during the intermissions. We urge you to take no notice of it and to behave during the intervals as if it did not exist.” — Erik Satie

今天我們首次上演Erik Satie和Darius Mihaud先生的作品，由M. Delgrange導演。此‘musique d’ameublement’（“傢具音樂”）將於中場休息時演出，我們促請你們千祈不要理會，若無其事一般就好了。— Erik Satie


“Sun is one of the eight doubled trigrams. It is the eldest daughter and symbolizes wind or wood; it has for its attribute gentleness, which nonetheless penetrates like the wind or like growing wood with its roots.” — Richard Wilhelm on I Ching

“巽：小亨，利攸往，利见大人。彖曰：重巽以申命，刚巽乎中正而志行。柔皆顺乎刚，是以小亨，利有攸往，利见大人。象曰：随风，巽；君子以申命行事。”—《易经》

Towers of destinations

Just to update to those who missed the last (additional) meeting in Monday afternoon, we have come up to this idea of building towers as a conceptual/physical framework to sum up our experience/knowledge exchange in the workshops. It's a result after many mutations and subject to mutate further. Tobias and Heague will further develop it and we expect soon concrete ideas will be coming into action. Stay tuned.

gimhongsok

Posted for gimhongsok:

Dear Tobias,
I am really sorry for my announcement that I could not participate the workshop and the triennale as well.
According to my tight schedule in Korea, I can not concentrate your proposals and even not move anywhere.
I am sorry again and I deeply wish the project have a successful outcome.
Hope we will see soon.

Best regards,
gimhongsok

Abstract for the idea of Art Organization [based on art situation in BKK] / Arin Rungjang

Back to 1997, alternative spaces, About Studio/About Café and Project 304 were prominent in the Bangkok art scene. By giving young artists and art students opportunities to show their work in public spaces, these so-called alternative spaces, at first glance, appeared as an attempt to rupture with the.established institutions. Upon closer inspection, however, revealed a notion that alternative space was, in fact, a conduit employed to provide recognition for the minority and to exclude the existing order of the established. In other words, they operated with great similarity to the existing authority albeit different benefactors.

Alternative spaces were established as an important instrument in creating rupture to the established order that is the authority. However, these spaces gradually took upon themselves the very authoritative role they originally negated.

1. The main authority of art institution from outside
Relevant example can be seen in “City on the Move” project that invited international curators and art directors including Hans Urich Obrist, Hou Hanru,and also other project created by Nicolas Baurriaud, and Nathalie Bouton to organize public art projects and events in Bangkok in collaboration with the above mentioned alternative spaces.

2. The authority of art institution within
Alternative spaces while provided spaces for young and emerging artists also manipulated their otherness and differences by including the previously excluded to the whole, thus, adding to the existing order instead of creating new order.

Our proposal for an art organization/institution, therefore, is to create new order through the rupture, within the idea of fidelity to the truth, to the existing order i.e. the existing idea of art institution. New order is the universal criteria determined through fidelity to singular truth-event not the transcendental or the undeniable truth. Singular and Universal to time not specific to space and it can’t compare to difference time because it has its own truth.
In this sense, time is Universal since it is there for everybody to take upon in any given event; and truth is Singular for each person has their own version of truth even when they share the same experience. So time and event is the important reason to think about how to invent art organization not a space. It is this spirit of imagination, this incalculable excess of the new that we cannot fully determine but wish to have fidelity upon.

Our project is called “AS YET UNNAMED.”

For more information, please visit
www.asyet.org

individual/organization

Who are the individuals and who are the organizations? It’s not rare they are just the same party in our art world. S/he is an artist or curator and COULD BE also an art space. This oneself just so often has a symbiotic relationship with an organization. So an art space in Asia can think, act and create like a person. An art practitioner at the same time can be regarded as an organization simply as granted, representing a thought, a movement or a trend for others.

After all, individualism in Asia could hardly be anything highly regarded in the tradition, or maybe even in our modern society. When making any telephone inquiry, the receptionist would most likely ask from which company you are. It seems that individuals are simply not expected to take responsibility as organizations. If they are recognized as such, they will definitely be highly respected.

Perhaps the art world might be slightly different as the history of art is per se a history of individuals in spite of its complementary part of institutions like art groups, movements, trends and museums. Small organizations are allowed to be not so organized like loose groups of individual artists, at the same time attaining importance in contemporary art development as an institution especially where the establishment is either too old or simply not existing.

It’s a privilege for art practitioners to wear different hats within this context who are as individuals never too small and as organizations never too big.

organ

when we start we don't have any formula, we're more focus on what we want to do rather than the structure. after several years, it's still like that, content or the need first and the structure will follow in 'try and error' mode. we practicing the structure, the way we work together rather than just filling the structure. may be because we don't really believe there would be a best structure. but in the same time we might aware that losing the structure in more pretentious way is just too easy and can be boring.
because rules made to be broken anyway, so there should be a rule.

organization should be an act of survival, otherwise it will lose the tension, creativity and sense of humor. it can be a fun hierarchical structure or smartly chaotic.

got this from wikipedia:

"Total Football" is the label for an influential theory of tactical soccer pioneered by the Dutch.

In Total Football, a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus retaining the team's intended organizational structure. In this fluid system, no player is fixed in his nominal role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder and a defender.

Total Football's tactical success depends largely on the adaptability of each footballer within the team, in particular their ability to quickly change positions depending on the situation. The theory requires players to be comfortable in multiple positions, hence it puts high technical and physical demands on them.

thanks to meneer rinus michels .....

lee kit - sealed

Sealed (moment at home) 2008
Hand-painted tape, readymade, video.
Dimension variable

1. I want to make use of some domestic scene as a metaphor to organization, or institution. Every piece of furniture has at least, a function and its structure. Every corner or places at home have its function and structure, or rules to use according to the people living in. Just like any organizations in the world, have a function, structures and rules.

2. Policemen will sealed a crime scene with tape and freeze the locale. The locale's original function and rules are temporarily stopped. I want to make some tape which is similar to those policemen used to seal a place, but with something like 'This is more than I wanted.' hand-painted / printed on it instead of 'Police'. The 'locale', or the structure is sealed with an individual's comment instead of a name that represented another institution. The locales and the furniture are sealed like goods.

3. Too much, too much. Why not sealed some. May be it's too much even at home, may be. (tbc)

Updated title and synopsis

On July 6 & 7, there will be a conference related to the GZT in Hong Kong. Tobias and me will do a brief introduction of our project. We have updated the title as Organizing Mutation. Below is the synopsis. Comments are welcome.

How do we think about (self) organization and what does it mean in today’s art world in Asia? Trying to analyze this question, we planned a three day workshop in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, to bring together twelve art-workers from different Asian countries to discuss the idea of organization. In the course of this workshop we try to find a way to come up with a common presentation at the exhibition of the Guangzhou Triennial. In line with an experimental spirit, we realize however that a workshop or seminar can never be over-planned and should not anticipate a predictable outcome. Instead of conventional conference structure and agenda, we try to focus on its space and time, in form of a journey across cities in the Pearl River Delta, which constitutes the ground work of a mobile organization of intense communication. We have however assured that the participants all are concerned with the idea of (art) organizations in some way or the other in their daily professions, be it as artists, curators or critics. In general we presume that organizations are mostly self-motivated and result of a personal interest and history imbedded in bigger local and global circumstances.

An Artist

An artist

Being an artist can be a simple thing. If you are the sort of Vincent Van Gogh, it can be simple. No more Vincent nowadays. Maybe there are some but not me obviously. I get my works showing, then, there are many of the third parties involved. There are relationships between my works and the audience, me and the art space/ organization, etc. When I was a student, I thought that being an artist is the freest life I can have. Today I still believe in it. It is free but not free absolutely. In Hong Kong, artists are free from the market. But whatever I do, I just cannot get rid of the rules of art. I just cannot explain what the rule is as breaking the rule is already a rule to me.
Let’s forget about the metaphysical things. Recently I am preparing a show in an art gallery. I feel too tired already when preparing the draft idea, budget plan, installation draft, etc. I cannot meet the deadline of sending the images. I am so guilty about this experience, I feel like I am meeting the deadline of being an astist.

a letter to artist participating 3rd Guangzhou Triennial from the Curators

Dear Artist,

A matter of some urgency concerns the Chinese visa application. Due to security measures during the period of the Olympics, which falls unfortunately on the Triennial's installation/manufacturing period, visas are closely scrutinised and take a much longer approval period. Please apply for your Chinese Visa as soon as possible, especially if you wish to apply for multiple entries.

As we are compiling all articles and materials for the Triennial's catalogue, we would appreciate if you could send in materials to your corresponding RC. Details as follows:

The catalogue format is 28cm by 25 cm, each artist has 4 pages on average. Each artist’s personal narration (of their Triennial projects) should be less than 500 words, with focus on the project. You should include photos (with/without sketches and plans) of this project. You should also send in an abbreviated bio of no more than 100 words, and a CV of exhibitions with a maximum of 10 entries (this includes solo shows and group exhibitions). We have already received some files for the catalogue, however, if changes need to be made, replacements should be sent before July 1st. We will leave the editing of information on artists to the corresponding RC, so please send all information to the RC for consolidation and editing.

Curators are now consolidating all the proposals, and are still in the process of planning the exhibition space. We cannot identify the space for your work at the moment, but hope to let you have more information by mid July. To help us in the process, please let us have as much information about your work/concept as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanking you for your support, and looking forward to working with you,

With best regards,

Curators 

Gao Shimning

Sarat Maharaj

Chang Tsong-zung

 

The Guangzhou Triennial 2008

 

 

Weng's suggestions

Posted for Lee Weng Choy:

As for the format and content. I suggest that a first meeting should involve introductions, obviously, but then I think we can workshop together to see how as a group we can collectively set agendas. That to me seems to be the starting point for the whole exercise -- can you get a handful of people to sit together and come up with an agenda? Then that will determine the other meetings.

The agendas could include choosing topics to discuss; time per topic; number of presenters per topic; dividing the main group into sub-groups, etc.

The first objective of our various meetings is to think about how we as a group can work together, and to establish a process of working together. And only then should we focus on what exactly to do for the show in Sept. I wouldn't worry so much about the end result of the process, but the method of the process. At least at this stage.

What to do in those a few days?

Ok, everybody will arrive Hong Kong by July 10th afternoon. The first meeting will be in the same evening. Next day(July 11th) by noon we'll depart for Shenzhen (about 1.5 hour) where we'll do the second meeting and spend the night there. The third day we'll depart for Guangzhou (also 1-1.5 hour) to do the third meeting in the museum. We'll also have the site visit for the triennial. We'll spend the night in Guangzhou and return to Hong Kong next day(July 13th) by 6pm. Overseas participants leave Hong Kong in the same evening or next morning.

Nothing has been fixed for the agenda of the meeting(workshop) and we need your suggestions. But I guess, we would try to get informed with each other's ideas and proposals for the triennial in the first day by doing some casual presentations. Then the second meeting will be the follow-up with these presented ideas. Hopefully on the third day, we can generate something together for the triennial. Of course, I expect more dialogues will take place between these meetings over the drinks and meals. Since some of you may not come to GZ in Sept for the setup and opening, we can also talk about the logistics for this issue too.

I'm sure we'll have some diversity among our ideas on art institution and organization. For sure it'd be helpful for the meeting if we can identify our differences and generate more common interests to focus.

More....

Book: Building (or Quarrels are a Way of Saying I Love You)

The institutions with which I have the longest, most intense and most complex relationships revolve around the book and the building.

The book was an authority figure for me since young. From the earliest times, I was quite contented splitting it in two: the instructional type (e.g., textbooks, non-fiction) and the literary kind (e.g., storybooks, theoretical texts). The former was imposed by the main thrust of the science-oriented educational system, from which I benefited much and which I consciously need to unlearn. The latter, which required imagination and analysis, especially when embodied in ‘minor’ school subjects like literature and history, was much hated primarily because immensely feared by me. The lack of a reading culture at home (my parents were both hawkers) supported this forced (false) divide. On days when I deeply hated my incompetence in relaying messages and stories between my parents who had stopped talking to each other, my solace was in ploughing through piles of school textbooks, assessment books and study guides. Rote-learning was both an escape and a trap.

The building, on the other hand, was authoritative in another way – visually imposing yet unobtrusive, in fact, awesomely beautiful yet quietly confident. Far more easily grasped, objectified and represented, buildings were a subject of visual fascination. My earliest pastimes ranged from staring at construction sites, imagining and sketching the unseen foundations and basement levels, and creating hybrid buildings (thanks to science lessons on hybrid plants) on paper. This interest in the invisible, the impure and the inconsequential continues today, in my research on the ‘useless’ in architecture, particularly buildings that are unbuilt, unbuildable or no longer in use. Not having being trained in architecture is perhaps a misfortune and a blessing. I determine my time and space for engaging with it.

Victor Hugo once claimed, “This Will Kill That”, valorizing (“This”) book as a far more important and permanent record of (“That”) building than its physical, fragile realizations. It is the niches where one discipline wrestles, collides, connects with another (in my case, among the fields of writing and drawing, literature and publishing, art and architecture, urban planning and home-making) that I am particularly drawn to.

Perhaps I am restaging for my own visual pleasure, albeit in rather different forms, the tension-filled conflicts that I have failed to mediate or resolve between my parents. Hopefully, even if only temporarily or conceptually, the apparent distances between my parents, between my mum and me, between one kind of book and another, between books and buildings - start to vanish.

Michael Lee Hong Hwee
17 Jun 2008

A school

Posted for Doris Wong:

As long as I tried to talk about my personal relationship with organizations, I am confused with which kind of organizations should be talked about. I wanted to talk about something that is related to my values. In recent years the most difficult struggle to me is the teaching experience I had last year. Teaching in a high school to me is like speaking with other people's voices. Some voices from the education department, the parents, the principal, the pupils but not your own. I still remember my colleague asked me to talk about "The Last Supper" but not mentioning anything about religion. How can one learn about Western Art history without knowledge of Christianity? Because of the different Gods of the international pupils, the art history is written in a new way. I must say that I found myself not suitable to be a teacher because of all these sorts of occasions. I quitted my job because I don’t understand why the school rules stated that girls can have long hair but boys cannot. Do you guys remember that there are teachers’ comments on the exam reports? When I was the class teacher last year, I got a word file of 120 sample comments. When you comment on a pupil, you can choose from those 120 samples. I felt myself writing “Arcades Project” when finishing the reports.

observations on institutions

Christine Clark, Building a New Arts Infrastructure: Non-State Foundations in Asia

Tobias Berger, Mature Museums

Hello

Greetings from Tokyo. An introductory post to check in.
Will post at length soon.
roger

Let's start to build it.

As the theme is on art institution and organization (in very broad sense), we suppose each participant contribute something about it (be a new project, essay or previous ones with such a focus). Curators/writers probably can contribute a lot of cultural/ historical references and help to disseminate the whole project. From the very beginning, we intended to take a rather open approach, hoping for more creative but not old fashioned academic modes. So I confess it may be still confusing....

Now Tobias and I will take part in a conference organized by the GZ Triennial in Hong Kong on July 6 & 7. We're going to present our project in progress. It's indeed helpful for us to clarify what we're going to do in our workshop. But we need your guy's help first. So, I think we should start with something practical and substantial. I'd like to collect 4 or 5 images of each one's new ideas or old projects somehow related to the theme. Of course, please also feed us some texts about your thoughts and works. (Tobias, please feel free to amend....)

Opening date & etc.

The opening of the triennial is on Sept 6. As I don't know how much time we need to spend to set up the exhibits (we have to work this out together), I just put three days before that by common sense (it's only some info to be put in the letter for visa application. As we try to work together, I think it's ok if some participants couldn't attend the opening or come a little earlier to install the show. Later we shall have a better picture how to organize this when we know what to put up there.

For the workshop, nothing has been changed: still one day in Hong Kong, one in Shenzhen and one in Guangzhou. Also as a collaboration, we expect contributions from each member to shape its format and content. For sure, in Shenzhen we'll all stay in a private hotel of a huge factory with an interesting conference factory with an interesting conference facility/wine cellar and artificial lake, which is fully sponsored by the factory. In Guangzhou, of course we will be in the museum where the triennial is held whereas the Hong Kong part is pretty open still.

Participant list updated

Michael Lee Hong-Hwee, artist/curator (Hong Kong/Singapore) 

Doris Wong Wai Yin, artist (Hong Kong) 

Lee Kit, artist (Hong Kong) 

Haegue Yang, artist  (Berlin/Seoul)

Lee Weng Choy, Co-director, Sub-Station (Singapore)

Roger McDonald, Deputy Director, A.I.T. (Tokyo)

Masahiro Wada, artist (Tokyo)

Gimhongsok, artist (Seoul) 

Arin Rungjang, artist (Bangkok)

Ade Darmawan, artist/ Director, ruang rupa (Jakarta) 

Tobias Berger, Executive Director, Para/Site (Hong Kong) 

Leung Chi Wo, artist (Hong Kong)

Site for the Triennial

Guangdong Museum of Art, where Guangzhou Triennial will be held.

Download images and floor plans here

Plus, the height of the halls on different floors are:

Gound floor: 340cm,

Second/Thrid Floor: 310cm,

No. 5 hall: 670cm;

The doors of each hall are 288cm(h)*188cm(w).

Practical info for all participants

1. Every participant will propose what to do or exhibit in the Triennial. We registered a blog http://hkszgz72hours.blogspot.com/ for communication. Please upload your ideas, previous works and references (anything you think relevant). You will receive an invite to be author of this blog. Please reply to it.

2. We all meet for the workshop. Now we changed the date as July 10-13, Thur to Sun. Please come to Hong Kong by Thur afternoon. We go to China on Fri and return to Hong Kong on Sun. Overseas participants depart from Hong Kong on Sun night if flight schedule allows. There should be a lot of informal meetings and discussions on what to show and to do in the Triennial along this idea of organization of art. We expect each individual's contribution to shape this workshop.

3. We all take part in the triennial exhibition. Maybe we'll show individual pieces or we can collaborate for the exhibits. I don't know yet. We have to work that out. (Official invitation from the Triennial will be sent later, for example for visa purpose.) Opening on Sept 5 or 6.

Asia's World City

Recently I did a bit traveling between cities in Asia and have found how eager the local government there brands the city to promote trades and tourism. Such as Hong Kong where I live, it has branded itself as the “Asia’s World City” since a few years ago. However it reads a bit bizarre, it’s more important to concentrate what it means. I understand branding as more or less a proactive move for one’s own product to establish an image, which is not equivalent to reality, something good to see in others’ lens. But then who are “we” if “we” decided to be “Asia” as well as “World”. We might even argue if this statement is just, after all it may be only a wish. Instead, I am interested to think if an Asia’s world city could really exist. How and where it could be? Even in which continent?

 

Not long ago, I emailed to all in my address book to ask for wishes for “Asia’s World City” and I got responses from more than 70 people, making more than 400 wishes after some repetitions. Among them are more mainstream ideas on politics, economy, education and environmental issues. There are also some weird entries, kind of personal and even imaginative, like “all female police force”, “cheap lychee martini” and “jealousy-free zones”, etc. To the art people, of course there are hot topics like “international biennale” and “museum of contemporary art” too.

 

In the first fortnight of September 2008, there will be vernissages of at least nine biennales or triennales in Asia. By 2015, there will be a thousand more museums in China; and a 40-plus hectare-cultural district in Hong Kong including a museum of contemporary art at size of Tate Modern. When famous museums in West are opening branches in Asia, where is “Asia”? Where is “World”? And where is “City”?

Books on failure

1. The Power of Failure - Charles C Manz
2. Failure - Philip Schultz
3. Success through Failure - Henry Petroski
4. Great Failures of the Extremely Successful - Steve Young
5. Fail Better - Herter Studio
6. Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics - Paul Ormerod
7. Collapse: How Societies choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond
8. Failure!: Experiments In Aesthetic And Social Practices - Nicole Antebi, Colin Dickey, and Robby Herbst
9. The Success and Failure of Picasso - John Berger
10. The Museum of Bad Art: Masterworks - Michael Frank and Louise Reilly Sacco
11. Building Failures - W.H.RANSOM
12. Media and the Politics of Failure: Great Powers, Communication Strategies, and Military Defeats - Laura Roselle
13. Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes - John C. Maxwell

Museums in the 21st Century - Concepts, Projects, Buildings

http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?lang=en&objID=12113&typeld=10

Mutating into failure - a working title

The Aesthetic of Failure, An Introduction; Too Late.

Robby Herbst