Gdansk, 2011-05-25
In response to your call for unrealized projects I would like to submit the two from my archives: PROJECT no.1: The submission being as a response to the call for exhibition projects organized on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College with its permanent Marieluise Hessel Collection and addressed to the graduated of the Program. Brief description of the project: it was composed of two elements. One was a display of the art work of the Marieluise Hessel Collection that was of the highest monetary value in the Collection at that point. The work was identified by the administration staff. This painting was supposed to be displayed in one of the CCS galleries in the way that would accentuate its particular status by means of distinct architectural framing and fencing. The second part (on the opposite and distant wall) was supposed to be composed of a display of results of a research to be made by me on the life of the painting before it acquired its value in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, namely beginning with the original acquisition, identification of subsequent owners, re-sales and re-purchases. Idea: the aim of the project was to reflect on components of the experience of the art work, on relation between “intrinsic” aesthetic quality, museum context and a mercantile value of the art object, as well as on the role of the art market, of which the practice of collecting is an integral part, in actuating the supposedly “disinterested” museum experience. The reason for non-realization: the project was not in the group of finals selected for realization by the CCS director at the time. PROJECT no.2: A contribution to the anniversary catalogue that was to be published on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the existence of the Laznia Center for Contemporary Arts in Gdansk, to which project I was invited as one of the former directors in the history of this institution. Brief description of the project: my contribution to the catalogue I designed in a form of ten white pages to be included among texts of other authors. Idea: due to a very problematic, also in ethical terms, in my opinion, the history of the institution, I designed my ‘text’ as a form of a disagreement to a strategy of mythologizing the politics behind the “official” face of the institution practiced among others in a form of this project of ‘documentary’ publication, and at the same time offered a gesture of “healing” that avoided revealing the content of these internal and personal politics. The white pages also bore for me an important connotation of my curatorial “signature.” The reason for non-realization: the project was censored by the editor Pawel Leszkowicz and the institution’s director Jadwiga Charzynska, despite the agreement between me and the institution, and despite of the presentation of my idea of my contribution at an early stage of the catalogue project to Pawel Leszkowicz. Neither the Center’s director, nor the catalogue editor revealed to me the fact of censoring the project about which censorship I learnt after the catalogue had been published.
Gdansk, 2011-05-25
In response to your call for unrealized projects I would like to submit the two from my archives: PROJECT no.1: The submission being as a response to the call for exhibition projects organized on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College with its permanent Marieluise Hessel Collection and addressed to the graduated of the Program. Brief description of the project: it was composed of two elements. One was a display of the art work of the Marieluise Hessel Collection that was of the highest monetary value in the Collection at that point. The work was identified by the administration staff. This painting was supposed to be displayed in one of the CCS galleries in the way that would accentuate its particular status by means of distinct architectural framing and fencing. The second part (on the opposite and distant wall) was supposed to be composed of a display of results of a research to be made by me on the life of the painting before it acquired its value in the Marieluise Hessel Collection, namely beginning with the original acquisition, identification of subsequent owners, re-sales and re-purchases. Idea: the aim of the project was to reflect on components of the experience of the art work, on relation between “intrinsic” aesthetic quality, museum context and a mercantile value of the art object, as well as on the role of the art market, of which the practice of collecting is an integral part, in actuating the supposedly “disinterested” museum experience. The reason for non-realization: the project was not in the group of finals selected for realization by the CCS director at the time. PROJECT no.2: A contribution to the anniversary catalogue that was to be published on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the existence of the Laznia Center for Contemporary Arts in Gdansk, to which project I was invited as one of the former directors in the history of this institution. Brief description of the project: my contribution to the catalogue I designed in a form of ten white pages to be included among texts of other authors. Idea: due to a very problematic, also in ethical terms, in my opinion, the history of the institution, I designed my ‘text’ as a form of a disagreement to a strategy of mythologizing the politics behind the “official” face of the institution practiced among others in a form of this project of ‘documentary’ publication, and at the same time offered a gesture of “healing” that avoided revealing the content of these internal and personal politics. The white pages also bore for me an important connotation of my curatorial “signature.” The reason for non-realization: the project was censored by the editor Pawel Leszkowicz and the institution’s director Jadwiga Charzynska, despite the agreement between me and the institution, and despite of the presentation of my idea of my contribution at an early stage of the catalogue project to Pawel Leszkowicz. Neither the Center’s director, nor the catalogue editor revealed to me the fact of censoring the project about which censorship I learnt after the catalogue had been published.