ITS NOT EITHER ART OR DESIGN... ITS ABOUT IMAGINING THE WORLD OTHERWISE

Transcriptie

1

2

3 6TH EDITION 1000 RISOGRAPHED AT THE VAN ABBEMUSEUM EINDHOVEN THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER Jo Meesters THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2009 Daily 500 Hallo vriendjes en vriendinnetjes! Ik heb een heel gaaf geheim dat ik jullie wil vertellen. Ik weet dat het dan niet meer zo geheim is, maar voor jullie maak ik een uitzondering.õ Tenerife Design AWARDS ÈHighlight ÈDe Supergave Geheime Club ÈInternational shows Our pick of the day Studio Jo Meesters Column and thoughts on our profession Last nights awards during Tenerife design festival Desiign Week Newspaper. Newspap READ ALL ABOUT IT Your Daily Design de Daily Whatever Est Bottom line: Get your copy! Come and get it at the van!!"# $%# &'(# )*"+# $'#,"-"%./# design week locations. Printed In Room Ro oom 9 Of The Van Abbemuseum Abb During The Dutch Duttch h Design Week ITS NOT EITHER ART OR DESIGN... ITS ABOUT IMAGINING THE WORLD OTHERWISE ÔSimeon de pilaarheiligeõ, Carel Willink, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag. CHARLES ESCHE ÈArticle Ôwe are in need of new, explicit criteria of artistic (or design) quality that satisfy contemporary conditionsõ It is becoming a commonplace observation that art and design are growing closer together. Designers are increasingly engaged in producing one-off products that have less relation to function than to impressive visual presence. Art meanwhile has developed more socially orientated actions in the past 20 years, becoming less concerned with discrete aesthetic objects than with visualising processes of production and consumption, and!"!#$%&" '%(&")&" '%**+,'-*#',.!/&0/'1&!2!#,'*#'3,!#,4'5(!,!' %2*'%!"6!"/&!,'6*',!!7'%*'/*"0#7'%($%'%(!'-*#7!#+8',!.$#$%!' disciplines of art and design are closing in on each other. At times they seem to almost swap places, as when design exhibitions use much of the traditional repertoire of art presentations from Ôdo not touchõ signs to large-scale multimedia installations. Since William Morris and the Bauhaus, both disciplines have obviously always had much to learn from each other, and.#$/%&%&*"!#,'92(!%(!#'$#%&,%,'*#'6!,& "!#,:'3,3$++8';!"!0%'2(!"' they can share studio space or educational experiences within which they can challenge each otherõs truths. The divisions we see today, in which Eindhoven has a design academy but no art academy for instance, is a product of a post-1945 construction of autonomous art, a desirable state of freedomõ that has become in the subsequent half-century devolved to a synonym for social and political irrelevance. Today, the reinvention of the terms of autonomous art are sorely needed, a process to 2(&/(' 6!,& "' %(!*#8' /$"' 7$)!' $',& "&0/$"%' /*"%#&;3%&*"4' <,' design has lost its tight union with functionalism and commercial exploitation, it has opened up to a new discourse around,*/&$+'#!+!1$"/!'-#*7'2(&/('$#%'/$"';!"!0%'$' #!$%'6!$+4' However, much the same kind of argument could be made about contemporary artõs relationship with a number of other.#!1&*3,' 6&,%&"/%' 0!+6,' *-' $/%&1&%8=' -#*7' $#/(&%!/%3#!' %(#*3 (' 0+7' %*'!%("* #$.(8=',*/&*+* 8' $"6'!1!"' %(!',/&!"/!,4' >"' %(!' past 20 years, contemporary art has become a generally permissive territory, at least at its more experimental edge, where.!*.+!',%#3 +&" '%*'0"6'#!/* "&%&*"'-*#'&6!$,'%($%'6*'"*%'!$,&+8' 0%'&"'%(!&#'*2"',.!/&$+&,7'/$"'*-%!"'0"6'$'#!$68'$"6'/3#&*3,' -*++*2&" ' &"' %(!' $#%' 0!+6=' 2(!#!' %(!8' /$"' ;!',3..*#%!6' %*' 6*' what they want. While design has also gone through a similar phase in which products have become as much about image and.#*/!,,'$,'0"$+='6!+&1!#$;+!' **6='>'$7'"*%',3#!'2(!%(!#'.#&1&leging the art-design axis is useful in itself. Rather we need to think beyond inter-disciplinarity towards a concept such as OPEN HELSINKI ÔEmbedding design in LifeÕ Ôextra-disciplinaryÕ in which stepping outside the discipline in order to construct a new set of arguments and understandings is preferred. This extra-discipline could then be the ground on which specialisms meet and mix, without sensing that their own slowly crafted knowledge base is being undermined. The danger in such a process is however that new disciplines are created that then build there own logics and borders. To avoid this, we would need certain new criteria that would allow us to make judgements about which direction of travel is desirable. Here, the advantages of the permissiveness of both art and design, while substantial especially in its openness to new, still untested experiences, does leave the question of judgement and the rationale for decisions about inclusion or exclusion of a particular individual practice too rather open. If innovation is the number one prized qual&%8=' %(!"' $"8%(&" ' "!2' &,' ;8' 6!0"&%&*"' %*' ;!' 2!+/*7!6'?3,%' as any kind of repetition must be avoided. But to what extent is such a celebration of the new sustainable in the current social, economic and indeed aesthetic climate. If sustainability is indeed to be more then a new marketing buzzword, then it must imply new criteria that reduce innovation for innovationõs sake and support more applied thinking about our future needs on a grander, more socially responsible scale. Simply put, the issues that are likely to be at stake in the coming years are more crucial than the next art auctionõs prices or the viability of manufacturing a market for another unnecessary product. They concern how we envisage our collective future and what kinds of individual responsibilities we are prepared to adopt or make the subject of social cooperation. Under these anticipated conditions, we may well need to rethink the question of judgement and permissiveness that we inherit from late modernism in terms of what choices we make #$%(!#'%($"'(*2'2!'!@.$"6'%(!'0!+64'A($%')&"6'*-'$#%'*#'6!,& "' do we want to encourage, what are the fundamental objectives of such an activity? These are questions that a museum has traditionally been obliged to answer. In the past, the concept of quality was always foremost in museum decisions, but itõs 6!0"&%&*"'2$,'+!-%'6!+&;!#$%!+8'1$ 3!=')"*2"'*"+8'%*'$'+&7&%!6' number of appointed acolytes. Curators and directors of art institutions generally held up their opinions as self-evident truths based on experience and a connoisseurõs eye. The audience was there to share their views, or turn away uninterested. While this system was successful and functional up until (say) 1989, such a mechanism can only work when a broad cultural community shares core ethical and aesthetic values. In the past 20 years, 3"6!#'%(!'&"B3!"/!'*-'!/*"*7&/' +*;$+&,$%&*"='7$,,'.*.3+$%&*"' movement and cultural relativism, there is much less common ground even in the territories of western Europe, and certainly when we take a more planetary view of art or design. The sagacious judgements of the aesthetic class therefore necessarily come under much closer inspection. Partly, the answer to this development has been found in uncontrolled growth, ;*%(' &"' 7!6&$' $"6' &",%&%3%&*",' &"' %(!' 0!+6' *-' $#%' *#' 6!,& "=' that seek to accommodate all views, but this kind of solution is obviously unsustainable after a certain point for ecological and economic reasons (see, most recently, the Scheringa Museum, for instance). Therefore we are in need of new, explicit criteria of artistic (or design) quality that satisfy contemporary conditions while maintaining the public museumõs historic role as a guardian of particular kinds of objects that speak to the human imagination (and not only to its bank balance). These criteria need to be worked on but I would like to suggest a partial answer in the idea that that we think about the quality of an artwork or design product in terms of its speculative potential. Under this rubric, we could ask to what extent does a thing/phenomenon/activity strengthen our ability to imagine the contemporary world otherwise than it is today? Such a criterion would allow us to loosen, or even abandon, the rigid borders between art and design, as well as between other disciplines, when making a decision about the quality of a particular manifestation. Works (whether paintings, products, texts or gestures) that simply serve to satisfy an existing market and do not seek to open up new imaginative territory would be valued less than those addressing the here and now while anticipating what might be to come. In this way, while methods of production and research may stay within the boundaries of disciplines, the process of what is shown and how it is received is opened up to a set of judgements lying outside of the discrete 0!+6' &%,!+-=' #*2&" '.*,,&;&+&%&!,' &"' $',3,%$&"$;+!' 2$8' $"6' $+lowing those not included in the internal knowledge logic of a subject a chance to contribute to a discussion in public about what makes good (or bad) art/design/culture. Charles Esche is director of the Van Abbemuseum and kindly wrote this article for this daily issue. ÔI certainly hope we could start up a co-operation between design weeks. No matter how the ÒraceÓ ends!õ ÈBackside Q&A With Kari Korkman Festival director of the Helsinki Design Week

4

5 5TH EDITION 1000 RISOGRAPHED AT THE VAN ABBEMUSEUM EINDHOVEN WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2009!"#$%&'#() Daily 500 Gary Hustwit To whom does design address itself: to the greatest number, to the specialist of an enlightened matter, to a privileged social class? Design addresses itself to the need.õ ÈAgenda Our pick of the day. A shortlist of design week highlights. ÈOntwerpen voor de ontwerper Column and thoughts A bridge too Far ÈLa Bolleur Night on the town at the fantastic greens of La bolleur READ ALL ABOUT IT Your Daily Design Week Newspaper. de Daily Whatever Est Bottom line: Get your copy! Come and get it at the van *!!#) +,) '-() %.#/) +-) 0#1#,23) design week locations. Printed In Room 9 Of The Van Abbemuseum During The Dutch Design Week 2009 IS THIS ART? ÈFreek Lomme Een authentiek bestaan vergt radicaal design. Design is in onze cultuur richtinggevend. Design manifesteert zich in verboden voor architectonische ingrepen, in regelgeving rond kapvergunningen, in de identiteit die je muziekkeuze representeert, in de kleding die je draagt, de supermarkt die je bezoekt, de goede doelen die je steunt. Een emotie als schaamte vindt zijn weg in de vormgeving van taboes. Een emotie als hebzucht vindt zijn weg in de vormgeving van een omgeving waarin macht!"##"$%& '#(& #)!$*#& +,-&!(.#/"*0& vindt zijn weg in de vormgeving van een schild. Alle dingen die we doen, Continued Ý

6

7

8

9

10 I shop, therefore I am

11

12

13

14 Curators: Freek Lomme and Dave Keune