by Jon Lackman | 11 September 2006 | Contemporary
CAA Reviews has a long essay by John Clark on “Contemporary Asian Art at Biennales and Triennales”. The following paragraph seems representative: “When your biennale/triennale largely selects artists the curator(s) ‘know’ or who are from groups ‘known to’ the curator(s), taste is substituted for more local or regional art-critical or curatorial advice, and a search for innovation or profundity, or a piece (re-)installed in relationship to the local environment, is neglected. Some chain of aesthetic demand breaks down, whether conceptually or practice-lead. This became clear in the thematization of ‘Chinatown’ works mediated by Beijing’s Long March group, whose mixed-media installation—which included a dragon in army camouflage, a video, an oil painting of New York’s ‘Chinatown,’ and other works—was situated in a small corner of the enormous warehouses. A group project can easily become a kind of kindergarten art assignment (Let’s do a Lion Dance/Chinatown theme!) by friends of the group leader who has secured the exhibition ‘spot’ and mobilized the funds to bring the works there. It may be serendipitous that some of the work is interesting, such as the video by the significant artist Qiu Zhijie (a member of Long March), but not so much if shown in less than ideal conditions: the passing crowds, the corridor placement, the domestic monitor without full sound and theater projection.”
His conclusion: “Curators should become less visible and instead suggest indicative pathways while relinquishing a cartographing of the future which is always already the past.”
