a revolt swallowing device?

The media artist Achim Mohne speaks of a component in his installations, the part the prevents you from focusing on the "screen" and refocuses you on the beam itself, as a "light swallowing device." I was drawn to repost the announcement below of a series of projects that will be featured at Frieze Art Fair this weekend. It speaks of the projects as "establishing a counter-public sphere that radically envisions change on the economic, political and cultural levels." A few sentences before it also includes the timing of the event "Each day (including the VIP preview on October 14th)". The immediate questions are there, how public of a sphere was Frieze or rather for what public and what does it mean to radically envision change in such a place? What is the appropriate response to the incorporation of revolt that occurs within the safety of that which is already rendered mute? Perhaps someone should launch a bid on these works [where is the National Conceptual Procurement Bureau when you most need it?] offer to pay some of those soft earned stimulus dollars for a few authentic "impossible exchanges," maybe even take out a loan at a constantly variable interest rate to buy a few of those project. What would the appraisal report look like for the impossible exchange? And to point the finger back towards the questioning body, what about spaces like this? RISD speaks but who listens, if there are urgent messages being spoken in our community, how do we get them out from within without their point of origin rendering them mute?

'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects, curated by Filipa Oliveira & Miguel Amado

'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects

Curated by Lisbon-based curatorial team Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado

Frieze Art Fair
Regent's Park
London NW1
Phone: +351 964845015
Contact: Miguel Amado
miguelamadoprojects@gmail.com

www.friezeartfair.com

Frieze Art Fair
Regent's Park, London
October 15-18
11am-7pm (Sunday until 6pm)

IMPOSSIBLE EXCHANGE
Curated by Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado
Commissioned for Frieze Projects

Frieze Art Fair
October 15 – 18, 2009

The Lisbon-based curatorial team Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado is presenting 'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects at Frieze Art Fair that plays on the transactional nature of the art fair. 'Impossible Exchange' comprises works by Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle, Fia Backstrőm, Joana Bastos, Carolina Caycedo, Brina Thurston and Carey Young.

Exchange is central to everyday life, permeating all social fields – from the biological to the legal to the aesthetic. In the art market, of which the fair is an epiphenomenon, exchange plays the key role. This framework inspires 'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects and curated by the Lisbon-based curatorial team Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado. Its title is borrowed from an expression coined by French theorist Jean Baudrillard, who once wrote that 'Everything which sets out to exchange itself for something runs up, in the end, against the Impossible Exchange Barrier.' This project consists of a series of daily participatory events that play on the transactional nature of the art fair. Each day (including the VIP preview on October 14th), artists Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle, Fia Backstrőm, Joana Bastos, Carolina Caycedo, Brina Thurston and Carey Young orchestrate different performances and displays at the booth of 'Impossible Exchange'. Mining institutional critique, community-based movements, self-organization traditions and activism, these proposals address the production of symbolic value in the 'age of questioned capitalism' – an expression suggested by the current global financial crisis. Through the socially engaged practice of these artists, 'Impossible Exchange' establishes a counter-public sphere that radically envisions change on the economic, political and cultural levels.

Frieze Projects is a programme of artists' commissions and other projects organized annually at Frieze Art Fair. It is curated by Neville Wakefield and this year includes seven new works as well as The Cartier Award and collaborations with 2009 partner institution and curatorial team CAC Vilnius (Lithuania) and Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado (Portugal).

Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado is a Lisbon-based curatorial team. Recent projects include the participation in 'No Soul for Sale: A Festivals of Independents' at the X Initiative in New York, with the project 'If You Don't Know What the South Is It's Simply Because You Are From the North'. Parallel to their joint practice, they both develop individual careers as curators and critics both in Portugal and internationally.

VENUE
Frieze Art Fair
Regent's Park
London NW1
www.friezeartfair.com

For further information, please contact Miguel Amado at miguelamadoprojects@gmail.com or +351 964845015.

Posted by Daniel Peltz

Oct 16, 2009

mairead said...

Safe spaces are rendered talky not mute.
Muteness, the solid holding pen when response is redundant, is aspirational.
Muteness, more articulate than talk, glossy substitute for communication.
Language manifests the Impossible Exchange Barrier which is constantly being breached and even more constantly being reinforced. Who speaks from the heart? With best thought? With best attempt to meet questions, without agenda? Who even speaks courageously? The problem is not the desirability of compromise, strategy, the anodyne in the workplace; it is how art flourishes in this workplace. The Impossible Exchange is performed in art schools, as well as language. It may seem that the exchange cannot happen because it is impossible but such is not the case. The Impossible Exchange occurs. Words I associate with Impossible Exchange include individual, gesture, hesitation, brokenness. How can words like leadership, program, accreditation, management be associated with Impossible Exchange? How can these words perform it?

RISDspeaks

a revolt swallowing device?

'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects, curated by Filipa Oliveira & Miguel Amado

'Impossible Exchange', a project commissioned for Frieze Projects

Curated by Lisbon-based curatorial team Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado

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