top o farm | Main / Comparative Studies

-TITLE: Now and ten years ago

-TIME: it will take place in the Kunstwerke Berlin probably in November/Decemver 2004, this year.

-MONEY: The show got 80.000 Euro funding from the Hauptstadt Kulturfonds, but in our calculation there are still 20.000 uncovered. The fundraising was done by Pro-Qm which then uses Kunstwerke as an institution to host the show. 80.000 might sound a lot but there goes a lot of money also to the Kunstwerke, to assistance and other matters of organisation. There are roughly 1.600 per artist, but that includes everything and we do not know the exact amount of artists yet.

-RESEARCH: We have agreed that Axel, Josef and I are responsible for different research groups and that also determines the approach we are taking: Josef is responsible for ARCHEOLOGY, I am taking care of COMPARATIVE STUDIES and Axel will work on investigating the point of reference. As you know the background and methodology of this show is the approach that Josef and I have tken at Pat Hearn Gallery in 1992/3. Katrin Pesch and Patterson Beckwith (he helped us back then) will be helping in this investigation.

-COMPARATIVE STUDIES: Looing back at the project in NY I found it very important that Josef and I were foreigner, looking at the recent past with a distance, physically as much as culturally. We were curious to find out what had happened because our desires were fuelling our imagination (in Germany and Austria) during the 1980s whe we heared of the great art scene, the parties and the artists of the East Village, but missed it. Then it became boring and over it was when we came to NY. So now, we could look back on our former dreams and desires. The research became twofold: ...for one we could find out and talk about these desires, now past ...but secondly we could use the investigation on the East village to talk about our avctual project FRIESENWALL, about self-enabeling and about the necessity of defining structures, context and distribution through the activities of this space. Here the East Village offered an interesting field for comparative studies. ...also we could contextualise the site of our production (Pat Hearn Gallery) back to its site-specific origins.

-ARTISTS In comparative studies:

Bmfs (Bergen museum for samtitskunst) Gardar &?Mathias?

The Stand (Carissa &?Jodi?)

White Cube/I.N.U.I.T. Kunsthalle (Endre, Janne, Andreas) who also worked together with Antek on the GENESIS Project.

Bernadette Corporation (Bernadette, Antek, John)

Friesenwall/Shnitzelshanke (Nils probably in collaboration with me)

Besides reasons of personal and professional appreciation I find it important that you work (or have worked) collectively and that you have given yourself structures that maintain a critical and reflected distance to the individual artists career, its distribution and proliferation.

As I wanted to show above I find it important for "comparative studies" that there is something to compare in order to approach the subject with a sound experience. All of you have followed the call to Berlin (some even in order to live there) but your practice and the need to form your own structures) comes from experience with other contexts, thats where your projects and strategies originated.

How could you make use of comparative studies to either

a) talk about Berlin (through your experience from outside)

b) talk about your activities and experience (through Berlin)

c) compare what you find in Berlin with what you find somewhere else.

I know that this somehow looks redundant, but in all cases I want to promote the use of a subjective view in this investigation. Berlin in the 90s is not a topic that was given to you from a curator in order to do an "objective" treament of the Berlin "case". More importantly I find to engage into a subjective relation that can offer insights both into Berlin and into your own agendas. To show that the subject-matter is constructed through a dialog that reflects from whom, from where and how this view is being thrown. Either through its similarities or difference to your topics.

Sounds probably more complicated than it is. Anyway, I hope you feel challenged and that this methodology is open enough to allow you allow you in.

I'm looking forward to get your feedback/critique on this effort to define our approach.

Also thinking of the catalog we should come up with some ideas about comparative studies, investigation and art, which is artistic research to approach our topic, the making of and the utilisation of bohemia. As much as artistic research vs the making of and the utilisation of bohemia.