from joshua decter-

hello from new york.

a brief comment on the "academy and the corporate public" event in bergen:

there is an important issue that needs to be raised, but which always

generates much anxiety, and it concerns how & why art practice -- conceived &

deployed as an instrument of social/political critique has -- at least within

the united states, almost completely migrated into -- and become neutralized

by -- the academy. this is not a new observation or condition, but it is

worthwhile considering in terms of the disconnection between various cultural

publics and various possibilities of "criticality."

this is related to the neutralization of critique that was an inevitable

by-product of the success of certain artists associated with strategies of

"institutional critique," particularly as they became increasingly absorbed

into the museological system-- a system, of course, that such artists had

always cultivated expertise in relation to, a system that required careful

infiltration in order to stage or detonate "critical unpacking."

the public sphere in the united states, particularly in terms of expressions

of oppositional culture or critical debate & discourse has atrophied (yes,

corporate culture is partially responsible, and the after-effects of 9-11 are

increasingly transparent in terms of waning of oppositional voices).

the academy, here, however, does not seem particularly interested in

activating the public beyond its specialized audiences & constituencies, the

museum system here has become post-political (or, at least, neutered), and

the gallery system- well, we know about ports of commercial distribution,

wherein gestures of criticality merely become just another version of

idiosyncratic entertainment that subverts nothing more than

the european theater, in its complexities, cannot be so easily generalized,

particularly in terms of the question of state/federal funding for culture

(an intrinsically "public" responsibility that the united states government

has abandoned), or transitions into increasing privatization and

corporatization within certain european contexts.

just some preliminary (and unsolicited) thoughts for today.

best,