Saturday, December 06, 2008

Documental as Anything


It was announced earlier in the week that
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev has been appointed curator of Documenta 13, to be held in Kassel, Germany in 2012. Most recently Christov-Bakargiev's claim to fame is curating the recent Biennale of Sydney, which according to MCA director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor (as quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald), helped the curator bag the prestigious job. In particular, Christov-Bakargiev's "bold use" of Cockatoo Island as a venue assured her the job. Macgregor was part of a nine-member international committee that selected Christov-Bakargiev.

While
Documenta is probably the most esteemed contemporary art event in the world. What The Artswipe finds so flabbergasting is the self-importance placed on such extravaganzas. What's with the nine member committee? Is this the United Nations or something? One of the problems with the artworld these days is how over-determined everything has to be. Because we all know that no matter how much importance is placed on who the curator is, or which artists the curator selects, we'll whinge about the show because, well, we weren't included! The Artswipe is hedging bets that whatever Australian artists are selected, they'll be drawn from the pool of Australian artists already represented in the recent Biennale: Shaun Gladwell, TV Moore, Mike Parr, Raquel Ormella, Tracey Moffatt, Vernon Ah Kee... take your pick. Or get together a group of nine artist friends and take your collective committee styled pick. Either that or dream of the day when the artworld holds Idol style auditions or Big Brother style evictions for these spectacularised international art events, because I know Paula Abdul would be The Artswipe's pick for curator.

9 comments:

Skanky Jane said...

You have such good ideas Artswipe!! Hysterical! SJ xx

Anonymous said...

I can see clearly now, and free market fantasies of recent years have failed, there really are no rich art collectors hanging out to spend big on the rampant pseudo prestige of the commercial galleries. Also, there is no Santa Claus and no Tooth Fairy. Should we go back in time, to when crappy left wing demagogues were taken seriously (well, some of them)? I mean, did you feel bad for Helen Razer when she was sacked from ABC radio, didya? Let's start dressing ourselves like Joseph Beuys!

Grice

Anonymous said...

before i even got to your second paragraph i thought oh okay i bet the australian contingent at this next documenta will be ....
and then i read what you wrote about it was like dejavu and i was spooked i tell you

but did you hear about a idol applicant (aparently a abdul stalker) committed suicide outside her house this week!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6416177&page=1

Anonymous said...

that's DOCTOR Paula Abdul!

Anonymous said...

btw I swear I have seen the new MCA extension sucking a cafe latte in Crows Nest. lol.

Grice

Anonymous said...

I'm with you Swiper. Anyone can see that she would make a much better school librarian than a hot shot art curator. Apart from that what's so good about discovering Cockatoo Island ? What about all the retrenched ship builders that were dragged off there to make way for the art show! So bourgeois! What I want to know is where are our ships being patched up now. Probably in some shady (foreign) backwater with cheap labour or Qantas engineers.

Anonymous said...

Call me old fashioned but I thought the Revolution was for the people not in spite of them. Did Mike Parr piss all over those blue collar workers' clothes to show his contempt for the ordinary Australian working family(man)? This so called revolution is nothing more than a consipiracy. Its rummoured that the Biennale silent partner was Pat Corrigan. As for Liz Anne McGregor she has to be a CIA plant. I never fell for that fake Scottish accent. Come on. Have you ever wondered why the staff at the MCA look at you as if they know more than you do? Its because they do. They know your just another proletariat sucker feeding off the bourgeois art teat. Get real folks the revolution is nigh but its not at some obsfucating art wank.

Anonymous said...

Yippee! The revolution will not be circumsised!

Grice

mikofanclub said...

is that dog wearing a wig?