This
year I have asked myself ”What is the
purpose of Supermarket”? Its my understanding that Supermarket began, under
the name of Minimarket, as a reaction to Market (the highbrow contemporary arts
fair for commercial galleries held in Stockholm every spring). Where Market was
highbrow and commercial, Mini/Supermarket was meant to be underground, chaotic (though participation was still
subjected to a selection process) and focused on artist-run spaces.
But
the question that I ask myself in Supermarket (and not so much in Market though
maybe I should), is whether Supermarket is meant to show art to the
art viewers/consumers or to function as a networking forum for the activists
behind these spaces. It is unclear.
On
one hand there are a series of meetings and talks to with the public is not
invited. This supports the networking theory. On the other hand it is a fair
open to the public, with galleries showing (some sort or other of) art to this
public.
A
person from one of the spaces said that he thought much of the work presented
was pretty bad, and that as a forum it resembles Market quite a lot, since the art isnt very underground or
alternative. Should it be? Wouldn’t that lead to a possible exclusion of
many spaces if they dont fit into northern European standards for good and underground. But then, isn’t that an argument where, between the
lines, we assume that many spaces from other places than Northern Europe don’t
have art that qualifies as good and underground?
As it is the question is quite relevant: Is the purpose of
Supermarket to show qualitative
underground art or present underground(?)
- artist-run – spaces (as an opposition to the commercial galleries in Market)?
But then, is there such a difference between the artist-run spaces of Supermarket
and the commercial galleries of Market if they show more or less the same type
of work (except perhaps, often, the Supermarket works tend to be a bit less
qualitative)? Because if there is no real opposition, then that person with
whom I was talking was right; Supermarket needs its own …well the ”BRAND
OUTLET” or something. Archenemy. Or it needs to ”ömsa skinn”, transform itself.
Become anew that place where an opposition (to what?) is formulated.
So
perhaps that is the question with which I should concern myself: What type of
opposition (and to what?) is needed no, what are the conflict, opinion- and
dividing lines of the contemporary artscene?
Of
course Ive seen/felt some stuff that is worth remembering:
Platform
Vaasa had project that felt both relevant, acute and adequate for this setting
(and that would never, in that form, get into Market).
At the Supermarket Art Fair, Platform hosts a participatory installation/performance entitled ‘The climate change concern studio’ by Swedish artist Patrik Qvist. He started working with the project during his stay at Platform’s residency in spring 2013.
I identify as D. Where do you find yourself?
I guess personally I just find it really fascinating when someone clears the dust from the discussion to actually find out (as mentioned before) where the dividing lines are. I think this is necessary for a productive and constructive discussion about how to drive change, and if, why and what change that ought to be.
After deciding what corner you find yourself in you could photograph yourself with a cardboard sign saying something related (I never got a full look-through of the options). This here is the background.
The photographs were then placed on the wall (and you got your own copy of course). According the person that I talked to from this art space, the idea of the photos were placed was purely aesthetical. This is the only thing I was disappointed by in the work - its started out attempting to crystallize out some actual differences in how we position ourselves to a possibly very serious problem, but it ended with simply representing these differences as a flat mass of "individuals". That was a bit boring. It would have been way more polemic, challenging and interesting to group the photographs in accordance to the opinions expressed. (Why do get the feeling it would be more challenging? I mean, people are already being public with their opinion so its not like grouping them would really show something that isn't already there(...). Yet the opinions seem more exposed somehow if the photos are grouped, it makes it impossible to "hide in the mass". Which I think would be more interesting).
Anyhow, it was cool, and pretty.
Other stuff.
I talked for a while with a guy from OEI http://www.oei.nu/ with the innocent purpose to figure out what they do (since we sit in the same building in the Stockholm). I figured out as much as they being some sort of publishing house with focus on poetry-theory-text-art sort of. They make these really dense barely readable books that Ive always sort of liked as objects but never really figured out how to approach. Anyhow. I bought a book there. It was the smallest book that they had, and it totally made my day. It makes me truly happy and full of crazy thought and wonder. My best regards to the author Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson. The title of the book is "?" (unfortunately thereby sharing aesthetic with "Vad är konst?" (Ernst Billgren) etc book series.
My translation:
"Please, can't you say anything about love?"/ "Please, couldn't you tell me whatever about love?"
"Please, isn't it time to say something positive?"
"Oh, how do I know if a pin has fallen?"
"Isn't it unnecessarily thick asfalt in this spot?"
"In what way is every statement a question?"
"In what way are all breaths alike" (barely possible to translate that one, my excuses....)
"In what way am I doing right?"
"In what way does misfortune exist before it happens?"
"If you take away all sounds, one after another, will it be quiet then?"
"If you treat someone with respect, are you then guaranteed to be treated respectfully in return?"
"If you say sårbar (transl. vulnerable) quickly several times - what is it then?"
"If you need your drivers license now, then why do you behave the way you do right now?"
....and so on and so forth. Amazing.
?
Anyhow. That'll be enough for now.
140217
Stockholm
