World of Art
Workshop No. 5 - Suzana Milevska: Catalogue text workshop
13-14 April 2007
Project room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
Deadline for submitting applications: April 3, 2007
12 April (Thursday) at 8 pm
Curator as a Translator
Public lecture
Project room SCCA
Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
13 April (Friday)
10.00 -11.30
A Voice of One’s Own:
catalogue text as an example of performative writing
Introductory lecture
Catalogue text is a piece of interdisciplinary and performative writing. Most importantly each exhibition has a certain concept that needs to be clarified with the catalogue essay. However, there are other requirements that a thorough catalogue essay needs to fulfil. On the one hand, many relevant data need to be clearly presented throughout the text so often takes a long research to collect and select the necessary information. On the other hand, the catalogue text is a text after all so each writer has to find his/her own voice through the process of writing.
Therefore the writing of the catalogue text happens by a performative entanglement of these three radically different aspects: the extrapolation of the concept, collecting and analysis of necessary information (about the works, or issues related to the exhibition) and the personal quest for one’s own unique voice (of the writer/curator).
Theoretical concepts, literature and certain creative writing methods can help the writer in finding the appropriate writing approach for each exhibition and catalogue text. However, I want to argue that the catalogue text is a unique genre that is neither only theoretical text, nor just another literature genre. It is also far from pure description or retrieval of the artistic concepts and expressions. Therefore even though it is open to experiments and variability there are certain specific rules of this genre and only by following these rules it can justify its existence.
Suggested literature:
Kemal, Salim and Ivan Gaskell. Eds. The Language of Art History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Austin. J.L., How to do things with Words. Ed. by J. O. Urmson and Marina Sbisa. Second Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Wollheim, Richard. Art and its Objects. Second edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980
12.00-13.30
Sub-genres of Catalogue Texts
The already existing different exhibition models (individual, monographic, retrospective, thematic, historicised, or biennial international exhibitions), as well as the recent development of different exhibition models (on-line, collaborative, participatory, etc.) require re-thinking of the genre itself.
The main questions of this session are how should one adapt and change the writing methods, forms, vocabulary, etc., when writing different texts and how this affects “one’s own voice.”
13.30 – 15.00 Break
15.00 - 15.30
Preparation of the close reading workshop
Organisation of the order of reading of different textual samples, forming groups of participants according to the chosen texts, etc.
15.30 – 17.30
Close reading workshop
The questions that in the previous session had been tackled generally and theoretically during this session will be exemplified on some samples of the proposed texts. The texts for the session of close reading will be available to the participants in advance and they are asked to choose one text each for the close reading session.
Samples of catalogue texts available for reading and selection:
Marina Abramovic, Oxford: Museum of Modern Art – Oxford, 1995 (monographic exhibition).
Archipelago, Stockholm: Cultural Capital of Europe, 1998 (group international project).
Manifesta 2 and 4, Luxembourg, 1998 and Frankfurt, 2002 (International Biennial).
Capital and Gender, Skopje: Museum of the City of Skopje, 2001.
Eternal Recurrence 4, Skopje: Press to Exit project space, 2006 (individual project).
Interrupted Histories, Ljubljana: Moderna Galerija, 2006 (research project and exhibition).
Correspondences, IFA – Berlin, Bonne, Stuttgart, 2001 (curatorial exhibition).
18.00-19.00
Q/A session about the assignment
Discussion about the specific issues related to the writing of the text required for the last day of the workshop.
14 April (Saturday)
10.00 – 14.00
Presentation of the written texts
14.00 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 17.30
Division in groups and discussion of the written texts
17.30 – 19.00
Groups get together and present their remarks and conclusions
General requirements:
With each application the candidates should submit a CV with bibliography, a motivation letter, an older written and/or published text and an idea (abstract of 150 words) of what they would write and present in the workshop.
Preparation:
All participants should get familiar with all catalogues (available at SCCA library) and should select at least one text each for discussion (during the session of close reading). In addition, a week before the commencement of the course the selected participants are invited to discuss the workshop structure (http://www.gender-wise.blogspot.com), in order to enrich its content and facilitate its success.
The applications and supporting materials send to:
svetumetnosti@scca-ljubljana.si
The deadline for submitting applications is April 3, 2007.
Suzana Milevska (1961) is a visual culture theorist and curator and currently works as a Director and Lecturer in Visual Culture at the Visual and Cultural Research Centre “Euro-Balkan” Institute in Skopje. She received her PhD at the Visual Culture Department at Goldsmiths College in London. In 2004 she was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at Library of Congress and she also received P. Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship (2001) and ArtsLink Grant (1999). Since 1992 she curated over 70 art projects in Skopje, Istanbul, Stockholm, Berlin, Bonn, Stuttgart, Leipzig, etc. She was one of the curators of the Cosmopolis Balkan Biennial in Thessalonica (2004) and of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005 – National Gallery in Prague. Her publications include “From a Bat’s Point of View” in Eduardo Kac, edited by Peter Tomaz Dobrila and Aleksandra Kostić (Maribor, 2000), 47-58; Capital and Gender, edited by Suzana Milevska (Skopje, 2001); “The Readymade and the Question of Fabrication of Objects and Subjects” in Primary Documents - A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s (New York, 2002), 182-191; “The portrait of an artist as a young ‘strategic essentialist’” in Tanja Ostojić - Strategies of Success / Curators Series 2001-2003, (Belgrade, 2004), 33-43; “Curatorial Labyrinths in Macedonia”, Men in Black – Handbook of Curatorial Practice, Ed. Christoph Tannert/Ute Tischchler, Kűnstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2004). “Hesitations, or About Political and Cultural Territories” in Cultural Territories, edited by Barbara Steiner, Julia Schäfer and Ilina Koralova (Köln, 2005), 31-43; “Is Balkan Art History Global” in Is Art History Global, edited by James Elkins, (New York, 2006), “Resistance that Cannot Be Recognised as Such – interview with Gayatri C. Spivak” in New Feminism: worlds of feminism, queer and networking conditions, Löcker Verlag (Vienna, in print) and in Conversations with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, London: Seagull Books, 2007.
13-14 April 2007
Project room SCCA, Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
Deadline for submitting applications: April 3, 2007
12 April (Thursday) at 8 pm
Curator as a Translator
Public lecture
Project room SCCA
Metelkova 6, Ljubljana
13 April (Friday)
10.00 -11.30
A Voice of One’s Own:
catalogue text as an example of performative writing
Introductory lecture
Catalogue text is a piece of interdisciplinary and performative writing. Most importantly each exhibition has a certain concept that needs to be clarified with the catalogue essay. However, there are other requirements that a thorough catalogue essay needs to fulfil. On the one hand, many relevant data need to be clearly presented throughout the text so often takes a long research to collect and select the necessary information. On the other hand, the catalogue text is a text after all so each writer has to find his/her own voice through the process of writing.
Therefore the writing of the catalogue text happens by a performative entanglement of these three radically different aspects: the extrapolation of the concept, collecting and analysis of necessary information (about the works, or issues related to the exhibition) and the personal quest for one’s own unique voice (of the writer/curator).
Theoretical concepts, literature and certain creative writing methods can help the writer in finding the appropriate writing approach for each exhibition and catalogue text. However, I want to argue that the catalogue text is a unique genre that is neither only theoretical text, nor just another literature genre. It is also far from pure description or retrieval of the artistic concepts and expressions. Therefore even though it is open to experiments and variability there are certain specific rules of this genre and only by following these rules it can justify its existence.
Suggested literature:
Kemal, Salim and Ivan Gaskell. Eds. The Language of Art History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Austin. J.L., How to do things with Words. Ed. by J. O. Urmson and Marina Sbisa. Second Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Wollheim, Richard. Art and its Objects. Second edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1980
12.00-13.30
Sub-genres of Catalogue Texts
The already existing different exhibition models (individual, monographic, retrospective, thematic, historicised, or biennial international exhibitions), as well as the recent development of different exhibition models (on-line, collaborative, participatory, etc.) require re-thinking of the genre itself.
The main questions of this session are how should one adapt and change the writing methods, forms, vocabulary, etc., when writing different texts and how this affects “one’s own voice.”
13.30 – 15.00 Break
15.00 - 15.30
Preparation of the close reading workshop
Organisation of the order of reading of different textual samples, forming groups of participants according to the chosen texts, etc.
15.30 – 17.30
Close reading workshop
The questions that in the previous session had been tackled generally and theoretically during this session will be exemplified on some samples of the proposed texts. The texts for the session of close reading will be available to the participants in advance and they are asked to choose one text each for the close reading session.
Samples of catalogue texts available for reading and selection:
Marina Abramovic, Oxford: Museum of Modern Art – Oxford, 1995 (monographic exhibition).
Archipelago, Stockholm: Cultural Capital of Europe, 1998 (group international project).
Manifesta 2 and 4, Luxembourg, 1998 and Frankfurt, 2002 (International Biennial).
Capital and Gender, Skopje: Museum of the City of Skopje, 2001.
Eternal Recurrence 4, Skopje: Press to Exit project space, 2006 (individual project).
Interrupted Histories, Ljubljana: Moderna Galerija, 2006 (research project and exhibition).
Correspondences, IFA – Berlin, Bonne, Stuttgart, 2001 (curatorial exhibition).
18.00-19.00
Q/A session about the assignment
Discussion about the specific issues related to the writing of the text required for the last day of the workshop.
14 April (Saturday)
10.00 – 14.00
Presentation of the written texts
14.00 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 17.30
Division in groups and discussion of the written texts
17.30 – 19.00
Groups get together and present their remarks and conclusions
General requirements:
With each application the candidates should submit a CV with bibliography, a motivation letter, an older written and/or published text and an idea (abstract of 150 words) of what they would write and present in the workshop.
Preparation:
All participants should get familiar with all catalogues (available at SCCA library) and should select at least one text each for discussion (during the session of close reading). In addition, a week before the commencement of the course the selected participants are invited to discuss the workshop structure (http://www.gender-wise.blogspot.com), in order to enrich its content and facilitate its success.
The applications and supporting materials send to:
svetumetnosti@scca-ljubljana.si
The deadline for submitting applications is April 3, 2007.
Suzana Milevska (1961) is a visual culture theorist and curator and currently works as a Director and Lecturer in Visual Culture at the Visual and Cultural Research Centre “Euro-Balkan” Institute in Skopje. She received her PhD at the Visual Culture Department at Goldsmiths College in London. In 2004 she was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at Library of Congress and she also received P. Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship (2001) and ArtsLink Grant (1999). Since 1992 she curated over 70 art projects in Skopje, Istanbul, Stockholm, Berlin, Bonn, Stuttgart, Leipzig, etc. She was one of the curators of the Cosmopolis Balkan Biennial in Thessalonica (2004) and of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005 – National Gallery in Prague. Her publications include “From a Bat’s Point of View” in Eduardo Kac, edited by Peter Tomaz Dobrila and Aleksandra Kostić (Maribor, 2000), 47-58; Capital and Gender, edited by Suzana Milevska (Skopje, 2001); “The Readymade and the Question of Fabrication of Objects and Subjects” in Primary Documents - A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s (New York, 2002), 182-191; “The portrait of an artist as a young ‘strategic essentialist’” in Tanja Ostojić - Strategies of Success / Curators Series 2001-2003, (Belgrade, 2004), 33-43; “Curatorial Labyrinths in Macedonia”, Men in Black – Handbook of Curatorial Practice, Ed. Christoph Tannert/Ute Tischchler, Kűnstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2004). “Hesitations, or About Political and Cultural Territories” in Cultural Territories, edited by Barbara Steiner, Julia Schäfer and Ilina Koralova (Köln, 2005), 31-43; “Is Balkan Art History Global” in Is Art History Global, edited by James Elkins, (New York, 2006), “Resistance that Cannot Be Recognised as Such – interview with Gayatri C. Spivak” in New Feminism: worlds of feminism, queer and networking conditions, Löcker Verlag (Vienna, in print) and in Conversations with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, London: Seagull Books, 2007.
posted by Suzana at 11:46 PM
4 Comments:
Dear Suzana and dear workshop group!
I am Ivana, one of the participants of the workshop, and very much looking forward to it. The workshop is very well structured, I think, especially the emphasis on performative writing seems interesting in conjuntion with your concept of curator as translator. I think it might be good for each participant, before the workshop, to reflect upon our own previous experiences of writing cat. texts or writing in general, and identify moments, questions and layers that seem the most problematic or the most precious in the writing process and reulting texts. I think it's very important to keep these in mind as we go through discussing 'sub-genres' and do close reading, so that we can always refer and relate to our own experiences, which, I feel, should be an importanat focus of discussion, regardless of how much or little experience each one of us has had.
As for my writing assignment, I thought to use the opportunity and write a text that i have to write anyway, but i'm not so sure that we should have to have the assignment to come up with new texts 'over-night', i.e. for the second day of the workshop. Instead, maybe it would be more efficient to choose an already written text, that we would all have read before, and discuss it in the light of things we talked about in the workshop or maybe even we could try 'rewriting' these existing texts into new ones, intervening, erasing or changing things, try thinking about them in a different way...
Maybe new texts could be written in the week after the workshop and discussed over email...
Of course, it is also a challenge to have a full 2-days marathon and write new texts in one evening, but maybe we shouldn't keep this defined and see how we feel about it in the process.
That's just some thoughts, looking forward to meet and work/perform!
Best, ivana
Dear Ivana,
Thank you very much for your prompt and relevant comments in regard to the structure and concept of the workshop.
I find particularly useful your idea to start the 'sub-genres' session with participants'
introduction of their previous work/text. I also hope that you've already chosen an extract from the proposed catalogues as well so during the 'sub-genres' part we can go into comparison and critical discursive analysis.
Since you already had some ideas about the text you want to write that you would like to deal with social and political engagement(about the exhibition Sveto prokletstvo) I would encourage you to think in this direction: the text does not necesserily have to be a completely new work. Please bear on mind that this workshop is not dealing with writing critical texts/reviews. However, I emphasise that for me it would be interesting to see how some of the discussions during the workshop may concretely contribute towards writing a completely new essay. Therefore the idea to write something as a draft for the second day and then continue the discussion through this blog appealed more to me than only to present already existing texts.
I can only regret that the time is really short for writing a text but luckilly the texts won't be published immediately after the workshop so there will be enough time to develop them and edit them later. The texts should not be long either, two-three pages the most, at least in this phase.
I look forward to our "workshop marathon".
Dear Suzana,
Thank you for your answer and encouraging comments!
I was only confused with the Sveto prokletsvo exhibition because I never mentioned it - but I should apologize because I haven't yet sent you the application materials! (I'll try to do it as soon as possible). The text I planned to write is a catalogue text for a group show that I already curated, but the catalogue is going to be published later, so this will definitely be a great opportunity to start working on it. Working on (our own) already existing texts seemed interesting as an experiment - to reconsider texts that we already wrote, not just to present them or dicuss them but to try to rewrite them, open them again in a way. But then again you get a new text :-) - so yes, i definitely agree that we should have an assignment even if it's just to do a draft, and it is really great of you to offer the possibility and your time to keep the discussion going on the blog even after the workshop!
Lookig forward and all the best,
Ivana
Dear Ivana,
Interestingly enough, your comments are very much on the line of deconstruction, the theoretical model that I've been following in my writing since my beginnings. I hope to clarify more about this model of thinking and writing during the first part of the workshop...
As for the confusion, I apologise for this to you and to the other candidates. I did receive some materials and I assumed wrongly who wrote one of the proposals.
Suzana
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