<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">linda carroli</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lcarroli@optusnet.com.au">lcarroli@optusnet.com.au</a>></span><br>
Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 10:06 PM<br>Subject: [-empyre-] The Commons<br>To: soft_skinned_space <<a href="mailto:empyre@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au">empyre@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au</a>><br><br><br>Final text. All texts available online starting from here:<br>
<a href="http://placing.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/discussion-biennials-plus-and-minus/" target="_blank">http://placing.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/discussion-biennials-plus-and-minus/</a><br>
<br>
The Commons<br>
<br>
Taking cues from the examples and critics cited here, the idea of the<br>
commons has emerged as a networked space of creative and generative<br>
possibility and risk. To recover is to reclaim. In shaping the commons, Jay<br>
Walljasper states that we "recognise some forms of wealth belong to all of<br>
us, and that these community resources must be actively protected and<br>
managed for the good of all. The commons are the things that we inherit and<br>
create jointly, and that will (hopefully) last for generations to come. The<br>
commons consists of gifts of nature such as air, oceans and wildlife as well<br>
as shared social creations such as libraries, public spaces, scientific<br>
research and creative works." <a href="http://www.onthecommons.org" target="_blank">http://www.onthecommons.org</a> However, there's<br>
never just one commons - the commons itself is multiple and complex, in<br>
process and becoming. Artists actively keep the commons alive in the face of<br>
all kinds of opposition, censorship and antagonism.<br>
<br>
So what kind of art and art event is integral to this becoming or emergence?<br>
Several essays in Empires, Ruins + Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in<br>
Art, edited by Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis, also explore the<br>
possibility of a new network of global cultural dialogue and the<br>
construction of a global common. What I see happening in post-disaster work<br>
of the three examples cited earlier is a sense of the 'becoming commons'<br>
emerging from ruins and loss in a situation of what Ross Gibson might<br>
describe as 'changefulness'. It's what I am inclined to think of as practice<br>
based, as 'changescaping' (work in progress at<br>
<a href="http://placing.wordpress.com/changescaping" target="_blank">http://placing.wordpress.com/changescaping</a>).<br>
<br>
How do we reconcile the sometimes exclusive and exclusionary cultural<br>
practices with this call for 'the commons' and emergence? Whose<br>
responsibility is it to do the bridging (politics, art or, as Papastergiadis<br>
proposes, the "politics of art"), generating those relationships or draw<br>
those connections? What should we risk? The very idea - the possibility, the<br>
assumption - of the Biennial itself. Ultimately, there's a question of<br>
governance and stewardship. As Brenson says, "we have to talk about art in<br>
ways in which everyone has something to lose". If critical art, as McQuire<br>
and Papastergiadis write, "increasingly take an active role in constituting<br>
new social relationships" - or as Richard Rorty proposes, "speaks<br>
differently" - curators have a pivotal role to play in cultivation and<br>
caring (curare), politics and poetics. We all have a role to play in the<br>
poiesis of the commons.<br>
<br>
Thanks so much ... look forward to your comments.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
Linda<br>
<br>
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