In her text, Carolee Tea labels mega-exhibitions and biennials to be experimenting, investigating and liberating (Tea & Micchelli, 2009). However, what remains sceptical is whether all the mega events will still maintain the energy and spirit to further advance rigorous research and open dialogues in carrying out contemporary art practice. The 2022 Jimei x Arles International Photography Art Fair (2022-2023) could be an example. Apart from being heavily impeded by the pandemic, this annual art event was slowly losing its prosperity. One reason is about the insufficient financial support from the government, while the other is its gradual transformation from a one-off experimentation to a conformed agenda.
Being a staff member of the curatorial department, I witnessed how the fair failed to achieve its ambition and compromised reality. Not only did it fail to realize the aforementioned three characteristics, the event turned out to be a banal display room for piles of images rather than a laboratory for inspiration, or a meditation room for contemplation. In a sense, to recuperate the experimental spirit in contemporary art, art institutions need to constantly re-calibrate their positionality while performing consecutive art practices. Perseverance in practising contemporary art requires both continual output and inward reflection.
Figure 1-6. Images taken in the mentioned exhibition at different times and days. The above displays the video art installation REWE by artist collective Ritual Inhabitual (2022).
Due to technical issues, it failed to function multiple times. If one video did not function properly, all of the videos will need to be turned off in order to be synchronized. The problems started from day one and it has never been resolved, which posed negative impacts on the overall effect.
Compared to the above mega-events, another rising art phenomenon, the SVAOs, constructs a different landscape for contemporary curation. On a much smaller scale, these institutions operate diverse art events through “atomized public-making (Bilbao & Ana, 2018, p.137)”. With a relatively loose expectation-reward mechanism, it is foreseeable to incessantly generate alternative narratives with its flexibility and fluidity. Its existence amends the structural imperfection of large art institutions, which could serve to be complementary counterparts to further and resonate with contemporaneity.
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Reference:
Bilbao, Y. & Ana, E. (2018) Micro-Curating : The Role of SVAOs (Small Visual Arts Organisations) in the History of Exhibition-Making. pp. 137
JIMEI X ARLES 2022 INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL(2022-2023) [Exhibition]. Xiamen, Fujian, China. November 25, 2022 — January 3, 2023.
Ritual Inhabitual (2022) Mapuche. Available at: https://www.ritualinhabitual.com/proyects#/mapuche/ (Accessed: 05 April 2024).
The, C. & Micchelli, T. (2009) On curating : interviews with ten international curators / by Carolee Thea.First edition. New York, N.Y: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers.
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