Museums should maintain open positions- that said they are limmited not only by their curatorial and institutional limitations, but also by the way in which they create, gather and interact with audiences. As such I am suggesting the very easy position of doing artwork outside of such institutions, in collaboration with scenes, diy spaces, events, community groups etc. Working in dialogue or in residency (even self-appointed residency) with community groups or scenes.

I might not understand you though.

Or I’m I not

There is a problematic in here with regard to contemporary art institutions, of which the recently passed “political season” is a part– a homogenization of content and shows around topical events. But perhaps you are getting at something else.

One quibble (I am an ISPer, after all!)– I’m a little confused how the Zittel piece is representative of “reduction.” Do you mean the fact that her apartment has very little in it? Because surely in terms of underlying capital a Manhattan beauty such as that is not exactly “more-with-less…” Since Minimalism became part of corporate architecture, this sort of “clean” look has become synonymous with money and taste, no?

To Marc: artists indeed can and should place their practices in the service of various social agendas and movements. But I would be loathe to give up on art’s uniqueness as an “open” practice, one not fully hemmed in by capital or ideology. No matter how dire things get, asking questions, and doing so in challenging ways, retains value.

Check out Lee Lozano’s statement as a part of her participation in the Art Worker’s Coalition.

http://www.joaap.org/5/pdfs/awcdocuments%20Folder.1/leelozano.pdf

That sure is some art dreaming.

Class interests. Do artists share the same interests as the institutions you write about? Are artists allied with all who work for culture, even “progresive culture.” Have we accepted an implicit judgement, internalizing a negative self-image when we wonder why some artists get paid for their work and others have to teach, as the WAGE video expands upon? Is the acceptence of the “political artists” to any term of participation within a major musuem a capitulation to a system that asks for the semiotic of dissent when that political artist might have better used their skills elsewhere?

What is exciting in WAGE is their demand. Payment for work. I for one feel that in a time of political flux, artists should be going beyond the three R’s and their consumerist mentality and push agendas. So the WAGE call is cool.

Yet while a cultural czar may be pleasant (ignoring the monarchist notions of the title which are doubly creepy when joined with the notion of state sponsored culture) the radical role of the artists in times like these is to constitute with social groups radical agendas and push push push. Our agenda’s are only as visionary as our agendas and our understanding of art’s (understood as culture’s) ability to challenge and constitute power.

If we are at the edge of an economic freefall, if we are at the edge of environmental catastrophe- its interesting in the least that the Obama administration has managed (for a few days at least) to keep it together. This is not to question the severity of the crisis, this is not to question the Obama administration’s ability to govern. It is more to question the future social unraveling then redefining that will occur as America faces the end of our capitalist pillowcase, as America sits at the brink of environmental collapse. Artists can sit and idolize their peer’s window dressing on the museums, presenting radical semiotics meant to favorably shake the managerial class who govern with semiotics. At a certain level this work is very affective. But outside those windows is a world that is about to be changed dramatically, they say.

Artists, cultural workers, stand at the opportunity to be a part of making the new demands and social patterns that will be consituted through of these crisitunities (thank you Bekka Economopolous). We can work in our cohorts among activists and plumbers, bakers and preschool teachers to demand more then fair pay, we can demand the right to sue our employers for wasting our time and wasting the entire planets resources.