Inside the Second White Cube

International Exhibition Make no Mistake! Fuga Museum, Budapest 11-12.2018

english below

Second Life to aplikacja zaprojektowana w 2003 r. przez Linden Research Inc., umożliwiająca prowadzenie równoległego życia w sztucznym świecie. W założeniu ta przestrzeń wirtualna miała być nieobarczona błędami ziemskiego życia – jednakże, jak się okazuje, gracze wznieśli tam kapitalistyczną, drapieżną dystopię. Hasło gry – Your world. Your imagination (Twój świat, twoja wyobraźnia) – sugeruje pełną sprawczość i wolność uczestnika.

Początkową ideą projektu było stworzenie »drugiej« tożsamości naszego duetu artystycznego i realizacja koncepcji white cube – idealnej przestrzeni na potrzeby galerii sztuki. Tekst Biały sześcian od wewnątrz. Ideologia przestrzeni galerii pióra Briana O’Doherty’ego z 1976 r. opisuje rozwiązanie wystawiennicze – pusty, biały sześcian – mające na celu pozwolić na bezwzględny odbiór dzieła sztuki.
Widzimy najpierw nie sztukę, a przestrzeń. [. . . ] Biały sześcian jest zazwyczaj widziany jako symbol wyobcowania artysty ze społeczeństwa, do którego galeria jednakże daje dostęp. Jest to przestrzeń getta, obóz przetrwania, proto-muzeum łączące bezpośrednio z wiecznością, zestaw warunków, postawa, miejsce pozbawione lokalizacji, refleks na nagich ścianach zewnętrznych, magiczna komnata, koncentracja umysłu, może pomyłka.
Nasza wirtualna wystawa nie przedstawia żadnych dzieł, lecz jedynie eksponuje fragmenty z esejów O’Doherty’ego. To prowokacyjna i ironiczna odpowiedź na próbę wprowadzenia »idealnych« warunków recepcyjnych – przestrzeń zawsze wpływa na prezentację i vice versa. Dążenie ku bezbłędności rodzi kolejne błędy i niezamierzone poboczne interpretacje.

 

Second Life is a computer program created by Linden Research Inc. in 2003. It allows its users to lead a parallel life in an artificial environment. The virtual world of Second Life was devised with the intention of freeing it of the flaws our earthly existence has; in actuality, what has since developed there is a voracious, capitalistic utopia. The game’s slogan – Your world. Your imagination – suggests the users’ complete self-governance and freedom. Initially, the project aimed at creating a »second« identity of the artistic duo and implementing the white cube concept – an ideal exhibition space. Brian O’Doherty’s 1976 essay, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, described a solution for exposition of art – that is, an empty white cube – that would make it possible for one to perceive the exhibits objectively.
We see not the art but the space first. [. . . ] The white cube is usually seen as an emblem of the estrangement of the artist from a society to which the gallery also provides access. It is a ghetto space, a survival compound, a proto-museum with a direct line to the timeless, a set of conditions, an attitude, a place deprived of location, a reflex to the bald curtain wall, a magic chamber, a concentration of mind, maybe a mistake.
Our virtual exhibition does not comprise any exhibits, except for short passages from O’Doherty’s book. This is a provocative and ironic response to the efforts towards »perfect« conditions – the space always influences the presentation, and vice versa. Striving for faultlessness leads to the appearing of further faults and unplanned side interpretations.

naN group, 2018

Project was a part of International Exhibition and Conference Make No Mistake! Error in Art – 2nd edition

Opening, December 24th, 2018, 6 p.m.

November 24th – December 9th, 2018

Venue: FUGA Budapest Centre of Architecture, Budapest

Technical errors that occur when a medium is used, as well as logical or cognitive errors, are commonly seen as challenges and obstacles in a creative process. However, errors can also offer a source of inspiration and an insight into otherwise unknown reality. The artist’s certainty about his or her intentions, and the viewer’s openness, seem necessary for their communication to succeed. But the way art is experienced often runs against the author’s concept and contrary to the viewer’s expectations. During the conference we would like to consider the situation of misreading those intentions as a potential for new, unexpected artistic and cognitive situations. Numerous achievements are made incidentally, that is, by accident, on the margin of conducted research and investigations, along the route taken to reach a different goal. Very often, they are made outside the author’s awareness, yet with the support of the viewer, who shows the courage to act against traditions or established rules. We are interested in the discrepancies that occur between the intention and effect of actions undertaken by artists and researchers. Thus described approach determines the illusion and uncertainty that reveal themselves en route to experience and intellectual cognition. We would also like to examine the anxiety or even true fear of making a mistake, which makes an impact on immediate and distant future.

We would like to interpret the notion of error and its economy in a broad theoretical context (historical, cultural, philosophical, sociological, and political), as something as yet unrecognised – potential obstacle or side effect that will bring unexpected results.

Make No Mistake conference and exhibition are organised as the second edition of Error in Art project. The first part of the project was organised by the Pedagogical University of Krakow in December 2016, in collaboration with partners from Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

Exhibition curators: Karolina Kolenda and Krzysztof Siatka

Participants:

AWACS (Peter Grzybowski, Maciej Toporowicz), Tony Cokes, Beata Długosz, Róża Duda, Wincenty Dunikowski-Duniko, Tomasz Dobiszewski, Zsolt Gyenes, Little Warsaw, NAN (Alicja i Adam Panasiewicz), Rafani, Michał Soja

Organisers:

Department of Art Theory and Artistic Education, Faculty of Art, the Pedagogical University of Krakow

Faculty of Art Foundation

Kaposvár University, Faculty of Art

Hungarian Electrographic Art Association / HEAA

Support:

The Pedagogical University of Krakow

The Adam Mickiewicz Institute