by Jelena Vesic
For this week of the magazine workshop, Simon Sheikh proposed a discussion on the positionality of the speaking subject: how it is constituted, and how does it appear as credible within a specific discourse?
An introductory session on Wednesday morning was held in the Documenta Halle - a space with shockingly violet carpets and definitely less colorful tables covered by neatly disposed magazines from all around the world. We entered the so-called Kabinett 2 and the dialogue slowly began. Simon's question sounded to me as a good tip for the brief and clear introduction of each magazine initiative participating there and I expected this introductory part to be short in order to open the more exciting second round of the 'real discussion'. But maybe I was just overinfluenced by Dmitry Vilensky's urgent words from the call for the discussion about avant-garde. He actually said that the people who experiment with working collectivelly in non-hierarchical structures and base their practice on confrontational relations to the cultural industry are anxious to develop a common terminology, despite all the differences. Unfortunately, I didn't find this urgency happening here and the talk started as a very slow and hesitant flow of introductions of the participating representatatives of the collectives, obviously showing a certain tentativeness to take up any position.
So in the end, we got the two hours long of descriptive presentations, which narrated the processes of coming and working together, which language(s) it uses, and how to relate this to the processes of translation in the situation of working at the same time locally and internationally, and how the context of work affects our political position. Ok. maybe the latest thing was discussed only in between the lines and in my imagination. Long gaps of silence were also symbolic contributions to the discussion entitled Speaking Subjects. The participants avoided conflicts and discussions very carefully and skillfully, even in the case where somebody started to talk about national public sphere and international promotion.
What do we have in common really, except for cultural politness? Is this magazine week just another attempt to think politics through the forms of culturalization that Boris Buden has written about extensively?
What does the documenta magazines platform offer to its participants? Networking-Notworking!!!
Would it be all again about the new fad of discussion? Knowledge production against art objects? The aesthetization of social relations?
No thanks.
We all hope that upcoming discussions are going to change this impression and that people will get more [self]organized and [inter]focused. Maybe this is all a consequence of the fear that if the things are more structured it will be immediately considered as imposed and curated from above. Maybe we should not forget that documenta magazines project was already criticized for the principle of selecting participating magazines according to their interests to reply to the topics formulated by the curators. Let's say that the sensitive structure of non-curated discussion is the reason for such a weak start. And let's hope that in the following days we find an exit from the labyrinth of questions like: is translation a form of gentrification?
At the end I would like to list the participants of the first roundtable:
Magazine EXINDEX, Budapest
Internet-based contemporary art magazine available in Hungarian and English. Alongside news, current events and issues of the contemporary art scene of Budapest, its columns are dedicated to in-depth analysis, instant theory and explicit critique. Based on the characteristic features of network technology, it is published with continuous updates, and cross-reference applications, completed with a database-supported expanding archive. Founded: 2000
Editor-in-chief: Balázs Beöthy, Nikolett Erőss
www.exindex.hu
Magazine RIZOMA, São Paulo
Published in Portuguese and devoted to contemporary activism and arts as well as other themes such as globalization, Latin American and Brazilian affairs or electronic culture and music. It provides a wide data-pool for reflection and action, with diverse articles, interviews, translations, literary texts, poetry and reports on activist and underground movements, old and new. Linked from its beginning to Brazilian tactical media scene and collectives, rizoma.net provides a counter-informational filter where politics and arts are thought of without prejudice. Founded: 2000 Editor-in-chief: Ricardo Rosas (2000-2007) and André Mesquita (since May 2007)
www.rizoma.net
Magazine CHTO DELAT from Russia.
Chto Delat opens a space between theory, art, and activism with the goal of politicizing of all three types of praxis. It includes artists (Tsaplya and Glucklya, Nikolai Oleinikov, Kirill Shuvalov, and Dmitry Vilensky), philosophers (Artem Magun, Oxana Timofeeva, Alexei Penzin), and writers (David Riff, Alexander Skidan) based in Petersburg and Moscow. The group was founded in the spring of 2003 in the action "The Refoundation of Petersburg."
Chto delat has been publishing an English-Russian newspaper on issues central to engaged culture, with a special focus on the relationship between a repoliticization of Russian intellectual culture and its broader international context. These newspapers are usually produced in the context of collective initiatives such as art projects or conferences.
www.chtodelat.org
And besides them, Andrea Greyer, artist, [NY], Ashley Hunt artist, [LA], Katja Sander, artist from Berlin, Irina Sandomirskaja and of course, our moderator Simon Sheikh.
LabforCulture is a partner initiative of the European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture is grateful for the support provided by its funders.
