Making use:
Life in postartistic
times

Exposition collective
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw,
Varsovie, Pologne
19 février – 1er mai 2016

Commissariat Sebastian Cichocki et Kuba Szreder
Commissariat associé Stephen Wright

Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times includes an evolving exhibition, workspace, and a public program. The main issue raised during the project is the interweaving of art and other spheres of life. Art is “migrating” from museums and galleries into urban survival strategies, street protests, subversive advertising, campaigns to abolish bank debt, experiments with fog-catchers, critical cartography, agricultural cooperatives, alternative tourism, and the curricula of flying universities.

For the duration of the project, the museum will function as an information hub on practices with a high coefficient of art, shifting the center of gravity from the work of art to reports from other fields of life. The exhibition will develop over time, reaching its ultimate form on the closing date, May 1, 2016. The rest of the first floor of the Emilia building will be devoted to other functions: a workshop, an open office, an auditorium, a kitchen compound, and a relaxation zone.
One of the key questions raised at the exhibition is the issue of the status and competence of persons dabbling in this sort of post-art ­– in a world where the individual’s obligations to the community are being redefined and new global challenges arise. Must the work of artists be materialized in the form of works of art? What role can be performed by museums when art is radiating toward non-artistic circles, and, in so doing, loses the characteristics that have previously defined it as art?

Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times draws from Stephen Wright’s book Toward a Lexicon of Usership (2013). Wright calls for a critical confrontation with “conceptual edifices” which institutionalized art has been based on since the nineteenth century. He criticizes the replication of existing systems, standards of ownership, spectatorship, objecthood, and authorship. Instead, he postulates making use of art, and looks for a new formula in a Museum. Another touchstone is the theoretical texts of Jerzy Ludwiński, particularly his reflections on the postartistic age. In 1971 Ludwiński wrote: “Perhaps, even today, we do not deal with art. We might have overlooked the moment when it transformed itself into something else, something which we cannot yet name. It is certain, however, that what we deal with offers greater possibilities.”

Pièces exposées :
Portrait de Ludovic Chemarin le 18 juillet 2014 (photographie)
Portrait de Ludovic Chemarin© le 18 juillet 2014 (photographie)

Exposition collective
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw,
Varsovie, Pologne
19 février – 1er mai 2016

Commissariat Sebastian Cichocki et Kuba Szreder
Commissariat associé Stephen Wright

Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times includes an evolving exhibition, workspace, and a public program. The main issue raised during the project is the interweaving of art and other spheres of life. Art is “migrating” from museums and galleries into urban survival strategies, street protests, subversive advertising, campaigns to abolish bank debt, experiments with fog-catchers, critical cartography, agricultural cooperatives, alternative tourism, and the curricula of flying universities.

For the duration of the project, the museum will function as an information hub on practices with a high coefficient of art, shifting the center of gravity from the work of art to reports from other fields of life. The exhibition will develop over time, reaching its ultimate form on the closing date, May 1, 2016. The rest of the first floor of the Emilia building will be devoted to other functions: a workshop, an open office, an auditorium, a kitchen compound, and a relaxation zone.
One of the key questions raised at the exhibition is the issue of the status and competence of persons dabbling in this sort of post-art ­– in a world where the individual’s obligations to the community are being redefined and new global challenges arise. Must the work of artists be materialized in the form of works of art? What role can be performed by museums when art is radiating toward non-artistic circles, and, in so doing, loses the characteristics that have previously defined it as art?

Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times draws from Stephen Wright’s book Toward a Lexicon of Usership (2013). Wright calls for a critical confrontation with “conceptual edifices” which institutionalized art has been based on since the nineteenth century. He criticizes the replication of existing systems, standards of ownership, spectatorship, objecthood, and authorship. Instead, he postulates making use of art, and looks for a new formula in a Museum. Another touchstone is the theoretical texts of Jerzy Ludwiński, particularly his reflections on the postartistic age. In 1971 Ludwiński wrote: “Perhaps, even today, we do not deal with art. We might have overlooked the moment when it transformed itself into something else, something which we cannot yet name. It is certain, however, that what we deal with offers greater possibilities.”

Artistes exposés :
A-Z West ; Aaron Burr Society ; Adrian Kolarczyk ; Andrzej Haręza ; Anja Rüegsegger ; ASMR Anna ; Association of Autonomous Astronauts ; At Work ; Biennale de Paris XV ; Brandalism Jonathan Barnbrook Studio ; Brett Bloom ; Brud ; Bureau d´études ; Carlos Espinosa Arancibia ; Cecylia Malik ; Center for Land Use Interpretation ; Center for PostNatural History ; Centrum ; Chris Onesto ; Chto Delat Nikolay Oleynikov ; Community Museum Project ; Company ; Compass Brian Holmes and Rozalinda Borcilă ; Contingent Movements Archive ; Daniel Rycharski Monument to a Peasant ; Daniel Rycharski Banner of St. Expeditus ; Debtfair ; Digital database ; e-flux ; Electronic Disturbance Theater/b.a.n.g lab ; ESTAR(SER) The Order of the Third Bird ; Etcétera ; Exchange Library Lise Skou ; Feral Trade Kate Rich ; Forensic Architecture Forensic Oceanography, Charles Heller, Lorenzo Pezzani, and SITU Research ; Greenpeace Poland ; Gregory Sholette ; Gulf Labor Coalition ; Hugo Vidal ; Iconoclasistas ; Institute for Human Activities ; Institute for Model Nations ; Invisible City ; Isola Art Center ; Janez Janša, Janez Janša, and Janez Janša ; Jerzy Ludwiński ; Jerzy Rosołowicz ; Jesper Alvaer ; Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland ; Joanna Rajkowska ; Jonas Staal New World Summit ; Kamila Szejnoch ; Kein mensch ist illegal ; Liberate Tate ; Loompanics Unlimited ; Ludovic Chemarin© ; Luther Blissett ; Manual Labours ; Museum of American Art ; Museum of Arte Útil ; N55 ; Occupy Chevron Żurawlów ; Omer Krieger ; Peter von Tiesenhausen ; Precarious Workers Brigade ; Public Works ; Raivo Puusemp ; Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir ; Robin Hood Minor Asset Management Cooperative ; Rolling Jubilee ; S.a.L.E Docks ; Salvage Art Institute ; San Precario ; Shigeru Ban ; Social Museum ; Standing Man Erdem Gündüz ; Temporary Services ; THAT’S PAINTING ; The Arabian Street Artists ; The Edible Map of Migration Dagna Jakubowska ; The Guantanamo Bay Museum of Art and History ; The Incredible Shrinking Man ; Third Text Rasheed Araeen ; Tools for Action ; University of Warsaw Botanic Gardens ; UX ; Women on Waves ; Włodzimierz Borowski ; Zentrum für Politische Schönheit.

Pièces exposées :
Portrait de Ludovic Chemarin le 18 juillet 2014 (photographie)
Portrait de Ludovic Chemarin© le 18 juillet 2014 (photographie)