Practices as an intersection in a Fragile Environment #2

Monday April 20
6-8PM (doors close at 7pm)
Residency Unlimited
360 Court Street Unit #4 Brooklyn, NY 11231

Practices as an intersection in a Fragile Environment is an ongoing curatorial project by Claudio Zecchi that takes as point of departure the fragile and precarious space to be found in the relationship between the arts and public space. Launched in Milan in 2014, this project now enters a second phase of investigation during Zecchi’s current residency in New York.

It is no longer a novelty for artists, curators and institutions to look at public space as the main stage for their research and actions but the ones that Zecchi is looking at are revisiting some well consolidated dynamics. A situation of clear hybridization has emerged with the so called politicization of art and the aestheticization of politics which as Boris Groys argues delineates the fragility of the art world, as its aesthetic impact might be neutralized in favor of an immediate political and social impact.

Tonight’s event is the second of three discussions that will take place on a monthly basis. Moderated by Zecchi, each iteration will investigate these issues from different, but also convergent, perspectives, by setting up a situation of a broadened debate between artists, curators, institutions and the public.

Zecchi and his guests Todd Shalom, Alice Schÿler Mallet, Ayelet Danielle Aldouby and Alessandro Facente will discuss the role of the curator and his social responsibility.

Talking of curatorial practices requires talking about dynamics that aim to originate participation and interest and that can be placed on an horizontal level to discuss openness and debate.
The curators will question how the artwork can be analyzed through territorial issues and confrontation, horizontally, with the public. Nowadays, is the public a simple spectator or is it the protagonist to be placed on the same level of the artist and the curator? If most of the artistic practices that develops within laboratories (workshops, residencies, etc.) aim to open up a debate on themes concerning society, then the public can’t be put apart and treated as mere observer, or as a simple number to be added to the success or failure of a single operation.
Quoting Olga Stefen: “if relational-type processes produce human relations, what kind of relations are produced, who for and why?.”
Such approach brings up the wish, both utopic and imaginative, to quit those daily interpretational models of interpreting, and dare to rethink, perceive and examine the same very models but through different modalities.

Claudio Zechhi’s 5 months curatorial residency is made possible by BCC Credito Cooperativo and an anonymous funder.