FAQ NET: Part III
FAQ NET: It is the name of the new column that we start as Media Partners on a regular basis of Platforms Project-Independent Art Fair, asking a common question to participating artists – representatives of artistic groups and collectives, resulting from the needs of conteporary reality and the changes that have already occurred after the Covid 19 Pandemic and the Global Lockdown; with Platforms Project-Independent Art Fair to pioneer in the European Art Fair space and to transfer the entire fair online at Platforms Project Net 2020 (14-31/5/2020).
By Efi Michalarou & Dimitris Lempesis
How do you feel participating in an online Art Fair like Platforms Project 2020? A new experience that emerged through the needs of Covid 19 World Pandemic fighting. What are the new challenges and what do you expect from this participation?
Linda Weiss (rosalux): First of all I’m filled with gratitude to people who are doing “systemic relevant“ work. Also, I feel gratitude to rosalux Berlin and the holding of Platforms Project especially now. It feels like new forms in the making. All the world’s like a digital stage show now. It feels right to physical distance at the moment and nevertheless keep in digital touch.
The challenge for me in art is to get each other be touched wheather it takes place in the physical or the digital realm. Thus probably the public realm will become the virtual realm now which it has already been but will become intensified in the future. My wish is that artistic production gets us feel and talk to each other in order to create an empowering framework.
Also, I’m excited how my piece “LINDA WEISS, DAN GRAHAM, Gladys Glover“ will turn up in the virtual realm since it was planned to take over the wall of an independent art fair booth as a billboard for a stock transaction. This refers upon a piece from Dan Graham as well as on the character of a Self Made Woman aka Gladys Glover in a movie directed by George Cukor. Dan Graham’s “Income (Outflow) Piece“ has the form of a death notice as well as the announcement of a stock transaction. In the times of Covid 19 it suddenly has become a certain context which I had to transfer to my visual concept though.
In my opinion artistic research can produce shields of protection. Since then while playing with “the system“ I have already been inspired by the idea of the main character Gladys Glover who rented a billboard on Columbus Circle New York in order just to put her name on it. For a former piece I rented a page in the german art magazine “Monopol“ by layouting my name on the page which then were put in the neighborhood of an article about Anne Imhof by the magazine. Afterwards I named the piece “Anne Imhof, LINDA WEISS, Gladys Glover“.
In response to the current situation, I have also chosen for Platforms Project Net former pieces like “king’s dead (mountaintop)“ in which a quote from Martin Luther King’s last speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop“ is combined with a document “Leben“ (Life) taken from a financial institute in which I had worked. In the video “to get instructions on happiness“ I have asked my environment to take me to a happier side (auf die glückliche Seite).
Alexander Voutsas (META-FRASTES): The Platforms Project is an international Art Fair which has been held in Athens annually since 2013. The organizers of this event have always aspired to have artist-groups from different countries share their ideas, their thoughts, their uniqueness, their creations. It is an opportunity for interaction, communication and future collaborations. It is the result of collaborations and a sense of alterity through which fresh ideas are conceived and incubated, even by newly formed groups. These (groups) eventually present their art in this Fair the following year(s). It is not uncommon for some of the members in these new teams to have once belonged to groups which had participated in past Platforms Projects- a true proof of interaction. This year’s event will lack physical presence. Nevertheless, the painstaking efforts by the organizing committee to overcome the COVID-19 restraints have not only avoided the event’s annulment, but on the contrary, have succeeded, presenting a challenge to us participants. We have made more efforts to get informed about the other participating groups, study our strategy plans deeper and find alternative ways to express our work- perhaps through unconventional methods, different from years past. It feels as though our attention span on matters has increased due to the ample time available. The fact that everything must be uploaded so that it can be presented, will allow viewers to keep abreast with everything exhibited and performed throughout the Fair’s duration. Viewing will not be limited by time nor bound by specific rendez-vous. Concerning our group, the ways we communicated (tele conferences, e-mails) and decided upon outstanding issues honed our patience, listening skills, awareness and our sense of teamwork.