Following Discontent
I know I know, I’ve been remiss in my blogging practice. Take it as a sign of all great things happening at the gallery and all great things means work overload. Just wanted to post this follow-up to the Images Festival forum “Exhibitions and its Discontents” which took place last week. Great turn out and lively discussion. The only thing that didn’t quite work was that the audience was primarily all small screen programmers/curators or artist/programmers, which in some sense means we were all preaching to the converted. There was some decent discussion but not much in the way of oppositional debate… would have been more interesting had the artists who send complaint letters shown up, or if the programmers from Hot Docs or TIFF had been there.
The team leading the discussion was kind enough to make notes in an attempt to keep the conversation alive and developing. I’ve pasted their notes here, but you should visit their blog and chime in with your comments if moved to do so:
Exhibition & its Discontents: We need your comments! Exhibition and Its Discontents Extended Mix!!
As promised, we want to keep this dialogue alive. Here are the talking points I proposed at the beginning of our fantastic meeting as well as some of the main topics from the notes. Feel free to riff off of what’s here, restate your points from the meeting or add comments to threads you remember from the discussion. We welcome any and all constructive voices. Remember the ground rules still apply: honesty is encouraged, gossip ok, slander not ok!
Preamble:
* Funders, Festivals, Distributors, Curators, Critics have all let down – how ever gently or not so gently – their fair share of artists. For an active artist, even one with a moderately successful ‘career,’ ‘rejection’ is a real part of our experience.
* So how do we as artists interpret this ‘rejection’ – is it useful? Can it be more that a personal dismissive? More than something we have to suppress in order to keep going?
* Conversely how do we as Funders, Jurors, Festival Directors, or Distributors, manage public responses to our decisions, how do we navigate negativity at that awkward party or potluck – how do we handle the confrontations and the angry letters?
* Are these just occupational hazards our friends in other dangerous jobs forgot to tell us about. Did we really think being funders, artists and arts administrators would be easy??
* What about trust, expertise, professionalism, conflicts of interest, transparency, respect?
* How do we and when do we choose between professional conduct or spontaneous combustion? Between a rightful challenge or a shit fit!
Main topics raised at the forum:
* Should ‘angry Letters’ should be visible and published? What if your angry letter is rejected?
* If you welcome feedback, will you get more carefully considered responses?
* Premiere policies – are they good/bad for artists? Good/bad for exhibitors? What if you are both?
* Could artists benefit from having a ‘festival strategy’?
* Nepotism: how is being tightly connected making some things (rejection) more difficult?
* How do political pressures play a role in the fragility of the cultural community?
* Open call vs. other models? Can we evolve it? Why don’t we trust it?
My ears are already burning! Looking forward to more discussion!
Sincerely,
Deirdre Logue, on behalf of the Images Festival and MANO. deirdrel@vtape.org
Hello Images Festival goers,
To continue the dialogue from our Exhibition and its Discontents Forum, Images Festival and MANO are looking for your comments, insight and feedback. Any comments sent to us may be posted on the Images Festival website under an anonymous author. If you are interested in disclosing yourself as the author, please let us know. If you absolutely do not want your comments published at all, please make this clear in your email. You can email either myself or Deirdre . We look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Regards,
Sunny Fong, Images Festival Board, sunnydark33@gmail.com
