into the pill - Issue 11

fake or feint

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For fake or feint answered Joerg Franzbecker and Martin Beck. Interview by Vassiliea Stylianidou for Ιnto the pill

1.When was your space founded? Tell me about its goals, direction and character.

>fake or feint< is a seven-month project that started in January 2009 and will be on display until the end of July. Conceived as a temporary project, its organizational structure will dissolve at its end.
Five consecutive exhibition scenarios are each comprised of a number of artistic works, including photography, video, space and sound installations.
Each scenario provides its specific perspective on the project’s issues and attempts this in a way that allows for a mutual communication of the positions included. An additional scenario was a film program, held at Kino Arsenal at Potsdamer Platz. A so called “second section”, designed by artist Katrin Mayer, hosts a process-related archive with select material. A series of events accompanies the exhibitions with seminars, lectures and performances.
The goal is to provide a broad and long-term basis for the exploration of a given theme, which would not be possible within the framework of a single six-week-long group exhibition. The duration of seven months and the continuity of the space allows for reflection on the concept in light of the past exhibitions, events and feedback, as well as the opportunity to work continuously on the profile and direction of the project.

2.What are your areas of focus and research?

Thematically, the project deals with the politics of the surface and acts of “marking” as an intervention. In other words: visual practices in the social field and artistic strategies that make use of or reflect on them. These are linked with discourses on subculture, fashion, gender, urban space, body and image practices, etc.
Regarding the curatorial practice, there is a specific interest or focus on issues of space and display, and how discursive formats (text, theory, lectures) can be placed in an exhibition context. We try to avoid situations where the artistic works are seen as an illustration or exemplification of a certain theory, or where the discourse is reduced to an explanation of the art, or where the notion of theory itself is fetishized.

3.How would you describe the artistic reality in Berlin? How would you integrate your space within it?

As it is well known, Berlin hosts a huge number and variety of art spaces and events that range from institutional, commercial, project-based, etc. Berlin also hosts very diverse notions of art and artistic practice. The interrelations between those are manifold and the whole of it is quite difficult to describe without thinking in pigeonholes. Beyond its basic features of being a non-commercial, mainly government-funded project space, >fake or feint< is part of that complex field.

4.What would you change about the artistic reality of the city?

Of course the situation in Berlin has changed since the 1990s. Whereas in the ‘90s, there was a huge amount of cheap and easily accessible spaces (such as warehouses, factories, etc.) in the center of the city and available for temporary use by art projects, the space situation has consolidated and you just don’t have as many choices anymore. Yet there is – not only with regard to space – a continuing process of adaption within this reality, with other opportunities opening up. For our part, we would like to think more in terms of inscription than of change, the latter implying the position of an agency not easy to acquire. This inscription, on the other hand, may consist in the experimentation with and the further development of existing formats of action, presentation and collaboration.

5.Do you pursue collaboration with local state institutions? What is your experience in that area?

Not yet (if that means art institutions). Of course with Hauptstadtkulturfonds, which provides for most of the funding.

6.Do you pursue other local or international collaborations and joint projects?

Our film program was realized in collaboration with Kino Arsenal e.V. at Potsdamer Platz. This was conceived not as a supplementary program, but as an independent extension of the project into the realm of film and cinema, not simply using Arsenal’s location, but also having the great opportunity to make use of their extensive film archive.
Another collaboration consists in the invitation of the Berlin-based ”Performerstammtisch” (performers’ roundtable), which is a monthly get-together of performance artists and heart of an independent performance scene in Berlin, that also maintains close connection international scenes. They were invited to present a program related to our project’s issues, which will take place on May 18th.
Other collaborations include the invitation of individuals occupying a discursive position in the Berlin art scene.

7.What form of curatorial action do you propose?

Perhaps our approach could be called an ”extended“ one, in a twofold manner. On the one hand, there is the idea of collaboration with all the participants, rather than a single person making curatorial decisions. For example, working together for the duration of the project with the artist Katrin Mayer on the exhibition display, and with graphic designer Flo Gaertner, both of whom participate equally in shaping the project. On the other hand there is the idea – already mentioned above – that theory and discourse can’t be regarded as a mere supplement but an “autonomous“ part of the exhibition, that requires a specific concentration on the way they can be included in the exhibition context. In both dimensions, Beatrice von Bismarck’s notion of a “curatorial practice“ (kuratorisches Handeln) can be regarded as a point of reference for us.

8.What form of cooperation between artist and curator do you investigate?

In the curatorial process of selecting the artists, our approach is basically threefold. In some instances we were interested in a specific work by an artist, e.g. the photographs by Claude Cahun. In other instances it was an issue that an artist was working on, such as gender, fashion, masquerade or brands. But mainly we are interested in the artistic approach or a mode of production / inscription / display an artist uses. There are a number of works that are specifically developed for the project – this involves intense communication and exchange. In other cases, we also try to address the question of display based on mutuality as much as possible.

9.How do you fund your space?

80% Hauptstadtkulturfonds, 10% other institutional funds, 10% private sponsorship

fake or feint

 

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