[ARENA] message about usurpative Hamburg project

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HAMBURG?S SUBVISION IS TRYING TO COOPT INTERNATIONAL
"OFF" ART PROJECTS



	A generously state-funded project with leading
Hamburg art-institution figures at its helm is
planning to showcase international "off" art - "new
forms" of artistic activity that have developed at
"far remove from the big art-fairs“ - in Summer 2008.
Great news? Have you, or acquaintances, already been
invited?

Just one minute, please.

under

http://www.wirsindwoanders.de/files/demo.php

you will find some (not quite impartial, perhaps, but
well-documented) information that may be of interest
to those (hopefully all) of you whose cultural
endeavors draw on emancipatory and/or
art-democratizational aspirations. This project, we
feel, must be understood against the backdrop of
recent Hamburg culture-political events. The past
seven years here were tumultuous, in this regard, and
the names at the head of this project are associated
with a clear political line.

Subvision is conceptually superfluous. It is a copycat
version of the Wir Sind Woanders #2 European Art
Festival held in this very same city, ten months
earlier.

Subvision is not building on the dedicated work and
contributions of those who have a competence in "off
art"; Subvision wants to instrumentalize foreign "off
art" initiatives to outflank the locals’
self-organizational and challenging steps forward.

There is a contradiction between what Subvision says
and what it does. It says "far remove from the big
art-fairs“ is where it’s at, but its effective
decision-making model places business-as-usual actors
(in cahoots with rightist politicians and real estate
interests) back at the top.

The Subvision initiators are building up in a
ramshackle way (like the refugee containers its
architecture echoes) with their left hands what they
have undone and undermined with their right one.
Subvision has neoliberalism and culture-industry
written all over it.