Martin Fritz at Summer School as School 2022
August 15, 2022, 20:00
Venue: Boxing Club

Institutional Critique and Institutional Practice
Discussant: Daniel Cosentino

Artists are bound to the institutions in their field by an ambivalent relationship, and they are more aware than they have ever been of how their work is involved with the institutional framework of its presentation. At the intersection between the premises of Institutional Critique – which has developed step by step into a comprehensive method of artistic social contextualisation – and the different manifestations of site-specific art, numerous examples of works are to be found that adopt a close architectural, social, structural and processual relationships to the institutions of their presentation.

The starting point of the lecture is the assertion that there is a symbiotic-constructive relationship between production and institution, and that this takes shape as ideal, appropriation, co-creation, critique, and rejection. It was early to be observed that those works and the discourses and conflicts that were instigated by it had the potential to change institutional structures. This even more so as curators have appropriated Institutional Critique´s methodology. We will revisit some of the major controversies of the last decade (P.A.I.N, Whitney Museum, Liberate Tate) and we will look at examples of controversially discussed projects and artworks.

Biography:
Martin Fritz has studied law in Vienna from 1981 to 1986. Since then he has worked in the field of contemporary art production in Vienna, New York, Germany and other countries. Starting with independent projects in theatre, visual arts and film in the 1980ies, he has specialized on producing and conceiving visual arts projects in collaboration with curators and institutions, with a special emphasis on project- management and art-production in the public space.

Among many other assignments he has worked as Director of Operations for the re- opening of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre in New York, General Co-ordinator of Manifesta 4 – European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Frankfurt (Main) and Managing Director of In Between - The Art Project of EXPO 2000 in Hanover.

Recently he has worked as a consultant on structural and organizational issues for art- funding initiatives such as relations - a project initiated by the German Federal Cultural Foundation in Berlin and ERSTE Foundation in Vienna. His curatorial work includes art- projects for the Hospital in Meran / Merano, Italy and art projects for the University in Klagenfurt, Austria and

Beziehungsarbeit – Kunst und Institution, a large scale exhibition on Institutional Critique and more for Künstlerhaus in Vienna. From 2001 to 2007 he was a member of the Board of the International Foundation Manifesta. From 2004 to 2009 he was the Director of the Festival of Regions a Biennial for site-specific art and culture in rural regions in the Austrian province of Upper Austria. Among other teaching assignments ( DonauuniversitätKrems, Department fürBildwissenschaften, ECM – University of Applied Arts Vienna) Martin Fritz was an Adjunct Professor, teaching »Cultural Organizations -Structure and Theory« at Webster University – Vienna Campus, and a guest lecturer at CuMMa, Aalto University, Helsinki.

Currently his research focuses on the Imperial Palace in Vienna and its use for museums and exhibitions throughout the 20th century.

Daniel Cosentino (1974, New Jersey, USA) is a Multimedia Artist and educator specialized in photographic processes and discourses. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy (Minor in Music Theory/Classical Guitar) from Rutgers University, NJ (1998) and a Master of Fine Arts in Imaging Arts/Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology - RIT (2009). Between 1998 and 2001 Cosentino lived and worked in the Mountain States region of the USA, working in a Custom Photo lab in Jackson, WY, where he also developed his first public exhibitions. Prior to his MFA studies, visiting Europe for the first time, he attended a year-long post-baccalaureate studio art program at the SACI College of Art & Design in Florence, Italy (2001 - 2002), where he explored traditional studio arts (drawing, painting, photography, museology, and critical theory). As an MFA candidate in Rochester, he worked as an exhibition preparator at the George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography, and also with Community Design Center Rochester, together with architects, urban planners, designers and citizens.

In the period 2008 - 2010, he served as an Adjunct Professor at RIT College of Art & Design and at the University of Rochester School of Arts and Sciences. Since September 2010 he has been based in Prishtina as an Assistant Professor at RIT Kosovo (formerly American University in Kosovo - A.U.K) via the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Global Programs, teaching primarily photography, graphic design and web design. Besides teaching, he has experience of academic leadership as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of RIT Programs in Kosovo for three consecutive years (2015 - 2018), where he has also served as the Chair of the Academic Senate and the Director of Media Programs.