Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina
Tripping into Art
Hi(stories): Genealogy and/as Fiction
On the exhibition "What is Modern Art? (Group Exhibition)" by Inke Arns
July 25, 2024, at 21:00
Henrik Bariç 23, 10000 Prishtina, Republic of Kosovo
Stacion - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina and the Museum of American Art in Prishtina announce the continuation of the series of public readings and discussions, Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina, part of the FAKRRA program and the activity of the Museum of American Art Laboratory in Prishtina, with the public reading of the work by Inke Arns "Hi(stories): Genealogy and/as Fiction, on the exhibition "What is Modern Art? (Group Exhibition)".
In the exhibition catalog, a certain Walter Benjamin states that copies are tools for the short circulation of art history with its own means. First shown in Belgrade and Ljubljana in 1986, the International Exhibition of Modern Art explores the relationships between original and copy, historicization and chronology, authorship and anonymity, center and periphery, as well as painting and conceptual art. This project differs from American appropriation art through its radical anonymity and conscious lack of authorship. While Sherrie Levine or Elaine Sturtevant may have copied artworks, they still signed them with their names.
Conversely, the International Exhibition of Modern Art no longer allows for such personal appropriations. This connects the International Exhibition of Modern Art with other projects that are just as anonymous and obscure, such as the recent Futurist 0.10 exhibition by a certain Kazimir Malevich, shown in March 1986 in Ljubljana, Salon de Fleurus in New York (since 1993), Kunsthistorisches Mausoleum in Belgrade (since 2002), and the Museum of Modern Art by Alfred Barr, New York, 1936, shown at Galerie 35 in Friedrichhain parallel to the MoMA exhibition at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2004.
After the collective reading by the guests and attendees, the discussion will focus on how all of this changed the past, how it is affecting the present, and how it might impact the future. What is the nature of copying, authorship, or anonymity in an era of hyperflux of production, where we strive to meet criteria by working on projects, achieving points, and enhancing our CVs and portfolios, fulfilling donor requirements, or responding to marketing algorithm recommendations? How does the impact of digital networks change our behavior, translating the symbolic and social value of digital networking into the value (and impact) of art, artworks, exhibitions, or museums?
In this context, how and where do originality and authenticity stand against the pressure to produce content that fits predetermined trends and algorithmic preferences or the preferences of others in "positions of power" who decide on the value and function of art or provide material support? How is the understanding and impact of art evolving in a landscape dominated by digital metrics and self-assessment and self-confidence influenced by media and social networks? How these developments have altered the main narrative of art history, and what similar or new paths can we imagine in contemporary art history and practice? It is important to recall what happened in our region years ago and how it left a mark on art history and beyond, and how this practice might influence new ideas for similar approaches in contemporary society experiencing other challenges.
Night Watch at the Museum of American Art in Prishtina is a series of events organized after the usual visiting hours of the Museum. These events aim for an even more direct and special approach to the works and stories of the permanent exhibition and collection of the Museum of American Art in Prishtina through discussions, performances, workshops, and readings within the museum space.
The Museum of American Art Laboratory in Prishtina aims to deepen the integration of the Museum into the cultural life of Prishtina, surrounding cities, and the wider Republic of Kosovo. This initiative, summarized as Activity 2 of the FAKRRA project by Stacion – Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina, focuses on enhancing the Museum's educational programs to create a "bridge" between different cultural communities. The goal is to foster respect, dialogue, sensitivity, and mutual understanding through the study of modern art history.
The program “Empowering Cultural Engagement and Artistic Growth in Kosovo – FAKRRA” is a programmatic intervention of the institution based on ongoing observations and research of current circumstances in independent institutions, the art and culture scene in Kosovo, and developments in public policies and public institutions, and institutions part of the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports.
Inke Arns, a curator who holds a PhD, has been the artistic director since 2005 and the director of HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein in Dortmund, Germany, since 2017 (www.hmkv.de). She has worked internationally as a curator, writer, and independent theorist specializing in media art, internet cultures, and Eastern Europe since 1993. She lived in Paris (1982–86), where she finished high school, in West Berlin in 1988, where she studied Russian literature, Eastern European studies, political science, and art history in Berlin and Amsterdam (1988–96), and in 2004 received her PhD from Humboldt University in Berlin, with a thesis focusing on a paradigmatic shift in the way artists reflected historical advancement, the avant-garde, and the notion of utopia in visual and media art projects of the 1980s and 1990s in (former) Yugoslavia and Russia. Since 2021, Inke Arns has held the position of Visiting Professor at the Academy of Arts in Münster, Germany. She has taught at universities and art academies in Berlin, Leipzig, Zurich, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam (2000-2017), and has lectured and published internationally. Her books include Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) – eine Analyse ihrer künstlerische Strategien im Kontext der 1980er Jahre in Jugoslavien (Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, 2002), Netzkulturen (Europäische Verlagsanstalt), they may seem mysterious! Die Avantgarde im Rückspiegel (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2004).
Arns is a Member of ICOM; Board of Directors of ADKV, Berlin; Advisory Committee of the Net Art Anthology, Rhizome, New York; Board of Trustees of Stiftung Choreographisches Zentrum NRW, PACT Zollverein Essen.
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Reading material is available in English.
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This event and series are part of research and teaching exercises, part of the educational program laboratory of the Museum of American Art in Prishtina, part of Activity 2 of the "Empowering Cultural Engagement and Artistic Growth in Kosovo - FAKRRA" program.
The program is a programmatic intervention of the Station - Center for Contemporary Art Prishtina that is based on continuous observations and researches of the current circumstances in independent institutions, the scene of art and culture in Kosovo and developments in public policies and public institutions, as well as in participating institutions of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.