Ex Argentina.

Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann
at Museum Ludwig in Cologne. (March 2004)

www.exargentina.org

Visualizing knowledge. It began with the examination of the economic crisis in Argentina. The artists are humanists, thus, they found international lobbies profiteering from the collapse. They wanted to document events in Argentina, but not just through normal journalistic graphs and news clippings, instead, they gathered Argentine artists to make work. Through art games and strained intention, they encouraged artists to filter the bankrupt, crumbling country into graphic and plastic forms.

The artists become the subject.

Artists are a type of non-people, perhaps in the same group as politicians and philosophers. An artist absorbs and reflects. This is true of political artists until the day they do actual political action such as lobby their congresswoman, in which case they are simply lobbyists. Sometimes the artist's personality becomes the focus, such as Picasso or Matthew Barney, but the artists in these cases are still not really people, they are a personality, a public face. Always outside of normal society, the artist is revered, loathed, feared, belittled and otherwise mythological, but rarely seen as people like anyone else.

However, in the Ex Argentina project, Creischer and Siekmann decided to study and present artists and their work as though they were normal people too. Since artists are among the hardest hit during a financial crisis, and they are also among the highest educated, it was a logical choice to seek out Argentine artists and their take on Argentine politics and current events. And since this form of bankruptcy seemed to be financial as well as moral, selecting the professional artist is a perspicuous way to discuss the poles of actual and implied proceedings.

Of course, the result is a rambling, self-centered, formal soup, mined with theoretical haze and other cautious, ass-covering critiques, but thankfully, this is not all: it is also an honest and localized study on systemic failure. Littered with so many internal references that even a Buenariense would miss out on half the punch-lines, the feeling of the project is of honest desperation and vibrant obstinacy. Many issues are clearly universal in today's global economy. In one piece, two judges (authorizing the violent clearing of strikers) stated that "in the face of economic interests, no sovereignty of life and freedom from bodily harm is given." However dull or useless it would be to critique statements such as this, it is necessary each and every time.

"Menem", writes the artist curators, "a symbolic figure of the crisis and under arrest last year on account of arms trafficking and corruption, advertised himself as 'Una Marca Registrada' (a long standing brand name)." Political and social evil (or at least greed) are met with frustrated yet witty responses by qualified human beings who happen to be artists living in Argentina. They could have been bus drivers just the same, but they were artists.

So naturally, they had to have an art exhibit at a museum. The exhibit filled three large rooms at the Museum Ludwig. Alejandra and I were alone in the exhibition, (except for the guards), but the permanent collections upstairs of Warhols etc. were packed to overflowing. The show was big and had funny constructions, high and low craft, sculptures, documentation style installation, painting, video, sound and graphic design. However, despite its size and variety, it did not feel like a typical group show.

There were some stinkers and some brilliant works, but the most interesting thing to me was how it felt like an incomplete project. A project where everyone understood what they had to do. Although many of the works were of dubious quality, I did not question the motivations of most of them. (Extremely rare for me at an art show.) An artist's inclusion in the show did not seem to have standard art world networking considerations. (Must include "x" artist because she/he is hip, fits "y" theme and will improve the image of the show.) Instead, each and every artist gave a passionate response to a fat topic: how can we survive in this cutthroat climate?

Creischer and Siekmann wish to establish coherence between political activism, political theory and political art, but acknowledge that all three are illusory. They also admit that opposition is normal, necessary, and dealt with routinely within the halls of power. But is that it? Is this the end? We all hope not. I will not suggest that artists are not self-serving, but we also cannot deny that they sometimes try to be "good".

a. bergman