Gazet’art n°5
January 2009

Art venues off the beaten track


Hosting magazine: Mouvement, France, p.52 (English / French headings)
Editorial chief: Dimitri Konstantinidis
General coordinator of the project: Milana Christitch, Justine Dupraz
Texts / interviews: Pierre Courtin, Razvan Ion, Valentina Kiseleva / Anna Chistoserdova, Artur Klinov, Dimitri Konstantinidis, Cédric Loire, Vladiya Mihaylova, Moataz Nasreldin

Sites and Non-Sites of Art

“To show,” “to share,” “to participate” are all “commonplaces” with regard to the extreme diversity of approaches and forms which the actions of artists take over the whole extent of Europe. A mise-en-scène is indispensable, even vital so that the work of art becomes tangible, so that it catches people’s attention and sets in motion a dialogue, an exchange.
The topological need is not necessarily connected, or exclusively connected, to the glorification of the art object, but it does respond to the necessity for the artist to interact with and participate in the environment. The world then becomes the site and the City, the space of creation, as if it were imperative to add this complexity to the typological paradox of sites.

We clearly live in an era of excitement and turmoil, of a wide range of peculiarities and creative attitudes, but I believe that we are likewise witnessing an inventiveness and diversification with regard to the sites and spaces for the exhibition, communication and exchange of artistic productions.
 But above all else, we observe that there is sometimes an interference operating between the work and its site. There is a sort of fusion of status between the object and its space of presentation, where the work becomes the site and the site substitutes itself for the work.

Oscillating between fusion and confusion, between distinction and multiplication, works of art have their individual history, develop their own typology, with or without a connection to the artist and his creation.

On the basis of a series of investigative missions and contacts in that field which is the preferred focus of apollonia, namely the peripheral regions of Eastern Europe, we have been able to observe the degree to which these movements and reflections about spatialization are inherent to artistic creation itself.

Accordingly, for this issue of Gazet’art, and thanks to a productive collaboration with the periodical Mouvement, we hope to achieve a resonance concerning the question of the site(s) for the circulation of art, and to present several paths of inquiry, several examples which are doubtlessly too limited in scope in the face of the immensity of this problematic.
                                                  Dimitri Konstantinidis