Never underestimate the importance of the curator. Lets repeat that. Never, EVER, underestimate the importance of the curator, especially when it comes to contemporary art or in this case that which calls itself ‘recycled’. This years Preview wonderfully illustrated that a lack of one reveals trash art for what it really is...crap. Used tea bags suspended from flourescent orange tubes with nails and...cabbage tits...wtf?!! I was embarrassed. Not only did most work look like it was pretty much assembled the night before, after scavengering the bins of Berlin...but there just didn’t seem to be any point in it, at all. And that is pretty bad. Shouldn’t there be some sort of government censorship office, particularly here,on socialist German grounds, to filter this crap out, and protect the public...?!(Especially when they have the nerve to charge a tenner for it...Further investigation into the subject is definitely needed.)
Funny to say now but on the way there, on my bicycle, I was pretty excited. New emerging artists, sculpture, installations, abandoned airport -- in my head I had all sorts of incedible visions -- vivid fantasies of crazy constructions bouncing off the abandoned concrete walls, massive spaces full of experimentations, concepts, minimal, monochrome, industrial and all those other |this is so Berlin| assosiations. But no, nothing of the sort. Instead I was greeted by a very modest (& very colourful) collection of rather suspicious looking assemblages, which looked like they had been thrown together there and then and arranged like attractions at a village fair, with all the blinking lights included. Never had I seen such pointless art installed SO badly ( masking tape was a dominant feature). Even my dog could’ve done better. Now what is the point of holding it at Tempelhof Airport if you’re not going to take advantage of its architecture? They might as well have held it at the local school gymnasium. It would’ve been cheaper AND the heavy smell of airport food could’ve been avoided too.
Although no spititual awakenenings/revelations/exits from reality were reached, some valuable lessons were learned. First– appearance is all. (The 10 second first impression rule could not have been more true). Now I fully understand the importance of the curator.It is not even so much the work, but the presentation which lures you in. Professionalism, organisation of space, negative space, attention to the smallest details, symmetry, harmony, knowledge and proper use of technical equipment ( hello?! Lighting anyone?!) -- these are the vital foods for a healthy exhibition diet. Without them, the work might as well be dead. Second. I realised just how damn hard it is to make garbage art look good. Now I can really appreciate all those scrapyard-like installations that somehow manage to transcend their status and move you. Third (and this was a bit of an epiphany from a photographic perspective) I realised the difficulty of making something look bad on camera. Maybe its because I never really take photos with the intention of making my subject matter look bad, usually its the opposite, but this time I wanted to document the tragedy on sight. But, you know what? It was pretty damn hard. Every photo I took somehow managed to make the work look better than it actually was, even with a flash. I found this pretty annoying, but eventually did manage to get a few revealing ones. (Photos coming soon)
But all in all, I would actually like to thank the Preview organisers for this learning experience. If it wasn’t for such shit around, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the good stuff. I wonder what all the other polka dot wearing bohemian types thought as they stood pensively over the cabagge titted totem doll. Why..??
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