Parallel worlds
For those of you who feel you missed on some of the greatest art shows last year because of geography, the Mobile Studios are here to rescue you. About as fluid as an art organisation can be, the studios are self-described as 'an internationally networked pilot project of a mobile, autonomous production laboratory for young artists, musicians, performers and cultural programmers', and they certainly deliver the goods they promise - part pure idealism and part sheer circus-style fun for all, sort of like a non-profit wandering and ever-evolving art fair. After a batch of public travels and residencies last year, their plans for 2007, from participating in Israel's Challenging Walls project and furthering various other international collaborations in Canada and Greece, are already set to be some of the year's highlights.
Mobile Studios in Belgrade, 2006.
From April to May 2006, the Studios prepared a nomadic tour for themselves, stopping by a handful of European capitals (Berlin, Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest and Sofia) to bring their alternative art world revolution to the urban public. They even got the Laznia Center of Contemporary Art in Gdansk to provide a Mobile Webcast Studio that transmitted to corresponding issues regularly, all of which got me wondering how the Studios came to be and curious about their philosophical inspirations. I asked Ela Kagel, the Studio's digital media producer, about the origins of the venture. The history of the Mobile Studios, she said, was directly linked with the invention of the Mobile Museums in 2004. Susa Pop and Hans J. Wiegner conceived the idea of a traveling artist's museum and initiated the project.
Ela Kagel.
Kagel included a quote about Mark Rothko (from an interview with Ethel Schwabach, May 1954) in her explanation: '...he never really liked big museums. He would have preferred a number of small museums, each devoted to one artist. Small, simple structures, spread out all over the country - suitable for travellers to enter and be by themselves for one hour...' Sounds irresistible to me! It's a very frank frame to start from, and a conceit the project has been blowing life into for the last few years. 'The Mobile Museums are the consistent extension of an age of museumization, mobility and communication. The Mobile Museums travel to their city audiences and engage in a process of intensive interaction with the public. They are islands of contemplative calm and heightened awareness in the midst of urban hustle-and-bustle. The interiors of the white objects are not visible from the outside. The objects themselves seem mysterious and alien in urban space. Once the door has closed behind the visitor, he finds himself in a space at a different, highly concentrated, self-enclosed level of perception, a staged realm created by international artists with their own cultural backgrounds. Each artist can create his or her own pavilion within a modular framework of white PVC panels'. If you've ever wondered whether art could be held in a space not anchored in the world of history (and of paying rent), here was a simple but thought provoking answer.
The Studios were the direct extension of the Museums project, exploring contemporary notions of mobility even further, the opportunities and obstacles that are produced by changing site, conditions and participants. But what happens when processes that take place usually in an interior, private space are taken out and in a way become public? Interactivity and unpredictability. Several amendments were adopted to fit a new brief, one that focused on the open production of art rather than just its presentation and interpretation. The structure of the white cubes was changed from four standard sized modules into a Live-, Editorial-, and a Talkstudio, raising the level of interactivity between artists and audiences while creating a space for production, for display, feedback and the dissemination of artistic work at the same time, and broadening the scope of the whole project by involving a vast media infrastructure (e.g. live streaming, web conferences, blogging, shared photo tools, collaborative virtual workspace...).
Kagel explains: 'The four original white cubes have been rebuild into the three corresponding Mobile Studios units: the /Editorial-/, the /Talk-/ and the /Live Studio/. The installations and urban interventions that take place in the /Live Studio/, as well as the conversations and discussions of the /Talk Studios/, are broadcast in the /Editorial Studio/ in various formats. The production and broadcast processes is being made visible at the same time'. It's all a studio in the purest sense of the word, a place for experimentation open to collaborations. 'The /Live Studio/ will be put at the disposal of any artist, performer or cultural producer for 24 hours. Here, the artist acts as a director and has the opportunity to design all the Studios. The /Live Studio/ can serve as a point of reference, as a starting and meeting point for interventions involving the urban space. In contrast to the other two studios, the /Live Studio/ is an empty white room and therefore represents the ideal backdrop for artistic performances.'
The actual practical aspects of creating the Mobile Studios have included securing funding from a broad range of institutions. The programme received major funding from the European Commission's Culture 2000 in the field of Visual Arts and other European and national bodies, such as the European Cultural Foundation, the Goethe-Institut and a myriad local cultural organisations relevant to each of the locations within the Studios' adopted sites. The fluid conceptualisation and morphology of the project has meant that participants have been key in defining and creating what they want out of a Mobile Studio, including an extended exhibition format beyond the daily gallery activities (Belgrade), a cultural-political tool and exhibition space for the Multiplace Festival (Bratislava), a platform to unify local NGOs into a common action plan and programme for Mobile Studios (Sofia), and an opportunity to work with new media in the public space (Gdansk). 'Partners analysed their needs, as well as how they could adapt Mobile Studios to their local context and needs. They also planned a strategy for local fundraising. Research about how events would coexist during the residency of Mobile Studios played an integral role in the strategy, and during the production period, much of the decision making process was influenced by the financial status. Curating the local programmes as well as development of a common networking programme were all dependent on the financial framework'.
Funding matters including covering all sorts of aspects of the projects, even fees which in some countries would be considered invisible or irrelevant, Kagel continues. 'Due to the lack of functional art market structures in the participating countries, the artists and cultural operators were prone to insisting on fees. Like most artists who work in "Western European" countries, they did not count on surplus values, in the form of new exhibition possibilities which would result by participating in such a project. They simply wanted to be honoured in a "Western Standard" in order to prepare new projects for the future', perhaps some that will have been influenced by the experience.
In 2007 the outer shell of the Mobile Studios will undergo a continuous revision, according to their destinations. 'For Israel 2007 we envision the Mobile Studios as lightweight domes, which can be transported and mounted very easily. As of the concept of the Mobile Studios: it would be wonderful if the Studios would travel constantly, maybe several studios simultaneously, in big cities and remote regions of the world alike, weaving international networks among artists and cultural producers, communicating what their findings are concerning the agendas of contemporary art in the different regions, and establishing a vast digital archive of the artworks and the discourse about contemporary art'.
So what should people interested in the Mobile Studios projects do to become involved? 'Cultural institutions, practitioners, scholars, artists, curators - everybody can get in touch and come up with ideas. We are open to any kind of collaboration models. This means, we can see ourselves as the initiators/ producers of a Mobile Studios trip or we can also be part of another project - just as with the upcoming Challenging Walls project in Israel 2007'. What bigger audience than the whole world? Idealism accessible to those willing to take their projects along for a walk.
The Public Art Lab team for the Mobile Studios are Susa Pop, Hans J. Wiegner, Ela Kagel and David Farine.
Public Art Lab
Naumannstr. 6
D-10829 Berlin
www.mobile-museums.com
www.mobile-studios.org
Lupe Nunez-Fernandez is former senior editor of ArtReview magazine and is currently based in London and Madrid.
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