:: a moment of self-critique ::
presentation The Steel Yard :: 5.28 :: 8:00p
website www.66east.org
A Moment of Self-Critique: Balancing Effectiveness and Autonomy in a Changing Social and Cultural Landscape
This featured speaked will present the work of 66 East in Amsterdam, ranging from the cultural context and similar initiatives to a short review of the interests and policies of 66 East, followed by a self-critique relevant to any organization working in a similar manner, raising questions which need to be addressed rather than circumvented.
A sample from the planned lecture:
"The last years
have seen art breaking away from its cynical stance and increasingly interested
in affecting society, whether by documentation or intervention. Documenta
X, curated in 1997 by Catherine David, may have been the harbinger of this
change. Architecture, a little late, joined the bandwagon with projects such
as ‘Shrinking Cities’ and ‘a Civilian Occupation’.
These transformations could be categorised as a return to
content and a rejection of form. However, the more interesting question is
perhaps not what a work says, but how it functions in society. After all,
the effectiveness of art has always been limited by its perceived autonomy,
which rendered the most scathing works harmless. Already three quarters of
a century ago, Walter Benjamin pointed out this problem:
‘Before I ask: what is a work’s position vis-à-vis the production relations of its time, I should like to ask: what is its position within them?’"
about the presenter
Tahl Kaminer (1970) lives in Amsterdam and is one of the founding members of 66 East. He is a registered architect and has an MSc. Architectural History and Theory degree from the Bartlett, UCL, London. Tahl is currently a doctoral researcher at TU Delft, studying the relation of architecture to society in a thesis named ‘Architecture and Negation’. He maintains a personal website at www.cubicle-design.com/ephemera.
about 66 East
Context: Amsterdam has significantly transformed since the days Situationists and anarchic Provos roamed its streets. Nowadays, it is an exemplary middle-class town: clean, quiet, well ordered. Many of its artist-initiatives, the driving force of Amsterdam’s art scene since the late 1960’s, had to become institutions in order to obtain state funding and survive the rising rentals. In this cosy but fatigued context 66 East was created.
66 East: Centre
for Urban Culture was founded in early 2004. The non-profit foundation runs
an exhibition space in Amsterdam’s socially-deprived Indischebuurt,
a multicultural neighbourhood with immigrants from Morocco and Turkey and
working class Dutch. The main interest of 66 East is the city itself- its
society, its culture and its built environment. 66 East does not sell or buy
art work. It presents group exhibitions –nine so far- which relate to
a subject, such as ‘Collecting the City’, studying the manner
in which a
collection can reflect and represent a city, or ‘Border Conditions’
which studies areas of tension in cities. In each exhibition 66 East places,
side by side, work by artists, designers and architects, analytical studies
and artefacts. By doing so, 66 East hopes to widen the understanding of the
related issues and to break down disciplinary boundaries. Many of the questions
regarding critical practices raised above have been sharpened by the existence
of 66 East: Can it escape participation in gentrification? Can
it affect the neighbourhood or any of the disciplines involved? What would
be a desired affect?
