Semantics has played quite a significant part so far in the volcanic eruptions which have rocked the 19th Biennale of Sydney on its foundations.
For a start there has been much discussion over the ambiguous title, which achieved a whole new, and seemingly alarming significance, once the revelations of the links to detention centre funding, and the implications of that reported in the media, recently became known by artists and audiences alike.
Since then there have been heated, passionate, emotional, and in some ways confused debates and arguments via social media and in meetings, which seem to pivot on and separate people on the meanings they read into the three key terms, boycott, withdraw, protest.
It seems that 'boycott' a word that is a common term in some parts of the world, is here greeted with great alarm, and incites strong and defensive reactions amongst some. Although the definition of boycott is "to abstain from buying or using" at least in the way I have been using it, and I assume many others, is not or should not be alarming. Simply abstaining from going to the Biennale, is hardly worth becoming defensive and even aggressive about, as I have witnessed.
I have used the term as I am showing solidarity and support for the artists who have chosen to boycott the biennale by abstaining from using the venue, and also not buying into less immediately obvious aspects to do with the exchange of their cultural capital, that as artists via their art works they have in large amounts, as the representatives of their countries in a large international exhibition. This is a choice based on ethical reasons, and it is also primarily perhaps too in the context of self critique and critique of the art world and its contexts which is part of being a contemporary artist, and also an art writer and critic. And for Olafur Olafsson and Libia Castro for example whose artist talk I went to today at the Sydney College of the Arts, after hearing them speak at a lecture of Tuesday evening at COFA, this is a main point. SInce 1913, Olafur points out , when Duchamp made his famous statement by inverting a common object, a urinal literally turning it into an 'art form'; it has been the context which is of prime significance in the art world, in understanding art.
It does not make much sense, in my view, to think about artists who are boycotting and art writers who say they are boycotting - as if they are outside the dialogue. They are framing the dialogue, in the sense of introducing the boycott as an intervention which then has compelled a debate which is a form of self critique and art world critique.
This is part of an international context of dialogue and critique, that seems to be perhaps not well known or widely known in Australia, which is to do with the ways that art is exhibited, and especially in the contexts of huge spectacular events which Biennales around the world have become over the years.
This is also in the context that was precipitated by the global financial crises and the astronomical prices that contemporary art was fetching before this happened, and still can fetch in some cases. And at the same time there has been a huge increase in precarious labour, in the art world, as everywhere. This calls for new critiques by artists and writers.
It is artists and art critics(some) who are responding to these changes, and driving the debates, in their works and most of all in the new way of their actions, and what is happening in Sydney has historical meaning in this context.
Meanwhile some artists are using the word 'withdrawn' though in effect it means the same.
And there are others, most perhaps who are not amongst the Biennale artists, who are talking about protest and protest from within.
This is all part of a wider dialogue that is happening now, in live action, amongst diverse groups of people.
But the main context of this is the Biennale itself, the art world event and so it is a form of critique of that engaged in by artists and art writers, such as myself.
For example, I say that I am boycotting the Biennale, but this does not mean that I am not participating in the Biennale debates, on the contrary I am writing about the Biennale artists who have withdrawn, boycotting or protesting. I have written about almost nothing else on this blog for weeks now, even though I have two books that I have written that are about to go up on Amazon - and I do have a lot to say about those too. Instead although I have said that I am boycotting, taking that position in the dialogue, I have engaged already to quite an extreme length with the debate of the Biennale.
I will also be writing and talking here about other events that are happening in Sydney, on these themes, for example Isaac Julien's exhibition on the themes, of Art and Corporate Sponsorship, which opens next week at Roslyn Oxley9 gallery. I will also be writing about the new exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales: Afghanistan: hidden treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, which opens tomorrow.
The media release states: "This exhibition will showcase more than 230 precious artefacts which were uncovered from secret vaults and revealed to the world in 2003. The treasures had been kept safe by a group of courageous staff from the National Museum to protect them from bombing and looting after years of war."
This is part of the wider context of the dialogue that is happening now on the links between wars, conflict, refugees, immigration policies, in the art world, where so many artists and audience are also affected, as refugees, exiles, and travellers and citizens. We are all involved in some way in this issue.
So despite using the words boycott, or withdraw, this does not mean being outside the debate, this is part of the dialogue, and it is historic dialogue.
The art world is changing, and it seems very likely that the huge art world events of Biennales, may well scale down, or even transform into some other form. Meanwhile there are plenty of alternatives that are emerging, all of which shows that the art world is undergoing a new phase, and changes, which means that however you call it, this is a very exciting and significant time- for artists, and art lovers from all backgrounds.
Ruth Skilbeck, 6.3.2014
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