Fwd: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] LIFE | ART | US - It's been a really tough year, but what's next for media art UK?

Simon Worthington

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Jun 14, 2011, 10:45:50 AM6/14/11

to acedigi...@googlegroups.com

Hi,

Not sure if other people have seen this, but it looks like NL gov is proposing to follow UK gov and cut the arts to the point of extinction and effective censorship, by yet another right wing gov.

This is the petition list, just requires name and location

Please sign the petition: 
http://petities.nl/petitie/bezuinigen-op-cultuur-zonder-alle-feiten-nooit

The issue is to be debated in NL parliament on the 27 June.

All best

Simon Worthington, Mute

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] LIFE \| ART \| US - It's been a really tough year, but what's next for media art UK?
Date:	Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:42:51 +0200
From:	annet <an...@VIRTUEELPLATFORM.NL>
Reply-To:	annet <an...@VIRTUEELPLATFORM.NL>
To:	NEW-MEDIA...@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Some of you will have heard by know, but unfortunately it seems the 
Dutch government will follow UK suit.
Although the official letter by the minister has not been published in 
English, some response letters for those who are about to be hit the 
hardest have.

http://svenlutticken.blogspot.com/2011/06/slash-burn.html?spref=fb

and:

*letter to Mr Zijlstra and members of the Lower House*

Dear Mr. Zijlstra,

Honoured members of the Lower House,

The memorandum announced by the Secretary of State today does not signal 
a new beginning, as he indicated earlier, but simply the end of an 
internationally valued cultural climate, unparalleled anywhere in the 
world.

For Thorbecke -- the spiritual father of the Secretary of State 
Zijlstra, or at least of his party -- the policy was the result of a 
long-term vision. He saw the political manager as the designer of the 
age, who interprets historical lines and develops a vision for the 
future on that basis. Compared with his predecessor, the measures 
proposed by the Secretary of State pale into insignificance. They choose 
short-term results which do not take into account historically acquired 
benefits and social developments.

One prominent Dutch collector called the Secretary of State's memorandum 
a new "iconoclasm". This comparison is striking and appropriate. The 
field of the "visual arts" is crippled in and by this memorandum, with 
fatal consequences for the public.

We live in a culture of images. Knowledge and information mainly 
circulate in the form of images. Art, and the visual arts in particular, 
are the perfect field for teaching us to deal with things we do not yet 
know and providing us with unexpected visions and horizons. The visual 
arts relate in a self-conscious and critical way to the ubiquitous 
image. Therefore it is incomprehensible for a government which wants to 
prepare its citizens for a promising future to decide to remove the part 
of the social system which guides the public in this respect. The 
extremely hard approach adopted in relation to the sector of the visual 
arts (a reduction from 53.5 million to 31 million) is not supported in 
this memorandum by either logical or factual arguments.

Amongst other things, the Secretary of State has decided:

- to halve the budget of the Mondriaan fund;

- to drastically reduce the number of presentation institutions in the 
BIS from 11 to 6. The institutions which are no longer in the BIS cannot 
go to the Mondriaan fund either, and therefore have no chance of survival;

- to no longer provide any subsidy for art magazines;

- to put a complete stop to the government subsidy for functions which 
are now carried out by biennial Manifesta, SKOR | Stichting Kunst en 
Openbare Ruimte (Foundation for Art in Public Spaces), the sectoral 
institute Premsela, Virtual Platform, the Netherlands Media Art 
Institute (NIMk);

- to put a stop to financing post-academic education for artists in the 
Ateliers, Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten (Royal Academy for Visual 
Arts), European Ceramic Work Centre and the Jan van Eyck Academy;

to only support the continued development of 50 visual artists who have 
proved themselves as top talents in the next four years;

- to halve the individual basic stipends and working grants for artists, 
and to COMPLETELY stop the present subsidies which serve to provide an 
income.

The direct and immediate effects of these measures for the PUBLIC which 
wants to see and experience contemporary art are catastrophic:

The makers, producers and artists form the basis of the cultural 
infrastructure. After all, with no artists, there is no art. No 
subsidies or insufficient subsidies for artists to focus professionally 
and full time on creating work means that there will be no innovative work.

No post-academic education means there will be no growth of new artists 
who excel and can represent the Netherlands abroad. Removing this 
function will immediately lead to a reduction in the provision of Dutch 
presentation institutions, so that the Netherlands will lose its 
competitive position. This will result in the total impoverishment of 
the art market in the Netherlands and to a weaker position of the Dutch 
galleries on the international art market.

A minimal number of presentation institutions means that the new art 
will not find its way to the public and will remain locked up in studios 
and warehouses. The Dutch and international public in the Netherlands 
will not be able to see any innovative art.

Removing an institution such as SKOR means that the presence of art in 
public spaces -- democratic and by definition "anti-elitist", because it 
is accessible to everyone free of charge -- will decline.

Closing an institution such as NIMk means that a valuable, partly 
digital heritage -- video art and film art and media art -- will become 
fragmented and will no longer be accessible to the public.

The innovative part of the field of the visual arts, which also 
determines the international image of the creative Netherlands, cannot 
survive without a financial injection from the state.

The current cultural system which was definitively torpedoed today has 
produced artists and curators who are currently making an international 
furore and are, amongst other things, a focal point in the current 
biennale in Venice -- the world championships of the visual art

For example, the work of Navid Nuur has pride of place on the front 
cover of the official catalogue of the Venice Biennale. Like Amalia 
Pica, who lives in the Netherlands, he is taking part in the central 
exhibition Illuminations. Their colleagues, Praneet Soi, Yael Bartana, 
Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Han Hoogerbrugge, Aernout Mik, Libia Castro, 
Olafur Olafsson, Edwin Driessens and Maria Verstappen, play a major role 
in the pavilions of India, Poland, Denmark, Roma, Iceland and Dropstuff 
respectively. The Dutchman Guido van der Werve can be seen at the same 
time in the context of the Future Generation exhibition, where the 
Ukrainian Victor Pynchuck is showing the way to the talent of the 
future. It is not only Dutch artists who are a glittering presence in 
Venice this year; their fellow curators are also prominently present. No 
fewer than five curators working in the Netherlands are furnishing 
pavilions this year. The Marres director, Guus Beumer, is responsible 
for the Dutch pavilion, the BAK director Maria Hlavajova is doing the 
Roma Pavilion, the freelancer Maria Rus Bojan is doing the Romanian 
pavilion, the SKOR director, Fulya Erdemci, is doing the Turkish 
pavilion and the Appel tutor, Henk Slager is doing the Georgian Pavilion.

The achievement of these artists and curators were made possible due to 
the existence of a cultural system which has cherished experimentation, 
innovation, the development of talents and an international focus up to 
now, and made it possible (financially). They were able to develop their 
work and their practice due to investments by the state of the 
Netherlands. These investments are now bearing fruit and showing results 
in an "export product" of which the Netherlands can be proud. This 
system is recognized and celebrated all over the world because of its 
efficiency and future-oriented approach.

The Secretary of State's memorandum shows that the cabinet is thinking 
only of what is producing immediate results today, and not about what 
can generate "value for the future". We all know that there is not only 
a today, but also a tomorrow. We would like to see that in tomorrow's 
Netherlands there will be still be a great deal of contemporary art and 
historical heritage which can be seen frequently. We hope that the Lower 
House shares this desire and will oppose a policy that looks only at today.

The boards of directors, managements and representatives of:

De Zaak Nu -- on behalf of the presentation institutions

SKOR | Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte (Foundation for Art in Public 
Spaces)

NIMk -- Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst (Netherlands Media Art 
Institute)

The post-academic institutions -- de Ateliers, Rijksakademie and the Jan 
van Ecyk Academy

The collector Martijn Sanders and the patrons Maurice van Vaalen and Rob 
Defares

The artists' action group, 'Schuilen in het Rijks'

PLease sign the petition: 
http://petities.nl/petitie/bezuinigen-op-cultuur-zonder-alle-feiten-nooit





Op 11-6-11 10:39, claire welsby schreef:
> APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> I recently attended a discussion about the state of media art UK at
> FutureEverything 2011, organised by CODA. The discussion was prompted by recent
> funding cuts and the concerning number of media art organisations that had
> lost out.
>
> The group also proactively about how people and organisations active in the
> UK media art movement might work better together in the future, to improve
> the visibilty and understanding of media arts practice in the UK, and create
> a stronger voice for media art, particularly amongst policy makers and
> funders. My post covers the key issues that we discussed, and raises some
> questions about what happens next.
>
> I thought it might be an interesting read for this mail-list. There's some
> nice images of art included too!
> http://lifeartus.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/its-been-a-really-tough-year-but-whats-next-for-media-art-uk/
>
> Claire

claire_w

unread,

Jun 14, 2011, 5:05:52 PM6/14/11

to acedigitaluncut

Thanks for sharing Simon. NL have been pretty active in supporting
media arts over the years - and supported transnational partnership
working too. This is going to hit quite hard I think. Do you know if
there is a way for us English speakers to follow the debate?

Claire

On Jun 14, 3:45 pm, Simon Worthington <si...@metamute.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Not sure if other people have seen this, but it looks like NL gov is
> proposing to follow UK gov and cut the arts to the point of extinction
> and effective censorship, by yet another right wing gov.
>
> This is the petition list, just requires name and location
>

> Please sign the petition:http://petities.nl/petitie/bezuinigen-op-cultuur-zonder-alle-feiten-n...

>
> The issue is to be debated in NL parliament on the 27 June.
>
> All best
>
> Simon Worthington, Mute
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] LIFE | ART | US - It's been a really
>
> tough year, but what's next for media art UK?
> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:42:51 +0200
> From: annet <an...@VIRTUEELPLATFORM.NL>
> Reply-To: annet <an...@VIRTUEELPLATFORM.NL>

> To: NEW-MEDIA-CURAT...@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

> PLease sign the petition:http://petities.nl/petitie/bezuinigen-op-cultuur-zonder-alle-feiten-n...

>
> Op 11-6-11 10:39, claire welsby schreef:
> > APOLOGIES FOR CROSS POSTING
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > Hi everyone,
>
> > I recently attended a discussion about the state of media art UK at
> > FutureEverything 2011, organised by CODA. The discussion was prompted by recent
> > funding cuts and the concerning number of media art organisations that had
> > lost out.
>
> > The group also proactively about how people and organisations active in the
> > UK media art movement might work better together in the future, to improve
> > the visibilty and understanding of media arts practice in the UK, and create
> > a stronger voice for media art, particularly amongst policy makers and
> > funders. My post covers the key issues that we discussed, and raises some
> > questions about what happens next.
>
> > I thought it might be an interesting read for this mail-list. There's some
> > nice images of art included too!

> > http://lifeartus.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/its-been-a-really-tough-yea...
>
> > Claire