Syndicate: a letter home

["Dimitri Pilikin (by way of Marjan Kokot)" <marjan@kud-fp.si>]

Letter to home from Documenta X, by Dimitri Pilikin


At Documenta X:, there appears to be a pause in art.  

This is a time when documents are devalued , as a form of definition
and as incitement to react.  This declaration is deliberate and
courageous.  It can be seen on the Documenta logo - a red cross is
placed over the letter "d" - a traditional way of marking price
reductions in shop windows.  This devaluation is also shown in the
scale of the exhibition.  Having brought with me an impression of
Documenta IX, Documenta X looks like a domestic, small space: I don't
recognise the space where I was in 1992.  But all this is very apt,
because Documenta X is a period of reflection and reconsideration. 
Processes of art-making are acquiring value, and are moving into the
charmed circle of contemporary art.  In the meantime, art objects are
losing connection with real human life.  You can see this in the last
Venice Biennale.  Everything was understandable, everything was
absolutely calculated: mistakes and risks were excluded.  But the best
products of contemporary art are discussion, conversation and
reflection: in point of fact, communication. Naturally: Documenta X is
not without net-space, and Hybrid WorkSpace has created its own niche.

Documenta X is also  a period to reckon up the 1990's.  This has been
a time where the female message in contemporary art has been
recognised: this is a time of emotional and sensitive practice.

Documenta X is also a period when borders have become a context. Its 
a time of consideration to peripheral zones, which harness new energy.
 The V2_East / Syndicate workshop - the deep europe programme - is a
demonstration of an absolutly particular experience of art production.
 For example: the video programme from Yugoslavia represents totally
different relationships between the categories of society, freedom,
politics, revolution and blood.  Revolution is now discredited as a
form of life, and as a form of art.  The revolutionary has now joined
the establishment and looks like a decorative figure.  But if art is a
process of continuous reinvention, how can it manage without
revolution?  It is at this point that East meets West, because our
common problem is our loss of contact with society as well as
community.  We need channels of communication as a common ritual, and
without them we fall into despair.

Revolution is now an embodied experience.  It is the experience of
ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Russia.  It is not only political, it is of
the body.  It involves real blood, violence and terror.  But this is
not all.  Revolution is also an experience of communities brought
together.  It shows the value of ritual as a means of alleviating
emotional and psychological problems. 

Protests transform to carnival, with an intense feeling of community. 
All boundaries of meaning are breached.  There is no generation gap,
no racial distinctions, no religious conflicts, no gender problems, no
difference between rich and poor.  There is only absolute happiness
experienced in the moment.

 Kassel,  August 2nd 1997.