Australian Art Notes: June

 Pierre Huyghe at dOCUMENTA (13) - detail of installation in Karlsaue Park: "Live things and inanimate things, made and not made"

dOCUMENTA (13) update

Europe’s prestigious quinquennial contemporary art event is underway in Kassel, Germany (until 16 September). The final list of participants, kept under wraps until the press preview, includes a record 8 Australian artists: Gordon Bennett, Simryn Gill, Fiona Hall, Stuart Ringholt, the late Margaret Preston, the late Doreen Reid Nakamarra, Warwick Thornton, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri and Australia-based Hazara artist Khadim Ali. Indigenous curator Hetti Perkins worked closely with Artistic Director Christov-Bakargiev as part of a core group of international curators, and a several other Australian writers and thinkers are also featured (see Artnotes May). Australia is currently marking its 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Germany, however plans to create a significant celebratory event in Kassel seem to have fallen over for unexplained reasons. Instead, a pleasant, low-key gathering for participating artists and other luminaries was hosted by Sydney’s MCA Australia, and was attended by Australian Ambassador Peter Tesch and other diplomatic staff. The response from the many Australian collectors, curators, gallerists and non-participating artists gathered in Kassel, many residing and/or promoting Australian art in Europe, was a kind of resigned cynicism – the feeling was that Ozco/DFAT had squibbed a major networking and promotional opportunity. Perhaps the $143k that Ozco dispensed for the Australian participants was considered enough. Such gripes were soon forgotten however, with dOCUMENTA’s Australian-born Media Director, Terry Harding, welcoming one and all to a spectacular launch party held at Kassel’s railway station, into the small hours. The sprawling and atmospheric Hauptbanhof is also the site of some of dOCUMENTA’s most exciting installations (see full review in next issue).

Ozco review

Responses to the Australia Council Review Report have now closed, with final recommendations expected in coming months. Under the proposals, Ozco would have four redefined roles: to support work of excellence; to promote an arts sector that is distinctively Australian: to ensure that the work it supports has an audience or market, and to maximise the social and economic contribution made by the arts sector to Australia. The 18 key recommendations, by Gabrielle Trainor and Angus James, have a renewed focus on ‘excellence’, and significant implications for future allocation of Ozco funding. Major arts companies would also have to pass the excellence test, and community programs that exist primarily to provide access – i.e. many artist-in-residence, Indigenous and arts-health programs – would be managed and funded by the Federal Arts Department. Trainor told media “We have tried to provide a filter which separates access from excellence. The role of the Australia Council is to support work that is excellent, while other government departments support work that has primarily social outcomes”. The Review proposes an extra $21+ million annually for new models of funding, including $15 million of new funding for ‘unfunded excellence’, i.e. work the Council currently considers good enough to fund but does not have the money to support. This is really just another way of saying that Ozco is underfunded for the work is does.

www.culture.arts.gov.au/review-australia-council-2012

Indigenous Arts Fellowship

Congratulations to ‘digital native’ Jenny Fraser, who has been awarded a fellowship worth $90k over two years. Fraser will use the funds to develop her cross-media project, Midden, which will ‘celebrate unsung heroes and previously unspoken events, incorporating installation, screen-based and performance elements to enhance, reframe and remix stories, creating new ways of engaging audiences’. 

MCA Australia attendance record

When the new-look MCA’s inaugural exhibitions (Marking Time, Christian Marclay: The Clock and Local Positioning Systems) closed in early June, a record-smashing 264,625 visitors had visited. The busiest day had  an extraordinary 8,233 visitors. Equally busy days are expected to continue, with the gallery now hosting a major part of the 18^th Biennale of Sydney, running until 16 September.

NGA news

The National Gallery of Australia has announced its summer blockbuster: Toulouse-Lautrec: Paris & the Moulin Rouge (from 14 December), featuring over 120 paintings, posters and drawings. The NGA has secured loans from 35 international collections such as the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), the Courtauld and Tate (London) and El Museo de art Thyssen Bornemisza (Madrid). Works will also be drawn from the NGA’s own collection of Toulouse-Lautrec prints and posters, the most extensive in Australia, many of which will be shown for the first time. The exhibition, which will not travel elsewhere, is expected to boost NGA attendance figures for its crucial summer season, attracting significant interstate and international visitation. The Gallery will once again have timed ticketing, which proved very successful during the recent Renaissance exhibition. In other news Arts Minister Simon Crean announced the appointment of Catherine Harris to the NGA Council, and artist Callum Morton was reappointed for a second 3-year term.

Experimenta 2012

Experimenta has announced the participants for its 5th International Biennial of Media Art (14 September – 17 November, RMIT Gallery and other venues across Melbourne, then touring). Experimenta: Speak to Me will showcase emerging and experimental artworks by leading media artists from across the world. The line-up includes Ryoko Aoki & Zon Ito (Japan), Sylvie Blocher (France), Natalie Bookchin (USA), Johan Grimonprez (Belgium), Shih Chieh  Huang (Taiwan), Hiroshi  Ishiguro (Japan), Meiro  Koizumi (Japan),  Scenocosme (France), Nobuhiro Shimura (Japan), Kenji Suzuki (Japan), and Takayuki Yamamoto (Japan). Australian artists include Philip Brophy, Grant Stevens, Archie Moore, Kate Murphy, Charlie Sofo, Priscilla Bracks Tristan Jalleh, Dominic Redfern, Eugenia Lim, Soda_Jerk, Nina Ross and Gavin Sade. Experimenta will also present five newly commissioned artworks by Australian artists Christopher Fulham, Jess MacNeil, Wade Marynowsky, Katie Turnbull and Ian Burns. Also announced was a major commission in partnership with Federation Square, to present a large-scale work by renowned Seoul-based artists Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries

NBN and the arts

A comprehensive report outlining how the NBN will affect the way the arts in Australia will be practised, delivered and consumed is available on artsHub. The report contains examples of early initiatives like Trove, the composite archive of Australia’s heritage from the National Library of Australia and more than 1,000 libraries and institutions all across the country.

www.artshub.com.au/au/news-article/opinions/arts/the-nbn-and-the-arts-here-now-and-to-come-189645?sc=1

NAIDOC at NMA

The National Museum of Australia, Canberra, will host NAIDOC on the Peninsula (Sunday 1 July 2012, 10:30am – 3:30pm)  – an annual event presented as part of a week of celebrations across Australia. Join Museum curators and Indigenous hosts on highlight tours of the First Australians gallery. Enjoy music, dance, community stalls and food outside in the forecourt, as well as craft activities in the Hall.

Federal funds for Albury

The Federal Government has announced its will contribute $3.5 million towards the redevelopment of the Albury (NSW) Art Gallery. Mayor Alice Glachan sais the project involves a major refurbishment and expansion of the gallery ‘that will ensure it fulfils its role as the premier cultural centre for the region and a driver of economic growth’.

David Corbet's National Artnotes appear in edited form in Art Monthly Australia (www.artmonthly.org.au)