[resource-net] Fwd: @PlaceForTheSpace #Critique #Anonymous #WhiteyOnTheMoon #SOUPDUJOUR

[Diana McCarty]

Hi Resourcers,

I'm sure some of you have followed this action a bit. This is a little
post I made for faces.
Super interesting debates all around!

D


++++

@PlaceForTheSpace #Critique #Anonymous #WhiteyOnTheMoon
#SOUPDUJOUR

Dear Faces,

Feminist artists in Berlin have struck again!

The recent #WhiteyOnTheMoon action consisted of an Open Letter
criticizing the current exhibition “Milky Way - Space is the Place” at
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien has generated quite some debate. Yep, KB
actually conceived of a conceptual constellation of something
somewhere between Elon Musk’s space travel aspirations and
Afro-Futurism and conveniently forgot to curate a single black artist.
What’s worse, it turns out that this wasn’t even an oversight -
feature, not bug! It was done on purpose, because apparently that
would be old fashioned. Or something. Or because “For decades we (KB)
have had international artists in our program and in our residencies,
including more than half women and an enormous number of people of
color". Or all the other black artists and/or women artists had
already been shown in other similarly themed shows. Hmm. Then, a
tricky sleight of hand text switch of curatorial concepts now
references Stanislaw Lem and Michiu Kaku. Now it also says German and
International artists. I guess it is easy to lose one’s way in the
Milky Way. “Elon Musk? Who dat?”

I’ll pass on the #WhiteyOnTheMoon Open Letter from SOUP DU JOUR, the
original curatorial statement and a list of press links in a follow up
mail. The how, what, why and who of the show itself, I’m not getting
into: today, it is all about the ladies, the Open Letter and the
responses it generated.

Operating under the nom du guerre, SOUP DU JOUR, this loose collective
of disgruntled feminists and their affiliates anonymously produce
critical and satirical campaigns around art events that aren’t living
up to their radical standards. They tend to focus on those spaces and
places that demonstrate a glaringly visible higher percentage of white
male artists.

In an apparent response to the #WhiteyOnTheMoon Open Letter,
Kunstlerhaus Bethanien scrubbed the public curatorial statement of the
references to Elon Musk and Afro-futurism on the website, scheduled a
public debate and demanded face to face communication with the
critics. While not mentioning the public purge in the curatorial
concept, copies of the #WhiteyOnTheMoon will be available at the
exhibition. Meanwhile, a group of the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien artists
in residence issued a statement in support of the Open Letter.

As far as I can tell, this loose collective is based on the affinities
and shared interests that are fed up with the status quo. Now, they
have taken to the “streets“ to stake claims on a place for critical
engagement - using whichever media makes the most sense as their
weapon of choice. This follows the recent #AchtungWeissWurst action
during the Berlin Art Fair. That campaign was mostly stickers, posters
and social media. It also made quite a splash.

Anyhow, this current action consists mainly of the #WhiteyOnTheMoon
Open Letter circulating on social media, and which has generated an
enormous amount of attention in the German and international art press
(please use the search engine of your choice for more) along with
quite a lot of public debate. This is mostly happening via facebook,
twitter and in the comment sections on some of the articles. There are
interesting and troubling threads of discussion happening in those
places, but no space for them to be one thing.  Now, #WhiteyOnTheMoon
is taking those hallway, dinner, cafe and bar discussions public -
operating everywhere and nowhere at once.
It is exactly because of this social media sprawl that I’m writing
this - on a good old fashioned email list. So I’m sharing a few rants
with you and trying to make them slightly entertaining, interesting
and/or worth the time you took to read them.

/rant #1 Social Media Sprawl
I Fu!!C at king hate Facebook,twitter & comments for meaningful debate!
Tedious searches for this or that point!
end rant #1/

/Rant #2
Who the F%!ck cares who said what if it makes sense? Why does the
curator and/or public care who is behind this action? Why is this the
Trumpian trope tool of deflection being used? If I can’t see you, I
can’t hear you? Can’t read?

The curator’s demand for a “bürgerliche” identity to engage with is a
call for an authentic “subject” to come forward and perform the
legitimacy of the totally valid critique posited by an anonymous
collective and their affiliates.

“Hallo SOAP DU JOUR,
Danke für Ihre neuerliche Zuschrift.
Solange Sie Ihre bürgerliche
Identität nicht preisgeben, sehe ich mich freilich nicht in der Lage,
weiterhin mit Ihnen zu kommunizieren. Christoph Tannert”

Basically, in this message to SOUP DU JOUR, the curator thanks them
for the letter and says he can’t have any further communication if he
doesn’t know who their real identities. There was a comment similar
comment in the press where he said "I can understand the criticism and
I am very interested in a dialogue with the group,”and  "However,
there was no contact in advance of the letter, and I do not know who
actually criticized me."

He knows exactly who criticized him - SOUP DU JOUR. Why does he need
“names”? Why in the hell would advance contact with him be a
pre-requisite for them to publish the Open Letter? This demand for any
conversation to happen on his own terms is yet another example of his
own status quo logic. Not exactly the biggest fish in the Berlin art
pond, but he is on juries, curates shows and has his own networks of
power.

And that speaks directly to why SOUP DU JOUR, their affiliates and
other similar groups have chosen masks of anonymity. The systemic
exclusion of artists that are not white men - women, people of color,
queer and non-normative entities is a direct result of exactly the
structures that Soup du Jour & affiliated groups are taking to task.

A place for the critiques and actions they are making does not exist.
It is exactly in this non-space that #WhiteyOnTheMoon was conceived
and along these fractures that groups like SOUP DU JOUR operate. And
it was because of these historical lacks of place that Sun Ra imagined
“Space is the Place” with its call back “Place is the Space”. Because
if it aint’ there, we can think it, if it is there and it ain’t good
enough, we can say it, and then we can think places good enough to
want to have.

It is not only that imaginary space that Afro-Futurism creates, it
also operates there and is what it does and why this particular
exhibition has come under rocket fire. It is exactly because people
can be ignored, bought, sold or erased when you know who and where
they are that anonymous actions are sometimes required to address the
systemic failures of those in power. That thing which if flighty and
fighty but cannot be named or located cannot be contained. Space is
the place.

end rant #2/


/Rant #3
A random collection of responses:

Not really quotes, but my simplification of some of the counter
arguments to the #WhiteyOnTheMoon Open Letter.

“international artists in our program and in our residencies,
including more than half women and an enormous number of people of
color,“
He’s East German. (the critique is from “outsiders to Berlin”
He’s a great guy. (and?)
curatorial freedom, bla,bla,bla…
You are policing art…
How would curate a better show?
“Artists should be judged by their work, not the color of their skin”
“You should become a curator”

etc und so weiter. Don’t rock the boat, baby.

How is it even possible that after  “decades” bla “international
artists in our program,” bla,bla,bla “more than half women and an
enormous number of people of color” this particular show could even
happen? And how dare the dear curator functionalize the past, present
and future artists in residence to fill in his own curatorial gaps?
Now they have to represent diversity for his curated show by not being
in it, just near it? How dare the institution simply scrub the
criticized references to Elon Musk and Afro-Futurism from its
curatorial statement to deflect the critique? How dare an institution
have such a weak concept in the first place. Don’t they have an intern
or two that can tell them about wikipedia? This list could continue if
only I had a bit more wine for the whine. It is not a whine, it is
just a ranty addition to the ongoing debate ignited by the Open Letter
from SOUP DU JOUR.

end rant #3/


This is not a rant, but an ending that starts with another beginning.

Dear Patriarchy and your affiliates:
Maybe you just weren’t paying attention: if a couple of angry white
women with a webpage can take down the most dangerous man on the
internet. What did you think a bunch of fed up Black Feminists were
going to do with the art world? Ignore these folks. I dare you.

I guess this is just getting started.


Best regards

Diana