Forum d´Avignon Ruhr: Is art free?

We enjoy life in a free country with a lot of culture, be it sophisticated or off-beat. Gallery owner Urs Meile dissects this idyll in a highly intelligent, entertaining conversation with painter Andreas Golder. Both playfully reflect on the subtle methods of censorship, talk about the Chinese art scene, and the self-destructive potential behind the theorem of the artist as entrepreneur.

 

Where does art still offend today? Why doesn’t the classical scandal exist anymore? Has art lost its political meaning?

In these days of Anything Goes, only crass cases of crossing certain lines or subtle tactics by the artists meet the zeitgeist.

Urs Meile is the curator of Ai Weiwei’s work and knows how to organise exhibitions in China without any problems. „His artistic products were never discussed in any way.“ What caused the problem were „his statements regarding the situation, regarding the socio-political situation in China.“

 

And with the new awareness of the creative industry, they are jammed between the rocks of freedom and commerce harder than ever before: the artists who want to live off their work. Do they have to be tidy, clean and profitable in the future?

Of course, the question „Can you make a living from that kind of work, after all?“ is also on the minds of renowned German-Russian painter Andreas Golder and the internationally successful Swiss gallery owner Urs Meile: „We always say we don’t talk about money. We talk about contents.“  Meile swears by quality. But in fact, only 0,3 % of the artists can make a decent living from their work. Berlin-based Andreas Golder warns that there even may be a trend: first, you’re an artist, then, you become a curator, and last, you’ll be a hipster in the capital of Germany…

 

Actress Jana Pallaske is at a loss for words when asked about the new pressure on the entrepreneurial self-conception of an artist: „Profitable? I don’t know about that…“

 

 

 

 

Text: Boris Alexander Knop