for the Reading Circle RaMPE Grand Opening, on the 8th of November 2023, at Löwenbräukunst, Limmatstrasse 268 & 270, 8005 Zürich

Andrea Fraser or the irony as a tool for “institutional critique”

„There is indeed much to suggest that in recent years, whether or not an artwork was considered artistically relevant depended to a greater extent on its market value.“ The Triumphant Progress of Market Success, Isabelle Graw, 2010

For this inauguration at Löwenbräukunst, an art center in Zurich West, that seems to be empty all the time, we witnessed a speech, led by various players in the art world, for the inauguration of a fictitious new exhibition space at Löwenbräukunst. Between the rather pretentious artist, who seems to come from a rather well-off background, claiming not to care about the value of his works on the market, the curator who says he’s so happy to inaugurate this exhibition space, whose architecture is remarkable (an empty terrace overlooking the entrance to a parking lot), by exhibiting a brilliant artist, and without forgetting the investor for whom only economic interests count and who barely knows the place and the artist, the critique was rather well put together. Not to mention the endless thanks and gratitude evoked by the different actors, an absurd procedure, as everyone knows, but one of the conventions of this kind of opening. All this in a gallery that has fallen victim to Zurich’s gentrification, which has stripped the neighbourhood of its identity and left it searching for its place.

How can the art world reflect on itself? Reinvent itself? Transform itself? Can an institution really take a turn, in the way it is structured and organized? Can humour and irony be weapons for dealing with an art world that is sometimes very formal and serious?

After all the discussions we’ve had in this first part of the “Redesigning Museum” semester, it seems clear that the art world is facing problems. And while museums have the power to change many things in our society, they seem incapable of doing so these days. Museums remain structures that bear witness to existing wealth disparities, mirrors of colonialism and the exclusion of historically marginalized groups. Perhaps today’s Reading Circle presentation, inspired by Andrea Fraser’s work, provided some answers to these questions. At least, it helped.

The art world is in trouble, and perhaps humour and irony, for some artists, are the only thing left to survive in this system governed by economic imperatives, where economics is often confused with artistic achievement. And I also find Fraser’s words very powerful: “We are the institution“. Certainly, for change to take place, it has to come from within, and the players in the institutions are also the artists. It’s the same in society: we’re all players.

I would like to finish with a quote, that is to be relevant to what was said before :

„Participating in the system doesn’t mean that we must identify with it, stop criticizing it, or stop improving the little piece of turf on which we operate.“ Judge Bruce Wright, Justice, New York State Supreme Court

I recommend watching some of Andrea Fraser’s performances to understand and illustrate these points : https://www.ubu.com/film/fraser_welcome.html