[Reader-list] earlier mail to okwui enwezor

[philip pocock]

hello list

i havent had time to digest all the disparaging remarks in okwui
enwezor's rebuttle.

here is a mail i sent to him personally minus one paragraph concerning a
seperate issue.

i am back on-line in a few days.

philip pocock


Subject:
        crisis of exhibiting
   Date:
        Fri, 11 May 2001 23:16:14 +0100
   From:
        Philip.Pocock at t-online.de (philip pocock)
     To:
        okwui enwezor <okwui at aol.com>




hello mr. enwezor



in the mail as well came one from dehli from a fery vigorous group of
architects, media artists, cyberfeminists, urbanists, film theorists,
free software people and others, some able to afford entry into the
habitat center. their website is worth looking into - www.sarai.net.
they are not government appointees, they are sponsored by the langlois
foundation, they are indiguneous and will deal with the situation after
the indian ex-partriots leave to harvest benefits in europe.

there seems to me to be a grave confusion between colonialization and
globalization. i am not able to afford to attend this documenta, the
first two platforms dealing with unfinished democracy and now truth and
reconciliation, since an around-the-world jet is quite costly. that cost

was in fact the fuel that the british used to colonize part of the
planet. it has its strategic roots in ceasar's famous dictum: 'divide
and conquer'.

as a canadian i know this first-hand. our land is enormous and only the
ironically termed 'connected' ones could fly around and govern. it is
again, not global at all, to require physical presence and transport
costs. it is very regrettable that there is no telnet, or Q&A on-line,
or video streaming for your platforms. it would have been very useful to

pick up mohammed ali's media theory when in zaire a billion people got
his massage and message.

the virtual media, have penetrated the most remote areas on the western
map, and in 1997 at makerere university or small hotels in uganda, we
had no trouble connecting and transmitting our videos to dx. i never
attended the show, except for 2 or 3 days whne i spoke there on day 63.
globalization is anyone, anywhere, anytime. it is not like the have and
have not of air travel and time away from one's current primary
situation.

i would very much like to discreetly discuss the possibility of
correcting the situation leading to poor attendence and the importing of

experts to exotic locations that apparently have little bearing on the
matters being lectured. dicussion and discourse is the only way forward.

media diffusion is the remedy for the fog machines used by the previous
imperialist regime.

i receive my documenta by email from reports from politically and
culturally active persons having had the chance to attend in austria and

today from dehli.

please consider that the critique you will incur if this is not a
process, and an emerging learning one, and is instead a strategy, then
documenta 11 is a colonialist undertaking. all the makings are there.

- central foreign control.

- importing of experts for a closed period to 'tell it like it is'
without listening or attending to the local interests, be they the
obvious fascits dangers to the democratic process in austria (which will

always be unfinished in my humble opinion as we have now the network
paradigm radically changing economics, international politics and
person-to-person genderless, colorless, statusless multi-cultural
communication) or the spiritual dimension of truth which underpins
india's identity even today. importing experts was how britain gave
colonialist architecture to parts of africa and india, where upon their
departure, the big and little offices, and the crowded wicket areas were

inherited by what political science sutdents in kampala told me was
'black colonialism'.
exporting benefits for the few and depersonalization of those remaining
'behind'. when the team leaves a platform, what effect has it had? for
kassel, certainly there will be traces. for those foreign experts,
certainly acllaim and economic gain, such as new professorships, etc.
but for those left working behind, how did you presence make a
difference, give them a profile internationally? what sort of research
on site went on? even hollywood sends detailed crews to scout a location

for even hidden dimensions. in india there are so many wonderful
cultural producers, some living as swami database programmers in the
himalayas, others in collaboratives getting started in dehli and
calcutta. where is their presence? in a colonial scheme, nowhere.

- limited democracy. if it cost money to vote, nobody would go to the
polls. airfare to dehli is not insignificant to most. the habitat center

is also not possible for those in dehli who would be great participants
in any discussion fostered for truth, reconciliation and democracy,
unfinished or unfinishable. information wants to be free. democracy
depends on that, and is why it remains unfinished.

there is plenty to think about, and here in an improvised unrehearsed
mail is a call to correct the course and dispell the confusion of
colonialism with an open global approach to planetary art and culture
practise.

i give you credit for pinpointing the current crisis of exhibiting. it
is almost impossible for an artist to exhibit given the forms and
methods at present. i have this in my own situation with curators at ps1

and opportunist career-based artists.

until the artist, and again giving you credit, the curator becomes
invisible in the process or prodcution, meaning will not escape the fog
of possessive art strategies.

wish i had been there, or been able to follow live online, like another
several million disenfranchised documenta guests. such an arm should
have been in gear long ago so that the local community could be present
as well. it is here that i receive such mails.... a snippet from dehli
today:

------

The more interesting, and i think for some readers of the list, more
pertinent event - is the series of talks that are happening in an
auditorium. (Here i must clarify that both the gallery and the
auditorium are part of something called the India Habitat Centre
which is a pleasantly designed cultural & office complex, but not the
easiest space to enter if you do not have enough capital, cultural or
otherwise).

The speakers of the talks come from both India and abroad, and i will
make a posting soon of the people who spoke and what they spoke
about. Right now i am just informing everyone that its going on, and
that it is one of the less attended cultural events i have seen.
Except for some artists and academics, there is not much of the
general public in view. All this to say that while Documenta
(whatever its number) may be a big 'idea' in Europe, here - except
for the few i mentioned - it is not something that many know or care
about.

This is not to say that the themes being addressed during the event
are not relevant or that the speakers are not sufficiently engaging -
in fact some difficult problems of interpretation - historical, or
representational - are being addressed by some of the speakers.

------

i hope to invisibly help you get the message over the borders to
everyone in the world.

cu, philip pocock