SANTA (FE) KLAUS
Klaus Ottmann-philosopher, curator, German quasi-populist intellectual, resident of New York-believes there's a right way and a wrong way, damn it all, to exhibit artwork. The author of such eyebrow arching articles as "Certitude is the Imaginary" and "Painting in an Age of Anxiety," as conversant about Michelangelo as he is about Mark Rothko, laid out the gist of his curatorial ethos, thus providing hints about the upcoming 2006 SITE Santa Fe Biennial, last week when he entertained a dollop of arts writers, city employees and passersby under the spell of wine, shrimp and charming Euro-inflection.
He kept his cards close but revealed this: His biennial will be called
Still Points of the Turning World
, partly because he just can't get enough of TS Eliot and partly because there will be only 13 artists included (relative to more than 50 in Robert Storr's
Our Grotesque
) and those 13 will essentially have small solo exhibitions within SITE, rather than being part of a monstrous, mentally burdensome curatorial concept that attempts to unite their differing and sometimes disparate efforts under a single, often fictitious flag.
Ottmann hopes to encourage an environment where people-an ideal "public" people-will have an honest experience and reaction to the art without having to claw through distracting placards, incomprehensible artspeak, over-eager docents or the overwhelming oppression and sheer art phobia sometimes induced by a huge number of artists and works. It's a sweet idea that begs a question: How is Ottmann declaring it going to make it so? Telling the art press only results in bleats of agreement relayed through niche media formats (like columns about visual art) so that art-oriented readers may bleat in continued wise bovidian snorts, yes, the art experience must be made accessible to, you know, those other people who just don't get it despite our best efforts to educate them. Someone aside from art writers needs to be told.
So where was the editor to the daily paper's family section? Where was the reporter from the business journal or the Spanish-language publication? I think SITE ought to run commercials on network TV, you know, like during sit-com reruns after the Beaver Toyota spot? Maybe it's even possible to work a collaboration so that every Camry and Tacoma (to hell with those elitists in their Priuses) comes with a family pass to
Still Points of the Turning World
and a SITE Santa Fe 2006 foam beer insulator printed with a clever piece of low-brow, but encouraging, word art by Jennifer Bartlett.
But just getting folks there-whether by dissemination of information, lack of pretension, used car lot shenanigans or just chance-isn't enough. Ottmann told the assembled press that he preferred to visit museums again and again, perhaps only considering one or two works at a time. Of course he also admitted to having a pass and getting into just about any museum he liked, as often as he liked, absolutely gratis. We assembled press people bleated in appreciation of our own passes.
So here is my recommendation: Admission to Ottmann's biennial should be per artist, one dollar each, unless you're passing through and need to see the whole show at once, in which case there would be a volume discount (SITE's regular admission). This would mean that those of us with the time to visit more than once, but without the privilege of a free pass, could spend an hour looking at the work of, say, Jonathan Meese, without feeling pressured to rush through the whole show, knowing that we weren't going to come back and pay the eight bucks again. A week or a month later, you could return and pay one or two bucks to contemplate a few more works. Of course, there's a reason why Fridays at SITE are free, but hey, some of us have jobs.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FINALLY FINDS BEER
It's those same jobs that might keep you from heading over to the City of Santa Fe's celebration/report (8:30-10 am Wednesday, Oct. 26, The Lensic, 211 W. San Francisco St., 988-1234) to get us all up to speed on the accomplishments and goings on of the first, and recently completed, year of embracing our new economic development strategy. Apparently just because the city's ED department has to arrive at work bright and early and just jump right into untangling the mysteries of cultural tourism, small businesses and affordable housing, they think the rest of us will be up for it before 9 am as well. Uh, wrong.
Fortunately, the young professional peer networking group, NEXTOP, has a solution. If you're like me, you don't even consider attending the launch of an internet portal before noon and the idea of all the wrong things that could happen to $750,000 in the hands of the City Council is not something you want to ponder until your breakfast is good and settled. But, if you're like me, you also really do want to know what the city has been doing with our gross receipts taxes, etc, to promote contemporary creative culture, to tackle energy conservation technology, to create a community box office and design a plan for Santa Fe to turn arts and culture into a booming economy full of exciting high paying jobs, entrepreneurial activities and progressive infill development; you'd just rather learn about it at beer time rather than breakfast time.
Wednesday morning's presentation will be highlighted and recapped in an evening Oktoberfest via NEXTOP and hosted by Brian Locke and the newly expanded Santa Fe Brewing Company (6-8 pm Wednesday, Oct. 26, 18 SR 14, E. Frontage Road, 466-3333). Besides, everyone knows an economic development plan looks better through beer goggles.
