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VIATICO (viatico arte per i bambini)
[pls. scroll down for english version]

VIATICO (viatico arte per i bambini | viatico arte for children) war ein beitrag zum dritten Teil des Ausstellungsprojekts "VIATICO DI ARTE E CRITICA", das am 01.03.2000 im CHANGE studio d'arte contemporanea / associazione culturale project room in Rom eröffnet wurde.

Die Grundidee von "VIATICO DI ARTE E CRITICA" war es, KünstlerInnen und KunstkritikerInnen aus verschiedenen europäischen Ländern um Beiträge zum Thema zu bitten. Im Italienischen hat das Wort "viatico" mehrere Bedeutungen. In der Regel steht es für "Proviant" oder "Reiseverpflegung", wobei auch metphorische Verwendungen des Begriffs denkbar sind. So verwendete ihn etwa der italienische Kunsthistoriker Roberto Longhi für den Titel seines Buches über venezianische Kunst, "Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana" (Florenz 1946). Aber es gibt noch eine weitere Bedeutung, nämlich im religiösen Kontext, wo "viatico" auf die letzten Sakramente verweist.

Für eine ausführliche Beschreibung und Hintergrundinformationen s. die englische Fassung.

[english]

VIATICO (viatico arte per i bambini | viatico arte for children) was my contribution to the third part of the exhibition project "VIATICO DI ARTE E CRITICA", that opened wednesday, the 1st of march 2000 at the CHANGE studio d'arte contemporanea / associazione culturale project room at Rome, Italy.

the concept

The idea of "VIATICO DI ARTE E CRITICA" was to invite artists as well as critics from different countries to contribute a piece related to the issue of "VIATICO". In italian language, the word "viatico" bears a double meaning. Normally, it can be translated as "provisions" or "victuals": something, you will take with you while you are travelling (i.e., Italian art historian Roberto Longhi used it also for the title of his book on venetian art, "Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana" (Firenze 1946). Anyway, there's also a second meaning, as "viatico" is also used in religious practice, where it refers to the last sacraments.

My first idea for a contribution was to try a kind of automatical/etymological research on the contemporary meaning of "viatico" in the fields of art and art critique. My aim was on the one hand side to make use of one of the most common (as well as simplifying) understandings of art critique as an act of "mediation" between (a work of) art and its public (or: the artist and his/her public), as a combination of interpretation and translation. On the other hand side, I felt the need to put in question not only this understanding itself, but also the highly problematic notions of "authorship" of the artist as well as of the critic it is founded on: while the authorship of the artist is set up as omnipotent, the authorship of the critic (as well as the authorship of the public) – that should be taken into consideration in any process of analysis – are veiled.

Therefore, I my starting point was a web research on the use that is made of the word "viatico" in contemporary italian art and (art) critique, using a common search engine. Next step was to use a common translation engine on the documents listed by the search engine (about 85 websites in italian language, rangig from library catalogue entries to the titles of paintings, traveller's diaries, philosophical and critical texts on art and art history to religious documents). To my great disappointment, the simple translation engine reduced the previous variety of meanings to one interpretation only: in any case "viatico" was translated into "way".
While the process itself may be considered as interesting (and, in a way, "eloquent" as well), the result (and therefore the texts I would have been able to contribute to the project) was extremely boring, at last.

Therefore I decided to look for an alternative solution – and finally went back to an older project, "wie man den kindern die kunst erklärt" ("helfen sie ihrem kind, die kunst zu verstehen"). While the background of this decision is explicated in the "letter to the curators" as documented above, the project "wie man den kindern die kunst erklärt" ("helfen sie ihrem kind, die kunst zu verstehen") as well as further information on it's original background is provided in a separate section of the projectsGUNSTprojects pages (see link below).

The "letter to the curators" as well as the pages of "helfen sie ihrem kind, die kunst zu verstehen" were sent to CHANGE studio d'arte contemporanea / associazione culturale via email, together with the advice to print them out and the proposition to fix the "letter to the curators" at the wall, while the pages of "helfen sie ihrem kind, die kunst zu verstehen" should be stitched together with a tacker and laid out on a table placed nearby.

background info

VIATICO (viatico arte per i bambini / viatico arte for children) was released in context of the third part of the exhibition project VIATICO DI ARTE E CRITICA, curated by Roberto Annecchini, Patrizia Mania and Domenico Scudero at the CHANGE studio d'arte contemporanea / associazione culturale project room at Rome, Italy, from march, 23rd 2000 to april, 12nd 2000 and was also shown through the following parts of the project, as the exhibition itself was conceived as an "increasing" space of mind/work/texts/objects.

further material

online/ready-to-print pdf-version coming soon

metadaten:
titel | title: VIATICO (viatico arte per i bambini) -jahr | year: 2000
objekt | object: text printed on paper (vs. 03)
verwandtes GUNSTprojekt | related GUNSTproject: wie man den kindern die kunst erklärt
generated by: miss.gunst / verena kuni