BOJAN SARCEVIC

In response to an invitation to work with Project and The Model Arts and Niland Gallery, the artist Bojan Sarcevic proposed the following question – To what extent should an artist understand the implication of his or her findings?This question can be approached in a number of different ways. It can be looked at in terms of how much control artists have over the reception of their work, on audience perception and the effect that an artwork can have once it is put on display. It can be considered in relation to curating or art criticism, whereby another party acts as an intermediary between the work and the audience, staging or interpreting it on their behalf and on behalf of the artist. This question can also be seen in the light of practice that functions as research, or through art that produces concrete results in the world.

The project had several public manifestations including an intervention in the gallery spaces in Dublin and Sligo by Sarcevic and a conversation between the artist and critic Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith. There was also a seminar in which artists and academics respond to the question and subsequently the publication of an artists book featuring images by the Sarcevic, commissioned texts from Diedrich Diedrichsen and Sabastian Egenhofer and transcriptions from the seminar. In addition a screening of films selected by Bojan Sarcevic, Sarah Glennie and Grant Watson approached the question tangentially, using artworks which (either through their complexity, opaqueness or use of fiction) provoke the subsequent question of what it means to ‘understand a work of art.’This project was developed collaboratively between Bojan Sarcevic, Caoimhín Mac Goilla Léith, Sarah Glennie and Grant Watson.

Events

Artist’s talk -Wednesday 19 April, 6pm – Project In conversation between Bojan Sarcevic and Caoimhín Mac Goilla Léith.

Film Screenings – Saturday April 29 – Saturday May 13 – Project Gallery Looped from 11am to 6pm

Melvin Moti The Black Room 2005 / 25:00 min
Putting to good use the remarkable experiments in time allowed by his previous films, which presented ways of bringing up to date ‘reduced’ accounts from our collective memory and a suite of dialogues between contemporary phenomena and historic events, Melvin Moti proposes, with The Black Room, a system which, under an apparently simple exterior, is in fact one of his most complex works: a giddy descent in to time, dreams and imagination.

Anssi Kasitonni Kolkuttajat (The Knockers) 2003 / 12:00 min
One of the cornerstones of Anssi Kasitonni’s production is his short films. Shot on 8-mm stock, the films combine animation and live actors and offer the most direct route inside the author’s mind, a prime example of Kasitonni’s other strength, his direct and straightforward approach. Although the films abound with all sorts of post-modernist ‘cool stuff’ and their seamless visual idiom is highly developed, they are totally devoid of all intellectual posing.

Paul McCarthy Sailors Meat #2 Daily at 6pm – 44:20 min
American sculptor, performance and video artist Paul McCarthy is known for shocking, sexually charged pieces that feature benign cartoon and pop-culture characters. Many argue that he’s the most important artist of his generation.

“It is impossible to overstate the achievement of [McCarthy] in the past 30 years, or to name another artist more persuasive in articulating the brutality and dehumanization that underlie the social equilibrium on this country.”
Dan Cameron, senior curator of New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art

Discussion Seminar – Friday 12 May 2pm to 5pm To what extent should an artist understand the implications of his or her findings?

Presented in the Project and in association with Critical Voices 3

-ANNIE FLETCHER (Chair)
-WILL BRADLEY
-THE OTOLITH GROUP Anjali Sagar and Kodwo Eshun
-JAN VERWOERT
-CAREY YOUNG

Book launch – The Model Arts and Niland Gallery
A publication conceived by the artist featuring images by Sarcevic, commissioned texts and transcriptions from the seminar will be launched in the summer of 2006. This publication has been made possible with an Arts Council Commissions Grant.