ABOUT MEDIATION OF ART – 1st International Symposium in Leipzig

In October 2013 the 1. International Symposium “About Mediation of Art” took place within the MitOst-Festival in Leipzig. Hosts of the symposium were GfZK (Museum of Contemporary Art) and HALLE 14. Actors in the field of art and culture from Egypt, Poland, Czech Republic, Spain and Germany came together to discuss several basic aspects of art mediation. Main questions were asked regarding to the definition of the term “art mediation”, its structure and appearance and the importance of co-laborations between professionals. (→ for detailed information see in the minutes)

In the field of the arts and especially in contemporary art, one notices the growing need for supporting the general public in relation to the appreciation and understanding of artworks. Beyond the frame of the exhibition of artworks within art spaces and museums the process of art mediation links artistic ideas and concepts to peoples engagement. With the help of artistic techniques and methods it gives the option to empower pupils, citizens, patients to start designing life and community from their perspective under their special conditions – and being creators and translators from ideas to reality.How could people be engage with works of art? This subject would be discussed in fourpanels each focused on a differnt question about mediation of art.

Participants:

Karin Beckmann (Volunteer Art mediation departement Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig), Michael Bieniek (Art Transparent, Wroclaw),Mostafa El Bana (Artist and Art Mediator, Di-Egy Fest, Cairo), Gemma Fernandez (Collective ZZZ, Lleida),Alexandra Friedrich (Art mediation management GfZK), Daniela Junghans (Trainee, Art mediation, GfZK), Paula-Marie Kanefendt (Art mediation management Halle 14, Leipzig),Elham Khattab (Curator, Organisator, Out of the circle, Di-Egy Fest, Cairo), Paulina Maloy (Art Transparent, Wroclaw),Katarzyna Młyńczak (Art Transparent, Wroclaw),Henrieke Moll (Coordinator of Grundtvig Programme, MitOst, Berlin), Ina Nitzsche (Art mediation management Halle 14, Leipzig), Tomasz Opania (Academie of Art and Design, Wroclaw), Marie Reig (Curator, Coordinator, Collective ZZZ, Lleida), Juliane Richter (D21, Leipzig),Julia Schäfer (Curator and art mediator, GfZK), Lena Seik (Art mediation management GfZK),David Voß (Indeed; Type-F, Leipzig), Maria Wronska (Academie of Art and Design, Wroclaw), Elisabeth Würzl (Art Education student, Leipzig)

Concept and Moderation: Paula-Marie Kanefendt, Lena Seik, David Voss

1. Panel: HOW TO STRUCTURE ART MEDIATION? PART 1

October 9th 2013, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig (GfZK), Neubau (New building), 11.00 – 12.30h

The panel asked about different kinds of strategies that art mediation can implement: curatorial concepts, exhibitional displays and visitors participation.Another form of mediation is the field of cultural learning and education. Participants were invited to introduce their experiences and art projects.

Within the setting and the display of the town Zastávka at the current exhibition “at sixes and sevens” at the Museum of Contemporary Art curator Julia Schäfer introduces the aspect of art mediation of the exhibition, which is developed by the artist Kateřina Šedá and a group of young people together. Regarding to art mediation in general Julia likes to connect curating and mediation; she prefers to invite people to the process of the preparation of the exhibition. A talk between Julia, the art mediation team of GfZK and the participants followed.

Lena Seik says hello and shortly describes the work of the gallery. Henrike Moll (Department for Cultural Exchange MitOst) says hello on behalf of MitOst.

Julia Schäfer talks about the current GfZK exhibition by artist Kateřina Šedá “At sixes and sevens (von schräg nach links)” and the art mediation aspect in it and in other exhibitions.

About the importance of art mediation at the GfZK:

Kateřina Šedá’s work in itself is already an access to art mediation. Nevertheless, it is important to have someone in (a gallery, an organisation) who thinks about art mediation exclusively. When the GfZK was founded, the founder Klaus Werner was not thinking about art mediation. We understand mediation as translation, an adapter. Barbara Steiner (former director of the gallery) put money together to found the art mediation project; she realised that

this is an important part of the gallery. Unlike here, art mediation spaces in museums etc. are usually hidden, not visible and accessible.

Access to art: exhibition=art mediation:

Julia likes to connect curating and mediation instead of inviting groups to work in the exhibition; she prefers to invite people to the process of the preparation of the exhibition.

Examples:

PUZZLE: Ten sections in the new building were given to different groups of professionals: art students, members of the Förderkreis (GfZK sponsor group), art mediation, curators... The outcome was a constantly changing exhibition: some groups showed the collection, some did own work – all together created a “big something” and 47 persons were involved.

Kunst-Kunst. Von hier aus betrachtet!: Ten institutions from Leipzig were invited to prepare the exhibition. Every six weeks three or four of them were invited to show their point of view on contemporary art. One got feeling about how the different people think about art, could see the different approaches and enable discussion about different accesses to art.

Working with/in a bank: Julia went to the bank (a long term financial supporter of the Gallery) and looked at their own art collection of which nobody was taking real care. Julia offered to curate three hallways of the bank at the gallery; afterwards the art work was installed at the bank. She involved the employees of the bank by using labels describing where the art is to be found in the bank etc..

Genesis of “At sixes and sevens (von schräg nach links)”:

Kateřina Šedá lives not far from Brno in a small village and works in villages and in/with hard environmental situations. One of her projects she did in blocks of houses: she sent 1000 shirts to different persons and put another family's address on the envelope; she tries to get people to communicate.

The six teenagers who were taking part in the project/exhibition were 14 years old and from the Czech village of Zastavka. They addressed the artist and asked her to help them change something in the village. She explored the city with them, they start to clean the city, talk to people; she also went with the participants to the Biennale and made a small scientific project with them. The Neubau where we are sitting is actually Zastavka, that's what she did with the whole building. You can maybe find your own city in Zastavka. The teenagers did the show, they painted everything, they were really free to paint the walls. This project had such a strong impact on the teenagers, the long term approach is very good and lasting. But short term mediation is good also because some of the children will never have the possibility to come to see art with their parents; it has a great impact on children.

Talk/Discussion:

Lena Seik: What is your impact as the curator on the exhibition which is very much dominated through the artist’s concept? How were you involved in the decision about how to do the exhibition?

Julia Schäfer: I trusted the artist, who does not have her name on the exhibition. The group put the first syllables of the group members’ names together to create an artificial artist's name. I knew how she works, we've discussed details, we had budget issues, she wanted to cover the whole building in planen and there was a discussion about this. The artist curated the pieces of the work and discussed how they were to be curated with the teenagers, not with me. The central thing was really to trust her, even though the exhibition was more expensive than it should have been.

Paulina Maloy: What's the art product? Who is the artist in the end? Is it Kateřina Šedá’s work?

Marie Reig: If you understand art as a product which you have to sell, such an exhibition is nonsens. If you understand this as process, it makes sense.

Julia: It made such a big impact on the lives of the six teenagers involved. The teachers don't understand what they were doing at all.

Lena: The group members are art mediators themselves, they included the people of Zastavka.

Julia: They have a different point of view now on things, it is a big shift of perspective on Zastavka. To work such a house (GfZK) was “Wahnsinn” (insane) for them. And for Kateřina Šedá’ it is not as art mediation, it is her actual art.

Paulina: You have a Leipzig public: how is the exhibition for them, for the Sunday visitor and how important is this impact on the “normal” Leipziger?

Julia: Super important. People like it, also the people who come again and again. It's something new to walk through the exhibition with a map. You can find a lot of points which are real to your own situation in Leipzig and somewhere else. They really use the map and move the walls. Children in the exhibition behave differently, it's another kind of public space for them.

Lena: It's not an artificial exhibition room for them, it's really public space. I felt very inspired by K.S's work – the possibility for people to meet each other. It's not far from our way to

work, we are trying to involve the community, smaller groups as well. We don't have a special goal; we have a starting point, usually the exhibition, and go from there.

Alexandra Friedrich: A lot of teachers are scared of a kind of exhibition like this one.

Julia: There are a few pieces from K.S.; there is a piece of her grandmother who was lethargic after the death of her husband; K.S. made her draw the whole inventory, all things she ever sold. The exhibition was made within a week, but it was super tough. It was a good energy though.

Paulina: Did the teenagers do a workshop beforehand?

Julia: Yes, they did. Each wall was done by one teenager. One of them is about a big car company, drawn by a teenage girl who is in love with cars. One of the long walls is divided in six parts, their own signatures.

Participant: How did the teenagers approach K.S. and how could other people be involved as well?

Julia: K.S. usually asks the people to work with her. The boy in the group asked K.S. because he knew about the work she did with her grandmother.

Paulina: Is the labyrinth (outside the GfZK) a part of the artwork?

Julia: No, it's not, but it's an artwork by Olaf Nicolai and a part of the collection of GfZK. These are brushes from France used to clean the streets; they were replaced after 10 years because they were “dead by children”.

Lena: In a very young age it is a good idea to involve the children because there is no right or wrong with children; we usually do long term projects. We also work with all groups and ages. Often it's not so much about the current exhibition but about their every-day life at school. In this exhibition we work with a primary school from Mölkau, a village not far from Leipzig. It's called „Mein Mölkau und ich“ and they will do their own exhibition project and can choose the medium to picture Mölkau (former village now part of Leipzig). The question is: What is our perspective at our village, how do we see it? They will exhibit their work here; it's also not usual that a museum has a space to exhibit such things.

Julia: Each exhibition needs other mediation tools. I experience that there is a standard - i.e. a guided tour. In my last exhibition there were five mediation tools; it's important to have the freedom to play with different approaches. In other places it's important to get as many people as possible to see the exhibition; here there is space to experience, to make creative methods for mediation.

Marie: Which are the mediation strategies used in this exhibition?

Julia: Map, shoe covers, different use of the room (what is it to enter a room, where does the exhibition start). Artistic and mediation tools merge in this exhibition. It's entertaining also. The shoe covers have two meanings: to save the planen – practical reasons also and a second

one: it’s a prop that this group wears when they do their actions in Zastavka to be recognised, to be visible. „We are a team!“

Ina: There also is the visitor service: there is always the possibility to talk to the visitor service. They are meant as support for visitors and are being asked frequently.

2. Panel: HOW TO DEAL WITH OPTIONS, OBSTACLES AND FRAME CONDITIONS?

October 9th 2013, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, GfZK, Villa (Old Building), 14.30-16.00h

In 2013 the 1. Di-Egy Fest, festival for digital art took place in Cairo. Elham Khattab and Mostafa Saad Abdelsamia talked about their experiences of the 1st Di-Egy Festival in Cairo. From the beginning for the festival team it was very clear to implement an art mediation section within the program mostly oriented to children and young people from a difficult social background. During their presentation Elham and Mostafa explained the importance to enable those target groups an approach to digital art as well as the positive and critical aspects of digital life and its options. To offer art workshops for kids is quite usual in Egypt but to implement them within an exhibitional frame and to call it “Art Mediation” was new. This leaded the symposium to the next discussion about the questions: What is the definition of “Art Mediation”? Does the literal term refer to the action?What distinguishes Art Mediation from Art Education?

Lena Seik welcomes the participants and introduces Elham Khattab and Mostafa El Bana from Cairo/Egypt. They are working in the frame of DI- EGY festival organised by the Out of the Circle Initiative. Beside of the coordination of the festival Elham and Mostafa started to create an art mediation section within the festival.

Art mediation in Egypt

Elham Khattab: DI-EGY was the first digital art festival in Cairo, a platform for international digital artists. During my internship at the GfZK I have realised how art mediation can work and introduced it to DI-EGY. In Egypt it is not usual to do workshops for children. Guided tours in exhibitions are usually for grownups. Lena and Alex were helping us to put together an art tour for the kids and also to present their own view on how they see the exhibition. The kids have chosen one artwork from the exhibition and produced their own work of art and

talked about how they've seen the art from their own point of view. It is rather unusual in Egypt to have the space to talk freely about what they thought about the art.

Lena Seik: Why did you implement an art mediation programme? Was it on your mind already when you created the festival?

Elham: Art mediation is being practiced without knowing that this actually is (called) art mediation. In my internship I saw that kids can participate in art and had the idea for an open space for the kids to have the possibility to show their own ideas. The next step is to present the kids' work as artistic work. There are programmes which give the kids the possibility to speak about their own point of view about politics, sexual harassment etc..

Lena: Is there a movement after the revolution in the direction of art mediation, cultural projects, a community?

Elham: Graffiti, Stop-Motion-Workshops – things are happening especially for children and poor people. We are trying to help them through art. Knowing that what we do is art mediation helps to get money and financing of projects. Now we work on a programme which is also about mediating; we need more people who understand how to work with children – train the trainer activities to build their own capacity.

Mostafa has different experiences with art mediation and the film shown during the discussion was one example of his work. Because the workshop he created was about politics, the director of the cultural centre where it tooks part has forbidden to continue with this kind of work.

Lena: Where did the kids come from?

Elham: There are initiatives working in special areas and the DI-EGY festival addresses the initiatives who work there to get the participants. This kind of activity is not common in Egypt, it is seen as an elitist kind of activity. We are trying to get more people to participate. There are no activities for grownups beside of activities for artists themselves. But we are enabling other people to learn from our activities.

Lena: What kind of people is interested in becoming art mediator?

Elham: Students of art education, art, creative work. It's good to address these people because they lose their teacher attitude and let the kids develop more freely.

Lena: How did you learn about art mediation?

Elham is a curator; she was doing an art programme for children and after the GfZK internship she realised that this is what she was already doing.

Definition of art mediation: a discussion

Importance to separate art education and art mediation. Art mediation is a larger thing than education. Teachers, curators come together looking for the money to create new things.

Different accesses, participation, more open. You can define your own definition/method of art mediation. A lot of people think that they can't understand contemporary art.

The academics discover that there is art mediation and that they can use it in teaching.

Art mediation is needed because art is more a part of the society now and not purely elitist and people understand that there is a connection between them and art.

Art mediators know how art works, how the methods are, they can explain it to willing persons.

Art mediators believe in the resources of the visitors and use their experience.

To what extend is an artist her or himself is an art mediator? The public needs art education!

The one clear thing is that there is need to bring together art and public in any given way = art mediation.

The discussion will continue on the next 2nd day of the symposium.

Writer: Magdalena Kaminska

3. Panel: HOW TO STRUCTURE ART MEDIATION? PART 2

October 10th, 2013, 10.30 – 16.30, HALLE 14, Spinnerei

The third panel asked again about different kinds of strategies like curatorial concepts, exhibitional displays and visitors participation – this time at HALLE 14, center of contemporary art at SPINNEREI (former spinning factory now an area of art and culture).

After visiting the current exhibition “The Politics and Pleasures of Food” the assistent curator Lukas Holldorf talked about backgrounds and conditions in team work withh chef curator Frank Motz. Afterwards the art mediation team talked about their situation, about programs, frame conditions and obstacles.

The work in art mediation and curatorial practice of HALLE 14 is presented and subsequently serves as an example for the further discussion in the panel, asking about different kinds of strategies that art mediation can implement: through curatorial concepts, exhibitional displays and visitors' participation.

After visiting the exhibition „The Politics and Pleasures of Food“ at HALLE 14 with the assistant curator Lukas Holldorf we talked about the work conditions at HALLE 14, an independent art centre at the Spinnerei (a former cotton factory in the west of Leipzig which is now a huge area for ateliers, galleries, and other cultural institutions).

The talk was followed by an overview about work and working conditions of the mediation team at HALLE 14, consisting of Paula-Maria Kanefendt and Ina Nitzsche.

What are art mediation tools, especially in HALLE 14?

− guided tours

− the magazine „vierzehn“, providing detailed information about projects, exhibitions, artists and current developments in HALLE 14

− a book corner with books related to the exhibition

− explanation texts next to the art works (language barrier: lack of English education, so despite the fact that the exhibitions always have an international focus, you have to reach the people who can't speak English → in HALLE 14 they also use german explanation texts besides the english ones)

− series of events framing the exhibition such as lectures, talks, performances

− the art mediation programm where participants learn in workshops and projects about selected exhibitions, the work of artists, as well as their working processes and techniques; the projects are always related to the current exhibitions, the team gives an access to contemporary art also in forms such as performance etc.

− workshops with schools and kindergardens, they also work together with the artists in residence from the international scholarship programm at HALLE 14

− lately the programme is extended and focuses also on adults, for example a proramm for people over 50 years: „ETNA“, a also Grundvig founded international art mediation format, where people chose and show other visitors the art works and discuss it

− long term projects e. g. an urban gardening project

What are typical difficulties?

The discussion now focused on difficulties in art mediation in a contemporary art field where spectators often want to see works they „understand“ clearly and „like“. They seem to be afraid in failing in interpretating the art.

The task for mediators is to open a space for the viewers to express there feelings (even if it's a feeling of being excluded, disgustet etc.), encourage them to be selective with the artwork, to feel okay with don't understanding and liking it in the first place, to discuss it. Sometimes the gap between the viewers and the art is bigger then expected – thus a starting point could already be to choose a small aspect the spectator can deal with like the material or the title.

Generally spoken: The art mediation strategy and our task as art mediators is to change the perspective and expectations of the visitors and to train them to be open minded. Art mediators have to take away the fear of the spectator when he stands in front of the art work; to get him encouraged to ask questions by negationing the categories of „good“ and „bad“.

But within all this we should be aware of not empathizing too much of with the spectators feelings and to make the mistake to low the art work because we want to lower the assumed frustation level of them!

4. Panel: DISCUSSION: HOW TO COLLABORATE? HOW TO CREATE A PLATFORM?

Projects in the field of art mediation are mostly cooperative projects with partners from the art section and other institutions, such as public schools or associations of arts and culture or others like nature or sience.

Actually we wantet to ask:

What makes a collaboration running? How to stabilise such a network?And how to keep it alive?

But instead we were working towards the definition of Art Mediation again and ask the following questions: What is art mediation?Who needs art mediation?Is it easier for children to deal with contemporary art?What is important for a „successfull“ art mediation?Does art mediation need a special place?Does some art „need“ more mediation effort than others?

Projects in the field of art mediation are mostly cooperative projects with partners from the art section and other institutions, such as public schools or associations of arts and culture or others like rehab, nature or science. We ask: What makes a collaboration running? This panel seeks for visions and wishes about the question of: How to stabilize such a network? And how to keep it alive?

We got a bit away from our planned questions and talked about the following:

What is art mediation?

We started with a small exercise for everyone and were asked to write down our „definition“ of art mediation. The most frequent key words were: communication, process, inclusion, bridge between art work and audience.

Art mediation is making the dialogue possible, to learn and to teach a kind of language.

One workshop participant even defined art mediation as a kind of art. Or, the other way round: Every art is art mediation.

Who needs art mediation?

The artist, the art work, the mediator, the spectator, the society.

Art mediation comes from different sides: from the curator, the artist, the organization, the institutional context, the teacher, the spectator.

But does it also work the way back? What gets the artist from art mediation? Surely it was impossible to get an exhaustive answer but we agreed that art mediation is also a tool to understand the function

of art in the society. Some artists are interested to give something back to society. Thesis: The higher the acceptance of art in the society, the better for the artist; the more people go to museums; the more they are funded and supported etc.

Is it easier for children to deal with contemporary art?

Seems to be right → Kids don't think in good-bad-/right-wrong-categories, they often have a more direct access to art.

What is important for a „successfull“ art mediation?

What is does sucess mean in this context? You cannot meassure it, even if a bureaucratic administrative system asks for numbers, statistics, facts and wants to see growing numbers of visitors in order to make the „sucess“ visible and to justify monetary donations.

Sometimes growing numbers of followers on twitter, likes on facebook etc. could be a proof of sucess; but the more sustaining sign is if people come back and stay in contact with the museum/insitution → difference between quality and quantity!

Does art mediation need a special place?

Art mediation could happen in newspapers, on the internet, the museum itself. It could also be art interventions in public spaces or the visitor service (such as in the Museum for Contemporary Art Leipzig, where you can ask the guars questions about the exhibitions). There should be an art mediation corner in every exhibition space.

Does some art „need“ more mediation effort than others?

There seem to exist more art mediation projects in the contemporary art field. Maybe this is becaus of the religious context the art often was created in. The visitor sometimes sees a higher value in it, because of the artistic and craftman-skills the artist seemed to have had. What is more: Older art is not that much left, contemporary art is more democratic and accessable to almost eyerybody.

In contrast to the symbolic meaning e. g. of a baroque painting we did not „learn“ the codes to read contemporary art and the language to talk about it in school or somewhere else.

→ no matter how you look at it: art mediation is needed!

Email adresses would collected to keep in touch.

Everyone agreed to develop a next symposium.

Writer: Juliane Richter