BERGAMOT GROUP


ABOUT

WORKS

        PERFORMANCE / ACTION

        DELEGATED PERFORMANCE

        VIDEO

        PHOTO

        OBJECT

CYCLES

        ORGANIC LIFE
       
        ORGANIC WORK

        BIOPHILIA

        FLIGHT

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EXHIBITIONS

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NEWS

CURATORS OF MIGRATORY REALITIES


Ewa Hornowska

2009

Poznań, Poland
The artistic practice of the Bergamot duo crystallized from an analysis of the status of the artist and the work of art within the exclusive "art world" on the one hand, and the open, constantly fluctuating social space on the other. With each new Bergamot project, these two spheres become increasingly intertwined. In the "Organic Life" series, which has been ongoing for several years, alternating performances, photographs, and objects, the artists consistently follow the chaotic, random, and contradictory signals sent to them by their surroundings, as well as by viewers and participants in their actions. These signals often become the impetus for creating subsequent versions of performances and actions, in which the authors become denser and gradually displaced, until they disappear from their own works, transforming—to use their term—into curators of reality.

In "Organic Life," presented as part of the Poznań "Urban Legend" festival, Bergamot referenced three elements of curatorial practice, the overarching characteristic of which is choice. From creating the collection and selecting the objects for display, to choosing the exhibition venue, the artists operated within the boundaries defined by the classic model of exhibition curation. They completely removed themselves from the viewer's field of vision, allowing the finished exhibition to take over the expressive weight. Furthermore, the "exhibition" itself—the installation—was constructed in such a way as to deprive it of the autonomy of the work of art, thus invalidating the question of the creative subject. If there is no work, there is no artist.

On a substantive level, Organic Life in this issue is a set of cardboard plaques that Bergamot spent several years buying from beggars with the intention of exhibiting. From this collection, he selected fourteen, mounted them in "protective"—sturdy, but not overpowering—frames behind glass, and placed them in a carefully arranged space: inside a museum hall, but so that they could only be viewed from the outside, from the street. The artists say they treated the plaques as "intriguing artifacts, examples of urban folklore, a peculiar literary form that attempts to summarize the human condition in a few sentences and provoke an active response from the viewer." The poor, those in need, immigrants, the homeless, and those driven by simple whimsy use them as a basis for their requests for donations, bolstering their arguments with a conventionalized form. Bergamot responded to this, imposing a simple, even austere, arrangement on the "intriguing artifacts," which elevates them to a completely different order.

However, they are not the subject of reflection. The change of location, consisting of replacing the "organic" street environment with an isolated space devoted to the contemplation of cultural treasures, should have altered the status of the plaques. To a certain extent, it did. Bergamot transformed them into an exhibition, displaying them while effectively separating them from the viewer. As in almost any museum, the works can be viewed and interpreted, but not touched; it's impossible to "interact" with them, their creators, or their original users. Placed behind several panes of glass, they encourage us to glide across their surface rather than peer through the persistent reflections in the glass. Rather, we want to register their presence in passing, rather than delve into meanings that seem uncertain, as if unfixed.

The nature of the exhibition raises the question of where the plaques actually ended up? Although they were housed in a respectable institution, there was no need to make the effort to visit to encounter them. They were literally "displayed" for public view, as if in a shop window. Visually aligned with the designer clothing, jewelry, and design stylishly arranged in the windows of nearby boutiques, they were transformed into luxury consumer items. A dignification occurred, making them objects simultaneously worthy of cultural desire and economically unavailable. The artists used the museum to demonstrate that artistic, material, and social values ​​are in constant flux, that they migrate between places of dramatically different status, that they inhabit various objects almost at random. Artist, curator, museum, academy—all produce meanings that vie for their place beyond their control. The role played by the substitution of the acting subject in this process—the process of migration of meanings—is a true subject of reflection for the Bergamot duo.

The essence of their artistic practices, a strategy constantly developed and formally enriched, is substitution, both in terms of form and expression, and of the broadly understood creative subject. Initially, this involved introducing an external, "foreign" element into the performance, later initiating actions for individuals who, at the artists' invitation, were to replace them, and finally, swapping places with other artists (Organic Life at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw in 2006). In the case of "Urban Legend," the goal of Bergamot's operation became the substitution of one practice for another: artistic activity became equal to curatorial activity, and curatorial activity eliminated artists. By creating a virtual curator and placing him in his place, Bergamot erased his own artistic trace and his subjective individuality.

"Organic Life" in Organic Life constantly circulates between life and art in a semantic circulatory system. The two artists do not question the meanings that emerge; they merely accompany them with their actions for a while before other actions catch their attention.

© 2009. Ewa Hornowska. CURATORS OF MIGRATORY REALITIES