MANIFESTO OF THE COLOSSEUM PROJECT |
|
The Colosseum Project is a London-based artists'initiative that is concerned with creating events to expose, exhibit and experience live and visual art outside of the mainstream. As a group, we are concerned primarily with exploring exhibition alternatives for artists. By using non-traditional environments, and techniques such as merging gallery and performance art, we aim to create a new and different experience for accessing and distributing art in the region and abroad. The Colosseum Project was founded in summer 1997 by a collective of young artists all working in radically different media to organise exhibitions and performances in a derelict East End theatre, the Old Colosseum. This was originally built for circus performances; subsequently it was a theatre, then became one of London's first silent cinemas, then in the 1950s it was a car yard and, finally, the rotting hinterland of a techno nightclub. None of the artist/organisers had much background in organising, so the show was put together in only a few weeks using local networking. We recruited an assortment of performers, from trapeze artists to Marisa Carr of the Dragon Ladies burlesque group, and well-known cabaret artists The Tiger Lillies agreed to perform at the event. Some months later, the local council decided to purchase and destroy the historic building to build a shopping centre. The Colosseum Project responded by organising a gallery exhibition with 25 artists, exhibiting mainly site-responsive works. We filled every part of the enormous theatre with art, a celebration and a requiem for a piece of local history that was about to fade away... In October 1998 The Colosseum Project created an event in a disused bank in Shoreditch, London. A derelict, empty area, it is nevertheless only moments away from the vast shining temples of Mammon in the City of London, a City that is steadily encroaching on the artists'strongholds of Spitalfields, Shoreditch and Hackney. The art hanging on the walls of offices and banks in the City of London is corporate art: smooth, passionless, un-challenging. In a fitting reversal of uses we transformed this bank space into a dark, underground, exciting gallery of passionate and avant-garde art, combining performers, striptease, poetry, music, and every form of visual art. In the course of organising these events, which attracted hundreds of people, the artist/organisers realised that our own artistic practice was being transformed by the process of transforming the space in which we were exhibiting. What was in essence an experiment, turned out to be a radical moment for the artists. Artistic practice is at a crucial juncture as we enter the third millennium. For over two thousand years the artist was the servant, in some sense, of a patron. The practice of art was a process of training, craft and patronage by the Church and the elite. In the 19th century this state of affairs was being questioned by Romantic thinkers, who saw in the figure of the artist the ultimate individual, set apart from and indeed above the rest of common humanity. This engendered the view of the artist as the misunderstood genius- the weirdo at the next table who didn't wash but made beautiful pictures!... The socialist response to this was to question the role of the "artist" in society. In an early work, The German Ideology (a response to the Romantics) Mark and Engels decried the "exclusive concentration of artistic talent in particular individuals, and its suppression in the broad mass" and claimed that in a communist society there are no painters but at most people who engage in painting among other activities.Marx never developed this idea further, but much more importantly, it became one of the tenets of socialist liberalism, and was brought to fruition in the 'community' art of the 1970s, which is still with us today. This links in with the idea of art as therapy; in both approaches, art is seen to have a social role in the community and issues of art excellence, technique, aesthetics and so on are not considered relevant. After the Russian revolution, Lenin considered art's very important social role: to further the ideals of the Revolution. In this he was influenced by the painters of the French Revolution, such as David, who glorified the heroes of the cause. Lenin's artists served his Revolution. However, it can be said that all art sponsored by the institutions of power will serve those institutions. If in the East, the heavily-politicised art of Socialist Realism narrowed the outlook to one form of political indoctrination, then in the West, movements such as Abstract Expressionism effectively denied the political and celebrated the kind of freedom of expressionthat was complacent in the pursuit of material wealth. Artists, such as the Surrealists, who attempted to challenge both views by exploring the unconscious and acknowledging the centrality of the political, were always marginalised. Now, however, institutional art and community art, the two extremes of the officially-sanctioned art are under attack. Many young artists are not content to toady and wait for institutions to take them up and fete them. At the same time, the individualistic striving for excellence means that they are not satisfied with the uncritical environment of the community. In this way both the gallery and the community centre become places under suspicion. In addition, the definition of art has broadened and it can no longer, if it ever was, be possible to cut out simple little categories to put artists into. Today's painter may tomorrow turn to video. The sculptor will produce a CD-ROM. Performance has been fully integrated into the conception of contemporary art. The Colosseum Project is made up of artists who, like so many of others around the world, are dealing exactly with this dilemma. What does it mean, to be an artist? We reject the Romantic glorification of the artist, yet we are not social idealists. We don't want to make art to help people, but we want to make art! Creativity has got its own positive energy. We are aware that we are working in a society of the spectacle, and that the ravenous maw of the spectacle will always seek to gobble up our work and our ideas! We seek the space in between the heavenly heights of the cool clean white gallery and the murky depths of the street. We question the idea of the gallery, yet agree that it is necessary to establish special environments to facilitate the experience of art. In our practice, we are seeking to consummate the union between gallery art and performance, making art a more lively and accessible experience. We need to reclaim our independence from an often too commercial and censored gallery environment; this is an important step which also enables us to reach new audiences. The Colosseum Project/Luna Nera (1998) |
