Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Thanks to IFIMA for these questions regarding residency programmes. My answers below, and certianly, more later, as I understand many of the answers will need expounding. All creative programmes are of interest to me - especially those involved in “promoting” and “exchanging” cultures.

This would also be the first posting on the Diwa Listserv, as part of a personal initiative on learning and education. Most of the posting under Diwa (on the listserv as well as the Blog) are motivated by questions that I receive or conceive for the purposes of further study.

Regards,
Fatima

Q. How can we raise the level of residency beyond the much used term of exchanges of culture or to promote mobility?

A. I think that alternative efforts need to wean away from the “culture of contemporary art”: it’s institutions, its promoters and its markets.

Q. What are the values that we really want and hope to promote?

A. Self-sufficiency, sustainability, life and life force.

This is actually a good question - but is masked by the term “promote” which applies to external effects rather than internal transformation. I would re-frame this question as such, wherein “value” is one of the factors that must be defined in the process of creative-intellectual explorations:

How do we understand the structure of our own cognitive systems (as expressed in “local”, perhaps culturally-specific ways) as a crucial ground upon which creativity is forged (what are its principles and parameters, its values?)?

Q. How does a visitor (artist/researcher) acquired the status to become a representative of another culture?

A. We will need to do away with the concept of “representative.” I believe that it is one of the biggest factors in the problem of propaganda and the fascist system of “democracy.”

Q. Does the visitor need to response to the “local” and if yes in what ways?

A. All organisms respond to any given environment, but not all organisms (especially humans) are willing or capable of internalizing this response because they do not have the intelligence to do so.

Q. How long and it’s inclusiveness should a residency be for it to achieve an “exchange competence” or be judged as a “value”� for the host and for the person in residence?

A. The “residency” must be viewed as a “process” rather than as an “event.” Thus, it is life-long and its inclusiveness as such can be determined on the premises of life, not careers and ambitions. Elements detrimental to the principles of life and life force must be excluded in any residency striving to provide an alternative support for all whose creative and intellectual practices are in congruence with the principles of life (as oppposed to markets) upon which all cultures thrive. Markets destroy and kill culture in order to sell it. I think that most if not all current institutions of contemporary art - especially international contemporary art - are in the business of selling culture.

EMail This Post This entry was posted by Fats on Saturday, July 15th, 2006 at 3:21 am and is filed under Wika at Hirap > Mga Pulong atbp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.