Between the Frames: The Forum

ESP:

Between the Frames es una serie de comentarios visuales sobre la gente y las instituciones que podemos encontrar entre el artista y la audiencia. Las series son compuestas en ocho capítulos:  
1. Los Vendedores 
2. Los Coleccionistas 
3. Las Galerías 
4. Los Museos 
5.Los Docentes 
6. Los Críticos 
7. Los Medios 
8. El Epilogo 
Cada capítulo funciona por separado y también como parte de la serie. Cada uno de estos capítulos explora el papel/es de la gente y las instituciones entre los artistas y la audiencia como Inter/Media/rios: Para dar información directa sobre el papel del sujeto a través de esos comentarios (audio) y para provocar relaciones nuevas entre los comentarios y un sistema visual abierto de imágenes. Los visuales (video) funcionan como un meta-lenguaje o un contrapunto metafórico en los comentarios.  
Los sujetos de cada capítulo determinan la longitud y el tratamiento de cada parte. Todos los capítulos tienen una estructura similar poniendo en yuxtaposición dos tipos de material: Audio de entrevista personal y video utilizando un sistema abierto de visuales deferentes para cada capítulo. 

ENG:

Between the Frames is a series of visual commentaries about the people and
institutions located between the art/artist and the audience. The series is composed
of eight chapters:
1. The Dealers
2. The Collectors
3. The Galleries
4. The Museums
5. The Docents
6. The Critics
7. The Media
8. Epilogue
Each chapter functions separately and also as a part of the series. Each of these chapters explores the role/s of the people and institutions between the artists and the audience as Inter/Media/ries: To give direct information about the subject’s role through their comments (audio), and To provoke new relationships between these comments and an open visual system of images. The visuals (video) function as a meta-language or metaphorical counterpoint to the comments.

The subjects of each chapter determine the length and treatment of each part. All chapters have a similar structure juxtaposing two kinds of material: Audio from personal interview and video using an open system of visuals different for each chapter.

Comentarios de Muntadas sobre Between the Frames:

Excerpt from ELS LIMITS DEL MUSEU. Barcelona: Fundacio Antoni Tapies (1995), p. 176:

In 1983, I took part in a show titled Comments at the Long Beach Museum of Art. The day after the opening, looking at the show, I decided to follow a group of
docents on their tour of the exhibition. At one point, they started to talk about my installation: La Television. I was much intrigued by their explanation as by their
interpretation of the work.

Between 1983 and 1985 the project evolved, following the described structure. The interviews were made according to the accessibility and availability of the people I was interested in, the production team, transportation and equipment – as well as my time between other projects. This flexibility enabled me to conduct interviews in different countries, situations and languages with a limited budget.

The period between 1985 and 1989 was crucial for this project. My intention was not to rush to finish the work; I wanted to have the time for understanding and
thinking, but also the possibility of adding a historical perspective beyond the reflection on the decade of the ‘80s.

Muntadas, 1994:

I conceived of this work as a whole, whole as a project and in its presentation to the public. This project is the result of a process of ten years of work, a reflection on the system of art, a system that has been created by a (capitalist) society in a specific context and from a Western viewpoint. Evidently, it is also the result of my personal, subjective reflection on the world of art, its system and the various roles in force in a context that emerged in the early 1980s. Finally, the content has to do with the interpretation, the mediation and, on occasion, the manipulation of the work, by the people and the institutions who help to interpret, present, defend and “take care” of the work of artists. (…) A metaphor of the overall system on which art is based, but also an analysis of the various parts of which it is comprised.

-

Mercader, A (ed.). (1998). Muntadas Proyectos. Madrid: Fundación Arte y Tecnología.

• C.A.P.C. - Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux, 1994
• Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, Columbus, 1994
• List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 1995

Proyecciones de los vídeos en:

• Museum of Modern Art, Nueva York, 1994
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994
• Els límits del museu, Fundació Antonio Tapies, Barcelona, 1995

Un proyecto sobre el propio ámbito, contexto, sistema artístico, desarrollado a partir de entrevistas con numerosas personas representativas de sus diversos estamentos: artistas, críticos, conservadores, galeristas, colec-cionistas, etc.

El conjunto se desglosa en ocho capítulos de duraciones diversas:

1. The Dealers

2. The Collectors

3. The Gallery

4. The Museum

5. The Docents

6. The Critics

7. The Media

8. Epilogue

El conjunto puede presentarse como una serie de vídeos de exhibición monocanal (con una duración superior a 4 horas), pero por otra parte constituye la médula de la instalación subtitulada The Forum.

En cada cinta, las imágenes de las entrevistas (realizadas en diversos lugares, países y lenguas) se alternan con otras —open visuals, en palabras del autor— que actúan como una especie de leit-motiv visual, relacionándose de manera metafórica u oblicua con los distintos roles representados.

En la instalación, los diversos capítulos se exhiben de manera simultánea en celdas o compartimentos de disposición radial, formando una especie de pabellón de planta circular. Un foro de discusión y contraste de opiniones, por el cual el espectador puede deambular, ordenando e interpretando aquello que escucha, lee y ve.

La estructura modular de la instalación puede dar lugar a distintas versiones. Hasta el extremo de disgregarse y desmaterializarse, según un organigrama tácito de diversos espacios, departamentos y funciones (como en la primera exhibición de la obra en el Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux).

A project dealing with its own field, context, artistic system, carried out by interviewing many representative persons involved therein in various aspects: artists, critics, curators, gallery owners, collectors, etc.

The whole was broken down into eight chapters of varying lengths:

1. The Dealers

2. The Collectors

3. The Gallery

4. The Museum

5. The Docents

6. The Critics

7. The Media

8. Epilogue

The whole can be presented as a series of single-channel exhibition videos (with a duration of over 4 hours), but it also makes up the kernel of the installation subtitled The Forum.

On each tape, the images of the interviews (carried out in diverse sites, countries and languages) are alternated with others - open visuals in the author's words - that act as a sort of visual leitmotifs related metaphorically or obliquely to the different roles represented.

In the installation, the various chapters are shown simultaneously, in radially laid out cells or compartments, forming a sort of circular pavilion. A forum for discussion and contrasting opinions, round which the spectator may walk, ordering and interpreting for himself what he sees, hears and reads.

The modular structure of the installation allows for different versions, to the point of complete material breakdown, according to a tacit flow chart of different spaces, departments and functions (as in the first exhibition of the work in the Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux.