Publication from upcoming "Contemporary Curatorial Practice
panel at Yorba Buena (San Francisco): SQUARE TIMES, TIMES SQUARE"

SQUARE TIMES

The art world appears to be the most backward thinking, anti laissez-faire environment in which to implement projects; compared even to the accounting or legal realms. Information, contacts, and resources are guarded like state secrets. The de rigueur four white walls, bland and unimaginative, uniformly adorn all exhibition spaces the world over, institutional and commercial alike. That is, save for a few adventurous museums such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Guggenheims in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Who could have imagined that innovation would arise not from the cottage industry, entrepreneurial gallery universe but from the staid world of art institutions? Considering the exclusive, high-end boutique atmosphere of most galleries and "alternative" spaces, I suppose it is no surprise indeed. Galleries went fleeing wholesale from the accessible Soho neighborhood in New York never casting a backwards glance at the ubiquitous, dreaded tourists and casual passers-by. The destination instead was shifted to the Chelsea district, well clear of the reach of public transportation, and replete with boundless garage spaces at the ready for Richard Gluckman (and the wannabes) to work his ho-hum, tiresome architectural legerdemain. What you have is akin to the Turbine Hall Syndrome, derived from the gigantism of the Tate Modern foyer in London-get big art to fill a big space for the sake of filling a space, irregardless of the content. Art that would not exist in such form other than to consume the sheer volume of the container. The more the merrier, and in the process feeding the market with plenty of fodder, I mean, masterpieces like 80 or 100 spot paintings.

TIMES SQUARE

I would rent a ground floor storefront situated squarely in the Times Square district to present a group show of emerging and under-recognized artists in all media, with a restaurant, separate but contiguous, that had the possibility of seamlessly becoming one joint space. This would in effect create a comfortable interior in which to view art and a social one to boot. Similar to the flickering figures across the faƒade of the NASDAQ building, and the video images that race across much of recent Times Square architecture, art would bulge from this storefront rather than the usual corporate blather back onto the street. The inside would be designed by Vito Acconci an artist that has radically shifted his practice over the years without paying heed to popular tastes, and constantly challenged himself and his public in the process. Acconci has suffered mightily in the eyes of the art market for assuming this activist position. Acconci Studio has recently designed ConTEMPorary, my new experimental space at 14 Charles Lane in New York's West Village, with the only parameter that there be no white walls (wending, maneuverable ones of steel mesh were utilized instead). Rather than the status quo of Tuesday to Saturday, 10 AM -6 PM hours prevalent on every continent where a contemporary gallery resides, this space would be open seven days a week, from 9 AM to 12 AM. This would intrinsically expand upon the micro-audience that typically attends any given contemporary exhibit. Instead of constantly devising ways to whittle down an audience as the galleries are wont to do, why not reach out to a mainstream audience and subtly introduce them to the world of art? The manner in which this could be almost effortlessly accomplished is not by convincing the public that art is solely for the committed, and knowable only to professionals, but gently coaxing people to trust their own intuitive reactions to things in and of themselves. Call me a cynical idealist. And by the way, there certainly would be no sign in sight that delineated this place as a gallery-nothing would more surely alienate and turn away the street traffic except maybe a banner announcing a site to volunteer for the inevitable war in Iraq.