Where you end and I begin

the multiple ethics of contemporary art practice

Pam Johnston

pp. 177-189

in: Antoon van den Braembussche, Heinz Kimmerle, Nicole Note (eds), Intercultural aesthetics, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

I sang this song at the start of a talk I did a long way from my land, my country. The day before I decided to sing this song I listened and watched as Venezualian born artist Javier Tellez presented his work "Usted esta aqui".² He spoke with belief and intensity, describing this project which he had completed sometime prior to this talk.³Tellez' work was located in a psychiatric hospital which was of particular interest to him. Following his submission of his work "La Colmena"⁴ for inclusion in the 50th Venice Biennial he chose to resign from this important artistic event "The Venezuelan pavilion today embodies a toxic environment", the artist wrote in an open letter sent via E-Flux, "that would inevitably contaminate the reading of any work of art that deals with social inequality". Tellez goes on to note the "corruption and struggle for power that are choking the country", a crisis that extends to the cultural sector as well, which like so many parts of Venezuelan society is starved for resources. "When the vice-minister of culture suggests to the museums that they reduce their electrical consumption", the artist writes, "I can't help reading this in a very symbolic way — without morals and light it is impossible to imagine cultural endeavors".⁵