Art institutions are a rather strange reality: the means and efforts used in the survival of the structures are far superior to those used for artworks and artists. That can be seen in museums but also in the residences for artists, where a large amount of energy is spent in things that, for us, are not important. There is always something more urgent than our work.
During the last thirty years the artistic production became excessively professionalized. Schools formed very different personalities, with their aspirations, but also with less character. The world around art is growing in an absurd way: many curators dislike writing and even dislike art; museum directors became organizers and so on. Nowadays it is probable that so many persons want to work in this field because everything is professionalized, and it developed a system of power that intrigues many.
I am an artist able of working with institutions, even if these are not the entities that made me grow: those were the alternative community centres, where I was formed as an artist in today’s society.
Before coming to Rome I was told that this city is not part of the contemporary art “centres” in Europe. Perhaps this was what interested me from the first place: we ignore which or where the centres of tomorrow will be. But we can look for them. The word centre, which always refers to a past, consists of several principles, such as museums, schools of contemporary art, the market and the artists. Only when we combine all these different elements can we properly understand a centre.
Rome hosts many artists of different ages, who express quality levels that are certainly interesting, even if it is difficult for them to work and to support themselves. They cannot rely on a sufficiently developed art market and they cannot count on any support from the city.
Perhaps due to such context, few of them assume they are from Rome. Many artists I know say they are from Rome and Berlin, Rome and New York, Rome and Moscow: this is a really good sign, it is a declaration that I have rarely heard in other cities, such as Paris, which has a really bad centre to work at in the artistic field.
DELPHINE REIST
Artist. Member of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma, 2011/2012. Lives and works in Rome.