Microreview: Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi?

Nihan Somay Microreview Publication11
Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? Publication # 1 (2016)
Nihan Somay Microreview Publication12
Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? Publication # 1 (2016)
Nihan Somay Microreview Publication2
Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? Publication # 2 (2017)
Nihan Somay Microreview Publication6
Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? Publication # 6 (2018)
Nihan Somay Microreview Publication11
Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? Publication # 11 (2022)
Date
2022 August
Subtitle
Nihan Somay reviews Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? (2016-ongoing), a project initiated by Louise Mestrallet and Cristián Valenzuela.
Type
microreview
Author / Publisher
Nihan Somay for NewsLibrary
Author Info

Nihan Somay (1988, Istanbul) mostly works situationally, occasionally with archives, and explores the possibilities of collaboration in any given situation while turning to fiction, humour and adventure as conceptual tools. She holds a BA degree in Visual Arts from Sabanci University and an MA degree as Master of Arts in Public Spheres from École de design et haute école d’art du Valais. She is a member of the artist collectives KABA HAT and BAÇOY KOOP (Printing, Duplication and Distribution Cooperative)

nihansomay.hotglue.me

Language

English

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Newsletter No. 47

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Reviewed Publication

Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? (2016-ongoing), a project/question initiated by Louise Mestrallet and Cristián Valenzuela.

Recently, I came across an article on Mladen Stilinović that I originally read some years ago, written by Boris Groys. I remembered that the first time I read it I copied this down: ‘No effort. No revolt.’ Groys wrote that Stilinović was an artist of entropy, rejecting ‘any attempt to give this drift toward anarchy and chaos any definite direction.’[1] Reading the text for the second time, I realised that this is similar to how I perceive Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi?: an attempt to flow with the conditions, get lost in them, have a moment of rest and come back to the table with more questions.

The field of questions is reminiscent of a marshland or a desert: The form disappears into the tactility of the material, the present becomes palpable. The sole possibility is movement and it is only possible for a period of time. Owning our questions in moments of (total) turbulence is what Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? offers to anybody who comes in: with conversation (in the company of friends and strangers), a red zine that accompanies each meeting, and la completada: a big pile of hot dogs for a momentary union in pleasure.

‘Art has no immediate future because all art is collective and there is no more collective life[...] [it] will never be reborn except from amidst a general anarchy,’ writes Simone Weil, articulating her radical conviction.[2] The taste of the speculation lies in its transgression rather than its verifiability. Artiste? Et sinon tu fais quoi? operates on this open terrain—without future, relentlessly, and for a fleeting moment.

[1] https://www.e-flux.com/journal/54/59839/poetics-of-entropy-the-post-suprematist-art-of-mladen-stilinovi/

[2] Weil, S. (2003). Gravity and Grace (first published in 1947), Routledge Classics, p. 151