Summer 07, WM #4: Year-Round Project at Kunsthalle Zurich Parallel: How to Cook a Wolf

Claire Fontaine: How to?

Year-Round Project at Kunsthalle Zürich Parallel: How to Cook a Wolf

Kunsthalle Zürich, Limmatstrasse 270, 8005 Zurich

June 2007 – August 2007 / all year-project

www.kunsthallezurich.ch

Today more than ever, the work of many established contemporary artists presents itself as a part of the markets mechanisms. Transparent and constantly enhancing its value, presenting itself at high society events like Art Basel, it seems to have lost its ability to question the system of our society. Artists are made into pop stars… or, perhaps this is what all eyes of the art world are currently set on.

The artist group Claire Fontaine wants to achieve quite the opposite. She – let’s call her a she because she uses a female name – doesn’t want to reveal which artists are part of the group. She wants us to perceive the character Claire Fontaine as the author of her works -- a character much purer than a person can be, because it is solely dedicated to its artistic statement. By refusing to integrate into the world of art-as-commodity, she offers possibilities of breaking free from private property as well as the desire it creates.

How to Cook a Wolf

Claire Fontaine, who has also published many articles, talks to the visitors through her installations at her current exhibition How to? at the Kunsthalle Zürich Parallel. The show is a part of a year-round project which is dedicated to the work of artist groups. The title How to Cook a Wolf, having been borrowed from a book by American writer M.F.K. Fisher, presents a variety of projects, including texts, special performances and screenings. The idea for the exhibition being created by the Kunsthalle, it is a co-curation with American artist John Kelsey, who himself is part of several artist groups.  

“I am impressed by the way today’s young artists find easy access to the market without accepting its structures”, says Beatrix Ruf, the Kunsthalle’s director and curator. “They create structures that are not easily captured by the market mechanisms.” Many of these artists form various international artist groups, constantly expanding their network and discovering new ways of placing their statements. Reena Spaulings, for example. Founded as a fictitious gallery in New York, it became one of the hippest galleries after just one year.

Fiction is an important element to all of these groups, yet they create new realities. “We are not talking about escapists,” says Beatrix Ruf, “and it would be too easy to describe them with attributes like “anti-“ or “subversive.” Instead, we are talking about artists who want to make suggestions and develop new models within the system.”

How to Break a Lock

Claire Fontaine took her name from a popular brand of French school notebooks. But the name also contains a hint to the work ‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp. No coincidence, as Claire Fontaine declares herself a readymade artist. Instead of using a manufactured object, she uses art that was originally created by someone else, such as the two trash bags filled with candy in the Zurich exhibition – an idea not inspired by but ‘stolen’, as she prefers to put it, from Felix Gonzales-Torres’ ‘Scattered Works with Candy’.

In the next room, a video instructs us how to break a lock without owning the matching keys. But this is not just presented on a virtual layer: The lockpick of a burglar is placed on the wall next to it. In the tradition of Robin Hood, Claire Fontaine suggests the redistribution of private property and with this a new use for the public. The smoke signals painted on the ceiling get us thinking as they declare: “The educated consumer is our best costumer” and “The true artist produces the most prestigious commodity.”

“Wanting to be an artist today comes down to putting yourself in a strange situation, like that of some object that is suddenly declared a work of art”, says Claire Fontaine in an interview with co-curator John Kelsey. Founding an artist group is but one response to this situation. The Kunsthalle offers a laboratory to some of these groups, allowing their body of thought to materialize. An experiment to be watched closely, as it might bring along some surprises in the course of the year!

Where Does How to Cook a Wolf Go?

Look out for the next piece of the puzzle to complete the project How to Cook a Wolf, contributed by the artist group and virtual gallery Reena Spaulings starting August 24. Coinciding with the start of the Fall season, this day will offer a retrospective of the first 8 months of the project, in addition to thought provoking performances and discussions.

 
Links:

Kunsthalle Zürich: www.kunsthallezurich.ch

Claire Fontaine: www.clairefontaine.ws

Bernadette Corporation: www.bernadettecorporation.com

Reena Spaulings: www.reenaspaulings.com

Continuous Project: www.continuousproject.com

Distributed History: www.distributedhistory.com