Many thanks to Navigator North for initiating a range of visits to visual arts venues located in the Tees Valley, today at mima, with forthcoming visits to Platform Arts (Studios and Gallery) and the House of Blah Blah taking place next week.
Really useful to discover the detail and method of work involved when preparing artefacts for secure transit (above, right) archive storage in cabinets and ‘Solander’ boxes (above, left) and hear from one of the two senior curators (Miguel Amado, above, middle) about a key research reference: ‘The Power of Display’ to understand more about the core work of the gallery by its institutional commitment to Arte Útil. The notion of what constitutes Arte Útil has been arrived at via a set of criteria that was formulated by Tania Bruguera and curators at the Queens Museum: New York, Van Abbemuseum: Eindhoven and Grizedale Arts: Coniston. The criteria of Arte Util state that initiatives should:
1- Propose new uses for art within society
2- Challenge the field within which it operates (civic, legislative, pedagogical, scientific, economic, etc), responding to current urgencies
4- Be implemented and function in real situations
5- Replace authors with initiators and spectators with users
6- Have practical, beneficial outcomes for its users
7- Pursue sustainability whilst adapting to changing conditions
8- Re-establish aesthetics as a system of transformation
