On June 10 2017, 40 years after its first edition took place in 1977, the once-a-decade Sculpture Project Münster (SPM) launched its fifth edition, which would run for 100 days in its namesake city. This year, SPM featured various artworks and activities across the old Disneyland-like city, which was reconstructed true to the original ancient urban district once destroyed in the World War II. In addition to the Venice Biennale (La Biennale di Venezia) and the Kassel Documenta, SPM has become another hotspot in Europe this summer for art enthusiasts.
The Kassel Documenta 14, which launched earlier than SPM 2017 in Germany, received overwhelming criticism, almost no positive review from German media. According to the critics, “All it presents is an ambitious and immense art project with nearly no artworks as inspired as those of the last edition.” Or “The Documenta 14 is no more than a photo exhibition with strong political ideologies, and the curators pretend as if they were the only ones knowing what can save the world from its terrible situations. In their eyes, artworks are as simple and straightforward as the illustrations of political statements.” Most of the critics are followed by a friendly advice, “for true art, it is better to go to Münster.”
Today, Marianne Wagner, one of the three curators of SPM 2017, will walk us around the five SPMs held over the past 40 years, especially the SPM 2017. The LWL Museum, a sponsor of SPM and where Wagner serves as the Head of Document Department, is working on the documentation of SPM. This talk will discuss how the documents will be vitalized to engage people in discussions about art in cities and public spaces.
2017年6月10日，“明斯特雕塑项目”展再次在2007年的10年后拉开帷幕。从1977年第一届算起，它已经经历了40年，加上2017年共召开5次。自此这座“迪斯尼”般的古城（中世纪的古街几乎都在二战中被盟军摧毁，现在的“老城”是原封不动的重建）经历了100天全城的配套艺术活动。除了威尼斯双年展、卡塞尔文献展之外，明斯特也再次成为欧洲夏日艺术爱好者的猎场。
在德国，今年夏天比明斯特略微提前开幕的卡塞尔文献展被所有人一致批判，在德语媒体中几乎没有听到有什么正面观感。他们往往会这样写道：“只看见一个充满野心和庞大的策展计划，但很少有如同上一届那样好的艺术作品”。或者会说：“卡赛尔文献展是一个充满了政治意识形态的图示展，策展人装作貌似他才明白什么是对当下糟糕现实的拯救。艺术作品是如此简单、明晰，就如同他政治宣言的插画一般。”大多数的德国媒体批判完卡塞尔会加一句：“要去看艺术，大家最好还是转头去明斯特。”
我们有幸邀请到明斯特雕塑项目三位策展人之一的Marianne Wagner为我们介绍明斯特雕塑项目的40年历史和5届展览，特别是2017年这届。作为雕塑项目展的主办方明斯特LWL美术馆也在进行一系列对展览的文献化项目。这些文献如何被活化，如何激活人们对于城市和艺术公共空间的讨论也将成为我们本次讲座的主题之一。
本次讲座讲将分为两个部分。第一部分，将介绍明斯特雕塑项目展的历史、观念和演变，并涉及2017年这届，同时将会说明几个作品案例。讲座会涉及几个重要的点，美术馆的角色，和场所、时间、身体、空间的关系，以及展览的公共性和独立性。第二部分将介绍雕塑项目展和大学的合作，对于文献的研究，以及文献如何在展览中的活化，对于未来的作用。