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Why should I value conceptual art? As a viewer, can I simply decide for myself what I consider to be art and what I reject as nonsense or pseudo-intellectual hogwash? What do I have to know before I can make these sorts of value judgements? To what extent are the appreciation and production of art a form of specialist knowledge? Can I see the difference between amateur art and professional art? Can anyone do anything?
We live in a world in which the boundaries between expertise and amateurism become increasingly vague and transparent. On the one hand web 2.0 foregrounds user-generated content and anyone seems to be able to make a contribution to the production of art and knowledge using channels such as Youtube and Wikipedia. On the other hand, according to the journalist Koen Haegens, we paradoxically live in a "casting society" in which it is important to demonstrate that you can achieve a particular level of excellencejust think of the popularity of programmes such as "So you think you can dance," "America's Next Top Model," but also "The Apprentice".
Generally speaking, citizens have become more articulate and worldly wise than forty years ago. They want to participate and make their own choices, rather than having a blind trust in the opinions and ideas of authoritative people or institutions. The expert and the specialist, like the (public) intellectual, have become minority positions. This has implications for various areas of expertise, and certainly also for the way in which West European society and the media view art and artists today, as becomes painfully obvious in the Netherlands today.
Artists such as Joseph Beuys and Robert Filliou caused a stir in the 1970s with their "erweiterde Kunstbegriff." Beuys maintained that "everyone was an artist", and in the context of his project "La Republique Geniale" (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1971) Filliou made a number of conflicting statements about the genius that everyone has. In 2011 we see the relationship between concepts such as genius and talent, art and creativity, knowledge and expertise in a different way. On the basis of a broad range of contemporary and historical art practices, this exhibition explores in an associative way what the concepts of "hobbyist" and "expert," "layman and specialist," "genius and talent" mean today from the perspective of contemporary art.
The title of this exhibition was inspired by the work of the French artist Robert Filliou , who referred to himself as a "Genius without Talent.".
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Künstler Cobra , Andrea Boic & Julia Willms , Constant Dullaart , Jakup Ferri , Robert Filliou , Beatrice Gibson , Laura Garbstiene , Ane Hjort Guttu , Annabel Howland , Alan Kane , Tomasz Kowalski , Suzy Lake , Pantelis Makkas , Ciprian Muresan , Sylvia Sleigh , John Smith , Praneet Soi , Helene Sommer , Leon Spilliaert , Piotr Uklanski , Adriaan de Villiers , Nina Yuen
