Conceptual Paradise

From Paradise

A Video-Archive of Conceptual art

This Wiki is an artistic and scholarly research and exhibition project on Conceptual art––defined for example as historical-, neo-, post- or de-conceptual artistic practice. Stefan Römer, in his 2006 film “Conceptual Paradise,” conducted an intellectual investigation of the field with three generations of conceptual artists. In the form of a specific cinematic mode of reflection, the film (www.conceptual-paradise.com) gives insights into the discourses fundamental to contemporary artistic practices such as research, immaterial or social production, institutional critique, and Internet-based projects.

Beyond the sequences used in the film, in a first step this Wiki provides the comprehensive material gathered during conversations with about 50 artists and theorists in full length. Here you can access rare film footage as well as the transcriptions of the interviews for further research. As a platform for reviews and online exhibitions in the future the Wiki seeks to provoke further artistic projects and theoretical writings. Hence it is meant to serve both as archive, cultural memory and as venue for current discussions on artistic as well as scholarly projects. This will lead, step by step, to an international information and production platform for conceptual practices which are no longer limited to the northwestern world alone. In this way it is the aim of Conceptual Paradise to (de)construct that what would be called a central node in the international discourse. Since this Wiki appears in a neo-liberal era it will furthermore reflect and criticize the conditions of labour in the artistic field in which we are working ourself.

In December 2009 and January 2010, a first public presentation of the “Conceptual Paradise” project will take place at the Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lüneburg with a lecture series which will be continued in summer 2010. This, it is intended, will transmit a point of departure for a broad-based discussion on Conceptual art that will also rely on different other forms of discourse and practice.

In addition to Stefan Römer (artist), university participants will be Eva Birkenstock (art history), Kathrin Busch (philosophy), Martin Warnke (digital media), and Ulf Wuggenig (cultural analysis), as well as a group of students in the fields of art sciences and digital media.

Please note that the wiki is still under construction and therefore read-only for the general public. We will allow editing for registered users as soon as the basic structure is completed. The white marked names represent material under construction.

Please contact us: wiki@conceptual-paradise.com

Artists:

Curators/Theorists:

Interviews:

• method of transcription