The panel of Nezha Haffou, Kitty Zijlmans and John Clark talked this afternoon mostly about the position of foreign artists in a new country. How do they cope in a new environment, a different culture and alsmost always a different language? They started by each giving a short presentation and their point of view.
Haffou, professor of English and literature in Morocco, started by saying that she is not an artist or artistic critic. ,,I went to Belgium a few years ago and for a time I could watch and observe everything that was going on in this country, on a cultural, artistic and political level. I started thinking about the absence of artists and intellectuals in the arts. At least, that is how I felt at the time. Artists and institutions were far from independent. I felt artists were constantly patted on the shoulder and asked where are you and what are you doing? They were not free to make their own decissions, but were controlled, in a sense.”
Haffou feels it is a very sad situation that we talk about ‘allochtone’ and ‘autochtone’ artists. She feels that the artists who come from other places are far more complicated, because they have different opinions and experiences. ,,Everyone has their own story. There are challenges ahead, for the artists. They are put in frames, according to where they come from. It’s getting much harder to know who we are and what we do in our lives. We are lost in detail.” According to Haffou, there are many obstacles for artists from minority groups. ,,How can minority artists in Belgium prosper when there are so many problems? The country is now in a political crisis. People speak different languages. How can a minority artist be Belgian when the Belgian don’t even know how to be Belgian?”
Kitty Zijlmans, professor at Leiden University in Art History, started her presentation by asking the following questions: ,,What can an individual do? What position does an individual have? Does the individual have power? I am in the lucky position that I have power. I can influence students, which is a huge responsibility. What is Art History? I tell my students: you are the future historians. You are part of art history, you can’t change it, you have to.”
She continued by explaining that she and several others are writing a book about World Art studies. ,,We’re exploring the idea that we are all human beings and that art originated a long time ago on different places. Art is not bound by a certain place or country. It is something for all of us.”
John Clark, professor at Sydney University, talked in great length about hybridity and the fact that immigrant artists are always viewed as immigrants, foreign artists. ,,Many artists who lives in a certain country for years, always goes back to the country they come from to look at the art there.” He feels that young, new artists rarely get a chance at being selected to exhibit in museums, as curators and institutions tend to choose artists they’re already familiar with. This statement ignites a response from the audience. Annie Fletcher asks the question of who doesn’t work from a position of hybridity? ,,People who receive payment from the government,” Clark explains. ,,Curators, institutions and government tend to talk to each other and select each other. There are narrow channels between all these people. We tend to talk on our own levels and select people, artists, who share our level and have the same expectations. The problem is that the artists who are put in new projects in contemporary arts are usually already identified by the institutions and curators. They are already known. The way to get hybridity is to have newly-discovered or unknown artists. The real problem is quality.”
Zijlmans agrees. ,,A museum is not a neutral museum at all. There needs to be more openness between museums, Universities and art schools.” Haffou thinks Universities need to be more central. ,,Work together with art institutions. We ask too much of the artist. They need help. Many artists complain that they don’t know much about the culture and art of their own country. Artists need to feel secure in who or what he wants to be. Artists can be many different people, Chinese, Dutch of German for instance. It doesn’t matter, as long as they feel secure.”