comunismo ingl.qxd
24.06.07
16:58
Page 167
entered a new phase where average folks wanting to broadcast themselves as pop stars appropriate its format. Pop celebrity is, therefore, becoming perceived as increasingly accessible. Have such cultural changes affected the reading of your re-enactment and other work? The cultural framework for understanding re-enactment has shifted enormously in the past five years. People have always played out ideas, or daydreams, of placing themselves inside a pop video or celebrity moment – an individual, personal, imaginary (re)enactment. However, the increasing accessibility of technology has allowed people to experiment with these ideas in reality and then share them. Re-enactment has moved from the difficult edges of culture to occupy a prominent space in the mainstream language of popular cultural expression. This shift has broadened the awareness and understanding of re-enactment, but it has also diluted the power it once held for us to act as a radical catalyst altering and double-exposing reality. We’ve moved away from re-enactment in its strict sense, as it’s too safe, too central, a little impotent. We’re looking for each new major project to be a challenge, a new just-out-of-reach experiment (often doomed to fail) but always sure to produce something dynamic and illuminating. Interview conducted by Earl Miller. Miller is an independent curator and critic residing in Toronto. He has published in magazines including Art Asia Pacific, C, Flash Art, Next and Public. He is responsible for the special programme dedicated to Canadian artists at the exhibition Communism of Form.
167