A new interactive networking site is connecting artists and curators to alternative arts venues around the world: The network promotes independent art spaces as an alternative to traditional state-sponsored museums.
Established cultural institutions benefit from reliable funding and strong relationships with their international counterparts, which in turn influence which artists and curators succeed. But how do emerging organizations get there? And how can we support professionals who are innately suspicious of national museums and the power structures they confer?
OtherNetwork is a new online platform that aims to connect independent artists and curators with alternative project spaces and locations, not just in their own region, but across the world. The non-hierarchical “network” is designed to grow organically, with the first major push to recruit local partners taking place across sub-Saharan Africa.
At the moment, the largest centers in the network are Accra and Kumasi, both cities in Ghana, followed by Kinshasa in the DRC, Johannesburg in South Africa and Nairobi in Kenya. Efforts are now being made to spread this network further across the Global South and into Latin America, with a small presence growing in several cities in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Chile. Elsewhere, communities are also forming in Paris, Berlin, London, New York and Rotterdam.
The idea was initially conceived by Cookies, a design studio in Rotterdam, and Germany's Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA), a federally funded program that supports international intercultural exchange. The unlikely collaboration arose from the production of “Fragile,” an exhibition by Wolfgang Tillmans presented in partnership with IFA that toured eight cities in Africa between 2018 and 2022. Tillmans' long-time collaborator Federico Martelli of Cookies designed the exhibition for each location and I took the opportunity to explore the continent's bustling art scene.
“Something we wanted to avoid was just arriving and unpacking boxes and making an exhibition that has no relation to the context”, he recalled. “One of my roles was to do research on local artistic and activist communities.” In the end, he was left with a stacked list of new contacts.
“We also noticed that in politically unstable places, most artists are skeptical that official museums are a propaganda machine,” he added. This observation that many artists were actively seeking the opportunity to work with independent arts organizations of the sort that often do not have a large international profile spurred the founders into action.
The network can be easily navigated by phone or computer, with cities represented as major centers that can be accessed with one click so users can switch between global and local imagery. Nodes are used to signify organizations, foundations and locals or individuals and collectives, with each link representing some type of project or event. Although the data has been organized according to its location, there is no additional geographic framework that supports the shape of the network.
“Initially, our idea was for it to be much more geographical, but then we realized that if we maintain this structure we will be imposing the same narratives”, explained Martelli. “So we free ourselves from geography and let these nodes exist in a more fluid way.”
One collaborator who has helped OtherNetwork grow in Johannesburg and elsewhere on the continent is freelance curator and project manager Samantha Modisenyane, whose outreach takes place online and through social media, as well as in real life. “On site, you get a more real understanding of what the arts scene is like in each city, so we decided to make more of an effort to meet people and do research on site,” she said.
So far, she feels motivated by the importance of connecting artists from different countries and giving them better opportunities for free expression. “I met people from Accra that I don't think I would have otherwise met or worked with,” she recalled of an opening in Stuttgart, Germany, last year, which was organized through the network. “It has been a conversation with the people I have been around lately that institutions have their own expectations, requirements and deadlines. The places that allow artists to grow and develop organically are independent spaces where the only obligation is to create.”
Source: Artnet News