On Criticism

On Criticism is a series devoted to exploring the formal possibilities of criticism in our contemporary culture. The series consists of letters from invited critics, artists, curators and practitioners in the field of performance who explore, through their own work, the possibilities of critical dialogue both nationally and internationally.

The first letter is written by French critic, curator and historian Pauline de La Boulaye, through the framework of her experience of SPACE: Writers on the Move Programme for twenty European critics taking place in London. For more information on the programme please click here.

The past four days, I lived the European Discussion Experience.

Around the table were twenty art critics from around Europe: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, UK. Five of us were living outside our respective countries, closely experiencing European life.

We are at the beginning of 2011. The session takes place in London in the hip Whitechapel district. Freshly raised, Norman Foster’s Swiss Re building is UK’s first eco-skyscraper. It reminds me that we are beginning a new millennium. At its feet, on a human scale, Banksy and other street artists are investigating the walls of this very mixed district. The connection between the social cocktail walking the streets and this 140 meters high building of a multinational insurance company is abstract. As abstract as the relationship between my everyday life and the existence of Europe. Slightly chaotic. Thanks to SPACE (10 national cultural institutions Supporting Performing Arts Circulation in Europe) and to TEAM Network (Transdisciplinary European Art Magazines Network), we, writers, have the chance to meet, in the flesh, for the very first time.

We are hosted by the Toynbee Studios, a kind of artist hub. It supports artists producing and presenting new work in theatre, dance, live art, visual arts and mixed media. It was created 30 years ago, when the notion of interculturalism and transdisciplinary arts had just emerged. The French example of this 70’s transcultural awareness was the Pompidou Centre. The Toynbee programme seems up to date and close to artistic mutations. It deserves further investigation. But we don’t have enough time for that. The agenda of Writers of the Move is intensive. Talks around the mission of art critics and shows at the Royal Opera House and the Barbican during London’s MIME festival.

Although there are many partners, the session is quite informal. There is no information any of us - badges, lists etc. but I soon realised that this wasn’t such a bad thing after all as it is a good to discover people by oneself. Before we became a group we spent quite a lot of time moving our chairs around: In a circle, in lines, in a square, around a table. After two days of discovering our differences, putting words on our distances, the space is finally more comfortable, and the discussion more fluent. We speak English as best we can to get by. Now that I try to write this back up, I realise that the question of translation should be at the very heart of any future project. If there is any.

The talks are divided between theoretical discussion on our own work and debating the shows during the MIME Festival: A brilliant stand up comedy The Art of Laughter by the Belgian Jos Houben, a skilled contemporary circus show Du Goudron & des Plumes by Mathurin Bolze and his French company MPTA, an absurd american comedy Flesh and Blood & Fish and Food, by Geoff Sobelle & Charlotte Ford and an exquisite contemporary circus show Le Jardin by the French Atelier Lefeuvre & André. This is not a critical discourse, of course!

The session is orchestrated by three art critics from Belgium, France and Portugal. The theory deals with: values, medias, readers, artists, artworks, audience and context. Interesting matters that could fill many books, but not here. Just a personal conclusion: sharing this matter with people from all over Europe is very enriching. For the first time, you discover that you are not so isolated.

Although being an art critic or a writer on the arts is not easy, through this exchange one comes to terms with all the work done and rediscovers the motivation to be able to carry on. The debates could have been more animated. Our disagreements were mainly based on the opposition between: Emotions and analysis, presence and technique, human life and art concepts. When the word taste appears, it instantly reminds me of the existence of the Critique de la Faculté de Juger (Kritik der Urteilskraft in German), written by Emmanuel Kant in 1790.

The last day, whilst wondering how we could work together on a European scale we suddenly realised the concrete absence of common value in Europe (apart from money). The technological possibilities to make a platform are there. But what are we going to put in it? I have a hard time imagining the future of a facebook page or a blog. What for? For all I know this conclusion may be similar to many ends of other European discussions.

Here are 3 suggestions that could be ours for the future of a potential European arts criticism:

1- Art critic and freedom of expression: supporting the subversive function of art

We are facing a standardisation of all discourses: mass media as well as artistic creation. The audience is more and more powerful and people don’t hesitate to go to court when they think there is any prejudice for them. Freedom of expression is threatened by this phenomenon. Many artists are trying to give a new point of view on the world in which we are living. Writing about arts, we have to sustain these visions out of standard, either valorising the risks taken by the artist or working with these risks - mostly when a work has been censored or partially transformed. Ethical and moral issues have to be explored: Is this work of art borderline? Why? As I write, only writing is not limited by any law. We have to be controversial and valorise our art of rhetoric, which is our material.

2- Self-criticism: support the multicultural function of art

We are facing misunderstanding between cultures: wars and difficulty in federation. During these 4 days, meeting each person in the training session, I couldn’t ignore my own small-mindedness. It is fascinating to travel through the cultural shock process with someone: enthusiasm, deception, and acculturation. Art works sometimes hep us to do the journey, beyond words.

Writing about foreign artistic production, we could just make a self-criticism. Which limit does this work of art reveal to me? Why, as a Frenchie, do I live this like that? What are my conceptual and emotional limits?

3- Art critic & climate change: support the pacific function of art

In the flesh – we are not a virtual group. The same for artists. A critic’s way of life isn’t boring. On the other hand, we are responsible for the planet. So we have to find a good balance. Everybody today has to face this contradiction.

How could we write a European contemporary panorama of the arts without polluting? First we could exchange reports from different places instead of jetting around all over the place. Secondly, if artists are becoming less nomadic, our role as critic will be extended. We can become the mediator of what is happening around us. Which is the only thing we can really write about. It will interest mostly foreign artists, the people of the cultural field who will want to know what is happening far away. (As in ancient times.) In that perspective, the context of production of a work of art has to be explored: Who are the partners? Where does the money come from? Is it a cultural industry or an independent laboratory?

Yet, a European contemporary panorama of performing arts doesn’t exist. A panorama is useful for diplomacy and European identity. We can see how it is important in visual art (recent history of modern painting is European and American – not French or English – as we can see it through the collections of Museums of Modern Art all over Europe). It enhances the perception of a common cultural identity.

A green and independent platform to support freedom of expression and multicultural differences may be sustainable. I hope so - you can find grants for artists, producers, and institutions - but never for art critics. It would be published by art critics for artists, writers and professionals in the artistic and information fields.

Space is emptiness between 2 words.

Space is the biggest button on my keyboard.

It is the first time I notice it.

Writingwithoutspacewouldbeanightmare.

Pauline de La Boulaye

Historian, Writer, Curator

Paris, Brussels

February 11, 2025