Book looks into practice of support for works of art

In an interview with Today’s Zaman, Condorelli elaborated on the term “Support Structure” and the content of the project and the book.

Can you explain the kind of support you are referring to in your concept of “Support Structure” and its relation to contemporary artistic production?

I am interested in all the things that are around, under and behind what is traditionally considered art objects: framing devices, stages, what holds things up, what makes them possible in the first place. The kinds of things and activities that are supporting surround us -- like scaffolding, for example, is everywhere in a city -- and are essential to what and how we do things in the world, and yet they are usually considered not important, temporary, lacking in value in themselves. The project “Support Structure” was to focus on this as a practice, to work exactly with these things that are usually outside artistic production, and offer support. To understand and revalue what it means to put yourself in the service of others.

How did this project start and what kind of activities has it organized so far?

The project started when Gavin Wade and I were asked to provide a system for “I am a Curator,” an exhibition by Per Hüttner at Chisenhale Gallery in London, in which members of the public were able to curate exhibitions for one day. How could we make such a thing possible, so that every morning somebody new would walk into the gallery and produce an exhibition? We made a “Support Structure” as an exhibition system, to store, hang, explain, and generally support the curating process for people who mostly had never done such a thing. After this project we realized that there was a large potential in thinking about the idea of support, and decided to put “Support Structure” through a learning process, like full-time education, and create what became 10 projects: in support of art, in support of politics, in support of community, education, institutions.

You wrote the book “Support Structures.” Can you tell us about this book and the issues it highlights?

While support seems to describe the most ordinary activities, its discourse appears to be missing: for example, as mentioned above, cities filled with scaffolding have no books about them in their libraries, and I searched in vain for a history of framing. This book was born from the resulting solitude of this practice of supporting, to first create and then publish the missing bibliography of support structures, and in a way, the background material I had been missing. While the work of supporting traditionally appears as subsequent, inessential and lacking value in itself, this book is actually an attempt to restore attention to one of the neglected, yet crucial modes through which we apprehend and shape the world. I think “Support Structures” addresses important questions for art, architecture and other cultural practices, on forms of display, organization, articulation, appropriation, autonomy and temporariness. The book includes different texts about these issues, from different angles, but also many projects by artists, architects and thinkers, some of which I met in İstanbul, like the artists Can Altay, Banu Cennetoğlu and Cevdet Erek.

Which type of model have you developed for Platform Garanti İstanbul?

Books are usually made behind closed doors, and one only sees them when they are finished, for sale in a bookshop or on somebody’s bookshelf. At the invitation of Platform Garanti, I tried to make the process of book-making as public as possible. The contributors to the text were invited to İstanbul, one at a time, to come and work in my studio at Platform Garanti on İstiklal [Street], for one week. Each one was invited to speak about a particular type of support: democratic support, architectural support, etc. We talked and read and discussed, and at the end of the week would have a lecture at Osmanlı Bank Museum, which worked as the draft for each text, which we then edited and corrected. This process was followed through my residency, which meant I left İstanbul with a draft for a book.

What is your process for developing a critical model for a specific exhibition or public space?

I think that to look at structures of support means to focus on the interface between user and system, on forms of mediation, and in this way one is able to question and maybe re-invent the potential of a place. Each place and its surrounding situation needs to be looked at specifically, I believe, and never generally, even if one always arrives at some similar questions. This is the starting point to be able to invent and establish new infrastructures for individuals within particular sites. The purpose of this process is to generate possibilities for change through reconsidering and adjusting what is already there, both physically and conceptually. Support structures in this sense are not exhibitions as such, but can be used as tools to translate and facilitate the idea of exhibiting.

You are also a lecturer at London Metropolitan University. What kind of classes do you teach?