'DoF 2015'

Degree of Freedom 2015: The Proposition

1. The proposition is to create interventions inside and outside a Gallery that disrupt the accepted dynamics of the white cube space (WCS). For our purposes a WCS is any modernist gallery space with a public frontage and a curatorial presence set up primarily for exhibiting/ selling art.

The dynamics of a white cube space
2. The traditional WCS is a Cemetery for Art and Artists. “Dead” works enter the space and remain there for a while before leaving it unchanged. Works are arranged in ranks and in isolation from each other (much like graves) and the whole space is separated and sealed off from the outside world like a graveyard.

3. Stillness and quietude are deliberately created to better enable consumption of the works at the expense of creativity. This means that while there is room for eyes, there is little room for the hands, mind or body of the artist[i]. The role of the artist is reduced to the salesman.

4. Frenetic “Private Views” are cultivated to bring in “collectors”, followed by a deadly hush that continues till the exhibition folds. Both conditions make it difficult for a dialogue to develop between artists, their works, the viewers and the environment.

The invitation
5. Degrees of Freedom 2015 invites ideas and proposals for an event at the “January Space” located at a Gallery in Shoreditch based on the following criteria:

6. Only living works: No dead works will be accepted. All interventions must feature an element of change or transformation in space or time or interaction with the environment. Interventions may feature building up works in real time, disappearing or disintegrating works, dialogue between works, dialogue between the internal spaces of the gallery and the external community or environment.

7. The gallery as a dynamic space: The gallery will be an active space where ideas can develop, works can continuously transform in space and time, where there is room for unexpected encounters between works, between artists, between the audience and the artists. The gallery can at any time be an ideas laboratory, a demonstration site, an encounter space.

8. Active roles: Artists and their activity will be central to the event. Curation will be continuous and in collaboration with the artists on the basis of the needs and requirements of artists and other participants.

9. Blurred boundaries: We welcome proposals that turn the gallery “inside out” or promote a dialogue between what is inside the gallery and what is going on outside, or ideas that challenge the roles of artists/curators/viewers/the public as creators or consumers.

Why “Degrees of Freedom”?
10. Our aim is to occupy the WCS space on behalf of artistic rather than commercial values. This means that we have to work within some of the constraints of a WCS while challenging others – hence “Degrees of Freedom”.

11. The constraints that we want to challenge are set out above (paras 2-4).

12. The constraints we accept are:
a. the structural integrity of the gallery
b. the safety and security of participants
c. the limitations imposed by legal, insurance and other obligations of the gallery
d. the need to balance the requirements of all the participating artists in the interests of the whole event.

Who is involved in “Degrees of Freedom”?
We are the Degrees of Freedom Artist Group, a collective of 5 artists working in a variety of mediums including sculpture, video and installations.

Our aim is to interrogate what it means to live in a free society. Freedom is not given, it has to be negotiated in each situation. Freedom has limits, and we must consciously decide what we want these limits to be, otherwise others will decide it for us. Our interventions aim to investigate, make conscious and challenge the contours of freedom in specific situations.

[i] Some of course have “residencies” where a favoured artist is corralled but these do not affect the essence of the WCS, they simply add spice to the usual mix.