Oda Projesi: This is an SEA Project carried out by three Turkish artists. They basically have a three room apartment in the district of Galata, Istanbul. The title of the project literally means the “room project.” What they did was to utilize their apartment as a center to host SEA activities. So for instance, they would hold a community picnic with a sculptor, or they would hold a workshop for children with a Turkish painter named Komet. In the eyes of Claire Bishop, this project contains more ethics than aesthetics. What the three Turkish artists tried to do was to create a space for dialogue and exchange. They shoot horses: another SEA Project that took place in 2004. In this case, the artist Phil Collins set up a small scenario consisting of a pink wall, and speakers that would play pop music from the last forty years. In addition, he paid a total of nine teenagers to dance without stopping during eight hours. The teenagers are Palestinian and the project took place in Ramallah near Jerusalem. I find interesting the idea behind the project. He is basically dressing up these Arab teenagers as “western teenagers,” he is making them act as such. I think is a good way of bridging the gap between these two separate cultures; make them come closer together. The Singing Lesson: This project took place twice, once in a Warsaw church, and the second time in Leipzig, Germany. Basically the project consisted of making a group of deaf students sing a choral piece. They are filmed and my guess is that the video of such a project would be then exposed as “art” in a gallery or even museum. In my opinion, such a project is not art. One of the main things that we should be able to do when standing in front of a work of art is to be able to appreciate skill. Art should portray craftsmanship, and such a thing has been incredibly lost today. The Singing lesson doesn’t portray craftsmanship in any way. In my opinion, this project is even mocking the intelligence of the viewers. The language of art is extremely complex and powerful. In order to be able to speak it, a bewildering amount of craftsmanship is required. When such skill is acquired, the power of the artist is such that he can absolutely change an audience. One of the main objectives of art is to make the viewer so engaged in the artwork that he is able to achieve a catharsis. Again, incredible skill is required to do so. The Singing Lesson in any way achieves this. And these concepts of “catharsis” and “craftsmanship” in art are nothing new. They have been incredibly developed in treatises as old as that of Aristotle and Pythagoras. Of course one could argue: “Yeah, but the message behind the project, the ethics, the meaning, is interesting, it gives you material to think about…” Well, yes, I absolutely agree, but what defines good art is its ability to portray a very high degree of aesthetics, and at the same time, to convey a beautiful, incredibly powerful meaning beneath the surface that will make you think for months, even years. The Battle of Orgreave: This was another SEA project directed by Jeremy Deller, in which he reenacted a violent fight between miners and the police that had already taken place in 1984, when the miners carried out a strike. This was filmed and later on included in a film titled “The Battle of Orgreave. I do share a bit Bishop’s idea that maybe the project didn’t take place in the correct location. It was carried out in a village
fair, in the midst of a very family-like atmosphere, with children around as well as food places.