Okwui Enwezor in conversation with Derek Conrad Murray

OKWUI ENWEZOR in conversation with Derek Conrad Murray From tempestuous malcontent to overwhelming critical praise, Documenta11 was met with a broad range of responses. Provincial American art critics were largely dismissive of the show, lambasting it as a didactic identity-based musing, with little or no claims to call itself art. The New York Times, Washington Post and mainstream art magazines such as Frieze and ARTFORUM were particularly virulent in their dismissal of Documenta's curatorial thrust. The exhibition's first ever non-Western director, Okwui Enwezor, was fetishized in ridiculous personality pieces that focused more attention on his taste in clothing and the way he ordered his food than on the importance of his work. Needless to say, Documental1 was a massive undertaking, ambitious in scope and far-reaching in its engagement with global politics. Though post-colonial studies and social theory informed the critical language of Documental 1, many critics found these areas to be equally cumbersome and off-putting. Keeping in mind that these are people whose discourses are informed by critical language as well, their commentary suggests that the discourses Enwezor invoked are extraneous to art discourses. In addition, this commentary illuminates their lack of grounding in these ideas. Consequently, it places them not in the position of authority to which they are accustomed, but rather into the position of "common" viewers who must edu4 0 • N k a J o u r n a l o f C o n t e m p o r a r y A f r i c a n A r t cate themselves in order to gain access. Enwezor constructs art as knowledge production, which is not an alien concept to the art world. Through his methodology, the questions asked are not limited to the parameters of art, but become broadened to include questions of what kinds of knowledge are being produced and what kinds of discourses are gaining primacy. Enwezor and I had the opportunity to sit down and reflect upon the critical response to Documental 1 and the apparent crisis in criticality in the United States: Derek Conrad Murray: As you well know, my focus for this interview is on the critical response, specifically in the American press, to Documental 1. Do you pay attention to the critics and has the critical response from previous exhibitions such as the Johannesburg Biennial and The Short Century impacted the curatorial choices you made in Documental'1? Okwui Enwezor: Of course, I do pay attention (though not inordinately ) to critical responses to my work in the public domain, insofar as they gauge the intellectual reception of the ideas behind my practice, but most importantly responses to artists I present in exhibitions. It is also important because it indicates, for better or worse, the direction towards which criticism might be useful to proposals that call for an expansive view of contemporary art. The supposition, obviously, is that if the criticism is honest and open and not simply caught in an ideological rut then, in a sense, it can provide a critical possibility for a discourse to be constituted within the topography of the contemporary cultural sphere. However, I must also be honest. On a certain level, I am ambivalent about the general critical response to the exhibitions that I have made, to the degree that I rarely pay very serious attention to some of the responses. Now that may sound conceited, but it is the truth. It may partly have to do with the fact that I do not read much criticism of my work with a great deal of enthusiasm, even though I have been the beneficiary of generous reviews and coverage. Many projects I have done have been generally well received. So I have nothing to complain about. But you know, Derek, I always said that when I got into curating, it was purely by accident and never an ambition nor a desire. Growing up in Nigeria, I had absolutely no idea what a curator was, and not knowing this meant it was not a career option. Therefore, my first foray into making exhibitions came out of my own intellectual curiosity as to the nature of the...