Wann ist die Kunst?

In 2004, in collaboration with Kerber Verlag, Kunstverein Hildesheim began its three-part series of thematic readers on with fundamental questions in contemporary art with “Wo ist die Kunst? Geographie von Schnittstellen” (Where is art? The geography of interfaces). The essays in the second reader are by well-known, established artists and provide vibrant insight into current discourse on art. This analysis is reinforced by the presentation of projects and artists that will be exhibited in the coming year. The theme for 2005 – When is art? Process, Moment, Validity – is linked to that of last year; the thematic analysis of place is followed by the examination of time. The question – When is Art? – contains further questions like: When is art art? When is art valid? When does art lose its validity? When does art occur? When do we perceive something as art? Can art exist only for a moment? Can we watch art being created? Can art transform itself? Space, like time, is omnipresent in art: it is extremely unlikely that timeless elements can exist in a system that functions exclusively through constant process, that is constantly driven forward by the defiant formulation of the fear that the system could come to an end (or that it has already done so).