jrp|ringier2) Harald Szeemann’s Agency The Agency for Intellectual Guest Labour Fabien Pinaroli a *Szeemann is an inscrutable Chinese, oh sorry, inscrutable Swiss. Why inscrutable? Because he Jooks dumb bur he isn't really dumb. And he has been like a Band-Aid for the whole world— art politics and art world and art trends—since 1968, when he called himself 'Gastarbeitery you know. the guy who belongs nowhere but is everywhere.” 1 [Nam June Paik On October 1, 1969,{2] in order to be able to propose exhibitions to art institutions and thus to practice his profession on an independent basis, Harald Szeemann founded a virtual agency, the Agentur fir geistige Gastarbeit, translated as “Agency for Intellectual Guest Labour, which is seasonal, even mercenary, because the labor can be exported. We call it simply the Agency | | Open as it is to every suggestion and stimulus, filtered through a single ego, the Agency all authorities (legislative, executive, administrative, etc.) and all specialized departments.” y The Agency was inspired by the model of the “one-man theater” Szeemann had invented in Bern during the 19505, but he alludes in his writings to another model: “The character of the Agency's operations thus resembles the life of Simeon Stylites on his pillar. It was only due to his isolated existence that his life became an enterprise providing multiple services and benefits to others, who made use of his very existence as a service.” [4] St Simeon Stylites was a Christian 6 combinesMonsieur Jean-Marc Po: Gastarbelt Agentur flr geistige faris l6¢ [stco7 ors nen. GUTS MORGEN GUTZN TAG ab PAGES (anesss Ser pee (ro sreaar) MAAALD SERB ~AMN Gr. 6452 Teowa zerne, le 15 avril Iam Faw | OF/-F96 Hote opr - 953 219 lorrica) VEL 09-796 (tonm)/ogt ~759 23 BF Correa) Goriasl baralel. Seezrnorn @ blutdinwch Cher Yoinsot, erci de votre lettre. sst-ce que je peux rajouter & la liste Kowalski Flavin Nauan our le reste, on verra, conme vous écrivez Auitidgs et A bientdt. MUSEUM DER OBSESSIONEN MUSEO DELLE OSSESSIONI MUSEE DED Cost MUSEUM 9F OBSESS! = = Pale ecr Harald Sze nen ersetzen en son abs: Besitz durch frele Aktio nme hiesch Model of fax cover sheet. This document was published by Harald Szeemann as postcard. mit von Page 66] Duplicate of aleter writen to Jean-Marc Poisot “Sall/Ciao bel .* lit of polite exp 1 duroh Se process yrsamae vise ecarot abe oad dap peodtidian ol sionones food peamne gen had jon erewed (che pone forthe exhibition ed nigh: Le in yout oy Neaey aoe fo gegen section 947-196. Psi 1970 dating om che “Basler darch = Agency’s meet -Replacecwncrihp with a rots, Wins soach alec ow ce gene? bat dact nor uae fre aches” fereanes) Thee namps ee mlar vo thove made athe “Selb’s yell fae pio by cereain Pata ri “Stempel” amp From opt bottom they read “snk, Yon darch, wpa, popes erect with by bce ‘Drucksache”: impression ofa lipsticked mouth stamped against, in spite of “Printed Matter” "Agentur ..*: Agency's seal, which Szcemann was to retain fn che same format for 3s years STEMPEL 66anchorite from the fifth century, who spent the last 40 years of his life standing or kneeling on cop of a pillar. By creating the Agency, Szeemann left the institutional world in the same way that Simeon Stylites left the religious world. Every eye was upon him, miracles were attributed to him, and finally he was canonized. = En 1969, mon budget global (tenctionne- ment, ‘salaires, etc.) fe. 200.000 france Suissen J'en al dépense 800000, Les 300.000 arg manguanis, Je les al récupérés, par tes catalo- ue, 84 pire cest avon ne me demande plus fe 18 publics les atiches, te entrees — et Fexposition. A Berne, je dvvals temporiser ? un in vente de_mes’expouitions a Tétranger. Pen- ‘coup exploait. un coup modeste. Mainionant, Je dant 8 ans 1/2 Yai véeu dans (legate totale, Propose : ly w toujours une ville daccord: Je St Je mrétais contenté de mon budget, Jo n'xu- Tis miéme pas pa Imprimer un caisiotue. Ce- Tae" Audtutace » ima rapporte 4.000 trance ‘isses; Jes affiehes Lichtenchtein 14.000. Les trees demon exposition interrauionae de fa mie «Altitudes » Philip Morris = Mts ecceptent te desor a hous a donne 29.000 dollars. 11 fallat payer le quoi? ES eeave oceaioert. Peer Woyage deS0 artistes tes nourric, les fogor.'= ~aiuatement + 52 ne ; Trt Spporte, la lnent ga dane ie journate tue le cent des geleren et de mataes Wac= Sepee 4s promowootr ove « Facteplable m tere Scanable ce gut ne oe pas en conse Te citare Ge.mut pas de tangent pect. Ca ce du mow ‘Cominanie ‘Dow ces tclentes eftagues gel Por emeot Pour une vile,” avoir‘une « image femple, haretientacfucliement. fe mdate de figenz comme titer Stockholm got ae. Paris divert cultural »? Un bodget ‘comme Pane rte ‘mande 4 quot i sert_. ie ee aussi Des expositions politiques ap als series vous libre organiser une expo- fe onleiltion ‘tur ter aifches de mai Dione tagon a¢nérale, dans mon agence, Je pe trate ‘aed ey viele onal st Bicipaux Mon" exposition “« Happenings et Flutie s en novembre 070 (Cologne, Stiga fe Jd Labels gl sont exciusivertent poltiqoes Extract from the magazine article “Paris désert culture. Le diagnostic du Dr Szcemann ("Paris Isa Cultural Desert Dr Szeemann's Diagnosis’), in Le Jourmal de Paris, Pati, April 8, 1970, p.s1~52. This article ts one of those he preserved. carefully in the archives (ten copies in total). Closely in touch as he was with the changes taking place in artistic production, Szeemann. experimented ar the Kunsthalle in Bern, from 1961 to 1969, with new ways of supporting work. In October 1969, at the same time that he founded the Agency, he also took part in a study group with museum directors secking to reform the institution af the muscum. Their active support for contemporary art led them to prefer the type of museum whose organization was not so heavy-handed and expensive, focusing on the flow of information and experimenta= tion rather than the typical emphasis on the collection and conservation of artworks.(s} 64 In founding his Agency, Szeemann expressed an intellectual affinity with the neo-avant-garde. He chose as his model some of the creative processes he had seen used, for instance, by the the public by creating interventions or sieuation#“ wanted to attack the spirit of ownership, which for me was ted to the noviom Gfartas an object or an end result. I sought to recognize and participate in a kind of art chat depended entirely on the moment of the experience ... This of course meant calling into ques] tion the modes of presenting, selecting, and understanding artworks, and the logical conse- rogression was to break out of the confines of the museum.” happening” artists, who soug quence of this “The funding of the Agency also arose from his reflections on who should “sign” an exhibi- tion, Szeemann hesitated between the idea of the Agency, which would be an anonymous collec- tive, with a rejection of the notion of the author, and the need to mount signed exhibitions as a way to express his own subjectivity. An interview from December 1970 indicates that these questions had still not been resolved: Szeemann repeatedly asserts a desire to work within a col- lective, but he recognizes from the very beginning of the interview that the public requires that the exhibitions they visit be “identifiable with the personal profile of the exhibition maker.” (>) Among the documents dating from 196g to 1972, which Szeemann preserved in his archive, this interview is one of the few to express so much hesitation. It also looks back critically at the ‘Agency's first year of operation. (s) Szeemann realized that the initial impetus for the Agency in n—work wit! its first incarn: a collective, the desire to abandon individual authorship, the importance of the process rather than the finished product—was a necessary but not a suffi- cient condition for what he was trying to implement. Ac the end of 1970, he describes his job as an organizer of exhibitions very precisely, and in particular the various types of interaction with artists, institutions, the public, the media, and so on. His methodology had to be honed with his own tools, and since the concept of the Agency formed part of this, it too had to evolv ‘This mutation is expressed through the changes in the mottoes adopted by Szeemann. In April 1970 he had a set of rubber stamps made for the Agency. The first of these, Besitz durch ie Aktionen ersetzen ("Replace ownership with free actions”), summarizes his preoccupations and philosophy during the first years of his activity. Subsequently Szeemann modified the focus of the Agency, which became an instrument for working on thematic, subjective, s exhibitions. There then appeared a second, much more pragmatic, noe oe) His job as “exhibition maker” was thus precisely defined and demanded a special positioning. He was to redefine ic progressively over the next ten years, Harald Szeemann’s desk was set up and photographed using Ektachrome, 4 film format intended for reproduction. Photographs were produced and diseributed by Harald Secemana to represent the Agency. 65