Letter to Transmission, reply from Kajsa Dahlberg

Dear Conal, Transmission and all.

I'm writing to say that the minutes from the AGS meeting together with Transmissions reply to me and to The YES Association have finally been posted on the blog.

My apologizes for not responding earlier. The reason for this is simply that I've been caught between feeling a little despondent, and the urge to make something out of a project that we've all been giving quite a lot of attention and time.

I'm still not sure I understand exactly what happened in those days leading up to the AGS meeting, but I felt the communication brake down as we approached the date. I'm thinking now that I wasn't clear enough in my communication and that it was a big mistake to not come to Glasgow to realize the project on location. To clarify one thing in particular: The idea that you would sign the actual Equal Opportunity Agreement, and therefore be legally bound to The YES! Association, was never suggested or pushed by them, but something that you brought up yourself. The proposal from The YES! Association, as was clearely stated all along, was an open proposal for you to consider, discuss, adopt or discharge as you liked.

The starting point of The Name Of This Association Shall Be Transmission, which I hope came across in my project description as well as in the letters we sent out to the members, was to start a discussion on what a self-organized space like Transmission is, and is aspiring to be, in relation to its history and to this given time and context: to its members, its audience, the city, the art world etc. The project was meant to create a platform were issues could be raised concerning what such a commitment means in relation to the local situation as well as to society at large. My initiation came out of relating to your practice as an artist who's been involved in several artist run projects and collaborations myself.

I found it very interesting and inspiring to read your thoughts on Transmission's role in relation to an overall cultural policy adopted by a neo-liberal view on "culture as entertainment industry". This was one of the issues I had hoped would be brought up through the project as a way to discuss common strategies in how to deal with the Scottich cultural policy specifically, but also in relation to a larger context as something that is currently affecting not only Scotland but large parts of Europe, if not the world. Thomas Idergard, one of the leading people of the swedish neo-liberal think-tank "Timbro", just wrote an article in the biggest Swedish newspaper a couple of days ago, suggesting that the municipalities should simply stop spending money on culture altogether, under the pretext of the crisis of economy.

However, It is very unfortunate if neo-liberal politics will succeed in its efforts to make us stop thinking critically in terms of representation, as well as to call out against structures of oppression. What is needed with todays political situation is certainly not less thinking, discussing, debating etc. It makes it even more urgent to question what lies behind our use of concepts like "quality" or "artistic value". To set up "artistic value" as adversarial to issues of representation in terms of gender, sexuality, class etc is historically one of the core strategies for patriarchy to maintain its power. Unless you belong to the group which holds the power to represent, an artist is often times not "more than their demographic representation". To pay attention to the socio-political framework of artists is not to over-determine that aspect in relation to their overall artistic value, but a way to challenge hegemonic issues of representation.

I therefore do not follow your line of argument stating that issues of equal rights as something that 'narrows the bigger picture'. The ideas that circulate and permeate the activities of any given space, the members, the visitors, the committee are inevitably gendered. We are never only artists, but all our activities are intersected by structures of gender, nationality, race, sexuality, ability, class etc. These perspectives, as I see it, is not something that is threatening to art, but something that enriches the field immensely. When I started my art education almost all my teachers were male. Almost all of the art they advanced and talked about was made by men. To change this situation slightly has required a lot of work from many female artists for many years. From this perspective an awareness of gender equality is not something that obstructs the change of sensibilities, agendas, priorities and visions of a given practice, but provides the conditions for change in a very fundamental way.

I'm hoping to make it to the "Subject in Process" symposium at the CCS in September and look forward to see you all then!
Yours, Kajsa Dahlberg