Emergency Room

Emergency Room format : Thierry Geoffroy/ Colonel


Thierry Geoffroy conceived of Emergency Room out of a desire to learn what artists are thinking about current affairs around the world. By providing a forum, an actual space where artists can display works made in reaction to actual events, Emergency Room takes the pulse of the artistic community in New York. Through art processes, these opinions may be exteriorized, put into form and therefore distributed to the public. These expressions are of great interest not only to ER and to the public, but to other artists in the project as well. By sharing interpretations of the world today, artists are enabled to bond and create a community. The list of artists involved in ER allows for this as well. It evolves continuously, and artists are added and removed on a regular basis. Passive artists are encouraged to remove themselves from the list, while new artists burning to express themselves may contact ER and have a chance to join. A majority of the former ER participants are also invited, encouraging all artists to become part of a movement or community.
 
ER deliberately chooses to mix evidently politically involved artists with artists who approach art in a completely different way. Bringing together video artists and an abstract painter could be one example. ER enables such artists to evolve and develop new unexpected methods and art forms. They are given a chance develop with the project, and ER is kept under observation for this reason specifically: to observe and record changes in artistic practice. ER encourages experimentation, and fosters it with the conditions of production it entails. The environment is fast-paced and leaves very little time for artistic production. This exposes artists to mistakes or changes they would not ordinarily encounter. The Passage, or transfer between old and new artworks can be a moment of extreme pressure, which can lead to an unfriendly environment but also to the potential creation of innovative art forms.

The concept of Passage is central to the ER project. It is the process where yesterday’s artworks are taken down from ER’s main gallery, relocated to an archive entitled Retard, and replaced by today’s new artistic reactions. The Passage occurs punctually at 12:10pm and is a time of transition, allowing new perspectives on current situations and events to arise. ER is a place of renewal which nourishes innovative meanings and strives for cultural change. Though the process of Passage is ephemeral, ER allows for statements to be recorded in its archive entitled Retard. This “delay” of opinions, where past reactive interpretations are preserved, is a critical way of thinking about contemporary art.

ER artwork is centered on current themes and debates. It focuses on artists’ interpretation of the media’s dissemination of information. ER’s ideal response to information is instantaneous, and though this method can lead to certain imperfections, it also generates unique artistic expressions. An example is Jean Baudrillard’s comments on recent events in the French newspaper Libération. He is a great thinker but because he expresses himself on the spot, he makes what his philosopher colleagues may call “mistakes”. For the reader however, these opinions can be invaluable, as they differ from what journalists present. Similarly, visual artists have the power to direct thoughts in new and different ways, touching a public normally left alone before the media. 

The ER is not defined as a group show, but it involves the creation of a movement in which artists are strongly encouraged to communicate, particularly during the Passage. Artists are enabled to exchange ideas and may even find the chance to create collective art pieces, thus fulfilling one of the ER's great ideas: the formation of an artistic community and a forum to share ideas and opinions. Ideal artists for this project are people with true, authentic and precise critiques of the world today, who are able to convey this opinion through their artistic practice. For example, a goal of the ER could be to collect the energy of an outraged artist watching the news and enable its transfer to an artwork. The use of irony in artworks is accepted though not encouraged, as it has the potential to confuse the public, the goal being to find a new and different angle within a contemporary debate.

Artists are seen as experts in communication. When confronted with a flood of information, they are able to understand the media’s strategic mechanisms to deliver news, and can deconstruct and reconstruct various facts and images. They not only perceive traces of dysfunction in the news and abuses of power by the media, but also have the tools to articulate an opinion about them. They can express themselves on the mechanisms used by the media, but also on the content of their information. Artists can reveal the manipulations of the media, as well as express their own interpretation on the actual content of the information. This unique expertise of the artist must be exposed in order to give the public new and diverse points of view. As an expert and witness, the artist has a duty to communicate visions as well as doubts. Isolated with the media, the audience needs assistance with the understanding of information. The artist has the ability to provide this assistance, both on a conceptual and emotional level.