c a s T i N g is an art collective based in Venice, which has initiated a contest for visual artists, thus named c a s T i N g.
c a s T i N g is a project that entails the selection of one or more visual artists suitable for personal promotion during the opening week of the Venice Biennale 2005 by placing posters throughout the city of Venice. The promotion is intended for the artist as a person who will be exhibited in the place of his/her own works of art.
The selection process is based on typical selection procedures conducted by television programs. As a matter of fact, it is a real casting where the candidates will be judged upon their personalities, image and their ability to interact in an effective manner, all of which are useful qualities for an aspiring career artist.
casTiNg is at the same time a reflection on the way artists are promoted within the world of contemporary art and aims to underline the boundaries of such strategies. If a person from the world of show business can rely exclusively on his image and communication skills in order to achieve success can the same strategy be applied to artists? In other words what is the true value of a work of art? What is the effective role of an artist within the contemporary society? What is it that characterises an artist? In order to answer these and other questions we intend to offer the possibility of high personal projection for visual artists, without their works, utilising typical promotional strategies of the media world. We are aware of how important it can be today for an artist to maintain the right connections, we are also aware of the worth that the media and in general the achievement of public attention has in the life of an artist. At the same time though we do not ignore how all of the above aspects can be many times superficial making us reflect whether these kinds of strategies have any rightful place in the contemporary art world.
c a s T i N g through a selection process and the promotion of an artist based on his/her personality and physical appearance underlines and exaggerates the mass media side of the contemporary art system in order to bring it, ironically, to the paradox of the disappearance of the work of art.