Exhibitionistas: Notes on Art

Can art rescue us from the empty one-liners of self-help? How do we find long-lasting, meditative explorations of life? Might Exhibitionistas’ art questions lead us to wonderment? And what is wonderment? 
Welcome to the Art Wonderment Manifesto, by art curator and writer Joana P. R. Neves – an examination of art wisdom with contemporary artists, ancestral philosophies and modernist poetry you didn’t know you needed. Discover why art conversations, an art etiquette segment where a non-expert guest brings in an unprompted question about art, and critical thinking beyond categories might be just what the doctor ordered.
Why is Art Wonderment crucial today, you ask? Art is right here, produced by living artists, engaging with visual arts culture and with the complexity of life, society and politics. Why not risk considering how contemporary art, art philosophy and ancestral wisdom examine the world around us without the comfort of dogmas but with the promise of truthful challenges.
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With the wonderful Catalan artist Susanna INGLADA; the timeless wisdom of LAO TZU's Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula K. LE GUIN–, the most innovative Portuguese poet, Fernando PESSOA and his mind blowing creation of more than 100 heteronyms (poets he invented with a persona, a life, and their own authored poetry), amongst which the most extreme of them all, Alberto Caeiro.
And… Stick around for our most popular segment, Art Etiquette and this episode’s art question: why is contemporary art not considered art?
Guest: Spencer Moore, Creator and host of The Hairy Chin Podcast
Soon: Bonus – full length Art Etiquette episodes.
Come for the art, stay for the creative writing–segment, Brainstorm in a Teacup, where Joana reads short texts from her notebooks exposing her inner thoughts and strange fictional flash writing.
Consider this episode an anti-tutorial: it will not teach you how or why to... nor 5 methods to achieve something quickly. Rather, this Art Wonderment Manifesto will reclaim wisdom and experience through language explorations, spending time with the unknown, being comfortable with what we don't understand because, precisely, "understanding" might not be the point. Who wants to stand under?! Wandering, meandering, letting go while holding on to the specific is what it's all about. 
#ArtWondermentManifesto #artmanifesto #artappreciation

00:00:00 - Intro: A Different Start + Featured Artist Susanna Inglada
00:02:06 - The Self-Help trap
00:13:36 - Art Wonderment Manifesto
00:19:26 - Art Etiquette with S. Moore: why is contemporary art not considered art?
00:28:25 - Art Wonderment Manifesto – Holding the paradox wit artist Susanna Inglada
00:33:07 - The mysterious life of Portugal’s most intriguing poet, Fernando Pessoa
00:42:06 - Brainstorm in a Teacup
00:43:55 - A message, a rant, a call for voice notes, a see you soon

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Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
Find us:
On Instagram – @exhibitionistas_podcast
On Substack (NEWSLETTER: sign up!): Art Thinkosaurus > Exhibitionistas Files
Online: www.exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Do you want to be a guest on Art Etiquette? Reach out: joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Copyright: Joana P. R. Neves, 2024.

Is art wonderment possible through a copy of an artwork? As an art curator and writer, our host is often faced with printed or digital art portfolios – does this art digital hygiene go against art etiquette? 
Small donations are great! "Buys us a book": https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista
This ‘art anxiety’ is reinforced by the concept, coined by the German thinker Walter Benjamin, of “the aura”, the "here and now of the work of art" understood as a defense of the unique art experiences ‘in the flesh’. 
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What if we’d failed to see what Benjamin alerts us to in his seminal art book: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction? What if mass reproduction of images brought an art liberation? What is preserving the here and now of the aesthetic experience was a form of gatekeeping? And how can we read the concept of aura today?
Interested in Worlding, my art space & residency in London?
https://www.worldingproject.com/
Interested in seeing the exhibition with Collective Aid and SOS MEDITERRANEE for Refugee Week? https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/across-lands-and-seas-exhibition
Interested in our Workshops? https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/workshops-across-lands-and-seas-exhibition
And our talk about courage? https://www.zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/across-lands-and-seas
Know more about Collective Aid and SOS MEDITERRANEE.
Read Katy Barron's Women who Podcast Magazine. And listen to our episode in Kathy's podcast Women Who Sarcast.
And here is the link to Kathy's awesome film Navel Gazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogy1nTiCms0&t=205s

SIGN UP TO THE EXHIBITIONISTAS FILES.
joana@exhibitonistaspodcast.com
00:00 Can we be moved by a reproduction of an artwork?
07:04 Walter Benjamin's "Aura" is often misunderstood
15:52 My 2nd hand art experience: 2 paintings by Caspar D. Friedrich
20:12 Benjamin, a fellow podcaster? And the real change brought by tech
29:07 Art Etiquette segment!
40:13 Walter Benjamin's Influence on Art and Technology
40:13 Copy v automated reproduction
53:26 Brainstorm in a teacup segment!
54:37 Answer to the question: can we be moved by a copy of art?
 #walterbenjamin #aura #technologyandart
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
Find us:
On Instagram – @exhibitionistas_podcast
On Substack (NEWSLETTER: sign up!): Art Thinkosaurus > Exhibitionistas Files
Online: www.exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Do you want to be a guest on Art Etiquette? Reach out: joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Copyright: Joana P. R. Neves, 2024.

Is digital media preventing us from accessing the most exciting part of culture? In this final hiatus special, explore the unacknowledged difference between wonder and wander—and why curators and gallery-goers alike need digital hygiene. We dig into Wordsworth's poetry, Agnes Martin's meditative minimalism, and real art etiquette, plus the night my performance went viral and Snoop Dogg reposted it. A new era. A new episode structure. New segments. Your art theory explained through unexpected perspective shifts.
Visit Worlding online and sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram: @worldingproject
https://www.worldingproject.com
Small donations are great! "Buys us a book": https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista
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Sources:
My definition of wonderment is actually taken from the noun ‘wonder’: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/wonder 
Hollis Frampton’s text:
Digression on the Photographic Agony, Artforum, November 1972: https://www.artforum.com/features/digressions-on-the-photographic-agony-209932/
Agnes Martin’s photo credits: Agnes Martin in the mesas near Cuba, New Mexico, 1974. Photo Gianfranco Gorgoni.
Pliny the Elder’s mention of the origin myth of art is in Natural History Book XXXV
My strange viral experience article
Going Viral: if your exhibition is reposted by Snoop Dog, does it matter? https://substack.com/home/post/p-157358364
The article where I mention Katy Hessel’s strange Art Self Help Book,
Art as Function, Automatic Education, and Self-Care: the Politics of Culture Replaced by the Commodification of Creativity: https://substack.com/@joanaprneves/p-190450394
Find Walter Benjamin’s first “read Walter Benjamin with me” here” https://joanaprneves.substack.com/s/your-crazy-aunt-book-shelf
00:00 Introduction to Exhibitionistas and New Format
01:30 Wonderment
06:03 Reading Out Loud
08:25 Agnes Martin on Joy
12:58 Ekphrasis
19:51 Digital Hygiene
41:32 Build Exhibitionistas With Me!
46:33 Brainstorm in a Teacup
47:37 Outro
Follow, Subscribe, Comment, or write joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
Find us:
On Instagram – @exhibitionistas_podcast
On Substack (NEWSLETTER: sign up!): Art Thinkosaurus > Exhibitionistas Files
Online: www.exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Do you want to be a guest on Art Etiquette? Reach out: joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Copyright: Joana P. R. Neves, 2024.

🔎 Does obscurity lead to creative freedom? Why do I ask? Because of a single sentence in Chris Kraus' book I Love Dick, simply stating that once we accept obscurity, we can do what we want...
📙 This book is a ride through the literary world of the 1990s from the perspective of "the wife of"; it's an exploration of visual art through the perspective of obscurity, complexity and weirdness, and a classic and transgressive exploration of authorship.

We discuss:
I Love Dick (duuuuh)
artistic freedom
creative liberation
female creativity
the complexities of feminism
the work of Sophie Calle, Hannah Wilke
Authorship and its twist through auto-fiction
artistic exposure invisibility, and obscurity
authorship
critique versus experience
Read Joana's essays: https://joanaprneves.substack.com/.
To know more about our guests and our ideas → ⁠SIGN UP TO THE EXHIBITIONISTAS FILES.
https://joanaprneves.substack.com/s/e...
you can become a member and support us.
Small donations are great! "Buys us a book": https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista

Takeaways
the great literary work of Chris Kraus
the female condition and the role of the artist
layers of feminism
critical prejudice against feminist art
the economy of artistic exclusion
aesthetic experience of desire
desire as a fiction device
sex, lust and adultery in postmodernism
sex in art
00:00 Intro: On creative freedom and obscurity
02:51 A feminist sensation: "I Love Dick" by Chris Kraus 
09:47 Dick, Sylvère... and Chris
15:12 The Structure of the Book
23:29 The Triangle of Obscurity
26:05 Exposure of Self or Obscurity of the Muse?
30:53 Transgression as Sexlessness
41:04 Economic Obscurity
47:21 Sex, Desire, and Visibility
54:26 Art, Identity, and Obscurity
55:44 The Life and Legacy of Hannah Wilke
01:09:39 Art Monsters
01:17:56 Outro
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
Find us:
On Instagram – @exhibitionistas_podcast
On Substack (NEWSLETTER: sign up!): Art Thinkosaurus > Exhibitionistas Files
Online: www.exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Do you want to be a guest on Art Etiquette? Reach out: joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Copyright: Joana P. R. Neves, 2024.

🔎 How do we spot a masterpiece? Can we really know if the art we’re looking at is any good? Which is to say, how do we recognize talent? And is pleasure a real indicator of artistic greatness?

⚒️ Are there any identifying tools that may fit the unique shape of a new work of art?

Spotting great art may be trickier but more exciting than we think. We look into Proust, specifically into one of the most intriguing narrative lines of In Search of Lost Time (Vol I): the presumed greatness of the famous actress, "La Berma”, inspired by the very real and very famous turn of the century Sarah Bernhardt, whose performance tests the main character’s artistic judgment. We’ll follow his tribulations with aesthetic anxiety, antcipation, experience, enjoyment and appreciation.

Are these the steps to artistic paradise?

Tune in to find out, and enjoy some beautiful excerpts of this magnificent, detailed, and wordy (in the best sense!) piece of literature. But... is it any good?

Read Joana's essays: https://joanaprneves.substack.com/.
To know more about our guests and our ideas → ⁠SIGN UP TO THE EXHIBITIONISTAS FILES.
https://joanaprneves.substack.com/s/e...
you can become a member and support us.
Small donations are great! "Buys us a book": https://buymeacoffee.com/exhibitionista

Takeaways
what is artistic talent
how to identify it
how Proust sees art and its judgement
the subjective power revealed in art
stream of consciousness
what experience really means
aesthetic experience and experience of lif
Did the episode stir Art Wonderment memories? Share them via text or voice message.
Support the show
Created & Hosted by Dr. Joana P. R. Neves, art curator and writer with over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art field. Artistic director of Drawing Now Paris since 2018, she has worked across the industry, from the art market to education. She co-launched the art residency and project space Worlding in 2020. Exhibitionistas’ first year offered exhibition discussions with guest co-host Emily Harding; organically, it grew into a more experimental show exploring art topics, stories and interviews complemented by Joana’s publication Art Thinkosaurus on Substack. She champions ‘Art Wonderment’s’ embrace of complexity against the lure of ready-made opinions. A polyglot, she grew up in Lisbon, studied and lived in Paris, to finally settle in London with her artist husband, four children and two cats. 
Find us:
On Instagram – @exhibitionistas_podcast
On Substack (NEWSLETTER: sign up!): Art Thinkosaurus > Exhibitionistas Files
Online: www.exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Do you want to be a guest on Art Etiquette? Reach out: joana@exhibitionistaspodcast.com
Copyright: Joana P. R. Neves, 2024.