PRES S REL EAS E 6 Ju ne 20 11

de A pp el art s cen tre pr es ent s: Gen iu s w ith ou t T ale nt Grou p exh ibi ti on 16 J ul y 2 Oc tob er 201 1 Open in g F rid ay 15 Ju ly, 6 -9 p. m. Participating artists include: Karel A p pel, A ndr ea Bo i & Ju lia Will ms , C ons ta nt Dul laa rt , J aku p Ferr i, Ro ber t Fil lio u, Beat ri ce Gib so n, Lau ra Ga rbs tie ne , Ane Hj ort Gu tt u, Ann abe l Howl an d,A lan K ane , T oma sz Ko wal sk i, S uz y L ake , Pan tel is Makk as , C ipr ia n M ure san , Syl via S leig h, Jo hn Sm ith , Pra ne et Soi, H ele ne So mme r, Leo n Spi lli ae rt, Pi otr Uk la nsk i, Adr ia an de V il lie rs, N ina Yu en. Why should I value conceptual art? Why are the paintings which I think are beautiful not exhibited in the museum? As a viewer, can I simply decide for myself what I consider to be art and what I reject as nonsense or pseudointellectual hogwash? What do I have to know before I can make these sorts of value judgements? To what extent are the appreciation and production of art a form of specialist knowledge? Can I see the difference between amateur art and professional art? Can anyone do anything? We live in a world in which the boundaries between expertise and amateurism become increasingly vague and transparent. On the one hand it is as though user-generated content has a central place and anyone can make a contribution to the production of art and knowledge using channels such as Youtube and Wikipedia. On the other hand, according to the journalist Koen Haegens, we paradoxically live in a casting society in which it is important to demonstrate that you can achieve a particular level of excellence just think of the popularity of programmes such as So you think you can dance, Americas Next Top Model, but also The Apprentice. Generally speaking, citizens have become more articulate and worldly wise than forty years ago. They want to participate and make their own choices, rather than having a blind trust in the opinions and ideas of authoritative people or institutions. The expert and the specialist, like the (public) intellectual, have become minority positions. This has implications for various areas of expertise, and certainly also for the way in which West European society and the media view art and artists today. Artists such as Joseph Beuys and Robert Filliou caused a stir in the 1970s with their erweiterde Kunstbegriff. Beuys maintained that everyone was an artist, and in the context of his project La Republique Geniale (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1971) Filliou made a number of conflicting statements about the genius that everyone has. In 2011 we see the

relationship between concepts such as genius and talent, art and creativity, knowledge and expertise in a different way. On the basis of a broad range of contemporary and historical art practices, this exhibition explores in an associative way what the concepts of hobbyist and expert, layman and specialist, genius and talent mean today from the perspective of contemporary art. One of the guiding principles is that anyone can look, but not everyone can create works of art.

The title of this exhibition was inspired by the work of the French artist Robert Filliou, who referred to himself as a Genius without Talent. - Fi ni ssa ge: S und ay Sch oo l o n O ct ober 2 nd at 4 p.m . P rio r to the Su nda y S ch ool , t her e wil l b e a gu id ed tou r at 3 p .m. , by Ann De mee ste r, di rec tor o f d e A pp el a rt s c ent re . - A se rie s o f wor ksh ops a nd lec tu res wi ll be or gan ize d i n the cont ex t o f t he ex hib iti on in Se pt embe r. Fo r f ur the r info rm ati on fo llo w t he li nk to ww w.de ap pel .nl f rom 15 Ju ly.

For more information: Samga Nguyen Interim Marketing en PR de Appel arts centre marketing@deappel.nl www.deappel.nl +31 (0)20-6255651