Douglas Park at "GAGARIN The Artists in their Own Words"

SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst

Citadelpark
9000 Gent
Belgium

"GAGARIN The Artists in their Own Words" is a unique international artist’s magazine (°2000), entirely dedicated to the publication of especially written and unpublished texts by artists who are now working, anywhere in the world. The texts are published in their original language (from Albanian to Italian) with the addition of an English translation.
Since its foundation in 2000 the periodical has developed into a unique project that has acquired its own special place in the international world. In this comprehensive exhibition the whole GARGARIN catalogue is linked, page by page, word for word, with a selection of works from the museum collection and special loaned works by these same artists. The exhibition includes work by Allora & Calzadilla, Edith Dekyndt, Lois Weinberger, Philippe Van Snick, Juan Muñoz, Gabriel Kuri, Jimmie Durham, Kirsten Pieroth, Maria Serebriakova, Richard Serra, Willem Oorebeek, Manfredu Schu, Joe Scanlan, Ria Pacquée and others.

The editorial lay-out of GAGARIN is specific and based on John Baldessari’s quote: “Talking about art simply is not art. Talk can be art, but then it is not talking about art”. Although GAGARIN’s focus is artistic, it is also art historical and documentary. The magazine mainly addresses those who do not wish to wait until everything has been verified and summarized, and those who are willing to leave the straight and narrow in search of stimulating art and ideas while they are still fresh. GARGARIN also strives to create an accurate source for scientific research regarding artists who have made their words available to us.

In 2010 GAGARIN will join forces with the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst S.M.A.K. (Museum of Contemporary Art). The exhibition marks the collaboration between S.M.A.K. and the magazine which will reside in the living collection of the museum in Ghent. The whole GAGARIN oeuvre was also recently purchased by the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA/ The Museum of Modern Art, de Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles.