…In this art market, we {the artists} are its direct material
beneficiaries. Every time we speak of the “institution” as
other than “us”, we disavow our role in the creation and
perpetuation of its conditions. We avoid responsibility for,
or actions against, the everyday complicities, compromises,
and censorship – above all, self-censorship – which are driven
by our own interests in the field and the benefits we derive
from it. It’s not a question of inside or outside, or the
number and scale of various organized sites for the production,
presentation, and distribution of art. It’s not a question
of being against the institution: We are the institution.
It’s a question of what kind of institution we are, what
kind of values we institutionalize, what forms of practice
we reward, and what kind of rewards we aspire to. Because
the institutions of art are internalized, embodied, and performed
by individuals, these are the questions that institutional
critique demands we ask, above all, of ourselves.
-Andrea Fraser, 2005
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