The term INS explains the concept of “insertion”: it is one of the service keys of the computer keyboard and its function consists in adjusting the insertion of text in an existing document. In html, however, the <INS> tag defines the text inserted after a page change. In this perspective, the <INS> project aims to enrich the stratification of knowledge by adding additional pieces of knowledge. The project, curated by Chiara Fantaccione, artist, and Erika Cammerata, writer and researcher, develops as an activity of Spazio In Situ.
<INS> is a project of publication of short essays on the theme of art, made by personalities of the artistic field on the basis of an ideological research of the author, who is free in his contents. The format required is a one-page long essay, like a “manifesto”, statement of the critical thinking of the author, usable both in its individuality and in relation to the rest of the publications: in fact the text must be able to be read at any time, without being tied to a specific period.
The collection of such writings is in fact conceived as an open and changing space, with no reading order. This database will form a fluid library that can be consulted by anyone at any time. The project was born for the desire to broaden the artistic practice to the writing one, putting in close correlation as much the two mediums, as the figures that revolve around them. Art and writing have in common the need to share ideas and points of view with a public-user, and also to declare an intellectual research for each creation. The two practices have the same principle, they make use of each other and can be placed on the same level, first of all the one of cultural creation.
People often forget that the artistic practice needs study tout court: with this project we intend to emphasize the art’s need for theoretical deepening and constant learning.
IDEA, RESEARCH and WRITING are the axes of this project, they are cross-field concepts, necessary to each other. Research is the heart of the matter, it takes place through writing which is the shaping of the idea.
Artists often write for a personal use only, for example to give form to their statements, for personal research or experimentation of their work. This happens sometimes because the art’s product by its nature is manifested in visual form, other times because there isn’t an adequate space for disclosure. Much more frequently, external professional figures theorize and write about the artist’s work. At the same time these figures, as curators, critics, journalists, have to publish texts on content “imposed” by others and rarely find spaces and opportunities to disseminate free and personal content.
With this project we intend to give space to those people who assume this lack of opportunity, feeling the need to express their research in a free and dedicated environment.
The primary objective of <INS> is to create a space where the figures of the artistic field can freely express studies, critical thoughts, ideologies, research or whatever, creating an archive useful also for the user, who can always find up-to-date contents.