Keeping It Real Art Critics

Contributors to this dialogue, whether friends or enemies, are all said to be part of “Team KIRAC.” Because of their frequent and substantial appearances, archaeologist and philosopher Kate Sinha (1988, Deventer) and artist Tarik Sadouma (1979, Amsterdam) are often regarded as KIRAC co-directors.

The early films can be interpreted as the result of Ruitenbeek, Sinha and Sadouma’s boredom with the modern art world and their frustration with the complacency of its representatives.

[1] They suggest (KIRAC Ep.3) that democratic, modernistic tendencies in combination with neoliberal policies have created a generation of artists who use their work to cater for the ideological preferences of curators and collectors, thereby lacking sincerity and self-reflection.

For example, KIRAC Episodes 16, 17, 18 and 19 tried to bring about a change of character with collector Philip van den Hurk, alluring his protestant, profit-minded attitude with aristocratic perspectives.

Their opposition was particularly directed at Kate Sinha, who had written critically about Beatrix Ruf, curator of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and had illustrated her criticism with the example of a Zanele Muholi exhibition “where the audience was expected to be interested in the lazy works of a spoiled brat, only because she is South-African, lesbian and black.”[14] The disinvitation was finally overturned and a new discussion was organized on the topic of the cancellation of the initial event.