It has been around for eighteen years and is one of the most impressive accessible archives dedicated to contemporary culture. It contains concrete and sound poetry, video pieces made by artists, underground cinema, sound art and other extravaganzas that are true treasures. It is UbuWeb. It was founded by the poet Kenneth Goldsmith and defines itself as the Robin Hood of the avant-garde, with the particularity that instead of stealing from some to give to others, what UbuWeb does is openly share access to knowledge. It is not for profit and its operation does not involve economic transactions. It is on the Internet: www.ubu.com, with the bandwidth and server provided by various universities. UbuWeb works on the basis of volunteers and much of the material posted on the Internet is without permission. Its purpose is to share and its contents are the subject of consultation and study from research and the university and cultural spheres.
What do we find on UbuWeb? Everything. From films by Kenneth Anger, Omer Fast, General Idea or Jean Genet, to mention the wide range of possibilities, to complete seminars by Jacques Lacan and non-obvious material, such as the film Television Delivers People by Richard Serra, documentaries and biographies dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges or J.G. Ballard, texts by Stéphan Mallarmé, Öyvind Fahlström or William S. Burroughs and, finally, rarities that are true treasures such as the greatest musical hits by Martin Kippenberger or the television advertisement that Salvador Dalí made for a bank in 1967.
“If we had to ask permission, we would not exist,” said Kenneth Goldsmith in an open letter he wrote in 2001. But not only has he not had any problems with creators, but he has received awards and recognition for his work on the Internet. Talking about UbuWeb now makes sense because of its long history, because it is an idiosyncratic initiative that does not believe in copyrights, bureaucracy, committees or visitor numbers, because it proposes another way of distributing cultural content and also because it shows that another way of working is possible, while at the same time exposing an art system based on anachronistic forms of distribution, an academic field whose priority is no longer knowledge and, of course, a world in which culture matters less and less.
The lack of monetary exchange, the fact that it does not generate profits or is not for sale (although there has been no shortage of offers) makes UbuWeb absolutely independent. Although this independence brings with it the uncertainty that at any moment it may cease to exist, either because they stop giving it space on servers, because it does not have enough volunteers or even because human energy runs out. So let us enjoy the possibilities it offers us while it lasts and long live UbuWeb!
[Arrticle published in Bonart, 2015]
