Julien Bismuth
dal 17/2/2011 al 23/4/2011
Segnalato da
17/2/2011
Julien Bismuth
GAK Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen
Bismuth's approach combines the words with objects, photographs and film material, integrating them within collages, installations, and developing text-based performances and video works. The exhibition title 'The Ventriloquism Aftereffect' already refers to the phanomena of the spoken word, more precisely to the relationship between language and perception as it describes a neural disorder caused by brain injury, which renders individuals unable to localize the voice of their conversation partner.
Curated by Janneke de Vries
French artist Julien Bismuth (*1973, lives in New York and Paris) works at
the interface of visual art and literature. Most of his oeuvre builds on
texts found or penned by the artist. Bismuth's approach combines the words
with objects, photographs and film material, integrating them within
collages, installations, and developing text-based performances and video
works. His affinity for the literary arts is also evident in his doctoral
dissertation, written at Princeton University, in comparative literary
studies. Moreover Bismuth founded publishing house Devonian Press together
with Jean-Pascal Flavien in 2005.
The indispensable nature of language, its inherent limits and the
manipulation of meaning through quotation, cut-up techniques and
reformulation are the central themes of Bismuth's exhibition The
Ventriloquism Aftereffect at the GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst and the
Institut français in Bremen. The exhibition title The Ventriloquism
Aftereffect already refers to the phanomena of the spoken word, more
precisely to the relationship between language and perception as it
describes a neural disorder caused by brain injury, which renders
individuals unable to localize the voice of their conversation partner. As
the exhibition¹s main reference functions the Austrian author Karl Kraus
his close fight of finding the adequate words in the face of the horrors of
World War I and his formal use of text, which he cut up, rearranged, and
complemented with his own words. Walter Benjamin described this collage-like
method in an essay on Karl Kraus, and the works on show in Bremen reflect
Bismuth's reception of Kraus' thinking and technique. The exhibition brings
together sculptures, films, installations, collages, scripts and aural works
in a wide-ranging exploration of this central theme:
The film In dieser großen Zeit (in these great times), for example, features
a ventriloquist reciting a statement by Karl Kraus on the silence of the
author in an age of bloodshed: "In these great times which I knew when they
were this small; which will become small again provided they have time for
it; (...) in these loud times which boom with the horrible symphony of
actions (...) and from the reports that are to blame for deeds: in these
times, you should not expect any word of my own from me (...).³ The audio
piece Catalog, version 1:1 (serving friction), consisting of a seemingly
endless series of descriptions of artworks, culled from press releases and
exhibition reviews from 2010, exposes the impossibility of reproducing
visual detail in language. Like a textual element which can be lifted from
its original context and returned at will, Bismuth's sculpture Shifter
(2010) serves as a placeholder for the artist. The sculpture is removed from
the exhibition when the artist is on site, and returned upon his departure.
The artist's performances have been recently shown at the Kunsthalle Wien,
the Tate Modern in London, and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt/Main. The
Ventriloquism Aftereffect is Julien Bismuth's first solo institutional
exhibition in Germany. Following Shannon Bool's exhibition The Inverted
Harem I (26 November 2010 through to 30 January 2011) The Ventriloquism
Aftereffect is the second exhibition staged by the GAK in cooperation with
CRAC Alsace Centre Rhénan d¹art Contemporain Altkirch within the framework
of the Franco-German exchange project Thermostat.
Image: Julien Bismuth, In dieser großen Zeit, 2011
For more information and images please contact:
Melanie Roumiguière, roumiguiere@gak-bremen.de, Tel. +49 (0)421 500897
Press Conference: Thursday, 17 February 2011
GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst: 11am, afterwards Institut français, Bremen
Opening: Friday, 18 February 2011
Institut français Bremen: 6:30pm
GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst: 8pm
GAK Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst
Teerhof 21 / 28199 Bremen / Germany
HOURS: Tuesday-Sunday 11am-6pm, Thursday to 9pm, Monday closed