Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc
Michelangelo Antonioni
Andreas Bunte
Harry Eccleston
Eoghan McTigue
Berthe Morisot
Pocas Pascoal
Liubov Popova
Sarah Pierce
Sandra Ramos
Trust Your Struggle
Jun Yang
Declan Clarke
Sarah Perks
What Do You Do With Your Revolution Once You've Got It. Exploring contrasting perspectives and observations from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and beyond, the exhibition considers politics, change and those who were lost along the way.
Curated by Declan Clarke and Sarah Perks
Cornerhouse is delighted to present Anguish & Enthusiasm, an extraordinary group show
of new and recent contemporary art investigating post-revolutionary periods and
events. Exploring contrasting perspectives and observations from Latin America, Eastern
Europe, Asia and beyond, the exhibition considers politics, change and those who were
lost along the way. Featuring new commissions by Sarah Pierce, Andreas Bunte, Mathieu
Kleyebe Abonnec and Trust Your Struggle alongside existing work by an array of
acclaimed artists including Eoghan McTigue, Pocas Pascoal and Jun Yang, Anguish &
Enthusiasm will be accompanied by a film programme and events further investigating
the outcome of a revolution.
The impact of the moment invariably overshadows the aftermath of an event. Yet while
revolutions often serve as landmark shifts in the history of a nation, people or a cause, it is the
post-revolutionary period that reveals most about the mind-set and outlook of those that map the
new terrain. Frequently followed by Civil Wars and purges, many ideological principals and
people themselves fall by the wayside.
Curated by Declan Clarke and Sarah Perks, the exhibition takes its title from the third chapter of
Victor Serge’s compelling book Memoirs of a Revolutionary, focusing on the period just after the
Russian revolution and Civil War but prior to the founding of the U.S.S.R. The author gives
first-and testimony of the transition from the initial euphoria of the revolution’s success to a
growing uneasiness toward the manner in which the Bolsheviks began to implement their
revolution.
Following critically acclaimed socio-political exhibitions Contemporary Art Iraq (2010), New
Cartographies (2011) and Subversion (2012), this most recent Cornerhouse group show aims to
explore the painful and divisive process of rebuilding a new society along the hastily prepared
guidelines of a spontaneous uprising, and the bitter battle that emerges in the race for a new
power elite.
Eoghan McTigue’s photographic work Empty Sign (1998, illustrated above left) depicts the
notice board from Queen’s University in Belfast, cleared of content by the artist. Redolent of a
mid-1950s abstract painting and with the traces of what was previously pinned to the board
remaining, its bright red colour recalls the red flag of international socialism and the flag of the
Paris Commune.
Empty Sign recollects past radical traditions of students whilst presenting the
potential of the notice board as a political space to be reactivated by contemporary university
students, as central Europe again turns towards a period of division and upheaval. Queen’s
University was a focal point of radical left-wing student activity throughout the 1960s and it was
from its ranks that the students who set up the Derry Housing Action Committee emerged – this
would later go on to become a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland
(1969).
Pocas Pascoal’s Il y a quelqu’un qui t’aime (There Is Always Someone Who Loves You),
(2003, illustrated above right) is a poignant and deeply moving film work about her family’s
experiences as the independence of Angola from Portugal was confirmed in 1975. After 14 years
of the War of Independence (1961 – 1975), the country slipped into a brutal civil war between the
three nationalist parties vying for power. Pascoal recounts the tense and violent environment she
and her family find themselves in as her mother endeavours to transport her and her sister to
safety. Concurrent with this is her recounting her attempts to track down her family home and
determine what actually happened through the fractured recollections of her 12 year old younger
self, capturing the trauma and bitter reprisals that overwhelm people as they make the transition
from occupation to self-rule.
Artist Sarah Pierce will introduce Gag, a new work commissioned by Cornerhouse. Her
performance, result of a year-long project specifically for the exhibition, deals with ‘inhibitions of
return’ (loss of a demand, loss of speech, lost meaning) and the suppression of objects and
events that had recently been the focus of attention. Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnec’s practice often
focuses on the production of images and visuals that shape our social and political imaginary.
By
using the example of the former Portuguese colonies and by studying how their process of
liberation and the independence that followed, the artist seeks to understand how the visual
productions of the 1960s and 1970s were able to support the revolution and rebellion against the
colonizing power. Helped by the archives of the Cape-Verdean and Guinean directors, Kleyebe
Abonnec’s new commission investigates the impact of image on the colonial liberations.
Known for his labour-intensive, hand crafted, silent, black & white 16mm film installations which
explore the history of ideas and previous chapters of Western culture, Andreas Bunte will
present a new film commission considering sites and phenomena that pertain to the former
German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the impact the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989
had upon them. Locations include a scientific research facility that developed a technique for the
artificial production of diamonds, and a high pressure training facility that was constructed for
athletes preparing for the Olympics. Trust Your Struggle have been invited to re-paint a mural
on a wall adjacent to Cornerhouse, with the intention to reflect on the unchanged situation of the
black community in Oakland suffering from extreme police brutality since it was first highlighted
by Newton and Seale in 1966. Furthermore, the project attempts to regard the potential neglect
of working class ethnic communities within Britain, and the dangers that lie in neglecting a more
evenly balanced and socially inclusive approach to rebuilding Britain in the current economic
climate.
Declan Clarke, Artist and Co-Curator of Anguish & Enthusiasm commented: ‘I am delighted to
have the opportunity to work with Sarah Perks on such an exciting exhibition. As we struggle to
find our feet in the 21st Century, it seems an appropriate time to consider the precedents of
perceiving, reflecting upon and depicting societies in the midst of seismic transition.’
Sarah Perks, Artistic Director of Visual Arts and Film at Cornerhouse and also Co-Curator added:
‘This exhibition feels like a logical climax to our commitment to investigating international socio-
political concerns that I started with Contemporary Art Iraq (2010). It's vital to look at the
moments after the outburst, and after the hype, and not just to keep moving on to the next
conflict zone. I'm also really proud to commission several key international artists who all are
completely engaged with the ideas and debates throughout this exhibition.’
For further information please contact: Elisa Ruff, Media & Communications Officer on E:
elisa.ruff@cornerhouse.org, T: + 44 (0)161 200 1529 or M: +44 (0)7852 191 752.
Opening: 13 April 2013
Cornerhouse
70 Oxford Street, Manchester
Hours: Mon - Closed, Tue - Sat 12:00 - 20:00, Sun 12:00 - 18:00
Free