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12/5/2015

Wave Upone Wave of Invaders

Armada, Milano

The title reflecting the history of the world is written on an art work by Lawrence Weiner, entitled With the Wind, from 1989, which shows these lines written on a navigational chart. The politics of invading is basic to understanding why we have so-called world languages. The politics of invading also explains why the world is not a patchwork of myriads of belief systems but geographically divided by so-called world religions and large coherent political projections that are all competing with each other. The politics of invading is also the origin of our still current political order in Africa and the Middle East that is now about to be threatened and scattered into chaos after a series of invasions we remember all too well.

The current crisis in the Middle East and large parts of Africa, due to ethnic, tribal, religious and political conflicts, civil wars and power struggles that all are again fed by forces from outside and inside over basically anything one can fight over, pushes people literally into the sea, into the winds of desperation and quasi-suicidal adventure. I am not going to elaborate here on politics that are so visible and noticeable everywhere but simply evoke another title of Lawrence Weiner’s that I find significant: Water does find its own level.

This exhibition brings together artists that take their first steps and those who have been on open sea for over half or at least a quarter of a century. I would like to point out that not only people travel but also gods, ideas and institution and practices. In that sense I would like to point out that I am on a self-made raft that is sailing under various flags and has one registered harbor at the State Art Academy Stuttgart. I’m also watching a compass that points to something I simply call Strange Teaching and is beyond our institutional coordinate system. I am also sailing with a pirate standard that lets me enjoy and suffer the songs and pains of sirens, hard winds and delusions. But I am also hanging here on a rope that is held by many others for which I am so thankful.

In this sense, I would like to thank Amy Lien, Enzo Camacho, Tan Cheng, gluck50, Armada, Lawrence Weiner, Nasan Tur, and all the many participants of this exhibition, which will for sure be very uneven but hopefully surprising.
Rainer Ganahl, New York, April 2015

Image: Lawrence Weiner With the Wind

Inaugurazione: 13 maggio ore 19 Dj Elmar Mellert

Armada
via Privata Don B. Grazioli 73, Milano

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