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2/6/2006

Undo Redo

Fridericianum, Kassel

5 Days to the End of Art

Lucas Ajemian | Mariana Castillo Deball | Martha Colburn | Gabriel Lester | Mads Lynnerup | Jan Mancuska | Melik Ohanian | Susan Philipsz | Kirstine Roepstorff | Tino Sehgal

The exhibition is dedicated to the prefix “re“ - record, recode, re-construct, repair, redo, repeat, reply, re-sample, re-create, represent, recover, revolve .... Curated by Solvej Helweg Ovesen

On June 2, 2006 the Kunsthalle Fridericianum opens the exhibition undo redo that focuses on contemporary strategies of appropriation. The different forms of montage, quotation or sampling of visual and sound material or texts have a long tradition in visual arts. Examples can be found in Avant-garde, Pop and Conceptual Art. Where ‘the New’ and ‘the original’ in art were emphasized in Modernism, today innovation derives from variation - lies in the process of post-production.

Though the processes of combined deconstruction and reconstruction the ten artists of the exhibition transfer existing texts, images or pieces of music in new contexts and references and generate new meaning. They understand the environment as a collection of different material that can easily be downloaded, mixed or arranged in new and different ways. This knowledge does not only influence the perception of the world but also the current production of art.

The participating artists are not interested in simple repeating or adopting already existing ideas. They rather show ways and possibilities to deal responsibly with history and artistic works. Through the amount of available information, the selection of the material and the techniques of recomposing gain more and more importance. The diversity of these processes is shown by the presented works. Lucas Ajemian (*1975) records the song Into the Void by the Heavy Metal Band Black Sabbath backwards with an orchestra and vocalists and creates a totally new version of a famous song.

With his work SLOWMOTION, Melik Ohanien (*1969), invites the visitors to use the pre-historic control unit and place their own statement consisting of five words, signs or letters on the light board. With his performative works, Tino Sehgal (*1976), explores “ideologies of doing". This is new recalls the absurdity of the daily newspaper headlines.

Susan Philipsz (*1965) repeats the chorus of the well-known Punk-Song Something better Change by The Stranglers in a hypnotizing and never ending manner until we almost internalized it.

For his movie All Wrong, Gabriel Lester (*1972), uses the internet search Google to transfer the script into images and short film sequences.

For her film-collage Cosmetic Emergency - that shows the worldwide trend to cosmetic surgery - the American artist Martha Colburn (*1971) uses found footage, which she repaints, recomposes and adds music to. In his video works Mads Lynnerup (*1976) encapsulates the absurdity of common existence by reflecting everyday gestures and the assumptions we bring to it. In her room installation Kirstine Roepstorff (*1972) composes power relations in seductive collages.

The Slovak artist Ja'n Mancuška (*1972) tells us in “Jana’s Story" the story of the rape of a woman in only nine sentences. The single metal letters are spun up on ropes and cross the exhibition space. While moving through the room, the visitor experiences the same story from different perspectives and becomes a part of the ambiguity of the world.

Mariana Castillo Deball (*1976) invited artists, critics and authors to design fictitious book covers. The authors Kirsten Fuchs, Katrin Soldhju and Jan Wagner selected three out of the existing 24 covers that they revived with their own story. In the reading on June, 7 at 5 pm in the Kunsthalle Fridericianum they present their stories behind the non-existing covers.

undo redo is the first exhibition in the collective project of the curatorial workshop programme, that will stage the artistic programme of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum until November 2006. In this series, which dovetails in theme and time, four members of the curatorial workshop and the artistic director Rene' Block will be providing insight into their current work in independent exhibitions.

The exhibitions - under the collective title 5 Days to the End of Art - will follow individual approaches and mirror the varying perspectives, interests, and procedures of a young generation of curators.

The apodictic title of the exhibition series is by no means intended to proclaim the often evoked “end of art" but a search for the conditions of contemporary artistic and curatorial practice. The open structure of the programme allows each member to develop and stage his or her own exhibition idea for the series.

Since 2003, the curatorial workshop has constituted a key element at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum. Over this period, young, international curators have accompanied the programme of the Kunsthalle, expanding it with independent exhibition projects.

The approach adopted by the curatorial workshop is the practical integration of young curators in the day-to-day work of the institution Kunsthalle Fridericianum. Over and beyond the theoretical discourse of university curator programmes, it permits members to test their own curatorial enterprise and to experiment in exhibition work from the first outline of an idea to the realisation stage. This procedure distinguishes the workshop strongly from other programmes.

Together with the exhibition undo redo the parallel project of Rene' Block starts. Under the title Rene'?s Side-Show the video work Ascension by the English artist Sam Taylor-Wood will be presented in the first floor of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum. This project not only introduces the farewell exhibition Fremd bin ich eingezogen by the artistic director with special implications but also accompanies the work of the young curators with a personal statement.

Solvej Helweg Ovesen, born 1974 in Denmark has been a member of the curatorial workshop programme since November 2004. She is co-curator of the 7th Werkleitz Biennial 2006 and the1st Quadrennial for Contemporary Art in Denmark, 2007/08 in Copenhagen.The exhibition series 5 Days to the End of Art will be accompanied by a documentation that will be published in December 2006.

Kunsthalle Fridericianum
Friedrichsplatz 18 - Kassel
Opening Hours : Wednesday - Sunday and on Holidays 11 am - 6 pm
Admission: 3 Euro / reduced 1,50 Euro Wednesday reduced 1,50 Euro
* Summerbreak: July 17 - September 2, 2006

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