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12/10/2006

I'm busy

GAK Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen

Curated by Gabriele Mackert

Francis Alys (B) \ John Baldessari (USA) \ Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann (D) \ Josef Dabernig (A) \ Matthias Klos (A) \ Aernout Mik (NL) \ Jean-Luc Moule'ne (F) \ Adrian Paci (AL/I) \ Danica Phelps (USA) \ Reinigungsgesellschaft (D) \ Corinna Schnitt (D) \ Markus Seidl/Elisabeth Schimana (A) \ Antje Schiffers (D) \ Annette Weisser/Ingo Vetter (D)

“Life without work," psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud writes, “is something I can’t really comfortably contemplate. For me, fantasizing and work go together; nothing else amuses me." “Ne travaillez jamais-work? Never!" Over fifty years ago this slogan, attributed to the Situationists, described precisely the opposite: the “truly revolutionary problem," e.g. leisure time. The founding members of the French Situationists knew what they were talking about: “Since we have spent several years literally doing nothing we can justifiably define our attitude towards society as avant-garde. In a society still based on work, we have seriously endeavoured to dedicate ourselves exclusively to leisure time."

Is life without work conceivable? Profession, career and perhaps self-fulfilment are models that are still incontestable on the one hand, and are beginning to crack on the other - but are nevertheless based on a common principle: Work is understood as productivity that is visible and can be converted into capital. And what is the opposite of this work? It seems to be irreconcilably opposed to idleness, leisure or self-determined activity, everyday occupations, necessary, meaningless or self-chosen actions. Are they reluctantly accepted accessories to effectiveness, the germ cell of identity formation, an evil necessity for the regeneration of what really counts-i.e. the ability to work-, or are they the paradisiacal realm of freedom?

The notion of the artist as personified idleness has persisted to this day. Yet the image of the autonomous artist in his solitary studio belongs to a romantic-bourgeois past. In this new conception, work is becoming increasingly indistinguishable from creativity. Hierarchies are disappearing in favour of responsible self-organization.

The exhibition focuses on discussions revolving around the concepts of work and leisure and on the way society evaluates them, particularly from the point of view of how those evaluations affect art. The wide range of art projects begins with John Baldessari’s statement “I’m making art" of the year 1971, arising from the core of the essential artistic issue in the studio: What is the relationship between what one does and what one produces?

CATALOGUE
An accompanying catalogue (English/German) documenting the exhibition and essays by Elke Krasny, Roberto Ohrt, Ramo'n Reichert, Barbara Schroder, Holger Kube Ventura, and statements of the artists will be published.


LECTURES AND EVENTS

About the Idea of the Unconditional Basic Income
Ludwig Paul Haussner, University Karlsruhe
October, 19th, 2006, 7 pm

Afterwards
A Village Does Nothing
Presentation of the Project, Filmscreening and Discussion
With Elisabeth Schimana, Thomas Frey, and Ludwig Paul Haussner
October, 19th, 2006, about 8.30 pm

The Legend of the Artist as an Entrepreneur
Dr. Ramo'n Reichert, Culture and Media at the University of Art in Linz
November, 9th, 2006, 7 pm

The Totalitarity of Work?
Prof. Dr. Gerburg Treusch-Dieter, University of Berlin
November, 30th, 2006, 7 pm

Verflussigungen. Lanes and Detours from the Welfare State to the Culture Community
Adrienne Goehler, author and curator in Berlin and Portugal
December, 14th, 2006, 7 pm

LOCAL DATES

If I had Time
Dr. Henning Scherf, retired mayor of Bremen
Meeting place: Stephani-Kirche, Stephanikirchhof
November, 12th, 2006, 4 pm

A Practical Lection of Faineance
Otium
With Sophie Warning, Ludwig Sasse, Felix Quadflieg, Eberhard Plumpe, Zourab Aloian
Meeting place: Crossing Neuenlander Street / B75
December, 1st, 2006, 2 pm

FINISSAGE
January, 7th, 2007
Artist Talk with Antje Schiffers, 4 pm
Concert with Christoph Ogiermann, violine and Michael Rettig, piano, 6 pm

COLLABORATION WITH:
Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen (Chamber of Employees Bremen)
Heinrich Boll Foundation, Bremen

SPONSORS
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

The GAK (Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst) is funded by the Senator of Culture of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.

GAK
Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst Bremen Teerhof 21, D-28199 Bremen
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 11 am-6 pm, Thu 11 am-9 pm, Mon closed
Particular opening hours: December 24th, 25th, and 31st, 2006 closed
December 26th, 2006 and January 1st, 2007, opening hours: 2 pm-6 pm

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