Demonstrating the Spiritual. The work has been specifically produced for the space and for the exhibition. Thematically Huttner returns to the white and blank demonstration banner, a theme which has often been recurring in his work throughout his career. The banners are central both in the performance and in the drawings.
Demonstrating the Spiritual
Totalbunkern's inaugural exhibition will present
"Demonstrating the Spiritual" which is Per
Hüttner's first solo exhibition in Denmark. The
work has been specifically produced for the space
and for the exhibition. Thematically Hüttner
returns to the white and blank demonstration
banner, a theme which has often been recurring in
his work throughout his career. The banners are
central both in the performance and in the
drawings.
Contrary to the previous to work the banners are
soiled in different ways this time. In the
drawings the signs that are under normal
circumstances meant for the public and mediated
space of the demonstration are inserted into the
human body. They enter (magically?) all the
orifices and remain white and innocent even when
they are bathed in bodily fluids. It is unclear
what purpose these political carriers of meaning
serve for their equally strange users. Are they
sexual toys, surgical instruments or pure
phantasies?
The opening performance is centred around a dozen
white demonstration banners made in white fabric.
This means that like in the drawings they do not
serve their normal purpose - but remain literally
impotent and useless. Hüttner uses this
non-functionality to raise questions about how
meaning is created in our media saturated society
and how the body and our bodily needs and
expressions are muted.
Hüttner will also show two photographs recently
taken in Spain and Holland. They were shot at
night and with several minutes long exposure
times to make them dreamlike and poetic. In one
photograph we see a virtually naked man on the
roof of some car cleaning depot that brings to
mind the work of Ed Rusha. From the man's anus
there emanates a very long, white and cordlike
substance. In the second picture which is taken
on a deserted beach we see various white,
domestic objects such as plates and pillows and
the top of the picture is bathed in almost
supernatural In the brightness we can make out
two white legs that are advancing in the shallow
water.
Per Hüttner (b.1967) is a Swedish artist
currently based in Paris. In his work he takes
inspiration from the human warmth and spiritual
depth of the cinema of the 1970's particularly
Oshima and Tarkovsky. He is influenced by artists
such as Yves Klein, Francisco Goya and Joseph
Beuys and he sees art as a tool for us to relate
to our individual strangeness and perversions
since these have little or no room in current
capitalist society. Hüttner has shown extensively
in Europe, Northern America, Australia and Asia,
recent solo exhibitions include "Repetitive Time"
at Göteborgs konstmuseum, "Xiao Yao You" at
Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou and "I am a
Curator" at Chisenhale Gallery in London.
Participation in group shows include venues like
The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San
Francisco, ICA in London and Centro de Arte de
Salamanca. A major monograph on the artist with
texts by Scottish art writer Duncan McLaren was
published in 2004. Three more monographs will be
published in 2007.
Private View and performance 23 June at 3 pm
Totalbunkern
William wains gade, 12 - Copenhagen