calendario eventi  :: 

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27/11/2007

Three exhibitions

Wiener Secession, Wien

Andree Korpys and Markus Löffler
November 29, 2007 – February 3, 2008

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Andree Korpys and Markus Löffler have been addressing the question of how reality is constructed and staged in media images. A key motivation in their work is to question the postulated and widely accepted truth content of this mise-en-scène. Their artistic-investigative works focus in particular on locations and structures of power, as well as on the representation of that power in the form of architecture, hierarchies, control mechanisms, or the use of force. Contrary to all expectations, however, the artists concentrate on what appears trivial, such as places on the margins of historico-political events, or casual actions of the featured main and minor characters. These unimportant, unspectacular moments reflect a modus operandi of power that is shown to best effect in just such invisible moments, shielded from public view. Korpys/Löffler combine fictional, biographical, and documentary material in videos, drawings, photographs, and complex installations to devise a succession of narrative threads and visual references as an alternative to those dictated by mass media and official image campaigns.

In 1996, with the America films (WORLD TRADE CENTER / UNITED NATIONS / PENTAGON, 1997), Korpys/Löffler turned their attention to three internationally known institutions, instinctively selecting three sites that were soon to become the focus of farreaching geopolitical developments in the wake of 9/11. With a Super-8 camera, they filmed architectural details and practical items, traffic, passersby, and people waiting in the immediate vicinity of these centers of power. They were specially interested in the security precautions, the black limousines, and the ubiquitous bodyguards. By means of camerawork, editing, and the soundtrack, the artists generated dramatic suspense; coupled with the specific visual aesthetic of the film stock, a conspiratorial atmosphere reminiscent of American thrillers is created. In spite of this, the images remain enigmatic and expectations go unfulfilled.

On the occasion of the state visit by U.S. President George W. Bush to Berlin in May 2002, which took place under the strictest security, Korpys/Löffler acquired a press pass to film this political event. In contrast to the standardized repertoire of official media images, the resulting 30-minute film THE NUCLEAR FOOTBALL (2004) focuses on purely formal protocol events as arrival, military parade, and farewell, on security measures and the leather briefcase from which the film takes its name, which contains instructions for triggering a nuclear first strike. The main stylistic device used here is a monotonous, whispering voice revealing supposedly confidential, exclusive information; but these details are generally accessible, sometimes even banal. This feature, the unemotional gesture, and a symbolism of EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR, 2007 DV 27:04 Min. foregoing symbols in film images reveal how political power today represents itself via formalisms and codes.

A work realized in 2007 takes its title from a battle cry chanted by anti-globalization protesters at the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany: EURE KINDER WERDEN SO WIE WIR! (Your children will turn out like us!). Here too, Korpys/Löffler were accredited as journalists, documenting the events surrounding the meeting of international economic powers that drew a concentration of prominent state figures and organized protest. Once again, some of their images show things not featured in media accounts, but which are undeniably part of the whole: close-ups of nature, earthworms and beetles bearing witness to things carrying on regardless; then helicopters that may be flying in the mighty rulers or taking care of security, as well as footage capturing the atmosphere among the demonstration tourists. As in earlier works, this ‘other’ point of view, with the deliberately non-moralizing stance that can be sensed in the visual idiom, is capable of clearly highlighting what is actually at stake.

At the Secession, Korpys/Löffler will show a total of six film works including a brand new site-specific video production. Not least, the exhibition architecture developed by the artists deploys the method of reversed perspectives and appearances. A ‘corridor’ along the central axis of the Hauptraum illustrates the ambivalent position typical of Korpys/Löffler: the visible supporting construction is located inside the corridor, so that the inner walls actually appear as outside walls. Is the supposed corridor finally just a space in between?

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog (German/ English).

ANDREE KORPYS (born 1966 in Bremen) lives in Berlin.
MARKUS LÖFFLER (born 1963 in Bremen) lives in Bremen.

SOLO SHOWS (selection): 2007 Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg; 2006 Kleines Seemannsheim für ausmontierte Seelen, Sprengel Museum Hanover; Für ein Leben nach dem Tod, Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2004 unter Bildhauern, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; Münchenschlinge, Kunstraum Munich; Korpys/Löffler, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn; The Nuclear Football, Galerie Otto Schweins, Cologne; 2002 Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe; 2000 Kunstverein Graz; Kunsthalle Nuremberg.

GROUP SHOWS (selection): 2007 History will repeat itself, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Kunst-Werke Berlin; Reality Bites, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; Die Stadt von Morgen, Akademie der Künste, Berlin; 2006 SNAFU, Medien Mythen, Mind Control, Hamburger Kunsthalle; 40JahreVideoKunst.de, ZKM Karlsruhe, K21 Kunstsammlung NRW, Lenbachhaus Munich, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig.

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6 Sessions. Sound, Screenings, Lectures, Performances
Idea & concept: Nicolas Jasmin, Flora Neuwirth, Rita Vitorelli
November 28, 2007 through February 3, 2008

Momus Momus
Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 8-9 pm

The series opens with a performance by Scottish artist Nick Currie, aka Momus (born 1960). Momus (named for the Greek god of derision) is known above all as a musician and blogger, but he also appears internationally as an imaginary persona and performance artist at galleries and museums. In 2006, for example, he accompanied the Whitney Biennale as an “Unreliable Tour Guide” with political through absurd commentaries in the sense of his “mission of misinformation”. In his daily blog on pop, art, architecture, design, porn, and everyday ethnology (imomus.livejournal.com) Momus entertains a loyal community of fans with his dry humor. Since the 1980s, he has been producing eclectic pop albums like CIRCUS MAXIMUS, TENDER PERVERT, OTTO SPOOKY, OSKAR TENNIS CHAMPION, and, in 2006, OCKY MILK. His musical style ranges from acoustic guitar to minimalist electropop to disco and lush synths. Momus lives and works in Berlin.

http://imomus.livejournal.com

Olga Neuwirth & Burkhard Stangl
Wednesday, December 5, 2007, 7-9 pm

The composer Olga Neuwirth (born 1968) and the composer and performer Burkhard Stangl (born 1960) have been working together for more than 15 years in a wide range of ways. Early on, the emphasis was on Stangl’s interpretations of Neuwirth’s compositions on the electric guitar. Neuwirth integrates the electric guitar directly into her work, making her one of the few New Music composers to give it such a prominent role. Over time, the focus of their collaboration shifted to live performances creating music together in real time. They use acoustic instruments such as steel-stringed guitar, zither, or vibraphone, as well as theremin, electric guitar, effects, or laptop. Neuwirth’s work was recently featured at documenta 12; she is currently working on the score for a film by Michael Glawogger and on her HOMMAGE À KLAUS NOMI. Stangl has released many recordings with guitar and electronic devices, often in connection with film and fine art, on labels including Hat Art, Erstwhile, and durian. At the Secession, Neuwirth & Stangl will perform with theremin, “electric wheel,” computer, and electric guitar.

www.olganeuwirth.com, http://stangl.klingt.org


MUSIC:MIRROR:PROPHECY
Thursday, December 13, 2007, 7-9 pm

The films of the American artists Gabriel Shalom and Nate Harrison presented by Axel Stockburger were first seen in Europe in 2005 as part of the screening program organized in Stuttgart by Cornelia and Holger Lund under the title FLUCTUATING IMAGES.

HOUSE (USA, 2005) by Gabriel Shalom
is a video documentation on the various styles of house music and the corresponding music machines, such as the legendary Roland TB 303 Bass Line.

BASSLINE BASELINE by Nate Harrison (USA, 2005)
is a video essay that follows the invention, the failure, and the subsequent return of the Roland TB 303 Bass Line over the last two decades of the 20th century. After the screening, Axel Stockburger, prompted by an idea from the French theorist Jacques Attali, will consider the extent to which developments affecting technological, economic, and social aspects of the musical field have consequences for the cultural landscape as a whole.

www.stockburger.co.uk, www.gabrielshalom.com, http://nkhstudio.com

L'ABÉCÉDAIRE DE GILLES DELEUZE
Wednesday, January 9, 2008, 7-9 pm

Pierre-André Boutang’s film L'ABÉCÉDAIRE DE GILLES DELEUZE, produced in 1988 and first broadcast on ARTE in 1996, shows a 60-minute interview with the French philosopher. The ABÉCEDAIRE is the only film dedicated to Deleuze and it presents a thinker who always refused to appear on television. On this one occasion, Deleuze accepted to be interviewed by his student and then partner, the journalist Claire Parnet, based on a list of questions he chose himself from A for ANIMAL through Z for ZIG-ZAG – on condition that the film would not be broadcast until after his death. In the interview, Deleuze explains several of his central ideas and concepts, as well as discussing personal matters in connection with his philosophical work. The film was a great success, not only because of Deleuze’s charismatic performance, but also due to his appeal for philosophy on the level of popular culture. Using language that is precise and concrete as well as rich in metaphor, the ABÉCÉDAIRE is one of the most accomplished television interviews with an intellectual. At the Secession, after an introductory talk by writer and film expert Thomas Ballhausen, excerpts from the French original version will be shown with a simultaneous German translation.


Ulrich Troyer feat. Kassian Troyer
Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 7-9 pm

Since his debut with the CD NOK (2000) on the legendary MEGO label, the Vienna-based musician and artist Ulrich Troyer (born 1973) has consistently surprised audiences with interesting musical turns and diversions. In his radio play SEHEN MIT OHREN (Seeing With Ears, 2005), for example, he overlaid blind people’s accounts of spatial experience with everyday sounds, creating a dense sound collage. Beside sound performances and audio installations, often realized in cooperation with his Berlin-based brother Kassian Troyer (born 1977), Ulrich Troyer also performs as a member of the “1st Vienna Vegetable Orchestra”. What does a musician with a pronounced passion for cooking and drawing cartoons have to offer? One could say that in contrast to the cool digital world, he has rediscovered the ingredients of the analog, using them to produce a succession of warm, humorous, and generous sounds. Brian Eno would love it?! For the Secession, Ulrich Troyer will present a new live set together with Kassian Troyer.

www.ulrichtroyer.com, www.kassiantroyer.com

Serhat Köksal / Gerwald Rockenschaub
Friday, January 25, 2008, 7-8 pm

Turkish artist Serhat Köksal (born 1968) founded his multimedia project 2/5 BZ in Istanbul in 1986, continuing to develop it since in different formats, from video collage to tapes, CD-ROMs, and audio CDs to photocopied booklets and live performances. Köksal’s performances are opulent montages of traditional music, experimental electronic sounds, and images from television and B-movies, brought together in a Dadaistic confrontation of pop, orientalism, kitsch, comics, and folklore. Beyond exoticism or ethnocentricity, and with the help of his own recordings, samples, and found footage, he investigates cultural clichés, remakes, and copy cultures, as well as their impact on the economic and political situation of individuals, thus contributing to a critical and humorous reuse of mass culture. As the final event in the series, Köksal will “rock” the Secession for one evening together with Berlin-based Austrian artist Gerwald Rockenschaub (born 1952), who will contribute a DJ set.

www.2-5bz.com

All events will be recorded on video and presented for the duration of the project as part of a cumulative video documentation in the Secession’s “Galerie” space.

6 Sessions takes place with the kind support of:
Showtime Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH

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Zbynek Baladran - Glossary
First part of FOOTNOTES: a series of projects curated by Hajnalka Somogyi
November 29, 2007 – April 13, 2008

The term “footnote” may have several meanings. In the first place, it refers to very specific information, claiming the attention of only those deeply interested in the issues discussed by the main body of a text. However, it might get a much more exciting means once the text to be footnoted is not our own. In this case, footnoting resembles the method of writing remarks with pencil on the margins of a book – a gesture of expressing (counter-)opinion, of forming questions; a seed for new ideas the stimulus in the text being chosen arbitrarily, according to one’s personal interest. Not only background information for insiders anymore, footnote then becomes a means of expression commenting, questioning or overwriting the main text, which process is as telling of its author as of the content of the footnoted text inspiring, annoying, helping or confusing its reader once it gets into someone else’s hands.

The parallel between footnoting and the way contemporary art reflects on its surrounding has been drawn in several cases, as by the concept of the 2nd Moscow Biennial earlier this year. However, the site of our project enriches this term with a special resonance. The physical position of this three by five meters window case in an underpass leading to Secession on the level of its basement seems to be an ideal place to present footnotes. With its institutional bonds to Secession, being situated under Karlsplatz, a square surrounded by established cultural institutions, the venue suggests the function of an appendix, of a site to place remarks and comments.

As an entity outside the main body of the institution and intruding into public space, it embodies Secession’s program policy of extending its activities beyond its walls. It communicates with a wide range of people, although typically with ones being on the move, in a hurry, inbetween two places, running through the grey corridor of the underpass or trying to find the right exit as they make their way in the city’s labyrinth. Why would they stop?

A display case usually contains advertisements, posters and announcements. The art projects, the footnotes to be displayed will engage in a dialogue with the site: with the case itself, with the immediate surrounding in the underpass, the larger context of Karlsplatz or the city of Vienna. They will be textual or visual notices by authors living in different cities – to the passersby of the Austrian capital; messages that catch the gaze and keep the mind engaged – due to their strong visual appearance and subversive content.

HAJNALKA SOMOGYI is an art historian and independent curator. Between April 2001 and June 2006, she ran the international exhibition program of the exhibition space Trafo Gallery of Trafo–House of Contemporary Arts. She is the founder of DINAMO Workshop and of Impex–Contemporary Art Provider, two independent art initiatives in Budapest. In 2006, she was a curator-in-residence at Art in General in New York City, in the framework of the residency program of CEC Artslink. In January-March 2007, she was teaching as the assistant to Cesare Pietroiusti at the Graduate Program in Visual Arts at IUAV University, Venice.
She curated numerous exhibitions in Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands, and coordinated Europewide institutional collaborations in the framework of Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission. Currently, she is enrolled in the Curatorial Studies Program at Bard College, NY. Her interest lies in socially and politically aware art as well as in the intersection of art and urbanism.

Image: Korpys / Loffler

Press conference: Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 11 am
Opening: Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 7 pm

Wiener Secession
Friedrichstrasse 12 - Wien

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