Two exhibitions
dal 18/12/2008 al 28/2/2009
Segnalato da
Alexandra Croitoru
Koken Ergun
Sagi Groner
Per Hasselberg
Saskia Holmkvist
Andreja Kuluncic
Julia Meltzer
David Thorne
Carlos Motta
Rabih Mroue'
An-My Le
Ferhat Ozgur
Jenny Perlin
Lisi Raskin
Bert Theis
Mans Wrange
Carey Young
Katarina Zdjelar
Artur Zmijewski
Janek Simon
Kevin Muhlen
Zoran Eric
Maria Lind
Enrico Lunghi
18/12/2008
Two exhibitions
Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
"Soft Manipulations": the group exhibition starts from a cultural condition which many people across the globe are currently living through. It is a situation in which fear is being triggered, confinement taken as a given, surveillance considered as normal and conscious disinformation omnipresent, the whole under the cover of guaranteeing security, freedom of consumption and public policy transparency. More than anything, soft manipulation is the method of the day. Janek Simon makes interactive installations, models and electronic devices based on information gathered on the Internet and in books. He seeks to collect a maximum of data in order to use or misuse them to his own ends.
Soft Manipulation
Who is afraid of the new now?
Curators : Zoran Eric, Maria Lind, Enrico Lunghi
Alexandra Croitoru & ST, Köken Ergun, Sagi Groner, Per Hasselberg, Saskia Holmkvist, Andreja Kuluncic, Julia Meltzer & David Thorne, Carlos Motta, Rabih Mroué, An-My Lê, Ferhat Özgür, Jenny Perlin, Lisi Raskin, Bert Theis, Måns Wrange, Carey Young, Katarina Zdjelar, Artur Žmijewski
The exhibition starts from a cultural condition which many people across the globe are currently living through. It is a situation in which fear is being triggered, confinement taken as a given, surveillance considered as normal and conscious disinformation omnipresent, the whole under the cover of guaranteeing security, freedom of consumption and public policy transparency. More than anything, soft manipulation is the method of the day.
This condition is a symptom of the globalised world, where the flow of information, of capital and even people has become faster than ever, at least for those who have control and the necessary means. Those who are interested and involved in this social game, be it supranational formations, nation-states, big corporations or small companies, are creating rules of commitment where barriers, obstacles and signs of warning are used to monitor and create fear among their subjects. The driving forces of this order are produced and spread out rhizomatically from many sources, covering up to the remotest corner of the world.
This phenomenon is not recent, it has a long history and has been growing slowly and steadily. Our story starts with revealing the legacy of “cold war” tactics in manipulation. More recently, it has been implemented with the help of advanced techniques of surveillance, data gathering, biometric techniques of identification, “confinement without walls” and above all the manipulative potential of the mass media.
The invited artists all share an inquisitive stance towards the social realities produced by these means of soft manipulation. With works that cover all available media of contemporary art today, they provide us with possible ways of confronting this condition, whilst at the same time exposing, even challenging them: doubt is introduced into the system, fear is fended off with cunning play, manipulation is confronted with even more manipulation, and with artistic freedom.
The exhibition catalogue is due to come out in the course of February 2009.
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Janek Simon
A sequence of events in a space
Curator: Kevin Muhlen.
Polish artist Janek Simon makes interactive installations, models and electronic devices based on information gathered on the Internet and in books. He seeks to collect a maximum of data in order to use or misuse them to his own ends. As these instructions are available to anyone and freely useable, the artist takes his own insatiable curiosity as his sole guide.
In 2004, Janek Simon took part in the project Re:Location Academy / Shake Society. At the close of this seven-week residency in Luxembourg, the artist presented his own hypothetical retrospective as a model at Casino Luxembourg.
Unlike this miniature retrospective, his latest project takes the shape of an “intelligent” installation. A sequence of events in a space provides a multimedia experience confronting the visitor with an assemblage of signs and messages, creating a universe bordering on subliminal and random phenomena.
At once manipulative, spectacular and irksome, the work shows a new facet of itself to every new entrant. All in all, you enter a pitch-black space, where nothing happens for some thirty seconds; then, a low hum makes itself heard from one of the speakers for about twenty seconds; then nothing again for another minute or so. You start to feel a certain frustration. Then, a blinking light appears at the far end of the room and something seems to appear on a wall, beckoning you closer… “
A surprising and deceptive device, the installation defies not only the visitor but exhibition conventions and practice at large.
Image: An-My Lê, 29 Palms: RPG Ambush, 2003-04. Courtesy the artist and Murray Guy, New York
Press Office:
Marc Clement tel: +352 225045 mail: presse@casino-luxembourg.lu
Opening Friday, 19 December 2008
Casino Luxembourg
41, rue Notre-Dame - Luxembourg