sk-interfaces
dal 24/9/2009 al 9/1/2010
Segnalato da
Art Oriente objet
Maurice Benayoun
Zane Berzina
Critical Art Ensemble
Wim Delvoye
Olivier Goulet
Eduardo Kac
Antal Lakner
Yann Marussich
Kira O'Reilly
Zbigniew Oksiuta
Orlan
Philippe Rahm
Julia Reodica
Stelarc
Jun Takita
The Office of Experiments
The Tissue Culture and Art Project
Sissel Tolaas
Paul Vanouse
Jens Hauser
24/9/2009
sk-interfaces
Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Exploding borders in art, technology and society. In the cross-disciplinary exhibition sk-interfaces, twenty international artists reflect on how modern technosciences have altered our relationship with the world: telepresence, digital technology, speculative architectures, bio-prostheses, tissue culture or transgenics - for the artists, they are not mere topics but tools, methods and media to appropriate.
Art Orienté objet, Maurice Benayoun, Zane Berzina, Critical Art Ensemble, Wim Delvoye, Olivier Goulet, Eduardo Kac, Antal Lakner, Yann Marussich, Kira O'Reilly, Zbigniew Oksiuta, ORLAN, Philippe Rahm, Julia Reodica, Stelarc, Jun Takita, The Office of Experiments, The Tissue Culture and Art Project, Sissel Tolaas, Paul Vanouse
Curated by Jens Hauser
Skin is our natural “interface” with the world – more and more, however, technological extensions are taking over its role;
“interfaces” create both new freedoms and new constraints. In the cross-disciplinary exhibition sk-interfaces, twenty
international artists reflect on how modern technosciences have altered our relationship with the world: telepresence,
digital technology, speculative architectures, bio-prostheses, tissue culture or transgenics – for the artists, they are not
mere topics but tools, methods and media to appropriate. They test the permeability of the borders between disciplines,
art and science. Their interfaces connect us with other species, put satellite bodies up for debate, destabilize our conception of what it means to be human today, and create evolutionary scenarios confronting the technological pressure to
adapt and its socio-political implications.
As a natural inventor of the artificial, Homo Sapiens compensates for its imperfections through the use of technology.
Arguing for the naturalness of the media created to this end, theorist Marshall McLuhan once suggested that they be
understood as bodily extensions per se – something not unlike an electronic skin spanning the world in which inner and
outer were no longer clearly distinguishable. Yet, these prosthetic extensions come at the high price of “auto-amputation” ,
for each prosthesis permits other senses and states of consciousness to be numbed and to atrophy. Today, in the context
of the so-called Life Sciences, media and technological interfaces can no longer be considered merely as telecommunicative, digital, or human-machine interfaces; in the age of bio-facticity, even that which apparently grows naturally is now
technologically induced, producing biological artefacts.
In view of the utopias and dystopias this inspires, it is no surprise that artists take up the material, function and metaphor
of skin as the original, semipermeable and active membrane. They contest the predominating utilitarianism with subversive alienation, aesthetically, poetically and provocatively. Sometimes they wrest from the technological a holistic impulse,
sometimes an ecological illusion in which humans admit their responsibility rather than isolate themselves in their alleged
superior status. Hence, sk-interfaces examines above all the “ – ”: the in-between-space of our contemporary ontological
grey zones.
In cooperation with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Thechnology), Liverpool
With the participation of CRP Santé, CRP Gabriel Lippmann, the laboratory ‘Cytosquelette et plasticité cellulaire’ / University of Luxembourg, the UK Centre
for Tissue Engineering / University of Liverpool, SymbioticA / University of Western Australia and the Verbeke Foundation Kernzeke.
The exhibition catalogue, sk-interfaces. Exploding Borders – Creating Membranes in Art, Technology and Society, is published by Liverpool University Press.
Image: The Tissue Culture & Art Project (Oron Catts & Ionat Zurr), Victimless Leather – A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket grown in a Technoscientific "Body", 2004. Biodegradable polymer connective and bone cells Courtesy of The Tissue Culture & Art Project
Press office:
Marc Clement marc.clement@casino-luxembourg.lu
Opening on Friday, 25 September 2009 from 7 p. m. – 11 p. m.
7 p.m. – 11 p.m. Kira O'Reilly / inthewrongplaceness
7.30 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. Yann Marussich / Bleu Remix
9 p.m. Paul Vanouse /Relative Velocity Inscription Device
10.30 p.m. Jun Takita Light, only light!
Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain
41, rue Notre-Dame L – 2240 Luxembourg
Opening Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.,
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.,
Tuesday closed
Admission:
Adults: 4.00 €
Under 26, students, seniors, groups (20 people): 3.00 €
Under 18: free
Free Admission every Thursday evening at 6 p.m.