calendario eventi  :: 

X

16/5/2013

Shilpa Gupta / Gregor Sailer

Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck

Shilpa Gupta
will we ever be able to mark enough?

Curator Renee Baert, Montreal

In the exhibition will we ever be able to mark enough? by Shilpa Gupta, the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, presents a comprehensive display of works by one of India’s most significant contemporary artists. Shilpa Gupta’s works – known internationally since the late 1990ies – unite a wide variety of media, including video, photography, installations and objects. Influenced by the politics and by the cultural reality of her country, Gupta’s works address the modern-day globalized world, revealing how daily life is permeated by and influenced by historical events, religion, terror, social inequality, power, gender, the media and local and international developments. Her early works in particular are frequently participation pieces, in which she addresses herself directly to the viewers, calling upon them to precisely observe and to critically question certain forms of behavior within society.

In her new works, which were created especially for the exhibition will we ever be able to mark enough?, Shilpa Gupta addresses the climate of fear that is a part of everyday life in many parts of the world due to threats of various kinds. Territorial borders, the confiscation of everyday objects at airports, the unexplained disappearance of people in war are themes that she sensitively interprets and incorporates into her work. Based upon everyday objects and familiar experiences, Gupta investigates the spaces of personal and global consciousness – spaces that drift somewhere between fear and yearning, thoughts of control and thoughts of freedom. In the process, the borders lose their fixed forms – definitions are disrupted, meanings become concrete and are expanded. In responding to these questions, the sculptural objects, installations, video works and photography take a personal, intimate tone, getting us involved and prompting us to come up with our own individual associations and reflections. In spite of all this, the borders that Gupta makes visible do not solidify.
Instead, her works always contain within them a quality of transgression.

Production of exhibition: Cargo Curatorial Group, Montreal

Catalogue
Texts by Caroline Andrieux, Renee Baert and Mirjam Westen
33 pages

--------

Gregor Sailer
Closed Cities

In Closed Cities, the Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, presents, for the first time, the newest photographic project by Tyrol artist Gregor Sailer. In Closed Cities, Sailer addresses the phenomenon of cities that are hermetically sealed off from the outside world – artificially created towns that are a long way from civilisation, are surrounded by a hostile natural environment or are enclosed by high fences. These may be places where natural resources are harvested; they may also be refugee camps, or so-called ‘gated communities’ for the prosperous. What all these settlements have in common is that they generally exist in extremely exposed regions and must be artificially maintained – they are located in places where a ‘natural’ city would never be found because the conditions are lacking. In addition, they are places that are inaccessible and are proscribed to non-locals and to outsiders – places that are not allowed to visit, let alone to photograph. This is also the reason why few photographs taken in a number of these cities have previously existed. The emergence of Closed Cities as we know them today began in the first half of the last century. The term ‘closed city’ originated in the Soviet Union, where a number of classified military cities existed during the Cold War era.

During months of research, Gregor Sailer made an extensive study of closed city constructs currently in existence and functioning. Before travelling to six of these ‘secret’ cities on three continents in order to photograph them during the period from 2010 to 2012, he had to undergo countless authorisation procedures and organisation processes in order to gain access to the cities in question. With his analogue, large-format camera, he created sober, documentary images of the diamond city of Mirny in Sibiria, the oil city of Neft Daslari in Azerbaijan, the gas city of Ras Laffan in Quatar and the copper city of Chuquicamata in Chile. In addition to these cities dedicated to the harvesting of natural resources, Sailer also photographed refugee towns in Western Sahara/Algeria and the gated community of Nordelta in Argentina. Sailer’s photographs show a wide and intriguing range of urban architecture, but they also identify the economic, political and sociological causes that have contributed to the development of these various places. His photographs – which never show people – give expression to the tristesse and to the surreal quality of these places (some of which are in a state of decay) and speak of the extreme conditions under which their people live. In Closed Cities, Gregor Sailer’s theme is the changes experienced by humanity at the outset of the 21st century. He captures the grounds of social conflict – inclusion, exclusion, power, control, security and fear, globalisation and the exploitation of resources no matter what the cost – in quiet and striking photographs.

In addition to a selection of large-format photographs, the exhibition presents documents that give an insight into the often considerable difficulty and effort involved in approaching the various sites.

Catalogue
Texts (Germ./Engl.) by Wencke Hertzsch, Walter Moser, Margit Zuckriegl
300 pages, 151 colour illustrations Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg 2012

Image: Shilpa Gupta, Threat, 2008-2009

Thursday, July 11, 2013, 7.30 pm
Gregor Sailer in conversation with Beate Ermacora


Press conference: Thursday, May 16, 2013, 10 am
Opening reception: Friday, May 17, 2013, 7 pm
Speakers:
Dr. Thomas Juen, Head of the Department for Cultural Affairs, Government of Tyrol
Dr. Beate Ermacora, Director, Galerie im Taxispalais
Mirjam Westen, Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem

Galerie im Taxispalais
Maria-Theresien-Str. 45, 6020 Innsbruck Austria
Tue-Sun 11am-6pm, Thu 11am-8pm

stampa

permanent link