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21/3/2007

Revolution is not a Garden Party

Norwich Gallery, Norwich

Michael Blum, Nick Crowe, Igor Grubic, Sanja Ivekovic, Gergely László / Péter Rákosi, Nils Norman and Adrian Paci

Curated by Maja and Reuben Fowkes / http://www.translocal.org

The international exhibition 'Revolution is not a Garden Party’ considers the resonances of social and political revolution in contemporary art against the backdrop of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising.

The exhibition consists of new and recent works that examine the global economic and political context against which revolutions take place, as well as the intersection between personal and artistic heritages of revolution. It expresses the sorrow of failed political struggles in the past and the future, and considers the shared experience of a communist past and the post-communist reality. Other concerns include the experience of revolutionary literature, the gendered images of resistance fighters in contemporary media, and the legacy of 1956 for the relationship of art and revolution.

As the first major popular rebellion against Soviet domination and the communist system in Eastern Europe, 1956 was a vital precursor of later revolutionary struggles. At the same time, it was part of wider geo-political shifts, such as the movement for decolonisation, and had cultural as well as political ramifications across Europe. In the history of art, the demolition of the Budapest Stalin Statue was the ultimate symbol of the decline of Socialist Realism. The truth about revolution is part of a contested history, a living process of rewriting and interpretation in which art takes a decisive part.

The exhibition publication brings together the artistic response to contemporary revolution represented by the exhibition and new reflections on the relationship between art and revolution by theorists and art historians. It includes illustrations and interviews with the artists, and new essays by Gerald Raunig, Benda Hofmeyr, Simon Sheikh, Chus Martinez and Maja and Reuben Fowkes that engage with issues such as art and revolution, aesthetics and politics, and ecology and anarchism. Additionally, responses to individual works in the exhibition highlight the variety of experiences and understandings of revolution in the context of contemporary art. It is published by MIRIAD, the Manchester Metropolitan University Research Institute for advanced cultural inquiry and creativity, and distributed by Cornerhouse Manchester http://www.cornerhouse.org/books

The SocialEast Seminar on Art and Revolution takes as its primary focus the legacy of political, social and cultural revolutions for art and visual culture in Eastern Europe and beyond. This includes discussion of the role of the historical avant-garde, the specific trajectory of Conceptual Art in Central Europe, and the re-evaluation of Socialist Realism as an art historical problem in the context of modernism, post-modernism and the polarised aesthetics of the Cold War. Speakers include Gerald Raunig, Gáspár Miklós Tamás, Malcom Miles, Bettina Jungen, Michael Blum, Dorota Monkiewicz, Edit András, Marian Mazzone and Klara Kemp-Welch.
http://www.socialeast.org

Exhibition Venues

Trafó Gallery 26 October – 26 November 2006 http://www.trafo.hu
Holden Gallery 3 – 27 February 2007 http://www.holdengallery.mmu.ac.uk
Norwich Gallery 22 March – 21 April 2007 http://www.norwichgallery.co.uk
Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic 14 June – 6 July 2007 http://www.g-mk.hr

Image: Igor Grubic, Revolution is Heritage, 2006 (detail)

The exhibition is supported by MIRIAD Manchester Metropolitan University, European Cultural Foundation, Hungarian Ministry of Culture, Croatian Ministry of Culture and ACEX - Agency for Contemporary Art Exchange.

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