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5/6/2008

Islans+Ghettos

Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg

The exhibition project ISLANDS+GHETTOS by the Heidelberger Kunstverein will reach its climax with the main exhibition on show from June 7th to August 31st 2008. 30 works will be presented at the four different venues, all touching on phenomena connected to the theme suggested by the polemic title of the exhibition: The social effects of urban expansion in the 21st century. Globally it can be observed that the spatial fragmentation of cities is increasing, and that thus the social structures of these urban scenarios are drifting apart.

Two prototypcial case studies are central to the project ISLANDS+GHETTOS. Dubai and Caracas with their interchanging areas of poverty and wealth as typically seen in modern megacities are examplary for the tendencies of urban segregation. ISLANDS+GHETTOS aims to point out, that polarization, urban demarcations and partitions increasingly also are becoming relevant for European cities.

44 artists – see the complete list of artists below – have been invited to participate. Many have produced new works about the South-American metropolises or the cities around the Persian Gulf. Silke Wagner for example has dealt with the living and working conditions of the Pakistanian, Indian or Philipine guest worker, building the artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, while living in segregated neighborhoods of Sharjah. In the large format photographs of the Venezuelan artist Alexander Apostol shows how the almost utopian promises made by architects during the boom of the oil town Caracas have turned into closed off, windowless architecture, suggesting that every foreigner is an enemy. For this exhibition, Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann extend their project Atlas (Spaces in Subjunctive) from 2003. The project falls back on the Atlas Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft, produced in 1930 by philosopher and sociologist Otto Neurath together with artist Gerd Arntz. Updated maps point out today’s global tensions and exemplify – exclusively for ISLANDS+GHETTOS – the economic situation within Dubai. The works exhibited by Javier Téllez deal with the how national borders have changed from being borders between states. Rather they have become borders between rich and poor regions, as exemplified by the Mexican-American demarcation.

List of artists: Alexander Apostol (*1969), Atelier Van Lieshout (Artists-Coop in Rotterdam, founded by: Joep van Lieshout *1963), Anette Baldauf (*1965)/Dorit Margreiter (*1967), Sabine Bitter (*1960)/Helmut Weber (*1957), Sandow Birk (*1962), Büro für kognitiven Urbanismus (founded 1999 in Vienna by Andreas Spiegl *1965 and Christian Teckert *1967), Peter Coffin (*1972), Alice Creischer (*1960)/Andreas Siekmann (*1961), Mauricio Dias (*1964)/Walter Riedweg (*1955), Christo Doherty (*1959), Stuart Elster (*1965), Harun Farocki (*1944), Peter Fend (*1950), Andreas Fogarasi (*1977), Graham Frew (*1970), Kristjan Gudmundsson (*1941), Emily Jacir (*1970), Armin Linke (*1966)/Francesco Mattuzzi (*1975)/Alessandro Petti (*1973)/Eyal Weizman (*1970) in cooperation with Renato Rinaldi (*1966), Raul J. Méndez (*1973), Luis Molina-Pantin (*1969), Multiplicity (founded: 2000, Headquater at Milan, Stefano Boeri *1956, Matteo Ghidoni *1972, Stefano Graziani *1971 and Francesca Recchia *1975), Rivane Neuenschwander (*1967), Ed Osborn (*1964), Marjetica Potrc (*1953), Sean Snyder (*1972), Javier Téllez (*1969), Urban Think Tank (founded 1993 by Alfredo Brillenbourg *1961 and Hubert Klumpner *1965), Vangelis Vlahos (*1971), Silke Wagner (*1968) in cooperation with Beate Anspach (*1978), Carey Young (*1970), Michael Zinganel (*1960)/Michael Hieslmair (*1974).

As already mentioned, ISLANDS+GHETTOS will take place at four different venues: Heidelberger Kunstverein, Forum for Art, Heidelberg, Mannheimer Kunstverein and Ernst-Bloch-Center in Ludwigshafen. With the different venues the exhibition also broaches the issue of forms in ISLANDS+GHETTOS within its very own territorial structure and leaves the visitor, who visits all four sites, to experience the differences of social structures within the Rhein-Neckar-Region immediately. The exhibition is under the auspices of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Minister of Foreign Affairs. A modified version of this exhibition will also be on view in Berlin at the Neue Gesellschaft Bildender Kunst (NGBK) and at the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in 2009.

A catalogue of 150 pages will be published by Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg. Price: 20 Euro. In cooperation with Mannheimer Kunstverein, Ernst-Bloch-Zentrum Ludwigshafen, Heidelberger Forum für Kunst, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Caracas Urban Think Tank und American University Sharjah

For further information, please contact
Eva Hepper | Heidelberger Kunstverein | presse@hdkv.de | 0178 5546704

Image: Marjetica Potrc, "New Orleans: Highway and Surviving in Pieces", 2007. Courtesy Marjetica Potrc und Max Protetch Gallery, New York

Patron: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Minister of Foreign Affairs

The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation
Additional funding by Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, the Municipality of Heidelberg, zetVisions and BASF AG.

PRESS CONFERENCE 05.06.2008 | 11 AM

OPENING DATE: 06.06.2008 | 7 PM

Heidelberger Kunstverein
Hauptstr. 97 - 69117 Heidelberg Germany

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