calendario eventi  :: 

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16/2/2009

Two exhibitions

Swiss Institute - Old location, New York

Regift

Curated by John Miller

Barbara Bloom, Sophie Calle, Trisha Donnelly, Sam Durant, Maria Eichhorn, Sylvie Fleury, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dan Graham, Renée Green, Fabrice Gygi, Jamie Isenstein, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler, Sam Lewitt, Allen McCollum, Jeffrey Charles, Henry Peacock, Mai-Thu Perret, Walter Robinson, Aura Rosenberg, Jim Shaw, Greg Parma Smith, John Waters, and Lawrence Weiner

On invitation of the Swiss Institute, New York artist John Miller created REGIFT, a group show that includes 23 artists, all whom contribute work on the subject of gift exchange.

The exchange of gifts, although an age-old practice, presents something of an economic anomaly. One reason may be that gift exchange is not completely rational, at least according to a logic of total calculability. Like the gift, the artwork fits only awkwardly within this framework. Gift giving often involves unspoken obligations, exacted in terms that are mutually understood but nonetheless not completely accountable: emotional, social, hierarchical and so on. Here, the incalculability of the artwork dovetails with that of the gift.

Image: John Waters, Loser Gift Basket, 2006

For further information please contact Piper Marshall: piper@swissinsitute.net

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Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz
N.O. Body

Berlin-based Swiss artists Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz present a work of intriguing beauty as their US debut. N.O. Body consists of two parts: 47 photographs refer to the comprehensive archive of the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld. A video projection reenacts the photograph of the “bearded lady” Annie Jones (1865- 1902). This photograph crosses through two different contexts. It has traveled from the Barnum Circus freak show, where Jones was presented as a “wonder”(for a fee), to the medical theater, where sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld showed her in the book “Geschlechtskunde, Bilderteil” as a potential “patient”. What happens when an “object of knowledge” assumes the position of “producer of knowledge”, and starts to laugh? The result opens up the history of knowledge production once again. The image of an empty auditorium assigns a position to the potential audience: N.O.bodies.

For further information please contact Gianni Jetzer, jet@swissinstitute.net

About Swiss Institute
Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art is an American not-for-profit contemporary art gallery operating in New York City since 1986. As a truly international space for contemporary art, we occupy an ambitious, boundary-crossing role in NYC, fostering interaction between American, Swiss and European artists and audiences. Our institution works like a European Kunsthalle, presenting cutting-edge art within a forward-thinking intellectual framework. Because we have no collection and no responsibilities to the art market, all our energy goes towards the realization of artistic and curatorial projects. An additional vital part of our programming is an ambitious series of events creating crucial opportunities to weave contemporary art into the fabric of everyday life.

Openings Reception: Tuesday, Feb 17 2009, 6–8 PM

Swiss Institute
Contemporary Art New York
495 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10012
Gallery Opening Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday 11 am - 6 pm
FREE entry

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