Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
29 January – 24 February 2008
In poetic reference to the term's Latin roots, conspirare, the exhibition deconstructs the nature of conspiracy into a silent cosmic act of "collective breathing" suggesting a sharply targeted, yet anonymous and intimate form of creative collaboration.
The works and projects chosen approach the perceptive borders of our daily lives with coded instructions, exploratory maps and speculative allusions which provoke alternative views about the way in which we understand information and what we believe to be fgu universal truths. As such, thematic constructs around the notions of conspiratorial truths, bio-organic systems and twisted realities emerge from the contextualising clusters explored within the exhibition.
Twisted Realities
Warping our knowledge of reality, these contributions act as reality-benders, rendering our everyday reference and sense of reality odd and questionable. They operate with the categories of the logic of fact and the logic of fiction as with two extremes on the same line of experience and thought that can be blurred: Einar Thorsteinn’s experimental object involving the public 's perception and imagination; SilentCell Network’s interventions into institutional frameworks; Janez Jansa's name changing as a personal act; Olga Kisseleva's insertions of the immateriality of information into architecture’s concreteness, or follow the self-organised civil initiatives and their strategies of survival (Lisa Parks).
Einar Thorsteinn, Non-Visual Object, Multidimensional Object, is, 2008
SilentCell Network, Looping Hooman Sharifi, Video, si, 2004
Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Janez Janša, Signature, Event, Context, Performance, si, 2008. Production: Aksioma, Coproduction: Maska, Arscenic.
Olga Kisseleva, Crossworlds, Interactive installation, ru/fr, 2007. Supported by FORMICA.
Lisa Parks, Roaming, Installation, us, 2008
Visionary Lives, Fictionalised Selves and Fictionalising Oneself
Auto-fictions with the methods of projecting oneself onto a larger-than-life scenario (Mangelos' self-fictionalisation and his visionary poetic manifestos; liana Halperin's geological travel documentations and the visions of Artur Zmijewski's protagonist, Lisa), decomposing the thin line between factual and fictive authorship (Hadjithomas and Joreige with the photographer Abdallah Farah) or the instrumentalisation of one’s own artistic position to create fictional institutions (Julius Koller).
Julius Koller, UFO- GALERIA GANEK 1,2,3, Set of 3 drawings, sk, 1984
Julius Koller, DEMONSTRATIVE CULTURAL SITUATION 1 & 2(U.F.O), Diptyc, sk, 1989
Julius Koller, MANIFESTO, sk, 1996
Artur Żmijewski, Lisa, Video, pi, 2003
liana Halperin, Towards Heilprin Land, 3 Channel Video Projection and Reading Room, us, 2007
Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Wonder Beirut, Mixed Media, lb, 1997-2007
Utopian Politics and Dissonant Poetics
Soft, dark ... yet poetic revolutions are the key elements lingering in the shadow of these works (Marko Peljhan 's and Velimir Khlebnikov's ongoing collaborative conceptual theatre of operations, YKON and its belief in the legitimate status of artistic micro nations, Bureau d'etudes' engaged mapping of privacy), a state of being which may emerge as humorous dissonance expressing problematic social or political issues (Julieta Aranda 's sonic cacophony of national anthems; Hassan Khan's psychoanalytical fragments of narratives).
YKON (Sasha Huber, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Tellervo Kalleinen, Petri Saarikko, Tomas Ivan Träskman), M8 - Summit of Micronations, Installation, fi, 2006
Julieta Aranda, Standing Room, Sculpture with Sound, mx, 2006
Matt O’dell, New Worship, Sculpture, uk, 2007
Hassan Khan, The Hidden Location, Video Installation, 52 min, eg, 2004
Bureau d'Etudes, End of Secrecy, Map Generator, fr, 2008
Marko Peljhan, Velimir Khlebnikov, Ladomir Ab 7th Surface, Object, si/ru, 2008. Presented by Zavod Projekt Atol. Supported by Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana Municipality Cultural Department.
Bio-Organic Systems
Uršula Berlot's bio-organic systems mimicking abstract representations and Kimsooja's physically and spiritually engaging experience on one hand, and Norimichi Hirakawa 's planetary constellations on the other, are complex projects that collude to link the mystical, and inexplicable nature of humanity and eternity, ultimately a search for something as elusive as a universal truth.
Uršula Berlot, Lumina, Light Installation, si, 2007
Uršula Berlot, Pulsation, Video Projection, si, 2007. Supported by Schering Stiftung and Künstlerhaus Bethanien
Norimichi Hirakawa, A Plaything for the Great Observer at Rest, Installation, jp, 2007
Knowbotic Research, Peter Sandbichler, Be Prepared! Tiger!, Object, at/de, 2006
Kimsooja, To Breathe / Respirare, Video and Sound Installation, kr, 2006
Haunted Past – Projected Future
One of the motives behind these projects lays in the poetic or revisionist intrigues of unsolved historical events (Société Réaliste 's agency for planning revolutions; Lene Berg's personalised account of the Cold War and its propaganda). Whatever good remains from the fallout of misconceived technological and infrastructural inventions is explored by Laurent Montaron with his poetic reminder of the Zeppelin catastrophe.
Société Réaliste, Transitioners: Le producteur, Trend Collection, hu/fr, 2008
Lene Berg, The Man in the Background, Video, no, 2006. Supported by Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA)
Laurent Montaron, Sans Titre, DVD Dolby Digital - 10’ - Sonosphère d'après l'enceinte d'Elipson, fr, 2006
Laurent Montaron, What Remains is Future, Film DVCPROHD 1080i50, stéréo, 5’24", fr, 2006
Alternative Science / Science vs. Fiction
Explorations into the limits of artistic competence in dealing with scientific fictions (Tobias Putrih’s sculptural proposal, inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s theories), documenting personal and alternative scientific proposals (Alban Hajdinaj's focus on an Albanian amateur geophysicist) against collective ones (Christoph Keller's assemblage of Internet-based theories on the mysterious forms of aircraft chemtrails).
Alice Miceli, Chernobyl Project – The Invisible Stain, Work in progress, Mixed Media, br, 2007. Supported by Sergio Motta Art and Technology Award (Sao Paulo) and Scumek Sabottka for MCT Agentur (Berlin)
Christoph Keller, Chemtrails, Mixed Media, de, 2006
Alban Hajdinaj, Diskovery, Video, al, 2007
Tobias Putrih, Quasi Random, Sculpture, si, 2007
Tobias Putrih, Science vs. Fiction, Digital Print (l-XI), si, 2002 - 2003
