Bar Woteva
a group show curated by Ulli Knall
opening 28 August, 8pm
Self-flagellating monks, images of mass graves, psycho-therapeutic family reunions, archaic men with two penises, children gazing from behind Halloween masks and an Icelandic woodland fairy with her heart set on creating world piece – they have all come together at Bar Woteva.
The artist's fascination with authentic emotion is nothing new but “real” emotion seems to have become one of the biggest sellers in our society during the past 15 years. Reality TV shows like Big Brother or The X-Factor are capitalizing on that special moment when the candidate finds out if he/she has made it to the next round.
The internet too has made us aware of the phenomenon of being exposed and private at the same time. Facebook, My Space and the likes give us visibility to an anonymous mass if we wish to be exposed. We are asked to be in the now: “Just landed at Heathrow”, “Relationship status: Single, 5 minutes ago”; as dramatic or as banal or boring as we please. Any emotion counts.
By being public we have acquired anonymity and intimacy at the same time. Because of this ability to be at the same time public and anonymous we have acquired a new understanding of public life and the responsibility that was traditionally associated with it.
How real is the reality in this Twitter world? In effect we are already one step removed from reality as soon as we comment on it. Compared to a gladiator fighting in a roman arena the internet seems a safe place. Our gusto to be part of a spectacle could only be described as natural. After all we are social beings.
Could the function of virtual social networks as witnesses of our emotions be compared to the function of a psychotherapy group? Modernist sculptors used to talk about the space in between objects. I propose to reflect upon the emotional space created by our digital society. The artworks in Bar Woteva deal with emotionality and authenticity on many different levels. Be it through the choice of material, technique or subject matter.
Ulli Knall
Lisi Hämmerle Gallery
Anton-Schneiderstr. 4a
6900 Bregenz
Austria
Tel. 0043 (0) 5574 52 4 52
Mobil 0043 +43 664 5288239
Mittwoch bis Freitag, von 14 bis 18 Uhr, samstags von 10 – 12 und 14 – 16 Uhr
und nach tel. Vereinbarung.
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OPTICAL SHIFT – ILLUSION UND TÄUSCHUNG
a group show curated by Oliver Zybok.
opening June 27th 2010
The exhibition “Optical Shift. Illusion and Deception” presents numerous artists, from Thomas Demand, Rowena Dring and Adolf Luther via Valentin Carron, General Idea and Thomas Ruff to Qiu Shi-Hua, Bridget Riley and Joachim Grommek, who have all confronted the broad field of optical confusions in some of their work. The exhibition focuses in particular on illusion and deception. “Illusion” here refers to those aspects which evoke optical confusions or perplexity of various kinds in beholders, who fall victim in such cases to the power of their sensory imagination. By “deception” is meant the deliberate misleading of the beholder. A pretence is made that something is what in reality it is not. Illusion in the above sense happens on the psychogenic plane, while deception involves manipulation. The bilingual catalogue (German/English) to accompany the exhibition will provide a more profound theoretical consideration of these phenomena.
Oliver Zybok 2010
b-05 Kunst- und Kulturzentrum Montabaur
Im Stadtwald 2, D-56410 Montabaur
www.b-05.org
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2011
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There She Goes, My Beautiful World
solo show
rahncontemporary Zurich, CH
opening May 2011
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There Was a World Once
group show
opening April 2011
curated & featuring works by Rowena Dring for the Märkisches Museum Witten, Germany.
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2ND TRIENNALE PRAGUE (ITCA)
group show
opening 2011
National Gallery Prague (Veletržní palác)
Dukelských hrdinu 47, Praha 7, CZ-17000 Praha
www.ngprague.cz