Wednesday, January 10, 2007  

Something to think about...

A friend, Naeem, is co-curating this show in Sienna, Italy (Toscana- right on!)- opening Feb 4. It poses some interesting questions,in particular, one that is very disturbing to artists whose work has been focusing on the present situation. I've often thought about this and wondered if it is true...more on this later.

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Palazzo Papesse Explores Our Addiction to Endless War

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SYSTEM ERROR: WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING
February 3-May 6, 2007
Curated by Lorenzo Fusi & Naeem Mohaiemen
http://papesse.org
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Palazzo Papesse Centre for Contemporary Art in Siena will present a new show "SYSTEM ERROR: WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING." The show is co-curated by Papesse head curator Lorenzo Fusi and New York +Dhaka based artist Naeem Mohaiemen.

The curators set out to explore this fundamental question: if war is universally opposed, why do new conflicts keep breaking out? Is there an addiction to warfare in the human psyche? Has it become a drug we cannot quit? These and many other questions including the nature of "hard" and "soft" conflict; the allure of flags, national anthems and nationalism; and pop culture's profitable fascination with bloody violence are explored in this project.

While certain conflicts tend to dominate global media, the curators also emphasized conflagrations that often slip under the radar. These include Beslan school raid, U2's expensive lawyers, rebranded School of Americas, East Timor library, Oaxaca burning, Darfur refugee camps, Rome assassination, Iraq's managed chaos, "Safe" Area Gorazde, D.W. Griffith's Night Riders, Vietnam's burning monk, Oliver Stone's 9/11 blockbuster, Jetblue's t-shirt policy, Paris cat graffiti, Newsweek's Rwanda amnesia, Iranian embassy takeover, Che Guevara's New York visit, Bangladesh's gun culture, and Thailand's rose coup.

Featuring the artwork of more than 40 international artists including internationally established pioneers (Chris Marker, Alfredo Jaar, Lebbeus Woods) to newer artists (Chris Naka, Rheim AlKadhi, Yara El- Sherbini), as well as those who have never shown in the museum or gallery context (Chaleerat Ngamchalee, Israel Rosas). While some artists have exhibited at venues such as the Whitney, Venice and Sydney Biennial, the curators also discovered many of these works while attending protest rallies, going to a concert, browsing a comic book store, and surfing YouTube and Flickr. In the choice of artists, mediums and genres, this project looks at some possible futures for politically engaged visual arts, both inside gallery walls, and on the streets of modern cities.

As well as established mediums such as video, sculpture, print, and conceptual art, the selection has an emphasis on newer mediums and genre-breaking work: flash animation (Young-Hae Chang), Hollywood mashups (Chris Naka, Jackie Salloum, Chris Moukarbel), TV satire (Yara el-Sherbini), t-shirt wars (Usman Haque), comic books (Joe Sacco, Dawolu Jabari Anderson), video games (Jon Haddock), library rescue (Tom Nicholson), music mix (DJ Spooky), street performance (Richard DeDomenici), museum intervention (Meir Gal), bullet opera (Emily Jacir), radio piracy (Negativland), and musicals (Damir Niksic).


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Artists in Show
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Brian Alfred, Rheim Alkadhi, Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Julieta Aranda, Shishir Bhattacharjee, Sarah Bridgland, Matt Bryans, Kevin Carter, Richard Dedomenici, Birgit Dieker, Meir Gal, Felix Gmelin, Jon Haddock, Usman Haque, Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Chris Marker, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Carlos Motta, Chris Moukarbel, Chris Naka, Negativland, Chaleerat Ngamchalee, Tom Nicholson, Damir Niksic, Stefano Palumbo, Gilles Peress, Sarah Pickering, Wilfredo Prieto, Walid Raad/Atlas Group, Joe Sacco, Jackie Salloum, Yara El-Sherbini, Francesco Simeti, Speculative Archive, Do-Ho Suh, The Critical Voice, Alejandro Vidal, Lebbeus Woods.


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Artists in Companion Book
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Ayreen Anastas+René Gabri, Doug Ashford, Jimmie Durham, Jean Fisher, Coco Fusco, Matt McAllester, Josh Neufeld+Martha Rosler, Michael Rakowitz, Raqs Media Collective, Israel Rosas, Collier Schorr.


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