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SCHWERINBLICKE - KÜNSTLERSICHTEN
02. April 2010 – 04. Juli 2010
exhibition at Staatliches Museum Schwerin/Germany
Bazon Brock, Larissa Fassler, Jim Hamlyn, Res
Ingold, Matthias Kanter, Nicolas Manenti, Jürgen Palmer, REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT, Andreas Sachsenmaier, Daniel Spoerri
the work of RG was produced in the framework of a grant at Edith Ruß Haus für Medienkunst Oldenburg
text on the project Risk Society by Claudia Schönfeld / curator Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Schwerin
Particularly in times of change and upheaval societal processes were broached by artists in the past and – most important – accelerated. Artistic freedom enables the spectator to experience his position from another point of view and to abandon worn-out tracks.
Artists have availed themselves of reproductive means to reach a broader audience. During the enlightenment the medium of choice was the caricature which reached a high number of editions through etchings and later by the end of the 18th century an even higher number through lithography. The English painter and graphic artist William Hogarth is considered to be a precursor of modern caricature. Already in the middle of the century he broached the social deficits of the English society in series like the Four Stages of Cruelty or Beer Street and Gin Lane of 1751.
By the end of the century Francisco de Goya created under the impression of the French Revolution the Caprichos as a critique of the sclerotic feudal and bigoted conditions in Spain. Only two days after the publication of the first edition in 1799 it had to be withdrawn in fear of the inquisition. But they reached a conscious and critical audience which is proven by the Ayala manuscript written already before 1803. Goya‘s artistic work bestowed a force and explosiveness on the social subject and therefore it was far more dangerous for conservative circles. For those circles an oppression of Goya’s works was mandatory to avoid a social change.
In the light of the World financial crises and impending climate change we are living also in an era of social change. Already in 1986 the sociologist Ulrich Beck postulated that, in analogy to history, modernization will disintegrate the structure of industrial society and a new shape of society will evolve. Since the production of wealth in the society is combined with the production of risks, the society will develop according to the inherent ecological, social and psychological side effects. Beck formulated at that time the term Risk Society which characterizes the current global situation. Since “adversity is hierarchic and smog democratic” Beck forecasted the global expansion of the crisis 25 years ago.
According to the requirements of today the artist group from Dresden REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT uses medial ways of expression. These allow a presentation of the examined problems with an overall understanding. To broach the issue of the migration of especially young groups of citizens from Eastern Germany they examine an empiric quantity of pupils of an age group under the aspect of their values and wishes for the future. Methodically the artists use phenomena of mass culture such as casting shows which are currently wide-spread in the media. They are a means of expressing the need for voyeurism, self-presentation and playful competition. The negative aspects of those casting shows were as far as possibly suppressed by giving everybody once all different functions, from member of the jury to candidate. Security in performance was guaranteed for instance by the instruction of a professional actor from the Mecklenburg State theatre, Klaus Bieligk. Apart from expressing their wishes for the future the pupils were asked to remain silenty for one minute, which posed a special challenge. The workshops were done in a relaxed and at the same very professional atmosphere. The enthusiasm and excitement becomes apparent in the secondary footage, the b-roll, which is displayed as a part of the overall installation.
Opposed to that, four parallel, over life-size projections will be shown aside in an obscured room. Intermittently one of those projections plays the statement of one pupil while the other three show the taciturn youngsters. The “having their say” will thus be impressively clarified. The one just talking appears alternately on the four projections. In that way the voice of the pupil moves through space, which produces a subtle dynamic. At the same time the individual expressions experience a monumentality and presence through this way of staging.
For the REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT the postulate of the esthetic and artistic staging is the ignition of a public debate which takes place during the three month exhibition. The statements of the pupils show remarkably the reaction of the consequences of the risk society as formulated by Beck – even when this awareness hasn’t yet sufficiently reached the subjects of politics. Individual success and material security will be attained in risk society only by extreme job flexibility and mobility. The modern human being will define himself by his profession. This provokes especially problems arising in social integration and the development of family structures. Thus it is not surprising that almost all pupils named the wish of stable family bonds as central point. In times of virtual mobility this could be the power of a future-oriented and visionary city. This is a possibility which politics have to take into account.
Friedrich Schiller posed in1795 in his published magazine Die Horen the rhetorical question if the occupation with beauty and art instead of “the most accomplished of all works of art: the construction of true politic freedom” can be justified in regard to the French Revolution and its effects. Schiller answers the question with the thesis that art itself is the medium to develop true political freedom. “Public art as a communicative form of power changes the ways of life.”
With the methods of the REINIGUNGSGESLLSCHAFT which are based on the participation of the pupils in the creation of the art work, the artists offer at the same time solutions for the crisis. Not only empiric analysis and documentation are the basis for the overall piece of art but the process of creation as well as the level of exposition in the State Museum of Schwerin. The interaction during the workshops as well as the interaction in the exhibition leads to new ways of conscious social behavior.
The Ayala manuscript was publiseh for the first time in 1887 by Cipriano Muñoz y Manzano, Conde de la Viñaza, Goya: Su tempo, su vida , sus obras, Madrid 1887
Ulrich Beck: Risikogesellschaft. Auf dem Weg in eine andere Moderne. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M. 1986.
s. Ulrich Beck, Schöne neue Arbeitswelt – Vision: Weltbürgerschaft, Hannover 1999, P.17ff.
s. Res Ingold, Seadrome Schwerin, S.
s. Oskar Bätschmann, Ausstellungskünstler, Köln 1997, P. 72.
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