After The Butcher

Civic Virtue

29 Sep - 03 Nov 2012

CIVIC VIRTUE
Grand Tour Berlin
29 September - 3 November 2012

CIVIC VIRTUE (a neoclassical revival),
in collaboration with Kinga Kielczynska,
present their recent work on the topic of divination, pseudo-sciences and self-fulfilling prophesies.

Reading the entrails of sacrificial animals was an important religious duty performed by the priests of antiquity. From the level of personal relations to matters of state and conquest, the interpretation of chance embodied an appeal to the authority of the gods. CIVIC VIRTUE asserts that prophecy is a worthy course of investigation, for an understanding of a past which may or may not have already happened, and for an insight into what we may expect from a world yet unborn. Representing the architecture of temples, the ambiguity of oracles and the underlying structures within games of chance, CIVIC VIRTUE explores the potential of narrative evolution in space, the augury of modern economics, and the problems of repeatability.

Participating artists:
Geirthrudur Finnbogadottir Hjorvar
Ruchama Noorda
Gijsbert Wouter Wahl
Brian McKenna
Kinga Kielczynska

Based in Amsterdam, CIVIC VIRTUE was established in 2010 around a shared interest in social communities who organize themselves around symbols of power and virtue, as well as the continual re-emergence of these signs over the course of history. CIVIC VIRTUE seeks to place these symbols and allegories beyond any specific historical, political or social appropriation. As a platform for research and performance, CIVIC VIRTUE are currently on their Grand Tour around Europe, through the entrails of history and past important monuments of revival.