Clash–ified
08 Sep - 24 Nov 2007
CLASH – IFIED
Dimitrios Antonitsis and Tilo Schulz
Opening day: Saturday 8 September 2007 at 20:00
A bigger bang you cannot imagine!
The enfant terrible of Greek art Dimitrios Antonitsis meets German neo-conceptionalist Tilo Schulz. Glamour meets Formalism. And still it seems to be inevitable that these two very different artistic positions had to meet.
Dimitrios Antonitsis’ work is known for its provocative undertone. In this body of work he criticizes social conventions of decorum and political hypocricy. Images of exquisite objects, such as tiaras, crowns, bejewelled platters and chatulles, belonging to the Shah and the Empress of Iran are the focus of his aesthetical statement. The photos are digitally enhanced and manipulated in order to juxtapose the essence of traditional monarchy to the mundane advertising techniques of pop culture. This series of prints speaks very much of “the society of the spectacle”.
Tilo Schulz takes up the theme of the cultural-political power struggle around formalism, as represented in the political conflict at the beginning of the Cold War. Schulz uses geometrical structures from the vocabulary of minimal art, which by definition aspires to objectivity, abstraction and depersonalisation, but which may also be read as the epitome of male rationality: an instrumental reasoning that is unconscious of the fact the white cube is not free from power politics. This remarkable synthesis of gender studies and constructivism raises the question of the aestheticising of ideology and the ideologising of aesthetics.
Both works seem to be very different and incompatible: Antonitsis’ work so critically glamorous and Schulz’ work coming from the core of existentialism. But questions of representation, gender and politics are the common denominator of this collaboration.
CLASH-IFIED brings us a surpising installation, presenting new series of digital prints by Dimitrios Antonitsis and new murals by Tilo Schulz.
Dimitrios Antonitsis and Tilo Schulz
Opening day: Saturday 8 September 2007 at 20:00
A bigger bang you cannot imagine!
The enfant terrible of Greek art Dimitrios Antonitsis meets German neo-conceptionalist Tilo Schulz. Glamour meets Formalism. And still it seems to be inevitable that these two very different artistic positions had to meet.
Dimitrios Antonitsis’ work is known for its provocative undertone. In this body of work he criticizes social conventions of decorum and political hypocricy. Images of exquisite objects, such as tiaras, crowns, bejewelled platters and chatulles, belonging to the Shah and the Empress of Iran are the focus of his aesthetical statement. The photos are digitally enhanced and manipulated in order to juxtapose the essence of traditional monarchy to the mundane advertising techniques of pop culture. This series of prints speaks very much of “the society of the spectacle”.
Tilo Schulz takes up the theme of the cultural-political power struggle around formalism, as represented in the political conflict at the beginning of the Cold War. Schulz uses geometrical structures from the vocabulary of minimal art, which by definition aspires to objectivity, abstraction and depersonalisation, but which may also be read as the epitome of male rationality: an instrumental reasoning that is unconscious of the fact the white cube is not free from power politics. This remarkable synthesis of gender studies and constructivism raises the question of the aestheticising of ideology and the ideologising of aesthetics.
Both works seem to be very different and incompatible: Antonitsis’ work so critically glamorous and Schulz’ work coming from the core of existentialism. But questions of representation, gender and politics are the common denominator of this collaboration.
CLASH-IFIED brings us a surpising installation, presenting new series of digital prints by Dimitrios Antonitsis and new murals by Tilo Schulz.