Zbynek Baladrán
29 Nov 2007 - 13 Apr 2008
ZBYNEK BALADRÁN
GLOSSARY
First part of FOOTNOTES: a series of projects curated by Hajnalka Somogyi
November 29, 2007 – April 13, 2008
The term “footnote” may have several meanings. In the first place, it refers to very specific information, claiming the attention of only those deeply interested in the issues discussed by the main body of a text. However, it might get a much more exciting means once the text to be footnoted is not our own. In this case, footnoting resembles the method of writing remarks with pencil on the margins of a book – a gesture of expressing (counter-)opinion, of forming questions; a seed for new ideas the stimulus in the text being chosen arbitrarily, according to one’s personal interest. Not only background information for insiders anymore, footnote then becomes a means of expression commenting, questioning or overwriting the main text, which process is as telling of its author as of the content of the footnoted text inspiring, annoying, helping or confusing its reader once it gets into someone else’s hands.
The parallel between footnoting and the way contemporary art reflects on its surrounding has been drawn in several cases, as by the concept of the 2nd Moscow Biennial earlier this year. However, the site of our project enriches this term with a special resonance. The physical position of this three by five meters window case in an underpass leading to Secession on the level of its basement seems to be an ideal place to present footnotes. With its institutional bonds to Secession, being situated under Karlsplatz, a square surrounded by established cultural institutions, the venue suggests the function of an appendix, of a site to place remarks and comments.
As an entity outside the main body of the institution and intruding into public space, it embodies Secession’s program policy of extending its activities beyond its walls. It communicates with a wide range of people, although typically with ones being on the move, in a hurry, inbetween two places, running through the grey corridor of the underpass or trying to find the right exit as they make their way in the city’s labyrinth. Why would they stop?
A display case usually contains advertisements, posters and announcements. The art projects, the footnotes to be displayed will engage in a dialogue with the site: with the case itself, with the immediate surrounding in the underpass, the larger context of Karlsplatz or the city of Vienna. They will be textual or visual notices by authors living in different cities – to the passersby of the Austrian capital; messages that catch the gaze and keep the mind engaged – due to their strong visual appearance and subversive content.
HAJNALKA SOMOGYI is an art historian and independent curator. Between April 2001 and June 2006, she ran the international exhibition program of the exhibition space Trafo Gallery of Trafo–House of Contemporary Arts. She is the founder of DINAMO Workshop and of Impex–Contemporary Art Provider, two independent art initiatives in Budapest. In 2006, she was a curator-in-residence at Art in General in New York City, in the framework of the residency program of CEC Artslink. In January-March 2007, she was teaching as the assistant to Cesare Pietroiusti at the Graduate Program in Visual Arts at IUAV University, Venice.
She curated numerous exhibitions in Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands, and coordinated Europewide institutional collaborations in the framework of Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission. Currently, she is enrolled in the Curatorial Studies Program at Bard College, NY. Her interest lies in socially and politically aware art as well as in the intersection of art and urbanism.
For further information please contact:
Urte Schmitt-Ulms, tel.: +43 1 587 53 07-10;
fax: +43 1 587 53 07-34; email: pr@secession.at
GLOSSARY
First part of FOOTNOTES: a series of projects curated by Hajnalka Somogyi
November 29, 2007 – April 13, 2008
The term “footnote” may have several meanings. In the first place, it refers to very specific information, claiming the attention of only those deeply interested in the issues discussed by the main body of a text. However, it might get a much more exciting means once the text to be footnoted is not our own. In this case, footnoting resembles the method of writing remarks with pencil on the margins of a book – a gesture of expressing (counter-)opinion, of forming questions; a seed for new ideas the stimulus in the text being chosen arbitrarily, according to one’s personal interest. Not only background information for insiders anymore, footnote then becomes a means of expression commenting, questioning or overwriting the main text, which process is as telling of its author as of the content of the footnoted text inspiring, annoying, helping or confusing its reader once it gets into someone else’s hands.
The parallel between footnoting and the way contemporary art reflects on its surrounding has been drawn in several cases, as by the concept of the 2nd Moscow Biennial earlier this year. However, the site of our project enriches this term with a special resonance. The physical position of this three by five meters window case in an underpass leading to Secession on the level of its basement seems to be an ideal place to present footnotes. With its institutional bonds to Secession, being situated under Karlsplatz, a square surrounded by established cultural institutions, the venue suggests the function of an appendix, of a site to place remarks and comments.
As an entity outside the main body of the institution and intruding into public space, it embodies Secession’s program policy of extending its activities beyond its walls. It communicates with a wide range of people, although typically with ones being on the move, in a hurry, inbetween two places, running through the grey corridor of the underpass or trying to find the right exit as they make their way in the city’s labyrinth. Why would they stop?
A display case usually contains advertisements, posters and announcements. The art projects, the footnotes to be displayed will engage in a dialogue with the site: with the case itself, with the immediate surrounding in the underpass, the larger context of Karlsplatz or the city of Vienna. They will be textual or visual notices by authors living in different cities – to the passersby of the Austrian capital; messages that catch the gaze and keep the mind engaged – due to their strong visual appearance and subversive content.
HAJNALKA SOMOGYI is an art historian and independent curator. Between April 2001 and June 2006, she ran the international exhibition program of the exhibition space Trafo Gallery of Trafo–House of Contemporary Arts. She is the founder of DINAMO Workshop and of Impex–Contemporary Art Provider, two independent art initiatives in Budapest. In 2006, she was a curator-in-residence at Art in General in New York City, in the framework of the residency program of CEC Artslink. In January-March 2007, she was teaching as the assistant to Cesare Pietroiusti at the Graduate Program in Visual Arts at IUAV University, Venice.
She curated numerous exhibitions in Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands, and coordinated Europewide institutional collaborations in the framework of Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission. Currently, she is enrolled in the Curatorial Studies Program at Bard College, NY. Her interest lies in socially and politically aware art as well as in the intersection of art and urbanism.
For further information please contact:
Urte Schmitt-Ulms, tel.: +43 1 587 53 07-10;
fax: +43 1 587 53 07-34; email: pr@secession.at