curated by_vienna 2012: art or life: aesthetics and biopolitics
20 Sep - 28 Oct 2012
© David Sherry
Just Popped Out, 2012 (first performed in 2008)
performance
courtesy of
the artist, lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council
Just Popped Out, 2012 (first performed in 2008)
performance
courtesy of
the artist, lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council
CURATED BY_VIENNA 2012: ART OR LIFE: AESTHETICS AND BIOPOLITICS
20 September - 28 October 2012
curated by_vienna is an ambitious project that commissions co-operations between Vienna’s leading contemporary art galleries and internationally renowned curators.
Now in its fourth year, curated by_vienna 2012 will be held in 21 galleries throughout the city, opening on September 20 and running until October 25.
This year’s project art or life: aesthetics and biopolitics, conceived by Eva Maria Stadler in cooperation with the galleries, explores the interconnections between work, economy, knowledge, and politics > www.curatedby.at.
Artists of the No
Nina Beier & Marie Lund, David Raymond Conroy, Dora Garía, Ryan Gander, David Sherry, Pilvi Takala
Curated by Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, London, UK
Opening: 20 September 2012, 6 - 10 pm
20 September - 28 October 2012
> ca. 10 pm: Performance by David Sherry
Projektraum Viktor Bucher | Praterstrasse 13/1/2 | Vienna | Austria
www.projektraum.at
projektraum@sil.at
www.curatedby.at
In a society characterised by an imperative to perform, to be productive, to take part in a time-pressured culture of high performance, artists are more than ever pressured to work and conform to the demands of professional activity. This is not the only way. In other, more questionable words, is this the way we really want to work? How do artists manage the imbalance between work and life? Are there creative possibilities in refusal, passivity, procrastination and idleness?
The exhibition Artists of the No ultimately engages with a number of artistic propositions and works that propose a “No” – refusal, uncooperativeness, diversion, postponement, reluctance, and so forth – as a response to an existing demand that takes shape in the imperative, both imposed and imparted, to perform. In doing so – and this is the point at which the exhibition deviates from the claim that creating nothing is better than creating something (failure fundamentalism) – the works rise above socio-economic demand (as well as common thinking and behaviour) by frustrating all expectations: provoking a situation and a number of scenarios in which the potential for difference becomes tangible through imagination and aesthetic experience. Rather than becoming an insufficient gestural proxy to put another artistic act into action, perhaps, the exhibition creates a moment in which specific solutions and answers remain provocatively latent, for the right reasons. How could we possibly afford not to work, to perform – financially and existentially? What it does show is that not to “get with the program”, to break the spell of the pressure to produce for the sake of production, to put aside for a moment the overwhelming and saturated system of infra-artistic mediations, to create some space to breathe, to be and spend some time with oneself, to think, could equally be reached and established through work as a kind of performing dissent. Take your time.
20 September - 28 October 2012
curated by_vienna is an ambitious project that commissions co-operations between Vienna’s leading contemporary art galleries and internationally renowned curators.
Now in its fourth year, curated by_vienna 2012 will be held in 21 galleries throughout the city, opening on September 20 and running until October 25.
This year’s project art or life: aesthetics and biopolitics, conceived by Eva Maria Stadler in cooperation with the galleries, explores the interconnections between work, economy, knowledge, and politics > www.curatedby.at.
Artists of the No
Nina Beier & Marie Lund, David Raymond Conroy, Dora Garía, Ryan Gander, David Sherry, Pilvi Takala
Curated by Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, London, UK
Opening: 20 September 2012, 6 - 10 pm
20 September - 28 October 2012
> ca. 10 pm: Performance by David Sherry
Projektraum Viktor Bucher | Praterstrasse 13/1/2 | Vienna | Austria
www.projektraum.at
projektraum@sil.at
www.curatedby.at
In a society characterised by an imperative to perform, to be productive, to take part in a time-pressured culture of high performance, artists are more than ever pressured to work and conform to the demands of professional activity. This is not the only way. In other, more questionable words, is this the way we really want to work? How do artists manage the imbalance between work and life? Are there creative possibilities in refusal, passivity, procrastination and idleness?
The exhibition Artists of the No ultimately engages with a number of artistic propositions and works that propose a “No” – refusal, uncooperativeness, diversion, postponement, reluctance, and so forth – as a response to an existing demand that takes shape in the imperative, both imposed and imparted, to perform. In doing so – and this is the point at which the exhibition deviates from the claim that creating nothing is better than creating something (failure fundamentalism) – the works rise above socio-economic demand (as well as common thinking and behaviour) by frustrating all expectations: provoking a situation and a number of scenarios in which the potential for difference becomes tangible through imagination and aesthetic experience. Rather than becoming an insufficient gestural proxy to put another artistic act into action, perhaps, the exhibition creates a moment in which specific solutions and answers remain provocatively latent, for the right reasons. How could we possibly afford not to work, to perform – financially and existentially? What it does show is that not to “get with the program”, to break the spell of the pressure to produce for the sake of production, to put aside for a moment the overwhelming and saturated system of infra-artistic mediations, to create some space to breathe, to be and spend some time with oneself, to think, could equally be reached and established through work as a kind of performing dissent. Take your time.