The Power Plant

Goldin + Senneby

13 Dec 2008 - 22 Feb 2009

© Goldin+Senneby
Headless (installation view), 2008.
Courtesy the artists and The Power Plant, Toronto. Photo: Rafael Goldchain.
GOLDIN + SENNEBY
Headless

13 December 2008 – 22 February 2009

Opening Reception
Friday 12 December | 7:30 PM

With John Barlow (writer), Angus Cameron (economic geographer), Kate Cooper (filmmaker), K.D. (fictional author), Kim Einarsson (curator), Anna Heymowska (scenographer), Johan Hjerpe (graphic designer), Anders Jandér (graphic designer), Richard John Jones (filmmaker), Gavin MacFadyen (investigative journalist).

http://www.goldinsenneby.com/gs/?p=103

Goldin+Senneby is the framework for collaboration between Swedish artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby. Since 2004, Goldin+Senneby have initiated projects which explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs through notions of the performative and the virtual. Through actions and theoretical pursuits, they interrogate the mythologies created by virtual economies and fictional personae. Their timely exhibition at The Power Plant comes at a crucial moment, as the confidential activities of corporations are being traced and investigated in the wake of collapsed world markets and global economic instability.

For their first solo exhibition in North America, Goldin+Senneby present their ongoing research project Headless, a critical investigation of the offshore company Headless Ltd. The exhibition’s point of departure is the hypothesis that the Bahamas-registered corporation Headless Ltd is a contemporary incarnation of 'Acéphale,' the secret society initiated by philosopher Georges Bataille in the 1930s. Goldin+Senneby explore how the juridical construction of offshore financial centers function as performative acts that fictionalize place and stage realms of invisibility.

'Headless' consists of two distinct perspectives on Goldin+Senneby’s ongoing work. A documentary film, whose creation has been delegated by Goldin+Senneby to directors Kate Cooper and Richard John Jones, reflexively involves investigative journalist Gavin MacFadyen, who lends his expertise to the filmmakers to suggest how they should make a documentary about Headless Ltd. The documentary will be produced over the course of the exhibition and screened in three segments, released on 12 December, 24 January, and 13 February. The other perspective is developed by independent curator Kim Einarsson and scenographer Anna Heymowska, who have been contracted to produce a pedagogical display. This display introduces the viewer to K.D., who is both the fictional author of Looking for Headless, a novel in the making, and an employee at the offshore consultancy company Sovereign Group. A lecture during the exhibition’s opening weekend by Angus Cameron, economic geographer at the University of Leicester, will further explore Goldin+Senneby’s practice, and the modes of performance the collaborators employ in their study of Headless Ltd.

Jakob Senneby (born 1971, Stockholm), and Simon Goldin (born 1981, Umeå) received MFA degrees from Stockholm's Royal University College of Fine Arts in 2004 and 2007, respectively. In parallel with his artistic work, Goldin has studied management at the Stockholm School of Economics. Recent Goldin+Senneby exhibitions include 'Twentyfourseven,' Signal, Malmö (2007), 'Looks Conceptual,' Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo (2008), 'Disclosures,' Gasworks, London (2008), 'Data Recovery,' GAMeC, Bergamo (2008), 'Reality Effects,' Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (2008), and 28th Sao Paulo Biennial (2008).

Goldin+Senneby 'Headless' is curated by Gregory Burke, Director of The Power Plant.

Documentary film commissioned by Goldin+Senneby in collaboration with The Power Plant and Iaspis (International Artists’ Studio Program in Sweden), with additional support from Royal University College of Fine Art, Stockholm.
 

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