A SZUBVERZÍV RÉSZLETEK című kiállításhoz kapcsolódó program:

Ileana Pintilie, Iris Dressler, Hans D. Christ előadásai, beszélgetés, vetítések.

2010. február 12., péntek, 17-21h
MKE, Intermédia Tanszék: Budapest, Kmety György utca 27.
(Az előadások angol nyelvűek)

SUBVERSIVE EXCERPTS

(Experimental and conceptual art practices established between the nineteen-sixties and eighties in Europe and South America under the influence of military dictatorships and communist regimes.Exhibition on view till 28 February 2010, Trafo Gallery: 1094 Budapest, Liliom utca 41.)

Related events organized by the
Intermedia Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, Budapest:

Screenings; lectures by Iris Dressler & Hans D. Christ, Ileana Pintilie
5-9 p.m., 12 February 2010,
Budapest, Kmety György utca 27.

Iris Dressler & Hans D. Christ: Subversive Practices

The exhibition "Subversive Practices" at the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart - parts of it being presented now at the Trafo Gallery - devoted itself to experimental and conceptual art practices that had established between the nineteen-sixties and eighties in Europe and South America under the influence of military dictatorships and communist regimes. The exhibition has been developed by a team of thirteen international curators in close collaboration over a two-year process. In Stuttgart the exhibition comprised more than 300 works by around eighty artists

The exhibition's nine sections focused on various contexts and strategies of artistic production along with their positioning vis-ŕ-vis political and cultural repression in the GDR, Hungary, Romania, the Soviet Union, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. Of equal concern here were both the particularities of and the relations between the different temporal and local environments.

The network behind the project traces back to the research project "Vivid (radical) Memory" (2007), carried out by the University of Barcelona, the Württembergischer Kunstverein and the Center for Culture and Communication in Budapest. As a "follow-up" of this research project, "Subversive Practices" was organized by the Württembergischer Kunstverein in collaboration with the Center for Culture and Communication in Budapest and the Arteleku center of culture in San Sebastian.

The exhibition understood itself as a snapshot of an ongoing research, based on a networks of curators, artists, art historians and theorists in Europe and South America. It undertook the experiment of a shifted cartography and an extended understanding of conceptual art, which has become established well beyond the Anglo-American canon. In this respect, the related interdisciplinary, collaborative, and sociopolitical potentials were particularly emphasized - that is, the paradigm shifts between visual arts, politics, society, sciences, architecture, design, mass media, literature, dance, theater, activism, and so forth, which have been educed by these potentials.

Furthermore, the focus has been on artistic practices that not only radically question the conventional concept of art, the institutions, and the relationship between art and public, but that have, at the same time, subversively thwarted structures of censorship and opposed the existing systems of power. Here, body, language, and public space represent the pivotal instruments, of resistance, symbolic and performative in equal measure. The appropriation of media and distribution channels - especially the postal service - has in turn played a distinctive role in the establishment of the widely ramified networks between (Eastern) Europe and Latin America.

In lieu of conceptualizing a comprehensive and homogenized discourse, the exhibition reflected specific questions and problems. The curators each developed individual presentational models for their respective exhibition section. In different ways they approach to the problem in presenting ephemeral, time- and location-specific art forms. Thus, the exhibition could be experienced also on a formal level as a polyphonic parcours, a multidimensional cartography.

Hans D. Christ and Iris Dressler are directing the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart since 2005. In 1996, they founded the Hartware MedienKunstverein in Dortmund, which they directed until 2004.
Ileana Pintilie: Between Limits. Escaping into the Concept
Two Cases: Ion Grigorescu and Dan Perjovschi

The period 1965-1989 coincided, in Romania's case, with the ascension to power of Nicolae Ceau escu's Communist Party and the slow but predictable process of the installation of a personal dictatorship. In parallel with the official art, promoted by the political power and illustrating its ideology, several artists tried to make up "survival" techniques, avoiding the exhibitions of the communist mainstream as much as possible.

The way in which they took a distance was by tackling personal subjects, which, however, reflected the country's political situation - the theme of the body (Ion Grigorescu), regarded as the ultimate form of individuality and intimacy, as opposed to the politically polluted public space, a critical reception of the political context, gliding towards a personal dictatorship. The development of experimental practices which opened the way for new forms of expression was basically targeted at ephemeral forms, at irony and social criticism.
Among these artistic practices, which were not acknowledged officially, there was experimental photography and film, which enabled the artists to come up with new and unexpected visual solutions. Many of these artistic ideas and concepts envisaged the process, trying to capture the development of an idea along a series of films, in performances in the middle of nature or in photographs recording these events.

Even if they worked in relative isolation, the Romanian artists managed to exhibit in alternative spaces sometimes - in cultural clubs or even in their own studios or flats. Others tried to communicate with each other freely and unconventionally, mail art offering an independent, ironic and subversive medium, as well as a way to defy censorship (Dan Perjovschi).

After the fall of communism, Dan Perjovschi's evolution grew more conspicuous as the artist started to perform in public, trying to maintain a permanent contact with his viewers. At first, this was possible with the help of a type of conceptual performance, later, by means of a drawing performance, which always implies a dialogue with the viewers and a constant rapport with them. The artist developed the ephemeral and performative nature of his work, to the detriment of a "constructed", museum-like kind of work.

Further information:
http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/en/programme/2009/exhibitions/subversive/
http://subversive.c3.hu/

Partners of the Subversive Practices project:
Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
http://www.wkv-stuttgart.de/
C3 Center for Culture & Communication Foundation, Budapest
http://www.c3.hu
Arteleku, San Sebastian
http://arteleku.net

A project supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union and the National Cultural Fund of Hungary (NKA).