 Gerard Byrne: New Sexual Life Styles, 2003 Courtesy Green on Red Gallery, Dublin Dedicated to a Proposition Francis Alys (B/MEX), Mike Bouchet (USA), Chris Burden (USA), Gerard Byrne (IRE), Joost Conijn (NL), Sebastian Diaz Morales (ARG), Theodore Gericault (FR), Paul Graham (UK), Leon Grodski (USA), Terence Koh (CAN), Guy Mees (B), Enrique Metinides (MEX), Edvard Munch (NO), Damian Ortega (MEX), Robin Rhode (ZA), Gert Robijns (B), Ana Torfs (B), Luc Tuymans (B) In 1903 for an exhibition in Leipzig, Norvegian painter Edvard Munch lined up a series of paintings in a layer of white plaster. In doing so, Munch was turning his back on the more scattered page layout display of painting as it would rule until the first quarter of the 20th century. Munch created the "white cube", defining until today the most prevalent context for art. Théodore Géricaults "Le radeau de la Méduse" from 1819 was the first painting ever based on a newspaper article, scandalizing the shipwreck of la Meduse at the shores of West-Africa, just before the British handover of the port of Saint-Louis. The work introduced the news event in art, enabling art to ethically zoom in on the political event in an outright display of human suffering. "Dedicated to a Proposition" is constructed as an approximation of space and actuality in art. Vintage photographs of Munch's 1903 installation of the Frieze of Life will be set out together with preparatory drawings by Theodore Géricault as opening statement; Munch for redefining the context for arts display, Gericault for grafting art onto the topical event. These two coordinates will allow to reticulate the ideas brought to the fore by art today. All in all the exhibition will deal with preemptive desires and tries to unlock the imaginary of new world orders by approximating and interweaving issues of time and space and the way they determine our conception of the utopian vs the private, fear vs public space etc. Circumscribing an intensity of distress and global discomfort, that precedes, rather than prevents comprehension at present, "Dedicated to a Proposition" will offer unfulfilled potentialities rather than a representation of targeted activism. In that sense the project will limit itself to works that are not engaged in fostering social wellbeing to all the more focus on preemptive desires that determine the creation of a new world order. For its inaugural exhibition "Dedicated to a Proposition", Extra City invited some 20 international artists. The title for the project was borrowed from Abraham Lincoln's public address in Gettysburg in 1863, describing a utopian horizon in the politically unstable era of civil war. "Dedicated to a Proposition" is set out to investigate the work of contemporary artists as propositions against or in favor of the (pre-emptive) desire for a new world order. The show will be close to the skin as an approximation of the friction between the utopian and the individual, fear and public space and the engagement of art versus the "white cube". The show as an operating base will be branching off in many directions: the exhibition space, the media and the urban surroundings. Terence Koh (Canada), Robin Rhode (South Africa) and Mike Bouchet (USA) were invited to combine their participation to the exhibition with a 3-month residency. Exhibition: 20 November 2004 - 20 February 2005 Opening hours: Fri-Sun 11 am - 11 pm Extra City Center for Contemporary Art Mexicostraat Kattendijkdok, Kaai 44 B-2030 Antwerpen Email extra.city@skynet.be www.extracity.org |
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