Archiv der Kategorie: exhibition

the others are we : interview

“the others are we” : video composite portrait of a city

Interview with the German artist Florian Tuercke during the exhibition “the others are we” at con[SPACE] video gallery, Atelierfrankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. For the exhibition, the artist produced a composite video portrait of faces from Frankfurt and other European cities. Exhibition curated by Michaela Filla Raquin and Raul Gschrey, interview conducted and produced by Raul Gschrey. Additional material by Florian Tuercke, Nicholas Singleton & Raul Gschrey. Historical photographic material by Francis Galton, Special Collections, University College London. www. conspace.wordpress.com : www.gschrey.org : www.floriantuercke.net

„the others are we“

Florian Tuercke : Die Anderen sind wir / the others are we con[SPACE] @ Atelierfrankfurt, Schwedlerstrasse 1-5, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, curated by Michaela Filla Raquin & Raul Gschrey

Opening: 26. 02.2016 19.00, duration: 26.02. – 04.04.2016, opening times: Tue., Wed., Thurs. 16.00 – 19.00

In his series of composite videos entitled „the others are we“, Florian Tuercke, whose participatory media art projects are usually situated in public space, deals with the human face. The artist explores, which collective features remain, when the individual visual characteristics of people are merged; the sole link being the place where they reside temporarily or permanently.

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After compiling videos in Ragusa (Italien), Wakefield (England) and Schweinfurt (Germany), Florian Tuercke produces a video portrait of the ‘typical Frankfurter’ in collaboration with the gallery con[SPACE] in Frankfurt (Germany). With a posing chair, camera and lights he strolls through the urban space and asks passers-by to sit for a portrait. Every participant sits on the chair, looking straight into the camera, while the artist remains standing, equally motionless, behind the camera. Through the transparent superimposition of the individual takes, the urban backgrounds are condensed into abstract structures of colour, light and movement; the slightly fluctuating facial superimpositions dominating the centre of the composite video.

Law’s Pluralities

Law’s Pluralities ׀ Conference & Exhibition 06.05. – 09.05.2015

In May 2015 the conference “Law’s Pluralities” will take place at Justus Liebig University Giessen/Germany. In a series of keynote presentations by experts and in panel sessions and discussions, as well as in an exhibition it will explore cultural constructions of law.

06.05. – 24.05.2015 exhibition at „Neuer Kunstverein Giessen“ & during the conference „Law’s Pluralities“ at Liebig University Giessen, Germany. Artists: Il-Jin Choi ׀ Raul Gschrey ׀ Mi You ׀ Manu Luksch

The interrogation of the cultural construction and negotiation of legal practices in the conference „Law’s Pluralities“ offers an interesting occasion for the presentation of an exhibition of artistic works dealing with the topic. The international artistic positions reflect on the social and legal frameworks and find means to visualise phenomena that often remain abstract. Furthermore here the artistic interventions themselves contribute to the differentiation and development of “legal writing”. Through their explorations, contestations and subversions, they participate in an alternative production of knowledge and function as mediators of and shape legal practices. The exhibition will be located at the conference venue and in the close-by “Neuer Giessner Kunstverein”, a local art association. This will expand the exhibition’s and conference’s reception towards a non-academic public open the discourse on the politically and socially relevant topic to a larger public.

The conference and exhibition is organized at Justus Liebig University Giessen by the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) in cooperation with the  Department of English, the Rudolf-von-Jhering Institute, and in cooperation with the Neuer Kunstverein Giessen.

Out of Control?

21. 03. – 24. 08.2014 – “Out of Control? Life in a World under Surveillance.” Exhibition, Museum for Communication Berlin.

Do we life safely when squares, streets and buildings are monitored by surveillance cameras, when secret services scan all kinds of communication? Does it make things easier when software proposes our next moves? Are security and freedom compatible under these circumstances?“ The exhibition shows over 200  historical exhibits, ranging from 19th century albums of mug shots to Stasi observation equipment, as well as contemporary technologies of surveillance and control. The technical exhibits are complemented by artistic works that make surveillance surroundings perceptible, raise awareness of the phenomenon, but also offer the possibility to laugh. Artistic works by Adam Harvey, Timo Toots, Raul Gschrey and others.

Mug shots & Burning Caravans

Review of the exhibition „La Traversée“ by Mathieu Pernot in the „Jeu de Paume”, Paris, March 2014.

The exhibition „La Traversée“ by Mathieu Pernot in the „Jeu de Paume“, Paris opens with a wall of photographic portraits: small and large-scale, colour and black and white. The subject of all images is a boy turning into a man over the time, offering glimpses into his life. The portraits of the Roma individual set the tone for an examination of concepts of sedentary and nomadic living life.

Entering the exhibition space, in a niche on the left hand side, a work compiled from historical identification documents, interviews and photographic portraits shows how non-conform, nomadic behavior was restricted through heavy police pressure far into the 20th century. The personal stories and artistic portraits contradict the externally prescribed identity in the signaletic cards and nomadic passes.

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In another work, on an adjoining wall, the historical mug shots and documents are contrasted with a series of photo-machine portraits that the artist produced with the children of the Roma family he is working with since his university days. The self-portraits hint at the ongoing administrative pressure directed against the non-sedentary population.

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This is not restricted to the distant past as a series of large scale photographs of today’s disciplinary institutions, prison yards illustrate. A series of portraits shows family members trying to communicate with the inmates beyond the high walls. These state institutions still extend their influence in an extraordinary manner on the non-sedentary population.

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In the next part of the exhibition, this apparatus of identification and population management meets images of sedentary life in the 20th century, concrete housing structures, their de-individualising character, but also their increasing disappearance as overcome and no longer acceptable spaces for residence.

Photographs of a burning caravan and alighted faces of a group of onlookers terminate this circle of a description of society that goes way beyond the documentary realm. Mathieu Pernot is mixing and composing, comparing and opposing story threats and offers new perspectives on – and readings of – our pre-structured and often unquestioned realities of contemporary life and questionable strategies of upholding this status quo.