Thursday, December 29, 2011

Drawing in the Age of Electronic Expressions, LEAP, Berlin, 28.01. - 05.02.2012



DRAWING IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONIC EXPRESSIONS

With works by Sanela Jahić (SI), Takahiro Yamaguchi (JP), Julius Stahl (DE), Daniel Franke (DE), David Bowen (US).


The exhibition DRAWING IN THE AGE OF ELECTRONIC EXPRESSIONS is part of Transmediale & CTM’s Vorspiel, January 26-29.

http://www.transmediale.de/festival/vorspiel

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VERNISSAGE: Saturday 28 January 2012, 20.00
All participating artists will be present.
With Performance by “Sanela Jahić - Fire Painting”.

Further Performances of “Fire Painting”:
Saturday 4 Feb, 21.00

Exhibition dates: 29.01.2012 - 5.02.2012

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The exhibition “Drawing In The Age Of Electronic Expressions” deals with visual art techniques – in particular painting and drawing – and how the role of the artist has been transformed by the impact of digital technology, so that ”the fate of image is from now on numerical” (Edmond Couchot) and the significant areas are now scattered in bits and bytes, until only “point universes” (Flusser) remain. Can the producer leave the surface and program equipment, with data controlled by insects and machines, which in themselves turn into the actual producers or synthesize sounds into images?

In their attempt to avoid the classical visual image, which would mean to “hang pictures on the wall”, the artists re-interpret this gesture in a new way. Even when their works do not produce something visual, an image appears to be their only possible form. Both sound sculptures and performances that include many amenities, fire-spectacles or housefly-installations experimenting with controlled “randomness”, all these works deal with the movement of drawing, letting this technical spectacle become the ultimate image itself.

Within these subjects, the role of the artist gains more and more importance. The different interpretations of the observer not only provoke the question “Who is the artist?”, but also reiterate it over and over. In this constellation the image neither represents a result nor a starting point. It appears to be much more a“porous membrane”, both present and obsolete; dominant and invisible at the same time. In this manner, the exhibition focuses on the artist and not primarily on the artworks, expatiating upon the whole system as machinery. In this act of transformation, software and art switch places. A “drawing machine” develops and at the same time the artist steps back – deliberately. In this position, literally “vanishing”, he/she paradoxically becomes more dominant than ever. By keeping a physical distance to his/her artwork, the artist re-interprets his/her role and maintains a boundary to him-/herself through self-observation. This act turns a form of non-existence into powerful presence.



 Photo: Loukas Bartatilas


Images from the exhibition:


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