03 Jul 2008

Don't Worry - Be Curious!

Don't Worry – Be Curious!

12 July - 14 September 2008

(Opening on 11 July 2008 at 7pm)

Petra Bauer, Anna Baumgart, Marc Bijl, Pavel Braila, Olga Chernysheva, Alexandra Croitoru, Colonel and Khaled D. Ramadan, Goran Devic, Stina Fisch, Bodil Furu, Miquel García, Kaspars Goba, Kristina Inciuraite, J&K, Sven Johne, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Krištof Kintera, Pascal Lièvre, Talleiv Taro Manum, Tanja Nellemann Poulsen, Anu Pennanen, Katrin Tees, Alexander Vaindorf, Arturas Valiauga, Angel Vergara, Julita Wójcik

Don't Worry – Be Curious! will present photographs, videos, and installations that address problems and fears resulting from upheavals in present-day society.

Europe's social, political, and economic reality is currently marked by restructuring processes that have led to a collapse in a continuity of location, a volatility in stable social relationships, and increasing individualization, on the one hand, and growing unemployment, passivity, and disenchantment with politics, on the other. These upheavals are predominantly experienced by West European countries as a crisis of the welfare state, while in East European countries they appear to be the result of socialism's displacement by a capitalistic economic order. The sensed threat provokes similar reactions here as well as there; fear of social impoverishment, of a loss of identity, and of an uncertain future are the effects of globalization. In addition to this is the growing fear of the 'foreigner' and the increasing desire to exclude the 'other.'

The exhibition assumes that art can offer impulses and inspire reflection on participation and the power of agency. Invited are artists whose practice is based on the exploration of their social environment. The artists deal with diverse thematic fields such as migration politics, ideas of 'normality' and 'differentness,' the mechanisms of understanding and misunderstanding, social fears, young people's various perspectives and concepts of life; the media's influence on perception, thought, and knowledge; the relation between consumer culture and nature; or the sentimental value of the common place. What unites the works is a positive and often humorous prevailing mood that makes the observer want to engage in something new and scrutinize his or her own patterns of perception and thought.

Don't Worry – Be Curious! is the exhibition of the 4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art and will be presented in

Luxembourg in an extended version.

In collaboration with Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst e.V. (NGBK), Berlin; Stadtgalerie Kiel, Kiel; Pori Art Museum, Pori; Andrejsala, Riga; KUMU Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn.

Curators: Dorothee Bienert (Berlin), Kati Kivinen (Helsinki), Enrico Lunghi (Luxembourg)

Publication: An exhibition catalogue has been published by Revolver

www.arsbalticatriennial.org

www.x-luxembourg.lu


During the opening of the exhibition Don't Worry – Be Curious! (11 July 2008), citizens of the city of Luxembourg will get the opportunity to express everything they dislike about their city in the form of a multilingual complaints song. For more information about theComplaints Choir project by the artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen please go to

www.complaintschoir.org.