30 Nov 2009

Wakefield Meadows at Pavilion Unicredit

Curator: Anca Mihulet

Theoretical Input: Olivia Mihaltianu

Participants: Adrian Alecu (DE/RO)/ Olivia Mihaltianu (RO)/ >projektgruppe< (DE) / SOSka (UA)/ Adrien Tirtiaux (AU/BE)

WAKEFIELD MEADOWS is an artificial living environment that was generated by the real life experiences of the curator and of the artists, created inside the space of Pavilion UniCredit. WAKEFIELD MEADOWS explores the inside of some of today's oversaturated and artificial living systems and social conventions, caught in an obsessive historical turbine and unable to move forward - every-day life clichés, the middle class capitalist family and the social underground, the consumerist super-structures, the trajectory of classified information and the invasive art market.

One of the starting points of the curatorial debate was the case of Wakefield, the 'universal character' from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story with the same title. One day, Wakefield left his house and his wife and then returned after 20 years as if nothing had happened, carrying on with his normal existence. The moral of the story: 'Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another, and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.' (excerpt from 'Wakefield' by Nathaniel Hawthorne)

The artists featured in the exhibition appropriated the human condition of Wakefield, the misplaced individual, after his return, in the 20th year and infiltrated in apparent sealed environments, becoming insiders, questioning their identity and their place.
An exhibition in cooperation with the Contemporary Art Gallery of Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu.

Publication: 64 pages, 15 x 21 cm, b/w, english/romanian, 5 Euro/15 RON. Texts by: Andrei Codrescu, Aurora Szentagotai & Daniel David, Anca Mihulet.