02 Sep 2009

HMKV presents 'Awake Are Only The Spirits' - On Ghosts And Their Media

"make any text speed it up slow it down run it backwards inch it and you will hear words that were not in the original recording new words made by the machine different people will scan out different words of course but some of the words are quite clearly there and anyone can hear them words which were not in the original tape but which are in many cases relevant to the original text as if the words themselves had been interrogated and forced to reveal their hidden meanings"

(William S. Burroughs, The Invisible Generation)


At first glance, the subject of the exhibition 'Awake Are Only the Spirits' – On Ghosts and Their Media seems somewhat outmoded: the presence of the supernatural, the manifestations of spirits, and (trans)communication with the beyond facilitated by technical media.

The exhibition is based on the audiotape archive of Friedrich Jürgenson who discovered the so-called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in 1959. Taking as starting point the lively interest shown in the subject by contemporary artists, the show aims to tell a 'ghost story' that explores the question of why, for all our enlightenment, irrational capabilities are regularly ascribed to the new media and technologies of a given time – for instance, the ability to act as a channel for messages from the beyond.

All of the projects by the twenty-two international artists participating in the exhibition question in some way or another the existence of ghosts, they explore the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, make visible or perceptible the invisible and trace the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena.


PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Lucas & Jason Ajemian (US), Archive of an Anonymous Ghost-Seer (DE), curated by hans w. koch, Sam Ashley (US), Corinne May Botz (US), Erik Bünger (SE), Damien Cadio (FR), Michael Esposito (US), Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani (DE), Agnès Geoffray (FR), Kathrin Günter (DE), Carl Michael von Hausswolff (SE), Tim Hecker (CA), Susan Hiller (GB), Martin Howse (GB), International Necronautical Society (GB), Friedrich Jürgenson (SE), Joep van Liefland (NL), Chris Marker (FR), Jorge Queiroz (PT), Scanner (GB), Jan-Peter E.R. Sonntag (DE), Suzanne Treister (GB)

CURATORS
Inke Arns, Thibaut de Ruyter

FURTHER INFORMATION
www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_exhibitions/detail.php?nr=3689&rubric=exhibitions&


THE EXHIBITION IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY
Der Ministerpraesident des Landes NRW
Kunststiftung NRW
Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund
dortmund-project
Institut Francais - CULTURESFRANCE
Mondriaan Stichting
NRW Kultursekretariat
PHOENIX
LEG
Dyrup GmbH
RUAG - Aerospace Services GmbH

MEDIA PARTNER
Heinz

CONTACT
Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV)
Guentherstr. 65 (office)
44143 Dortmund/Germany
T ++49 - 231 - 823 106
info@hmkv.de
www.hmkv.de

EXHIBITION VENUE
PHOENIX Halle
Hochofenstrasse/ corner Rombergstrasse
44263 Dortmund-Hőrde