03 Dec 2010

UTOPIA OF EXOTIC new exhibition at PAVILION

UTOPIA OF EXOTIC

Opening: December 9, 2010, 19:00h
Exhibition: December 09, 2010 - February 27, 2011

Curator: Andrei Craciun
Participants: Kristoffer Ardena (ES/PH), Tania Bruguera (CU), Lado Darakhvelidze (GE / NL), gold extra (A), Hong-An Truong (US), Yoshinori Niwa (JP), Saviana Stanescu (RO/US)


The exotic subject, whatever it may be, is first assigned two essential qualities, namely the great distance between the analytical entity and the formal unusual/weird characteristics. But the farther an object is from the analyst, the less worthy it becomes of being examined. The proposition of knowledge is substituted by the proposition of indifference and superficiality of being known. When we talk of nation-states-societies we can easily say that pursuing naively an utopian system of values, one could imagine that exoticism implies a certain type of reciprocity between subject and analyst. Somewhere along the way a vague connection is established between the one being determined and the one that determines. Nonetheless Western society has assumed the role of absolute analyst. Thus, the type of relation towards the apparently exotic space modifies its assessment parameters... Therefore throughout history, exotic space was a locus of social, economic and political experiments, generated by utopian ideas and ideologies. The hypothesis of potential for non-Western space to transform into a social paradise was demolished by twentieth-century history through violent and traumatizing arguments. Utopia, whether a concept, an idea, a semblance or a reality can be regarded as such: the exotic can be treated as an utopian subject precisely due to the lack of reciprocity between analyst and subject. In this sense Utopia of Exotic, an inquiry into what the two terms mean nowadays, explores economic, social and political aspects of what Western society considers exotic land or culture, trying to underline the utopian character of the term exotic. (Extras from the text 'Utopia of Exotic' by Andrei Craciun, from the publication with the same title).

Publication: 'Utopia of Exotic' with texts by Anne Alexander, Tania Bruguera, Andrei Craciun, Walter Mignolo, Saviana Stanescu. Edited by PAVILION - journal of politics and culture, English/Romanian, 80 pages, B/W, 14,8 x 21,0 cm, softcover, 4 EURO / 12 RON.

The exhibition is supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest.