17 Mar 2010

Martin Krenn - In between the movements at Likovni salon

Center for Contemporary Arts Celje

Martin Krenn
In between the movements
Likovni salon, 11.3. – 11.4.2010

The Austrian artist Martin Krenn explores and probes socio-political subjects, focusing on strategies and methods of resistance to the governing relations of power. In this, he makes use of different media, mainly photography, video and the internet. His projects are realised in the form of exhibitions, internet projects and interventions in the public space. He studied electronic music and applied art at the University of Vienna and since 2006 he is a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Likovni Salon Celje will present his project In between the movements in the form of an installation. In between the movements, the beginnings of which reach into 2007 is a work in progress and also accessible over the Internet. The work looks at the networking that is taking place between global justice movement groups and researches the corresponding practices and their influence on theory. The installation will be represented by twelve video interviews and accompanying posters. The four most recent ones, including the work that tackles the discriminatory trends in the Slovenian local context and was prepared especially for this exhibition, will be shown for the very first time in Likovni Salon.
The videos and posters that comprise the project In between the movements emerged in close cooperation with activists from various geographic and cultural environments, who provided an insight into the various aspects of resistance against the existing power structures. The project looks at the criminalization of left-wing movements and activists who participated in the anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa 2001 and Heiligendamm 2007, the lack of a genuine civil society in Albania, the necessity of queer politics and anti-discriminatory demands, the history of political art in New York in the 1980s and 90s and its influence on the contemporary activist and artistic practices, the special situation of Israelian activists within the movement of globalisation and the role that can be ascribed to Israelian artists in post-nazi countries, the forms of resistance shown in order to prevent the scheduled demolition of a small agricultural village that would make way for the new railway between Hong Kong and mainland China and the several forms of resistance aimed against the privatization of the pavilion at Union Square New York, which is intended for free public speech.

A new work work that discusses local issues and exclusion policies was made especially for the exhibition in Likovni Salon. In cooperation with Jelka Zorn, a sociologist and lecturer at the Faculty for Social Work in Ljubljana and Irfan Beširević, who is the head of the civil initiative of the erased and who was also erased, this work will research the issue of the erased in Slovenia. The interview with them is the continuation of the interview with the researchers and activists Jelka Zorn and Jasminka Dedić that was recorded by Martin Krenn in 2003. The erased is the name of a group of people who were (on 26th February 1992) erased from the register of permanent inhabitants by the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia and were moved onto the list of aliens and with this were stripped of their legal base for existence (legal address, work, medical and social insurance, child education, etc.). Prior to the Slovene declaration of independence these 25,671 individuals were legal inhabitants of the Republic of Slovenia. In 1999 the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia ascertained that the erasure from the register of permanent inhabitants was an illegal act. The tragic story has not reached its conclusion even 18 years later.

The project is a part of the series of exhibitions with the common title (Un)covered on the edge. The series deals with various forms of discrimination in contemporary society and represents a contribution to the reciprocal respect of various cultures and social groups, as well as the respect of human rights, dignity and equality. Artists Maja Hodošček, Igor Grubić and Tal Adler are also participating in the project. The series of exhibitions brings together artists who follow the ideas of democracy, social justice, equality and harmonious coexistence and see art and the art system as a platform for raising awareness and influencing social and political changes.

Martin Krenn (1970) lives and works in Vienna.