23 Jun 2011

Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen presents GETTING AHEAD. ART LANGUAGE CINEMA MIGRATION

GETTING AHEAD. ART LANGUAGE CINEMA MIGRATION
RAINER BELLENBAUM, FARIDA HEUCK, ACHIM LENGERER, SUSANNE M. WINTERLING

curated by ANDREI SICLODI

June 10 - July 23, 2011
KUNSTPAVILLON, Innsbruck, Austria

GETTING AHEAD. ART LANGUAGE CINEMA MIGRATION deals with the intertwining nature of art, language and cinema before the background of migration and identity questions: how are language positions constituted? How is language policy applied as a technique of government, how is the sense of belonging to a 'we' cultivated in the media? Who and where is inside or outside? And what defines the relations between inside and outside? On the one hand, 'getting ahead' defines the fundamental driving force behind the phenomenon of migration. In this context, however, the phrase also stands for subjectifying and a thought process relevant to differentiated perception and a deeper understanding of our life in post-colonial society.

GETTING AHEAD. ART LANGUAGE CINEMA MIGRATION is being produced by the International Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen. The exhibition evolved from debate with the projects, artistic ideas and working methods of the participants in the Fellowship Program 2010-2011. Their approaches, fields of investigation and artistic themes represented the starting point for the deliberations. The aim of the curatorial concept was a step-by-step development of the exhibition's themes and presentation, parallel to the progression of the participants' projects.

FARIDA HEUCK deals with the conflicting field of art and politics in multimedia site- and context-related installations. She sees her work as an interface between actual conditions of migration and its representation in the media. The focus is on questions regarding the attribution of identity in everyday life, stereotyping, and the resulting criteria of inclusion and exclusion. In Büchsenhausen she worked on the project 'Linguistic Policy as a Technique of Governance,' which is about the development of multilingual utopias, whereby the emphasis is on equality for the languages and cultures of migrants and refugees. Starting out from the introduction of the Red-White-Red Card decided on by the Austrian National Council at the beginning of May and the resulting 'Integration Amendment', Heuck conceived a demonstration for multilingualism in Austria, made in Maria-Theresien-Straße in Innsbruck on 21st May 2011. A commission supposedly appointed by the government to prepare the 'Multilingualism Amendment' and the subsequent introduction of obligatory courses in migrant languages for all Austrians discussed this plan in public space. The installation 'A Profitable Challenge' transfers the conference table from public space into the art context and shows two live recordings of the looped action. By taking up the positions of the relevant speakers at the table, it is possible to listen to individual statements by the members of the commission.

SUSANNE MARTHA WINTERLING's work concerns links between individualized identities, social power structures, and architecture – or rather their expression in artistic production. For the exhibition Getting Ahead she developed a several-part spatial installation especially for the Kunstpavillon. On the one hand this examines the specific urbanity of the City of Innsbruck and the gender attributions inscribed into it; on the other hand, it concretizes the abstract relation between inside and outside in different constellations in order to shake the foundations of this relationship. She makes use of visual, acoustic and olfactory means in her work. The back wall of the Kunstpavillon's interior is covered like a skin by a photographic image of Innsbruck's night skyline in modernist black and white, the foreground of which is dominated not only by Zaha Hadid's Hungerburg railway station but also by its phallic bridge supports, while a church tower flanks the background. The perception of this spatial transposition from outside to inside is intensified by a noticeable smell of asphalt in the room. A table with a teapot standing on it provides a reference to the Kunstpavillon's original function as a teahouse. On the other side, a 16mm projector shows a film loop of a bird's nest on reflecting foil, a folded white cloth placed in front of it. The nest flutters slightly in the wind again and again, only to be blown away completely at the end of the sequence. This play with light reflections and surfaces, the fragility of the nest and its impossible anchorage in one place trigger numerous associations and create a dialogue with the works by Farida Heuck and Rainer Bellenbaum.

Media scientist, film and art critic RAINER BELLENBAUM worked in Büchsenhausen on his book project 'Cinematographic Action.' In this book he investigates the impulses, potentials and effects of cinematographic action, as articulated in today's practice of gallery and installation film in particular. The focus of this art-/film-critical piece is on works by artists whose oeuvre is characterised by their own experiences of migration.

For the exhibition GETTING AHEAD Bellenbaum produced the experimental video 'Audience Post / Cinematographic Action.' Starting out from a local television report about immigrant youths from North Africa, whose legal identity is apparently defined only by means of their criminal record, Bellenbaum investigates the media construct of belonging to the 'we' on the basis of further interviews with those involved and the use of deconstructive montage techniques.

In his work ACHIM LENGERER is concerned with language-related questions, which he examines in performances or spatial installations. In Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen he worked on a book publication in 'narrative script form', a further development of or rather approach towards an already existent script: François Truffaut's and Jean Gruault's 'L'Enfant Sauvage' from the year 1969. The film is based on the life story of wolf-boy Victor von Aveyron as recorded by a doctor treating the deaf and dumb, Jean Itard. Itard attempted to teach the child writing, reading and above all how to speak. The subject of Itard's notes is this attempt at civilisation, which ultimately failed, and his own pedagogical methods. In the film version, Truffaut - who worked close to Itard's notes - took an acting part for the first time, in the role of Jean Itard. In the role of Victor, after a long drawn-out casting procedure, Truffaut worked together with a Sinti-Roma boy, Jean-Pierre Cargol, who had no experience of acting, either. In this way, Truffaut doubled the chain of motifs while making his film: teaching, learning, teacher, pupil in a self-learning experiment in front of the cameras.

The installation 'ZOOOOM – Little Body Heart Beating I: Rehearsals with Sally' presents the 'Scriptings' publication of the same name produced in Büchsenhausen. It consists of a reprint of the film magazine 'L'Avant-Scène' No. 107, Oct. 1970, which was devoted to 'L'Enfant Sauvage,' and a 'script,' which consists of conversations and descriptions of situations from rehearsal sessions with Sally. Another part of the exhibition are props from the performance IRIS FADE IN, which took place at the opening in Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen on June 9, 2011, and the audio recording of this performance (in cooperation with Ö1 Kunstradio, kunstradio.at).