14 Feb 2012

RÖDA STEN ART CENTRE presents PLATFORM #2 – On notions of space and inherent power relations

PLATFORM #2 – On notions of space and inherent power relations
Three exhibitions
11 February – 18 March 2012


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OBSTRUCTION
An installation by Gustav Hellberg

Obstruction is a project that narrates situations of physical and psychological impediments that we meet on our way through life. It creates a direct physical interaction leaving the viewer with a continuously changing image. The work is made out of standard aic road barriers, connected to a central control unit, which randomly regulates the opening and closing of the barrier arms. Sometimes adjacent barriers will open simultaneously, allowing easy walk-through access; at other times the opening of barriers creates a slow, complicated, or no walk-through situation.

Primarily, in its immediate and obvious perception, the artwork deals with different levels of demarcation, as it investigates people's habits of dividing and defining different areas, where blocking or allowing another's access is a demonstration of power. At the same time the artwork's unpredictable technical structure creates a metaphorical setting, referencing personal and existential states and unforeseeable altering situations, constantly inflicting on our lives.

The making of Obstruction has been made possible with generous support from Konstnärsnämnden/The Swedish Arts Grants Committee


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TEMPORARY STATUS – a project exhibition

The project Temporary Status started with travels to Moldova and Armenia, a region where the vision of a state is undergoing a continuous debate, where territories are yet in dispute and where the civil society is by default engaged in the political thought. The travels marked an exercise on imagining alternative socio-political discourses and a re-formulation of politics, other than the present construction of the political apparatus. Is the public square the only space for conversion of politics? Does the making of politics happen in relation to revolutions or elections, or does it have more to do with the continuous awareness of the social construction and its ellipses? And what about the often posed question of the impossibility of the artistic act within the realm of politics – when politics is solely understood as state and city regulations?

These and other issues unfold in the project exhibition. Three new works have been co-produced on this occasion, including a film by acclaimed artist Pavel Braila, a first installation by theatre maker Nicoleta Esinencu, inspired by the latest elections in Russia, and a new intervention by Gothenburg based artist Goran Hassanpour. The historical piece Art Demonstration of the Yerevan group 'ACT' is also presented in premiere outside of the former-Soviet space.

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Temporary Status – A project book on political imagination.

Contributors: ACT Collective, Pavel Braila, Nicoleta Esinencu, Diana Hakobyan, Goran
Hassanpour and Johan Tirén/Christian Hillesø.
Curator: Corina Oprea

Temporary Status is made possible with support from TANDEM (ECF, MitOst/Berlin), Konstfack – CuratorLab and Rumänska kulturinstitutet.


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WITHOUT/WITHIN
A site specific performance by Flytande Galleriet

…A void,
alone, a few and many
Hanging, pressed through the system
a piece that is a piece that is transported through narrow passages...

In dialogue with the exhibition room, a series of dramatic performances are carried out during the opening day. The works are documented and exhibited during the exhibition period along with several other performance videos by Flytande Galleriet. Without/Within is a series of embodied work that move through a landscape of facts and assumptions, where the exercise of power is beyond our immediate perception. What is hidden behind that which turns away, faceless – which both attracts and averts one's eye?

Flytande Galleriet is an artist trio in Malmö that moves freely and untied in the meeting between body, process, dance, performance art, concept, installation and text. They are locally based, working long-term with issues related to the physical and social space we find ourselves in.

Flytande Galleriet was founded in Malmö in 2010 by Miguel Cortés, Annou Nilson and Malin Skoglund.
Guest Performer: Siri Persson


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ABOUT PLATFORM

Platform supports artistic and curatorial research by showcasing a yearly selection of projects sent to Röda Sten Art Centre. It allows the institution to open up its own program for external proposals from artists, curators, performers and musicians, both Gothenburg based and international, making it possible to trace and highlight brave and groundbreaking ideas and ways of working across disciplines.

Project proposals may be sent to:
info@rodasten.com
or:
Röda Sten Art Centre
Röda Sten 1
SE - 414 51 Göteborg
Sweden