04 Sep 2012

Exhibition: "Hidden Publics" at Motorenhalle. Project Centre of Contemporary Art Dresden

The exhibition Hidden Publics investigates the different moments of perceiving public space and its inherent structures, which coin the urban cityscape, but are not necessarily visible as such. The artists in the exhibition question the structures according to which the public is constituted, implying different political and social patterns based on aesthetical assumptions as arbitrary moments. How can visible aspects of a city and its surrounding space refer to the hidden background? How can different, social, political or tourist-oriented purposes appear on the surface of a traditionally conservative yet identity-generating cityscape?
Hidden Publics analyzes a specific kind of otherness, or in a Lacanian sense, the reverse side of the mirror, which is necessary to understand the whole identity of the self with its inner tensions and conflicts. How can moments of urban life be visualized as a whole, i.e. how can their inner and outer structures be revealed as the results of incoherent strategies of organization?
The artists in the exhibition hint at the dichotomy between the visible and its actual meaning for the public. How thoroughly have outer structures be observed to fathom the contents of the reality behind? The artistic works present counter views pointing at the disharmonic moments, which can only be revealed on closer examination and which hint at the social and political barriers behind architectural facades. The photographic apparatus or the camera serves as tool for observation. The media of photography and video with their direct relation to reality become decisive factors to determine the contents of visible everyday scenarios.
The Dresden part of the exhibition has been extended and changed slightly. The Motorenhalle in Dresden will be again a partner in an international cooperation project, but stresses its own focus and put it in an international context. Besides the presentation of artists from Germany and especially Saxony and Dresden, it is important to ask the question of the exhibition in a local and regional context to enable the visitors a particular approach to the topic. In cooperation with the curators the list of works and artists has been revised and it was formulated a Dresden focal point.
Artists like Stefanie Busch (Dresden) and Markus Dorfmüller (Hamburg) who have dealt extensively with the topic for the last years will have the chance to create new works or supplements of a series for the Dresden exhibition.
But there will also be a new application area in the Motorenhalle (the 'blind spot'), which will use Armin Linke and Christoph Oertli to challenge the image and perception of the public.

CURATORS Dr. Walter Seidl, Dr. Andrea Domesle

ARTISTS
Pavel Banka (CZ), Jens Besser (D), Stefanie Busch (D), Markus Dorfmüller (D), Tomas Eller (A), Emil Gruber (A), Esther Hiepler (D) & Max Philipp Schmid (CH), Alena Kotzmanová (CZ), Martin Krenn (A), Tanja Lažetić(SLO), Jérôme Leuba (CH), Armin Linke (D), Małgorzata Łuczyna (PL), Ivan Moudov (BG), Warren Neidich (USA), Christoph Oertli (CH), Marketa Othová (CZ), Walter Seidl (A), Tobias Zielony (D)