12 Nov 2014

Ursula Blickle Stiftung: 'A House of Passive Noise'

Including David Bennewidth/Sereina Rothenberger with Vicy Langmann und Anna Cairns, Tamy Ben-Tor, Libia Castro/Ólafur Ólafsson, Michaela Melián, Ben Rivers, Karen Mirza/Brad Butler, Jurgen Ots, Nina Rhode.

Through the medium of spatial installations, 'A House of Passive Noise' deals with the topics of refusal and social exclusion. These days, in a society dominated by the paradigms of productivity and self-optimisation, it is difficult to adopt a stance of noncompliance and a conscious refusal of aspirations like work motivation, fitness and personal responsibility. On the other hand, there is a large group of people who do not necessarily have the opportunity to 'participate' socially, whether it be, for example, due to financial restrictions, nationality or illness. Together with the invited artists the project poses the question of: what place does a stance that opposes functionality, productivity and conformity have in our society? How can a conscious refusal to constructively participate within societal and economic guidelines be taken seriously?

For the exhibition, Michaela Melián has developed a new audio work, which has its origins in the opera 'La Bohème' by Giacomo Puccini. Central to her work is the image of the doomed beauty, who becomes even more attractive to her lover as a result of her ailing health.

At the Ursula Blickle Foundation the Spanish-Icelandic artist couple Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson are presenting their 'Partial Declaration of Human Wrongs', in which they deconstruct the claim to internationally valid human rights and, with biting sarcasm, they refer to global political shortcomings in recent history.

Consciously chosen refusal, on the other hand, makes itself felt in the work by American performance artist Tamy Ben-Tor. She often slips into different roles herself in her videos and for the exhibition she will appear as an exaggerated American East Coast intellectual who assumes the jargon of the international art scene in order to exaggerate the utter meaninglessness of supposed concept art. The English artist couple Karen Mirza and Brad Butler also deal with conscious refusal. Since 2007 they have been developing different, often performative projects together under the title 'The Museum of Non Participation'. In the exhibition, they will be showing, amongst others, the video 'Hold Your Ground', in which they react to the protests of the Arab Spring and define and recreate gestures, instructions and forms of behaviour from the protests as a physical-communicative act. The exhibition 'A House of Passive Noise' will be framed by three performative interventions, each of which picks up on a thematic focus. The detailed schedule of events will be announced soon.