22 Jun 2018

Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen presents: A PART THAT IS MISSING NEVER BREAKS

A PART THAT IS MISSING NEVER BREAKS
Matilde Cassani · Marianna Christofides · Julie Sas · belit sağ with Aşkın Ercan, Rezzan Gümgüm and Seçil Yaylalı
curated by Andrei Siclodi


Duration of the exhibition:
25 May – 28 July 2018

Venues:
Kunstpavillon, Rennweg 8a, 6020 Innsbruck
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Weiherburggasse 13, 6020 Innsbruck

Opening hours:
Wed–Fri 11–18, Sat 11–15


A part that is missing never breaks is an apparently apodictic assertion that, upon closer examination, reveals its paradoxical nature: the verb 'missing' indicates that the part referred to existed and was in use in the past. Through an unspecified degree of use, in fact „a part' could indeed potentially break. But as long as the circumstances leading to its missing are not clearer, however, the assertion cannot either be refuted. Therefore, the assertion and its potential truth operate in a space of meaning dominated by a supposed certainty, which can be perceived as such only through the process of its own emergence from the unspecific.

The exhibition A part that is missing never breaks debates possibilities of escaping from the prevailing visibility regime of the present, strategies of dealing with the unknown, with loss of reason and censorship as signifiers of our time, but also with forms of solidarity and (self-)awareness-raising. It aims at opening a discourse on the current status of social cohesion, on the valence of decisions of presence and absence, on the possibility of being able to make such decisions at all. The exhibition argues in favor of upgrading what we may not readily see as a necessary part of the given system, but the existence and availability of which determine any given social eco-logic.

A part that is missing never breaks is the outcome from the involvement with the projects and working methods of the participants in the Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen 2017–18, whose artistic approaches, procedures and themes formed the starting point of the exhibition concept. Marianna Christofides traced specific 'errant' manifestations of uncertainty, the various forms and different characteristics of which have been unfolding since the crisis year 2008 in South-East Europe. Against the background of a state of everlasting instability that became a societal norm by now, she inquired about the abstract place in which this uncertainty has been established, the implications triggered by such an analysis, and the modalities by which artists can approach a state that inherently opposes any kind of understanding. belit sağ explored the concept of 'censorship' as a contemporary state of mind. Starting out from her very own experience with censorship as an artist in Turkey, she invited three other artists from her country – who had all personally experienced censorship – to Innsbruck for a productive exchange. The project investigated ways in which the individual and emotional experience of censorship can be shared with others, what artistic tactics are appropriate when responding to such repression, what subjectivities generate censorship, and how this subjectivation takes its course through affect. In her project in Büchsenhausen Julie Sas was concerned with open forms of anonymity and invisibility, but also with concrete opportunities for withdrawal. Anonymity, invisibility, disappearance, avoidance, secrecy or silence were viewed as possible ethics and positions, as forms of opposition against a contemporary paradigm claiming to merge being and semblance on the one hand and value and visibility on the other. Finally, within the framework of a cooperative fellowship from Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen and argekunst.it, Matilde Cassani worked with communities of passionate cricket players living on both sides of the Brenner Pass, some for decades now, but, nevertheless, lack any public visibility. In a region where the leisure (=tourism) industry forms a dominant source of prosperity, the artist explored the conditions under which this sport is practiced as a spare time activity.

For additional information on the exhibition please visit our website: www.buchsenhausen.at/en/event/ein