curated by_vienna
The Century of the Bed: Points of View
October 3–November 11, 2014
Opening: Thursday, October 2, 7pm
Galerie Ernst Hilger
Dorotheergasse 5
1010 Vienna
Austria
Curated by Alenka Gregorič
Artists:
IRWIN/Marina Abramovic, Vuk Ćosić, Mladen Stilinović, Fokus grupa, Raša Todosijević, Vlado Martek, Anton Kannemeyer, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Jannis Kounellis
According to art historian Ernest Gombrich, image perception is a complex process that requires many human skills, whether innate or learned. The process of perception includes a number of stages, all of which are part of the so-called “perception cycle.” This is a circular flow of information that takes place between the organism and its environment, every action causing changes in the environment which dictate further action through the process of perception and the processing of information.
Complex consideration is also promoted by the starting premise of the key concept of the curated by project—the bed as the dominant object of our living space, where we spend more and more time. Reflection on the role of the bed depends on the perspective of the subject; his historical, geographical and social environment. The bed as the place where the private and public, rest and action merge into one, like a jail which we inhabit for most of our lives, is the controversy of the determined/Western part of the world, which makes it a “first world problem.” Meanwhile performing a variety of activities in bed (mostly via the social networks), a person also does work in the literal sense of the word, for example, draws a model of a soccer ball, a person on the other side of the world that makes this ball—a physical object therefore, participates in that part of the production process where the bed often represents luxury.
Nowadays, idle lounging in bed is also a luxury. At a time when productivity is almost exclusively valued, laziness has become a despised human trait. This is what makes the statement by Mladen Stilinović “There is no art without laziness” so relentlessly essential in the modern market-oriented art world of hyper-production. The bed as a place to express fantasies or as a commentary on the capitalist paradigm of culture? The basic premises of the work by Vuk Ćosić and the IRWIN group do not arise from the supposition of the bed as a place of desire, nor does the work of Raša Todosijević, with its meaningful title Schlafflage, nevertheless the context of their placement dictates the way these artworks are read. Poetic connotation is key in the works of Vlado Martek, whereas the polemics concerning the utopian ideas of history can be discerned in the work of Fokus grupa. Art is always part of a wider picture of the space, time and context of presentation. Essentially it all depends on perspective.
Contact:
Michaela Padratscher
T +43 15125315 / F +43 15139126 / michaela.pedratscher [at] hilger.at
