“Chartreuse jeune”. An intervention by Olaf Nicolai with contributions from Julieta Aranda, John Armleder, Elisabetta Benassi, Karla Black, Monica Bonvicini, Thomas Demand, Jason Dodge, Dora García, Piero Golia, Douglas Gordon, Karl Holmqvist, Carsten Höller, Jonathan Monk, Carsten Nicolai, Mai-Thu Perret, Anri Sala, Kelly Schacht and Tilo Schulz
“The world wishes to be deceived, certainly. Yet if you don’t, it will be seriously angry.”
These are the last sentences of Walter Serner’s manifesto “Letzte Lockerung” (“Last Loosening”), first published 90 years ago and accompanied by the following subtitle in its final version in 1927: “A Handbook for the Con Man”.
At a time when Dadaism had arrived on the art market, Serner’s text performs the valediction and parting from this movement, in order to propagate subtle speculation, devoid of illusions, as a strategy of self-assertion from then on. At the outset, he suggests that each reader consume a heavy meal of several courses before reading, served with the digestif Chartreuse jaune.
This forms the initial reference for Chartreuse jeune, the title heading Olaf Nicolai’s intervention at the Casa Tabarelli, a private residential building in the vicinity of Bolzano designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1967 which has remained relatively unknown until today. Nicolai has invited seventeen artists to create works specifically for this location and occasion which he in turn will implement according to their instructions. The range of the repertoire spans from a subtle gesture over the installation of objects to performance.
The composition of Chartreuse jeune thereby creates a camouflage that transforms the history and atmosphere of the building, whereby the exact line of the border between pre-existing interior and intervention remains unclear to the visitor.
Chartreuse jeune is a contribution to the exhibition project “Kritische Komplizenschaft /Critical Complicity” curated by Julia Moritz and Lisa Mazza in cooperation with lungomare, Bolzano. In this context, Nicolai’s work particularly emphasises the animation of the “critical complicity” as a strategy of confusion and attraction of attention focused in this case on the Casa Tabarelli—an architecturally highly significant building that to this day is not treated as a cultural heritage worth conservation by the public authorities.
The opening of Chartreuse jeune will take place in form of a dinner by invitation only on Sunday, November 28th 2010. After that, the Casa Tabarelli is open for visitors by appointment until December 5th.
Casa Tabarelli, Schöne Aussicht/Strada Belvedere 13, 39057 Girlan/Cornaiano
Tel. +39.335.676.5553
Additional information: www.lungomare.org
