WHO TOLD YOU SO? !
stories of collectivity vs. individual narrations
13 April–27 May 2012
“Who told you so? ! ” #1 Truth vs. Government
“What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars”
—Mikhail Gorbachev
8 June–15 July 2012
“Who told you so? ! ” #2 Truth vs. Organisation
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool”
—Stephen King
Onomatopee projects
Bleekstraat 23
5611VB Eindhoven
The Netherlands
Who told you so? ! is the 2012 Research project year-program featuring four group shows, delivering four chapters of social ambiguity.
The truth vs. government, organisation, scene and family: about the secularisation of stories of social cohesion through individually processed hybrid flows of information.
Living through ambiguity and searching for cohesion: this is where we pair up the increasingly hybrid character of the points of reference by which we narrate our personal identities, together with our need for stories that allow us to engage in social cohesion (government, organisation, scene and family) and proceed to confront these traditional social structures.
A project wherein Onomatopee unleashes various designers and critics to highlight specific fields of ambiguity as stories of social cohesion: on the level of government, social organisation, scene and family. On these stages, we are challenged by texts and images to approach the narrations of our identity and stories of our cohesion. In four group shows that function as chapters Onomatopee attempts to take an in-depth look into the story and the narration: our individual play with sources of information and the desire for social cohesion.
Onomatopee 75.1: Research Project
“Who told you so? ! ” #1 Truth vs. Government
“What we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars” – Mikhail Gorbachev
With: Aleksandra Domanovic (SI / DE), Foundland (NL), Gokce Suvari (TR), Group R.E.P. (revolutionary experimental space) (UA) Lieven De Boeck (BE), Mauro Vallejo (ES), Monika Löve (EE / UK), Slavs and Tatars (INT)
+ Project specific texts by Dr. Jonathan Short and Matteo Lucchetti
+ Project specific poem by Joost Baars
Curator/editor: Freek Lomme
Exhibition design: Dave Keune
Graphic design: Novak Ontwerp
Made possible thanks to: Municipality of Eindhoven and Mondriaan Fund
This first chapter of our year-long Who told you so‽ program focuses on the story of Truth vs. Government. The stories that construct our national identities become arguable as they are overrun by an extreme flow of global data exchanges via Internet, social media, travel and migration. Humanity has become global as the stories we deal with on a daily basis arise from everywhere across the globe. We generate our own narration through these in an eclectic manner, intuitively. Identities are configured from the bottom-up, throughout the lively narrations of the multitude. Meanwhile national and supranational governments attempt to offer identities in which we can find cohesion, just as the “European” storyline is trying to postulate something of a Jewish/Christian/humanist body.
This first chapter takes on the visual and textual narrations that are able to question the official story and help us to produce our individual narrations. They provoke us to doubt the context in which the story of the government presents itself, and allow for speculation and new relationships through which we are able to playfully recount the configuration of the narrative. It stimulates us to go beyond our own pleasantly eclectic narratives as well as the constant stream of “official” stories.
A publication and conference on the entire project are scheduled for the end of the year.
Opening hours: Thursday–Sunday, 13–17
Press contact: Freek Lomme, phone 0031(0)651722003, email: freek [at] onomatopee.net. Press release available online.
