Connect. Art between Media and Reality
14 July–11 September 2011
Seestrasse 395
8038 Zurich
Switzerland
T 41 44 481 59 50
F 41 44 481 59 51
info [at] shedhalle.ch
with: Stefan Baltensperger, Maia Gusberti, Felix Stephan Huber, Esther Hunziker, Anja Kaufmann and Roman Häfeli, knowbotiq, Marcus Maeder and Jan Schacher, Norient (Thomas Burkhalter with Michael Spahr and Simon Grab), Max Rheiner, Myriam Thyes, Ubermorgen.com, Christoph Wachter and
Mathias Jud
Curators: Anke Hoffmann, Yvonne Volkart
Smart technologies, everywhere available and tailored to our needs, determine our daily lives. We gossip, have affairs, send and receive our information electronically. Even support for revolutions is stoked up virtually. Mobile phone, Email, WLAN, Apps, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter define not only our communication behaviour, but even our very existence. The world has become more transparent, we are always any time anywhere, at least we think we are.
We have long suspected, or known, that freedom is deceptive and that we are paying a high price for it. The software may be user-friendly and social, but it is limited, and predefined. And anyone or anything that cannot be found digitally falls completely off the radar of our perception. Access to a free exchange of information is regularly interfered by (censorship) criteria.
Media art deals like no other art form with the debates and effects surrounding the medialisation, virtualisation and globalisation of our world, utilising its own hybric media and resources. Artists set their sights on the potentials for self-empowerment offered by digital media technology or generate these themselves, in provocative or poetically seductive constellations. The exhibition brings together 13 media art projects supported by the Swiss supporting programme for media art Sitemapping that underline the commitment of art media art, develop progressive media aesthetics and are interrelated with the question of subjectivity in a new world of media and machines. They offer suggestions as how we could interact with the world differently, whether digitally or on foot.
The exhibition and the published catalogue are a cooperation of the Shedhalle with the program Sitemapping / Bundesamt für Kultur (BAK).
August 27–September 11
Der Pfad zur linken Hand, a walk-in audio play in the Alter Botanischer Garten Zurich, by Marcus Maeder and Jan Schacher
( Tue–Fri 10 am to 1 pm and 2 to 5 pm, Sat 2–5 pm, Sun 11 am–5 pm)
September 3, 4 pm
Book Launch of the exhibition catalogue, a publication by BAK and Shedhalle in occasion of the exhibition “Connect” and with art theoretical contributions and over 70 artist pages
Premiere of the art project erich, an augmented reality-installation by Max Rheiner
September 3, 7 pm–1 am
Lange Nacht der Museen
Guided Tours with the curators: 7 and 8.30 pm
7 pm–1 am: erich, premiere of the augmented reality-installation by Max Rheiner
10 pm: Sonic Traces: From the Arab World by Norient
A live produced audio-visual performance about music, noise and protest in the Arabic World. Live produced and arranged by journalist Thomas Burkhalter, musician Simon Grab and VJ Michael Spahr. (running time: 70 min)
For further information and press material please contact:
Angela Wittwer, assistant curator: aw@shedhalle, ++41/44 481 59 50.
Programme Support:
Präsidialdepartment der Stadt Zürich, BAK, Migros Kulturproduzent,
Zürcher Kantonalbank
Opening Times: Mon–Tue closed, Wed–Fr 1–5 pm, Sat–Sun 12–6pm
