Marc Camille Chaimowicz
“Enough Tiranny Recalled, 1972 – 2009″
September 29 – November 14, 2009
Artists Space Reopening September 26, 7 – 9 pm
Artists Space reopens on September 26, 2009 with “Enough Tiranny Recalled, 1972 – 2009,” by Marc Camille Chaimowicz, his first institutional exhibition in the United States of America.
During the 1960s, Marc Camille Chaimowicz (born in postwar Paris) was one of the first artists in the UK to merge the realms of performance and installation art. In the early 1970s, Chaimowicz commented on an era predominantly defined by stark minimalism with an unabashed pursuit of the beautiful, establishing an art that was both playful and subtly seductive. Informed by French literary figures (Gide, Cocteau, Proust, and Gênet) as well as contemporary Marxist and early gender theory, Chaimowicz’s beautiful and terrorizing post-pop scatter environments owe as much to glam rock, as it was a direct response to the political, and artistic dogmatism of its time.
“Enough Tiranny,” conceived in 1972 (the founding year of Artists Space), was a proposal that aimed to bring about new models of collaboration and sociability, attempting to question the alienation between viewer, artist, and institution. Not unlike installations by his contemporaries, such as the Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, Chaimowicz’s works require a level of participation on behalf of the audience as well as the institution.
In the otherwise monochromatic environment of the early 1970′s, Chaimowicz developed an artistic language that responded to the dogmatism of its time by taking both political and emotional dimensions into account. His work speaks to the basic units by which we trade private desires with social hopes: building the texture of a communal existence.
The remembering, the revisiting, and the recalling of works from different periods of Chaimowicz’s life is integral to his way of working. “Enough Tiranny Recalled, 1972 -2009″ demonstrates that “the future will, in all probability, fold itself into the past to better accommodate itself in the present.” (Marc Camille Chaimowicz)
Artists Space is pleased to announce the appointment of Stefan Kalmár as executive director and curator as of June 2009. Over the past two months, the organization has seen rapid and fundamental change on all levels.
Marc Camille Chaimowicz lives and works in London and Burgundy. Recent one person exhibitions include: Vienna Secession (forthcoming); De Appel, Amsterdam; FRAC, Bordaux; Ann Zee, Ostende, Centre D’art Contemporain La Synagogue, Delme; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Norwich Gallery. Selected group exhibitions include the 5th Berlin Biennale and the Tate Triennial, London.
Stefan Kalmár (*1970) has held positions as Director of Kunstverein München (2005-2009), Director of Institute of Visual Culture, Cambridge UK (2000-2005), and Curator of Cubitt Gallery, London (1996-1999). He has curated numerous exhibitions, including “The Secret Public, The last days of the British Underground 1978-1988″ co-curated with Michael Bracewell and “Oh Girl It is a Boy,” co-curated with Henrik Oleson and The Archive of Stephan Willats co-curated with Emily Pethick. He has also worked with numerous artists on a range of projects including: a survey exhibition of the work of Allora & Calzadilla, the exhibition project “Beugung” with Wolfgang Tillmans, and the first European survey exhibitions of Hilary Lloyd and Duncan Campbell. Stefan Kalmár is the editor, together with Daniel Pies, of the forthcoming publication “Be Nice Share Everything Have Fun” (400 p; 4c Walther Koenig), which will discuss the curatorial approach during his directorship in Munich.
Artists Space would like to thank:
Marc Camille Chaimowicz and Cabinet, London
Charles Asprey, Esq., the British Council, and Cultural Services of the French Embassy for supporting this exhibition.
ifau & Jesko Fezer, Berlin & Common Room, NYC for developing the new architecture for Artists Space; Dominique Perret of Up-Rite Construction and his team, for realizing it.
Jonathan Caplan for his valuable advice.
Louise Bourgeois, whose generous contribution made the redesign possible.
Manuel Raeder, Berlin, for the design of Artists Space’s new graphic identity.
Ed Halter & Thomas Beard of Light Industry, Brooklyn for working with us on curating the new film program for Artists Space in 2009/10.
Dexter Sinister (Stuart Bailey & David Reinfurt, LA and NYC) for co-organizing a series of seminars, lectures and presentations to take place throughout 2009/10.
Artists Space will be launching the series, “From the Archive of Artists Space”, presentation of materials from the institution’s 37 year history of over 700 exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks, and other events. The first iteration will feature floor plans from the institution’s former locations as well as documentation of an architectural intervention by Michael Asher from 1988; curated by Jess Wilcox
Allora & Calzadilla, Ei Arakawa, Julie Ault, Lutz Bacher, Michael Bracewell, AA Bronson, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Cerith Wyn Evans, Matthew Higgs, Nicholas Mauss, Nils Norman, Ken Okiishi, Primary Information, Yvonne Rainer, Carissa Rodriguez, Jon Savage, Sean Snyder, Emily Sundblad, and Pier Luigi Tazzi for selecting the first titles to the new Artists Space library and bookshop.
Artists Space is funded, in part, by contributions from Louise Bourgeois Trust; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Cowles Charitable Trust; Credit Suisse; Herman Goldman Foundation; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland; Luhring Augustine Gallery; Betty Parsons Foundation; Starry Night Fund of Tides Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and the National Endowment for the Arts.
We thank our Members, Promoters, Benefactors, and Board for supporting Artists Space’s program.
