between two deaths & between two deaths: the festvial
exhibition: May 12, 2007 through August 19, 2007
festival: May 11 12, 2007
ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Lorenzstrasse 19<br> 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
phone: 49(0)721-8100-1200
info@zkm.de
www.zkm.de/betweentwodeaths
between two deaths
This ZKM exhibition, curated by Ellen Blumenstein and Felix Ensslin, will show a critical artistic reflection on the political, social, and cultural trend toward melancholic retrospection. The effects can be felt everywhere: in the expressions of conservative nostalgia, as well as in the social moods of stagnation, depression and anxiety. Boundless pessismism on the one side, state-ordered or self-help optimism on the other seem to be the general call.
In this situation contemporary art is thus read often as an enigmatic answer to a life that is always already traumatic or -with relief- there is talk of the return of the romantic understood as sentimentality and avoidance of politics. The positions gathered in between two deaths counter this interpretation by showing the current melancholic state of subjectivity as a figure that can be fragmented, crossed and passed through.
between two deaths shows positions that do not get stuck in the situation of the exhausted self (Ehrenberg) or with the new maladies of the soul (Kristeva). Each work interrogates the starting point of anxiety and stagnation, thus not denying the diagnosis. But beyond this, the artists reach with and through their work the zone between two deaths from where to critique the present and ask the question: What comes after? If people today find themselves in this zone, then the art assembled here shows that in this land of zombies there lies an emancipatory potential (Zizek).
Participating artists:
Rita Ackermann, Ulf Aminde, Sue de Beer, Walead Beshty, Martin Dam-mann, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Brock Enright, Barnaby Furnas, Luis Gispert & Jeffrey Reed, Nan Goldin, Dan Graham, Nicolás Guagnini, Elín Hansdóttir, Jutta Koether, Terence Koh, Erik van Lieshout, Ján Mancuska, Marlene McCarty, John Miller, Chloe Piene, Adam Putnam, Stephen G. Rhodes, Kirstine Roepstorff, Aïda Ruilova, Florian Slotawa, Javier Téllez, Mark Titchner, Ryan Trecartin, Jennifer West, Charlie White
Catalogue:
A comprehensive catalogue will be published by Hatje-Cantz to accompany the exhibition. It contains contributions by Sonia Arribas & Howard Rouse, Ellen Blumenstein, Alain Ehrenberg, Felix Ensslin, Dan Graham & Robin Hurst, Mika Hannula, Eva Illouz, Doreet LeVitte Harten, John Miller, Laurence Rickels, André Rottmann, Peter Weibel, Slavoj Zizek et al.
Ellen Blumenstein & Felix Ensslin (ed.): between two deaths, Hatje-Cantz, 2007, English, 330 p.
ISBN 978-3-7757-2003-8
Opening hours for the exhibition:
Wed-Fri 10am 6pm
Sat, Sun 11am 6pm
Mon, Tue closed
between two deaths: the festival
Opening festival for the exhibition project between two deaths with performances, film- and videoscreenings, lectures and concerts with Von Spar, Pluramon feat. Julee Cruise, Burning Star Core, Hecker & Haswell, Thomas Brinkmann, Carbonid Solo and DJ Strobocop (among others)
between two deaths: the festival takes a new path for art mediation. The dense program of performances, concerts, film- and videoscreenings, presentations, and discussions creates a space of diverse aesthetic experiences, which reveals the artistic positions in the exhibition as the hub of multi-layered contexts.
music In collaboration with the curators of the exhibition musician and composer Marcus Schmickler has put together a musical program. Next to his band Pluramon – with singer Julee Cruise, well known from various David Lynch productions – the line-up will feature DJ Strobocop, Von Spar, Carbonid Solo, Burning Star Core, Hecker & Haswell, and Thomas Brinkmann.
performance From the night of May 11 to May 12, the exhibition between two deaths will also be the site of performances specially developed for the festival by participating artists Terence Koh and Brock Enright. Also planned are music performances by the artists Jutta Koether and Rita Ackermann.
film- and videoprogram On Friday, the ZKM_cube will be the location for a videoscreening of works by bankleer, Nathalie Djurberg and Ryan Trecartin. Walead Besthy has conceived an extensive filmscreening titled After the Ends: Another Coldwar Slumber Party, which will be presented on Saturday.
lectures On Saturday, talks by participating artists will investigate the exhibition project and related themes, followed by a conversation with the curators Ellen Blumenstein and Felix Ensslin.
Press contact
Irina Koutoudis
phone: 49(0)721-8100-1220
fax: 49(0)721-8100-1139
e-mail: presse@zkm.de
