After Neurath: Like sailors on the open sea
Gerd Arntz, Bureau d’études, Alice Creische & Andreas Siekmann, Stephan Dillemuth, Chad McCail, Oliver Ressler, Thomson & Craighead
February 25 thru April 8, 2007
Opening hours: Wednesday thru Sunday 12-5 pm
Stroom Den Haag
Hogewal 1-9
2514 HA The Hague
The Netherlands
T 31-70 3658985
info@stroom.nl
www.stroom.nl
In recent years there has been a renewed interest in the work of the Austrian utopian philosopher Otto Neurath (1882-1945), in fields as various as fine art, design, philosophy, cultural theory and urban studies. With the After Neurath project Stroom poses the question what Neurath, this architect of modernity, this social engineer, can teach us today. The exhibition brings together a group of artists whose work engages with the implications of the work of Neurath. They investigate the possibilities of collectively building a better future, the unification of different fields of knowledge and emancipation through organisation. Subjects closely linked to the social-democratic ideals from the past, which now, at the start of the 21st century tend to be submerged in a culture of individualism, consumerism and indifference.
Gerd Arntz (G/NL) who collaborated with Otto Neurath and Marie Reidemeister (AUT) on the development of Isotype. The exhibition also shows examples from the International Foundation for Visual Education in The Hague, founded by Neurath during the years he lived in The Hague (1934-40).
The Bureau d’études (F) shows the latest in a series of works that make the usually invisible links between the institutions that shape our lives (industry, governmental agencies) visible.
Alice Creischer & Andreas Siekmann (USA/G) show a series of collaborative works that use the forms and language of Neurath and Arntz to ask questions of contemporary relevance.
Stephan Dillemuths (G) recent work is concerned with groups that came to be collectively known as the Life Reform Movement. Within them they held the kernel of contradictory ideas, like bohemianism, modern socialism and nazism.
Chad McCail (UK) puts up a discussion about a money-driven world using cartoon-like imagery.
Oliver Ressler (AUT) engages with concepts and models for alternative economies and societies, which all share a rejection of the capitalist system.
Thomson & Craighead (UK) question the idea that the use of templates for example for the web – generates knowledge.
The curator of After Neurath is Steve Rushton.
For more information check out the After Neurath web dossier on www.stroom.nl. Here you will find a comprehensive biography and bibliography of Otto Neurath, texts relating to the After Neurath symposium which took place in 2006, background information on the artists in the exhibition and various web links.
The exhibition is made possible in part by: Mondriaan Foundation, city of The Hague, Embassy of Austria, Goethe-Institut Rotterdam, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
Stroom Den Haag focuses on the urban environment from the viewpoint of visual arts, architecture, urban development and design.
