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CONTROLLED DEMOCRACY |
performance, exhibition, and panel discussion 1 - 1 8 September 2004 Performance 1 September
2004. 15.30. Meeting Point: statue of Churchill, Parlament Square Sponsored by The Elephant Trust
Exhibition 1 - 1 8 September 2004 White Space Gallery in St Peter's Private View: 1 September (6 - 9pm) Controlled Democracy: Olga Chernysheva (Russia), Georgy Ostretsov (Russia), Claudia Kappenberg (Germany), Radek group (Russia), Superflex - FACT collaboration (Denmark - UK). Curators: Anya Stonelake, Nana Zhvitiashvili
Exhibition Open Mon - Fri, 11- 6, Sat 11- 5. Closed Sunday
Discussion 3 September
2004 18.30. White Space Gallery Tickets: £3.00, comcs. £2.00
White Space
Gallery in St Peter's,
Sponsors: Visiting Arts, Elephant Trust, The German Embassy in London, GAZPROM.
Controlled Democracy
'We - the
'nothing' not counted in the order - are the people, who are ALL against
others who stand only for their particular privileged interest'
White Space Gallery is pleased to present Controlled Democracy, a thematic group exhibition of Russian, Danish and German artists, which includes both new and site-specific works.
The title of this show derives from Vladimir Putin's call for the restitution of social and political order in Russia, after a period of 'wild' market capitalism in the country. 'Controlled democracy' has become the watchword for the recentralization of the state in conditions of faltering economic growth and the only choice for the people after dictatorship.
Controlled Democracy aims to reflect upon the role of the individual voice in democratic structures, and to explore the relations between individuals and the crowd in contemporary socio-political systems. At a time in Europe, when the concept of democracy and questions of a citizen's ability to both participate in and protest against the political system are so current, this exhibition offers works which consider what is at stake in the processes of modern democracies.
The exhibition will be accompanied by programme of special events and a catalogue with an essay by John Roberts.
Works in the Exhibition:
Olga Chernysheva's video Marmot, features an old Stalinist, who has fallen behind a march where her colleagues are protesting against capitalism in Russia. Bizarrely concentrated, she is sorting some indecipherable tiny crumbs in her palm (while Stalin's portrait rests casually under her arm). This video is accompanied by Beethoven's "Marmot" played slightly out of tune on the soundtrack. This work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001.
Claudia
Kappenberg
has created a new site-specific work using video footage of one of her
performances in Geneva. FLUSH will be installed in form of a video installation
in response to three original stained-glass panels in the east window
of St Peter's church. The stained-glass windows were designed by Edward
Coley Burn-Jones in 1880, and are depicting Christ and the Woman of Samaria
at the Well. St Peter's church was designed by James Gibbs in 1724.
Georgy Ostretsov will make a new work, a Demonstration performance in London, marching from the Houses of Parliament via Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus to the gallery. The artist has created new costume designs for what will be his first performance in London. The Virtual New Government (NG) of Georgy Ostretsov is a distinctly artistic reaction to the political processes in Russia. Ostretov has been developing the theme of new state system for 3 years through a series of performances and exhibitions dedicated to NG. The first exhibition of NG took place at the Marat Guelman Gallery in Moscow in 2002.
Radek will screen a video of their street performance Manifestation (2002), wherein an unwitting crowd of pedestrians who were waiting to cross a busy Moscow street find themselves co-opted as protagonists in a spontaneous political revolution. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE and ONE SOLUTION REVOLUTION proclaim the banners which were unfurled above their heads by the group, when all they were doing was hurrying to work. Radek will also show New Heads, photographs and sculpture from 2003.
Superflex
will
show Tenantspin, 30 min documentary film, about their webcasting project
with elderly social housing tenants and artists from 'Coronation Court'
in 1999, produced in Liverpool with FACT as a result of their Superchannel
project with programmer Sean Treadway. Superchannel is an on-line community
channel providing 'experimental space' and a variety of tools, from a
public chatroom to live video pictures, through which users can voice
their concerns, both local and global, for transmission worldwide. Content
on Tenantspin falls into two categories: artists' commissions that explore
the creative potential of the tenants and their new social networks and
The E-Democracy Seminar series that investigates the gaps between national
aspirations for the new communication technologies and the grass-roots
realities. Subjects covered have included money, The Hillsborough Justice
Campaign, restorative justice, fire safety, online voting, care, anti-social
behaviour, smart homes, CCTV, cinema and tenant participation.
Olga Chernysheva (Russia) (b. 1962) Past Exhibitions include 2004 Watch Out! Art from Moscow and St Petersburg, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; 2003 Moscow - Berlin, Martin Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin; 2002 Anti-Fashion, White Space Gallery; 2001 Venice Biennale; 1998 Galerie Christine Konig and Franziska Lettner, Vienna; 1997 Single Works, Galerie Singel 74, Amsterdam; 1993 Galerie Krings - Ernst, Cologne. Her work is in collections in Tretyakov State Gallery, Moscow, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; MOMA, New York; Photography Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Claudia Kappenberg (Germany) (b. 1963) Recent Performances, screenings and collaborations include Composition of the Arbitrary, performance Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Arts, London January 2004; The Disturbance of one System by Another, performance Brighton Fringe Festival May 2003; Double plush, performance 291 Gallery London 2003, Flush, performance Centre D'Art en Ile, Geneva, Switzerland 2002, Aeolus, film/video installation Aldwych Underground, London 2001, Turbulence Magnétique, video conference Alba University, Beirut, Lebanon 2001, Umbracadabra, performance at Hazira Performing Arts, Jerusalem, Israel 2001, Zim-Zum in taffeta, video installation and performance Gallery Piano Nobile, Geneva, Switzerland 2000 and Journeys, an educational video project with the deaf community, Camden Arts Centre, London 1999, with screenings at Tate Modern, London 2000 and abroad.
Georgy Ostretsov (Russia) (b.1967) Selected solo exhibitions: 2003 Eat, Silly, mural in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; 2003 Insurgents, Marat Guelman Gallery, Kiev; 2000 Visitor, the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Selected group exhibitions: 2003 Art Klyazma, Second Festival of Open-Air Art, Moscow Region; 2003 Investigation Through Art, Forum of Arts Initiatives, New Manege, Moscow; 2000 Youth Welcomes the 3rd Millennium, photo biennial, Moscow; 1999 Western Europe after the Berlin Wall, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; 1993 Contemporary Art Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey; 1987 Russian Non-Conformist Art of the 1980s, CIRC Society, Amsterdam. His works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic, St. Petersburg, Freud Museum of Dreams, St. Petersburg.
Radek Community
(Moscow): Maxim Karakulov (b. 1977), David Ter-Oganian (1981), Pavel Mikitenko
(1977), Petr Bystrov (1981), Valery Chtak (1983), Alexander Korneev (1980),
Alexey Buldakov (1980), Andrei Serguienko (1977), Vladis Shapovalov (1981).
Superflex
(Denmark): Rasmus Nielsen (b.1969), Jakob Fenger (1968), Bjørnstjerne
Christiansen, (1969)
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