[spectre] Irwin Retroprincip, Berlin, Thu, Sept. 25, 2003, 7 pm

[Inke Arns]

Irwin Retroprincip 1983-2003
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Mariannenplatz 2
D-10997 Berlin
Sept 26 - Oct 26, 2003
Opening: Thursday, Sept 25, 2003, 19 hrs


Press Release

The five-person painters’ collective Irwin today occupies one of the
most important positions in the contemporary art of Eastern
Europe. Irwin, whose art represents a controversial debate on
historical experience and commonly accepted narratives of art
history, can now look back on a twenty-year body of work.

Irwin, along with the music group Laibach (*1980), the performance
group Gledališèe Sester Scipion Nasice (* 1983), today known as
the Kozmokinetièni Kabinet Noordung, and the design department
Novi Kolektivizem, comprises one of the core groups within the
artists’ collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), established in
1984 in the Slovenian republic of the Federal Socialist Republic of
Yugoslavia. Influenced by the theories of the Slovenian Lacan
School, which developed in the 1980s around the philosopher
Slavoj Zizek, NSK became an important part of the subculture
scene of Ljubljana.

As with the other groups within NSK, Irwin is committed to the so-
called ‘retro-principle’. This retro-principle is “not a style or an art
trend but a principle of thought, a way of behaving and acting.”
(Irwin) This means, to be more specific, that the visual language
developed by Irwin in the 1980s consists almost exclusively of
visual elements quoted from Western and Eastern European art of
the 19th and 20th Centuries. Irwin employs motifs from Socialist
Realism and the art of the “Third Reich”, from the various politically-
engaged European avant-garde movements including German
Dadaism – in particular the artist John Heartfield –, Italian Futurism
and Soviet-Russian Constructivism, as well as from religious art
and Slovenian art of the 19th century. These elements are then
combined with the Laibach leitmotifs: eagle, stag, sower, little
drummer, and the black cross of the Russian Suprematist Kazimir
Malevich. Irwin assembles these motifs from such varied origins in
complex and multi-layered oil paintings in heavy frames.

Since its inception, the group Irwin has been involving itself
extensively with the art history of Eastern Europe in its artistic
projects, in particular with the ambivalent inheritance of the
historical Russian, but also southern Slavic avant-garde and its
totalitarian successors, and thus with the dialectic of avant-garde
and totalitarianism. Following the creation of an individual visual
language in their appropriation projects of the 1980s, the group has
been concentrating since the 1990s on a critical examination of the
art history of “Western Modernism,” countering it with the “retro-
avant-garde” of a fictive “Eastern Modernism” which, in its own
obvious artificiality, points to the artificiality of Western art
historical structures that continue to exclude contemporary
Eastern European art to this day.

Irwin: Retroprincip 1983–2003 marks the 20-year existence of the
group Irwin; at the same time, it’s the group’s first large solo
exhibition in Berlin, 15 years after their debut exhibition in Germany
at the Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf in early 1989 curated by
Jürgen Harten. 15 years have passed in which the group Irwin – not
least driven by the political changes and upheavals following 1989 –
has redefined its concepts from the 1980s (“retro-garde,” “over-
identification”) and developed important new projects and concepts
for the 1990s and 2000s.

Through a combination of projects from the 1980s, 1990s, and
2000s, and supplemented by a film and video program on Irwin and
Neue Slowenische Kunst, the exhibition Irwin: Retroprincip
1983–2003 unites Irwin’s most important work complexes and
offers a comprehensive representation of a body of work rich in
change and highly complex in terms of subject material. Thus, it
marks a premiere not only for Berlin, but for all of Germany and the
rest of Europe, as well.

------------------------------------------

Irwin: Retroprincip 1983-2003

Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
Mariannenplatz 2
D-10997 Berlin

Sept 26 - Oct 26, 2003
Wed-Sun 2-7 pm
Opening: Thursday, Sept 25, 2003, 19 hrs

{ HYPERLINK "http://www.bethanien.de" \t "_blank" }www.bethanien.de

Curator of Irwin:Retroprincip 1983-2003:
Inke Arns, Berlin

Curator (Irwin Icons):
Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana

Exhibition preview (press):
Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Thursday, September 25, 2003, 11 am


Further exhibition venues:

Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen
Nov 15, 2003 - Jan 4, 2004

Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
April 17 - May 17, 2004

Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana (Irwin Icons)
July 2004


Website:
{ HYPERLINK "http://www.irwin-retroprincip.de/" }www.irwin-retroprincip.de


Catalogue:
On the occasion of the exhibition Irwin: Retroprincip 1983-2003 a
comprehensive catalogue documenting Irwin’s 20 year long activity
will be published in German and English.

Inke Arns (ed.)
Irwin: Retroprincip 1983-2003
ISBN 3-936919-51-8 (German)
ISBN 3-936919-56-9 (English)
Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt/Main, September
2003
267 pages
ca. 110 colour reproductions
30,5 x 24,5 cm
ca. 25 €


Film- and video program:
A video and film program about Irwin/NSK complements the
exhibition. It is screened during the opening hours of the exhibition
in Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Studio 2).


Contact:
Inke Arns
mikro e.V., Tel: +49-30-69 50 52 18, Mobil: +49-178-313 66 78,
Fax: +49-30-69 40 90 93, E-mail: inke at snafu.de

A project by mikro e.V., Berlin
Kindly supported by Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

Media partner:
Zitty, Berlin



Inke Arns, Pestalozzistr. 5
10625 Berlin, Germany
T +49-30-3136678, F +49-30-31017559
mobile +49-178-3136678, inke at snafu.de
http://www.v2.nl/~arns

Upcoming:
IRWIN: Retroprincip 1983-2003

*Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien*
Berlin, 26 Sep - 26 Oct 2003
*Karl-Ernst-Osthaus Museum*
Hagen, 15 Nov 2003 - 4 Jan 2004
*Museum of Contemporary Art*
Belgrade, 17 April - 17 May 2004

http://www.irwin-retroprincip.de

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes

Office Berlin:
T +49-30-69505218
F +49-30-69409093