[spectre] show in Zurich (Modified by Geert Lovink)

[Andrew Bucksbarg]

This is a reason to pluck out the "expanded eye," an institutional,  
cliched recipe generated by a Microsoft-like product... the same hit  
list with the usual $u$pect$... and to explore the "kinetic" while  
throwing out the (rest of) body... this is the collapsing eye, the  
uninspiring eye and the me, myself and I.

Sorry : )

> Press Release
> Zürich, 23 March 2006
>
> Kunsthaus Zürich shows ‘The Expanded Eye’
>
> From 16 June until 3 September 2006 Kunsthaus Zürich is showing ‘The
> Expanded Eye’, an exhibition looking at the ever-widening horizons  
> of the
> human eye in the age of its physiologically and technologically  
> extended
> faculties. The exhibition will comprise around 120 kinetic objects,
> paintings, film- and video installations from the 1940s to the present
> day. Alongside works by the Op Artist Bridget Riley, the Surrealist
> Salvador Dalí and the video artist Nam June Paik, there will also  
> be newer
> works by artists such as Pierre Huyghe and Sam Taylor-Wood.
> ‘The Expanded Eye’ directs the viewer’s gaze to the adventurous,
> exploratory side of art. Four decades after ‘The Responsive Eye’ in  
> the
> Museum of Modern Art, New York (1965), which presented Op Art to the
> viewing public, the artist’s eye is urging ever onwards,  
> untrammelled and
> with open relish. It reaches to the heights and to the depths, it  
> probes
> micro and macro realms, and with its newly liberated gaze uncovers  
> the new
> and the supposedly familiar. The title of the exhibition, chosen by
> Curator Bice Curiger, also recalls the book ‘The Expanded  
> Cinema’ (1970),
> which explored new departures in experimental cinema and undertook  
> a new
> form of structural analysis as cinema did away with timeworn  
> clichés of
> seeing and experiencing.
>
> KINETIC OBJECTS, FILM- AND VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
> Marcel Duchamp and Hans Haacke are represented in the exhibition with
> kinetic objects; films by Maya Deren and Jud Yalkut are screened  
> alongside
> video installations by Pipilotti Rist and Paul Pfeiffer. In  
> addition to
> paintings by Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley,  
> drawings by
> Henri Michaux, Markus Raetz and Thomas Bayrle, and spatial  
> installations
> by Gianni Colombo, Otto Piene and Olafur Eliasson, there will also be
> premieres of works created especially for this exhibition by Jules
> Spinatsch and David Renggli. Works such as François Morellet’s ‘40,000
> Squares’ (1963), specially reconstructed for the exhibition, turn the
> spotlight on a form of art that, instead of providing a vehicle for
> idealistic contemplation, invites the viewer to enjoy a purely
> physiologically induced visual experience. In the programme of
> accompanying events, the Kunsthaus will screen 16-mm films by Stan
> Brakhage, Tony Conrad, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Peter Tscherkassky  
> and
> others.
>
> THE EYE AND THE CHALLENGE TO OUR SENSE OF REALITY
> The eye is the dominant organ of our time; culture pays homage to our
> sense of sight, constantly increasing visual access and expanding  
> into the
> most diverse universes – geographical, physical, astral, cultural,  
> social,
> physiological. The eye is the measure with which we assess the world
> around us in the first – and often the last – instance. Satellite  
> images,
> websites, livecams, microscopes and telescopes: vehicles that  
> mobilise our
> sight and devices that aid our seeing have become second nature to  
> us. Our
> capacity to virtually and in reality extend our physical reach and to
> enhance our organs of perception has instigated a fundamental,
> far-reaching change in our understanding of reality.
>
> FROM THE EXPANDED EYE TO THE COLLECTIVE I
> Concepts such as active/passive, subject/object, public/private,  
> individual/
> collective have ceased to be distinctively different. Modern art  
> underwent
> a similar process at the turn of the 20th century, when it found  
> itself
> following a parallel track to the then latest scientific  
> discoveries in
> fields ranging from physics (Cubism) to psychoanalysis (Surrealism),
> reflected in the exhibition with works by Marcel Duchamp and Josef  
> Albers.
> There has always been art that responds to the sharpened vision of the
> contemporary sciences, that pressed forwards and posed questions.
> Kunsthaus Zürich is taking stock of the current state of affairs.  
> For the
> delimitation of the eye has implications for the artists’  
> understanding of
> their role, as long as they are actively empathetic towards their
> addressees. Art itself is always contemplated from outside. Its  
> game is
> about exchange: the changing roles that result from changing  
> perspectives.
> The ‘expanded eye’ becomes the ‘collective I’ and, as such, draws the
> viewer into its circle.
>
> LIST OF ARTISTS*
> Josef Albers, Thomas Bayrle, Monica Bonvicini, Gianni Colombo,  
> Salvador
> Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Olafur Eliasson, Karl Gerster, Ruprecht  
> Geiger, Dan
> Graham, Hans Haacke, Birgit/Wilhelm Hein, Garry Hill, Pierre Huyghe,
> Carsten Höller, Jon Kessler, Peter Kubelka, David Lamelas, Malcolm Le
> Grice, Julio Le Parc, Max Matter, Christian Megert, Jonas Mekas, Henri
> Michaux, François Morellet, Ronald Nameth/Andy Warhol's Exploding  
> Plastic
> Inevitable, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik,Warren Neidich, Philippe  
> Parreno,
> Markus Raetz, David Renggli, Pipilotti Rist, Gerry Schum, Robert  
> Smithson,
> Jean Tinguely, James Turrell, Victor Vasarely, Jud Yalkut, Jean-Pierre
> Yvaral.
>
> * Subject to change
>
>  PUBLICATION
> The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Bice  
> Curiger,
> Ina Blom, Diedrich Diederichsen, Kurt W. Forster, A.L. Rees and  
> Rüdiger
> Wehner. Available in German and English, this publication – in the  
> form of
> an anthology – contains artists’ statements by Lucio Fontana and Josef
> Albers, as well as theoretical essays by authors including Rudolf  
> Arnheim,
> Georg Kubler and Teilhard de Chardin, reflecting on art and perception
> research: 250 pages, 110 in colour, published by Hatje Cantz.
>
> The exhibition is supported by Swiss Re – Partner for contemporary  
> art.
>
> VISITOR INFORMATION
> Kunsthaus Zürich, Heimplatz 1, CH – 8001 Zurich, www.kunsthaus.ch
> Opening times Tues – Thurs 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Fri – Sun 10 a.m. – 5  
> p.m.,
> closed on Mondays
> Public Holiday: 1 August, open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
> Admission CHF 16.- / 10.- (concessions) / 12.- per head for groups  
> of 20
> or more
>
> Advanced Ticket Sales
> Switzerland: Kombi-Ticket RailAway/SBB with 10% reduction on rail  
> travel
> and entrance to the exhibition available at SBB stations and by  
> calling
> Rail Service on 0900 300 300 (CHF 1.19/min.). Groups rates also  
> available.
> Magasins Fnac, Tel. +33 1 4157 3212, www.fnac.ch
> France: Magasins Fnac, Carrefour, Tel. 0892 684 694 (0.34 €/min.),
> www.fnac.com
> Belgium: Magasins Fnac, Tel. 0 900 00 600 (0.45 €/min.), www.fnac.com
>
>
> For further information and visual materials, please contact
> Kristin Steiner
> kristin.steiner at kunsthaus.ch
> Tel. +41 (0)44 253 84 13