[spectre] exh. Knowbotic Research: Room for Manoeuvre, Skuc, Ljubljana

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Galerija Skuc, Ljubljana, October 5 - 27, 2006

Knowbotic Research - 'Room for Manoeuvre'
four vehicles: white_sovereign, passion_cleaner, tiger_stealth, blackbenz

Exhibition opening: Thursday, October 5, 2006, 20.00 h


The exhibition 'Room for Manoeuvre' is the new solo-show of the 
artist group Knowbotic Research (KRcF), known for their advanced 
network and media works since the founding of the group in 1991. In a 
specially designed audio-visual installation including four video 
projections, 'Room for Manoeuvre' presents four of the 'vehicles' 
that Knowbotic Research have developed for their current projects, 
and places these vehicles in a series of hypothetical scenarios. The 
exhibition explores the meaning of codes and actions in public 
spaces. It proposes possibilities for acting through strategies of 
transcoding in these spaces of power, of scientific knowledge, of 
surveillance, and spaces of migration. Going beyond these 
possibilities, the show suggests to the audience that such 'vehicles' 
might in fact be used for other, self-designed strategic purposes.

The projects “naked bandit / here, not her / white bandit" (2004/05), 
“Passion 5" (2005), “be prepared! tiger!" (2006) and “BlackBenz Race" 
(2006-) use different vehicles to act as catalysts for such 
transcodings: in the first case it is an autonomous flying robot 
which produces technologically coded forms of sovereignty under the 
conditions of a (university) research laboratory; in the second case, 
a street cleaning machine clears up the petrified political passions 
of a May demonstration; the amateur-built stealth boat, invisible for 
radar, processes the intercultural translations between the US 
stealth bomber and the tactical speedboats of the Tamil Tigers; and 
in a car race, a caravan of black Mercedes cars traverses the 
translocal conditions of the Albanian space of migration. The term 
transcoding describes the translation of abstract facts and 
conditions which usually evade public representation, into temporary 
visibilities that can be dealt with. These facts cannot be described 
by simple representations in clearly defined, local contexts, but 
require networked scenarios within which they can be reflected and 
acted upon.

In the exhibition, some original vehicles (white_sovereign, 
tiger_stealth) are on display, as well as the 'Adaption KITs' with 
which normal vehicles can be transformed into passion_cleaners and 
blackbenz. The atmospheric and metaphorically rich short film loops. 
They are projected in four separate rooms of the gallery, each 
showing one of the vehicles in action, pointing to potential 
applications that they can be put to. Brochures and printed tableaus 
offer information about the vehicles in the form of manuals through 
which their usages can be further explored. A specially designed 
sound environment developed together with Roly Roos and Joana Aderi 
traverses the entire gallery and sends echoes and acoustic 
reverberations of the different projects through the exhibition space.

The text publication accompanying the exhibition includes essays by 
Andreas Broeckmann, Stefan Riekeles, Giaco Schiesser, Sabine Schmidt, 
Felix Stalder, Stefan Wagner, and Knowbotic Research.

Exhibition by Knowbotic Research (Christian Hübler, Alexander 
Tuchacek, Yvonne Wilhelm) in collaboration with Simon Jaquemet, Roly 
Roos, Joana Aderi, Peter Sandbichler, Yannick Fournier

Curated by: Andreas Broeckmann and Stefan Riekeles (assistant)

Production: Skuc Gallery in cooperation with Knowbotic Research
More about the group: http://www.krcf.org

Supported by Bundesamt für Kultur BAK - sitemapping, Pro Helvetia, 
Kunst Öffentlichkeit Zürich, 'PubliCity' - 29. Duisburger Akzente, 
Kulturforum der Österreichischen Botschaft Laibach

The programme of Skuc Gallery is funded by the Ministry of Culture of 
the Republic of Slovenia and the Cultural Department of the City of 
Ljubljana.
________________________________________________________________________________
Galerija Skuc - Stari trg 21 - 1000 Ljubljana - T: +386 1 251 65 40 - 
http://www.galerija.skuc-drustvo.si