[spectre] History Will Repeat Itself, PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, June-Sep 2007

[Inke Arns]

Dear Madam, dear Sir,
dear colleagues and friends,

we would like to cordially invite you to the opening of the exhibition

HISTORY WILL REPEAT ITSELF
Strategies of Re-enactment in Contemporary (Media) Art and Performance

on Friday, 8 June 2007, 19:00 at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund.

Introduction: Dr. Inke Arns, curator and artistic director of HMKV Dortmund.
-- After the opening, HMKV will serve you the finest music and drinks --

On Saturday, 9 June 2007 at 16:00 there will be talks (in English) by
-- Alina Hoyne (Melbourne), art theoretician who 
has just completed her dissertation on the topic 
of re-enactment
-- Rod Dickinson (London), artist who is 
participating in the exhibition “History Will 
Repeat Itself" with two installations.

Invitation card (PDF):
http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/_data/HWR_Einladung.pdf

We are looking forward to seeing you in Dortmund!

The team of
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
Dortmund


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


HISTORY WILL REPEAT ITSELF
Strategies of Re-enactment in Contemporary (Media) Art and Performance

Hartware MedienKunstVerein at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, Germany:
June 9 - September 23, 2007; Opening: Friday, June 8, 2007, 19:00


Concept: Inke Arns
Curated by: Inke Arns and Gabriele Horn
Co-curator: Katharina Fichtner


The exhibition “History Will Repeat Itself" 
illuminates current strategies of re-enactment in 
contemporary (media) art and performance, and 
presents the positions and strategies of 23 
international artists.

In general, a so-called re-enactment is a 
historically correct recreation of socially 
relevant events, such as important battles or 
other historical events. In a re-enactment, the 
audience that normally remains passive or at a 
certain distance of the documented event become 
immediate witnesses of a (repeated historical) 
event, which unfolds in front of their eyes, or 
they become participants in an action, in which 
they actively participate.

In contemporary (media) art there has been an 
increasing number of artistic re-enactments - the 
performative repetition or re-creation of 
historical situations and events. For example, in 
his work "The Battle of Orgreave" (2001) the 
British artist Jeremy Deller had a violent clash 
between miners and police from the year 1984 
re-enacted by ex-miners, ex-police and other 
re-enactors.

Unlike popular historical re-enactments, artistic 
re-enactments are not simply affirming what has 
happened in the past, but rather they are 
questioning the present via repeating or 
re-enacting historical events that have left 
their traces in the collective memory. 
Re-enactments are artistic interrogations of 
media images that try to scrutinise the reality 
of the images, while at the same time pointing 
towards the fact that collective memory is 
essentially mediated memory.

A cooperative project by Hartware 
MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) Dortmund and KW 
Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin, “History 
Will Repeat Itself" is the first comprehensive 
exhibition project on the subject of re-enactment 
in Germany.

Participating artists include:

Guy Ben-Ner (IL/DE)
Walter Benjamin (US)
Irina Botea (RO)
C-Level (US)
Daniela Comani (IT/DE)
Jeremy Deller (GB)
Rod Dickinson (GB)
Nikolai Evreinov (RU)
Omer Fast (IL/DE)
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard (GB)
Heike Gallmeier (DE)
Felix Gmelin (SE)
Pierre Huyghe (F)
Evil Knievel (US)
Korpys/Loeffler (DE)
Zbigniew Libera (PL)
Robert Longo (US)
Tom McCarthy (GB)
Frédéric Moser / Philippe Schwinger (CH)
Collier Schorr (US)
Kerry Tribe (US)
T.R. Uthco & Ant Farm (US)
Artur Zmijewski (PL)

In Dortmund, the exhibition will run in parallel 
(9 June - 23 September) to Documenta 12 in Kassel 
and skulptur.projekte muenster in Munster, 
Germany. The venue of the show is PHOENIX Halle 
Dortmund, a spectacular 1895 factory hall 
measuring 2.200 square meters belonging to a 
giant former steel production plant.

The media art exhibitions organized by Hartware 
MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) since 1996 have received 
international recognition. In 2007 HMKV has been 
nominated for the ADKV-ART COLOGNE Award for Art 
Associations (Kunstvereine). With its activities 
focussing on production, presentation, mediation 
and the discursive contexts of media art HMKV 
plays an important role in an international 
network focussing on contemporary art and media.

Please note that Dortmund is only 30 min. by 
train from Munster, and 2,5 hours from Kassel.

Later this year, the show will travel to Berlin 
and be on display at the KW Institute for 
Contemporary Art from 18 November 2007 until 13 
January 2008.


The exhibition History Will Repeat Itself is funded by the

Kulturstiftung des Bundes/German Federal Cultural Foundation
Kunststiftung NRW
Der Ministerpraesident des Landes NRW
NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal
Bundesamt fuer Kultur BAK (Schweiz)
Henry Moore Foundation
Pro Helvetia
British Council
Medion
Heinz (media partner)

The program of Hartware MedienKunstVerein at 
PHOENIX Halle Dortmund is supported by 
Kulturbuero and by Wirtschaftsfoerderung der 
Stadt Dortmund.

The cultural programs of KW Institute for 
Contemporary Art are made possible thanks to the 
support of The Governing Mayor of Berlin - Senate 
Chancellery - Cultural Affairs.

A catalogue will be published by Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle Kunst:
History will repeat itself. Strategies of 
Re-enactment in contemporary (media) art and 
performance, ed. by Inke Arns and Gaby Horn for 
Hartware MedienKunstVerein and KW Institute for 
Contemporary Art, Revolver - Archiv für aktuelle 
Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2007, 16,8 x 23,4 cm, 
Hardcover, many color ill., 191 pages, 
German/English, ISBN 978-3-86588-402-2

For more information, check out
http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_exhibitions/detail.php?nr=2104&rubric=exhibitions&

For press material, please contact Roland Kentrup, kentrup at zk.nrw-online.de


Venue and opening hours:
HMKV at PHOENIX Halle Dortmund (exhibition venue)
Thursday and Friday 11 - 22
Saturday and Sunday 11 - 20
Hochofenstrasse / corner Rombergstrasse_
Dortmund-Hoerde

How to get there / Map:
http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_contact_roaddescription/

Hartware MedienKunstVerein (office)
Guentherstr. 65
44143 Dortmund
Germany
T ++49.231.823106
F ++49.231.8820240
info at hmkv.de
www.hmkv.de



-- 

Dr. Inke Arns
Künstlerische Leiterin / Artistic Director
Hartware MedienKunstVerein
Güntherstrasse 65 * D-44143 Dortmund
T ++49 (0) 231 - 823 106
F ++49 (0) 231 - 882 02 40
inke.arns at hmkv.de
www.inkearns.de

Don't miss these shows when travelling (to) Europe this summer:

/////// History Will Repeat Itself ////// Strategies of re-enactment
in contemporary (media) art and performance, HMKV at PHOENIX Halle
Dortmund/D, 9 June - 23 Sep 2007, www.hmkv.de

////// irational.org ////// Tools, Techniques and Events 1996-2006,
CCA Glasgow/GB, 16 June - 21 July 2007, www.cca-glasgow.com