[spectre] Exhibition announcement: No Ifs, No Buts | 7 September, 19:00 - 21.30 pm

[Gulsen Bal]

*° *No Ifs, No Buts, 8 September - 3 October 2010





Opening: 7 September, 19.00 pm



Project curators: Gulsen Bal and Walter Seidl



Participating artists:



Esra Ersen

Daniel Knorr

Aglaia Konrad





The changing experiences with time and space formed the post-modern and
postcolonial subject, which, according to Fredric Jameson, has been exposed
to a loss of maps, and thus attaches less importance to the geographical
departure and arrival points than to interim stages, which are mostly
perceived in passing, yet producing significant visual, linguistic and
cultural codes of interaction, the economic transition flow of the past
decades necessitated an increased concentration on various forms of
signification in mainly urban environments.


In exploring the new ways of thinking about multiplicity of
subject-positions "that begins with the critique of its present conditions
('being') in order to embark upon the careful construction of mechanisms of
engagement ('becoming')"[1], we are interested in how this might offer the
possibility of a "new" space. This is intended to produce relational
entities in which an interrelation takes place as "an activity of an
un-framing [...] which leads to a recreation and a reinvention of the subject
itself."[2] This is where "identity-form" can be re-evaluated beyond
"I-other" dichotomy beyond representational boundaries.

This brings up a question: how is all this manifested within the realm of
creative practice and brought into the spaces of art?

Revealing the rapid transformation of several turning points in pursuing a
nexus that constitutes new forms of life within the framework of different
topologies is the starting point for the exhibition project No Ifs, No Buts,
which focuses on the geopolitical implications of what governs the walls of
the East and West divide. The questions of geopolitical topology find
themselves addressed in specific cultural conditions. The latter suggests
that the sensitiveness of these issues marks the production of cultural
spaces reflecting the respective representational politics. It is therefore
necessary to engage or share an artistic platform of discussion as one of
the remits of this multi-layered project. By discussing radical modes of
self-referentiality which allow No Ifs, No Buts, thereby forming
counter-strategies to globalised forces which restrict personal space, the
exhibition raises questions about trans-cultural forms of geopolitical and
economic conditions, which lead to a new mapping of terrains on a visual and
discursive level.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[1] O'Sullivan, S. and Zepke, S. Deleuze and Contemporary Art, Edinburgh
University Press, 2009, p. 2
[2] Guattari, F. Chaosmosis: An Ethicoaesthetic Paradigm. Translated by Paul
Bains and Julian Pefanis, Indiana University Press, 1995, p. 131

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*Participating artists: *

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*Esra Ersen*

Brothers & Sisters, video - 23'20"



In the video work *Brothers & Sisters*, Esra Ersen* *tries to challenge the
usual debates on the migration issue through taking a deeper look at daily
life of African refugees who were not able to realize their plans for
travelling to central Europe and live illegally in Istanbul in early 2000.
In this context Istanbul becomes the exit point where the city functions as
the emergence of transit conjunctures for the temporary state of the
immigrations beyond the precarious political agenda of status quo.



Ersen's artistic practice which is mostly built around interaction and
making the *"*demographic politics*" *visible has been a significant aspect
for the pre-production of this particular work. Ersen started filming after
spending four months of a dialogue period that define the existential
ambiguity with the participants of the work, and she has engaged with a
critique of the present conditions ('being') reflecting the tinted ignorance
of the immigration phenomena within Turkey through subjective stories.





*Daniel Knorr *

*Architecture Bucureşti 2001/2005*, photographs

* *

The work Architecture Bucureşti 2001/2005 consists of 26 unique photographs
made by Nea' Costică, a street portrait photographer, after the instructions
of the artist. The photographs deal with urban wasteland and the
construction as well as deconstruction of new and old buildings. The phase
of urban transformation of Bucharest is shown in these photographs, which
are made with an old-fashioned plate camera, referencing to the uniqueness
of each photograph, which exists in both positive and negative prints,
showing the ambiguities of Bucharest's changing urban outlook. The black-and
white images convey a spooky character of the town as a place where
corruption and dubious business is still under way. Meeting the standards
set by the EU is still a difficult task for a city, which has for a long
time been seen as Communism's most megalomaniac city, and which is gradually
adapting to the overarching European norms. Reforms in urban planning become
a task which still seems difficult to tackle with regard to the city's past
and future.

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*Aglaia Konrad*

*Desert Cities, *photographs**



Aglaia Konrad focuses a direct gaze on cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, and
Anwar el Sadat. This is not classic architectural or documentary
photography: her way of seeing things is unadorned and draws our attention
straight to the history of the real setting. The photographs show the
application of "modernist" principles to architectural development in desert
landscapes. They spotlight an improbable dialogue between imported models
and vernacular elements, constructions and sites, desert and communities,
modernity and tradition (catalogue description). People moving into these
buildings try to find a new exclusivity for social as well as living
standards. Yet, many of these new housing projects from the 1990s are
already falling into ruins and got abandoned; raising questions about the
necessity for such grand endeavours far from traditional traffic routes. How
do deserts attract attention and how easily are the dreams of utopian places
destroyed? Konrad's photographs are testimony to these unusual
developments.


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*supported by*:

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BM:UKK

Stadt Wien - Kulturabteilung MA 7

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*About us:*

Open Friday, Saturday 13.00 - 18.30 and open for the rest of the week days
by appointment only.

Admission free

* *

*Open Space*

*Zentrum für Kunstprojekte*

Lassingleithnerplatz 2

A- 1020 Vienna

Austria



(+43) 699 115 286 32



for more info: office at openspace-zkp.org



http://www.openspace-zkp.org



*Open Space - Zentrum für Kunstprojekte* aims to create the most vital
facilities for art concerned with contributing a model strategy for
cross-border and interregional projects on the basis of improving new
approach.
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