| Antje Weitzel on 8 Sep 2000 11:26:13 -0000 |
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| [rohrpost] September 15th - the body - between condition and construction - videoprogram |
The modern gene-, bio- and reproductive
technologies are currently inventing more and more ways of decoding, recording
and manipulating the human genome as well as ways of breeding and reproducing
parts of the body (genes, cells, organs and so forth). These developments
make the human body modifiable: from an indispensable, yet in its basic
constituents unchangeable fundament of human life it is turned into a project
governed by different aims. This opens the playground for a "policy of
the living" invested with various interests and attributions. Convergence,
private wishes and desires concerning health and procreation on the one
hand and economic interests on the other hand, make these developments
especially explosive, since they link the discipline of the modern body
with population control. Thus, a tremendous amount of power is attributed
to modern "reprogenetics", which intersperses society by means of seemingly
autonomous personal decisions.
What does this all mean to and for women,
whose bodies are one of the targets for life politics and who do suffer
from ist instruments, like contraception, prenatal screening, sex selection
or artificial reproductive technologies?
The increasing possibilities to change
the biological information by means of infringing on the genetic code of
humans, are approached particularly by artists using devices such as exaggeration,
cultural displacement, and voyeurism. The body becomes artistic material.
Experimentation with the self, examination, performance and dance are the
artistic ways of dealing with manipulation, mutation and identity. Among
other activities, we will show during the whole day several international
art-videos which take up this issue.
This day will be dedicated to specific
aspects of these developments that dramatically change our understanding
of the body and of human beings both at the level of experience and concepts
as well as at the level of politics.
the body - between condition and construction
an international videoprogram
September 15th, 10 am - 8 pm,
hall 3, Pavillon, Lister Meile 4, 30161
Hannover, Germany (at Raschplatz, north side of the main station)
presented by Antje Weitzel, Berlin
A range of videos from international artists
focussing on strategies and perceptions of the human body and their social
and cultural implications, will be shown. The hunan body can be seen as
a complex intersection of technological development with performances of
gender relations. Performative body acts reflect the dramatic changes in
gender-roles embedded in a
profound social change. The modern image
of the body is heavily shaped by technological discourse which itself alters
current bioproduction. The "Conditions of Photography" (Rosalind Krauss)
themself change along with the technological influence on society. Thus,
the body in photography, the media body is not the natural location of
identity any longer. New techniques such as video, post-production techniques,
computer animation make it possible to duplicate and replicate bodies endlessly.
The body and its image loose their natural condition and become technological
creations.
Artists working in the realm of new technologies
counter the technological challenge by subverting traditional meanings,
by means of rupture and ambiguity. Media-Art with its detachment from space
and body and its lack of fixed identities becomes a metaphor in an in-between-space.
Art can then be seen as intersection of the real, the imaginary,
and the symbolic.
artists Eija Lisa Ahtila, Sabin Baumann, Ursula Biemann, Dara Birnbaum, Monica Bonvicini, Helen Cho, Anja Czioska, Danica Dakic, Rineke Dijkstra,Tracey Emin, Esra Ersen, (e.) Twin Gabriel, Undine Goldberg, Eva Heldmann, Ursula Hodel, Anna Jermolaeva, Susanne Klein, Christine Kriegerowski, Elke Krystufek, Jannicke Laker, Zilla Leutenegger, Marisa Maza, Birte Meesmann, Chantal Michel, Angelika Middendorf, Ottonella Mocellin, NEID, Merrill Nisker/Peaches, Renata Poljak, Heli Rekula, Martha Rosler, Sandra Schäfer, Lara Schnittger, Berit Schweska, Sexismus Productions, Joulia Strauss, Annika Ström, Toril W. Goksoyr/Toril and Camilla, Tanya Ury, Sonja Wyss, ...
detailed information http://www.art-exchange-berlin.de/ifu-videoprogram http://www.vifu.de
contact Antje Weitzel, Schivelbeinerstrasse 27, 10439 Berlin, Germany, +49-(0)30-44731152, aweitzel@gmx.de
thanks to the
artists, AV ARKKI, Diana Baldon, Christoph Blase, Kathrin Becker,
The Finnish Film Foundation, Galerie Angelika Wieland, Galerie Mehdi Chouakri,
Peter Lang, Rüdiger Lange, Diego Castro Schindler, Alexander Sokolov,
Marina Sorbello, Beatrice Stammer, S.S.K. Joanna Kamm, Klara Wallner, Sabine
Vogel.