Horizontale Durchlässigkeiten
September 5 - October 11, 2009
Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil, Switzerland
Photo: Umberto Romito
 |
 |
 |
In this exhibition, the works presented at *KURATOR do not relate to the space itself. Rather, they refer to locations that are not directly recognisable and that do not share a specific geographical link. In this respect, the show Horizontale Durchlässigkeiten (horizontal permeabilities) stands as an artificial collection of pieces and stories, brought together by chance encounters.
Here, experiences related to specific places have been transposed to a new location, namely the one of *KURATOR. This lies in the nature of all exhibitions, as displacement is naturally involved in their constitutive process. In this show, however, the theme of displacement is integral to the pieces themselves. «Elsewhere» is not present as a representation, but rather as a fundamental part of the works.
The geographical locations to which the pieces refer are neither directly identifiable, nor explicitly elaborated upon, although they do play a central role. The video by Elodie Pong results from her experience during a residency in Cairo, which led the artist to reconfigure into her own visual language the difficulties she experienced with communication. Haegue Yang evokes in her installation After-Image «a double of something that has forgotten its name» whereas Rosalind Nashashibi, who followed a boat crew on a voyage of several weeks, deals with her practice of film as «a performance and a ritual during which [she is] attempting to connect with where [she is] and with what happens».
The expression «vertical permeability» is a term coined by sociologists to describe the possibility of upward social mobility. «Horizontal permeability», in turn, does not exist as such. One could imagine, however, this expression to describe the action of extending one's activities beyond one's own social realm or culture with no intent toward economic profit. Permeability does not lead to the fusion of two elements, but rather describes what happens when a porous border allows two substances to encounter one another.
The three artists display works generated by their approach of elements, which belong to distant surroundings and at the same time become part of their own artistic practice. In the final exhibition of the year-long program Correspondences, links between the works are established as the viewers project their own subjectivities onto the pieces, mimetically building up new sets of relationships between the works.
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the city Rapperswil-Jona, Ortsgemeinde Rapperswil-Jona, Kanton St.Gallen, Swisslos, AVINA STIFTUNG, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
Press release, Alte Fabrik, 2009
Exhibited work
Non-Foldings – Side Effects and By-Products, 2007