March 28, 2008

SoS-Territorial Phantom

From 28-03-2008 until 12-05-2008

AES+F Group (Russia), Cao Fei (China), Yolande Harris (UK), Marine Hugonnier (France, tentative), Lucas Lenglet (Netherlands), Rags Media Collective (India), State of Sabotage (SoS), Artur Zmijewski (Poland).

Montevideo – Netherlands Media Art Institute
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
T 020 6237101
F 020 6244423
E-mail info@montevideo.nl

Employing a whole mix of attitudes, viewpoints and forms, the artists in Territorial Phantom respond to occupying and possessing space. In today’s culture, based around claiming and possession, organizations, businesses and countries appropriate ever more space, by privatizing public space or bringing ‘democracy’ to countries, and where necessary eliminating opponents.

Specific zones such as a city, a mountain range, or simply a piece of paper are central to the artworks in this exhibition. Territorial Phantom is about not only physical, but also virtual and symbolic spaces. Spaces can be shaped and changed in character by political, cultural or personal interventions. In addition, places are often linked to personal and collective memory. They involve boundaries, or perhaps to put it better, thresholds, which extend beyond physical barriers or time. Territorial Phantom examines the ways in which the significance of a place changes through acts, emotions, dreams and memories. Or is it perhaps only our perspective which shifts? How do we ourselves deal with space, with occupying space, and how do we define our own position in a country and in regard to various territories?