The SOS GATE – Territorial Phantom
Exhibition: RE:LOCATION / SHAKE State Affair
at Center for Contemporary Art, Linz/Austria
28.5.-25.7.2004
Opening: 27th of May, 7 PM
THE SoS GATE – TERRITORIAL PHANTOM
“What are you building? I want to dig a corridor. Progress must occur. My location is too high. We’re digging the shaft of Babel.” – Einstürzende Neubauten
Alluding to Franz Kafka’s novel The Castle, the German band Einstürzende Neubauten sang of the “shaft of Babel.” Kafka’s tower in The Castle opens upwards, as if the residents confined there had “broken through the roof and stood up …, to show themselves to the world.” Kafka’s inversion is the idea that progress can only occur when the overly high location on the tower is abandoned. The concept of the shaft, or the inverted tower, is the opposite of the territorial ivory tower. The politics of representation, both old and new, are opposed not by something widely visible or central, but by the construction of something invisible, namely by discourse and dissent, by conflicting publics. Against the towering symbol of political loftiness it is necessary to dig a hole that bores its way deep into the earth – a space where no one can arrogate to having a Big Picture of global events, where progress and identity develop through leaving an over-elevated location and finding access to underground lines and systems. The inverse tower is a location of currency, of present becoming, a tower that bores its way into today’s world.
The State of Sabotage creates a transnational tunnel for the cultural centers OK (Linz) and Villa Arson (Nice), adapted to national/local significance and characteristics of state identity. Made visible by two SoS manhole covers, each in front of the entrance of the two cultural centers, Linz and Nice will be connected by a virtual tunnel system. Manhole covers in both towns have their own characteristics that, marked with engravings and historical coats-of-arms, identify a state-organized signal and utility system.
The SoS state is everywhere. Utilizing a few manhole covers, this infiltration of established systems is performed as an abolishment of state-regulated land ownership and demarcation. The SoS manhole cover is a state border shift (Austria/France), a new state demarcation (SoS), and an artistic sculpture by Robert Jelinek – a transnational entrance on national territory.
The manhole covers will be installed in the ground in front of, or near, the main entrances of the OK (Linz) and Villa Arson (Nice). The manhole covers should remain on location permanently as lasting signals of the transnational relation to the “re:locations” as a model for living.
SHAKE State affair – The exhibition
The aspects of the topic are marked by the special features and idiosyncrasies of national constructs. History, tradition, culture and language are constitutive and identity-forming motifs that are continually repeated and performatively created.
An essential part of belonging to a “community” are “stereotypes – notions and images, “representation” – for example, national celebrations and “language” as criterion for inclusion or exclusion. Artistic proposals and counterproposals that subvert the status quo and projects dealing with territorial borders and border shifts round out the theme.
List of Artists:
Adel ABDESSEMED, Dennis ADAMS, Saâdane AFIF, Kader ATTIA, Stéphane BERARD, Candice BREITZ, Jota CASTRO, Wong Hoy CHEONG, Antonio GALLEGO, Jens HAANING, STATE OF SABOTAGE/Robert JELINEK, Dorit MARGREITER, Lisl PONGER, Julian ROSEFELDT, Juan Esteban SANDOVAL, SOCIAL IMPACT, STALKER, Niek van de STEEG, Tim SHARP, Ben VAUTIER, Luca VITONE, Jun YANG
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