curating.org
Master Project
Anna Fech
dissemiNATION
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Anna Fech
15 May–5 June 2015
Stadt Galerie Brixen / Galleria Civica Bressanone, Italy
Stefan Alber, Arnold Mario Dall’O, Käthe Hager von Strobele, Hubert Kostner, Erbossym Meldibekov, Gulnur Mukazhanova, Judith Neunhaeuserer, Slavs and Tatars, Alexander Ugay
The group exhibition dissemiNATION questions and discusses the notion of nation and related topics such as tradition, origin and identity. Through exchange, dialogue and encounters between the artists as well as with the local public the project is an attempt to create a platform that enables multi-layered situations and the coexistence of contradictions by breaking up bipolar structures.
In encyclopaedias “nation” is often described as an „ethnic community“ united by homogeneous characteristics such as common „history, culture, language which is situated often within a well-defined territory“. How fast this definition reaches its limits is visible in the example of South Tyrol, but also ex-soviet countries of Central Asia that were increasingly faced with questions concerning identity after the break down of the Soviet Union. Through the changing territorial history, a policy of transmigration and the merging of different cultural areas for both regions it is almost impossible to provide a coherent explanation to topics related to nationality and origin. Current developments such as globalisation and migration make the issue even much more complex.
The term «dissemination» is based on Jaques Derrida, who argued that a text – regardless of how often it is read – always creates a new level of meaning, thus its interpretation is inexhaustible. Homi Bhabha, a key figure of the postcolonial theory, works with Derrida’s term to question the notion of «nation» as a static, coherent and final construct. His attempt is to formulate a complex strategy of cultural identification that allows a contradictory localisation of the subject based on ambivalence and a double, or even multiple perspectives.
Based on this theory, the exhibition attempts to think beyond narratives of origin and borders, and to abandon binary structures in favour of a space that allows multi-layered situations. Instead of “classifying” and “gathering”, the concept therefore plays with the idea of “dissemination” and “spreading”.
Stadt Galerie Brixen / Galleria Civica Bressanone, Italy
In Cooperation with Südtiroler Künstlerbund
www.kuenstlerbund.org
The initiators are grateful for the generous support by Landes Amt für Kultur Bolzano, Community of Brixen, Tuchfabrik Mossmer AG, Durst Phototechnik AG and Joh. Barth&Sohn GmbH&Co.KG.