Shared Projects

New Social Sculptures 0: Archive of Shared Interests


12 February–15 March 2012
Marina Belobrovaja / Ursula Biemann / Corner College / Jeremy Deller / eggerschlatter / Finger (evolutionäre zellen) / forschungsgruppe f / Heinrich Gartentor / Hanswalter Graf / Fritz Haeg / Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller / Michael Hieslmair & Michael Zinganel / interpixel / Martin Kaltwasser & Folke Köbbeling / San Keller / Pia Lanzinger / Michaela Melián / metroZones / Peles Empire / Frédéric Post / Public Works / Alain Rappaport / raumlaborberlin / RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) / Oliver Ressler / Shedhalle / Erik Steinbrecher / support structure (Celine Condorelli and Gavin Wade) / Szuper Gallery / tat ort / Jeanne van Heeswijk / Markus Weiss

Projectspace enter, Kunstmuseum Thun
Inter/act: New Social Sculpture 0: Archive of Shared Interests
Opening with brunch
12 February–25 March 2012

In the series inter/act: New Social Sculptures we explore in three projects and one accompanying archive the relations between “the public,” cultural producers, curators, the institution, and the specific social context.This series in the projectroom enter starts with the Archive of Shared Interests, a collection of and research into contemporary artistic works along the thematic topic of “temporary communities.” In the following projects, Szuper Gallery (Susanne Clausen and Pawlo Kerestey), San Keller, and Jeanne van Heeswijk, in collaboration with students of the Postgraduate Programme in Curating and inhabitants from Thun, will produce new works which investigate the recent living conditions in Thun.

The artists selected (Szuper Gallery, San Keller, Jean van Heeswijk) have a focus in their work on social questions, have found new ways of collaborating with visitors in the aesthetic arena, and create work that approximates a conflict-oriented, sometimes ironical sculpture. Needs and concerns of the community are included. The answer may bring surprising twists with it.

The projects are developed with long preparation times to enable an intensive dialogue during the pre-production phase. The positions of curator, artist, and visitor will be developed collectively. The content of the work is not pre-determined and must be developed together. To stress the link to the local conditions, we also invited local people who have an important function in the local community.

Inter/act: New Social Sculpture 0: Archive of Shared Interests
The Archive collects contemporary artistic positions around the theme of community. It gives the opportunity for the public to get to known artistic and theoretical positions on social interaction and community. The students of the Postgraduate Programme in Curating will develop a mediation program for this purpose. It will cover about 30 artistic dossiers, as well as 30 publications. It was compiled in collaboration with the Institute for Theory and will be presented publicly for the second time in Thun.

Interviews with inhabitants of Thun.

Communities are defined by artists, scholars and urbanists as an antithesis to general society and its constraints, but they differ widely from one another in the roles they play. Whether the community is thought of as a secret utopia or as a threat to the individual, whether as a cooperative, a neighborhood or a societal group, and whether or not the res- pective community is to be dissolved – every time, a certain artistic, architectural or theoretical concept of community initiates a subtext directed toward the public. Certain actions are implicitly designated for the visitors, the users, the readers; the public is revolutionized, integrated, informed, instructed, involved or controlled. The archive is con- ceived as a project apparatus on the broad theme of “community,” an apparatus re- presenting different and contradictory approaches and points of view on the basis of which “community” can be discussed. The archive will serve prospectively as the project apparatus of a research project and is constantly expanded.

The artistic dossiers are accompanied by a project apparatus of 30 publications. They explore recent philosophical and theoretical discourses on communities.

The archive was initiated by Karin Frei Bernasconi, Siri Peyer and Dorothee Richter and supported by the Institute for Critical Theory, ZHDK.

Series curated by
Dorothee Richter in cooperation with curators of the Kunstmuseum Thun and students of the Postgraduate Programme in Curating, Zurich.