It's my hair and i can do what i want with it at Galerie Kamm

It's my hair and i can do what i want with it

With Lisa Holzer, Liz Magic Laser, Renzo Martens,
Pilvi Takala, Britta Thie and Jordan Wolfson
Curated together with Kirsa Geiser

Opening Friday, 28 February 2014, 6pm
1 March - 19 April 2014

'Under the hypnotic grimaces of official pacification, a war is being waged. A war that can no longer be called simply economic, social, or humanitarian, because it is total. And though each of us senses that our existence has become a battlefield where neuroses, phobias, somatizations, depression, and anguish are but a kind of defeated retreat, no one can grasp the trajectory of the battle or understand what's at stake in it. Paradoxically, it's because of the total character of this war - total in its means no less than in its ends - that it could be invisible in the first place.

To open force the empire prefers underhanded methods, chronic prevention, and the spread of molecules of constraint through everyday life. Its internal (endo) cop-ization clearly relays the general cop-ization, as individual self-control does social control. The new police are imperceptible because they're omnipresent.' 

Galerie Kamm
Rosa-Luxemburg-str. 45
D - 10178 Berlin
t/f +49 (0)30 28386464
INFO@GALERIEKAMM.DE
www.galeriekamm.de
tue - sat, 11am - 6pm

Don't Embarrass the Bureau at Lunds Konsthall

Don't Embarrass the Bureau
15 February–1 June 2014



Lunds konsthall
Mårtenstorget 3

SE-22351 Lund
 
Sweden



T +46 46355295

lundskonsthall@lund.se
www.lundskonsthall.se

Lunds konsthall is glad to present Don't Embarrass the Bureau, a group exhibition curated by Matteo Lucchettiand featuring artists who question the workings of bureaucracy, in the time of so-called "leaked democracy," by subjecting it to challenges that reveal how sensitive and even precarious it may be.

The title is borrowed from a novel from 1972. Its author, Bernard F. Conners, had then been a special agent of the FBI for eight years and claimed to have written the first book revealing all the Bureau's secrets at all levels. The main rule that all agents must internalize is: "Whatever happens, never ever embarrass the Bureau."

The secret services symbolize the highest degree of loyalty to an office, where the individual is expected to dissolve and vanish. Any act that embarrasses the Bureau—or any institution, organisation or office conscious of its reputation—will disrupt its regular functioning.

The artists and artists' groups featured in the exhibition at Lunds konsthall are Lawrence Abu Hamdan,Rossella Biscotti, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Luca Frei, Jill Magid, Metahaven, Song Ta, Jonas Staal, Superflex and Pilvi Takala. Moreover, the accompanying catalog contains special contributions by Trevor Paglen and Anna Scalfi Eghenter.

Superflex show a new work: a paper handed out to all visitors to make public the budget for Don’t Embarrass the Bureau.

Almost all these artists seem to ignore the title's imperative request by purposely contaminating an office (a workplace, a formalized function, a bureaucracy) with critical or ambiguous acts and thoughts. The works in the exhibition question the legitimacy of the structures that govern our social, political and economic life: from public administration to the corporate office, including Parliament and the secret services.

By doing this the artists also expose themselves, as professionals performing outside the operational field usually granted to them. Through their work they make us aware of a space that any citizen might decide to conquer, if only temporarily.

After WikiLeaks revelations, loud calls for transparency are now being heard, not least through the leaking of classified information, data from mass surveillance and other secrets from the Bureau. This is forcing contemporary bureaucracy to reorganize. The activism of Aaron Schwarz and others like him, and whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden, also inspire us to re-think how we perform our roles as citizens under a regime of pervasive and enforced visibility.

In November 2013 the curator presented his research behind this exhibition within the framework of the Para Site International Arts Residency in Hong Kong, in an event titled Hong Kong Whistleblowers Cluband comprising a two-part screening program and a discussion in the hotel where Edward Snowden was staying before going to Russia. The event thematized bureaucracy and embarrassment against the foil of Hong Kong as a diplomatic safe haven.

You can find more information about the research behind the exhibition at
www.embarrassthebureau.tumblr.com 

Tonight, you can call me Trish at The LAB Gallery

Opening reception Thursday 6 February 6pm – 8pm Exhibition continues 7 February – 22 March 2014 The LAB Gallery, brought to you by Dublin City Council, is pleased to present: Tonight, you can call me Trish A group exhibition curated by RGKSKSRG, recipients of the 2013/14 Emerging Curator Award. Featuring artists Alan Butler (IE), Mark Durkan (IE), Mary-Jo Gilligan (IE), Oliver Laric (AT), Rachel Maclean (UK), Eilis McDonald (IE), Brenna Murphy (US), James Ó hAodha (IE), Pilvi Takala (FI). The opening will be preceded by an artist talk with Rachel Maclean at 5pm, presented in partnership with the MA in Visual Arts Practices, IADT. The exhibition will be officially launched by Cliodhna Shaffrey, Visual Arts Advisor with the Arts Council. The show features works by International artists Oliver Laric, Rachel Maclean, Brenna Murphy, and Pilvi Takala; with newly commissioned interventions by Dublin-based artists Alan Butler, Mark Durkan and Eilis McDonald; and ephemeral events by Mary-Jo Gilligan and James Ó hAodha. Playing with precarity, performance, and the virtual as real, Tonight, you can call me Trish invites artists and viewers to move through multiple states of being. This is an exhibition created through plural agencies at work; artists are artists, diviners, designers, mediators; audience is viewer, believer, conspirator, user; curator is conceptualist, choreographer, strategist, inputter. With all the bluster of a one-night stand, Trish rides on the energy of art's own glossy promise, in a mashed-up, smashed-up, post-decorative dissolution of illusion. Tonight, you can call me Trish has been produced with kind support from Irish Art Courier and Kunstverein Düsseldorf. The LAB Gallery is supported by Dublin City Council and the Arts Council. For further information, please contact: Rachael Gilbourne/Kate Strain at rgksksrg@rgksksrg.com Or, The LAB Gallery, Foley Street, Dublin 1, Ireland Exhibition open Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm T: +353 (0) 1 222 5455 E: artsoffice@dublincity.ie W: www.thelab.ie       www.rgksksrg.com