Elevator to the Gallows
at No Soul for Sale
Elevator to the Gallows
Julieta ARANDA, Tjorg Douglas BEER, Tobias BERNSTRUP, Monica BONVICINI, ERRÓ, Arfus GREENWOOD, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Christian JANKOWSKI, April Elizabeth LAMM, Annika LARSSON, Sara LUNDEN, Josephine MECKSEPER, Klaus METTIG, Olaf METZEL, Christopher MINER, Eric B. MITCHELL, Katharina SIEVERDING, Franz STAUFFENBERG, Costa VECE, Thomas SCHÜTTE, Agathe SNOW and others
23 – 28 June 2009
Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project at
‘NO SOUL FOR SALE. Festival of the Independents‘ by x initiative New York City
X Initiative, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
The installation ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS is positioned in the freight elevator of the building. The Elevator will be turned into an installation, a mix between KOROVA MILKBAR, MERZBAU, Daniel Spoerri`s TOPOGRAPHY OF CHANCE and Louis Malle`s ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS. Twenty people at a time can experience a 10 to 15 minutes fake-ride with the elevator. The artists have developed works for the elevator. All works are numbered. A small brochure features all works.
Reference: Daniel Spoerri`s Topography of Chance is based on numbered leftovers on a breakfast table in Spoerri`s hotel room one morning in Paris. He creates a story by putting together anecdotes about the people behind the things having been left on the table. The story turns around the everyday life poetic in the banal little stories and shows the relation between Daniel Spoerri, Emmett Williams, Dieter Roth and Robert Filliou.
One could call it a monument to the beauty of simplicity, true poetry and friendship.
Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar - Moving Image Works Program:
Ten Animal Films by Christoph SCHLINGENSIEF
presented by Anna-Catharina Gebbers
23 – 28 June 2009
Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project at
‘NO SOUL FOR SALE. Festival of the Independents‘ by x initiative New York City
X Initiative, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
The moving image works program Ten Animal Films by Christoph Schlingensief (presented by Anna-Catharina Gebbers) gathers for the first time only those films by the German artist which focus on animals. The pieces on view are included as revised versions in several works by Mr Schlingensief: ‘Nothing is finished, everything is transformation’ is a motto that could be applied to his whole œuvre. Earlier works and work situations are regularly absorbed into new works, re-interpreted and adopted for current contexts. For example his film ‘Hasenverwesung’ (hare decay) caused a scandal at Mr Schlingensief‘s staging of ‘Parsifal’ at Germany‘s prestigious Wagner Operafestival in Bayreuth: The film shows the cycle of life and death through maggots, which eat a hare corpse. Varied versions of the film piece occurred in later works.
The program on view presents ten of these pieces --partly as raw material, partly reworked and with sound/music added to the images-- which show animals: Seals filmed in Namibia, an enormous insect found on the streets of Manaus, a bat and a bizarre prehistoric looking fish also filmed in Manaus, Drosophila Melanogaster maggots, a penguin, German shepherd dogs, apes, an ostrich and the famous transformation of the hare through maggots.
Christoph Schlingensief (*1960 in Oberhausen, lives in Berlin) is Germany‘s most known and most revolutionary artists in the field of neo Fluxus and contemporary Happening Art, film, theatre and opera. His visual arts influences mainly stem from artists like Joseph Beuys and Allan Kaprow, while artists like Jonathan Meese are influenced by Mr Schlingensief. Originally an auteur filmmaker Mr Schlingensief was influenced and trained by the 1960s/1970s German Avantgarde film directors. Film is one of the major aesthetic devices for Mr Schlingensief‘s political plays, performances and art works. His most recent projects include major solo exhibition at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2007) and migros museum Zurich (2008), group shows at De Appel, Amsterdam, ICA, London, Athens Biennale (2009), stage works like ‘Jeanne D‘Arc’ (German Opera Berlin, 2008), ‘Mea Culpa - A Readymade Opera’ (Burgtheater Wien, 2008–09, Bavarian State Opera, 2009) or ‘Eine Kirche der Angst vor dem Fremden in mir’ (Ruhrfestspiele 2008, awarded with the participation at theater treffen Berlin, 2009), a book on his cancer disease, and at present the development of a festival hall for Africa (supported by the German foreign ministry and the German endowment for culture).
Anna-Catharina Gebbers is an independent writer and curator based in Berlin and a member of Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project.
NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents
June 24 - 28, 2009
X Initiative
548 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
T: 917-697-4886
www.x-initiative.org
Opening Reception: June 23, 6-9 pm with a performance by Martin Soto Climent
Opening time: June 24 - 28, 2009, 1-9 pm
FREE ENTRANCE
Held at X from June 24 through June 28, NO SOUL FOR SALE – A Festival of Independents will bring together the most exciting, creative and respected not-for-profit centers, alternative institutions, artists' collectives and independent enterprises from around the world that contribute to the international art scene by inventing new strategies for the distribution of information and by supporting a diverse cultural program.
X has invited 38 art spaces to travel to New York City to present themselves, their programs and the artists they support. With a gesture of radical hospitality, X will provide free space to all participants within the premises of the X building. The participants will be allowed to show whatever they choose, be it art, performances, publications, videos, or simply themselves. In addition to the exhibition space, X will make available to each participant, for a one-hour period, a dedicated performance area on the ground floor in which participants can organize performances, presentations, discussions and music programs.
Neither a fair nor an exhibition, NO SOUL FOR SALE is a convention of individuals and groups who have devoted their energies to keeping art alive. The Festival will be an exercise in coexistence: organizations will exhibit alongside each other without partitions or walls. As on the set of the legendary Lars von Trier's movie Dogville, participants will be assigned spaces that are only marked on the floor, creating a map of an imaginary city of art, where distances and hierarchies are abolished.
With associations and groups coming from Berlin, Milan, Dublin, Barcelona, Paris, Reykjavík, Hong Kong, Rabat, Trinidad, New York, Los Angeles, and many other locations, NO SOUL FOR SALE provides a unique occasion to foster creative exchange and to connect with international organizations that aren't usually accessible in New York City. With free entrance and a rich program of daily activities, NO SOUL FOR SALE will be a celebration of the independent forces that animate contemporary art.
Participants include: Artis Contemporary Israeli Art Fund (New York and Tel Aviv), Ballroom (Marfa), BizArt/Arthub (Shanghai/Hong Kong), DISPATCH (New York), Empty Purse Publications (New York), Filipa Oliveira + Miguel Amado (Lisbon), FLUXspace (Philadelphia), Galerie im Regierungsviertel/Forgotten Bar Project (Berlin), Hermes und der Pfau (Stuttgart), K 48 (New York), Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), Kling&Bang (Reykjavík), L'Appartement 22 (Rabat), Latitudes (Barcelona), LAXART (Los Angeles), Light Industry (Brooklyn), Lucie Fontaine (Milan), Migrating Forms (New York), Mousse Magazine (Milan), Next Visit (Berlin), Not An Alternative (Brooklyn), Office for Contemporary Art Norway (Oslo), Participant Inc. (New York), Rhizome (New York), STARSHIP (Berlin), Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York), Studio Film Club (Trinidad), Supportico Lopez (Berlin), Surasi Kusolwong (Thailand), Swiss Institute (New York), TART (San Francisco), The Mountain School of Arts (Los Angeles), Thisisnotashop (Dublin), Transformer (Washington, D.C.), Via Farini (Milan), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), WAGE Artists (New York), White Columns (New York)
In conjunction with the opening of NO SOUL FOR SALE, Mexico City-based artist MARTIN SOTO CLIMENT will orchestrate a performative sculpture titled Impulsive Chorus, realized with the assistance of the public. With more than one thousand beer cans to be consumed in the course of one evening, the performance creates an instant community: as beer cans are emptied, Martin Soto Climent will alter them with a slight crush and then place them on the floor in a formation.
Special thanks to Asahi.
About X Initiative
X is a not-for-profit initiative of the global contemporary art community that will exist for one year and present exhibitions in four phases. X will feature durational artist interventions, site-specific projects, historical in-depth exhibitions, one-night performances, lectures and weekly events. Questions posed in the form of programming will address relevant and pressing issues pertaining to the changing landscape of contemporary art.
Media Contact:
Justin Conner at Black Frame
jconner@framenoir.com // 212-226-2196
Julieta ARANDA, Tjorg Douglas BEER, Tobias BERNSTRUP, Monica BONVICINI, ERRÓ, Arfus GREENWOOD, Gregor HILDEBRANDT, Christian JANKOWSKI, April Elizabeth LAMM, Annika LARSSON, Sara LUNDEN, Josephine MECKSEPER, Klaus METTIG, Olaf METZEL, Christopher MINER, Eric B. MITCHELL, Katharina SIEVERDING, Franz STAUFFENBERG, Costa VECE, Thomas SCHÜTTE, Agathe SNOW and others
plus Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project film program:
Ten Animal Films by Christoph SCHLINGENSIEF presented by Anna-Catharina GEBBERS
23 – 28 June 2009
Galerie im Regierungsviertel / Forgotten Bar Project at
‘NO SOUL FOR SALE. Festival of the Independents‘ by x initiative New York City
X Initiative, 548 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
www.galerieimregierungsviertel.org
www.x-initiative.org
