Investigations of a Dog, Works from the FACE Collections

8/2/2019 Investigations of a Dog, Works from the FACE Collections

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Investigations of a Dog features work by 40 artists taken from ve European

art foundations that constitute the Foundation of Arts for a Contemporary

Europe (FACE). An ambitious undertaking, the show premiered at Fondazione

Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, in October, 2009, and travelled to the

Ellipse Foundation, Portugal, La Maison Rouge Fondation Antoine de Galbert,

France, and Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Sweden. The DESTE Foundation in

Athens, Greece, is its nal destination, and where the exhibition is re-interpreted

with an emphasis on todays social reality, with a slight reshufe to the artist

and work list by local curator Nadja Argyropoulou.Based on Franz Kafkas 1922 story of a dog tormented and emboldened by

his questions on where food comes from, the canine nds himself marginalised

for his curiosity. In the story, he explains: I began my enquiries with the

simplest things. There was no lack of material; it is the actual superabundance,

unfortunately, that casts me into despair in my darker hours. Reecting on

the realities of post-WWI Europe, Kafka questions the purpose of creativity in a

world built on consumption. The exhibition expands on this by searching for a

political dimension to art-making that precedes the content of the work in the

hope of linking individual artworks to collective contexts.

The show opened one week before the violent protests against the second

wave of EU/IMF austerity measures that passed through Greek parliament this

June. A physical manifestation of the face-off between reality and representa-

tion in the public sphere, the economic and political turmoil in Greece createsa backdrop for Bruce Naumans upside down welded steel chair frame, Untitled

(Suspended Chair, Vertical III) (1987), held by steel cables in midair, reected

onto the concave surface of Moon (1994-2000), Jeff Koons oversized steel

relief sculpture of a balloon in DESTEs entrance hall. Naumans rigid use of

material speaks to industrial production, contrasted by Koons whimsical mon-

umentalising of the inltration of mechanical production into the everyday.

On a dividing wall, Sigalit Landaus naked torso hula hooping with barbed

wire in the video Barbed Hula(2000) plays on the individual experiences within

violent histories. As the repetitive motion plays out, skin reddens and swells,

visually recalling the thorn crown, agellation, the exhaustive, cyclical nature

of time, and the pain and passion mankind has both inicted and endured.

Barbed Hulacombines the material language of connement and conict with

the added innocence of a childhood game, suggesting the trivialisation of

personal experience in the machine that drives the global zeitgeist.In the main hall, Naumans suspended chair gives way to a greyscale image

of a woman with her back to the viewer holding a chair frame around her

hips in Annika von Hausswolffs Live from the Ocean (2005). The work refers

to Philosophical Chair (2003), on which von Hausswolff commented: It has

stepped out of its existing role, as a chair that you sit in. Partly, it has no seat left,

and partly, it oats, it has surpassed itself, you might say. This idea is visualised

in Miri Segals video Downcast Autumn Day(2004); city scenes projected on a

screen. A pool of clear liquid seeps out from the bottom reecting the video

and communicating the relationship between mediated reality and common

reality. Concurrently, Kimsoojas Bottari Truck (2005) packed with cloth bun-

dles used to carry possessions during periods of migration, transfers the

mediated image into an object, bringing the realities of political and economic

refugees into the gallery space.Reecting on the possibility of todays terrorists becoming tomorrows

freedom ghters, the sound of military parades from Arturmijewskis video

Democracies(2009) lls the room, where a large, black chunk of earth bursts

out from the ceiling: the ground level view of Urs Fischers apocalyptic Untitled

(Hole) (2005). In Democracies, Polish protests, religious parades and military

Investigations of a Dog

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re-enactments are viewed alongside pro-Palestinian protests in Israel. Shouts

of Allah Akbar and the sound of Polish actors kissing the cross in WarsawUprisings re-enactments cross into 9/11 Front Page(2001), Hans Peter Feldmans

installation of newspaper front pages documenting the 9/11 attacks. Here,

history has been objectied into images that symbolise single events isolated

from the pluralistic contexts from which they occurred. There is a sense that

9/11 has not been fully contextualised within the history of geo-politics and

global economics, underlined by David Hammons macabreAfrican-American

Flag(1990) hanging insidiously nearby.

Cue Thomas Hirschhorns characteristic photocopies. Spin Off(1998) presents

a giant Swiss Army knife crudely-rendered in cardboard and foil connected to

tableaux of photocopied texts mostly from Georges Batailles The Accursed

Share, An Essay on General Economy, and commercial magazine images and

news clippings. Hirschhorn ponders Batailles words on sacrice and consump-

tion: Sacrice restores to the sacred world that which servile use has made a

thing(an object) of that which, in a deep sense, is of the same nature as the sub-

ject. He continues: Once the world of things was posited, man himself became

one of the things of this world, at least for the time in which he laboured. It is

this degradation that man has always tried to escape.

The Swiss Army knife poised against the installation frame somehow echoes

the crucixion, and recalls Barbed Hulas allusion to the thorn crown, touching

on the body as a vessel, just as Kafka places a messianic gure in a dogs

body, and newspaper images characterise the Twin Towers as a symbol ofambiguous martyrdom. It is with this realisation the exhibition expands. On

the stairs, a child in a blue jumpsuit and beanie presses its face against a

corner in Virginie Barrs UntitledLes Hommes Venus dAilleurs(2007). Above,

banners with phrases such as We are creating enemies faster than we can kill

them and Dont believe everything you think from Lara Schnitgers Gridlock

(2005) address the trivialisation of political discourse condensed into slogans

and one-liners, and the alienation that ensues. On the 1st

oor, Urs FischersUntitled (Hole)is viewed as a massive hole built into the gallery, resembling a

grave. But next to Maurizio Cattelans Mother, photographic documentation of

a performance where a fakir was buried in a mound of earth leaving only his

hands exposed to the air, Fischers work bears hope, suggesting resurrection as

opposed to burial. Nevertheless, Mothersreference to Albrecht Durers iconic

print of praying hands again addresses repetition in collective histories.

In this sense, the pairing of Gardar Eide Einarssons Burnt White Flag(2005)

bearing the word LIBERTY (without the option of death) and Mircea Cantors

The Landscape is Changing (2003), a video of a group demonstration using

placards made of mirrors, emphasises the inadequacies of traditional modes of

protest. Is this why Jeff Koons bronze life vestAqualung(1985) is strategically

placed at the end of this curatorial segment like an escape clause? As Kafka

noted, art is both necessary and futile. If so, what is the point? Echoing this, thenext room opens with Marepes Rio Fundo (2004),

a makeshift cachaa bar made of tables wrapped

with inner tubes. DeAnna Maganias miniature

white room The View from My Bed (2007) offers

another articial retreat the individuals refuge

something consumerism happily supports.

Next door, Martin Parrs Common Sense (1999), an installation of images

representing kitsch Americana elaborates on the articially-constructed,

consumer realities according to consumer-manifested archetypes. The effect is

anaesthetising. Not even Santiago Sierras black and white surveillance-esque

video documentation ofPERSON OBSTRUCTING A LINE OF CONTAINERS, Kaj 3

Frihammen, Stockholm, Sweden(2009) can provide ample protest against the

distraction of candy-coloured cupcakes and glazed cherries. In response, MarkDions The Evolution and Fixivity of a Rodent Species(1990) charts the evolution

of Mickey Mouse as an animal reduced to an object that facilitates popular

consumption, showing how man has followed the same pattern.

In the largest space on DESTEs 1 st oor, Vasco ArajosAbout Being Different

(2007), contains interviews with ve parishioners from Gateshead discussing

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the realities of being different in a small community. Nearby, Fischli and Weiss

hollow, polyurethane sculpture Animal(1986), with holes for its eyes, nostrils,mouth and anus, is positioned to face the video of a silent middle-aged woman

in Philippe Bazins Une heure de travailDufftown, n9, Ecosse (2002). When

one looks throughAnimalfrom behind, the womans silent mouth is framed by

the animals hollow mouth. As Kafkas dog exclaims: How muchmy life has

changed, and yet how unchanged it has remained at bottom! The view from

the animals bottom shows a mouth that does not speak.

Meanwhile, Look at Me I Look at Water(1999), Boris Mikhailovs photographs

of people living in the Soviet Unions decline, includes a harrowing image of

a bewildered-looking man with blood smeared around his face and hands,

having eaten something contained in his plastic bag. The image depicts the

carnal nature of people reduced to animals in an orgiastic display of physi-

cal and political degeneration. Consumers are implicated with blood on their

hands and mouths, or, in the case of David Hammons museum-style exhibit ofan oriental womans robes, Untitled(1995 - 2002), blood on the groin. Mean-

while, Paul McCarthys female Pig (2003) lies, as if to suckle, on its side, in

front of Aurel Schmidts So Damn Pure (2008), an abstract-inspired painting

containing urine, spit, blood, coffee, beer, medicine and mouthwash, pushing

the exhibition to a messy climax.

In the next room, Lorna Simpsons triptych of inverted masks in Myths(1992)

recalls Fischli and Weiss Animal. Of course it is easier to say that society is

ultimately driven by an inherent, animal nature to consume, but it in no way

enlightens what it means to be a political entity. Will iam Kentridges History of

the Main Complaint (1996) acts as a moral to the story. In characteristic stop

animation style, Kentridge depicts an entrepreneur on his death bed, recounting

the excess and power that eventually consumed him, thus identifying what

drives contemporary history and human behaviour. And it is not animalistic;money is what feeds humans.

Moving into the adjoining suite, Kara Walkers 19th century portrayal of slave

men and women in the American south, Untitled(2000), depicts a scene where

a bright light pierces through a dark, tempestuous sky over a crowd. It is paired

with Sherrie Levines bronze torso of a pregnant woman, Body Mask(2007), in-

stalled with a spotlight that creates symmetrical reections on the surrounding

walls like wings of light. The reprieve is eeting. Moving into a conned, adjoin-ing space, Esko Mnnikks suite of photographs depicts bachelors at home

in a remote part of Northern Finland (1990-1995) as Gregor Schneiders archi-

tectural intervention, Das Groe Wichsen(1997) plays on the artists interest in

threatening spaces disguised by ordinary appearances. Entering what looks

like a white crate, the viewer comes face to face with a sculptural rendition of a

decomposing bust staring out into the gallery from behind a two-way mirror.

In many ways, Schneiders work sums up the show. Seemingly straightforward,

the show becomes a sinister quagmire that inltrates every level of reality. At the

shows end, Cady Nolands Drag(1990), a stripped down version of Americana

made of steel bars and trinkets, precedes Lorna Simpsons Water Bearer(1986),

a black and white image of a woman in white, holding a metal water vessel in

one arm, and a plastic water container in another. Water ows out from both

vessels freely, as if it were in abundance, though in todays world, it is all tooclear that it is not. Below, a phrase is stencilled onto the wall: SHE SAW HIM

DISAPPEAR BY THE RIVER / THEY ASKED HER TO TELL WHAT HAPPENED /

ONLY TO DISCOUNT HER MEMORY.

Leaving the space, Robert Cuoghis portrait of DESTE Foundation president,

super-collector Dakis Joannou, MEGAS DAKIS(2007), hangs indiscriminately

at the foot of stairs leading to the exit. As Simpson had promised, the portrait

threatens to erase the memory of the exhibition in that it is a reminder that art

is also a form of consumption locked in a system that encourages the neutrali-

sation of political and revolutionary discourse. Once you leave the gallery, it

could be as if it never happened. In the end, its an individual choice.

Running in parallel to Investigations of A Dogat the DESTE Foundation,three

solo presentations are also on show: Kerstin Brtsch & DAS INSTITUT: Treat

Your Own Neck (2011), Jakub Ziolkowskis History of the Eye (2010) and PaulChans My Birds Trash The Future (2004) until 30 October 2011. Doug

Aitkens Black Mirror is on show at DESTE project space, The Slaughterhouse,

on Hydra until 25 September. Visit www.deste.gr or www.art-face.eu.

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Investigations of a Dog, Works from the FACE Collections

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