Uncertain Triolectics & A Very Short Introduction to Nothing
Skånes Konstförening, 31/8 – 23/9 2012
Skånes Konstförening, 31/8 – 23/9 2012
João Pombeiro, Meaning 2008
These two exhibitions have been created from a conversation we had after some gallery visits in London. Some of the artists we saw had something in common that we initially found difficult to describe. This exhibition is an attempt to describe, but also to highlight what we found hard to put in words. Two approaches to the subjects of nonsense, confusion and uncertainty.
Without meaning, what is the point?
“Newton is lying dead in the middle of the room - but more than that: Newton is lying dead in the middle of the room mid-air between floor and ceiling: Calmly and quietly the grand Newton is resting about a metre above his floor.“
/Stig Dagerman
Science and its logical tools have for a long time inspired contemporary art. In many ways the whole art world has become more and more like the academic world. The eight artists featured in these two exhibitions at Skånes Konstförening can be seen as antagonists to this trend. With the help of uncertainty, confusion and nonsense, these artists seek to break with the rational and logical examination of reality. These artists look directly at the blind spot, wondering over the things we don’t know. A similar strategy existed in art during 20th century in both Dada, Neo-dada as well as in the punk movement. An overturning of accepted perceptions or a nihilist denial that there is an existing world out there. However these movements took place when one could make anti-art. The artists in these two exhibitions are not first and foremost interested in confronting the old. They are more interested in affirming the idea of play, affirming the non-rational. To want not to want.
Are attempts to understand ‘finitude‘ or the ‘meaning of life‘ nonsense? It is tempting to define such questions as nonsense as they require something else other than rational thinking. They require adding something ‘else‘. Nonsense is not about lack of meaning. It is rather about an overload of meanings. Nonsense, like nothing, can be almost anything, and is therefore never just nonsense. There is also a reflective side to nonsense. It reveals otherwise hidden dogmas and conventions, but most of all it illuminates our thinking or the limitations of our thinking. If nonsense is about escaping the every-day and about the struggle towards another reality, then these related artistic strategies—uncertainty, frustration and confusion—are more about dealing with what is. They are about resistance rather than escape. Instead of trying to manage an unpredictable, demanding, fear-focused society, these artists affirm irrational feelings. An important thought model we use to illustrate this is Asger Jorn’s three-team football and his thoughts about ‘triolectics’. For what happens if one throws in a third team in the match? “Let three teams meet on a six-angled ... plane instead of a rectangular one“, Jorn wrote in 1961 in Naturens orden:
First of all one wants to quickly discover that it is impossible to control who of the two enemies attacking is shooting the goal. It becomes necessary to turn the rules around ...
so that the victorious side is the side that has best defended themselves, and where the fewest goals have been let in. The victory has become defensive and not offensive ... It will not at all be an exciting match ... a third force can in this way neutralize a tension between two forces. That is why two-sided opponents are always aggressive or attack-minded, while three-sided are defensive. Whether this in itself marks a transition from dialectic to complementarity, I would like to leave unsaid. ... There are in these observations absolutely no political suggestions. I am only searching to find out what is actually going on… Whether a triangular relationship is static or constant, that would depend on whether there is an increasing tension. In that case this might lead to a real explosion, whereas the possibilities in the two-sided relationship are cancelled out by the two-sided fight’s neverending energy use.
A zero point emerges. A point where previous rules are set out of kilter and no clear directions are given. What the artists in ‘Uncertain Triolectics‘ have in common is an ability in one way or another to creatively relate their ‘zeropoint’ to this ‘nothing’. Some take part in creating it, others say ‘yes’ to this state of confusion, turning their own uncertainty into a strength or making it into yet another layer of absurdity in an already absurd existence.
“Newton is lying dead in the middle of the room - but more than that: Newton is lying dead in the middle of the room mid-air between floor and ceiling: Calmly and quietly the grand Newton is resting about a metre above his floor.“
/Stig Dagerman
Science and its logical tools have for a long time inspired contemporary art. In many ways the whole art world has become more and more like the academic world. The eight artists featured in these two exhibitions at Skånes Konstförening can be seen as antagonists to this trend. With the help of uncertainty, confusion and nonsense, these artists seek to break with the rational and logical examination of reality. These artists look directly at the blind spot, wondering over the things we don’t know. A similar strategy existed in art during 20th century in both Dada, Neo-dada as well as in the punk movement. An overturning of accepted perceptions or a nihilist denial that there is an existing world out there. However these movements took place when one could make anti-art. The artists in these two exhibitions are not first and foremost interested in confronting the old. They are more interested in affirming the idea of play, affirming the non-rational. To want not to want.
Are attempts to understand ‘finitude‘ or the ‘meaning of life‘ nonsense? It is tempting to define such questions as nonsense as they require something else other than rational thinking. They require adding something ‘else‘. Nonsense is not about lack of meaning. It is rather about an overload of meanings. Nonsense, like nothing, can be almost anything, and is therefore never just nonsense. There is also a reflective side to nonsense. It reveals otherwise hidden dogmas and conventions, but most of all it illuminates our thinking or the limitations of our thinking. If nonsense is about escaping the every-day and about the struggle towards another reality, then these related artistic strategies—uncertainty, frustration and confusion—are more about dealing with what is. They are about resistance rather than escape. Instead of trying to manage an unpredictable, demanding, fear-focused society, these artists affirm irrational feelings. An important thought model we use to illustrate this is Asger Jorn’s three-team football and his thoughts about ‘triolectics’. For what happens if one throws in a third team in the match? “Let three teams meet on a six-angled ... plane instead of a rectangular one“, Jorn wrote in 1961 in Naturens orden:
First of all one wants to quickly discover that it is impossible to control who of the two enemies attacking is shooting the goal. It becomes necessary to turn the rules around ...
so that the victorious side is the side that has best defended themselves, and where the fewest goals have been let in. The victory has become defensive and not offensive ... It will not at all be an exciting match ... a third force can in this way neutralize a tension between two forces. That is why two-sided opponents are always aggressive or attack-minded, while three-sided are defensive. Whether this in itself marks a transition from dialectic to complementarity, I would like to leave unsaid. ... There are in these observations absolutely no political suggestions. I am only searching to find out what is actually going on… Whether a triangular relationship is static or constant, that would depend on whether there is an increasing tension. In that case this might lead to a real explosion, whereas the possibilities in the two-sided relationship are cancelled out by the two-sided fight’s neverending energy use.
A zero point emerges. A point where previous rules are set out of kilter and no clear directions are given. What the artists in ‘Uncertain Triolectics‘ have in common is an ability in one way or another to creatively relate their ‘zeropoint’ to this ‘nothing’. Some take part in creating it, others say ‘yes’ to this state of confusion, turning their own uncertainty into a strength or making it into yet another layer of absurdity in an already absurd existence.
Charlotte Young Support the Arts 2012
A Very Short Introduction to Nothing
curated by Per Brunskog
Iván Argote (CO/FR) usually uses urban spaces as starting points for his works, where he is interacting, or even attacking, various situations. In one photo series he placed himself in various advertisement posters mimicking the people in them. In a short video he is inside a museum attacking two Mondrian paintings with a spray can. At Skånes Konstförening he presents two films: Untitled (New York) (2011) is made from different scenes where Argote is standing behind people about to cross the road - we see how they all turn around when Argote screams ‘I love you!‘. In another video Interbus (2009) he presents strangers on a bus as his own relatives. This autumn Argote will participate in the Sao Paolo Biennale.
www.ivanargote.com
Mathias Kristersson (SV) presents three works in the exhibition including a new performance on the final day. Twins (2008 – 2012) is a sound sculpture where two speakers argue with each other in a very unconstructive way. Nu är du längre från döden än nu (2011) consists of a stack of A4 papers where the title is intricately cut through the different layers of paper, page for page, so that should the papers be shown in the reverse order they would suggest a moving away from death,
rather than a journey towards it.
www.mathiaskristersson.com/
João Pombeiro‘s (PG) artistic practice involves different media, painting, sculpture, installation, collage and video. During the day he works in TV, and in his art he often analyzes pop cultural phenomena. Meaning (2008) is one of several works where the artist is playing with how we expect to be presented with something reflecting the outside world. The work consists of the letters MEANING, exhibited on the floor, but the letters start wobbling, and in the end they fall.
www.joaopombeiro.com
Sara Ramo (SP/BR) often works with spatial installations with gigantic dimensions, but in this exhibition she presents a video. In A Banda Dos Sete (2010) (‘group of seven‘), Ramo has constructed a music box of seven live musicians with strange costumes, rotating around a brick wall in different constellations. Ramo‘s works can truly seem to affirm the absurd. The high precision level stands in sharp contrast to the work‘s playful elements. Ramo‘s work can also be seen as a bright example of Brazilian melancholia. Ramo has participated in the Venice Biennale and Sao Paolo Biennale.
www.fortesvilaca.com.br/artista/sara-ramo/foto-4.html
Uncertain Triolectics:
curated by Hans Askheim
Edwin Burdis (UK) will perform live during the closing event: Purr, Fig, Purr (2011). In his performance Burdis interviews a plinth in the gallery space. The plinth is hiding a speaker connected to Burdis microphone, making the plinth also speak Burdis‘ voice. Burdis witty and whimsical style hides more sincere undertones, producing unexpectedly stressful experiences for the viewer. His performances have been described as ‘Sisyphean slapstick‘, and create links between sublime and bohemian self-questioning and outreach oriented entertainment. Burdis has had exhibitions at the South London Gallery, ICA and is represented by Max Wigram Gallery London.
www.maxwigram.com/index.php?section=edwin_burdis&page=cv
In Cevdet Erek’s (TR) video Studio (2005) we see some restless finger tapping on a table. A simple gesture creating a spatial effect. But its simplicity and restlessness leaves us unfulfilled - is this happy tapping? Or just eager? Who is the person behind this tapping? Erek‘s work is often concerned with architecture and the history of particular spaces, where few and striking elements create complex scenarios questioning our relationship with the spaces around us. Erek has taken part in exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, Level 2 Tate Modern, and Documenta 13.
www.cevdeterek.com
Laure Provoust (FR/UK) will present the video The Artist (2011) where she plays with the idea of the ‘conceptual artist‘. The complexity and visual intensity in this video almost create a conflict of interest for the viewer, who struggles to keep up with psychological suggestive comments, woven together with intricate subliminal and poetic language snippets, in between hectic audio-visual activity. The video builds up to a climax, but instead of ending with a ‘pure‘ conceptual notion of wisdom it produces a kind of ‘confusing confusion‘. Provoust has taken part in exhibitions at Art Now Tate Britain, ICA, Frieze Projects as well as many other international venues.
www.laureprouvost.com
www.artsy.net/artist/laure-prouvost
In Charlotte Young‘s (UK) new video Support the Arts (2012), we see a tongue-in-cheek twist on the image of the ‘struggling artist‘. Working as a writer, comedian and artist Young creates witty and ironic works, yet with schizophrenic-like, troubling undertones. In Artist Statement (2011), we see Young promoting her own art practice whilst subtitles reveal her inner thoughts:alarming negative prejudices and worst case scenario-thinking. Young has presented works at the Whitstable Biennale 2008, the ICA London as well as many other venues in the UK and elsewhere.
www.todayimadenothing.wordpress.com
curated by Per Brunskog
Iván Argote (CO/FR) usually uses urban spaces as starting points for his works, where he is interacting, or even attacking, various situations. In one photo series he placed himself in various advertisement posters mimicking the people in them. In a short video he is inside a museum attacking two Mondrian paintings with a spray can. At Skånes Konstförening he presents two films: Untitled (New York) (2011) is made from different scenes where Argote is standing behind people about to cross the road - we see how they all turn around when Argote screams ‘I love you!‘. In another video Interbus (2009) he presents strangers on a bus as his own relatives. This autumn Argote will participate in the Sao Paolo Biennale.
www.ivanargote.com
Mathias Kristersson (SV) presents three works in the exhibition including a new performance on the final day. Twins (2008 – 2012) is a sound sculpture where two speakers argue with each other in a very unconstructive way. Nu är du längre från döden än nu (2011) consists of a stack of A4 papers where the title is intricately cut through the different layers of paper, page for page, so that should the papers be shown in the reverse order they would suggest a moving away from death,
rather than a journey towards it.
www.mathiaskristersson.com/
João Pombeiro‘s (PG) artistic practice involves different media, painting, sculpture, installation, collage and video. During the day he works in TV, and in his art he often analyzes pop cultural phenomena. Meaning (2008) is one of several works where the artist is playing with how we expect to be presented with something reflecting the outside world. The work consists of the letters MEANING, exhibited on the floor, but the letters start wobbling, and in the end they fall.
www.joaopombeiro.com
Sara Ramo (SP/BR) often works with spatial installations with gigantic dimensions, but in this exhibition she presents a video. In A Banda Dos Sete (2010) (‘group of seven‘), Ramo has constructed a music box of seven live musicians with strange costumes, rotating around a brick wall in different constellations. Ramo‘s works can truly seem to affirm the absurd. The high precision level stands in sharp contrast to the work‘s playful elements. Ramo‘s work can also be seen as a bright example of Brazilian melancholia. Ramo has participated in the Venice Biennale and Sao Paolo Biennale.
www.fortesvilaca.com.br/artista/sara-ramo/foto-4.html
Uncertain Triolectics:
curated by Hans Askheim
Edwin Burdis (UK) will perform live during the closing event: Purr, Fig, Purr (2011). In his performance Burdis interviews a plinth in the gallery space. The plinth is hiding a speaker connected to Burdis microphone, making the plinth also speak Burdis‘ voice. Burdis witty and whimsical style hides more sincere undertones, producing unexpectedly stressful experiences for the viewer. His performances have been described as ‘Sisyphean slapstick‘, and create links between sublime and bohemian self-questioning and outreach oriented entertainment. Burdis has had exhibitions at the South London Gallery, ICA and is represented by Max Wigram Gallery London.
www.maxwigram.com/index.php?section=edwin_burdis&page=cv
In Cevdet Erek’s (TR) video Studio (2005) we see some restless finger tapping on a table. A simple gesture creating a spatial effect. But its simplicity and restlessness leaves us unfulfilled - is this happy tapping? Or just eager? Who is the person behind this tapping? Erek‘s work is often concerned with architecture and the history of particular spaces, where few and striking elements create complex scenarios questioning our relationship with the spaces around us. Erek has taken part in exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel, Level 2 Tate Modern, and Documenta 13.
www.cevdeterek.com
Laure Provoust (FR/UK) will present the video The Artist (2011) where she plays with the idea of the ‘conceptual artist‘. The complexity and visual intensity in this video almost create a conflict of interest for the viewer, who struggles to keep up with psychological suggestive comments, woven together with intricate subliminal and poetic language snippets, in between hectic audio-visual activity. The video builds up to a climax, but instead of ending with a ‘pure‘ conceptual notion of wisdom it produces a kind of ‘confusing confusion‘. Provoust has taken part in exhibitions at Art Now Tate Britain, ICA, Frieze Projects as well as many other international venues.
www.laureprouvost.com
www.artsy.net/artist/laure-prouvost
In Charlotte Young‘s (UK) new video Support the Arts (2012), we see a tongue-in-cheek twist on the image of the ‘struggling artist‘. Working as a writer, comedian and artist Young creates witty and ironic works, yet with schizophrenic-like, troubling undertones. In Artist Statement (2011), we see Young promoting her own art practice whilst subtitles reveal her inner thoughts:alarming negative prejudices and worst case scenario-thinking. Young has presented works at the Whitstable Biennale 2008, the ICA London as well as many other venues in the UK and elsewhere.
www.todayimadenothing.wordpress.com
Sara Ramo A Banda Dos Sete 2010