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Visibilities_Between Facts and Fictions
21. January - 19. March 2006
Opening: Friday, 20. January 2006, 8 pm
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Saskia Olde Wolbers "Placebo", 2002
Artists:
The Atlas Group / Walid Raad, Miriam Bäckström, Shane Cooper, Harun Farocki, Benjamin Heisenberg, Lynn Hershman, Korpys/Löffler, Marc Lee und Christoph Ganser, Aernout Mik, Michael Najjar, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Sean Snyder, Brian Springer, The Yes Men
Korpys/Löffler "The Nuclear Football", 2004
© Korpys/Löffler, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006
In a society in which reality is largely conveyed by the mass media and whose digitally produced images are analysed and interpreted by computers the question arises how to still differentiate between facts and fictions. Our perception has adapted to media-transmitted images to such a degree that mediated experience has come to be thought of the as norm for aesthetic experience – there is no 'beyond media'. The images of the media world construct reality and thus identity, too, is increasingly circumscribed by these constructed realities. Only when broadcast on a TV-screen or transmitted via the Internet events seem to become 'real'. Media theorist Jean Baudrillard even argues that we have lost any possibility of accessing any sort of tangible reality in the age of electronic mass media.
Benjamin Heisenberg "Meier, Müller, Schmidt II", 2005
© Benjamin Heisenberg, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2006
Digital technologies have become part of our daily lives and influence the way we act and are. We are facing a development of perceptual possibilities in time and space, which are fundamentally connected to electronic information technologies. In his book "Techniques of the Observer" (1996) Jonathan Crary describes the changes in our modes of perception brought about by computer-controlled vision and points out that new technologies in image production have become dominant models for visualisation. As observers we are not at a distance to the world, we are part of the system, part of the global network-structures. Individual experiences are made not only in material real space any more but also in the abstract realm of electronic networks. There new structures for communication evolve, which allow many people to democratically participate in social processes. They also serve as escape routes from reality, however, and create fictitious worlds in which identities can be changed like fashionable accessories. Identity has become a variable, which seems to be freely interchangeable. Reality shows turn private lives into a soap opera, replace apparent authenticity with a show staged for the media.
Installation view
The exhibition 'Visibilities_Between Facts and Fictions' addresses the topic of this staging of reality by the media in our information society. It questions the truth-value of media images. How is an ever increasingly complex reality to be represented, without playing it down like the TV or movie industries do? The status of the visible is put to the test.
By means of simulation and the staging of reality the selected artworks render the constructedness of apparent factuality visible and fictitiousness transparent. They use media for communicating information to pose the question of fabrication and representation from within these media. They deal with the thin line between authentic experience and fabricated authenticity. The works shown in the exhibition develop counter-strategies and reveal the mechanisms of manipulation. Besides insights into the media's constructions of realities some of the works offer the possibility for participation and therefore the chance to actively engage in the production of mass media images.
Installation view
The exhibition is supported by the State of Lower Saxony and Pro Helvetia.
A publication will be published.
Events:
Sunday, January 22nd, 3 p.m., Presentation
Marc Lee
O-N-N. Open News Network - World News as soon as it happens!
afterwards
Teatime at the Edith-Lounge - anniversary of the founding Edith Maria Ruß
Friday, February 10th, 8 p.m., Filmscreening
Brian Springer
Spin. A Documentary on Political Media, 1995
58 min, color, sound
Tuesday, February 21st, 8 p.m., Lecture
Prof. Dr. Jens Thiele
Bewildering Narratives. About the modified role of montage in Post Modern Film.
Friday, March 3rd, 8 p.m., Filmscreening
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Teknolust, 2001
85 min, color, sound
Tuesday, March 14th, 8 p.m., Lecture
Sabine Himmelsbach
Blogs - The New Public Forum?
Saturday, March 18th, 8 p.m., Filmscreening
Harun Farocki
The Creaters of the Shopping Worlds, 2001
72 min, color, sound
Open hours:
Di-Fr 14-17 Uhr
Sa-So 11-17 Uhr
Tours:
Every Sunday, 3 p.m.
February 26nd and March 19th - Guided Tour by Sabine Himmelsbach, Artistic Director of the Edith Russ Site for Media Art
Group Tours upon request
Admission:
2,50 / 1,50 EUR
Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst
Edith Russ Site for Media Art
Katharinenstraße 23
D-26121 Oldenburg
Tel.: 04 41/ 235 32 08
Fax: 04 41/ 235 21 61
Press Photos
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