Ines Doujak Not Dressed For Conquering

Transcription

1 Ines Doujak Not Dressed For Conquering October 15, 2016 January 15, 2017 Press conference: Friday, October 14, 2016, 11 a.m. An exhibition by Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart Curators Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler

2 Introduction Let s enter the a-historical and hermetic world of fashion to dirty its surface. For the exhibition Ines Doujak. Not Dressed For Conquering, Württembergischer Kunstverein temporarily assumes the guise of a fashion store to be precise, an assortment of various pop-up stores. The show is based on the long-term Loomshuttles / Warpaths project by Austrian artist Ines Doujak (*1959) that, in different forms and formats, explores the links between textiles, fashion, colonialism, violence and globalized production conditions. It comprises Doujak s eccentric archive that focuses on the history of globalization based on textiles from the Andean region; an open-ended series of sculptures, performances, writings and video works along with various, constantly evolving fashion collections. The exhibition Not Dressed For Conquering features a selection of all these elements, reorganizing and extending them. The focus is on eight fashion collections showcased in the specially designed pop-up stores, each following different themes and motifs. Among them, the fire of burning factories and the burnout in the literal sense too of low-wage workers, animal and human skins, carnival and masquerade, and the devil himself. Under scrutiny are the supply chains of global trade, tightly organized by means of barcodes, automated cranes, containers and mega ships, or the long history of degrading workers to the level of intelligent apes. The collections consist of fabrics in which the various themes and motifs are directly inscribed and of patterns, garments, outfits and accessories derived from them, but also of writings, publications, objects, videos and pieces of dance and music in which patterns are transformed and translated into motion and sound. Employing the glamour of the fashion world, Doujak not only spotlights the exploitative structures, gender and class orders of haute couture and mass-market clothing. Harking back to the resistant, anarchistic practices of textile design ranging from Andean weaving traditions to Dapper Dan, the iconic New York tailor to the eighties hip hop scene, she creates another, a different fashion that counteracts the status quo. This idea is also embodied by a group of looters and rioters who act as a kind of inverted gatekeeper at the various pop-up stores. 2

3 This other, resistant fashion again is the focal point of a number of performances and workshops taking place during the exhibition, combining tailoring, dance, music, film and politics. Performance, film and song are translations in motion of the rhythmic textiles of cultures which, using the off-beat phrasing of music, are a vibrant visual attack where the colors must talk to each other or literally argue. The intention is for such motion to break the cultural paradigm in which patterns exist only within borders, so that they may permeate the world at large. Ines Doujak 3

4 The Stores (selection) HC01 FIRES: The War Against the Poor The war against the poor whereby locked in workers with overloaded electricity circuits live under threat of death and horrible injury by fire to fulfill skin-tight clothing contracts. (Ines Doujak) In the modern world technological development has made for highly sophisticated production processes, yet which co-exist with and are co-dependent on ultra-exploitative working conditions especially in the making of clothes In Bangladesh in 2010, just days before yet one more fatal factory fire, a worker was shot dead by the police for protesting at conditions in a South Korean owned factory. In Honduras burn-out is such that only 6.3% of women have worked longer than 10 years in such factories Textile and clothing workers have fought against their exploitation for hundreds of years with strikes, riots and the struggle to create trade unions, knowing that only they can change the conditions of work. In some instances fire itself has been used as a direct means of attack against oppressive conditions. (Ines Doujak) Exhibits: Two textile prints as bolts; shirts, trousers as samples on ladder; video (of a performance); hand-out (on what happened after the Karachi fire); audio-interview with Chun Soonok 4

5 HC 02 DIRTY SECRETS: Tradition Good Marks for Social Cohesion, Bad When it Resists Enclosure of the Common. Inside the clean-cut Black Square the dirty secret of a thousand years of textile patterns. (Ines Doujak) Exhibits: Scarves; ponchos; 8 booklets and a historical display with the inscription: Lest. Verbreitet gute Schriften (Read! Spread Good Writings!); poster; knitted pull-over Sample (left); cover of booklet (right): pattern (bottom) 5

6 HC 03 CARNIVAL Where Masterless Voices Sing Songs in the Dark of Unforgiving Joy, the Masters Voice Falters. (Ines Doujak) Exhibits: Video (with John Barker); body suits; masks; partly produced with the support of the São Paulo Biennial Ines Doujak / John Barker, A Mask is Always Active, video, 2014 HC 04 TRANSPORT Chains of Lean Retailing, their Wheels Oiled by Bar Codes and Human load Carriers (Ines Doujak) Exhibits: Textile print; necklaces; bags Cloth (detail) 6

7 HC 05 APES, KRIMINALAFFE: Why Are Things As They Are? When Paradise was lost to men and women, the Ape stayed put. In captivity the lazy rascal must work for his supper, and asks: Why Are Things As they Are? (Ines Doujak) F.W. Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management was published in In it, he describes a worker both as an 'intelligent gorilla' and unwittingly endorsing the worker-gorilla's intelligence as one who "deliberately plans to do as little as he safely can." Nine years later in 1912, the Prussian Academy of Sciences opened a station on Tenerife devoted to experimentation with the mental capacities of apes, and especially chimpanzees. Tenerife itself was the last of the Canary Islands to be conquered by the Spanish in Half the indigenous population sided with the invaders, the others in the north of the island resisted and, when finally defeated, were enslaved to work on sugarcane plantations a laboratory for colonial capitalism. It was chosen as a location for the station because of its climate and because of its proximity to Cameroon, then a German colony, from where nine chimpanzees were captured and transported over the sea. It became famous for the experiments of psychologist Wolfgang Koehler. He has been acclaimed as a co-founder of Gestalt theory, for offering an alternative to the behaviourism of Pavlov and Thorndike and as anti-nazi, but he also laid some groundwork for an instrumentalized psychology of work (From: Ines Doujak, John Barker: Kriminalaffe: Sultan at the Dole Office, see: Exhibits: Textile prints; Dapper Dan outfits; sweat suit; sculpture; Performance, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HWK), Berlin, 2015 Dapper Dan, iconic tailor of the 1980ies, who created the outfits of the hip-hop-scene 7

8 HC 06 THE DEVIL The devil opens a night school in Kyiv to teach the secrets of success and failure. The curriculum includes the uses of drugs in war, the war against drugs, drugs as war and the drug of war. This wandering school will made its first stops in Ukraine and Spain, where the crises are acute and provide stark examples of the forces of profit as violence and the resultant break-downs. The artists use the figure of the devil and its many names and guises to dramatize and amalgamate the businesses of war and drugs. A movable tent with a specially designed and printed cloth on which there are horses, rotting grapes and close-up charred wood becomes the devil s night school location. As a start the devil will offer two types of drug: heroin, as a legacy to the world from the wars in Vietnam and then Afghanistan, and crystal meth. (Ines Doujak) Exhibits: Video (30, produced with the support of the Kyiv Biennial); devil film costumes; umbrellas made of blood polka dot pattern; drug film costumes Ines Doujak, John Barker, The Devil Opens a Night School to Teach the Secrets of Success and Failure, 2015, video Ines Doujak, John Barker, The Devil Opens a Night School to Teach the Secrets of Success and Failure, 2015, video Tent / Pop-Up Store 8

9 HC 07 AQUA VIVA: What Forms the Outside of the Inside? Exhibitis: Collages, outfits; 2 textile prints 9

10 Program Friday, October 14, 2016, 7 p.m. OPENING With Klub Mutti: Fashion Show Fashion icon and it-girl Mara Gheddon presents the current must-haves of the season. She speaks about fashion and other circumstances. A Swabian in exile, she is interested in handicrafts and gender bending. Saturday, October 15, p.m. WORKSHOP Re-clothed With Alessandro Marques, Pablo Lafuente For this workshop, Marques and Lafuente will propose to explore, together with the participants, clothing that extends the body and connects it to other bodies. The four-hour workshop will involve the joint conception and construction of a series of outfits. On focus here is the collective process that includes also the engagement in a series of dance moves. Alessandro Marques: Designer, São Paulo Pablo Lafuente: Writer, teacher and curator, Porto Seguro, Bahia, São Paulo -- Language: English; Limited number of participants Application required until October 10, 2016 Info + registration: Barbara Mocko, mocko@wkv-stuttgart.de, Fon: +49 (0) Participation fee: 15 Euro; reduced and WKV members: 7,50 Euro 7 p.m. PERFORMANCE What Inside Forms An Outside And What Is The Space In Between? With John Barker, Ornella de Bakel, Ines Doujak What inside forms an outside and what is the space in between? We will talk of the substance ergot and one of its alkaloids LSD as freeing consciousness from neuro gatekeepers, of the skin as more than a container, and of disgust as an emotional and political barrier. John Barker: Fiction writer, essayist, performer, political activist, Vienna, London Ines Doujak: Artist, Vienna, London Ornella de Bakel: Artist, dragqueen, Vienna -- Language: German, English 10

11 Thursday, November 24, 2016, 7 p.m. PANEL DISCUSSION (in German language) Burn Out. Deadly Fire. Four Years, No Justice With Thomas Seibert (medicointernational), Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR), a.o. In collaboration with Terre des Hommes Saturday, November 26, 2016, 2 5 p.m. SEMINAR Lost and Found With John Barker, Ines Doujak, Evelyn Steinthaler As a last resort, mothers in 18th century London who could not support their children hoped to win a place for them at the Foundling Hospital* determined by a lottery system. Instead of identity papers they left an individual piece of cloth. Now, parents in war zones have a similar hope for their children to find refuge in Europe. Too many disappear in the process despite the heavily monitored world in which we live. We would like you to join us to search individual fates of unaccompanied minors in a time of desperation and need, and examining the economics of desperation. Evelyn Steinthaler: Writer, editor, producer, performer, translator, Vienna -- Language: German, English Sunday, January 15, 2017, 6 p.m. FINISSAGE + BOOK LAUNCH Eccentric Archive With John Barker, Ines Doujak a.o. Language: English GUIDED TOURS Curator s tours Language: German Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 7 p.m. Wednesday, December 7, 2016, 7 p.m. Sunday, January 15, 2017, 4:30 p.m. Free guided tours Language: German Each sunday, 3 p.m. 11

12 Biography Ines Doujak * 1959 in Klagenfurt, lives in Vienna and London Solo exhibitions (selection) Johann Jacobs Museum Zurich (2015); Galerie Krobath, Vienna (2007); Salzburger Kunstverein (2005); Wiener Secession, Vienna (2002) Group Solo exhibitions (selection) 2016 Peace-Treaty, San Sebastian (Cultural Capital); Sans peau / No Skin, SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art, Montreal, QC 2015 School of Kiev, Kiew-Biennale; Creating Common Good, KunstHaus Vienna; All Men Become Sisters, Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz; The Beast and is the Sovereign, MACBA (Museu d Art Contemporani Barcelona), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart; Social Glitch, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna; Utopian Pulse Flares In The Darkroom, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Wow! Woven? Entering the (sub)textiles, Künstlerhaus. Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz; Share Too Much History, More Future, Museum of Contemporary Art Banja Luka, Banja Luka 2014 Ejemplos a seguir! Expediciones en estética y sostenibilidad, Museo Metropolitano de Lima, Lima; Share Too Much History, More Future, MMKK, Klagenfurt; Utopian Pulse Flares In The Darkroom, Wiener Secession, Vienna; 31ª São Paulo Biennale; Punctum. Bemerkungen zur Photographie, Salzburger Kunstverein; Zur Nachahmung empfohlen. Expeditionen in Ästhetik und Nachhaltigkeit, Zollverein, Essen; Ten Million Rooms of Yearning Sex in Hong Kong, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong 2012 re.act.feminism #2. A Performing Archive: Fundación Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona; Museet for Samtidskunst, Roskilde; Galerija Miroslav Kraljevic, Zagreb; Acts of Voicing, Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart; Busan Biennale 2012, Busan, South Korea; Reflecting Fashion. Kunst und Mode seit der Moderne, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, MUMOK, Vienna 2013 Ejemplos a seguir! Exploraciones en estética y sustentabilidad, Capilla del Arte, Puebla; 54th October Salon. No one belongs here more than you, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade; Acts of Voicing, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul 2010 Principio Potosí: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Museo Nacional de Arte La Paz, Bolivien; Triennale Linz 1.0. Gegenwartskunst in Österreich, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz 2008 Peripheral Vision and Collective Body, MUSEION, Bozen 2007 documenta 12, Kassel 2004 Be What You Want, But Stay Where You Are, Witte de With, Rotterdam; Die Regierung. Paradiesische Handlungsräume, Secession, Vienna 2003 How Do We Want to be Governed?, MACBA (Museu d Art Contemporani Barcelona; Being in the World, Miami Art Central, Miami 2000 Dinge, die wir nicht verstehen, Generali Foundation, Vienna 12

13 Dates and Credits EXHIBITION Ines Doujak Not Dressed For Conquering October 15, 2016 January 15, 2017 An exhibition by Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart Curators Hans D. Christ, Iris Dressler Supported by Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst des Landes Baden-Württemberg Kulturamt der Stadt Stuttgart Innovationspreis des Landes Baden-Württemberg Stiftung Landesbank Baden-Württemberg Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Péter Horváth-Stiftung Wüstenrot Stiftung Marli Hoppe-Ritter-Stiftung zur Förderung der Kunst Bonnie, Stuttgart Pro Lab, Stuttgart Media partner (Program) Jungle World PRESS Press conference Friday, October 14, 2016, 11 a.m. Press contact Barbara Mocko Fon: +49 (0) Press pictures and -dossier 13

14 INFO Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart Schlossplatz 2 DE Stuttgart Fon: +49 (0) Fax: +49 (0) info@wkv-stuttgart.de Hours Tue, Thu Sun: 11 a.m. 6 p.m. Wed: 11 a.m. 8 p.m. Entrance fees 5 Euro 3 Euro reduced Members of WKV: free 14