Counter-Representations of Geopolitical Conflict
Artists: WAFAA BILAL, ANETTA MONA CHISA & LUCIA TKÁČOVÁ, AD VAN DENDEREN, G.R.A.M., AN-MY LÊ, RABIH MROUÉ, ISABEL ROCAMORA, GERHARD RÜHM, LARISSA SANSOUR, DREAD SCOTT, TARZAN & ARAB, SHARIF WAKED, CHRISTOPH WEBER, ANNA WITT
This new international group exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York gathers together different artistic reactions to the ways in which media representations of violent conflict are increasingly rendered through a humanist, individualized, and even banal perspective.
In this moment of seemingly permanent global warfare, the experience of violent conflict is continually restaged in visual culture. Films, documentaries, mainstream journalism, and user-generated media serve as the ideological, consensus-building theater of conflict. Seen most clearly through the intimate renderings of soldiers, agents, and politicians, the identificatory power of the personal overwhelmingly occludes the broader constructs of the political. The artists in AN I FOR AN EYE foreground this complex politics of attachment, detachment, and affect in their counter-representations of conflict.
The exhibition, which was curated by Stamatina Gregory and the Austrian Cultural Forum’s departing director, Andreas Stadler, features artists working in different regions and from within different contexts, all sharing a particular focus on personal and distributed media, the cinematic, and the contemporary culture of spectacle.
[Image: Isabel Rocamora, Still from Body of War (2010), Courtesy of Galeria SENDA, Barcelona (Spain)]
ACFNY Gallery View
Photo by David Plakke
Wafaa BILAL
Iraq/Iran (2013)
Neon installation
56 x 61 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Installation view at the ACFNY
Photo by David Plakke
Anetta Mona CHISA & Lucia TKÁČOVÁ
Still from Dialectics of subjections #4 (2006)
color video with sound
12:56 min
Courtesy of Christine König Galerie, Vienna
Ad van DENDEREN
J.J.C.D. Schieveen, from the series Registration of the new recruits for the airborne brigade. Orange Barracks, Schaarsbergen, The Netherlands (2008)
Golden fibre silk paper c-print on dibond, maple ebony floater frame
31.5 x 39.4 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Paradox, the Netherlands
G.R.A.M
Hohes Haus (Seoul) (2011)
C-Print, Alu Dibond
98.8 x 72 inches framed
Courtesy Christine König Galerie, Vienna
An-My LÊ
Small Wars (stars and stripes) (1999-2002)
Silver gelatin print
26.5 x 38 inches
Courtesy of Murray Guy, New York
Rabih MROUÉ
Still from Shooting Images (2012)
Video
9:14 min
Courtesy of the artist
Isabel ROCAMORA
Still from Body of War (2010)
16 mm transferred to HD
Single channel color projection, stereo
20:49 min
Courtesy of Galeria SENDA, Barcelona (Spain)
Gerhard RÜHM
Untitled (from the series visual music; Österreichischer Alt- und Neonazimarsch (Ära Waldheim) für Hackbrett und Vergaser), Alt und Neonazimarsch (1987)
Pencil on sheet music
13.3 x 10.6 inches
Courtesy of Christine König Galerie, Vienna
Dread SCOTT
Predator (2013)
Screen print on gold foil card
Courtesy of the artist
Larissa SANSOUR
Nation Estate – Jerusalem Floor (2012)
Diasec on aluminum
Courtesy of the artist
TARZAN & ARAB
Fields of Thorns from the series Gazawood (2010)
Digital C-print
20 x 27.5 inches
Courtesy of the artists
TARZAN & ARAB
Still from Colorful Journey (2010)
Video
6:17 min
Courtesy of the artists
Sharif WAKED
Still from Gaza Zoo (Bath Time) (2012)
Video
8 min
Courtesy of the artist
Christoph WEBER
Untitled (Chunks) (2004)
33.4 x 5 x 27.5 inches each
Sewacryl laminate
Courtesy of Tishman Speyer
Installation view at the ACFNY
Photo by David Plakke
Christoph WEBER
Untitled (Zementsprayung) (2013)
Cement, sand, water
Courtesy of the artist
Installation view at the ACFNY
Photo by David Plakke
Anna WITT
Still from The Eyewitness (2011)
Full HD video
15 min
Courtesy of the artist
Curators Stamatina Gregory & Andreas Stadler
Exhibition Coordinator Natascha Boojar
Exhibition Assistants Valerie Matheis, Maria Kogelnik, Lisa Sommerauer, and Nina Streit
Supporting Institutions of the Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Esterházy Winery, RB International Finance (USA) LLC, Stiegl, and Zumtobel
Special thanks to Patrick Cadenhead, Franklin Castanien, Geraldine Lau, Carl Marin, Melanie McLain, and Brian Sharrock
