“Bordelle”

“Zellen”

“Auch Jürgen Chill hat sich mit seinen Arbeiten der Fotografie verschrieben. Bei der Serie, die im Oktober 2010 im Deutschen Pavillon zu sehen ist, handelt es sich um Aufsichten auf Räume, die für eine bestimmte Funktion gebaut wurden und entsprechend eingerichtet sind. Es gelingt dem Künstler, Individualität und architektonische Konsistenz mit ungewöhnlich statischem Blick aufs Bild zu bannen. Die Räume sind menschenleer und so festgehalten, wie sie der Essener Fotograf vorgefunden hat – das Ganze in einer nicht alltäglichen und deshalb so spannenden Perspektive: senkrecht von oben.”

Das neue Projekt von Filippo Minelli: “I’m back from Sri Lanka, where i went to continue a big project i’m working on since one year. While there i had the chance to paint a few things and collect materials for my works. As usual i chose locations where i could create comparisons through the use of language, this time about Italy and Sri Lanka. For the first-one i chose a chained elephant, for the second one a train burned by Tamil rebels during the war against the state, lasted more than 30 years.” Via

Update: “Beim Anblick des Elefanten des Kollegen aus Sri Lanka, wo ich letzten Monat zufällig auch mit meinem Malbuch für Flüchtlingskinder unterwegs war, erinnerte ich mich an eine ähnliche Aktion, die ich am 10.11.2004 gemacht habe”, schreibt Hermann Josef Hack. Danke!

Schöne, neue Frauenpower-Botschaft von Alsacherie. Via

Foto: Elfo

Max Upravitelev und ich haben uns für das italienische Hacktivism-Magazin Neural ein paar Gedanken zum Thema “Fake” gemacht: Neural #34: Fake’ology.

Too good to be true
Fakes as an artistic and subversive warfare against cultural hegemony

„All warfare is based on deception“ – Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I´m lovin´it! Brad Downey, a street artist from the US, currently based in Berlin, painted for a street art groupshow the McDonald´s-Logo on an entire building in Lüneburg, Germany. Same typography, same colours – for the viewer there was no ironic or artistic escape, he could not see any difference to usual advertising. This fake was the only work at the exhibition that did not serve the city as a “trendy decoration” and an artistic beautification that leads to gentrification. On the contrary: For most of the inhabitants of the historical city this work must be a blemish and visual pollution. If advertising imitates the look of street art and street art gets more and more acceptance in all levels of the population, perhaps street art has to imitate the look of advertising to be really radical. Downeys fake was a pure provocation that answered to the appropriation with a maximal over-identification and commentated the McDonaldization of street art shows and society in general.

Fakes are a subversive strategy that work like a guerilla warfare: It´s all about surprise effects, deception, razzle-dazzle, disinformation, sabotage, misappropriation and quasi-affirmation. As an theoretical implement for categorizing fakes, the work-analysis of Peter Bürger is very useful. In his book “Theory of the Avant-garde”, published in 1974, Bürger disputes the relationship between the historical avant-garde and the art term of the bourgeois epoch. Fight was declared on this art term, bidding to break through the autonomy of the institution art, in order to transform art into life practice. The goal was no lesser than the overthrow of the societal conditions, the instrument was art.

Based on this work, Bürger developed a model for work-analysis. Thus a piece of art is first sorted into the societal conditions, from which it was created. After that, it is scrutinized according to Freud’s formula of id, ego and super-ego. The id here is the work-intention of the artist, the ego is the result and the super-ego is the actual function within society. This model renders the possibility to deduce the artist’s motivation from the work-intention through critical analysis. The extraordinary about this model is the real function: Independently from the work-intention it is possible to derive whether a piece of art as a “child of its time“ acts affirmative or critical towards society.

From this point of view, two rough categories of art within the bourgeois epoch can be established: Affirmative and critical art. The motivation of affirmative art is to be successful in present-day society. This form of art acts inherent in the system, thus is dependent of the system and therefore necessarily affirmative. Opposed to that, the work-intention of critical art is to challenge the given circumstances. After this consideration, two categories of fake can be worked out: Affirmative and critical fakes. The work-intention of an affirmative fake is a business concept, the real function is capital – either symbolic or economic. For critical fakes the work-intention has to be a dispute with the given circumstances, the real function is the promotion of critical consciousness within the recipient.

Affirmative fakes do not at all aim for social capital only. The strategy of forgery predominantly follows an economic interest. Viral videos on the net are mostly guerilla marketing campaigns in a battle for eyeballs, made for a postmodern economy of attention. Also illegal acting artists like Banksy became a victim of fakes. In 2007 unauthorised prints by the artist have been sold on eBay – leading to the result that Banksy established a new handling service to legitimate works of art and “to prevent people from becoming victims of fraud”. All this let to a project called notbanksy.co.uk that is producing Banksy-Fakes, giving them away for free in order to “bring back the attainability of Banksy trinkets in an age of bourgeois auction house gentrification”.

Fakes, as a form of media hacking, are also used by artists as well as marketing experts. The director of the movie “Shortcut to Hollywood”, Jan Henrik Stahlberg, spread on september 10th, information about a terrorist attack in a restaurant in the small Californian town Bluewater and referenced to the local station VPK-TV. The plan worked out, the canard was spread through different media channels like the german press agency (DPA). After the hoax was discovered, Stahlberg topped it off by faking the denial itself and claimed that the whole action was the idea of a rap group called “Berliner Boys“. For this remarkable stunt a fake website for the existing city Bluewater, a website for the fake tv-station (including fake tv-reports), a MySpace-site for the fake rappers (including a music video) and some fake Wikipedia entries have been made. But even if this huge hoax transports a critical attitude against the mass media, the final purpose was to promote a movie.

But it shows the power of fakes and how they work. Fakes find and infiltrate chinks in the system – and are spreading like a virus. The overkill of information on the internet and the worldwide media crises made it much easier for fakes. Most media channels in Germany get their information only from one source (DPA) and journalists have no more time verify the source, because the rat-race on the net is so hard and fast. After an information has been send through the DPA-ticker you`ll find the story five minutes later on almost every news site in Germany. Tom Kummer, the famous black sheep of german journalism, faked in the 90s dozens of interviews with stars like Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp or Madonna and argued later that he brought more truth to the media. “My interviews have been concept-journalistic spectacles, all of them little Warhols”, he said and quoted Ernst Bloch: “The only difference between an original and a fake is that the fake looks realer.”

When Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jakob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg has been elected as the new economics minister, a journalism student tested his collegues and added one more forename (“Wilhelm”) to his wikipedia entry – 24 hours later Guttenberg had a new forename in all major newspapers. Besides Wikipedia also Twitter is the perfect new medium for Fakes. There are so many false celebreties that we only mention one case: The group Metronaut twittered more than one year in the name of german politician Franz Müntefering – to 5337 followers. And even if several newspapers already revealed the fake, his Tweets had been quoted again and again in several newspapers.

But all this is no new phenomenon: In 1973 the short text “The Fake as More, by Cheryl Bernstein” was published in the book “Idea Art” about american art theories. Bernstein is writing about the artist Hank Herron who debuted in a gallery in New York with replicas of Frank Stellas paintings. Only 13 years later an art historian discovered that the artist, his work, the gallery and also the author of this text had been fake. The hoax was made up by art historian Carol Duncan and her artist Hank Herron became one of the first fake artists – long before Harry Kipper (1995), Darko Maver (1998) or the “Entropa”-project (2009) of the czech sculptor David Černý. For his installation at the atrium of the European Council building he invented the name and biography for 27 “up-and-coming” artists from the 27 member states – but created all sculptures himself.

Fakes are everywhere, on the street or on the net, and fakes can be commercial and critical. It always depend on the context. But all fakes rub salt into wounds, explore the soft spots, criticise the existing system, they can lead to another vision of reality. And artistic fakes, mostly appropriation art, have successfully destroyed the concept of authorship, the connection between genius and original. But most important fakes as an artistic strategy can enhance critical thinking because of its ambiguity: Everything has always to be questioned.

Eine Klickreise wert: Das wunderbare Fotografie-Portfolio von Dennis Duijnhouwer. Via

“Social philosophy”

“Crystal Palace”: “It’s an urban sculpture. It seems that something violent happened to this bus stop, but actually the broken glass shows more something precious. The situation is turned – the attention is grabbed from the aesthetic, not from the act of destruction. The intention was to provoke some emotion or empathy.”

“Turbo”: “The turbo wave of the 80’s left its mark on the industry and on the whole cultural situation in Western Europe. It became a model of behavior. The sound effect gives sensation of real physical power.”

“Aggravure”: “The protagonist Icarus, the Mannerism of the Renaissance and the symbol of sublime power Air Force One -the plane of the American President- are the main points in this work. The combination of pathos, beauty and unnatural movement of Italian Mannerists concealing some aggression.”

“Polybric”: “Polybric is an educational and entertaining construction game allowing both boys and girls to assemble and build as they wish, with imagination and creativity. The piece is in a real public toilet and it was functional for couple of days.”

Meine Neuentdeckung der Woche: Baptiste Debombourg! Via

Gaias “St. John” – daneben die geklebte Street-Art-Kritik

Wo sollte Kunstkritik stattfinden, die sich mit dem Thema Street Art beschäftigt? Ja, genau: Auf der Straße! Hrag Vartanian hat’s ausprobiert: “At the time, I was interviewing him for an article I was writing, and we discussed the possibililty that street art criticism could be directly engaged with art on the street. The excitement over the idea seemed to spring from our mutual interest in exploring the limits of street-based visual dialogue.”

Großartiges Guerilla-Projekt in London: “The Oubliette Arthouse is a new and pioneering form of arts venue that promotes emerging artists through the reutilisation of empty space. Our independent arts programme showcases emerging talent, with an emphasis on the innovative and avant-garde. The Arthouse does not compete for public or private sector funding, but enjoys total financial self sufficiency, principally through revenue streams generated by donations, service and industry. With no extramural objectives or targets, and liberated from institutional regulation, our bottom-line is creative freedom.” Mehr auch hier. Via: Mail

Wunderschön: Wie zufälligerweise Kunst entsteht. Foto: Ariel Schlesinger Via

* Pity of London: Ein kurzer Film von Ronzo über seine Skulpturen. Via

* Das ist die Idee: “Der Architekt Robert Burghardt hat in seiner Diplomarbeit ein Alternativkonzept für die Bebauung des Schlossplatzes in Berlin entwickelt.” Via

* Architektur II: Architekturstudierende der Universidade do Porto haben im Rahmen eines universitätsweiten Wettbewerb aus 420 IKEA-Plastikaufbewahrungsschachteln eine temporäre Bar entworfen und umgesetzt. Via

* I love Romania: “Check out the Romanian Stencil Archive, in case you’re not allready familiar with it. Great graffiti scene down there.” Via: Mail

* Das BRIMBORIA Institut freut sich bekannt zu geben, dass die offizielle Seite zum BRIMBORIA Kongress am 16.-18. April im Leipziger WESTWERK (Plagwitz) online ist!

* Wir kennen ihn, wir hassen ihn: Den Berliner Szenetyp – ein Text, der geschrieben werden musste: “Unbedingt, und zu aller erst, muss ein Jutebeutel angeschafft werden. Nein, nicht die von gängigen Supermärkten, sondern einer, der schon mindestens 10 Jahre alt ist und einen obskuren 90er Jahre Aufdruck (sehr beliebt ist „Der grüne Punkt“) hat. Je seltener und älter der Jutebeutel, desto besser. Er dient Männern und Frauen gleichermaßen als Handtasche oder Biertransport. Der Jutebeutel ergänzt den Billg-Look und ersetzt das Motto-T-Shirt der frühen 2000er. Der Jutebeutel ist ein nicht zu unterschätzendes Statussymbol. Frauen und Männer decken sich mit Röhrenjeans und Leggins von American Apparel ein, dem einzigen Laden, in dem noch von der Stange eingekauft werden darf. Keine Angst, liebe Moppelchen, wenn ihr nicht in die „One Size Fits All“ Strumpfhosen passt; diese Textilien, die in ihrem Ursprungsland für Kik-Preise verkauft werden, sind so teuer, dass sowieso nicht viel Kleingeld für Essen übrig bleibt. Zusätzliche Accessoire werden ausschließlich in kleinen Boutiquen, auf dem Mauerpark-Flohmarkt oder in Second Hand Läden besorgt, darunter riesige Sonnenbrillen, die das ganze Gesicht verdecken, und am besten auch einen alten Gameboy mit dem Spiel „Tetris“. Empfohlen sind ironisch getragene T-Shirts, also eigentlich völlig inaktzeptable Motive (Tribals, Three Wolf Moon, Micky Maus).” Mehr hier.

* Miam, miam: Lunchbox paintings. Via

* Miam, miam II: Artist-themed desserts im San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

* Großartige Minigolf-Anlage von La Bolleur. Via

* Checkdisout und die Hamburger Botschaft zeigen am Freitag, 12. März die amerikanische Dokumentation “Copyright Criminals” mit anschliessender Diskussion zum Film und zum Thema “Can you own a sound?”. Podiumsdiskussion mit: Ale Dumbsky (Radar Filmfestival), Rodja Schmitz-Hübsch (Finetunes), Thies Mynther (Phantom Ghost), Christian Tjaben (ByteFM) und Dietmar Brinkmann (Piratenpartei Hamburg)

* Lightwriting-Live-Event an diesem Freitag, 12. März: We Make Stuff Good Gallery @ Stattbad Wedding, Gerichtstr. 65, Berlin

“Alexandr Wolodarskij wurde im November bei einer Aktion vor der Werchnowa Rada, dem ukrainischen Parlament, verhaftet. Er hatte mit einer anderen Aktivistin nackt einen Geschlechtsakt imitiert, um auf die erstarkende Zensur des ukrainischen Staates hinzuweisen. Nach seiner Verhaftung drohen Wolodarskij bis zu fünf Jahre Haft, weil ihm nach Artikel 2 des Paragrafen 296 („durch Gruppen vollzogenes Rowdytum“ / Landfriedensbruch) der Prozess gemacht wird. Nach anderthalb Monaten in Untersuchungshaft kam Wolodarskij, der unter dem Namen Shiitman bloggt, jetzt frei.” Metronaut hat ein lesenswertes Interview mit ihm geführt: “Es gibt drei Richtungen der Zensurtätigkeit: Sexualität, Gewalt und „politische Inkorrektheit“. Pornographie wird offiziell als gemeingefährliche Erscheinung in eine Reihe mit Rechtsextremismus gestellt, erotische Kunstwerke werden oft als Pornographie bewertet.”