Reports from the Capitalocene
May 17–August 3, 2019
Büchsenhausen Fellowship Program for Art and Theory presents the exhibition: “… and diggings revealed unforeseen finds” – Reports from the Capitalocene curated by Andrei Siclodi
The exhibition “… and diggings revealed unforeseen finds” – Reports from the Capitalocene shows at Kunstpavillon of the Tiroler Künstler*schaft new works produced by the participants of the Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen 2018-19. In their respective projects, Angela Anderson, Michael Baers, Aikaterini Gegisian and Riccardo Giacconi have dealt with forgotten as well as under-examined social and political narratives that could prove relevant for an understanding of contemporary societal dynamics.
The contributions of the four artists merge into a polyphonic, virtual narrative covering various aspects of the historical development of our present—a poetic report from a time that is gradually freeing itself from the monotheism of Cartesian rationality. This monotheism has generated the Janus-faced figure of the Capitalocene, constantly attempting to disguise its nature by trivialising the social and cultural consequences of the advancing exploitation of the earth as a resource. In the Capitalocene, everything, not only the Earth but also human beings, turns into a resource. Critical examination of the mechanisms of exploitation and concealment is therefore all the more important, but it is also vital to unearth spillages and reconsider them. To a certain extent, this exhibition intends to do exactly that: In her multimedia, cinematic installation, Angela Anderson focuses on contemporary, realpolitical, feminist alternatives to the machines of androcentric, extractive capital that destroy nature and culture. The discreet signs of everyday life that accompany the transition of a society to totalitarianism are the subject of Michael Baers’ audio piece, whose narrative thread is set in the spring of 1933, when the National Socialists celebrated successes at Innsbruck’s municipal elections. In her six-channel video work, Aikaterini Gegisian formulates a feminist iteration of the representation and mediation of the European community project, as it was displayed in US newsreels in the 1940s and 1950s, primarily as a necessarily networked reindustrialization project for post-war Europe. Finally, in a multimedia installation Riccardo Giacconi addresses the “conservative utopia” of a housing area realized in the 1970s under the name Milano 2 by the investor Silvio Berlusconi as an ingratiation with the capital, a proto-populist residential architecture between pseudo-traditionalism and new media.
Location: Kunstpavillon, Tiroler Künstler*schaft, Rennweg 8a, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Hours: Wednesday–Friday 11am–6pm, Saturday 11am–3pm
Angela Anderson is an artist and filmmaker working at the intersection of philosophy, ecology, economics, migration, media, and feminist & queer theory. Central to her work is an awareness of the intimate connection between media production, memory and apprehension, and the potential of audio-visual media to open up new lines of flight.
Michael Baers has researched cultural politics in Israel and Palestine, in 2014 publishing a lengthy graphic work about the 2011 Picasso in Palestine project, An Oral History of Picasso in Palestine. He has also published comics and texts on contemporary art and artistic research, cultural politics, and urbanism, contributing to a variety of publication projects and internationally recognized journals, such as A-Prior, the e-flux journal, and Vector.
Aikaterini Gegisian is an artist of Greek-Armenian origin. Building on her contribution to the Armenian Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale (2015 Golden Lion for best national participation), over the past four years she has developed a series of new commissions exploring the role of images in the construction of national and gendered identities.
Riccardo Giacconi has exhibited in various institutions, such as ar/ge kunst, Bolzano, MAC, Belfast, FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, tranzitdisplay, Prague, MAXXI, Rome, and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin. He has presented his films at several festivals, including the New York Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
