PORSCHISMUS #9 -
Deal with it
Christiana Biron, Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Adnan Jasika, Emir Kapetanović, Elvedin Klačar, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Diana Righini, Edo Vejselović, Nardina Zubanović
Concert by “La Ginestra” : Maja Musi, Bojan Dizdarević, Zlatan Džananović, Irfan Tahirović
Curated by Veronika Somnitz
PORSCHISMUS is an artist group or an artists’ collective which does not understand itself as such, referring to itself simply as PORSCHISMUS and which indeed, through the interaction of its individual artists of the most diverse artistic orientations, develops its own, new energy; leads a life of its own and demands an independent right to exist. This PORSCHISMUS, currently based in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, has developed a concept for its project “PORSCHISMUS #9” in Sarajevo which does not necessarily involve the physical presence of PORSCHISMUS in person. It has therefore “engaged” the curator of the PORSCHISMUS project who is already in Sarajevo to organise the exhibition “PORSCHISMUS #9” in the gallery Duplex in Sarajevo. Besides the full freedom granted to her in the exhibition’s realisation, the curator has to take into account certain conditions. These “rules of the game” as well as the fact that a budget of 500 euros in cash has been provided by PORSCHISMUS for the realisation of the exhibition and issued to the curator by PORSCHISMUS delegate Andy Kania can be found on the blog http://porschism.us.
In this way PORSCHISMUS has on the one hand upset, challenged and re-evaluated the “power relationship” between artist and curator. On the other, it is breaking the mould with the realisation of a cross-border initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The artist is in one way purposely putting the curator in the spotlight and the curator fulfils an important role within this concept, since it would not work without his consent. Yet at the same time, the curator will be confronted by the artist with the fact that he will now have to coordinate and close an exhibition without being able to count on the actually desired artist. This generates a new relationship of dependence-independence between artist and curator and raises the question of just how far each is acting independently of the other.
However, concerning the curator’s final concept there can be no question of an independent work, since it would never have been realised in this form, here and now without the PORSCHISMUS concept and impulse. Moreover, PORSCHISMUS is present and closely involved in every idea in the exhibition’s planning; PORSCHISMUS has been widely talked about in the Sarajevo art scene during the past weeks and has in this way truly been present in this town.
The concept was given by PORSCHISMUS to the curator not five weeks before the scheduled exhibition opening. This starting situation and the general current social environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country which a press article by Clemens Ruthner has defined as “the last yet undead living part of the corpse of Yugoslavia” and as “being kept alive as in an international intensive care unit”, a country where post-war trauma, everyday nationalist political madness, corruption, a catastrophic economic situation with an average unemployment rate of 50%, demonstrations of power instrumentalising religious confessions, homophobia and macho structures meet, where a feeling of powerlessness, demoralisation and dissatisfaction prevails and which seems to be trapped in a dead-end street of depression, lethargy and complaining without a critical mass believing itself ready to actively address these conditions, give the exhibition its subtitle “DEAL WITH IT”.
“DEAL WITH IT” investigates how one deals with circumstances and situations one finds oneself confronted with, not by critical statement or by further development of the negative moment, but through action, reaction and counter-confrontation. How does an individual or a collective face a fact, social conditions or a seemingly general “badness of the world” – actively, consciously, constructively, ironically, instinctively, with a focus on the other, physically, uncontrolledly, re-reflecting the mirror image, challengingly? By creating little private oases of happiness / “bubbles”, by withdrawing into fantasy worlds where monsters are foughts, overpowered and ridden? What mechanisms are released, what answers does the individual find for himself to be able to face the outer conditions? Does he or she perhaps fail to find an answer; is he or she perhaps unable to confront the circumstances?
The collective exhibition will show some existing and some new works created especially by Christiana Biron, Jusuf Hadžifejzović, Adnan Jasika, Emir Kapetanović, Elvedin Klačar, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Diana Righini, Edo Vejselović and Nardina Zubanović. All of the artists are people whose lives have been and/or still are in one way or another connected to geographical and social Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nevertheless, the works have mostly to be regarded as universally valid; they do not claim a direct and exclusive reference to concrete current realities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the visitor is in this framework invited to deal with their individual approaches and positions.
Veronika Somnitz
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