Alice Creischer
Why Not Lobby Today?
Postscript Summer 1999
24x29 cm, Collage/Aquarell
Date: Tuesday, 22 May, 2007
Time: 18:00
Location: The Munch Studio at Ekely
Jarlsborgvn. 14 / Gråbrødreveien 10, Oslo
Transport from Wergelandsveien 17 at 17:30
Please be so kind as to send your intent to attend to office@oca.no. It would be helpful to receive your final R.S.V.P. by 21 May.
Informal reception to follow in
the Munch Studio garden.
Why Not Lobby Today? (1998/2007) is the outcome of a long-term development by Alice Creischer to be realized at the upcoming Documenta in Kassel. The project was made possible with guest contributions by Eduardo Molinari, Andreas Siekmann, Dierk Schmitt and the Timeline Group Berlin, (John Dunn, Henrik Dinkelacker, Lydia Hamann, Katja von Helldorf und Jenny Hauke). The work includes twenty-seven drawings, collages, paintings and photos with different sound/text pieces. The texts vary — historical reports, reports of parlamentarian debates, poems, and some small drama pieces that are connected with special drawings and paintings.
"I started occupying myself with the fascist continuity in Germany, under the impression of the national "normalization" of Germany, as it occurred in Rostock and Mölln, with the quasi abolishment of the right of asylum, but also with the renovation of the Reichstag. I initially thought that everything had certainly been reappraised already, the Nuremberg Trials took place, denazification, there's an office in Ludwigsburg that pursues further crimes, and I thought that leftist critique had dealt with and published everything else. I was a bit ashamed when I started, because it was like an illegitimate rummaging through a cleaned-up attic. I was not prepared for this kind of thoughtless continuity which could not be described primarily in ideological or structural terms; instead, it was the continuity of personalities and their clans. Especially when endeavouring to do so, it was always stated that one argued too personally and drew up conspiracy theories. While conducting research, I came upon the attempts to design an economic democracy with a complex system dedicated to the separation of powers across different committees. The model was passed in Hesse in 1946 in a difficult democratic procedure, but was then prevented by those said personalities. I can't exactly say what outraged me in particular. Perhaps it was the beauty of the model, the effort and seriousness of the vote which in the current uncontested state of market economy appeared as a drollery. Or this constant self-confidence with which the descendents of said personalities, the Filbingers and Waldheims, the Speers and Flicks, acted as utterly natural representatives. It was an outrage that at first appeared helpless and strange, wordless, creeping silently and grimly through the day, or expressing itself in seeking out opinion pollsters in the street just to yell at them, because this outrage simply could not find a way of expressing itself. In the end, I came up with a narrative to finally give the outrage a place to settle. It was something like Münchhausen's pigtail, at the end of which history now hovers in the air over the swamp and therefore, at this moment, can at least attain a form which is visible for all. For the question was not how to impart information; it was instead situated more before or after this — totally old and useless — information. The question was, how can something be visualized. I just finished the story when the intervention in Kosovo and the trials dealing with the repayment of forced labourers began. In my view, both were related. The rhetoric of atonement for crimes, an atonement that never occurred, was suddenly reversed — by those who were in perfect amity with the perpetrators. Terming rigged massacres as a Holocaust, and the resulting duty to intervene — all this was an absurd scenario of transferring suppressed guilt — a German shit projection. So I wrote a sort of postscript to the first story in which I wanted to describe this connection and how it gradually turned into a new constitution of power legitimating its wars with the defence of human rights. I meanwhile no longer believe that the so-called German thing, i.e., fascist continuity, is a kind of identity thing triggered by the localisation of one's own homeland. I also no longer believe that what is at issue is the suppression or tabooing of history, but instead its utilization. I now believe that the continuity of unexpiated crimes and the threat of new ones establish the reverse side of republics that proclaim freedom, while meaning utilization."
Socio-political issues are at the very crux of the artistic practice pursued by Alice Creischer. Rather than concentrating on the production of individual works, the artist centers on the process of inquiry to illuminate particular political histories of given contexts. Concepts of time, labour, and exploitation are investigated in projects whereby Creischer sets out a scenography in positioning her discourse. Adopting prop-like devices and meticulously crafted and sewn objects, Creischer choreographs a space within a system of coordinates that deconstruct yet another set of given historical relations. By setting up different scenarios in a simultaneous manner, Creischer transposes a world history in relation to Karl Marx's concept around the original accumulation of capital.
For The Greatest Happiness Principle Party held at the Secession in Vienna in 2001, Creischer developed an exhibition layout by abstracting from theoretical research around the machinations of politics and business and their culture. The artist referenced a real historical event by transforming an intended gallery into an allegorical space. Framed within the backdrop of 1931, the project unfolds within a fixed point in time; the bank Austrian Credit Institute has rented one of the rooms of Secession for a party. It is a party without any major conflicts. The viewer learns certain historical facts; that the bank triggered the second major world economic crisis through speculation in the Balkans. In an inventive staging of simultaneous scenarios, Creischer intertwines the premise of reason set out in the Enlightenment with the transformation of existence into value as proliferated by an ever-expanding market economy.
Extending beyond artistic production, Creischer has also been prolific in her critical writings and curatorial projects. In 2002, together with Andreas Siekmann, she curated Violence on the Margin of All Things at the Generali Foundation in Vienna. Uniting approximately twenty different artistic contributions from the U.S., Argentina, and Europe, the project addressed the theme of militancy in terms of its historic and artistic modes. Creischer and Siekmann drew on historical positions as reference material to integrate the entirety of the project into a theater situation with the exhibition architecture arranged as stage and backstage. These projects, among many others realized in past years, led the international jury for the Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art 2006 to select Alice Creischer. Creischer will participate in a solo exhibition at MACBA in Barcelona in January 2009.
The Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art 2006 was awarded to the German artist, writer and curator Alice Creischer by H. M. Queen Sonja of Norway on 14 November 2006 at the Aula.
The Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art was initiated and developed in 2004/2005 by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway to enhance exchange in international contemporary art and highlight the importance and ongoing influence of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944). The award is the highest prize for international contemporary art given in Norway. Since its inception, the award has evolved into an important acknowledgment of artists whose practices engage critically with social and political issues and contexts. The Award celebrates an exceptional attitude of Edvard Munch and his ability to translate what he sensed in society into his own artistic language. The award is intended to support the development of a new work and to cover living expenses during a six-month residency in Norway. The artist residency is situated within the Munch estate Ekely with an additional usage of the original Munch studio in Oslo, in addition to a grant of 350,000 NOK.
The International Jury for the Edvard Munch Award for Contemporary Art is made up of the following: Roger Buergel, Artistic Director, Documenta 12, Kassel; Lynne Cooke, Curator, Dia Foundation, NYC; Jörg Heiser, Co-editor of FRIEZE, Berlin; Marta Kuzma, Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Oslo; Bartomeu Mari, Chief Curator, MACBA, Barcelona; Dirk Snauwaert, Director, WIELS, Brussels.
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is a private foundation and was founded by The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Fall 2001. The main aim of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway is to develop collaborations in contemporary art between Norway and the international art scene. The Office for Contemporary Art Norway aims to become a profiled contributor to the discourses of contemporary art.
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