TRUST

Opening: Fri 30 Juli 2010, 19:00

Trust is a major factor in all human relations and it is the basis of communication. We trust the validity of rules, codes and conventions, and we have confidence in others. The same goes for media and technical systems as we entrust them with our wishes and longings. There may be a nagging doubt or suspicion about them, yet we feel an urge to keep faith with the apparatuses and their simulacra when we consign them to tell us a good story, to convey the truth, and to make our lives better – healthy, and wholesome.
The group exhibition TRUST explores the aesthetics of this confidence by questioning its status, attempting to challenge the audience’s convictions, and by encouraging a reflected dialogue with machines and media. The works in the show point to the desires as well as the ethical and emotional dilemmas that arise from this attitude of trust.

During the opening of TRUST on Friday, 30 July, 19:00h, Antoine Chessex and Thomas Ankersmit present their performance “Diffusions/Acoustics”.

Curated by Andreas Broeckmann and Stefan Riekeles.

Opening hours

July 31 - August 18, 2010
Thu, Fri 14-–20
Sat, Sun 10–20

August 19 - 29, 2010
daily 10–20

August 30, 2010 (Mon) closed
August 31 - Sept 3, 2010 (Tue-Fri) 14-20
Sept 4, 2010 (Sat) 10-20
Sept 5, 2010 (Sun) 14-20


Artists / works


rota
Carsten Nicolai (de)
Installation 2009

A bright light shines from inside a rotating cylinder through perforated holes and creates a stroboscopic effect. A text on the all claims that these impulses may have a direct effect on the brain waves of the spectator as the light impulse frequencies can stimulate different mental states. The work questions the trust in our senses and in scientific experiments.


Blink
HC Gilje (no)
Video Installation/Videoinstallation 2009

“Blink” investigates how audiovisual techniques and light can transform, enlarge, enhance and interpret physical spaces. It combines mapped projection with reflections from the floor onto the walls of the space, and the mirroring of images from the walls onto the floor, to create abstract light paintings.


Otondro, Guarding Who
Naeem Mohaiemen (bd)
Slide Series, 2010

The images in Mohaiemen’s series of slides show snapshots of the interstices between political life, activism and the media in a globalised world. It is an almost casual glance at reality from the perspective of mobile phone cameras. Billboards, demonstrations, police actions, street scenes and personal details merge into a narrative about the foundations of trust and distrust in digital culture.


Time Slip
Antoine Schmitt (fr)
Installation, 2009

“Time Slip” is a text display which continuously presents news from the future as computer software transcribes official news agency online newscasts from the grammatical past tense to the future tense. A fascinating impression of knowing the future arises and transfigures the installation into an apparent oracle.


macghillie _ just a void
knowbotic research (ch/at/de)
Performance, 2009

In the public performance project “macghillie”, urban sites are visited by a figure, clad in a camouflage suit that disguises all personal traits. The so-called Ghillie Suit was invented in the 19th century for hunting and was later also used during the First World War. Its camouflage effect leads to the anonymisation and neutralisation of the person who wears it in public. The figure oscillates between the hyperpresence of a mask and visual redundancy and thus ruptures the social system of identity and trust.


Lonely Sessions
Joan Leandre (es)
Video, 2009

The video “Lonely Sessions” displays emotionally charged scenes that might either come straight out of a dystopian science fiction film, or from elaborately designed computer games: industrial urban areas, derelict streets, claustrophobic views of interiors, strange natural objects and phenomena. Remarkably, it has no people in it, as though the virtual apocalypse had wiped out all human life, even across the different game scenarios. These are the places that androids think of when they cannot sleep.


Choir piece for 24 voices attuned to the spectrum of frequencies of a sodium lamp powered by 60 hertz
Sophie Bélair Clément (qc/ca)
Sound Installation/Klanginstallation, 2007

This project is presented in cooperation with the Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
One method of unmasking delusions and getting a trustworthy grip on reality is to mimic the world. For her work Sophie Bélair Clément analysed the acoustic frequency spectrum of the low humming of neon lamps and subsequently commissioned a choir to perform and sing this sound.


Loops and Fields: Induction Drawings Series 3
Joyce Hinterding (au)
Drawn Antennas/Gezeichnete Antennen, 2010

“Loops and Fields: Induction Drawings” is a collection of drawings that resonate sympathetically with the electromagnetic fields within the gallery space. When connected to a sound system the drawings function as antennas and make the spectral activity audible. The lines and loops refer to the trust we have in the power of media to discover the world.


Desire of Codes
Seiko Mikami (jp)
Installation, 2010

In her project, Seiko Mikami addresses the relationship between human and machine agents. A matrix of sensors, small lights and surveillance cameras spans the space and follows the movements of visitors. Each movement sets off a response from a whole swarm of small surveillance units, using their lights to point at the body of the visitor. An uneasy dialogue on the ambivalent trust in surveillance systems evolves.


Trusted Realities
Konrad Becker (at)
Installation, 2010

The installation by Konrad Becker displays, carved in stone, what is probably the most deceitful medium of human expression, namely, text. Like codes of law he presents theses which speak of deception, insecurity and distrust, pointing us to the simultaneity and ambivalence of truth and delusion.


Endo
Verena Friedrich (de)
Installation, 2008

“Endo” takes the notion of the black-boxing of technology to a conceptual critique and poetic sculptural interpretation. A black-cased digital recorder is equipped with various sensors – allegedly registering data from its surroundings such as sound, camera image, GPS-coordinates, brightness, air pressure, humidity and temperature on a large hard drive. Once the hard drive is full, recording stops, and the data becomes enclosed within the object, transfiguring it into a monumental static artefact.


Memory Cone
Julien Maire (de/fr)
Installation, 2009

The installation “Memory Cone” invites us to explore the nature of the electronic image and to question its apparent stillness. The installation serves as a laboratory to probe the material qualities of a mediated image. In this high-tech sequel to the materialist cinema of the seventies, Maire addresses the apparatus and its physical output and the fundamental trust in images and memory.


One Day, Instead of One Night, a Burst of Machine-Gun Fire Will Flash, if Light Cannot Come Otherwise
Milica Tomić (rs)
Video, 2009

Milica Tomić presents herself as a trustworthy person who calmly strolls around the city of Belgrade carrying a rifle in one hand and a white plastic bag in the other. On her way she visits places which have seen important actions of the Yugoslavian resistance against the German occupying forces during World War II. Tomić overrides the intuitive mistrust against weapons and succeed in placing the dangerous object in public space without allowing it to unfold its powers.

Nereida
Ariel Guzik (mx)
Installation, 2009

“Nereida” is a fused quartz underwater capsule that contains within it a mechanism of cords and circuits. It is part of a collection of instruments whose purpose is to establish contact and some kind of link with cetaceans through music, without any means of domination and without limiting their freedom. The Nereida experiments are based on some aspects of chaos theory and on the fact that for dolphins and whales, observation and communication make up a single and inseparable circular process based on sound waves.

TRUST is funded by Kunststiftung NRW (Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia).