December 9th 2017 – February 25th 2018
Nathaniel Mellors, The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview, 2013 – Screening December 15th – 21st
“Beyond future is past” showcases eleven current films/videos from international artists. On the one hand the enticing feel and visual concentration of these works allows for a comparison with the con- temporary world of images which surrounds us and with the habitual ways we mentally process this visual information. Their focus is, however, not on appropriation, repetition or media criticism. On the contrary, the film makers have adopted a highly subjective approach to the way the freely available source of image and data material is reclassified, reassembled, mixed and translated into something new. In some cases the very selection of material itself constitutes the design of the film/video. On the other hand the works vary in their aesthetic language and emotional impact, a result not solely due to the technical tools used for production. In terms of an aesthetic categorization the films/videos can be classified into separate groups: “analogue” and “digital”. Throughout the duration of the exhibition each film/video will be shown for one week in a cinematic situation. The program sequence is loosely devised as a set of five pairs. Each of one of the films in a pair emphasizes either a digital or an ana- logue approach, although they also display a wealth of similar charac- teristics. At the end of February the exhibition closes with a solo pres- entation of three works from Shana Moulton. In January she has a guest appearance in the Kunsthalle with her performance “This organ wants this, that organ wants that”.
“beyond future is past” poses the question as to what extent a divi- sion into analogue or digital still bears relevance today. Motivated by a keen inquisitiveness, which in turn is mollified by a sense of scepticism, the exhibition examines phenomena within contemporary art which deal with the current discourse labelled with the highly ambiguous terminology “post digital”, “post internet” or “meta- modernism”. Post internet for example designates no more than life in a world following the invention of the internet. Films which deal with the reality of the internet need not necessarily take place within its realm, but instead they can be a reflection upon how the use of the internet affects our everyday existence. The digital not only pene- trates our thoughts and actions but also forms our bodies and the objects that surround us. Whereas formerly the digital world was a foreign place consisting of not quite deceptively real imitations, it is now our primary domain – the very signature of existence, more real and more material than the world outside the web.
Whether analogue or digital, the eleven films/videos shown are similar with respect to the derivation of their digital form from analogue con- texts, and in certain terms they all conduct an aesthetic archaeology of the future in order to calibrate our perception of the present. Beyond any fascination with the individual impact of the five hybrid pairs of films and the final solo presentation, the question might arise as to whether our perception itself might have become digitalized, and whether, in the moment of seeing, our existences anchored within ana- logue realms might not immediately begin to programme digitally …
Curators: Dr. Gail B. Kirkpatrick and Marcus Lütkemeyer Organization: Isabelle von Schilcher