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The exhibition ‘Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies’ is the most expansive presentation of the work of the Swiss duo to date, featuring ten works, four of which are new productions.
Hemauer | Keller investigate energy – as an allegorical concept, an invisible force, and a defining theme of geopolitics and modernity. One of the main focuses of their practice is the history of oil and the fate and future of its competing alternatives, notably solar power.
Hemauer | Keller make use of a range of strategies – re-enactment and performance, as well as documentary video, sculpture and text. Their work often provides an opportunity to revitalize key historical moments. For example, the 66 minute documentary essay ‘A Road Not Taken’ (2010) examines former US President Jimmy Carter’s early and ultimately futile efforts to raise awareness about oil dependency, as symbolized by the installation, in 1979, of solar panels on the roof of the West Wing of the White House.
Also featured in this exhibition is No.1 Sun Engine (2008–9). In 1913, American inventor Frank Shuman inaugurated the first large-scale solar power generator near Cairo, Egypt. Although it was economically viable compared to coal power, the plant was only used for one year. In 2008 the artists reconstructed two segments of this pioneering facility and established an information kiosk where local residents and passers-by could discover and contribute to its story.
Globalising the Internationale (2006–ongoing) is a choral work which refers to the songs of socialism and the workers' movements – one of the most widespread social upheavals of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. With this project, the artists aim to use the collective force of the human voice to herald a new age of alternative energy beyond fossil fuels. (+ info...)
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Christina Hemauer (1973) and Roman Keller (1969) live and work in Zürich, Switzerland. Recent exhibitions and projects include: Globalising the Internationale, for Portscapes (2009) and Portscapes exhibition, at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2010); 11th Cairo International Biennale, El Cairo (2008–9), Nettoyage énergétique, Center Contemporary Art Fribourg (2007), A Manifestation, a Dedication and a Place to get the Word out, Swiss Art Awards, Basilea (2007); At this place, Postpetrolism was heralded on 27 April 2006, Kunsthof, Zurich (2006).
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition is one of the 5 proposals selected from over 600, received via Aarhus Art Building's open submission call, and launches the 2011 season 'IMAGINE – towards an eco-aesthetic'.
A 36-page full colour publication in English and Danish will be printed on the occasion of the exhibition. It includes an introductory essay by the curators on the artists' practice as well as short texts about each of the works included in the exhibition.
‘Christina Hemauer & Roman Keller: United Alternative Energies’ has been possible thanks to the generous support of The Danish Arts Council Committee for International Visual Art; Pro Helvetia and the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.
PRESS IMAGES
Please contact Pernille Lyngsø, pl@aarhuskb.dk or phone +45 86 20 60 53.
Press photos can be downloaded at www.aarhuskunstbygning.dk
Adam Chadwick, 'Art and journalism …sometimes a fine line…', http://fittoprintfilm.wordpress.com, 1 December 2010:
This past Saturday members of the group Latitudes – an independent Barcelona-based curatorial office – hosted an event for the “Fit to Print” production team at the New Museum in the Bowery neighborhood of lower Manhattan. (...) I was too intrigued by the wall-to-wall displays of vintage newspaper front pages in one of the rooms. It was hard not to examine the way in which newspapers implemented multiple sub-headlines back in the early part of the twentieth century. In a way, many start-up news websites are creating similar sub-heads to draw reader attention in the vast wild west of search engine optimization. This would be a topic our guest speaker, Jason Fry, would speak about during our panel discussion.
[Read an edited transcription of the event here.]
This is tomorrow, 'The Last Newspaper', 5 December 2010:
Latitudes, the Barcelona-based curatorial office, and a diverse team led by Joseph Grima and Kazys Varnelis/Netlab, are on-site producing weekly newspapers.
'THE LAST POST' / 'THE LAST GAZETTE' / 'THE LAST REGISTER'... is the evolving-titled 12-page free weekly newspaper and an incremental exhibition catalogue edited during a 10-week editorial residency by Latitudes. Produced from a micro-newsroom placed on the third floor of the museum the tabloids will be an archive in formation companioning The Last Newspaper’s exhibition, artworks, and events, as well as being a platform for critical reflection on the wider agency of art and artists with respect to concerns about how information is produced, managed, recorded, re-ordered, and disseminated.
With kind permission from Latitudes we are reproducing two selected texts from their catalogue/newspapers, written by The Last Newspaper London correspondent and 'this is tomorrow' features editor Lorena Muñoz-Alonso (continue reading...)
Kristin M. Jones, 'Chronicles of a Medium in Crisis', The Wall Street Journal, 16 December 2010:
(...) Via a micro-newsroom, Latitudes, a Barcelona-based curatorial team, produced a tabloid whose name changed each week. The spirited articles include stories on artists, filmmakers, and topics ranging from ProPublica to the history of cast-iron newsstand paperweights; its issues will be bound together after the show ends in lieu of a catalog. The editors commissioned profiles and interviews related to the show but also solicited story ideas, headlines inspired by personal events, and other information from the public.
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