Michael Schultze
Laura White (in foreground)
Pilvi Takala
John Russell
Laura White (sculpture) & TC McCormack (print)
Michelle Atherton
TC McCormack
Jette Gejl
Lara Egglton & David Steans
Performance by Jette Gejl
AS MUCH ABOUT FORGETTING
Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark, 6 September – 25 November 2018
Curated by TC McCormack, Michelle Atherton & Jette Gejl
Artists: Laura White (UK), David Toop (UK), Michael Schultze (D), John Russell (UK) Lea Torp Nielsen (Dk /UK), Sophus Ejler Jepsen (Dk), Laura Eggleton & David Steens (UK) Jette Gejl (Dk), Michelle Atherton (UK) and TC McCormack (UK)
Contemporary art is absorbed by the past like never before. Historical references abound, ranging from aesthetic quotes from art history to formal experiments, performative re- enactment to the unfolding, and reinterpreting of various cultural-historical archival phenomena.
The passage of time gives us both history and memory and yet tensions often exist between these two formulations. Is what we remember what actually happened and is history factual or an interpretation, subject to revision and change? Is it possible to reclaim, re-enact or recall our pasts as imperfect and to sanction a space for forgetting as a means to create a future tense - to free ourselves from weights. Collectively the artists in this exhibition offer a set of connections that tend to omit or exclude more than is included, their aim is not a totality of view. Rather the artworks act as provocations to shift temporal configurations through a recognition of potentially missed or overlooked incidents. The works draw upon the intangible, unstable, the unofficial and the virtual, while some embrace the archive and the artefact.
Underpinning this curatorial approach is an appreciation of the historical as being informed by complex material and cultural rituals that are open to dispute and displacement through contemporary art. The artists offer moments, turns and dis-associations to you, our public, whom we recognise as being fully rooted, as we are, in a wealth of specific cultural positions