IMAGINING MEMORY:
BETWEEN ANAESTHESIA AND AMNESIA
Cian Dayrit
Nikki Luna
Martin Krenn
Yoshinori Niwa
Hu Yun
OPENING:
Thursday, March 22, 2018, 6 pm
EXHIBITION DATA:
March 22 to April 21, 2018
The use of slogans, abbreviations and acronyms as empty signifiers, representations of knowledge (data visualized in infographics and maps) are signs of the writing, re-writing and writing off of memory, memory that serves to construct an ‘us’ (vs. a ‘them’, the barbarians on the other side of the border, a man-made border), a community (from an ethnic group to the nation). Even though myth-memory is man-made, it does have real consequences in everyday life. And a group of international artists are invited to contribute (ongoing) research projects dealing with the workings of power-knowledge relationships.
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1335MABINI, Manila, 22 March 2018
Cian Dayrit (1989) studied at the art school of the University of the Philippines. He was awarded the Ateneo Art Awards in 2017 and the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards in 2018. He has shown his work at home (Bellas Artes Outpost; Vargas Museum; MET; Lopez Memorial Museum; CCP) and abroad (Para Site, HK; New Museum, NY). Dayrit’s work deals with the impacts of the globalized economy and its powerful ideology (including the use of coded language, e.g. visualized in maps) on the spaces of everyday life. For the current exhibition, he shows Yuta Nagi Panaad (i.e. ‘Promised Land’). This tapestry work is a map that aims to visualize the expanding borders of mineral extraction, agri-business plantations and their effects on the communities and the ecology of Mindanao, Philippines. Mindanao has a history of colonialism, exploitation and displacement of its people. Today, foreign multinationals receive protection from local paramilitary organizations and Mindanao has been under martial law since 2017, which means that locals have no avenue to voice concerns and protests.
Martin Krenn (1970) is an artist, filmmaker and teacher at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. He graduated in Electronic Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, he holds a M.A. from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and was awarded a PhD by Ulster University in 2016. Krenn received the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarship at the University of Ulster in Belfast (UK). He is represented by Gallery Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz. Krenn has had numerous international exhibitions, including solo shows in Graz (Neue Galerie and Gallery Zimmermann Kratochwill), wwVienna (Kunsthalle Exnergasse and Passagegalerie Künstlerhaus), Salzburg (Salzburger Kunstverein and Galerie 5020), Brest (Centre d’art Passerelle), Lüneburg (Kunstraum Lüneburg), München (Kunstraum München), Ljubljana (Mala galerija Cankarjev Dom), Celje(Center for Contemporary Art) and Bucharest (Centre for Visual Introspection). He participated in group shows in Paris (Apegac/Espace Donguy), Antwerp (NICC), Amsterdam (W139), Kobe (Videoart Center Tokyo), Berlin (NGBK), Helsingborg (Dunkers Kulturhus), Hong Kong (Hong Kong Art Center), Leipzig (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst), Toronto (Toronto Free Gallery), Vancouver (Artspeak Gallery), Holon (The Israeli Center of Digital Art), Thun (Kunstmuseum Thun), Pori (Pori Art Museum) and Sibiu (The National Brukenthal Museum). Martin Krenn’s interest lies in the strained relationships between art and society. In 2014, 1335MABINI showed his solo exhibition ...truth should be honored, which works are shown again in the current exhibition. ...truth should be honored explores the lengthy letter correspondence between Jose Rizal, the intellectual revolutionary and national hero of the Philippines, and Dr. Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Austrian ethnographer and expert on the Philippines who never visited the Philippines. What’s today’s relevance of these 19th century men? Does their truth still hold sway?
Nikki Luna (1977) studied art at the University of the Phillippines, and she is currently undertaking her masters in Women and Development Studies at the same university. In 2016, she was the recipient of a grant from the Asian Cultural Council. She exhibits her work at home (CCP; Vargas Museum; Lopez Memorial Museum) and abroad (Aichi Triennale, Japan; Singapore Biennale; Beijing Biennale). Feminism – as discourse as well as lived practice – informs her research, advocacy for women human rights as well as her artistic practice. The starting point of Luna’s work Female Fighter in this exhibition is a quote from Duterte, the president of the Philippines. He told soldiers active in Mindanao, which is under martial law, to shoot women in the vagina, and without it they become ‘useless’. This utter disrespect for women and the integrity of their bodies brings two things to the foreground: firstly, the body of women – wives, daughters, sisters – is always already politically charged, no matter how private; secondly, bodies of noncombatants are made part of armed conflicts, even though this is in violation of the Geneva Convention.
Vienna-based Japanese artist Yoshinori Niwa (1982) studied at the Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts, Tama Art University, and exhibits internationally: Gwanju Biennale; Mori Museum; Setouchi Triennale; Kyoto University of Arts Art Gallery; Tamsui Historical Art Museum, (Taipei); Vargas Museum; Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Haifa Museum of Art; and in 2017 he had solo shows in Edel Assanti (London) and 1335MABINI, respectively titled That Language Sounds Like a Language and We’re Heading to a Place Where Nobody Wants to Go by the Will of All. Niwa’s socially and historically interventionist works deal with futility and the impossibility of real (ex-)change. In this exhibition, he shows the video installation Asking Taiwanese to Sing the National Anthem of the Republic of China while Listening to the National Anthem of the People’s Republic of China. This work deals with the complicated notion of nationhood and centers around the pressing question on how we define our collective identities. For this work, he asked two Taiwanese to sing their national anthem while listening to the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China performed by a group of musicians, resulting in an absurd contrast within the performance as well as referring to the ambiguous China-Taiwan relationships.
Hu Yun (1986) graduated from the China Academy of Art in 2008, he is currently based in Belgrade and Shanghai. His selected solo exhibitions include Up to the Sky (Magician Space, Beijing, 2010); Image of Nature (Natural History Museum, London, 2010); Our Ancestors (Goethe Institut, Shanghai, 2012); Lift with Care (AIKE DELLARCO Gallery, Shanghai, 2013) and Narration Sickness (AIKE DELLARCO Gallery, Shanghai, 2016). His works have also been exhibited at the Power Station of Art (Shanghai), Centre Pompidou (Paris) and Times Museum (Guangzhou). Hu Yun has participated in the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), 4th Guangzhou Triennial (2012) and 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016). He is the co-founder of the art e-journal PDF. In his practice, Hu Yun revisits historical moments in order to provide alternative readings, a process that also informs the artist’s reflection on grand narratives and personal ties. The artist considers himself a mediator between everyday stories and gossips and state-sanctioned histories. Not My Intention aims to probe into a particular period in history, of westerners first arriving in China, from a personal perspective. This series tackles the issue of modernity and, now, where to go from here.
