Sean Snyder
September 16 – October 25, 2009
Opening: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 5-8 pm
Index the Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation
Kungsbro strand 19
SE-112 26 Stockholm
T +46-8/5021 98 38
index [at] algonet.se
Sean Snyder is a visual artist who has produced research-oriented projects focusing on image production and representation. Using examples from media, cinema, urban space and architecture his work analyzes the relation between image and text. Recently, Sean Snyder has investigated the transformative role of the archive in relation to digital imaging technologies, developing a methodological approach to the structuring of information. Utilizing the interpretative potential of documents and databases, his work explores documentary practice as a historical construct, and more generally the underlying role of aesthetics in ideology and culture.
The presentation at Index will be Sean Snyder’s first individual presentation in Sweden, including two of the artist’s most recent works. Edited from a Soviet-era documentary about an exhibition of Mexican art in the Ukraine in the 1960s, the narrative of the film Exhibition has been restructured to reflect the rituals and conventions of contemporary art practice. Additionally, a newly compiled version of the on-going project titled Index will be presented. Included are images of the artist’s physical archive that have been destroyed and digitized, outlining a selective topology of the materials of artistic research.
The exhibition is accompanied by a lecture
Wednesday, October 14
6pm: Art, Safety and Confinement. Zoran Erić
The end of the era of a Bipolar World introduced new models of waging war, especially terrorism, as the enemy from within. This is why Safety has become the primary concern of every country, even taking precedence over democracy or freedom. “Safety First” has become the motto of global societies and, due to the constant fear and danger of terrorism, they are creating “safety belts” around themselves with the so-called open societies closing and confining themselves within tangible and intangible barriers of control and surveillance.
In his talk Zoran Erić will analyse the works of Sean Snyder and relate them to the artistic practice of Harun Farocki, Walid Raad, Artur Żmijewski, Solmaz Shahbazi and Sagi Groner amongst others, thereby thematizing different aspects of safety and confinement in contemporary global societies. Zoran Erić works as curator at Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade.
The lecture includes a screening of the following films:
Sean Snyder, Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars, 2004-05
Walid Raad, Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (#17 and #31), 2001
Index the Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation
Kungsbro strand 19
SE-112 26 Stockholm
T +46-8/5021 98 38
index@algonet.se
Tue – Fri 12-4pm
Sat – Sun 12-5pm