make any text speed it up slow it down run it backwards inch it and you will hear words that were not in the original recording new words made by the machine different people will scan out different words of course but some of the words are quite clearly there and anyone can hear them words which were not in the original tape but which are in many cases relevant to the original text as if the words themselves had been interrogated and forced to reveal their hidden meanings (William S. Burroughs, The Invisible Generation) At first glance, the subject of the exhibition ‘Awake Are Only the Spirits’ – On Ghosts and Their Media seems somewhat outmoded: the presence of the supernatural, the manifestations of spirits, and (trans)communication with the beyond facilitated by technical media. The exhibition is based on the audiotape archive of Friedrich Jürgenson who discovered the so-called Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) in 1959. Taking as starting point the lively interest shown in the subject by contemporary artists, the show aims to tell a ‘ghost story’ that explores the question of why, for all our enlightenment, irrational capabilities are regularly ascribed to the new media and technologies of a given time – for instance, the ability to act as a channel for messages from the beyond. All of the projects by the twenty-two international artists participating in the exhibition question in some way or another the existence of ghosts, they explore the integration of new media and technologies in spiritualist contexts, make visible or perceptible the invisible and trace the political implications as well as the aesthetics of such contemporary trans-communication phenomena. PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Lucas & Jason Ajemian (US) Archive of an Anonymous Ghost-Seer (DE), curated by hans w. koch Sam Ashley (US) Corinne May Botz (US) Erik Bünger (SE) Damien Cadio (FR) Michael Esposito (US) Nina Fischer/Maroan el Sani (DE) Agnès Geoffray (FR) Kathrin Günter (DE) Carl Michael von Hausswolff (SE) Tim Hecker (CA) Susan Hiller (GB) Martin Howse (GB) International Necronautical Society (GB) Friedrich Jürgenson (SE) Joep van Liefland (NL) Chris Marker (FR) Jorge Queiroz (PT) Scanner (GB) Jan Peter E.R. Sonntag (DE) Suzanne Treister (GB) CURATORS Inke Arns, Thibaut de Ruyter FURTHER INFORMATION http://www.hmkv.de/dyn/e_program_exhibitions/detail.php?nr=3689&rubric=exhibitions& THE EXHIBITION IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY Der Ministerpraesident des Landes NRW Kunststiftung NRW Kulturbüro Stadt Dortmund dortmund-project Institut Francais – CULTURESFRANCE Mondriaan Stichting NRW Kultursekretariat PHOENIX LEG Dyrup GmbH RUAG – Aerospace Services GmbH MEDIA PARTNER Heinz CONTACT Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) Guentherstr. 65 (office) 44143 Dortmund/Germany T ++49 – 231 – 823 106 info@hmkv.de http://www.hmkv.de