Cittadellarte. Sharing Transformation
29 September 2012–20 January 2013
Opening: 29 September, 1pm
Kunsthaus Graz
Universalmuseum Joanneum
Lendkai 1, 8020 Graz, Austria
T +43 316/8017 9200
kunsthausgraz [at] museum-joanneum.at
The world is caught in a crisis. Socialism has lost, capitalism forces different worlds together and the once idealised state form of democracy is now suspected of being merely a cover for the greater power of money. The call for a responsible form of civil society is strengthened by the fear of corrupt rulers. Art is no longer understood without the word “market” attached to it, and yet the hopes for art’s potential to enlighten—politically, too—are immense. What can art really affect, what traces does it leave behind, and where will art be visible in the future?
The group exhibition Cittadellarte. Sharing Transformation. in the Kunsthaus Graz is concerned with the conditions of artistic intervention. It is devoted to the idea of participatory work, of an invasive art creation, and, based on various projects of artists and collectives, the wish for a subversive, open and sustainable world model created culturally.
The Cittadellarte is an open network of the most varied bearers of knowledge, whose goal is to be active with artistic strategies within society, to intervene and to be visible. It is based on an artistic idea of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s, the program titled Progetto Arte, which aims at bringing together the most varied creative and social-economic disciplines.
The Cittadellarte Collective is based in Biella, but is not bound to this place; rather it develops and shows itself at many locations, for example last year at the Biennale Evento in Bordeaux, curated by Michelangelo Pistoletto and the Cittadellarte, and now for the weeks and months to come, at the steirischer herbst and the Kunsthaus Graz.
In the Space01 a small “city of art” (designed and built by the collective constructLab) arises based on the principle of co-acting and co-habiting, which dispenses with the usual artistic and curatorial work, in favour of activist participation, which has played an important role in Michelangelo Pistoletto’s creations since the outset. Pistoletto places the term participation firmly in the centre, defining it as the beginning of all artistic creation. His international career began with the spectacular solo exhibition in Turin in 1967, when, instead of the required pictures, only a boundary stone stood in the gallery, staking out a new artistic terrain in which the artistic collective created works, not the individual. If one wanted to see more, one had to go to Pistoletto’s studio, in order to experience his work in the wider context of his artistic colleagues.
Entirely in the spirit of the steirischer herbst and reflections on political strategies in art, and artistic strategies in politics, the artistic collective in the Kunsthaus Graz also poses the question of connectedness to the world, and so the question of sustainability and the specific in one’s own artistic creation. The basis on which selection is made is thus formed by the history of the Cittadellarte, its network and its past collaborations. In the project Sharing Transformation, they experience a further development, which is coordinated with the house, its function and the city surrounding the house. The artists and the collective in part intervene directly in the “external” city, cooperating with its population as well as its partners.
A catalogue will be published with the exhibition, the content and form of which are based on the active participation of all actors as well as visitors. From the exhibition opening onwards, folders are available which are continually “fed” with articles that can be accessed online, and thus form an exhibition catalogue as a process that unfolds.
With: Claudia Bosse/theatercombinat, Leopold Calice, Chimurenga, Cittadellarte, constructLab, Evento, Gudran, Love Difference, ParaArtFoundation (PUF)/El Puente_lab, Dan Peterman, Visible, Vitamin Creative Space
A co-production with the Cittadellarte, in cooperation with the steirischen herbst.
Curators: Katrin Bucher Trantow, Juan Estaban Sandoval, Paolo Naldini
Co-curator: Katia Huemer
