The Oil Show
12 November 2011–19 February 2012
Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) at Dortmunder U
Dortmunder U – Zentrum für Kunst und Kreativität (Centre for Art and Creativity)
3rd floor
Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse
44137 Dortmund
Germany
Ursula Biemann (CH)
Christian von Borries (DE)
Mark Boulos (US/NL)
Heath Bunting (UK)
Bureau d’Etudes (FR)
The Center for Land Use Interpretation (US)
Chto Delat? (RU)
Carl Michael von Hausswolff &
Thomas Nordanstad (SE)
Werner Herzog (DE)
Mark Lombardi (US)
Michael Mandiberg (US)
George Osodi (NG)
Natascha Sadr Haghighian (IR/DE)
UBERMORGEN.COM (AT/CH)
and others
Curated by:
Dr. Inke Arns
In The Oil Show the HMKV has gathered 15 contemporary artists whose work addresses the geopolitical, social and ecological consequences of our dependence on crude oil. Their attention focuses on regions such as the Niger Delta, whose natural resources have been ruthlessly exploited for several decades—a fact which is hardly ever discussed publicly in the developed countries. Straddling art and scientific research, the interdisciplinary approach that characterizes their work aims to raise the public’s awareness of the increasingly complexity of global economic interests.
The installations, videos, photographs, murals, computer games and films in this exhibition evidence that Western societies are going to great lengths to conceal the inconvenient facts on which their centuries-old hegemony is founded, aiming to strengthen our complacent belief in an unrestricted, consumer-driven market economy—fuelled by non renewable fossil resources—as an everlasting, self-stabilizing model of growth. But appearances are deceptive, as recent research suggests that the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction, which scientists refer to as ‘Peak Oil’, was reached around 2006. Despite the conspicuous optimism put on by the PR departments of billion-dollar global oil companies in light of promising oil reserves (for instance in the Arctic), it is an undisputed fact that the global community urgently needs to address the growing problems caused by rising demands for energy and natural resources on the one hand and the decline of available fossil resources on the other hand. With great artistic sensibility, the works in The Oil Show ask questions which are largely shunned by the dominant Western media.
The exhibition at Dortmunder U coincides with the opening of the HMKV’s ‘white cube’, as previously inaccessible areas such as the balconies in the ‘Kunstvertikale’ (Entrance Hall) and parts of surroundings of Dortmunder U will be used as part of The Oil Show. The artists’ duo UBERMORGEN.COM (AT/CH) has successfully probed the ground and will install a drilling platform on the former industrial site, with huge pipelines transporting premium Dortmund oil into the U to be refined. The exhibition venue, formerly the Union beer brewery, is thus turned into a gigantic refinery.
The exhibition The Oil Show is curated by Dr Inke Arns, Artistic Director of the Hartware MedienKunstVerein. It is supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Dortmund, the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of North Rhine-Westphalia, Sparkasse Dortmund, DSW21, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Pro Helvetia, Swiss Cultural Foundation. In 2011 the HMKV was furthermore awarded the prestigious JUMP Annual Sponsorship Award for Art Organizations funded by the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia (Kunststiftung NRW).
Parallel to the exhibition, the HMKV will present a programme of artists’ talks, workshops, theme-related video games, and film screenings within the exhibition.
Partner 2011:
JUMP – Annual Sponsorship Award for Art Organizations funded by the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia (Kunststiftung NRW)
Main funders of HMKV:
Cultural Office of the City of Dortmund
Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of North Rhine-Westphalia
Sparkasse Dortmund
DSW21
The exhibition is supported by:
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Pro Helvetia, Swiss Cultural Foundation
Media partner 2011:
ARTE Creative creative.arte.tv
De:Bug
Opening hours:
Tue–Wed 10:00–18:00 (from January 2012: 11:00–18:00)
Thu–Fri 10:00–20:00 (from January 2012: 11:00–20:00)
Sat–Sun 11:00–18:00
Closed on Mondays
Wednesday, 30 November 2011: 14:00–18:00 (staff meeting of the City of Dortmund)
Opening hours during the bank holidays:
24.12.2011 closed
25.12.2011 11:00–18:00
26.12.2011 closed
31.12.2011 closed
01.01.2012 closed
Filmscreenings within the exhibition:
Filmscreenings each Friday, 20:00
18 November 2011, 20:00
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
CH 2006, D: Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack, 94 min.
25 November 2011, 20:00
Lessons of Darkness (Lektionen in Finsternis)
DE 1992, D: Werner Herzog, 50 min.
2 December 2011, 20:00
Das Öl-Zeitalter 1 – Eine Welt wird geteilt
Das Öl-Zeitalter 2 – Eine Zeit für Manipulationen
FR 2009, D: Eric Laurent and Patrick Barbéris, 51 min. + 59 min.
9 December 2011, 20:00
Nigeria: Und ewig währt die Ölpest
FR 2011, R: Yann Le Gléau and Sébastien Mesquida, 42 min.
+
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
US 2006, D: Faith Morgan, 53 min.
16 December 2011, 20:00
There Will Be Blood
US 2007, D: Paul Thomas Anderson, 158 min.
13 January 2012, 20:00
Erdöl – die Filme (Das Ende des Ölzeitalters + Der Ölfluch)
DE 2005, D: Basil Gelpke, 2 x 31 min.
+
Auf der Jagd nach deutschem Erdöl
DE 2009, 29 min.
20 January 2012, 20:00
Mit offenen Karten: Das Erdölfördermaximum
DE/FR 2010, ARTE, 12 min.
+
Kein Öl mehr – Übung für den Ernstfall
FI 2008, D: John Webster, 55 min.
27 January 2012, 20:00
Die 4. Revolution – Energy Autonomy
DE 2010, D: Carl A. Fechner, 83 min.
3 February 2012, 20:00
Episode III: Enjoy poverty
NL 2008, D: Renzo Martens, 90 min.
10 February 2012, 20:00
H2OIL
CAN 2009, D: Shannon Walsh, 76 min.
17 February 2012, 20:00
Revenge of the electric car
US 2011, D: Chris Paine, 90 min.
Contact:
info@hmkv.de
Press Contact:
steffen.korthals@hmkv.de
