ArtsLink at Artists Space presents: Flipside
12 November 2004 - 8 January 2005
Artists Space
38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013
212-226-3970
Opening reception Thursday, November 11, 2004, 6 to 8 pm
Symposium Saturday, November 13, 2004, 2 to 4 pm
closed Nov. 25, 25, 27, 2004, and Dec. 23, 2004 through Jan. 3, 2005
Cristian Alexa, Association Apsolutno, Art Attack, Maja Bajevic, Emese Benczur, Cabinet Magazine, Danica Dakic, Milena Dopitova, Vadim Fishkin, Jaroslaw Flicinski, Tomislav Gotovac, Pravdoliub Ivanov, Joan Jonas, Kai Kaljo, Charles Krafft, Pawel Kruk, Julia Kunin, Yuri Leiderman, Antoni Maznevski, Audrius Novickas, Odili Donald Odita, Tony Oursler, Anthony and Katya Pemberton, Dan Perjovschi, Igor Savchenko, Tomo Savic-Gecan, Stephen Shanabrook, skart, Sandra Sterle, Audrius Stonys, Eric Triantafillou and Csilla Kosa, Aleksandar Zograf. Curated by Katherine Carl.
What characterizes post-utopian art? Is it a genre of pure pragmatism or does it contain shards of the discarded vision from which it emerged? Is it the imagining of a new utopia: even the flipside of the old one? The exhibition Flipside represents cross-pollination and exchange, traversing the horizon of separate utopian totalities of East and West. Artistic engagement with ideology and humanistic issues through conceptual means rather than response-based political art is a special hallmark of work throughout Eastern Europe today. Furthermore, widely differing art-historical and political conditions surrounding the basis and trajectories of art since the 1960s complicate fruitfully the Western canonization of these practices.
Flipside brings together works by artists from 14 post-socialist and post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia and their counterparts in the United States who have participated in the cultural exchange program ArtsLink. Coupling local knowledge and international expertise, ArtsLink partnered with the network of Soros Centers for Contemporary Art in major cities of each Central and Eastern European country and Russia to be a significant catalyst of new critical and alternative practices in contemporary art. Flipside provides a rare opportunity to view art by 32 artists from across the region and the United States, and to consider critical questions about international influence, cooperation, and exchange in cultural environments undergoing political and economic change.
The exhibition Flipside will open at Artists Space on November 11, 2004 from 6 to 8 pm and will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue. The Flipside symposium will be held at Artists Space on Saturday, November 13, 2004 from 2 to 4 pm, with scholars Susan Buck-Morss and Elena Petrovskaya, Flipside curator Katherine Carl, ArtsLink Fellow Natasa Petresin, and artists in the exhibition including: Apsolutno, Art Attack, Vadim Fishkin, Yuri Leiderman, Audrius Novickas, Stephen Shanabrook, and Sandra Sterle.
Flipside is organized by Fritzie Brown at CEC ArtsLink and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, FACE Croatia, a program of the Heathcote Foundation and an anonymous donor. Additional support is provided by Czech Airlines and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.
CEC ArtsLink is an international arts service organization whose programs encourage and support exchange of artists and cultural managers between the United States and Central Europe, Russia and Eurasia. With solid expertise and lasting partnerships in 27 countries, CEC ArtsLink promotes communication and understanding through collaborative, innovative projects for mutual benefit. CEC was founded in 1962.
ArtsLink Awards is a CEC ArtsLink program that made over three million dollars in funding available to U.S. artists and arts organizations in the past 12 years to work with their colleagues in the region. Support is provided through ArtsLink Projects, ArtsLink Residencies and Independent Projects awards. For more information on CEC ArtsLink please visit the website www.cecartslink.org or call 212-643-1985 x23.
Artists Space is located at 38 Greene Street, 3rd Floor at Grand Street, one block above Canal Street. The exhibition is open to the public free of charge from 11 am to 6 pm Tuesday-Saturday. The gallery will be closed for holidays November 25-27, 2004, and December 23, 2004-January 3, 2005. For more information on Artists Space please visit the website www.artistsspace.org or call 212-226-3970.
