ONE IN A MILLION: ECONOMIES OF THE SELF IN EVERYDAY URBAN LIFE
03 April 3 - 12 June 2004
Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street
New York City
212 319-5300
Gallery hours: Monday – Saturday | 10 am – 6 pm
www.acfny.org
Opening reception: April 2 | 2004 | 6 pm – 8 pm.
ONE IN A MILLION: ECONOMIES OF THE SELF IN EVERYDAY URBAN LIFE opens at the Austrian Cultural Forum on April 2, 2004. The exhibition, on view through June 12, 2004, explores the manifold relationships between artistic creation, urban economics, and branded lifestyle. With everyday life producing an endless stream of information, images, and products, ONE IN A MILLION spins imaginative stories of in(ter)vention, investigation, and coincidence.
Works by:
Anette Baldauf
Michael Blum
ChanSchatz
Ellen Harvey
Swetlana Heger
Nina Katchadourian
Dorit Margreiter
Julia Meltzer
propeller z
Markus Schinwald
transparadiso (Barbara Holub and Paul Rajakovics)
Katharina Weingartner
Anita Witek
In the 20th century, the definition of art, and with it our understanding of the “artist” as a cultural producer, was exposed to numerous transformations. One of the key factors for these receptive shifts in and out of the cultural field has since been the increasing proximity of art and economy. Art has become part of a marketing mix, and as any other cultural and social sector, it is determined by trends, ideological forces, and social values.
ONE IN A MILLION focuses on and plays with the reciprocal manipulation and subversion between individualism, “Lifestyle Design Incorporated,” artistic practice, and cultural production. While corporations commission artists to join their ranks and give their products the ultimate touch of originality, artists can act critically within ‘the system’ as well as creatively comment on it from the outside. The question of who subverts whom remains unanswered, reflecting the fleetness of urbanity in which everything is in flux and no score gets decisively settled.
The works of Anette Baldauf, Michael Blum, ChanSchatz, Ellen Harvey, Swetlana Heger, Nina Katchadourian, Dorit Margreiter, Julia Meltzer, propeller z, Markus Schinwald, transparadiso, Katharina Weingartner, and Anita Witek are shown as a visual narrative loop made up of eleven modules that relate with each other in a multitude of ways. Negotiating their work as cultural producers, the artists use a mixture of investigative, performative, and premeditated strategies in their artistic approaches. ONE IN A MILLION is a succession of stories between individualism and urbanism, urbanism and economy, economy and lifestyle, lifestyle and brands, brands and fashion, and fashion and individualism – returning to the beginning in the end. The different possibilities and inquiries represented in ONE IN A MILLION do not strive for a single answer or message, but rather convey a plentitude of questions and perspectives that inquire into the spaces and actions situated at the heart of urban consumerism.
On the opening night, April 2, 2004, the Austrian Cultural Forum presents the documentary KNOCK OFF- Revenge on the Logo (USA 2003) by Anette Baldauf and Katharina Weingartner as a New York premiere.
Curated by Barbara Clausen, Iris Klein, and Christoph Thun-Hohenstein.
Exhibition concept by Barbara Clausen.
Exhibition architecture by propeller z.
An exhibition catalogue with a preface by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, essays by Barbara Clausen, Neil Leach, and Anthony Davies and Simon Ford is available.
Partial funding for the exhibition has been provided by AKG Acoustics,
Austrian Airlines, and Wolford.
Admission to the exhibition is free.
