A Show That Will Show That a Show Is Not Only a Show
June 1 – August 17, 2002
curated by Jens Hoffmann
Closing Reception: Saturday, August 17, 2002, 6-8 PM
Not to find one’s way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. But to lose oneself in a city–as one loses oneself in a forest–this calls for quite a different schooling.
– Walter Benjamin: A Berlin Chronicle, 1932
Berlin-based curator Jens Hoffmann has been invited to curate an exhibition during the summer months of 2002 in The Project’s recently opened Los Angeles space. The exhibition focuses on the idea of exploring a totally unknown territory. Hoffmann, who has only been in Los Angeles for short visits, will investigate the diverse cultural and artistic scenes of Los Angeles over the period of the exhibition. The show aims to present a curatorial strategy that reacts towards the increasing deficiency of time in regards to curatorial research. The questionable concept of long term exhibition planning is examined as the research and the development of this exhibition will only begin with the first day of the show.
Week by week the space of The Project will be filled with art works uncovered by the curator’s research. Consequently, the research will in fact be the exhibition and the exhibition the research. In addition to the works of art the show will include other interdisciplinary forms of artistic articulation such as performances and lectures – some of which will extend into the real space of the city.
By conceptualizing the making of an exhibition, the show proposes a different notion of how exhibitions can gain form: growing over a period of several weeks, the show emphasizes the dynamics of time and advocates an artistic and curatorial practice that privileges process over finished product. The exhibition becomes an active place, a site for development and change rather than a set of fixed and predetermined positions.
An ‘instant’ publication will document the development of the exhibition and the curatorial research in form of a diary made in collaboration with the participants and the curator of the exhibition. A reception will be held on the last day of the exhibition and a second press release will be sent with the exact names of the participants of the exhibition.
Gallery hours of operation are Wednesday through Saturday 11-6 PM. The Project is located at 962 East 4th Street. The entrance is off of Hewitt Street, between 4th and 5th, three blocks east of Alameda. If you need further directions please call 213-620-0692.
