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JO®E BAR©I
Born in 1955 in Ljubljana
Lives and works in Rogatec near ®elimlje
WITHOUT
TITLE 2002-2003
(series of paintings)
Throughout his practice Jo¾e Bar¹i has been questioning himself
about the basic conditions of existence and the notions of perception
confirming that "actions do not begin with thinking, but
with very careful observation." Without title, 2002-2003
continues the line he started in 1997 in ©kuc Gallery where he
presented a series of monochrome circle paintings as objects of
contemplation related to the Ceylonese colour meditation ritual.
For Modesty the artist selected five of the circle paintings he
has been producing lately in large quantity in the seclusion of
his studio. Without any preliminary studies his particular concern
with painting is the experimental feeling and how the process
and the concrete object of painting can be the place for that
experience.
ATTILA
CSÖRGÕ
Born in Budapest in 1965.
Lives and works in Budapest
SPHERICAL
VORTEX 1999
(photographs)
Attila Csörgõ's works embody transitive/contingent states and
involve a piece of technology that plays with the viewer's senses
and ways of seeing thus let the viewer enter the realms inherent
in permutable structures and perceptual states. Spherical Vortex
(1999) is the path of the flashlight bulb made by connecting three
separate whirling movements of different velocity. The photographs,
which were made with consecutive or long exposures, reveal the
path of light that is invisible to the naked eye.
JIMMIE DURHAM/ MARIA THEREZA ALVES
Jimmie Durham was born in 1940, in Washington, Arkansas
Lives and works in Berlin
Maria Thereza Alves was born in 1961 in Sao Paulo.
Lives and works in Berlin
PINK
GRANITE AT WORK 1997
(VHS 1 min)
Jimmie Durham's starting point is often an object that he cunningly
transforms into something else. He thereby creates new meanings
with just a few words or gestures, without letting the object
really cut its umbillical cord to its older self. Occasionally
his works take on a deadpan stance, but never lose their seriousness.
Durham has been doing work with stone in various ways, as a counter-point
to the European use of stone as architecture and monument. He
perceives stone as more of a tool than a monument, and as George
Bataille, he is "against architecture." Pink Granite
At Work is part of the Stone Video series that he has done together
with artist and writer Maria Thereza Alves.
LEIF
ELGGREN
Born in 1950 in Linköping
Lives and works in Stockholm
AS
IF I WAS MY FATHER 2002
(DVD 10 min, photographs, text)
Leif Elggren has worked in many different media: graphic art
and printmaking, sculpture and painting, book publishing and electronic
composition, performance and installation art and has been collaborating
with other artists in several constellations since the end of
the 1970s. His project with fellow artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff,
The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, has just celebrated its tenth
year of statehood. As if I was my father (2002) that consists
of a performance video, b/w photographs and texts, is connected
to his investigations and contemplations about hierarchy and the
symbolism of power, specifically about the concept of the Monarch,
the head of family and state.
TACITA DEAN
Born in Canterbury in 1965
Lives and works in Berlin
FOUND
POSTCARD 2003
(postcard)
Tacita Dean works in a variety of media, including drawing, photography
and sound but is best known for her compelling 16mm films. Dean's
work seeks connections between past and present, fact and fiction.
She maps not just the objective world but also our private worlds
and traces the complex interaction between the two. The depiction
of different locations is matched by dislocations in space and
time: real landscapes are layered with inner, psychic landscapes
defined by our own desires and obsessions. Throughout her career,
Dean has placed great importance on the written and spoken word.
This is reflected in the narrative content of earlier works and
her own, extensive writings.
VADIM
FI©KIN
Born in Pensa in 1965
Lives and works in Ljubljana
GEO-GRAPHIC
1988-
(drawings, paper and ink, 15 x 11 cm)
MOLECULE
(MARBLES) 2001-2002
(lenticular screen, digital print, plexi-glass, 93 x 125 cm)
Vadim Fi¹kin's works are based upon a "disciplined creative
strategy founded on the act of asking questions where there are
no self-evident or inconsequential questions or answers."
(E. Èufer) For Modesty he presents his series of small drawings
that can be read as a diary exploiting basic combinatory principles.
They reveal a process of elimination and complication of lines
and forms that only with a few combinations lead to unlimited
variations. His piece Molecule (Marbles) surely can deceive the
eye by playing with the pictorial illusion of the artificially
(home-made) built 'real'. The definition and appearances of 'artificial'
are in question as we live increasingly telematic lives, where
'real' feelings, behaviours and perception are triggered through
abstracted involvements with artificial structures, and illusions.
CEAL
FLOYER
Born in Karachi (Pakistan) in 1968
Lives and works in Berlin
2
SLIDES 1999
(slide projection, Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, London)
Ceal Floyer's body of work involves video installations, sound
and light projections, works on paper and sculpture. Her work
examines a dialectical tension between the literal and the mundane,
and an imaginative construction of meaning. 2 Slides (1999) is
a simultaneous projection of two slides showing two almost monochrome
blue surfaces of the sky with tiny, barely visible figures of
airplanes. The deceptive simplicity of her works is informed by
her particular sense of humour and awareness of the absurd; her
use of double-takes and shifting points of view forces the viewer
to renegotiate her perception of the world.
ALEXANDER
GUTKE
Born in 1971 in Gothenburg
Lives and works in Malmö and Berlin
CARACAS
1966-2000
(postcard and DVD projection)
In Alexander Gutke's installation Caracas (1966-2000) the projection
animates the sky on the postcard depicting the city centre of
Caracas, Venezuela leaving the rest of the picture unchanged.
Gutke, who has never been to Caracas himself, found the postcard
in a thriftstore in Malmö. The work deals with the perception
of time and what interests Gutke in this particular piece is how
a picture can bridge the evolved time gap and continue to represent
a reality long after it has been taken, found or sent away.
CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF
Born in 1956 in Linköping
Lives and works in Stockholm
POSSIBLE
IDENTIFICATION OF ALIEN LIFE FORMS
2002-2003
(portable radar set, projection and photographs)
CM von Hausswolff one of the most influential figures in Swedish
sound art. In his projects, installations, séances and recordings
he deals with states of transgression, surveillance, mental warfare
or trance and with the physics of electricity. Modesty presents
a selection of radar images that were taken on spot by a portable
radiolocator where he tries to establish contact and communication
with the supernatural world.
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER
Born in Belo Horizonte in 1967
Lives and works in Belo Horizonte
INVENTORY
OF SMALL DEATHS (BLOW) 2000
(with Cao Guimaraes, Super 8/digital 5min, Courtesy of Galeria
Fortes Vilaça, Sao Paulo)
Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander creates unconventional
installations that quietly build a conversation about sensory
experience. She explores themes of cartography, language, and
consumption through drawings, photographs, and videos that reflect
the ephemeral nature of her work, which she describes as "ethereal
materialism." Blow follows the travel and transformation
of bubbles...
An Inventory of Small Deaths (Blow) made in collaboration with
film-maker Cao Guimaraes, in which an oleaginous bubble drifts
slowly through the air against the backdrop of sky and a darkly
distant landscape of trees. The bubble appears to act simultaneously
as a mutating lens and as a point of orientation for the viewer
against the silhouetted surroundings. It floats on, wobbling hypnotically,
suspended, occasionally dividing and re-forming, forever changing
shape but remaining essentially the same, as the viewer anticipates
a resolution which is never reached.
GORAN
PETERCOL
Born in 1949 in Pula
Lives and works in Zagreb
ANGLE
2003
(object, plinth)
Goran Petercol's works are based on precise observations and
combine the transcending object of Conceptualist practice and
the direct interaction between spectator and the art object, which
is closer to the practice of Minimalism - a desire for pure experience
based on the rhythm and dynamics of the fundamental situation
- through a series of transformations using light and shadow.
Angle 1997-2002, that he showed in Laafeld, was a continuation
of the piece he did for his solo presentation in ©kuc Gallery
in 1997. His new work develops this series into a new direction
dealing with the formal/positional relations of the plinth and
the object.
WERNER
REITERER
Born in Graz in 1964
Lives and works in Vienna
STAR
1999
(spheres, adhersive foil, varnish, spotlights, movement sensor,
various elecrtonics, 105 x 155 x 155 cm, technical assistance:
Thomas Sandri and Thomas Niel, Courtesy of Galerie Eugen Lendl,
Graz)
Werner Reiterer's artistic work is "permeated by a desire
to highlight what happens to our thoughts when we are asked to
question and re-evaluate recognised physical laws and supposedly
irrefutable relationships between one set of objects to another.
In the process his idealistic and conceptual "sculptures"
use a range of visualisation techniques which can take the from
of drawing, photography or intervention in space." (S. Schaschl)
Approaching the sculpture Star triggers off the spotlights which
direct the viewer's gaze to the inside of the cube, where balls
of various sizes constantly bounce off a large ball in irregular
movement.
JOHN
WOOD AND PAUL HARRISON
They work in Bristol
DEVICE 1996 (DVD, 3 min)
HARRY HOUDINI (THERE'S NO ESCAPE THAT I CAN SEE) 1994
(DVD, 1 min 45 sec)
3 LEGGED 1996 (DVD, 3min)
HORIZON LINE 2001 (DVD)
LIFE JACKET 2001 (DVD)
HANDLE AND ROPE 2001 (DVD)
see gallery view
John Wood and Paul Harrison began collaborating in 1993. In their
short video works they perform various moves and exercises with
common objects in the surrounding space and examine in mostly
playful but occasionally painful and stressy situations the absurdity
and humour triggered by the confrontation between physical space
and their bodies. For Modesty we selected 6 from their single-screen
works: Device (1996), Harry Houdini (there's no escape that I
can see) (1994) and 3 legged (1996) and from their more recent
series - Twenty Six (drawing and falling things) (2001) - Horizon
Line, Life Jacket and Handle and Rope
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