who if not we...? episode 2: time and again
Exhibition — Oct 22, 2004 until Jan 29, 2005
A presentation in which various artist’s views of ‘time’ as well as contemporary visions on history are central, comes at a moment when interest in art from Central and Eastern Europe is growing.
The exhibition shows recent and new work from six artists and a collective from this region. The artists in Time and Again refer in colored ways to important moments in their local history. These moments cannot be seen apart from a broader historical context of various ideologies and utopias.
A new film installation by the Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius, Once in the XX Century, will be premiering; after the opening of the exhibition it will also be shown in Tate Modern. Narkevicius also shows older work.
Paulina Olowska, from Poland, has done research into the work of Malevich in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum especially for Time and Again, and involves this in her Accidental Collages. Olowska wants to make clear with these collages that the historical avant-gardes are still counting nowadays.
Wilhelm Sasnal, who’s from Poland as well, will be showing a selection of his most recent works and takes of his new film that he shot in the mines of Silesia.
Roman Ondák’s Silence Please is a performative work in which he wants the visitor to experience the history of the Stedelijk Museum.
The Czech artist Ján Mancuška shows a new installation in which narratives and reconstructions are an important theme.
Tadej Pogacar presents his project Tales of Two Cities in a new setting. In this project Pogacar follows two Slovenian cities in the transition from Communism to Capitalism.
The Hungarian collective Little Warsaw are showing their most recent work in which a revision of the past is presented in a contemporary context.
Publications
A publication from Artimo, with essays by Étienne Balibar, Ole Bouman, Boris Groys, Slavoj Zizek and others, is appearing to accompany the programme Who if not we...?
(English, € 30).
Stedelijk Museum Bulletin nr. 5 is also appearing to coincide with Time and Again. Among the articles to be found there are a background for the exhibition by Leontine Coelewij, an essay by the critic Jan Verwoert, and an interview with Olowska by Dominic van den Boogerd.
(Dutch/English, € 5)
SMCS on 11
As well as the exhibition, there is a programme of film screenings, discussions and other presentations being organised in SMCS on 11. This opens with a series of talks with prominent artists, curators and theoreticians from Central and Eastern Europe, on October 22 and 23.