“We believe in hospitaity as the necessary act in a
society with social and political imbalance”, rum46
Press release
The art space rum46 has great pleasure to present the first part of our international art project Feast/Hospitality. In this first part of the project, The Invitation, seven Danish and foreign artists each give their contribution to the theme: Hospitality.
Maria Eichhorn (D), Eric R. Fajardo (Panama, DK), Parastou Forouhar (Iran/D) in collaboration with Phylis Kiehl (D), Tanja Nelleman Poulsen (DK), Katya Sander (DK), Ilona Huss Walin (S) & Lawrence Weiner (USA).
The artists use billboards, posters and small flags to attract the attention of passers-by. The intention is that the commercial media becomes a space for self-expression for a central socio-political theme – i.e. hospitality – how do we accept and associate with other people?
The consumer-aesthetic of the advertisement is transformed into statements which to a large degree invite ethical considerations. The individual artists reflect with great differences in form the theme, hospitality, with messages that range from the aggressive and insistent to more open statements which allow the viewers to make their own interpretations. The majority of the artists have produced completely new works which can be experienced in the city-space of Århus from 5 April to 4 May 2003.
The art-project Feast/Hospitality has a processual exhibition structure and is built up from the feast’s three fases: The Invitation, The Feast and The Letter of Thanks (April 2003 – Oct. 2003). Read more*
We are inviting you to the opening of The Invitation Saturday 5 April at 4pm at rum46, Studsgade 46, Århus.
Best wishes rum46
*For more information please see: www.rum46.dk
:
rum46, ph: (+45)86208625 or Grete Aagaard/Anja Raithel ph: (+45)24668915/
(+45)86182090
Feast/Hospitality is supported by: Danish Contemporary Art Foundation, Danish Center for Culture and Development, Danish Counsil of Visual Art, Nordic Cultural Fund, The Culture Developing Foundations of Municipality of Aarhus, County of Aarhus, Gevalia, Clear Channel and Damgaard-Jensen and Kulturguiden.
Press release
Fase 1: The Invitation, 5 April – 4 May 2003
Several of the contributing artists are engaged in shading and subverting stereotypical conceptions of us and them. Amongst other things, they examine why some people are shut out and others let in, for example to the country or to the private room. It is difficult to pin down who is the stranger or the Other. Several of the artists’ works suggest that perhaps the Other is always a part of you. The many statements show different approaches to hospitality and to the us-them problem, but common to them all is that they combine an aesthetic approach with ethical considerations.
The Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar has, in collaboration with the German artist Phylis Kiehl, produced a billboard in which a sympathetic and symbolic connection between two women arises. The long dark hair of the one woman covers some of the blond woman’s face and vice versa. The Arabic word Hijab – veil – is usually associated with separation, but here the hair is transformed into a veil or a beard indicating that its identity is constantly interchanged and modified.
Katya Sander (DK), in black and white posters, deals with the words us/them and you/me and how their meaning is always dependent upon who is speaking. The meanings of the words depend upon the sender and receiver and therefore are not fixed concepts. As the artist herself observes that the relationship between you and me is always two-sided: “have you been shut out or have I been shut in?”
Under the title “Let us share the cake”, the Danish artist Tanja Nelleman Poulsen places small flags with text in the city-space of Århus. The flags resemble birthday flags or flags put up for a town festival but are also a symbol of nationality and the sense of belonging. In curious ways, the texts invite the viewer to reflect upon the idea of co-existence.
Also Eric R. Fajardo (Panama/DK) encourages intercultural co-existence by dissolving the foundation of the national state – the connection between territory, race and nationality. In his poster he challenges with personal opinion the territorial boundaries and the concept of foreign itself.
The Swedish artist Ilona Huss Walin works in another way with the fatherland problem in her transformation of the Danish national coat of arms. Rats have taken the place occupied by lions and the artist explains: “This is a picture of the inner fight that exists within both individuals and a nation. The fight is between prestige and prestigelesness. If a nation or an individual should be able to develop, it´s important to let go of prestige.”
Like the other artists, Lawrence Weiner (USA) replaces the customary billboard message by a short Danish/English text that reflects the choice between taking and having enough, or mutual interchange. The interpretation depends to a large extent on which text the individual viewer identifies with, and whether the text influences the beliefs of the viewer.
Where billboards infiltrate and transform the commercial message from the inside and thus also bring focus to bear on who has the right to express herself in the public arena, Maria Eichorn (D) has started a dialogue with a home for drug-addicted prostitutes. This on-going co-operation can help ensure that a folder in different languages is published containing information for women, together with an invitation to them to use the facility.
This form of direct dialogue with participants points the way towards the second part of rum46’s Feast/Hospitality where the meeting between people is the central point. This second part of Feast/Hospitality, entitled The Feast, will be presented from the middle of May to end of June 2003.
VIew billboard map
