Paperless Tiger
  • Paper[less] Tiger
  • BOOKS
  • COMING SOON
  • Press/Contact
  • Immersion Therapy
  • Curated Projects
  • Paper[less] Tiger
  • BOOKS
  • COMING SOON
  • Press/Contact
  • Immersion Therapy
  • Curated Projects

 paperlesstiger

Picking at scabs

12/8/2011

0 Comments

 
PictureDragoljub Raša Todosijevic
People in all corners of the world are proclaiming that Europe is dead.
For some, this is a consequence of financial and social policies that have utterly altered the fabric of the old continent.  For others, its a lament based on the disconnect between the Europe that exists today and the Europe that was said to have existed before (or at least did in the hearts of its children).
Others still see it anecdotally, as a natural, if somewhat, karmic consequence of centuries of colonialism.
Whatever the take and the reality, it seems that in 2011, much of Europe is busy licking its wounds, old and new.
In the Serbian pavillion, Dragoljub Raša Todosijevic's Light and Darkness of the Symbols brings a critical eye to political and social traditions and values. 
Given the rhetoric surrounding the fragmentation of the former Yugoslavia, how its descent into war was preceeded by the fall of the Berlin Wall and of European communism, and how symbols such as the Swastika had become entrenched into the mentality and subconscious, Todosijevic's argument was that old lores, symbols and traditions no longer held any significance in a new context.
To that effect, he began in Dada style, by his own accounts, to transplant said imagery into new contexts, in the hope that viewers would be forced to rethink their own attachments and values of the symbols he was effectively attempting to stip of their power.
In Light and Darkness of the Symbols, particularly with its current placement within the Venice  Biennale context, we are forced to think about our understanding of these symbols and of how our reactions to them betray the fact that they remain as loaded as ever.

Picture
Perhaps the most surprising use of imagery within a national context was that found in the Swiss pavillion.
For better or worse, Switzerland has long been seen as a nation of neutrality, an emblem of successful democracy in Europe.  In recent years however, it has joined other European nations (particularly those in the north) in a new  wave of ethnic and immigrant unrest, famously leading to the banning of minarets in the country.  Its a nation with four national languages, and presumably an overarching requirement for assimilation (a concept not unfamiliar to other nations).
Thomas Hirschhorn's cavernous world, The Crystals of Resistance, replete with crystals, plastic furniture, copius aluminium foil, mass media imagery and his trademark duct tape creates a jagged little world where boundaries and danger (in the forms of broken glass) are around every corner. 
Hirschhorn is intent on confronting conflict, on addressing it as a means of achieving a better world state.  The installation, filled with numerous imagery, never shies away from the sensitive and taboo.  Here, slutty, half dressed Barbie dolls sit under Tibetan prayer flags, whose individual pieces have been replaced with Middle Eastern images of violence, capital punishment and torture.  Huge duct tape doner kebabs hang from the ceilings  like embryos, wrapped in Persian rugs.  Elsewhere, mannequins have their guttaral parts consumed by crystals.  It's disturbing stuff, confronting, and, yet, in its low fi, accessible way, as easy to relate to as a walk around an ethnic market.  A thorough and ever evolving explanation of the installation can be found or Hirschhorn's website.
The Europe that we think we knew is an hallucination.  A memory seeped in rose colors.  Hirschorn's crystal world is a far more accurate picture of Europe in 2011, scars and all.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture











    Picture

    Dave Di Vito


    Writer, teacher and former curator who splits his time between Melbourne and Rome.

    Subscribe to the mailing list for information about upcoming releases and a free excerpt!

    Subscribe!

    * indicates required
    Tweets by @DDVinyltiger

    Archives

    April 2020
    July 2019
    March 2019
    August 2018
    March 2018
    August 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    March 2014
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010

    Categories

    All
    2016
    80s Music
    Adelita Huang-Bey
    Ahmed Basiony
    Ai Weiwei
    Alec Soth
    Alessia Rollo
    Andris Eglitis
    Angelica Dass
    Ang Lee
    Anne Inhauf
    Art
    Asako Narahashi
    Atif Khan
    Australia
    Bande A Sud
    Banksy
    Belinda Carlisle
    Berlin
    Bernardo Oyarzùn
    Beyonce
    Biennale 2011
    Biennale 2015
    Biennale 2017
    Biennale2019
    Bill Viola
    Bitume
    Blonde Redhead
    Blondie
    Bruce Nauman
    Cabello/Carceller
    Candice Breitz
    Cevdet Erek
    Chiharu Shiota
    China
    Christo
    Cinthia Marcelle
    City
    Claudia Fontes
    Cody Choi
    Contemporary Art
    Corporate Sponsorship
    Crash
    Crowdfunding
    Culture
    Curating
    Damon Kowarsky
    Dan Black
    Dapunta Hyang
    Darren Hayes
    David Bowie
    Design
    Donna Summer
    Dragoljub Raša Todosijevic
    Ekaterina Vasilyeva
    Elaine Sturtevant
    Electronica
    Environmental
    Events
    Exhibitions
    Fabrizio Albertini
    Fertility Day
    Fight The Fight
    Film
    Fiona Hall
    Flaka Haliti
    Francesc Ruiz
    Galleries
    Gal Weinstein
    George Drivas
    George Michael
    Gerald Machona
    Giorgio Andreotta Calò
    Giorgio Di Noto
    GLBT
    Gloria Casto
    Great Tigers
    Gwen Stefani
    Gyula Vàrnai
    Hajnal Nemeth
    Hany Armanious
    Haruki Murakami
    Heri Dono
    Heritage Management
    Hiroshi Sugimoto
    Ibrahim Mahama
    If They Could Speak
    Imranovi
    Italy
    Ivan Grubanov
    Jana Źelibská
    Janet Jackson
    Jan Fabre
    Jan Stradtmann
    Japan
    Jason Moran
    Jeon Joonho
    Jesse Jones
    Joel Peter Witkin
    John Niven
    Jorge Fuembuena
    Jun Nakasuji
    Kaarina Kaikkonen
    Kanye West
    Kate Ceberano
    Katherine Macdaid
    Katrina Neiburga
    Keith Haring
    Kunstpedia
    Kutlug Ataman
    Kylie
    Kyoko Imazu
    Kyoto
    Land Art
    Last Train Home
    Laszlo Biro
    Lecce
    Lee Wan
    Lee Yongbaek
    Legambiente
    Lisa Reihana
    Lorenzo Maccotta
    Lucamaleonte
    Lushsux
    Madonna
    Making My Peace
    Makus Schinwald
    Marcello Maloberti
    Mark Jenkins
    Marzia Migliora
    Matthieu Bernard Raymond
    Maurizio Galimberti
    May You Live In Interesting Times
    Media
    Melbourne
    Meshell N
    M.i.a
    Michelangelo Pistoletto
    Mika Rottenberg
    Mircea Cantor
    Modern Architecture
    Moha Modsiakeng
    Monica Bonvicini
    Moon Kyungwon
    Mounir Fatmi
    MTV
    Murals
    Museo Nazionale D'arte Orientale
    Museums
    Music
    Naples
    Natalie Imbruglia
    New Zealand
    Nicola Samori
    Nidhal Chamekh
    Nina's Drag Queens
    Nirvana
    Nufactory
    Paris
    Pascale Marthine Tayou
    Pepo Salazar
    Pet Shop Boys
    Photography
    Pop
    Pop Culture
    Prince
    Printmakers
    Public Art
    Puglia
    Ralph Rugoff
    Rania Matar
    Reactions
    Religion
    Retailing
    Riace
    Rihanna
    Rinko Kawauchi
    Rip
    Robbie Williams
    Roberto Cuoghi
    Robin Rhode
    Roisin Murphy
    Rome
    Salvador Dali
    Sam Harris
    Self Publishing
    Shanghai
    Social Media
    Space Invader
    Street Art
    Sun Kil Moon
    Super Pop
    Tabaimo
    Takahiro Iwasaki
    Television
    Terry Adkins
    Theatre
    Thomas Hirschhorn
    Tiago Mata Machado
    Tivoli
    Tom Ford
    Tony Oursler
    Tori Amos
    Tracey Moffatt
    Unesco
    Vajiko Chachkhiani
    Valentina Vannicola
    Vatican Museum
    Venice
    Vettor Pisani
    Video
    Vincent J Huang
    Vinyl Tiger
    Whitney Houston
    Willem Popelier
    Writing
    Wu Jian'an
    Wunderkammern
    Xu Bing
    Yao Huiffen
    Zai Kuning

    RSS Feed




Dave Di Vito is a writer, teacher and former curator.He's also the author of the Vinyl Tiger series and Replace The Sky.
For information about upcoming writing projects subscribe to the mailing list.
Dave hates SPAM so he won't trouble you with any of his own. He promises.