Global
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An exhibition exploring manifestations and transformations of the human and the body
Slought is pleased to announce the first exhibition of works from the Teutloff Collection, Germany, featuring a selection of international artists whose film and video works examine the varied manifestations of the human body in contemporary society. The exhibition will be on display from December 12, 2007-February 9, 2008, with an opening reception on January 19th, 2007 from 6:30-8:30pm. Works in the exhibition have been selected by Osvaldo Romberg, a Senior Curator at Slought.
At an early juncture, more than twenty years ago, the German collector Lutz Teutloff began to develop a sensibility marked by a concern for the perpetual transformations that constitute the 'human' and the 'body,' as documented in contemporary photography, film, and video production. The individual works of art in the Teutloff collection, as well as the collection itself, inform and constitute a critical commentary on the 'condition humaine' and the momentous changes taking place today. The collection thus exemplifies a thematic approach to collecting art, and it illustrates the ever-increasing fascination with and alterations to the concept of the 'human' in this age of technological and cultural transformation. It takes place at a particular moment when the human body is increasingly reduced to a supposedly self-evident and instrumentalized 'thing' under the all-pervasive gaze of commerical media and the biological sciences, as well as the body cults and healthcare crazes that predominate amongst the public at large.
Traditionally, the body has been defined as a support of the soul, as a support of sex, of the mind, etc. Contemporary art of the last 50 years has extended these definitions--practically, theoretically, as well as utopically--and thus the way in which we conceptualize the body and its potential, creating new typologies of description, function, and semiotic analysis. If we have to define these phenomena in terms of a single word, one that contains all of these developments, it would have to be MUTATION.
This exhibition takes as its title the landmark work by Peter Weibel from 1971, which explores the multiple meanings of the feminine according to the male gaze.
Artists featured include by Nobuyoshi Araki, Diane Arbus, Matthew Barney, Katharina Bosse, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peng Chi, Donigan Cumming, Danica Dakic, Gundula Schulze Eldowy, Tracey Emin, Valie Export, Brian Finke, Gilbert + George, Nan Goldin, Alfredo Jaar, Jürgen Klauke, Sigalit Landau, Annie Leibovitz, Bjorn Melhus, Boris Mikhailov, Dario Mitidieri, Adam Nadel, Patricia Piccinini, Michael Rees, Andres Serrano, Una Szeemann, Larry Towell, Peter Weibel, and Zhou Xiaohu.
Slought is pleased to announce a public seminar by artist and Professor Peter Weibel, Chairman and CEO of the ZKM/Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Thursday, February 7, 2008 from 6:30-8:30pm. This seminar has been organized in conjunction with the exhibition, which features his work. A media recording is available from the playlist.
