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["< rotor >" <rotor@sime.com>]

Press Release

psychedelic

Škuc Gallery, July 20 – August 13 2000

You are kindly invited to attend the opening of the exhibition on Thursday, July 20 at 9 p.m. at Škuc Gallery. Feauturing the artists/ artists groups: Apsolutno (Novi Sad), Department for Public Appearances (Munich), Thomas Feuerstein (Innsbruck), Cosmin Gradinaru (Bucharest), G.R.A.M. (Graz), Ágnes Szépfalvi / Csaba Nemes (Budapest). Curated by Anton Lederer & Margarethe Makovec, <rotor> association for contemporary art, Graz.

PSYCHEDELIC focuses on a tendency in current art production where artists try to work with socially relevant structures. These structures, which are current constituents of society, give artists the impetus for reflection and analysis.

In a specific as well as literal sense, PSYCHEDELIC deals with phenomena as mentioned before, which bear a certain "consciousness-extending" function. This should be understood in the sense that our consciousness is extended through additional insight and not in any esoteric sense. The aforementioned art practices, however, do not correspond with scientific methods and do not offer spectacular results. They are characterised through a concentrated praxis, confronting us with phenomena and processes which are included in our world of daily encounters and which only stand out through separation, the extraction of this daily context. Further, there exists the transplantation into a different, non-specific context, especially through the means of exaggeration. Only this exaggeration leads to a psychedelic effect, and a usually clear context becomes grotesque.

The group Apsolutno shows two video installations. "Serbeiko" ironises the Serbian media's claim for exact time. "Good Evening" deals with the information flow, which reaches TV living rooms world-wide in various languages. Together, these two videos form a congenial couple.

The Department for Public Appearances deals with the indecency of mobilephone communication through the installations "Public Intimacy" and "Mobiline". The works are installed on the sidewalk in front of the gallery and actively directed to the passers-by. Once caught, you can participate in a survey on mobile communication inside the gallery.

In his CD-ROM "Biophile," Thomas Feuerstein incorporated experiences of the past years. Five trips from this period lay the foundation for a computer game, sending visitors on a world tour which is not only full of danger but in which one has to look for a lot of bizarre objects. Who has found everything, can take the cut-out maps as work of the artist.

Cosmin Gradinaru spends hours in flight simulators and obtains one award after the other on the theatres of WW II. A decent collection of awards and crosses is the result of these military actions, which he takes as pilot of various armies. One time, he sits in the cockpit of an American bomber, another time he is a German fighter.

In their video film series "Dreamlover," G.R.A.M. ridicule car cults. Part I of this series plays in the Californian desert. A typical American car is created with a Matchbox model of the 70s and really becomes a cult object. Part II plays in Austria and satirises the experiences from America.

Ágnes Szépfalvi and Csaba Nemes develop simple love stories in their story boards, which function as time-critical observations. "Sunday" takes place in on a soccer field. The protagonists are a soccer player and a female fan. The story ends with an atomic catastrophe.

 

PSYCHEDELIC is an exhibition in the framework of MSE-projects (see gallery's homepage). MSE-projects supported by: MOL - Cultural Department of the City Ljubljana; Art and Culture Network Programme Link Programme (Open Society Institute - Slovenia, Open Society Institute - Croatia, Open Society Found - Bosna & Hercegovina, Soros Foundation - Hungary); European Cultural Foundation; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia - Stability Pact of South East Europe; Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia; Kultur Kontakt; Avstrijsko veleposlaništvo - Oddelek za kulturo; .Kunst, Bundeskanzleramt, Austria; National Cultural Found & Ministry of National Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Hungary; Österreichisches Ost-und Südosteuropa Institut, Budapest; Public Fund for Modern Art, Dunaújváros; Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia; Cultural Department of the City Zagreb; Italian Cultural Institute in Slovenia; PCX computers.

Škuc Gallery, phone & fax: +386 1 2516 540

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