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Poetics of Power
Press release
14.11.2024
Image Credits
Duration
15.11.2024 - 25.05.2025
Opening
14.11.2024 6pm
Press event
14.11.2024 11am - 12pm
Place of the press event
Kunsthaus Graz, Space01
Curators
Andreja Hribernik & Nini Palavandishvili
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The exhibition Poetics of Power is aimed at revealing manifestations of power that are hidden in symbols, gestures and existing, unquestioned relationships or systems. It explains the complicated and ambivalent nature of power, which is ever present and continuously reproducible in the creation of inter-human, cultural, national and economic dynamics. Moreover, the show investigates the poetic nature of power by acknowledging its pervasive influence and its ambivalence. The exhibition shows works that revolve around the seductive nature – and destructive face – of power. Artistic approaches enable symbols and ideas to be explored that sometimes disguise or conceal power relations. At the same time, they reveal anomalies and cracks in which cultural imbalances and inequalities become visible.
Many of the works shown engage with authoritarian stories, distorted narratives or knowledge that has been completely eradicated, with the destruction of cultures and construction of identities. The exhibition casts light on power asymmetries that often lead to exploitative relationships, defining them as colonial and post-colonial relations that have led to conflicts and migration flows. Such subjects as war, flight, crime, humanity, gender, children, mobility and borders are explored and addressed thematically, in a range of cross-disciplinary works.
The exhibited works cover various media, including photography, video, sculpture and installation. They offer the public the chance to float freely, to reflect on a complex journey through time and history. What’s more, they stimulate us to engage with the decoding and exposure of connections that are hidden, or seemingly beyond scrutiny.
Press release (ENG)
Poetics of Power
Press release (SLO)
Poetics of Power
Exhibition views
Kunsthaus director Andreja Hribernik and Nini Palavandishvili have curated the exhibition "Poetics of Power"
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view „Poetics of Poetics“, front: Anna Zvyagnitseva "The Cage", 2010, back: Moniral Al Qadiri "Crude Eye", 2022
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Vajiko Chachkhiani "Lower than the Sky" 2021, video
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", front: Lukas Marxt "Fat Man 1:1", 2023 and Yael Bartana "Two Minutes to Midnight", 2021 (back)
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power"
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Daria Koltsova "Tessellated Self" 2023
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Daria Koltsova "Tessellated Self" 2023
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Hannes Priesch "How to March", 2024
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek (c) Bildrecht, Wien 2024
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Lukas Marxt "Fat Man 1:1", 2023
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power" with "Anubumin", 2017 from Zanny Begg and Oliver Ressler
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek © Bildrecht Vienna, 2024
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", Goshka Macuga "The Nature of the Beast" 2009 (l.) and Daria Koltsova "Tessellated Self" 2023 (r.)
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhibition view "Poetics of Power", part of the work by Goshka Macuga ‘The Nature of the Beast’ 2009
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
Exhiition view "Poetics of Power", Yael Bartana "Two Minutes to Midnight" 2021, video still
Photo: Kunsthaus Graz/J.J. Kucek
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Images
Ala Savashevich, Sew on your own, 2022, Courtesy of 66P Subjective Institution of Culture, Wrocław, Poland
Photo: Małgorzata Kujda
Erkan Özgen, Wonderland, Videoprojektion Courtesy of the artist
Erkan Özgen
Ahmet Öğüt, Monuments of the Disclosed, 2022
© Ahmet Öğüt
Zanny Begg und Oliver Ressler, Anubumin, 2017, video still
Oliver Ressler © Bildrecht, Vienna 2024
Daria Koltsova, Tessellated Self, 2023
Photo: Ovidiu Micsa
Gabriela Golder, Conversation Piece, 2012
© Motaz Mawid / Sharjah Biennial 15, 2023, Sharjah Art Foundation
Jošt Franko, Memory without Evidence, 2023/2024
© Jošt Franko
Monira al Qadiri, Crude Eye, 2022, video still
© Monira al Qadiri
Yael Bartana, Two Minutes To Midnight, 2021, performance still
© Birgit Kaulfuß
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Accompanying programme to the exhibition
The two-day symposium on November 15th and 16th titled Entanglements. The Politics of Aesthetics and Retelling of Modernisms and Modern Art, held in collaboration with the University of Graz, examines fundamental concepts of modernity from the theoretical perspectives of post-colonial theory and decolonial thinking. With T. J. Demos, Sabine Flach, Kris Holland, Oliver Marchart, Katrin Nahidi, Tanja Petrović, among others.
In collaboration with the Department of Arts and Musicology, Section ‘Center for Contemporary Art’, University of Graz, and the Strange Tools Research Lab, University of Cincinnati
A comprehensive programme is on offer that students can participate in free of charge as part of the UNIKUM! Student Day in the Kunsthaus Graz on November 15th.