Subject is a current analysis of sampling techniques such as the montage, which is fed by elements of the popular culture, in order to translate these into an independent language of form.
The cultural practice of sampling means techniques of breaking down, shifting and adopting particular aspects of an every day culture, which in its complexity and polyvalenz triggers off a continuous analysis. By means of montage-techniques, the collected reference pieces are processed to a re-coded individual whole, the original elements are taken out of context and arranged to a new cultural text in a variant-rich manner. Through fragmentation and decontextualisation, the proper history is broken, the code, the rule, the tradition is abolished; in so far sampling is also a technique when dealing with archivists' historical references, history is interpreted in opposition to the original historiography, thus, can be interpreted anew. De- and re-coding creates the new out of the historical by bringing in relation different contexts within a for this reason structured span of discrepancies.
In discontinuities distinct forms evolve, in their non-linearness they delimit from strict procedures such as the citing, the collage or the carbon copy. The original contexts, detached from their original meaning, in their fragmentary character dissolve into a modified structure, that foremost aims at the emergence of an individual artistic work. Sampled works analyse the product state of art, since a process-oriented mode of working and the elaboration of settings is in the limelight.
The exhibition Now's the time directly refers to the procedures of sampling by offering a concentrated setting which brings in relation different methods and procedures in a variant-rich way.
Within the exhibition Now's the time, artists are represented that act in a superior style within the span of discrepancies of pop culture and culture of the masses, of life style and the electronic media; such artists that have developed an individual intermedial language of form in this field. With current means, here, a heterogenous concept of image is worked upon which founds on a montage of reference pieces of popular culture, in order to re-arrange these as decontextualized ones.
There is also an exhibition called Now's the time, which will be on show at the Medienturm Graz between Jannuary 28 and March 5. The show of the same name, beside video- and online-works, also presents painting, prints and sculptures, which work with reference pieces of a contemporary realm of signs using the techniques of re:mixing and re:coding.
Artists:
Doug Aitken (US), Thomas Baumann (A), D-Fuse (UK), Christoph Draeger (CH), Tina Frank (A), Alexander Györfi (D), Dariusz Krzeczek (PL), Lia (A), Michel Majerus (D), m.ash (A), Maix Mayer (D), Sarah Morris (UK), N.I.C.J.O.B. (F), Olaf Nicolai (D), Pfaffenbichler/Schreiber (A), Daniel Pflumm (CH), Richard Prince (PA), Franc Purg (SLO), reMI (A/NL), Gerwald Rockenschaub (A), Lisa Ruyter (US), Axel Stockburger (A), Johannes Wohnseifer (D).
