[Nettime-bold] Opening GOING PLACES | October 20

["Thomas SMART Project Space" <thomas@smartprojectspace.net>]

SMART Project Space | 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, Amsterdam

requests the pleasure of your company at the exhibition opening of:

GOING PLACES | October 20- December 2, 2001

Work by: Isaac Carlos, Eugenio Dittborn, Christoph Fink, Jeroen Jacobs,
Julia Loktev, Klaus Lutz, Kim Sooja. Curated by Alice Smits

Opening Reception October 20, 21:00h

21:30h performance by Klaus Lutz

"Time and Space have the same essence and can be seen as different physical
conditions of the same substance, or as different ways of moving."

"The body is an (...) essential means of transportation because it wears
clothes and in those clothes, pockets" (Dr. Faustroll, patafysicus).

"Going Places" addresses the increasing mobility of the modern world. In
recent years, concepts such as transit, migration, globalisation and
nomadism have become commonplace in almost every account of our contemporary
society. Whether it is about the globalisation of communications and
economies, the speed of transmission of information allowing us to be in
touch with far away places via the world wide web, television, mobile phone
and email services; or the speed with which we physically transport
ourselves from one continent to the other resulting in mass tourism and the
multi-cultural metropolis, the notion of distance seems to have exploded. We
live in a world which is forever accelerating in order to bring things
closer and make them accessible. On the waves of the internet model
frontiers are being crossed on every level. The separation of the former
autonomous spheres of culture, politics, science and religion have given way
to crossovers between different bodies of knowledge, practices and spaces.
Different cultures and ways of living are crossing each other in every
aspect of live. In the arts, a new generation of artists and curators is on
the move, inscribing their work within the realm of fashion, advertisement,
entertainment or clubs. The networking artist has replaced the marginal
loner, as the collaborator has the opponent.

Such a world requires a new protagonist. The image of the new men is the
nomad who lives in his mobile home with his mobile phone, connected via
electronic extensions to everything and everybody, knowing how to play and
move within a whirlpool of information and networks, while finding pleasure
in doing so. This is a world quickening its pace in order to elevate itself
from all ground and groundings. But behind this often euphorically presented
rhetoric also lies another reality. The one in which sizable parts of the
world have no power resources to plug into the world web, nor have the means
to travel around the globe; the reality that the main engine of this mobile
world is economic transaction to which every move is ultimately subdued, and
the resulting inequality of who has the most space and who is moving into
who's space. But despite all this, it is a given fact that we live in an age
of which mobility has become a central characteristic. We 'go places' is all
we can say, where we are heading to remains an open question.

"Going Places" is a typical English expression that has no translation in
the Dutch language. Without implying a starting point or destination it
refers to mobility itself, to simply going from one place to the other. In
this exhibition artworks are brought together that in a variety of ways deal
with notions of mobility and travel. It is a horrific moment in time that
with the tragedy that has befallen New York and with it the world, our ideas
concerning travel and airplanes have, at least momentarily, radically
changed. It is an example of the way meanings shift that artworks such as
Jeroen Jacobs plane wing will unavoidably, within the context of recent
developments, evoke different associations than at its moment of conception.
We live in a moment of anxiety, a time in which people would rather not go
places. On the other hand we have witnessed once again the tremendous
mobilization of people around the world through the media of television and
internet, enabling everyone to witness the same event almost instantaneously
via live broadcasting. In this exhibition, Isaac Carlos' work "Invasion" as
the title suggests, strongly reminds us of another kind of mobility in the
world which we are witnessing at this very moment, one which is about
threat, fear and power.

But, to add to Dr. Faustrolls remark that time and space are different ways
of moving, there are also different ways of moving within it. Moving through
cultures, memories and histories (Kim Sooja), moving between reality and the
realm of imagination (Klaus Lutz), moving from public space to internal
space (Jeroen Jacobs), the passage of people in the urban transit system
(Julia Loktev), transforming travelling into art (Christoph Fink) and art
into travel (Eugenio Dittborn). In the end it's all about what is inside the
pockets.

Sponsored by: Gemeente Amsterdam, Mondriaan Stichting, Mentrum, Brand
Bier.

SMART Project Space | www.smartprojectspace.net
1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, NL-1054 BW Amsterdam
Opening times: Tuesday-Sunday 14.00-22.00 hrs.
Post Office Box 15004, NL-1001 MA Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 427.5951 / 5952 | Fax.: +31 20 427.5953
Email: info@smartprojectspace.net

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