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Iconoclash
Beyond
the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art
4 May – 4 August 2002
ICONOCLASH.
Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art.
An international exhibition opening 3rd of May 2002 in the Center
for Art and Media [ZKM] in Karlsruhe, Germany. It is being mounted
under the executive curatorship of Peter Weibel [CEO of the
ZKM] and administered by Sabine Himmelsbach and Gregor Jansen
with an international interdisciplinary team of co-curators
led by Bruno Latour [F] composed of Peter Galison [USA/D], Dario
Gamboni [CH/NL], Joseph Koerner [USA/UK], Adam Lowe [UK] and
Hans Ulrich Obrist [CH/F] to which has been added the expertise
of Hans Belting [D], Marie-José Mondszain [F], Simon
Schaffer [UK], Heather Stoddard [F], Boris Groys [D] and Denis
Laborde [F].
The exhibit aims to display, in a systematic confrontation,
three great clashes about representation – about its necessity,
sanctity, and power – in the domains of science, art, and
religion. Image wars are everywhere, from the Taliban destruction
of the Buddhas to the doubts about scientific imagery, through
the debunking of media powerful manipulations. By linking the
three domains of theology, art and science all at once, the
aim is not to increase the critical mood or to reinforce disbelief
and irony. On the contrary, the aim is to transform iconoclasm
from being an indisputable resource into a topic
to be systematically interrogated.
Instead of mocking once more those who produce images or instead
of being simply furious against those who destroy them, the
show aim at placing the viewer in this quandary: »We cannot
do without representation. If only we could do without representation«.
Monotheist religions, scientific theories, contemporary arts,
not to forget political theories, have all struggled with this
contradictory urge of producing and also destroying representations,
images and emblems of all sorts. Through many works of ancient,
modern and contemporary arts, through many scientific instruments,
the show will fathom that quandary which has been so important
for the self-understanding of the Western world. It aims at
moving beyond the image wars by showing that behind this dramatic
history of destruction of images, something else has always
been going on: a cascade of image production which will
be made visible throughout the exhibit, in the traditional christian
images as well as in the scientific laboratories and in the
various experiments of contemporary art, music, cinema and architecture.
While the big struggles of iconoclasts against icon worshippers
were going on, another history of iconophily has always
been at work. This alternative history of the Western obsession
with image worship and destruction will allow the establishment
of less biased comparisons with other cultures influential in
the rest of the world for which images have a very different
role to play.
Not an art show, not a science and art show, not an history
of art show, Iconoclash offers a bewildering display of experiments
on how to suspend the iconoclastic gesture and how to
renew the movement of images against any freeze-framing.
With numerous documents, scientific objects [cloud chamber,
spark chamber, mathematical models, images from chaos theory
and astronomy et al.], religious idols [medieval altar retables,
reconstruction of a stupa with tibetian buddha figures et al.],
and artworks by Arman, Art & Language, Fiona Banner, Willi
Baumeister, Christian Boltanski, Candice Breitz, Günther
Brus, Daniel Buren, Lucas Cranach, Max Dean, Marcel Duchamp,
Albrecht Dürer, Lucio Fontana, Felix Gmelin, Francisco
de Goya, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Young Hay, Arata Isozaki,
Martin Kippenberger, Imi Knoebel, Komar & Melamid, Joseph
Kosuth, Kasimir Malevich, Gordon Matta-Clark, Gustav Metzger,
Tracey Moffat, Nam June Paik, Sigmar Polke, Stephen Prina, Man
Ray, Rembrandt van Rijn, Sophie Ristelhuber, Axel Roch, Jeffrey
Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Franz Erhard Walther, and many others.
The ZKM is planning a comprehensive publication on the theme
of the show and a leaflet [german/engl.].
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