FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENTROPY November 1, 2013 – January 4, 2014 Annika von Hauswolff The 21st Century Transitional Object, 2004 C-Print 120x150 cm, Ed. 4 Galeri Zilberman is delighted to present “Entropy”, a group exhibition curated by Vassilios Doupas, featuring new and recent work by Christoph Büchel, Maurizio Cattelan, William E Jones, Annika von Hausswolff, Kay Rosen and Frank Selby. The opening of the exhibition is on November 1 from 6 to 9pm. In thermodynamics, “entropy” is a term associated with a level of disorder within a system. Applied to cultural and political theory, entropy could be loosely interpreted as the recognition of the subversive elements or destabilizing forces in a closed system. One of these systems is the linguistic system. Comprising of a widely accepted set of rules, language is an abstract system of signs and symbols and the construction of meaning often depends on various contexts and subjective interpretations. In this sense, a seemingly rigid system can be disturbed by a minor change or a certain degree of ambivalence can effectively alter meaning. This is the case with ADD AND END in Kay Rosen’s Short Story, which consists of three words. By substituting D for N and E for A in the last sequence, Rosen creates meaning through displacement and allows for an open-ended narrative to emerge in a succinct manner. Rosen finds that the interest of the work lies in “the absence, presence, rearrangement, or alteration of these small units that disturbs linguistic sequence, revealing patterns and systems, which exceed and outperform their expected function”. The break up of linguistic systems and communication models is among the main concerns of Frank Selby. The artist who is known for his intricate drawings of riots, protests and social upheavals refers to the subject of his work as instances, when people for whom experience a failure of language, which subsequently brings forward a crisis. This manifestation of a crisis then becomes another form of communication. The language of authority is deployed in William E Jones’ film Shoot Don’t Shoot, an instructional film to police officers to decide by instinct whether to shoot a suspect or not. The exhibition includes two more films by the artist, Bay of Pigs and Mission Mind Control that focus on mass government surveillance and its effects. Mission Mind Control is based on an investigative report on the US government’s covert experiments with hallucinogenic drugs and brainwashing. The original recording, taped off television in 1979 and including commercials, is transformed into an abstract psychedelic animation. In the spirit of “Taliban,” Christoph Büchel has been fascinated with military “psychological operations”. The artist has put together an artist’ book of over 120 propaganda leaflets that have been dropped by the U.S. Army on Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as other similar material. In this exhibition, he presents a carpet from his series Made in Afganistan, 2001-2006. The work is another politically direct but playful comment on global capitalism and American hegemony and reflects Büchel’s predilection for demystifying dominant ideologies forces by exposing them as constructed realities subject to change. Maurizio Cattelan’s polaroid of a broken safe is consistent with the artist’s reputation as perpetrator of institutional critique. Cattelan has infused the legacies of Arte Povera with dark humour, abundant references in “low” art and subversive gestures, often exploring themes of terrorism, burglary and escapism as antidotes to post-capitalist anemia. Annika von Hauswolff’s work sits uncomfortably between photography, sculpture and performance. The artist creates “situations” that “hack” the viewer’s gaze making the division between the personal and the political harder to decipher. The imagery of a couple covered in a tablecloth is uncannily striking and unabashedly dumb; the artist directs all the action to the viewer, who will in turn is forced to take a position in front of the pictures, and by extension, in front of another narrative. Retracting from an aesthetic of anarchic chaos, the exhibition deploys ambivalence, humor and understatement as tropes in cultivating critical and deconstructionist perspectives on the “grand narratives” of society. The exhibition is accompanied by catalogue with a text by David Gleeson. For information and images, please contact [email protected] Istiklal Cad. Mısır Apt. No:163 K.3 D.10, 34433 Beyoğlu/Istanbul, Turkey Istiklal Cad. Mısır Apt. No:163 K.3 D.10, 34433 Beyoğlu/Istanbul, Turkey t: +90 212 252 1214 f: +90 212 251 4488 l www.galerizilberman.com t: +90 212 252 1214 f: +90 212 251 4488 l www.galerizilberman.com Entropy is on view at Galeri Zilberman until January 4, 2014 Opening hours are: Tuesday to Friday 10-7.30 and Saturday 12-7 More Information on the Artists Christoph Büchel (b. 1966, CH) has had major exhibitions in museums including MACBA, Barcelona, PS1, New York, Migros Museum, Zurich, Kinsthalle St. Gallen, MAMCO, Geneva, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Swiss Institute, New York. He was included in the 51st and 52nd Venice Biennale, Manifesta 4 in Frankfurt, the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennial, Greece and Sharjat Biennial 7 at UAE. He shows regularly with Hauser and Wirth in London and Zurich. Maurizio Cattelan (b.1960, IT) is one of the most important conceptual artists of the 90s. His work has been shown in many museums including MoMA, New York, Guggenheim Museum, New York and Beyeler Foundation, Basel. One of the most successful Swedish artists of her generation, Annika von Hauswolff (b.1967, SE) has had a number of museum exhibitions including Aarhus KunstMuseum, Copenhagen, Magasin 3, Stockholm, La Conservera, Murcia, Spain, and gallery exhbitions at Victoria Miro, London, Air de Paris, Paris and Andrehn-Schiptjeno, Stockholm. She has represented Sweden at the Venice Biennale in 1999, while she was also selected to exhibit works at the 54th Venice Biennale, the special edition of the 150 anniversary of the Venice Biennale. Frank Selby (b. 1975, USA) has had solo exhibition in Athens, Paris, Miami and New York. He recently had a museum exhibition at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, USA and has exhibited at the FLAG Foundation, New York, the DePaul Museum, Chicago and the Drawing Centre, NY. Kay Rosen (b.1949, USA)’s language-based paintings, drawings, editions, and installations have been exhibited in museums and institutions nationally and internationally for several decades, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she had a retrospective exhibition in 1998-99; MASS MOCA, North Adams, Massachusetts; the Whitney Biennial; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; and in numerous solo gallery exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. Rosen’s large-scale wall painting projects are currently on view at the Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Aspen Art Museum; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG), Vancouver; Marabouparken, Sundbyberg, Sweden; MKG127, Toronto; and Fri Art, Fribourg, Switzerland. William E Jones (b. 1962, USA) is an artist and filmmaker. His work has been shown at the Cinémathèque Française and Musée du Louvre, Paris, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sundance Film Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Modern Art, New York. His films and videos have been the subject of retrospectives at Tate Modern, London, in 2005; at Anthology Film Archives, New York, in 2010; at the Austrian Film Museum, Vienna, and at the Oberhausen Film Festival in 2011. He was included in the 1993 and 2008 Biennial Exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. His work was on view in the Nordic Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, and in the exhibition “Untitled (Death by Gun)” at the 12th Istanbul Biennial in 2011. He has shown at several galleries including Whitecube, London, The Modern Institute, Glasgow, Rafaella Cortese, Milan and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Istiklal Cad. Mısır Apt. No:163 K.3 D.10, 34433 Beyoğlu/Istanbul, Turkey t: +90 212 252 1214 f: +90 212 251 4488 l www.galerizilberman.com.