Press release

>Scenarios about Europe< 10 September 2011 – 18 March 2012 Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, GfZK-2

>Scenarios about Europe – Scenario 1< 10 September 2011 – 13 November 2011, GfZK-2 Opens 9 September 2011, 7 pm

The Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, will launch >Scenarios about Europe – Scenario 1< on 9 September 2011. This project is part of the Excellency Initiative of the Goethe Institut. Europe is an entity with frayed edges, the contours of which have changed constantly throughout the centuries – onto it have been projected controversial values and moral concepts, promise and failure, in equal measure. Despite this, Europe is the embodiment of a utopian community that not only allows for heterogeneity but regards it is a key quality. >Scenarios about Europe<, a series of three exhibitions to be shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, poses questions about a potential European community and what this would actually look like, since a European Union with a purely pragmatic focus does not allow its citizens sufficient opportunity for cultural identification. The curators work in a variety of disciplines and come from: /Belgium, Istanbul/Turkey, /UK, Łódź/Poland, Minsk/Belarus, Novi Sad/Serbia, Oslo/Norway, San Sebastián/Spain and Taipei/Taiwan. They have been invited initially to Leipzig to develop three different scenarios that would reflect on Europe from an artist’s point of view. And because “Europe” is increasingly defined by its relationship with China and in relation to China, one of the key themes of the project will be the alliance between the two. By developing multiple scenarios, it will not only be possible to expand, correct and re- formulate reflections on Europe, it will also enable a variety of concepts to be played through to their subsequent completion in the different locations. The implementation of the project will take place between May 2012 and March 2013. Here China will again have a special place within the project, as the conclusions will be in the form of a publication on the relationship between China and Europe, published by Art World Shanghai.

Scenarios 1 to 3 are curated by: Peio Aguirre, Kit Hammonds, Tone Hansen/Ane Hjort Guttu, Jarosław Lubiak/Joanna Sokołowska/Jarosław Suchan, Filip Luyckx, Markus Miessen/Felix Vogel, Lena Prents, Esra Sarigedik-Öktem, Miško Šuvaković, Jun Yang

Scenario 1 features works by: Cheng Meiya, Goldin+Senneby, Hu Fang, Christina Herrstrøm/Peter Schildt, Marcel Łoziński, Carin Mannheimer, Marina Naprushkina, Nils Norman, Margreth Olin, Xabier Salaberria, Janek Simon feat. Daniel Rumiancew, Arvid Skauge/Nils Utsi, Nataša Teofilović, Zoran Todorović, Polona Tratnik, , Frederic Wiseman a. o.

in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig and the Goethe Instituts in and the regional Goethe Instituts in Central and East Europe, Southeast Europe, North West and South West Europe and East Europe/Central Asia, in Brussels, Istanbul, Warsaw, London, Minsk, Vilnius, Oslo, and Madrid

The Museum of Contemporary Art Leipzig is supported by the City of Leipzig, the Saxon Ministry of Science and Art and the Friends of the Leipzig Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition “Scenarios about Europe – Scenario 1” is additionally supported by the Goethe Institut and the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony.