The exhibition Zones of Disturbance is concerned with the clash of industrial and post-industrial activities. What is coming into being are new, subtly differentiated and overlapping “zones” in which contemporary transformations of political, economical, social and geographical systems and spaces are manifested. The artistic analysis focuses on the phenomenon of the link between active disturbance/interference (Störung) and reactive disturbance/confusion (Ver-Störung). The Zones of Disturbance are thus both of a physical and psychological nature, they comprise a combine of the topology of the subject and the topography of the world. They act as critical zones of perception of the effects and syndromes that are concomitant to an increasingly brutalized late capitalism. Disturbance/interference (Störung) and disturbance/confusion (Ver-Störung) are expressed in interventionist works, in performative actions and also in the representation of psychotic configurations speaking of internalised violence and fear.

Furthermore, Zones of Disturbance looks into the visible and concealed co-ordinates of the exercise of political power in the domains of the so-called public and private spheres of urbanity and global networks. The artistic strategies also aim to show how political power and control operate at all levels, i.e. not only in formal political, “public”, but also in an informal and “private” practice. In the process, it becomes evident that the definition of “private” and “public” has shifted and that it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish these two notions categorically. A wide variety of conceptions of “body” is manifested in the Zones of Disturbance.

The artists focus on interfaces at which the complex relationships of the material, social “body” to the real and/or virtual spaces of the city or to those of the media and electronic information systems are reflected. “Body” appears here as a category that cannot be conceived without taking into account gender – the immanent gender-specific positioning of human beings in their relationships to the Other, to the institutional and political public sphere.

Along the lines of the logic of the exhibition theme, artists will be represented who work with cross-border strategies and media: actions and interactive works in the exhibition and urban spaces, works in the media and on the Internet, video and CD-ROMs. A café with a reading / Internet room will offer additional possibilities of communication and information.

Artists: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Friederike Anders, Phyllis Baldino, Linda Bilda, Heath Bunting, Olga Chernysheva, Serge Comte, Veronika Dreier, Rainer Ganahl, Johan Grimonprez, Graham Harwood, Deborah Holland, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Katarzyna Kozyra, Christin Lahr, Violetta Liagatchev, LOKAL TV, Kristin Lucas, MAMAX, Dorit Margreiter, Tracey Moffatt, Ariane Müller, Muntean / Rosenblum, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Tony Oursler, Personal Information, Mathias Poledna, Linda Post, Graham Ramsay, Francesca da Rimini, Laura Ruggeri, Fiona Rukschcio, Wally Salner, Meike Schmidt-Gleim, Ann-Sofi Sidén, Peter Spillmann, Lisa Strömbeck, Alma Suljevic, Milica Tomić, Momoyo Torimitsu, Gillian Wearing, Carey Young, Jasmila Žbanić

Mediathek

01:02 / Video

Anatoli Osmolovsky

1997

00:36 / Video

Muntean/Rosenblum

1997

02:27 / Video

Zonen der Ver-Störung / Zones of Disturbance

1997