Artists: Gretchen Bender, Patricia L. Boyd, Laurence Burt, Adriano Costa, Mark Fell, Aurelia Guo, Jac Leirner, Alan Michael, Pharmaceutical Clocks, Emanuel Rossetti, Coumba Samba, Philipp Simon, Bri Williams
Exhibition title: Slow Dance (3)
Curated by: Luca Beeler & Richard Sides
Venue: Stadtgalerie Bern, Bern, Switzerland
Date: May 19 – June 24, 2023
Photography: Studio Mussano / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Stadtgalerie, Bern
Slow Dance is composed of sixteen scenes, consisting of four different rooms in four exhibitions over a period of six months. During this time, the exhibition spaces remain structured by two walls, each with a functioning door. Instead of providing an overview, they offer passages. Slow Dance could describe the attitudes of a person in conversation as they attempt to provoke reactions in other people. Here, what slowly comes into focus is the political implications of subliminal choreography.
Slow Dance grows out of an ongoing conversation around the convergence between the specificities of exhibition making and installation. The artworks and objects cohabiting within the structure of the exhibition form an interconnected logic that mirrors living in constant relationship with various active temporalities and timescales. How we encounter the material world is at once a form of compromise whilst simultaneously an experience of precarious accumulation. Scale, growth and history confuse our sense of ideology. Organic rhythms zoom out from media realities.
“What mindset do you have to be in to get this idea to make clocks to advertise your drugs?”
The pharmaceutical clocks in Slow Dance (3) Luca bought five in the US, from eBay. “A suburban, corporate aggressive salesman aesthetics.” None of the sellers would ship to Europe so we had to order them to Michèle’s, who lives in New York. Dora brought them to Berlin in her suitcase to deliver to Richard. They were left at the hotel reception and two attempts to pick them up were made, once on foot and a second time by taxi. Richard took them to Oslo on the way to Bern. They’ve travelled. One on display doesn’t work and two we didn’t show.
Slow Dance (3) is a choreography of things. In the world at large, persistent logistical infrastructures strive to hardwire space and time through networks, digital devices, and algorithms that control the circulation of information and goods. Some forms of circulation create time zones along which human relationships, space, and time reorganise – a violent merging of systems to keep life going on. Temporally, Slow Dance (3) exists in a distinct variety of time zones, while the gravity of a linear hegemonic time field circles above relentlessly. Multiple artworks in the exhibition signify infrastructure (revealing their inherent social and political dimensions), while others allude to the ritual of everyday practices; a residue of “things done to feel”. Emotions are felt in the process of making and affects carry over. Commuting (the last track of Mark Fell’s Ten Types Of Elsewhere album) is composed with synthesised bells producing a “drift-like state” or a pause to abstract the quotidian with.
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: David Aebi
Jac Leirner & Adriano Costa, WAVE, 2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: David Aebi
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: David Aebi
Jac Leirner & Adriano Costa, WAVE, 2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: David Aebi
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Aurelia Guo, One Admirer Has Said, in: World of Interiors, 2022, detail. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Adriano Costa, a person when is completely out of its tits (never ending routine), 2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Bri Williams, To Be Female Is To Die, 2021. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Coumba Samba, Sand, 2023. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Coumba Samba, Chanel Basketball Bag 8k, 2023. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Aurelia Guo, One Admirer Has Said, in: World of Interiors, 2022, detail. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Emanuel Rossetti, Gallery Bells, 2023. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Patricia L. Boyd, Advent Calendar, 2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Gretchen Bender, TV Text & Image (IMAGE WORLD), 1989, © Gretchen Bender Estate, courtesy Sprüth Magers. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Adriano Costa, 1975, 2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Philipp Simon, IR2.5CotB, 2023. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Alan Michael, Webcam taped to a wall, 2018. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Alan Michael, Progress 5, 2015. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Alan Michael, Progress 5, 2015. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Alan Michael, Progress 2, 2015. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Adriano Costa, sneakers sniffers go to heaven, 2018-2022. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Pharmaceutical Clock. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), I.A. Infinite Absolute, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), C7 – C – ‘CONTROL’, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), O6 – S.G.C – Sub-Goal for ‘CON- TROL’, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), N5 – C.N.A – Cognition of Neces- sary Activity, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), T4 – S.S.B. – Super System Brain, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), R3 – C.P. – Cognitive Process, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), O2 – E. of MAN – Evolution of MAN, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), L1 – M.F. – Macrocosmic Force, 1971, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Laurence Burt, Propaganda For Control, Symbols 1-8, Sketches, Propaganda For Control (prototypes), 1971, detail, courtesy the estate of Laurence Burt. Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano
Slow Dance (3), Stadtgalerie Bern, 2023, installation view. Photo: Studio Mussano