Artists: KP Brehmer, Fred Lonidier, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Seth Siegelaub, Hannah Weinberger, Charlotte Posenenske
Exhibition title: Distributors
Curated by: Remco Torenbosch
Venue: West, The Hague, The Netherlands
Date: November 28, 2015 – January 16, 2016
Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist, West, The Hague and Vilma Gold London
Distributors takes on multiple forms of address: an exhibition, a roundtable, and a booklet that gathers works that challenge systems of distribution in relation to production. Brought together by the Dutch artist Remco Torenbosch, Distributors takes a perspective on the flow of material and the precarity of the subject. As a whole these forms becomes self-reflexive by questioning how the dissociation of capital differs from (art)production as realized in an abstracted globalized economy.
The exhibited artists critically probe their own role and means of producing their work. At the same time, they are actively seeking out and entering into systems of distribution in order to make visible and fundamentally reroute new possibilities for artistic production and engagement. From West Berlin, KP Brehmer utilized capitalistic tools such as schematics and diagrams, becoming a key figure in the formalization of economic and social abstraction. Set alongside Brehmer is a reconstruction of the revolutionary revolving vane sculpture by Charlotte Posenenske from 1967. Before leaving behind her practice, Posenenske made a fundamental shift in artistic production by inserting and embodying her social-political questions.
The open invitation to collaborate is apparent in Distributors. In the practice of Hannah Weinberger, her sound pieces are developed with others to reassess and propose alternative hierarchies. In contrast activist Fred Lonidier pushes the limits of political photography and imagery where he makes explicit the state in which his images of labor, production, and protest are formed. Similarly Wendelien van Oldenborgh lays bare the conditions of production with her open filmmaking process by working together with a variety of voices and participants creation her practise. Tracing social-economic history of textiles connects Van Oldenborgh’s film ‘La Javanaise’ to a selection from Seth Siegelaub’s impressive textile collection is on display. The ancient silk presented in the exhibition focuses on the historical role of such textiles in global distribution, trade and value production.
Forming a flow of information on material and value, and labor, Distributors questions it own conceptual and surplus value, autonomy, and contribution to the production of knowledge. Working as a parallel system, a public roundtable opens up themes of distribution, value, labour as well as historical and present conceptual art production found in the exhibition. Moderated by Natasha Hoare, the roundtable is held on Tuesday 8 December 2015 with Marja Bloem, Willem de Rooij, and Sven Augustijnen. A new publication, with an essay of E. C. Feiss, will accompany the exhibition.
Seth Siegelaub, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
KP Brehmer, Flags for the States 1867/1868, 1976 Courtesy Vilma Gold London
KP Brehmer, Flags for the States 1867/1868, 1976, courtesy Vilma Gold London
Seth Siegelaub, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
KP Brehmer, Flags for the States 1867/1868, 1976, courtesy Vilma Gold London
Seth Siegelaub, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
KP Brehmer, Flags for the States 1867/1868, 1976 Courtesy Vilma Gold London
Seth Siegelaub, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam, Charlotte Posenenske, Prototype for Revolving Vane, 1967-68, Courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, Dr. Burkhard Brunn, the Estate of Charlotte Posenenske, TATE Modern London, KP Brehmer, Anteile an den Einkommensklassen in den USA, 1977 Courtesy Vilma Gold London.
KP Brehmer, Anteile an den Einkommensklassen in den USA, 1977, courtesy Vilma Gold London
Seth Siegelaub, Woven Textile, Chancay Period, 1100, 1300 (detail), Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Velvet panel (fragment) 1800, Turkey (detail), Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Embroidered coverlet 19th century, Scandinavia (detail), Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Headpiece Mid-20th century Cameroon Cotton, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Ceremonial headdress 20th century Cameroon Cotton, wood, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Child’s Cap, 20th Century, Cotton, various fabrics, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Embroidered Cap, 20th Century Cotton, Silk, Metal Thread, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Embroidered Cap, 20th Century Cotton, Silk, Metal Thread (detail), Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Seth Siegelaub, Ceremonial Head Piece, Mid-20th Century Wool, vegetal fiber, feathers, Stichting Egress Foundation Amsterdam
Charlotte Posenenske, Prototype for Revolving Vane, 1967-68, Courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, Dr. Burkhard Brunn, the Estate of Charlotte Posenenske, TATE Modern London
Charlotte Posenenske, Prototype for Revolving Vane, 1967-68, Courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, Dr. Burkhard Brunn, the Estate of Charlotte Posenenske, TATE Modern London, KP Brehmer, Bedeutungsspektrum des Begriffes “Polizei” [Spectrums of Meanings of the term ‘Police’], 1978, Courtesy Vilma Gold London
KP Brehmer, Bedeutungsspektrum des Begriffes “Polizei” [Spectrums of Meanings of the term ‘Police’], 1978, Courtesy Vilma Gold London
Hannah Weinberger, For future inspirations, 2015, Courtesy Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles, Charlotte Posenenske, Prototype for Revolving Vane, 1967-68, Courtesy Mehdi Chouakri Berlin, Dr. Burkhard Brunn, the Estate of Charlotte Posenenske, TATE Modern London, KP Brehmer, Bedeutungsspektrum des Begriffes “Polizei” [Spectrums of Meanings of the term ‘Police’], 1978, Courtesy Vilma Gold London
Fred Lonidier, Confessions of the Peace Corps, 1974, Courtesy of the artist and Silberkuppe Berlin
Wendelien van Oldenborgh, La Javanaise (detail), 2012, Courtesy of the artist, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam
Wendelien van Oldenborgh, La Javanaise (detail), 2012, Courtesy of the artist, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam
Wendelien van Oldenborgh, La Javanaise (detail), 2012, Courtesy of the artist, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam
