[artinfo] Transitioners: London View, exhibition opening at uqbar, Berlin, Friday November 27, 7 p.m.

[Ferenc Grof]

SOCIÉTÉ RÉALISTE

TRANSITIONERS: LONDON VIEW

at uqbar,
Schwedenstr. 16
13357 Berlin

Opening: Friday, November 27, 2009, 7 p.m.

Duration: November 28, 2009 - January 23, 2010.

http://projectspace.uqbar-ev.de
http://www.societerealiste.net

===

In 2006, the Paris-based cooperative Société Réaliste launched
Transitioners, a ‘trend design agency’ specialising in political
transitions. Transposing the principles of trend forecasting generally
used by the fashion industry to the field of politics, the project
questions the revolution (transition?) as a central category for
contemporary Western society. How can a "democratic transition" be
produced? What is the role of design in the permanent conversion of
political flux into mythology? How can the effect of an event on
citizens be transformed into a controlled affect?

Depending on the present political atmosphere, Transitioners define
the general climate in which future social transformation movements
will take place, in order to maximize their efficiency. Like any other
trend design bureau, Transitioners' clients are designers, who can use
the bureau's proposals to design the revolutions to come: logotypes,
color charts, lexical fields, etc. For each new step in the project,
Société Réaliste conceives a new trend collection, originating from a
specific historical event. In 2007, the inspiration for "Bastille
Days" was the French Revolution. The 2008 collection "Le Producteur",
was based on the utopias developed during the first three decades of
the 19th century, by thinkers such as Fourier, Enfantin, Rodrigues,
Cabet, Owen, or Saint-Simon.

After venues in London and Novi Sad, Transitioners presents at uqbar
its 2009 collection, "London View". Inspired by the 1848 European
Revolution, this collection approaches the very specific context of
the “Year of Revolution” and the new political paradigm experienced in
those days: the scheme of a synchronous and continental revolutionary
attempt. Indeed, from the first students and workers demonstrations in
Paris at the beginning of February 1848 to the end of the Hungarian
Civil War in December 1849, revolutions took place everywhere in
Europe. Forty European cities have been the theatres of major
collective events that continue to interrogate today’s political
context: collective spontaneity, polycentric organization,
international collaboration by means of communication and "glocal"
networking.

Moreover, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx published in February 1848
for the first time the "Manifesto of the Communist Party", an essay
that strongly affected the history of the social movement.
Transitioners: London View questions specific points in Marx and
Engels' analyses of the political situation, in particular a certain
inaccuracy of their theoretical  "London" point of view in regard to
the multiplicity and the complexity of the revolutions happening
concurrently on the European continent. The collection intends to
highlight similar contemporary situations of disjunction between
manifold revolutionary practices and standardized theoretical
attempts.

===

Société Réaliste is a Parisian cooperative created by Ferenc Gróf and
Jean-Baptiste Naudy in June 2004. It works with political design,
experimental economy, territorial ergonomy and social engineering
consulting. Polytechnic, it develops its production schemes through
exhibitions, publications and conferences.

===

On Friday 27.11.2009 more exhibitions will be opening in the frame of
the Kolonie Wedding weekend. A guided tour through the project spaces
starts 7.30 p.m. at Prima Center, Biesenthaler Str. 24.
>From 9 p.m. the Smaragd Bar, Prinzenallee 80, offers drinks and music.

The exhibition is kindly supported by the Institut Français and
Culturesfrance, as well as Collegium Hungaricum Berlin and Jan van
Eyck Academie.


===


http://www.societerealiste.net