[artinfo] "Agents & Provocateurs"- Hartware MedienKunstVerein, May - July 2010

[Agents&Provocateurs show]

*Agents & Provocateurs*
*
* <http://www.hmkv.de/>
*Hartware MedienKunstVerein in the Dortmunder U
Center for Art and Creativity
**
May 14 – July 18, 2010*

Leonie-Reygers-Terrasse
44137 Dortmund, Germany
www.hmkv.de


With works by more than 30 international artists, *Agents &
Provocateurs* considers
two distinct forms of confrontation –agency and provocation – in light of
their use by artists as a means to express public criticism. Investigating
the wide range of attitudes bridging the gap between the provocative stance
of the enfant terrible and more problem-oriented approaches, the exhibition
focuses on instances where artists have acknowledged and brought to bear
their individual or collective agency.

In the counter-cultural scenes of former Socialist countries in Central and
Eastern Europe, provocation was a common artistic strategy of
resistance. Agents
& Provocateurs questions the actual critical potential of these oppositional
artistic strategies while retracing their role in the ongoing transformation
of post-totalitarian political culture. Is provocation still effective in a
democratic society or does it merely reproduce patterns of thought and
action that were developed in authoritarian political contexts?

Arguably, all political, economic, social or cultural systems are to
some degree marred by oppression and unjust hierarchies. By
confronting artistic interventions in former Socialist states with
contemporaneous and current examples from more liberal democratic
countries, Agents & Provocateurs aims to demonstrate that the truly critical
attitude needs to be ceaselessly reconfigured if it hopes to register the
shortcomings of any given system.

*Agents & Provocateurs* was initiated by Beata Hock and Franciska Zólyom and
first shown in October 2009 at the Institute of Contemporary Art –
Dunaújvaros, Hungary. It will be presented from May 2010 in the new venue of
the HMKV at the Dortmunder U, in an extended version conceived and curated
in cooperation with Inke Arns.

*
Artists*

Autoperforationsartisten (DE)
Tina Bara & Alba D’Urbano (DE)
Julius von Bismarck (DE)
Scott Blake (US)
Ondrej Brody (CZ)
Ján Budaj (SK)
VALIE EXPORT (AT)
Jill Godmilow (US)
Ion Grigorescu (RO)
Andris Grinbergs (LV)
Igor Grubic (HR)
Doma Harkai (HU)
IRWIN (SI)
Ivank Lazki (AR)
Istvan Kantor (CA)
Judit Kele (HU/FR)
Künstler informieren Politiker (DE)
Andreja Kuluncic (HR)
Zbigniew Libera (PL)
Novi kolektivizem (SI)
Tímea Oravecz (HU)
Tanja Ostojic (RS/DE)
Ewa Partum (PL)
Pomaranczowa Alternatywa (PL)
Radek Community (RU)
Tamás St. Auby (HU)
Klaus Staeck (DE)
Sturtevant (US)
The Yes Men (US)
Milica Tomic (RS)
UBERMORGEN.COM <http://ubermorgen.com/> (AT)
U.R.A. FILOART

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*Opening hours: *
Tue — Sun, 10:00 — 20:00, closed on Mondays

*Admission: *
5 € / 3 € (reduced)

*Funded by:*
Scene Ungarn in NRW, RUHR.2010, Der Ministerpräsident des Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen, NRW Kultursekretariat Wuppertal, Kulturbüro der Stadt
Dortmund

*Generously supported by:*
Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf

*Media partner:*
coolibri, De:Bug, City Life

*Sponsor:*
Keba

*
*