Brigitte Zieger, "Women are different from men," 2011. 114 x 89 cm. Courtesy Galerie Odile Ouizeman.
CCA Andratx
Bang! Bang!
14 July-10 September 2011
CCA Andratx
CCA Gallery
Estanyera 2
E-07150 Andratx
Mallorca, Spain
www.ccandratx.com
Curator: Andréa Holzherr
Bad guys, gangsters, intrigue, easy money, dead bodies, murder weapons... Bang! Bang!
Throughout history crime has inspired both fear and fascination. The attraction to crime is a characteristic which contemporary society shares with the past: from Cane and Abel through Shakespeare to yesterday's sizzling tabloid headlines, crime has always attracted us.
Crime, usually approached in terms of narratives, occupies an ever-increasing role as the subject matter of popular culture and political discourse. Its escalating presence in books, movies, newspapers, tabloids, television programming and politician's speeches clearly shows that crime is more than ever a bestseller.
To a lesser degree and in perhaps a less directly narrative manner, visual artists have also been inspired by the mystery, fantasy and violence surrounding crime and criminal acts. The exhibition features some artists whose works allude to crime or scenes of crime, real or potential, with both fictional and documentary propositions.
Colonel Mustard in the library with the revolver... As in the board game "Clue" the exhibition aims to engage the viewer in the reconstruction of the crime stories alluded to in the various art works. Unlike in the game however, the visitor is not asked to solve a particular crime, but rather to participate in postulating the crime. Each art-work and each series lures the spectator into a narrative where the scenario is left to his own imagination or consideration. The viewer, engaged in a process of speculation and interpretation is at once the witness and the investigator.
Contextualization:
The exhibition does not aim to analyze crime, neither historically, socially, nor psychoanalytically. Each work presented in the exhibition is an individual artist's subjective reflection on the theme. Important in the context of the exhibition are the aesthetic, philosophical and intellectual qualities of the works, as well as their capacity to question the stated theme.
Curator:
Andréa Holzherr is an art historian specializing in photography. Since 2003 he is responsible for promoting the Magnum archives. For several years she worked in parallel as curator of exhibitions: 2002, "Mina I Sina," festival of photography in Finland, 2003, "60 o - 43 o" in Corot Usine de Marseille, 2006, guest curator at the fair Paris Photo , 2009, "Myth of Childhood" in the House Art of Uri (Switzerland) and the CCA Andratx (Mallorca). She also publishes regularly books and articles on photography in magazines and books.
