Peter Sodann Library

I have been in touch with the founding association of the "Peter Sodann Library", because I believe this is an important and worthy project. So, I recently translated the concept for the "Association for the Support, Preservation and Expansion of a Collection of Literature published in the East of Germany between 1945 and 1990 (Peter Sodann Library)” for broader distribution and can provide interested people with a PDF of the German and/or English version. The association can use all the support and help it can get. In particular, they are still looking for a place to house the collection of (currently) 200,000 books - at the moment, they are stored in cardboard boxes in an unused school gym in Merseburg (see photo). I also opened a facebook group called "The Friends of the Peter Sodann Library". If you would like to become a member of the association, provide other assistance, or donate books and/or money, please contact me or Eberhard Richter, head of the association's board.

The association and library see their role in providing access to the public and interested scholars to, at least, a basic inventory of 300,000 books published in the former GDR, and thus guarantee a continued open and critical debate regarding the culture of East Germany and its legacy. The time post-1990 experienced -- despite the agreements in the German Unification Treaty -- a systematic liquidation of the "Literary Nation GDR". Of 78 publishing houses and 17,000 libraries only a small fraction survived and their book inventories ended up mostly in landfills, while many authors were -- often unjustifiably so -- defamed. Germany has a complicated history with books, to say the least, and we should start to learn from that history.

(Photo: © Punctum/Alexander Schmidt)

Contemporary Flânerie: Reconfiguring Cities

an international art exhibit curated by Vagner M. Whitehead

In Modernity, the flâneur, while strolling around his streets, participated in the depiction of a changing city, playing simultaneously active and detached roles. The flâneur and his city maintained a symbiotic relationship, where one helped (re)define the other. In view of current trends in globalization, immigration and technology (i.e., Web 2.0), one's positioning is more fluid than ever before.

With such mobility, one must experience any given place as both a tourist and potential resident. With this in mind, what roles do contemporary flâneur and flâneuse play? How do they reconfigure/re-inscribe their urban experiences? How does flânerie in art relate to GPS systems, virtual reality, surveillance, mapping, MMPORGs, and social networking? This exhibition, with special focus on photography, video and computer-based art, seeks to explore these notions.

A full-color catalogue, featuring all participating artists and related essays, will accompany this event. Artist and scholar presentations will be scheduled during the run of this exhibition.

Featuring: Daniel Blochwitz, Christophe Boete, Eirini Boukla, Penelope Cain, Sean Capone, Antonia Carrara, Claude Chuzel, George Drivas, Jeremy Drummond, Jörn Ebner, Flore Gardner, Lutz Gregor, Henry Gwiazda, Claire Hodge, Leon Johnson, Masayo Kajimura, Cyriaco Lopes & Terri Witek, Richard Metzgar, Richard O'Sullivan, Valeska Maria Populoh, Glynnis Reed, Alexander Reyna, Ryan Roa, Stephen Schulz, Olja Stipanovic, Sylvia Winkler & Stephan Koeperl, Jody Zellen

March 7 - April 12, 2009

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 6 - 8:00PM
Curator's Talk: Sunday, March 8, 2:00PM

Oakland University • Art Gallery • 2200 North Squirrel Road • Rochester, MI 48309-4401 • (248) 370-3005 • www.oakland.edu/ouag

All events free and open to the public.

The catalog page with my two works included in the exhibit.

Das Magazin

Finally, Das Magazin plans to feature Max Dorner's text along with my images on a multi-page spread in their next issue (March). I just received a preliminary layout and think it looks pretty good. So, if you are in Germany, keep an eye open for the magazine when it hits news stands later this month. I'll keep you posted. Max Dorner's book, Lahme Ente in New York, was just published by Piper Verlag/Malik (February 2009). A video of one of Max's readings can be found here.

Successful Opening: "On the Prairie"

The group show "On the Prairie" (see entry below) had a well-attended opening reception on Friday, February 6th, "a steady stream of serious lookers and talkers" as my friend and one of the exhibiting artists, Margaret Tolbert, expressed it. If you are in the area and haven't seen it yet, make sure you'll stop by before February 28th.

(photo by freshqueezedart: curator Summer Zickefoose, right, and co-curator Kelly Cobbs, left, in front of my work "On the Prairie: Off the Beaten Map", 2009)

"On the Prairie" at Warphaus Gallery

Press Release

The Warphaus Gallery will be hosting the exhibition, "On the Prairie", from February 6th through February 27th. Originally conceived as an homage to the regional Payne's Prairie in Northern Florida (near Gainesville), the work in this exhibition generally seeks to understand and present ideas about this and other prairies. The exhibition has been curated by Summer Zickefoose, with assistance from Kelly Cobb. Artists in the exhibition include Daniel Blochwitz, Kelly Cobb, Sarah Detweiler, Joe D'Uva, Jamie Kotewa Niess, Rob Millard-Mendez, Nancy Raen-Mendez, Danica Oudeans-Coale, Margaret Ross Tolbert, Merijn Van Der Heijden, Bill van Werden, and Summer Zickefoose, with media ranging from photography, drawing, printmaking, painting, sound, and sculpture. The opening will be held Friday, February 6 from 6 – 8pm, 818 NW 1st Avenue in Gainesville, FL.

My Artist Statement (excerpt):

My work for this show, “On the Prairie: Off the Beaten Map” (2009), see image above, takes it’s cues from my recent bodies of work Heim | Fern | Weh (2004) and mixed messages (2006-07). It assembles image grids from photographs of found texts, poetic allusions, the everyday, and semantic juxtapositions in an effort to add an inquiring political dimension. The prairie is a mythological place in the collective consciousness of the United States, charged to the brim with historical and geopolitical narratives and contestations. Westward conquests across the plains foreshadowed coming eras of expansion, pioneering, militarism, ethnic cleansing, entitlement, mobility, opportunity, exploitation, ecocide, racism, zoning, and standardization. The prairie is, in other words, one of the places where the American Dream and this country’s nightmares are folded into one.

Just a new picture ... a teaser of sorts

Call for Proposals & Visuals (ArtistsMeeting)

As the "Art World" -- as we knew it for the past 15 years -- unravels in the midst of world-wide recessions and economic crises, the question of who/what will survive and how has become prevalent in discussions amongst art critics, art fair attendees, dealers, art students, museum goers, gallery visitors, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves. However, it is also a chance (especially) for the latter to imagine, implement and defend new parameters for art production and circulation. The question is what should these models look like, what direction should they take, and how would they fit into the world at large? The artist group ArtistsMeeting (AM) plans to publish an edited sampling of theories, proposals and opinions, as well as diagrams, graphics and images in hope to jump-start a critical debate. Therefore, we call for image and text contributions from across the current "art world". Please e-mail your responses to: artistsmeeting@yahoo.com. The deadline is January 31st, 2009.

ArtistsMeeting's Triptych Party

The art collective ArtistsMeeting presented an evening of video curiosities: found, outsider and accidental video art, culled from YouTube, and spun into triptychs using You3b.com.

Video triptychs involve three simultaneous video loops projected side by side on the gallery wall. While formally simple, the effect of the looping sequences, overlapping sounds and awkward juxtapositions is uncanny and unsettling. This is due to the slippery dis-harmonization of clip lengths, and the conceptual layering of the elements within the videos.

For this 2nd YouTube video show at Postmasters Gallery, the curators Thomas Hutchison, Maria Joao Salema and James Andrews have selected dozens of examples of original U3B triptychs created by members of Artists Meeting.

Artists Meeting is an New York based artists collective of eclectic backgrounds, since it's official start in 2006, they have had public art projects in Conflux 2008 Art Festival and the Dumbo Arts Festival 2007.

You3b is a tool that allows users to make triptychs out of YouTube videos. An Eyebeam project conceived by Jeff Crouse, produced by Jeff Crouse and Andrew Mahon and designed and coded by Andrew Mahon.

Drain: Psychogeography

The biannual online magazine "Drain" features in its current Psychogeography issue (October, 2008 - Vol. 5, No.2) some images from my "mixed messages" series. The magazine states about this issue:

In 1955, Guy Debord described psychogeography as “the study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.” Debord’s psychogeographical map The Naked City (1957) challenged traditional ideas of mapping relating to scale, location, and fixity, and drew on the work of urban social geographer Paul-Henri Chombart de Lauwe’s concept of the city as a conglomeration of distinct quarters, each with its own special function, class divisions, and “physiognomy,” which linked the idea of the urban plan to the body. An important strategy of the pyschogeographical was the dèrive, “a technique of transient passage through varied ambiences”.

The ‘psychogeographical’ has had a pervasive if somewhat amorphous role in contemporary art and culture. As a creative, social and political tactic, wandering through psychogeographic spaces is pertinent to a diverse range of practices including the use of GPS systems, Internet art, photography as well as sound and performance art.

This issue of Drain has gathered a series of essays, artworks and creative writings to reflect upon the legacies of psychogeography and consider its current manifestations.

Book Cover

Slightly belated, Max Dorner's book "Lahme Ente in New York" will be published by Malik (at Piper Verlag) soon. My images of Max will be featured on the cover and flap. I think the cover design turned out quite nice.

The German monthly "Das Magazin" will run an excerpt of the book along with some additional images of mine in February 2009.