Exhibition »body in abstraction« (Oxford, UK)

This exhibition presents four works from the European tradition of conceptual art. All the artists use video as their principal form of expression. Conceptual video art is marked by a search for the essential boundaries of the moving image. It explores the boundaries of perception and of the human being in its interaction with the world.

Within the landscape of video and installation art, this conceptual tradition is characterised by a certain economy of narrative and representation. Video is not used as a continuation of cinema by other means. Installation is not an extension of architecture. These artists share a minimalist commitment to the concentrated form of installation video. Refraining from the narrative and representational strategies of shock and provocation, they all manifest a certain stylistic austerity.

In all the works exhibited, conceptual reflection is a means to intensify the expressive force of video image. The works by Elisabetta Di Sopra, Hofstetter Kurt and Barbara Doser concern essential and archetypal forms of the human body, the way in which we identify ourselves and others. The works by Anna Jermolaewa and by Peter Weibel follow a more social or semiotic route by exploring the boundaries of society and of human interaction with the medium of video.

Arists: Anna Jermolaewa (Russia), Elisabetta Di Sopra (Italy), Peter Weibel (Austria), Hofstetter Kurt and Barbara Doser (Austria)

Curator: Laura Carlotta Gottlob

Art History Advisor: Reidar Due



Accompanying Program: Artistic Research Lectures
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Fri, February 15th, at 4 p.m.
Peter Weibel “RENAISSANCE 2.0”
at the Ruskin School of Art – Old Masters’ Studio, 74 High Street

Tues, February 19th, at 4.30 p.m.
Hofstetter Kurt “On the Event Horizon of Order”
at the Department of Computer Science – Wolfson Building, Parks Road


Opening
Fri, February 15th, 2013, 6 p.m.

Duration
February 15–March 01, 2013, open daily 11 a.m.–6 p.m., admission free

Press Contact: Georg Gottlob
e-mail: [email protected]

This exhibition is organized by St John’s College Oxford and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany. In collaboration with MAO – Modern Art Oxford, University of Oxford – Ruskin School of Art & Department of Computer Science and with support of the Austrian Cultural Forum London.