The Other Tradition

An other tradition

Wiels brings together a young generation of artists who use a situation, event or action as their central medium. They bring us live actions, or involve actors to enact their instructions or in some way record their actions for the exhibition. Is it a new genre? Terms such as “participatory art” or “performance,” are not appropriate to describe their work. They do not so much examine what a work of art represents as what it is and does when it is being made or when it encounters visitors in an exhibition. In this investigation, the artists use the tactics of public protest, dance, esotericism, social work, storytelling and so on.
  
Jiří Skála tries to persuade two strangers to spend the entire duration of the exhibition learning to copy each other’s handwriting. Sharon Hayes stages outmoded demonstrations in different cities. Pili Takala accepts an office job and goes to the office every day, but deliberately does not work. Tino Sehgal engages a museum attendant to spontaneously recite the day’s newspaper headline to visitors at the ticket desk. These are just a few of some of the diverse projects featured in the exhibition. Each artist actively rethinks the traditional function of art and how it engages with its subject and its public.
  
Unannounced events and actions, artefacts, documents, installations, films, props and other objects, these are the artists’ contribution to this experimental exhibition, which tries to identify what an other tradition of art might be.

Participating artists (a.o.):

• Danai Anesiadou (1973, GR/BE; lives in Brussels)
• Ei Arakawa (1977, JP; lives in New York) in collaboration with Silke Otto-Knapp (1970, DE, lives in London)
• Cezary Bodzianowski (1968, PL; lives in Łódź)