ReCoCo: Resignation, Conspiracy and Corruption

The traveling exhibition curated by Siri Peyer and Joshua Simon takes up art in the post-democratic era.

Che Guevara is advertising for Europcar, Karl Marx appears beardless on a poster because he used the perfect shaver of a well-known company (see Rudi Maier's ongoing collection So geht Revolution—Advertising and Revolt since 1967). Protest signs & slogans seem to travel to the world of economy—and back: Welcome to the desert of post-democracy! Resignation, conspiracy and corruption, in short: ReCoCo. It is no coincidence that this title of the show refers to Rococo, the ornamental last breath of a baroque Mannerism: "Political agency takes its forms as resignation, political truth arrives in the shape of conspiracy theories and governance is synonymous with corruption". Therefore the exhibition focuses on works that go beyond representationalism, corruption, governance, "live TV and dead democracy."

Several art works show the arbitrariness of political signs and strategies: in Flex Time (2010), Anna Witt hired passers-by to stand in front of the camera with a raised fist—for as long as they thought fit for their little remuneration. The labour movement's historical gesture here simultaneously becomes empty and an expression of deregulated working conditions.

The video <i>The Flag</i> by Köken Ergun is the second part of a series on state ceremonies of the Turkish Republic. It was shot April 23 during the Day of the Child, which marked the inauguration of the new Turkish parliament. — The video *The Flag* by Köken Ergun is the second part of a series on state ceremonies of the Turkish Republic. It was shot April 23 during the Day of the Child, which marked the inauguration of the new Turkish parliament.

In Diego Castro's installation about the GDR OWRO house, the national emblem Hammer und Zirkel im Ährenkranz (hammer and compass in a ring of rye) is cut out of the GDR flag and appears again as a drumhead. We understand that this action cross-references to another time when these symbols and their replacement meant something that vanishes in our context. As a consequence, the political subject could be anyone—even a dog following its owner through a demonstration (Hannes Zebedin, Untitled, 2009). The political manifestation itself becomes a freely floating signifier without any referents, an image bombardment like in Thomas Galler´s YouTube/press photos compilations Various Fires (2011) and Demonstrations/Manifestations/Riots (2009–2011). How popular visual culture shapes our collective memory is also explored by Boaz Arad and Miki Kratsman in a very precise manner (20:40, 2002): When asking Israeli passers-by to re-enact the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, almost all of their 'actors' performed exactly the same gestures that seemed to be copied directly from TV news and action movies. Our media-based perception is transformed into bodily expression.

<i>The Death of Cattelan</i> by Roee Rosen (2010). — *The Death of Cattelan* by Roee Rosen (2010).

Francesco Finizio offers the FBI his support in the game of terrorist hunting (Correspondence with the FBI, 2003): Why not print the images of the "most wanted terrorists" on T-shirts for better recognition? Suddenly the secure art world intermixes with the 'real life' of terror, control and punishment. If we watch a nationalistic propaganda ceremony of the Turkish Republic (Köken Ergun, The Flag, 2006), we might get the impression that this video could also be shown on Turkish TV; but as it appears in an art context on a double screen we question the rituals of nation building. The Museum of Dark Regimes by Ariella Azoulay (2011) provides a visual archive that accurately fits this purpose. Such approaches of image subversion could follow Spivak's suggestions of "invisible mending": in Ninka's Institute for Democracy (2011), Lisa Biedlingmaier incorporates a number of demonstration accessories into a traditional Georgian dance.

If there is nothing like a secure place of critique 'out there' we are anyway free to act from inside. Maybe we don't need the 'true position' or the 'better analyses' but the production of capitalism's own confusion.

<i>Untitled</i> by Hannes Zebedin (2009). — *Untitled* by Hannes Zebedin (2009).

In this exhibition the well-known desire for the 'hidden message' beyond all the information overload appears in a playful and convincing suggestion by Roee Rosen (The Death of Cattelan, 2011): he offers a 'parasite story' by decoding various texts with an easy aesthetic system. To paraphrase Slavoj Žižek: What if there is no hidden 'secret' truth because this 'truth' is only a game offered by an artist who likes playing with it? What if (following Žižek's analysis of The Matrix) the new paradigm of being passive prisoners is nothing but our disavowed fantasy? If there is nothing like a secure place of critique "out there" we are anyway free to act from inside. Maybe we don't need the "true position" or the "better analyses" but the production of capitalism's own confusion (see Rudi Maier So geht Revolution—Advertising and Revolt). And for this approach the capacity of art is still a useful agent.

Ariella Azoulay, <i>Museum of Dark Regimes,</i> 2011. — Ariella Azoulay, *Museum of Dark Regimes,* 2011.

Karin Schneider is currently working in the art-research project "MemScreen" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna about e.g. (curatorial) contextualisation/translation of art and memories between Israel and Austria (together with Tal Adler, Friedemann Derschmidt, Attila Kosa and Ilana Shmueli).

Curated by Siri Peyer and Joshua Simon, ReCoCo is open until June 18, 2011 at the Kunsthalle Exnergassse in Vienna. The next stop of the exhibition will be at the Digital Art Lab in Holon, Israel in March 2012.

From the exhibition, <i>ReCoCo</i>. — From the exhibition, *ReCoCo*.

ReCoCo: Resignation, Conspiracy and Corruption

The traveling exhibition curated by Siri Peyer and Joshua Simon takes up art in the post-democratic era.

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