9. to 13. June 2010
@ Projektwerksatt SOHO, 1160 Vienna, Schellhammergasse 24 (corner Hubergasse)
THE SHELTER PROJECT brings together 25 International artists and theorists on the theme of SHELTER. Multicultural, cross-disciplinary. New artwork, new talks, new questions. What does shelter mean to you?
All events will be held at Projektwerksatt SOHO, Schellhammergasse 24 from 9.–13. June 2010. SHELTER is organized by Victoria Hindley, Nina Goldnagl, and Wolfgang Suetzl, in collaboration with Beatrix Zobl, Wolfgang Schneider, TRANSART COLLECTIVE (int’l), and SOHO IN OTTAKRING.
THE SHELTER PROJECT’s purpose is to facilitate and present an intercultural exchange of new artwork, ideas, and open dialogue while offering quality arts programming on the vital topic of shelter. Revealing a multiplicity of perspectives, much of the work has been created specifically in response to the project and will be presented in Vienna for the first time.
Shelter—a seemingly simple concept that nevertheless cannot be easily defined—has many profoundly personal, philosophical, and political considerations. It affects us all and each of us experiences it in distinctly different ways. THE SHELTER PROJECT traverses far-reaching cultural territory to investigate this vital concept and its extensive repercussions in the contemporary world. Representing a diverse, multi-cultural body of voices, SHELTER contributors are drawn from a variety of disciplines including the arts, philosophy, political science, and literature; they are from the USA, Canada, Austria, Malta, Colombia, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.
Contributing Artists: Ruth Bianco, Video / Jean Marie Casbarian, Video / Miranda Clark, Photography / Fishpool, Mixed Media + Performance / Simon Donovan, Mixed Media / Nicolas Dumit Estevez & Jonny Farrow, Audio / Nina Goldnagl, Photography / Niki Hampton, Mixed Media / Victoria Hindley, Photography / Renee Kildow, Photography / Knoll + Cella, Photography / Luis Lara Malvacias, Choreography + Performance with Ivo Bol + Jeremy Nelson / Karen Marshall, Photography / Freya Olafson, Video / Victoria Oscarsson, Poetry / Heidi Phillips, Video / Patricia Sellmer, Mixed Media / Wolfgang Schneider, Video / Beatrix Zobl, Mixed Media + Performance
Contributing Speakers: Josefina Eschavarria Alvarez, Monika Mokre, + Wolfgang Suetzl
MORE ABOUT THE SHELTER PROJECT
While shelter has historically been defined as a transient concept, it seems clear that there is a hybridized understanding emerging and growing more typical across cultures—a permanent state of shelter. No longer simply a literal form of protection, shelter reflects the multiple mechanisms through which we confront and engage with the contemporary world. In this 21st century culture of in-between spaces, determined by increasingly typical experiences of movement, disorientation, and hyper-mediation, has shelter become an attitude, a movable state-of-mind? Is shelter a concrete place, or a less tangible notion of connected experiences and relationships—the sum of one’s lived experience carried within? How much do our cultural narratives form our ideas of shelter? Who has access to shelter, who does not? When is shelter life-affirming and when does it become a form of constraint?
THE SHELTER PROJECT examines these and other questions from multiple perspectives through related projects that manifest art’s relationship to that which is both personal and political. A provocative theme that positions itself at the center of debates about of privacy vs. security, displacement, racism, sexism, xenophobia, identity, and sense of place—shelter runs through almost every social dialogue, sometimes transparently, at other times explicitly, playing out in ways that affect daily life in both overt and subtle ways.
Investigating these increasingly critical issues, SHELTER unpacks this contemporary, universal preoccupation—which is itself located beyond constructed boundaries of nationality, race, gender, and age. Just how do we perceive of shelter in a world defined by constant change and increasing instability? Divergent interpretations and positions regarding the theme emerge in this exhibition and the accompanying performances and talks—responses that are sometimes direct, often oblique, more figurative than literal and generally quite surprising. The common thread is the shared humanity coursing through all the works. Rather than presenting statements that can be perceived as being right or wrong, THE SHELTER PROJECT offers an extension of its own definition—a psychological, political, philosophical, and cultural exploration of an extremely personal topic and the forces that shape our individual relationships with it.