Past is Not Post exhibition in Oldenburg
Past is Not Post
Curated by Lasse Lau and Benj Gerdes, Kran Film Collective
February 2–March 19, 2017
Opening: February 1, 7pm
Curator’s talk: Benj Gerdes: February 2, 7pm
Curator’s talk: Lasse Lau: February 28, 7pm
Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art
Katharinenstraße 23
D-26121 Oldenburg
Germany
www.edith-russ-haus.de
Artists:
Pia Arke & Anders Jørgensen, Petra Bauer, Matthew Buckingham, Kajsa Dahlberg, Michelle Dizon, Benj Gerdes, Andrea Geyer, Regina José Galindo, Jan Peter Hammer, Sven Johne, William E. Jones, Lasse Lau, Maha Maamoun, Robert Ochshorn, Rania Rafei & Raed Rafei, Benjamin Tiven, Sarah Vanagt & Katrien Vermeire, Raed Yassin, Akram Zaatari
Past is Not Post examines a growing number of artists working in relationship to archival research or investigations of historical memory. While the sites, methods, and circumstances of these practices remain diverse, there is a common artistic impulse to work through history as a backdoor when options in the present seem closed. Given the ambiguous role of artists in contemporary societies, particularly the difficulty of connecting to existing political and social struggles, the intersectional and incomplete stories of the past offer alternate approaches. Can this engagement of the past create spaces to rearticulate our collective possibilities and demands, spaces emblematic of both resistance and retreat?