Galerie Michaela Stock at ART ROTTERDAM 2016

Galerie Michaela Stock
at ART ROTTERDAM, Booth: 65

*

Opening: Wednesday 10 February 2016, from 6 pm to 10 pm (by invitation only)

Location: Van Nellefabriek, Van Nelleweg 1,3044 BC Rotterdam

Galerie Michaela Stock presents UNDER DESTRUCTION by Evelyn Loschy (A), Marko Marković (HR) and Slaven Tolj (HR)

While this phrase can basically describe the ethos of "Under Destruction", the exhibition raises the stakes normally linked with such a deleterious theme. Not only does it explore the various modes of destruction in art, but, more importantly, it also addresses to what ends it is implemented. Auto-destructive art is a term invented by the artist Gustav Metzger in the early 1960s to describe radical artworks, in which destruction was part of the process of creating the work and the victim becomes the piece of art itself.

The exhibition for ART ROTTERDAM has undertaken the task to highlight this phenomenon displaying works like performances (video, photography) and kinetic sculpture by three conceptual artists from different cultural backgrounds and ages. These three artists work with identity and thematically intersect to sharpen one's view of the complex processes of the human being, the focus lying on its existence, both torn between (social) standards, (physical-emotional) possibilities and artistic strategies and refers to the modern history and circumstances conditioned by political structures and economical changes. They tell a story of resistance, inner conflicts and the struggle for power and subjection. The performance-artists from Croatia radicalize the artistic act by examining the grammar of pain and endurance, surpassing distinctions between the physical and psychological. The use of the body and all of its experiential implications also involves evaluations that are ideological and social.

Evelyn Loschy's kinetic sculpture untitled [kinetic sculpture #4] represents a substantial part of the booth. We see a face and via a motor that is permanently set in motion a hand running over the cheeks at all the time. This loving movement turns out to be a destructive gesture. The face is modeled in plaster and therefore we notice the gradual removal of the face over the time. The expression of the androgynous face changes from sorrow to pleasure, depending on perspective and light. It is this ambiguity that forms an essential part of the work. As every performance of this kinetic sculpture requires a new hand and a new head, an archive of heads and hands is created, which - due to the nature of its plaster material - each time displays different deformations.

The performance Nature & Society by the artist Slaven Tolj can be interpreted as an example of reflection of the painful process to entrench a new social identity responding the political changes in the post-totalitarian environment. The author destroyed a pair of deer antlers that he had inherited from his grandfather and these were given as a present from the Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Running into a wall and fighting against his shadow, with stag’s antlers fixed onto his head, Tolj injured his spine.

The body art performance SELFEATER/the hunger & the thirst by Marko Marković made references on the one side to cannibalism, human sacrifice and comments on the connection between the concepts of male body and blood as religious symbols, but on the other side talking about different aspects of consumerism in our society. The concept carries connotation and which refers to the need for drastic moves and changes. Changes are necessary to develop society and correcting images of distorted human values. Markovic drank his own blood and was eating his own flesh and turning himself into a symbol of political, but also traditional masculine hero.