The Armory Show 2007

The Armory Show Announces Pipilotti Rist Has Accepted 2007 Artist Commission

New York City, September 19, 2006 Artist Pipilotti Rist has accepted the commission to create the visual identity for The Armory Show 2007, The International Fair of New Art. Rist is the sixth artist to define the image of the fair, which has become the world’s preeminent showcase for new art by living artists. For the ninth edition of The Armory Show, which will be held February 23-26, 2007 in New York City, images from Rist’s audio video installations will dominate the visual materials.

In an email exchange about the commission Ms. Rist wrote:

I see the Armory Show Commission (rather) as a carte blanche Fluxus piece; people can cut the pages out and hang them on the wall if they want. The video still series for the Armory Show catalogue are still photographs from the audio video installation “Homo Sapiens Sapiens” that was shown as the Swiss contribution to the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 in the San Stae Church in Venice, Italy. The figures move in an imaginary paradise beyond thoughts of guilt and seduction. The pictures are from the Garden of Eden before the fall of man (a strange expression in English!). I wonder where we would be without the deep impression of the Christian/Jewish/Muslim culture. To explore this, I try to make hypothetical pictures that are as free as possible, open up the horizon and expand the radius of movement. Different strands of religious fundamentalism all over the world have two things in common: condemnation of the human body and the dogma of a division between body and soul. It is a method for intimidating and controlling people and is invariably coupled with contempt for all things feminine. Double standards, limited education, overpopulation and poverty are the consequences. In Venice, I engaged with the meditative rites of the church and the sacred character of Chiesa San Stae. I wanted to show, in the tradition of representations of paradise, the naked human being as a philosophical creature by adopting a conception of humanity that is free of original sin. (In my perception, woman is normal and man is the exception. My naked figures are symbolizing most and first the “human being” and not their gender.)

I can accept (even if I don’t agree) that a group of fundamentalists made a fuss about the installation and made the church close it after 3/4 of the biennale. What really worries me, however, is that these old ideas live on in the heads of most people (even in mine): the naked body is still habitually associated with seduction and guilt. By baring the human body in their works, women artists time and again make explicit the central doctrine of the Church that man – and woman – was created in the image of what they imagine is God. Images are more powerful in their refutation of such ideas than words – I want to capture the strong, healthy, self-confident and free human body in its full presence and its vast scope for action. I am looking for heaven on earth, artistically speaking. I want to propose a positive concept that poses an un-dogmatic alternative to hierarchical structures and I want to celebrate liberation in many senses and invent rites.

Specifications: Pipilotti Rist loves red beets. Her main focus is on video audio installations. She wants to be friendly and she is a bit autistic. She loves machines and children. She means that the task of art is to contribute to the development of evolution, to encourage the brain‘s capacities, to guarantee distant views on social developments, to conjure up positive energies, to reconcile reason and instinct, to research possibilities, to destroy clichés and prejudgments. (2006.09.15)

Exhibitors:

303 Gallery Adamski Gallery for Contemporary Art Andréhn-Schiptjenko Angles Gallery The Approach Arario Gallery Arndt & Partner Art : Concept Art Production Fund Artists Space Galerie Guido W. Baudach Bellwether Black Dragon Society Peter Blum Gallery Blum & Poe Marianne Boesky Gallery Tanya Bonakdar Gallery Bortolami Dayan The Breeder Shane Campbell Gallery CANADA Cheim & Read Galerie Chez Valentin China Art Objects Galería Pepe Cobo James Cohan Gallery John Connelly Presents Galleria Continua Corvi-Mora Cosmic Gallery CRG Gallery Galerie Crone Galerie Chantal Crousel Sorcha Dallas D'Amelio Terras Thomas Dane Gallery Galleria Massimo De Carlo Deitch Projects Dicksmith Gallery Galerie EIGEN + ART Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, Inc. Zach Feuer Gallery Marc Foxx Foxy Production Fredericks & Freiser Frith Street Gallery Galerist Gavlak Annet Gelink Gallery Gering & López Gallery Greenberg Van Doren Gallery Greene Naftali greengrassi Galeria Enrique Guerrero Jack Hanley Gallery Harris Lieberman Haunch of Venison Hauser & Wirth Zürich London Anna Helwing Gallery Herald St Hotel Daniel Hug IBID PROJECTS in Situ Taka Ishii Gallery Alison Jacques Gallery Johnen/Schöttle Casey Kaplan Georg Kargl Galleri Magnus Karlsson Paul Kasmin Gallery galleria francesca kaufmann Sean Kelly Gallery Kerlin Gallery Anton Kern Gallery Kodama Leo Koenig, Inc. Johann König David Kordansky Gallery Tomio Koyama Gallery Andrew Kreps Gallery Galerie Krinzinger Kukje Gallery Yvon Lambert Galerie Gebr. Lehmann Lehmann Maupin Lisson Gallery Galerie Loevenbruck Stella Lohaus Gallery Magazzino d'Arte Moderna Mai 36 Galerie Matthew Marks Gallery Sara Meltzer Gallery Galerie Kamel Mennour Galerie Meyer Kainer Meyer Riegger Galerie Robert Miller Gallery Milliken Victoria Miro Gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash The Modern Institute Murray Guy Galerie Christian Nagel Nature Morte New Museum for Contemporary Art Carolina Nitsch Galleria Franco Noero David Nolan Gallery PaceWildenstein Patrick Painter, Inc. Maureen Paley Paragon Press peres projects Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Friedrich Petzel Gallery Pierogi Plan B Galerie Praz-Delavallade Galerie Eva Presenhuber Produzentengalerie Hamburg The Project Public Art Fund Galerie Almine Rech Daniel Reich Gallery Rivington Arms Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Lia Rumma Sandroni Rey Galerie Aurel Scheibler Galerie Thomas Schulte Jack Shainman Gallery Stuart Shave / Modern Art Shugoarts Sies + Höke Fredric Snitzer Gallery Socrates Sculpture Park Sommer Contemporary Art Michael Stevenson Gallery Galerie Diana Stigter STORE Sutton Lane Taxter & Spengemann Timothy Taylor Gallery Team Gallery Richard Telles Fine Art Galerie Barbara Thumm Vilma Gold Wallspace Galerie Barbara Weiss Galerie Jan Wentrup White Columns White Cube/Jay Jopling Jan Winkelmann / Berlin Hiromi Yoshii Zeno X Gallery David Zwirner

The Armory Show 2007