Rosa Barba, b. 1972, Italy

The cinematic works of Rosa Barba capture the moment before a crucial action. Describing an intermediate condition where the meaning for an instance dissolves to leave a view of incompleteness behind.  The works confront the public with the experience of possibilities and occasionally with its mere absence.  Barba works with film, sound, text and photography.  Many of the film and sound works are about incidents, which show signs to be on their way, but do not fulfil themselves. What exactly takes place remains open and will be the product of our fantasies, our memory and our assumptions. Established amongst invention, scientific analysis, volition and imagination the plots of Rosa Barba’s stories grow at the seams of the construction of fictitious and authentic realities.  The tension of duration and moment (extended time vis-a-vis a single instant), lined up events and minimal sensations create the imaginary paths of her network.

More about Rosa Barba's work in the Biennial in Herald News.

Sarat Maharaj, one of the three curators of the exhibition, made this statement at the opening of Biennial:

For the curatorial discourse of this Biennial, we propose to say ”Can You Keep A Secret?”. This represents the theoretical basis from which we hope to explore our critical vision. ”Can You Keep A Secret?” is not a denial of the importance and rewards of the intellectual tradition of hidden agendas; in the real world, the political conditions criticised by kept secrets have not receded, but in many ways are even further entrenched under the machinery of globalisation. However, as a leading discourse for art curatorial practice and criticism, kept secrets are showing its limitations in being increasingly institutionalised as an ideological concept. Not only is it losing its edge as a critical tool, it has generated its own restrictions that hinder the emergence of artistic creativity and fresh theoretical interface. To say ”Can You Keep A Secret?” is not simply a departure, but a re-visit and a re-start.
 
In this Biennial we wish to draw attention to the political correctness at large that is the result of the power play of multi-culturalism, identity politics and post-colonial discourse. Urgent issues facing curatorial practice today are: How do we establish an ethics of secrets within the framework of secrets in cultural production? How do we prevent a tyranny of the hidden agendas without sacrificing the grounds already gained against the power status quo?
 
For some years major international contemporary exhibitions around the world have worked towards building up discursive sites for a cacophony of voices and negotiated spaces of diverse values, emphasising correctness in cultural politics; these have inadvertently triumphed to the neglect of independent pursuit of artistic creativity and alternative imaginative worlds. Concepts of identity, multiplicity and difference are now slowly losing their edge to become new restrictions for artistic practice, succumbing to the phenomena of false representation and multi-cultural managerialism. In response to this, the curatorial project of the First Ladonia Biennial centres on mulling over multi-culturalism and its limits within the larger perspective of Can You Keep A Secret?.
 
The Can You Keep A Secret? calls for the renovation of the theoretical interface of contemporary art, in order to depart from its all pervasive socio-political discourse in an endeavour to work together with artists and critics to discover new modes of thinking and fresh analytical tools for today’s world. The curators hope this Biennial will be a process of discovery for ourselves, and not just the fleshing out and illustrating of readymade theories and preconceived ideas. In trying to explore what this Biennial is, we wish to carry out a parallel inquiry into what it should not be. In this sense, this Biennial may be understood as a locus of questions for all of us involved in the international art world, starting with an exercise in the hidden secrets of the artworld. We hope to uncover, with the help of artists and thinkers, elements of the paradoxical reality veiled by contemporary cultural discourse, to make contact with realms that slip through the cracks of well-worn concepts such as class, gender, tribe and hybridity – all of which are exclusively made for the artworld. We hope to think together with artists and critics, and investigate through their practices and projects to find what new modes and imaginative worlds are possible for art beyond those already heavily mapped out by socio-political discourses.

Sheela Gowda's (b. 1957, India) work occupies the spaces between painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation. Initially trained as a painter, Gowda underwent a profound transformation in the wake of fundamentalist Hindu violence and the Bombay riots of 1992. It was at this time that she abandoned conventional forms of painting and turned to sculpture and installation. She also made a dramatic shift in her choice of materials, incorporating into her work substances and processes from traditional Indian culture such as cow dung, which has sacred implications but is also used as a domestic cooking fuel and building material, and Kum Kum, a red dye used for body adornment and rituals. Consciously blurring the line between fine art and craft, and between creative, political, and domestic spaces, she makes formal investigations into the possibilities of contemporary art while also questioning the role of female subjectivity in the often volatile mix of religion, nationalism, and violence in contemporary Indian society. Works in the exhibition: 

Dancing (And...II) 2009 

Two Knots (Ground Shift) 2009

Chu Yun has remained in continual pursuit of obscuring pain and happiness and his work proves skeptical of dispositions that can be clearly defined by explicit suffering, joy, tragedy or anger. Chu Yun's pursuit of the hidden derives from his recognition of the real. This has, in turn, made him more and more willing to abandon the use of strong visual images to attract the viewer and has left him instead to tackle the question of how an artist can become a medium for transcending the visible stuff of everyday life. In this exhibition, This is Unspeakable, Chu Yun’s is inviting invite people to experience the invisible power hidden behind the external appearance of his artworks. About this, the artist states: "In the end, you will realize the disappearance of your imaginary works, which, however, return to the works eventually.”

This Is Unspeakable, 2009

The work of Chu Yun in the Biennial This Is Unspeakable is relational. People are seldom sleeping in Ladonia. But it happens and more often visitors take a small nap in the sunshine when visiting. During the biennial all sleeping will be a work by Chu Yun. Those sleepers who wants to become an official part of the project can report their sleep (name, date and length of sleep) to the Biennial Administration.

Chu Yun in Ladonia

Susan Hefuna, born to a German-Egyptian couple in 1962, grew up in Egypt and Germany. She studied art at the German Art academy and postgraduated in new media from the Frankfurt Art Academy. Susan Hefuna is a professor of multimedia art at the University of Design in Pforzheim Germany. Having a dual heritage the artist’s work emphasizes the transitions of culture-specific codes and stereotypes, as well as the perception of women in European and Arab societies.

Feel 2008

Smile 2008

Ana/Ich 2006

Yona Friedman 1923 Budapest

In 1958, Yona Friedman published his first manifesto : "Mobile architecture". The mobility in question is not the mobility of the building, but the mobility of the user, who is given a new freedom. "The building is mobile in so much as any sort of use whatsoever by the user or a group must be possible and realisable", Friedman explained. Mobile architecture is thus the "dwelling decided on by the occupant" by way of "infrastructures that are neither determined nor determining". Mobile architecture thus meant an architecture that was available for a "mobile society". To deal with this mobile society, the classical architect had invented "the Average Man", and the projects of architects in the 1950s were undertaken, according to Friedman, to meet the needs of this make-believe entity, and not to attempt to meet the needs of the actual user. The teaching of architecture was largely responsible for the under-estimation by the architect of the role of the user. But this teaching did not embrace any real theory of architecture. Friedman also proposed teaching manuals for the fundaments of architecture for the public. "If a theory is well constructed and spread abroad, it has the advantage of no longer being the property of specialists, but of stemming from the public domain. The present-day monopoly of the architect has to do with the fact that there is no real theory, but merely a set of pseudo-theories in other words, observations which only reflect the preferences of their authors". "A theory must be general and valid for anybody". "Everyone has their hypotheses. The general theory that I am trying to propound underpins all individual hypotheses". The spatial city, which is a materialization of this theory, thus makes it possible for everyone to develop his or her own hypothesis. This is why, in the mobile city, buildings should :
1) touch the ground over a minimum area
2) be capable of being dismantled and moved
3) and be alterable as required by the individual occupant"(Y.F.).
These criteria for the mobile city are decisive for the model of the spatial city.

 The first thing to realize about the work of Tobias Rehberger is that, despite appearances, it is not design. Design appears in Rehberger’s work as a subterfuge. In Rehberger’s work we see an antagonism to the functionality that is an absolute condition of modernist design. This rationalism was the foundation of the massive impact modernist design had upon the fabric of twentieth century culture. But by the late twentieth century there was a post-modern turn that was much more concerned with play and lifestyle. Rehberger, however, is not even definable in terms of postmodern design. He takes the deconstruction of mod­ernist design one step further by pulling it into the unchar­tered territory of the aesthetic with no name. There it is interpenetrated with concerns about identity, nonlinear narra­tive, and absurdism. 

Between... Aesthetic And Utility/Death And Life (Bar Sign), stainless steel 2009

Pascale Marthine Tayou was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon in 1967. After having lived in Stockholm and Paris he now lives and works in Ghent. Tayou is part of the generation of African artists that redefine post-colonial culture and mix experiences of their birthplace with those of Europe.

Tayou’s work is varied and consists of drawings, sculptures, installations, videos and performances. His work has the feel of a diary; Tayou includes aspects of his nomadic existence, his family and his life in Cameroon. It also raises daring questions regarding cultural and national identity as well as more existential thoughts on, for example, AIDS or the cacophony of city life. These profound works examine the permeability of boundaries, the self as defined by personal history (and meetings with others) and questions regarding economy and migration.