Voyage sea journeys, island hopping & trans-oceanic concepts
9 February − 17 March 2013 Opening on Friday, 8 February at 20:00h
Stories of sea journeys have long mesmerised their readers with the images of longing, discoveries, hardship and survival, of determination and being lost, of the width of the open sea, the magic of foreign destinations and the attempt of reaching them by sea; they tell us how men and women face up to the elements of wind and water, how they defeat them or are defeated. But how and why do contemporary artists access the theme of sea journeys, island hopping and trans-oceanic concepts, what are their motivations and intentions, and which modes of expression do they employ? These are the questions that the artist-curators Imi Maufe and Rona Rangsch - who work with sea journeys in their own artistic practice - address by exhibiting a wide range of international artworks on the subject. Works exploring real and conceptual sea journeys; across oceans, between islands, long distances or short moments; fictional, historical or contemporary can be seen in the show - their common feature being the subtle, non-obvious approach of the theme. Besides works researched by the curators, submissions from an open call were selected for the show to display a maximum of different approaches that are united by subtlety and profoundness. The realisation of the show in a gallery in a city with no connection to the sea is an intentional contrast. There will be an artist book section on the same theme accompanying the show.
Participating artists: John Cumming (UK: Orkney) Andrew Friend(UK) Lutz Fritsch (DE) Matthew Herring (UK) Gunnar Jónsson (IS) Simon Le Ruez (UK/DE) David Lilburn (IR) Ding Ren (NL/USA) Aslak Gurholt Rønsen (NO) Jeff Talman (USA) Sally Waterman (UK)
Artist books by: Peter Bennett, Tacita Dean, David Faithfull, Simon Faithfull, Caroline de la Fe, Sven Johne, Sukaine Kubba, Laurie Lax, Peter Matthews, Sarah Ramona, Judith Schalansky, Ian Stephen, Susan Timmins, ‹usus› Uta Schneider & Ulrike Stoltz, Thomas Whittle, Carola Willbrand, Philippa Wood
Associated events:
Monday, 11 Februar at 19:00h: In-between Territories Artist talk by Simon Le Ruez in the framework of the programme Offene Hochschule by the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund
Sunday, 17 March at 17:00h: Artist-Talk by the curators On the last day of the exhibition, Imi Maufe and Rona Rangsch will talk about the role of sea journeys and trans-oceanic concepts in their own artistic practice in the seminar room of Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund and thus give an insight into their motivation for realising the show.
