10.11. – 18.12.22

pose fatigue

Exhibition

Exceptional States

Opening  10. November 2022

Exhibition period  10.11. – 18.12.22

Artists  Anike Joyce Sadiq, Laurie Young

Curated by  Elisabeth Pichler

Resilience: A term that has beco­me part of ever­y­day voca­bu­la­ry by now and is regard­ed as a key com­pe­tence for coun­tering exhaus­ti­on, vul­nerabi­li­ty, fra­gi­li­ty and pre­ca­rious­ness through one’s own efforts. But what if that does­n’t work out – what if the excep­tio­nal sta­te beco­mes permanent?

These ques­ti­ons form the start­ing point of a con­ver­sa­ti­on bet­ween the artist Anike Joyce Sadiq and the cho­reo­grapher and per­for­mer Laurie Young taking place at D21 Kunstraum. The “embra­ce­ments”, sculp­tu­ral imprints and mani­fes­ta­ti­ons of a sta­te of exhaus­ti­on, are a core ele­ment of the exhi­bi­ti­on. They do not only nego­tia­te the dis­rup­ti­ve poten­ti­al of exhaus­ti­on, but also the pos­si­bi­li­ties of reo­ri­en­ta­ti­on and encoun­ter that can ari­se from this sta­te. What hap­pens if the sta­te of exhaus­ti­on isn’t aver­ted and over­co­me, but stu­di­ed and ack­now­led­ged? Is it pos­si­ble to ques­ti­on cate­go­ries like dys­func­tion­a­li­ty and to re-think nor­ma­li­ty by rely­ing on intui­ti­on and impro­vi­sa­ti­on? What would an homage to the tired body look like? While loo­ming for ans­wers to hese ques­ti­ons, Sadiq and Young exami­ne the exhaus­ted body’s social, psy­cho­lo­gi­cal, and phy­si­cal sta­te — invi­te visi­tors to recon­sider the rela­ti­on of free­zing, sta­gna­ting, and pausing.

Sadiq’s work “Visited by a Tiger” is also part of the exhi­bi­ti­on in which the artist uses pic­tures of her own fist as a start­ing point for re-thin­king the role of the self as part of the poli­ti­cal fight against oppres­si­on. In her artis­tic prac­ti­ce, Sadiq dis­cus­ses the pre­ca­rious bor­der bet­ween the self and the others and bet­ween sub­ject and socie­ty. How can we crea­te an awa­re­ness for the struc­tu­ral com­mo­n­a­li­ty of indi­vi­du­al expe­ri­en­ces and based on that, a supra­in­di­vi­du­al coll­ec­ti­ve strength?

Based upon this, D21 Kunstraum will be con­ver­ted into a space for and an addres­see of the pro­cess-based encoun­ter “in prac­ti­ce” during the exhi­bi­ti­on: Together with the artist leo and the rese­ar­cher, aut­hor, film maker and artist Melody Howse, Sadiq and Young con­ti­nue their trans­di­sci­pli­na­ry inquiry into colo­ni­al heri­ta­ge and sys­te­mic vio­lence. In this way, Pose fati­gue crea­tes a space of expe­ri­en­ces in which the con­cepts of the auto­no­mous work of art and an objec­ti­ve point of view are cal­led into question.

Exceptional States